Bjoern Schwer, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Neurological Surgery
School of Medicine

Awards

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• Carol and Gene Ludwig Award for Early Career Research, 2021
• Kimmel Scholar, Sidney Kimmel Foundation, 2017
• Suzanne Marie Haderle and Robert Vincent Haderle Endowed Chair, UCSF, 2016
• Martin D. Abeloff V Scholar, The V Foundation for Cancer Research, 2013

Interests

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• genome stability
• neurodegeneration
• DNA repair
• aging
• chromosomal translocations
• non-homologous end joining
• chromatin regulation
• neural stem cells
• brain cancer

Websites

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• Schwer Lab (schwerlab.ucsf.edu)
• Tetrad Graduate Program (tetrad.ucsf.edu)
• Posts on X SchwerLab (X.com)
• Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Graduate Program (dscb.ucsf.edu)
• Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (bms.ucsf.edu)
• Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience (kavliifn.ucsf.edu)

Publications (65)

Top publication keywords:
DNA Breaks, Double-StrandedRNA PrecursorsSirtuinsDNA RepairSaccharomyces cerevisiae ProteinsDNA End-Joining RepairV(D)J RecombinationMouse Embryonic Stem CellsFungal ProteinsMedulloblastomaSirtuin 3Neural Stem CellsDNA BreaksTranslocation, GeneticRNA Splicing

• Endogenous neuronal DNA double-strand breaks are not sufficient to drive brain aging and neurodegeneration.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2024 Cohen S, Cheradame L, Pratt KJB, Collins S, Barillas A, Carlson A, Ramani V, Legube G, Villeda SA, Mullins RD, Schwer B
• PRDM6 promotes medulloblastoma by repressing chromatin accessibility and altering gene expression.
  Scientific reports 2024 Schmidt C, Cohen S, Gudenas BL, Husain S, Carlson A, Westelman S, Wang L, Phillips JJ, Northcott PA, Weiss WA, Schwer B
• MDB-32. PRDM6 PROMOTES MEDULLOBLASTOMA FORMATION IN NEUROEPITHELIAL STEM CELLS AND IS A CHROMATIN REPRESSOR BY BINDING TO HISTONE H3 LYSINE 27 TRIMETHYLATION MARKS.
  Neuro-Oncology 2024 Christin Schmidt, Sarah Cohen, Brian L Gudenas, Sarah Husain, Annika Carlson, Samantha Westelman, Linyu Wang, Joanna J Phillips, Paul A Northcott, William A Weiss, Bjoern Schwer
• Type-I-interferon-responsive microglia shape cortical development and behavior.
  Cell 2024 Escoubas CC, Dorman LC, Nguyen PT, Lagares-Linares C, Nakajo H, Anderson SR, Barron JJ, Wade SD, Cuevas B, Vainchtein ID, Silva NJ, Guajardo R, Xiao Y, Lidsky PV, Wang EY, Rivera BM, Taloma SE, Kim DK…
• PRDM6 promotes medulloblastoma by repressing chromatin accessibility and altering gene expression.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Schmidt C, Cohen S, Gudenas BL, Husain S, Carlson A, Westelman S, Wang L, Phillips JJ, Northcott PA, Weiss WA, Schwer B

