Don W. Cleveland

About

Don W. Cleveland is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UC San Diego and serves as the Department Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. His research efforts are focused on two major directions: genome rearrangement in cancer and the mechanisms and therapy for human neurodegenerative diseases. He is involved in advancing understanding and treatment options for conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), exemplified by the FDA approval of Qalsody (tofersen) for SOD1-ALS. Cleveland's work is conducted within the Cleveland Lab, which is part of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UCSD, and he is associated with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. His contributions include significant research in cellular and molecular biology, with a focus on disease mechanisms and therapeutic development.

Research topics

• Biology
• Neuroscience
• Medicine
• Molecular biology
• Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Pathology
• Cell biology

Selected publications

• Reversing a model of Parkinson’s disease with in situ converted nigral neurons

  Nature · 2020 · 483 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid phosphoprotein forms mutually exclusive condensates with RNA and the membrane-associated M protein

  Nature Communications · 2021 · 450 citations

  The multifunctional nucleocapsid (N) protein in SARS-CoV-2 binds the ~30 kb viral RNA genome to aid its packaging into the 80-90 nm membrane-enveloped virion. The N protein is composed of N-terminal RNA-binding and C-terminal dimerization domains that are flanked by three intrinsically disordered regions. Here we demonstrate that the N protein's central disordered domain drives phase separation with RNA, and that phosphorylation of an adjacent serine/arginine rich region modulates the physical p…

  DOI

• Mitotic tethering enables inheritance of shattered micronuclear chromosomes

  Nature · 2023-06-14 · 71 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cryptic splicing of stathmin-2 and UNC13A mRNAs is a pathological hallmark of TDP-43-associated Alzheimer’s disease

  Acta Neuropathologica · 2024-01-04 · 63 citations

  articleOpen access

  Nuclear clearance and cytoplasmic accumulations of the RNA-binding protein TDP-43 are pathological hallmarks in almost all patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and up to 50% of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease. In Alzheimer's disease, TDP-43 pathology is predominantly observed in the limbic system and correlates with cognitive decline and reduced hippocampal volume. Disruption of nuclear TDP-43 function leads to abnormal RNA splicing and incorporat…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Scrambling the genome in cancer: causes and consequences of complex chromosome rearrangements

  Nature Reviews Genetics · 2023-11-08 · 51 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant P01NS022849

  NIH · $4.4M · 1995

• NIH Grant RC2NS069476

  NIH · $3.4M · 2012

• NIH Grant R37GM029513

  NIH · $3.8M · 2004

Frequent coauthors

• Clotilde Lagier‐Tourenne

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  109 shared

• Donald L. Price

  Vidant Medical Center

  106 shared

• Philip C. Wong

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  101 shared

• Séverine Boillée

  Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital

  72 shared

• Michael K. Lee

  University of Minnesota

  66 shared

• Melissa McAlonis‐Downes

  University of California, San Diego

  65 shared

• Andrew J. Holland

  Johns Hopkins University

  65 shared

• Sandrine Da Cruz

  VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research

  62 shared

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