Dr. Howe received his PhD in Tumor Cell Biology from Northwestern University in 1996. From 1996 to 2001, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2001, he received a Howard Temin Career Award from the National Cancer Institute, and stayed at UNC until 2003, when he was recruited to the Vermont Cancer Center and the Department of Pharmacology at the UVM College of Medicine.

Research Interests

The growth and development of cells into tissues and organs, and the maintenance of tissue and organ health, is completely dependent on the successful integration of signals arising from soluble factors and positional and morphological signals arising from cell adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM). Subversion of normal adhesion-regulated signaling mechanisms directly contributes to the uncontrolled growth and aggressive migration of malignant tumor cells. Research in my laboratory focuses on understanding how cell adhesion to ECM regulates and specifies the signal transduction processes leading to cell movement and cell division. Specifically, we study the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (or PKA), how it is regulated by cell adhesion, and how it contributes to regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. The laboratory uses a combination of biochemical techniques and multi-dimensional microscopy to analyze the subcellular distribution and spatial regulation of PKA, its upstream regulators, and its downstream targets involved in cytoskeletal organization. The lab also has burgeoning interests in the identification & characterization of changes in protein phosphorylation on a proteome-wide scale (phosphoproteomics), and the development of experimentally tractable cell culture systems for modeling metastasis and analyzing adhesion-related signaling events during metastatic cell migration.

Selected Publications

Howe, A.K., Baldor, L.C., and Hogan, B.P. Spatial regulation of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase during chemotactic cell migration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Oct 4;102(40):14320-14325

Howe, A. K. Regulation of actin-based cell migration by cAMP/PKA. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2004 Jul 5;1692(2-3):159-74

Howe, A.K., Hogan, B.P., Juliano, R.L. Regulation of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein phosphorylation and interaction with Abl by protein kinase A and cell adhesion. J Biol Chem. 2002 Oct 11;277(41):38121-6. Epub 2002 Jun 26

Howe, A.K., Aplin, A.E., Juliano, R.L. Anchorage-dependent ERK signaling--mechanisms and consequences. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2002 Feb;12(1):30-5.

Howe, A.K. Cell adhesion regulates the interaction between Nck and p21-activated kinase. J Biol Chem. 2001 May 4;276(18):14541-4. Epub 2001 Mar 13

Howe, A.K., Juliano, R.L. Regulation of anchorage-dependent signal transduction by protein kinase A and p21-activated kinase. Nat Cell Biol. 2000 Sep;2(9):593-600.

CMB Lab Members