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• MDB-09. IMPACT OF PRDM6 ON CHROMATIN ACCESSIBILITY, GENE EXPRESSION, AND MEDULLOBLASTOMA FORMATION.
  Neuro-Oncology 2023 Christin Schmidt, Sarah Husain, Annika Carlson, Sarah Cohen, Samantha Westelman, Linyu Wang, William Weiss, Bjoern Schwer
• Type I interferon responsive microglia shape cortical development and behavior.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Escoubas CC, Dorman LC, Nguyen PT, Lagares-Linares C, Nakajo H, Anderson SR, Cuevas B, Vainchtein ID, Silva NJ, Xiao Y, Lidsky PV, Wang EY, Taloma SE, Nakao-Inoue H, Schwer B, Andino R, Nowakowski TJ,…
• MODL-32. IMPACT OF PRDM6 ON CHROMATIN ACCESSIBILITY, GENE EXPRESSION, AND MEDULLOBLASTOMA FORMATION.
  Neuro-Oncology 2022 Christin Schmidt, Sarah Husain, Annika Carlson, Sarah Cohen, Samantha Westelman, Linyu Wang, William Weiss, Bjoern Schwer
• Relationships between genome-wide R-loop distribution and classes of recurrent DNA breaks in neural stem/progenitor cells.
  Scientific reports 2022 Thongthip S, Carlson A, Crossley MP, Schwer B
• Editorial: Genomic Instability and Neurodegeneration.
  Frontiers in aging neuroscience 2022 Fuchs J, Schwer B, El-Khamisy SF
• Novel EGFRvIII-CAR transgenic mice for rigorous preclinical studies in syngeneic mice.
  Neuro-oncology 2022 Chuntova P, Hou Y, Naka R, Yamamichi A, Chen T, Goretsky Y, Hatae R, Nejo T, Kohanbash G, Mende AL, Montoya M, Downey KM, Diebold D, Skinner J, Liang HE, Schwer B, Okada H
• Topoisomerase I inhibition and peripheral nerve injury induce DNA breaks and ATF3-associated axon regeneration in sensory neurons.
  Cell reports 2021 Cheng YC, Snavely A, Barrett LB, Zhang X, Herman C, Frost DJ, Riva P, Tochitsky I, Kawaguchi R, Singh B, Ivanis J, Huebner EA, Arvanites A, Oza V, Davidow L, Maeda R, Sakuma M, Grantham A, Wang Q, …
• BIOL-11. THE ROLE OF ABERRANT EXPRESSION OF PRDM6 IN THE DEVELOPING CEREBELLUM AND IN GROUP 4 MEDULLOBLASTOMA.
  Neuro-Oncology 2021 Christin Schmidt, Annika Carlson, William Weiss, Bjoern Schwer
• OMIC-03. TRANSLATIONAL CONTROL IN MYC AND MYCN MEDULLOBLASTOMA.
  Neuro-Oncology 2021 Christin Schmidt, Albertas Navickas, Frederique Zindy, Dana Farmer, Davide Ruggero, Hani Goodarzi, Martine F Roussel, Bjoern Schwer, William Weiss
• TMOD-28. NEW APPROACHES FOR ELUCIDATING MEDULLOBLASTOMA DEVELOPMENT VIA HINDBRAIN BLASTOCYST COMPLEMENTATION.
  Neuro-Oncology 2020 Christin Schmidt, Annika Carlson, William Weiss, Bjoern Schwer
• Direct analysis of brain phenotypes via neural blastocyst complementation.
  Nature protocols 2020 Dai HQ, Liang Z, Chang AN, Chapdelaine-Williams AM, Alvarado B, Pollen AA, Alt FW, Schwer B
• Neural blastocyst complementation enables mouse forebrain organogenesis.
  Nature 2018 Chang AN, Liang Z, Dai HQ, Chapdelaine-Williams AM, Andrews N, Bronson RT, Schwer B, Alt FW
• DNA double-strand breaks as drivers of neural genomic change, function, and disease.
  DNA repair 2018 Alt FW, Schwer B
• Three classes of recurrent DNA break clusters in brain progenitors identified by 3D proximity-based break joining assay.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2018 Wei PC, Lee CS, Du Z, Schwer B, Zhang Y, Kao J, Zurita J, Alt FW
• Sirt4 is a mitochondrial regulator of metabolism and lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2018 Wood JG, Schwer B, Wickremesinghe PC, Hartnett DA, Burhenn L, Garcia M, Li M, Verdin E, Helfand SL
• Editorial: DNA damage & immunity.
  Mechanisms of ageing and development 2017 Garinis GA, Schwer B, Schumacher B
• Recurrently Breaking Genes in Neural Progenitors: Potential Roles of DNA Breaks in Neuronal Function, Degeneration and Cancer.
  Genome Editing in Neurosciences 2017 Frederick W. Alt, Pei-Chi Wei, Bjoern Schwer
• Transcription-associated processes cause DNA double-strand breaks and translocations in neural stem/progenitor cells.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2016 Schwer B, Wei PC, Chang AN, Kao J, Du Z, Meyers RM, Alt FW
• Long Neural Genes Harbor Recurrent DNA Break Clusters in Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells.
  Cell 2016 Wei PC, Chang AN, Kao J, Du Z, Meyers RM, Alt FW, Schwer B
