Research Program: Genetic Mechanisms of Cancer
Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development

neufeld@med.umn.edu
612-625-5158 — office
612-626-5217 — lab
Preferred method of contact: e-mail

Dr. Neufeld received his Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology at the University of California-Berkeley in 1994. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Dr. Neufeld joined the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development at the University of Minnesota in 1999, where is is currently an associate professor and associate director of graduate studies.

Research Interests

The long term goal of our research is to understand how cell growth and proliferation are regulated by environmental and genetic factors during development. Our work focuses on the Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway, using genetic and molecular approaches in Drosophila.

Selected Publications

Neufeld T.P, de la Cruz AFA, Johnston L A, Edgar BA. Coordination of growth and cell division in the Drosophila wing. Cell 1998;93:1183-1193.

Weinkove D, Neufeld TP, Twardzik T, Waterfield MD, Leever SJ. The Drosophila class IA PI3K and its adaptor are autonomously required for imaginal discs to achieve their normal cell size, cell number and organ size. Curr Biol. 1999;9:1019-1029.

Gao X, Neufeld TP, Pan D.Drosophila PTEN regulates cell growth and proliferation through PI3K-depe ndent and -independent pathways. Dev Biol. 2000;221:404-418.

Zhang H, Stallock JP, Ng JC, Reinhard C, Neufeld TP. Regulation of cellular growth by the Drosophila target of rapamycin, dTOR. Genes Dev. 2000;14:2712–2724.

Hennig, K. M. & Neufeld, T. P. 2002. Inhibition of cellular growth and proliferation by dTOR overexpression in Drosophila. Genesis 34:107-110.

Scott RC, Schuldiner O, Neufeld TP. Role and regulation of starvation-induced autophagy in the Drosophila fat body. Dev Cell 2004;7:167-178.

Cygnar KD, Gao X, Pan D, Neufeld TP. The phosphatase subunit Tap42 functions independently of TOR to regulate cell division and survival in Drosophila. Genetics 2005;170:733-740.

Zhang Y, Billington CJ, Pan D, Neufeld TP. Drosophila target of rapamycin kinase functions as a multimer. Genetics 2006;172:355-362.

Hennig KM, Leopold P, Neufeld TP. Target of Rapamycin regulates bulk and targeted endocytosis to promote cell growth. J Cell Biol. 2006;173:963-974.

Scott RC, Juhasz G, Neufeld TP. Direct induction of autophagy by Atg1 inhibits cell growth and induces apoptotic cell death. Curr Biol.2007;17:1-11.

Juhász G, Erdi B, Sass M, Neufeld TP. Atg7-dependent autophagy promotes neuronal health, stress tolerance, and longevity but is dispensable for metamorphosis in Drosophila. Genes Dev. 2007;21: 3061-3066.

Juhász G, Hill JH, Yan Y, Sass M, Baehrecke EH, Backer JM, Neufeld TP. The class III PI(3)K Vps34 promotes autophagy and endocytosis but not TOR signaling in Drosophila. J Cell Biol. 2008;181:655-666.

Kim E, Goraksha P, Neufeld TP, Guan K-L. Regulation of TORC1 by Rag GTPases in nutrient response. Nat Cell Biol. 2008;10:935-945.