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Lawrence Lifshitz, Ph.D.

Academic Role: Associate Professor

Faculty Appointment(s) In:
   Program in Molecular Medicine

Other Affiliation(s):
   Program in Neuroscience

Computer Vision and Image Processing

Research in this lab involves developing and appying new computer vision algorithms to aid in the identification and quantification of structures of interest in medical images of various types. The research is directed towards solving certain "driving problems" of interest to medical researchers and physicians at UMW.

Some driving problems to date have been: the automatic identification and tracking of microtubules in a time series of microscopic images of moving cells; the determination of cell membrane location in 3D fluorescently labelled fixed cells (to aid in quantification); the alignment of nuclear medicine and CT images to aid in the interpretation of nuclear medicine images; and the visualization and quantification of atherosclerosis in blood vessels.

For more information, see  my lab page .

Recent Publications

ZhuGe, R., K.E. Fogarty, R.A. Tuft, L.M. Lifshitz, K. Sayer, and J.V. Walsh, Jr.  Dynamics of Signaling between Ca²⁺ Sparks and Ca²⁺ activated K⁺ Channels Studied with a Novel Image-based Method for Direct Intracellular Measurement of Ryanodine receptor Ca²⁺ Current.  J. Gen. Physiol., 116:845-864, 2000.

Kirber, M.T., E.F. Etter, K.A. Bellvé, L.M. Lifshitz, R.A. Tuft, F.S. Fay, J.V. Walsh, Jr., and K.E. Fogarty.  The Relationship of Ca²⁺ Sparks to STOCs Studied with 2D and 3D Imaging in Feline Oesophageal Smooth Muscle Cells.  J. Physiol., 531(2):315-327, 2001.

Patki, V., J. Buxton, A. Chawla, L. Lifshitz, K. Fogarty, W. Carrington, R. Tuft, and S. Corvera.  Insulin action on GLUT4 traffic visualized in single 3T3-L1 adipocytes using ultra-fast microscopy.  Molec. Biol. Cell, 12(1):129-141, 2001.

Stachelek, S., R. Tuft, L. Lifshitz, D. Leonard, A. Farwell, J. Leonard.  Real-time Visualization of Processive, Myosin 5a mediated Vesicle Movement in Living Astrocytes.  J. Biol. Chem., 276(38):35652-35659, 2001.

Miyazaki, K., Yano, T., Schmidt, D.J., Tokui, T., Shibata, M., Lifshitz, L.M., Kimura, S., Tuft, R.A., and Ikebe, M.  Rho dependent agonist induced spatio-temporal change in myosin phosphorylation in smooth muscle cells.   J. Biol. Chem., 277(1) :725-734, 2002.

Zou, H., Lifshitz, L.M., Tuft, R.A., Fogarty, K.E., and Singer, J.J.  Visualization of Ca²⁺ entry through single stretch-activated cation channels.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 99(9) :6404-6409, 2002.

Lawe, D., A. Chawla, E. Merithew, J. Dumas, W. Carrington, K. Fogarty, L. Lifshitz, R. Tuft, D.Lambright, and S. Corvera.  Sequential roles for phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and Rab5 in tethering and fusion of early endosomes via their interaction with EEA1.  J. Biol. Chem., 277(10) :8611-8617, 2002.

Lawe, D.C., Sitouah, N., Hayes, S., Chawla, A., Virbasius, J.V., Tuft, R., Fogarty, K., Lifshitz, L., Lambright, D., and Corvera, S.  Essential role of Ca²⁺/calmodulin in Early Endosome Antigen-1 localization.  Mol. Biol. Cell, 14(7):2935-45, 2003. 

Femino, A.M., Fogarty, K., Lifshitz, L.M., Carrington, W., and Singer, R.H.  Visualization of single molecules of mRNA in situ.  Methods Enzymol., 361:245-304, 2003.

Zou, H., Lifshitz, L.M., Tuft, R.A., Fogarty, K.E., and Singer, J.J.  Using total fluorescence increase (signal mass) to determine the Ca²⁺ current underlying localized Ca²⁺ events.  J. Gen. Physiol., 124 :259-272, 2004.

Huang, S., Lifshitz, L., Patki-Kamath, V., Tuft, R., Fogarty, K., and Czech, M.P.  Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate-rich plasma membrane patches organize active zones of endocytosis and ruffling in cultured adipocytes.   Mol. Cell. Biol., 24(20) :9102-23, 2004.

ZhuGe, R., Fogarty, K.E., Baker, S.P., McCarron, J.G., Tuft, R.A., Lifshitz, L.M., and Walsh, Jr., J.V.  Ca²⁺ spark sites in smooth muscle cells are numerous and differ in number of ryanodine recepors, BK channels and coupling ratio between them.  Am. J. Physiol., Cell Physiol., 287(6) :C1577-88, 2004.

DeCrescenzo, V., ZhuGe, R., Velazquez-Marrero, C., Lifshitz, L.M., Custer, E., Carmichael, J., Lai, F.A., Tuft, R.A., Fogarty, K.E., Lemos, J.R., Walsh, Jr., J.V.  Ca²⁺ syntillas, miniature Ca²⁺ release events in terminals of hypothalamic neurons, are increased in frequency by depolarization in the absence of Ca²⁺ influx.  J. Neurosci. 24(5) :1226-35, 2004.

Academic Background

1980, B.A., Harvard University
1983, M.S., University of North Carolina
1987, Ph.D., University of North Carolina

My Personal Home Page
The Biomedical Imaging Group Home Page

Office: Biotech 2 Suite 114
Phone: 508 856 3392
E-mail: Lawrence.Lifshitz@umassmed.edu
Keywords: Biophysics, Intracellular Trafficking, Cell Dynamics, Bioinformatics, Imaging and Microscopy

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