Charles Brenner born October 30, 1961 is the Roy J. Carver Chair and head of Biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 and a director of the Obesity Initiative at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

 and a veteran of biotechnology companies, having worked at Chiron Corporation and DNAX Research Institute, prior to graduate school at Stanford University School of Medicine

Stanford University School of Medicine

Stanford University School of Medicine is a leading medical school located at Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California. Originally based in San Francisco, California as Cooper Medical College, it is the oldest continuously running medical school in the western United States...

. Brenner conducted post-doctoral research at Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...

 with Gregory Petsko

Gregory Petsko

Gregory A. Petsko is an American biochemist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is currently the Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor of Biochemistry & Chemistry at Brandeis University.-Education:Petsko was an undergraduate at Princeton University...

 and then took his first academic position at Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University is a private health sciences university in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. The university consists of six constituent colleges and schools, Jefferson Medical College, Jefferson College of Graduate Studies, Jefferson School of Health...

 in 1996, moving to Dartmouth Medical School

Dartmouth Medical School

Dartmouth Medical School is the medical school of Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The fourth-oldest medical school in the United States, Dartmouth Medical School was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith and grew steadily over the course...

 in 2003, where he served as Associate Director for Basic Sciences at Norris Cotton Cancer Center

Norris Cotton Cancer Center

Norris Cotton Cancer Center is a comprehensive cancer center as designated by the National Cancer Institute, with administrative offices located within the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire....

. He was recruited to Iowa in 2009.

Brenner has made multiple contributions to molecular biology, beginning with purification and characterization of the Kex2 proprotein convertase at Stanford. He has been funded by agencies including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society , founded in 1949, is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. LLS's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life of...

, the March of Dimes

March of Dimes

The March of Dimes Foundation is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.-Organization:...

, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Beckman Foundation, the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

, and the National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

. Active research projects include molecular dissection of the function of the FHIT

FHIT

Bis-triphosphatase also known as fragile histidine triad protein is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FHIT gene.- Function :FHIT is also known as human accelerated region 10...

 tumor suppressor gene, characterization of DNA methyltransferase

DNA methyltransferase

In biochemistry, the DNA methyltransferase family of enzymescatalyze the transfer of a methyl group to DNA. DNA methylation serves a wide variety of biological functions...

 Dnmt1

DNMT1

DNA -methyltransferase 1 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the DNMT1 gene.-Interactions:DNMT1 has been shown to interact with Histone deacetylase 2, DMAP1, PCNA, Retinoblastoma protein, DNMT3A and DNMT3B.-Further reading:...

, and discovery of new steps in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, abbreviated NAD, is a coenzyme found in all living cells. The compound is a dinucleotide, since it consists of two nucleotides joined through their phosphate groups. One nucleotide contains an adenine base and the other nicotinamide.In metabolism, NAD is involved...

 metabolism. Notably, the Brenner laboratory discovered that yeast and human enzymes use nicotinamide riboside

Riboside

A riboside is any glycoside of ribose. Ribosides in the form of ribonucleosides and ribonucleotides play an important role in biochemistry....

 to make NAD+, for which Brenner was recognized with a William E.M. Lands

William E.M. Lands

William E.M. Lands is an American nutritional biochemist who is among the world's foremost authorities on essential fatty acids. Lands graduated from University of Michigan in 1951 and served on the faculty there from 1955 to 1980...

 lectureship at University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

. Brenner is author of more than 80 publications and the senior editor of the 2004 book, Oncogenomics: Molecular Approaches to Cancer.

Monograph

• Charles Brenner and David Duggan (2004) Oncogenomics: Molecular Approaches to Cancer. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. ISBN 0471225924

External links

• The Brenner Lab University of Iowa