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| Principal Investigator | Graduate Students | Postdoctoral Fellows | Researchers / Staff |
Principal Investigator
Michael A. White, Ph.D. – Professor, Cell Biology
Grant A. Dove Chair for Research in Oncology
The Sherry Wigley Crow Cancer Research Endowed Chair in Honor of Robert Lewis Kirby, M.D.
Education: University of Iowa (1986), Undergraduate; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1992), Graduate
Research Interests: Cancer, molecular architecture of growth regulatory signal transduction cascades, oncogenes, signal transduction and tumor suppressors
Publications: 1992 – 2012
Charlotte L. Roberson – Administrative Associate
Role: Manages the administrative and logistical needs of the Michael A. White Lab. Charlotte Roberson has more than 10 years of administrative experience, which includes Value Analysis, Pharmacy Administration and Finance in a large public healthcare system in the Dallas, Texas area.
She has been with UT Southwestern for two years and currently serves as administrator for three faculty members and their labs in the department of Cell Biology. Ms. Roberson utilizes strong administrative and organizational skills to successfully manage travel, grants management, finance, laboratory support, special projects and professional collaborations both within and outside the institution.
Graduate Students
Robert Borkowski – Genetics and Development Cell, Molecular Biology
Education: B.A. – Biochemistry, 2006, Wheaton College; Graduate classes in Biostatistics and Genetics, 2008, Harvard Extension School
Research Interests: Defining microRNA dependence in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and identifying functional intersections in multidimensional genetic data sets.
Publications: Du L., Subauste M.C., DeSevo C., Zhao Z., Baker M., Borkowski R., et al. (2012) "miR-337-3p and Its Targets STAT3 and RAP1A Modulate Taxane Sensitivity in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers," PLoS ONE7(6): e39167.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039167.
Jessica A. Cardenas, Ph.D. – Cell Signaling
Education: B.S. – Biochemistry, 2003, University of California at Davis; Ph.D. – Cell Signaling, 2012,
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Research Interests: I am interested in the role FGD4, a Cdc42 GEF, plays in regulating endocytic recycling and the effect it has on receptor signaling. Cell surface receptors, once activated by ligand binding, are engulfed in endocytic vesicles for signal abrogation and either receptor recycling or receptor degradation. We think FGD4 facilitates receptor recycling by directing endocytic traffic to the plasma membrane. Therefore, perturbation of FGD4 function can have consequences for the signaling output of important cell surface receptors such as EGFR and ErbB3.
Publications
Cardenas J., Tung Y.J., Zou K., Gao J., Kim H., White M.A. (2012) “Regulation of Endocytic Recycling by FGD4, a Cdc42 GEF.” In preparation.
Whitehurst A.W. ,Bodemann B.O., Cardenas J., Ferguson .D, Girard L., Peyton M., MInna JD., Michnoff .C, Hao W., Roth M.G., Xie, X.J., White M.A. (2007),"Synthetic lethal screen identification of chemosensitizer loci in cancer cell,," Natur, 446 (7137): 815-9.
Herzog B., Cardenas J., Hall R.K., Villena J.A., Budge P.J., Giguere V., Granner D.K., Kralli A. (2006),"Estrogen-related receptor alpha is a repressor of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase gene transcription," J Biol Chem, 281(1): 99-106.
Schreiber S.N., Emter R., Hock M.B., Knutti D., Cardenas J., Podvinec M., Oakeley E.J., Kralli A. (2004),"The estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRalpha) functions in PPARgamma coactivator 1alpha (PGC-1alpha)-induced mitochondrial biogenesis," Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 101(17): 6472-7.
Jonathan Cooper – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S. – Biology, 2010, Dallas Baptist University
Research Interests: Exploring the intersection between cellular growth and renewal signaling pathways and their dysregulation in cancer. Specifically, I am interested in investigating the key players in cellular responses to nutrient availability and probing for selective vulnerabilities in cancers harboring aberrant nutrient sensing.
