Selected Publications
Fernandez, J.R., Byrne, B. and Firestein, B.L. Phylogenetic analysis and molecular evolution of guanine deaminases: from guanine to dendrites. Journal of Molecular Evolution, In press.
Sundararaghavan, H.G., Monteiro, G.A., Firestein, B.L. and Shreiber, D.I. (2009) Generating gradients of mechanical properties in 3D collagen gels with microfluidics. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 102(2):632-43.
Georges P.C.*, Hadzimichalis N.M.*, Sweet E.S. and Firestein B.L. (2008) The Yin-Yang of dendrite morphology: unity of actin and microtubules. Molecular Neurobiology, 38(3):270-84 (*equal contributors, peer reviewed).
Sweet, E.S. and Firestein, B.L. (2008) Neuronal polarization: Old cells can learn new tricks. Current Biology, 18(15):R661-R663.
Gu, J., Firestein, B.L. and Zheng, J.Q. (2008) Microtubules in Dendritic Spine Development. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(46):12120-4.
Jiang, X., Yurke, B., Firestein, B.L., and Langrana, N.A. (2008) Neurite outgrowth on a DNA crosslinked hydrogel with tunable stiffnesses. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 36(9):1565-79.
Fernández, J.R., Firestein, B.L. (2008) Novel pharmacological targets to control dendritic branching and growth during neuronal development. Central Nervous System Agents - Medicinal Chemistry 8(2):100-106. (peer reviewed)
Kutzing, M.K. and Firestein, B.L. (2008) Altered Uric Acid Levels and Disease States. JPET, 324(1):1-7. (peer reviewed)
Jiang, X.*, Georges, P.C.*, Li, B.*, Du, Y., Kutzing, M.K., Previtera, M.L., Langrana, N.A. and Firestein, B.L. (2007) Cell growth in response to mechanical stiffness by neuron-astroglia interactions. The Open Neuroscience Journal, 1: 7-14. (*equal contributors).
Fernández, J.R., Welsh, W.J. and Firestein, B.L. Structural characterization of the zinc binding domain in Cytosolic PSD-95 interactor (CYPIN): Role of zinc binding in guanine deamination and dendrite branching. (2007) Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 70(3):873-881.
Chen, H.X. and Firestein, B.L. (2007) Cypin acts downstream of RhoA to regulate dendrite branching in hippocampal neurons. Journal of Neuroscience, 7(31):8378-86.
Du Y, Chen CP, Tseng CY, Eisenberg Y, Firestein BL. (2007) Astroglia-mediated effects of uric acid to protect spinal cord neurons from glutamate toxicity. Glia Apr, 1;55(5):463-72.
Charych EI*, Akum BF* , Goldberg JS, Jornsten RJ, Rongo C, Zheng JQ, Firestein BL. (2006) Activity-independent regulation of dendrite patterning by postsynaptic density protein PSD-95. J Neurosci., 26(40):10164-76. (* equal contributors)