DR. CAROL J. SCHUURMANS

B.Sc. (Alberta), Ph.D. (Toronto) - Assistant Professor, Department Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

Affiliations: Member - Genes and Development Research Group. Primary Member: Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Associate Member: Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health

Research Interests:

Research in my lab is focused on understanding how transcription factors regulate cell fate choices in the central nervous system, ensuring that appropriate numbers of the correct types of neuronal and glial cells are generated at their proper time and place in development. Currently we focus on two families of transcription factors - the proneural genes Ngn1, Ngn2 and Mash1, encoding basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factors, and members of the pleiomorphic adenoma gene (Plag) family, including Zac1, Plag1 and Plag-l2, encoding zinc finger transcription factors. Strikingly, we showed that Ngn2 has distinct functions at early and intermediate stages of development in the neocortex, and our long-term goals are to identify the underlying molecular mechanisms. In addition, my lab has pursued a new avenue of research, analyzing the function of the Ngn2-regulated gene, Zac1, a known tumor suppressor gene that we isolated in a subtractive screen, in the developing retina. We showed that Zac1 is an important regulator of tissue size and cellular composition in the retina, acting through a novel feedback mechanism. We also have preliminary evidence that the related gene, Plag-l2, functions in an opposing manner to Zac1 in the retina, similar to the complementary functions of these genes in tumor cells. Our goal is to further characterize Zac1 and Plag-l2 function in the developing retina.

Personnel:

View Pub Med for Recent publications & abstracts

Recent Publications:

• Watson ED, _Mattar P_, *Schuurmans C*, Cross JC. *2009.* Neural stem cell self-renewal requires the Mrj co-chaperone. */Dev Dyn/*. In press
• _Mattar P_, _Langevin LM_, _Markham K_, _Klenin N_, _Shivji S_,_ Zinyk D_, *Schuurmans C*. *2008.*bHLH transcription factors cooperate to specify a cortical projection neuron identity.*/Mol. Cell. Biol./* 28(5):1456-69.
• _Ma L_, _Cantrup R_, Varrault A, Colak D, _Klenin N_, Götz M, McFarlane S, Journot L, *Schuurmans C*. *2007.* /Zac1 /functions through TGF-betaII to negatively regulate cell number in the developing retina. */Neural Development/*/ /2:11 (8 June2007) *highly accessed**
• Markham K, *Schuurmans C*, Weiss S. *2007*. STAT5A/B activity is required in the developing forebrain and spinal cord. */Mol Cell Neurosci/*. 35:272-278(1 citation)
• _Langevin LM_, _Mattar P_, Scardigli R, Roussigné M, Logan C, Blader P, *Schuurmans C*.*2007*. Validating /in utero /electroporation for the rapid analysis of gene regulatoryelements in the murine telencephalon. */Dev Dyn/*. 236:1273-1286 (2 citations)
• _Ma L_, Hocking JS, Hehr C, *Schuurmans C*, McFarlane S. *2007*. /Zac1/ promotes a Müller glia cell fate and interferes with retinal ganglion cell differentiation in Xenopus retina. */Dev /**/Dyn/* 236 :192-202.

Contact Information:

The University of Calgary,
Room 2277 Health Sciences Centre,
3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary,
Alberta Canada T2N 4N1
Phone: (403) 220-3025
Fax: (403) 270-0737
E-mail: cschuurm [at] ucalgary [dot] ca.