Douglas Spicer, Ph.D.

Center for Molecular Medicine
Maine Medical Center Research Institute
81 Research Drive
Scarborough, ME 04074
(207) 885-8150 Office
(207) 885-8176 Lab
(207) 885-8179 Fax
spiced@mmc.org

Biosketch

Doug Spicer is a Principal Investigator at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in the Center for Molecular Medicine. He received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from Boston University School of Medicine. He joined MMCRI in 1999 after finishing a postdoctoral position at Harvard Medical School.

Research Interests

The interests of our laboratory focus on the regulation of cell type specification and differentiation, primarily studying how signal transduction pathways integrate to mediate the transcriptional control of these events. The two major projects that we are currently pursuing in the lab are: (1) Defining the molecular mechanisms governing the terminal differentiation of several different cell types, including muscle, bone, and endothelial cells. One of the goals of this project is to identify common elements of these pathways that when mutated or misregulated result in uncontrolled growth or cancer and may act as entry points for regulating cell growth and differentiation. (2) The second project is to characterize the transcriptional regulation of mesenchymal cell specification and differentiation from the cranial neural crest, which forms many of the bones of the face and skull. We are also contrasting and comparing this with the regulation of mesoderm specification during gastrulation. The neural crest is unique to the vertebrates and the goals of this project are to help shed light on the origin of vertebrates as well as on the mechanisms governing craniofacial development.

Selected Publications

Connerney, J., Andreeva, V., Leshem, Y., Mercado, M.A., K. Dowell, X. Yang, V. Lindner, R.E. Friesel, and D.B. Spicer (2008) Twist1 homodimers enhance FGF responsiveness of the cranial sutures and promote suture closure. Dev. Biol. 318; 323-334. pdf file from Dev. Biol. available until 6/30/2008

Connerney, J., Y. Leshem, V. Andreeva, C. Muentener, M. Mercado, and D.B. Spicer. (2006) Twist dimer selection regulates cranial suture patterning and fusion. Dev. Dyn. 235: 1345-1357.

*Lesham Y., *D.B. Spicer, R. Gal-Levi, G. Shefer, and O. Halevy. (2000). Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) inhibits skeletal muscle differentiation: a role for the bHLH protein Twist and the cdk inhibitor p27. J. Cell Physiol. 184: 101-109.
*equal contribution

Isaac, A., M.J. Cohn, P. Ashby, P. Ataliotis, D.B. Spicer, J. Cooke, C. Tickle (2000). FGF and genes encoding transcription factors in early limb specification. Mech. Dev. 93: 41-48.

*Novitch, B.G., *D.B. Spicer, P.S. Kim, W.L. Cheung, and A.B. Lassar (1999). pRb is required for MEF2-dependent gene expression as well as cell-cycle arrest during skeletal muscle differentiation. Curr. Biol. 9: 449-459.
*equal contribution

Spicer, D.B., J. Rhee, W.L. Cheung, and A.B. Lassar (1996). Inhibition of myogenic bHLH and MEF2 transcription factors by the bHLH protein Twist. Science 272: 1476-1480.

Halevy, O., B.G. Novitch, D.B. Spicer, S.X. Skapek, J. Rhee, G.J. Hannon, D. Beach, and A.B. Lassar (1995). Correlation of terminal cell cycle arrest of skeletal muscle with induction of p21 by MyoD. Science 267: 1018-1021.

Skapek, S.X., J. Rhee, D.B. Spicer, and A.B. Lassar (1995). Inhibition of myogenic differentiation in proliferating myoblasts by cyclin D1-dependent kinase. Science 267: 1022-1024.

Full Publication List

Lab Photo

Left to right: Christian Muentener, Miles Muentener (son of Christian), Doug Spicer, stick diagram of Kris Norenberg (his real image was off sailing), Antonio Barbosa (hours before going back to Portugal), Mona Connerney, Viktoria Andreeva, Dmitri Kovalenko (borrowed from the Friesel lab)