Carolina  B. Livi,  Ph.D.

Assistant Professor/Research

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Profile and Contact Information | Research

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RESEARCH

Research Program

Much of my work involves bioinformatics and computational biology. My graduate and post-graduate training has included wet lab as well as computational techniques. My area of expertise is in RNA biology and gene regulation from expression profiling to analysis of regulatory regions. My current area of focus includes the study on the effects of rapamycin and the mTOR pathway on cancer and longevity with an emphasis on anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties of this treatment. I also work on projects involving discovery and validation of cancer biomarkers in particular from plasma or serum in genitourinary and gastrointestinal cancers. I have extensive experience with syngeneic mouse tumor models and Illumina gene expression profiling using microarrays from study design and sample preparation to data analysis. In addition to the mRNA gene expression profiling, I have used a number of different hybridization and amplification based detection assays for microRNAs. I have been working on cancer immunotherapy projects including using flow cytometry and antibody bead based methods for protein quantification. I have extensive experience in integrating large datasets including multilevel hierarchical modeling projects and putting together interdisciplinary teams from my position as liaison for the Computational Biology Initiative. This work has included building computer simulations and working as part of multidisciplinary teams.

 

Selected Publications

1. Sharp ZD, Curiel TJ, and Livi CB: (2013) Chronic mechanistic target of rapamycin inhibition: Preventing cancer to delay aging, or vice versa? In Cancer and Aging: From Bench to the Clinics. Interdiscipl Top Gerontol, Extermann M (ed). Basel, Karger, Vol. 38, pp 1-16 (ISBN-10: 331802306X; ISBN-13: 978-3318023060) Edition: 1.


2. Livi CB, Hardman RL, Christy BA, Dodds SG, Jones D, Williams C, Strong R, Bokov A, Javors MA, Ikeno Y, Hubbard G, Hasty P, and Sharp ZD: (2013) Rapamycin extends life span of Rb1+/- mice by inhibiting neuroendocrine tumors. AGING (Albany NY). 5(2): 100-10. ePublished www.impactaging.com.


3. Hurez V, Daniel BJ, Sun L, Liu AJ, Ludwig SM, Kious MJ, Thibodeaux SR, Pandeswara S, Murthy K, Livi CB, Wall S, Brumlik MJ, Shin T, Zhang B, and Curiel TJ: (2012) Mitigating age-related immune dysfunction heightens the efficacy of tumor immunotherapy in aged mice. Cancer Res 72(8): 2089-99.


4. Sudarshan S, Shanmugasundaram K, Naylor SL, Lin S, Livi CB, O'Neill CF, Parekh DJ, Yeh IT, Sun LZ, and Block K: (2011) Reduced expression of fumarate hydratase in clear cell renal cancer mediates HIF-2α accumulation and promotes migration and invasion. PLoS One 6(6): e21037.


5. Lin PY, Sun L, Thibodeaux SR, Ludwig SM, Vadlamudi RK, Hurez VJ, Bahar R, Kious MJ, Livi CB, Wall SR, Chen L, Zhang B, Shin T, and Curiel TJ: (2010) B7-H1-dependent sex-related differences in tumor immunity and immunotherapy responses. J Immunol. 185(5): 2747-53.


6. Yoon K, Ko D, Doderer M, Livi CB, and Penalva LO: (2008) Over-represented sequences located on 3' UTRs are potentially involved in regulatory functions. RNA Biol. 5(4): 255-62.


7. Livi CB and Davidson EH: (2007) Regulation of spblimp1/krox1a, an alternatively transcribed isoform expressed in midgut and hindgut of the sea urchin gastrula. Gene Expr Patterns. 7(1-2): 1-7.


8. Livi CB and Davidson EH: (2006) Expression and function of blimp1/krox, an alternatively transcribed regulatory gene of the sea urchin endomesoderm network. Dev Biol. 293(2): 513-25.


9. Thattaliyath BD, Livi CB, Steinhelper ME, Toney GM, and Firulli AB: (2002) HAND1 and HAND2 are expressed in the adult-rodent heart and are modulated during cardiac hypertrophy. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 297(4): 870-5.


10. Yuh CH, Brown CT, Livi CB, Rowen L, Clarke PJ, and Davidson EH: (2002) Patchy interspecific sequence similarities efficiently identify positive cis-regulatory elements in the sea urchin. Dev Biol. 246(1): 148-61.


11. Davidson EH, Rast JP, Oliveri P, Ransick A, Calestani C, Yuh CH, Minokawa T, Amore G, Hinman V, Arenas-Mena C, Otim O, Brown CT, Livi CB, Lee PY, Revilla R, Schilstra MJ, Clarke PJ, Rust AG, Pan Z, Arnone MI, Rowen L, Cameron RA, McClay DR, Hood L, and Bolouri H: (2002) A provisional regulatory gene network for specification of endomesoderm in the sea urchin embryo. Dev Biol. 246(1): 162-90.


12. Davidson EH, Rast JP, Oliveri P, Ransick A, Calestani C, Yuh CH, Minokawa T, Amore G, Hinman V, Arenas-Mena C, Otim O, Brown CT, Livi CB, Lee PY, Revilla R, Rust AG, Pan Z, Schilstra MJ, Clarke PJ, Arnone MI, Rowen L, Cameron RA, McClay DR, Hood L, and Bolouri H: (2002) A genomic regulatory network for development. Science. 295(5560): 1669-78.


13. Rast JP, Amore G, Calestani C, Livi CB,Ransick A, and Davidson EH: (2000) Recovery of developmentally defined gene sets from high-density cDNA macroarrays. Dev Biol. 228(2): 270-86.


14. Rubin MA, Medeiros AC, Rocha PC, Livi CB,Ramirez G, and Souza DO: (1997) Effect of guanine nucleotides on [3H]glutamate binding and on adenylate cyclase activity in rat brain membranes. Neurochem Res. 22(2): 181-7.