PEMM Participating Faculty: A - L
Angeline S. Andrew, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor, Community and Family Medicine
Research Description: Molecular diagnostics for bladder and lung cancers, toxic metal carcinogenesis, genetic susceptibility, gene-environment interactions.
Donald Bartlett, Jr., M.D.
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology
Research Description: Mechanisms of control and integration of breathing movements by muscles of the respiratory pump and those of the upper airway. A possible role of heat stress in the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Paul J Beisswenger, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism
Research Description: Control of non-enzymatic glycation and oxidative stress, and their role in suceptibility to diabetic complications. The research combines studies of human populations with powerful analytic laboratory techniques to address some of the important outstanding questions regarding diabetic complications.
Farran Briggs, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology
Research Description: The goals of the laboratory are to understand how neuronal circuits in the early visual system encode and process visual information and how spatial attention modulates these activities.
David J. Bucci, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Research Description: Behavioral and neurobiological factors that modulate learning and memory. Of particular interest are the neural mechanisms that are at the interface between attention and learning. We combine classical conditioning procedures with biochemical, pharmacological, and neuroanatomical techniques to study the role of cortical structures and subcortical neurochemical systems in these processes.
Brock C. Christensen, Ph.D.
Photograph by Jon Gilbert Fox
Assistant Professor of Community and Family Medicine
Research Description: Epigenetic and genetic molecular epidemiology with a focus on etiologic exposures, risk, and outcomes of human cancers as they relate to DNA methylation, miRNA expression, and miRNA-related polymorphisms.
Michael Cole, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Genetics, Norris Cotton Cancer Center Member
Research Description: Molecular basis of cancer; with emphasis on the role of transcription factors and chromatin modification on tumor cell growth with major emphasis on the Myc oncogen family and its role in the growth of both cancer and normal cells.
Ruth W. Craig, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Research Description: Understanding how a key regulator of cell viability discovered in the laboratory, MCL1, contributes to tumorigenesis and can be targeted for cancer therapy.
Robert A. Darnall, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics and Physiology and Neurobiology
Research Description: The role of medullary serotonergic neurons in the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Inhibition of serotonergic neurons in the nucleus paragigantocellularis lateralis fragments sleep and decreases REM.
J. Andrew Daubenspeck, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology, Active Emeritus
Research Description: Cardiorespiratory control using heart rate variability and baroreflex characteristics to evaluate neonatal development and risk factors for sudden infant death.
James DiRenzo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Research Description: Regulation of proliferation, self-renewal and cellular differentiation in mammary epithelial stem cells. Mammary gland carcinogenesis, tumor stem cell theory, genetic control over stem cell renewal.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D.
Andrew G. Wallace Professor and Chair of Pharmacology and Toxicology, American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor
Research Description: Translational research (bench to bedside) and studies of vitamin A derivatives known as retinoids and their roles in tumor cell differentiation therapy and chemoprevention.
Alan R. Eastman, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology; Director, Molecular Therapeutics Program, NCCC;
Director, PEMM
Research Description: Cancer chemotherapy. Mechanisms of drug action: unbiased screen for novel drug targets and identification of selective anticancer drugs. Novel drug combinations: modulation of cell cycle arrest induced by DNA damaging agents; modulation of Bcl-2 proteins to enhance apoptosis.
Richard I. Enelow, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology
Vice-Chair for Research
Chief, Pulmonary/Critical Care
Research Description: T cell responses to influenza and other virus infection, and the mechanisms of immunopathology in respiratory virus infection.
Géza Fejes-Tóth, D.M.D.
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology
Research Description: Molecular biology of membrane transporters, cell biology and development of specific renal cell types; mechanism of action of steroid hormones.
Laura A. Flashman, Ph.D., ABPP
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Director, Neuropsychology Program
Research Description: Neural mechanisms of cognitive complaints and deficits after Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and other neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. Neural correlates of unawareness of illness and potential sources of outcome variance after seemingly similar injuries, including genetic risk factors, brain efficiency, premorbid factors, and response to treatment, using structural and functional MRI (fMRI) and genetics. Understand the effects of repetitive biomechanical force exposure in concussed and non-concussed collegiate and high school football and hockey players.
Valerie Anne Galton, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology
Research Description: The roles of the iodothyronine deiodinases in the regulation of intracellular thyroid hormone levels and thyroid hormone action during development and in adult mammals. Studies use mice made deficient in the either or both the types 1 and 2 iodothyronine deiodinase.
