Gertraud W. Robinson

Dr. Gertraud Robinson received her Ph.D. in Genetics and Developmental Biology from the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Austria in 1981. For her thesis she investigated the role of the extracellular matrix in the epithelio-mesenchymal interactions during embryonic mammary gland development and the ontogeny of steroid hormone receptors in the embryonic mammary gland. She came to NIH for post doctoral training from 1983 to 1986 studying steroid hormone receptor signaling with Drs. E. Brad Thompson and Stoney S. Simons, 3rd. From 1986 to 1989 she was a research scientist at the Institute for Molecular Biology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Salzburg where she tried to identify differentially regulated genes in the mammary anlagen. From 1990 to 1993 she worked as a Senior NRC Fellow in the Laboratory of Mammalian Genes and Development at NICHD and identified several new members of the murine Distal-less homeobox gene family (The New Biologist, 1991 and Mechanisms of Development, 1994). She joined the Laboratory of Genetics and Physiology in 1993 where she holds a Staff Scientist position. Dr. Robonson studies several mutant mouse strains which display defects in mammary gland development in order to identify genes that regulate ductal and alveolar development during puberty and pregnancy. She discovered that activinB expression in the stroma is required for ductal growth during puberty and alveolar development in pregnancy, demonstrating the importance of tissue interaction in postnatal mammary gland development (Development, 1997). She has also shown that the transcription factor C/EBPbeta plays a crucial role in the mammary gland and C/EBPbeta-deficient mammary epithelial cells form of underdeveloped alveoli that are unable to transcribe any of the milk protein genes, indicating a defect in functional differentiation (Genes and Development, 1998). Furthermore, Dr. Robinson developed a technique that allows the rescue of mammary anlagen from embryos by transplantation into the cleared fat pad of virgin hosts. This allowed her to investigate the effect of pRb deficiency in the development and tumor susceptibility of mammary epithelial cells (Oncogene, 2001). Presently, Dr. Robinson studies the Jak2/Stat5 and Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathways and their role in mammary epithelial cell differentiation.

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Selected publications

Evans, J., Rasweiler, J.J, Behringer, R.R., Hennighausen, L. and Robinson, T.W. (2003) A morphological and immunohistochemical comparison of mammary tissues from the short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) and the mouse. Biology of Reproduction, under revision.

Bierie, B., Nozawa, M., Renou, J.-P., Shillingford, J.M., Morgan, F., Oka, T., Taketo, M.M., Cardiff, R.D., Miyoshi, K., Wagner, K-U., Robinson, G.W. and Hennighausen, L. (2003). Activation of beta-catenin in prostate epithelium induces hyperplasias and squamous transdifferentiation. Oncogene 22:3875-3877

Shillingford, J.M., Miyoshi, K., Robinson, G.W., Bierie, B., Cao, Y., Karin, M. and Hennighausen, L. (2003). Proteotyping of mammary tissue from transgenic and gene knockout mice with immunohistochemical markers. A tool to define developmental lesions J. Histochem. Cytochem. 51:555-565.

Kumaraswamy, E., Carlson, B.A., Morgan, F., Miyoshi, K., Robinson, G.W., Su, D., Wang, S., Southon, E., Tessarollo, L., Lee, B.J., Gladyshev, V.N., Hennighausen, L. and Hatfield, D.L. (2003) Selective removal of the selenocysteine tRNA [Ser]Sec gene (Trsp) in mouse mammary epithelium. Mol Cell Biol. 23:1477-1488.

Miyoshi, K., Meyer, B., Gruss, P., Cui, Y., Renou, J.-P., Morgan, F.V., Smith, G.H., Reichenstein, M., Shani, M., Hennighausen, L. and Robinson, G.W. (2002). Mammary epithelial cells are not able to undergo pregnancy-dependent differentiation in the absence of the helix-loop-helix inhibitor Id2. Mol. Endocrinol. 16:2892-2901.

Gallego, M.I., Beachy, P.A., Hennighausen, L. and Robinson, G.W. (2002). Differential requirements for shh in mammary tissue and hair follicle morphogenesis. Dev. Biol. 249:131-139.

Miyoshi, K., Rosner, A., Nozawa, M., Byrd, C., Morgan, F., Landesman-Bollag, E,, Xu, X., Seldin, D.C., Schmidt, E.V., Taketo, M.M., Robinson, G.W., Cardiff, R.D. and Hennighausen, L. (2002). Activation of different Wnt/beta-catenin signaling components in mammary epithelium induces transdifferentiation and the formation of pilar tumors. Oncogene 21:5548-5556.

Shillingford, J.M., Miyoshi, K., Robinson, G.W., Grimm, S.L., Rosen, J.M., Neubauer, H., Pfeffer, K. and Hennighausen, L. (2002). Jak2 is an essential tyrosine kinase involved in pregnancy-mediated development of mammary secretory epithelium. Mol. Endocrinol. 16:563-570.

Hennighausen, L. and Robinson, G.W. (2001). Signaling pathways in mammary gland development. Dev Cell 1:467-475.

Miyoshi, K., Shillingford, J.M., Smith, G.H., Grimm, S.L., Wagner, K.U., Oka, T., Rosen, J.M., Robinson, G.W. and Hennighausen, L. (2001). Signal transducer and activator of transcription (Stat) 5 controls the proliferation and differentiation of mammary alveolar epithelium. J. Cell. Biol. 155:531-542.

