Chris Bland
Ph.D. Student, Interdepartmental Program in Cell and Molecular Biology
Funding: The Ford Foundation
csbland@bcm.edu
713-798-5021
Started in the lab: June 2006
Research Interests
While it is widely agreed that alternative splicing (AS) plays a major role in development, few examples exist of well characterized, developmentally regulated AS. Muscle tissue shows one of the highest levels of AS and the misregulation of AS in muscle has been implicated as a major contributor to the pathogenesis of myotonic dystrophy type 1 and 2. One of the goals of our lab is to globally characterize developmentally regulated AS changes that occur during myogenic differentiation. Using splicing sensitive microarrays and RT-PCR, we've characterized over 100 splicing changes that occur during the differentiation of the C2C12 myoblast cell line. Through the use of global proteomics techniques such as 2D difference gel electrophoresis (DIGE) and bioinformatics I have been able to identify putative regulators of these splicing changes, including members of the Fox, CELF, hnRNP and Muscleblind-like (MBNL) families of splicing regulators. We are currently using lentivirus-based gene targeting to elucidate the contributions of these splicing factors to the myogenic splicing program, as well as the signaling and regulatory networks that regulate this process. Ultimately, this work will provide a paradigm for the role that AS plays in a highly important biological process that is often misregulated in disease
Publications
Bland CS, Ireland JM, Lozano E, Alvarez ME, Primm TP. Mycobacterial ecology of the Rio Grande . Appl Environ Microbiol. 2005 Oct;71(10):5719-27.
Bland CS, Cooper TA. Micromanaging alternative splicing during muscle differentiation. Dev Cell. 2007 Feb;12(2):171-