Joseph Weiss
M.D., Ph.D., NYU School of Medicine, 1988
Assistant Professor, Molecular Medicine
Joint Assistant Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology
The Weiss lab studies heart and smooth muscle development in Drosophila and mammals. Our approach is to employ the genetically tractable model organism, Drosophila, to explore new areas of heart and smooth muscle development. We then extend these findings to homologous functions in mammals. Starting with an evolutionarily conserved regulator of heart and smooth muscle development in Drosophila, the homeodomain protein Tinman, we have developed a method to identify direct transcriptional targets of Tinman regulation. The method relies on genetic selection in yeast for a protein-DNA interaction. The second gene identified and characterized by this method has been the focus of the lab's activity over the past year. That gene, jelly belly, encodes a novel, secreted signaling protein (Cell 107:387-398). Our analysis of Jelly belly (Jeb) function has determined that Jeb provides positional information to smooth muscle precursors. It specifies a subset of smooth muscle cells as "founder cells" in the hierarchical patterning system of the muscle fusion pathway.
We have also recently identified a high-affinity signaling receptor for Jeb. The Jeb receptor is a receptor-tyrosine-kinase of the insulin receptor superfamily. Since the Drosophila version of the Jeb receptor has unambiguous mammalian homologues we are now pursuing the role of this signaling system in mammalian development and human disease as well. Our lab employs biochemical, genetic and developmental methods to understand the role of Jeb signaling in smooth muscle development.
Joseph B. Weiss, Kaye L. Suyama, Hsiu-Hsiang Lee, and Matthew P. Scott. Jelly belly: A Drosophila LDL Receptor Repeat-Containing Signal Required for Mesoderm Migration and Differentiation. Cell 2001 107: 387-398.
Joseph B. Weiss, Tonia Von Ohlen, Dervla M. Mellerick, Gregory Dressler, Chris Q. Doe, and Matthew P. Scott. Dorsoventral patterning in the Drosophila central nervous system: the intermediate neuroblasts defective homeobox gene specifies intermediate column identity. Genes Dev. 1998 12: 3591-3602