M. Benjamin Major, PhD

M. Benjamin Major, PhD

Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor
Department of Cell Biology & Physiology
Department of Otolaryngology

The Major Lab uses mass spectrometry-based proteomics and chemical and genetic screens to study signal transduction in human disease, with a particular focus on understudied kinases and the WNT and the KEAP1/NRF2 pathways.

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Research Interests

Studying how perturbation of specific signal transduction pathways contributes to the initiation, progression and dissemination of cancer.

Professional Education
  • BS: Michigan State University, 1997, Microbiology and Virology
  • PhD: University of Utah, 2004, Oncological Sciences
  • Postdoc: University of Washington, 2004-2009, Proteomics
Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations
Links

Major Lab

McDonnell Sciences Building (MS: 8228-0012-04)
314-273-3669
bmajor@wustl.edu

Signal Transduction | Mass Spectrometry | Integrative OMICs | Cancer | Clinical Proteomics | Kinases

We study how alterations in signal transduction leads to human disease.  We start with a “systems level” integrative discovery platform, one that has as a foundation mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Chemical and genetic functional screens enrich the proteomic metworks to yield disease-annotated physical/functional maps for signaling pathways of interest. The models and hypotheses produced are challenged through mechanistic and phenotypic studies employing cultured human cells in 2D and 3D, mouse models, clinical samples and in vitro biochemical systems. We have longstanding interest in the Wnt pathway and the KEAP1/NRF2 oxidative stress response pathway, as well as kinases and ubiquitin ligases.

Publications