Timothy Driscoll, MD

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Services

• Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant
• Pediatric Cancer

Department / Division:
Pediatrics / Blood and Marrow Transplantation

Address:
DUMC 3350
Durham, NC 27710

Appointment Telephone:
(919) 668-1100

Office Telephone:
(919) 668-1120

Fax Telephone:
(919) 668-1180

• M.D., Ohio State University School of Medicine, 1990

• Pediatrics, Ohio State University, 1990-93
• Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Duke University Medical Center, 1993-97

Clinical Interests:
Pediatric bone marrow transplant, oncology, new treatments in high risk neuroblastoma, research-chemotherapy induced apoptosis

Research Interests:
Dr. Driscoll's experiments suggest that simple over-expression of  acid sphingomyelinase is not sufficient for the induction of  cellular death, but indicate other sites of regulation.  The fact that ceramide, the product of  sphingomyelinase activity did not accumulate despite a 6.5 fold increase of enzyme activity as measured in cellular homogenates suggests the existence of additional mechanisms for controlling intracellular ceramide level.  Acid sphingomyelinase regulation occurs at gene transcription as demonstrated by northern analysis.  Additional regulatory sites may be at the enzyme itself by sphingomyelinase activating proteins and/or changes in ceramide metabolism.  The changes in ceramide metabolism could involve ceramidases, sphingomyelin synthetases, or the synthetic enzymes of complex sphingolipids.  The conclusions from this data are that over-expression of acid sphingomyelinase is not sufficient to induce cell death or ceramide accumulation, but imply that acid sphingomyelinase activity and intracellular ceramide are regulated at several sites.