Anthony Hollenberg MD
John Wade Professor, Medicine
Chair, Medicine
72 East Concord Street | (617) 358-3510thollenb@bu.edu
Biography
The focus of my research program is the thyroid with a focus on the role of gland development and the actions of its hormones. To accomplish these goals we have built a unique program in thyroid gland development from endoderm in order to derive new therapies for hypothyroidism. Additionally, we explore thyroid hormone action and nuclear receptor signaling as a model system. Our work has uncovered a unique role for nuclear receptor co-regulatory proteins termed nuclear corepressors in thyroid hormone signaling and determining hormone sensitivity. Furthermore, we have used our understanding of thyroid hormone signaling to identify new biomarkers of its action.
My laboratory has a long-standing interest in how thyroid hormone mediates its effects in context of genomic regulation. Specifically we were amongst the first to begin to differentiate how thyroid hormone is able to stimulate both positive and negative gene regulation. Studies in this area allowed us to be able to characterize the interaction of the thyroid hormone receptor with its cofactors which are necessary for genomic regulation.
We were pioneers in the use of knock-out mouse models to validate the role of thyroid hormone receptor co-factors, specifically nuclear corepressors, in thyroid hormone signaling. These studies allowed us to demonstrate that the tissue-specific expression of co-factors determines a set hormone sensitivity. This has important ramifications for thyroid/steroid action in general. Furthermore these studies have allowed us to better understand the specificity of coregulator interactions with the thyroid hormone receptor and their role in disease.
In addition to our work on thyroid hormone action we have also had a long standing interest in the intersection of the regulation of biomarkers of thyroid hormone action including the regulation of the hypothalamic pituitary thyroid axis by thyroid hormone and other metabolic pathways. Our work has demonstrated that these pathways and others are linked at the molecular and physiological level. Furthermore, they must be considered when trying to understand the effects of thyroid hormone signaling.
Most recently, because of our interest in defining the etiology of the set point of the HPT axis, we became interested in creating a durable thyroid follicular cell model. To accomplish this we began a complete collaboration with the Kotton laboratory at Boston University and have successfully developed the molecular paradigm to develop thyroid follicular cells from ESCs or IPSCs across multiple species. Additionally we have established that these derived cells function in vivo.
Other Positions
Publications
Burris TP, de Vera IMS, Cote I, Flaveny CA, Wanninayake US, Chatterjee A, Walker JK, Steinauer N, Zhang J, Coons LA, Korach KS, Cain DW, Hollenberg AN, Webb P, Forrest D, Jetten AM, Edwards DP, Grimm SL, Hartig S, Lange CA, Richer JK, Sartorius CA, Tetel M, Billon C, Elgendy B, Hegazy L, Griffett K, Peinetti N, Burnstein KL, Hughes TS, Sitaula S, Stayrook KR, Culver A, Murray MH, Finck BN, Cidlowski JA. International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology CXIII: Nuclear Receptor Superfamily - Update 2023. Pharmacol Rev. 2023 Aug 16. PMID: 37586884.
Published on 6/19/2023Hu Y, Bruinstroop E, Hollenberg AN, Fliers E, Boelen A. The role of WD40 repeat-containing proteins in endocrine (dys)function. J Mol Endocrinol. 2023 Jul 01; 71(1). PMID: 37256579.
Published on 6/6/2023Costa-E-Sousa RH, Rorato R, Hollenberg AN, Vella KR. Regulation of Thyroid Hormone Levels by Hypothalamic Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone Neurons. Thyroid. 2023 Jul; 33(7):867-876. PMID: 37166378.
Published on 12/6/2022Kaserman JE, Werder RB, Wang F, Matte T, Higgins MI, Dodge M, Lindstrom-Vautrin J, Bawa P, Hinds A, Bullitt E, Caballero IS, Shi X, Gerszten RE, Brunetti-Pierri N, Liesa M, Villacorta-Martin C, Hollenberg AN, Kotton DN, Wilson AA. Human iPSC-hepatocyte modeling of alpha-1 antitrypsin heterozygosity reveals metabolic dysregulation and cellular heterogeneity. Cell Rep. 2022 Dec 06; 41(10):111775. PMID: 36476855.
Published on 12/1/2022Shimizu H, Horibata Y, Amano I, Ritter MJ, Domae M, Ando H, Sugimoto H, Cohen RN, Hollenberg AN. Nuclear corepressor SMRT acts as a strong regulator of both ß-oxidation and suppressor of fibrosis in the differentiation process of mouse skeletal muscle cells. PLoS One. 2022; 17(12):e0277830. PMID: 36454860.
Published on 1/24/2022Bredella MA, McGroarty KM, Kolessin L, Bard LF, Hollenberg AN, Rutkove SB. Impact of the KL2/Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training (CMeRIT) Program on the careers of early-stage clinical and translational investigators. J Clin Transl Sci. 2022; 6(1):e16. PMID: 35291214.
Published on 11/16/2021Mendoza A, Tang C, Choi J, Acuña M, Logan M, Martin AG, Al-Sowaimel L, Desai BN, Tenen DE, Jacobs C, Lyubetskaya A, Fu Y, Liu H, Tsai L, Cohen DE, Forrest D, Wilson AA, Hollenberg AN. Thyroid hormone signaling promotes hepatic lipogenesis through the transcription factor ChREBP. Sci Signal. 2021 11 16; 14(709):eabh3839. PMID: 34784250.
Published on 9/1/2021Vella KR, Hollenberg AN. Early Life Stress Affects the HPT Axis Response in a Sexually Dimorphic Manner. Endocrinology. 2021 09 01; 162(9). PMID: 34214171.
Published on 8/12/2021Ritter MJ, Amano I, Imai N, Soares De Oliveira L, Vella KR, Hollenberg AN. Nuclear Receptor CoRepressors, NCOR1 and SMRT, are required for maintaining systemic metabolic homeostasis. Mol Metab. 2021 11; 53:101315. PMID: 34390859.
Published on 4/20/2021Finn PW, Abel D, Amin A, Anderson ME, Carethers JM, Coleman DL, Curtis AB, Geraci MW, Gladwin MT, Hollenberg A, Parmacek MS, Robbins RJ. Voices for Social Justice and Against Racism: An AAIM Perspective. Am J Med. 2021 07; 134(7):930-934. PMID: 33848502.
Media Mentions
Published on 6/12/2023
Thyrotropin-releasing hormone neurons play a key role in the response to fasting and weight loss
Published on 12/22/2022
23 recent hospital, health system executive moves
Published on 12/20/2022
Leading endocrinologist appointed physician-in-chief at Boston Medical Center
View full list of 3 media mentions.