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Newsletter
A publication of the Center for Reproductive Science
Northwestern University, Evanston and Chicago
Spring 2003 Volume 1 No. 5
In This Issue:
From the Director
Seminars
Marcia L. Storch MD Scholarship Fund for Undergraduate Women
Recent Ph.D. Graduates
Faculty & Interest Areas
Research Notes
Travel Awards for Undergrads
CRS Undergraduate Achievements
Minisymposium
Recent Publications
CRS Faculty Honors
From the Director
The past year has been a busy one for the
Center for Reproductive Science. CRS underwent its first university
program review e valuation. This process was an in-depth evaluation of the
Center, its administration and its programs, conducted by both an internal
review team and an external review committee that included Professors Fred
Naftolin (Yale University), Connie Cepko (Harvard University) and Michael
Stryker (UCSF). Recommendation from the program review process are already
being implemented, and will form an important blueprint for the Center in the
coming years. I want to thank all of you who participated in this very
valuable process.
Interdisciplinary research is a hallmark
of the Center, and I am very pleased to report that CRS investigators J. Larry
Jameson, Andrea Dunaif and Teresa Woodfuff have recently been awarded major
research grants from the National Institutes of Health that will facilitate
interdisciplinary research and that involve numerous other CRS faculty and
trainees. Our "Research Notes" feature in this issue highlights these new
center grants. Please join me in congractulating our colleagues on these
important research awards.
Your will note a new byline on this
column. In February of 2003, Professor Neena Schwartz retired as the
director of CRS and I was appointed director. I am greatly honored to
direct the Center, and I look forward to working with all of you toward the
Center mission, which is "to enhance and coordinate research in the reproductive
sciences at Northwestern University; to promote the application of this research
toward human welfare; and to optimize the training of future research, teaching
and clinical scientists in the reproductive sciences". On behalf of the
entire CRS community, I want to thank Neena for her tireless efforts on behalf
of the Center. She established and nutured a program of excellence that
haw outstanding national visibility and that we should all be proud of.
Neena will continue to provide advice and support and to be involved in CRS
activities. Please take the time to personall thank her for her many
contributions to the reproductive sciences at Northwestern.
Finally, remember - with growing concern
about an increasing world population and a deteriorating environment --- reproduction matters!
Kelly Mayo, Director
Seminars
The previously scheduled spring CRS seminars (Barry Zirkin
on April 7 and Mark Roberson on May 5) have been postponed. Borth will
be rescheduled for early fall. Please see the article on page 4 for
information on the 2003 CRS Minisymposium.
The 16th Chicago Transductal
Symposium will be held May 22, 2003 at Northwestern's Chicago campus.
For further information and registration forms see http://www.northwestern.edu/SignalTransduction/registration.html.
Awards for Undergraduate Research
Marcia L. Storch MD Scholarship Fund for Undergraduate Women
Dr. Marcia Storch, who practiced gynecology in New York City and taught
at several medical schools, died on November 9, 1998. She was widely regarded as a pioneer
and innovator in women’s health care. Her obituary in the New York Times (11/19/98)
described her thus. "Dr. Storch was born in Pittsburgh. She graduated from Bryn Mawr
College and the Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1971 she moved to New York City. She
directed the Adolescent Gynecology and Family Planning Clinic at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt
Hospital Center, which provided treatment as well as information on birth control and
sexually transmitted diseases to tens of thousands of disadvantaged teenagers. After her
retirement from private practice in 1989, she sought a wider audience for her approach to
medicine as a television and radio producer. She created specialized programming for
family physicians on the Lifetime medical network, and later became the head of Ob/Gyn
news for the Medical News Network".
Before her death from ovarian cancer Dr. Storch expressed the wish that
contributions be sent to the Center for Reproduction Science at Northwestern University to
establish a fund to encourage undergraduate women to study the basic physiology and
biochemistry of the ovary. With contributions we have received the Center
invites applications from undergraduate women working in the laboratories of Center
faculty. A committee will review the applications, which should include a brief
description of projected work and a statement from the advisor, and budget for supplies
(not to exceed $400). Please submit supporting documents to Dr.
Kelly Mayo, Center for Reproductive Sciences, Hogan Hall 3-100, Evanston Campus
by June 1.