Banu Eskiocak – Cancer Biology
Education: D.D.S. – Dentistry, 2007, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey
Research Interests: The regulation of proliferation and survival signals in melanoma and how this understanding can be exploited for clinical benefit. Melanoma is one of the most aggressive tumors, with metastasis to distant organs correlating with less than 9 months of median survival. For oncogene-defined melanomas, selective inhibition of mutant BRAF is approved for late-stage melanoma treatment. This results in ~80 percent disease response, but acquired drug resistance always develops, which raises the need for additional therapeutic strategies. To help address these needs, we are combining genome-wide RNAi screens in metastatic pigmented melanoma cells, with genome-wide copy number analyses of human melanoma samples, in order to isolate gene products responsible for the bypass of normal proliferation and survival restraints during melanomagenesis.
Integrative analysis of functional genomics and patient related copy number data isolated the known melanoma oncogenes BRAF, MITF and GOLPH3. In addition we identified novel genes with similar potencies as these oncogenes. These genes are associated with biological processes that include lipid metabolism, vesicle transport, microtubule dynamics and signal transduction. When depleted, the majority of these targets significantly decreased viability in different melanoma cell lines but not in noncancerous human epithelial cell lines. Clustering analysis of this data revealed a collection of targets with activity that correlates with BRAF mutation status. These targets may have clinical benefits alone or in combination with BRAF selective inhibition.
Additionally, depletion of another set of targets resulted in lethality regardless of BRAF mutation status. As mentioned above current treatment efforts are focused on the inhibition of mutant BRAF, however no targeted therapies have been identified for the remaining cases. Here, we identified a group of novel targets with potential therapeutic indications in melanoma regardless of BRAF mutation status. Ongoing studies are focused on functional and mechanistic elaboration and pharmacological validation of these genes in preclinical models.
Publications
Mellgren, A. M., Smith, C. L., Olsen, G. S., Eskiocak, B., Zhou, B., Kazi, M. N., Ruiz, F. R., et al. (2008), "Platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta signaling is required for efficient epicardial cell migration and development of two distinct coronary vascular smooth muscle cell populations," Circulation Research, 103(12), 1393–1401.
Acharya, A., Baek, S. T., Banfi, S., Eskiocak, B., & Tallquist, M. D. (2011), "Efficient inducible Cre-mediated recombination in Tcf21cell lineages in the heart and kidney," Genesis (New York, N.Y. 2000), 49(11), 870–877.
Acharya, A., Baek, S. T., Huang, G., Eskiocak, B., Goetsch, S., Sung, C. Y., Banfi, S., et al. (2012), "The bHLH transcription factor Tcf21 is required for lineage-specific EMT of cardiac fibroblast progenitors," Development (Cambridge, England), 139(12), 2139–2149.
Veleka Iwuaba – Cancer Biology
Education: Biology, B.S. 2006, San Diego State University
Research Interests: How pyrimidine nucleoside kinase, UCK1 negatively impacts EGFR accumulation and subsequent downstream signaling, with implications as a therapeutic target in EGFR addicted tumors.
Ji Mi Kim – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S., 2004, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST); M.S., 2007, Seoul National University
Research Interests: Investigating selective dependency of NSCLC cell lines on nuclear transport machinery and unraveling target independent effect of siRNA.
Publications
Choi E., Choe H., Min J., Choi J.Y., Kim J., Lee H. (2009), “BubR1 acetylation at prometaphase is required for modulating APC/C activity and timing of mitosis," EMBO J, 28(14), 1991-3.
Min J., Choi E.S., Hwang K., Kim J., Sampath S., Venkitaraman A.R., Lee H. (2012), “The breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2 is required for the maintenance of telomere homeostasis," J Biol Chem, 287(7):5091-101.
