Education
PhD – Manchester University, England (Oncology), 1990
Academic Activities
Dr. Harris worked both as a postdoctoral fellow and a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology from 1991-2009. Her research focused on understanding the mechanisms involved in the chemosensitive phenotype often observed during therapy of pediatric solid tumors. Specifically her research areas included; analysis of the function of MDM2 splice variants, and defects in the p53 pathway, within rhabdomyosarcoma and neuroblastoma solid tumors.
Dr. Harris is no longer conducting any research activities. She currently works in the Office of Academic Programs for Biomedical Sciences and her main role is to visit graduate programs around the country for the purpose of postdoctoral recruitment.
Selected Publications
Volk EL, Fan L, Schuster K, Rehg J, Harris LC. The MDM2-A splice variant of MDM2 alters transformation in vitro and the tumor spectrum in both Arf-null and p53-null models of tumorigenesis.Molecular Cancer Research 7:863-869, 2009.
Volk EL, Schuster K, Nemeth K, Fan L, Harris LC. Mdm2-a, a common Mdm2 splice variant, causes perinatal lethality, reduced longevity and enhanced senescence. Disease Models and Mechanisms2:47-55, 2009.
Cheney MD, McKenzie PP, Volk EL, Fan L, Harris LC. MDM2 displays differential activities dependent upon the activation status of NFkB. Cancer Biology and Therapy 7:38-44, 2008.
Phillips DC, Hunt JT, Moneypenny CG, Maclean KH, McKenzie PP, Harris LC, Houghton JA. Ceramide-induced G2 arrest in rhabomyosarcoma (RMS) cells requires p21waf1/cip1 induction and is prevented by MDM2 overexpression. Cell Death & Diff 14:1780–91, 2007.
Taubert H, Wurl P, Greither T, Kappler M, Bache M, Bartel F, Kehlen A, Lautenschlager C, Harris LC, Kaushal D, Fussel S, Meye A, Bohnke A, Schmidt H, Holzhausen H-J, Hauptmann S. Stem cell-associated genes are extremely poor prognostic factors for soft-tissue sarcoma. Oncogene 26:7170–4, 2007.
Schuster K, Harris LC. Selection for mutations in the cDNAs of transgenic mice upon expression of an embryonic lethal protein. Transgenic Research 16:527-530, 2007.
Schuster K, Fan L, Harris LC. MDM2 splice variants predominantly localize to the nucleoplasm of cells mediated by a C-terminal nuclear-localization signal. Mol Cancer Res 5:403-412, 2007.
Taubert H, Greither T, Kaushal D, Würl P, Bache M, Bartel F, Kehlen A, Lautenschläger C, Harris L, Kraemer K, Meye A, Kappler M, Schmidt H, Hauptmann S. Expression of the stem cell self-renewal gene Hiwi and risk of tumour-related death in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma. Oncogene 26:1098-1100, 2007.
Taylor AC, Schuster K, McKenzie PP, Harris LC. Differential cooperation of oncogenes with p53 and Bax to induce apoptosis. Mol Cancer 5:53-63, 2006.
Danam RP, Howell SR, Brent TP, Harris LC. Epigenetic regulation of O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase gene expression by Histone Acetylation and methyl-CpG binding proteins. Mol Cancer Ther 4:1-9, 2005.
Harris LC. MDM2 variants and implications in cancer therapy. Current Cancer Drug Targets 5:21 26, 2005.
Bartel F, Harris LC, Wurl P, Taubert H. MDM2 and its splice variant mRNAs: expression in tumors and downregulation using antisense oligonucleotides. Mol Cancer Res 2:29-35, 2004.
McKenzie PP, Danks MK, Kriwacki RW, Harris LC. p21WAF/1CIP1 dysfunction in neuroblastoma: a novel mechanism of attenuating Go/G1 cell cycle arrest. Cancer Res 63:3840-3844, 2003.
Bartel F, Taubert H, Harris LC. Alternative and aberrant splicing of MDM2-mRNA in human cancer.Cancer Cell 2:9-15, 2002.
Bartel F, Taylor AC, Taubert H, Harris LC. Novel MDM2 splice variants identified in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma tumors and cell lines. Oncol Res 12:451-457, 2002.
McKenzie PP, McPake CR, Ashford AA., Vanin EF, Harris LC. MDM2 does not influence p53-mediated sensitivity to DNA-damaging drugs. Mol Cancer Thera 1:1097-1104, 2002.
Shetty S, Taylor AC, Harris LC. Selective chemosensitization of rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines following wild-type p53 adenoviral transduction. Anti-Cancer Drugs 13:881-890, 2002.
Taylor AC, Shu L, Danks MK, Poquette C, Shetty S, Thayer M, Houghton PJ, Harris LC. p53 mutation and MDM2 amplification frequency in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma tumors and cell lines. Med Pediatr Oncol 35:96-103, 2000.
Potter PM, McKenzie PP, Hussain N, Noonberg S, Morton CL, Harris LC. Construction of adenovirus for high level expression of small RNAs in mammalian cells: application to a Bcl2 ribozyme. Mol Biotechnol 15:105-114, 2000.
McKenzie PP, Guichard S, Middlemas DS, Ashmun RA, Danks MK, Harris LC. Wild-type p53 can induce p21 and apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells but the DNA damage-induced G1 checkpoint function is attenuated. Clin Cancer Res 5:4202-4210, 1999.
McPake CR, Shetty S, Kitchingman GR, Harris, LC. Wild-type p53 induction mediated by replication-deficient adenoviral vectors. Cancer Res 59:4247-4251, 1999.
Danks MK, Whipple DO, McPake CR, Lu D, Harris LC. Differences in epitope accessibility of p53 monoclonal antibodies suggest at least three conformation or states of protein binding of p53 protein in human tumor cell lines. Cell Death Differ 5:678-686, 1998.
McPake CR, Tillman DM, Poquette CA, George EO, Houghton JA, Harris LC. Bax is an important determinant of chemosensitivity in pediatric tumor cell lines independent of Bcl-2 expression and p53 status. Oncol Res 10:235-244, 1998.
Last update: August 2009