The conferences

Visiting professor:

Heinz Arnheiter, M.D.

Emeritus scientist

Building 35 Room 2A-201, 35 Convent Drive MSC 3706 Bethesda MD 20892-3706

Office: (301) 496-1645; Lab: (301) 496-9661; Fax: (301) 480-2737; Email: arnheith@mail.nih.gov

Dr. Arnheiter received his M.D. degree from the University of Zürich, Switzerland.

His initial work at its Institute for Virology focused on the family of Mx proteins which are intrinsic host factors serving as the first lines of defense against infections with influenza viruses.

He joined the former Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at NINDS to work on intracellular protein trafficking and viral assembly.

After a brief time in Zürich, he returned to the NINDS and in 1986 introduced transgenic technology to the institute.

He later shifted from studies of host defense mechanisms to the development of the nervous system, using the transgenic and knock-in technologies as a major research tools to elucidate molecular mechanisms of neural crest development and patterning of the neuroepithelium in the eye and neural tube.

He retired from Government service at the end of 2011 and now serves as co-editor of the journal Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research.

Professeur Arnheiter will visit Corinne Bertolotto at the C3M Inserm U1065 in Nice for 2 months (Sept-Oct 2018).

During this visit, he will give talks for researchers but also for docs and postdocs at the University of Nice in order to share his scientific knowledge, his experience as a editor in cheif of a journal and his expertise in writing scientific papers.

Professor Arnheiter is famous for the discovery of MITF. This protein plays a key role in the development and the fonction of melanocyte lineage but is also implicated in osteoclast, mastocyst and immune cells.

Other laboratories of University Côte d'Azur searching in these fields will definitly be interested in Pr Arnheiter visit and meetings will be organised to allow discussions with him.

Selected publication :

1) Zaidi MR, Davis S, Noonan F, Graff-Cherry C, Hawley T, Walker RL, Feigenbaum L, Fuchs E, Lyak L, Young HA, Hornyak TJ, Arnheiter H, Trinchieri G, Meltzer PS, De Fabo EC, Merlino G. (2011) Interferon-gamma links UV to melanocyte activation and promotes melanomagenesis. Nature, 469, 548-553

2) Bharti K, Gasper M, Bertuzzi S, Arnheiter H. (2011) Lack of the ventral anterior homeodomain transcription factor VAX1 leads to induction of a secondary pituitary. Development, 138, 873-878

3) Bharti K, Miller SS, Arnheiter H. (2011) The new paradigm: Retinal pigment epithelium cells generated from embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent cells Pigment Cell Melanoma Research, 24, 21-34

4) Arnheiter, H (2010) Sex-specific coloration for display and camouflage Pigment Cell Melanoma Research, 23, 480-481

5) Wen B, Chen Y, Li H, Wang J, Shen J, Ma A, Qu J, Bismuth K, Debbache J, Arnheiter H, Hou L. (2010) Allele-specific genetic interactions between Mitf and Kit affect melanocyte development Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research, 23, 441-447

6) Arnheiter, H. (2010) The discovery of the microphthalmia locus and its gene, Mitf Pigment Cell Melanoma Res, 23, 729-735

7) Jia J, Arnheiter H and Li Z (2010) Schizophrenia susceptibility gene DISC1 regulates dendritic spines through Kalirin-7 and Rac1

Cell Sci Reviews , 6(4), 13-19

8) Skuntz, S, Mankoo, B, Nguyen, MTT, Hustert, E, Nakayama, A, Tournier-Lasserve, E, Wright, CVE, Pachnis, V, Bharti, K, Arnheiter, H. (2009) Lack of the mesodermal homeodomain protein MEOX1 disrupts sclerotome polarity and leads to a remodeling of the cranio-cervical joints of the axial skeleton Developmental Biology, 332, 383-395

9) Heinz Arnheiter and Kapil Bharti (2008) Ribosomes and p53 - a new KIT for skin darkening Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research

10) Bismuth, K., Skuntz, S., Hallsson, J.H., Pak, P., Dutra, A.B., Steingrimsson, E., Arnheiter, H. (2008) An unstable targeted allele of the mouse Mitf gene with a high somatic and germ line reversion rate Genetics, 178, 259-272

11) Bharti, K, Liu, W, Csermely, T, Bertuzzi, S, Arnheiter, H. (2008) Alternative promoter use in eye development: the complex role and regulation of the transcription factor MITF Development, 135, 1169-1178

