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Timothy Calamaras, PhD
Meet Timothy Calamaras, PhD
Title(s)
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department + Services
Molecular Cardiology Research Institute, Molecular Cardiology Research Center
Clinical Focus Areas
Cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling in heart failure
Research Focus Areas
I’m currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Robert Blanton, MD. My scientific research is focused on identifying novel molecular mechanisms in the heart that regulate pathological cardiac growth (hypertrophy) in heart failure. The cGMP-dependent Protein Kinase G I α (PKGIα) is an enzyme that protects the myocardium from cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling but the molecular factors downstream of PKGIα are incompletely understood. Our research program aims to uncover effector molecules of PKGIα that may serve to protect the heart from cardiovascular dysfunction.
By using non-biased protein-interaction screening techniques we have identified PKGIα binding partners that prevent adverse cardiac structural and functional changes (published: Thoonen R et al., Circulation Heart Failure, 2015). Ongoing studies on the laboratory are aimed at further identifying and characterizing PKGIα binding partners to discover novel therapeutic targets in the treatment and/or prevention of heart failure.
Calamaras TD, Lee C, Lan F, Ido Y, Siwik DA, Colucci WS. (2012). Post-Translational Modification of Serine/Threonine Kinase LKB1 via Adduction of the Reactive Lipid Species 4-Hydroxynonenal (HNE) at Lysine Residue 97 Directly Inhibits Kinase Activity. J Biol Chem, 287(50), 42400-6. PubMed PMID: 23086944; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3516783.
Calamaras TD, Lee C, Lan F, Ido Y, Siwik DA, Colucci WS. (2015). Lipid peroxidation product 4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal (HNE) causes protein synthesis in cardiac myocytes via activated mTORC1-P70S6K-RPS6 signaling. Free Radic Biol Med, Vol 82, 137-46. PubMed PMID: 25617592; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4387097.
Thoonen R, Giovanni S, Govindan S, Lee DI, Wang GR, Calamaras TD, Takimoto E, Kass DA, Sadayappan S, Blanton RM. (2015). Molecular Screen Identifies Cardiac Myosin-Binding Protein-C as a Protein Kinase G-Iα Substrate. Circ Heart Fail. Nov;8(6):1115-22. PubMed PMID: 26477830; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4651836.
Tim Calamaras received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from Gettysburg College in 2008. He then completed his Ph.D. in the Molecular and Translational Medicine program at Boston University School of Medicine in 2014. At BU he studied cardiovascular biology in the laboratory of Dr. Wilson Colucci. For his dissertation research Tim elucidated the hypertrophic signaling mechanisms of the reactive aldehyde species 4-hydroxynonenal in metabolic heart disease. Tim joined the MCRI in 2014 as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Robert Blanton’s lab and he is currently researching novel molecular targets in the regulation of cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling.
Phone: 617-636-8236
Molecular Cardiology Research Institute
Tufts Medical Center
800 Washington Street, Box #080
Boston, MA 02111
