Biochemistry and Structural Biology  http://www.gbs.uab.edu  http://www.uab.edu/graduate

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Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Biochemistry and Structural Biology 
Neuroscience 

Biographical Sketch 
Dr. Braunewell obtained his PhD in Biology in 1993 at the Institute for Neurobiology (Prof. M. Schachner) from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland and received further postdoctoral research training at the Department for Neurochemistry/ Molecular Biology (Prof. E.D. Gundelfinger), Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg, Germany.

In 1998 Dr. Braunewell became head of the Signal Transduction Research Group at the Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology, and he was Lecturer (Dr. sc. nat. habil) in Biochemistry at the Medical Faculty of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. In 2000 Dr. Braunewell headed the Signal Transduction Research Group at the Neuroscience Research Center (NWFZ) of the Charité, Berlin. In 2001 he became Lecturer in Physiology at the Johannes Müller-Institute, Medical Faculty, Charité, Humboldt University Berlin.

Dr. Braunewell joined Southern Research in 2006 where he is currently an independent PI in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of the Drug Discovery Division. He is also faculty of the newly constituted Comprehensive Neuroscience Center (CNC) at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Function of neuronal calcium sensors in health and disease
Description
Calcium plays a key role in cellular signaling processes such as regulation of enzymatic activities and neurotransmitter release, in neuronal plasticity and gene expression. Calcium-binding proteins have an important role as mediators of calcium signals in cellular signaling pathways in physiological as well as in pathophysiological processes of the central nervous system. The investigation of intracellular neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) proteins, such as VILIP-1, -2, -3, hippocalcin, neurocalcin and NCS-1 may gain new insights into the physiology and pathophysiology of calcium signaling processes in the brain. (For review, see Braunewell 2006 TiPS. 26:345-351.) The general goal in Dr. Braunewell's research lab is to understand calcium-dependent signaling mechanisms at the molecular and cellular level, as well as to clarify the role of calcium-dependent signaling in disease. To reach this goal, a broad interdisciplinary approach - including biochemical, molecular biology, cell culture, immunohistochemical as well as electrophysiological methods is employed, and various collaborations with national and international colleagues have been established. The future goal will be to study the function of NCS proteins in synaptic plasticity and in neurological and psychiatrical disorders, ranging from Alzheimer`s disease to schizophrenia. An interesting facet is the investigation of the role of NCS proteins for invasiveness of brain tumors.

Selected Publications 
Wickborn, C, Klein-Szanto, A., Schlag, PM., and Braunewell, K.-H. (2006) Correlation of protein expression of the putative metastasis suppressor gene VILIP-1 with proliferation in human normal esophagus and tumors. Molecular carcinogenesis, 45:572-81.  16683251 
Ren XQ, Cheng SB, Treuil MW, Mukherjee J, Rao J, Braunewell KH, Lindstrom JM, Anand R. (2005) Structural determinants of alpha4beta2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor trafficking. J Neurosci. 25:6676-86.   16014729 
Braunewell, K.-H. (2005) The dark side of Ca2+ signaling by neuronal Ca2+- sensor proteins: from Alzheimer`s disease to cancer. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 26:345-351.   15982480 
Brackmann, M., Anand, R. and Braunewell, K.-H. (2005) Neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) protein VILIP-1 affects cGMP signalling of guanylyl cyclase B by regulating clathrin-dependent receptor recycling in hippocampal neurons. J. Cell Sci. 118:2495-2505.  15923662 
Gonzalez Guerrico, A.M., Jaffer, Z.M., Page, R.E., Braunewell, K.-H., Chernoff, J. and Klein-Szanto, A.J.P. (2005). Visinin-like protein-1 is a potent inhibitor of cell adhesion and migration in squamous carcinoma cells. Oncogene, 24, 2307-2316.
 		 15735716 
Manahan-Vaughan, D. and Braunewell, K.-H. (2005) The metabotropic glutamate receptor, mGluR5, is a key determinant of good and bad spatial learning performance and hippocampal synaptic plasticity. Cereb Cortex, 15:1703-1713.  15703249 
Spilker, C. and Braunewell, K.-H. (2003). The calcium-myristoyl switch of neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) proteins: same biochemical principle but different calcium-dependent localization of VILIP-3 and -1 in hippocampal neurons. Mol Cell Neurosci., 24, 766-778.  14664824 
Spilker, C., Dresbach, T. and Braunewell, K.-H. (2002a) Reversible translocation and activity-dependent localization of the calcium-myristoyl switch protein VILIP-1 to different membrane compartments in living hippocampal neurons. J. Neurosci. 22, 7331-7339.  12196554 
Bernstein HG, Braunewell KH, Spilker C, Danos P, Baumann B, Funke S, Diekmann S, Gundelfinger ED, Bogerts B. (2002) Hippocampal expression of the calcium sensor protein visinin-like protein-1 in schizophrenia.
Neuroreport. 13(4):393-6.  		 11930147 
Schnurra, I., Riederer, P., Bernstein, H.-G. and Braunewell, K.-H. (2001) The neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) protein VILIP-1 is associated with amyloid plaques and extracellular tangles and promotes cell death and tau-phosphorylation in vitro: a link between calcium sensors and Alzheimer`s disease? Neurobiology of disease, Neurobiol Dis. 8, 900-909.  11592857 
Braunewell, K.-H., Brackmann, M., Schaupp, M., Spilker, C. Anand, R., and Gundelfinger, E. D. (2001) Intracellular neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) protein VILIP-1 modulates cGMP signalling pathways in transfected neural cells and cerebellar granule neurones. J. Neurochem. 78, 1277-1286.  11579136 
Braunewell KH, Manahan-Vaughan D. (2001) Long-term depression: a cellular basis for learning? Rev Neurosci. 12(2):121-40.  11392454  
Braunewell K, Riederer P, Spilker C, Gundelfinger ED, Bogerts B, Bernstein HG. (2001) Abnormal localization of two neuronal calcium sensor proteins, visinin-like proteins (vilips)-1 and -3, in neocortical brain areas of Alzheimer disease patients. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 12(2):110-6.   11173883 
Budde T., Sieg, F., Braunewell, K.-H., Gundelfinger, E. D., and H.-C. Pape (2000) Calcium-induced calcium release mediates the relay mode of thalamocortical cells. Neuron, 26, 423-432.  10839366 
Manahan-Vaughan, D., Braunewell, K.-H. (1999) Novelty Acquisition is associated with induction of hippocampal long-term depression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 96, 8739-8744.  10411945 
Braunewell, K.-H. and Gundelfinger, E.D. (1999) Intracellular neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) proteins - a family of EF-hand calcium-binding proteins in search for function. Cell Tissue Res., 299, 1-12.  9931348 
Braunewell, K.-H., Spilker, C., Behnisch T. and Gundelfinger, E.D. (1997) The neuronal calcium-sensor protein VILIP modulates cAMP accumulation in stably transfected C6 glioma cells: amino-terminal myristoylation determines functional activity. J. Neurochem., 68, 2129-2139.  9109541 
 

Keywords
neuronal calcium sensor, glioblastoma, tumor invasion, signal transduction