Bruce Blumberg

Picture of Bruce Blumberg
Professor, Developmental & Cell Biology
School of Biological Sciences
Professor
School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering
PH.D., University of California, Los Angeles
B.S., Rutgers University
Phone: (949) 824-8573
Fax: (949) 824-4709
Email: blumberg@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
Department of Developmental and Cell Biology
2011 BioSci 3
Mail Code: 2300
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
molecular embryology, molecular biology, developmental biology, functional genomics, endocrinology, pharmacology, high-throughput screening
Appointments
Department of Biological Chemistry, UCLA School of Medicine 1988-1992
Staff Scientist, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 1992-1998
Research Abstract
The Blumberg laboratory is broadly interested in the study of gene regulation and intercellular signaling during embryonic development and physiology. Current research focuses on the role of nuclear hormone receptors in development, physiology and disease. Particular interests include patterning of the vertebrate nervous system, the differential effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on laboratory model organisms compared with humans, interactions between xenobiotic metabolism, inflammation, and cancer, and the role of environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals on the development of obesity and diabetes.

Dr. Blumberg and his colleagues originated the obesogen hypothesis which holds that developmental exposure to EDCs can induce permanent physiological changes. EDC exposure elicits epigenetic alterations in gene expression that reprograms the fate of mesenchymal stem cells, predisposing them to become fat cells. Exposed animals develop more and larger fat cells, despite normal diet and exercise which is likely to lead to weight gain and obesity over time.

PATENTS
Mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma – US 5,861,274
Human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma – US 6,200,802
Human peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor gamma compositions and methods - US 6,815,168
High throughput functional screening of cDNAs – US 6,274,321
Method, polypeptides, nucleotide sequence of XOR-6 (BXR), a vitamin D-like receptor from Xenopus – US 6,391,847
Steroid-activated nuclear receptors and uses therefore (SXR) - US 6,756,491, US 6,809,178
Transgenic mice expressing a human SXR receptor polypeptide – US 6,984,773
Publications
Janesick, A., Shiotsugu, J., Taketani, M., and Blumberg, B. (2012) Ripply3 is a Retinoic Acid-Inducible Repressor Required for Setting the Borders of the Pre-placodal Ectoderm. Development, 139, 1213-1224.
Casey, S.C., Nelson, E.L., Turco, G.M., Janes, M.R., Fruman, D.A., and Blumberg, B. (2011) B-1 cell lymphoma in mice lacking the steroid and xenobiotic receptor, SXR. Molec Endocrinol, 25, 933-943.
Janesick A.S., Blumberg B. (2011) Endocrine disrupting chemicals and the developmental programming of adipogenesis and obesity. Birth Defects Research (Part C) Embryo Today. 93, 34-50.
Ellis, W.C., Tran, C.T., Roy, R., Rusten, M., Fischer, A., Ryabov, A.D., Blumberg, B., and Collins, T.J. (2010). Designing green oxidation catalysts for purifying environmental waters. J. Am. Chem. Soc, 132(28):9774-81.
Kirchner, S., Kieu, T., Chow, C. Casey, S.C. and Blumberg, B. (2010). Prenatal exposure to the environmental obesogen tributyltin predisposes multipotent stem cells to become adipocytes. Molec. Endocrinol., 24, 526-539.
Milnes, M.R., Garcia, A., Grossman, E., Grun, F., Shiotsugu, J., Tabb, M.M., Kawashima, Y., Katsu, Y., Watanabe, H., Iguchi, T., and Blumberg, B. (2008) Activation of Steroid and Xenobiotic Receptor (SXR, NR1I2) and its orthologs in laboratory, toxicological and genome model species. Environ. Health. Perspect., 116, 880–885.
Grün, F., Watanabe, H., Zamanian, Z., Maeda, L., Arima, K., Chubacha, R., Gardiner, D.M., Iguchi, T., Kanno, J., and Blumberg, B. (2006) Endocrine disrupting organotin compounds are potent inducers of adipogenesis in vertebrates. Mol Endocrinol., 20, 2141-2155.
Zhou, C.C., Tabb, M.M., Nelson, E.L., Grün, F., Verma, S., Sadatrafiei, A., Lin, M., Mallick, S., Forman, B.M., Thummel, K.E., and Blumberg, B. (2006) Mutual repression between steroid and xenobiotic receptor and NF-?B signaling pathways links xenobiotic metabolism and inflammation. J. Clin. Invest, 116, 2280-2289.
Arima, K., Shiotsugu, J., Niu, R., Khandpur, R., Martinez, M., Shin, Y., Koide, T., Cho, K.W.Y., Kitayama, A., Ueno, N., Chandraratna, R.A.S., and Blumberg, B. (2005) Global analysis of RAR-responsive genes in the Xenopus neurula using cDNA microarrays. Dev. Dyn., 232, 414-431.
Shiotsugu, J., Katsuyama, Y., Arima, K., Baxter, A., Koide, T., Song, J., Chandraratna, R.A.S., and Blumberg, B. (2004) Multiple points of interaction between retinoic acid and FGF signaling during embryonic axis formation. Development, 131, 2653-2667.
Tabb, M.M., Kholodovych, V., Grün, F., Zhou, C., Welsh, W.J., and Blumberg, B. (2004) Highly chlorinated PCBs inhibit the human xenobiotic response mediated by the Steroid and Xenobiotic Receptor (SXR) Environmental Health Perspectives, 112, 163-169.
Koide, T., Downes, M., Chandraratna, R.A.S., Blumberg, B. and Umesono, K. (2001) Active repression of RAR signaling is required for head formation. Genes Dev., 15, 2111-2121.
Professional Societies
Endocrine Society
AAAS
Graduate Programs
Biomedical Engineering
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology and Genetics
Mechanisms of Gene Expression
Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology
Research Centers
Developmental Biology Center
Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics
Cancer Research Institute
Last updated
03/29/2012