Harry Weitlauf, M.D.
| Professor and Chair | harry.weitlauf@ttuhsc.edu |
Biography
I became interested in basic research as a medical student at the University of Washington in Seattle and went on to work on a problem related to embryo implantation as an NIH post doctoral with Dr Gilbert Greenwald at the University of Kansas in Kansas City. I have held research and teaching positions in medical schools at the University of Kansas, the University of Oregon and most recently at Texas Tech University.
Research Interests
My research interest has centered on the process by which mammalian embryos attach to the uterus and become implanted and I have worked in that area with NIH funding for more than thirty years. Most recently my laboratory has been looking at the question of why the maternal natural killer lymphocytes that are attracted to the interface between the mother and the fetus do not 'see' the embryonic tissue as a foreign tissue graft and attack it. We have discovered that a protein, designated by the name "cubilin", is produced by the fetal yolk sac and is taken up into the cytotoxic granules of the maternal natural killer cells. Our current hypothesis is that cubilin interferes with the ability of the cytotoxic granules to function and thus, acts to protect the fetus from potential "graft rejection".
Recent Publications
- Crider-Pirkle S, Billingsley P, Faust C, Hardy DM, Lee V, Weitlauf HM. Cubilin: A binding partner for Galectin-3 in the murine utero-placental complex. J. Biol. Chem., 2002; 277:15904-15912.
- Lee VH, Lee AB, Phillips EB, Roberts JK, Weitlauf HM. Spatio-temporal pattern for expression of galectin-3 in the murine utero-placental complex: evidence for differential regulation. Biol Reprod 1998;58:1277-1282.
- Phillips B, Knisley K, Weitlauf KD, Dorsett J, Lee V, Weitlauf H. Differential expression of two B-galactoside binding lectins in the reproductive tracts of pregnant mice. Biol Reprod 1996;55:548-558.
- Knisley KA, Weitlauf HM. Compartmentalized reactivity of M3/38 (Anti-Mac-2) and M3/84 (Anti-Mac-3) in the uterus of pregnant mice. J Reprod Fert 1993;97:521-527.
- Weitlauf HM, Knisley KA. Changes in surface antigens on preimplantation mouse embryos. Biol Reprod 1992;46:811-816.