Michael C. Edler, PhD

Bio

Dr. Edler received his bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Marquette University in 1997. He completed his doctoral degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Utah in 2003. He then continued his training at the National Cancer Institute as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ernest Hamel where he developed several screens to study the structure-activity relationship for several libraries of experimental anti-cancers compounds. This work lead to a Principal Investigator position at the small biotech company, Taxolog, where he was the head of the screening technologies laboratory. His team developed several new screens to assess the company's proprietary compound library in the areas of inflammation, wound healing and oncology.

In 2013, Dr. Edler joined the lab of Dr. A.J. Baucum in the Department of Biology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) as a Scholar Scientist. His research focused on the underlying molecular changes that occur after the development of Parkinson's disease (PD) utilizing a chemically induced murine model of PD. Additionally, Dr. Edler helped to develop genetically modified human stem cells using CRISPR/Cas9 in the lab of Dr. Jason Meyer.

In 2018, Dr. Edler joined Indiana University School of Medicine in the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics as an Assistant Scientist. He has been the Laboratory Director for the Indiana University Genetics Biobank (IUGB) led by Dr. Tatiana Foroud. The IUGB is a state of the art biospecimen repository housing thousands of samples from multiple NIH and non-profit organizations such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Dr. Edler is responsible for ensuring university, state and federal regulations are in compliance. He is also responsible for ensuring the highest level of quality control and sample quality by ensuring that standard operating procedures (SOPs) guide all biorepository functions. 

Key Publications

Ohlemacher SK, Langer KB, Fligor CM, Feder EM, Edler MC, Meyer JS. Advances in the Differentiation of Retinal Ganglion Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. In: Bharti K. (eds) Pluripotent Stem Cells in Eye Disease Therapy. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1186. Springer, Cham (2019) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28471-8_5

Salek AB, Edler MC, McBride JP, Baucum AJ 2nd. Spinophilin regulates phosphorylation and interactions of the GluN2B subunit of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor. J. Neurochem. 151(2):185-203 (2019) doi: 10.1111/jnc.14831

VanderWall KB, Vij R, Ohlemacher SK, Sridhar A, Fligor CM, Feder EM, Edler MC, Baucum AJ 2nd, Cummins TR, Meyer JS. Astrocytes Regulate the Development and Maturation of Retinal Ganglion Cells Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Stem Cell Reports. 12(2): 201-212 (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2018.12.010

Fligor CM, Langer KB, Sridhar A, Ren Y, Shields PK, Edler MC, Ohlemacher SK, Sluch VM, Zack DJ, Zhang C, Suter DM, Meyer JS. Three-Dimensional Retinal Organoids Facilitate the Investigation of Retinal Ganglion Cell Development, Organization and Neurite Outgrowth from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Sci Rep. 8(1):14520 (2018) doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-32871-8

Morris CW, Watkins DS, Salek AB, Edler MC, Baucum AJ 2nd. The association of spinophilin with disks large-associated protein 3 (SAPAP3) is regulated by metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) 5. Mol Cell Neurosci, 90: 60-69 (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.mcn.2018.06.001

Edler MC, Salek AB, Watkins DS, Kaur H, Morris CW, Yamamoto BK, and Baucum AJ 2nd. Mechanisms Regulating the Association of Protein Phosphatase 1 with Spinophilin and Neurabin. ACS Chem Neurosci, 9(11): 2701-2712 (2018) doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00144

Hiday AC, Edler MC, Salek AB, Morris CW, Thang M, Rentz TJ, Rose KL, Jones LM, and Baucum AJ. Mechanisms and Consequences of Dopamine Depletion-Induced Attenuation of the Spinophilin/Neurofilament Medium Interaction. Neural Plasticity, vol. 2017, Article ID 4153076, 16 pages (2017). doi:10.1155/2017/4153076