Faculty and Research Activities
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Robert W Zajdel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
143 Weiskotten Hall
Upstate Medical University
750 East Adams Street
Syracuse, NY 13210
(315) 464-8530
| Education and Clinical Training
Ph.D.: 1997, SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse
Research Program and Department Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology
Research Interests Expression of myofibrillar proteins at the early stages of heart development.
Research Abstract
Striated muscle tropomyosin is classically described as consisting of 10 exons, 1a, 2b, 3, 4, 5, 6b, 7, 8, and 9a/b, in both skeletal and cardiac muscle. Recent experiments in our laboratory have demonstrated expression of a naturally occurring chimeric isoform of tropomyosin that has both smooth and striated muscle exons. The chimeric isoform has a replacement of exon 2a for 2b that is commonly found in striated isoforms. The lack of a specific antibody necessitated the use of GFP contructs to demonstrate translation and incorporation into organized myofibrils. Antisense oligonucleotide transfection decreased the expression of this isoform and disrupted organization and function. This type of chimeric isoform may be important as a transition during development of the myofibril apparatus which is essential for contractions.
Selected References
Zajdel, R. W., J. M. Sanger, C. R. Denz, S. Lee, S. Dube, B. J. Poiesz, J. W. Sanger, D. Dube. (2002). A novel striated tropomyosin incorporated into organized myofibrils of cardiomyocytes in cell and organ culture. FEBS Letters 520:35-39.
Spinner, B. J.*, R. W. Zajdel *, M. D. McLean, C. R. Denz, S. Dube, S. Mehta, M. Nakatsugawa, N. Dobbins, L. F. Lemanski, D. K. Dube. (2002). Characterization of a TM-4 type tropomyosin which is essential for myofibrillogenesis and contractile activity in embryonic hearts of the Mexican axolotl. (*co-first authors). J. Cell Biochem. 85: 747-761.
Zajdel R. W., M. D. McLean, C. R. Denz, S. Dube, L. F. Lemanski, D. K. Dube. (2002).
Manipulation of myofibrillogenesis in whole heart. In: Myofibrillogenesis. Birkhauser, Boston, pp. 207-222. This profile was last updated on 07/09/2003
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http://www.upstate.edu/cdb/faculty.php?ID=zajdelr
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