| | Principal Investigators
| Sheldon Milstien, Ph.D. |
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Dr. Milstien did his undergraduate studies at UCLA where he majored in chemistry and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1968
from the University of Southern California studying enzyme mechanisms. After postdoctoral training at the National Institute of
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, he joined the Laboratory of Neurochemistry at the NIMH in 1972. In 1996 he
became Chief of the Unit on Molecular Enzymology in the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation, NIMH. His research has been
focused on tetrahydrobiopterin, a cofactor important for metabolism of phenylalanine, synthesis of neurotransmitters, and
production of nitric oxide. |
| Research Interests |
| Research in Dr. Milstien's laboratory has been focused on the enyzmes of the de novo tetrahydrobiopterin biosynthetic pathway and their regulation. Because he developed methods for investigating tetrahydrobiopterin metabolism and this has important implications for human health and disease, his laboratory has collaborated with many investigators from all over the world focused on many disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and other neurological and mental disorders, phenylketonuria, and cardiovascular diseases. Recently, he has been investigating the role of sphingolipid metabolites which act as both first and second messengers to regulate important physiological processes, such as cell growth and survival, vascular maturation, cardiovascular development, and neuronal differentiation. |
| Representative Selected Recent Publications: |
- Zimmerman AW, Jyonouchi H, Comi AM, Connors SL, Milstien S, Varsou A, Heyes MP:
Cerebrospinal fluid and serum markers of inflammation in autism.
Pediatr Neurol. 33(3): 195-201, 2005. (View PDF)
- Vann LR, Payne SG, Edsall LC, Twitty S, Spiegel S, Milstien S:
Involvement of sphingosine kinase in TNF-a-stimulated tetrahydrobiopterin biosynthesis in C6 glioma cells.
. J. Biol. Chem. 277: 12649�12656, 2002. (View PDF)
- Spiegel S, English D, Milstien, S:
Sphingosine 1-phosphate signaling: providing cells with a sense of direction.
Trends Cell Biol., 12: 236-242, 2002. (View PDF)
- Spiegel S, Milstien S:
Sphingosine 1-phosphate, a key cell signaling molecule.
Biol. Chem., 277: 25851�25854, 2002. (View PDF)
- Hobson JP, Rosenfeldt HM, Barak LS, Olivera A, Poulton S, Caron MG, Milstien S, Spiegel S:
Role of the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor EDG-1 in PDGF-induced cell motility.
Science, 291: 1800-1803, 2001. (View PDF)
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