John Engelhardt

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Dr. John Engelhardt is the director at the University of Iowa Center for Gene Therapy of Cystic Fibrosis, as well as the head of the department of anatomy and cell biology. [1] He is a well known scientist and inventor who created the first cloned ferret and has made huge strides in finding the cure for cystic fibrosis. [2]

Contents

Education

Dr. Engelhardt got his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Iowa State University in 1985. He then went on to get his doctorate in human genetics from Johns Hopkins University in 1990. [3]

Research

Dr. Engelhardt is most widely known for his creation of new animal models for the study of cystic fibrosis. In the 1990s he developed the human tracheal xenograft models that allowed study of humanized airways on denuded rat tracheal scaffolds. However, he soon found that there were major limitation of mouse models to study CF. He later found that the ferrets represent a much better model for lung disease and in 2006 his laboratory became the first in the world to clone ferrets. [4] Dr. Engelhardt's research has been geared towards finding gene therapies for cystic fibrosis. Specifically, he focuses on: [5]

  1. the study of lung molecular and cellular biology as it relates to the pathogenesis and treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease and associated diabetes
  2. molecular mechanisms underlying redox-mediated signal transduction in environmental injuries of the liver and the development of molecular therapies for ischemia/reperfusion injury, sepsis, and the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
  3. the biology of adeno-associated virus infection and the development of this vector for gene therapy of cystic fibrosis lung disease.

Honors

Related Research Articles

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. Other signs and symptoms may include sinus infections, poor growth, fatty stool, clubbing of the fingers and toes, and infertility in most males. Different people may have different degrees of symptoms.

In genetics, a nonsense mutation is a point mutation in a sequence of DNA that results in a premature stop codon, or a nonsense codon in the transcribed mRNA, and in leading to a truncated, incomplete, and nonfunctional protein product. Nonsense mutation is not always harmful, the functional effect of a nonsense mutation depends on many aspects, such as the location of the stop codon within the coding DNA. For example, the effect of a nonsense mutation depends on the proximity of the nonsense mutation to the original stop codon, and the degree to which functional subdomains of the protein are affected. As nonsense mutations leads to premature termination of polypeptide chains; they are also called chain termination mutations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator</span> Mammalian protein found in Homo sapiens

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epithelial sodium channel</span> Group of membrane proteins

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The Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. The first medical college associated with the University of Iowa was founded in 1850, in the small town of Keokuk, Iowa, but the current Iowa City program can trace its roots to 1870. The program became notable as the first co-educational medical school in the United States, and was one of 22 original members of the Association of American Medical Colleges in 1876.

mir-126

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Robert Williamson is a retired British-Australian molecular biologist who specialised in the mapping, gene identification, and diagnosis of human genetic disorders.

Jane C. Davies is a British physician who is Professor of Paediatric Respirology at Imperial College School of Medicine. She is an Honorary Consultant at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.

Richard Jude Samulski is an American scientist, inventor, and academic recognized for his pioneering work in gene therapy and adeno-associated virus vectors (AAV) in the fields of molecular virology and pharmacology.

Johanna Rommens is a Canadian geneticist who was on the research team which identified and cloned the CFTR gene, which when mutated, is responsible for causing cystic fibrosis (CF). She later discovered the gene responsible for Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes pancreatic and hematologic problems. She is a Senior Scientist Emeritus at SickKids Research Institute and a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto.

Batsheva Kerem, is an Israeli geneticist who was on the research team that identified and cloned the CFTR gene, which when mutated, is responsible for causing cystic fibrosis (CF). She later established the Israel National Center for CF Genetic Research. She discovered the most prevalent cystic fibrosis-causing mutations among the Israeli population, allowing for the establishment of nationwide genetic screening programs to identify carriers of these mutations and enabling prenatal diagnoses. She researches how some CF mutations prevent CFTR protein production by causing nonsense-mediated decay and abnormal mRNA splicing, and how therapies might be able to counteract those problems. She also studies the role of genetic instability in cancer. She is currently a professor at the Hebrew University.

Michael James Welsh is an American pulmonologist. He is the current Roy J. Carver Chair in Biomedical Research, the Professor of Internal Medicine in Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine at the Department of Internal Medicine, and the Director of Pappajohn Biomedical Institute, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa. He is also a professor at the Department of Neurosurgery, Department of Neurology, and Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. He received the 2022 Shaw Prize in Life science and Medicine, together with Paul A. Negulescu, for their work that uncovered the etiology of cystic fibrosis and developed effective medications.

References

  1. "John F Engelhardt". Cystic Fibrosis and Translation Centers. Cystic Fibrosis and Translation Centers. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  2. Li, Z.; Sun, X.; Chen, J.; Liu, X.; Wisely, S. M.; Zhou, Q.; Renard, J. P.; Leno, G. H.; Engelhardt, J. F. (2006). "Cloned Ferrets Produced by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer". Developmental Biology. PMC US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. 293 (2): 439–448. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2006.02.016. PMC   1892907 . PMID   16584722.
  3. "John F. Engelhardt, PhD". American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.
  4. "John F. Engelhardt, PhD". Anatomy and Cell Biology. University of Iowa.
  5. "John F Engelhardt". Cystic Fibrosis and Translation Centers. Cystic Fibrosis and Translation Centers. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  6. "John F Engelhardt". Cystic Fibrosis and Translation Centers. Cystic Fibrosis and Translation Centers. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  7. "Engelhardt named 2019 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors". University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. University of Iowa. Retrieved December 5, 2019.