Koen Venken

Contact Information

Research Interests

My main interest is combining different aspects of molecular biology, microbiology, neuroscience and the genetics and manipulation of a variety of model organisms, in a synergistic fashion. As such, I develop novel manipulations of fruit flies that may be extrapolated toward other model organisms and high-throughput community efforts. The first platform I developed, P/ΦC31 artificial chromosome for manipulation or P[acman], combines recombineering, site-specific transgenesis, gene- and protein modification, and chromosome manipulation. The second system I generated, Minos Mediated Integration Cassette or MiMIC, combines transposon mobilization, gene mutagenesis, site-specific transgenesis and -gene manipulation, and gene- and protein modification.

Publications

Venken KJ, Bellen HJ (2012) Genome-wide manipulations of Drosophila melanogaster with transposons, Flp recombinase, and ΦC31 integrase. Methods in Molecular Biology 859:203-228.  [Abstract]

Neümuller RA, Wirtz-Peitz F, Lee S, Kwon Y, Buckner M, Hoskins RA Hoskins, Venken KJ, Bellen HJ, Mohr SE, Perrimon N (2012) Stringent analysis of gene function and protein-protein interactions using fluorescently tagged genes. Genetics 190:931-940.  [Abstract]

Alves-Silva J, Sánchez-Soriano N, Beaven R, Klein M, Parkin J, Millard T, Bellen H, Venken K, Ballestrem C, Kammerer R, Prokop A (2012) Spectraplakins promote microtubule-mediated axonal growth by functioning as structural MAPs and EB1-dependent +TIPs. Journal of Neuroscience :in press.  

Venken KJT, Simpson JH, Bellen HJ (2011) Genetic manipulation of genes and cells in the nervous system of the fruit fly. Neuron 72:202-230.  [Abstract]

Venken KJT, Schulze KL, Haelterman N, Pan H, He Y, Evans-Holm M, Carlson JW, Levis RW, Spradling AC, Hoskins RA, Bellen HJ (2011) MiMIC: a highly versatile transposon insertion resource for engineering Drosophila melanogaster genes. Nature Methods 8:737–743.  [Abstract]

Zheng L, Michelson Y, Freger V, Avraham Z, Venken KJT, Bellen HJ, Justice MJ, Wides R (2011) Drosophila Ten-m and Filamin affect motor neuron growth cone guidance. PLoS One 6:e22956.  [Abstract]

Nègre N, Brown CD, Ma L, Bristow CA, Miller SW, Wagner U, Kheradpour P, Eaton ML, Loriaux P, Sealfon R, Li Z, Ishii H, Spokony RF, Chen J, Hwang L, Cheng C, Auburn RP, Davis MB, Domanus M, Shah PK, Morrison CA, Zieba J, Suchy S, Senderowicz L, Victorsen A, Bild NA, Grundstad AJ, Hanley D, MacAlpine DM, Mannervik M, Venken K, Bellen H, White R, Gerstein M, Russell S, Grossman RL, Ren B, Posakony JW, Kellis M, White KP (2011) A cis-regulatory map of the Drosophila genome. Nature 471:527-531.  [Abstract]

modENCODE Consortium, et al. (2010) Identification of functional elements and regulatory circuits by Drosophila modENCODE. Science 330:1787-1797.  [Abstract]

Venken KJT*, Popodi E*, Holtzman SL, Schulze KL, Park S, Carlson JW, Hoskins RA, Bellen HJ, Kaufman TC (2010) A molecularly defined duplication set for the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 186:1111-1125. (*equal contribution) [Abstract]

Verstreken P, Ohyama T, Haueter C, Habets RL, Lin YQ, Swan LE, Ly CV, Venken KJT, De Camilli P, Bellen HJ (2009) Tweek, an evolutionarily conserved protein, is required for synaptic vesicle recycling. Neuron 63:203-215.  [Abstract]

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 (2009) Versatile P[acman] BAC Libraries for transgenesis studies in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature Methods 6:431-434.  [Abstract]