Donations continue to be accepted for this fund. Checks should be made
out to the Center for Reproductive Science and directed to the "Marcia Storch
Scholarship Fund".
 Recent
Ph.D. Graduates
Jennifer Hill
(with Jon Levine) "Neuropeptide-Y control of pituitary hormone
release: multifold actions in the service of setroid feedback". |
Stacey Chapman Tobin
(with Teresa Woodruiff) "Merchanisms of Inhibin Action in the Female
Reproductive Axis"> |
Johanna Schneider
(with Jon Levine) "The biology of fatherhood: a novel role for
progesterone receptors in male phyusiology and behavior". |
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CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE SCIENCE
FACULTY & INTEREST AREAS
Testis Function
James Bartles, Cell & Molecular Biology
Erwin Goldberg, Bio Chem Mol & Cell Biology
Richard Scarpulla, Cell & Molecular Biology
Pituitary Function
J. Larry Jameson, Medicine
Neena Schwartz, Neurobiology & Physiology
Jeffrey Weiss, Medical End Met Nut Ctr
Circadian Rhythms
Joseph Takahashi, Neurobiology & Physiology
Fred Turek, Neurobiology & Physiology
Teresa Horton, Neurobiology & Physiology
Neural Control of Sexual Function
Kevin McKenna, Physiology
Prostate Biology
Chung Lee, Urology
Robert E. Brannigan, Urology
Zhou Wang, Urology
Neuroendocrinology
George Flouret, Physiology
Jon Levine, Neurobiology & Physiology
Benjamin C. Campbell, Anthropology
Thomas W. McDade, Anthropology
Eva Redei, Psychiatry & Behavioral Science
Catherine Woolley, Neurobiology & Physiology
Clinical Fertility & Infertility
Ralph Kazer, Obstetrics & Gynecology
John Sciarra, Obstetrics & Gynecology
Growth & Development
Gerhard Baumann, Medicine
Daniel Linzer, Bio Chem Mol & Cell Biology
Kelly Mayo, Bio Chem Mol & Cell Biology
H. William Schnaper, Pediatrics
Warren Tourtellotte, Pathology
Andrew Hirsch, Ob&Gyn
Ovarian Function
Robert Chatterton, Obstetrics & Gynecology
Andrewa Dunaif, Medical End Met Nut Ctr
Mary Hunzicker-Dunn, Cell & Molecular Biology
Teresa K. Woodruff, Medicine/NBP
Steroid Hormones & Receptors
Magdy Milad, Obstetrics & Gynecology
V. Craig Jordan, Cancer Center
CRS - RESEARCH NOTES
CRS Scientists Head New NIH Research Centers
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Interdisciplinary investigation is a hallmark
of modern biomedical research in most fields, including the reproductive
sciences. An important part of the mission of the Center for Reproductive
Science is to foster such research by promoting interactions between center
investigators. Multi-investigator center grants, most commonly from the
National Institutes of Health, provide an important mechanism for facilitating
this type of of interdisciplinary research. Northwestern University and
CRS investigators have recently been awarded three such multi-investigator
center grants, and in thi issue's research column we highlight these important
new centers and contratulate these investigators.
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Identification of Sex Determination Genes by ENU Mutagenesis
NIH U01 HD043425
Northwestern University has received a five-year, $2.8
million grant from the National Institutes of Health to identify the gene
mutations that cause sex reversal, a condition in which individuals have the
chromosomes of one sex but the physical attributes of the other, resulting in XY
females or XX males. Heading the gene study at the Feinberg School of
Medicine is CRS investigator J. Larry Jameson, M.D./Ph.D., Irving S. Cutter
Professor and Chair of Medicine. Northwestern co-investigators are Jeffrey
Weiss, Associate Professor of Medicine, Teresa Woodruff, Associate Professor of
Neurobiology & Physiology and Medicine, and Margrit Urbanek, Assistant Professor
of Medicine.
The study is one of four collaborative projects funded by
the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to identify
mutations in mice that cause developmental and fertility defects and to
characterize the mutations responsible for these defects. This new
research project will screen randomly mutagenized mice in an attempt to identify
new genes that determine sexual differentiation, and it will build on the ENU
mouse mutagenesis program developed within the Northwestern University Center
for Functional Genomics and headed by CRS investigator Joseph Takahashi.
