BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

 

NAME

Paul  Christopher Roberts

POSITION TITLE

Associate Professor, Dept. of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, VA

eRA COMMONS USER NAME

 

EDUCATION/TRAINING

INSTITUTION AND LOCATION

DEGREE

(if applicable)

YEAR(s)

FIELD OF STUDY

Davidson College (Davidson, NC)

BS

1984

Biology

Philipps-Universität Marburg (Marburg, Germany)

MS

1988

Microbiology

Philipps-Universität Marburg (Marburg, Germany)

PhD

1992

Microbiology/Virology

Emory University (Atlanta, GA)

Postdoctoral

1992-1996

Microbiology/Virology

A.  Positions and Honors (selected):

Positions and Employment

1992 - 1996      Research Associate, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

1996 – 1999      Senior Research Associate, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

1999 -  2007     Assistant Professor, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI.

2007-Present    Associate Professor, Biomedical Science and Pathobiology, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Honors and Other Experience (Selected)

2002              Wayne State University, School of Medicine Teaching Award

2006              Wayne State University, School of Medicine Teaching Award

2003                  Member, NIH Study Section VR-3, July

2005-2006        Member, NIH Study Section  ZRG1 IDM-B

2006                  Member, DOD OC-1 Study Section, May

2006-Present    Member, NIH Study Section ZRG1 IDM-10 “Bugs and Drugs”

Professional Societies:  American Society of Virology, American Association of Cancer Research, American Society of Microbiology.

Reviewer: Journal of Virology, Virology, Virus Research, Cell Motility and Cytoskeleton, and European Journal of Cancer.

Patents:

Virus vaccines comprising envelope-bound immunomodulatory proteins and methods of use thereof. Inventors: Sundick, RS, Yang, Y, Roberts, PC. US Provisional filed 7/8/2005

 

B. Selected peer-reviewed publications, abstracts and review articles.

Stieneke-Grober, A., M. Vey, H. Angliker, E. Shaw, G. Thomas, P.C. Roberts, H.-D. Klenk and W. Garten. 1992.  Influenza virus hemagglutinin with a multibasic cleavage site is activated by furin, a subtilisin-like endoprotease.  EMBO J., 11:2407-2414.

Roberts, P.C., W. Garten and H.-D. Klenk.  1993.  The role of conserved glycosylation sites in maturation and transport of influenza A virus hemagglutinin.  J. Virol., 67:3048-3060.

Hughey, P.G., P.C. Roberts, L.J. Holsinger, S.L. Zebedee, R.A. Lamb and R.W. Compans.  1995.  Effects of antibody to the influenza A virus M2 protein on M2 surface expression and virus assembly.  Virology 212:411-421.

Roberts, P.C., P.G. Hughey, L.J. Holsinger, R.A. Lamb and R.W. Compans.  1996.  Effect of influenza A virus M2 protein on virus assembly and release.  In: “Options for the Control of Influenza III”.  (eds. L.E. Brown, A.W. Hampson and R.G. Webster), International Conference Series, Elsevier, pp 351-356.

Marschall, M., A. Shuler, A. Hechtfischer, A. Helten, C. Boswald, H. Meier-Ewert, D.M. Blau, P.C. Roberts and R.W. Compans.  1996.  A tissue culture model of viral persistence for an orthomyxovirus.  In: “Options for the Control of Influenza III”.  (eds. L.E. Brown, A.W. Hampson and R.G. Webster), International Conference Series, Elsevier, pp 455-560.

Roberts, P.C., A. Lamb and R.W. Compans.  1998.  The M1 and M2 proteins of influenza A virus are important determinants of virus morphology.  Virology 240:127-137.

Schmelz, E.-M., M. Dombrink-Kurtzman, Roberts, P.C., Y. Kozutsumi, T. Kawasaki and A.H. Merrill, Jr.  1998.  Induction of apoptosis by fumonisin B1 in HT29 cells is mediated by accumulation of free sphingoid bases.  Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., 148:252-260.

Roberts, P.C. and R.W. Compans.  1998.  Host cell dependence of virus morphology.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 95:5746-5751.

Roberts, P. C., T. Kipperman, R. W. Compans. (1999).  The VSV G protein acquires pH-independent fusion activity during transport in a polarized endometrial cell line. J. Virol. 73, 10447-10457.

S. Balachandran**, P. C. Roberts**, T. Kipperman, R. W. Compans, D. R. Archer, K. N. Bhalla, and G. N. Barber.  (2000).  Alpha/Beta interferons potentiate virus-induced apoptosis through activation of the FADD/Caspase-8 Death Signaling pathway.   J. Virol. 74: 1513-1523. **First two authors contributed equally.

S. Balachandran, P. C. Roberts, D. R. Archer, K. N. Bhalla, and G. N. Barber.   (2000). Essential role for the dsRNA-dependent protein kinase, PKR, in innate immunity to viral infection.  Immunity, 13: 129-141.

