Dr. Thomas Vondriska
Proteomics and Systems Biology of
Heart Disease
BH 577A, CHS
310-206-4072
310-206-4188 Lab
tvondriska@mednet.ucla.edu 

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Research Interests:

Cellular behavior is an emergent property of an interconnected network of proteins, nucleotides, metabolites and other molecules. To understand this emergence, we must understand how large sets of molecules relate to each other to engender phenotype. My lab is focused on the complex phenotypic state of heart disease, which remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed world. Specifically, we are using proteomics to deconvolute protein interaction networks within the cardiac cell (specific ongoing projects include non-receptor tyrosine kinases). Furthermore, we are examining post-translational modifications responsible for the flow of information through these networks, using mass spectrometry to examine phosphorylation. Biochemistry and molecular biology approaches are used to functionally define relationships among groups of proteins in different sectors of the network. Lastly, the effects of disease (such as acute myocardial infarction and heart failure) on the behavior of protein interaction networks is examined at the whole animal and proteomic level.  

Representative Publications:

Vondriska TM, Wang Y. A new (heat) shocking player in cardiac hypertrophy. Circ Res. 2008. 103:1194-6.

Mitchell-Jordan S, Holopainen T, Ren S, Wang S, Zhang M, Warburton S, Alitalo K, Wang Y, Vondriska TM. Loss of Bmx non-receptor tyrosine kinase prevents pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Circ Res. 2008;103:1359-62.

Qu Z, Vondriska TM. Effects of cascade length, kinetics and feedback loops on biological signal transduction dynamics in a simplified cascade model. Phys Biol. 2008.

Yang L, Vondriska TM, Han Z, MacLellan WR, Weiss JN, Qu Z. Deducing topology of protein-protein interaction networks from experimentally measured subnetworks. BMC Bioinformatics. 2008;9:301.

Vondriska TM, Ping P. Multiprotein signaling complexes and regulation of cardiac phenotype. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2003;35:1027-1033.

Vondriska TM, Zhang J, Song C, Tang XL, Cao X, Baines CP, Pass JM, Bolli R, Ping P. PKCe-Src modules direct signal transduction in nitric oxide-induced cardioprotection: complex formation as a means for cardioprotective signaling. Circ Res. 2001; 88:1306-1313.

Vondriska TM, Klein JB, Ping P. Use of functional proteomics to investigate PKCe-mediated cardioprotection: the signaling module hypothesis. Am J Physiol. 2001;280: H1434-H1441.

 

Synapse in Xenopus 
Nerve-muscle cell culture

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