Michael Reese, Ph.D.

Dr. Reese received a B.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University in 1998. While at Yale, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Axel Brunger on structural studies of mammalian vesicular transport proteins (SNAPs and SNAREs). After Yale, Dr. Reese spent two years teaching high school science to gifted students with learning disabilities.

Dr. Reese received a Ph.D. in Biophysics in 2006 from the University of California, San Francisco, where he worked jointly in the laboratories of Dr. Frances Brodsky and Dr. Volker Doetsch on the structural basis for the activities of proteins involved in protein trafficking and neuronal signaling. During his postdoctoral work with John Boothroyd at Stanford University, Dr. Reese made the surprising discovery that a family of catalytically inactive kinases, or pseudokinases, are essential to Toxoplasma's ability to cause disease in mice.  Dr. Reese went on to demonstrate that these pseudokinases are allosteric inhibitors of the immune-related GTPases, which are critical for the control of a variety of intracellular pathogens.

In the fall of 2013, Dr. Reese joined the faculty in the Department of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern. His lab is focused on determining the many mechanisms by which the ubiquitous intracellular parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, co-opts the signaling networks of its host organisms. His laboratory combines techniques from multiple disciplines: from classical and molecular genetics and cell biology to biophysics and structural biology. This allows the examination of problems at many levels, from the atomic order structures of protein-protein complexes to the analysis of the signatures of evolutionary competition written in the genomes of the parasite and its hosts.

Undergraduate

Yale University (1998), Molecular Biophysics

Graduate School

University of California-San F (2006), Biophysics

• Biochemistry
• Biophysics
• Cell signaling, kinases, pseudokinases
• Host-pathogen interaction; co-evolution
• Immunology
• Parasitology
• Structural biology

Featured Publications

Toxoplasma ERK7 protects the apical complex from premature degradation.

O'Shaughnessy WJ, Hu X, Henriquez SA, Reese ML, J Cell Biol 2023 Jun 222 6

Cryo-tomography reveals rigid-body motion and organization of apicomplexan invasion machinery.

Gui L, O'Shaughnessy WJ, Cai K, Reetz E, Reese ML, Nicastro D, Nat Commun 2023 Mar 14 1 1775

Ancient MAPK ERK7 is regulated by an unusual inhibitory scaffold required for Toxoplasma apical complex biogenesis.

Back PS, O'Shaughnessy WJ, Moon AS, Dewangan PS, Hu X, Sha J, Wohlschlegel JA, Bradley PJ, Reese ML, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2020 May

Loss of a conserved MAPK causes catastrophic failure in assembly of a specialized cilium-like structure in Toxoplasma gondii.

O'Shaughnessy WJ, Hu X, Beraki T, McDougal M, Reese ML, Mol. Biol. Cell 2020 Apr 31 9 881-888

Divergent kinase regulates membrane ultrastructure of the Toxoplasma parasitophorous vacuole.

Beraki T, Hu X, Broncel M, Young JC, O'Shaughnessy WJ, Borek D, Treeck M, Reese ML Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019

The coccidian parasites Toxoplasma and Neospora dysregulate mammalian lipid droplet biogenesis.

Hu X, Binns D, Reese ML J. Biol. Chem. 2017 May

Polymorphic family of injected pseudokinases is paramount in Toxoplasma virulence.

Reese ML, Zeiner GM, Saeij JP, Boothroyd JC, Boyle JP Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2011 Jun 108 23 9625-30

Divergent kinase WNG1 is regulated by phosphorylation of an atypical activation sub-domain.

Dewangan PS, Beraki TG, Paiz EA, Appiah Mensah D, Chen Z, Reese ML, Biochem J 2022 08

SchistoCyte Atlas: A Single-Cell Transcriptome Resource for Adult Schistosomes.

Wendt GR, Reese ML, Collins JJ, Trends Parasitol 2021 Jul 37 7 585-587

Third-generation sequencing revises the molecular karyotype for Toxoplasma gondii and identifies emerging copy number variants in sexual recombinants.

Xia J, Venkat A, Bainbridge RE, Reese ML, Le Roch KG, Ay F, Boyle JP, Genome Res 2021 May 31 5 834-851

 Featured Books

Interactions Between Toxoplasma Effectors and Host Immune Respones. In Toxoplasma gondii. 2nd edition. K. Kim and L. Weiss (eds.)

Butcher BA, Reese ML, Boothroyd JC, Denkers EY. (2013). London, Academic Press

• Burrough's Wellcome Fund Investigator in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease
  (2022-2027)
• NSF CAREER Award
  (2016)
• UT Southwestern President's Research Council Distinguished Researcher Award
  (2015)
• NIAID K22 Research Scholar Development Award
  Career transition grant (2011-2016)
• American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
  (2009-2011)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow
  (2003-2006)