Rita Strakovsky, R.D.

Rita Strakovsky

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Education/Degree Information

Jose Teixeira received his B.S. in 1986 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA. Following his post-doctoral training at the Department of Surgery, at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor. He then became an Investigator in the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology with the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He was also a Principal Investigator in the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and an affiliate member of both the MGH Cancer Center and the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University.



Research Interests

We are interested in studying reproductive tract and gonadal developmental with major research interests focused on four complementary studies directly related to women's health and reproduction. These include (1) dissecting the signaling mechanisms common to Wnt/β-catenin and PI3K in the gonads and uterus and the pathophysiological consequences when they are dysregulated, which we believe might be an underlying cause of uterine fibroid development and gonadal and endometrial cancers; (2) identification and molecular characterization of the uterine stem/progenitor cells and the functional effects of endocrine disruption on their behavior during uterine development and during normal uterine functions; (3) cryopreservation and maturation of primary follicles in vitro for somatic cell nuclear transfer applications and as a mechanism to rescue the fertility of patients who are having their ovaries removed or destroyed by gonadotoxic therapies; (4) The fourth research interest is to investigate the therapeutic use of MIS in ovarian cancer and as an inhibitor of ovarian follicle development.

 

Publications

1. Tanwar PS, Lee HJ, Zhang L, Zukerberg LR, Taketo MM, Rueda BR, Teixeira J. Constitutive activation of b-catenin in uterine stroma and smooth muscle leads to the development of mesenchymal tumors in mice. Biol Reprod (2009) 81:545-552. PMID19403928; PMC2731978

2. Tanwar PS, Kaneko-Tarui T, Zhang L, Rani P, Taketo MM, Teixeira J. Constitutive WNT/-catenin signaling in murine Sertoli cells disrupts their differentiation and ability to support spermatogenesis. Biol Reprod (2010) B:422-32. PMID19794154; PMC2809230

3. Chang HL, Senaratne TN, Zhang L, Szotek PP, Stewart E, Dombkowski D, Preffer F, Donahoe PK, Teixeira J. Uterine leiomyomas exhibit fewer stem/progenitor cell characteristics when compare.d with corresponding normal myometrium. Reprod Sciences (2010) 17:158-167. PMID19805552 PMC:2818305

4. Papakostas TD, Pieretti-Vanmarcke R, Nicolaou F, Thanos A, Trichonas G, Koufomichali X, Anago K, Donahoe PK, Teixeira J, MacLaughlin DT and Vavvas D. Development of an efficiently cleaved, bioactive, highly pure FLAG-tagged recombinant human Mullerian Inhibiting Substance. Protein Exp Pur (2010) 70:32-38 PMID19755162

5. Tanwar PS, Zhang LH, Tanaka Y, Taketo MM, Donahoe PK, Teixeira JM. Focal Müllerian duct retention in male mice with constitutively activated β−catenin expression in the Müllerian duct mesenchyme Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. (2010) 107:16142-7. PMID20805501 PMC:2941287

6. Lee H-J, Quaas AM, Wright DL, Toth TL, Teixeira JM. In vitro maturation (IVM) of murine and human germinal vesicle (GV) stage oocytes by coculture with immortalized human fallopian tube epithelial cells. Fertil Steril (2011) 95:1344-8. PMID20864100

7. Park JH, Maclaughlin DT, Teixeira JM. The rate of in vitro maturation of primary follicles from adult mice and the quality of oocytes is improved in the absence of anti-mullerian hormone. Reprod Sci. (2011) 18:334-41. PMID21098214

8. Wei X, Dombkowski D, Meirelles K, Pieretti-Vanmarcke R, Szotek PP, Chang HL, Preffer FI, Mueller PR, Teixeira JM, MacLaughlin DT, Donahoe PK. Müllerian inhibiting substance preferentially inhibits stem/progenitors in human ovarian cell lines pared with chemotherapeutics. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. (2010) 107:18874-9. PMID20952655; PMC2973919

9. Tanwar PS, Zhang LH, Roberts DJ, Teixeira JM. Stromal deletion of the APC tumor suppressor in mice triggers development of endometrial cancer. Cancer Res (2011) 71:1584-1596 PMID21363919; PMC3076144

10. Park JH, Daheron L, Kantarci S, Lee BS, Teixeira JM Human endometrial cells express elevated levels of pluripotent factors and are more amenable to reprogramming into induced pluripotent stem cells. Endocrinology (2011) 152:1080-9. PMID21209016; PMC3198966

11. TanwarPS, Zhang LH, Curley MD, Taketo MM, Rani P, RobertsDJ, Teixeira JM Mammalian target of rapamycin is a therapeutic target for murine ovarian endometrioid adenocarcinomas with dysregulated Wnt/b-catenin and PTEN. PLoS One. (2011) 6(6):e20715. PMID21695255; PMC3111436.

12. Tanwar PS, Zhang LH, Teixeira JM APC (Adenomatous polyposis coli) is essential for maintaining the integrity of the seminiferous epithelium and male germ cell niche. Mol Endocrinology (2011) 25:1725-39. PMID21816903; PMC3182425.

13. Tanaka Y, Park JH, Tanwar PS, Kaneko-Tarui T, Mittal S, Lee H-J, Teixeira JM. Deletion of Tuberous Sclerosis 1 in somatic cells of the murine reproductive tract causes female infertility. Endocrinology (2012) 153:404-416. PMID22128018; PMC3249683.

