Joel L Pomerantz Ph D , Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry Johns Hopkins Medicine Search Popular Searches Find a Doctor or Researcher
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Joel L Pomerantz Ph D
Joel L Pomerantz Ph D Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry Research Interests
Mechanisms of signal transduction in immunity and #TomorrowsDiscoveries Understanding the Immune System
Background
Dr. Joel L. Pomerantz is an associate professor of biological chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. His research focuses on functional specificity and the design of signal transduction pathways. Dr. Pomerantz received his B.A. in biochemistry from Brandeis University in 1989 and completed his Ph.D. in biology in Phillip A. Sharp's laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. He then completed two postdoctoral fellowships in biology, the first one at MIT with Carl O. Pabo in 1997 and the second in David Baltimore's laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in 2003. He joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins in 2004. His work examines the molecular machinery used by cells to interpret extracellular signals and transduce them to the nucleus to effect changes in gene expression, which results in a cell's decision to proliferate, differentiate, or die. The dysregulation of this machinery underlies the unwarranted expansion or destruction of cell numbers that occurs in human diseases like cancer, autoimmunity, hyperinflammatory states and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Pomerantz is a member of the American Society for Microbiology and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and serves on the editorial boards of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He has authored or co-authored several peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter, has received numerous grants and awards and holds two patents. Titles
Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry Associate Professor of Oncology Departments Divisions
Centers & Institutes
Education
Degrees
B.A.; Brandeis University (Massachusetts) (1989) Ph.D.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts) (1995) Additional Training
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 2003, Biology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1996, Biology Research & Publications
Research Summary
Dr. Pomerantz and members of his lab currently study signaling pathways that are important in innate immunity, adaptive immunity, and in cancer, paying particular attention to pathways that regulate the activity of the pleiotropic transcription factor NF-kappaB. One molecule that signals to NF-kappaB is CARD11 and the team is investigating the biochemical mechanisms by which CARD11 transduces signals from the T-cell receptor to NF-kappaB. Using a new expression cloning strategy designed to isolate molecules that signal to NF-kappaB in lymphocytes, the team has cloned several novel signaling molecules that activate the NF-kappaB or NFAT transcription factors and is currently working to better understand their mechanisms of action. Lab
Lab Website:
Selected Publications
Bedsaul JR, Shah N, Hutcherson SM, Pomerantz JL. Mechanistic Impact of Oligomer Poisoning by Dominant Negative CARD11 Variants. iScience. 2022. 25 (2):103810 Hutcherson SM, Bedsaul JR, Pomerantz JL. Pathway-specific Defects in T, B, and NK cells and Age-dependent Development of High IgE in Mice Heterozygous for a CADINS-associated Dominant Negative CARD11 Allele. J Immunol. 2021. 207 (4):1150-1164 Wang Z, Hutcherson SM, Yang C, Jattani RP, Tritapoe JM, Yang YK, Pomerantz JL. Coordinated Regulation of Scaffold Opening and Enzymatic Activity During CARD11 Signaling, J. Biol Chem. 2019. 294 (40): 14648-14660 Dadi H*, Jones TA*, Merico D*, Sharfe N, Ovadia A, Schejter Y, Reid B, Sun M, Vong L, Atkinson A, Lavi S, Pomerantz JL#, Roifman CM^#. Combined Immunodeficiency and Atopy Caused by a Dominant Negative Mutation in CARD11. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2018. 141 (5): 1818-1830. authors contributed equally #*^co-senior authors Yang YK, Yang C, Chan W, Wang Z, Deibel KE, Pomerantz JL. Molecular Determinants of Scaffold-induced Linear Ubiquitinylation of B cell lymphoma/leukemia 10 (Bcl10) During T Cell receptor and Oncogenic Caspase Recruitment Domain-Containing Protein 11 (CARD11) Signaling. J. Biol Chem. 2016. 291(50): 25921-25936 Contact for Research Inquiries
Phone: 443-287-3100 Academic Affiliations & Courses
Graduate Program Affiliation
Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Biological Chemistry Activities & Honors
Honors
Summa cum laude, Brandeis University, 1989 Julian J. and Helen R. Behr Scholarship Prize, Brandeis University, 1989 Phi Beta Kappa, Brandeis University, 1988 Nathan and Bertha Richter Award, Brandeis University, 1988 Elihu A. Silver Prize, Brandeis University, 1988 CRC Press Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award, Brandeis University, 1986 Justice Brandeis Scholar, Brandeis University, 1985 - 1989 Sterling Winthrop Research Fellow in Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, 1992 - 1993 M.D.-Ph.D. Program, Harvard Medical School, 1989 - 1995 Kimmel Scholar, Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research, 2005 - 2007 Scholar, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society , 2011 - 2016 Scholar, American Cancer Society Research , 2006 - 2011 Scholar, Rita Allen Foundation , 2006 - 2009 Special Fellow, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2000 - 2003 Postdoctoral Fellow, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, 1997 - 2000 Discovery Innovation Award, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2017 Memberships
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology American Society for Microbiology Videos & Media
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