Paul Manowitz Professor UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Department of Psychiatry UBHC. Room D-439 Piscataway. NJ 08854 (732) 235-4347 FAX - 5158 manowitz@umdnj.edu

Biochemical and molecular biological studies of human behavior

Dr. Paul Manowitz is interested in the biochemistry and genetics of mental illness. One of his main interests is the identification of a gene for susceptibility to alcoholism. His research has identified an abnormal protein. an enzyme (arylsulfatase A). which occurs much more frequently in alcoholics than in normal control. Tissue culture experiments have shown that this protein is much less stable metabolically than the normal protein. Molecular biological studies have determined the site of the nucleic acid change which produces the abnormal protein. Work is currently being done to further test the hypothesis that this abnormal gene is a susceptibility gene for alcoholism.

Selected Publications

Jean S, Kasinathan C, Buyske S, Manowitz P. (2006) Ethanol decreases rat hepatic arylsulfatase A activity levels. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 30(11):1950-5.

Kasinathan C. Jean S. Manowitz P. (2006) Tyrosine sulfation of arylsulfatase A and its peptide. Protein Pept Lett. 13(4):357-61.

Buyske. S.. Bates. M.E.. Gharani. N.. Matise. T.C.. Tischfield. J.A. and Manowitz. P. (2006)Cognitive traits link to human chromosomal regions. Behavior Genetics. 36(1):65-76

Chung. I-W.. Kim. H.. Sribney. W.. Hong. J-B.. Lee. C-H.. Lee. K-Y.. Nan. H-M.. Kim. Y-S.. and Manowitz. P. (2005) Tryptophan hydroxylase polymorphism is associated with age of onset of alcoholism related behaviors. Alcohol. 36(1):1-3.

Kasinathan. C. . Vrana. K.. Beretta. L.. Thomas. P.. Gooch. R.. Worst. T.. Walker. S. Xu. A.. Pierre. P.. Green. H.. Grant. K. and Manowitz. P. (2004). The future of proteomics in the study of alcoholism. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 28: 228-232.

Chung. I. Kim. H.. Lee. S.. Hong. J.. Kim. Y.. Nan. H.. Sribney. W.. Kim. Y. and Manowitz. P. (2002). Evidence for an N-Glycosylation polymorphism of Arylsulfatase A predisposing to alcoholism in Koreans. Am. J. Medical Genetics 114:186-189.

Poretz. R.D.. A. Yang. W. Deng. and P. Manowitz. (2000). The interaction of lead exposure and Arylsulfatase A genotype affects sulfatide catabolism in human fibroblasts. NeuroToxicology 21: 379-388.

Ricketts. M.H.. Hamer. R.M.. Sage. J.I.. Manowitz. P.. Feng. F. and Menza. M.A. (1998). Association of a serotonin transporter gene promoter polymorphismwith harm avoidance behavior in an elderly population. Psych. Genetics 8:41-44.

Ricketts. M.H.. Hamer. R.M.,Manowitz,P.. Feng. F.. Sage. J.I. and Menza. M.A. (1998). Association of long variants of the dopamine D4 receptor exon 3 repeat polymorphism with parkinson's disease. Clinical Genetics 54:33-38.

Ricketts. M.H.. Poretz. R.D. and Manowitz. P. (1998). The R496H mutation ofarylsulfatase a does not cause metachromatic leukodystrophy. Hum. Mutation 12:238-239.

Stoecker. P.W.. Manowitz. P.. Harvey. R.. and Yacynych. A.M. (1998). Determination of galactose and galactocerebroside using a galactose oxidase column and electrochemical detection. Anal. Biochem. 258:103-108.