Sean D. Speese, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Neurology, School of Medicine
  • Senior Scientist, Associate Scientist, CEDAR, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, School of Medicine
  • Neuroscience Graduate Program, School of Medicine
  • Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, School of Medicine
  • Jungers Center for Neurosciences Research

Biography

Sean has 20 years of experience in studying the cell biology of neurons, muscle and glia in Drosophila and C. elegans. As a Senior Scientist with CEDAR, Sean's interests lie in utilizing his skills as a molecular biologist and microscopist to help in the discovery of novel biomarkers.

Areas of interest

  • Cell Biology, Genetics, Gene Expression, Neuroscience, Synapse, Glia, Microscopy

Publications

Selected publications

  • Glial Draper Rescues Aβ Toxicity in a Drosophila Model of Alzheimer's Disease.Ray A, Speese SD, Logan MA.J Neurosci. 2017 Dec 6;37(49):11881-11893. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0862-17.2017. Epub 2017 Nov 6.PMID: 29109235
  • A novel Drosophila injury model reveals severed axons are cleared through a Draper/MMP-1 signaling cascade.Purice MD, Ray A, Münzel EJ, Pope BJ, Park DJ, *Speese SD, *Logan MA.Elife. 2017 Aug 21;6. pii: e23611. doi: 10.7554/eLife.23611.PMID: 28825401   *co-last authors
  • Delayed glial clearance of degenerating axons in aged Drosophila is due to reduced PI3K/Draper activity.Purice MD, Speese SD, Logan MA.Nat Commun. 2016 Sep 20;7:12871. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12871.PMID: 27647497
  • Insulin-like Signaling Promotes Glial Phagocytic Clearance of Degenerating Axons through Regulation of Draper.Musashe DT, Purice MD, Speese SD, Doherty J, Logan MA.Cell Rep. 2016 Aug 16;16(7):1838-50. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.07.022. Epub 2016 Aug 4.
  • Nuclear envelope budding enables large ribonucleoprotein particle export during synaptic Wnt signaling. Speese SD, Ashley J, Jokhi V, Nunnari J, Barria R, Li Y, Ataman B, Koon A, Chang YT, Li Q, Moore MJ, Budnik V.Cell. 2012 May 11;149(4):832-46. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.03.032. 
  • The role of Drosophila Lamin C in muscle function and gene expression.Dialynas G, Speese S, Budnik V, Geyer PK, Wallrath LL.Development. 2010 Sep;137(18):3067-77. doi: 10.1242/dev.048231. Epub 2010 Aug 11.PMID: 20702563
  • UNC-31 (CAPS) is required for dense-core vesicle but not synaptic vesicle exocytosis in Caenorhabditis elegans.Speese S, Petrie M, Schuske K, Ailion M, Ann K, Iwasaki K, Jorgensen EM, Martin TF.J Neurosci. 2007 Jun 6;27(23):6150-62.PMID: 17553987
  • Wnts: up-and-coming at the synapse. Speese SD, Budnik V.Trends Neurosci. 2007 Jun;30(6):268-75. Epub 2007 Apr 27. Review.PMID: 17467065
  • The ubiquitin proteasome system acutely regulates presynaptic protein turnover and synaptic efficacy. Speese SD, Trotta N, Rodesch CK, Aravamudan B, Broadie K.Curr Biol. 2003 May 27;13(11):899-910.PMID: 12781128

Publications

  • A Linkable, Polycarbonate Gut Microbiome-Distal Tumor Chip Platform for Interrogating Cancer Promoting Mechanisms

    Advanced Science
    1. Danielle S.K. Brasino
    2. Sean D. Speese
    3. Kevin Schilling
    4. Carolyn E. Schutt
    5. Michelle C. Barton
  • Enzyme-Instructed Formation of β-Sheet-Rich Nanoplatelets for Label-Free Protease Sensing

    ACS Applied Nano Materials
    1. Emma Olson
    2. Justin S. Plaut
    3. Sarah A. Barnhill
    4. Sinan Sabuncu
    5. Corey M. Dambacher
    6. Sean D. Speese
    7. Srivathsan V. Ranganathan
    8. Bruce P. Branchaud
    9. Adem Yildirim
  • A novel Drosophila injury model reveals severed axons are cleared through a draper/MMP-1 signaling cascade

    eLife
    1. Maria D. Purice
    2. Arpita Ray
    3. Eva Jolanda Münzel
    4. Bernard J. Pope
    5. Daniel J. Park
    6. Sean D. Speese
    7. Mary A. Logan
  • Glial draper rescues Aβ toxicity in a Drosophila model of Alzheimer’s disease