14. Meirelles K, Benedict LA, Dombkowski D, Pepin D, Preffer FI, Teixeira J, Tanwar, PS, Young RH, MacLaughlin DT, Donahoe PK, Wei X. Human ovarian cancer stem/progenitor cells are stimulated by doxorubicinbut inhibited by Mullerian Inhibiting Substance. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2012) 109:2358-63. PMID22308459; PMC3289387.

15. Tanwar PS, Kaneko-Tarui T, Zhang LH, Tanaka Y, Crum CP, Teixeira JM. Stromal Liver Kinase B1 [STK11] Signaling Loss Induces Oviductal Adenomas and Endometrial Cancer by Activating Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Complex 1. PLoS Genet (2012) 8:e1002906. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002906 PMID22916036; PMC3420942

16. Tanwar PS, Kaneko-Tarui T, Zhang LH, Teixeira JM. Altered LKB1/AMPK/TSC1/TSC2/mTOR signaling causes disruption of Sertoli cell polarity and spermatogenesis. Human Molecular Genetics (2012) 21:4394-405. PMID22791749; PMC3459463

17. Tanwar PS, Commandeur AE, Zhang LH, Taketo MM, Teixeira JM. The Müllerian Inhibiting Substance type 2 receptor suppresses tumorigenesis in testes with sustained β-catenin signaling. Carcinogenesis. (2012) 33:2351-2361 PMID22962306; PMC3510735

18. Zhang L, Patterson A, Zhang LH, Teixeira JM, Pru JK. Endometrial stroma beta-catenin is required for steroid-dependent mesenchymal-epithelial crosstalk and decidualization. Reprod. Biol. Endocrinol. (2012) 10:75. PMID22958837; PMC3462133

19. Patterson AL, Zhang L, Arango NA, Teixeira J, Pru JK. Mesenchymal-to-Epithelial Transition Contributes to Endometrial Regeneration Following Natural and Artificial Decidualization. Stem Cell Dev (2013) 22(6):964-74 PIMD23216285; PMC3585744.

20. Tanwar PS, Kaneko-Tarui T, Lee HJ, Zhang LH, Teixeira JM. PTEN loss and HOXA10 expression are associated with ovarian endometrioid adenocarcinoma differentiation and progression. Carcinogenesis (2013) 34(4):893-901 PMID23276799; PMC3616672

21. Tanwar PS, Mohapatra G, Chiang S, Zhang, LH, Kaneko-Tarui T, Ohguchi Y, Birrer MJ, Teixeira JM. "Loss of the LKB1 and PTEN tumor suppressor genes in the ovarian surface epithelium induces papillary serous ovarian cancer. Carcinogenesis (2014) Mar;35(3):546-53 PMID24170201; PMC3941742.

22. Park JH, Tanaka Y, Arango NA, Zhang LH, Benedict LA, Roh MI, Donahoe PK, Teixeira JM. Induction of Wnt inhibitory factor 1 expression by Müllerian inhibiting substance/AntiMullerian hormone in the Müllerian duct mesenchyme is linked to Müllerian duct regression. Dev Biol (2014) 386(1):227-326 PMID24362065; PMC4047716.

23. Kaneko-Tarui T, Commandeur AE, Patterson AL, DeKuiper JL, Petillo D, Styer AK, Teixeira JM. Hyperplasia and fibrosis in mice with conditional loss of the TSC2 tumor suppressor in Müllerian duct mesenchyme-derived myometria. Mol Hum Reprod (21014) 20(11):1126-1134. PMID25189766; PMC4209884.


Reviews and Chapters

  1. Teixeira J, Maheswaran S, and Donahoe, PK. Mullerian inhibiting substance: an instructive developmental hormone with diagnostic and possible therapeutic applications. Endocr Rev (2001) 22: 657-74. PMID11588147
  2. Teixeira J, Rueda BR and Pru JK. Uterine Stem cells (September 30, 2008), StemBook, ed. The Stem Cell Research Community, StemBook, doi/10.3824/stembook.1.16.1, http://www.stembook.org. PMID20614602
  3. Commandeur AE, Styer AC, Teixeira JM. Epidemiological and genetic clues for molecular mechanisms involved in uterine leiomyoma development and growth. Hum Reprod Update 2015 Sep;21(5):593-615. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmv030. Epub 2015 Jul 3. PMID26141720; PMC4533663.
  4. Teixeira J and Donahoe PK. Molecular biology of MIS and its receptors. J. Andrology (1996) 17:336-41 PMID8889695
  5. MacLaughlin DT, Teixeira J, and Donahoe PK. Perspective: Reproductive tract development-New discoveries and future directions. Endocrinology (2001) 142: 2167-72. PMID11356658
  6. Lee HJ and Teixeira J. Evidence of a role for androgens in embryonic stem cell function and differentiation. Endocrinology (2008) 149:3-4. PMID18096671
  7. Berin I and Teixeira J. Utility of Serum and Anti-Mullerian Hormone/Mullerian Inhibiting Substance for Predicting Ovarian Reserve in Older Women. Menopause (2008) Sep-Oct;15(5):824-6. PMID18600185

NCBI Publications

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