Hart Lab
Matthew J. Hart, Ph.D.
Rank: Associate Professor/Research
Department: Biochemistry & Structural Biology
Office: 3.100.06
Location: Greehey CCRI
Tel: 1.210.562.9078
Email: hartmj@uthscsa.edu
Matthew J. Hart, Ph.D. joined the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute (Greehey CCRI) as Director of the Greehey CCRI RNAi/CRISPR High Throughput Screening Facility in November 2016. Dr. Hart is also an Associate Professor/Research in the Department of Biochemistry at UT Health San Antonio. Dr. Hart also serves as the Director of the High Throughput Screening Facility (HTSF), one of two core facilities that comprise the Center for Innovative Drug Discovery (CIDD) at UT Health. Dr. Hart’s focus as leader of the Greehey CCRI RNAi/CRISPR High Throughput Screening Facility is to use genetic tools to identify targets and signaling events that play a role in pediatric cancer.
Dr. Hart received his doctoral degree from Cornell University and did his postdoctoral training at Onyx Pharmaceuticals. His work identified CDC42 as a regulator of cell growth control, established the role of CDC42 in the regulation of EGFR and Dbl, the involvement of p115-RhoGEF in heterotrimeric G-protein signaling, and identified β-TrCP as a regulator of ß-catenin signaling. His current work builds on 21 years of experience in basic biomedical research and drug discovery both in pharmaceutical and academic settings, where he led teams in HTS drug discovery targeting key mechanisms of cancer, vascular inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases.
Lab Research
Dr. Hart has extensive knowledge of high-throughput screening through his experience of many steps in the drug discovery process, including assay development, optimization and automation. He has many years of experience running HTS in the biotechnology industry, having successfully lead screens using 500,000 compound libraries to identify kinase inhibitors, protease cleavage inhibitors, and others. In addition, Dr. Hart has a strong background in cancer signaling pathways, having made significant contributions to the field of GTPase regulation and beta-catenin biology.
Lab Staff
Daifeng Jiang, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Rostislav Likhotvorik
Research Scientist