Email Address: bgrove@medicine.nodak.edu

Telephone: (701) 777-2579

Education/Training:

Teaching Interests and Activities:

I teach in both the medical school curriculum and the graduate curriculum. In the medical school curriculum I lecture and provide laboratory instruction on various topics of histology and human developmental biology. In the graduate program, I provide lectures and laboratory instruction for our multidisciplinary core course for first year graduate students (BIMD500) as well as participate in several components of our departmental graduate program. I am the director of our graduate development biology and embryology course (ANAT518), a problem based course designed to provide students with foundational knowledge in the area of developmental biology and to give students experience in developing learning objectives and in communicating ideas and information effectively. In addition, I participate in our laboratory based histology course (ANAT515) and in a laboratory based microscopy course designed to expose students to basic principles of fluorescence, confocal and electron microscopy.

Research Interests:

I am a cell biologist with an interest in intracellular signaling mechanisms. My laboratory is studying the role of protein kinase compartmentalization in cellular and developmental processes and the focus of our studies is on proteins which serve to anchor or target protein kinases and other intracellular proteins to specific cellular compartments. One group of proteins we are interested in includes the AKAPs (A-kinase anchoring proteins), a family of proteins that are characterized by the presence of a PKA binding domain and a region responsible for localizing the protein to a specific subcellular site. Several AKAPs have been identified. Among these is a multivalent protein called gravin which has been shown to interact with PKA and PKC and may target these protein kinases to specific sites on the plasma membrane. Currently, we are investigating the targeting of gravin to subcellular locations within cells, studying the role of protein kinase-gravin interactions in intracellular signaling and studying the role of this complex in the activity and functions of specific cell types. My laboratory utilizes a variety of experimental methodologies in our studies. These include molecular techniques (PCR, cloning and gene expression), subcellular fractionation, protein analysis, western blotting, ELISA, confocal microscopy, immunofluorescence microscopy, and electron microscopy. My research program currently includes both graduate student and undergraduate student projects.

Representative Publications: