Daniel Matson

EDUCATION

MD – University of Virginia
PhD – University of Virginia

RESEARCH SUMMARY

Disorders of the blood and bone marrow are of great public health significance. During development and in the adult bone marrow, a relatively small number of critical transcription factors promote complex and diverse cellular processes to bring about faithful and timely hematopoiesis. The mechanisms by which these factors interface with chromatin to modulate gene expression, and the partner factors that are critical for this function, are the primary research focus of the Matson Laboratory.

RESEARCH DETAIL

The research in my lab focuses on understanding how factors interface with chromatin to promote efficient and timely hematopoiesis. While the hematopoiesis field has classically focused largely on a relatively small number of bona fide transcription factors, the true number and scope of the proteins that work on chromatin to promote critical transcriptional programs is not known. My lab utilizes approaches ranging from in vitro biochemistry to whole animal studies to uncover these factors and then rigorously investigate the mechanisms by which they regulate diverse cellular processes. An example of a current project in my lab is identifying how the origin replication machinery interfaces with key hematopoietic transcription factors like GATA2. We and our collaborators have identified ChIPseq peaks for GATA2 that fall within early origin initiation zones, and interesting these sites lack consensus binding sequences for GATA2. As cell cycle control has been implicated as a mechanism that can modulate cell fate decisions, and GATA2 is critical for the development of the hematopoietic system and maintenance of the bone marrow in adults, we aim to better understand whether crosstalk between these two processes is occurring at sites of replication origins.
A core purpose of my laboratory also includes working to translate laboratory findings into the clinic, and as a practicing hematopathologist I maintain a strong connection to both benign and malignant patient tissue repositories. Our overarching goal is to discover new biology that improves our understanding of hematopoiesis and informs the development of future clinical diagnostics and patient therapies.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Mehta C, Fraga de Andrade I, Matson DR, Dewey CN, Bresnick EH. RNA-regulatory exosome complex confers cellular survival to promote erythropoiesis. Nucleic Acids Res. 2021 Jun 1.

Smeenk L, Ottema S, Mulet-Lazaro R, Ebert A, Havermans M, Arricibita Varea A, Fellner M, Pastoors D, van Herk S, Erpelinck-Verschueren C, Grob T, Hoogenboezem RM, Kavelaars FG, Matson DR, Bresnick EH, Bindels EM, Kentsis A, Zuber J, Delwel R. Selective requirement of MYB for oncogenic hyperactivation of a translocated enhancer in leukemia. Cancer Discov. 2021 May 12.

Matson DR, Denu RA, Zasadil LM, Burkard ME, Weaver BA, Flynn C, Stukenberg PT. High nuclear TPX2 expression correlates with TP53 mutation and poor clinical behavior in a large breast cancer cohort, but is not an independent predictor of chromosomal instability. BMC Cancer. 2021 Feb 23;21(1):186.

Ray S, Chee L, Matson DR, Palermo NY, Bresnick EH, Hewitt KJ. Sterile α-motif domain requirement for cellular signaling and survival. J Biol Chem. 2020 May 15;295(20):7113-7125.

Castaño J, Aranda S, Bueno C, Calero-Nieto FJ, Mejia-Ramirez E, Mosquera JL, Blanco E, Wang X, Prieto C, Zabaleta L, Mereu E, Rovira M, Jiménez-Delgado S, Matson DR, Heyn H, Bresnick EH, Göttgens B, Di Croce L, Menendez P, Raya A, Giorgetti A. GATA2 Promotes Hematopoietic Development and Represses Cardiac Differentiation of Human Mesoderm. Stem Cell Reports. 2019 Sep 10;13(3):515-529.

Matson DR, Yang DT. Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome: An Overview. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2020 Feb;144(2):245-251.

Matson DR, Hardin H, Buehler D, Lloyd RV. AKT activity is elevated in aggressive thyroid neoplasms where it promotes proliferation and invasion. Exp Mol Pathol. 2017 Dec;103(3):288-293.

Hewitt KJ, Katsumura KR, Matson DR, Devadas P, Tanimura N, Hebert AS, Coon JJ, Kim JS, Dewey CN, Keles S, Hao S, Paulson RF, Bresnick EH. GATA Factor-Regulated Samd14 Enhancer Confers Red Blood Cell Regeneration and Survival in Severe Anemia. Dev Cell. 2017 Aug 7;42(3):213-225.

Matson DR, Stukenberg PT. CENP-I and Aurora B act as a molecular switch that ties RZZ/Mad1 recruitment to kinetochore attachment status. J Cell Biol. 2014 May 26;205(4):541-54.

Matson DR, Demirel PB, Stukenberg PT, Burke DJ. A conserved role for COMA/CENP-H/I/N kinetochore proteins in the spindle checkpoint. Genes Dev. 2012 Mar 15;26(6):542-7.