Genes, Androgens and Intrauterine Environment in PCOS
NIH P50 HD044405
Northwestern University has been awarded over $5 million
by the National Institutes of Health to establish a Specialized Center of
Research (SCOR) to study polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a disorder associated
with irregular menstrual periods, infertility, excessive body hair and increased
risk for diabetes. CRS investigator Andrea Dunaif, M.D., Charles F.
Kettering Professor and chief of Endocrinology and Metabolism and professor of
Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine, is the principal investigator.
Other Northwestern collaborators include Jon Levine, Professor of Neurobiology &
Physiolog7y, who is the SCOR co-director, Randall Barnes, Associate Professor of
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Boyd Metzger, Professor of Medicine and Margrit
Urbanek, Assistant Professor of Medicine. Neena B. Schwartz, Professor
Emeritus of Neurobiology & Physiology and CRS Founding Director, chairs the
Northwestern SCOR Advisory Committee.
Northwestern was one of 11 leading medical institutions
selected as SCOR sites by the Office for Research on Women's Health for having a
highly meritorious research project that explores an important issue related to
sex/gender health differences. The SCOR center grant includes four
research projects: Project 1. Genes, Intrauterine Environment and PCOS, Andrea
Dunaif, PI; Project 2. Identification of Chromosome 19 PCOS Susceptibility
Genes, Margrit Urbanek, PI; Project 3. Fetal Androgen Induces Ovarian, LH and
β-Cell Defects, David H. Abbott, PI; Project 4. Neuroendocrine Actions of
Androgens in Females, Jon E. Levine, PI.
Structure-Function Relationships in Reproductive Biology
NIH U54 HD041857
Northwestern University has received $5.65 million over
five years from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to
establish the multidisciplinary Center for Reproductive Research (CRR) at
Northwestern. The center seeks innovative answers to female infertility
problems by bridging the areas of reproductive physiology, structural biology
and cancer research. CRS investigator Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D., Associate
Professor of Neurobiology & Physiology and Medicine directs the new center.
Other Northwestern collaborators include Lonnie D. Shea, Assistant Professor of
Chemical Engineering, Ralph Kazer, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Kelly E. Mayo, Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Cell
Biology, Ishwar Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular
Biology & Cell Biology, and Theodore S. Jardetzky, Associate Professor of
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Cell Biology.
There are 14 of the Specialized Cooperative Centers
Programs in Reproductive Research (SCCPRR) supported nationwide by the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The centers are designed
to promote multidisciplinary interactions between basic and clinical scientists,
with the ultimate goal of improving human reproductive health. The
Northwestern Center studies ovarian function by taking novel approaches that
include developing synthetic scaffolds for follicle growth, investigating the
molecular machines that regulate gene expression and using structural biological
approaches to understand key reproductive signaling proteins. The Center
includes three research signaling proteins. The Center includes three
research projects: Project I. Ovarian-Mimetic Polymeric Scaffolds for the
Culture of Ovarian Follicles, Lonnie Shea, PI; Project II. Transcription Factor
Interactions in Reproductive Hormone Gene Expression, Kelly Mayo, PI; Project
III. Structure-Function Studies of Activin and Inhibin Receptor Complexes,
Theodore Jardetzky, PI.
| CRS Go-to-Meeting Travel
Award for Undergraduates
A number of undergraduates at
Northwestern work in the research laboratories of Center faculty. We have started a fund
to enable some of them to attend professional meetings with their preceptors and other lab
members. We invite applications for travel for the year 2000 meetings. Undergraduates
should submit a letter outlining their research project and a description of the meeting
to which they wish to go. They should also estimate the travel cost. Faculty advisors
should countersign the documents. Please submit supporting documents by May
15 to Dr. Kelly Mayo, Center for Reproductive Science, Hogan Hall 3-100, Evanston campus. |
Undergraduate Student Achievements
Danny Balkin, with Teresa
Woodruff, was awarded the 2002-2003 Erwin Macey Scholarship Award based
on his work entitled, ""Analysis of the Rat FSHβ Transcriptional Promoter
Complex.
