EDUCATION

University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI
1995-1998 - Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Kate Barald, PI. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. Research focused on the role of Pax-2 expression in inner ear development using the embryonic chick as a model system
University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
1995 - Ph.D. Department of Biology. Dr. Margaret Wheelock, PI. Thesis: Investigation of P-cadherin function in cell proliferation and differentiation and in tissue formation.
Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
1991 - MS. Department of Biology. Dr. Donald Lindmark, PI. Thesis: Cloning of hydrogenosomal hydrogenase genes from -Tritrichomonas foetus.
Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA
1988 - BS. Biology and French. Studies included a year at the Institute Superior d’Agriculture in Lille, France
(September, 1986 – July, 1987).

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2001-present – Assistant professor, SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo, NY
Basic Biology, Lecture and Lab
Animal Physiology, Lab

Human Physiology, Lecture and Lab

Cell Biology, Lecture

Biology Seminar - Landmarks in Cell Biology
1998-2001 – Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
Cell Biology, Lecture and Lab
Molecular Genetics
Fundamentals of Life Sciences I and II: Basic Biology for majors
Survey of Biology: Biology for nonmajors
1991-1992 - Teaching Assistant, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
Fundamentals of Life Sciences I and II labs
1988-1991 - Teaching Assistant, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
Microbiology Labs for Nursing students and for biology majors
Biology I and II labs
1988-Teaching Assistant, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA
Genetics Lab

STUDENT RESEARCH TRAINING

State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY
Charles Katz - Spring 2005 - present
Adam Strebb - Fall 2004 - Spring 2005.
Daniel Foti, Spring 2004 - present
Miriam Hamouche, Spring 2004 - present
Justin Peters, Spring 2004 - 2005
Lucas Murray, Spring 2003 - 2004 - Lucas is presently a technician at Albert Einstein Medical College. He will be attending graduate school at Duke University in the fall in pursuit of his Ph.D.
Nathan Witkop, Spring 2003 - 2004 - Nathan is now attending Chiropractic College in Chicago, Illinois.
Brian Boeing, Spring 2003 through summer 2003 - Brian is attending graduate school at the University of Hawaii to obtain his Ph.D.
Corinne DePersis, 2001- 2003 - Corinne received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Postbaccalaureate Cancer Research Training Award in Spring, 2003 and has been doing research at the NIH for the past year. She is now attending graduate school at the University of Colorado for a Ph.D.
Rick Hoffmaster, 2001 - 2003, Biochemistry Honors Thesis: Elucidating the mechanism of E-cadherin downregulation by Dex in A431 cells. Rick is currently a MD/Ph.D. student at SUNY Upstate Medical School in Syracuse, New York.
Scott Rudzinski, 2001- 2003. Scott is presently a medical student at the New York Medical College in New York. He is presently doing a summer research internship, as part of his training, at the NIH.
Tracy Teo, 2001 - 2003. Tracy is presently a graduate student in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.Corinne DePersis, 2001- present.

University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
Yara Moubayed, Aug. 2000 – 2001. Honors research project. Yara is now a medical student at the Ohio University of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, OH.

Leah McNaughton, 1999-2001.

Steven Ariss, 1999-2001. Honors research project. Steven is currently a medical student at the Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH.

Andrea Woolley, 1999-2000, Honors thesis: The effects of estrogen and progesterone on the expression of E- and P-cadherin in A431 cells. Andrea is currently a Pharm.D. student at the University of Toledo.

Cory Dunn, 1998-1999, Honors thesis: Dexamethasone and EGF affect cell adhesion and growth in A431 cells. Cory is currently a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

ADDITIONAL TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• Tapestries Science Educator (Summer, 2000), University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
• Tapestries is a program designed to aid elementary school teachers in teaching science in their classrooms. I acted as a scientific educator for this program.
• Girl Scout Science Camp (Summer, 2000), University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
  I designed and instructed a Cell Biology lab for girlscouts between the ages of 12 and 15. The girls looked at slides of different types of tissues from plants, insects, and mammals. They learned about normal, abnormal and cancerous cell growth and how researchers conduct experiments in the field of basic cell biology research. They then performed a cell motility experiment and discussed the results.
• Read For Literacy (1999 – 2001), Toledo, OH; Read for literacy is a program designed to help teach adults to read and is run through the Toledo Public Library system and was responsible for training me how to teach adult literacy. Through this excellent program, I learned how to teach adult literacy and have been working 1-2 hrs./week with a student since 1999.

MAJOR RESEARCH INTEREST: Cell adhesion

My research involves a major family of cell-cell adhesion molecules known as the cadherins. Cadherins are the transmembrane component of adherens junctions which are fundamental structures in cell-cell adhesion. The cadherin family is divided into type I and type II cadherins. Three type I cadherins have been especially well-characterized. These are epithelial or E-cadherin, placental or P-cadherin and neuronal or N-cadherin. Previous studies suggest that during carcinogenesis E-cadherin is downregulated and N-cadherin is upregulated. The expression of N-cadherin may contribute to the metastatic properties of cancer. I am interested in the transcriptional control of cadherins by growth hormones and steroids. We have shown that the glucocorticoid analog, dexamethasone, downregulates E- and P-cadherin in a vulvar carcinoma cell line known as A431. I am presently working to decipher the pathway leading from activation of the glucocorticoid receptor to downregulation of E- and P-cadherin. In addition I have extended my research to include examination of other hormones including estrogen and progesterone.

