Burnham Institute for Medical Research

ROLF BODMER, PH.D.
Program Director, Professor
Development and Aging

858.795.5295 (phone)
858.795.5293 (fax)
rolf@burnham.org

RESEARCH FOCUS, BIOGRAPHY, PUBLICATIONS

Research Focus
The Bodmer Laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms of organ formation, how patterns are generated and how cells and tissue types assume their correct fates and functions. The Bodmer lab is pursuing this interest by studying the genetic functions and interactions that specify heart development and maintain heart performance in the Drosophila model, in the hope of elucidating basic principles in organogenesis and functionality.

Mesoderm
↓
Cardiac Mesoderm
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Cardiac Cell Types
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Morphogenesis
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Heart Function
↓
Aging Heart

Biography
Rolf Bodmer earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Neurobiology from the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland in 1983. Dr. Bodmer trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Neurobiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and also studied Molecular Genetics at the University of California, San Francisco. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Biology in 1990 at the University of Michigan. There he was promoted to Associate Professor of Biology in 1996, and then appointed to Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in 2001. Dr. Bodmer joined the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in 2003, where he is Professor and Program Director of the Development and Aging Program in the Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center.

Selected Publications

Bodmer, R. (1993). The gene tinman is required for specification of the heart and visceral muscles in Drosophila. Development 118, 719-729.

Bodmer, R. (1995). Heart development in Drosophila and its relationship to vertebrate systems. Trends Cardiovasc. Med. 5, 21-28.

Wessells R.J., Fitzgerald E., Cypser J.R., Tatar M. and Bodmer R. (2004). Insulin regulation of heart function in aging fruit flies. Nat. Genet. 36, 1275-1281.

Qian, L., Liu, J., Bodmer, R. (2005). Slit and Robo control cardiac cell polarity and morphogenesis. Curr. Biol. 15, 2271-2278.

Akasaka T, Klinedinst S, Ocorr K, Bustamante E, Kim S and Bodmer R. (2006) KATP channel-encoded dSUR gene is required for Drosophila heart function and is regulated by tinman. PNAS 103, 11999-20004.

Wang, D., Qian, L., Xiong, H., Liu, J., Neckameyer, W.S., Oldham, S., Xia, K., Wang, J., Bodmer, R. Zhang, Z. (2006) Antioxidants protect PINK1-dependent dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila. PNAS, 103, 13520-13525.

Ocorr, K., Reeves, N. L., Wessells, R. J., Fink, M., Chen, H.-S.V., Akasaka, T., Yasuda, S., Metzger, J., Giles, W., Posakony, J. W. and Bodmer. R. (2007b) KCNQ potassium channel mutations cause cardiac arrhythmias in Drosophila that mimic the effects of aging. PNAS 104, 3943-3948.

Ocorr K, Perrin L, Lim H-Y, Qian L, Wu X, Bodmer R. (2007c). Genetic control of heart function and aging in Drosophila. Trends Cardiovasc Med 17, 177-82.

Cammarato, A., Dambacher, C.M., Knowles, A.F., Kronert, W.A., Bodmer, R., Ocorr, K., Bernstein, S.I. (2008) Myosin transducer mutations differentially affect motor function, myofibril structure, and the performance of skeletal and cardiac muscle. Mol. Biol. Cell. 19, 553-562.

Qian, L, Mohapatra, B., Akasaka, T., Liu, J., Ocorr, K., Towbin, J.A., Bodmer, R. (2008). Transcription factor neuromancer/TBX20 is required for cardiac function in Drosophila with implications for human heart disease. PNAS, 105, 19833-19838.

Mann, T., Bodmer, R., Pandur, P. (2009). The Drosophila homologue of the vertebrate second heart field marker gene islet-1 is a key component in early cardiogenesis. Development, 136, 317-326.

Fink, M., Callol-Massot, C., Chu, A., Ruiz-Lozano, P., Izpisua-Belmonte, J. C., Giles, W., Bodmer, R., Ocorr, K. (2008) Semi-automatic detection and quantification of heart beat parameters in Drosophila, zebrafish and embryonic mouse hearts. BioTechniques 45, 101-113.

Qian, L., Bodmer, R. (2009). Partial loss of GATA factor Pannier impairs adult heart function in Drosophila. Hum. Mol. Genet. 18, 3153-3163.

Wessells, R.J., Fitzgerald, E., Piazza, N., Ocorr, K., Morley, S., Davies, C., Lim, H.-Y., Elm�n, L., Hayes, M., Oldham, S., Bodmer, R. (2009). d4eBP acts downstream of both dTOR and dFOXO to modulate cardiac functional aging in Drosophila. Aging Cell 8, 542-52.

List of Publications via PubMed
(NIH National Library of Medicine)

File Links
Adult Fly Heart
Adult Fly Heart - GFP