Robert J Bloch
 

Robert J Bloch Ph.D.
Academic Title: Professor
Primary Appointment: Physiology
rbloch@umaryland.edu
Location: HSF-I, 580C
Phone: (410) 706-3020
Fax: (410) 706-8341
Lab: (410) 706-2665

Personal History

EDUCATION

1967: A.B., Columbia University, Biological Sciences
1972: Ph.D., Harvard University, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Current

1990-present: Professor, with tenure, Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.

2007-present: System Affiliate Professor, Medical Biotechnology Center, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute

Previous

1989-1990: Erna and Jacob Michael Visiting Professor, Department of Chemical Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

1985-1990: Associate Professor, with tenure, Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

1980-1985: Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

1976-1980: Research Associate, Neurobiology Laboratory, The Salk Institute, San Diego, CA.

1972-1976: Postdoctoral Fellow, Biozentrum der Universitaet, Basel, Switzerland.

1967-1972: Graduate Student, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Program, Harvard University.

Research Interests

* Organization of the Plasma Membrane and Intracellular Membranes in Excitable Cells
* Acetylcholine Receptors
* Synapse Formation
* Organization and Myofibrillogenesis of Striated Muscle Membrane-associated Cytoskeleton
* Muscular Dystrophies and Related Cardiomyopathies

Lab Techniques and Equipment

* Cell and Molecular Biology
* Muscle Physiology
* Biacore and Surface Plasmon Resonance

Laboratory Personnel:

  • Rich Lovering (Assistant Professor) Effects of eccentric injury on the stability of the sarcolemma and the organization of costameres in skeletal muscle.
  • Patrick Reed (Research Associate) Proteomic studies of Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy.
  • Wendy Resneck (Senior Research Assistant) Protein chemistry, immunological techniques and their application to studies of muscle and muscular dystrophy.
  • Joaquin Muriel-Gonzalez (Research Associate) Structure and function of intermediate filaments in skeletal muscle.
  • Yinghua Zhang (Research Associate) Studies of protein-protein interaction with surface plasmon resonance.
  • Diana Ford-Speelman (Postdoctoral Fellow) Obscurin signaling through Rho A.  
  • Joseph A. Roche (Postdoctoral Fellow) Dysferlin, membrane repair and muscle injury.
  • Andrew Ziman (Postdoctoral Fellow) Calcium stores in the sarcoplasmic reticulum and calcium signaling in mammalian skeletal muscle.
  • Dana Di Pasquale (Postdoctoral Fellow) Physiological changes in healthy and dystrophic muscle following injury.
  • Chris Willis (Graduate Student) Molecular biological and molecular modeling studies of the interactions of the giant cytoskeletal protein, obscurin, with a small form of ankyrin in the sarcoplasmic reticulum of striated muscle.
  • Jackie Kerr (Graduate Student) Molecular biological studies of the intermediate filament protein, synemin, in cardiac and skeletal muscleand of the signaling domains of obscurin and the proteins with which they interact.
  • Andrea O’Neill (Senior Research Assistant) Cell and molecular studies of mice null for intermediate filament proteins, especially keratins and desmin.
  • Lisa Ru (Research Assistant) Physiological studies of skeletal muscle and muscle injury.
  • Allison Densmore (Research Assistant) Morphological, biochemical and proteomic studies of dystrophic skeletal muscle.
  • Suzanne Ventura (Program Coordinator)

Grants and Contracts:

My current grants are from the NIH (two RO1s and a subcontract awarded as part of a Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center), the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Jain Foundation. I also serve as PI of UMB's longest standing predoctoral training grant from the NIH (now in year 23).



Publications

Porter, G.A., Dmytrenko, G.M., Winkelmann, J.C. and Bloch, R.J. (1992) Dystrophin Colocalizes with Beta-Spectrin in Distinct Subsarcolemmal Domains in Mammalian Skeletal Muscle. J. Cell Biol. 117:997-1005.

Luther, P.W., Samuelsson, S.J., Bloch, R.J. and Pumplin, D.W. (1996) Rotary Replication of the Neuromuscular Junction: Structures Associated with the Cytoplasmic Surface of Postjunctional Sarcolemma. J. Neurocytol. 25:417-427.

Porter, G.A., Scher, M.G., Resneck, W.G., Porter, N.C., Fowler, V. and Bloch, R.J. (1997) Two Populations of Beta-Spectrin in Rat Skeletal Muscle. Cell Motil. Cytoskel. 37:7-19.

Zhou, D., Birkenmeier, C.S., Williams, M., Sharp, J.J., Barker, J.E. and Bloch, R.J. (1997) Small, Membrane-bound, Alternatively Spliced Forms of Ankyrin 1 Associated with the Sarcoplasmic Reticulum of Mammalian Skeletal Muscle. J.Cell Biol. 136:621-631.

De Deyne, P., O'Neill, A., Resneck, W.G., Dmytrenko, G.M., Pumplin, D.W. and Bloch, R.J. (1998) Vitronectin Receptor Associated with Clathrin-Coated Membrane Domains through the Cytoplasmic Sequence of the Alpha-5 Subunit. J. Cell Sci. 111:2729-2740.

