Featured Faculty
Please view the featured faculty that have served as Molecular Medicine advisors.
Biomedical Engineering
Suneel S. Apte, MBBS, DPhil
Research Interests:
extracellular matrix; metalloproteinases; adamts proteases; adamts-like proteins; morphogenesis; cardiovascular biology; birth defects; fetal-maternal biology; eye disorders; neural tube; craniofacial development; smooth muscle; musculoskeletal biology; post-translational modification; inherited connective tissue disorders;osteoarthritis; proteomics
Jan Jensen, PhD
Research Interests:
diabetes; pancreas development; insulin-producing cells; stem cell therapy
Vinod Labhasetwar, PhD
Research Interests:
nanomedicine; nanoparticles; cancer; imaging; targeted drug delivery; stroke; antioxidant delivery
Cancer Biology
Alexandru Almasan, PhD
Research Interests:
autophagy; apoptosis; cell cycle; dna damage; dna repair; cancer therapeutics; radiation therapy; leukemia; epithelial tumors; prostate cancer
Brian P. Rubin, MD, PhD
Research Interests:
sarcoma; genetics, oncogene addiction, targeted therapy, pathology, mouse models of human cancer
Nima Sharifi, MD
Research Interests:
prostate cancer; androgens; metabolism; steroids; castration-resistant prostate cancer; androgen receptor; hormone therapy; medical oncology; dihydrotestosterone; enzymes; biochemistry
George R. Stark, PhD
Research Interests:
interferons; IL-6; NFkB; STAT3; EGFR; drug resistance; DNA repair; lung cancer; breast cancer; prostate cancer; glioblastoma; septic shock
Emina Huang, MD
Research Interests:
colorectal cancer; inflammation; colitis; cancer stem cells; organoids; microenvironment
Cardiovascular $ Metabolic Sciences
Jonathan Mark Brown, PhD
Research Interests:
lipid metabolism; lipoprotein metabolism; atherosclerosis; obesity; diabetes; reverse cholesterol transport; triacylglycerol; nutrition
Jan Claesen, PhD
Research Interests:
intestinal and skin microbiome; bacterial genetics; synthetic biology; biosynthetic gene clusters; biochemistry; molecular mechanisms
Donna M. Driscoll, PhD
Research Interests:
RNA biology; mRNA translational control; nutritional regulation of gene expression; selenium
Paul L. Fox, PhD
Research Interests:
angiogenesis; atherosclerosis; cell migration; endothelial cells; iron metabolism; macrophages; translational control
Stanley L. Hazen, MD, PhD
Research Interests:
inflammation; atherosclerosis; asthma; myeloperoxidase; cardiovascular diseases; HDL; peroxidases; airway remodeling; intestinal microbiota; gut flora; cardiometabolic disease
Justin Lathia, PhD
Research Interests:
cancer stem cells; brain tumors; cell to cell communication; in vivo imaging
Richard A. Padgett, PhD
Research Interests:
transcription; RNA processing; RNA splicing; splicing factors; relation to cancer and developmental diseases; gene structure and function; genomics; evolution of genomes; RNA biochemistry
Jonathan D. Smith, PhD
Research Interests:
Atherosclerosis; HDL metabolism; Atrial fibrillation; Genetics; Genomics; eQTL; Gene expression; Reverse cholesterol transport; Dysfunctional HDL; RNAseq; Allelic expression imbalance; ABCA1; Mouse models; Zinc finger nuclease
Sathyamangla Venkata Naga Prasad, PhD
Research Interests:
Beta-adrenergic Receptor Resensitization; Non-canonical PI3K Signaling; Cardiac Hypertrophy and Heart Failure; MicroRNAs in Heart Failure and Cardiac Remodeling.
Olga Stenina Adognravi, PhD
Research Interests:
Diabetes; Vascular Complications; Hyperglycemia; Angiogenesis; Atherosclerosis; Gene Regulation; Transcription; Translation; MicroRNA; Extracellular Matrix; Thrombospondin
David Van Wagoner, PhD
Research Interests:
Atrial Fibrillation; Arrhythmia Mechanisms; Calcium Channels; Cellular Electrophysiology; Fibrosis; Genetics of Cardiovascular Disease; Inflammatory Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Disease; Ion Channel Biology; Patch Clamp; Potassium Channels; Nitric Oxide Regulation; S-nitrosylation; Stroke
Sarah Schumacher-Bass, PhD
Research Interests:
G Protein-coupled Receptors (GPCRs); Structure-Function of GPCR Kinase 2 (GRK2) Peptides; Proteomics; Cardiac Signaling and Metabolism; Cardiovascular Remodeling, Cardiac Hypertrophy; Ischemia; Heart Failure
Genomic Medicine
Charis Eng, MD, PhD
Research Interests:
Cancer Genetics; Cancer Genomic Medicine; Cancer Research; Cancer Family History; Cancer Predisposition; Cancer Susceptibility; Heritable Cancer Syndromes; Cowden syndrome; Integrative Genomics; Cancer Metagenomics; Microbiome; Metabolome; Breast Cancer; Thyroid Cancer; Endocrine Cancer; Pheochromocytoma; Autism Research; PTEN; SDHA; SDHB; SDHC; SDHD; KLLN; KILLIN
Angela H. Ting, PhD
Research Interests:
Cancer; Epigenetics; DNA Methylation; Prostate Cancer; Colon Cancer; Genomics; High Throughput Sequencing
Bin Zhang, PhD
Research Interests:
Mechanism of Intracellular Trafficking in Human Disease Development; Protein Secretion; Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress; Cargo Receptors; Cardiovascular Diseases; Cancer.