Elizabeth McMillan – Cell Regulation with Supplemental Curricula in Computational, Systems Biology
Education: B.A. – Biology, B.A. – Mathematics, 2011, New York University College of Arts and Sciences/New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Research Interests: Computational biology as it applies to translational and cancer research. The onset of new technology in the recent years has allowed us to process whole-genome data; however there is no standard method for extracting biologically relevant information from this data. In the lab, my project focuses on analyzing different sources of high throughput data. Specifically, I have developed a statistical algorithm that parses through a whole-genome siRNA screen in 12 lung cancer cell lines, and determines if gene sets (groups of genes with a similar function) , as opposed to individual genes, are significant in lung cancer survival. From here, I hope to establish patterns between the specific properties of the lung cancer cell lines and the gene sets significant in their survival so that we may be able to understand the full set of cellular processes that are significant in cancer survival.
I also created a website that allows users to use this tool without having an extensive knowledge of programming. In addition, I am also attempting to apply different statistical techniques used originally in such diverse fields as facial recognition technology and machine learning to the analysis of expression microarrays in order to identify a highly variant set of reporter genes that faithfully track perturbations between cancer cell lines. My goal is to identify a highly variant, independent set of genes that whose collective expression pattern will tell as much as possible about the total transcriptional state of the cells. This reporter set will then be essential to the analysis of true genetic perturbations in other cancer subtypes.
Yi-hung Ou – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S. – Chemistry, 1999, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan; M.S. – Biochemistry, 2001, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Research Interests: Understanding how cells sense nutrient and energy levels as well as how metabolites regulate cell-signaling pathways to modulate energy expenditure. My thesis work is to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying oncogene-driven cell transformation. I found that AKT is an immediate effector of TBK1 and demonstrate that a non-canonical TBK1-AKT axis supports oncogenic transformation.
Publications
Herman M., Ciancanelli M.*, Ou Y.H.*, Lorenzo L., Guo Y., Sancho-Shimizu V., Pérez de Diego R., Pauwels .E, Cardon A., Plancoulaine S., Klaudel-Dreszler M., Heropolita?ska-Pliszka M., Rozenberg .F, Lebon P., Tardieu M., White M.A., Abel L., Zhang S.Y., and Casanova, J.L., "Dominant human TBK1 mutations impair TLR3 immunity and underlie herpes simplex encephalitis," The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2012 (In Press).
Ou Y.H., Torres M., Ram R.R., Formstecher E., Roland C., Cheng T.L., Brekken R., Wurz R., Tasker A., Polverino T., Tan S.L., and White M.A.., "TBK1 directly engages Akt/PKB survival signaling to support oncogenic transformation," Molecular Cell. 2011, 41(4): 458-470.
Bodemann B.O., Orvedahl A., Cheng T.L., Ram R.R., Ou Y.H., Formstecher E., Maiti M., Hazelett C.C., Wauson E.M., Balakireva M., Camonis J.H., Yeaman C., Levine B., and White M.A., "RalB exocyst mediate the cellular starvation response by direct activation of autophagosome assembly," Cell, 2011, 144(2): 253-1267.
Ou YH*, Chung P.H.*, Hsu F.F., Sun T.P., Chang W.Y., and Shieh S.Y., "The candidate tumor suppressor BTG3 is a transcriptional target of p53 that inhibits E2F1," The EMBO Journal, 2007, 26(17): 3968-3980.
Ou Y.H., Chung P.H., Sun T.P., and Shieh S.Y., "p53 C-terminal phosphorylation by CHK1 and CHK2 participates in the regulation of DNA-damage-induced C-terminal acetylation," Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2005, 16(4): 1684-1695.
Wei J.H., Chou Y.F., Ou Y.H., Yeh Y.H., Tyan S.W., Sun T.P., Shen C.Y., Shieh S.Y., "TTK/hMps1 Participates in the Regulation of DNA Damage Checkpoint Response by Phosphorylating CHK2 on Threonine 68," The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2005, 280(9): 7748-7757.
