Education

1991 B.S. College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
Major: Biology Minor: Philosophy
1996 Ph.D. Medical University of South Carolina Graduate Program in Cell Biology and Anatomy.
1997- 2000 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Utah, Huntsman Cancer Institute Mentor: H. Joseph Yost, Ph.D

Research

My lab investigates how the vertebrate embryonic body plan becomes established and how positional information controls organ development and disease susceptibility. One of our particular interests is the role of left-right patterning in mammary gland development and breast cancer. Using in vivo and in vitro mouse models, we have been the first to show that mammary glands have baseline differences in cellular and molecular composition that are left-right independently regulated during normal and neoplastic development. Furthermore, we have found that the left-right differences identified in mouse models are predictive of breast cancer patient survival, suggesting that tumor laterality plays an important but underappreciated role in disease progression and outcome. Our most recent work focuses on epigenetic regulation of mammary stem cells and how this relates to left-right differences that arise during mammary development and mammary oncogenesis.

See Dr. Ramsdell recently speaking about her lab's research at TEDxColumbiaSC 2015

Publications

• Robichaux JP, Hallet RM, Fuseler JW, Hassell JA, Ramsdell AF. (2014) Mammary glands exhibit molecular laterality and undergo left-right asymmetric growth in MMTV-cNeu mice. Oncogene, in press PMID: 24909172
• *Fuseler JW, *Robichaux JP, Atiyah HI, Ramsdell AF. (2014) Morphometric and fractal dimension analysis identifies early neoplastic changes in mammary epithelium of MMTV-cNeu mice. Anticancer Research 34:1171-1177. PMCID: 24596356  *Equal contribution
• Velmaat JM, Ramsdell AF, Sterneck E. (2013) Positional variations in mammary gland development and cancer.  Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia 18:179-88. PMCID: PMC3691492
• Martin LK, Mezentseva NV, Bernanke JM, Redmond MC, Ramsdell AF, Eisenberg CA, Eisenberg LM (2012) Inhibition of heart formation by lithium is an indirect result of the disruption of tissue organization within the embryo. Development, Growth and Differentiation 54:153-66. PMCID: PMC3288208
• Martin LK, Mezentseva NV, Bratoeva M, Ramsdell AF, Eisenberg CA, Eisenberg LM (2011) Canonical WNT signaling enhances stem cell expression in the developing heart without a corresponding inhibition of cardiogenic differentiation. Stem Cells and Development 20:1973-83. PMCID: PMC3202895
• Robichaux JP, Hallet RM, Fuseler JW, Hassell JA, Ramsdell AF. (2014) Mammary glands exhibit molecular laterality and undergo left-right asymmetric growth in MMTV-cNeu mice. Oncogene, in press PMID: 24909172
• *Fuseler JW, *Robichaux JP, Atiyah HI, Ramsdell AF. (2014) Morphometric and fractal dimension analysis identifies early neoplastic changes in mammary epithelium of MMTV-cNeu mice. Anticancer Research 34:1171-1177. PMCID: 24596356  *Equal contribution
• Velmaat JM, Ramsdell AF, Sterneck E. (2013) Positional variations in mammary gland development and cancer.  Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia 18:179-88. PMCID: PMC3691492
• Martin LK, Mezentseva NV, Bernanke JM, Redmond MC, Ramsdell AF, Eisenberg CA, Eisenberg LM (2012) Inhibition of heart formation by lithium is an indirect result of the disruption of tissue organization within the embryo. Development, Growth and Differentiation 54:153-66. PMCID: PMC3288208
• Martin LK, Mezentseva NV, Bratoeva M, Ramsdell AF, Eisenberg CA, Eisenberg LM (2011) Canonical WNT signaling enhances stem cell expression in the developing heart without a corresponding inhibition of cardiogenic differentiation. Stem Cells and Development 20:1973-83. PMCID: PMC3202895
• Ramsdell A. F., Bernanke, J. M., and Trusk, T. C. (2005) Left-right lineage analysis of the embryonic Xenopus heart reveals a novel framework linking congenital cardiac defects and laterality disease. Development (in revision).
• Ramsdell, A.F. (2005). Left-right asymmetry and congenital cardiac defects: getting to the heart of the matter in vertebrate left-right axis determination. Developmental Biology 288:1-20.
• Ramsdell, A. F., Bernanke, J. M., Johnson, J., and Trusk, T. C. (2005) Left-right lineage analysis of AV cushion tissue in normal and laterality defective Xenopus hearts. The Anatomical Record 287:1176-82.
• Tiedeken J., Ramsdell J.S., and Ramsdell, A.F. (2005) Developmental toxicity of domoic acid in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Neurotoxicology and Teratology 27:711-7.
• Chen, Y., Whitaker, L. L., and Ramsdell, A. F. (2005) Developmental analysis of activin-like kinase-4 (ALK4) expression in Xenopus laevis. Developmental Dynamics 232:393-398.
• Chen, Y., Mironova, E., Whitaker, L. L., Edwards, L., Yost, H. J., and Ramsdell, A. F. (2004) ALK4 functions as a receptor for multiple TGF?-related ligands to regulate to left-right axis determination and mesoderm induction in Xenopus. Developmental Biology 268:280-294.
• Ramsdell, A.F. and Yost, H.J. (1999) Cardiac looping and the vertebrate left-right axis: antagonism of left-sided Vg1 activity by a right-sided ALK2-dependent BMP pathway. Development 126: 5195-5205.
• Ramsdell, A.F. and Yost, H.J. (1998) Molecular mechanisms of vertebrate left-right development. Trends in Genetics 14:459-465