- Associate Professor P: Cell and Developmental Biology
- hortsch@umich.edu
- Office: 734 647 2720 3063 BSRB
- Hortsch Lab: 734 615 0256 3848 BSRB
- UMICH Directory Listing
Michael Hortsch
Education
PH.D. University of Heidelberg; M.S. Free University of of Berlin;
Research Focus
Work in my laboratory addresses the role of neural cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) in the development, differentiation and functioning of the nervous system. The relative simplicity of its embryonic nervous system and its powerful genetics make the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster an appealing organism for neurodevelopmental studies. Despite the huge evolutionary distance between insects and mammals the molecular and cellular analysis of their developing nervous systems has provided some astonishing parallels and similarities involving some highly conserved gene families. One of the main interests of my lab is the further functional characterization of neural CAMs belonging to the L1 family, which includes Drosophila neuroglian, as well as L1-CAMs, Nr-CAMs, and Neurofascins in vertebrate species. L1-type CAMs directly interact with multiple other cellular proteins and are potent inducers of signaling processes, which result in neurite outgrowth and axonal pathfinding. We are currently in the process of unraveling the complex functional features of L1-type CAMs and trying to understand why mutations in the human L1-CAM gene result in mental retardation and other neurological phenotypes.
Our research is mainly based on a biochemical and immunological approaches (such as the isolation of membrane proteins from embryonic extracts and the generation of mono- and polyclonal antibodies). These are complemented by molecular and classical genetic techniques (e.g. the use of PCR and yeast two-hybrid technologies, the generation of transgenic flies, and the characterization of mutations in the Drosophila neuroglian and the human L1-CAM gene). Tissue culture cell transfection experiments combined with in vitro mutagenesis of cloned cDNAs are used for a more detailed structural and functional dissection of these molecules.
The identification and characterization of CAMs and the characterization of their structural and functional properties will help us to understand how cell-cell interactions are involved in the formation of complex cellular systems such as the neuronal networks of metazoae.
Kristine Ito