Janice Buss - Ph.D.

Dr. Buss has recently joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Science after working in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology at Iowa State University, Ames, for 14 years. As Director of Graduate Programs, Dr. Buss provides guidance to and furthers the development of the Ph.D. Programs in traditional Pharmaceutical Sciences, Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Pharmaceutical Policy.

Dr. Buss' broad research interests are signal transduction during growth and differentiation, covalent modification of proteins with lipids, and interactions of signaling proteins with membranes. Currently, projects in her laboratory are studying the intracellular trafficking and oncogenic signaling of Ras proteins.

The ability of Ras proteins to cause malignancy relies upon the protein being able to attach to the cell membrane. In turn, Ras proteins derive their ability to interact with membranes because of lipids (an isoprenoid and a fatty acid) that are attached directly to the protein. Attachment of these lipids can be prevented in two ways: by permanent genetic alteration of the attachment sites on the Ras protein, or by temporary inhibition of the enzymes that do the attachment, with drugs. The focus of the lab is to learn how attached lipids control interactions of proteins with membranes, and to identify the means by which these membrane interactions ultimately control biological function of the lipid-modified protein. The techniques of molecular biology are utilized to construct genes which encode proteins with specific alterations in membrane binding domains. The success of these changes is judged by expressing the altered proteins in animal cells and assessing the altered protein's attached lipids, subcellular location, and cellular function. A major goal of this work is to develop methods to control, disrupt or counteract unwanted associations that lead to malignancy.

Selected Honors

• Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching, College of LAS (2006)
• Anna Pate Mentoring Award (2003)

Selected Publications/Presentations

• Zheng, H., McKay, J. and Buss, J.E. (2007) H-Ras does not need COP I- or COP II-dependent vesicular transport to reach the plasma membrane. J. Biol. Chem. 282: 25760-2576
• Berzat, A.C., Buss, J.E., Chenette, E.J., Weinbaum, C.A., Shutes, A., Der, C.J., Minden, A., Cox, A.D. (2005) Transforming activity of the Rho family GTPase, Wrch-1, a Wnt-regulated Cdc42 homolog, is dependent on a novel carboxyl-terminal palmitoylation motif. J. Biol. Chem. 280:33055-33065.
• International Heart Forum, Beijing, China, 2004
• Baker, T.L., Zheng, H., Walker, J., Coloff, J., and Buss, J.E. (2003) Distinct rates of palmitate turnover on membrane-bound cellular and oncogenic H-Ras. J. Biological Chemistry 278: 19292-19300.
• Merrill conference on "Recruiting and Training Future Scientists", University of Kansas, KS, 2003
• Buss, J.E., Booden, M.A., and Stickney, J.T. (2003) Influence of cellular location on Ras function. The Handbook of Cell Signaling (eds. R Bradshaw and E. Dennis; Academic Press)
• Casey, P.J. and Buss, J.E. (volume editors) Methods in Enzymology: Volume 250 "Lipid Modification of Proteins", Academic Press. 1995