David Cobrinik, MD, PhD

Investigator, Ophthalmology

Associate Professor of Research Ophthalmology and Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC

Education

Medical School

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, MD / Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies, PhD (Biochemistry)

Fellowship

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cancer Biology)

Publications

Xu XL, Y Fang, TC Lee, D Forrest, C Gregory-Evans, D Almeida, A Liu, SC Jhanwar, DH Abramson, and D Cobrinik: Retinoblastoma has properties of a cone precursor tumor and depends upon cone-specific MDM2 signaling. Cell 137: 1018-31, 2009. PMID: 19524506.

Wang H, F Bauzon*, P Ji, XL Xu, D Sun, J Locker, RS Sellers, K Nakayama, KI Nakayama, D Cobrinik, and L Zhu: Skp2 is required for survival of aberrantly proliferating Rb1-deficient cells and for tumorigenesis in Rb1+/- mice. Nature Genet 42: 82-8, 2010. PMID: 19966802.

Xu, XL, HP Singh, L Wang, DL Qi, BK Poulos, DH Abramson, SC Jhanwar, and D Cobrinik: Rb suppresses human cone-precursor-derived retinoblastoma tumours. Nature 514: 385-8, 2014. PMID: 25252974.

Qi, DL and D Cobrinik: MDM2 but not MDM4 promotes retinoblastoma cell proliferation through p53-independent regulation of MYCN translation. Oncogene 36:1760-1769, 2017. PMID: 27748758.

Cobrinik D: Retinoblastoma Progression. EBioMed, 2:623-4, 2015. PMID: 26288828

Xu, XL, Z Li, A Liu, X Fan, DN Hu, DL Qi, DW Chitty, R Jia, J Qui, JQ Wang, J Sharaf, J Zou, R Weiss, H Huang, WJ Joseph, L Ng, RB Rosen, B Shen, M Reid, D Forrest, DH Abramson, S Singer, D Cobrinik* and SC Jhanwar*: SKP2 activation by thyroid hormone receptor β2 bypasses Rb-dependent proliferation in Rb-deficient cells. Cancer Res 77: 6838-50, 2017 (*co-corresponding). PMID:28972075.

Singh, HP, S Wang, K Stachelek, S Lee, RW Reid, ME Thornton, CM Craft, BH Grubbs, D Cobrinik: Developmental-stage-specific proliferation and retinoblastoma genesis in RB-deficient human but not mouse cone precursors. Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA) 115:E9391-E9400, 2018. PMID:30213853.

Li, Z, DL Qi, HP Singh, Y Zou, B Shen, D Cobrinik: A novel thyroid hormone receptor isoform, TRβ2-46, promotes SKP2 expression and retinoblastoma cell proliferation. J Biol Chem, 294: 2961-69, 2019. PMID:30643022.

PubMed Link

Research

Retinoblastoma is a childhood eye cancer that develops in response to mutations in the RB1 tumor suppressor gene. While RB1 regulates proliferation in many cell types, only cells within the retina routinely form cancers when RB1 function is lost. Our research aims to characterize the cell type-specific signaling pathways that collaborate with RB1 inactivation, as a means to identify therapeutic targets for retinoblastoma and other cancers.

Visit the Cobrinik Laboratory.