
Peter Thorpe
Columbia University
Medical
Center
College of Physicians & Surgeons
Department of
Genetics & Development
701 West 168th Street
Hammer Building, Room 1606
New York, NY
10032 USA
Tel. +1 212 305 1734
Fax. +1 212 923 2090
E-mail

I am an associate research scientist in Rodney Rothstein's laboratory
at
Columbia University, located within the Medical
Center at 168th
Street in New York City. I have developed a new model of asymmetric
cell division, a process that is essential for establishing
diverse cell lineages during the development of complex organisms. This
pattern of cell division continues to be crucial in the adult, where stem cell populations undergo
repeated asymmetric divisions in order to both maintain a stem cell
lineage and simultaneously replace differentiated cells. I have also
developed novel, powerful high-throughput microscopy tools to rapidly
screen the localization, levels and dynamics of any yeast protein in a
library of nearly 5000 gene deletions and integrate them into a visual
dataset of proteomic interactions. We are now employing high-throughput
microscopy screens to identify the genes responsible for asymmetric cell
division and kinetochore function. A long-term and ambitious goal is to
construct a systems-level microscopy dataset comprising images that
describe the localization and concentration of every yeast protein, at
every point of the cell cycle and in every viable yeast mutant, linked
to other systems level yeast data.
Publications
| 16. | Thorpe, P.H. Bruno, J. Rothstein, R. 2009. Kinetochore asymmetry defines a single yeast lineage. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106; 6673-6678. |
| 15. | Thorpe, P.H. Bruno, J. Rothstein, R. 2008. Modeling Stem Cell Asymmetry in Yeast. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. Quant. Biol. 73; 81-88. |
| 14. | Thorpe, P.H. González-Barrera, S. and Rothstein, R. 2007. More is not always better: the genetic constraints of polyploidy. Trends in Genetics 6; 263-266. |
| 13. | Cagney, G. Alvaro, D. Reid, R.J. Thorpe, P.H. Rothstein, R. and Krogan, N.J. 2006. Functional genomics of the yeast DNA-damage response. Genome Biol. 7: 233. |
| 12. | Thorpe, P.H. Marrero, V.A. Savitzky, M.H. Sunjevaric, I. Freeman, T.C. and Rothstein, R. 2006. Cells expressing murine RAD52 splice variants favor sister chromatid repair. Mol. Cell Biol. 26; 3752-3763. |
| 11. | Simpson, A.J. King, J.A. Thorpe, P.H. McLachlan, G. and Sallenave, J-M. 2004. Towards gene therapy for inflammatory and infective pulmonary diseases. Current Genomics. 5; 365-383. |
| 10. | Thorpe, P. Stevenson, B.J. and Porteous D.J. 2002. Optimising gene repair strategies in cell culture. Gene Therapy 9; 700-702. |
| 9. | Thorpe, P.H. Stevenson, B.J. and Porteous D.J. 2002. Functional correction of episomal mutations with short DNA fragments and RNA-DNA oligonucleotides. J. Gene Medicine 4; 195-204. |
| 8. | Thorpe, P.H.; Stevenson, B.J.; and Porteous D.J. 2002. Analysing Mammalian Gene Repair Using GFP. Mol. Ther. 5;402 p.S132. |
| 7. | Thorpe, P.H.; Stevenson, B.J.; and Porteous, D.J. 2001. Comparing two strategies for functional gene correction. Mol. Ther. 3;1143 p.S401. |
| 6. | Thorpe, P.H.; Stevenson,B.J.; Gohil, A; and Porteous, D.J. 2000. Towards CFTR Gene Correction: A Comparison of two key strategies. Pediatric Pulmonology S20; (244) p.241. |
| 5. | Thorpe, P.H. and Porteous, D.J. 1999. Rapid quantitation of gene therapy specific CFTR expression using the Amplification Refractory Mutation System. Biotechniques. 27 (1);122-127. |
| 4. | Thorpe, P.H.; McLachlan, G.; Davidson-Smith, H.; Stevenson, B.J.; and Porteous, D.J. 1998. Sensitive assays to monitor the efficiency of delivery and expression of gene therapy vectors for cystic fibrosis. Pediatric Pulmonology S17; (253) p.271. |
| 3. | Thorpe, P.H. Ternent, D. and Murray, N.E. 1997. The Specificity of StySKI, a type I restriction enzyme, implies a structure with rotational symmetry. Nucleic Acids Research. 25. 1694-1700. |
| 2. | Dryden, D.T.F. Cooper, L.P. Thorpe, P.H. and Byron, O. 1997. The in vitro assembly of the EcoKI type I DNA restriction/modification enzyme and its in vivo implications. Biochemistry 36. 1065-1076. |
| 1. | Thorpe, P.H. 1995. Ph.D Thesis. Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, Edinburgh University, UK. The DNA Specificity of Type I Restriction and Modification Enzymes. |
Biography
I completed a PhD with Noreen Murray
at the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology (now ICB)
at Edinburgh University looking at the DNA specificity of restriction
and
modification systems of bacteria. This work exploited the powerful
genetics of lambda and E.
coli to determine DNA specificities
of novel restriction enzymes and illuminate the mechanisms of evolution
and adaptation for these enzymes.
Subsequently I moved to the MRC Human
Genetics Unit (and later Medical
Genetics Section, Edinburgh University) with David Porteous studying
gene
therapy for Cystic Fibrosis (CF). My project involved designing and
developing new assays that sensitively measure gene therapy in
clinical trials. From 1999-2002 I pursued a CF-trust award to explore the
possibility of using DNA repair as a therapy for
Cystic Fibrosis. This
project was focused upon manipulating the
mechanisms of DNA repair (and more
specifically homologous recombination) in mammalian cells. This work
became part of the UK CF gene therapy
consortium.
In 2002 I moved to the Department of Genetics &
Development at Columbia
University (New York) to work with Rodney
Rothstein's group on the mechanisms of homologous recombination. Our
work
focuses upon the genes and proteins that are responsible for this
process and their role in determining the recombination status of
different cells. Recently, we have focused our attention on stem cells.
A long term goal of this work is to efficiently manipulate the
genome of patient-matched stem cells
(such as
IPS cells) to correct mutations
responsible for diseases such as CF. We believe that the asymmetric
division of
adult stem cells provides both a means to identify them but also a
potential barrier to
genetic recombination.
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Disclaimer: The information provided on these pages is not
guaranteed to
be accurate, I would appreciate if you would e-mail me with any errors
you find. Any views expressed are entirely my own and do not necessarily
reflect
those of my employers or other Columbia University
staff/students. Last Updated June 09.