Peter J McKinnon, Ph.D.

Peter J McKinnon, Ph.D.

Department of Genetics and Tumor
Cell Biology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Affiliated Professor
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology


St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Department Genetics & Tumor Cell Biology
262 Danny Thomas Place
Memphis, TN 38105
Phone (901) 595-2700
Fax (901) 525-6035
Email: Peter J McKinnon



Education

  • Ph.D. Institution: The Flinders Universiry of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
  • Postdoctoral: The Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, New Jersey

Link

Research Interests

Our goal is to understand the role of the DNA damage response in the nervous system, and how this functions to prevent disease. The response to genotoxic stress is a prerequisite for development of the nervous system. Mutations in a variety of DNA damage-response factors can lead to human diseases that are characterized by pronounced neuropathology. In many of these syndromes the neurological component is amongst the most deleterious aspects of the disease. Because the nervous system poses a particular challenge in terms of clinical intervention, understanding how DNA repair deficiency impacts the nervous system will be important for design of therapies targeted at ameliorating neuropathology including neurodegeneration and brain tumors. For more information please see: http://www.stjude.org/mckinnon

Representative Publications

  • Rangachari M, Zhu C, Sakuishi K, Xiao S, Karman J, Chen A, Angin M, Wakeham A, Greenfield EA, Sobel RA, Okada H, McKinnon PJ, Mak TW, Addo MM, Anderson AC, Kuchroo VK. Bat3 promotes T cell responses and autoimmunity by repressing Tim-3–mediated cell death and exhaustion. Nat Med. 2012 Sep;18(9):1394-400. PubMed PMID: 22863785; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3491118.
  • DeWire MD, Beltran C, Boop FA, Helton KJ, Ellison DW, McKinnon PJ, Gajjar A, Pai Panandiker AS. Radiation therapy and adjuvant chemotherapy in a patient with a malignant glioneuronal tumor and underlying ataxia telangiectasia: a case report and review of the literature. J Clin Oncol. 2013 Jan 1;31(1):e12-4. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2011.40.1430. Epub 2012 Jun 11. PubMed PMID: 22689803.
  • Lee Y, Katyal S, Downing SM, Zhao J, Russell HR, McKinnon PJ. Neurogenesis requires TopBP1 to prevent catastrophic replicative DNA damage in early progenitors. Nat Neurosci. 2012 Jun;15(6):819-26. doi: 10.1038/nn.3097. PubMed PMID: 22522401; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3404252.
  • Boboila C, Oksenych V, Gostissa M, Wang JH, Zha S, Zhang Y, Chai H, Lee CS, Jankovic M, Saez LM, Nussenzweig MC, McKinnon PJ, Alt FW, Schwer B. Robust chromosomal DNA repair via alternative end-joining in the absence of X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 1 (XRCC1). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Feb 14;109(7):2473-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1121470109. Epub 2012 Jan 30. Erratum in: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 2;110(14):5731. PubMed PMID: 22308491; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3289296.
  • Lee Y, Shull ER, Frappart PO, Katyal S, Enriquez-Rios V, Zhao J, Russell HR, Brown EJ, McKinnon PJ. ATR maintains select progenitors during nervous system development. EMBO J. 2012 Mar 7;31(5):1177-89. doi: 10.1038/emboj.2011.493. Epub 2012 Jan 20. PubMed PMID: 22266795; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3298000.
  • McKinnon PJ. ATM and the molecular pathogenesis of ataxia telangiectasia. Annu Rev Pathol. 2012;7:303-21. doi: 10.1146/annurev-pathol-011811-132509. Epub 2011 Oct 24. Review. PubMed PMID: 22035194.

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