12) Hallsson, JH, Haflidadottir, BS, Schepsky, A, Arnheiter, H, Steingrimsson, E (2007) Evolutionary sequence comparison of the Mitf gene reveals novel conserved domains Pigment Cell Research, 20, 185-200

13) Arnheiter, H. (2007) Mammalian paramutation: a tail's tale? Pigment Cell Research, 20, 36-40

14) Bharti, K., Nguyen, M.-T. T., Skuntz, S., Nakayama, A., Bertuzzi, S., and Arnheiter, H. (2006) The other pigment cell: Specification and development of the pigmented epithelium of the vertebrate eye Pigment Cell Research, 19, 380-394

15) Hou, L., Arnheiter, H. and Pavan, W.J. (2006) Interspecies difference in the regulation of melanocyte development by SOX10 and MITF Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 103, 9081-9085

16) Horsford, D.J., Nguyen, M.T.T., Sellar, G., De Repentigny, Y., Kothary, R., Arnheiter, H., and McInnes, R.R. (2005) Chx10 repression of Mitf is required for the maintenance of mammalian neuroretinal identity Development, 132, 177-187

17) Murakami, H. and Arnheiter, H. (2005) Sumoylation modulates transcriptional activity of MITF in a promoter-specific manner Pigment Cell Research, 18, 265-277

18) Arnheiter H, Hou L, Nguyen MTT, Bismuth K, Csermely T, Murakami H, Skuntz S, Liu W, and Bharti K. (2005) MITF - A Matter of Life and Death for the Developing Melanocytes. From Melanocytes to Malignant Melanoma. Humana Press

19) Bismuth, K., Maric, D., and Arnheiter, H. (2005) MITF and cell proliferation: The role of alternative splice forms. Pigment Cell Research, 18, 349-359

20) Bharti, K. and Arnheiter, H (2005) When pigment cells turn into neurons. J. Investig. Dermatology, 125, X-XI

21) Hallsson JH, Haflidadottir BS, Stivers C, Odenwald W, Arnheiter H, Pignoni F, Steingrimsson E. (2004) The basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper transcription factor Mitf is conserved in Drosophila and functions in eye development Genetics, 167(1), 233-41

22) Kasai K, Takahashi M, Osumi N, Sinnarajah S, Takeo T, Ikeda H, Kehrl JH, Itoh G, Arnheiter H. (2004) A role for the G12 family of heterotrimeric G proteins in Sonic hedgehog signaling Genes Cells, 9, 49-58

23) Hou L, Pavan WJ, Shin MK, Arnheiter H. (2004) Cell-autonomous and cell non-autonomous signaling through Endothelin receptor B during melanocyte development

Development, 131, 3239-3247  

24) Alpan O, Bachelder E, Isil E., Arnheiter H, Matzinger P. (2004) Educated dendritic cells act as messengers from memory to naive T helper cells Nature Imm, 5, 615-622

25) Hallsson JH, Haflidadottir BS, Stivers C, Odenwald W, Arnheiter H, Pignoni F, Steingrimsson E. (2004) The bHLH-Zip transcription factor Mitf is conserved in Drosophila and functions in eye development Genetics, 167, 233-241

26) Mankoo BS, Skuntz S, Harrigan I, Grigorieva E, Candia A, Wright CVE, Arnheiter H, Pachnis V (2003)

Synergistic action of Meox homeobox genes upstream of genetic pathways essential for the patterning and differentiation of somites

Development, 130, 4655-4664

27) Steingrimsson E, Arnheiter H, Hallsson JH, Lamoreux ML, Copeland G, Jenkins NA (2003)

Interallelic complementation at the mouse Mitf locus Genetics, 163, 267-276

28) Steingrimsson, E., Tessarollo, L., Pathak, B., Hou, L., Arnheiter, H. , Copeland, N.G. and Jenkins, N.A. (2002) Mitf and Tfe3, two members of the Mitf-Tfe family of bHLH-Zip transcription factors, have important but functionally redundant roles in osteoclast development

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 99, 4477-4482

29) Arnheiter H, Hou L, Nguyen MT, Nakayam A, Champagne B, Hallsson JH, Bismuth K (2002)

The role of Microphthalmia in pigment cell development In: Mechanisms of Suntanning, Ortonne, J.-P. , Balotti, R. eds., Martin Dunitz Ltd, Publ. London., pp 49-63

