/ Scientists

I joined Genentech for the opportunity to do cutting edge science in a truly collaborative research environment, and for the potential to translate basic science discoveries made in my lab to effective treatments for disease. I currently split my time between being a project team leader for a drug development program and directing a research group working to identify novel targets for the treatment of chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

POSTDOCTORAL MENTOR I greatly enjoy being a postdoctoral mentor, and think it is one of the highlights doing research at Genentech. It allows the lab to really dive into the molecular mechanisms of neuronal development, degeneration, and regeneration. Our recent work has identified Dual Leucine zipper Kinase (DLK) as an essential upstream regulator axon degeneration and apoptosis in the developing nervous system, a function that appears conserved in multiple neuronal subtypes. Ongoing projects in the lab are looking to better define DLK dependent pathways, identify additional regulators of degeneration, and examine the relevance of these pathways to neurodegenerative disease.

• My Focus

  Research in my lab is focused on understanding whether conserved pathways underlie neuronal degeneration in development and disease.

  Synapse elimination, degeneration of neuronal processes, and neuronal loss occur in both of these contexts, and our hope is that defining the core mechanisms that regulate this degeneration will lead to attractive drug targets.

• Publications

  • The advantages of frontotemporal degeneration drug development (part 2 of frontotemporal degeneration: The next therapeutic frontier)

    Alzheimer's and Dementia, 2013, ISSN: 1552-5260

    Boxer, Adam L.; Gold, Michael; Huey, Edward; Hu, William T.; Rosen, Howard; Kramer, Joel; Gao, Fen-Biao; Burton, Edward A.; Chow, Tiffany; Kao, Aimee; Leavitt, Blair R.; Lamb, Bruce; Grether, Megan; Knopman, David; Cairns, Nigel J.; Mackenzie, Ian R.; Mitic, Laura; Roberson, Erik D.; Van Kammen, Daniel; Cantillon, Marc; Zahs, Kathleen; Jackson, George; Salloway, Stephen; Morris, John; Tong, Gary; Feldman, Howard; Fillit, Howard; Dickinson, Susan; Khachaturian, Zaven S.; Sutherland, Margaret; Abushakra, Susan; Lewcock, Joseph; Farese, Robert; Kenet, Robert O.; LaFerla, Frank; Perrin, Steve; Whitaker, Steve; Honig, Lawrence; Mesulam, Marsel M.; Boeve, Brad; Grossman, Murray; Miller, Bruce L.; Cummings, Jeffrey L.

     View on PubMed

  • DLK initiates a transcriptional program that couples apoptotic and regenerative responses to axonal injury

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013, ISSN: 0027-8424

    Watkins, Trent A; Wang, Bei; Huntwork-Rodriguez, Sarah; Yang, Jing; Jiang, Zhiyu; Eastham-Anderson, Jeffrey; Modrusan, Zora; Kaminker, Joshua S; Tessier-Lavigne, Marc; Lewcock, Joseph W

     View on PubMed

  • Mechanistic and structural understanding of uncompetitive inhibitors of caspase-6

    PLoS ONE, 2012, ISSN: 1932-6203

    Heise, Christopher E; Murray, Jeremy; Augustyn, Katherine E; Bravo, Brandon; Chugha, Preeti; Cohen, Frederick; Giannetti, Anthony M; Gibbons, Paul; Hannoush, Rami N; Hearn, Brian R; Jaishankar, Priyadarshini; Ly, Cuong Q; Shah, Kinjalkumar; Stanger, Karen; Steffek, Micah; Tang, Yinyan; Zhao, Xianrui; Lewcock, Joseph W; Renslo, Adam R; Flygare, John; Arkin, Michelle R

     View on PubMed

  • Spatially coordinated kinase signaling regulates local axon degeneration

    Journal of Neuroscience, 2012, ISSN: 0270-6474

    Chen, Mark; Maloney, Janice A; Kallop, Dara Y; Atwal, Jasvinder K; Tam, Stephen J; Baer, Kristin; Kissel, Holger; Kaminker, Joshua S; Lewcock, Joseph W; Weimer, Robby M; Watts, Ryan J

     View on PubMed

  • Allosteric peptides bind a caspase zymogen and mediate caspase tetramerization

    Nature Chemical Biology, 2012, ISSN: 1552-4450

    Stanger, Karen; Steffek, Micah; Zhou, Lijuan; Pozniak, Christine D; Quan, Clifford; Franke, Yvonne; Tom, Jeff; Tam, Christine; Elliott, J Michael; Lewcock, Joseph W; Zhang, Yingnan; Murray, Jeremy; Hannoush, Rami N

     View on PubMed

  • A Whole Cell Assay to Measure Caspase-6 Activity by Detecting Cleavage of Lamin A/C

    PLoS ONE, 2012, ISSN: 1932-6203

    Mintzer, Robert; Ramaswamy, Sreemathy; Shah, Kinjalkumar; Hannoush, Rami N; Pozniak, Christine D; Cohen, Frederick; Zhao, Xianrui; Plise, Emile; Lewcock, Joseph W; Heise, Christopher E

     View on PubMed

  • DLK induces developmental neuronal degeneration via selective regulation of proapoptotic JNK activity.

    Journal of Cell Biology, 5 Sep 2011, v194, n5, p751-64, ISSN: 1540-8140.

    Sengupta, Ghosh Arundhati; Wang, Bei; Pozniak, Christine D; Chen, Mark; Watts, Ryan J; Lewcock, Joseph W

     View on PubMed

• Education
  • Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Postdoctoral Fellow – 2007
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Postdoctoral Fellow – 2004
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Ph.D. – 2003
  • University of California, San Diego, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, B.S. – 1998
• Awards & Honors
  • National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship Award – 2004
  • Alicia Showalter Reynolds Young Investigator Award – 2003