Daniela C. Zarnescu
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
(404) 727-4815 - phone
(404) 727-4717 - fax
zarnescu@cellbio.emory.edu
Research Interests
I am interested in Fragile-X syndrome, which includes mental and physical defects
and is the most common form of inherited mental retardation. I recently conducted
a genetic screen for dominant modifiers of the Drosophila Fmr1 misexpression
phenotype in the compound eye. In screening 51, 000 mutant individuals I discovered
5 complementation groups consisting of at least 2 alleles each. The screen unraveled
a major complementation group, which consists of 19 alleles and maps to the
previously known lethal (2) giant larvae locus. Fmr1 protein and Lgl
associate in vivo in flies and mice. In addition to the genetic interaction
in the retina, Drosophila l(2)gl enhances the loss of function phenotype
of dfmr1 mutants at the neuromuscular junction. Taken together, our data
suggests that Lgl acts upstream of Fmr1, perhaps aiding in transport of mRNAs
associated with Fmr1, or in anchoring the latter to specific membrane domains.
Education
Honors
- Pella FayBraucher Scholarship, Department of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology,
Pennsylvania State University 1995
- American Society for Cell Biology Predoctoral Travel
Award 1997
- Scholarship for the Advanced Drosophila Genetics
Course, Cold Spring Harbour 1998
- Paul Berg travel award (Department of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University) for the 38th ASCB meeting,
SanFrancisco 1998
- Invited minisymposium speaker 40th Annual Drosophila
Research Conference 1999
- Invited talks The Carnegie Institution of Washington,
University of Pennsylvania, University of California at San Diego, University
of Chicago, Emory University School of Medicine 1999 - 2000
- Fred Wedler Award for outstanding doctoral dissertation
2000
- FRAXA postdoctoral
felowhip, 2002-2003
- Ruth
Kirschstein postdoctoral fellowship, NIH-NINDS
awarded in 2003
Professional Experience
- Physics teacher, The "I.Neculce"
High School, Bucharest, Romania 1989 - 1990
- Research Physicist, The Geodynamics Institute
of The Romanian Science Academy 1990 - 1991
- Research Biophysicist, The Biotechnology
Institute, Bucharest, Romania 1991 - 1993
- Teaching assistant for Biophysics, Bucharest
University, Romania 1992
- Volunteer / ResearchTechnician II, Duke
University (Dr. Arturo De Lozanne) 1993 - 1995
- Graduate research (advisor: G.H.Thomas,
The Pennsylvania State University) 1995 - 2000
- Teaching assistant for Microbiology,
The Pennsylvania State University 1996
- Teaching assistant for Biochemistry,
The Pennsylvania State University 1997
- Post-doctoral research (advisor: K.Moses,
Emory University School of Medicine) 2000 - present
Publications
- bHeavy-spectrin is essential for development and contributes
to specific cell fates in the eye- G.H.Thomas, D.C. Zarnescu, A.Juedes, M.Bales, A. Londergon,
C.C.Korte, D.P.Kiehart . Development 125: 2125-2134 (1998)
- Apical spectrin is essential for epithelial morphogenesis but
not for apico-basal polarity in Drosophila -D.C. Zarnescu, and G.H. Thomas. Journal of Cell Biology
146(5): 1075-86 (1999)
- RNA-Mediated
Neurodegeneration Caused by the Fragile X Premutation rCGG Repeats in Drosophila.
Jin P, Zarnescu DC, Zhang F, Pearson CE, Lucchesi JC, Moses K and Warren
ST (2003) Neuron 39, 739-747
- Biochemical and genetic
interaction between the Fragile X mental retardation potein and the microRNA
pathway. P. Jin, D.C. Zarnescu, Mika Nakamoto, J. Mowrey, T. A. Jongens,
D. L. Nelsom, K. Moses and S.T. Warren, accepted for publication in Nature
Neuroscience, 2003
- Fragile X and Lgl proteins form a functional complex
in fly and mouse neural development. - Zarnescu D, Jin P, Nakamoto
M, Dockendorff T, Feng Y, Jongens T, Warren S and Moses K (2003) (submitted).
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