James J. Fabrizio, Ph.D.

Dr. Fabrizio’s lab seeks to uncover genes involved in the late-stage maturation of spermatozoa in Drosophila. Specifically, since sperm in all animal species occurs within a common cytoplasm, all animals have to resolve individual sperm from this cytoplasm in a process known as spermatid individualization. Indeed, a failure to individualize sperm is the predominant cause of male infertility in humans. Given the genetic similarity (65-70 percent) between Drosophila and humans, we hope our work will shed some light on the molecular mechanisms behind human male fertility.

Dr. Fabrizio received a National Institutes of Health grant for $200,000 as principal investigator. He will be incorporating methods and knowledge of genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, and genomics to study sperm development in the fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster.

Courses

• BIOL 111 General Biology
• BIOL 310/410 Research in Biology
• BIOL 321 Molecular Biology
• BIOL 302 Developmental Biology
• BIOL 217 Genetics
• BIOL 331 Cell Biology

Publications
Fabrizio, J. J., Aqeel, N., Cote, J., Estevez, J., Jongoy, M., Mangal, V., Tema, W., Rivera, A., Wnukowski, J., and Bencosme, Y., “mulet (mlt) encodes a tubulin-binding cofactor E-like homolog required for spermatid individualization in Drosophila melanogaster,” Fly 6:4, 261-272, 2012

Fabrizio, J. J., Hickey, C. A., Stabrawa, C., Meytes, V., Hutter, J.A., Talbert, C., and Regis, N., “Imp (IGF-II mRNA binding protein) is expressed during spermatogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster,” Fly 2:1, 47-52, 2008

Fabrizio, J. J., Boyle, M., and DiNardo, S., “A somatic role for eyes absent (eya) and sine oculis (so) in Drosophila spermatocyte development,” Developmental Biology 258: 117–28, 2003

Fabrizio, J. J., Hime, G., Lemmon, S. K., and Bazinet, C., “Genetic dissection of sperm individualization in Drosophila melanogaster,” Development 125: 1833–43, 1998