Research - Cell and Molecular Biology of Milk Secretion

We are currently engaged in two major projects to

• Investigate the molecular dynamics of milk secretion from mammary epithelial cells during lactation by using live-cell imaging techniques and by developing novel transgenic and knock-out mouse strains
• Determine the potential role that milk proteins may play in modulating autoimmune disease, especially multiple sclerosis (MS).

Electron micrograph of apical region of milk-secreting mammary cell from guinea pig showing lipid droplet emerging from the cell.

Teaching

• ANSC 443/688L, Physiology and Biochemistry of Lactation
• MOCB 708N, Advanced Cell Biology: Membrane Traffic

Awards and Honors

• Chairman, Gordon Conference on Mammary Gland Biology, 1989
• Senior International Fogarty Foundation Fellowship, 1989-90
• American Cyanamid Award (ADSA), 1993
• Dean Foods/Borden Award (ADSA), 2001
• Distinquished Research Fellow of the Graduate School, UMCP, 2002-03

Publications

Representative Publications

• Baumann, D.E., Mather, I.H., Wall, R.J., and Lock, A.L. 2006 Major advances associated with the biosynthesis of milk, J. Dairy Sci. (Centennial edition), 89: 1235-1243.
• Ogg, S.L., Weldon, A.K., Dobbie L., Smith, A.J.H., and Mather, I.H. 2004 Expression of Butyrophilin (Btn1a1) in lactating mammary gland is essential for the regulated secretion of milk-lipid droplets, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (U.S.A.), 101:10084-10089.
• Stefferl, A., Schubart, A., Storch, M., Amini, A., Mather, I.H., Lassmann, H., and Linington, C. 2000. Butyrophilin, a milk protein, modulates the encephalitogenic T cell response to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, J. Immunol., 165:2859-2865.
• Mather, I.H., and Keenan, T.W. 1998. Origin and secretion of milk lipids, J. Mam. Gland Biol. Neoplasia, 3, 259-273.
• Banghart, L.R., Chamberlain, C.W., Velarde, J., Korobko, I.V., Ogg, S.L., Jack, L.J.W., Vakharia, V.N., and Mather, I.H. 1998. Butyrophilin is expressed in mammary epithelial cells from a single-sized messenger RNA as a type I membrane glycoprotein, J. Biol. Chem., 273: 4171-4179.
• Vernet, C., Boretto, J., Mattei, M.-G., Takahashi, M., Jack, L.J.W., Mather, I.H., Rouquier, S., and Pontarotti, P. 1993. Evolutionary study of multigenic families mapping close to the human MHC class I region, J. Mol. Evol., 37:600-612.
• Jack, L.J.W., and Mather, I.H. 1990. Cloning and analysis of cDNA encoding bovine butyrophilin, an apical glycoprotein expressed in mammary tissue and secreted in association with the milk-fat-globule membrane during lactation, J. Biol. Chem., 265:14481-14486.

Grants