Baylor College of Medicine

Koen J. T. Venken, Ph.D.

Picture

Venken

Koen J. T. Venken, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Phone

713-798-3698

Email

koen.venken@bcm.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor: Verna and Marrs Mclean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Primary Appointment
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States
Genetic Manipulation, Genome Engineering, Synthetic Biology, and Human Disease Modeling in Drosophila melanogaster

Assistant Professor: Department of Pharmacology
Secondary Appointment
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Research Member: Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Program of Cancer Biology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Assistant Professor: Graduate Program in Developmental Biology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Assistant Professor: Graduate Program in Integrative Molecular and Biomedical Sciences
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

McNair Scholar: Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Research member: Center for Drug Discovery
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Addresses

Baylor College of Medicine (Office)
: One Baylor Plaza
Room: 319B
Houston, TX 77030-3411
United States
Phone: (713) 798-3698
Koen.Venken@bcm.edu

Education

PhD from Baylor College of Medicine: 09/2007 - Houston, Texas United States; Developmental Biology

MS from University of Antwerp: 06/1999 - Antwerp, Antwerp Belgium; Biochemistry

BS from University of Antwerp: 08/1997 - Antwerp, Antwerp Belgium; Bioengineering

Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine: 05/2012 - Houston, Texas United States; Genetic Manipulation, Genome Engineering

Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine: 05/2013 - Houston, Texas United States; Genetic Manipulation, Genome Engineering

Honors & Awards

CPRIT Scholar: Baylor College of Medicine; Houston (04/2014 - 03/2018)

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award: Baylor College of Medicine; Houston (07/2010 - 06/2012)

High Impact Publication Award: Baylor College of Medicine; Houston (01/2007)

Graduate Scholarship: Government Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) (01/2000 - 04/2001)

Professional Interests

Human Disease Modeling
Genome Engineering
Genetic Manipulation
Method Development
Technology Development
Cellular and organismal model systems
Synthetic Biology
Transgenesis
Cell biology
Genetics

Professional Statement

Probing and understanding multigenic biomedical phenomena using state-of-the-art synthetic biology, cell biology, genetics, genome engineering and transgenesis technologies in cellular and organismal model systems

Websites

Venken Lab Website

Selected Publications

Venken KJ, Schulze KL, Haelterman NA, Pan H, He Y, Evans-Holm M, Carlson JW, Levis RW, Spradling AC, Hoskins RA, Bellen HJ. "MiMIC: a highly versatile transposon insertion resource for engineering Drosophila melanogaster genes.." Nature Methods. 2011 Sep 1;8(9):737-743. Pubmed PMID: 21985007
Venken KJ, Simpson JH, Bellen HJ. "Genetic Manipulation of Genes and Cells in the Nervous System of the Fruit Fly.." Neuron. 2011 Oct 20;72(2):202-230. Pubmed PMID: 22017985
Neumüller RA, Wirtz-Peitz F, Lee S, Kwon Y, Buckner M, Hoskins RA, Venken KJ, Bellen HJ, Mohr SE, Perrimon N. "Stringent analysis of gene function and protein-protein interactions using fluorescently tagged genes.." Genetics. 2012 Mar 1;190(3):931-940. Pubmed PMID: 22174071
Venken KJ, Bellen HJ. "Genome-wide manipulations of Drosophila melanogaster with transposons, Flp recombinase, and ΦC31 integrase.." Methods in Molecular Biology. 2012 Feb 1;859:203-228. Pubmed PMID: 22367874

