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Faculty Detail    
Name BLAKE EASON HILDRETH
  
Campus Address SHEL 813 Zip 2182
Phone  (205) 934-8697
E-mail  hildretb@uab.edu
Other websites
     

Education
Undergraduate  East Carolina University    2000  BS, Biology (Molecular/Biotechnology Focus)  
Graduate  North Carolina State University    2004  DVM, Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine 
Residency  University of Florida    2005  Internship in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery 
Residency  Ohio State University    2008  Residency in Small Animal Surgery 
Graduate  Ohio State University    2008  MS, Veterinary Clinical Sciences 
Graduate  Ohio State University    2014  PhD, Comparative & Veterinary Medicine 
Fellowship  Ohio State University    2017  Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Cancer and Bone Biology 
Fellowship  Medical University of South Carolina    2018  Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Cancer and Bone Biology 


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Joint Pathology  Molecular & Cellular Pathology Assistant Professor
Center  Comp Arthritis, MSK, Bone & Autoimmunity Ctr  Comp Arthritis, MSK, Bone & Autoimmunity Ctr Assistant Professor
Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center  Comprehensive Cancer Center Assistant Professor
Center  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci Assistant Professor
Center  UAB Immunology Institute  UAB Immunology Institute Assistant Professor

Graduate Biomedical Sciences Affiliations
Cancer Biology 
Cell, Molecular, & Developmental Biology 
Medical Scientist Training Program 
Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine 

Biographical Sketch 
Dr. Hildreth obtained his BS in Biology from East Carolina University and his DVM from the North Carolina State University. He then completed a small animal rotating internship at the University of Florida and a small animal surgical residency at the Ohio State University. During his residency he completed a concurrent MS degree evaluating the use of PTHrP as an in vitro bone-forming agent. After his residency, he stayed at Ohio State to complete a PhD focused on the role of PTHrP in skeletal development and the use of PTHrP as a bone-forming agent. During his PhD, he developed an intense interest in the advanced imaging of bone using microCT, particularly in response to bone-forming therapies or genetic modification. This resulted in collaborations with multiple bone biology and cancer research laboratories. Upon completing his PhD in 2014 he was hired as an associate faculty member within the OSU-CVM as an Instructor of Small Animal Surgical Practice. In this role, he taught bone biology, general surgery, and orthopedics in the veterinary curriculum. Starting in 2015, he also joined the laboratory of Dr. Michael C. Ostrowski in the Comprehensive Cancer Center as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. His focus was investigating 1) the role of macrophages and osteoclasts in breast cancer bone metastasis and 2) transcription factors and microRNAs regulating osteoblast and osteoclast formation. In May 2017 he continuing his work with Dr. Ostrowski at the Medical University of South Carolina's Hollings Cancer Center. In October 2018 he was promoted to Research Assistant Professor after receiving a NIH K01 Award. In July 2019 he started a tenure track Assistant Professor position at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) in the Department of Pathology’s Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology and the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, where his work focuses on the role of macrophages and osteoclasts in breast cancer bone metastasis and primary bone tumors.

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
Advances in Mineral Metabolism (AIMM)  Member   
American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR)  Member and Member of the Advocacy and Science Policy Committee   
Cancer and Bone Society (CABS)  Member   
 



Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Role of macrophages and osteoclasts in bone metastasis and primary bone tumors
Description
1) Transcriptional regulation of macrophage and osteoclast differentiation and macrophage polarization. 2) Macrophage and osteoclast-specific targeting for the prevention and treatment of bone metastasis (primarily breast cancer) and primary bone malignancies. 3) Targeting the tumor microenvironment as a means to treat primary tumors and prevent and treat metastasis.

