20950-Jerde, Travis
Faculty

Travis J. Jerde, PhD

Associate Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology

Phone 317-274-1534
Address
MS A418
PHTX
IN
Indianapolis, IN
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Bio

Dr. Jerde’s research and professional interests center upon understanding inflammation and how chronic inflammation promotes adult diseases including hyperplasias and cancers. Because inflammation by its nature is regulated by cell-to-cell communication between inflammatory cells and the resident cells of the tissue, Dr. Jerde’s expertise resides in the mechanistic study of cellular signal transduction mechanisms. Dr. Jerde’s career goals include developing novel therapies for chronic proliferative diseases of the urinary tract including Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer, and bladder cancer. Dr. Jerde’s teaching efforts similarly center on signal transduction mechanisms and inflammation.

Key Publications

Fishel ML, Xia H, McGeown J, McIlwain DW, Elbanna M, Craft AA, Kaimakliotis HZ, Sandusky GE, Pili R, Kelley MR, Jerde TJ. Anti-tumor activity and mechanistic characterization of APE1/Ref-1 inhibitors in bladder cancer. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 166. 2018. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-18-1166. 2019.


Colinot DC, Garbuz T, Bosland M, Wang L, Rice S, Sullivan WJ, Arrizabalaga G, Jerde TJ. Infection with the common parasite toxoplasma gondii is associated with prostatic inflammation and microglandular hyperplasia in a mouse model. The Prostate, 77(10):1066-1075, 2017.


McIlwain DW, Fishel ML, Wang L, Zhang JT, Kelley MR, Jerde TJ. Ape1/ref-1 regulates prostate cancer cell proliferation via survivin protein expression. Oncotarget, 9(13):10962-1097, 2017.


McIlwain DW, Zoetemelk M, Myers JD, Edwards MT, Snider BM, Jerde TJ. Coordinated induction of cell survival signaling in the inflamed microenvironment of the prostate. Prostate. 76(8):722-734. 2016.


Kedage V, Selvaraj N, Budka JA, Jerde TJ, Hollenhorst PC. An interaction with Ewing's sarcoma breakpoint protein EWS defines a subset of ETS factors rearranged in prostate cancer. Cell Reports, 17(5):1289-1301, 2016.


Bushman WA, Jerde TJ. Role of Prostate Inflammation and Fibrosis in Benign Prostate Hyperplasia and Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 311(4): F817-F821, 2016.


Wang L, Zoetemelk M, Ratliff TL, Myers JD, Srour E, Chitteti BR, Broxmeyer H, Jerde TJ. Expansion of prostate epithelial progenitor cells following inflammation of the mouse prostate. American Journal of Physiology. 308(12): F1421-30. 2015.


Wang HH, Wang L, Chan BD, Jerde TJ, Savran CA, Cooper PO, Crist S, Ratliff TL: Autoimmune Inflammation Reveals Prostate Stem Cell Expansion via Androgen Receptor-dependent Mechanisms. The Prostate. 75(14):1620-31. 2015.


Hahn, AM, Myers JD, McFarland EK, Lee SH, Jerde TJ. Interleukin-driven insulin-like growth factor promotes prostatic inflammatory hyperplasia. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 351(3):605-15, 2014


Selvaraj N, Budka JA, Ferris MW, Jerde TJ, Hollenhorst PC. Prostate cancer ETS rearrangements switch a cell migration gene expression program from RAS/ERK regulation to PI3K/AKT regulation. Molecular Cancer 13: 61, 2013.


Boehm BJ, Jerde TJ, Sullivan R, Bushman W. Characterization of the reactive hyperplastic response to acute inflammation in the mouse prostate. Prostate, 72: 307-17, 2012.


Jerde TJ, Wong L, Wu Z, Theodorescu D, Bushman W: Bone morphogenetic signaling sustains Phosphatase and Tensin analogue (PTEN) protein expression in prostate epithelial cell lines. The Prostate, 71(8):791-800, 2011.


McLaren ID, Jerde TJ, Bushman W. Role of interleukins, IGF and stem cells in BPH. Differentiation. 82(4-5): 237-43, 2011.

