Biographical Sketch - Christopher V.E. Wright D.Phil.
Christopher V.E. Wright, D. Phil. Curriculum Vitae January 2012
Nationality: British, PERMANENT U.S. RESIDENT (since June, 1992)
PRESENT POSITION:
July 1999 - present Director, Vanderbilt University Program in Developmental Biology
July 1997 – present Professor, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Vanderbilt University
July 2011 – July 2012 Vice-Chair, Faculty Affairs, Cell & Developmental Biology
Jan 2011 – present Louise B. McGavock Endowed Chair, Cell & Developmental Biology
Member, Vanderbilt Cancer Center
Member, Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology
Member, Vanderbilt Diabetes Research Center
Member, Vanderbilt Reproductive Biology Center
Member, Vanderbilt School of Medicine Faculty Awards Committee
Member, Steering Committee, Beta Cell Biology Consortium
Chair, DEV-1 Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, NIH
PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
July 2009 - July 2010 Vice-Chair for Faculty Affairs, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University
July 2001 - 2010 Molecular Diabetes Research (Endowed) Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology. Vanderbilt University.
Jan 1994 - June 1997 Associate Professor, Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University
Jan 1990 - Dec 1993 Assistant Professor, Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University
Jan 1988 - Dec 1989 American Cancer Society (California Division)
Senior Fellow (Mentor/Supervisor: E.M. De Robertis)
Jan 1987 - Dec 1987 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UCLA Biological Chemistry
Department (mentor/supervisor: E.M. De Robertis)
Jan 1986 - Dec 1986 EMBO Long Term Postdoctoral Fellowship (Renewal)
Jan 1985 - Dec 1985 EMBO Long Term Postdoctoral Fellowship
(ALTF-192-1984) Supervisor – E.M. De Robertis
Oct 1983 - Dec 1984 Cancer Research Campaign Postdoctoral Fellowship
Supervisor – J.S. Knowland
HONORS & OTHER AWARDS:
2003 Sidney P. Colowick Award, For Research that Serves as a
Platform for Discovery in Diverse Areas.
1989 - 1994 Five year Royal Society Independent University Research
Lectureship (U.K.) [DECLINED, to take present position]
2011 – present Louise B. McGavock Endowed Chair
SOCIETIES: Member, Society for Developmental Biology
Member, International Society for Stem Cell Research
UNIVERSITY CAREER:
D. Phil. Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Oxford
(Linacre College), U.K., 1980-1984
Mentored by John S. Knowland, D. Phil.
B. Sc. (Hons., First class) University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K., 1977-1980
(including supervision by Alan Colman, and teaching from
Hugh Woodland, Liz Jones, and Bob Old.)
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARDS
2008 – present Geron (CA)
2002 – 2010 ES Cell International (ESI) (Australia)
2004 - 2006 Berrie Cell Therapies of Diabetes, Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, Columbia University Medical Center (NY)
PUBLICATIONS (total 147 published to date):
1. Wright CV, Wright SC, Knowland J. (1983) Partial purification of estradiol receptor from Xenopus laevis liver and levels of receptor in relation to estradiol concentration. EMBO J. 2, 973-977 D. Phil. Graduate Research Project
2. Knowland J, Theulaz I, Wright CV, Wahli W. (1984) Injection of partially purified estrogen receptor preparation from Xenopus liver nuclei into oocytes activates the silent vitellogenin locus. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81, 5777-5781
D. Phil. Graduate Research Project
3. De Robertis EM, Fritz A, Goetz J, Martin G, Mattaj IW, Salo E, Smith GD, Wright CV, Zeller R. (1985) The Xenopus homeo boxes. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. L, 271-275
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
4. Wright CV, Cho KW, Fritz A, Buerglin TR, De Robertis EM (1987) A Xenopus laevis gene encodes both homeobox-containing and homeobox-less transcripts. EMBO J. 6, 4083-4094 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
5. Burglin TR, Wright, CV, De Robertis EM (1987) Translational control in homeobox mRNAs? Nature 330, 701-702 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
6. De Robertis EM, Buerglin TR, Fritz A, Wright CV, Jegalian B, Schnegelsberg P, Bittner D, Morita E, Oliver G, Cho KW. (1988) Families of vertebrate homeodomain proteins. UCLA Symp. 95 "DNA-Protein Interactions in Transcription" Ed. J.Gralla, 107-116
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
7. Cho KW, Goetz J, Wright CV, Fritz A, Hardwicke J, De Robertis EM. (1988) Differential utilization of the same reading frame in a Xenopus homeobox gene encodes two related proteins sharing the same DNA-binding specificity. EMBO J. 7, 2139-2149
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
8. Oliver G, Wright CV, Hardwicke J, De Robertis EM. (1988) Differential antero-posterior expression of two proteins encoded by a homeobox gene in Xenopus and mouse embryos. EMBO J. 7, 3199-3209 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
9. Fritz AF, Martin G, Wright CV, De Robertis EM. (1988) Site-specific inversions in repeated Xenopus laevis homeobox gene 2 sequences. Nucl. Acids Res. 16, 9058
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
10. De Robertis EM, Buerglin TR, Fritz A, Oliver G, Cho K, Wright, CV. (1988) Sequence conservations in vertebrate homeobox mRNAs. Arch. Biol. Med. Exp. 21, 443-447
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
11. Oliver G, Wright CV, Hardwicke J, De Robertis EM. (1988) A gradient of homeodomain protein in developing forelimbs of Xenopus and mouse embryos. Cell 55, 1017-1024.
