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Faculty Detail     Name ROBERT ALLEN KESTERSON   Campus Address KAUL 602A Zip 0024 Phone 205-934-7206 E-mail kesterso@uab.edu Other websites http://138.26.45.17/Faculty/Primary%20Faculty/Robert%20Kesterson.htm

Faculty Appointment(s) Appointment Type Department Division Rank Primary  Genetics   Genetics Research Div Associate Professor Center  Arthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases Center  Arthritis & Musculoskeletal Diseases Center Associate Professor Center  Center for Metabolic Bone Disease  Center for Metabolic Bone Disease Associate Professor Center  Civitan International Research Center  Civitan International Research Center Associate Professor Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center Associate Professor Center  Medicine  Comprehensive Diabetes Ctr Associate Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations Cancer Biology  Cell, Molecular, & Developmental Biology  Genetics and Genomic Sciences  Immunology  Integrative Genetics Graduate Program  Neuroscience  Neuroscience Graduate Program

Biographical Sketch  Dr. Robert A. Kesterson, completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Hendrix College, and received a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine (1993) under the mentorship of Dr. J. Wesley Pike and Dr. Francesco DeMayo. His postdoctoral training in the field of neuroendocrinology was carried out at The Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research, Portland, Oregon with Dr. Roger D. Cone, which focused on determining the function of newly cloned melanocortin receptors via development of transgenic animal models. Dr. Kesterson was appointed in 1997 to the faculty of Vanderbilt University in the Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, and was then recruited to UAB in 2004. Dr. Kesterson is the Director of the UAB Transgenic Mouse Facility, and is a member of several UAB Centers including: Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arthritis & Musculoskeletal Center, Clinical Nutrition Research Center, Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease Core Center, Civitan International Research Center, Diabetes Research & Training Center, and Center for Metabolic Bone Disease.

Society Memberships Organization Name Position Held Org Link American Diabetes Association    http://www.diabetes.org  Endocrine Society    http://www.endo-society.org/  North American Association for the Study of Obesity    www.naaso.org/

Research/Clinical Interest Title Hypothalamic Control of Feeding Behavior Description The main goal of Dr. Kesterson’s research is to define the mechanisms and neural pathways by which CNS melanocortin receptors regulate the feeding, energy balance, thermoregulation, inflammation, and learning and memory. Disruption of CNS melanocortin signaling due to loss of function mutations in the POMC gene (which makes the ligand a-MSH) or the type 4 melanocortin receptor (MC4R) produces obesity in humans and other mammals. Several approaches are currently being utilized to define the location of the neural circuitry by which a-MSH, MC4R, and MC3R (a related receptor involved with maintaining energy balance) function, including: creating conditional melanocortin receptor knockout animals using the cre/loxP recombinase system, developing transgenic mice expressing GFP, LacZ, and luciferase reporter transgenes to functionally map basal and brain-specific enhancer elements, and using microarray analyses and Real-Time RT-PCR to characterize changes in gene expression due to weight gain stemming from atypical antipsychotic medications (AAPDs). More recently, research has focused on mechanisms by which primary cilium localized on hypothalamic neurons regulate energy balance. Dr. Kesterson also is working with a group of investigators to establish a mouse model for reconstituting human hematopoietic systems. To this end, double-knockout mice lacking Recombination Activating Gene (RAG) and the IL-2 receptor common g chain (gc) genes (which are unable to develop B, T or NK cells to mount a response to human cells) are being replenished with human CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells from cord blood or from GM-CSF-mobilized CD34+ peripheral blood cells from adult patients. Directors of the Flow Cytometry and High Speed Cell Sorting facility, and the Hematopoietic Stem Cell facility have pooled their expertise to establish this unique animal model. Additional mouse models under development in the Kesterson laboratory for translational research include common nonsense and missense mutations found in Neurofibromatosis-1 patients. Graduate Biomedical Science Themes: # Cancer Biology # Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology # Genetics and Genomic Sciences # Neuroscience

Selected Publications  Publication PUBMEDID O'Connor AK, Kesterson RA, Yoder BK. Generating conditional mutants to analyze ciliary functions: the use of Cre-lox technology to disrupt cilia in specific organs. Methods Cell Biol. 2009;93:305-30. Epub 2009 Dec 4.  20409823  Morabito MV, Abbas AI, Hood JL, Kesterson RA, Jacobs MM, Kump DS, Hachey DL, Roth BL, Emeson RB. Mice with altered serotonin 2C receptor RNA editing display characteristics of Prader-Willi syndrome. Neurobiol Dis. 2010 Aug;39(2):169-80. Epub 2010 Apr 13.  20394819  Kesterson RA, Berbari NF, Pasek RC, Yoder BK. Utilization of conditional alleles to study the role of the primary cilium in obesity. Methods Cell Biol. 2009;94:163-79. Epub 2009 Dec 23. Review.  20362090  Cope, M.B., Jumbo-Luciono, P., Allison, D.B., DiCostanzo, C.A., Jamison, W.G., Kesterson, R.A., and Nagy, T.R. Risperidone alters food intake, core body temperature and locomotor activity in mice. Physiol Behav 2009 Mar 2;96(3):457-63  19084548  Kumar KG, Trevaskis JL, Lam DD, Sutton GM, Koza RA, Chouljenko VN, Kousoulas KG, Rogers PM, Kesterson RA, Thearle M, Ferrante AW Jr, Mynatt RL, Burris TP, Dong JZ, Halem HA, Culler MD, Heisler LK, Stephens JM, Butler AA. Identification of adropin as a secreted factor linking dietary macronutrient intake with energy homeostasis and lipid metabolism. Cell Metab. 2008 Dec;8(6):468-81.  19041763  Brooks WS, Helton ES, Banerjee S, Venable M, Johnson L, Schoeb TR, Kesterson RA, Crawford DF. G2E3 is a dual function ubiquitin ligase required for early embryonic development. J Biol Chem. 2008 Aug 8;283(32):22304-15. Epub 2008 May 28.  18511420  Zinn, K.R., Chaudhuri, T.R., Szafran, A.A., OQuinn, D., Weaver, C., Dugger, K., Lamar, D., Kesterson, R.A., Wang, X., and Stuart, F.J. Noninvasive bioluminescence imaging in small animals. ILAR J. 2008;49(1):103-15  18172337  Chen M, Aprahamian CJ, Kesterson RA, Harmon CM, Yang Y.Molecular Identification of the Human Melanocortin-2 Receptor Responsible for Ligand Binding and Signaling. Biochemistry. 2007 Oct 9;46(40):11389-97. Epub 2007 Sep 18  17877367  Davenport, JR, Watts, AJ, Roper VC, Croyle MJ, van Groen T, Wyss JM, Nagy TR, Kesterson RA, Yoder BK. Disruption of intraflagellar transport in adult mice leads to obesity and slow-onset cystic kidney disease. Curr Biol. 2007 Sep 18;17(18):1586-94.  17825558   Yang, Y., Chen, M., Kesterson, R.A., and Harmon, C.M. Structural insights into the role of the ACTH receptor cysteine residues on receptor function, AJP 2007 293(3):R1120-6  17596328  First Prev   1 2 3 4 of  4  Next Last

Keywords obesity, diabetes, CNS, brain, hypothalamus, behavior, transgenic, mice, neuroscience, endocrinology, knockout, cancer, bone, immune system

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