Iris Lindberg, Ph.D.

Prof. Lindberg did her undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduate work at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. She then performed postdoctoral research at NIH for three years before assuming an assistant professorship in Biochemistry at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans in 1984. In 2007 Prof. Lindberg moved the laboratory to the University of Maryland-Baltimore, where she is now a full professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. A complete CV can be found here.

The focus of the work in the Lindberg laboratory is secretory pathway biochemistry and cell biology. Our major interest is in the folding, maturation, and packaging of secretory proteins. While historically the emphasis has been on proteolytic maturation, new interests include chaperone interactions and folding pathways. For more detail see our research page.

Please direct email to ilindb@yahoo.com

Akihiko Ozawa, Postdoc

Aki did his graduate work at Ehime University, Japan, graduating in 2003.

His current research interests revolve around post-translational modifications of peptide hormones, discovering novel signaling molecules and characterizing their biological properties.

Please direct email to akihiko.ozawa@gmail.com

Michael Helwig, Postdoc

Michael received his Diploma in Biology from the Philipps-University, Germany in 2004. He then joined the Rowett Research Institute in Scotland to attend a one year post-graduate Marie Curie Training on neuroendocrine energy balance regulation. Back in Germany he started his doctoral thesis on photoperiod-dependent neuropeptide processing in seasonal mammals at the Department of Animal physiology and received his PhD from the Philipps-University in Marburg in 2008. Following that Michael worked as a Postdoc at the Technical University in Munich, Germany on a Neuroproteomics project aiming to identify novel protein candidates involved in the development of diet-induced obesity.

He joined our lab in September 2009 and is now working on neuropeptide processing by prohormone convertases and related small neuroendocrine peptides and their regulatory impact on energy balance.

Please direct email to michaelhelwig@umaryland.edu

Mirella Vivoli, Postdoc

Mirella achieved her Master's degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Rome Sapienza, Italy in 2006. Then, she started her doctoral thesis on structural and functional studies of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes at the Department of Biochemical sciences Alessandro Rossi Fanelli and received her PhD in Biochemistry from University of Rome Sapienza, in March 2010.

Mirealla is our new Postdoc, she joined the lab in May 2010.

Please direct email to mirella.vivoli@umaryland.edu

Indrani Dasgupta, Postdoc

Indrani completed her Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 2008. She was studying the unusual seconday structures formed by tandem repeat DNA sequences, which are known to expand to large numbers in the human genome and can lead to variuos neuromuscular diseases such as Huntington's Disease, Friedrich Ataxia etc; using Indrani Dasgupta, Ph.D thermal melting and NMR techniques.Following that she joined as a post-doc at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston where she was screening a chemical library to identify a pharmaceutical excipeint, to be used as component of a self-regulated liposomal Insulin delivery system.She was also involved in developing a novel liposome based diagnostic particle for early detection of amyloid plaques seen in Alzheimer's disease. She has joined the lab in March 2011.Indrani's current research includes screening of novel peptides in cell based assays to identify their role in various metabolic processes. She is also interested in understanding the solution structure of a peptide sequence (36 aa) belonging to the neuroendocrine protein 7B2, which plays a critical role in the maturation of PC2.

Please direct email to indrani.dasgupta@gmail.com

Yogikala Prabhu, Postdoc

Yogi received her PhD in Natural Sciences from University of Cologne, Germany. She carried out her graduate studies in the laboratory of Dr. Angelika A. Noegel which was funded by Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics. Her doctoral thesis involved studying the role of GABAB- like GPCRs in model organism, Dictyostelium discoideum. She moved to USA and continued to work as a postdoctoral researcher at NICHD/NIH in the laboratory of Dr. Juan S. Bonifacino where she addressed retrograde trafficking of transmembrane cargoes by Retromer protein complex. She also studied endocytosis of ?-secretase and its implication in Alzheimers disease. She is a new member of our lab and is currently working with a prohormone convertase1 mutation that leads to obesity and multiple endocrinological defects.

