Amy Ham
Associate Professor
College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
PhD (Pharmacology/Toxicology) University of Arizona; MS (Toxicology) University of Arizona; BS (Chemistry) University of Arizona
Location: McWhorter Hall 320
615-460-6586amy.ham@belmont.edu
Biography
Dr. Ham joined the faculty at Belmont University in 2012. Her primary teaching assignments in the didactic curriculum have been related to teaching pharmacology/pharmacodynamics, toxicology, pharmacogenomics and anatomy and physiology. She teaches electives in Toxicology and Pharmacogenomics & Precision Medicine and takes students for a research rotation in fourth-year Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs). She has a particular interest in increasing the knowledge of pharmacy students with respect to genetics/genomics (and other -omics sciences) to prepare them the rapidly evolving field of pharmacogenomics and precision medicine, including integration into pharmacy practice and provides Continuing Education in this area.
Dr. Ham received her B.S. in Chemistry, M.S. in Toxicology, and Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arizona and she completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During that time she studied the substrate specificity of aldehyde dehydrogenases for chloroacetaldehydes, the antioxidant chemistry of vitamin E, and the role of DNA adducts in chemical carcinogenesis. After completing her postdoctoral training, she returned to the University of Arizona as faculty to study protein adducts using proteomic analysis by mass spectrometry. Prior to joining the faculty at Belmont, Dr. Ham was on faculty at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (2003-2012) as a Research Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and an Associate Director of the Proteomics Laboratory in the Mass Spectrometry Research Center and was later appointed as a Research Associate Professor of Biochemistry and senior faculty in the Jim Ayers Institute for Precancer Detection and Diagnosis in the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. She maintains an adjoint appointment at Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Ham engages both pharmacy and undergraduate students in laboratory-based research. Her research interests include the use and further development of proteomic technologies and mass spectrometric approaches to enhance the discovery of protein biomarkers for precision medicine. She is interested how protein biomarkers could be used to better understand the mechanisms by which drugs may produce their therapeutic effect and to distinguish subsets of disease that may require a more personalized therapeutic approach. She has a particular interest in using these technologies to study various forms of breast and colon cancer, primarily with respect to how drugs and resistance to drugs change the proteome, as well as the role of extracellular vesicles (exosomes) in the cell-cell communication with respect to the progression and metastasis of cancer. She is also interested in the role that protein post-translational modifications play in the disease process and their potential use as biomarkers. Her research has primarily been collaborative in nature using proteomic and mass spectrometry approaches to study mechanisms of disease and for the discovery of biomarkers for detection, prognosis and treatment of various forms of cancers and other diseases. These collaborations have led to over 70 peer-reviewed publications. Her collaborators have ranged from biologists and oncologists to experts in bioinformatics and analytical chemists.
View Dr. Ham's Curriculum Vitae
View Dr. Ham's Research InterestsCancer (primarily colon)
Proteomics
Mass spectrometry
Extracellular vesicles
Pharmacogenomics
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS)
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP)
International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV)
National Community Oncology Dispensing Association (NCODA)
Clinical Pharmacogenomics Implementation Consortium (CPIC)
1989: Graduate College Fellowship, University of Arizona
1991-1992: Graduate Fees Scholarship, University of Arizona
1994: Society of Toxicology Graduate Student Awards for Meritorious Research in Mechanisms of Toxicology, Honorable Mention
1997-1998: National Research Service Award, Postdoctoral Fellowship
1998: AACR-AFLAC Young Investigator Award, AACR Special Conference Endogenous Sources of Mutation, Ham, A.-J.L., Ranasinghe, A., & Swenberg, J.A. (1998) 4-Hydroxynonenal and Ethyl Linoleate form N2,-3-Ethenodeoxyguanosine from Deoxyguanosine and Calf Thymus DNA under Peroxidizing Conditions.
1999: Risk Assessment Award for Best Student/Postdoctoral Paper, Society of Toxicology, Morinello, E.J., Ham, A.-J.L., & Swenberg, J.A. (1999) Molecular Dosimetry of N2,3-Ethenoguanine in Control and Vinyl Chloride-Exposed Rats. Toxicological Sciences 48(1-S):232.
2013: Belmont University Teaching Center Travel Award, Awarded to attend The Teaching Scholars Summer Institute for teaching health professional students in June 2013
2019: Belmont University Teaching Center Travel Award, Awarded to attend Pharmacy Education 2019, 120th Annual meeting for the American Association for Colleges of Pharmacy, Atlanta, GA, July 13-17, 2019.
2022: Belmont University Teaching Center Travel Award, Awarded to attend Lilly Conference Asheville 2022, Asheville, NC, Aug 8-10, 2022.
Book Chapters:
Swenberg, J.A., Ham, A.-J.L., Koc, H., La, D.K., Morinello,E.J., Pachkowski, B.F., Ranasinghe, A., & Upton, P.B. (2002) Methods for Measuring DNA Adducts and Abasic Sites: II. Methods for Measurement of DNA Adducts, Unit 3.9.1-3.9.35 in Current Protocols in Toxicology, Issue 12, (Maines, M.D., Costa, L.G, Reed, D.J., Sassa, S., & Sipes, I.G., eds), John Wiley and Sons, New York. ISBN: 9780471140856
Ham, A.-J. Methodologies in Pharmacogenomics in Concepts in Pharmacogenomics (Martin M Zdanowicz, ed); 2017, American Association of Health-System Pharmacists, Bethesda, MD.
