Dr. Michael Rosenblatt is the Dean and Professor of Physiology and Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. He previously served as the George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Bone and Mineral Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).
He served as the President of BIDMC from 1999-2001. Previously, he was the Harvard Faculty Dean and Senior Vice President for Academic Programs at CareGroup and BIDMC. Prior to that, he served as Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, during which time he led a joint venture for M.D., Ph.D., and M.D.-Ph.D. training. Earlier, he was Senior Vice President for Research at Merck Research Laboratories, where he co-led the worldwide development team for alendronate (FOSAMAX), Merck’s bisphosphonate for osteoporosis and bone disorders.
His research is in the field of hormonal regulation of calcium metabolism, osteoporosis and cancer metastasis to bone. Dr. Rosenblatt serves on the scientific advisory board or board of directors of several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia and his M.D. from Harvard.
Department of Physiology
Tufts University
136 Harrison Avenue
South Cove 8
Boston, MA 02111
Office (617) 636-6565
Lab (617) 636-3882
Fax (617) 636-0445
Email michael.Rosenblatt@tufts.edu
Appointments
- Dean, Tufts University School of Medicine
- Professor of Physiology and Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine
- Member, Cellular and Molecular Physiology program, Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Studies
- Member, Integrated Studies Program, Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
- Member, Genetics Program, Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
- Steering Committee, “Gender, Culture and Advancement in Academic Medicine” C-Change Project
- Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, Boston, Massachusetts
- Research Innovation and Commercialization Task Force of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative
- Member, Board of Directors (ex officio), Tufts New England Medical Center
Clinical Interests
- Osteoporosis
- Hyperparathyroidism
- Hypercalcemia of Maligancy
Research Interests
- Hormone—receptor interactions in the parathyroid hormone field
- Mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis to bone
Research Summary
My laboratory engages in research in two areas: 1) the structural biology of hormone—receptor interactions in the parathyroid hormone field; 2) understanding the mechanisms of cancer metastasis to bone. In the first project, we are using engineered receptors and hormone analogs to map the bimolecular interface between parathyroid hormone and its cognate receptor. Together with nmr, x-ray chrystallography, and computer-assisted molecular modeling, we are building an experimentally-derived model of the hormone—receptor complex. In the second project, we have created an “all-human” animal model of breast cancer metastasis to bone. We seek to identify the genes associated with and mechanisms responsible for cancer “homing” to the skeleton, termed osteotropism, and elucidate the contribution of bone to the metastatic process.
For more information, please visit http://www.tufts.edu/sackler/physiology/faculty/rosenblatt/
Representative Publications
Behar V, Bisello A, Rosenblatt M, Chorev M. Photoaffinity cross-linking identifies differences in the interactions of an agonist and an antagonist with the parathyroid hormone/parathyroid hormone-related receptor. J. Biol. Chem. 2000; 275:9-17.
Greenberg Z, Bisello A, Mierke D F, Rosenblatt M, Chorev M. Mapping the bimolecular interface of the parathyroid hormone (PTH)-PTH1 receptor complex: spatial proximity between Lys27 (of the hormone principal binding domain) and Leu261 (of the first extracellular loop) of the human PTH1 receptor. Biochemistry 2000; 39:8142-8152.
Piserchio A, Bisello A, Rosenblatt M, Chorev M, Mierke DF. Characterization of parathyroid hormone/receptor interactions: structure of the first extracellular loop. Biochemistry. 2000; 39:8153-8160.
Alexander JM, Bab I, Fish S, Muller R, Uchiyama T, Gronowicz G, Nahounou M, Zhao Q, White D W, Chorev M, Gazit D, and Rosenblatt M. Human parathyroid hormone 1—34 reverses bone loss in ovariectomized mice. J. Bone and Mineral Research 2001; 16: 1665-1673.
Peggion E, Mammi S, Schievano E, Silvestri L, Schiebler L, Bisello A, Rosenblatt M, Chorev M. Structure-function studies of analogues of parathyroid hormone (PTH)-1-34 containing β-amino acid residues in positions 11-13. Biochemistry 2002; 41: 8162-8175.
Bisello A, Chorev M, Rosenblatt M, Monticelli L, Mierke DF, Ferrari SL. Selective ligand-induced stabilization of active and desensitized parathyroid hormone type 1 receptor conformations. J Biol Chem 2002; 277: 38524-38530.
Kuperwasser C, Dessain S, Bierbaum BE, Garnet D, Sperandio K, Gauvin GP, Naber SP, Weinberg RA, Rosenblatt M. A mouse model of human breast cancer metastasis to human bone. Cancer Research 2005; 65: 6130-6138.
Gan L, Alexander JM, Wittelsberger A, Thomas B, Rosenblatt M. Large-scale purification and characterization of human parathyroid hormone-1 receptor stably expressed in HEK293S GnTI¯ cells. Protein Expr. Purif. 2006; 47: 296-302.
Wittelsberger A, Corich M, Thomas BE, Lee BK, Barazza A, Czodrowski P, Mierke DF, Chorev M, Rosenblatt M. The mid-region of parathyroid hormone (1-34) serves as a functional docking domain in receptor activation. Biochemistry 2006; 45: 2027-2034.
Wittelsberger A, Thomas B, Mierke D, Rosenblatt M, et al. Methionine acts as a "magnet" in photoaffinity crosslinking experiments. FEBS Letters 2006; 580: 1872-1876.
Thomas BE, Wittelsberger A, Woznica I, Hsieh M, Monaghan P, Lee BK, Rosenblatt M. Cysteine at position 217 in the intracellular loop 1 plays a critical role in human parathyroid hormone receptor type 1 membrane translocation and function. J of Bone and Mineral Research 2007; 22: 609-616.
Monaghan P, Woznica I, Moza B, Sundberg EJ, Rosenblatt, M. Recombinant expression and purification of the N-terminal extracellular domain of the parathyroid hormone receptor. Protein Expr. Purif. 2007; 54:87-93.
Moreau JE, Anderson K, Mauney JR, Nguyen T, Kaplan DL, Rosenblatt M, et al. Tissue engineered bone serves as a target for metastasis of human breast cancer in a mouse model. Cancer Research 2007 (In Press).