Melinda R. Dwinell, PhD

Professor; Associate Director, Education, Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine Center

Locations

Physiology

Contact Information

Education

MS/PhD, Veterinary Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996
Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California-San Diego, 1996-2001
BS, Biology/Psychology, University of Michigan, 1990

                
                    Research Experience
                
                    Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena
Circulatory and Respiratory Physiological Phenomena
Phenotype
Respiratory Physiological Phenomena

                    Methodologies and Techniques
                
                    Airway Resistance
Monitoring, Physiologic
Plethysmography, Whole Body

                    MCW Program / Core Facilities
                
                    Rat Research Models Service Center

Research Interests

Bioinformatics | Physiological Genomics | Respiratory Physiology

My interest in collecting, analyzing and integrating large phenotype datasets began nearly ten years ago with the PhysGen Program for Genomic Applications. This program was focused on understanding the genetic basis of fundamental mechanistic pathways of the heart, lung, kidney, blood and vasculature and achieved this goal by developing two panels of consomic rat strains and ENU-induced mutant strains and physiologically characterizing these unique animal models. Comprehensive characterization of the consomic strains allows for immediate mapping of traits to a particular chromosome without the need for genetic crosses. To test the "functionality" of relevant genes found to be associated with cardiovascular and renal disease in human populations, the PhysGen Knockout program has been developing 100 knockout strains with phenotypic characterization to test the role of these genes in cardiovascular and renal disease mechanisms.

My current focus is on establishing methods to integrate large phenotypic datasets, such as the PhysGen and PhysGen Knockout phenotyping data, with genomic databases such as the Rat Genome Database. This integration will use standardized nomenclature to link the phenotypic data to the rat genomic sequence, allowing the user to query by gene ontology, phenotype ontology and disease pathway. Developing tools to provide easy access to phenotype data for a variety of strains assists in the identification of appropriate disease models and allows for comparison with human data. Integrated phenotype data sets coupled with genomic resources and emerging SNP based genotypes for hundreds of strains will improve our ability to elucidate the genetic basis of disease.

An additional area of research focus has been on the developing and characterizing rat models for pulmonary diseases, including asthma and pulmonary hypertension. Many of the animal models developed as part of the PhysGen and PhysGen Knockout programs have phenotypes that mimic pulmonary disease traits and are ideal models to further understand the genetic and environmental influence in disease development. Integration of published phenotype data for pulmonary disease traits has allowed us to identify key phenotypes that can be used to characterize strains as disease models and identify missing data sets that would further refine ideal animal models of disease.

The Year of the Rat: The Rat Genome Database at 20: a multi-species knowledgebase and analysis platform.

(Smith JR, Hayman GT, Wang SJ, Laulederkind SJF, Hoffman MJ, Kaldunski ML, Tutaj M, Thota J, Nalabolu HS, Ellanki SLR, Tutaj MA, De Pons JL, Kwitek AE, Dwinell MR, Shimoyama ME.) Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Nov 12.
Precision Medicine and Precision Public Health: Academic Education and Community Engagement.

(Meurer JR, Whittle JC, Lamb KM, Kosasih MA, Dwinell MR, Urrutia RA.) Am J Prev Med. 2019 Aug;57(2):286-289.
Identification of a Rat Mammary Tumor Risk Locus That Is Syntenic with the Commonly Amplified 8q12.1 and 8q22.1 Regions in Human Breast Cancer Patients.

(Plasterer C, Tsaih SW, Lemke A, Schilling R, Dwinell M, Rau A, Auer P, Rui H, Flister MJ.) G3 (Bethesda). 2019 05 07;9(5):1739-1743.
The Gene Ontology Resource: 20 years and still GOing strong.

(The Gene Ontology Consortium.) Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Jan 08;47(D1):D330-D338.
Rat Genome Databases, Repositories, and Tools.

(Laulederkind SJF, Hayman GT, Wang SJ, Hoffman MJ, Smith JR, Bolton ER, De Pons J, Tutaj MA, Tutaj M, Thota J, Dwinell MR, Shimoyama M.) Methods Mol Biol. 2019;2018:71-96.
The Rat: A Model Used in Biomedical Research.

(Smith JR, Bolton ER, Dwinell MR.) Methods Mol Biol. 2019;2018:1-41.
Quantitative phenotype analysis to identify, validate and compare rat disease models.

(Zhao Y, Smith JR, Wang SJ, Dwinell MR, Shimoyama M.) Database (Oxford). 2019 01 01;2019.
Integrated curation and data mining for disease and phenotype models at the Rat Genome Database.

(Wang SJ, Laulederkind SJF, Zhao Y, Hayman GT, Smith JR, Tutaj M, Thota J, Tutaj MA, Hoffman MJ, Bolton ER, De Pons J, Dwinell MR, Shimoyama M.) Database (Oxford). 2019 01 01;2019.
Sdha+/- Rats Display Minimal Muscle Pathology Without Significant Behavioral or Biochemical Abnormalities.

(Siebers EM, Choi MJ, Tinklenberg JA, Beatka MJ, Ayres S, Meng H, Helbling DC, Takizawa A, Bennett B, Garces AM, Dias Duarte Machado LG, Dimmock D, Dwinell MR, Geurts AM, Lawlor MW.) J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2018 08 01;77(8):665-672.
A Primer for the Rat Genome Database (RGD).

(Laulederkind SJF, Hayman GT, Wang SJ, Smith JR, Petri V, Hoffman MJ, De Pons J, Tutaj MA, Ghiasvand O, Tutaj M, Thota J, Dwinell MR, Shimoyama M.) Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1757:163-209.
Haploid embryonic stem cell lines derived from androgenetic and parthenogenetic rat blastocysts.

(Hirabayashi M, Hara H, Goto T, Takizawa A, Dwinell MR, Yamanaka T, Hochi S, Nakauchi H.) J Reprod Dev. 2017 Dec 15;63(6):611-616.
Rat Genome and Model Resources.

(Shimoyama M, Smith JR, Bryda E, Kuramoto T, Saba L, Dwinell M.) ILAR J. 2017 07 01;58(1):42-58.

Melinda R. Dwinell, PhD