CURRICULUM VITAE
NAME:
Robert A. Bender
BORN:
April 17, 1946; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
CITIZEN:
USA
MARTIAL STATUS: single
EDUCATION:
B.S. in Life Sciences, MIT, June 1968
M.S. in Education, University of Maine, August 1972
Ph.D. in Microbiology, MIT, February 1976 (with Dr. Boris Magasanik)
Postdoctoral, in Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
1976-1978 (with Dr. Lucille Shapiro)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Professor, Univ. of Michigan, 1991 -- present
Director, Graduate Program in Cell and Molecular Biology, July 1992 -- 1996
Associate Professor, Univ. of Michigan, 1984 -- 1991
Assistant Professor, Univ. of Michigan, 1978 -- 1984
Postdoctoral Fellow, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (with Dr. Lucille Shapiro)
Sept. 1976 -- Sept. 1978
Research Assoc. (with Dr. Boris Magasanik) and Instructor in Genetics MIT, Jan. - Sept. 1976
High School Teacher of Sciences, Mathematics, and English; Hyde School, Bath,
Maine; June 1968 -- June 1972; Athletic Director, two years.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND AWARDS:
Fellowhips and awards:
Postdoctoral Fellow of the American Cancer Society, 1976-1978
Junior Faculty Research Award, American Cancer Society, 1978-1981
Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 1986-1987
Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology since 1994
Chair-elect, and Chair Div.K (Physiology), Am. Soc. For Microbiology 2002-2004
Memberships:
American Society for Microbiology, 1974 -- present
Genetics Society of America, 1977 -- present
NIH Study Section MBC-1 (Microbial Biochemistry) 1998-2001
Editorial positions:
Applied and Environmental Microbiology,
Editorial Board 1984-1987
Editor 1987-1996
Former PhD Students:
Name
Edward A. O’Neill
Anthony J. Nieuwkoop
Robert Osuna
Elaine A. Best
Wilson B. Muse
Pablo J. Pomposiello
Brian K. Janes
Anna Perez-Matos
Current position
Senior Scientist, Merck Sharp and Dohme
Assoc. Professor, Grand Valley State Univ.
Assoc. Professor, SUNY Albany
Scientist, Heska Corp(?).
Chemistry teacher, South Lyon MI
Asst. Professor, U. Mass. Amherst
Postdoc, FDA
Postdoc, Univ. of Puerto Rico
EXTRAMURAL FUNDING
Continuous since 1979
Current Research:
Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health Grant # RO1 GM47156-23:
"Regulation of Microbial Nitrogen Metabolism"
Grant Period: 1999-2003 (current) 1979-2003 (total).
TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS
Previous
High School Science teacher 1969-1972 (MS in Education, 1972)
Included: General Biology, Marine Biology, Physics, Freshman Science, Algebra,
and also English, Russian, and Music.
University of Michigan (1978-2003)
Previous Lecture Courses
Undergraduate
General Microbiology (4 credits)
Cell and Molecular Biology (3 credits)
Graduate
Microbial Biochemistry (3 credits)
Bacterial Physiology I. (Bio 800) 1 credit
Previous Lab courses
Undergraduate
Cellular and Molecular Biology Lab(3 credits)
Microbial Genetics Lecture/Lab(4 credits)
Project lab in microbiology and genetics (10 credits)
Current Lecture courses (2002-2003)
Undergraduate
AIDS and Other Health Crises (Bio 118) (4 credits) 571 students
an overview of public health issues from the
viewpoints of politics, religion, culture, public health,
microbiology, and medicine
Bacterial Physiology (Bio 521/522) (2 credits) 24 students
an introduction to the regulation of gene expression by
carbon and nitrogen
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Goldberg, R. B., R. A. Bender, and S. L. Streicher. 1974. Direct selection for P1-sensitive
mutants of enteric bacteria. J. Bacteriol. 118: 810-814.
2. Magasanik, B., M. J. Prival, J. E. Brenchley, B. M. Tyler, A. B. DeLeo, S. L. Streicher, R. A.
Bender, and C. G. Paris. 1974. Glutamine synthetase as a regulator of enzyme synthesis.
in Current Topics in Cellular Regulation (B. L. Horecker and E. R. Stadtman, eds.) pp.
119-138. Vol. 8, Academic Press, New York.
3. Streicher, S. L., R. A. Bender, and B. Magasanik.1975. Genetic control of glutamine
synthetase in Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 121:184-192.
4. Bender, R. A., A. Macaluso, and B. Magasanik. 1976. Glutamate dehydrogenase: Genetic
mapping and isolation of regulatory mutants of Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol.