Szabad J, Bellen HJ, Venken KJ. "An assay to detect in vivo Y chromosome loss in Drosophila wing disc cells.." G3 • Genes | Genomes | Genetics. 2012 Sep 9;2(9):1095-1102. Pubmed PMID: 22973547
Cassidy JJ, Jha AR, Posadas DM, Giri R, Venken KJ, Ji J, Jiang H, Bellen HJ, White KP, Carthew RW. "miR-9a minimizes the phenotypic impact of genomic diversity by buffering a transcription factor.." Cell. 2013 Dec 19;155(7):1556-1567. Pubmed PMID: 24360277
Venken KJ, Bellen HJ. "Chemical mutagens, transposons, and transgenes to interrogate gene function in Drosophila melanogaster.." Methods. 2014 Jun 15;68(1):15-28. Pubmed PMID: 24583113
Geiser J, Venken KJ, De Lisle RC, Andrews GK. "A mouse model of acrodermatitis enteropathica: loss of intestine zinc transporter ZIP4 (Slc39a4) disrupts the stem cell niche and intestine integrity.." PLoS Genetics. 2012 Jun 21;8(6):e1002766. Pubmed PMID: 22737083
Chen YC, Lin YQ, Banerjee S, Venken K, Li J, Ismat A, Chen K, Duraine L, Bellen HJ, Bhat MA. "Drosophila neuroligin 2 is required presynaptically and postsynaptically for proper synaptic differentiation and synaptic transmission.." Journal of Neuroscience. 2012 Nov 7;32(45):16018-16030. Pubmed PMID: 23136438
Zheng L, Michelson Y, Freger V, Avraham Z, Venken KJ, Bellen HJ, Justice MJ, Wides R. "Drosophila Ten-m and Filamin Affect Motor Neuron Growth Cone Guidance." PLoS One. 2011 Aug 8;6(8):e22956. Pubmed PMID: 21857973
Alves-Silva J, Sánchez-Soriano N, Beaven R, Klein M, Parkin J, Millard TH, Bellen HJ, Venken KJT, Ballestrem C, Kammerer RA, Prokop A. "Spectraplakins Promote Microtubule-Mediated Axonal Growth By Functioning As Structural Microtubule-Associated Proteins and EB1-Dependent +TIPs (Tip Interacting Proteins)." Journal of Neuroscience. 2012 Jul 4;32(27):9143-9158. Pubmed PMID: 22764224
Nègre N et al. "A cis-regulatory map of the Drosophila genome.." Nature. 2011 Mar 24;471(7339):527-531. Pubmed PMID: 21430782
modENCODE Consortium et al. "Identification of functional elements and regulatory circuits by Drosophila modENCODE.." Science. 2010 Dec 24;330(6012):1787-1797. Pubmed PMID: 21177974
Venken KJT, Popodi E, Holtzman SL, Schulze KL, Park S, Carlson JW, Hoskins RA, Bellen HJ, Kaufman TC. "A molecularly defined duplication set for the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster.." Genetics. 2010 Dec 1;186(4):1111-1125. Pubmed PMID: 20876565
Verstreken P, Ohyama T, Haueter C, Habets RLP, Lin YQ, Swan LE, Ly CV, Venken KJT, De Camilli P, Bellen HJ. "Tweek, an evolutionarily conserved protein, is required for synaptic vesicle recycling.." Neuron. 2009 Jul 30;63(2):203-215. Pubmed PMID: 19640479
Venken KJT, Carlson JW, Schulze KL, Pan H, He Y, Spokony R, Wan KH, Koriabine M, de Jong PJ, White KP, Bellen HJ, Hoskins RA. "Versatile P[acman] BAC libraries for transgenesis studies in Drosophila melanogaster.." Nature Methods. 2009 Jun 1;6(6):431-434. Pubmed PMID: 19465919
Pepple KL, Atkins M, Venken K, Wellnitz K, Harding M, Frankfort B, Mardon G. "Two-step selection of a single R8 photoreceptor: a bistable loop between senseless and rough locks in R8 fate.." Development. 2008 Dec 1;135(24):4071-4079. Pubmed PMID: 19004852
Venken KJT, Bellen HJ. "Emerging technologies for gene manipulation in Drosophila melanogaster.." Nature Reviews Genetics. 2005 Mar 1;6(3):167-178. Pubmed PMID: 15738961
Koh TW, Korolchuk VI, Wairkar YP, Jiao W, Evergren E, Pan H, Zhou Y, Venken KJT, Shupliakov O, Robinson IM, O'Kane CJ, Bellen HJ. "Eps15 and Dap160 control synaptic vesicle membrane retrieval and synapse development.." Journal of Cell Biology. 2007 Jul 16;178(2):309-322. Pubmed PMID: 17620409
Shroyer NF, Wallis D, Venken KJT, Bellen HJ, Zoghbi HY. "Gfi1 functions downstream of Math1 to control intestinal secretory cell subtype allocation and differentiation.." Genes and Development. 2005 Oct 15;19(20):2412-2417. Pubmed PMID: 16230531
Venken KJT, He Y, Hoskins RA, Bellen HJ. "P[acman]: a BAC transgenic platform for targeted insertion of large DNA fragments in D. melanogaster.." Science. 2006 Dec 15;314(5806):1747-1751. Pubmed PMID: 17138868
Venken KJT*, Kasprowicz J*, Kuenen S, Yan J, Hassan BA, Verstreken P. "Recombineering-mediated tagging of Drosophila genomic constructs for in vivo localization and acute protein inactivation.." Nucleic Acids Research. 2008 Sep 1;36(18):e114. Pubmed PMID: 18676454
