Warren Tourtellotte, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Pathology (Neuropathology), Neurology and Neuroscience
Scientific Director, Transgenic and Targeted Mutagenesis Laboratory
Feinberg School of Medicine

Research Interests:
The laboratory of Warren Tourtellotte is studying the function of a family of immediate early gene transcriptional regulators known as Egr1, Egr2, Egr3 and Egr4. Their research focuses on their function during development of the mammalian nervous system and during oncogenesis. They, and others, have discovered that these transcription factors regulate a variety of developmental processes including hindbrain organization, peripheral nerve myelination, male and female fertility, and muscle mechanoreceptor development involved in limb position perception (proprioception). Moreover, they are involved in a variety of solid tissue tumors and hematopoietic malignancies.

A variety of strategies are used in the laboratory to understand their role in development and tumorogenesis. Loss-of-function mice have been generated for each gene in the Egr family and several overexpressing transgenic mice have also been generated. Phenotypic analysis has identified developmental processes that critically depend upon Egr mediated gene transcription. To identify target genes that are regulated by Egr transcription factors during cellular growth and differentiation, Dr. Tourtellotte’s lab is using differential subtraction techniques including suppression subtraction hybridization (SSH) and microarray analysis. To identify target genes that are directly regulated by these transcription factors, they are using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and CpG island microarray analysis.