Reasearch Interests

Research in our laboratory follows two main themes.  One is directed at understanding how regulatory networks control biological processes.  Our approach is to identify and characterize networks of interacting proteins using high throughput technologies, including the yeast two-hybrid system, and more recently, protein microarray assays.  Projects underway include mapping the binary interactions among the ~14,000 Drosophila proteins and among the proteins from a bacterial pathogen.  The protein interaction maps (PIMs) that we generate from these studies can form the foundation for discovering and understanding cellular regulatory pathways.  A second theme of our research is directed at understanding the molecular mechanisms that control cell division.  For these studies we are using the genetically tractable model organism, Drosophila (the fruit fly). Our long-standing approach has been to identify putative new cell cycle regulatory proteins and then use a variety of molecular and genetic approaches to study them. Initially, for example, we identified new cell cycle regulators by elaborating a network of interacting proteins centered on Cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks). These highly conserved S/T protein kinases are well-known regulators of critical transitions in the cell division cycle of all eukaryotes.  We are now studying other members of these networks, focusing in particular on proteins that appear to be highly conserved from Drosophila to humans.

Selected Publications

Zhong, J., Zhang, H., Stanyon, C.A., Tromp, G., and Finley, Jr., R.L. A strategy for constructing large protein interaction maps using the yeast two-hybrid system: regulated expression arrays and two-phase mating. Genome Research, 13, 2691-2699, 2003.

Giot, L., Bader, J. S. , Brouwer, C., Chaudhuri, A., Kuang, B., Li, Y., Hao, Y. L., Ooi, C.E., Godwin, B., Vitols, E., Govindan, V., Pochart, P., Machineni, H., Welsh, M., Kong, Y., Zerhusen, B., Malcolm, R., Varrone, Z., Collis, A. Minto, M., Burgess, S., McDaniel, L., Stimpson, E., Spriggs, F., Williams, J., Neurath, K., Ioime, N., Agee, M., Voss, E., Furtak, K., Renzulli, R., Aanensen, N., Carrolla, S., Bickelhaupt, E., Lazovatsk, Y., DaSilva, A., Zhong, J., Stanyon, C.A., Finley, Jr., R.L., White, K.P., Braverman, M., Jarvie, T., Gold, S., Leach, M., Knight, J., Shimkets, R.A, McKenna, M.P., Rothberg, J.M., Chant J. A. A Genome-Scale Protein Interaction Map of Drosophila melanogaster. Science, 203, 1727-1736, 2003.

Regulated expression of proteins in yeast using the MAL61-62 promotor and mating scheme to increase dynamic range. 2002. Russell L. Finley Jr., Huamei Zhang, Jinhui Zhong, and Clement Stanyon. Gene. Volume 285, Issues 1-2, 20 February 2002, Pages 49-57.

A role for Cyclin J in the rapid nuclear division cycles of early Drosophila embryogenesis. 2000. M.G. Kolonin and R.L. Finley Jr. Developmental Biology 227, 661-672. [Full text]

Progress and potential of Drosophila protein interaction maps. 2000. Stanyon, C.A., and Finley R.L. Jr. Pharmacogenomics 1(4).

Kolonin, M.G., and Finley, Jr., R.L. Targeting cyclin-dependent kinases in Drosophila with peptide aptamers. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95:14266-14271, 1998.

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