Bill T. Ameredes, MS, PhD
- Associate Professor, Internal Medicine
- Research Interest: Mechanisms of functional resolution
of allergic airway inflammation and asthma, through
molecular and cell-signaling pathways involving IL-10,
NO, and beta-receptors.
L. Maria Belalcazar, MD
- Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
- Research Interest: Lifestyle interventions,
including nutritional interventions, for the prevention of
cardiovascular disease; weight loss, physical fitness, diabetes and
obesity.
Shelly Buffington, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interests: Host-microbe interactions regulating synaptic plasticity and behavior, with emphasis on environmentally - and genetically - induced mouse models of autism spectrum disorder.
Ashok K. Chopra, PhD, CSc
- Professor, Microbiology & Immunology
- Research Interest: Understanding cell
signaling events in host cells after infection with
various bacterial agents (e.g., Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Salmonella enterica, Aeromonas hydrophila, etc.). Our studies also
involve genomics and proteomics approaches as well as
immunological parameters to develop new generation
vaccines against these deadly pathogens.
Yingzi Cong, PhD
- Professor, Microbiology & Immunology and Pathology
- Research Interest: Mucosal Immunology; host-microbial interaction in intestines; pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease.
Jin Mo Chung, PhD
- Professor and Chair, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interest: Somatosensory system;
Mechanisms of Neuropathic pain; Cell signaling and
reactive oxygen species.
Larry Denner, PhD
- Professor, Internal Medicine
- Research Interest: Signal transduction
pathways in growth regulation of stem cells; human and
animal studies of diabetes; steroidogenesis/reproductive
endocrinology; molecular mechanisms of learning and
memory in Alzheimer's Disease; mass spectrometry
approaches to signaling; systems biology in health and
disease.
Douglas DeWitt, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
- Research Interest: Hormone replacement, muscle
metabolism, muscle performance, fatigue, physiological correlates of cognitive impairment, ryanodine receptor.
Cornelis (Kees) Elferink, PhD
- Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Research Interest: Molecular mechanisms
involved in liver homeostasis.
Lisa A. Elferink, PhD
- Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interest: Molecular regulation of
receptor trafficking; pre-clinical studies of pancreatitis and
pancreatic cancer; inflammation and carcinogenesis; receptor signaling
in drug addiction.
Mark Emmett, PhD
- Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Research Interest: Mass spectrometry; in vivo
pharmacology animal experience including surgical procedures, drug
delivery, microdialysis, in vivo and in vitro biochemical assays,
receptor binding and robotic automation.
Perenlei Enkhbaatar, MD, PhD
- Professor, Anesthesiology
- Research Interest: Investigate mechanisms of
cardiopulmonary and neural dysfunctions secondary to sepsis, toxic gas
inhalation and thermal injury with special emphasis on development of
novel treatment methods, i.e. cellular therapy.
Eliseo Eugenin, PhD
- Associate Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interests: The role of cellular communication during the pathogenesis of NeuroHIV; Identification of brain biomarkers of dementia; Glioblastoma, a novel approach to cure this disease; heart disease and cell to cell communication.
Nisha Garg, PhD
- Professor, Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Pathology
- Research Interests: Oxidative response networks
and inflammation in Chagasic Cardiomyopathy; Vaccine efficacy against T. cruzi
and Chagas disease; Strategies for the elimination of tropical infectious
diseases.
Helen Hellmich, PhD
- Associate Professor, Anesthesiology
- Research Interest: Elucidation of the role of paracrine
mediators in gastrointestinal inflammation, carcinogenesis, tumor
progression and metastasis.
Mark R. Hellmich, PhD
- Associate Professor, Surgery
- Research Interest: Elucidation of the role of
small peptide hormones and their cognate receptors in
epithelial cell biology and carcinogenesis
Jonathan D. Hommel, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology
- Research Interests: CNS circuits that regulate food addiction and motivation for energy-dense foods.
Amjad Hossain, PhD
- Associate Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Research Interests: Gamete Biology; Andrology; Embryology
Rakez Kayed, PhD
- Associate Professor, Neurology
- Research Interest: Protein misfolding and
aggregation, amyloid fibrils and various other
aggregates characteristic of amyloid (misfolding)
diseases. These include Alzheimer's disease,
immunoglobulin-light-chain disease, type II diabetes,
Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, prion
disease, serum amyloidoses, and familial amyloid
polyneuropathies.
Linda Kenney, Ph.D.
- Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Research Interest: How OmpR activates genes required for systemic infection located on Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 in Salmonella enterica.
N. Muge Kuyumcu-Martinez, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Research Interest: RNA splicing factors in cardiac development and disease.
Jere W. McBride, PhD
- Associate Professor, Microbiology & Immunology
- Research Interest: Obligately intracellular bacteria, molecular pathogen-host interactions, immunity and vaccines.
Ramkumar Menon, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Research Interest: Molecular mechanisms of term and preterm parturition, placental senescence, and feto-maternal signaling.
Andrew Murton, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Surgery
- Research Interests: Cellular mechanisms responsible for the loss of muscle mass in critical illness states; the impact of lifestyle and aging on muscle and whole-body metabolism.