Titles & Appointments

  • Associate Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology
  • Associate Professor of Urology
  • Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
  • Director of Graduate Studies, programs in Pharmacology and Toxicology
  • Chair, IUSM-IBMG Graduate Curriculum Committee
  • Secretary, Society of Basic Urological Research (SBUR)
  • Member, Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center (Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis Program)
  • Member: American Urological Association, American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, American Physiological Society
  • Education
    2010 FEL Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
    2005 PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison
    1994 BS University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Research

    Research in Dr. Jerde’s laboratory is focused on elucidating the cellular signaling mechanisms and cell-to-cell communication networks in the inflamed prostate and bladder microenvironments that result in diseases such as hyperplasia and cancer. Specifically, our lab studies how inflammation reactivates elements of developmental biology as part of its repair and recovery function, and how these elements go awry, resulting in chronic diseases. Repair and regrowth are co-regulated processes in response to inflammatory conditions. In order for tissue recovery to proceed, inflammation must coordinate a precise series of events that directs damaged cells to die, induces proliferation of protected specialized tissue progenitors to repopulate the damaged tissue, and promote differentiation of expanded cells into the proper cell subtypes allowing stratification of the repaired tissue layers. Errors in this process allow for expansion of damaged cells in an environment rich in growth promoting factors, thereby promoting disease. Inflammation in tissue microenvironments provides many of the necessary components for rapid proliferation of prostate epithelium and stroma: production of oxygen and nitrogen radicals and other DNA damaging agents; an environment rich in growth promoting cytokines, growth factors, and lipid mediators; and a reactive stroma.


    Our laboratory is highly collaborative with several IUSM and Purdue University colleagues, and together we have developed numerous methodologies for the study of inflammation-induced signal transduction mechanisms in the prostate and urinary bladder, the study of expanding tissue progenitor cells, proliferation mechanisms, and cell survival mechanisms. These include our E.coli-induced mouse model of prostatic inflammation that results in neoplastic formation in aged animals, our first-of-its-kind systemic Toxoplasma gondii model of reactive microglandular hyperplasia that mimics epithelial nodule formation in advanced BPH in men, and orthotopic tissue-specific growth models of hyperplasia, and cancer of the prostate and urinary bladder in vivo. These models and others are employed in our laboratory to study several key projects:


    1. To determine how inflammation-induced interleukin-1 (IL-1) signaling promotes epithelial progenitor cell survival and proliferation. This project involves studying how IL-1 regulates critical signaling in the prostate via two IL-1 effectors: Insulin-like Growth Factor -1 (IGF-1), and the androgen receptor. This work involves side-by-side collaboration with Dr. Timothy Ratliff’s laboratory at Purdue University.


    2. To determine how the multifunctional protein Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease/Redox factor-1 (APE1/Ref-1) regulates urinary bladder cancer cellular proliferation and cell survival. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Melissa Fishel and Dr. Mark Kelley, both affiliate faculty in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. A second component of this work is determining if inhibition of this protein results in reducing the debilitating side effect of neuropathies associated with bladder cancer treatments, via a collaboration with fellow IUSM Pharmacology professor Dr. Jill Fehrenbacher.


    3. Through collaboration with Professor Dr. Gustavo Arrizabalaga, we have found that the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii infects and encysts in the prostate and induces microglandular hyperplasia similar to epithelial nodules present in men with advancing benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We have optimized this model, and are studying the effect of infection in men, through collaboration with Dr. Douglas Strand at the University of Texas Southwestern. In addition, we are using this model to study the signaling mechanisms for microglandular hyperplasia formation, and the urinary tract symptoms that result in mice via a collaboration with Dr. Dale Bjorling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the O’Brien Center.

  • Awards
    Org:
    Desc: Trustee Teaching Award
    Scope: University
    Date: 2021-05-01
    Org: Indiana University School of Medicine
    Desc: Graduate Program Director of the Year
    Scope: School
    Date: 2019-01-01
    Org: Indiana University School of Medicine
    Desc: Trustees' Teaching Award
    Scope: School
    Date: 2018-01-01
    Org: Indiana University School of Medicine
    Desc: Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year
    Scope: School
    Date: 2015-01-01

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