Marion B. Sewer

Dr. Marion Sewer joined the Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences in August 2009. Prior to coming to UCSD, she was a member of the faculty of the School of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Sewer received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Spelman College and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Emory University in 1998. Dr. Sewer was a recipient of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship and studied the effect of inflammation on the expression and activity of cytochrome P450 enzymes under the direction of Dr. Edward T. Morgan. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University under the mentorship of Dr. Michael R. Waterman where she investigated the transcriptional regulation of steroidogenic P450 genes.

Research Interests

The overall focus of Dr. Sewer's research is the investigation of steroid hormone biosynthesis. Research efforts are directed at examining the mechanisms that control the transcription of steroidogenic P450 genes. Mass spectrometric approaches, coupled with biochemical and molecular techniques are being used to define how signaling dynamically alters the post-translational modification of proteins and the cellular concentrations of bioactive sphingolipids and phospholipids. Dr. Sewer's group is also studying how signaling cascades and the cytoskeleton control the transport of intermediary substrates between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum during steroid hormone biosynthesis.

Selected Publications

Dammer EB, Leon A, and Sewer MB. Coregulator Exchange and Sphingosine-Sensitive Cooperativity of Steroidogenic Factor-1, GCN5, p54, and p160 Coactivators Regulate cAMP-Dependent CYP17 Transcription Rate. Molecular Endocrinology, 21(2): 415-438, 2007. Featured on February cover of journal.

Urs AN, Dammer E, Kelly S, Wang E, Merrill AH Jr., and Sewer MB. Steroidogenic factor-1 is a sphingolipid binding protein. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 265-266: 174-178, 2007.

Li D, Urs AN, Allegood J, Leon A, Merrill AH Jr, Sewer MB. Cyclic AMP-stimulated interaction between steroidogenic factor 1 and diacylglycerol kinase theta facilitates induction of CYP17. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 27(19): 6669-6685, 2007.

Dammer EB and Sewer MB. Phosphorylation of CtBP1 by PKA modulates induction of CYP17 by stimulating partnering of CtBP1 and 2. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 283(11): 6925-6934, 2008.

Lucki N and Sewer MB. The cAMP Responsive Element Binding Protein (CREB) Regulates the Expression of Acid Ceramidase (ASAH1) in H295R Human Adrenocortical Cells. Biochimie Biophysica Acta – Molecular Biology of Lipids, 1791: 706-713, 2009.