Andrew Bestul

My Story

Andrew grew up in the small village of Cleveland, Wisconsin and moved to the big city of Milwaukee. where got his BSc in Biochemistry at Marquette University.  In 2007, he progressed to the even bigger city of Chicago, venturing forward to the Cell and Molecular Biology program at the University of Chicago.  There he was motivated by a young PI, David Kovar, who made the world of the actin cytoskeleton and fission yeast seem like the coolest thing the world.  He spent the next 5.5 years in the Kovar Lab studying how actin-binding proteins had been modified over time to carry out their specific cellular roles.  Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 2013, he moved to Kansas City and joined the Jaspersen Lab at the Stowers Institute to study how the centrosome triggers mitotic entry, again in the fission yeast.  In 2021, he transferred to the Zanders Lab, staying with fission yeast as a model organism because it still is the coolest.  Outside the lab, Andrew spends his time talking Wisconsin sports teams, eating cheese, watching birds, and enjoying a good Lovecraftian book/game or two.