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Courses:
Genetics and Development (224)
Research Interests: Mechanisms of cell death in
development and disease. Developmental processes of Caenorhabditis elegans.
My lab is interested in mechanisms of cell death,
particularly those associated with apoptosis. During development and on
into life, apoptosis eliminates unnecessary or badly damaged cells
before they can adversely affect the health of the
organism. Because the mechanisms that eliminate the cell are triggered
within the cell itself, apoptosis is often referred
to as “cellular suicide”. When apoptosis is inappropriately regulated,
i.e. too active or not active enough, disease often
results, ranging from neurodegenerative disorders to cancer. We study
apoptosis in the model organism Caenorhabditis
elegans, a small, genetically well-defined roundworm well-suited
for this research. Using genetic, molecular biological and biochemical
techniques, we are learning how apoptosis is repressed in healthy
cells, and how that repression is released in cells fated to die.
Because the core mechanism of apoptosis is highly similar between C. elegans and humans, we’re
interested in using the results of our research to better understand
how apoptosis is controlled in humans, and how that control is lost
during the development of disease.
Selected
Publications:
Bloss, T. A., E. S. Witze, and J. Rothman. 2003.
Suppression of CED-3-independent apoptosis by mitochondrial betaNAC in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 424:
1066-1071.
Bloss, T., A. Kaykas, and B. Sugden. 1999.
Dissociation of patching by latent membrane protein-1 of Epstein-Barr
virus from its stimulation of NF-kappaB activity. J. Gen Virol. 80:
3227-3232.
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