127:141-148.
5. Bender, R. A., K. A. Janssen, A. D. Resnick, M. Blumemberg, F. Foor, and B. Magasanik.
1977. Biochemical parameters of glutamine synthetase from Klebsiella aerogenes.
J.Bacteriol. 129:1001-1009.
6. Bender, R. A., and B. Magasanik. 1977. Regulatory mutations in the Klebsiella aerogenes
structural gene for glutamine synthetase. J.Bacteriol. 132:100-105.
7. Bender, R. A., and B. Magasanik. 1977. Autogenous regulation of the synthesis of
glutamine synthetase in Klebsiella aerogenes. J.Bacteriol. 132:106-112.
8. Ely, B., A. B. C. Amarasinghe, and R. A. Bender. 1978. Ammonia assimilation and
glutamate formation in Caulobacter crescentus. J.Bacteriol. 133:225-230.
9. Bender, R. A., and S. L. Streicher. 1979. Glutamine synthetase regulation, adenylylation
state, and strain specificity analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. J.Bacteriol..
137:1000-1007.
10. Contreras, I., R. A. Bender, J. Mansour, S. Henry, and L. Shapiro. 1979. Caulobacter
crescentus mutant defective in membrane phospholipid synthesis. J.Bacteriol. 140:612619.
11. Contreras, I., A. Weissborn, K. Amemiya, J. Mansour, S. Henry, L. Shapiro, and R. A.
Bender. 1980. Effect of termination of membrane phospholipid synthesis on cell cycle
dependent events in Caulobacter. J.Mol. Biol. 138:401-409.
12. Bender, R. A., N. Agabian, and L. Shapiro. 1980. Cell differentiation in Caulobacter
crescentus. In "The Molecular Genetics of Development" T. Leighton (ed.) Academic
Press. pp. 17-39.
13. Bender, R. A. 1981. An improved generalized transducing phage for Caulobacter
crescentus. J.Bacteriol. 148:734-735.
14. Macaluso, A., K. Midthun, R. A. Bender, and D. Botstein. 1982. Nonsense suppresor
mutants of bacteriophage T5. Virol. 117:275-279.
15. Bender, R. A., and L. J. Eades. 1982. A nonsense mutation in the structural gene for
glutamine synthetase leadng to loss of nitrogen regulation in Klebsiella aerogenes. Mol.
Gen. Genet. 187:414-418.
16. O'Neill, E. A., C. Berlinberg, and R. A. Bender. 1983. Activity of plasmid replicons in
Caulobacter crescentus: RP4 and ColE1. Genetics 103:593-604.
17. Bender, R. A., and L. C. Sambucetti. 1983. Recombination-induced suppression of cell
division following P1-mediated generalized transduction in Klebsiella aerogenes. Mol.
Gen. Genet. 189:263-268.
18. Bender, R. A., P. M. Snyder, R. Bueno, M. Quinto, and B. Magasanik. 1983. Nitrogen
regulation system of Klebsiella aerogenes: the nac gene. J. Bacteriol. 156:444-446.
19. Boylan, S. A., L. J. Eades, K. A. Janssen, M. I. Lomax, and R. A. Bender. 1984. A
restriction enzyme cleavage map of the histidine-utilization (hut) genes of Klebsiella
aerogenes and deletions lacking regions of the hut DNA. Mol. Gen. Genet.. 193:92-98.
20. Boylan, S. A. and R. A. Bender. 1984. Genetic map of the Klebsiella aerogenes genes for
histidine utilization (hut) and alignment with the physical map. Mol. Gen. Genet..
193:99-103.
21. Quinto, M., and R. A. Bender. 1984. Use of Bacteriophage P1 as a vector for Tn5 insertion
mutagenesis. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 47:436-438.
22. O'Neill, E. A., A. M. Kiely, and R. A. Bender. 1984. Transposon Tn5 encodes
streptomycin resistance in non-enteric bacteria. J. Bacteriol. 159:388-389.
23. Nieuwkoop, A. J., S. A. Boylan, and R. A. Bender. 1984. Regulation of hutUH operon
expression by the CAP-cAMP complex in Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 159:934939.
24. Bender, R. A. 1984. Ultraviolet mutagenesis and inducible DNA repair in Caulobacter
crescentus. Mol. Gen. Genet.. 197:399-402.
25. O'Neill, E. A., R. H. Hynes, and R. A. Bender. 1985. Recombination deficient mutant of
Caulobacter crescentus. Mol. Gen. Genet. 198:275-278.
