Michael J. Difilippantonio, Ph.D., FAC-COR III
Dr. Michael Difilippantonio and his staff provide implementation and management support for initiatives coming from the Office of the DCTDC Director. Examples include the DCTD web-site, the NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program, and various contracted activities at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR) to conduct scientific research as directed by the division to support the cancer community.
Following his undergraduate studies in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and certification in Medical Cytogenetics, he spent two years in the laboratory of Dr. David Ward at Yale University applying fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to characterize unidentifiable DNA markers and chromosome translocations in patients, and mapping DNA clones to their chromosomal locations in the early days of the Human Genome Mapping project. He then took his interest in DNA damage, repair and rearrangement to graduate school where he interrogated the mechanism of programed T-cell receptor and immunoglobulin gene rearrangement during the maturation of lymphocytes in the laboratory of Dr. David Schatz.
Dr. Difilippantonio did his post-doctoral fellowship, and then served as a Staff Scientist, in the NCI intramural laboratory of Dr. Thomas Ried where he spent a decade combining his molecular cytogenetic skills and understanding of DNA recombination to identify chromosomal rearrangements that defined different types of cancer, elucidate the role of DNA damage repair pathways in their development, and unravel their consequences on gene expression and tumorigenesis.
In 2010 Dr. Difilippantonio moved to the DCTD OD where he has taken on many tasks over the years and broadened his skills beyond the laboratory to support the emerging needs of the Division and NCI.
Selected Publications
- Difilippantonio MJ*, McMahan CJ*, Eastman QM, Spanopoulou E, Schatz DG: RAG1 Mediates Signal Sequence Recognition and Recruitment of RAG2 in V(D)J Recombination. Cell 87:253-262, 1996. *Contributed equally
- Difilippantonio MJ, Zhu J, Chen HT, Max E, Ried T, and Nussenzweig A: DNA Repair Protein Ku80 Suppresses Chromosomal Aberrations and Malignant Transformation. Nature 404: 510-514, 2000.
- Difilippantonio MJ, Petersen S, Chen HT, Johnson R, Jasin M, Kanaar R, Ried T, Nussenzweig A: Evidence for replicative repair of DNA double-strand breaks leading to oncogenic translocation and gene amplification. J Exp Med 196:469-480, 2002.
- Camps J, Tri Nguyen Q, Padilla-Nash HM, Knutsen T, McNeil NE, Wangsa D, Hummon AB, Grade M, Ried T, Difilippantonio MJ: Integrative genomics reveals mechanisms of copy number alterations responsible for transcriptional deregulation in colorectal cancer. Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 48(11):1002-1017, 2009. Epub Aug 18, 2009.
- Ried T, Difilippantonio MJ: Characterization of Chromosomal Translocations in Mouse Models of Hematological Malignancies Using Spectral Karyotyping, FISH, and Immunocytochemistry. In Genetically Engineered Mice for Cancer Research. Green JE and Ried T. (Eds.). Springer. Chapter 9, pp. 193-207, 2011.
Additional Links to Scientific Publications
Education
- B.S., Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Connecticut
- Certificate, Medical Cytogenetic Technology, University of Connecticut
- M.S., Genetics, Yale University
- Ph.D., Genetics, Yale University