• IgH class switching exploits a general property of two DNA breaks to be joined in cis over long chromosomal distances.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2014 Gostissa M, Schwer B, Chang A, Dong J, Meyers RM, Marecki GT, Choi VW, Chiarle R, Zarrin AA, Alt FW
• SIRT6 modulates paclitaxel and epirubicin resistance and survival in breast cancer.
  Carcinogenesis 2013 Khongkow M, Olmos Y, Gong C, Gomes AR, Monteiro LJ, Yagüe E, Cavaco TB, Khongkow P, Man EP, Laohasinnarong S, Koo CY, Harada-Shoji N, Tsang JW, Coombes RC, Schwer B, Khoo US, Lam EW
• Essential developmental, genomic stability, and tumour suppressor functions of the mouse orthologue of hSSB1/NABP2.
  PLoS genetics 2013 Shi W, Bain AL, Schwer B, Al-Ejeh F, Smith C, Wong L, Chai H, Miranda MS, Ho U, Kawaguchi M, Miura Y, Finnie JW, Wall M, Heierhorst J, Wicking C, Spring KJ, Alt FW, Khanna KK
• Mechanisms of programmed DNA lesions and genomic instability in the immune system.
  Cell 2013 Alt FW, Zhang Y, Meng FL, Guo C, Schwer B
• Functional redundancy between the XLF and DNA-PKcs DNA repair factors in V(D)J recombination and nonhomologous DNA end joining.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2013 Oksenych V, Kumar V, Liu X, Guo C, Schwer B, Zha S, Alt FW
• Functional redundancy between repair factor XLF and damage response mediator 53BP1 in V(D)J recombination and DNA repair.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2012 Oksenych V, Alt FW, Kumar V, Schwer B, Wesemann DR, Hansen E, Patel H, Su A, Guo C
• Robust chromosomal DNA repair via alternative end-joining in the absence of X-ray repair cross-complementing protein 1 (XRCC1).
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2012 Boboila C, Oksenych V, Gostissa M, Wang JH, Zha S, Zhang Y, Chai H, Lee CS, Jankovic M, Saez LM, Nussenzweig MC, McKinnon PJ, Alt FW, Schwer B
• Classical and alternative end-joining pathways for repair of lymphocyte-specific and general DNA double-strand breaks.
  Advances in immunology 2012 Boboila C, Alt FW, Schwer B
• SIRT3 regulates mitochondrial protein acetylation and intermediary metabolism.
  Cold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology 2011 Hirschey MD, Shimazu T, Huang JY, Schwer B, Verdin E
• SIRT3 deficiency and mitochondrial protein hyperacetylation accelerate the development of the metabolic syndrome.
  Molecular cell 2011 Hirschey MD, Shimazu T, Jing E, Grueter CA, Collins AM, Aouizerat B, Stancáková A, Goetzman E, Lam MM, Schwer B, Stevens RD, Muehlbauer MJ, Kakar S, Bass NM, Kuusisto J, Laakso M, Alt FW, Newgard CB, …
• The transcription factor BATF controls the global regulators of class-switch recombination in both B cells and T cells.
  Nature immunology 2011 Ise W, Kohyama M, Schraml BU, Zhang T, Schwer B, Basu U, Alt FW, Tang J, Oltz EM, Murphy TL, Murphy KM
• SIRT3 deacetylates mitochondrial 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA synthase 2 and regulates ketone body production.
  Cell metabolism 2010 Shimazu T, Hirschey MD, Hua L, Dittenhafer-Reed KE, Schwer B, Lombard DB, Li Y, Bunkenborg J, Alt FW, Denu JM, Jacobson MP, Verdin E
• Neural sirtuin 6 (Sirt6) ablation attenuates somatic growth and causes obesity.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010 Schwer B, Schumacher B, Lombard DB, Xiao C, Kurtev MV, Gao J, Schneider JI, Chai H, Bronson RT, Tsai LH, Deng CX, Alt FW
• SIRT3 regulates mitochondrial fatty-acid oxidation by reversible enzyme deacetylation.
  Nature 2010 Hirschey MD, Shimazu T, Goetzman E, Jing E, Schwer B, Lombard DB, Grueter CA, Harris C, Biddinger S, Ilkayeva OR, Stevens RD, Li Y, Saha AK, Ruderman NB, Bain JR, Newgard CB, Farese RV, Alt FW, Kahn …
• Calorie restriction alters mitochondrial protein acetylation.
  Aging cell 2009 Schwer B, Eckersdorff M, Li Y, Silva JC, Fermin D, Kurtev MV, Giallourakis C, Comb MJ, Alt FW, Lombard DB
• Regulation of activation-induced cytidine deaminase DNA deamination activity in B-cells by Ser38 phosphorylation.
  Biochemical Society transactions 2009 Basu U, Franklin A, Schwer B, Cheng HL, Chaudhuri J, Alt FW
