Positions

Overview

  • Dr. Alexander earned his PhD in Genetics and Developmental Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Garry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. His graduate training focused on the characterization of forkhead transcription factors in skeletal muscle and cardiac progenitor cells. He moved to Boston in 2008 to join the laboratory of Dr. Louis Kunkel as a postdoctoral fellow where he focused on characterizing the role of non-coding RNAs in skeletal muscle diseases. He was promoted to an Instructor in Pediatrics and Genetics & Genomics in 2013. His laboratory in the Department of Pediatrics, division of Neurology, at Children’s of Alabama will be focused on exploring the roles of epigenetic modifiers of human neuromuscular diseases in addition to generating novel zebrafish models of muscular dystrophies for drug library screens.

    • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title Altmetric
    2022 Next-Generation SINE Compound KPT−8602 Ameliorates Dystrophic Pathology in Zebrafish and Mouse Models of DMD.  Biomedicines.  10. 2022
    2022 Erratum: Skeletal muscle-specific overexpression of miR-486 limits mammary tumor-induced skeletal muscle functional limitations (Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids (2022) 28 (231–248), (S2162253122000580), (10.1016/j.omtn.2022.03.009)) 2022
    2022 DOCKopathies: A systematic review of the clinical pathologies associated with human DOCK pathogenic variants.  Human Mutation.  43:1149-1161. 2022
    2022 miR-486 is essential for muscle function and suppresses a dystrophic transcriptome.  Life Science Alliance.  5. 2022
    2022 Smad8 Is Increased in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Suppresses miR-1, miR-133a, and miR-133b.  International Journal of Molecular Sciences.  23. 2022
    2022 Skeletal muscle-specific overexpression of miR-486 limits mammary tumor-induced skeletal muscle functional limitations 2022
    2021 Mechanics of dystrophin deficient skeletal muscles in very young mice and effects of age 2021
    2021 The interplay of mitophagy and inflammation in duchenne muscular dystrophy.  Life.  11. 2021
    2021 miR-486 is an epigenetic modulator of Duchenne muscular dystrophy pathologies 2021
    2021 hnRNP L is essential for myogenic differentiation and modulates myotonic dystrophy pathologies.  Muscle and Nerve.  63:928-940. 2021
    2021 Extracellular serine and glycine are required for mouse and human skeletal muscle stem and progenitor cell function.  Molecular Metabolism.  43. 2021
    2020 DOCK3 is a dosage-sensitive regulator of skeletal muscle and Duchenne muscular dystrophy-associated pathologies.  Human Molecular Genetics.  29:2855-2871. 2020
    2020 Mouse genotyping in an hour.  Muscle and Nerve.  61:679-680. 2020
    2020 “DOCK3 is a dosage-sensitive regulator of skeletal muscle and Duchenne muscular dystrophy-associated pathologies” 2020
    2020 The SINE Compound KPT-350 Blocks Dystrophic Pathologies in DMD Zebrafish and Mice.  Molecular Therapy.  28:189-201. 2020
    2019 Rpl5-Inducible Mouse Model for Studying Diamond-Blackfan Anemia..  Discoveries.  7:e96. 2019
    2019 Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ameliorate MEGF10 myopathy.  Human Molecular Genetics.  28:2365-2377. 2019
    2019 Discovery of Novel Therapeutics for Muscular Dystrophies using Zebrafish Phenotypic Screens.  Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases.  6:271-287. 2019
    2018 A limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2I model of muscular dystrophy identifies corrective drug compounds for dystroglycanopathies.  JCI Insight.  3. 2018
    2018 Genetic modifiers of Duchenne and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophies.  Muscle and Nerve.  57:6-15. 2018
    2017 The NOTCH1/SNAIL1/MEF2C Pathway Regulates Growth and Self-Renewal in Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma.  Cell Reports.  19:2304-2318. 2017
    2017 Repression of phosphatidylinositol transfer protein a ameliorates the pathology of Duchenne muscular dystrophy 2017
