Courtney Karner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Download Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Karner is originally from Oklahoma. He earned his Ph.D. at UT Southwestern in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Carroll where he studied WNT signaling in the developing kidney. After this, he received postdoctoral training at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri where he studied the interplay of WNT signaling and cellular metabolism during osteoblast differentiation. He next established his laboratory in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. While at Duke, Dr. Karner identified glutamine as a critical nutrient regulating multiple stages of osteoblast differentiation. Dr. Karner is excited to bring his expertise in developmental bone biology, WNT signaling and amino acid metabolism back to UTSW. His laboratory focuses on the role and regulation of amino acid metabolism during cell fate specification and differentiation with a special emphasis on identifying novel bone forming therapies. Outside of the lab, he has limited personal interests outside of cooking and chauffeuring his children to various sporting or school related events.

• Amino Acid Transport
• Bone Development and Homeostasis
• Cellular Differentiation
• Cellular Metabolism
• Glutamine Metabolism
• Osteoblast/Bone Formation
• Osteoclast/Bone Resorption
• Osteoporosis
• Proline Metabolism
• WNT Signaling

Featured Publications

SLC38A2 provides proline to fulfil unique synthetic demands arising during osteoblast differentiation and bone formation.

Shen L, Yu Y, Zhou Y, Pruett-Miller SM, Zhang GF, Karner CM, Elife 2022 Mar 11

SLC1A5 provides glutamine and asparagine necessary for bone development in mice.

Sharma D, Yu Y, Shen L, Zhang GF, Karner CM, Elife 2021 Oct 10

Biphasic regulation of glutamine consumption by WNT during osteoblast differentiation.

Shen L, Sharma D, Yu Y, Long F, Karner CM, J Cell Sci 2021 Jan 134 1

The Amino Acid Sensor Eif2ak4/GCN2 Is Required for Proliferation of Osteoblast Progenitors in Mice.

Hu G, Yu Y, Tang YJ, Wu C, Long F, Karner CM, J Bone Miner Res 2020 May

Glutamine Metabolism Regulates Proliferation and Lineage Allocation in Skeletal Stem Cells.

Yu Y, Newman H, Shen L, Sharma D, Hu G, Mirando AJ, Zhang H, Knudsen E, Zhang GF, Hilton MJ, Karner CM, Cell Metab 2019 04 29 4 966-978.e4

Increased glutamine catabolism mediates bone anabolism in response to WNT signaling.

Karner CM, Esen E, Okunade AL, Patterson BW, Long F, J Clin Invest 2015 Feb 125 2 551-62

Evaluation of Amino Acid Consumption in Cultured Bone Cells and Isolated Bone Shafts.

Shen L, Karner CM, J Vis Exp 2022 04 182

Distinct roles of glutamine metabolism in benign and malignant cartilage tumors with IDH mutations.

Zhang H, Puviindran V, Nadesan P, Ding X, Shen L, Tang YJ, Tsushima H, Yahara Y, Ban GI, Zhang GF, Karner CM, Alman B, J Bone Miner Res 2022 Feb

Hypertrophic chondrocytes serve as a reservoir for marrow associated skeletal stem and progenitor cells, osteoblasts, and adipocytes during skeletal development.

Long JT, Leinroth A, Liao Y, Ren Y, Mirando AJ, Nguyen T, Guo W, Sharma D, Rouse D, Wu C, Cheah KSE, Karner CM, Hilton MJ, Elife 2022 Feb 11

Bioenergetic Metabolism In Osteoblast Differentiation.

Shen L, Hu G, Karner CM, Curr Osteoporos Rep 2022 Feb

 Featured Books

Endochondral Ossification. In The Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 9th Ed.

Karner, CM, Hilton, MJ (2018).

Whole-mount in situ hybridization. In Skeletal Development and Repair: Methods in Molecular Biology

Sharma D, Hilton, MJ, Karner, CM (2021).

Radiolabeled Amino Acid Uptake Assays in Primary Bone Cells and Bone Explants. In Skeletal Development and Repair: Methods in Molecular Biology

Shen, L, Karner, CM (2021).

• Joe B. Milam Award
  Distinguished Alumnus - East Central University (2017)
• John Haddad Young Investigator Award
  Advances in Mineral MEtabolism (AIMM) and American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) (2017)
• Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Award
  American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (2016)
• Nominata Award
  Best Graduate Thesis - UT Southwestern Medical Center (2010)
• Academic All-American
  College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) (2003)

• Advances in Mineral Metabolism (2017)
• Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) (2016)
• American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) (2012)
• Society for Developmental BIology (SDB) (2010)