Dr. Joshua J. Smith

Details

Education

• PhD, Pharmacology, 2002, University of Minnesota Medical School
• BS, 1998, University of Wisconsin-River Falls (degrees in Agriculture, triple majoring in Animal Science/Horse Science Emphasis, Biotechnology, and Biology; minor in Chemistry)

Teaching

• BMS 110/111 Introduction to Human Biology
• BMS 300 Service-Learning in Biomedical Sciences
• BMS 317 Medical Microbiology
• BMS 490 Peer Instruction in Biomedical Sciences
• BMS 530/631 Cell Biology of Cancer
• BMS 540/640 Biotechnology
• BMS 558/658 Recombinant DNA and Protein Techniques
• BMS 570/670 Principles of Pharmacology
• BMS 558/658 Recombinant DNA and Protein Techniques
• UHC 110 Honors Freshman Seminar

Professional experience

Publications

Book Chapters

• Smith, J. J., Wiley, E. A., Cassidy-Hanley, D. M. Chapter 16: Tetrahymena in the Classroom. In Kathleen Collins & Eduardo Orias (Ed.), Tetrahymena thermophila (vol. 109). Methods in Cell Biology, Elsevier Inc., copyright 2012.

Refereed Journal Articles

• DeLong, R.K., Mitchell, J.A., Morris, R.T., Comer, J., Hurst, M.N., Ghosh, K., Wanekaya, A., Mudge, M., Schaeffer, A., Washington, L.L., Risor-Marhanka, A., Thomas, S., Marroquin, S., Lekey, A., Smith, J.J., Garrad, R., Aryal, S., Abdelhakiem, M., and Glaspell, G.P. (2017) Enzyme and Cancer Cell Selectivity of Nanoparticles: Inhibition of 3-D Metastatic Phenotype and Experimental Melanoma by Zinc Oxide. Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology, Vol. 13 (2): 221-231.
• McCall, J., Smith, J.J., Marquardt, K.N., Knight, K.R., Bane, H., Barber, A., and Delong, R.K. (2017). ZnO Nanoparticles Protect RNA from Degradation Better than DNA. Nanomaterials, Vol. 7: 378; doi:10.3390/nano7110378.
• Farmer, R., McGrew, A., Smith, J.J. (2014). Identification and cloning of THD13 in Tetrahymena thermophila, a homolog of the histone deacetylase SIRT2. LOGOS: A Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 7: 74-90.
• Elbrecht, D., Mitchell, J., Lekey, A., Marquardt, K., Knight, K., Smith, J. J., DeLong, R. (2013). Nanoproteomics: The convergence of protein science and nanotechnology with important applications for bio-element metal and etal oxide nanoparticles. Reviews in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Vol. 2(5): 365-381.
• Flores, K., Craig, M. M., Wanekaya, A. K., Ghosh, K. C., Smith, J. J., DeLong, R. (2012). Tipping the proteome with DNA vaccines: weighing in on the role of nanomaterials. Journal of Nanotechnology, (Article ID 843170), 9 pages.
• Slade, K., Freggiaro, S., Cottrell, K., Smith, J. J., Wiley, E. A. (2011). Sirtuin-mediated Nuclear Differentiation and Programmed Degradation in Tetrahymena. BMC Cell Biology, Vol. 12: 40e.
• Zweifel, E., Smith, J., Romero, D., Giddings, T.H., Jr., Winey, M., Honts, J., Dahlseid, J., Schneider, B., Cole, E.S. (2009). Nested Genes CDA12 and CDA13 Encode Proteins Associated with Membrane Trafficking in the Ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. Eukaryotic Cell Vol. 8: 899-912.

Research and professional interests

Current Research:

DNA repair in the silent regions of the genome that are highly compact.

• Use two interesting and very useful model organisms to study this research question: Baker's Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila.
• Yeast is a good biochemical and genetic tool used to understand protein interactions within the DNA repair pathway.
• Tetrahymena is a unique model organism in that it has developed a separation of nuclear DNA into two nuclei, nuclear dimorphism. The micronucleus is completely silent and highly condensed into a structure resembling heterochromatin and is the genetic heredity of the cell used during meiosis.
• The macronucleus is the location of cellular transcription and is made of a mixture of more open DNA, euchromatin, and condensed, heterochromatin. Due to this nuclear dimorphism, research in this organism focuses on the differences in the repair mechanism of the two nuclei and how specific chromatin modification aid in each repair process.
• Using these two models his research will gain a better understanding of the role of protein modifications and epigenetics in the repair of DNA and when the ability to modify proteins is abnormal how this can affect the repair of the DNA leading to genomic instability and cancer.

Role of post-translational modifications in the recognition and repair of damaged DNA.

• Interest in recognition stage of DNA damage in two DNA repair pathways: Homologous Recombination Repair (HRR) and Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER)
• In HRR interest involves the RecA recombinase homologs in Eukaryotes, Rad51 and Dmc1, and accessory recombinase association proteins, Hop2 and Mnd1.
• In NER interest involves the pyrimidine dimer recognition complex, Rad4 and Rad23 and the snf2-swi2 chromatin remodeling repair complex with E3 ubiquitin ligase activity, Rad16 and Rad7.

Effects of metal oxide nanoparticles on nucleic acid processing enzymes (restriction endonucleases, reverse transcriptase, and DNase I) kinetics and efficacy.

• Research into stabilization of nucleic acid processing enzymes with addition of metal oxide nanoparticles.
• Inhibition of nucleic acid processing enzymes by metal oxide nanoparticles

Use of Hypochlorous Acid (HClO) in treatment of microbial infections.