|
|
Associate Professor Postdoctoral Studies: Baylor College of Medicine and University of Alabama at Birmingham Ph.D. – Florida State University |
My research focuses on understanding the regulation of the microtubule cytoskeleton. Microtubules play an active role in ciliary and flagellar motility, secretion events, intracellular transport, and in the chromosome segregation events of meiosis and mitosis. Presently our main interest is in understanding how the mitotic spindle forms and is regulated during cell division. Properly controlled cellular proliferation is essential for a number of physiological processes including wound haling, embryonic growth, mounting immune responses, and normal tissue repair events. Likewise, aberrant cellular growth is the hallmark characteristic of the various cancers. Clearly, understanding the mechanisms of spindle formation and cell division events are essential for comprehending numerous normal and disease conditions. Our most recent studies have involved characterizing kinetochores and the centrosome complex. Kinetochores are responsible for attaching chromosomes to mitotic spindle fibers, while the centrosome is responsible for nucleating microtubule assembly inside of cells. We have identified a small family of centrosome proteins and are in the process of cloning the cDNA’s encoding these proteins. In the future we plan to use the cloned cDNA’s to generate the probes that will allow us to investigate how the centrosomes drive microtubule assembly and direct mitotic spindle formation. Our most recent studies related to the kinetochore have resulted in isolation of this organelle. In the future we hope to identify the DNA elements that mediate attachment of human chromosomes to spindle microtubules. Techniques presently being used include various forms of microscopy, cDNA cloning and sequencing, protein purification, antibody production, several different protein and nucleic acid blotting procedures, and cell culture.
Representative Publications:
Balczon, R. Centrosome replication in somatic cells: The significance of G1 phase. Curr. Top. Dev. Biol. 49:251-266 (2000).
Schnackenberg, B.J., R., Balczon, D.R. Hull, and R.E. Palazzo. Reconstitution of microtubule nucleation potential in salt-extracted centrosomes of Spisulasolidissima oocytes. J. Cell Sci. 113:943-954 (2000).
Schatten, H., M. Ripple, R. Balczon, G. Wilding, G. Weindruch, and M. Taylor. Androgen and taxol cause cell-type specific alterations of centrosomes and DNA organization in hormone-responsive LNCaP prostate cancer cells and androgen-independent DU145 prostate cancer cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 76:463-477 (2000).
Li, Q., D. Hanson, A. Nisbet, H.C. Joshi, and R. Balczon. Kendrin/Pericentrin-B, a centrosome protein with homology to pericentrin that complexes with PCM-1. J. Cell Sci. 114:797-809 (2000).
Killilea, D.W., R. Hester, R. Balczon, P. Babal, and M.N. Gillespie. A simple apparatus for hypoxic perfusion and fluorescence microscopic detection of reactive species production in cultured artery smooth muscle cells. Am. J. Physiol. 279:L408-413 (2000).
Corvi, R., N. Berger, R. Balczon, and G. Romero. RET/PCM-1: A novel fusion gene in papillary thyroid carcinoma. Oncogene 19:4236-4242 (2000).
Balczon, R. Methods for the study of centrosome reproduction in mammalian cells. Meth. Cell Biol. 67:263-274 (2001).
Balczon, R. Overexpression of cyclin A in human Hela cells induces kinetochore dissociation and spindle pole/centrosome overproduction. Chromosoma 110:381-392 (2001).
Balczon, R., Wilson, W. and Bhatnagar, Y.M. Analysis of detached human kinetochores. Chromosoma 112:96-102 (2003).