Scot Wolfe PHD
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Title Associate Professor
Institution University of Massachusetts Medical School
Department Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology
Address University of Massachusetts Medical School
 364 Plantation Street, LRB-619
 Worcester MA 01605
Telephone 508-856-3953
Email
Other Positions
Institution UMMS - School of Medicine
Department Program in Gene Function & Expression

Institution UMMS - School of Medicine
Department Program in Molecular Medicine

Institution UMMS - Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Department Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology

Institution UMMS - Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Department Bioinformatics & Computational Biology

Institution UMMS - Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Department Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Institution UMMS - Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Department MD/PhD Program

Institution UMMS - Programs, Centers & Institutes
Department Chemical Biology

Institution UMMS - Programs, Centers & Institutes
Department Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology
Narrative

Academic Background

Scot Wolfe received his B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from Caltech in 1990, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Chemistry in 1996. From 1996-2001 he was a post-doctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his work was supported in part by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In 2001, Dr. Wolfe joined the faculty of UMMS.

  

Creating Artifical DNA-Binding Domains for Targeted Gene Regulation and Gene Modification

Scot Wolfe My research program is focused on three inter-related areas:

  • Understanding fundamental aspects of protein-DNA recognition
  • Engineering artificial transcription factors for targeted gene regulation and modification
  • Developing selection technologies to characterize and engineer protein-DNA interactions
Protein-DNA recognition - Our research on protein-DNA recognition is focused primarily on two of the most abundant families of DNA-binding domains in metazoans (see our lab website for more details labs.umassmed.edu/WolfeLab ):

Cys2His2 Zinc fingers & Homeodomains

We have recently performed the first comprehensive analysis of homeodomain specificities in a metazoan (D. melanogaster – fruit fly) in collaboration with Michael Brodsky (UMMS-PGFE) & Gary Stormo (Wash. U) (Noyes et al., Cell 2008).  Using this information we can build simple qualitative models of recognition that allow the design of homeodomains with novel DNA-binding specificity.  This dataset can also be used to broadly predict the specificity of family members from other species  (see ural.wustl.edu/flyhd).  We continue to build upon this work to understand fundamental aspects of DNA-recognition for the homeodomain and zinc finger families with the goal of broadly and accurately predicting the specificity of naturally-occurring family members in all species. These studies will also provide a valuable resource for understanding specificity determinants within each family for rationally engineering the specificity of these DNA-binding domains.
 
B1H selection systems - We continue to develop a bacterial one-hybrid system for rapidly characterizing the DNA-binding specificities of sequence-specific transcription factors, both naturally-occurring and engineered. Using this technology we intend to characterize all of the sequence-specific transcription factors in the D. melanogaster genome in collaboration with the laboratory of Michael Brodsky (UMMS – PGFE).  This dataset will be used to unravel transcription factor regulatory networks within the fly in collaboration with Saurabh Sinha (UI-Urbana Champaign).  We have already begun building computational tools to allow the scientific community to identify cis-regulatory modules using clusters of phylogenetically conserved binding sites for the ~15% of the TFs in the fly genome that we have characterized to date (GenomeSurveyor - biotools.umassmed.edu/genomesurveyor).
 
ZFNs in Zebrafish - We have utilized our selection technology to create zinc finger nucleases that recognize specific genes in the Zebrafish genome in collaboration with Nathan Lawson (UMMS – PGFE).  Zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) are tailor-made restriction endonucleases that can generate a double-stranded break at a specific DNA sequence defined by the specificity of the attached zinc fingers.  Using this technology we have made the first targeted gene knockouts in the zebrafish (Meng et al., Nat. Biotech 2008).  We continue to develop these DNA-targeting and cleavage tools with the goal of creating an accessible resource for model organism communities that will allow them to disrupt, or modify, a desired gene in any model organism.  This technology should revolutionize reverse genetic approaches in most model organisms and may allow the straightforward creation of tailor-made human disease models with profound implications for the development of treatments for a variety of diseases.

 
Publications
1. Zhu C, Smith T, McNulty J, Rayla AL, Lakshmanan A, Siekmann AF, Buffardi M, Meng X, Shin J, Padmanabhan A, Cifuentes D, Giraldez AJ, Look AT, Epstein JA, Lawson ND, Wolfe SA. Evaluation and application of modularly assembled zinc-finger nucleases in zebrafish. Development. 2011 Oct; 138(20):4555-64.
  View in: PubMed
 
2. Lawson ND, Wolfe SA. Forward and reverse genetic approaches for the analysis of vertebrate development in the zebrafish. Dev Cell. 2011 Jul 19; 21(1):48-64.
  View in: PubMed
 
3. Christensen RG, Gupta A, Zuo Z, Schriefer LA, Wolfe SA, Stormo GD. A modified bacterial one-hybrid system yields improved quantitative models of transcription factor specificity. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jul 1; 39(12):e83.
  View in: PubMed
 
4. Zhu LJ, Christensen RG, Kazemian M, Hull CJ, Enuameh MS, Basciotta MD, Brasefield JA, Zhu C, Asriyan Y, Lapointe DS, Sinha S, Wolfe SA, Brodsky MH. FlyFactorSurvey: a database of Drosophila transcription factor binding specificities determined using the bacterial one-hybrid system. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan; 39(Database issue):D111-7.
  View in: PubMed
 