Ou Y.H. and White M.A.., Book chapter on “Alternative mechanisms of Akt regulation” to the volume, Akt Kinases in Oncogenesis. (In Preparation)
Rosalyn Ram, Ph.D. – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S. – Neuroscience, 1999, UCLA; Ph.D. – Cancer Biology, 2012, UT Southwestern
Research Interests: Understanding why RASSF1A is one of the most inactivated tumor suppressors in cancer and how RASSF1A may function as a molecular fulcrum in regulatory networks that maintain epithelial cell homeostasis.
Publications
Janowski BA, Kaihatsu K, Huffman KE, Schwartz JC, Ram R., Hardy D, Mendelson CR, Corey DR,"Inhibiting transcription of chromosomal DNA with antigene peptide nucleic acids," Nat Chem Biol, 2005, 1(4): 210-5.
Janowski BA, Huffman KE, Schwartz JC, Ram R., Hardy D, Shames DS, Minna JD, Corey DR,"Inhibiting gene expression at transcription start sites in chromosomal DNA with antigene RNAs," Nat Chem Biol, 2005, 1(4): 216-22.
Foehr ED, Lorente G, Kuo J, Ram R., Nikolich K, Urfer R,"Targeting of the receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase beta with a monoclonal antibody delays tumor growth in a glioblastoma model," Cancer Res, 2006, 66(4): 2271-8.
Ram R., Lorente G, Nikolich K, Urfer R, Foehr E, Nagavarapu U,"Discoidin domain receptor-1a (DDR1a) promotes glioma cell invasion and adhesion in association with matrix metalloproteinase-2," J Neurooncol, 2006, 76(3): 239-48.
Janowski BA, Huffman KE, Schwartz JC, Ram R., Nordsell R, Shames DS, Minna JD, Corey DR,"Involvement of AGO1 and AGO2 in mammalian transcriptional silencing," Nat Struct Mol Biol, 2006, 13(9): 787-92.
Janowski BA, Younger ST, Hardy DB, Ram R., Huffman KE, Corey DR,"Activating gene expression in mammalian cells with promoter-targeted duplex RNAs," Nat Chem Biol, 2007, 3(3): 166-73.
Beane RL, Ram R., Gabillet S, Arar K, Monia BP, Corey DR," Inhibiting gene expression with locked nucleic acids (LNAs) that target chromosomal DNA," Biochemistry, 2007, 46(25): 7572-80.
Whitehurst AW, Ram R., Shivakumar L, Gao B, Minna JD, White MA,"The RASSF1A tumor suppressor restrains anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome activity during the G1/S phase transition to promote cell cycle progression in human epithelial cells," Mol Cell Biol, 2008, 28(10): 3190-7.
Bodeman BO, Orvedahl A, Cheng T, Ram R., Ou YH, Formstecher E, Mekhala M, Hazelett C, Wauson EM, Balakireva M, Camonis JH, Yeaman C, Levine B, White, MA," RalB and the exocyst mediate the cellular starvation response by direct activation of autophagosome assembl.y" Cell, 2011, 144(2): 253-67.
Ou YH, Torres MA, Ram R., Formstecher E, Roland C, Cheng T, Brekken RA, White MA,"TBK1 directly engages AKT/PKB survival signaling to support oncogenic transformation," Mol Cell, 2011, 41(4): 458-70.
Ram R., Mendiratta S, Eskiocak U, White MA,"The RASSF1A tumor suppressor modulates epithelial cellular homeostasis," (manuscript in preparation).
Ben Shields – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S. – Biochemistry and Cell Biology, B.A. – History, 2007, Rice University
Research Interests: Investigating medically relevant problems in cancer biology. My research currently utilizes microRNA-based screening techniques to elucidate new drug targets in ovarian cancer, a genetically heterogeneous disease in desperate need of both frontline and salvage therapies. By using miRNAs as a multi-genic perturbation, I hope to identify novel biological processes supporting cancer cell survival.
