Faculty

The Ubiquitin System and Human Cancer

Identifying and exploring the role of innate immunity, inflammasome, and interleukin-1 blockade in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease

Neurobiology of the cardiovascular and respiratory system, Central mechanisms linking cardiorespiratory function with affective state and emotion

Basic and translational brain tumor research

Psychiatry And Neurobehavioral Sciences

Genetic approaches, cellular and molecular biology of intracellular pathogen infection

Molecular Biosensors; Spatiotemporal Regulation of Biological Signaling; Protein Engineering for Imaging, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics

Pulmonary and Critical Care

Understanding the Molecular Basis of Macular Degeneration in Order to Hasten the Eradication of Blindness

Engineering cancer-killing T cells to overcome obstacles in solid tumors

Innate immunity, Cell clearance, Inflammatory and autoimmune disease

Engineering programmable immunotherapies for solid tumors

Systems biology approaches to study gene dosage in neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental disorders

Biophysics of membrane pore formation; research and therapeutic applications of lipid nanoparticles.

Matrix Biology and Engineering

Cancer metastasis, chemotherapy resistance, genetic and epigenetic regulation

Mechanisms of neuromodulation in central neurons

Circuit mechanisms of sleep and epilepsy

Computational Biology; Bioinformatics; Precision Medicine; Machine Learning/AI; Quantum Computing

Genome instability syndromes in cancer and immune deficiencies

Molecular mechanisms linking innate immune and insulin signaling to control cell growth and metabolism

Pathogenic mechanisms in Alzheimer's Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

Neuroscience

Natural Killer Cells, Viral Immunity, Genetic basis of host resistance to viral infection, Tumor immunity, Immune cell regulation

Use the olfactory system to examine general problems in the brain maturation, including the role of afferent activity on tissue development and the interplay between evolution and development.

Pathways to enhance T cell function in tumors.

Neonatal brain injury, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, neonatal seizures

Drug Development Targeting Transcription Drivers in Cancer; Structure/Function Studies of Transcription Factor Drivers in Cancer

Molecular Mechanisms for Membrane Transport and Cell Signaling

1. Molecular and cellular therapy for tissue injury and repair, mainly focusing on heart and lung injury and repair. 2. Cancer biology, mainly focusing on identifying the molecular target that can inhibit the tumorigenesis during aging.

Engineering biomaterials as cellular microenvironments

The Neurobiology of Energy Balance

Mouse Visual System, physiology, functional imaging, genetics, molecular, behavioral, and computational methods

Role of Arf family GTPases in vesicular transport and cytoskeleton assembly.<br> Cell Biology of bacterial pathogenesis. <br>The innate immune response to bacterial infection.

Hematology and Oncology, Cell Biology, Lipid Signaling, Cancer Cell Signaling, and RNA Biology

Statistical genetics and genomics.

Surgery

Computational genomics and bioinformatics; long-read sequencing; structural variation; genome assembly and pangenomics; human genetic variation and disease genomics

Functional Genomics

Computational Biology; Machine Learning; Statistical Modeling; Single Cell Biology; Spatial Biology; Liquid Biopsy

Biomedical informatics, neuroscience, Alzheimer Disease and disorders of cognition, knowledge representation and integration, digital commons frameworks, ontologies, FAIR data, FAIR software, FAIR computation, argumentation frameworks, and evidence graphs

Herpes Simplex Virus Infection of Neurons

Biophysical Chemistry: Membrane protein structure, function, and dynamics

Regulation and Function Serotonergic Neurons During Development

Epigenetic mechanisms involved in complex human disease

Immuno-Oncology, T cell therapy, TCR Discovery, Next generation cell therapy

Adult-born neurons, perineuronal nets, and microglia in hippocampal plasticity and behavior in health and disease

Neuron-glia and glial-glial interactions

The maternal and infant microbiome in childhood growth and immunity

Cellular and molecular mechanisms of Neisserial pathogenesis

Contribution of the Inflammatory Microenvironment to Tumor Initiation, Progression and Metastasis; Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer Chemoprevention

Elucidating and Understanding the Mechanisms Underlying Nervous System Development

Host/pathogen Interaction - Chlamydia Infection

Ion channels and Ca2+-signaling in inflammation, immunity and tissue homeostasis

Cell Adhesion and Adhesion-Dependent Cell Signaling in Vertebrate Morphogenesis

Uncovering the molecular etiology of neurodegenerative diseases

Systems Immunology, Cancer Systems Biology, , Neonatal and Maternal Immunology

Herpesvirus gene expression & RNA biology

Multi-modal brain MRI to study different aspects of neurodegenerative diseases. Effects of mild traumatic brain injury on student athletes. Parkinson's Disease and essential tremor.

