Rate My Professor Thomas Kidd

Thomas Kidd is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he has served on the faculty since 2003. Prior to this appointment, he was a Senior Scientist at Exelixis Inc. in South San Francisco from 1999 to 2003 and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 1994 to 1999. Kidd earned his B.A. in Genetics from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, in 1990, and his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Oxford, England, in 1994. He is also affiliated with the Institute for Neuroscience and the Molecular Biosciences Graduate Program at UNR.

Kidd's research employs Drosophila genetics to investigate the wiring of nervous systems, with a focus on axon guidance and navigation during development. His laboratory examines how the Slit ligand, traditionally known as a repellent for growing axons, is processed into fragments that promote axon growth and branching by binding Dscam1 and interacting with Robo receptors. Key publications include 'Slit and receptor tyrosine phosphatase 69D confer spatial specificity to axon branching via Dscam1' (Cell, 2015), 'Dscam1 forms a complex with Robo1 and the N-terminal fragment of Slit to promote the growth of longitudinal axons' (PLOS Biology, 2016), 'The WAGR syndrome gene PRRG4 is a functional homologue of the Commissureless axon guidance gene' (PLOS Genetics, 2017), and 'Elav-mediated exon skipping and alternative polyadenylation of the Dscam1 gene is required for axon outgrowth' (Cell Reports, 2019). Earlier seminal works, such as 'Slit proteins bind Robo receptors and have an evolutionarily conserved role in repulsive axon guidance' (Cell, 1999; 1556 citations) and 'Slit is the midline repellent for the robo receptor in Drosophila' (Cell, 1999; 1276 citations), have profoundly influenced the field. Additional studies address stomatogastric nervous system development, Ret signaling in gut innervation, apoptotic signaling in axon guidance, and the reuse of axon guidance genes in heart development, metabolism, and cell death regulation. These genes exhibit conserved functions in humans. In 2016, Kidd was appointed the inaugural Research and Innovation Leadership Fellow at UNR, acknowledging his research contributions.