John Prensner, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Assistant Professor, Biological Chemistry

2560B MSRB II
1150 W. Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor MI 48109

 

prensner@umich.edu
(734) 763-5939
Articles ↓

Areas of Interest

  1. Non-canonical translation in cancer
    We use functional genomics to characterize oncogenic non-canonical open reading frames, which may encode small “miniproteins” that are novel cancer targets.
  2. Translational dysregulation in cancer
    We use multi-omics approaches to elucidate patterns of translational regulation (or dysregulation) in cancer with an emphasis on pediatric brain cancers.
  3. RNA translation therapeutics in cancer
    We use pharmacologic approaches to inhibit various aspects of the RNA translation machinery and evaluate molecular determinants that predict response to these small molecule inhibitors.

Published Articles or Reviews

Recent Publications

Shining a light on the dark proteome: Non-canonical open reading frames and their encoded miniproteins as a new frontier in cancer biology.
Posner Z, Yannuzzi I, Prensner JR.
Protein Sci. 2023; 32: e4708.

Evolutionary origins and interactomes of human, young microproteins and small peptides translated from short open reading frames.
Sandmann CL, Schulz JF, Ruiz-Orera J, Kirchner M, Ziehm M, Adami E, Marczenke M, Christ A, Liebe N, Greiner J, Schoenenberger A, Muecke MB, Liang N, Moritz RL, Sun Z, Deutsch EW, Gotthardt M, Mudge JM, Prensner JR, Willnow TE, Mertins P, van Heesch S, Hubner N.
Mol Cell. 2023; 83: 994–1011.e18.

SEQing to find hidden medulloblastoma cells.
Prensner JR, Pomeroy SL.
Cancer Cell. 2021; 39: 1452–4.

Noncanonical open reading frames encode functional proteins essential for cancer cell survival.
Prensner JR, Enache OM, Luria V, Krug K, Clauser KR, Dempster JM, Karger A, Wang L, Stumbraite K, Wang VM, Botta G, Lyons NJ, Goodale A, Kalani Z, Fritchman B, Brown A, Alan D, Green T, Yang X, Jaffe JD, Roth JA, Piccioni F, Kirschner MW, Ji Z, Root DE, Golub TR.
Nat Biotechnol. 2021; 39: 697–704.

A case of metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown primary in a pediatric patient: Opportunities for precision medicine.
Prensner JR, Putra J, Vargas SO, Church AJ, Janeway KA, McCleary NJ, DuBois SG.
Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2021; 68: e28780.

Safety and efficacy of gamma-secretase inhibitor nirogacestat (PF-03084014) in desmoid tumor: Report of four pediatric/young adult cases.
Takahashi T, Prensner JR, Robson CD, Janeway KA, Weigel BJ.
Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2020; 67: e28636.

For a list of publications from MyNCBI, click HERE