Joel L. Pomerantz, PhD

Primary Academic Title

Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry

Background

Centers and Institutes

• Basic Biomedical Sciences, Institute for
• Cell Engineering, Institute for

Videos

• #TomorrowsDiscoveries: Understanding the Immune System

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

• Johns Hopkins Tackles Genome Editing with CRISPR/Cas9 Symposium
• New Technique Catalogs Lymphoma-Linked Genetic Variations
• There's a New ''Officer'' in the Infection Control Army
• It’s in the CARDS: the mechanisms behind immune cell activation

Additional Academic Titles

Associate Professor of Oncology

Contact for Research Inquiries

Phone: (443) 287-3100
Fax: (443) 287-3109
joel.pomerantz@jhmi.edu

Research Interests

antigen receptor signaling to NF-kappaB, CRISPR/Cas9-based genetic screens in immunity and cancer, Dysregulated signal transduction in Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, Mechanisms of signal transduction in immunity and cancer, Regulation of NK Cell Maturation and Cytotoxicity

Lab Website

Joel Pomerantz Laboratory - Lab Website

• The Pomerantz Laboratory studies the molecular machinery used by cells to interpret extracellular signals and transduce them to the nucleus to affect changes in gene expression. The accurate response to extracellular signals results in a cell's decision to proliferate, differentiate or die, and it's critical for normal development and physiology. 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. Current studies in the lab focus on signaling pathways that are important in innate immunity, adaptive immunity and cancer, with particular focus on pathways that regulate the activity of the pleiotropic transcription factor NF-kB.

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.

PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=pomerantz+jl

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

Honors

• Discovery Innovation Award, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 11/11/17
• Scholar, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 1/1/11
• Scholar, American Cancer Society Research, 1/1/06
• Scholar, Rita Allen Foundation, 1/1/06
• Kimmel Scholar, Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research, 1/1/05
• Special Fellow, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 1/1/00
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, 1/1/97
• Sterling Winthrop Research Fellow in Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, 1/1/92
• Summa cum laude, Brandeis University, 1/1/89
• Julian J. and Helen R. Behr Scholarship Prize, Brandeis University, 1/1/89
• M.D.-Ph.D. Program, Harvard Medical School, 1/1/89
• Phi Beta Kappa, Brandeis University, 1/1/88
• Nathan and Bertha Richter Award, Brandeis University, 1/1/88
• Elihu A. Silver Prize, Brandeis University, 1/1/88
• CRC Press Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award, Brandeis University, 1/1/86
• Justice Brandeis Scholar, Brandeis University, 1/1/85

Graduate Program Affiliations

• Cellular and Molecular Medicine

  Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology

  Graduate Program in Immunology

  Biological Chemistry

Memberships

• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• American Society for Microbiology

Additional Training

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 2003, Biology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1996, Biology