(Goodbye song for Dave Sherwood,
To the tune of Ben Harper's "Steal my Kisses': C-F-G-C)
Models of cell invasion weren't so persuasive
It was hard to study cell behavior that's invasive
But Dave, he took it in the right direction
By studying the C. elegans vulval-uterine connection
Cell invasion seems like it's a pain
How you supposed to get across a double basement membrane?
But with a handful of good markers and some stamina
He could see the anchor cell breakin' down the basal lamina
Are the vulval cells in a permissive state,
Or is this a process they might regulate?
Well it turns out there's something that they do,
They send the anchor cell a navigational cue
Now he's headed down to Carolina,
A job at Duke well nothin' could be finer
Startin' a lab ain't easy, that's understood,
But with Nina, Kai and Noa, hey life's pretty good
In his lab he's gonna be the boss,
He can have his students find targets of Fos.
At first the lab may not be over-sized,
But you can bet it'll be real organized.
Choruses:
Now there ain't nothin' to the anchor cell shuffle,
No need to get your leading egde in a ruffle.
First you gotta break that basement membrane down,
And send your process out till the primary cells are found
Anchor cell invasion ain't hard to do
Break that membrane down and send your process through
If you're extendin' in the right direction,
You'll make a functional vulval-uterine connection