Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center       At the University of California, San Francisco
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RESEARCH & FACULTY
Faculty (Principal Investigators)
Kevin Bender
Howard Fields
Patricia Janak
Andrew Kayser
Robert O. Messing
Dorit Ron
Jennifer Whistler
Linda Wilbrecht
Staff Research Investigators/
Associate Investigators
Frederic Ambroggi
Gregory O. Hjelmstad
Frederic "Woody" Hopf
Elyssa Margolis
Jun Wang
Affiliated Investigators
Steven L. Batki
Joshua Woolley
Core Facilities
Research Faculty
Robert Messing

Robert O. Messing, MD

Vice President, Internal Affairs
Professor of Neurology, UCSF
Endowed Chair in Neurology in Honor of the Gallo Family, UCSF
Director, Alcohol Center for Translational Genetics
Member, UCSF Graduate Program in Neuroscience
Member, UCSF Program in Biological Sciences
Member, Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction
Member, UCSF Graduate Group in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences
Member, UCSF Institute of Molecular Medicine

Phone: (510) 985-3950
Carol Webb (Executive Assistant): (510) 985-3853, cwebb@gallo.ucsf.edu
Email: romes@gallo.ucsf.edu


Research

My laboratory studies molecular mechanisms that underlie addiction and co-morbid conditions such as anxiety and pain. We have focused on signal transduction pathways that involve the protein kinase C (PKC) family of serine-threonine kinases. In cultured neuronal cell lines, ethanol alters the localization and increases the abundance of two PKC isozymes, PKCdelta and PKCepsilon. In addition, comparative transcriptome analysis of mice that show high versus low ethanol consumption has shown that PKCepsilon and PKCzeta are highly expressed in the brains of mice that consume large amounts of ethanol. Therefore, my laboratory is examining PKCdelta, PKCepsilon, and PKCzeta to understand the role of these kinases and their signaling pathways in behavior and to identify targets for development of new therapeutic agents to treat addiction. The techniques we use include gene targeting, RNA interference, and chemical genetics with mutant kinases that utilize ATP analogs.

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Lab Members

Jahan Dadgar, Staff Research Associate, jdadgar@gallo.ucsf.edu
Frederic Woody Hopf, Associate Investigator, woody@gallo.ucsf.edu
David Kapfhamer, Assist Research Scientist, dkapfhamer@gallo.ucsf.edu
Anna Lee, Postdoctoral Fellow, amlee@gallo.ucsf.edu
Rajani Maiya, Assist Research Scientist, rmaiya@gallo.ucsf.edu
Thomas McMahon, Senior Staff Research Associate, tomm@gallo.ucsf.edu
Taban Seif, Postdoctoral Fellow, tseif@gallo.ucsf.edu
Jeffrey Simms, Staff Research Associate, jsimms@gallo.ucsf.edu
Subhashini Srinivasan, Postdoctoral Fellow, ssrinivasan@gallo.ucsf.edu
Jacklyn Stecher, Supervisor, Lab Assistant, jackiec@gallo.ucsf.edu
Dan Wang, Specialist, danw@gallo.ucsf.edu
Daifei Wu, Postdoctoral Fellow, dwu@gallo.ucsf.edu
Yun Zhang, Staff Research Associate, yzhang@gallo.ucsf.edu

Publications

Robert O. Messing's selected publications
Robert O. Messing's publications

CONTACT US
5858 Horton Street, Suite 200
Emeryville, CA 94608
Phone: (510) 985-3109

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