Daniel Kalman, Ph.D.
Born August 5, 1961. Los Angeles
• 2001, Assistant Professor Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory UniversityEducation:
• 1983 B.S. Applied Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles.
Supervisor: Robert Jennrich
• 1988 Ph.D. Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles
Supervisors: Roger Eckert, Paul O'Lague, Francisco Bezanilla
Post Graduate Training:
• 1988-1991 Biology Dept., University of California, Los Angeles,
Supervisor: Paul O'Lague
• 1991-2000 Microbiology and Immunology Dept., University of California San Francisco
Supervisor: J. Michael Bishop
Melanie Sherman, Ph.D.
2003, Assistant Professor Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory UniversityPositions
• 2000 Instructor, Emory University, Department of Pathology, Atlanta, GA
Education• 1990 B.S. Biochemistry Lebanon Valley College , Pennsylvania
• 1995 Ph.D. Immunology Emory University
Supervisor: Peter Jensen
• 1995-2000 Post-doctoral Fellow, Emory University, Department of Pathology, Atlanta, GA
Supervisor: Melissa Brown
Honors
Cancer Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship 1996-1999
Winship Cancer Center Postdoctoral Fellowship 1995-1996
Predoctoral Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute 1990-1995
Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Emory University 1990-1995
Leadership Scholarship, Lebanon Valley College 1986-1990
I studied Biology in Cologne, Germany and graduated with a diploma in 1993. In 1997 I received my PhD in Biochemistry from the Institute of Enzyme Technology in Duesseldorf, Germany. After several years as a postdoctoral fellow I moved to Atlanta in 2000 and I am currently a senior postdoctoral fellow in Dan Kalman’s Lab.
My work focuses on elucidating the biochemical and molecular interactions of tyrosine kinases within protein complexes involved in pathogen-host relationships. EPEC and EHEC O157:H7 are pathogenic contaminants in food and water and cause intestinal inflammation and diarrhea. Tyrosine kinases play a crucial role in establishing pedestals, which are actin rearrangements underneath attached bacteria. Pedestal formation depends on functional protein-protein interaction of several known proteins, but also on a potential growing list of so far unknown players, especially for EHEC which seems to have a totally different signaling pathway.
I am also interested in the interaction of Toll receptors with kinases within these pathogen-induced signaling events, and how pathogens could potentially exploit the innate immune system to their advantage.
I am interested in the molecular basis by which bacterial and viral pathogens interact with host cells. My work in Dan Kalman’s laboratory in the Department of Pathology focuses on how pathogens usurp host cell signaling to their advantage. In particular, the work involves human pathogens that cause or potentially could cause high rates of morbidity and mortality. Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli O157:H7 (EHEC) are related strains of pathogenic E. coli that are endemic in water and food supplies worldwide, and cause diarrheal disease that results in 2 million deaths per year. I am also studying vaccinia virus, the immunizing agent for variola, the causative agent of small pox. Both pathogens use the actin cytoskeleton of the host cell for motility, and do so by usurping a common host signaling pathway. In particular both use host tyrosine kinases to transfer the phosphate group from ATP onto a tyrosine residue in homologous bacterial and viral proteins. The phosphorylation in turn sets off a signaling cascade that results in the polymerization of actin.
© 2003
Daniel Kalman
Site Created By: Afrooz Family
Questions, Comments: dkalman@emory.edu