Draft:Justin English

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Justin G. English
Justin English
Born
Chittenango, New York
EducationPharmacology, Ph.D
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Occupation(s)pharmacologist and assistant professor
Organization(s)University of Utah; w:Huntsman Cancer Institute;
Known forbiosensors, directed evolution, protein engineering
Websitehttps://www.english.biochem.utah.edu

Justin Gregory English is an American pharmacologist, biochemist and academic. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah. His work focuses on developing molecular tools and biosensors to understand and control the cellular mechanisms underlying human health and disease. Much of his research focuses on G protein-coupled receptors (GCPRs), which represent the largest class of known druggable targets.

Early life and education[edit]

Justin English was born and raised in Chittenango, New York. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Genetics with research honors from Cornell University in 2007. He went on to complete his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014. His thesis work was titled, "Decoding the Yeast Stress Adaptation Circuit."[1]

Research and career[edit]

English began his research career as an undergraduate research assistant at Cornell University under the guidance of Eric Alani in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. Following his undergraduate degree, he accepted a year-long fellowship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he worked with Beverly Mock at the National Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics (2007-2008). In 2008,English joined Henrik Dohlman's lab in the Department of Pharmacology at UNC-Chapel Hill as a graduate researcher.

After completing his Ph.D, English continued his research in the Department of Pharmacology at UNC-Chapel Hill.[2] In 2014, he accepted a one-year fellowship from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and began research under the guidance of George Uhl and Brian Roth.[3] In 2015, English accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Roth's lab. Between accepting this position and his departure in 2020, English led the development of the Viral Evolution of Genetically Actuating Sequences (VEGAS) platform. The VEGAS platform utilizes directed evolution to engineer proteins within mammalian cells, enabling the synthesis of previously incompatible proteins with directed evolution platforms utilizing unicellular organisms.[4] English also contributed to developing the TRUPATH platform, a suite of 14 BRET-based biosensors for measuring the activation of G-proteins.[5] This technology is available on Addgene and is a powerful tool for studying the complex signaling mechanisms of GPCRs.[6]

In 2020, English accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah, where he continues developing molecular tools for understanding human disease and therapies.[7] While at the University of Utah, English co-invented the Biotin Targeting Chimera (BioTAC) platform in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, San Diego. BioTAC is a small-molecule guided proximity labeling platform to study the small molecules and their protein interactomes in living cells.[8] In addition, English has developed a massively parallel reporter assay library of over 6,000 minimally-sized transcription response elements (TRE).[9] This platform addresses the limited methods for TRE selection that are currently available and enables researchers to efficiently identify synthetic promoters that serve as downstream transcriptional readouts of specific upstream signaling events in mammalian cells.

English received the NIH Director's New Innovation Award in 2021.[10] In 2022, English co-founded Evolution Bio, a Utah-based biotech company. He currently serves as chair of the Evolution Bio's scientific board.

Patents[edit]

Strachan RT, Olsen RHJ, Roth BL, English JG, DiBerto JF. "G Protein-Coupled Receptor Screening Systems." US 17/296,818. January 6, 2022.

English, JG, Ferguson, FM. "Compositions and Methods for Labeling and Detecting Binding Partners." PCT/US2023/029251. August 1, 2023. Patent Pending.

References[edit]

  1. ^ English, Justin. "Decoding the Yeast Stress Adaptation Circuit". UNC University Libraries - Carolina Digital Repository. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  2. ^ Clarke, Betsy (2014-05-23). "Justin English Receives His Ph.D.!". Pharmacology. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  3. ^ Training and Career Development Fellowships & Grants, NIDA (27 May 2022). "NIDA fellowship". Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  4. ^ English, Justin; Olsen, Reid; Lansu, Katherine; Patel, Michael; White, Karoline; Cockrell, Adam; Singh, Darshan; Strachan, Ryan; Wacker, Daniel; Roth, Bryan (8 August 2019). "VEGAS as a Platform for Facile Directed Evolution in Mammalian Cells". Cell. 178 (3): 748–761.e17. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.051. PMC 6660416. PMID 31280962.
  5. ^ Olsen, Reid; DiBerto, Jeffrey; English, Justin; Glaudin, Alexis; Krumm, Brian; Slocum, Samuel; Che, Tao; Gavin, Ariana; McCorvy, John; Roth, Bryan; Strachan, Ryan (30 March 2020). "TRUPATH, an open-source biosensor platform for interrogating the GPCR transducerome". Nature Chemical Biology. 16 (8): 841–849. doi:10.1038/s41589-020-0535-8. PMC 7648517. PMID 32367019.
  6. ^ "Addgene: TRUPATH". www.addgene.org. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
  7. ^ "The English Lab". The English Lab. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  8. ^ Tao, Andrew; Jiang, Jiewei; Gadbois, Gillian; Goyal, Pavitra; Boyle, Bridget; Mumby, Elizabeth; Myers, Samuel; English, Justin; Ferguson, Fleur (12 November 2023). "A biotin targeting chimera (BioTAC) system to map small molecule interactomes in situ". Nature Communications. 14 (1): 8016. Bibcode:2023NatCo..14.8016T. doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43507-5. PMC 10695998. PMID 38049406.
  9. ^ Zahm, Adam; Owens, William; Himes, Samuel; Rondem, Kathleen; Fallon, Braden; Gormick, Alexa; Bloom, Joshua; Kosuri, Sriram; Chan, Henry; English, Justin (2023). "Discovery and Validation of Context-Dependent Synthetic Mammalian Promoters". bioRxiv [Preprint]. doi:10.1101/2023.05.11.539703. PMC 10197685. PMID 37214829.
  10. ^ "NIH Director's New Innovation award". Retrieved 24 April 2024.

External links[edit]


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