Michael J. Comb, President / Chief Executive Officer

Executive & Research Teams

Michael J. Comb

President / Chief Executive Officer
Ph.D., University of Oregon

Dr. Comb acts as CEO but remains the company’s research director in function and heart. Dr. Comb founded Cell Signaling Technology (CST) to provide the research community with tools that he himself sought as a researcher. As Director of the Molecular Neurobiology Lab at Mass General Hospital and Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Comb’s lab was interested in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory. To address these biological questions, Dr. Comb recognized the need to assay intracellular signaling pathways and created the first phospho-specific antibodies (pAKT, pMAPK). Developing innovative technology to provide insight into disease mechanisms is Michael’s passion. At CST, Michael’s research efforts have focused on building antibody technologies and technologies to profile signaling pathways driving cancer. Dr. Comb has published over 60 peer-reviewed publications and is the inventor on numerous patents and patent applications. Dr. Comb holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Oregon.

Selected Publications

Cheung WC, Beausoleil SA, Zhang X, Sato S, Schieferl SM, Wieler JS, Beaudet JG, Ramenani RK, Popova L, Comb MJ, Rush J, Polakiewicz RD (2012) A proteomics approach for the identification and cloning of monoclonal antibodies from serum. Nat. Biotechnol. 30(5), 447–52.
Gu TL, Deng X, Huang F, Tucker M, Crosby K, Rimkunas V, Wang Y, Deng G, Zhu L, Tan Z, Hu Y, Wu C, Nardone J, MacNeill J, Ren J, Reeves C, Innocenti G, Norris B, Yuan J, Yu J, Haack H, Shen B, Peng C, Li H, Zhou X, Liu X, Rush J, Comb MJ (2011) Survey of tyrosine kinase signaling reveals ROS kinase fusions in human cholangiocarcinoma. PLoS ONE 6(1), e15640.
Kim W, Bennett EJ, Huttlin EL, Guo A, Li J, Possemato A, Sowa ME, Rad R, Rush J, Comb MJ, Harper JW, Gygi SP (2011) Systematic and quantitative assessment of the ubiquitin-modified proteome. Mol. Cell 44(2), 325-40
Moritz A, Li Y, Guo A, Villén J, Wang Y, MacNeill J, Kornhauser J, Sprott K, Zhou J, Possemato A, Ren JM, Hornbeck P, Cantley LC, Gygi SP, Rush J, Comb MJ (2010) Akt-RSK-S6 kinase signaling networks activated by oncogenic receptor tyrosine kinases. Sci Signal 3(136), ra64. More Information.
Boccalatte FE, Voena C, Riganti C, Bosia A, D'Amico L, Riera L, Cheng M, Ruggeri B, Jensen ON, Goss VL, Lee K, Nardone J, Rush J, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ, Chiarle R, Inghirami G (2009) The enzymatic activity of 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase/IMP cyclohydrolase is enhanced by NPM-ALK: new insights in ALK-mediated pathogenesis and the treatment of ALCL. Blood 113(12), 2776-90.
Yu J, Kane S, Wu J, Benedettini E, Li D, Reeves C, Innocenti G, Wetzel R, Crosby K, Becker A, Ferrante M, Cheung WC, Hong X, Chirieac LR, Sholl LM, Haack H, Smith BL, Polakiewicz RD, Tan Y, Gu TL, Loda M, Zhou X, Comb MJ (2009) Mutation-specific antibodies for the detection of EGFR mutations in non-small-cell lung cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 15(9), 3023-8.
Schwer B, Eckersdorff M, Li Y, Silva JC, Fermin D, Kurtev MV, Giallourakis C, Comb MJ, Alt FW, Lombard DB (2009) Calorie restriction alters mitochondrial protein acetylation. Aging Cell 8(5), 604-6.
Guo A, Villén J, Kornhauser J, Lee KA, Stokes MP, Rikova K, Possemato A, Nardone J, Innocenti G, Wetzel R, Wang Y, MacNeill J, Mitchell J, Gygi SP, Rush J, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2008) Signaling networks assembled by oncogenic EGFR and c-Met. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105(2), 692-7.
Li Y, Zhang X, Polakiewicz RD, Yao TP, Comb MJ (2008) HDAC6 is required for epidermal growth factor-induced beta-catenin nuclear localization. J. Biol. Chem. 283(19), 12686-90.
Stokes MP, Rush J, Macneill J, Ren JM, Sprott K, Nardone J, Yang V, Beausoleil SA, Gygi SP, Livingstone M, Zhang H, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2007) Profiling of UV-induced ATM/ATR signaling pathways. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104(50), 19855-60.
Rikova K, Guo A, Zeng Q, Possemato A, Yu J, Haack H, Nardone J, Lee K, Reeves C, Li Y, Hu Y, Tan Z, Stokes M, Sullivan L, Mitchell J, Wetzel R, Macneill J, Ren JM, Yuan J, Bakalarski CE, Villen J, Kornhauser JM, Smith B, Li D, Zhou X, Gygi SP, Gu TL, Polakiewicz RD, Rush J, Comb MJ (2007) Global survey of phosphotyrosine signaling identifies oncogenic kinases in lung cancer. Cell 131(6), 1190-203.
Goss VL, Lee KA, Moritz A, Nardone J, Spek EJ, MacNeill J, Rush J, Comb MJ, Polakiewicz RD (2006) A common phosphotyrosine signature for the Bcr-Abl kinase. Blood 107(12), 4888-97.
Gu TL, Goss VL, Reeves C, Popova L, Nardone J, Macneill J, Walters DK, Wang Y, Rush J, Comb MJ, Druker BJ, Polakiewicz RD (2006) Phosphotyrosine profiling identifies the KG-1 cell line as a model for the study of FGFR1 fusions in acute myeloid leukemia. Blood 108(13), 4202-4.
Rush J, Moritz A, Lee KA, Guo A, Goss VL, Spek EJ, Zhang H, Zha XM, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2005) Immunoaffinity profiling of tyrosine phosphorylation in cancer cells. Nat. Biotechnol. 23(1), 94-101.
Pan S, Zhang H, Rush J, Eng J, Zhang N, Patterson D, Comb MJ, Aebersold R (2005) High throughput proteome screening for biomarker detection. Mol. Cell Proteomics 4(2), 182-90.
Zhang H, Zha X, Tan Y, Hornbeck PV, Mastrangelo AJ, Alessi DR, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2002) Phosphoprotein analysis using antibodies broadly reactive against phosphorylated motifs. J. Biol. Chem. 277(42), 39379-87.
Davids MS, Crawford E, Weremowicz S, Morton CC, Copeland NG, Gilbert DJ, Jenkins NA, Phelan MC, Comb MJ, Melnick MB (2001) STK25 is a candidate gene for pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. Genomics 77(1-2), 2-4.