Rick Granger, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences; Director
Research Description: We study computational and cognitive neuroscience: analyses of how our brains operate to perceive, comprehend and manipulate their environments, as well as how they fail in certain conditions. We strive both to understand and analyze brain circuits, and, where possible, to construct equivalent circuits -- ranging from fMRI neuroimaging studies to robotics. Throughout these studies, real-world applications are developed as our understanding deepens.
Alan I. Green, M.D.
Raymond Sobel Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Research Description: Animal and human studies of the actions of antipsychotic drugs, as related to their use in patients with schizophrenia and substance use disorders. The work focuses on brain reward circuitry, and manipulation of this circuitry by antipsychotic drugs and other psychoactive agents.
William R. Green, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Research Description: T cell immune responses to viral diseases; cell-mediated immunity to mouse retroviruses that cause either leukemia or immunodeficiency; immunity to the mouse acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (MAIDS) retroviral isolate and the mechanism of retroviral pathogenesis; studies on novel vaccine approaches.
Allan T. Gulledge, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology
Research Description: Our focus is the cellular neurophysiology of the cerebral cortex, with emphasis on understanding signal integration and transmission within individual neurons.
Paul M. Guyre, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology and of Microbiology & Immunology
Research Description: Mechanisms of hormone/cytokine interactions in control of immunity, Inflammation, sepsis, and autoimmunity.
Leslie P. Henderson, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology and of Biochemistry
Research Description: The long-term goals of the laboratory are to understand how steroids alter the expression and function of ion channels involved in synaptic signaling, with specific emphasis on the actions of anabolic androgenic steroids.
Gregory L. Holmes, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Chief, Section of Neurology
Research Description: Effects of seizures on the developing brain. The laboratory focuses on the cognitive and electrophysiological consequences of recurrent seizures and status epilepticus.
Paul E. Holtzheimer, M.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and of Surgery
Research Description: Neurobiology and treatment of mood disorders, primarily treatment-resistant depression. Current methodologies include functional and structural neuroimaging and focal neuromodulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation.
Alexandra L. Howell, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology
Research Description: My laboratory studies cellular mechanisms that control HIV-1 infection and replication in the female reproductive tract, the role of steroid sex hormones in this process, and the potential of RNA interference to inhibit mucosal HIV-1 transmission.
William Kelley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Research Description: My research uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to gain a better understanding of human memory formation. Specifically, my work focuses on how different kinds of information like words (verbal) or unfamiliar faces (non-verbal) are encoded into long-term memory. A related focus of my work is to use imaging techniques to explore how memory formation may become compromised as a result of damage to certain brain regions.
William B. Kinlaw, M. D.
Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology and Metabolism)
Research Description: We employ cell culture and genetically engineered mouse models to understand the metabolic peculiarities of breast tumors, and to explore their potential as therapeutic targets.
Alexei F. Kisselev, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Norris Cotton Cancer Center
Research Description: Mechanisms of selective killing of malignant cells by proteasome inhibitors; development and therapeutic application of specific inhibitors of proteasome different active sites; potential new targets in the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.
Manabu Kurokawa, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology
Research Description: Regulation of cell death and chemoresistance in cancer: The goal of our laboratory is to understand how and why cancer cells survive and how they evade programmed cell death, or apoptosis, to acquire chemoresistance.
Stephen Lee, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Neurology)
Research Description: Molecular pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease; The laboratory studies the biological function of Parkinson's disease-associated genes using genetic, molecular, cellular, and model organism approaches.
Pierre-Pascal J. Lenck-Santini, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neurology
Research Description: Understanding the physiological and functional bases of cognitive impairments in epilepsy and childhood neurological disorders. Our Lab uses a combination of in-vivo, freely-moving electrophysiology, molecular and behavioral assays.
James C. Leiter, M.D.
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology and Medicine
Research Description: Respiratory neurobiology especially in the areas of pH regulation in neurons and astrocytes, central chemosensitivity and comparative aspects of rhythm generation.
Lionel D. Lewis, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Research Description: The study of novel antineoplastic agents and their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics when first given to cancer patients (i.e. first time in man, Phase I studies of new drugs in cancer patients); mechanisms of toxicity of nucleoside analogues and antineoplastic agents to the mitochondrion and ways of ameliorating this toxicity.
Christopher H. Lowrey, M.D.
Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology) and of Pharmacology and Toxicology
VIce Chair, Department of Medicine
Research Description: Role of epigenetics and cell stress signaling in normal and disease-related blood cell production; development of novel pharmacologic therapies for sickle cell disease, thalassemia and leukemia.
Bryan W. Luikart, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology
Research Description: We study the molecular mechanisms that direct the formation of synapses onto new neurons as they integrate into the synaptic circuitry of the central nervous system.