gautam@uab.edu
Education:
- Dr. Bijur received his B.S. from Rutgers University, and his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. He conducted his postdoctoral research at UAB.
Academic Appointments with UAB:
- April 2004-present: Assistant Professor, primary appointment, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, UAB
- October 2005-present: Assistant Professor, secondary appointment, Department of Neurobiology, UAB
- January 2006-present: Scientist, Civitan International Research Center
Research Interests:
Dr. Gautam Bijur's research centers on the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) signaling pathway. This signaling axis plays a critical role in neuronal plasticity and neuronal fate as unregulated GSK3 activity can lead to inhibition of key prosurvival proteins and cell death. On-going funded research in Dr. Bijur’s lab is focused on GSK3 regulation. One key aspect of GSK3 is that this kinase is inhibited by the drug lithium, which is widely used for the treatment of bipolar disorder. This fundamental finding by the researchers Klein and Melton suggests that GSK3 may play a role in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder and possibly other psychiatric diseases. In addition, lithium also acts as a neuroprotectant. The overarching goal of Dr. Bijur’s research is to probe the actions of GSK3 signaling in psychiatric diseases and neurodegenerative diseases.
Recent Publications:
King TD, Gandy JC, Bijur GN. The protein phosphatase-1/inhibitor-2 complex differentially regulates GSK3 dephosphorylation and increases sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase 2 levels. Exp Cell Res. 2006 Aug 17.
Gandy JC, Rountree AE, Bijur GN. Akt1 is dynamically modified with O-GlcNAc following treatments with PUGNAc and insulin-like growth factor-1. FEBS Lett. 2006 May 29;580(13):3051-8.
De Sarno P, Bijur GN, Zmijewska AA, Li X, Jope RS. In vivo regulation of GSK3 phosphorylation by cholinergic and NMDA receptors. Neurobiol Aging. 2006 Mar;27(3):413-22.
Zhu W, Bijur GN, Styles NA, Li X. Regulation of FOXO3a by brain-derived neurotrophic factor in differentiated human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Brain Res Mol Brain Res. 2004 Jul 5;126(1):45-56.
Bijur GN, Jope RS. Rapid accumulation of Akt in mitochondria following phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activation. J Neurochem. 2003 Dec;87(6):1427-35.
People in the Lab:
Taj D. King, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow
Johanna C. Gandy, graduate student (Dept. of Neurobiology)
Keri A. Barksdale, graduate student (Dept. of Neurobiology)