Alina Huang, with Fred
Turek, also earned the 2002-2003 Erwin Macey Award based on her work
entitled, "Effects of early life stress using the models of maternal
separation and prenatal stress on glucose metabolism in the mouse."
Sudhi Kurup was the recipient of an Endocrine Society Summer research
award to do research in the Woodruff lab. The title of his
research is, "Mutational Analysis of Activin βA at the Activin A/ActRIIB
Interface." |
CRS Minisymposium
The Minisymposium on Reproductive Biology, sponsored by
the Center for Reproductive Science, is held annually in October. The 24th
Minisymposium is scheduled for Monday, October 20, 2003 at the Omni Orrington
Hotel, in Evanston.
Pre- and post-doctoral trainees from local and Midwestern
universities and institutions participate by presenting either posters or
ten-minute talks.
Dr. Louis J. Guillette, Jr., Distinguished Professor of
Zoology and Associate Dean of Research at the University of Florida, Gainsville
is the keynote speaker for the 2003 meetings. Dr. Guillette is heavily
invested in both undergraduate education and research. Dr. Guillette's
research focuses on the mechanism by which environmental factors influence the
evolution, development and functioning of the reproductive systems in
vertebrates. His keynote address entitled, "New Lessons from an Old
Beast: Alligators, Contaminants and Reproductive Biology", will be of broad
interest to all attending the minisymposium.
The First Call for Abstracts will be sent in late May/early
June. For more information visit the Center website at
www.northwestern.edu/center-for-reproductive-science. Trainees will be
able to send abstracts electronically from the Minisymposium page on the
website.
Louis Guillette gathering a blood sample from a
juvenile alligator to test for environmental
contaminants at Lake Apopka, Florida
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Chatterton RT Jr., Lydon JP, Mehta RG, Mateo ET, Pletz A., Jordan VC.
Role of the progesterone receptor (PR) in susceptibility of mouse mammary gland
to 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced hormone-independent preneoplastic
lesions in vitro. Cancer Lett 2002 Dec 15:188(1-2);47-52.
Jabara S, Christenson LK, Wang CY, McAllister JM, Javitt NB,
Dunaif A, Strauss Jf 3rd. Stromal cells of the human postmenopausal
ovary display a distrinctive biochemical and molecular phenotype. J Clin
Endocrinol Metab 2003 Jan;88(I):484-92.
Urbanek M, Du Y, Silander K, Collins FS, Steppan CM, Strauss
JF 3rd, Dunaif A, Speilman RS, Legro RS. Variation in resisting
gene promoter not associated with polycystic ovary syndrome. Diabetwes
2003 Jan;52(1):214-7.
Srisuparp S, Strakova Z, Brudney A, Mukherjee S, Reierstad S,
Hunzicker-Dunn M, Fazleabas AT. Signal transduction pathways activated by
chronic gonadotropin in the primate endometrial epithelial cells. Biol Reprod
2003 Feb;68(2):457-64.
Cottom J, Salvador LM, Maizels ET, Reierstad S, Park Y, Carr
DW, Devare MA, Hell JW, Palmer SS, Dent P, Kawakatsu H, Ogata M, Hunzicker-Dunn
M. Follicle-stimulating hormone activates extracellular
signal-regulated kinase but not extracellular signal-regulated kinase through a
100-kDa phosphotyrosine phosphatase. J Biol Chem 2003 Feb 28;278(9):7167-79.
Meeks JJ, Weiss J, Jameson JL. Dax1 is required for
testis determination. Nat Genet 2003 Apr 7;[epub ahead of print]
Meeks JJ, Russell TA, Jeffs B, Huhtaniemi I, Weiss J.,
Jameson JL. Leydig Cell Specific-Expression of Dax1 Improves Fertility of
the Dax1-Deficient Mouse. Biol Reprod 2003 Feb 19.
Ozisik G, Achermann JC, Meeks JJ, Jameson JL. SF1 in
the Development of the Adrenal Gland and Gonads. Horm Res 2003;59 Supp1 1:94-8.
Meeks JJ, Crawford SE, Russell TA, Morohashi K, Weiss J,
Jameson JL. Dax1 regulates testis cord organization during gonadal
differentiation. Development 2003 Mar;130(5):1029-36.
