Find a Health Care Professional / Researcher

James M. Wells, PhD

Appointment

Assistant Professor

Email

james.wells@cchmc.org

Phone

513-636-8767

Fax

513-636-4317

Office Location

Visit the Wells Lab site.

Credentials

BS: Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 1987.

PhD: Genetics program, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1995. Sidney Strickland advisor.

Postdoctoral Fellow: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, 1996 - 2001. Doug Melton advisor.

Awards and Honors

2004, University of Cincinnati Cancer Programs Cancer Center Grant
2004, Pilot and Feasibility award from the Beta Cell Alliance and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
2003, Career Development Award, Juvenile Diabetes Association
2003, Junior Faculty Award, American Diabetes Association
2002, Trustee Award, Children's Hospital Research Foundation
2000, Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
1997, Postdoctoral Fellowship from the national American Cancer Society
1995, Traveling Fellowship for studies in mouse development from the journal Development
1994, Award for Excellence in Research from the Institute for Cell and Developmental Biology, SUNY at Stony Brook
1990-1992, Doctoral training fellowship in Genetics from the National Institutes of Health

Research

Our laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms underlying endoderm organ development in mouse and chick with the intention of discovering new molecular diagnostics and stem cell-based therapies for human disorders.

Our studies of endoderm organogenesis ask the following questions:

How is early anterior-posterior (A-P) pattern first established in the embryo?
How do early A-P patterns translate into where organs such as the pancreas will form?
Do the signals and genes that regulate early endoderm development play a role in formation and maintenance of endodermal stem cells?

For more information, please visit the Wells lab web page.

Research Grants and Contracts

Current Funding:

Funding agency: Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
Type of award: Pilot and feasibility award
Title: Promoting the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into endoderm and pancreas.
P.I.: James Wells
Term: November 1, 2004 - October 31, 2006.

Funding agency: University of Cincinnati Cancer Programs
Type of award: Cancer Center Grant
Title: Sox17-mediated repression of beta-catenin activity in colon carcinoma cells.
P.I.: James Wells
Term: August 1, 2004 - July 31, 2005

Funding agency: National Institutes of Health, NICHD
Type of award: Competing Supplement
Title: Molecular basis of endoderm development.
P.I.: Aaron Zorn
Co-investigator: James Wells
Term: July 1, 2004- June 30, 2007

Funding agency: Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
Type of award: Career Development Award
Title: Promoting endodermal and pancreatic differentiation of mouse ES cells.
Term: November 1, 2003 - October 31, 2008

Funding agency: National Institutes of Health, NIDDK
Type of award: (R24) Center for Growth and Development - Associate Member
Title: Cincinnati Digestive Disease Research Development Center (DDRDC).
P.I.: Mitchell Cohen
Term: April 1, 2003- 2008

Funding agency: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation
Type of award: Award from the Board of Trustees, Cincinnati Children's Hospital
P.I.: James Wells
Title: Characterization of genes that promote differentiation of embryonic stem cells into endoderm.
Term: January 1, 2003 - December 31, 2004

Completed Funding:

Funding agency: American Diabetes Association
Type of award: Junior Faculty Award
Title: Promoting endodermal and pancreatic differentiation of ES cells
P.I.: James Wells
Term: July 1, 2003 - June 31, 2006 (Returned Nov 1 2003 due to overlap)

Funding agency: Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
Type of award: Postdoctoral Fellowship
Title: Identification of genes that regulate and promote beta cell development
Term: January 1, 2000 - December 31, 2001

Funding agency: American Cancer Society
Type of award: Postdoctoral Fellowship
Title: Identification of genes that regulate and promote beta cell development
Term: January 1, 1997 - December 31, 2000

Publications, Most Recent

James Wells's publications as listed by PubMed

Bates, M. D. Wells, J. M., and Venkatesh, B. (2004) Comparative Genomics of the Hlx Homeobox Gene and Protein. Accepted to Gene.

Serls, A. E., Doherty, S., Wells, J. M., and Deutsch, G. H. (2004). A gradient of fibroblast growth factor signaling induces specification within the foregut endoderm. Accepted to Development.

*Gu, G., *Wells, J. M., Dombkowski, D., Preffer, F., Aronow, B, and Melton, D. A. (2004). Global analysis of gene regulatory pathways that function during endocrine development.Development, 131:165-79.
*These authors contributed equally and are listed alphabetically.

Zhang, J., Dong, M., Li, L., Pathre, P., Fan, Y., Dong, J., Lou, D., Wells, J. M., Olivares-Villagom. D., Van Kaer, L., Wang, X., and Xu, M. (2003). Endonuclease G is required for early embryogenesis and normal apoptosis in mice.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 100:15782-7.

Wells, J. M. (2003). Genes expressed in the developing endocrine pancreas and their importance for stem cell and diabetes research.Diabetes Metab Res Rev, 19:191-201.

Wells JM. Melton DA. (2000). Early mouse endoderm is patterned by soluble factors from adjacent germ layers.Development, 127: 1563-1572.
for more information, this manuscript was reviewed in BioEssays, 22.7:599-602.

Wells JM. Melton, DA. (1999) Vertebrate endoderm development.Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol., 15: 393-410.

Wells JM. Strickland S. (1997). Regulated cellular localization confers multiple functions of the protease urokinase plasminogen activator during skeletal muscle differentiation.J. Cell. Physiol., 171: 217-225.

Duffy JB. Wells JM. Gergen JP. (1995). Screening for maternal modifiers of the segmentation gene runt. Genetics, 142, 670-677.

Wells, J. M. and Strickland, S. (1994). Aprotinin, a Kunitz-type protease inhibitor, stimulates skeletal muscle differentiation.Development, 120: 3639-3647.

Carroll PM. Richards WG. Darrow AL. Wells JM. Strickland S. (1993). Cell-surface binding of tissue-type plasminogen activator in murine preimplantation embryos.Development, 119: 191-198.

Kozak LP. Kozak UC. Jerry JJ. Wells JM. (1989). The glycerol phosphate dehydrogenase gene: Analysis of a complex structural domain and a null mutant.UCLA symposium: Obesity, towards a molecular approach. p. 263-272.

Kozak, LP. Britton, JH. Kozak UC. Wells JM. (1988). The mitochondrial uncoupling protein gene: Correlation of exon structure to transmembrane domains. J. Biol. Chem. 263:1227412277.

Presentations

Wells JM. Patterning the mouse endoderm along the A-P axis. Oral presentation at the Endoderm development, differentiation and cancer EMBO workshop; August 18-23, 2002; Arolla, Switzerland.

Wells JM. Melton DA. Development of endoderm and early pancreas specification. Poster presented at the 59th annual meeting for the Society for Developmental Biology; June 7-11, 2000; Boulder Colorado.

Wells JM. Melton DA. Development of the pancreas. Platform talk presented at the 35th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Dibetes, September 28-October 3, 1999, Brussels, Belgum.