Mats Ljungman

Mats Ljungman, PhD

Professor

North Campus Research Complex (NCRC)
B520-1346
2800 Plymouth Rd
Ann Arbor, MI

734-764-3330

Administrative Contact

Biography

Dr. Ljungman has a long-standing interest in carcinogenesis, radiation biology, DNA damage responses and regulation of transcription. A major goal of the lab is to elucidate basic mechanisms that ultimately could help better understand human diseases and in the development of improved therapeutics. The Ljungman lab has developed the Bru-seq technology platform to assess nascent RNA synthesis and stability in cells as well as splicing kinetics, transcription elongation rates and the mapping of transcription start sites and enhancers. These techniques provide novel information about the transcription process that cannot be obtained with traditional steady-state RNA-based approaches. The Ljungman lab is participating in ENCODE 4 as a Mapping Center.

Areas of Interest

With the Bru-seq technology platform, the Ljungman lab are exploring many basic biological pathways involved in DNA damage and repair, acute cellular responses, epigenetics, differentiation, aging, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and autism. They are also collaborating with medicinal chemists to interrogate mechanisms of action of novel therapeutic drugs and are developing specific inhibitors of the RNA exosome as cancer therapeutic drugs. With the Bru-seq techniques, the Ljungman lab collaborates with many labs at the university and from over 10 different countries.

Credentials

  • PhD, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, 1990

Grants

  • 5 P30 CA46592 (PI: Fearon), 06/01/12 - 05/31/18, National Institutes of Health: Cancer Center Support Grant, Role: Director, Experimental Irradiation Core. 
  • W81XWH-15-OCRP-PA DOD (PI: Mehta), 08/01/16 - 07/31/18, Department of Defense: Identification of Distinctly Expressed Genes and Altered Metabolic Pathways in a Physiologically Relevant 3D Spheroid Model of Ovarian Cancers, Role: Co-Investigator. 
  • CRB/CC Pilot Grant (PI: Ljungman), 02/02/17 - 01/31/18, Identification of Novel Glioblastoma‐associated lncRNA, Role: Principal Investigator.
  • P01-DK-062041-13 (PI: Merchant), 08/01/13 - 07/31/18, National Institutes of Health: Cellular Decisions of Differentiation in the GI Tract, Role: Co-Investigator.
  • 1-R01-CA-174836-01-A1 (PI:Simeone), 04/10/14 - 02/28/19, National Institutes of Health: Oncogenic Function of ATDC in Bladder Cancer, Role: Co-Investigator.
  • 5 R01 CA188252-02 (PI: Neamati), 07/01/15 - 06/30/20, National Institutes of Health: ROS-targeted Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer, Role: Co-Investigator.
  • 1 R01 CA193690-01 (PI: Neamati), 07/01/15 - 06/30/20, National Institutes of Health: Efficacy of PDI inhibitors in glioblastoma, Role: Co-Investigator.
  • 1 UM1 HG009382-01 (PI: Ljungman), 02/01/17 – 01/31/21, Mapping of Novel Candidate Functional Elements with Bru-seq Technology, Role Principal Investigator and Project Manager.
  • 1 R01 NS097542-01 (PI: Barmada), 07/01/16 - 06/30/21, National Institutes of Health: RNA decay in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Role: Co-Investigator.
  • 1 R01 CA200731-01A1 (PI: Wilson & Glover)  07/01/16 - 06/30/21, National Institutes of Health: Extreme genomic instability at large transcribed genes: mechanisms and consequencesfor the cancer genome, Role: Co-Investigator.

Published Articles or Reviews

Selected from 103 publications

  • Paulsen MT, Veloso A, Prasad J, Bedi K, Ljungman EA, Tsan Y-C, Chang C-W, Tarrier B, Washburn JG, Lyons R, Robinson DR, Kumar-Sinha C, Wilson TE  Ljungman M. Coordinated regulation of synthesis and stability of RNA during the acute TNF-induced proinflammatory response. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 110:2240-2245, 2013. PMCID:3568384
  • Veloso A, Kirkconnell K, Magnuson B, Biewen B, Paulsen MT, Wilson TE, Ljungman M. Rate of elongation by RNA polymerase II is associated with specific gene features and epigenetic modifications. Genome Research, 26:896-905, 2014. PMCID:4032854
  • Wilson TE, Arlt MF, Park SH, Rajendran S, PaulsenMT, Ljungman M, Glover TW. Large transcription units unify copy number variants and common fragile sites occurring under replication stress.. Genome Research, 25:189-200, 2015.
  • Andrade-Lima LC, Veloso V, Paulsen MT, Menck CFM, Ljungman M. DNA repair and recovery of RNA synthesis following exposure to ultraviolet light are delayed in large genes. Nucleic Acids Res, 43:2744-2756, 2015.
  • Chen H, Chen J, Muir L, Ronquist S, Meixner W, Ljungman M, Ried T, Smale S, Rajapakse I. Functional Organization of the Human 4D nucleome. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 112:8002-8007, 2015.
  • Magnuson B, Veloso A, Kirkconnell KS, Andrade-Lima L, Paulsen MT, Ljungman EA, Bedi K, Prasad J, Wilson TE, Ljungman M: Identifying transcription start sites and active enhancer elements using BruUV-seq, Scientific Reports, 5:17978, 2015.