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Laboratory of Signal Transduction

Research Summary

The overall goal of the Laboratory of Signal Transduction (LST) is to define the mechanisms that cells, tissues and organisms use to respond to physiological and environmental stimuli. Responses of cells to environmental signals, toxins and stressors have profound implications for diverse aspects of human health and disease including development, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, asthma, heart, autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The depiction of several signal transduction pathways that are activated in a human cell following environmental stimuli
Several signal transduction pathways that occur in the human cell.

The delineation of the signal transduction pathways affected in these and other complex human diseases is likely to present new avenues for therapeutic intervention and understanding of human disease mechanisms. The Laboratory of Signal Transduction seeks to achieve this goal through cutting edge basic research and training of junior scientists in aspects of environmental health related science that are critical to the mission of NIEHS. It is anticipated that research in signal transduction will have a central role in environmental human health in the post-genomic era.

The LST investigates the following topics:

  • Glucocorticoid receptors and their actions on the immune system because they reflect the primary response to environmental stress
  • Mechanisms involved in the regulation of apoptosis in normal and neoplastic cells
  • Intracellular Ca2+ pools involved in cellular signaling, and the basis for intracellular [Ca2+]i oscillations
  • Inositol phosphate family of intracellular signals. These compounds play a number of important "second messenger" roles
  • Identification of environmental cues that sirtuins sense and determination of how they affect the progress of aging and age-associated diseases
  • The roles of a small family of protein kinase C substrate proteins in the normal development of the brain and retina, and the roles of another small family of CCCH tandem zinc finger proteins in the physiological regulation of mRNA turnover

Scientific Support Staff

Pinkney Wilder
Administrative Specialist
Tel (919) 541-3332
Fax (919) 541-1898
wilderp@niehs.nih.gov
Patsy King
Administrative Technician
Tel (919) 541-3339
Fax (919) 541-1898
king2@niehs.nih.gov

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This page URL: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/lst/index.cfm
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Last Reviewed: September 12, 2008