Robinson, G.W., Wagner, K.U. and Hennighausen L. (2001). Functional mammary gland development and oncogene-induced tumor formation are not affected by the absence of the retinoblastoma gene. Oncogene 20:7115-7119.

Gallego, M.I., Binart, N., Robinson, G.W., Okagaki, R., Coschigano, K.T., Perry, J., Kopchick, J.J., Oka, T., Kelly, P.A. and Hennighausen L. (2001). Prolactin, growth hormone, and epidermal growth factor activate Stat5 in different compartments of mammary tissue and exert different and overlapping developmental effects. Dev. Biol. 229:163-175.

Robinson, G.W., Accili, D., Hennighausen, L. Rescue of mammary epithelium of early lethal phenotypes by embryonic mammary gland transplantation as exemplified with insulin receptor null mice. In: Methods in mammary gland biology and breast cancer research. M.M. Ip and B.B. Asch (ed.) Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers. pp. 307-316. 2000.

Robinson, G.W., Hennighausen, L. and Johnson, P.F. (2000). Side-branching in the mammary gland: the progesterone-Wnt connection. Genes Dev. 14:889-894.

Robinson, G.W., Karpf, A.B.C., Kratochwil, K. Regulation of mammary gland development by tissue interaction. J. Mam. Gland Biol. Neopl. 4: 9-19, 1999.

Dunbar, M.E., Dann, P.R., Robinson, G.W., Hennighausen, L., Zhang, J.P., Wysolmerski, J.J. (1999). Parathyroid hormone-related protein signaling is necessary for sexual dimorphism during embryonic mammary development. Development 126:3485-3493.

Hennighausen, L., Robinson, G.W. Think globally, act locally: the making of a mouse mammary gland. Genes & Dev. 12: 449-455, 1998.

Wagner, K.U., Dierisseau, P., Rucker, E.B. 3rd, Robinson, G.W. and Hennighausen, L. (1998). Genomic architecture and transcriptional activation of the mouse and human tumor susceptibility gene TSG101: common types of shorter transcripts are true alternative splice variants. Oncogene 17:2761-2770.

Liu, X., Gallego, M.I., Smith, G.H., Robinson, G.W. and Hennighausen, L. (1998). Functional rescue of Stat5a-null mammary tissue through the activation of compensating signals including Stat5b. Cell Growth Differ. 9:795-803.

Robinson, G.W., Johnson, P.F., Hennighausen, L. and Sterneck, E. (1998). The C/EBPbeta transcription factor regulates epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation in the mammary gland. Genes Dev. 12:1907-1916.

Hennighausen, L., Robinson, G.W., Wagner, K.-U., and Liu, X. (1997) Prolactin signaling in the mammary gland. J. Biol. Chem. 272, 7567-7569.

Schaapveld, R.Q., Schepens, J.T., Robinson, G.W., Attema, J., Oerlemans, F.T., Fransen, J.A., Streuli, M., Wieringa, B., Hennighausen, L. and Hendriks, W.J. (1997). Impaired mammary gland development and function in mice lacking LAR receptor-like tyrosine phosphatase activity. Dev. Biol. 188:134-146.

Robinson, G.W. amd Hennighausen, L. (1997). Inhibins and activins regulate mammary epithelial cell differentiation through mesenchymal-epithelial interactions. Development 124:2701-2708.

Li, M., Liu, X., Robinson, G.W., Bar-Peled, U., Wagner, K.U., Young, W.S., Hennighausen, L. and Furth, P.A. (1997). Mammary-derived signals activate programmed cell death during the first stage of mammary gland involution. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:3425-3430.

Liu, X., Robinson, G.W., Wagner, K.-U., Garrett, L., Wynshaw-Boris, A. and Hennighausen, L. (1997) Stat5a is mandatory for adult mammary gland development and lactogenesis. Genes and Dev. 11, 179-186.

Liu, X., Robinson, G.W. and Hennighausen, L. (1996). Activation of Stat5a and Stat5b by tyrosine phosphorylation is tightly linked to mammary gland differentiation. Mol. Endocrinol. 10:1496-1506.

Robinson, G.W., Smith, G.H., Gallahan, D., Zimmer, A., Furth, P.A. and Hennighausen, L. (1996). Understanding mammary gland development through the imbalanced expression of growth regulators. Dev. Dyn. 206:159-168.

Gallahan, D., Jhappan, C., Robinson, G., Hennighausen, L., Sharp, R., Kordon, E., Callahan, R., Merlino, G. and Smith, G.H. (1996). Expression of a truncated Int3 gene in developing secretory mammary epithelium specifically retards lobular differentiation resulting in tumorigenesis. Cancer Res. 56:1775-1785.

Liu, X., Robinson, G.W., Gouilleux, F., Groner, B. and Hennighausen, L. (1995). Cloning and expression of Stat5 and an additional homologue (Stat5b) involved in prolactin signal transduction in mouse mammary tissue. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:8831-8835.

Robinson, G.W., McKnight, R.A., Smith, G.H. and Hennighausen, L. (1995). Mammary epithelial cells undergo secretory differentiation in cycling virgins but require pregnancy for the establishment of terminal differentiation. Development 121:2079-2090.