Faculty 
David Alvarez-Carbonell, PhD
Assistant Professor, Coordinator M.S. Biotechnology Program
NJ Center for Science, Technology & Math Education
Townsend Hall 117-H
908-737-3418
daalvare@kean.edu
Dr. Alvarez-Carbonell begins at Kean University in Sept. 2007 as a newly recruited Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator of the Biotechnology Program for the NJ Center for Science, Technology & Mathematics Education.
EDUCATION
Post-doctoral training
2006-2007: Dr. Mark Ptashne's Gene Regulation Laboratory. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York. Isolation and characterization of a upstream activating sequence (UASg)-binding protein, and characterization of its role in gene expression regulation.
2004-2006: Dr. Joel M. Gottesfeld's Molecular Biology Laboratory. The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California. Characterization of a small synthetic molecule with in vivo anti-cancer effect: cellular mechanism of action, pharmacokinetic parameters, and pharmacotoxicity.
2003-2004: Dr. Katherine Jones' Regulatory Biology Laboratory. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California. Investigating the regulation of the HIV virus transcription.
Degrees
2003: Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Dr. Maria Zannis-Hadjopoulos' DNA Replication Laboratory. McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Dissertation research on the involvement of 14-3-3 proteins in DNA replication via interaction with cruciform structures at origins of replication.
2000: Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Oncogenes are genetic elements that cause cellular transformation, and proto-oncogenes are the normal genes from which the oncogenes are derived. The majority of proto-oncogenes encode proteins that fulfill a role in signal transduction pathways; these functions include extracellular growth factors, membrane receptors, cytoplasmic and membrane-associated protein kinases, G-protein-binding proteins, and transcription factors. The process of activation of proto-oncogenes to oncogenes can include retrovial transduction or retroviral integration, point mutations, insertion mutations, gene amplification, chromosomal translocation and/or protein-protein interactions. It is believed that other, yet to be discovered, mechanisms may be involved in the de-regulation of a proto-oncogene, which may eventually lead to tumorogenesis. I have become interested in investigating the role of chromatin condensation at the promoter level in the activation of proto-oncogenes in cancer cells.
The cMYB gene is over-expressed in several human cancer cell lines (http://expression.gnf.org), and is involved in the proliferation control of normal cells and tissue of the hematopoietic system, but it is de-regulated in tumors of both hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic origin. In normal cells, transcription of cMYB is tightly regulated at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level. I have observed that down-regulation of the histone H4c protein causes decrease in cMYB expression. The promoter of cMYB harbors an E2F element, but unlike most E2F-driven promoters, which are transiently activated around the G1/S phase of the cell cycle, the cMYB promoter is activated early in the G1 phase, following entry into the cell cycle, and remains constitutively active throughout the cell cycle. Based on these preliminary observations, I have chosen the cMYB proto-oncogene promoter as a model of study to investigate the role of histones (chromatin condensation) in the de-regulation of proto-oncogene promoters.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
David Alvarez, C. James Chou, Lucia Latella, Samantha G. Zeitlin, Sherman Ku, Pier Lorenzo Puri, Peter B. Dervan, and Joel M. Gottesfeld
A two-hit mechanism for pre-mitotic arrest of cancer cell proliferation by a polyamide-alkylator conjugate
Cell Cycle 5, 1537-1548 (2006).
David Alvarez, Mario Callejo, Rami Shoucri, Lee Boyer, Gerald B. Price, and Maria Zannis-Hadjoupolos Analysis of the cruciform binding activity of recombinant 14-3-3z-MBP fusion protein, its heterodimerization profile with endogenous 14-3-3 isoforms and effect on mammalian DNA replication in vitro
Biochemistry 42, 7205-7215 (2003).
Olivia Novac, David Alvarez, Christopher Pearson, Gerald B. Price, and Maria Zannis-Hadjopoulos
The human cruciform binding protein, CBP, is involved in mammalian DNA replication and associates in vivo with mammalian replication origins
Journal of Biological Chemistry 277, 11174-11183 (2002).
Maria Zannis-Hadjopoulos, Olivia Novac, David Alvarez, and Gerald B. Price
14-3-3 as a cruciform DNA binding protein
Biochemical Journal 30, 397-401(2002).
David Alvarez, Olivia Novac, Mario Callejo, Marcia T. Ruiz, Gerald B. Price, and Maria Zannis-Hadjopoulos
14-3-3s is a Cruciform Binding Protein and associates in vivo to origins of replication
Journal of Cellular Biochemistry 87, 194-207(2002).
Mario Callejo, David Alvarez, Gerald B. Price, and Maria Zannis-Hadjopoulos
The 14-3-3 protein homologues of S. cerevisiae, BMH1p and BMH2p, have DNA cruciform binding activity and associate in vivo with ARS307
Journal of Biological Chemistry 277, 38416-23 (2002).