John Papaconstantinou, PhD
- Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Research Interest: Molecular and genetic
mechanisms of aging and longevity determination. Role of
oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction in
development of aging phenotype.
Bi-Hung Peng, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
- Research Interest: Mucosal immune responses in the gut;
mesenchymal cells in chronic and acute GI inflammation; effect of
vitamin A on colon biology; inflammatory bowel disesase; GI cancer.
Brendan Prideaux, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interest: Understanding pathogenic mechanisms of infectious disease using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry and imaging technologies.
Donald S. Prough, MD
- Professor and Chair, Anesthesiology
- Research Interest: Physiologic
responses to traumatic brain injury; changes in gene and protein
expression in response to traumatic brain injury; treatment of acute and
chronic traumatic brain injury with stem cells or drugs; clinical
management of acute traumatic brain injury.
Blake B. Rasmussen, PhD
- Professor & Chair, Department of Nutrition & Metablism
- Research Interest: Nutritional and metabolic biology; human skeletal muscle; sarcopenia.
George R. Saade, MD
- Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Research Interest: Maternal and fetal
physiology, particularly relating to cardiovascular
adaptations to pregnancy, as well as fetal development
and its relationship with long term consequences.
Partha S. Sarkar, PhD
- Associate Professor, Neurology
- Research Interests: Mechanisms of degenerative muscle phenotypes in myotonic dystrophy type 1.
Pomila Singh, PhD
- Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interest: Growth factors, cell signaling,
cell and molecular biology of colon cancer and colon carcinogenesis, dietary prevention and cancer stem cells.
Michael Sheetz, PhD
- Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Research Interests: Developing the oncolytic potential of Salmonella in targeting tumors and causing tumor regression.
Lawrence Sowers, PhD
- Professor and Chair, Pharmacology & Toxicology
- Research Interest: DNA damage and repair, epigenetics, chemotherapy development and structural biology.
Giulio Taglialatela, PhD
- Professor, Neurology
- Director, Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Research Interest: Mechanisms of
neurodysfunction and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's
disease and related amyloid diseases.
Shao-Jun Tang, PhD
- Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interest: The pathogenic mechanism of HIV-associated neurological disorders (NeuroAIDS).
Alfredo Torres, PhD
- Professor, Microbiology & Immunology and Pathology
- Research Interest: The pathogenic mechanism of HIV-associated neurological disorders.
Demidmaa Tuvdendorj, MD, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine
- Research Interests: To understand the relationship between substrate kinetics and insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and diabetes related diseases.
Randall J. Urban, MD
- Professor & Chair, Internal Medicine
- Research Interest: Ovarian steroidogenesis; aging and
hormonal effects on muscle function; traumatic brain injury and
pituitary dysfunction; umbilical cord blood stem cells: isolation and
transdifferentiation into islets.
Gracie Vargas, PhD
- Professor, Neuroscience,
Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interest: Advanced
intravital microscopy (nonlinear optical microscopy, endomicroscopy) in
injury or disease; noninvasive optical diagnostics in cancer; use of
contrast agents and molecular specific probes for enhanced image
contrast; applications of advanced imaging in infectious diseases.
Elena Volpi, MD, PhD
- Professor, Internal Medicine
- Research Interest: Muscle aging and sarcopenia; protein metabolism; diabetes; nutrition; exercise.
Michelle Ward, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
- Research Interest: Functional genomic approaches to understanding cardiovascular cell types in healthy, stressed and disease states using induced pluripotent stem cell-based models.
Ping Wu, MD, PhD
- Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, & Anatomy
- Research Interest: Stem cell biology and therapy for
neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injury, spinal cord
injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, alcohol addiction.
Qing Yang, MD
- Assistant Professor, Neuroscience, Cell Biology & Anatomy
- Research Interests: To identify potential therapeutic targets that can be used to effectively treat chemotherapy- and neurotrauma-induced complications.
Kangling Zhang, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Pharmacology & Toxicology
- Research Interest: Epigenetics; analytical biochemistry; mass spectrometry; proteomics; metabolomics.
Wenbo Zhang, PhD
- Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
- Research Interest: Mechanisms for retinal injury in
ischemic retinopathy; retinal neuronal injury, retinal vascular leakage
and degeneration, and in retinal pathological angiogenesis.
Emeritus & Off-Campus Faculty
Tetsuo Ashizawa, MD
- Professor and Chairman, Neurology
- Research Interest: Clinical
neurogenetics and neurodegenerative disorders with
genome instability.
B. Mark Evers, MD
- Professor, Department of Surgery; Department of
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology;
- Director, Sealy
Center for Cancer Cell Biology
- Research Interest: Signal transduction
pathways regulating intestinal cell growth, secretion
and inflammation.
Kathleen L. O'Connor, PhD
- Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
- Research Interest: Role of
integrin extracellular matrix receptors, cAMP/PKA and
the Rho family of small GTPases in the migration of
invasive carcinoma cells from breast, colon and
pancreatic cancers.