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Donald McEwen, PhD photo
Donald McEwen, PhD

Donald McEwen, PhD, Assistant Professor

Room:3.100.16
Phone:(210) 562-9064
Email:mcewen@uthscsa.edu
Web Page(s):http://mcewenlab.uthscsa.edu
Education:Washington University School of Medicine
(Ph.D.; David Ornitz)
Post Doctoral:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(Mark Peifer)
Cross Appointments:Greehey Children

Research Interest:

The fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, is a popular model system used by many labs to probe various aspects of cell biology, cell signaling, and embryonic development. It's popularity stems from a number of different intrinsic characteristics, including the fact that development occurs outside of the adult organisms, which allows one to obtain samples with out the need to sacrifice the adults; an extensively defined collection of defined mutants, and a sequenced genome. In addition, most of the key signaling pathways that play a role in regulating cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and programmed cell death are evolutionarily conserved. To this end, I use Drosophila to study various aspects of the JNK signaling pathway and how it induces programmed cell death in response to genotoxic stress.

Being trained as a developmental biologist, I am taking genetic and biochemical approaches to analyze key signaling pathways that orchestrate development, yet are co-opted during oncogenesis. As these key pathways are evolutionarily conserved, I use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to study various aspects of the Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p53 signaling pathways and how they influence the induction of programmed cell death in response to genotoxic stress.

Selected publications:

Complete Publication Listing