Sanford I. Bernstein

Sanford I. Bernstein received a B.S. degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Ph.D. degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He performed postdoctoral research at the University of Virginia before joining the faculty at San Diego State University. He is currently a Professor of biology and a Member of the Molecular Biology Institute and the San Diego State University Heart Institute. Dr. Bernstein served as Director of the Molecular Biology Institute and Chair of the Department of Biology. He is currently Director of the Certificate Program in Biotechnology and Coordinator of the Joint Doctoral Program in Cell and Molecular Biology with UCSD. He has served on the editorial boards of Developmental Biology and the Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility and has been a grant review panelist for the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. He chaired a review panel for the Western States Affiliate of the American Heart Association and served as Chair of the Affiliate’s research committee. Dr. Bernstein’s research focuses on structure-function relationships of muscle proteins, particularly myosin heavy chain, and its putative chaperone UNC-45. Using an integrative approach in the drosophila melanogaster model, transgenic flies and their altered versions of contractile proteins are studied at the physiological, ultrastructural, biochemical, and biophysical levels.

Biography Updated on 26 January 2008

Personal Home Page

http://www.bio.sdsu.edu/faculty/bernstein.html

Articles in Scholarly Journals [Incomplete List]

  1. Alternative S2 Hinge Regions of the Myosin Rod Differentially Affect Muscle Function, Myofibril Dimensions and Myosin Tail Length
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 367, no. 5, pp. 1312–1329, 2007
  2. A Variable Domain near the ATP-Binding Site in Drosophila Muscle Myosin Is Part of the Communication Pathway between the Nucleotide and Actin-binding Sites
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 368, no. 4, pp. 1051–1066, 2007
  3. Transcriptional regulation of the Drosophila melanogaster muscle myosin heavy-chain gene
    Gene Expression Patterns, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 413–422, 2007
  4. aB-Crystallin Maintains Skeletal Muscle Myosin Enzymatic Activity and Prevents its Aggregation under Heat-shock Stress
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 358, no. 3, pp. 635–645, 2006
  5. An Alternative Domain Near the ATP Binding Pocket of Drosophila Myosin Affects Muscle Fiber Kinetics
    Biophysical Journal, vol. 90, no. 7, pp. 2427–2435, 2006
  6. Passive Stiffness in Drosophila Indirect Flight Muscle Reduced by Disrupting Paramyosin Phosphorylation, but Not by Embryonic Myosin S2 Hinge Substitution
    Biophysical Journal, vol. 91, no. 12, pp. 4500–4506, 2006
  7. Paramyosin phosphorylation site disruption affects indirect flight muscle stiffness and power generation in Drosophila melanogaster
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 102, no. 30, pp. 10522–10527, 2005
  8. An Alternative Domain Near the Nucleotide-binding Site of Muscle Myosin Affects ATPase Kinetics
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 353, no. 1, pp. 14–25, 2005
  9. Passive stiffness of Drosophila IFM myofibrils: a novel, high accuracy
    Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility, vol. 25, no. 4-5, pp. 359–366, 2004
  10. Alternative N-Terminal Regions of Drosophila Myosin Heavy Chain Tune Muscle Kinetics for Optimal Power Output
    Biophysical Journal, vol. 87, no. 3, pp. 1805–1814, 2004
  11. Drosophila paramyosin is important for myoblast fusion and essential for myofibril formation
    The Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 160, no. 6, pp. 899–908, 2003
  12. Variable N-terminal Regions of Muscle Myosin Heavy Chain Modulate ATPase Rate and Actin Sliding Velocity
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 278, no. 19, pp. 17475–17482, 2003
  13. Kinetic Analysis of Drosophila Muscle Myosin Isoforms Suggests a Novel Mode of Mechanochemical Coupling
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 278, no. 50, pp. 50293–50300, 2003
  14. UCS Proteins: Managing the Myosin Motor
    Current Biology, vol. 13, no. 13, pp. R525–R527, 2003
  15. The myosin converter domain modulates muscle performance
    Nature Cell Biology, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 312–317, 2002
  16. Alternative Exon-encoded Regions of Drosophila Myosin Heavy Chain Modulate ATPase Rates and Actin Sliding Velocity
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 276, no. 18, pp. 15117–15124, 2001
  17. Control of Drosophila Paramyosin/Miniparamyosin Gene Expression. DIFFERENTIAL REGULATORY MECHANISMS FOR MUSCLE-SPECIFIC TRANSCRIPTION
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 276, no. 11, pp. 8278–8287, 2001
  18. Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 287–299, 2001
  19. Spatially and temporally regulated expression of myosin heavy chain alternative exons during Drosophila embryogenesis
    Mechanisms of Development, vol. 101, no. 1-2, pp. 35–45, 2001
  20. Determining structure/function relationships for sarcomeric myosin heavy chain by genetic and transgenic manipulation of Drosophila
    Microscopy Research and Technique, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 430–442, 2000
  21. Assembly of thick filaments and myofibrils occurs in the absence of the myosin head
    The EMBO Journal, vol. 18, no. 7, pp. 1793–1804, 1999
  22. Specific Myosin Heavy Chain Mutations Suppress Troponin I Defects in Drosophila Muscles
    The Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 144, no. 5, pp. 989–1000, 1999
  23. Fine tuning a molecular motor: the location of alternative domains in the Drosophila myosin head
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 271, no. 1, pp. 1–6, 1997
  24. Defects in theDrosophilaMyosin Rod Permit Sarcomere Assembly but Cause Flight Muscle Degeneration
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 249, no. 1, pp. 111–125, 1995
  25. Genetic and transgenic approaches to dissecting muscle development and contractility using the Drosophila model system
    Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 243–250, 1994
  26. A Charge Change in an Evolutionarily-conserved Region of the Myosin Globular Head Prevents Myosin and Thick Filament Accumulation in Drosophila
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 236, no. 3, pp. 697–702, 1994
  27. Analysis of Drosophila paramyosin: identification of a novel isoform which is restricted to a subset of adult muscles
    The Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 116, no. 3, pp. 669–681, 1992
  28. Ultrastructural and molecular analyses of homozygous-viable Drosophila melanogaster muscle mutants indicate there is a complex pattern of myosin heavy-chain isoform distribution.
    Genes & Development, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 1233–1246, 1989
  29. Molecular and ultrastructural defects in a Drosophila myosin heavy chain mutant: differential effects on muscle function produced by similar thick filament abnormalities
    The Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 107, no. 6, pp. 2601–2612, 1988
  30. Mutations of the Drosophila Myosin Heavy-Chain Gene: Effects on Transcription, Myosin Accumulation, and Muscle Function
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 83, no. 5, pp. 1393–1397, 1986
  31. Drosophila muscle myosin heavy chain encoded by a single gene in a cluster of muscle mutations
    Nature, vol. 302, no. 5907, Article ID 302393a0, 4 pages, 1983
  32. RNA synthesis and coding capacity of polyadenylated and nonpolyadenylated mRNA from cultures of differentiating Drosophila melanogaster myoblasts*1
    Developmental Biology, vol. 79, no. 2, pp. 388–398, 1980
  33. Isolation and partial characterization of Drosophila myoblasts from primary cultures of embryonic cells
    The Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 856–865, 1978
  34. Isolation of myoblasts from primary mass cultures of embryonicDrosophila cells
    Tissue Culture Association Manual, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 689–690, 1977