jcoon

Joshua Coon

Email address: jcoon@chem.wisc.edu

Room Number: 
4422 Biotech
Telephone Number: 
608-263-1718
Group Affiliation: 
Coon Group
Education: 

Professor of Chemistry and Biomolecular Chemistry
B.S. Central Michigan University
Ph.D. University of Florida
Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Virginia

jcoon's picture

Research Description

Research Emphasis: Bioanalytical Chemistry, Mass Spectrometry & Proteomics

Overview
My research group has the overarching goal of catalyzing evolution in the rapidly developing field of proteomics and to use these technologies to address fundamental problems in developmental biology. With emphasis on ion chemistry and instrumentation, we seek to develop and apply new enabling mass spectrometry-based (MS) proteomic technologies. These cutting-edge tools allow us to examine, with unprecedented chemical detail and sensitivity, the molecular events that commit human embryonic stem cells (hES cells) to exit the pluripotent state. Here we are focused on both intracellular signaling and the epigenetic regulation of pluripotency. For the former we ask which branches of the FGF signaling pathway are active in hES cells and which proteins/networks are phosphorylated upon differentiation. Epigenetics is believed to play a critical role in the establishment and maintenance of pluripotency; thus, we have also aimed our new technologies at interpreting the epigenetic codes and monitoring how these messages change during hES cell differentiation.

Active projects
Research projects in the Coon lab include: (1) instrumentation development, (2) data analysis software design, (3) fundamental ion chemistry studies, and (4) biological applications of the technology. Biological applications include global identification of protein post-translational modification (specifically phosphorylation), quantitative analysis of protein phosphorylation (i.e., comparative analysis of two cellular states), and cancer biomarker discovery.

Awards and Honors

Arthur F. Findeis Award for Achievvements by a Young Analytical Scientist, American Chemical Society 2011
Philip R. Certain Dean's Distinguished Faculty Award 2010
Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award 2010
Ken Standing Award, University of Manitoba 2009
Named one of Tomorrow's PIs by Genome Technology magazine 2006

Selected Publications

Bailey DJ, Rose CM, McAlister GC, Brumbaugh J, Yu PZ, Wenger CD, et al. Instant spectral assignment for advanced decision tree-driven mass spectrometry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2012;109:8411-8416.
Brumbaugh J, Hou ZG, Russell JD, Howden SE, Yu PZ, Ledvina AR, et al. Phosphorylation regulates human OCT4. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2012;109:7162-7168.
Chung TW, Hui RJ, Ledvina A, Coon JJ, Turecek F. Cascade Dissociations of Peptide Cation-Radicals. Part 1. Scope and Effects of Amino Acid Residues in Penta-, Nona-, and Decapeptides. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. 2012;23:1336-1350.
Ledvina AR, Chung TW, Hui RJ, Coon JJ, Turecek F. Cascade Dissociations of Peptide Cation-Radicals. Part 2. Infrared Multiphoton Dissociation and Mechanistic Studies of z-Ions from Pentapeptides. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. 2012;23:1351-1363.
Ledvina AR, Lee MV, McAlister GC, Westphall MS, Coon JJ. Infrared Multiphoton Dissociation for Quantitative Shotgun Proteomics. Analytical Chemistry. 2012;84:4513-4519.