Michael Torres – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S. – Biology, 2006, Dallas Baptist University; Post-bac fellowship, 2006-2007, National Cancer Institute
Research Interests: Understanding how cells repair DNA Damage and how dysregulation of repair pathways can lead to genomic instability and ultimately cancer. I am also interested in understanding the spatial and temporal nature of signal specificity in response to distinct cellular stresses.
Publications
Ou Y.H., Torres, M., Ram.R., Formstecher, E., Roland, C., Cheng, T., Brekken, R., Wurz, R., Tasker, A., Polverino, T., Tan, S.L., White, M.A. (2011), "TBK1directly engages Akt/PKB survival signaling to support oncogenic transformation," Mol Cell, 41, 458-470.
T. Shimura, Torres M.J., Martin M.M., et al., "Bloom's Syndrome Helicase and Mus81 are Required to Induce Transient Double-strand DNA Breaks in Response to DNA Replication Stress," J Mol Biol. 2008 Jan 25;375(4):1152-64.
T. Shimura, Melvenia M. Martin, Michael J. Torres, Cory Gu, Janice M. Pluth, Maria A. DiBernardi, Jeffrey S. McDonald and Mirit I. Aladjem, "DNA-PK Is Involved in Repairing a Transient Surge of DNA Breaks Induced by Deceleration of DNA Replication," JMB, Volume 37, Issue 3, 30 March 2007, Pages 665-680.
Chensu Wang – Biomedical Engineering
Education: B.S. – Biomedical Engineering, 2011, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
Research Interests: The interface between engineering and biology; in particular the design and development of nanotechnology tools that illuminate dynamic cell biological processes in space and time. My current project is the application of novel pH-responsive nanoprobes for analysis of autophagosome biogenesis at single organelle resolution. (Joint student with Professor Jinming Gao)
Postdoctoral Fellows
Brian Bodemann, Ph.D. – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S. – Biochemistry, 2002, University of Arkansas; Ph.D. – Cell Regulation, 2011,
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Research Interests: The hetero-octomeric exocyst complex, an evolutionarily conserved vesicle tethering complex. We have found that this complex plays an important role in organizing the architecture of signaling networks. Distinct exocyst subcomplexes composed of less than eight exocyst subunits regulate the assembly, activation, and mobilization of signaling complexes in response to distinct stimuli. My current work is focused on identifying and characterizing the contribution of distinct exocyst subcomplexes in the organization and integration of the cellular signaling response to positive growth conditions.
Publications
Bivona, T. G., Quatela, S. E., Bodemann, B. O., Ahearn, I. M., Soskis, M. J., Mor, A., Miura, J., et al. (2006). "PKC regulates a farnesyl-electrostatic switch on K-Ras that promotes its association with Bcl-XL on mitochondria and induces apoptosis. Molecular Cell, 21(4), 481–493. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2006.01.012
Whitehurst, A. W., Bodemann, B. O., Cardenas, J., Ferguson, D., Girard, L., Peyton, M., Minna, J. D., et al. (2007). "Synthetic lethal screen identification of chemosensitizer loci in cancer cells," Nature, 446(7137), 815–819.
Bodemann, B. O., & White, M. A. (2008).,"Ral GTPases and cancer: linchpin support of the tumorigenic platform," Nature reviews Cancer, 8(2), 133–140. doi:10.1038/nrc2296
Madigan, J. P., Bodemann, B. O., Brady, D. C., Dewar, B. J., Keller, P. J., Leitges, M., Philips, M. R., et al. (2009),"Regulation of Rnd3 localization and function by protein kinase C alpha-mediated phosphorylation," The Biochemical Journal, 424(1), 153–161. doi:10.1042/BJ20082377, doi:10.1038/Nature05697.