30) Potterf SB, Mollaaghababa R, Hou L, Southard-Smith EM, Hornyak TJ, Arnheiter H, Pavan WJ (2001) Analysis of SOX10 function in neural crest-derived melanocyte development: SOX10-dependent transcriptional control of dopachrome tautomerase Dev Biol, 237, 245-257

31) Hou L., Panthier J.-J., Arnheiter, H. (2000) Signaling and transcription regulation in the neural crest-derived melanocyte lineage: Interactions between KIT and MITF Development, 127, 5379-5389

32) Nguyen M-T T and Arnheiter H (2000) Signaling and transcriptional regulation in early mammalian eye development: A link between FGF and MITF Development, 127, 3581-3591

33) Potterf SB, Furumura M, Dunn KJ, Arnheiter H, Pavan WJ (2000) Transcription factor hierarchy in Waardenburg syndrome: Regulation of MITF expression by SOX10 and PAX3. Human Genet

34) Hampton LL, Ladenheim EE, Akeson M, Way JM, Weber HC, Sutliff VE, Jensen RT, Wine LJ, Arnheiter H, Battey JF. (1998) Loss of bombesin-induced feeding suppression in gastrin-releasing peptide receptor-deficient mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 95, 3188-3192

35) Hodgkinson CA, Nakayama A, Li H, Swenson LB, Opdecamp K, Asher JH Jr, Arnheiter H, Glaser T. (1998) Mutation at the anophthalmic white locus in Syrian hamsters: haploinsufficiency in the Mitf gene mimics Hum Mol Genet, 7, 703-708

36) Opdecamp K, Kos L, Arnheiter H, Pavan WJ. (1998) Endothelin signalling in the development of neural crest-derived melanocytes Biochem Cell Biol, 76, 1093-1099

37) Opdecamp K, Vanvooren P, Riviere M, Arnheiter H, Motta R, Szpirer J, Szpirer C. (1998) The rat microphthalmia-associated transcription factor gene (Mitf) maps at 4q34-q41 and is mutated in the mib rats Mamm Genome, 9, 617-621

38) Arnheiter H. (1998) Evolutionary biology. Eyes viewed from the skin. Nature, 391, 632-633

39) Nakayama A et al. (1998) Mutations in microphthalmia, the mouse homolog of the human deafness gene MITF, affect neuroepithelial and neural crest-derived melanocytes differently. Mech Dev, 70, 155-166

40) Opdecamp K, Nakayama A, Nguyen MT, Hodgkinson CA, Pavan WJ, Arnheiter H. (1997)

Melanocyte development in vivo and in neural crest cell cultures: crucial dependence on the Mitf basic-helix-loop-helix-zipper transcription factor. Development, 124, 2377-2386

41) Krylov D, Kasai K, Echlin DR, Taparowsky EJ, Arnheiter H, Vinson C. (1997) A general method to design dominant negatives to B-HLHZip proteins that abolish DNA binding. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 94, 12274-9

42) Tachibana M, Perez-Jurado LA, Nakayama A, Hodgkinson CA, Li X, Schneider M, Miki T, Fex J, Francke U, Arnheiter H. (1994) Cloning of MITF, the human homolog of the mouse microphthalmia gene and assignment to chromosome 3p14.1-p12.3. Hum Mol Genet, 3, 553-557

43) Steingrimsson E, Moore KJ, Lamoreux ML, Ferre-D'Amare AR, Burley SK, Zimring DC, Skow LC, Hodgkinson CA, Arnheiter H, Copeland NG, et al. (1994) Molecular basis of mouse microphthalmia (mi) mutations helps explain their developmental and phenotypic consequences. Nat Genet, 8, 256-63

44) Hemesath TJ, Steingrimsson E, McGill G, Hansen MJ, Vaught J, Hodgkinson CA, Arnheiter H, Copeland NG, Jenkins NA, Fisher DE. (1994) microphthalmia, a critical factor in melanocyte development, defines a discrete transcription factor family. Genes Dev., 8, 2770-80

45) Hodgkinson CA, Moore KJ, Nakayama A, Steingrimsson E, Copeland NG, Jenkins NA, Arnheiter H. (1993) Mutations at the mouse microphthalmia locus are associated with defects in a gene encoding a novel basic-helix-loop-helix-zipper protein. Cell, 74, 395-404