Caitlin Wong Hickernell

Education

PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, University of Chicago
Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry, University of Chicago
Bachelor of Science in Biological Chemistry, University of Chicago

Profile

Caitlin Wong Hicknernell appreciates North Park’s strong commitment to teaching
and mentoring students as whole people: intellectually, spiritually, and personally.
“I love being at an institution where I can teach rigorous science in a setting that
values questions of meaning, faith, justice, and vocation. North Park’s location in
Chicago, a city I love, is also meaningful to me,” Wong Hickernell said.
Her scientific research focuses on discovering how cells survive stressful
conditions, how their survival tools have evolved, and how they function on a
molecular level. Her favorite class to teach is microbiology, a course exploring the
hidden world of microbes, organisms we encounter daily but rarely notice.
An avid card and board game lover, Wong Hickernell especially loves Spades and
Steal: “Challenge me at your own risk!”

Recent Publications

Glauninger, H.*, Bard, J. A. M.*, Wong Hickernell, C. J.*, Airoldi, E. M., Li, W., Singer,
R. H., Paul,S., Fei, J., Sosnick, T. R., Wallace, E. W. J., & Drummond, D. A. (2024).
Transcriptome-wide mRNA condensation precedes stress granule formation and
excludes stress-induced transcripts. bioRxiv.
*denotes co-first authorship

Keyport Kik, S., Christopher, D., Glauninger, H., Wong Hickernell, C.J., Bard, J. A. M.,
Lin, K. M., Squires, A. H., Ford, M., Sosnick, T. R., & Drummond, D. A. (2024).
An adaptive biomolecular condensation response is conserved across environmentally divergent species. Nature Communications, 15, Article 3127.

Glauninger, H., Wong Hickernell, C. J., Bard, J. A. M., & Drummond, D. A. (2022).
Stressful steps: Progress and challenges in understanding stress-induced mRNA
condensation and accumulation in stress granules. Molecular Cell, 82(14), 2544-
2556.