Michael WhitfieldAssistant Professor of Genetics Contact Information
Phone: 603-650-1109
Postal Address
Dr. Michael Whitfield
Post-doctoral Fellow, Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 1999 - 2003
Cancer Mechanisms Research Program
Genetics
Molecular and Cellular Biology
M.L. Whitfield,G. Sherlock, A. Saldanha, J.I. Murray, C.A. Ball, K.E. Alexander, J.C. Matese, C.M. Perou, M.M. Hurt, P.O. Brown and D. Botstein. Identification of Genes Periodically Expressed in the Human Cell Cycle and Their Expression in Tumors. Mol. Biol. Cell,13, 1977 - 2000 (2002) H. Zhao, M.L. Whitfield, T. Xu, D. Botstein, J.D. Brooks. Characterization of the global transcriptional response program of human prostate cancer cells to methylselenic acid. Mol.Biol.Cell, Feb;15(2):506-19 (2004) J.I. Murray, M.L. Whitfield, N.D. Trinklein, R.M. Myers, P.O. Brown, D. Botstein. Diverse and specific gene expression responses to stresses in cultured human cells. Mol.Biol.Cell (2004) N. Novoradovskaya, M.L. Whitfield, A. Novoradovsky, L.S. Basehore, W. Wong, R. Pesich, J. Usary, M. Karaca, O. Aprelikova, M. Fero, C.M. Perou, D. Botstein, J. Braman. Universal Reference RNA as a standard for microarray experiments. BMC Genomics, 5:20 (2004) S.B. Jones, S.E. DePrimo, M.L. Whitfield, J.D. Brooks. Resveratrol-induced gene expression profiles in human prostate cancer cells. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. Mar;14(3):596-604, (2005) M.L. Whitfield, L.K. George, G.D. Grant, and C.M. Perou, Common markers of proliferation. Nature Reviews Cancer. 6(2): p. 99-106, (2006) V.H. Cowling, S. Chandriani, M.L. Whitfield, M.D. Cole. A conserved Myc protein domain, MBIV, regulates DNA binding, apoptosis, and transformation. Mol.Cell Biol. Jun;26(11):4226-39, (2006) W.H.D. Townley-Tilson, S.A. Pendergrass, W.F. Marzluff and M.L. Whitfield. Genome-wide analysis of mRNAs bound to the histone stem-loop binding protein. RNA Oct;12(10):1853-67, (2006)
1. Predicting and testing gene function and regulation in the human cell division cycle. The goals of this project are to determine if the cell cycle-regulatory circuitry is different between a non-transformed human cell line and a cancer cell, to map the cell cycle-regulatory network controlled by the transcription factor FOXM1 that is believed to control the expression of G2/M phase genes, and to functionally characterize unknown cell cycle-regulated genes. As a part of this project and in collaboration with NCCC researcher Jim DiRenzo, we are identifying the cell cycle-regulated genes in a non-transformed human mammary epithelial cell (HMEC) line and directly compare the cell cycle-regulated genes to those in transformed HMEC lines. We are using the cell cycle-regulated gene expression data derived from these experiments, as well as previously published data (Whitfield et al. 2002 Mol. Biol Cell), as a screen to assign functions to uncharacterized cell cycle-regulated genes, and then to experimentally test these computationally generated hypotheses by cell biological methods. 2. Development of RNA IP methods, tiled arrays and high-throughput sequencing to identify functional elements encoded in RNA The misregulation of gene expression underlies all human malignancies. Understanding the regulatory code that directs the expression of genes at all levels (transcription, pre-mRNA processing, translational control and RNA stability) will provide a better understanding of this basic process. Post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression can be mediated by RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and by non-coding RNAs such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). These regulatory steps are thought to function by impacting the composition or state of the messenger ribonucleoprotein particle (mRNP). Understanding the cis-acting regulatory code that directs the assembly of these combinatorial mRNP complexes is the first step towards understanding this complex process and is only beginning to be investigated systematically using genome-level tools. We have shown in proof-of-principal experiments that we can use RNA Immunoprecipitations (IPs) followed by microarray analysis (RIP-Chip) to identify the targets of the histone stem-loop binding protein (SLBP) with high confidence. In collaboration with Dr. Charles Cole, Dr. Robert Gross and Dr. Seth Brooks, we are further developing these experimental and computational methods to specifically identify the cis-acting regulatory sequences in mRNAs bound by specific RBPs and by microRNAs (miRs) via the argonaute family of proteins. Grants, Honors, Invited Lectures
2004, V Foundation Scholar, V Foundation for Cancer Research
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