Wayne State University
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School of Medicine
Biochemistry
Russell Finley

Russell Finley

Professor

rfinley@wayne.edu

313-577-7845

Russell Finley

Position Title

 Professor, Molecular Medicine and Genetics and
Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology

Division Director for Education and Graduate Officer, CMMG

Member, Karmanos Cancer Institute

Education

Ph.D., 1990, SUNY Upstate Medical University
Postdoctoral Fellow, 1990-1995, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

Laboratory Web Site

Laboratory Web Site

Office Location

3212 Scott Hall

Research

Dr. Finley's research includes regulatory networks that control cell proliferation, cell cycle regulation during development in Drosophila, and high throughput technologies to study biological networks.

Research Focus

Our research is broadly aimed at understanding how regulatory networks control biological processes, such as the cell division cycle. We identify and characterize networks of interacting genes and proteins using high throughput technologies, including the yeast two-hybrid system and RNAi screens. The interaction maps that we generate from these studies form the foundation for discovering and understanding cellular regulatory pathways. A second theme of our research is directed at understanding the molecular mechanisms that control cell division. For these studies, we are using the genetically tractable model organism, Drosophila (the fruit fly) to study gene networks centered on two novel conserved cyclin proteins (named Cyclin Y and Cyclin J). Cyclin proteins are regulators of cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks), which are highly conserved S/T protein kinases that control the cell division cycle in all eukaryotes.

Publications

  • McCarthy-Leo, C., Brush, G.S., Pique-Regi, R, Luca, F, Tainsky, M.A. Finley Jr., R.L. Comprehensive analysis of the functional impact of single nucleotide variants of human CHEK2. PLoS Genet. 2024 Aug 15;20(8):e1011375. [PMID: 39146382]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011375
  • McCarthy-Leo C, Baughan S, Dlugas H, Abraham P, Gibbons J, Baldwin C, Chung S, Feldman GL, Dyson G, Finley RL Jr, Tainsky MA. Cancer Genet. (2024) Germline variant profiling of CHEK2 sequencing variants in breast cancer patients. 288-289:10-19. PMID: 39208550
  • Liu, J., Parrish, J.R., Hines, J., Mansfield, L., and Finley, Jr., R.L. A proteome-wide screen of Campylobacter jejuni using protein microarrays identifies novel and conformational antigens. PLoS One, Jan 11, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210351
  • Wuchty S, Rajagopala SV, Blazie SM, Parrish JR, Khuri S, Finley RL Jr, Uetz P. The Protein Interactome of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Bacterial Meta-interactomes Improve Function Predictions. mSystems. 2017 Jun 6;2(3). [PMID: 28744484] PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5513735.
  • Atikukke*, G., Albosta*, P., Zhang, H., and Finley, Jr., R.L., A role for Drosophila Cyclin J in oogenesis revealed by genetic interactions with the piRNA pathway. Mechanisms of Development 133:64-76, 2014. [PMID: 24946235]

     

  • Murali, T., Pacifico, S., and Finley, Jr., R.L. Integrating the interactome and the transcriptome of Drosophila. BMC Bioinformatics, 15:177. 2014. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2105-15-177. [PMID: 24913703]

     

    Mairiang D, Zhang H, Sodja A, Murali T, Suriyaphol P, Malasit P, Limjindaporn T, Finley RL Jr. Identification of new protein interactions between dengue fever virus and its hosts, human and mosquito. PLoS One.
  • 2013;8(1):e53535. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053535. Epub 2013 Jan 11. [PubMed PMID: 23326450; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3543448.]

     

  • Yu J, Murali T, Finley RL Jr. Assigning confidence scores to protein-protein interactions. Methods Mol Biol. 2012;812:161-74. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-455-1_9. PubMed PMID: 22218859.

     

  • Guest, S.T., Yu, J., Liu, D., Hines, J.A., Kashat, M.A., and Finley, Jr., R.L. A protein network-guided screen for cell cycle regulators in Drosophila. BMC Systems Biology 5:65, 1-16, 2011. [PMID: 21548953] (PMCID: PMC3113730)

     

  • Murali*, T., Pacifico, S., Yu, J., Guest, S., Roberts, G.G., and Finley, Jr., R.L. DroID 2011: A comprehensive, integrated resource for protein, transcription factor, RNA, and gene interactions for Drosophila.  Nucleic Acids Research, D736-743, 29 Jan 2011. [PMID: 21036869] (PMCID: PMC3013689)

     

  • Liu*, D., and Finley, Jr., R.L. Cyclin Y is a novel conserved cyclin essential for development in Drosophila. Genetics, 184: 1025-1035, 2010. [PMID: 20100936] (PMCID: PMC2865905)

     

  • Schwartz, A.S., Yu, J., Gardenour, K.R., Finley, Jr., R.L., and Ideker, T. Cost effective strategies for mapping the interactome. Nature Methods, 6: 55-61, 2009. (PMCID: PMC2613168)

     

 

Courses taught by Russell Finley

Winter Term 2025 (future)

Fall Term 2024

Winter Term 2024

Fall Term 2023

Winter Term 2023

Fall Term 2022

Winter Term 2022

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