Nicola Partridge, PhD
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
RBHS, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Education
Bio
Nicola Partridge recently joined CABM as Research Professor and Resident Faculty. Previously, she was Chair of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology at NYU College of Dentistry and prior to that Chair of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her research has focused on parathyroid hormone (PTH) regulation of gene expression by the osteoblast. In her present projects, her laboratory is investigating how PTH, acting through protein kinase A (PKA), signals to the nucleus of osteoblasts to regulate transcription of a gene, receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand (Rankl), which activates osteoclasts and thus, stimulates bone breakdown. In a second project, Dr. Partridge’s laboratory is screening for a small molecule activator of the salt-inducible kinases (SIK2 and SIK3) that could be used to block the PTH pathway as a possible way to treat several diseases of this pathway. Dr. Partridge has mentored many students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty. Research in the Partridge lab has been continuously supported by NASA, NIH or industry awards.
Research Focus
Resident Faculty at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine
AAAS Fellow
ASBMR Fellow
Recipient of the Louis V. Avioli Founders Award for Basic Research of the ASBMR
Dr. Partridge has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR), Calcified Tissue International and was an Associate Editor of Physiological Reviews and is currently Associate Editor of FASEB BioAdvances and JBMR. She was a standing member and then Chair of the NIH Skeletal Biology Development and Disease Study Section. She is currently a member of the Laureate Awards Committee of the Endocrine Society and an organizer of the Endocrine Society Special Interest Group on Bone and Mineral Metabolism.
Professional Organizations: ASBMR, AAAS, ASBMB, Endocrine Society, Association of Osteobiology, FASEB
Within CABM:
Donald Nyangahu, Department of Pharmacology, & CABM – Effects of the gut bacteriome in infants exposed to HIV but uninfected on bone growth in mouse models.
Martin Blaser, Departments of Medicine and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, & CABM-Effects of postnatal antibiotics on bone metabolism in mice.
Within Rutgers:
Biju Parekkedan, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering –Use of AAV for in vivo delivery of parathyroid hormone.
Sue Shapses, Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences -Role of chemokines in PTH action in humans.
Outside Rutgers:
Henry Kronenberg, Massachusetts General Hospital Endocrine Unit and Harvard University –Activation of PKA in osteoblasts in mouse models and effects on bone phenotype.
Lawrence Kirschner, The Ohio State University – Activation of PKA in osteoblasts in mouse models and effects on bone phenotype.
Marc Montminy, Salk Institute -Role of CRTC2 and CRTC3 in bone and PTH action in mouse models.
Lukasz Witek, New York University – Biomechanical analyses of bones of mouse models.
Bhaskar Das, University of Buffalo -Synthesis of LKB1 activators
May Khanna, University of Florida -Modeling of SIK activators and their use
Keith Woerpel, New York University - Modeling of SIK activators and their use