5. Gupta A, Meng X, Zhu LJ, Lawson ND, Wolfe SA. Zinc finger protein-dependent and -independent contributions to the in vivo off-target activity of zinc finger nucleases. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan 1; 39(1):381-92.
  View in: PubMed
 
6. Siekmann AF, Standley C, Fogarty KE, Wolfe SA, Lawson ND. Chemokine signaling guides regional patterning of the first embryonic artery. Genes Dev. 2009 Oct 1; 23(19):2272-7.
  View in: PubMed
 
7. Ince-Cushman A, Rice JE, Reinke M, Greenwald M, Wallace G, Parker R, Fiore C, Hughes JW, Bonoli P, Shiraiwa S, Hubbard A, Wolfe S, Hutchinson IH, Marmar E, Bitter M, Wilson J, Hill K. Observation of self-generated flows in tokamak plasmas with lower-hybrid-driven current. Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Jan 23; 102(3):035002.
  View in: PubMed
 
8. Noyes MB, Christensen RG, Wakabayashi A, Stormo GD, Brodsky MH, Wolfe SA. Analysis of homeodomain specificities allows the family-wide prediction of preferred recognition sites. Cell. 2008 Jun 27; 133(7):1277-89.
  View in: PubMed
 
9. Meng X, Noyes MB, Zhu LJ, Lawson ND, Wolfe SA. Targeted gene inactivation in zebrafish using engineered zinc-finger nucleases. Nat Biotechnol. 2008 Jun; 26(6):695-701.
  View in: PubMed
 
10. Noyes MB, Meng X, Wakabayashi A, Sinha S, Brodsky MH, Wolfe SA. A systematic characterization of factors that regulate Drosophila segmentation via a bacterial one-hybrid system. Nucleic Acids Res. 2008 May; 36(8):2547-60.
  View in: PubMed
 
11. Meng X, Thibodeau-Beganny S, Jiang T, Joung JK, Wolfe SA. Profiling the DNA-binding specificities of engineered Cys2His2 zinc finger domains using a rapid cell-based method. Nucleic Acids Res. 2007; 35(11):e81.
  View in: PubMed
 
12. Meng X, Smith RM, Giesecke AV, Joung JK, Wolfe SA. Counter-selectable marker for bacterial-based interaction trap systems. Biotechniques. 2006 Feb; 40(2):179-84.
  View in: PubMed
 
13. Meng X, Wolfe SA. Identifying DNA sequences recognized by a transcription factor using a bacterial one-hybrid system. Nat Protoc. 2006; 1(1):30-45.
  View in: PubMed
 
14. Meng X, Brodsky MH, Wolfe SA. A bacterial one-hybrid system for determining the DNA-binding specificity of transcription factors. Nat Biotechnol. 2005 Aug; 23(8):988-94.
  View in: PubMed
 
15. Wolfe SA. Mapping key elements of a protein motif. Chem Biol. 2004 Jul; 11(7):889-91.
  View in: PubMed
 
16. Wolfe SA, Grant RA, Pabo CO. Structure of a designed dimeric zinc finger protein bound to DNA. Biochemistry. 2003 Nov 25; 42(46):13401-9.
  View in: PubMed
 
17. Fernández MJ, Adrio JL, Piret JM, Wolfe S, Ro S, Demain AL. Stimulatory effect of growth in the presence of alcohols on biotransformation of penicillin G into cephalosporin-type antibiotics by resting cells of Streptomyces clavuligerus NP1. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 1999 Oct; 52(4):484-8.
  View in: PubMed
 
18. Cho H, Adrio JL, Luengo JM, Wolfe S, Ocran S, Hintermann G, Piret JM, Demain AL. Elucidation of conditions allowing conversion of penicillin G and other penicillins to deacetoxycephalosporins by resting cells and extracts of Streptomyces clavuligerus NP1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Sep 29; 95(20):11544-8.
  View in: PubMed
 
19. Wolfe SW, Gupta A, Crisco JJ. Kinematics of the scaphoid shift test. J Hand Surg Am. 1997 Sep; 22(5):801-6.
  View in: PubMed
 
20. Owen TA, Holthuis J, Markose E, van Wijnen AJ, Wolfe SA, Grimes SR, Lian JB, Stein GS. Modifications of protein-DNA interactions in the proximal promoter of a cell-growth-regulated histone gene during onset and progression of osteoblast differentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Jul; 87(13):5129-33.
  View in: PubMed
 
21. Zhang JY, Wolfe S, Demain AL. Effect of ammonium as nitrogen source on production of delta-(L-alpha-aminoadipyl)-L-cysteinyl-D-valine synthetase by Cephalosporium acremonium C-10. J Antibiot (Tokyo). 1987 Dec; 40(12):1746-50.
  View in: PubMed
 
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Co-Authors  
Brodsky, Michael
Fogarty, Kevin
Lawson, Nathan
Standley, Clive
Zhu, Lihua
See all (8) people
Physical Neighbors  
Korostelev, Andrei
Carruthers, Anthony
Wang, Jie
Dekker, Job
Knight, Kendall

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