Melanie Cobb, Ph.D.

Melanie Cobb received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Chicago and her PhD in biological chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in the laboratory of Garland Marshall. Following postdoctoral work with Ora Rosen at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, she joined the Department of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas where she is currently a Professor and the holder of the Jane and Bill Browning, Jr Chair in Medical Science. Her interests are in cellular regulatory mechanisms.

Graduate School

Washington University (1976)

• cancer biology
• protein kinase structure/function
• regulation of nutrient responses
• signal transduction mechanisms
• vesicular trafficking

Featured Publications

Protein kinase WNK3 regulates the neuronal splicing factor Fox-1.

Lee AY, Chen W, Stippec S, Self J, Yang F, Ding X, Chen S, Juang YC, Cobb MH Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2012 Oct 109 42 16841-6

The G Protein-Coupled Taste Receptor T1R1/T1R3 Regulates mTORC1 and Autophagy.

Wauson EM, Zaganjor E, Lee AY, Guerra ML, Ghosh AB, Bookout AL, Chambers CP, Jivan A, McGlynn K, Hutchison MR, Deberardinis RJ, Cobb MH Mol. Cell 2012 Sep 47 6 851-62

A small molecule differentiation inducer increases insulin production by pancreatic ß cells.

Dioum EM, Osborne JK, Goetsch S, Russell J, Schneider JW, Cobb MH Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2011 Dec 108 51 20713-8

WNK 1 is required for mitosis and abscission.

S-W. Tu, K. Luby-Phelps and M.H. Cobb. Proc. Natl, Acad. Sci. USA 2011 108 1385-1390

Calcineurin increases glucose activation of ERK1/2 by reversing negative feedback.

L. Duan and M.H. Cobb. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2010 107 22314-22319

Interactions with WNK (With No Lysine) Family Members Regulate Oxidative Stress Response 1 and Ion Co-transporter Activity.

Sengupta S, Tu SW, Wedin K, Earnest S, Stippec S, Luby-Phelps K, Cobb MH J. Biol. Chem. 2012 Nov 287 45 37868-79

Serum and glucocorticoid-induced kinase (SGK) 1 and the epithelial sodium channel are regulated by multiple with no lysine (WNK) family members.

Heise CJ, Xu BE, Deaton SL, Cha SK, Cheng CJ, Earnest S, Sengupta S, Juang YC, Stippec S, Xu Y, Zhao Y, Huang CL, Cobb MH J. Biol. Chem. 2010 Aug 285 33 25161-7

Regulation of CCAAT-enhancer binding protein homologous protein (CHOP) expression by interleukin 1 beta in pancreatic beta cells.

C. Shao, M.C. Lawrence and M.H. Cobb. J. Biol. Chem 2010 285 19710-19719

Radial spoke protein 3 is a mammalian A kinase anchoring protein that binds ERK1/2

A. Jivan, S. Earnest, Y.C. Juang, and M.H. Cobb. J. Biol Chem. 2009 284 29437-29445

Multiple chromatin-bound protein kinases assemble factors that regulate insulin gene transcription.

M.C. Lawrence, C. Shao, K. McGlynn, B. Naziruddin, M.F. Levy, and M.H. Cobb. Proc. Natl, Acad Sci. USA 2009 106 22181-22186