Department of biochemistry
Penelope Duerksen-Hughes, PhD
Address:
Center for Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
121 Mortensen Hall
Loma Linda University
Loma Linda, California 92354
Phone: (909) 558-4300, extension 81361
Fax: (909) 558-0177
Email: pdhughes@som.llu.edu
Undergraduate: Southern College of SDA, Collegedale, Tennessee, 1982, BS
Graduate: Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 1987, PhD
My PhD research was done in the laboratory of Dr. Keith Wilkinson at Emory University, where I purified to homogeneity a newly-identified ubiquitin carboxyl terminal hydrolase, which cleaves ubiquitin from cellular proteins. As a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Linda Gooding at Emory University, I worked in the field of virus-host interactions. My work defined two regions of a virus-encoded protein that sensitize infected host cells to cytolysis by TNF. I also studied the interactions between macrophages and tumor cells.
My current research studies the stressors that act on cells and the way cells respond to these stressors. Currently, we are exploring these interactions in three systems. Cells respond to DNA damage by increasing their level of p53, which then cause the cell to undergo growth arrest and/or apoptosis. We have developed an in vitro assay that takes advantage of this increase in cellular p53 as an indicator of the genotoxicity of a test substance; thus, it may function as a "mammalian Ames" test for carcinogenicity.
We have also found that a p53 independent, sphingolipid-mediated pathway can be activated following DNA damage, and that this pathway and the p53-pathway can interact with each other. We are currently examining the molecular basis for these interactions.
We are also studying the effects of the human papillomavirus E6 proteins on the response of cells to signals such as those provided by the cytokine TNF. We have found that E6 binds to TNF R1 and protects expressing cells from TNF-triggered cell death.
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