Bezakova, G. and Bloch, R.J. (1998) The Zinc Finger Domain of the 43K Receptor-Associated Protein, Rapsyn: Role in Acetylcholine Receptor Clustering. Molec. Cell. Neurosci. 11:274-288.

Zhou, D., Ursitti, J.A. and Bloch, R.J. (1998) Developmental Expression of Spectrins in Rat Skeletal Muscle. Molec. Biol. Cell 9:47-61.

Williams, M.W. and Bloch, R.J. (1999) Extensive but Coordinated Reorganization of the Membrane Skeleton in Myofibers of Dystrophic (mdx) Mice. J. Cell Biol. 144:1259-1270.  

Ursitti, J.A., Martin, L.A., Chaney, T., Zielke, C., Alger, B.E. and Bloch, R.J. (2001) Spectrin Expression and Localization in the Developing Hippocampus of the Rat. Devel. Brain Res. 129:81-93.

Williams, M.W., Resneck, W.G., Kaysser, T., Ursitti, J.A., Birkenmeier, C.S., Barker, J.E. and Bloch, R.J. (2001) Na,K-ATPase in Skeletal Muscle: Two Populations of Beta-Spectrin Control Localization in the Sarcolemma but not Partitioning Between the Sarcolemma and the Transverse Tubules J. Cell Sci. 114:751-762.

O'Neill, A., Williams, M.W., Resneck, W.G., Milner, D.J., Capetanaki, Y. and Bloch, R.J. (2002) Sarcolemmal Reorganization in Skeletal Muscle Lacking Desmin: Evidence for Cytokeratins Associated with the Membrane Skeleton at Costameres. Molec. Biol. Cell 13: 2347-2359.

Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos, A., and Bloch, R.J. (2003) The Hydrophilic Domain of Small Ankyrin 1 Interacts with the Two NH2-terminal Immunoglobulin Domains of Titin. J. Biol. Chem. 238: 3985-3991

Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos, A., Jones, E.M., Van Rossum, D.B. and Bloch, R.J. (2003) Obscurin is a Ligand for Small Ankyrin 1 in Skeletal Muscle. Molec. Biol. Cell 14: 1138-1148.

Antolik, C., De Deyne, P. and Bloch, R.J. (2003). Biolistic Transfection of Myotubes in Culture. Science STKE 2003, pl 11.

Lencesova, L., O’Neill, A., Resneck, W.G., Bloch, R.J. and Blaustein, M.P. (2003) Plasma Membrane-Cytoskeleton-Endoplasmic Reticulum Complexes in Neurons and Astrocytes. J. Biol. Chem. 279:2885-2893.

Ursitti, J.A., McNally, M., O’Neill, A., Resneck, W.G. and Bloch, R.J. (2004). Cloning and Characterization of Cytokeratins 8 and 19 in Adult Rat Striated Muscle. J. Biol. Chem. 279(40):41830-41838.

Reed, P. and Bloch, R.J. (2004) The Sarcolemma in the Largemyd Mouse. Muscle & Nerve. 30:585-595 

Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos, A., Catino, D.C., Randall, W.R. and Bloch, R.J. (2004) Obscurin Regulates the Organization of Myosin into A-Bands Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol.  287:C209-C217

Borzok, M.A., D.H. Catino, J.D. Nicholson, A. Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos and R.J. Bloch (2007) Mapping the Binding Site on Small Ankyrin 1 for Obscurin. J. Biol. Chem. 282, 32384-32396.

Reed, P.W., A.M. Corse, N.C. Porter, K.M. Flanigan and R.J. Bloch (2007) Abnormal expression of mu-crystallin in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Exptl. Neurol. 205, 583-586.

Stone, M.R., A. O'Neill, R.M. Lovering, P.W. Reed, J. Strong, W.G. Resneck, P.C. Lee, D.M. Toivola, J.A. Ursitti, M.B. Omary and R. J. Bloch (2007) Absence of Keratin 19 in Mice Causes Skeletal Myopathy with Mitochondrial and Sarcolemmal Reorganization. J. Cell Sci. 120, 3999-4008.

Bowman, A.L., D. Catino, W.R. Randall, A. Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos and R.J. Bloch (2008) The Rho-GEF Domain of Obscurin Binds to RanBP9 and Regulates Assembly of Titin at the Z-line, Mol. Biol. Cell 19:3782-3792

Roche, J.A., R.M. Lovering and R.J. Bloch (2008) Impaired recovery of dysferlin-null skeletal muscle after contraction-induced injury in vivo. NeuroReport 19:1579-1584.

Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos, A., M.A. Ackerman, A.L. Bowman, S.L. Yap and R.J. Bloch (2009) Muscle Giants: Molecular Scaffolds in Sarcomerogenesis. Physiol. Rev. 89:1217-1267.

Ford-Speelman, D.L., A.L. Bowman, and R.J. Bloch (2009) The RhoGEF Domain of Obscurin Activates RhoA Signaling in Skeletal Muscle. Mol. Biol. Cell 20:3905-3917.

Roche, J.A., R.M. Lovering, R. Roche, P.W. Reed and R.J. Bloch. Extensive mononuclear infiltration and myogenesis characterize the recovery of dysferlin-null skeletal muscle from contraction-induced injuries. Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol., in press.




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