Levenson AS, Gehm BD, Pearce ST, Horiguchi J, Simons LA, Ward
JE 3rd, Jameson JL, Jordan VC. Resveratrol acts as an estrogen receptor
(ER) agonist in breast cancer cells stably transfected with ER alpha. Int
J Cancer 2003 May 1;104(5):587-96.
Schaefer JM, Bentrem DJ, Takei H, Gajdos C, Badve S,
Jordan VC. A mechanism of drug resistance to tamoxifen in breast cancern. J
Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 2002 Dec;83(1-5):75-83.
Jordan VC. Antiestrogens and selective estrogen
receptor modulators as multifunctional medicines. 1. Receptor interactions. J
Med Chem 2003 Mar 13;46(6):883-908.
Jordan VC. Is tamoxifen the Rosetta stone for breast
cancer? J Natl Cancer Inst 2003 Mar 5;95(5):338-40.
Jordan VC. Tamoxifen: a most unlikely pioneering
medicine. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2003 Mar;2(3):205-13.
Jordan VC. Antiestrogens and selective estrogen
receptor modulators as multifunctional medicines. 2. Clinical considerations and
new agents. J Med Chem 2003 Mar 27;46(7):1081-111.
Pappas SG, Jordan VC. Chemoprevention of breast
cancer: current and future prospects. Cancer Metastasis Rev 2002;21(3-4):311-21.
Schneider JS, Stone MK, Wynne-Edward KE, Horton TH, Lydon J,
O'Malley B, BLevine JE. Progesterone receptors mediate male aggression toward
infants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2003 Mar 4;100(5):2951-6.
Harris, GC, Levine JE. Pubertal acceleration of
pulsatile gonadotropin-releasing hormone release in male rats as revealed by
microdialysis. Endocrinology 2003 Jan;144(1):163-71.
Levine JE. Editorial stressing the importance of sex.
Endocrinology 2002 Dec;143(12)4502-3.
Mayo KE, Miller LJ, Bataille D, Dalle S, Goke B,
Thorens B, Drucker DJ. International Union of Pharmacology, XXXV.
The Glucagon Receptor Family. Pharmacol Rev 2003 Mar;55(1):167-94.
Buxton OM, Lee CW, L'Hermite-Baleriaux M, Turek FW,
Van Cauter E. Exercise elicits phase shifts and actue alterations of melatonin
that vary with circadian phase. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
2003 Mar;284(3):R714-24.
Thompson TB, Woodruff TK., Jardetzky TS. Structures of
an ActRIIB:activin A complex reveal a novel binding mode for TGF-beta
ligand:receptor interactions. EMBO J 2003 April 1;22(7):1555-1566.
Suszko MI, Lo DJ, Suh H, Camper SA, Woodruff TK.
Regulation of the rat follicle-stimulating hormone beta-subunit promoter by
activin. Mol Endocrinol 2003 Mar;17(3):318-32.
Rudick Charles, Woolley CS. Selective estrogen
receptor modulators regulate phasic activation of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal
cells by estrogen. Endocrinology 2003 Jan;144(1):179-87.
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CRS Faculty Honors
CRS member Daniel Linzer was named Dean of
the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in July 2002. He had
served as an Associate Dean in the college since 1998. Dan continues
to run a productive research laboratory that investigates novel placental
hormones that affect growth and development during pregnancy.
CRS member V. Craig Jordan has been awarded an
Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majest
Queen Elizabeth II. The award was in recognitions of his development
of the drug tamoxifen for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer.
CRS member Teresa K. Woodruff was named Associate
Director for Basic Research of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer
Center. Teresa was previously the leader of the Hormone Action and
Signal Transduction program in the Cancer Center. She now directs
the four basic science research Divisions of the Cancer Center.
CRS member Nart Hunzicker-Dunn was elected
president-elect of the Society for the Study of Reproduction. Mary
will become president in July of 2003, and will oversee the 2004 annual
meeting of the SSR in Vancouver, British Columbia.
CRS founding director Neena Schwartz received the
lifetime mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. The award honors individuals who during their career
demonstrate extraordinary leadership to increase the participation of
underrepresented group in science and engineering fields.
CRS congratulates each of these individuals for this
recognition of their outstanding achievements! |
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