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Lanigan LG, Hildreth BE III, Dirksen WP, Simmons JK, Martin CK, Werbeck JL, Thudi NK, Papenfuss TL, Boyaka PN, Toribio RE, Ward JM, Weilbaecher KN, Rosol TJ. In vivo tumorigenesis, osteolytic sarcomas, and tumorigenic cell lines from transgenic mice expressing the human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) Tax viral oncogene, American Journal of Pathology 2021 191:335-52  33181139 
Hildreth BE III#, Palmer C, Allen MJ#. Modeling primary bone tumors and bone metastasis with solid tumor graft implantation into bone. Journal of Visualized Experiments 2020 Sep 9;(163). (#co-corresponding author). Commissioned work.   32986024 
Thies KA, Hammer AM, Hildreth BE III, Steck SA, Spehar JM, Kladney RD, Geisler JA, Das M, Russell LO, Bey JF IV, Bolyard CM, Pilarski R, Trimboli AJ, Cuitiño MC, Koivisto CS, Stover DG, Schoenfield L, Otero J, Godbout JP, Chakravarti A, Ringel MD, Ramaswamy B, Li Z, Kaur B, Leone G, Ostrowski MC, Sizemore ST, Sizemore GM. Stromal platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta signaling promotes breast cancer metastasis in the brain. Cancer Research 2021 81:606-18  32327406 
Carey HA*, Hildreth BE III*, Samuvel DJ, Thies KA, Rosol TJ, Toribio RE, Charles JF, Ostrowski MC, Sharma SM. Eomes partners with PU.1 and MITF to regulate transcription factors critical for osteoclast differentiation. iScience 2019 11:238-45 (*co-first author)  30634169 
Pitarresi JR, Liu X, Avendano A, Thies KA, Sizemore GM, Hammer AM, Hildreth BE III, Wang DJ, Steck SA, Donohue S, Cuitiño MC, Kladney RD, Mace TA, Chang JJ, Ennis CS, Li H, Reeves RH, Blackshaw S, Zhang J, Yu L, Fernandez SA, Frankel WL, Bloomston M, Rosol TJ, Lesinski GB, Konieczny SF, Guttridge DC, Rustgi AK, Leone G, Song JW, Wu J, Ostrowski MC. Hedgehog signaling disruption leads to RNF5-mediated degradation of PTEN and accelerates PDAC growth. Life Science Alliance 2018 1:e201800190  30456390 
Carey HA*, Hildreth BE III*, Geisler JA, Nickel MC, Cabrera J, Lee J, Ghosh S, Jiang Y, Yan J, Makam S, Young NA, Valiente GR, Jarjour WN, Huang K, Rosol TJ, Toribio RE, Charles JF, Ostrowski MC, Sharma SM. Enhancer variants reveal a conserved transcription factor network governed by PU.1 during osteoclast differentiation. Bone Research 2018 6:8 (*co-first author)  29619268  
Wu J, Liu X, Nayak SG, Pitarresi JR, Cuitiño MC, Yu L, Hildreth BE III, Thies KA, Schilling DJ, Fernandez SA, Leone G, Ostrowski MC. Generation of a pancreatic cancer model using a Pdx1-Flp recombinase knock-in allele. PLoS One 2017 12:e0184984  28934293  
Hildreth BE III, Birchard SJ, Rosol TJ, Drost WT. What is your diagnosis? Extraskeletal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 2017 251:647-50  28857701 
Supsavhad W, Dirksen WP, Hildreth BE III, Rosol TJ. p16, pRb, and p53 in feline oral squamous cell carcinoma. Veterinary Sciences 2016 3(3):18  29056726  
Carey HA, Bronisz A, Cabrera J, Hildreth BE III, Cuitiño M, Fu Q, Ahmad A, Toribio RE, Ostrowski MC, Sharma SM. Failure to target RANKL signaling through p38-MAPK results in defective osteoclastogenesis in the microphthalmia cloudy-eyed mutant. Journal of Cellular Physiology 2016 231:630-40  26218069 
Hildreth BE III, Williams M, Dembek KA, Hernon KM, Rosol TJ, Toribio RE. Engraftment and bone mass are enhanced by PTHrP 1-34 in ectopically transplanted vertebrae (vossicle model) and can be non-invasively monitored with bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging. Transgenic Research 2015 24:955-69  26271486 
Simmons JK, Hildreth BE III, Supsavhad W, Elshafae SM, Hassan BB, Dirksen WP, Toribio RE, Rosol TJ. Animal models of bone metastasis. Veterinary Pathology 2015 52:827-41  26021553 
Simmons JK, Dirksen WP, Hildreth BE III, Dorr C, Williams C, Thomas R, Breen M, Toribio RE, Rosol TJ. Canine prostate cancer cell line (Probasco) produces osteoblastic metastases in vivo. Prostate 2014 74:1251-65  25043424 
 

Keywords
macrophage, osteoclast, breast cancer, primary bone tumor, bone, metastasis