Chick Endoglin Undergraduate Research Group

Marlene V. Shaw, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
email: mshaw@usi.edu

Description of Research Projects:

The major goal of the chick endoglin project is to provide undergraduates with the opportunity to engage directly in scientific investigation. We work with the chick model system because it is accessible in the undergraduate environment. Students use molecular biology techniques at the bench, plan experimental strategies, analyze data, use DNA and protein data bases, write grants and present their research at professional meetings.

Endoglin is a transmembrane protein expressed by endothelial cells that line blood vessels. It is required for blood vessel formation and is upregulated during wound healing, inflammation and tumor formation. My research group focuses on two projects – endoglin’s interaction with protein partners and promoter analysis of the endoglin gene.

The first project is to confirm the proteins with which chick endoglin interacts and identify novel interacting partners. As a component of the transforming growth factor beta receptor complex endoglin modulates cell response to TGF-β growth factors. Responses include cell proliferation, migration and differentiation. Students are using recombinant chick endoglin protein in pull-down assays to bind interacting protein partners present in chick cell lysates. This protein complex will be analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, silver stain and Western blots to detect and identify members of the complex.

The second project is a promoter analysis to identify DNA sequences that regulate the expression of the chick endoglin gene. Using the polymerase chain reaction the DNA promoter sequence, located upstream of the chick endoglin gene, will be recovered. Students will fuse different portions of the endoglin promoter sequence with the firefly luciferase reporter gene to determine which DNA sequences are important in regulating transcription. To achieve this the endoglin promoter-luciferase reporter gene constructs will be transfected into cell cultures and assayed for their ability to produce luminescence. The intensity of luminescence is a measure of promoter activity and thereby used to identify critical promoter sequences.

Undergraduate Research - Student Presentations: (student presenter, § powerpoint, *poster)

Chick Endoglin: From cDNA to Interacting Partners. April 2006. *Janice Esker, Yelena Clarke, Timothy Hayes and Marlene Shaw. American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Undergraduate Research Poster Competition. San Francisco. CA.

Analysis of the Chick Endoglin Promoter Region by PCR. April 2006. *Ivan Dixon and Marlene Shaw. USI RISC Showcase, Evansville, IN.

Chick Endoglin: From cDNA to Protein. October 2005. §Janice Esker, Yelena Clarke, Ivan Dixon and Marlene Shaw. Indiana Academy of Science. St-Mary-of-the-Woods. Terre Haute, IN. October 2005.

Design and Construction of GST-Chick Endoglin Expression Plasmids. April 2005. §Janice Esker, Yelena Clarke Marlene Shaw. USI RISC Showcase. Evansville, IN.

Expression of Chick Endoglin by a Bacterial Host. April 2005. *Ivan Dixon, Jan Esker and Marlene Shaw. USI RISC Showcase. Evansville, IN.

Cloning, Assembly and Sequencing Gallus gallus Endoglin cDNA. April 2004. *Timothy Hayes, Judy Cundiff, Jason Gillihan, Jeremy Lowe, Elizabeth Huntsman, and Marlene Shaw. USI RISC Showcase. Evansville, IN.

Assembly and Expression of Full-length Chick Endoglin cDNA. October 2003. §Timothy J. Hayes and Marlene V. Shaw. Indiana Academy of Science. Anderson University. Anderson, IN.

Assembly of Full-length Chick Endoglin cDNA in a Mammalian Expression Vector. October 2002. §Timothy Hayes, Jason Gillihan, and Marlene Shaw. Indiana Academy of Science. Butler University. Indianapolis, IN.

Expression and Detection of Endoglin cDNA in COS-1 Cells. Fall 2002. §Matthew Mazalouskas, Autumn Williams, Timothy Hayes, and Marlene Shaw. Indiana Academy of Science. Butler University. Indianapolis, IN.

Chick Endoglin cDNA: Capturing the 5’-end. November 2001. §Judy Cundiff and Marlene Shaw. Indiana Academy of Science. IUPU-FW. Fort Wayne, IN.

Temporal-Spatial Expression of the Chick Endoglin Gene. November 2001. §Wendy Price and Marlene Shaw. Indiana Academy of Science. IUPU-FW. Fort Wayne, IN.

Characterizing Chick Endoglin cDNA Clones: Cytoplasmic, Transmembrane, and 3’UTR Regions. Spring 1998. §Clay Bigham and Evan Hiple. Undergraduate Research Conference. Butler University. Indianapolis, IN.

Publications:

Shaw, M.V., T.Hayes, J.Cundiff, J.Lowe, E.Huntsman, and J.Gillihan. July 2004.Gallus gallus endoglin mRNA complete coding sequence. GenBank Accession Number AY 702002. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez.

Lai, Y., K.B.Beason, G.P.Brames, J.S.Desgrosellier, M.C.Cleggett, M.V Shaw, C.B.Brown, and J.V.Barnett. 2000. Activin Receptor-Like Kinase 2 (ALK2) Required for Atrioventricular Cushion Transformation. Developmental Biology 222:1-11.

Teaching Awards:

1991 USI Distinguished Professor Award
1988 USI Alumni Association Faculty Recognition Award