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
12. Fritz AF, Cho KWY, Wright CV, Jegalian B, De Robertis EM. (1989).Duplicated homeobox genes in Xenopus. Dev. Biol. 131, 584-588 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
13. Oliver G, Wright CV, Cho KW, De Robertis EM. (1988) Characterization and distributional analysis of a homeobox-containing gene in Xenopus and mouse embryos. In: Cell to Cell Signals in Mammalian Development, NATO ASI Series
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
14. Wright CV, Cho KW, Oliver G, De Robertis EM. (1989) Vertebrate homeodomain proteins: Families of region-specific transcription factors. Trends Biochem. Sci. 14, 52-56
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
15. Wright CV, Schnegelsberg P, De Robertis E.M. (1989) XlHbox 8: a novel Xenopus homeo protein restricted to a narrow band of the endoderm. Development 105, 787-794
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
16. De Robertis EM, Oliver G, Wright CV. (1989) Determination of axial polarity in the vertebrate embryo: homeodomain proteins and homeogenetic induction. Cell 57, 189-191 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
17. Wright CV, Cho KW, Hardwicke J, Collins RH, De Robertis, EM. (1989) Interference with function of a homeobox gene in Xenopus embryos causes transformation of the cervical spinal cord. Cell 59, 81-93 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
18. Wright CV, Morita E, De Robertis EM. (1990) The Xenopus XlHbox 6 homeo protein, a marker of posterior neural induction, is expressed in proliferating neurons. Development 109, 225-234 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
19. Molven A, Wright CV, Bremiller R, De Robertis EM, Kimmel CB. (1990) Expression of a homeobox gene product in normal and mutant zebrafish embryos: evolution of the tetrapod body plan. Development 109, 279-288 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
20. De Robertis EM, Oliver G, Wright, CV. (1990) Homeobox genes and the analysis of vertebrate development. Scientific American, July 1990, 46-52
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
21. Cridland NA, Wright CV, McKenzie EA, Knowland J. (1990) Selective photochemical treatment of estrogen receptor in a Xenopus liver extract destroys hormone binding and transcriptional activation but not DNA binding. EMBO J. 9, 1859-1866
D. Phil. Graduate Research Project
22. Cho KW, Morita EA, Wright CV, De Robertis EM. (1991) Overexpression of a homeodomain protein confers organizer activity to uncommitted Xenopus embryonic cells. Cell 65, 55-64 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
23. Blumberg B, Wright CV, De Robertis EM, Cho, KW. (1991) Organizer-specific homeobox genes in Xenopus laevis embryos. Science 253, 194-196 Postdoctoral Fellow Research
24. Wright CV, Hogan B. (1991) Another hit for gene targeting. Nature 350, 458-459
25. Wright CV. (1991) Vertebrate homeobox genes. Current Opinion in Cell Biology 3, 976-982
26. Hogan B, Wright CV. (1992) The making of the ear. Nature 355, 494-495
27. Jones CM, Lyons KM, Lapan P, Wright CV, Hogan, BL. (1992) DVR-4 (Bone morphogenetic protein-4) as a postero-ventralizing factor in Xenopus mesoderm induction. Development 115, 639-647
28. Wall NA, Jones CM, Hogan BL, Wright, CV. (1992) Characterization and modification of Hox-2.1 protein in mouse embryos. Mech. Dev. 37, 111-120
29. Candia AF, Hu J, Crosby J, Lalley PA, Noden D, Nadeau J, Wright CV (1992) Mox-1 and Mox-2 define a novel homeobox gene subfamily, and are differentially expressed during early mesodermal patterning in mouse embryos. Development 116, 1123-1136