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Arpita Ray
    2. Sean D. Speese
    3. Mary A. Logan
  • Protein phosphatase 4 coordinates glial membrane recruitment and phagocytic clearance of degenerating axons in Drosophila

    Cell Death and Disease
    1. Lilly M. Winfree
    2. Sean D. Speese
    3. Mary A. Logan
  • Delayed glial clearance of degenerating axons in aged Drosophila is due to reduced PI3K/Draper activity

    Nature communications
    1. Maria D. Purice
    2. Sean D. Speese
    3. Mary A. Logan
  • Insulin-like Signaling Promotes Glial Phagocytic Clearance of Degenerating Axons through Regulation of Draper

    Cell Reports
    1. Derek T. Musashe
    2. Maria D. Purice
    3. Sean D. Speese
    4. Johnna Doherty
    5. Mary A. Logan
  • Negative regulation of glial engulfment activity by Draper terminates glial responses to axon injury

    Nature Neuroscience
    1. Mary A. Logan
    2. Rachel Hackett
    3. Johnna Doherty
    4. Amy Sheehan
    5. Sean D. Speese
    6. Marc R. Freeman
  • Nuclear envelope budding enables large ribonucleoprotein particle export during synaptic Wnt signaling

    Cell
    1. Sean D. Speese
    2. James Ashley
    3. Vahbiz Jokhi
    4. John Nunnari
    5. Romina Barria
    6. Yihang Li
    7. Bulent Ataman
    8. Alex Koon
    9. Young Tae Chang
    10. Qian Li
    11. Melissa J. Moore
    12. Vivian Budnik
  • The role of Drosophila Lamin C in muscle function and gene expression

    Development
    1. George Dialynas
    2. Sean Speese
    3. Vivian Budnik
    4. Pamela K. Geyer
    5. Lori L. Wallrath
  • A comparative study of Drosophila and human A-type lamins

    PloS one
    1. Sandra R. Schulze
    2. Beatrice Curio-Penny
    3. Sean Speese
    4. George Dialynas
    5. Diane E. Cryderman
    6. Caitrin W. McDonough
    7. Demet Nalbant
    8. Melissa Petersen
    9. Vivian Budnik
    10. Pamela K. Geyer
    11. Lori L. Wallrath
  • Postsynaptic membrane addition depends on the discs-large-interacting t-SNARE Gtaxin

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. David Gorczyca
    2. James Ashley
    3. Sean Speese
    4. Norberto Gherbesi
    5. Ulrich Thomas
    6. Eckart Gundelfinger
    7. L. Sian Gramates
    8. Vivian Budnik
  • UNC-31 (CAPS) is required for dense-core vesicle but not synaptic vesicle exocytosis in Caenorhabditis elegans

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Sean Speese
    2. Matt Petrie
    3. Kim Schuske
    4. Michael Ailion
    5. Kyoungsook Ann
    6. Kouichi Iwasaki
    7. Erik M. Jorgensen
    8. Thomas F.J. Martin
  • Rolling blackout, a newly identified PIP2-DAG pathway lipase required for Drosophila phototransduction

    Nature Neuroscience
    1. Fu De Huang
    2. Heinrich J.G. Matthies
    3. Sean D. Speese
    4. Mark A. Smith
    5. Kendal Broadie
  • The ubiquitin proteasome system acutely regulates presynaptic protein turnover and synaptic efficacy

    Current Biology
    1. Sean D. Speese
    2. Nick Trotta
    3. Chris K. Rodesch
    4. Bharathi Aravamudan
    5. Kendal Broadie
  • Drosophila fragile x-related gene regulates the MAP1B homolog Futsch to control synaptic structure and function

    Cell
    1. Yong Q. Zhang
    2. Adina M. Bailey
    3. Heinrich J.G. Matthies
    4. Robert B. Renden
    5. Mark A. Smith
    6. Sean D. Speese
    7. Gerald M. Rubin
    8. Kendal Broadie
  • Characterization of two novel lipocalins expressed in the Drosophila embryonic nervous system

    International Journal of Developmental Biology
    1. D. Sanchez
    2. M. D. Ganfornina
    3. S. Torres-Schumann
    4. S. D. Speese
    5. J. M. Lora
    6. M. J. Bastiani