J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD
J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD

J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

  • Executive Vice President
  • Scientific Director
  • Chair, Cell & Molecular Biology Department
  • Director, Pediatric Translational Neuroscience Initiative
  • Edward F. Barry Endowed Chair in Cell and Molecular Biology

Departments

Education

MD, PhD – Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Residency (Neurology) – Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Fellowship (Neurogenetics) – Neurogenetics Branch, NINDS/NIH

Honors & Awards

  • 2020 The Normal Saunders International Research Prize
  • 2020 The Potamkin Prize 
  • 2015 Selected as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • 2015 Presidential Lecture of the American Neurological Association
  • 2015 Elected to the American Association of Physicians
  • 2015 Lisa S. Krivickas Lecture, Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology
  • 2014 George Karpati Lecture, Montreal Neurological Institute and McGill University
  • 2014 Vince Kidd Memorial Mentor of the Year Award
  • 2013 Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award, American Neurological Association
  • 2013 Elected Fellow of the American Neurological Association
  • 2010 Elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation

Research Interests

Dr. Taylor is a physician-scientist with a clinical background in neurogenetics and fundamental research background in molecular biology. Interests of the Taylor lab span clinical neurogenetics, the biology of RNA and RNA-binding proteins, and mechanisms of neurological diseases. Over the past decade, Dr. Taylor’s lab has performed pioneering research into biomolecular condensation, including understanding the role of phase transitions in organizing cellular contents and elucidating the contribution of pathological phase transitions to neurological disease.

Taylor Research Lab

Contact Information

J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD Cell & Molecular Biology MS 340, Room 4063D St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 262 Danny Thomas Place Memphis, TN 38105-3678

St. Jude Faculty List

Related Topics

News Releases

All recent releases

Selected Publications

Gwon Y, Maxwell BA, Kolaitis R-M, Zhang P, Kim HJ, Taylor JP. Ubiquitination of G3BP1 mediates stress granule disassembly in a context-specific manner. Science Jun 25;372(6549):eabf6548, 2021.

Maxwell BA, Gwon Y, Mishra A, Peng J, Nakamura H, Zhang K, Kim HJ, Taylor JP. Ubiquitination is essential for recovery of cellular activities after heat shock. Science Jun 25;372(6549):eabc3593, 2021.

Mathieu C, Pappu RV, Taylor JP. Beyond aggregation: Pathological phase transitions in neurodegenerative disease. Science Oct 2;370(6512):56-60, 2020. 

Yang P, Mathieu C, Kolaitis RM, Zhang P, Messing J, Yurtsever U, Yang Z, Wu J, Li Y, Pan Q, Yu J, Martin EW, Mittag T, Kim HJ, Taylor JP. G3BP1 Is a Tunable Switch that Triggers Phase Separation to Assemble Stress Granules. Cell Apr 16;181(2):325-345.e28, 2020.

Badders NM, Korff A, Miranda HC, Vuppala PK, Smith RB, Winborn BJ, Quemin ER, Sopher BL, Dearman J, Messing J, Kim NC, Moore J, Freibaum BD, Kanagaraj AP, Fan B, Tillman H, Chen PC, Wang Y, Freeman BB III, Li Y, Kim HJ, La Spada AR, Taylor JP. Selective modulation of the androgen receptor AF2 domain rescues degeneration in spinal bulbar muscular atrophy. Nat Med May;24(4):427-437, 2018.

Guo L, Kim HJ, Wang H, Monaghan J, Freyermuth F, Sung JC, O'Donovan K, Fare CM, Diaz Z, Singh N, Zhang ZC, Coughlin M, Sweeny EA, DeSantis ME, Jackrel ME, Rodell CB, Burdick JA, King OD, Gitler AD, Lagier-Tourenne C, Pandey UB, Chook YM, Taylor JP*, Shorter J*. Nuclear-Import Receptors Reverse Aberrant Phase Transitions of RNA-Binding Proteins with Prion-like Domains. Cell Apr 19;173(3):677-692.e20, 2018.

Kim HJ, Taylor JP. Lost in Transportation: Nucleocytoplasmic Transport Defects in ALS and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases. Neuron Oct 11;96(2):285-297, 2017.

Mackenzie IR, Nicholson AM, Sarkar M, Messing J, Purice MD, Pottier C, Annu K, Baker M, Perkerson RB, Kurti A, Matchett BJ, Mittag T, Temirov J, Hsiung GR, Krieger C, Murray ME, Kato M, Fryer JD, Petrucelli L, Zinman L, Weintraub S, Mesulam M, Keith J, Zivkovic SA, Hirsch-Reinshagen V, Roos RP, Züchner S, Graff-Radford NR, Petersen RC, Caselli RJ, Wszolek ZK, Finger E, Lippa C, Lacomis D, Stewart H, Dickson DW, Kim HJ, Rogaeva E, Bigio E, Boylan KB, Taylor JP*, Rademakers R*. TIA1 Mutations in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Dementia Promote Phase Separation and Alter Stress Granule Dynamics. Neuron Aug 16;95(4):808-816.e9, 2017.

Taylor JP, Brown RH Jr, Cleveland DW. Decoding ALS: from genes to mechanism. Nature 539(7628):197-206, 2016.

Lee KH, Zhang P, Kim HJ, Mitrea DM, Sarkar M, Freibaum BD, Cika J, Coughlin M, Messing J, Molliex A, Maxwell BA, Kim NC, Temirov J, Moore J, Kolaitis RM, Shaw TI, Bai B, Peng J, Kriwacki RW, Taylor JP. C9orf72 dipeptide repeats impair the assembly, dynamics and function of membrane-less organelles. Cell 167(3):774-788, 2016.

Molliex A, Temirov J, Lee J, Coughlin M, Kanagaraj AP, Kim HJ, Mittag T, Taylor JP. Phase separation by low-complexity domains contributes to stress granule assembly and drives pathological fibrillization. Cell 163(1):123-33, 2015.

Freibaum BD, Lu Y, Lopez-Gonzalez R, Kim NC, Almeida S, Lee KH, Badders N, Valentine M, Miller BL, Wong PC, Petrucelli L, Kim HJ, Gao FB, Taylor JP. GGGGCC repeat expansion in C9ORF72 compromises nucleocytoplasmic transport. Nature 525(7567):129-33, 2015.

Alami NH, Smith RB, Carrasco MA, Williams LA, Winborn CS, Han SSW, Kiskinis E, Winborn B, Freibaum BD, Kanagaraj A, Clare AJ, Badders NM, Bilican B, Chaum E, Chandran S, Eggan KC, Maniatis T, Taylor JP. Microtubule-dependent transport of TDP-43 mRNA granules in neurons is impaired by ALS-causing mutations. Neuron 81(3):536-543, 2014.

Taylor JP. G-quadruplex poses a quadruple threat. Nature 507(7491):175-7, 2014.

Taylor JP. RNA Gets RAN in Neurodegeneration Science 339:1282-1283, 2013.

Buchan JR, Kolaitis R, Taylor JP, Parker R. Eukaryotic stress granules are cleared by autophagy and Cdc48/VCP function. Cell 153(7):1461-74, 2013.

Ramaswami M, Taylor JP, Parker R. Altered ribostasis: RNA-protein granules in degenerative disorders. Cell 154(4):727-36, 2013.

Kim HJ, Kim NC, Wang M, Moore J, Diaz Z, Freibaum B, Molliex A, Kanagaraj A, Li S, Pinkus JL, Greenberg SA, Trojanowski J, Traynor BJ, Smith BN, Topp S, Gkazi AS, Miller J, Shaw CE, Wojtas AM, Boylan KB, Rademakers R, Kottlors M, Kirschner J, Li YR, Gitler AD, Benatar M, King OD, Kimonis V, Ross ED, Weihl CC, Shorter J and Taylor JP. Mutations in the prion-like domains of hnRNPA2B1 and hnRNPA1 cause multisystem proteinopathy and ALS. Nature 28;495(7442):467-73, 2013.

Kim NC, Tresse E, Kolaitis RM, Molliex A, Thomas R, Alami N, Wang B, Joshi A, Smith RB, Ritson GP, Winborn BJ, Lee JY, Yao TP, Pallanck L, Kundu M, Taylor JP. VCP is essential for mitochondrial quality control by the PINK1/Parkin pathway and this function is impaired by disease-causing mutations. Neuron 78(1):65-80, 2013.

Nedelsky NB, Pennuto M, Smith RB, Palazzolo I, Nie Z, Moore J, Neale G, Taylor JP. Native coregulator interactions are essential mediators of toxicity in a Drosophila model of spinobulbar muscular atrophy. Neuron 67(6):897-899, 2010.

La Spada AR, Taylor JP. Repeat expansion disease: progress and puzzles in disease pathogenesis. Nature Reviews Genetics 11(4):247-258, 2010.

Pandey UB, Nie ZP, Batlevi Y, McCray BA, Ritson GP, Nedelsky NB, Schwartz SL, DiProspero N, Knight M, Schuldiner, O, Padmanabhan R, Hild M, Berry D, Garza D, Hubbert CC, Yao TP, Baehrecke EH, Taylor JP. HDAC6 rescues neurodegeneration and provides an essential link between autophagy and the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Nature 447:859-863, 2007.

La Spada AR, Taylor JP. Polyglutamines placed into context. Neuron 38: 681-684, 2003.

Taylor JP, Hardy J, Fischbeck KH. Toxic proteins in neurodegenerative disease. Science 296(5575):1991-1995, 2002.

Last update: July 2021

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