26. O'Neill, E. A., and R. A. Bender. 1987. Periodic synthesis of phospholipids during the
Caulobacter crescentus cell cycle. J. Bacteriol. 169:2618-2623.
27. Nieuwkoop, A. J., S. A. Baldauf, M. E. S. Hudspeth, and R. A. Bender. 1988. Bidirectional
Promoter in the hut(P) region of the histidine utilization (hut) operons from Klebsiella
aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 170:2240-2246.
28. O'Neill, E. A., and R. A. Bender. 1988. Klebsiella pneumoniae origin of replication (oriC)
is not active in Caulobacter crescentus, Pseudomonas putida, and Rhodobacter
sphaeroides. J. Bacteriol. 170:3774-3777.
29. Nieuwkoop, A. J., and R. A. Bender. 1988. RNA polymerase as a repressor of transcription
in the hut(P) region of mutant Klebsiella aerogenes histidine-utilization operons. J.
Bacteriol. 170:4986-4990.
30. Baldauf, S. L., M. A. Cardani, and R. A. Bender. 1988. Regulation of the galactoseinducible lac operon and the histidine-utilization operons in pts mutants of Klebsiella
aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 170:5588-5593.
31. Römermann, D., J. Warrelmann, R. A. Bender, and B. Friedrich. 1989. An ntrA like gene of
Alcaligenes eutrophus and Pseudomonas facilis controls the expression of diverse
metabolic pathways, including hydrogen oxidation. J. Bacteriol. 171:1093-1099.
32. Bender, R. A., C. M. Refson, and E. A. O'Neill. 1989. Role of the flagellum in cell-cycle
dependent expression of bacteriophage receptor activity in Caulobacter crescentus. J.
Bacteriol. 171:1035-1040.
33. O'Neill, E. A., and R. A. Bender. 1989. Cell-cycle dependent polar morphogenesis in
Caulobacter crescentus: Roles of phospholipid, DNA, and protein syntheses. J.
Bacteriol. 171:4814-4820.
34. Schwacha, A., and R. A. Bender. 1990. Nucleotide sequence of the gene encoding the
repressor for the histidine utilization genes of Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol.
172:5477-5481.
35. Schwacha, A., J. A. Cohen, K. B. Gehring, and R. A. Bender. 1990. Tn1000 mediated
insertion mutagenesis of the histidine utilization (hut ) gene cluster from Klebsiella
aerogenes: genetic analysis of hut and unusual target specificity of Tn1000. J.
Bacteriol. 172:5991-5998.
36. Best., E. A., and R. A. Bender. 1990. Cloning of the Klebsiella aerogenes nac gene which
encodes a factor required for nitrogen regulation of the histidine utilization (hut ) operons
in Salmonella typhimurium. J. Bacteriol. 172:7043-7048.
37. Macaluso, A., E. A. Best, and R. A. Bender. 1990. Role of the nac gene product in the
nitrogen regulation of some NTR-regulated operons of Klebsiella aerogenes. J.
Bacteriol. 172:7249-7255.
38. Bender, R. A., and B. Friedrich. 1990. Regulation of assimilatory nitrate reducatase
formation in Klebsiella aerogenes strain W70. J. Bacteriol. 172:7256-7259.
39. Osuna, R., S. A. Boylan, and R. A. Bender. 1991. In vitro transcription of the histidineutilization (hutUH ) operon from Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 173:116-123.
40. Osuna, R., and R. A. Bender. 1991. Klebsiella aerogenes catabolite gene activator protein
and the gene encoding it (crp). J. Bacteriol. 173:6626-6631.
41. Bender, R. A. 1991. The role of the NAC protein in the nitrogen regulation of Klebsiella
aerogenes. Mol. Microbiol. 5:2575-2580.
42. Muse, W. B., and R. A. Bender. 1992. Map position of the glnE gene from Escherichia coli.
J. Bacteriol. 174:7876-7877.
43. Schwacha, A., and R. A. Bender. 1993. The nac (Nitrogen Assimilation Control) gene from
Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 175:2107-2115.
44. Schwacha, A., and R. A. Bender. 1993. The product of the Klebsiella aerogenes nac
(nitrogen assimilation control) gene is sufficient for activation of the hut operons and
repression of the gdh operon. J. Bacteriol. 175:2116-2124
45. Osuna, R., B. K. Janes, and R. A. Bender. 1994. Roles of Catabolite Activator Protein sites
centered at -81.5 and -41.5 in the activation of the Klebsiella aerogenes histidine
utilization operon hutUH. J. Bacteriol. 176:5513-5524.
