Andrew Dancis, M.D
Associate Professor, Dept of Medicine

Cell Biology and Physiology Program

Address

709 Biomedical Rsch Bldg II/III (Office)
731 Biomedical Rsch Bldg II/III (Lab)
421 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6160

Office tel.: 215 573-6275
Lab tel.: 215 898-9698
Fax: 215 573-7049
E-mail: adancis@mail.med.upenn.edu


Education

Princeton University: BA (Philosophy), 1973.

New York University School of Medicine: MD (Medicine), 1978.

Research Interests

• Iron transport into mitochondria
• Heme sythesis
• Fe-S cluster biogenesis
• Yeast genetics
• Sideroblastic anemia.

Key words: mitochondria, yeast, Fe-S, heme, frataxin, ring sideroblast.

Search PubMed for articles

Description of Research

In most eukaryotic cells (including yeast and human cells) the essential iron containing cofactors Fe-S and heme are made in the mitochondria. Since the mitochondrial membrane must be impermeable to ions in order to maintain the membrane potential, the question arises how is iron transported into mitochondria? We now have methods for measuring iron transport into mitochondria in real time, and we have evidence that specific mitochondrial carrier proteins are involved in the transport process. Genetic, proteomic, and biochemical approaches are being undertaken to learn more about this process - substrate, product, chaperones, regulation and redundancy, perturbations in human diseases.

Recent Publications

Zhang, Y. Lyver, E.R., Knight, S. A., Lesuisse, E. Dancis, A. (2005) Frataxin and mitochondrial carrier proteins Mrs3p and Mrs4p, coorperate in providing iron for heme synthesis. J. Biol. Chem. 280: 19794-807.

Lesuisse, E., Knight, S. A., Courel, M., Santos, R., Camadro, J. M., Dancis, A. Genome-wide screen for genes with effects on distinct iron uptake activities in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics. 169: 107-122, 2004.

He, Y., Alam, S. L., Proteasea, S. V., Zhang, Y., Lesuisse, E., Dancis, A., Stemmler, T. L. Yeast frataxin solution structure, iron binding, and ferrochelatase interaction. Biochemistry. 43: 16254-16262, 2004.

Lesuisse, E., Lyver, E. R., Knight, S. A. B., Dancis, A.: Role of YHM1, encoding a mitochondrial carrier protein, in iron distribution of yeast. Biochem. J. 378: 599-607, 2004.

Lesuisse, E., Santos, R., Matzanke, B. F., Camadro, J-M., Knight, S. A. B., Dancis, A.: Iron use for heme synthesis is under control of the yeast frataxin homologue (Yfh1). Hum. Mol. Genet. 12: 879-889, 2003.

Lab

1. Proteomic project - in collaboration with Dr. Fevzi Daldal. Purification of mitochondria from cell lines and bone marrow cells for characterization of mitochondrial proteome.
2. Yhm1 mutants - mutants of Yhm1, also called Ggc1, alter mitochondrial GTP levels and cause mitochondrial iron accumulation. The project is to identify novel mutants that revert the rho minus phenotype of yhm1 strains and evaluate for GTP and/or iron phenotypes.

Simon Knight, Ph.D.
Elise Lyver
Heeyong Yoon, Ph.D.
Yan Zhang, CAMB thesis student