Education

• B.S., Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Ph.D., Biophysics, University of Chicago
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Physiology and Biochemistry, Harvard Medical School

Areas of Expertise

• Skeletal muscle growth and atrophy
• Molecular mechanisms
• Selectivity of intracellular proteolysis in erythroid and muscle cells
• Role of proteasomes and ubiquitin
• Spinal cord injury
• Pulmonary hypertension
• General Human Biology

Honors and Awards

• Established Investigator of the American Heart Association
• Irma T. Hirschl Award, Principal Investigator on grants from NIH, NASA and MDA

Research

With Alfred L. Goldberg, Dr. Etlinger discovered non-lysosomal ATP-dependent proteolytic activity, credited by awardees of the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry, as the seminal observation revealing the proteasome/ubiquitin system. In subsequent studies, with his students and colleagues, novel factors involved in the regulation of this pathway including a ubiquitin ligase critical to pulmonary arterial hypertension were identified. Dr. Etlinger proposed how myofibrils turnover during muscle growth and atrophy and the roles of calcium, ATP, and beta-adrenergic receptors in these conditions. Finally, he identified modalities to improve recovery from spinal cord injury including beta-agonists, x-irradiation, and inhibitors of glucose toxicity.

Publications

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Teaching Responsibilities

• Medical Cell Biology and Anatomy
• Graduate Histology and Graduate Cell Biology
• Dental Histology
• Cell Biology Topics
• Journal Club