Biography

Faculty member in Biology Department since 2007.

Degrees

• Bemidji State University
  BS in Environmental Studies, BA in English
• Iowa State University
  PhD in Biochemistry
• Mayo Clinic
  Postdoctoral work

Teaching

• Genetics
• Immunology
• Cell Biology
• Hematology
• Advanced Projects

Research Interests

My research interests center around a category of cellular proteins called Rho-family GTPases. These GTPases participate in events that control cell movement and shape. Besides controlling cellular migration, Rho GTPases frequently act as signaling nodes within cells, and they participate in a wide variety of cellular events through their interactions with a series of upstream and downstream effector proteins. In particular, guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) play a critical role in events that stimulate the signaling function of GTPases.

Recent Work

Florke, R. R., Young, G. T., and Hamann, M. J. (2017) Unraveling a model of TCL/RhoJ allosterism using TC10 reverse chimeras. Small GTPases (Accepted)

Ackermann, K. L., Florke, R. R., Reyes, S. S., Tader, B. R., and Hamann, M. J. (2016) TCL/RhoJ plasma membrane localization and nucleotide exchange is coordinately regulated by amino acids within the N terminus and a distal loop region. J. Biol. Chem. 291, 23604–23617

Ham, H., Guerrier, S., Kim, J., Schoon, R.A., Anderson, E.L., Hamann, M.J., Lou, Z., and Billadeau, D.D. (2013). Dedicator of cytokinesis 8 interacts with talin and Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein to regulate NK cell cytotoxicity. J. Immunol. 190, 3661–3669.

Anderson, E.L., and Hamann, M.J. (2012). Detection of Rho GEF and GAP activity through a sensitive split luciferase assay system. Biochem. J. 441, 869–879.