Dennis Lal, PhD
Research Interests:
Copy Number Variants; Epilepsy; Missense Variant Mutation; Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Ignacio Mata, PhD
Research Interests:
Neurology; Population Genetics; Genomics; Neurodegeneration; Parkinson's Disease; Precision Medicine, Latinos
Inflammation and Immunity
Mark A. Aronica, MD
Research Interests:
asthma, extracellular matrix
William M. Baldwin, MD, PhD
Research Interests:
cardiac and renal allograft rejection, vascular inflammation
Carol de la Motte, PhD
Research Interests:
Inflammatory bowel disease; inflammation; leukocyte adhesion; platelet hyaluronidase; Human milk glycans; hyaluronan; intestinal protection; beta defensins; Salmonella infection
Serpil C. Erzurum, MD
Research Interests:
asthma; pulmonary vascular disease; hypoxia; metabolism
Robert L. Fairchild, PhD
Research Interests:
Skin disease, Skin and cardiac allograft rejection, T cell recruitment to inflammation in peripheral tissues
Trine N. Jorgensen, PhD
Research Interests:
Autoimmunity; Systemic lupus erythematosus; The role of type I interferon in autoimmunity; Gender differences
Xiaoxia Li, PhD
Research Interests:
TSignal transduction in innate and adaptive immunity
Feng Lin, PhD
Research Interests:
Complement ; Innate immunity; Autoimmune diseases; transplant rejection; Stem cells; multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, posterior uveitis
Christine McDonald, PhD
Research Interests:
Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Crohn's disease; Anti-Bacterial Defenses; Skin Infection; NOD2; Innate Immunity; Autoinflammatory Disease; Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria; Diet; Microbes; Genetics
Laura Nagy, PhD
Research Interests:
alcoholic liver disease; macrophages; C1q; apoptosis; fibrosis; liver disease; alcohol; Heme-oxygenase-1; inflammation; necroptosis; high-fat diet; liver injury; fatty liver disease; complement; hepatocytes; alcoholic hepatitis; hepatic stellate cell; adiponectin; MIF; carbon tetrachloride
Anna Valujskikh, PhD
Research Interests:
Immunologic memory; memory T-cells; allograft rejection; transplantation; therapies for transplant recipients
Michelle Longworth, PhD
Research Interests:
Condensins; CAP-D3; genome organization; transcription; genome stability; enteric infection; inflammatory bowel disease; innate immune response
Neurosciences
Bruce Trapp, PhD
Research Interests:
multiple sclerosis; glia; oligodendrocytes; astrocytes; neuroprotection; myelin; autism
Tara DeSilva, PhD
Research Interests:
neuroscience; neuroimmunology; demyelination diseases; transverse myelitis; multiple sclerosis; neurodegeneration; autoimmunity; neuron-glia interactions; oligodendrocyte biology; neurovascular unit; blood-brain barrier; animal models of autoimmune demyelination
Antoine Louveau, PhD
Research Interests:
neuroimmunology; meninges; vasculature; lymphatic; tissue signaling; development; autism; neurodegeneration
Ophthalmic Research
Bela Anand-Apte, MBBS, PhD
Research Interests:
eye; angiogenesis; diabetic retinopathy; blood retinal barrier; retinal vascular leakage; macular edema; macular degeneration; sorsbys fundus dystrophy; tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases
Brian D. Perkins, PhD
Research Interests:
Zebrafish; retina; photoreceptor; cilia; cep290; microRNA
Alex Yuan, MD, PhD
Research Interests:
Regenerative medicine and stem cell biology; retinal injury response; cell-based therapy; gene and drug delivery
Translational Hematology & Oncology
Mohamad Abazeed, MD
Research Interests:
translational hematology and oncology research
Li Lily Wang, PhD
Research Interests:
The current research interest of our laboratory is to define the mechanisms by which immune checkpoint proteins regulate anti-tumor immune responses and to develop rational therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy.