Biography
Dr. Ness holds a doctorate in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed postdoctoral work on oncogenes, hematopoiesis and transcription at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany, where he also received his first faculty appointment. Returning to the United States, Dr. Ness served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He joined the faculty at UNM in 1998 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and as Investigator in the UNM Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Resources Program. He received tenure in 2002 and was promoted to Professor in 2008.
Personal Statement
Since 1992 my laboratory has made many important contributions to the understanding of oncogene and transcription factor function in normal hematopoietic and immune cells and in tumor cells. I am one of the world’s experts in the biology, activities, functions and regulation of Myb transcription factors, which are essential for normal hematopoiesis and are involved in numerous types of human tumors. My laboratory has been continuously funded by NIH and/or ACS grants since 1992. In the last 15 years, I have become increasingly versed in genomics and bioinformatics, and more recently in next-generation sequencing approaches. In addition to supervising my laboratory, I am Director of the Analytical and Translational Genomics Shared Resource, the next-generation sequencing, microarray and genomics facility in the UNM Cancer Center. I also organize and oversee a large cancer patient genome-sequencing project in the UNM Cancer Center, and I am a PI of the first IRB-approved genome sequencing protocol to be opened here. I supervise a team of biostatisticians and bioinformatics staff and organize monthly meetings to promote interactions between biologists and experts in biostatistics, bioinformatics and computational technologies. Recently, my laboratory developed methods for using CRIPR/Cas9 to make knockouts in immune cells such as cell lines and normal CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors. We are using these cutting-edge methods to investigate the role of Myb proteins in immune cell development, and to investigate the relationships between RNA editing and alternative RNA splicing in normal and leukemic hematopoietic cells. For the last four years I have collaborated with clinicians, population scientists and statisticians to investigate the molecular basis of disparities in our cancer patient population. I am well suited to apply my expertise in gene regulation, cancer biology, genomics and bioinformatics to these projects. I have mentored numerous junior faculty, post-docs, undergraduate students and PhD students, including seven PhD students who finished their PhDs in my laboratory. I have mentored several minority trainees, including a Navajo post-doc (O.L. George) who is now tenure-track faculty at the Univ of Hawaii and a Hispanic PhD student (A. Quintana) who is tenure-track faculty at Univ of Texas, El Paso. Several of my former PhD students entered non-academic careers in industry (J.D. Leverson, A.B. Dash) or scientific writing (F.C. Orrico), so I am experienced with helping students attain career goals outside the classic academic path. My laboratory maintains focused on understanding all aspects of the MYB oncogene, including its regulation, alternative splicing, activities and functions in both normal and tumor cells.
Areas of Specialty
Myb oncogene function and regulation
Transcriptional and epigenetic regulation
Cancer genomics
Achievements & Awards
Editorial Board, Cancers (Basel), 2019-present
Faculty of 1000 Prime: Hematology / Hematopoiesis, 2016-present
“Apple for the Teacher” award for outstanding teaching from the UNM School of Medicine, 2008
Editorial Board, Oncogene, 1998 to 2009
Invested as The Victor and Ruby Hansen Surface Endowed Professor in Cancer Genomics, 2013 - present
Nominated for fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011
Key Publications
Journal Article
Ness, Scott, Marknell, A, Graf, T, 1989 The v-myb oncogene product binds to and activates the promyelocyte-specific mim-1 gene. Cell, vol. 59, Issue 6, 1115-25
Journal Article
Leverson, J, D Koskinen, P, J Orrico, F, C Rainio, E, M Jalkanen, K, J Dash, A, B Eisenman, R, N Ness, Scott, 1998 Pim-1 kinase and p100 cooperate to enhance c-Myb activity. Molecular cell, vol. 2, Issue 4, 417-25
Journal Article
Dash, A, B Orrico, F, C Ness, Scott, 1996 The EVES motif mediates both intermolecular and intramolecular regulation of c-Myb. Genes & development, vol. 10, Issue 15, 1858-69
Journal Article
Brayer, K, J Frerich, C, A Kang, Huining, Ness, Scott, 2016 Recurrent Fusions in MYB and MYBL1 Define a Common, Transcription Factor-Driven Oncogenic Pathway in Salivary Gland Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma. Cancer discovery, vol. 6, Issue 2, 176-87
Journal Article
Frerich, C, A Sedam, H, N Kang, Huining, Mitani, Y, El-Naggar, A, K Ness, Scott, 2019 N-Terminal Truncated Myb with New Transcriptional Activity Produced Through Use of an Alternative MYB Promoter in Salivary Gland Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma. Cancers, vol. 12, Issue 1
Gender
Male
Languages
- English
- German
Research and Scholarship
(trainees in bold)
Lee, D.Y., K.J. Brayer, Y. Mitani, E.A. Burns, A. Rao, D. Bell, M.D. Williams, R. Ferrarotto, K.B. Pytynia, A.K. El-Naggar, and S.A. Ness, Oncogenic Orphan Nuclear Receptor NR4A3 Interacts and Cooperates with MYB in Acinic Cell Carcinoma. Cancers (Basel), 2020. 12(Aug 27): p. E2433. PMCID in progress
Frerich, C.A., H.N. Sedam, H. Kang, Y. Mitani, A.K. El-Naggar, and S.A. Ness, N-Terminal Truncated Myb with New Transcriptional Activity Produced Through Use of an Alternative MYB Promoter in Salivary Gland Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma. Cancers (Basel), 2019. 12(1).
Brayer KJ, Frerich CA, Kang H, Ness SA. Recurrent Fusions in MYB and MYBL1 Define a Common, Transcription Factor-Driven Oncogenic Pathway in Salivary Gland Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma. Cancer Discovery 2016 Feb;6(2):176-87. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-15-0859. Epub 2015 Dec 2. PMID: 26631070; PMCID: PMC4744535
Leverson, J.D. and S.A. Ness, Point Mutations in v-Myb Disrupt a Cyclophilin-Catalyzed Negative Regulatory Mechanism. Molecular Cell, 1998. 1: p. 203-211.