    2016 CD82 Is a Marker for Prospective Isolation of Human Muscle Satellite Cells and Is Linked to Muscular Dystrophies.  Cell Stem Cell.  19:800-807. 2016
    2016 Muscle dysfunction in a zebrafish model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  Physiological Genomics.  48:850-860. 2016
    2016 Host Th1/Th2 immune response to Taenia solium cyst antigens in relation to cyst burden of neurocysticercosis.  Parasite Immunology.  38:628-634. 2016
    2016 Reversal of neurobehavioral social deficits in dystrophic mice using inhibitors of phosphodiesterases PDE5A and PDE9A.  Translational Psychiatry.  6. 2016
    2015 Jagged 1 Rescues the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Phenotype.  Cell.  163:1204-1213. 2015
    2015 Erratum: Dystrophic muscle improvement in zebrafish via increased heme oxygenase signaling (Human Molecular Genetics (2014) 23 (7) (1869–1878) DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddt579).  Human Molecular Genetics.  24:4480-4481. 2015
    2015 Skeletal muscle MicroRNAs: Their diagnostic and therapeutic potential in human muscle diseases.  Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases.  2:1-11. 2015
    2015 Stem Cell Differentiation and Therapeutic Use.  Stem Cells International.  2015. 2015
    2014 Involvement of oxidative stress, Nuclear Factor kappa B and the Ubiquitin proteasomal pathway in dysferlinopathy.  Life Sciences.  108:54-61. 2014
    2014 MicroRNA-486-dependent modulation of DOCK3/PTEN/AKT signaling pathways improves muscular dystrophy-associated symptoms.  Journal of Clinical Investigation.  124:2651-2667. 2014
    2014 Dystrophic muscle improvement in zebrafish via increased heme oxygenase signaling.  Human Molecular Genetics.  23:1869-1878. 2014
    2013 Oxidative stress, NF-κB and the ubiquitin proteasomal pathway in the pathology of calpainopathy.  Neurochemical Research.  38:2009-2018. 2013
    2013 Cysteine mutations cause defective tyrosine phosphorylation in MEGF10 myopathy.  FEBS Letters.  587:2952-2957. 2013
    2013 Regulation of IRS1/Akt insulin signaling by microRNA-128a during myogenesis.  Journal of Cell Science.  126:2678-2691. 2013
    2013 MicroRNA-199a is induced in dystrophic muscle and affects WNT signaling, cell proliferation, and myogenic differentiation.  Cell Death and Differentiation.  20:1194-1208. 2013
    2012 Identification of a novel microRNA that regulates the proliferation and differentiation in muscle side population cells.  Stem Cells and Development.  21:3031-3043. 2012
    2012 Myotubularin-deficient myoblasts display increased apoptosis, delayed proliferation, and poor cell engraftment.  American Journal of Pathology.  181:961-968. 2012
    2011 Characterization of zebrafish dysferlin by morpholino knockdown.  Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.  413:358-363. 2011
    2011 Regulation of DMD pathology by an ankyrin-encoded miRNA.  Skeletal Muscle.  1. 2011
    2011 Isolation and transcriptome analysis of adult zebrafish cells enriched for skeletal muscle progenitors.  Muscle and Nerve.  43:741-750. 2011
    2011 Drug screening in a zebrafish model of duchenne muscular dystrophy 2011
    2010 Foxj3 transcriptionally activates Mef2c and regulates adult skeletal muscle fiber type identity.  Developmental Biology.  337:396-404. 2010
    2009 Regulation of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 2α Signaling by the Stress-Responsive Deacetylase Sirtuin 1.  Science.  324:1289-1293. 2009
    2009 miRNAS in normal and diseased skeletal muscle.  Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.  13:2-11. 2009
    2007 Sox15 and Fhl3 transcriptionally coactivate Foxk1 and regulate myogenic progenitor cells 2007

    Research Overview

  • I am interested in identifying novel epigenetic (non-coding RNAs, RNA-splicing factors, and DNA-methylation) and genetic (SNPs) of muscular dystrophies. Additionally, I use the zebrafish model to screen drug compound libraries to identify novel drug therapeutics.

    • Principal Investigator On

    Investigator On

    Education And Training

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics, University of Texas System : Dallas 2007

    • Full Name

  • Matthew Alexander