Other Perelman School of Medicine Affiliations
Pennsylvania Muscle Institute
Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences

Degrees
Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, 1987
B.S., College of William and Mary, 1982

Honors
Keith R. Porter Fellowship Award
Established Investigator of the American Heart Association
Pfizer Award for Research Excellence
NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, NINDS
Frank Malette Award for Graduate Distinction in Biochemistry
Phi Beta Kappa

Professional Affiliations
American Society for Cell Biology
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Research Description
Our laboratory is focused on the microtubule-based motor cytoplasmic dynein and its activator dynactin. Dynein and dynactin are required for vesicular trafficking, mitotic spindle assembly, and development of polarity. We are interested in mechanisms of force production and motor function, mechanisms of cargo coupling and regulation, effects of dynein and dynactin on dynamics of the cytoskeleton, and the analysis of neurodegenerative diseases resulting from impairments in dynein/dynactin function. Disruptions in dynein/dynactin function cause motor neuron degeneration and muscle atrophy, leading to motor neuron diseases similar to ALS. Approaches in the lab include in vitro motility assays, cellular transfection assays, live cell microscopy, and development and characterization of transgenic mouse models for motor neuron disease.

Representative Publications
Ligon, L. A., Karki, S., Tokito, M., and Holzbaur, E. L. F. (2001) Dynein binds to _-catenin and may tether microtubules at adherens junctions, Nature Cell Biology 3: 913-917.

LaMonte, B. H., Wallace, K. E., Holloway, B. A., Shelly, S. S., Ascano, J., Tokito, M., Van Winkle, T., Howland, D. S., and Holzbaur, E. L. F. (2002) Disruption of dynein/dynactin in motor neurons causes late-onset progressive degeneration. Neuron 34: 715-727.

Puls, I., Jonnakuty, C., LaMonte, B. H., Holzbaur, E. L. F., Tokito, M., Mann, E., Floeter, M. K., Bidus, K., Drayna, D., Oh, S. J., Brown, R. H., Ludlow, C. L., and Fischbeck, K. H. (2003) Dynactin mutation in motor neuron disease. Nature Genetics 33: 455-6.

Ligon, L. A., Shelly, S. S., Tokito, M., and Holzbaur, E. L. F. (2003) The microtubule plus-end proteins EB1 and dynactin have differential effects on microtubule polymerization. Mol. Biol. Cell 14: 1405-17.

Click here for a full list of publications
(searches the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database.)