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Presbyterian Hopsital
15th Stem Room 124
Tel. 212.342.3034
Email: aph1@columbia.edu
RESEARCH THEME: Pathology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
My research is directed towards defining the composition of intracytoplasmic inclusions in residual neurons of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or its variants. The projects employ immunohistochemical analysis of proteins in frozen and formalin-fixed autopsy tissue as the chief method. We have had a special interest in the expression of neurofilament subunits, peripherin and other intermediate filaments in axonal swellings (spheroids) and intracytoplasmic inclusions of the cell body. Current work is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Lewis P. Rowland and Dr. Lawrence Honig in the Department of Neurology. In this project, inclusions in motor and non-motor nerve cells will be analyzed by in the 5-10% of ALS patients who also develop dementia. The composition of protein aggregates in motor neurons in the human disease may yield hypotheses about disease mechanisms that can be tested in animal models of ALS and tissue culture.

BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION: Arthur P. Hays is Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology and is the director of the diagnostic laboratory of Neuromuscular Pathology. He received his MD degree at the University of Colorado and spent three years at NIMH purifying a seryl-transfer RNA synthetase. His residency training was completed in the Division of Neuropathology at Presbyterian Hospital in 1974 and was placed in charge of the Muscle Biopsy Laboratory in 1975, shortly after Dr. Lewis P. Rowland became chairman of the Department of Neurology and established the H. Houston Merritt Clinical Research Center for Muscular Dystrophy and Related Diseases together with Dr. Salvatore DiMauro. Dr. Hays began studies of ALS in earnest in about 1988 about the same time that ubiquinated inclusions were first reported in the disorder.

In 1999, Hobert took a faculty position in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he continued to pursue and expand his research interest in nervous system development.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

1966 MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO
1966-67 Resident, Pathology, University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver, CO
1967-70 Staff Associate, NIMH, Bethesda, MD
1970-74 Resident, Neuropathogy, Presbyterian Hospital, NY, NY

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
  • Hays AP, Roxas A, Sadiq SA, Vallejos H, D'Agati V, Thomas FP, Torres R, Sherman WH, Bailey-Braxton D, Hays AG, Rowland LP, Latov N.  A monoclonal IgA in a patient with motor neuron disease reacts with neurofilaments and surface antigen on neuroblastoma cells.  J Neuropath Exp Neurol 1990;49:383-398.
  • Corbo M, Hays AP.  Peripherin and neurofilament protein coexist in spinal spheroids of motor neuron disease.  J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 1992;51:531-537.
  • Corbo M, Trojaborg W, Younger DS, Lovelace RE, Latov N, Hays AP.  Motor nerve biopsy in motor neuropathy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  Muscle & Nerve 1997;20:15-21.
  • He CZ, Hays AP. Expression of peripherin in ubiquinated inclusions of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J Neurol Sci 2004;217:47-54.
  • Leung CL, He CZ, Kaufmann P, Chin SS, Naini A, Liem RKH, Mitsumoto H, Hays AP. A pathogenic peripherin gene mutation in a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Brain Pathol 2004;14:290-6.

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