Anh-Tri Do, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral research fellow

Education
Uppsala University, Sweden, 2006

Lab
Charles P. Emerson, Jr.

Research Interests
Proteoglycan (PG) coreceptors carry heparan sulfate (HS) chains that mediate interactions with growth factors, morphogens, and receptors. Thus, PGs modulate fundamental processes such as cell survival, division, adhesion, migration, and differentiation. The interactions between the HS chains and various ligands are influenced by the variations in the sulfation pattern along the HS. The extracellular  sulfatases (Sulfs) are an evolutionally conserved family of heparan sulfate (HS)-specific 6-O-endosulfatases. These enzymes remodel the 6-O-sulfation of cell surface HS chains and thus influence the function of many factors, including Wnt, fibroblast growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor and bone morphogenetic protein. Given their possible developmental roles, we are using variety of biochemical, cell biological and in vivo-based approaches to understand the enzymatic properties and signaling roles of the Sulfs in embryonic development, stem cell specification and tumor progression.

Publications
Ai X, Do AT, Kusche-Gullberg M, Lindahl U, Lu K, Emerson CP Jr. (2006) Substrate specificity and domain functions of extracellular heparan sulfate 6-O-endosulfatases, QSulf1 and QSulf2. J Biol Chem. 281(8):4969-4976.

Do AT, Smeds E, Spillmann D, Kusche-Gullberg M. (2006) Overexpression of heparan sulfate 6-O-sulfotransferases in human embryonic kidney 293 cells results in increased N-acetylglucosaminyl 6-O-sulfation. J Biol Chem. 281(9):5348-5356.

Ai X, Do AT, Lozynska O, Kusche-Gullberg M, Lindahl U, Emerson CP Jr. (2003) QSulf1 remodels the 6-O sulfation states of cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans to promote Wnt signaling. J Cell Biol. 162(2):341-351.

Jemth P, Smeds E, Do AT, Habuchi H, Kimata K, Lindahl U, Kusche-Gullberg M. (2003) Oligosaccharide library-based assessment of heparan sulfate 6-O-sulfotransferase substrate specificity. J Biol Chem. 278(27):24371-24376.

Smeds E, Habuchi H, Do AT, Hjertson E, Grundberg H, Kimata K, Lindahl U, Kusche-Gullberg M. (2003) Substrate specificities of mouse heparan sulphate glucosaminyl 6-O-sulphotransferases. Biochem J. 372(Pt 2):371-380.

Contact Details:
email: do@bbri.org, tel. 617-658-7868