• Integrity of the AID serine-38 phosphorylation site is critical for class switch recombination and somatic hypermutation in mice.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2009 Cheng HL, Vuong BQ, Basu U, Franklin A, Schwer B, Astarita J, Phan RT, Datta A, Manis J, Alt FW, Chaudhuri J
• Conserved metabolic regulatory functions of sirtuins.
  Cell metabolism 2008 Schwer B, Verdin E
• SIRT6 in DNA repair, metabolism and ageing.
  Journal of internal medicine 2008 Lombard DB, Schwer B, Alt FW, Mostoslavsky R
• Mammalian Sir2 homolog SIRT3 regulates global mitochondrial lysine acetylation.
  Molecular and cellular biology 2007 Lombard DB, Alt FW, Cheng HL, Bunkenborg J, Streeper RS, Mostoslavsky R, Kim J, Yancopoulos G, Valenzuela D, Murphy A, Yang Y, Chen Y, Hirschey MD, Bronson RT, Haigis M, Guarente LP, Farese RV, …
• Regulation of insulin secretion by SIRT4, a mitochondrial ADP-ribosyltransferase.
  The Journal of biological chemistry 2007 Ahuja N, Schwer B, Carobbio S, Waltregny D, North BJ, Castronovo V, Maechler P, Verdin E
• Reversible lysine acetylation controls the activity of the mitochondrial enzyme acetyl-CoA synthetase 2.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2006 Schwer B, Bunkenborg J, Verdin RO, Andersen JS, Verdin E
• The Class III Protein Deacetylases.
  Histone Deacetylases 2006 Bjoern Schwer, Brian J. North, Nidhi Ahuja, Brett Marshall, Eric Verdin
• Preparation of enzymatically active recombinant class III protein deacetylases.
  Methods (San Diego, Calif.) 2005 North BJ, Schwer B, Ahuja N, Marshall B, Verdin E
• Targeting of hepatitis C virus core protein to mitochondria through a novel C-terminal localization motif.
  Journal of virology 2004 Schwer B, Ren S, Pietschmann T, Kartenbeck J, Kaehlcke K, Bartenschlager R, Yen TS, Ott M
• Release and intercellular transfer of cell surface CD81 via microparticles.
  Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2002 Fritzsching B, Schwer B, Kartenbeck J, Pedal A, Horejsi V, Ott M
• The human silent information regulator (Sir)2 homologue hSIRT3 is a mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent deacetylase.
  The Journal of cell biology 2002 Schwer B, North BJ, Frye RA, Ott M, Verdin E
• A new twist on RNA helicases: DExH/D box proteins as RNPases.
  Nature structural biology 2001 Schwer B
• RNA helicase dynamics in pre-mRNA splicing.
  The EMBO journal 2000 Schwer B, Meszaros T
• Interaction of the yeast DExH-box RNA helicase prp22p with the 3' splice site during the second step of nuclear pre-mRNA splicing.
  Nucleic acids research 2000 McPheeters DS, Schwer B, Muhlenkamp P
• Trans-complementation of the second step of pre-mRNA splicing by exogenous 5' exons.
  RNA (New York, N.Y.) 1999 Chanfreau G, Gouyette C, Schwer B, Jacquier A
• Mutational analysis of the yeast DEAH-box splicing factor Prp16.
  Genetics 1998 Hotz HR, Schwer B
• Accelerated mRNA decay in conditional mutants of yeast mRNA capping enzyme.
  Nucleic acids research 1998 Schwer B, Mao X, Shuman S
• Prp22, a DExH-box RNA helicase, plays two distinct roles in yeast pre-mRNA splicing.
  The EMBO journal 1998 Schwer B, Gross CH
• Effects of deletion mutations in the yeast Ces1 protein on cell growth and morphology and on high copy suppression of mutations in mRNA capping enzyme and translation initiation factor 4A.
  Nucleic acids research 1998 Schwer B, Linder P, Shuman S
• Functional and physical interaction between the yeast splicing factors Slu7 and Prp18.
  Nucleic acids research 1997 Zhang X, Schwer B
• Requirement for SLU7 in yeast pre-mRNA splicing is dictated by the distance between the branchpoint and the 3' splice site.
  RNA (New York, N.Y.) 1996 Brys A, Schwer B
• Conditional inactivation of mRNA capping enzyme affects yeast pre-mRNA splicing in vivo.
  RNA (New York, N.Y.) 1996 Schwer B, Shuman S
• SLU7 and a novel activity, SSF1, act during the PRP16-dependent step of yeast pre-mRNA splicing.
  The EMBO journal 1995 Ansari A, Schwer B
• A conformational rearrangement in the spliceosome is dependent on PRP16 and ATP hydrolysis.
  The EMBO journal 1992 Schwer B, Guthrie C
• Vaccinia virus late transcripts generated in vitro have a poly(A) head.
  The EMBO journal 1988 Schwer B, Stunnenberg HG