Please direct email to prabhuyo@umaryland.edu

Akina Hoshino, Graduate Research Assistant

Akina did her undergraduate work at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie,NY, graduated in 2002, and is now doing her thesis work in our laboratory

Prohormone convertase 1/3 (PC1) is a finicky enzyme - it exhibits very low specific activity and is highly unstable. PC1 has two active forms - the 87kDa and 66kDa PC1 - and both forms will aggregate into different species, although the 66 kDa form has a higher propensity to aggregate. My project involves understanding how aggregation and/or interaction with its endogenous binding partner, proSAAS, regulate PC1 activity. In addition, I am developing assays to look at the aggregation of PC1, a-synuclein, and Abeta to determine whether 7B2 or proSAAS may affect aggregation of proteins other than convertases.

Please direct email to akina.hoshino@gmail.com

Adam Lick, Research Technician

Adam graduated in 2009 from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

He joined the lab in September 2009 and has been working to purify various novel prohormones. Adam uses a wide range of techniques revolving around construction of His-Tag plasmids and eventual protein purification via Ni-NTA affinity and reverse phase HPLC.

Please direct email to adamlick@umaryland.edu

Lindsay Pickett, Research Technician

Lindsay Pickett is our new technical associate. Lindsay is working on PC1 crystallization.

Please direct email to lindsaypick46@gmail.com

Preethi Gaddam, Student Worker

Preethi is our new student worker

Please direct email to preethigaddam@gmail.com

Noah Smith, Student Worker

Noah is our new student worker

Please direct email to n0ah.gb.smith@gmail.com

Past lab members

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Dorota Kowalska, Postdoc

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Dr. Kowalska received her Masters of Science from the Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Poland in 1997 and her Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry, University of Surrey, Guildford, England in 2003.

She holds a position as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Food Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, and was on loan to our lab in order to work on purifying prohormone convertase 1 for the purpose of crystallization.

Please direct email to dorota1803@gmail.com

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Joseph Miceli, Research Technician

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Joe did his undergraduate work at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.

In the lab, he purified various prohormones, such as POMC, proenkephalin, and prodynorphin, from E. coli using histidine tag/Ni affinity chromatography and reverse phase chromatography. He also cared for the various mammalian cell cultures which produce our prohormone convertases for purification in the lab.

Joe began his graduate work fall 2009 at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. He enrolled in their Biological Design Ph.D. program.

Please direct email to miceli.joseph@gmail.com

Graduate students:

1. John Mathis (1988- 1994) Staff Scientist at Pioneer Seed Co., Iowa
2. Yi Zhou (1990- 1995) Senior Scientist, Cellular Genomics, Connecticut
3. Maria Sayah (3/00- 12/00) (Master's thesis; French practical training); Scientist, Sepracor Inc
4. Yolanda Fortenberry (1997- 2001) Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University Medical School

Postdoctoral Fellows:

1. Steven F. Roberts (1988-1991); Staff Scientist (Protein Chemistry), Antex, Rockville, MD
2. Osvaldo Vindrola (1991- 1993) Professor, Universidad de Puebla, Mexico
3. Xiaorong Zhu (1994- 1997) Research Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, IL
4. Nazarius Lamango (1994- 1996) Assistant Professor, Florida A&M University, FL
5. Karla Johanning (1994- 1998) Business Owner, Austin TX
6. Laurent Muller (1996-1999) Charge de Recherche, First Class (Assistant Professor), College de France, Paris, France
7. Ekaterina Apletalina (1997-2000) Senior Research Associate, Boston University, MA
8. Angus Cameron (1999- 2000) Instructor, University of Bristol, Bristol, U.K.
9. Jae-Ryoung Hwang (1997-2001) Research Assistant Professor, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea
10. Virginie Laurent (1999-2002) Assistant Professor, University of Strasbourg, France
11. Juan Ramon Peinado (2002-2003) Research Professor, University of Cordoba Spain
12. Magda Kacprzak (2002-2005) IT Director, MCI Bioventures, Poland
13. Sang-Nam Lee (2002-2007) Assistant Professor, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea