Shannon Nowotarski

(She, Her, Hers)
Shannon Nowotarski headshot
Associate Professor, Biochemistry
[email protected]
Luerssen Science Building, 212D

Dr. Nowotarski researches the polyamine pathway in regards to non-melanoma skin cancer. She came to Penn State Berks after completing her postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University. 

Dr. Nowotarski is interested in studying the polyamine pathway and how it is involved in non-melanoma skin cancer promotion and progression. She is also interested in studying the polyamine transport system. Her projects include:

  1. Investigating the polyamine transport system.
  2. Studying Antizyme Inhibitor.
    1. Determining the location of Antizyme Inhibitor in various skin and skin cancer cell lines;
    2. Determining proteins that interact with Antizyme Inhibitor

Students who work in Dr. Nowotarski's lab gain experience in tissue culture; protein expression analysis via Western blotting and expression analysis via RNA extraction and qRT-PCR.

(* denotes an undergraduate student co-author)

Stump, C.L.*, Casero, R.A. Jr, Phanstiel, O. 4th, DiAngelo, J.R., and Nowotarski, S.L. Elucidating the Role of Chmp1 Overexpression in the Transport of Polyamines in Drosophila melanogaster. 2022. Med Sci (Basel). 10(3):45. doi: 10.3390/medsci10030045. PMID: 36135830; PMCID: PMC9502369.

Morales, T. S.*, Catteau, M. D.*, Hepp, R. B.*, Foley, J., Stewart, T. M., Casero, R. A., DiAngelo, J. R., and Nowotarski, S. L. 2021. Characterizing the homeostatic regulation of the polyamine pathway using the Drosophila melanogaster model system. Gene Reports 24: [101269]. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.genrep.2021.101269

Morales, T.S.*, Avis, E.C.*, Paskowski, E.K.*, Shabar, H.*, Nowotarski, S.L., and DiAngelo, J.R. 2021. The Role of Spermidine Synthase (SpdS) and Spermine Synthase (Sms) in Regulating Triglyceride Storage in Drosophila. Med Sci (Basel). 9(2):27. doi: 10.3390/medsci9020027. PMID: 34063217; PMCID: PMC8162547.

Leon, K.E.*, Fruin, A.M.*, Nowotarski, S.L., and DiAngelo, J.R. 2020. The regulation of triglyceride storage by ornithine decarboxylase (Odc1) in Drosophila. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 523: 429-433.

Stump, C.L.*, Feehan, R.P., Jordan, T.*, Shantz, L.M., and Nowotarski, S.L. 2020. Knocking down raptor in human keratinocytes affects ornithine decarboxylase in a post-transcriptional manner following ultraviolet-B exposure. Amino Acids 52: 141-149.

Mai, A.* and Nowotarski, S.L. 2018. Investigating ornithine decarboxylase posttranscriptional regulation via a pulldown assay using biotinylated transcripts. In: Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 1694, “Polyamines: Methods and Protocols,” R. Alcazar and A.F. Tibuurcio, ed. Humana Press, New York, NY, 299-308.

Nowotarski, S.L., Feehan, R.P., Presloid, C.*, and Shantz, L.M. 2018. Knockout of raptor destabilizes ornithine decarboxylase mRNA and decreases binding of HuR to the ODC transcript in cells exposed to ultraviolet-B irradiation. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 505: 1022-1026.

Nowotarski, S.L. and Shantz, L.M. 2017. The ODC 3’-untranslated region and 5’-untranslated region contain cis-regulatory elements: implications for carcinogenesis. Med. Sci. 6: 2.

Nowotarski, S.L., Origanti, S., Sass-Kuhn, S., and Shantz L.M. 2016. Destabilization of the ornithine decarboxylase mRNA transcript by the RNA-binding protein tristetraprolin. Amino Acids 48: 2303-2311.

Nowotarski, S.L., Feith, D.J., and Shantz, L.M. 2015. Skin carcinogenesis studies using mouse models with altered polyamines. Cancer Growth and Metastasis 8: 17-27.

Nowotarski S.L., Pachaiyappan, B. Holshouser, S.L., Kutz, C.J. Li, Y., Huang, Y., Sharma, S.K., Casero, R., and Woster, P. 2015. Structure-activity study for (bis)ureidopropyl- and (bis) thioureidopropyldiamine LSD1 inhibitors with 3-5-3 and 3-6-3 carbon backbone architectures. Bioorg Med Chem 7: 1601-1612.

Nowotarski S.L., Woster P.M., and Casero R.A. 2013. Polyamines and cancer: implications for chemotherapy and chemoprevention. Expert Rev Mol Med. 15: e3.

Origanti S., Nowotarski S.L., Carr T.D., Sass-Kuhn S., Xiao L, Wang J.Y., and Shantz L.M. 2012. Ornithine decarboxylase mRNA is stabilized in an mTORC1-dependent
manner in Ras-transformed cells. Bioc hem J. 442: 199-207.

Hazeldine, S., Pachaiyappan, B., Steinbergs, S., Nowotarski, S., Hanson, A., Casero R.A., and Woster, P.M. 2012. Low molecular weight amidoximes that act as potent inhibitors of lysine-specific demethylase 1. J Med Chem. 55: 7378-91.

Nowotarski S.L., Origanti S., and Shantz L.M. 2011. Post-transcriptional regulation of ornithine decarboxylase. In: Methods in Molecular Biology Vol. 720, "Polyamines: Methods and Protocols," R.A. Casero and A.E. Pegg, ed. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, 279-292.

Nowotarski S.L. and Shantz L.M. 2010. Cytoplasmic accumulation of the RNA binding protein HuR stabilizes the ornithine decarboxylase transcript in a murine non-melanoma skin cancer model. J Biol Chem. 285: 31885-31894.

  • Post-Doctoral Training, Johns Hopkins University
  • Ph.D., Genetics, Penn State College of Medicine
  • B.A., Biology, Franklin and Marshall College