Schatten Research Group

Principal Investigator: Gerald Schatten, PhD

Dedicated to sound and responsible medical research, collaboration, and professional development and mentoring, the Pittsburgh Development Center (PDC) of Magee-Womens Research Institute explores the molecular biology of cell function in gametes, embryos, stem cells, maternal/fetal efficacy of assisted reproduction technologies, the origins of developmental diseases, the causes and prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the potential of stem cells for treating human disease.

Among its other strengths, the PDC is emerging as a world center for the study of stem cells, precursor cells with the ability to grow into any tissue, and the ability to treat a variety of human diseases. Before stem cell treatments are developed, PDC researchers will determine the best conditions in which to grow these precious cells. And before patients receive stem cell treatments, the PDC researchers will demonstrate their safety and effectiveness in the laboratory.

Lab members:

Calvin Simerly, PhD

PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
BS, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
AA, Pensacola Junior. College, Pensacola, FL

Carlos Castro, MD, DMD

MD, Rosario University Medical School, Bogota, Colombia
DMD, Javeriana University Dental School, Bogota, Colombia

Charles Easley

Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

David McFarland, BS

Research Assistant
Bachelor of Science, West Liberty State College, West Liberty, WV

Stacie Oliver, BS

Senior Research Assistant, CLSp(CG)
Bachelor of Science, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Angela Palermo Lauff, BA

Administrative Coordinator Bachelor of Arts, Chatham College, Pittsburgh, PA

Carrie J. Redinger, MFS

Senior Research Associate
Masters of Forensic Science, National University, La Jolla, CA

Lab alumni:

Ahmi Ben-Yehudah, PhD

Univ. of Jerusalem, 2003-2009 Jerusalem

Dan Constaninescu, PhD

Univ. of Pittsburgh, 2009 Law Student

Olga Momcilovic, PhD

Univ. of Pittsburgh, 2010 Post-Doc; Buck Institute 

Chris Navara, PhD 

Univ. of Wisc, 1995 Assoc. Prof.; Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

Christopher Payne, PhD

Oregon HSU, 2003 Assist Prof; Northwestern

Vanessa Rawe, PhD

Univ. of Buenos, 2002-2004 Assoc Professor, Univ. of Buenos Aires

Sara Steffen, MS

Univ. of Wisc, 1992 Researcher
Dept of Zoology Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

Sandra Tavares Varum, PhD

Univ, of Coimbra Post-Doc, Switzerland

Tosiyuki Takehara Keiki

Univ. Japan, 2008-2009 Graduate Student, Keiki Univ.

Selected Publications

  • Hewitson L, Dominko T, Takahashi D, Ramalho-Santos J, Sutovsky P, Fanton J, Jacob D, Monteith D, Neuringe, M, Battaglia D, Simerly C, & Schatten G. Births of ICSI monkeys: Unique Checkpoints during the First Cell Cycle of Fertilization. Nat Med, 5(4):431-433, 1999.
  • Luetjens CM, Payne C, & Schatten G. Non-random Chromosome Positioning in Human Sperm and Sex Chromosome Anomalies Following Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). The Lancet, 353:1240, 1999.
  • Sutovsky P, Moreno R, Ramalho-Santos J, & Schatten G. Ubiquitin Tag for Sperm Mitochondria. Nat, 402, 371-372, 1999.
  • Chan AWS, Chong KY, Martinovich C, Simerly C, & Schatten G. Transgenic Monkeys Produced by Retroviral Gene Transfer into Mature Oocytes. Sci, 291:309-312, 2001.
  • Simerly C, Dominko T, Navara C, Payne C, Capuano S, Gosman G, Chong KY, Compton D, Hewitson L, & Schatten G. Molecular Correlates of Primate Nuclear Transfer Failures. Sci, 300:297, 2003.
  • St. John JC & Schatten G. Paternal mitochondrial DNA transmission during NHP nuclear transfer. Genetics, 167(2): 897-905, Jun. 2004.
  • Navara CS, Ben-Yehudah A, Castro C, Redinger CJ, Jacoby E, McFarland D, Mich-Basso, J, Qidwai H, Kovkarova-Naumovski E, Kaminski N, Simerly CR, & Schatten G. Pedigreed primate embryonic stem cells [nhpESC] express homogeneous familial gene profiles. Stem Cells, 25(11):2695-704, 2007.
  • Schatten G & Mitalipov S. Developmental biology: Transgenic primate offspring. Nature, 459(7246):515-6, May 28;459(7246):515-6, 2009.
  • Momčilović O, Choi S, Varum S, Bakkenist C, Schatten G, & Navara C. Ionizing radiation induces ATM dependent checkpoint signaling and G2 but not G1 cell cycle arrest in human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells, 27(8):1822-35, May 14, 2009. [Epub ahead of print]
  • Ben-Yehudah A, Navara CS, Redinger CJ, Mich-Basso JD, Castro CA, Chensny LJ, Richards TF, Kaminski N, & Schatten GP. Pluripotency genes overexpressed in primate embryonic stem cells are localized on homologues of human chromosomes 16, 17, 19 and X. Stem Cell Res, 4(1):25-37, Jan. 2010. Epub 2009 Sep 17.
  • Momcilovic O, Knobloch L, Fornsaglio J, Varum S, Easley C, & Schatten G. DNA damage responses in human induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells. PLoS One, Oct 15;5(10):e13410, 2010.

Publications on PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=DetailsSearch&term=SCHATTEN+GP&log$=activity