Pepple KL, Atkins M, Venken KJT, Wellnitz K, Harding M, Frankfort B, Mardon G (2008) Two-step selection of a single R8 photoreceptor: a bistable loop between senseless and rough locks in R8 fate. Development 135:4071-4079.  [Abstract]

Venken KJT, Kasprowicz J, Kuenen S, Yan J, Hassan BA, Verstreken P (2008) Recombineering-mediated tagging of Drosophila genomic constructs for in vivo localization and acute protein inactivation. Nucleic Acids Research 36:e114.  [Abstract]

Venken KJT, Bellen HJ (2007) Transgenesis uprgrades for Drosophila melanogaster. Development 134:3571-3584.  [Abstract]

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 (2007) Eps15 and Dap160 control synaptic vesicle membrane retrieval and synapse development. Journal of Cell Biology 178:309-322.  [Abstract]

Venken KJT, He Y, Hoskins RA, Bellen HJ (2006) P[acman]: a BAC transgenic platform for targeted insertion of large DNA fragments in D. melanogaster. Science 314:1747-1751.  [Abstract]

Shroyer NF, Wallis D, Venken KJT, Bellen HJ, Zoghbi HY (2005) Gfi1 functions downstream of Math1 to control intestinal secretory cell subtype allocation and differentiation. Genes and Development 19:2412-2417.  [Abstract]

Tsuda H, Jafar-Nejad H, Patel AJ, Sun Y, Chen HK, Rose MF, Venken KJ, Botas J, Orr HT, Bellen HJ, Zoghbi HY (2005) The AXH domain of Ataxin-1 mediates neurodegeneration through its interaction with Gfi-1/Senseless proteins. Cell 122:633-644.  [Abstract]

Verstreken P, Ly CV, Venken KJ, Koh TW, Zhou Y, Bellen HJ (2005) Synaptic mitochondria are critical for mobilization of reserve pool vesicles at Drosophila neuromuscular junctions. Neuron 47:365-378.  [Abstract]

Venken KJT, Bellen HJ (2005) Emerging technologies for gene manipulation in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature Reviews Genetics 6:167-178.  [Abstract]

Kazanjian A, Wallis-Schultz D, Au N, Nigam R, Venken KJT, Cagle PT, Dickey BF, Bellen HJ, Gilks CB, Grimes HL (2004) Growth factor independence-1 is expressed in primary human neuroendocrine lung carcinomas and mediates the differentiation of murine pulmonary neuroendocrine cells. Cancer Research 64:6874-6882.  [Abstract]

Watase K, Venken KJ, Sun Y, Orr HT, Zoghbi HY (2003) 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 12:2789-2795.  [Abstract]

Wallis D, Hamblen M, Zhou Y, Venken KJ, Schumacher A, Grimes HL, Zoghbi HY, Orkin SH, Bellen HJ (2003) The zinc finger transcription factor Gfi1, implicated in lymphomagenesis, is required for inner ear hair cell differentiation and survival. Development 130:221-232.  [Abstract]

Venken K, Di Maria E, Bellone E, Balestra P, Cassandrini D, Mandich P, De Jonghe P, Timmerman V, Svaren J (2002) Search for mutations in the EGR2 corepressor proteins, NAB1 and NAB2, in human peripheral neuropathies. Neurogenetics 4:37-41.  [Abstract]

Irobi J, Nelis E, Meuleman J, Venken K, De Jonghe P, Van Broeckhoven C, Timmerman V (2001) Exclusion of 5 functional candidate genes for distal hereditary motor neuropathy type II (distal HMN II) linked to 12q243. Annals of Human Genetics 65:517-529.  [Abstract]

Venken K, Meuleman J, Irobi J, Ceuterick C, Martini R, De Jonghe P, Timmerman V (2001) Caspr1/Paranodin/Neurexin IV is most likely not a common disease-causing gene for inherited peripheral neuropathies. Neuroreport 12:2609-2614.  [Abstract]