 

GRANTS AND HONORS

2003-2005 - Merck/AAAS Undergraduate Research Instruction Grant, Wendy Pogozelski, PI.
2001- 2003 – Academic Research Enhancement Award, NIH R15 – Cadherin expression in female genital carcinomas: PI, Jani Lewis; SUNY Geneseo, Department of Biology.
1996-1998 - Individual NIH National Research Service Award-Pax-2 and K-cadherin in inner ear development: PI, Jani Lewis; University of Michigan, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.
1995-1996 - NSF-funded postdoctoral training grant, University of Michigan, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.
1996 – Center for Organogenesis, University of Michigan, Second Place Poster Award: Pax-2 expression in the developing chick inner ear.
1996 – Center for Organogenesis, University of Michigan, Fellows and Students Postdoctoral Travel Award.
1992-1995 – Graduate Student Merit Fellowship, University of Toledo.
1992 – University of Toledo Graduate Student Research Grant. The role of cadherins and catenins in keratinocyte morphogenesis.

PUBLICATIONS

• Bagchi, M., Katar, J., Lewis, J., and Maisel, H. 2002. Associated Proteins of Lens Adherens Junction. J. Cell. Biochem. 86: 700-703.
• Lewis, J. E. 2002. The role of cadherins in tumor suppression. Mod. Aspects Immunobiol. 2:126-129.
• Hutson, M. R., Lewis, J. E., Nguyen-Luu, D., Lindberg, K. H. and Barald, K. F. 1999. Expression of Pax2 and patterning of the chick inner ear. J. Neurocytol., 28:795-807.
• Barald, K. F., Lindberg, K. H., Hardiman, K., Kavka, A. I., Lewis, J. E., Victor, J. C., Gardner, C. A., and Poniatowski, A. 1997. Immortalized cell lines from embryonic avian and murine otocysts: tools for molecular studies of the developing inner ear. Int. J. Develop. Biol. 15:523-540.
• Lewis, J. E., Wahl, J. K., Sass, K. M., Jensen, P. J., Johnson, K. R., and Wheelock, M. J. 1997. Cross-talk between adherens junctions and desmosomes depends on plakoglobin. J. Cell Biol. 136:919-934.
• Lewis, J. E., Jensen, P. J. Johnson, K. R., and Wheelock, M. J. 1995. E-cadherin mediates adherens junction organization through protein kinase C. J. Cell Sci. 108:3615-3621.
• Lewis, J. E., Jensen, P. J. and Wheelock, M. J. 1994. Cadherin function is required for human keratinocytes to assemble desmosomes and stratify in response to calcium. J. Invest. Derm. 102:870-877.
• Johnson, K. R., Lewis, J. E., Li, D., Wahl, J., Soler, A. P., Knudsen, K. A. and Wheelock, M. J. 1993. P- and E-cadherin are in separate complexes in cells expressing both cadherins. Exp. Cell Res. 207: 252-260.

ABSTRACTS AND PRESENTATIONS

• DePersis, C. L., Hoffmaster, R. B., Rudzinski, S. M., Teo, T., and Lewis, J. E. 2002. Dexamethasone upregulates vimentin expression in the squamous epithelial cell line, A431. Mol. Biol. Cell. Supplement. 13: 60a.
• Lewis, J. E., Dunn, C. D., Wheelock, M. J., and Johnson, K. R. 1999. Dexamethasone diminishes the ability of EGF to decrease cell proliferation in A431 cells. 1999. Mol. Cell. Biol.
• Lewis, J. E., Dunn, C. D., Johnson, K. J. and Wheelock, M. J. 1999. Dexamethasone treatment of the vulvar carcinoma-derived cell line A431 overrides the antipoliferative effect of epidermal growth factor. American Association for Cancer Research Proceedings. 40: 461.
• Barald, K. F., Lindberg, K. H., Lewis, J. E., Victor, J. C., van Nguyen, D., Ng, A., Germiller, J., Siram, S., and Kudelko, K. 1997. Plasticity of gene expression in the developing chick inner ear. Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter Research Meeting.
• Lewis, J. E., Victor, J. C., Lindberg, K. H., and Barald, K. F. 1996. Comparison of BMP-4 vs. Pax-2 expression during chick inner ear development: cell autonomy vs. environmental influences on gene expression. Mol. Cell. Biol. 7: 486.
• Lewis, J. E., Johnson, K. R., Wahl, J. K., Jensen, P. J., and Wheelock, M. J. 1996. Cross-talk between adherens junctions and desmosomes depends on plakoglobin. Mol. Biol. Cell. 7: 461a.
• Lewis, J. E., Jensen, P. J., Johnson, K. R., and Wheelock, M. J., 1994. E-cadherin mediates adherens junction organization through protein kinase C. Mol. Biol. Cell. 5: 185a.
• Lewis, J. E., Jensen, P. J., and Wheelock, M. J. 1993. Blocking the function of E-cadherin together with P-cadherin inhibits calcium-induced reorganization of junctional components in cultured human keratinocytes. Mol. Biol. Cell. 4: 102a.
• Lewis, J. E., Jensen, P. J.,and Wheelock, M. J. 1992. Disruption of E-cadherin activity perturbs calcium-induced reorganization of the cytoskeleton in cultured human epidermal keratinocytes. Mol. Biol. Cell. 3: 214a.
• Lewis, J. E., Lindmark, D. G., and van Keulen, H. 1990. Isolation of clones coding for the hydrogenosomal enzyme hydrogenase in Tritrichomonas foetus. International Congress of Parasitology Annual Meeting.

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

American Society for Cell Biology
American Society for Cancer Research
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Association for Research in Otolaryngology
American Physiological Society