Deborah L. Galson, PhD

PCIBMR Co-Director
PCIBMR Advanced Bioimaging Core Co-Director

Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Research Interests

The Galson lab research covers two main themes: (1) The molecular mechanisms leading to aberrant osteoclasts in Paget’s disease of bone. (2) Myeloma bone disease – cross communication between myeloma cells and both osteoclasts and osteoblasts.  We also collaborate with investigators studying other cancers that metastasize to the bone and the cancer-bone interactions. Our focus is generally on signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, and epigenetic modulation of chromatin.

Technique Expertise or Resources to share

Osteoclast differentiation and resorption assays – particularly mouse. Osteoblast differentiation assays. We also have been developing a 3D model for bone marrow cells (all or a subset) and/or differentiated osteoclasts on a bone substrate with myeloma cells suspended above in a matrix for the study of drug activities in the more complex MM-bone microenvironment. ChIP-qPCR analyses. Mouse models: C57/KalwRij immune-competent mouse model syngenic with 5TGM1 myeloma cells, Gfi1 knockout mice, transgenic MVNP mice, transgenic TBK1 mice. Cell lines: RAW264.7 and 4B12 mouse pre-osteoclast cell lines, several pre-osteoblast cell lines, several myeloma cell lines

Keywords

Osteoclasts, osteoblasts, myeloma, Paget’s, transcription, signal transduction, chromatin, histone modifiers, epigenetics, measles virus nucleocapsid protein (MVNP), TBK1, OPTN, GFI1, EZH2, AJUBA