Penny Clarke, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Neurology Campus Mail Stop B-182 4200 E. 9th Avenue Denver, CO 80262 Email: Penny.Clarke@uchsc.edu Telephone: 303-393-4684 Fax: 303-393-4686

Major Research and Clinical Focus:

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Dr. Clarke’s interests include viral-induced apoptosis and signaling pathways. She has demonstrated that reovirus-induced regulation of the transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) is required for the apoptotic cell death of virus-infected cells. Reovirus-induced apoptosis thus requires both an early phase of activation and a later phase where the activation of NF-kB is blocked. Dr. Clarke has also shown that activation of both c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and that c-Jun transcription factor are also associated with reovirus-induced cell death. In addition, work performed by Dr. Clarke has demonstrated that reovirus-induced apoptosis is mediated by TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL), which binds to cell surface death receptors DR4 and DR5 resulting in the FADD-dependent activation of cellular caspases. Finally, Dr. Clarke has shown that reovirus can sensitize cells, including cell lines derived from a variety of human cancers, to TRAIL-induced apoptosis by a mechanism that involves an increase in the activation of caspase 8.

Dr. Clarke is funded by a grant from the ovarian cancer research fund. These findings have wide reaching implications in the fields of virus-induced cell death, death receptor cellular signaling and in the mechanisms of cancer molecular biology.

Research Personnel

Suzanne Meintzer, BA
Professional Research Assistant
VAMC Room 9C105
Telephone 303-393-4684
Fax 303-393-4686
E mail suzanne.meintzer@uchsc.edu