Verstreken P, Ly CV, Venken KJT, Koh TW, Zhou Y, Bellen HJ. "Synaptic mitochondria are critical for mobilization of reserve pool vesicles at Drosophila neuromuscular junctions.." Neuron. 2005 Aug 4;47(3):365-378. Pubmed PMID: 16055061
Tsuda H, Jafar-Nejad H, Patel AJ, Sun Y, Chen HK, Rose MF, Venken KJT, Botas J, Orr HT, Bellen HJ, Zoghbi HY. "The AXH domain of Ataxin-1 mediates neurodegeneration through its interaction with Gfi-1/Senseless proteins.." Cell. 2005 Aug 26;122(4):633-644. Pubmed PMID: 16122429
Venken KJT, Bellen HJ. "Transgenesis upgrades for Drosophila melanogaster.." Development. 2007 Oct 1;134(20):3571-84. Pubmed PMID: 17905790
Kazanjian A, Wallis D, Au N, Nigam R, Venken KJT, Cagle PT, Dickey BF, Bellen HJ, Gilks CB, Grimes HL. "Growth factor independence-1 is expressed in primary human neuroendocrine lung carcinomas and mediates the differentiation of murine pulmonary neuroendocrine cells.." Cancer Research. 2004 Sep 1;64(19):6874-6878. Pubmed PMID: 15466176
Watase K, Venken KJT, Sun Y, Orr HT, Zoghbi HY. "Regional differences of somatic CAG repeat instability do not account for selective neuronal vulnerability in a knock-in mouse model of SCA1.." Human Molecular Genetics. 2003 Nov 1;12(21):2789-2795. Pubmed PMID: 12952864
Wallis D, Hamblen M, Zhou Y, Venken KJT, Schumacher A, Grimes HL, Zoghbi HY, Orkin SH, Bellen HJ. "The zinc finger transcription factor Gfi1, implicated in lymphomagenesis, is required for inner ear hair cell differentiation and survival.." Development. 2003 Jan 1;130(1):221-232. Pubmed PMID: 12441305
Venken K, Meuleman J, Irobi J, Ceuterick C, Martini R, De Jonghe P, Timmerman V. "Caspr1/Paranodin/Neurexin IV is most likely not a common disease-causing gene for inherited peripheral neuropathies.." Neuroreport. 2001 Aug 8;12(11):2609-2614. Pubmed PMID: 11496158
Irobi J, Nelis E, Meuleman J, Venken K, De Jonghe P, Van Broeckhoven C, Timmerman V. "Exclusion of 5 functional candidate genes for distal hereditary motor neuropathy type II (distal HMN II) linked to 12q24.3.." Annals of Human Genetics. 2001 Oct 1;65(6):517-529. Pubmed PMID: 11851982
Venken K, Di Maria E, Bellone E, Balestra P, Cassandrini D, Mandich P, De Jonghe P, Timmerman V, Svaren J. "Search for mutations in the EGR2 corepressor proteins, NAB1 and NAB2, in human peripheral neuropathies.." Neurogenetics. 2002 Mar 1;4(1):37-41. Pubmed PMID: 12030330
"Large-scale identification of chemically induced mutations in Drosophila melanogaster." ;
"Loss of SPARC dysregulates basal lamina assembly to disrupt larval fat body homeostasis in Drosophila melanogaster." ;
"Gene-specific cell labeling using MiMIC transposons." ;
"A library of MiMICs allows tagging of genes and reversible, spatial and temporal knockdown of proteins in Drosophila." ;
"Genome engineering: Drosophila melanogaster and beyond." ;
"Homology requirements for efficient, footprintless gene editing at the CFTR Locus in human iPSCs with helper-dependent adenoviral vectors." ;
"The current state of the neuroanatomy toolkit in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster." ;
"Examining multiple cellular pathways at once using multiplex hextuple luciferase assaying." ; Pubmed PMID: 31836712
"Drosophila small ovary encodes a zinc-finger protein with broad function in repressing gene expression." ; Pubmed PMID: 31558581

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Funding

Novel Approaches to Probe and Validate Disease Pathways in Drosophila melanogaster - #N/A

Novel Approaches to Probe and Validate Cancer Pathways in Drosophila melanogaster - #R1313

The Drosophila Gene Tagging Project: Transgenes with Swappable Protein Tags - #1R21HG006726

Dissecting Pathways that Regulate Social Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster - #1-FY14-315

Using Cell and Fly Models to Understand Gene Function in Undiagnosed Diseases - #1R21GM110190

Serotonergic modulation of aggression in Drosophila melanogaster - #1R01GM109938

Resolving complex systemic endogenous expression patterns into subcellular high-resolution localization - #1R21OD022981

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Languages

Dutch