Schmelz, E.M., Roberts, P.C., Kustin, E.M., Lemonnier, L.A, Sullards, M.C., Dillehay, D.L., and Merrill, A.H., Jr. (2001) Modulation of intracellular ß-catenin localization and intestinal tumorigenesis in vivo and in vitro by sphingolipids.  Cancer Res. 61: 6723-6729.

L. Gregoire, E.M. Schmelz, A. Munkarah, R. Rabbah, P. C. Roberts, and W. D. Lancaster.  (2001). Spontaneous Malignant Transformation of Human Ovarian Surface Epithelial Cells in Vitro.  Clinical Cancer Research  7: 4280-4287.

Prachi P. Trivedi, Paul C. Roberts, Norbert A. Wolf, and Robert H. Swanborg.  (2005).  NK Cells Inhibit T Cell Proliferation via p21-Mediated Cell Cycle Arrest.  J. Immunol.  Volume 174 / No. 8/April 15th.

Roberts, P.C., Mottillo, E.P., Baxa, A., Reale, N., Gregoire, L., Rabah, R., Lancaster, W.D., and Schmelz, E.M. (2005) Sequential molecular and cellular events during neoplastic progression: a mouse syngeneic ovarian cancer model.  Neoplasia 7 (10) 944-956.

Lin Tang, Paul C. Roberts, Janice M. Kraniak, Qunfang Li, ,  and Michael A. Tainsky.  (2006).  STAT1 expression is not sufficient to regulate interferon-signaling pathway in cellular immortalization. J Interferon and Cytokine Res. 26 (1) 14-26.

Aviva Levine Fridman, L. Tang, O. I. Kulaeva, B. Y., Q.  Li, P. C. Roberts, J. Abrams, M. A. Tainsky.  (2006).   Expression Profiling Identifies Three Pathways Altered in Cellular Immortalization:  Interferon, Cell Cycle and Cytoskeleton.,  J  Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, 61 (9) 879-89.

Prachi P. Trivedi, Taba K. Amouzegar, Paul C. Roberts, Norbert A. Wolf, and Robert H. Swanborg. (2006). Regulation of Adaptive Immunity by cells of the the innate immune system: Bone marrow natural killer cells inhibit T cell proliferation. "Crossroads between Innate and Adaptive Immunity", Proceedings of the Aegean Conference, in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology,  Springer Verlag.

Janice Speshock, N. Doyon-Reale, R. Rabah, M. Neely and P.C. Roberts. (2007). Filamentous influenza A virus infection predisposes mice to fatal septicemia following superinfection with Streptococcus pneumoniae (serotype 3).  Infection and Immunity 75 (6) 3102-3111.

Amouzegar,  T. K. Trivedi, P.P, N.A. Wolf, P.C. Roberts, R. H. Swanborg. (2008). A Unique Subset of Bone Marrow-Derived Natural Killer Cells Regulates T Cell Activation. (J. Leukocyte Biology; in press)

Yufang Yang, David Legget, Andrew Herbert, Roy S. Sundick and Paul C. Roberts. (2008). A novel method to incorporate cytokines as adjuvants on the surface of whole, virus vaccines. (submitted to J. Interferon and Cytokine Research)

Andrew Herbert, Nicole Doyon-Reale, Roy S. Sundick and Paul C. Roberts. (2008). Membrane-bound Cytokines Augment Influenza Virus Vaccines and Protect Against Lethal Challenge in Mice. (submitted to J. Interferon and Cytokine Research)

 

C. Research Support.

 

NIH R21-AI065591                                                                      4/01/06-3/31/2009

PI: Paul Christopher Roberts (25% Effort)

Avian Influenza Virus Vaccines Bearing Immunomodulators. 

The major goals are to assess the in vivo efficacy of novel inactivated influenza vaccines bearing chicken derived membrane-bound cytokines.  The animal challenge model is chicken.

USDA Hatch Program                                                                7/1/07-6/30/08

PI: Paul Christopher Roberts (5% Effort)

Novel Influenza Virus Vaccines bearing human-specific Immunomodulators.

Co-I: RM Gogal and S Witonsky.

 

NCI/NIH R01-CA109019 (PI: EM Schmelz)                                8/1/05- 7/30/2010  

Co-I: Paul Christopher Roberts (10% Effort)                           

Tumor Suppression by sphingolipids: role of b-catenin.

The major goal is to define how sphingolipids regulate the beta catenin signaling pathway in colon cancer.

 

NCI/NIH R01-CA118846 (PI: EM Schmelz)                                  7/1/07-6/30/11

Co-PI: Paul Christopher Roberts (20% Effort)

Regulation of Gene Silencing by Exogenous Sphingosine.

This project determines the mechanisms of how exogeneous sphingosine regulates gene silencing in a progressive model of mouse ovarian cancer that was developed in our laboratory.