Education and Outreach

Frank Boellmann, Ph.D.

Division of Computational Biology

Education

M.S., microbiology and molecular biology, Ernst-Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany
Ph.D., biochemistry and molecular biology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, 2002.
Postdoctoral training, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Miami, Florida, 2002-2004.
Postdoctoral training, University of North Carolina, Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2004-2005.
Postdoctoral training, Division of Computational Biology, CIIT Centers for Health Research, 2006 - present.

Research

My primary research focus at The Hamner is directed towards the identification of novel regulatory components of the mammalian heat shock response. Since toxic insults frequently damage proteins and disrupt the intracellular milieu, expression of molecular chaperones by the heat shock response is a central component of the cells defense against the negative or even lethal effect of such exposure. We are employing a functional genomics approach that combines screens of a cDNA expression library with gene directed RNA interference. At the moment we are trying to improve our ability to distinguish proteins that are part of the pathway(s) that regulate(s) HSF1 - the transcription factor responsible for stress induced expression of heat shock proteins - from proteins that due to their intrinsic instability or propensity for aggregation or misfolding activate the stress response without actually being required for the process.

Selected Publications

Qian, S.B., McDonough, H., Boellmann, F., Cyr, D.M., and Patterson, C. (2006). CHIP-mediated stress recovery by sequential ubiquitination of substrates and Hsp70. Nature. 440, 551-5.

Guettouche, T., Boellmann, F., Lane, W.S., and Voellmy, R. (2005). Analysis of phosphorylation of human heat shock factor 1 in cells experiencing a stress. BMC Biochem. 6, 4.

Boellmann, F., Guettouche, T., Guo, Y., Fenna, M., Mnayer, L., and Voellmy, R. (2004). DAXX interacts with heat shock factor 1 during stress activation and enhances its transcriptional activity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101, 4100-5.

Guo, Y., Guettouche, T., Fenna M, Boellmann, F., Pratt, W.B., Toft, D.O., Smith, D.F., and Voellmy, R., (2001). Evidence for a mechanism of repression of heat shock factor 1 transcriptional activity by a multichaperone complex. J. Biol. Chem. 276, 45791-9.