Bodemann, B. O., Orvedahl, A., Cheng, T., Ram, R. R., Ou, Y.-H., Formstecher, E., Maiti, M., et al. (2011),"RalB and the Exocyst Mediate the Cellular Starvation Response by Direct Activation of Autophagosome Assembly." Cell, 144(2), 253–267. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2010.12.018
Hua Gao, Ph.D. – Intervention Targets (Non-small Cell Lung Cancer)
Education: B.S. – Biochemistry, 1999, Xiamen University, China; Ph.D. – Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2008, Baylor College of Medicine; Postdoctoral Fellow, 2008-2011,
UT Southwestern
Research Interests: Isolating oncogenotype-linked intervention targets against lung cancer, specifically, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The heterogeneous response of patients to available therapies, and the bottlenecks to development of direct chemical inhibitors of many oncogenic protein variants in tumors, indicates that attention to pharmaceutically addressable wild-type proteins that support tumorigenic activities is warranted. I am employing genetic and biochemical approaches to identify such proteins.
Publications
Hua, G., Tasha B. TORO, Margherita PASCHINI, Bari Braunstein-Ballew, Rachel B. CERVANTES and Victoria LUNDBLAD,"Telomerase recruitment in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is not dependent on Tel1-mediated phosphorylation of Cdc13," Genetics, 2010, 186(4): 1147-1159.
Hua, G., Rachel B CERVANTES, Edward K MANDELL, Joel H OTERO, Victoria LUNDBLAD,"RPA-like proteins mediate yeast telomere function," Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2007, 14(3): 208-214.
Hyun-Seok Kim, Ph.D. – Computational Biology (Target Discovery)
Education: B.S. – Microbiology, 1995, Seoul National University, Korea; M. S. – Microbiology, 1997, Seoul National University, Korea; Ph.D. – Computational Biology, 2008, Washington University, St. Louis
Research Interests: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) remains one of the most common and fatal cancers. Although targeted therapy is available for a small group of patients with EGFR mutations or ALK fusions, most cancers remain refractory to current interventions. I am interested in providing novel intervention leads along with diagnostic tools to fill–in the gaps where current targeted therapies fail. For this, I employ a systematic approach for discovery of genetic and chemical vulnerabilities in the broad panel of NSCLC lines, an integrative genomics approach for identification of molecular, genetic, and metabolic correlates which specify target sensitivity, and a chemical genetics approach for development of chemical surrogate for many hardly druggable gene targets based on functional gene expression signature ontology.
Publications
Potts, M.B.*, Kim, H.S.*, Fisher, K.W., Hu, Y., Carrasco, Y., Ou, Y-H., Herrera, M., Cubillos, F., Xiao, G., Hofree, M., Ideker, T., Xie, Y., Lewis, R.E., MacMillan, J.B. & White, M.A. (2012) "Broad-scale mode-of-action annotation of natural product perturbations by functional signature ontology (FUSION)", submitted. * equal contribution.
Ward, S.E., Kim, H.S., Komurov, K., Mendiratta, S., Tsai, P-L., Schmolke, M, Satterly, N., Manicassamy, B., Forst, C.V., Roth, M.G., Garcia-Sastre, A., Blazewska, K., McKenna, C.E., Fontoura, B.M. & White, M.A. (2012 ) "Host modulators of H1N1 cytopathogenicity," PLoS One, 7, e39284.
Kim, H.S., Huh, J., Riles, L., Reyes, A. & Fay, J.C. (2012) "A non-complementation screen for quantitative trait alleles in Saccharomyces cerevisiae," G3: GENES, GENOMES, GENETICS, 2: 753-760. (Cover).
Will, J.L., Kim, H.S., Clarke, J., Painter, J.C., Fay, J.C. & Gasch, A.P. (2010) "Incipient balancing selection through adaptive loss of aquaporins in natural Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations," PLoS Genet. 6: e1000893.
Kim, H.S. & Fay, J.C. (2009) "A combined cross analysis reveals genes with drug-specific and background-dependent effects on drug-sensitivity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae," Genetics 183, 1141-1151.
Kim, H.S., Huh, J. & Fay, J.C. (2009) "Dissecting the pleiotropic consequences of a quantitative trait nucleotide," FEMS Yeast Res.9. 713-722.
