Department Affiliation: Primary: Oncology; Secondary: Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
Degree: Ph.D., University of California - Los Angeles
Rank: Professor
Telephone Number: 410-955-8879
Fax Number: 410-502-5499
E-mail address: jshaper@jhmi.edu
School of Medicine Address: Room 346, Cancer Research Bldg., 1650 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21231
Molecular and cell biology of glycosyltransferases
Glycolipids and glycoproteins, collectively called glycoconjugates, are a major class of structurally diverse molecules found on the cell surface of all eukaryotic cells. Structural changes in cell surface associated carbohydrates are coincident with all normal developmental processes. Our laboratory is interested in the basic mechanisms by which a cell assembles the diverse array of carbohydrate structures covalently linked to lipid and protein backbones. The coordinate biosynthesis of the cell surface carbohydrates is carried out by a functional family of an estimated 300 different intracellular membrane-bound enzymes termed glycosyltransferases, which are distributed along the secretory pathway in the ER and Golgi compartments. Our approach has been to characterize in detail specific glycosyltransferases. Because cellular levels of these membrane-bound enzymes are low, we have utilized molecular approaches to clone, determine the genomic organization, analyze the transcriptional and translational regulation of specific glycosyltransferase genes and to express sufficient quantities of enzymatically active protein for biochemical analysis.
Representative Publications:
- Rajput, B., Shaper, N.L., and Shaper, J.H. Transcriptional regulation of murine b1,4-galactosyltransferase in somatic cells: Analysis of a gene that serves both a housekeeping and a mammary gland-specific function, J. Biol. Chem. 271:5131-5142,1996. Pub Med Reference
- Shaper, N.L., Meurer, J.A., Joziasse, D.H., Chou, T-D. D., Smith, E.J., Schnaar, R.L., and Shaper, J.H. The chicken genome contains two functional non-allelic b1,4-galactosyltransferase genes: Chromosomal assignment to syntenic regions tracks fate of the two gene lineages in the human genome, J. Biol. Chem. 272:31389-31399, 1997. Pub Med Reference
- Lo, N.-W., Shaper, J.H., Pevsner, J., and Shaper, N.L. The expanding b4-galactosyltransferase gene family: Messages from the databanks, Glycobiology 8:517-526, 1998. Pub Med Reference
- Charron, M., Shaper, J.H., and Shaper, N.L. The increased level of b1,4-galactosyltransferase required for lactose biosynthesis is achieved in part by translational control, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:14805-14810, 1998. Pub Med Reference
- Charron, M., Shaper, N.L., Rajput, B., and Shaper, J.H. A novel 14 bp regulatory element is essential for in vivo expression of murine b4-galactosyltransferase-I in late pachytene spermatocytes and round spermatids, Mol. Cell. Biol. 19:5823-5832, 1999. Pub Med Reference
Other graduate programs in which Dr. Shaper participates:
