James F. Martin

James F. Martin, MD, Ph.D.

Professor
Center for Molecular Disease and Development
Member of the GSBS Faculty

2121 W. Holcombe Blvd.
Houston, Texas 77030
Phone: 713-677-7558
Email: jmartin@ibt.tamhsc.edu
Lab Webpage: http://www.ibt.tamhsc.edu/labs/ccscb/

Education and Post-Graduate Training

James F. Martin graduated magna cum laude in chemistry from Fordham University, Bronx, New York, received an M.D. from the University of Texas-Houston Medical School where he also did a residency in general surgery. He received a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Texas-Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1995 and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (1995-1996). He joined the Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Biology in the IBT, Texas A&M Health Science Center in 1996 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 2002 and Professor in 2006. He is a member of the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center. He is currently Interim Director of the Center for Molecular Disease & Development.

Teaching Interests

Graduate and Specialized Research Training in Cardiac and Craniofacial Stem Cell Biology

Research Interests

The focus of my lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling cell growth and differentiation in the context of vertebrate embryogenesis and thus to advance our understanding of the causes of birth defects. Using the mouse as a model system, we study the role of homeobox genes in cell growth and differentiation within the craniofacial skeleton. Our experimental approaches include creating targeted gene mutations through "knock-out" technology, as well as other transgenic techniques to express genes of interest in the mouse. A related interest of our lab is to understand how environmental factors such as teratogens interact with the genome to generate congenital defects.

Selected Publications

Five Most Significant Publications Prior to 2008

Lu, M-F., Pressman, C., Dyer, R., Johnson, R.L., and Martin, J.F. (1999) Function of Rieger syndrome gene in left-right asymmetry and craniofacial development. Nature 401: 276-278.

Liu, C., Liu, W., Palie, J, Lu, M.F., Brown N, and Martin, J.F. (2002) Pitx2c patterns anterior myocardium and aortic arch vessels and is required for local cell movement into atrioventricular cushions. Development 129: 5081-5091.

Liu, W., Selever, J., Wang, D., Lu, M.F., Moses, K.A., Schwartz, R.J. and Martin, J.F. (2004) Bmp4 signaling is required for outflow tract septation and branchial arch artery remodeling. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 101: 4489-4494.

Ma, L., M. Lu, R. J. Schwartz, and Martin J. F. Bmp2 is essential for atrioventricular cushion formation and myocardial patterning. (2005) Development 132: 5601-5611.

Ai, D., Fu, X., Wang, J., Lu, M. F., Chen, L., Baldini, A., Klein, W. H. and Martin, J. F. (2007) Canonical Wnt signaling functions in second heart field to promote right ventricular growth. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 9319-24.

Publications 2008

Pangas, S. A., Li, X., Umans, L., Zwijsen, A., Huylebroeck, D., Gutierrez, C. C., Wang, D., Martin, J. F., Jamin, S. P., Behringer, R. R., Robertson, E. J., and Matzuk, M. M. (2008) Conditional deletion of Smad1 and Smad5 in somatic cells of male and female gonads leads to metastatic tumor development in mice. Mol Cell Biol 28: 248-257 [Epub 2007 Oct 29].

Amen, M., Espinoza, H. M., Cox, C., Liang, X., Wang, J., Link, T. M.E., Martin, J. F. and Amendt, B. A. (2008) Chromatin-associated HMG-17 acts as a molecular switch to regulate homeodomain transcription factor activity. Nucleic Acids Res 36: 462-476 [Epub 2007 Nov 27]

Cretekos, C. J., Wang, Y., Green, E. D., NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Martin, J. F., Rasweiler IV, J. J. and Behringer, R. R. (2008) Regulatory divergence modifies limb length in mammals. Genes and Development 22: 141-151.

Park, E. J., Sun, X., Saijoh, Y., Martin, J.F., Moon, A.M. (2008) A system for tamoxifen-inducible expression of cre recombinase from the Foxa2 locus in Mice. Dev Dyn 237: 447-53.

Skidmore, J.M., Cramer, J.D., Martin, J.F., and Martin, D.M. (2008) Cre fate mapping reveals lineage specific defects in neuronal migration with loss of Pitx2 function in the developing mouse hypothalamus and sub thalamic nucleus. Mol Cell Neuroscience 37: 696-707.

Orvis, G.D., Jamin, S.P., Kwan, K.M., Mishina, Y., Kaartinen, V.M., Huang, S., Roberts, A.B., Umans, L., Huylebroeck, D., Zwijsen, A., Wang, D., Martin J.F., and Behringer, R.R. (2008) Functional redundancy of TGF-beta family type I receptors and receptor-smads in mediating anti-mullerian hormone-induced mullerian duct regression in the mouse. Biol Reprod 78: 994-1001.

Weng, J., Cheng, X., Luo, J., Jin, C., Zhou, X., Qu, J., Tong, L., Ai, D., Li, D., Wang, J., Amendt, B., Martin, J.F., and Liu, M. (2008) Deletion of G-protein coupled receptor 48 leads to ocular anterior segment dysgenesis (ASD) through down regulation of Pitx2. PNAS 105: 6081-6086.

Shang, Y., Yoshida, T., Amendt, B.A., Martin, J.F., and Owens, G.K. (2008) Pitx2 is functionally important in the early stages of vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation. J. Cell Biology 181: 461-473.

Davis, N.M., Kurpios, N.A., Sun, X., Gros, J., Martin, J.F. and Tabin, C.J. (2008) The chirality of gut rotation derives from left-right asymmetric changes in the architecture of the dorsal mesentery. Developmental Cell. 15: 134-145.

Kurpios, N. A., Ibanes, M., Davis, N. M., Lui, W., Katz, T., Martin, J. F., Belmonte, J. C. and Tabin, C. J. (2008) The direction of gut looping is established by changes in the extracellular matrix and in cell:cell adhesion. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105: 8499-8506.

Wu, F., Xu, R., Martin, J.F. and Safe, S. (2008) In vivo profiling of estrogen receptor/specificity protein-dependent transactivation. Endocrinology 149: 5696-705.

Lalani, S.R., Thakuria, J.V., Cox, G.F., Wang, X., Bi, W., Bray, M.S., Shaw, C., Cheung, S.W., Chinault, A.C., Boggs, B., Ou, Z., Brundage, E.K., Lupski, J.R., Gentile, J., Waisbren, S., Pursley, A., Khajavi, M., Zapata, G., Friedman, R., Kim, J., Towbin, J.A., Stankiewicz, P., Schnittger, S., Hansmann, I., Ai, S., Sood, S., Wehrens, X.H., Martin, J.F., Belmont, J.W., and Potocki, L. (2008) A novel genomic microdeletion with predisposition to a syndromic form of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Journal of Medical Genetics 46: 168-75.

McCulley, D.J., Kang, J.O., Martin, J.F. and Black, B.L. (2008) Bmp4 is required in the anterior heart field and its derivatives for endocardial cushion remodeling, outflow tract septation, and semilunar valve development. (2008) Dev. Dynamics 237: 3200-9

Zhang, J., Lin, Y., Zhang, Y., Lin, C., Schwartz, R.J., Martin, J.F., and Wang, F. (2008) Frs2 {alpha}-deficiency in cardiac progenitors disrupts a subset of FGF signals required for outflow tract morphogenesis. Development. 2008 Nov; 135(21): 3611-3622 [Epub 2008 Oct 2]

Niu, Z., Iyer, D., Conway, S.J., Martin, J.F., Ivey, K., Srivastava, D., Nordheim, A. and Schwartz, R.J. (2008) Serum response factor orchestrates nascent sarcomerogenesis and silences biomineralization in the heart. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105: 17824-9.

Publications 2009

Bénazet, J.D., Bischofberger, M., Tiecke, E., Goncalves, A., Martin, J.F., Zuniga, A., Naef, F. and Zeller, R. (2009) A self-regulatory system of interlinked signaling feedback loops controls vertebrate limb patterning. Science 323: 1050-1053.

Suzuki, S., Miwa, N., Jugessur, A., Natsume, N., Shi, M., Ohbayashi, N., Suzuki, Y., Furukawa, H., Vieira, A., Lidral, A.C., Marazita, M.L., Martin, J.F., and Murray, J.C. (2009) Mutations in BMP4 cause both microform and non syndromic cleft lip and palate. Am J Hum Genet 84: 406-11 [Epub 2009 Feb 26]

Espinoza-Lewis, R.A., Yu, L., He, F., Liu, H., Tang, R., Shi, J., Sun, X., Martin, J.F., Wang, D., Yang, J. and Chen, Y. (2009) Shox2 is essential for the differentiation of cardiac pacemaker cells by repressing Nkx2-5. Dev Biol 327: 376-85 [Epub 2009 Jan 3]

Huang, Z., Wang, D., Ihida-Stansbury, K., Jones, P.L., and James F. Martin (2009) Defective pulmonary vascular remodeling in Smad8 mutant mice. Human Mol. Genet. 18: 2791-2801 [EPub 2009 May 5].

Calmont, A., Ivins, S., Lammerts Van Bueren, K., Papangeli, I., Kyriakopoulou, V., Martin, J.F., Moon, A.M., Basson, M. A., and Peter J. Scambler (2009) Tbx1 controls cardiac neural crest cell migration during arch artery development by regulating Gbx2 expression in the pharyngeal ectoderm. Development 136, 3173-3183 [EPub 2009 Sep].

Zagoraiou, L., Akay, T., Martin, J.F., Brownstone, R.M., Jessell T.M., and Gareth B. Miles (2009) A small cluster of cholinergic pre-motor interneurons modulates locomotor activity in mouse. Neuron (in press).

Texas A&M Health Science Center - Institute of Biomedical Sciences