Dr. Lawrences Research Lab Home

I normally have 2 undergraduate students researchers working in my lab at any given time. I currently have room for 2 students in the Fall of 2008 and Spring of 2009. I also have room for students in the summer of 2009. If you're going to be around this semester or summer, please come see me. I'll tell you a little about the work we do as well as how you may fit into what we're doing.

My laboratory works on cell signaling. Cell signaling is the method biological organisms (cells) use to talk to each other and relay information that is critical to the cells health and long term survival. There are literally thousands of cell signaling mechanisms currently known and likely even more that are currently unknown. The field of cell signaling has been exploding for quite some time and there is no end in sight. Because of the huge amount of signaling pathways, we choose to focus on just one method. The signaling mechanism that we study is the Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF) signaling network. IGFs are small peptides that serve as very, very strong messages which tell cells to start growing and dividing. That is a good thing in infants and where we need new cell growth such as wound healing and bone fractures. However, rapid cell growth is not a good thing in many instances. We normally don’t want uncontrolled cell growth and replication as this is the literal definition of cancer. Clearly, we need to closely control any message that tells cells to grow rapidly. Fortunately for us, IGFs are tightly regulated by a series of binding proteins (IGFBPs). These IGFBPs bind IGFs and sequester them away from cells, thus “turning off” IGFs growth signal. In 1999, while working in Cheryl Conver’s lab at the Mayo Clinic, I discovered a protein known as Pregnancy Associated Plasma Protein-A (PAPP-A) that had the ability to remove IGFBPs ability to sequester IGFs. This means that PAPP-A could restore IGFs ability to signal cell growth. PAPP-A has continued to be a most interesting protein to study. It has long been used as a blood marker for Downs Syndrome in pregnant females. It is now being considered as a marker for atherosclerosis and acute coronary disease, just to name a few of the places where PAPP-A activity may be involved. However, there is very little actually known about how and why PAPP-A does what it does. The work that I do centers around understanding PAPP-A activity in humans.