Faculty

Back to Faculty listing
Next >>

Katie George
Research Assistant Professor

Phone: (406) 243-5876

Email: kathleen.george@umontana.edu

After completing undergraduate work in Biology at the University of Iowa, Katie George received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1994. She pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in Microbial Pathogenesis at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana from 1994 - 1999. George joined the University of Montana as a post-doctoral fellow in 2000, and was promoted to Research Assistant professor in 2004.

RESEARCH STATEMENT

My laboratory focuses on studying cellular mechanisms of organophosphate pesticide (OP) neurotoxicity.  OP are widely used in agricultural and domestic settings, and while we know their primary mode of toxicity is inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (an enzyme present in nerve synapses), it is widely thought that OP exhibit other toxic effects on cells and during embryonic development.  One project in the lab is to identify novel biomarkers of OP exposure using proteomic methods.  Through this research, we hope to identify proteins that are not only directly modified by OP, but also proteins whose cellular functions have been modified. Another project in the lab uses zebrafish as a model organism to study developmental neurotoxicology of OP.  By exposing zebrafish embryos to sub-lethal doses of OP, we are working to understand the changes in neuronal development caused by OP.

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Spaulding R.S., George K.M., and Thompson C.M. “Analysis and sequencing of the active site of acetylcholinesterase by electrospray-ionization quadropole time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometry.” J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 830:105-13. 2006.

Thullbery M.D., Cox H.D., Schule T., Thompson C.M., and George K.M.* “Differential localization of acetylcholinesterase in neuronal and non-neuronal cells.” J. Cell Biochem. 96:599-610. 2005.

George K.M., Schule T., Sandoval L.E., Jennings L.L., Taylor P., and Thompson C.M. “Differentiation between acetylcholinesterase and the organophosphate-inhibited form using antibodies and the correlation of antibody recognition with reactivation mechanism and rate.” J. Biol. Chem. 278:45512-8. 2003.

George K.M., Montgomery M.A., Sandoval L.E., and Thompson C.M. “Analysis of cross-antigenicity between acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase with anti-acetylcholinesterase antibodies.” Toxicology Letters. 126: 99-105. 2001.

George K.M., Pascopella L., Welty D.M., and Small P.L.C. "Mycobacterium ulcerans toxin, mycolactone, causes apoptosis in guinea pig lesions and in tissue culture cells." Infection and Immunity. 68: 877-883. 2000.

Pahlevan A.A., Wright D.M., George K.M., Small P.L.C, and Foxwell B.M. "The inhibitory action of Mycobacterium ulcerans soluble factor on monocyte/T cell functions and expression of NF?B." J. Immunology. 163:3928-3935. 1999.

Gunawardana G., George K.M., Whittern D., Chatterjee D., Lee R., and Small P.L.C.  "Mycolactone A and B: toxins of Mycobacterium ulcerans.” Journal of American Chemical Society.121:6092-6093. 1999.

George K.M., Chatterjee D., Gunawardara G., Hayman J., Lee R., Welty D.M., and Small P.L.C.  "Mycolactone; a polyketide toxin from Mycobacterium ulcerans which is essential for virulence." Science. 283: 854-857. 1999.

George K.M.*, Barker L.P., Welty D.M., and Small P.L.C.  "Partial purification and characterization of biological effects of a lipid toxin produced by Mycobacterium ulcerans." Infection & Immunity. 66:587-593. 1998.

Barker L.P., George K.M., Falkow S., and Small P.L.C. "Intracellular trafficking of Mycobacterium marinum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis."  Infection and Immunity. 65: 1497-1504. 1996.

Groves A.K., George K.M., Tissier-Sita J.-P., Engel J.D., Brunet J.-F., and Anderson D.J. "Differential regulation of transcription factor gene expression and phenotypic markers in developing sympathetic neurons." Development. 121: 887-901. 1995.

George K.M., Yuan Y., Sherman D.R., and Barry III C.E. "The biosynthesis of cyclopropanated mycolic acids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Identification and analysis of CMAS-2."  J. Biological Chemistry.  270:27292-8. 1995.

Ng Y.-K., George K.M., Engel J.D., and Linzer D.I.H.  "GATA factor activity is required for the trophoblast-specific transcriptional regulation of the mouse placental lactogen I gene." Development. 120: 3257-3266. 1994.

George K.M., Leonard M.W., Roth M.R., Lieuw K., Kioussis D., Grosveld F., and Engel J.D. "Embryonic expression and cloning of the murine mGATA-3 gene." Development. 120: 2673-2686. 1994.

Engel J.D., Beug H., LaVail J.H., Zenke M.W., Mayo K., Leonard M.W., Foley K.P., Yang Z., Kornhauser J.M., Ko L.J., Lim K-C., George K.M.,  and Breigel K. "Cis and trans regulation of tissue-specific transcription." J. Cell Science.  16: 21-31. 1994.

Ko L.J., Yamamoto M., Leonard M.W., George K.M., Ting P., and Engel J.D. "Murine and human T lymphocyte GATA-3 factors mediate transcription through a cis-regulatory element within the human T cell receptor ? gene enhancer." Mol. Cell. Biol. 11: 2778-2784. 1991.