Associate Professor
Office Location: UH 207
Phone Number: (262) 472-5139
Email Address: mesnerp@uww.edu
Pete Mesner. 1999. Molecular Cell Biology
Ph.D., 1995, Biology; University of Iowa
Academic Advisor for Pre-Med. and Cytotechnology Faculty Advisor for UW-W Cycling Club
Assistant Professor teaching Intro. to Cell Biology, Biotech Lab Methods I, Human Anatomy & Physiology, and Immunology
In multicellular animals (metazoans) controlling the survival of existing cells precisely regulates the number of cells in a given tissue. Extra cells are eliminated by a cell suicide process termed physiological cell death (PCD) during which dying cells generally exhibit morphological changes termed "apoptosis". Apoptotic PCD is critical for normal developmental processes and for controlling cell number in mature tissues. Defects in the PCD machinery lead to cancer (excessive cell survival) and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's (excessive and premature cell death).
In an effort to learn more about the cellular PCD machinery and the evolutionary origins of the PCD process the work in my lab is focused on: (1) Analyzing cell death in a variety of metazoans and select unicellular eukaryotes with the goal of identifying key molecular and biochemical regulators of the process. (2) Defining the critical, minimal "core machinery" that is required for PCD in the cells of higher animals. (3) Collaborating with Dr. Jim Paulson's lab in the Department of Chemistry at UW-Oshkosh to understand the mechanistic connections between apoptosis and cell cycle control in tumor cells.
Selected Publications:
* undergraduate student coauthor
Sorensen, E.* and Mesner, P.W. (2005). IgH-2 Cells: A reptilian model for apoptotic studies. Comp. Biochem. and Phys. 140 (1), 163-170.
Svingen, P.A. Loegering, D., Rodriguez, J., Meng, X.W., Mesner, P.W., Holbeck, S., Monks, A. Krawjewski, S., Seudiero, D.A., Sausville, E.A., Reed, J.C., Lazebnik, Y.A., and Kaufmann, S.H., (2004). Components of the cell death machine and drug sensitivity of the National Cancer Institute Cell Line Panel. Clin. Cancer Res. 10 (20): 6807-20.
Kottke TJ, Blajeski AL, Meng XW, Svingen PA, Rauchad S, Mesner PW, Boerner SA, Samejima K, Henriquez NV, Chilcote TJ, Lord J, Salmon M, Earnshaw WC, Kaufmann SH., (2002). Lack of correlation beteeen caspase activation and caspase activity assays in paclitaxel-treated MCF-7 breast cancer cells. J. Biol. Chem. 277 (1), 804-815
Mesner, P.W., Bible, K.C., Martins, L.M., Kottke, T.J., Srinivasula, S.M. Basi, G., Tung, J., Krajewski, S., Reed, J.C., Alnemri, E.S., Earnshaw, W.C., and Kaufmann, S.H. (1999) Characterization of caspase processing and activation in HL-60 cell cytosol under cell-free conditions. J. Biol. Chem. 274 (32) 22635-45.
Martins, L.M., Kottke, T., Mesner, P.W., Basi, G.S., Sinha, S., Frigon, N., Tatar, E., Tung, J.S., Bryant, K., Takahashi, A., Svingen, P.A., Madden, B.J., McCormick, D.J., Earnshaw, W.C., and Kaufmann, S.H. (1997) Activation of multiple interleukin-1b converting enzyme homologues in cytosol and nuclei of HL-60 cells during etoposide-induced apoptosis. J. Biol. Chem. 272 (11): 7421-7430.
Mesner, P.W., Epting, C.L., Hegarty, J.L. and Green, S.H. (1995) A timetable of events during programmed cell death induced by trophic factor withdrawal from neuronal PC12 cells. J. Neurosci., 15 (11): 7357-7366.
Mesner, P.W., Winters, T.R., and Green, S.H. (1992) Nerve growth factor withdrawal-induced cell death in neuronal PC12 cells resembles that in sympathetic neurons. J. Cell. Biol., 119 (6): 1669-1680.