DR. KARL T. RIABOWOL

 Hons. B.Sc. (Simon Fraser University), Ph.D. (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences), P.D.F. (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) - Professor, Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Oncology; Director, SACRI Antibody services;

Affiliations:  Member - Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute; Associate Scientific Staff Member, Tom Baker Cancer Centre.

Research Interests:

The Riabowol Laboratory studies the mechanisms that are critical for enforcing the state of cellular senescence in normal human cells to determine how these mechanisms are eluded during the process of cancer cell immortalization.  We examine the roles of tumour suppressors and transcription factors in these processes and we discovered a novel tumour suppressor we called ING1 for INhibitor of Growth that is intimately involved in cell aging and immortalization.  The ING gene family encodes a family of proteins produced by alternative splicing that contain PHD domains and these proteins regulate apoptosis through their ability to transduce phospholipid-mediated stress signals resulting from DNA damage.  The ING proteins are also regulators of histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) that regulate chromatin structure and gene expression and a number of knockout models in different experimental systems are being developed to examine the contribution of ING proteins to cell development and aging.

The Riabowol Laboratory

Personnel:

View Pub Med for Recent publications & abstracts

Recent Publications:

• Luo, J-J, Shaw, S., Riabowol, K. and Mains, PE.  The Caenorhabditis elegans ing-3 gene regulates ionizing radiation-induced germ cell apoptosis in a p53-associated pathway.  Genetics 181: 473-482 (2009).  Selected for highlight by the journal.
• Tallen, G., Farhangi, S., Tamannai, M., Suzuki, K., Shah, S., Holtkamp, N., Suzuki, K., Shah, S., Mangoldt, D., Truss, M., Henze, G., Riabowol, K. and von Deimling, A.  The Inhibitor of Growth 1 (ING1) proteins suppress angiogenesis and differentially regulate angiopoietin expression in glioblastoma cells.  In press, Oncogene Research (2009).
• Feng, X., Pastyryeva, S., Vieyra, D., Bonnefin, P., von Deimling, A., Truss, M., Muruve, D., Laroque, D., Richard S. and Riabowol, K., Tallen, G., The molecular basis of p53 activation by p33^ING1b. Submitted (2009).
• Tallen, G., Truss, M., Kunitz, F., Wellman, S., Unryn, B., Sinn, B., Lass, U., Krabbe, S., Holtkamp, N., Hagemeier, C., Wurm, R., Henze, G., Riabowol, K. and von Deimling, A. Down-regulation of the inhibitor of growth 1 (ING1) tumor suppressor sensitizes p53-deficient glioblastoma cells to cisplatin-induced cell death. Journal of Neurooncology 86:23-30 (2008).
• Walzak, A.A., Veldhoen, N., Feng, X., Riabowol, K. amd Helbing, C. Expression Profiles of mRNA Transcript Variants Encoding the Human Inhibitor of Growth Tumor Suppressor Gene Family in Normal and Neoplastic Tissues. Experimental Cell Research  314: 273-285 (2008).
• Sarker, K.P., Kataoka, H., Chan, A., Netherton, S.J., Pot1, I., Feng, X., Riabowol, K. and Bonni, S. ING2 as a Novel Mediator of TGF-b-Dependent Responses in Epithelial Cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry 283: 13269-13279 (2008).
• Russell, M., M. Soliman and Riabowol, K. ING1 protein targeting to the nucleus by karyopherins is necessary for activation of p21. BBRC 374:490-495 (2008).
• Soliman, M., Berardi, P., Pastyryeva, S., Bonnefin, P., Suzuki, K., Feng, X., Russell, M., Colina, A., Young, D. and Riabowol, K. Regulation of Chromatin Structure by Differential Expression of ING1 Splicing Isoforms during Cell Senescence. Aging Cell 7: 783-794 (2008).
• Han X, Feng X, Rattner JB, Smith H, Bose P, Suzuki K, Soliman MA, Scott MS, Burke BE, Riabowol K. Tethering of the ING1 PHD protein to lamin A is required for ING1 stability and function in apoptosis. Nature Cell Biology 10: 1333-1340 (2008).
• Gordon, PMK., Soliman, MA, Bose, P., Trinh, Q, Sensen, CW. and Riabowol, K. Interspecies data mining to predict novel protein-protein interactions in human. BMC Genomics 9: 426-440 (2008).
• Tallen, G., Soliman, MA and Riabowol, K.  The cancer-aging interface and the significance of telomere dynamics in cancer therapy.  Rejuvenation Research 10: 387-395 (2007).
• Soliman, M. and Riabowol, K.  A PHD in epigenetics after a decade of study-ING. Trends in Biological Sciences 32: 509-519  (2007).

Contact Information:

The University of Calgary,
Room 370 Heritage Medical Research Building,
3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary,
Alberta Canada T2N 4N1
Phone (403) 220-8695
Fax: (403) 270-0834
E-mail: karl [at] ucalgary [dot] ca.