Picture of Caroline Shamu

Caroline Elizabeth Shamu, Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Research Cores and Technology
Assistant Professor of Radiology

One of my main roles at Harvard Medical School is as Director of the ICCB-Longwood Screening Facility. ICCB-L supports both small molecule and RNAi screening, and was one of the first high throughput screening facilities established in an academic setting.

Research:

One of my main roles at Harvard Medical School is as Director of the ICCB-Longwood Screening Facility. ICCB-L supports both small molecule and RNAi screening, and was one of the first high throughput screening facilities established in an academic setting.  The screening facility operates using an investigator-initiated, staff-assisted screening model: users provide assays, their supplies, and do the bulk of the work for their screens. For example, users grow cells, purify proteins, plate cells or protein in assay plates, and read out assays using plate readers or imagers. ICCB-L staff provide advice and assistance at every step of the screening process: they advise on assay strategies and assay miniaturization, handle and transfer libraries to assay plates, help run automation for some assays when complicated automation protocols are required, and provide support for data analysis.

My group also works to develop data standards and repositories for large-scale datasets from high-throughput assays.  For example, my group developed the open source Screensaver laboratory information management system (Tolopko et al. 2010) for storing screen data generated at ICCB-L.  Via our participation in the NIH-funded LINCS program, we have played a leadership role in helping to develop metadata standards and public repositories for the emerging field of systems pharmacology.

Address: 

Director, ICCB-Longwood Screening Facility

Seeley G Mudd Bldg, Room 604

250 Longwood Avenue

Boston, MA 02115

Publications View
A high-throughput, cell-based screening method for siRNA and small molecule inhibitors of mTORC1 signaling using the In Cell Western technique.
Authors: Authors: Hoffman GR, Moerke NJ, Hsia M, Shamu CE, Blenis J.
Assay Drug Dev Technol
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An intermittent live cell imaging screen for siRNA enhancers and suppressors of a kinesin-5 inhibitor.
Authors: Authors: Tsui M, Xie T, Orth JD, Carpenter AE, Rudnicki S, Kim S, Shamu CE, Mitchison TJ.
PLoS One
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Statistical methods for analysis of high-throughput RNA interference screens.
Authors: Authors: Birmingham A, Selfors LM, Forster T, Wrobel D, Kennedy CJ, Shanks E, Santoyo-Lopez J, Dunican DJ, Long A, Kelleher D, Smith Q, Beijersbergen RL, Ghazal P, Shamu CE.
Nat Methods
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Reporting data from high-throughput screening of small-molecule libraries.
Authors: Authors: Inglese J, Shamu CE, Guy RK.
Nat Chem Biol
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Measure, mine, model, and manipulate: the future for HTS and chemoinformatics?
Authors: Authors: Parker CN, Shamu CE, Kraybill B, Austin CP, Bajorath J.
Drug Discov Today
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Polyubiquitination is required for US11-dependent movement of MHC class I heavy chain from endoplasmic reticulum into cytosol.
Authors: Authors: Shamu CE, Flierman D, Ploegh HL, Rapoport TA, Chau V.
Mol Biol Cell
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Degradation of proteins from the ER of S. cerevisiae requires an intact unfolded protein response pathway.
Authors: Authors: Casagrande R, Stern P, Diehn M, Shamu C, Osario M, Zúñiga M, Brown PO, Ploegh H.
Mol Cell
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The pathway of US11-dependent degradation of MHC class I heavy chains involves a ubiquitin-conjugated intermediate.
Authors: Authors: Shamu CE, Story CM, Rapoport TA, Ploegh HL.
J Cell Biol
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Splicing: HACking into the unfolded-protein response.
Authors: Authors: Shamu CE.
Curr Biol
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Evidence for evolutionary conservation of sex-determining genes.
Authors: Authors: Raymond CS, Shamu CE, Shen MM, Seifert KJ, Hirsch B, Hodgkin J, Zarkower D.
Nature
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