Doniger, S.W., Kim, H.S., Swain, D., Corcuera, D., Williams, M., Yang, S-P. & Fay, J.C. (2008) "A catalog of neutral and deleterious polymorphism in yeast," PLoS Genet. 4, e1000183.
Kim, H.S. & Fay, J.C. (2007) "Genetic variation in cysteine biosynthesis pathway causes sensitivity to pharmacological compounds," PNAS 104, 19387-19391.
Jing Pan, Ph.D. – miRNA Modulation of Cell Polarity
Education: BS – Biochemistry, 1998, Nankai University, Tianjin, China; Ph.D. – Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, 2004, Cornell University; 2004-2008 – postdoc, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Research Interests: Understanding miRNA modulation of cell polarity. The asymmetric distribution of structures and activities in polarized cells is essential for proper cellular function. Through a high-throughput, imaging-based screen, we identified miRNAs whose overexpression affects the cell-autonomous polarization induced by the LKB1 protein in colon cancer cells. I am currently investigating whether these miRNAs are involved in regulating cell polarity under physiological conditions. I also intend to identify novel regulatory networks of cell polarity by parsing out the target space of these miRNAs.
Publications
Pan, J., Sasaki M., Kniewel R., Murakami H., Blitzblau H.G., Tischfield S.E., Zhu X., Neale M.J., Jasin M., Socci N.D., Hochwagen A., Keeney S.,"A hierarchical combination of factors shapes the genome-wide topography of yeast meiotic recombination initiation," Cell 2011 144:719-31.
Lange J., Pan, J., Cole F., Thelen M.P., Jasin M., and Keeney S.,"ATM controls meiotic double-strand break formation," Nature 2011 479:237-40.
Kidane D., Jonason A.S., Gorton T.S., Mihaylov I., Pan, J., Keeney S., de Rooij D.G., Ashley T., Keh A., Liu Y., Banerjee U., Zelterman D., Sweasy J.B.," DNA polymerase beta is critical for mouse meiotic synapsi"s. EMBO J 2010 29:410-23.
Pan, J. and Keeney S.,"Detection of SPO11-oligonucleotide complexes from mouse testes," Methods Mol Biol 2009 557:197-207.
Pan, J. and Keeney S.,"Molecular cartography: mapping the landscape of meiotic recombination.: PLoS Biol 2007 5:e333.
Neale M.J., Pan, J., and Keeney S.,"Endonucleolytic processing of covalent protein-linked DNA double-strand breaks," Nature 2005 436:1053-1057.
Pan, J. and Chen R.H.,"Spindle checkpoint regulates Cdc20p stability in S. cerevisiae," Gene Dev 2004 18:1439-1451.
Malia B. Potts, Ph.D. – Cancer Biology
Education: B.S. – Biology, 2001, Duke University; Ph.D. – Genetics and Development, 2008,
UT Southwestern
Research Interests: Three aspects of cancer biology: 1) how miRNA’s act as tumor suppressors in breast cancer and colon cancer; 2) the signaling pathways that regulate autophagy; and 3) identification of marine natural products with potential as cancer therapeutics.
Publications
Potts, M.B. and Cameron, S. (2011), "Cell lineage and cell death: Caenorhabditis elegans and cancer research," Nat. Rev. Cancer 11(1), 50-8.
Potts, M.B., Wang, D.P., and Cameron, S. (2009), "Trithorax, Hox, and TALE-class homeodomain proteins ensure cell survival through repression of the BH3-only gene egl-1," Dev. Biol. 329(2), 374-85.
Liu, H., Strauss, T.J., Potts, M.B., and Cameron, S. (2006), "Direct regulation of egl-1 and of programmed cell death by the Hox protein MAB-5 and by CEH-20, a C. elegans homolog of Pbx1," Development 133(4), 641-50.
Potts, M.B., Vaughn, A.E., McDonough, H., Patterson, C., and Deshmukh, M. (2005), "Reduced Apaf-1 levels in cardiomyocytes engage strict regulation of apoptosis by endogenous XIAP," J. Cell Biol. 171(6), 925-30.
