Lauren Ball, Ph.D.

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Director of the Mass Spectrometry Facility, a University Research Resource Facility supported by the Vice President for Research, the College of Medicine, and the Hollings Cancer Center (P30 CA138313). I also direct Proteomics Core C of the SC Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Oxidants, Redox Balance and Stress Signaling (P20 GM103542) and serve as Associate Director of the MUSC Digestive Disease Research Center Proteomics Core (P30 DK123704). My research focuses on defining the impact of the glucose-responsive, post-translational O-GlcNAc modification of adaptor proteins, transcription factors, and epigenetic regulators on cellular signaling and metabolic homeostasis. The activity of O-GlcNAc transferase, the enzyme responsible for protein O-GlcNAcylation, is elevated in many human cancers. We are establishing LC-MS/MS-based methodology to identify the proteins (and sites therein) that are differentially regulated by O-GlcNAc, probe for cross-talk of O-GlcNAc with phosphorylation at Ser/Thr residues, and define the impact of O-GlcNAc on protein function and interactions in the context of breast cancer.