Assistant Professor of Biology

Education
A.S., Kettering College of Medical Arts
B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Duke University

Courses Taught

• Anatomy & Physiology I
• Anatomy & Physiology II
• Microbiology
• Biology
• Advanced Pathophysiology

Research Interests
My research focuses on membrane trafficking in eukaryotic cells. One focus is the role of the structural protein clathrin in mediating phagocytosis, endocytosis, cytokinesis, and development. Clathrin-coated vesicles move receptors and ligands to various locations in the cell.

My second focus is the role of heat shock proteins in the chaperoning of peptides to MHC Class I molecules. Heat shock proteins traffick intracellular peptides to the cell surface. [Is this spelled correctly?]

Publications

• Batra, S.K., Niswonger, M.L., Wikstrand, C.L., Pegram, C.N., Zalutsky, M.R., Morrison, S.L., Bigner, D.D. (1994) Mouse/Human Chimeric Me1-14 Antibody: Genomic Cloning of the Variable Region Genes, Linkage to Human Constant Region Genes, Expression, and Characterization. Hybridoma. 13:87-97.
• Ruscetti, T., Cardelli, J.A., Niswonger, M.L., O'Halloran, T.J. (1994) The Clathrin Heavy Chain Functions in Sorting and Secretion of Lysosomal Enzymes in Dictyostelium discoideum. J. Cell Biol. 126:343-352.
• Niswonger, M.L., and O'Halloran, T.J. (1997) Clathrin Heavy Chain is Required for Spore Cell But Not Stalk Cell Differentiation in Dictyostelium discoideum. Development. 14:443-451.
• Niswonger, M.L., and O'Halloran, T.J. (1997) A Novel Role for Clathrin in Cytokinesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94(16):8575-8.
• Niswonger, M.L. (1997) The Intracellular Roles of Clathrin in Dictyostelium discoideum. Doctoral Dissertation. Duke University.
• Wulfkhule, J.D., Donina, I.E., Stark, N.H., Pope, R.K. Pestonjamasp, K.N., Niswonger, M.L., Luna, E.J. (1999) Domain Analysis of Supervillin, and F-actin Bundling Plasma Membrane Protein with Functional Nuclear Localization Signals. J. Cell Sci. 112:2125-2136.
• Kwak, E., Gerald, N., Larochelle, D.A., Vithalani, K.K. Niswonger, M.L., Maready, M., and De Lozanne, A. (1999) LvsA, a Protein Related to the Mouse Beige Protein is Required for Cytokinesis in Dictyostelium. Mol. Biol. Cell. 10:4429-4439.

Menoret, A., Li, Z., Niswonger, M.L., Altmeyer, A, and Srivastava, P.K. (2001) An ER Protein Implicated in Chaperoning peptides to MHC Class I is an Aminopeptidase. J. Biol. Chem. 276:33313-8.