Mark Lehrman, Ph.D.

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.

Undergraduate

SUNY at Stony Brook (1977)

Graduate School

Duke University (1982)

• Glycoconjugates of the Mammalian Endoplasmic Reticulum
• N-linked Glycosylation and the Dolichol Pathway
• Rare Metabolic Diseases Involving Sugar Abnormalities

Featured Publications

A bioactive mammalian disaccharide associated with autoimmunity activates STING-TBK1-dependent immune response.

Fermaintt CS, Sano K, Liu Z, Ishii N, Seino J, Dobbs N, Suzuki T, Fu YX, Lehrman MA, Matsuo I, Yan N, Nat Commun 2019 May 10 1 2377

Targeting STT3A-oligosaccharyltransferase with NGI-1 causes herpes simplex virus 1 dysfunction.

Lu H, Cherepanova NA, Gilmore R, Contessa JN, Lehrman MA FASEB J. 2019 Feb fj201802044RR

The Lec5 glycosylation mutant links homeobox genes with cholesterol and lipid-linked oligosaccharides.

Lu H, Sathe AA, Xing C, Lehrman MA Glycobiology 2019 02 29 2 106-109

Mammalian STT3A/B oligosaccharyltransferases segregate N-glycosylation at the translocon from lipid-linked oligosaccharide hydrolysis.

Lu H, Fermaintt CS, Cherepanova NA, Gilmore R, Yan N, Lehrman MA Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2018 09 115 38 9557-9562

Oligosaccharyltransferase inhibition induces senescence in RTK-driven tumor cells.

Lopez-Sambrooks C, Shrimal S, Khodier C, Flaherty DP, Rinis N, Charest JC, Gao N, Zhao P, Wells L, Lewis TA, Lehrman MA, Gilmore R, Golden JE, Contessa JN Nat. Chem. Biol. 2016 Oct

Cytosolic Nuclease TREX1 Regulates Oligosaccharyltransferase Activity Independent of Nuclease Activity to Suppress Immune Activation.

Hasan M, Fermaintt CS, Gao N, Sakai T, Miyazaki T, Jiang S, Li QZ, Atkinson JP, Morse HC, Lehrman MA, Yan N Immunity 2015 Aug

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

• 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)

• 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)