Peer Reviewed Publications:
Ma ZQ, Chambers MC, Ham A-JL, Cheek KL, Whitwell CW, Aerni HR, Schilling B, Miller AW, Caprioli RM, Tabb DL. (2011) ScanRanker: Quality Assessment of Tandem Mass Spectra via Sequence Tagging. J Proteome Res.10(7):2896-904.
Ducharme NA, Ham A-JL, Lapierre LA, Goldenring JR. (2011) Rab11-FIP2 influences multiple components of the endosomal system in polarized MDCK cells. Cell Logist. 1(2):57-68.
Neel NF, Sai J, Ham A-JL, Sobolik-Delmaire T, Mernaugh RL, Richmond A. (2011) IQGAP1 Is a Novel CXCR2-Interacting Protein and Essential Component of the "Chemosynapse". PLoS One. 2011;6(8):e23813.
Halder, SK; Cho, Y-J; Datta, A; Anumanthan, G; Ham, A-JL; Carbone, DP and Datta, PK (2011) Restoration of TGF-ß-induced tumor suppressor function in lung cancer cell lines through the expression of type II receptor. Neoplasia, 13(10):912-22.
Ma ZQ, Tabb DL, Burden J, Chambers MC, Cox MB, Cantrell MJ, Ham A-JL, Litton MD, Oreto MR, Schultz WC, Sobecki SM, Tsui TY, Wernke GR, Liebler DC. (2011) Supporting Tool Suite for Production Proteomics. Bioinformatics, 27(22):3214-5.
Mutlu E, Jeong YC, Collins LB, Ham A-JL, Upton PB, Hatch G, Winsett D, Evansky P, Swenberg JA. (2012) A New LC-MS/MS Method for the Detection and Quantification of Endogenous and Vinyl Chloride Induced 7-(2-Oxoethyl)Guanine in Sprague Dawley Male Rats. Chem Res Toxicol, 25(2):391-9.
Dasari S, Chambers MC, Martinez MA, Carpenter KL, Ham AJ, Vega-Montoto LJ, Tabb DL. (2012) Pepitome: evaluating improved spectral library search for identification complementarity and quality assessment. J Proteome Res. 11(3):1686-95.
Sherrod SD, Myers MV, Li M, Myers JS, Carpenter KL, Maccoss MJ, Maclean B, Liebler DC, Ham A-JL. Label-Free Quantitation of Protein Modifications by Pseudo-Selected Reaction Monitoring with Internal Reference Peptides. J Proteome Res. 11 (6):3467-347.
Sprung RW, Martinez MA, Carpenter KL, Ham A-JL, Washington MK, Arteaga CL, Sanders ME, Liebler DC. Precision of Multiple Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Tissue. J Proteome Res. 11 (6): 3498-3505.
Sousa JF, Ham A-JL, Whitwell C, Nam KT, Lee HJ, Yang HK, Kim WH, Zhang B, Li M, Lafleur B, Liebler DC, Goldenring JR. (2012) Proteomic Profiling of Paraffin-Embedded Samples Identifies Metaplasia-Specific and Early-Stage Gastric Cancer Biomarkers. Am J Pathol. 181(5):1560-72.
Demory Beckler M, Higginbotham JN, Franklin JL, Ham A-JL, Halvey PJ, Imasuen IE, Whitwell C, Li M, Liebler DC, Coffey RJ. (2012) Proteomic analysis of exosomes from mutant KRAS colon cancer cells identifies intercellular transfer of mutant KRAS. Mol Cell Proteomics. 12(2):343-55.
Chen YY, Chambers MC, Li M, Ham AJ, Turner JL, Zhang B, Tabb DL. (2013) IDPQuantify: Combining Precursor Intensity with Spectral Counts for Protein and Peptide Quantification. J Proteome Res, 2013 EPub Aug 12. 12(9):4111-21.
Vassilopoulos A, Pennington DJ, Andresson T, Rees D, Fearnley I, Ham A, Yan Y, Flynn CR, Jones K, Kim HS, Deng C, Walker J, Gius D. (2014) SIRT3 Deacetylates ATP Synthase F1 Complex Proteins in Response to Nutrient and Exercise-Induced Stress. Antioxid Redox Signal. 21(4):551-64.
Pace, A.C., Ham, A-J. L, Poole, T. M, Wahaib, K.B. (2016) Validation of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation Inventory for Use with Student Pharmacists. Curr Pharm Teach Learn, 8(5):589-597.
Priest, V.V., Ham, A.-J.L., Calinski, D, and Gálvez-Peralta, M (2023) Using Thinking-hat debates to include controversial topics in the pharmacy curriculum., Pharmacy Ed., Accepted.
