Michael Benjamin Major, PhD

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.