Research Assistant Professor of Physiology
Dr. Schneider received his B.A. in both biology and psychology at the University of Bridgeport (CT) in 1976. He attended medical school for 2 years at the University of Connecticut Health Center and received his Ph.D. from SUNY Stony Brook in 1986 in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences. From 1986 to 1988 he was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Stanley Froehner (DMS) and, from 1988 to 2000, research associate with Dr. Val Galton (DMS). He is currently research assistant professor of physiology.
Dr. Schneider’s long term association with Dr. Galton has resulted in his development of molecular methods for studying thyroid hormone (TH) action in the developing bullfrog tadpole (Rana catesbeiana). TH is essential for tadpole metamorphosis. He cloned and characterized the Rana TH receptors (TR)a and TRb, and was involved in cloning the types II and III iodothyronine deiodinases. He has recently isolated a TRb2 subtype, which is highly homologous to its mammalian and avian counterparts and whose developmental expression in tadpole eye appears different from that of the original TRb, now referred to as TRb0.
Dr. Schneider is currently investigating tadpole eye development, a well recognized and studied index of TH action in amphibia. He has recently isolated two interesting TR-interacting proteins by yeast two-hybrid screening of cDNA libraries, using TRa as the bait. The first protein is the tadpole homologue of the photoreceptor specific nuclear receptor (PNR), which in mammals is critical to cone photoreceptor development. The second protein is a distant, but functional homologue of the nuclear hormone receptor coactivator PGC-1, which in mammals is involved in TH-mediated regulation of energy production at the level of the mitochondrion. The mRNAs for both of these proteins are found exclusively and preferentially, respectively, in the tadpole eye. The current plan is to determine how the tadpole PNR and PGC-1-like protein are involved in TH-mediated eye development. This includes the biochemical and physiological characterization of interactions between each of these two proteins and the TRs, and the comparison of the spatio-temporal expression of these two novel proteins in the eye to that of all three TRs and the two deiodinases.
Schneider, M.J. and Galton, V.A. Regulation of c-erbA Messenger RNA species in Tadpole Erythrocytes by Thyroid Hormone. Mol. Endocrinol. 5:201-208, 1991.
Schneider, M.J., Davey, J.C. and Galton, V.A. Rana catesbeiana Tadpole Red Blood Cells Express an a- but not a b-c-erb A Gene. Endocrinology 133:2488-2495, 1993.
Becker, K.B., Schneider, M.J., Davey, J.C. and Galton, V.A. The Type III 5-deiodinase in Rana catesbeiana is Encoded by a Thyroid Hormone-Responsive Gene. Endocrinology: 136:4424-4431, 1995.
Davey, J.C., Becker, K.B., Schneider, M.J., St. Germain, D.L. and Galton, V.A. Cloning of a cDNA for the Type II Iodothyronine deiodinase. J. Biol. Chem. 270:26786-26789, 1995.
Schneider, M.J. Thyroid Hormone-Dependent Eye Development in Amphibia: New Molecular Approaches. Abstract to the 84th meeting of the Endocrine Society, San Francisco, 2002.