Research Interests:

The growth and development of cells into tissues and organs, and the maintenance of tissue and organ health, is completely dependent on the successful integration of signals arising from soluble factors and positional and morphological signals arising from cell adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM). An archetypal example of this regulation is the phenomenon of anchorage-dependent growth, a fundamental characteristic of most normal cells whereby proliferation is restricted and survival compromised in the absence of adhesion to an appropriate ECM. Subversion of normal adhesion-regulated signaling mechanisms directly contributes to the uncontrolled growth and aggressive migration of malignant tumor cells.

Research in the Howe Laboratory focuses on understanding how cell adhesion to ECM regulates and specifies the signal transduction processes leading to cell movement and cell division. Specifically, we study the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (or PKA), how it is regulated by cell adhesion, and how it contributes to regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. The laboratory uses a combination of biochemical techniques and multi-dimensional microscopy to analyze the subcellular distribution and spatial regulation of PKA, its upstream regulators, and its downstream targets involved in cytoskeletal organization. The lab also has burgeoning interests in the identification & characterization of changes in protein phosphorylation on a proteome-wide scale (phosphoproteomics), and the development of experimentally tractable cell culture systems for modeling metastasis and analyzing adhesion-related signaling events during metastatic cell migration.Please see my bio page for more information.

Address:
322 Health Science Research Facility
149 Beaumont Avenue
Burlington, VT 05405-0068
Alan.Howe@uvm.edu