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Mark Lehrman, Ph.D.

Mark Lehrman, Ph.D.

Assist Dean Academic Facilities and Resource Planning

Professor

School
Medical School
Department
Office of Academic Planning and Assessment | Pharmacology
Graduate Programs
Biological Chemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology
  • Biography

    I am a biochemist studying the biological interactions of sugars.  Raised and educated in New York City, I received a B.S. in Biochemistry from nearby Stony Brook University in 1977.  I then began a fruitful southerly migration, entering graduate school at Duke, where I worked with Robert Hill and obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry 1982.  

    I continued southward to UT Southwestern in Dallas for a postdoctoral fellowship with Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein in 1983. This experience was highly rewarding for me, and I decided to stay at UT Southwestern, where I am currently a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology.

    My training at Duke and UT Southwestern led me to an interest in glycobiology. This is an emerging field that studies essential roles of sugars, in all domains of life, but roles that are not directly related to nutrition or energy metabolism.

    In glycobiology, we study well-known sugars like glucose, and lesser known structural cousins such as mannose, as parts of polymers (glycans). These glycans can be free, or covalently attached to proteins and lipids, and are recognized by highly specific glycan-binding proteins called lectins.

    The glycans we study are amazing! They are critically involved in protein sorting and folding, cell-cell interaction, signaling, and pathogen binding, just to name a few examples.

    There are approximately 100 human genetic diseases caused by mistakes in synthesizing these glycans!  Currently, we are studying free glycans as signaling molecules, anti-viral agents, and inducers of autoimmunity.

  • Education
    Undergraduate
    SUNY at Stony Brook (1977)
    Graduate School
    Duke University (1982)
  • Research Interest
    • Glycoconjugates of the Mammalian Endoplasmic Reticulum
    • N-linked Glycosylation and the Dolichol Pathway
    • Rare Metabolic Diseases Involving Sugar Abnormalities
  • Publications

    Star Featured Publications

    Featured Featured Featured Featured Featured Featured
    trappc11 is required for protein glycosylation in zebrafish and humans.
    DeRossi C, Vacaru A, Rafiq R, Cinaroglu A, Imrie D, Nayar S, Baryshnikova A, Milev MP, Stanga D, Kadakia D, Gao N, Chu J, Freeze HH, Lehrman MA, Sacher M, Sadler KC Mol. Biol. Cell 2016 Feb
    Flipping a Lipid-Linked Oligosaccharide? You Must Whip It!
    Lehrman MA Trends Biochem. Sci. 2015 Oct
    Mcl-1 downregulation leads to the heightened sensitivity exhibited by BCR-ABL positive ALL to induction of energy and ER-stress.
    Leclerc GJ, DeSalvo J, Du J, Gao N, Leclerc GM, Lehrman MA, Lampidis TJ, Barredo JC Leuk. Res. 2015 Aug
    Spliced X-box binding protein 1 couples the unfolded protein response to hexosamine biosynthetic pathway.
    Wang ZV, Deng Y, Gao N, Pedrozo Z, Li DL, Morales CR, Criollo A, Luo X, Tan W, Jiang N, Lehrman MA, Rothermel BA, Lee AH, Lavandero S, Mammen PP, Ferdous A, Gillette TG, Scherer PE, Hill JA Cell 2014 Mar 156 6 1179-92
  • Honors & Awards
    • Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund
      Research Fellowship, 1984 - 1985 (0)
    • National Institutes of Health
      Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1983 (0)
    • Regents College Scholarship
      1973 - 1977 (0)
    • Searle Scholars Program
      1987 - 1990 (0)
  • Professional Associations/Affiliations
    • Associate Editor, Glycobiology (2004-2011)
    • Editorial Board, Journal of Biological Chemistry (1994-1998, 2012-2016)
    • President, Society For Glycobiology (2008)
    • Reviewer, Pathobiochemistry Study Section, NIH (1996-2000)