30. Jegalian B, Miller R, Wright CV, Blum M, De Robertis EM. (1992) A Hox-3.3-lacZ transgene expressed in developing limbs. Mech. Dev. 39, 171-180
Postdoctoral Fellow Research
31. Wall NA, Blessing M, Wright CV, Hogan, BL. (1993) Biosynthesis and in vivo localization of the Decapentaplegic-Vg related protein DVR-6 (Bone Morphogenetic Protein-6). J. Cell. Biol. 120, 493-502
32. Gamer L, Wright CV. (1993) Murine Cdx-4 bears striking similarities to the Drosophila caudal gene in its homeodomain sequence and early expression pattern. Mech. Dev. 43, 71-81
33. Candia AF, Kovalik J-P, Wright CV. (1993) Sequence of Mox-2 and comparison to its Xenopus and rat homologs. Nucl. Acids Res. 21, 4982
34. Wright CV. (1993) Hox genes and the hindbrain. Current Biology 3, 618-621
35. Lawler S, Candia AF, Ebner R, Lopez AR, Moses HL, Wright CV, Derynck, R. (1994) The murine type II TGF-b receptor has a coincident embryonic expression and binding preference for TGF-b1. Development 120, 165-175
36. Pierceall WE, Reale MA, Candia AF, Wright CV, Cho KR, Fearon ER. (1994) Expression of Xenopus DCC (deleted in colon carcinoma) gene in the embryonic nervous system. Dev. Biol. 166, 654-665
37. Barnes JD, Crosby J, Wright CV, Hogan BL. (1994) Embryonic expression of Lim-1, the mouse homolog of Xenopus Xlim-1, suggests a role in lateral mesoderm differentiation and neurogenesis. Dev. Biol. 161, 168-178
38. Peshavaria M, Gamer LW, Henderson E, Teitelman G, Wright CV, Stein RW. (1994) XlHbox8, an endocrine-specific Xenopus homeobox protein, is related to an insulin gene transcription factor. Mol. Endocrinol. 8, 806-816
39. Guz Y, Montminy M, Stein R, Leonard J, Gamer LW, Wright CV, Teitelman G. (1994) Expression of Stf-1, a putative insulin gene transcription factor, in duodenal epithelium and islet cell ontogeny. Development 121, 11-18
40. Toyama R, O’Connell ML, Wright CV, Kuehn MR, Dawid IB. (1995) nodal induces ectopic goosecoid and lim-1 expression and axis duplication in zebrafish. Development 121, 383-391
41. Conlon FL, Wright CV, Robertson EJ. (1995) Effects of the T-Wis mutation on notochord formation and mesodermal patterning. Mech. Develop. 49, 201-209
42. Gamer L, Wright, CV. (1995) Autonomous endodermal determination in Xenopus: regulation of expression of the pancreatic gene XlHbox 8. Dev. Biol. 171, 240-251
43. Candia AF, Wright CV. (1995) The expression pattern of Xenopus Mox-2 implies a role in initial mesodermal differentiation. Mech. Develop. 52, 27-36
44. Zhang X, Wright CV, Hanks SK. (1995) Cloning of Xenopus cDNA for focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and expression during early development. Gene 160, 219-222
45. Jones CM, Kuehn MR, Hogan BL, Smith JC, Wright CV. (1995) Nodal-related signals induce axial mesoderm and dorsalize mesoderm during gastrulation. Development 121, 3651-3662
46. Stoffel M, Stein R, Wright CV, Espinosa R, Le Beau MM, Bell GI. (1995) Localization of human homeodomain transcription factor insulin promoter factor 1 (IPF1) to chromosome band 13q12.1. Genomics 28, 125-126
47. Olson LK, Sharma A, Wright CV, Towle HC, Robertson RP, Stein R. (1995) Reduction of Insulin Gene Transcription in HIT-T15 b cells Chronically Exposed to a Supra-physiological Glucose Concentration is Associated with Loss of STF-1 Transcription Factor Expression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 9127-9131
48. Offield M, Labosky P, Ray M, Jetton T, Magnuson M, Hogan BL, Wright, CV. (1996) Pdx-1 is required for pancreatic outgrowth and differentiation of the rostral duodenum. Development 122, 983-995
49. Lowe LA, Su DM, Sampath K, Yokoyama T, Wright CV, Potter SS, Overbeek P, Kuehn M. (1996) Conserved left-right asymmetry of nodal expression and alterations in murine situs inversus. Nature 381, 158-161