46. Osuna, R., A. Schwacha, and R. A. Bender. 1994. Identification of the hutUH operator
(hutUo) from Klebsiella aerogenes by DNA deletion analysis. J. Bacteriol. 176:55255529...
47. Goss, T. J., and R. A. Bender. 1995. The nitrogen assimilation control protein, NAC, is a
DNA binding transcription activator in K. aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 177:3546-3555.
48. Pomposiello, P. J., and R. A. Bender. 1995. Activation of the Escherishia coli lacZ
promoter by the Klebsiella aerogenes Nitrogen Assimilation Control Protein (NAC), a
LysR family transcription factor. J. Bacteriol. 177:4820-4824
49. Feng, J., T. J. Goss, R. A. Bender, and A. J. Ninfa. 1995. Activation of the nac promoter of
Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 177:5523-5534.
50. Feng, J., T. J. Goss, R. A. Bender, and A. J. Ninfa. 1995. Repression of the nac promoter of
Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 177:5535-5538.
51. Bender, R. A. 1996. Variations on a theme by Escherichia. (pp. 4-12) In “Escherichia coli
and Salmonella: Cellular and Molecular Biology” F. C. Neidhardt (ed). ASM Press.
52. Janes, B. K., and R. A. Bender. 1998. Alanine catabolism in Klebsiella aerogenes:
Molecular characterization of the dadAB operon and its regulation by the nitrogen
assimilation comtrol protein. J. Bacteriol. 180:563-570.
53. Chen, L.-M., T. J. Goss, R. A. Bender, S. Swift, and S. Maloy. 1998. Genetic analysis,
using P22 challenge phage, of the nitrogen activator protein DNA-binding site in the
Klebsiella aerogenes put operon. J. Bacteriol. 180:571-577.
54. Pomposiello, P. J., B. K. Janes, and R. A. Bender. 1998. Two roles for the DNA recognition
site of the Klebsiella aerogenes nitrogen assimilation control protein. J. Bacteriol.
180:578-585.
55. Muse, W. B., and R. A. Bender. 1998. The nac (nitrogen assimilation control) gene from
Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 180:1166-1173.
56. Muse, W. B., and R. A. Bender. 1999. The amino-terminal 100 residues of the nitrogen
assimilation control protein (NAC) encode all known properties of NAC from Klebsiella
aerogenes and Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 181:934-940.
57. Janes, B. K., and R. A. Bender. 1999. Two roles for the leucine-responsive regulatory
protein in expression of the alanine catabolic operon (dadAB) in Klebsiella aerogenes. J.
Bacteriol. 181:1054-1058.
58. Zimmer, D. P., E. Soupene, H. L. Lee, V. F. Wendisch, A. B. Khodursky, B. J. Peters, R. A.
Bender, and S. Kustu. 2000. Nitrogen regulatory protein C-controlled genes of
Escherichia coli: Scavenging as a defense against nitrogen limitation. Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. USA 97:14674-14679.
59. Janes, B. K., P. J. Pomposiello, A. Perez-Matos, D. J. Najarian, T. J. Goss, and R. A. Bender.
2001. Growth inhibition caused by overexpression of the structural gene for glutamate
dehydrogenase (gdhA) from Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol. 183:2709-2714.
60. Goss, T. J., A. Perez-Matos, and R. A. Bender. 2001. Role of glutamate synthase, gltBD,
and gltF in the nitrogen metabolism of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella aerogenes. J.
Bacteriol. 183:6607-6619
61. Goss, T. J., B. K. Janes, and R. A. Bender. 2002. Repression of glutamate dehydrogenase
formation in Klebsiella aerogenes requires two binding sites for the nitrogen assimilation
control protein, NAC. J. Bacteriol. 184:6966-6975.
62. Janes, B. K., C. J. Rosario, and R. A. Bender. 2003. Isolation of a negative control mutant
of the nitrogen assimilation control protein, NAC, in Klebsiella aerogenes. J. Bacteriol.
185: 688-692.
63. Muse, W. B., and R. A. Bender. 2003. Nitrogen regulation of the codBA (cytosine
deaminase) operon from Escherichia coli by the nitrogen assimilation control protein,
NAC. J. Bacteriol. 185:2920-2926.
Miscellaneous Publications:
Bender, R.A. 1988. Jeden Tag war ein Abenteuer. Mitteilungen der Alexander von HumboldtStiftung. 52:25-28.
Bender, R.A. 1992. The prokaryotic gene. pp.661-662 in The Encyclopedia of Science and
Technology. McGraw-Hill, New York.