Deming, P.B., Schafer, Z.T., Tashker, J.S., Potts, M.B., Deshmukh, M., and Kornbluth, S. (2004), "BCR-Abl-mediated protection from apoptosis downstream of mitochondrial cytochrome c release," Mol. Cell Biol. 23, 10289-99.
Potts P.R., Singh S., Knezek M., Thompson, C.B., and Deshmukh, M. (2003), "Critical function of endogenous XIAP in regulating caspase activation during sympathetic neuronal apoptosis," J. Cell Biol. 163(4), 789-799.
Researchers / Staff
Federico Felipe Cubillos – Research Technician
Education: B.A. – Biology, 1998, Austin College (Sherman, Texas); M.S. – Molecular & Cell Biology, 2006, University of Texas at Dallas
Research Interests: I am interested in better understanding cancer cell intracellular processes through fluorescent labeling in conjunction with various RNAi & compound treatments. I hope to see how cancer cells transition from healthy, tissue dependent, reproductively regulated cells to unhealthy, tissue independent, reproductively deregulated cells. This understanding could yield potential new targets for future cancer therapy.
Publications
Chang T.L., Cubillos F.F., Kakhniashvili D.G., Goodman S.R. "Band 3 is a target protein of spectrin's E2/E3 activity: implication for sickle cell disease and normal red blood cell aging," Cellular and Molecular Biology (Noisy-le-grand, France). 2004 Mar; 50(2):171-7.
Chang T.L., Cubillos F.F., Kakhniashvili D.G., Goodman S.R. "Ankyrin is a target of spectrin's E2/E3 ubiquitin-conjugating/ligating activity," Cellular and Molecular Biology (Noisy-le-grand, France). 2004 Feb; 50(1):5 9-66.
Kiran Kaur, Ph.D. – Adjunct Instructor / Lab Manager
Education: M.S., 1982, University of Kentucky; Ph.D. 1994, Southern Methodist University
Saurabh Mendiratta – Research Associate
Education: M.S. – Biotechnology, 2003, MS University, Baroda, India; M.S. – Cell and Molecular Biology, 2006, University of Texas at Dallas
Research Interests: High throughput SiRNA and chemical compound screening to identify gene targets selectively required for cancer cell survival.
Publications
Ward S.E., Kim H.S., Komurov K. Mendiratta S., Tsai P.L, Schmolke M., Satterly N., Manicassamy B., Forst C.V., Roth M.G., García-Sastre A., Blazewska K.M., McKenna C.E., Fontoura B.M., White M.A., "Host Modulators of H1N1 Cytopathogenicity," PLoS One, 2012;7(8):e39284. Epub 2012 Aug 2.
Goldsmith E.J., Mendiratta S., Akella R., Dahlgren K., "Natural language query in the biochemistry and molecular biology domains based on cognition search™," Summit on Translat Bioinforma, 2009 Mar 1;2009:32-7.
Tracy Rosales - Research Technician II
Education: B.S. - Biology, University of Texas at Dallas
Research Interests: Understanding the effects of didemnin B, a potential anticancer drug isolated from marine species Trididemnum solidum, on autophagy-regulating pathways.
I was born in San Francisco, but I was raised in Dallas for most of my life. I have always had a strong interest in the sciences. I graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) with a B.S. in Biology in Spring 2012.
Prior to working as a Research Technician II at UTSW, I was an undergraduate researcher in the Balkus Lab at UTD to study electrospinning, an easy and affordable technique in creating nanofibers from polymer solutions for chiral separation of pharmaceutical drugs.
During my spare time, I enjoy cooking and making recipes that I share online.
Bo Yeun Seo – Database Analyst: Computational Biology (Target Discovery)
Education: BS – Computer Science, 1996, Sungshin Women's University
Role: I provide bioinformatic and software engineering support for the lab.