Wisconsin Discovery Portal

Researcher's Profile

Last Name

White 

First Name

John 

Middle Initial

Areas of Research Expertise

* Researches how a cell in developing metazoan cleaves and how the two daughter cells can aquire different fates
* Studies developing embryos of the C. Elegans nematode
* Develops optical instrumentation to facilitate observations of C. Elegans embryos in vivo to visualize the dynamics of the cytoskeleton during cell cleavage
* Cell fusions

Web site

The White Lab Website 

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

 

Current/Active Funding

 

Issued Patent(s)

  • 6,687,000 - Photon-sorting spectroscopic microscope system, granted Feb 2004.
  • 6,169,289 - Signal enhancement for fluorescence microscopy, granted Jan 2001.

USPTO Published Applications

  • 20080212867 - Use of Endogenous Fluorescence to Identify Invading Metastatic Breast Tumor Cells, published Sep 2008.
  • 20080015448 - Stromal Collagen in the Diagnosis and Characterization of Breast Cancer, published Jan 2008.

Recent Publication(s)

  • "RAB-11 permissively regulates spindle alignment by modulating metaphase microtubule dynamics in Caenorhabditis elegans early embryos"

Zhang H, Squirrell JM, White JG, Mol Biol Cell 19 (6): 2553-2565 Jun 2008. We hypothesize that RAB-11, in conjunction with the ER, acts to regulate cell cycle-specific changes in astral microtubule length to ensure proper spindle alignment in Caenorhabditis elegans early embryos. Pubmed.

  • "Collagen density promotes mammary tumor initiation and progression"

Provenzano PP, Inman DR, Eliceiri KW, et al., BMC Medicine 6 (11): Apr 2008. To study the effects of collagen density on mammary tumor formation and progression, we utilized a bi-transgenic tumor model with increased stromal collagen in mouse mammary tissue. Imaging of the tumors and tumor-stromal interface in live tumor tissue was performed with multiphoton laser-scanning microscopy to generate multiphoton excitation and spectrally resolved fluorescent lifetimes of endogenous fluorophores. Second harmonic generation was utilized to image stromal collagen.

  • "Src and Wnt signaling regulate dynactin accumulation to the P2-EMS cell border in C. elegans embryos"

Zhang H, Skop AR, White JG, Journal of Cell Science 121 (2): 155-161 Jan 2008. Here, we describe how components of the dynactin complex became locally enriched at the P2-EMS border prior to and during rotational alignment of their spindles. Wnt and Src signaling were required for both localized dynactin enrichment, and for rotational alignment of the P2 and EMS spindles.

  • "In vivo multiphoton microscopy of NADH and FAD redox states, fluorescence lifetimes, and cellular morphology in precancerous epithelia"

Skala MC, Riching KM, Gendron-Fitzpatrick A, et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104 (49): 19494-19499 Dec 2007. This study combines cellular redox ratio, NADH and FAD lifetime, and subcellular morphology imaging in three dimensions to identify intrinsic sources of metabolic and structural contrast in vivo at the earliest stages of cancer development. There was a significant (P < 0.05) increase in the nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio (NCR) with depth within the epithelium in normal tissues; however, there was no significant change in NCR with depth in precancerous tissues.

Recent Artistic Works

 

Collaboration

 

Research Tools

 

Research Facilities

 

E-mail Address

jwhite1@facstaff.wisc.edu 

Phone Number

(608) 265-4813 

Current University

UW - Madison 

Department

Anatomy / Biomedical Engineering 

Title

Professor 

Other Appointments

 

Address Line 1

401A Bock Laboratories 

Address Line 2

1525 Linden Drive 

City

Madison 

State

WI 

Zip Code

53706 

Bachelor's Degree

 

Master's Degree

 

PhD

PhD, University of Cambridge, England, 1974

Other Degrees

 

Technologies Available for Licensing

Attachments
Created at 6/12/2007 2:07 PM  by Mindy Dawson 
Last modified at 5/19/2010 1:18 PM  by EXTWEB\alarson