Peer-Reviewed Presentations (Posters/Podium)
Glushchak, K, Ham, A-JL (2018) Comparison of Sample Digestion and Fractionation Methods for Exosome Protein Biomarker Discovery. Poster presentation. Proceedings of the 66th ASMS Conf. Mass Spectrom. and Allied Topics.
Nunn, E, Sharkawy, N, Zhang, Q, Higginbotham,JN, Jeppesen, DK, Franklin, JL, Coffey, RJ, Ham, A-JL (2019) Comparison of Exosome Sample Preparation and Fractionation Methods for Optimal Proteomic Analysis. Poster presentation. Proceedings of the 67th ASMS Conf. Mass Spectrom. and Allied Topics.
Holmes, TJ, Graves-Deal, R., Li, C, Coffey, RJ, Ham, A-JL (2019) Proteomic Evaluation of Cetuximab Susceptible and Resistant Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines, Poster presentation. Am J of Pharm Edu 2019 July: 83 (5): article 7654. Pharmacy Education 2019, 120th Annual meeting for the American Association for Colleges of Pharmacy, Atlanta, GA, July 13-17, 2019.
England, M, Ham, A-JL, (2019) The use of proteomics in establishing the potential use of statins in breast cancer prevention. Poster Presentation. American Society for Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Meeting 2019. December 8-12.
Nunn, E, Wareham, JN, Higginbotham,JN, Franklin, JL, Jeppesen, DK, Franklin, JL, Paramov, V, Pratap, S, Coffey, RJ, Ham, A-JL (2020) Comparison of Proteomic Analysis of Exosomes Purified Using Traditional Ultracentrifugation vs. Dialysis Concentration and Electropurification. Poster presentation. Proceedings of the 68th ASMS Conf. Mass Spectrom. and Allied Topics.
Nguyen, J, Nunn, E, Golston, D, Harder, G, Hussein, G., Ham, A-JL, (2020) Proteomic analysis to identify differences in the exosomal contents of cetuximab-sensitive and cetuximab-resistant colorectal cancer cells. Poster Presentation. American Society for Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Meeting. December 6-10, 2020.
Galvez Peralta, M, Cropp, C, Ham, A, Hoger, JD, Petry, NJ, Roosan, MR, Cicali, E, and Kisor, D (2021) Development of an open-access pharmacogenomics patient case repository for pharmacy educators, Poster presentation. Pharmacy Education 2021, 122th Annual meeting for the American Association for Colleges of Pharmacy, Virtual, July 19-22, 2021.
Ham, A-JL, Kiningham, K and Clauson, A (2022) ToxiClue: A Murder Mystery Game to Enhance Pharmacy Student Learning in a Toxicology Course, Poster presentation. Pharmacy Education 2022, 123rd Annual meeting for the American Association for Colleges of Pharmacy, Virtual, July 24-27, 2022.
Ham, A-JL, Clauson, A , and Kiningham, K (2022) Who Dunnit? Utilizing a Clue-Based Game in a Toxicology Course, 40 minute presentation, ITLC Lilly Conference, Asheville 2022, August 8-10, 2022.
Moutis, K, Henin, N, and Ham, A-JL, (2023) Proteomic Profiling of Exosome Preparations Identify the Antiproliferative Effects of Celecoxib in Colorectal Cancer Cells (ID#1644215), Poster Presentation. American Society for Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Meeting. Accepted for December 5, 2023.
Invited/Continuing Education Professional Development Presentations:
Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics in the Search for Cancer Therapies, November 18, 2016, Presented as part of the Belmont University College of Science and Math Research Seminars.
Precision Medicine in Pharmacy Practice. Belmont University Homecoming Continuing Education Seminars, February 25, 2017, Belmont University, Nashville, TN. 1 hour of Continuing Education for Pharmacists
The Proteome and Cancer: Mass Spectrometry as a Tool for Discovery, October 6, 2017, Presented as part of the Belmont University College of Science and Math Research Seminars.
Turning Up Class Interaction with Turning Point, April 11, 2018, Presentation at the Belmont University Bring Your Technology Experience (BYTE) Showcase
Pharmacogenomics and Precision Medicine in Pharmacy Practice, June 21, 2018, Georgia Pharmacy Association Annual Convention, Omni Hotel, Nashville, TN. 2 hours of Continuing Education for Pharmacists.
Turning Up Class Interaction with Turning Point, August 2, 2018, Presentation at the Belmont University Great Ideas for Teaching (GIFT) Roundtables during New Faculty Orientation.
The Proteome and Cancer: Mass Spectrometry as a Tool for Discovery, October 19, 2018, Presented as part of the Belmont University College of Science and Math Research Seminars.
NACDS Test2Learn Community-Based Pharmacogenomics Certificate Program, October 26, 2018, Belmont University, Nashville, TN. 8 hours of Continuing Education for Pharmacists
Turning Up Class Interaction with Turning Point, April 10, 2019, Presentation at the Belmont University Bring Your Technology Experience (BYTE) Showcase
Test2Learn Community-Based Pharmacogenomics Certificate Program, September 9, 2023, Belmont University, Nashville, TN. Certificate program and 8 hours (out of a total of 20 hours) of Continuing Education for Pharmacists and student pharmacists