David L. Hurley, PhD, is Vice Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the College of Pharmacy at East Tennessee State University.  Dr. Hurley is Course Director for the Pharmacy Biochemistry (PMPS 3114) course, and instituted a diabetes section as an integrative capstone for these future pharmacists.  His research into the neuroendocrine regulation of Growth Hormone transcription is funded by a National Science Foundation grant continuing his previous NSF CAREER Award, and he has previously served as an National Institutes of Health co-investigator for 17 years.  He has 45 publications and is a member of The Endocrine Society, the Society for Neuroscience, and the AACP. 

“Regulation of Pituitary Somatotroph Differentiation by Zn-16” P.I.:  David L. Hurley.  National Science Foundation – IBN Neuroendocrinology

The objective of this proposal is to understand synergistic regulation of growth hormone transcription in somatotrophs by studying and manipulating transcription factor Zn-16 in rodent models.  Zn-16 mRNA levels will be assessed in dwarf and normal rats, in developing mouse pituitaries, and Zn-16 protein expression and function will be assessed using our newly-developed antibodies for Western and EMSA analyses of cultured somatotrophs and ectopic somatotropic tumors. 

Selected Publications

Hurley, D.L., and R.A. Deering, 1981.  Sensitive detection of specific repair endonucleases:  Radial diffusion assay utilizing differential alkaline denaturation of supercoiled and nicked PM2 DNA in agarose gels.  Analytical Biochemistry (118) 371 - 381.

Hurley, D.L., and R.A. Deering, 1988.  Enhanced thymidine uptake causes the lowered thymidine requirement of D. discoideum auxotroph HPS401.  Experimental Cell Research (179) 273 - 281.

Hurley, D.L., A.M. Skantar, and R.A. Deering, 1989. Nuclear DNA synthesis is blocked by UV irradiation in Dictyostelium discoideum.  Mutation Research: DNA Repair Reports (217) 25 - 32.

Hurley, D.L., L.M. Angerer, and R.C. Angerer, 1989. Altered expression of spatially regulated embryonic genes in the progeny of separated sea urchin blastomeres. Development (106) 567 - 579.

Hurley, D.L. and C.J. Phelps, 1992.  Hypothalamic pre-prosomatostatin mRNA expression in mice transgenic for excess or deficient endogenous growth hormone.  Endocrinology  (130) 1809 - 1815.

Phelps, C.J., H. Dalcik, H. Endo, F.J. Talamantes, and D.L. Hurley, 1993. Growth hormone-releasing hormone peptide and mRNA are overexpressed in GH-deficient Ames dwarf mice. Endocrinology (133) 3034 - 3037.

Phelps, C.J., M.Y. Vaccarella, M.I. Romero, and D.L. Hurley, 1994. Postnatal reduction in number of hypothalamic tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic neurons in prolactin-deficient dwarf mice. Neuroendocrinology (59) 189 - 196. 

Hurley, D.L., A. Bartke, T.E. Wagner, B.E.F. Wee, and C.J. Phelps, 1994.  Increased hypothalamic somatostatin expression in mice transgenic for bovine or human GH. J. Neuroendocrinol. (6) 539 - 548. 

Hurley, D.L., B.E.F. Wee, and C.J. Phelps.  1997.  Hypophysiotropic somatostatin expression during postnatal development in growth hormone-deficient Ames dwarf mice: mRNA in situ hybridization.  Neuroendocrinology (65) 98 - 106. 

Brown, M.R., J.S. Parks, M.E. Adess, B. Rich, I. Rosenthal, T.C. Voss, T.C. VanderHeyden, and D.L. Hurley. 1998. Central hypothyroidism reveals compound heterozygous mutations in the Pit-1 gene.  Horm. Res. (49) 98 - 102. 

Hurley, D.L., B.E.F. Wee, and C.J. Phelps.  1998.  Growth hormone releasing hormone expression during postnatal development in growth hormone-deficient Ames dwarf mice: mRNA in situ hybridization.  Neuroendocrinology (68) 201 - 209. 

Parks, J.S., M.R. Brown, D.L. Hurley, C.J. Phelps, and M.J. Wajnrach.  1999.  Heritable disorders of pituitary development.  J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.  (84) 4362-4370.  

Phelps, C.J. and D.L. Hurley.  1999.  Pituitary hormones as neurotrophic factors: Update on hypothalamic differentiation in genetic models of altered feedback. Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (222) 39-58.

VanderHeyden, T.C., P.W. Wojtkiewicz, T.C. Voss, T.M. Mangin, Z. Harrelson, K.M. Ahlers, C.J. Phelps, and D.L. Hurley.  2000.  Mouse growth hormone transcription factor Zn-16: Unique bipartite structure containing tandemly-repeated zinc finger domains not reported in rat Zn-15.  Molec. Cell. Endocrinol. (159) 89-98. 

Voss, T.C., T.M. Mangin and D.L. Hurley. 2000.  Insulin-like growth factor-1 causes a switch-like reduction of endogenous growth hormone mRNA in rat MtT/S somatotroph cells.  Endocrine (13) 71-79.

Voss, T.C., L.R. Goldman, S.L. Seek, T.L. Miller, K.E. Mayo, A. Somogyvari-Vigh, A. Arimura and D.L. Hurley. 2001.  GH mRNA levels are elevated by forskolin but not GH releasing hormone in the GHRH receptor-expressing MtT/S somatotroph cell line.  Molec. Cell. Endocrinol. (172) 125-34. 

Voss, T.C., M.P. Flynn and D.L. Hurley.  2001.  Insulin-like growth factor-1 causes an ultrasensitive reduction in GH mRNA levels via an extracellular mechanism involving insulin-like growth factor binding proteins.  Molec. Endocrinol. (15) 1549 – 1558.

Wojtkiewicz, P. W., C.J. Phelps and D.L. Hurley. 2002. Transcript abundance in mouse pituitaries with altered GH expression quantified by RT-PCR implicates transcription factor Zn-16 in gene regulation in vivo.  Endocrine (18) 67 –74. 

Phelps, C.J., M.I. Romero and D.L. Hurley.  2003. Growth hormone-releasing hormone-producing and dopaminergic neurons in the mouse arcuate nucleus are independent populations.  J. Neuroendocrinol. (15) 280-288. 

Phelps, C.J., M.I. Romero and D.L. Hurley.  2003.  Prolactin replacement must be continuous and initiated prior to 21 days of age to maintain hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons in hypopituitary mice.  Endocrine [Special Issue on Prolactin] (20) 139-148. 

Hurley, D.L., D.V. Birch, M.C. Almond, I.J. Estrada and C.J. Phelps.  2003.  Reduced hypothalamic Neuropeptide Y expression in GH- and PRL-deficient Ames and Snell dwarf mice.  Endocrinology (144) 4783-4789. 

Clements, M.D., Bart, H.L., Jr., and D.L. Hurley.  2004.  Isolation and characterization of two distinct growth hormone cDNAs from the tetraploid smallmouth buffalofish (Ictiobus bubalus).  Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. (136) 411-418. 

Flynn, M.P. and D.L. Hurley. 2006.  Growth hormone transcription factor ZN-16 genomic coding regions are composed of a single exon and are evolutionarily conserved in mammals.  Gene (368) 78-83. 

Khodr C.E., S.M. Clark, D.L. Hurley, and C.J. Phelps.  (2008).  Long-term, homologous prolactin treatment induces hypothalamic dopamine neuron differentiation in adult Snell dwarf mice. Endocrinology (149) 2010-2018. 

Khodr, C.E., D.L. Hurley, and C.J. Phelps.  (2009).  Prolactin induces TIDA neuron differentiation in Snell dwarf mice if administered beginning at three days of age. Journal of Neuroendocrinology (21), 1 – 10.  

Honors and Service

Graduation with High Honors, Guilford College, May 1979. 

Danforth Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1979 - 1984. 

Sheldon Hackney Award for Teaching Excellence, Tulane Univ., 1999 – 2000. 

President’s Award for Innovative Use of Technology in Teaching, Tulane University, 2000.

Gloria P. Walsh Teaching Medal, Tulane Univ School of Medicine, 2007. 

Outstanding Professor, First Year Class, ETSU College of Pharmacy, April 2008 

National Institutes of Health:  NIDDK B Special Emphasis/Fellowship Review Panel permanent member 11/2004 – 6/2008.  

Editorial board Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2001 - 2004.

ETSU Research Development Committee, Co-Chair, 2007 to present. 

ETSU Academic Freedom & Faculty Ethics Standing Committee, member, 2007 to present.

ETSU Promotion and Tenure Appeals Standing Committee, 2008 to present. 

Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, Emergency Preparedness Director, 2008 to present. Technology Committee, Chair, 2008 to present, Dean’s Leadership Team, 2007 to present.