Research Abstract:
There are two major interests of this laboratory. One is the molecular mechanism and pharmacologic control of neuronal programmed cell death. The other is the biology of neurotrophic factors. Of particular emphasis are neurturin, artemin and persephin, factors discovered in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Milbrandt. A variety of technical approaches is used including morpholological, biochemical, immunological and molecular genetic methodologies.
Selected Publications:
Pierchala BA, Ahrens RC, Paden AJ, Johnson Jr EM. NGF promotes the survival of sympathetic neurons through the cooperative function of the PKC and PI-3-K pathways. J Biol Chem 2004. Forthcoming.
Encinas M, Crowder RJ, Milbrandt J, Johnson Jr EM. Tyrosine 981, a novel ret autophosphorylation site, binds c-Src to mediate neuronal survival. J Biol Chem 2004 279(18):18262-18269.
Besirli CG, Johnson Jr EM. JNK-independent activation of c-Jun during neuronal apoptosis induced by multiple DNA-damaging agents. J Biol Chem 2003 278(25):22357-22366.
Chang LK, Schmidt RE, Johnson Jr EM. Alternating metabolic pathways in NGF-deprived sympathetic neurons affect caspase-independent death. J Cell Biol 2003 162(2):245-256.
Golden JP, Milbrandt J, Johnson Jr EM. Neurturin and persephin promote the survival of embryonic basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in vitro. Exp Neurol 2003 184(1):447-455.
Last Updated: 09/05/2007 |