50. Jones CM, Dale L, Hogan BL, Wright CV, Smith JC. (1996) Bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4) acts during gastrula stages to cause ventralization of Xenopus embryos. Development 122, 1545-1554
51. Candia AF, Wright CV. (1996) Expression of Mox-1 and Mox-2 homeoproteins in vertebrate embryos. Int. J. Dev. Biol. 40, 1179-1184
52. Fernandez A, King LC, Guz Y, Stein R, Wright CV, Teitelman G. (1997) Differentiation of new insulin-producing cells is induced by injury in adult pancreatic islets. Endocrinology 138, 1750-1762
53. Peshavaria ML, Henderson E, Sharma A, Wright CV, Stein R. (1997) Functional Characterization of the Transactivation Properties of the PDX-1 Homeodomain Protein. Mol. Cell. Biol. 17, 3987-3996
54. Woychik R, Hogan B, Bryant S, Eichele G, Kimelman D, Noden D, Schoenwolf G, Wright, CV. (1997) Pattern formation. Rep. Tox. 11, 339-344
55. Sampath K, Cheng A, Frisch A, Wright CV. (1997) Functional differences among Xenopus nodal-related genes in left-right axis determination. Development 124, 3293-3302
56. Frisch A, Wright CV. (1998) XBMPRII: a novel Xenopus type II receptor mediating BMP signaling in embryonic tissues. Development 125, 431-442
57. Wu K-L, Gannon M, Peshavaria M, Offield MF, Henderson E, Ray M, Marks A, Gamer LW, Wright CV, Stein R. (1997). HNF3b is involved in pancreatic b-cell-specific transcription of the pdx-1 gene. Mol. Cell. Biol. 17, 6002-6013
58. Jetton TL, Moates JM, Lindner J, Wright CV, Magnuson MA. (1998) Targeted oncogenesis of hormone-negative pancreatic islet progenitor cells. PNAS 95, 8654-8659
59. Sampath K, Rubinstein AL, Cheng AM, Liang JO, Fekany K, Solnica-Krezel, L, Korzh V, Halpern ME, Wright CV. (1998) Induction of the zebrafish ventral floor plate requires cyclops/nodal signaling. Nature 395, 185-189
60. Swift GH, Liu Y, Rose S, Bischof L, Steelman S, Buchberg A, Wright CV, MacDonald R. (1998) An endocrine-exocrine switch in the activity of the pancreatic homeodomain protein PDX1 through formation of a trimeric complex with PBX1b and MRG1 (MEIS2). Mol. Cell. Biol. 18, 5109-5120
61. Gannon M, Wright CV. (1998) Endodermal patterning and organogenesis. In “Cell Lineage and fate determination” (S. Moody Ed.), San Diego: Academic Press, 583-615
62. Wright CV. (1998) Lateral asymmetry in multicellular organisms.
Sem. Cell Dev. Biol. 9, 31-3
63. Dutta S, Bonner-Weir S, Montminy M, Wright CV. (1998) Regulatory factor linked to late-onset diabetes? Nature 392, 560
64. Erter CE, Solnica-Krezel L, Wright CV. (1998) Zebrafish nodal-related 2 encodes an early mesendodermal inducer signaling from the extraembryonic YSL. Dev. Biol. 204, 361-372
65. Osada S, Wright CV. (1999) Xenopus nodal-related signaling is essential for mesendodermal patterning during early embryogenesis. Development 126, 3229-3240
66. Mankoo BS, Candia AF, Wright CV, Rigby P, Pachnis V. (1999) Germline disruption of the murine Mox-2 gene results in defects in mesodermal differentiation. Nature 400, 69-73
67. Lawson KA, Dunn NR, Roelin BA, Zeinstra LM, Davis AM, Wright CV, Korving JP, Hogan BL. (1999) Bmp4 is required for the generation of primordial germ cells in the mouse embryo. Genes and Development 13, 424-436
68. Gannon M, Gerrish K, Stein R, Wright CV. (1999) pdx-1 in pancreas development and glucose homeostasis. American Diabetes Association, Proceedings of the Scottsdale meeting on MODY genes. Pub. Karger Press. Eds. F. Matschinsky and M. Magnuson.
69. Kritzik MR, Jones E, Chen Z, Krakowski M, Krahl T, Good A, Wright CV, Fox H, Sarvetnick N. (1999) Endocrine progenitor cells in the regenerating pancreas of the IFNg transgenic mouse. J. Endocrinology 163, 523-530