Dr. Cleo Hughes-Darden
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Morgan State University
1700 E. Coldspring Lane
Baltimore, Maryland 21251

Dixon 213 
(tel) 443-885-3635
chughes@moac.morgan.edu

Biographical Sketch (cv)

Dr. Hughes-Darden, Associate Professor of Biology, is a former graduate of the Biology Department at Morgan State University and a participant in the departments’ Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC U*STAR) program. She received her doctoral degree from Clark-Atlanta University in Molecular Biology and Microbial Physiology in 1991. Her graduate research project was focused on understanding leucine sensitivity in Escherichia coli through gene expression and regulation. Following graduate school Dr. Hughes-Darden completed postdoctoral studies at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Plant Molecular Biology. Her project was designed to determine how asparagine synthetase regulates DNA and protein expression and how this regulation impacts nitrogen distribution and utilization in soybean plants. Dr. Hughes-Darden joined the Biology Department at Morgan State University in 1993 and has been actively involved in our teaching program at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Courses taught include: General Biology, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology, Computational Biology and Scientific Communication. In addition to teaching, she has been involve in active research program where she has trained 2 graduate students, over 15 undergraduate students, and 2 high school students. Currently, Dr. Hughes-Darden’s research interests are to understand how signal transduction pathways are altered in response to stressors such as elevated blood pressure and sleep deprivation and how these alterations modulate gene expression in the cardiovascular system.

Dr. Hughes-Darden’s research program is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Research Interest

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Presently, my lab is interested in understanding the role that the components of the phosphoinositide signaling system and other signaling pathways play in the stress response and the effects on the cardiovascular system. We are using two model systems (a genetic model for hypertension (SHR) and a stress induced model, stress induced by sleep deprivation). Also, we are interested in determining the role of the POMC peptides ( g -2-MSH and ACTH) on the expression of protein kinases such as PKC, MAP kinases and tyrosine kinases and on phosphorylation of specific substrate proteins in these model systems. Another aspect of our research, is to examine the expression and regulation of genes that are expressed in response to stressors such as sleep deprivation stress and hypertension using microarray technology and to fully characterize these genes.

Recent Publications

1. Hughes, C.A. and Matthews, B.F. (1992) Cloning a cDNA encoding asparagine synthetase from soybean. p. 345-346. In: BK Singh, HE Flores, JC Shannon (eds), Biosynthesis and Molecular Regulation of Amino Acids in Plants. Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Penn State symposium in Plant Physiology.

2. Matthews, B.F. and Hughes, C.A. (1993) Nutritional improvement of the family of amino acids in edible crop plants. Amino Acids 4:21-34.

3. Hughes, C.A., Beard,H., and Matthews, B.F. (1997) Molecular cloning and expression of two cDNAs encoding asparagine synthetase in soybean. Plant Mol. Biol. 33:301-311. [Abstract]

4. Hughes, C.A., Gebhardt, J.S., Reuss, A. and Matthews, B.F. (1999) Identification and expression of a cDNA encoding cystathionine- gamma-synthase in soybean. Plant Science 46: 69-79. [Abstract]

5. Hughes-Darden, C.A., Wachira, S.J., Denaro, Frank, Taylor, C.V., Brunson, K.J., Ochillo, R.F. and Robinson, T.J. (2001) Expression and distribution of protein kinase C isozymes in brain tissue of spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR) Cellular and Molecular Biology Journal 47:1077-1088. [Abstract]

6. Hughes-Darden, C.A., Wachira, S.J., Batta, E., Ochillo, R.F. and Robinson, T.J. (2001) Effects of gamma-2 melanocyte-stimulating hormone on protein kinase C activity and expression in spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR) Cellular and Molecular Biology Journal 47:1069-1075. [Abstract]

7. Wachira, S.J. Hughes-Darden, C.A. , Taylor, C.V., Ochillo, R. and T. Joan Robinson (2003) Evidence for the interaction of protein kinase C and melanocortin 3-receptor signaling pathways. Neuropeptides 37:201-210. [Abstract]

8. Wachira, S.J. Hughes-Darden, C.A. , Nicholas, H.B., Taylor, C.V., and T. Joan Robinson (2004) Neural Melanocortin receptors are differentially expressed and regulated by stress in rat hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Cellular and Molecular Biology Journal 50:703-713. [Abstract]

Hughes-Darden, C.A., Wachira, J.M., Taylor, C. and Robinson, T.J. The involvement of PKC isozymes in neural melanocortin signaling. FASEB annual meeting, San Diego, CA. April 2003.

(Competitively selected for an oral presentation and poster).

J. Cargo III, C. Hughes-Darden, U. Ekeocha, C.V. Taylor, and J. M. Wachira. Differential Expression of Cardiac Protein Kinase C Isozymes in Rats Following Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Deprivation (REM-SD) Stress. ABRCMS B-29 (2003).

Hughes-Darden, C.A., Wachira , James, and Taylor , Christopher. Analysis of Gene Expression in Rat Brain Following REM-Sleep Deprivation Stress. RCMI Internal Research Symposium: Morgan State Univ. 0ral (2004)

Wachira, James, Hughes-Darden, Cleo, Prioleau, Algernon and Robinson, T. Joan. Melanocortin 3 receptor signaling in neuronal cells. FASEB Journal 69.19. (2004).

John Cargo III, Brian Redmond, Duewa Williams, James Wachira, and Cleo Hughes-Darden Differential Expression of Cardiac Protein Kinase C Isozymes in Rats after Sleep Deprivation (SD) Stress. RCMI Symposium 2004.

James M Wachira, Cleo Hughes-Darden and Algernon Prioleau. Identification of Biomarkers for Hypertension via a Proteomic Approach. RCMI Symposium (2004).

James Wachira, Lawrence Uladu, Carlana Ramlochansingh, Bindhu Guruswamy and Cleo Hughes-Darden Alteration Of Neural Melanocortin System Gene Expression In Stroke Prone SHR Rats By High Salt Diet. RCMI Symposium (2004).

Lawrence Uradu, Cleo Hughes-Darden and James Wachira. Characterization of Melanocortin 3 Receptor Signaling Pathway in a Brain Stem Neuronal Cell Line. RCMI Symposium (2004).

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