Associate Professor
Office: BSB 2.03.28
Phone: (210) 458-6497
Fax: 210-458-5658
Christopher.Navara@utsa.edu
Research Interests
I have two central interests that I am pursuing in my on-going research. The first part of my research involves understanding the basic biology of embryonic stem cells. These cells represent a unique stage of mammalian developmental and offer the possibility of greater understanding of embryogenesis, differentiation and pluripotency. Additionally based on my preliminary data I believe that these cells share many of the hallmarks of very early cancer cells (including, high telomerase activity, continued cell cycle progression and chromosome instability) and I believe that studying ES cell maintenance and differentiation can inform our knowledge of cancer and cancer progression. I am also interested in the practical application of these cells, the use of non-human primate ES cells as potential mechanisms for developing transgenic models and the use of nhpES cells and non-human primates in the treatment and understanding of disease in this valuable preclinical model.
Recent Publications
- Olga Momčilović, O., Choi, Serah., Varum, S., Bakkenist, C., Schatten, G., and C.S., Navara 2009 Ionizing radiation induces ATM dependent checkpoint signaling and G2 but not G1 cell cycle arrest in pluripotent human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells in press
- Ben-Yehudah, A., White, C., Navara, C.S., Castro, C., Ize-ludlow, D., Shaffer, B., Sukhwani, M., Mathews, C., Chaillet, J.R. and S.F. Witchel 2009. Evaluating protocols for embryonic stemcell differentiation into insulin-secreting b-cells using insulin II-GFP as a specific and noninvasive reporter. Cloning and Stem Cells 11(2) 245-257.
- #Simerly, C.R., #Navara, C.S., #Castro, C.A., Turpin, J.C., Redinger, C.J., Mich-Basso, J.D., Jacoby, E.S., Grund, K.J., McFarland, D.A., Oliver, S.L., Ben-Yehudah, A., Carlisle, D.L., Frost, P., Penedo, C., Hewitson, L., and G. Schatten. 2009 Establishment and haracterization of baboon embryonic stem cell lines: An old world primate model for regeneration and transplantation research. Stem Cell Res. Epub ahead of print [PMID: 19393591]
- Cirio, M.C., S. Ratnam, F. Ding, B. Reinhart, C. Navara, and J.R. Chaillet. 2008. Preimplantation expression of the somatic form of Dnmt1 suggests a role in the inheritance of genomic imprints. BMC Dev Biol. 8:9. [PMID:18221528]
- Navara CS, Mich-Basso JD, Redinger CJ, et al. Pedigreed Primate Embryonic Stem Cells, Express Homogeneous Familial Gene Profiles. Stem Cells. Jul 19 2007. [PMID:17641389]
- Navara, C.S., Redinger, C., Mich-Basso, J., Oliver, S, Ben-Yehudah, A., Castro, C., Simerly, C. (2007) Derivation and Characterization of Non-Human Primate Embryonic Stem Cells. Current Protocols in Stem Cell Biology (John Wiley and Sons).
# These authors contributed equally to this work