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Donahue

James Donahue MD

Staff Thoracic Surgeon, Birmingham VAHCS, Birmingham, AL | Associate Professor of Surgery, Chief, Section of Thoracic Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL

VA Birmingham health care

Email:

Personal Statement

The fundamental goal of Dr. Donahue’s research effort is to improve survival outcomes for esophageal cancer patients.  To achieve this goal, he has focused on developing an understanding of the post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms involved in esophageal cancer cell biology in order to identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention. With the support provided by both a VA Career Development Award and a VA Merit Review Award, Dr. Donahue has established the groundwork for the current application by examining the roles that RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs have in modulating oncogenic functions in esophageal cancer cells and human esophageal cancer specimens. 

Education

  • BS, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
  • MD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
  • Resident, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
  • Resident, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Research Interests

  • Understanding how survivin is regulated in esophageal cancer cells
  • Development of oncolytic herpes viruses
  • Use of neoadjuvant therapy in esophageal cancer patients with locally advanced disease

Recent Publications

  • Phatak P, Byrnes KA, Mansour D, Liu L, Cao S, Li R, Rao JN, Turner DJ, Wang JY, Donahue JM.  Overexpression of miR-214-3p in esophageal squamous cancer cells enhances sensitivity to cisplatin by targeting survivin directly and indirectly through CUG-BP1. Oncogene 2016 Apr 21;35(16): 2087-2097.  PMID:  26234674
  • Byrnes KA, Phatak P, Mansour D, Xiao L, Zou T, Rao JN, Turner DJ, Wang JY, and Donahue JM . Overexpression of miR-199a-5p decreases esophageal cancer cell proliferation through repression of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase-11 (MAP3K11). Oncotarget 2016 Feb 23;7(8): 8756-87-70.  PMID: 26234674
  • Phatak P, Burrows WM, Chesnick IE, Tulapurkar ME, Rao JN, Turner DJ, Hamburger AW, Wang JY, Donahue JM. MiR-199a-3p decreases esophageal cancer cell proliferation by targeting p21 activated kinase 4. Oncotarget 2018 June 19;9(47): 28391–28407.
  • Phatak P, Noe M, Asrani K, Chesnick IE, Greenwald BD, Donahue JM.  MicroRNA-141-3P regulates cellular proliferation, migration, and invasion in esophageal cancer by targeting tuberous sclerosis complex 1. Mol Carcinog. 2020 Dec 31. PMID:  33382472
  • Complete list of Publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1z9O7ejbsqH5wm/bibliography/public/
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