The design of self-assembling nanomaterials

Tumor microenvironment and mechanisms of tumor neovascularization

Neural Development; Cell Division in Neural Stem Cells; Axon Outgrowth and Guidance

Cytoskeletal architecture, dynamics and roles in cellular physiology and disease; High-resolution live cell and tissue imaging

Structure and Function of Macromolecular Complexes Using Electron Microscopy

Pediatric Medicine, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Pediatric Cancer

Immune mechanisms of pathogenic antibody production in allergy and autoimmunity

Developmental Plasticity and Neuropathology of Synaptic Circuitries.

Innate immunity, chronic disease, host-parasite interactions, Toxoplasma gondii, proteomics

Neuroscience

Cancer systems biology, Single-cell quantitative biology, Computational modeling

Systems Genetics of Skeletal Development and Maintenance

Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology. Medical Automation Research. Neurotransmitters, cell surface receptors and intracellular second messengers.

Brain metabolism, cognitive decline, cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease

Explicating psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of chronic pain.

Impact of APOE and lipid metabolism on cell function in Alzheimer's disease.

Bacterial attachment and biofilms, microbial transport in porous media

Basement Membrane Structure and Metalloproteinases

Novel Therapies for Treating and Preventing Ischemic Heart Disease

Super-resolution fluorescence imaging of bacterial cells

Chromosome organization; Nucleosome structure; Histone marks; Structural cell biology

RNA-protein interactions in antiviral immunity and autoimmune diseases.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia: molecular and cellular biology events which mediate aberrant epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms during disease establishment and progression

Exploring new therapeutics avenues to treat Multiple Sclerosis.

Blinding disease age-related macular degeneration, utilizing the tools of immunology, molecular biology, and engineering.

Signal transduction in cancer cells

Hematopathology and Understanding the Molecular Basis of Hematopoiesis and Leukemogenesis

Status epilepticus

Molecular embryology--gene regulation in cells committed to specific developmental lineages

Biomedical Engineering

Mechanisms of Genetic and Metabolic Adaptation in the Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium falciparum

Circadian entrainment for the treatment of metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases

Vascular wall remodeling, intimal hyperplasia, stenosis, aneurysm, retinal degeneration.

Immune regulation for HCV infection and chronic liver inflammation

Regeneration and Systemic Responses to Tissue Damage

Post Transcriptional Gene Regulation and the Molecular Biology of Human Retroviruses

Molecular mechanisms controlling insulin signaling and fat synthesis.

Immune response to infectious disease in the CNS

Hematology & Oncology

Development and plasticity of sensory systems

Understanding Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Leading to Blood Vessel Formation

Molecular genetics; development and function of neurotransmitter-synthesizing neurons in Drosophila

Biodefense and emerging pathogens

Translating our discoveries in the microcirculation to tangible benefits in patients.

Systems-biology approaches to cancer biology and virology.

The Pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other dementia-related disorders.

Mechanisms by which cells direct and regulate protein targeting to the ER and mitochondria, and how molecular control of cell dormancy impacts health and disease.

Lung injury and repair, sepsis

Neuronal circuits underlying infant behaviors, including sleep and social behavior

Seizures, neuronal excitability and plasticity

The Role of Mitochondrial Fusion and Fission in Tumorigenesis.

Metabolic and Genetic Regulation of Aging, Redox Biology, DNA Repair, Comparative and Functional Genomics, Stress Resistance, Drug Discovery, Evolutionary Biology, Synthetic and Systems Biology for Evolutionary Engineering, Adaptive Evolution, Mitochondrial Signaling, Neurodegenerative Diseases

Cellular and molecular mechanisms of morphogenesis

Advancement in the design of imaging agents; molecular imaging and radiological sciences.

Bacterial cell signaling, host-pathogen interactions, intestinal pathogens

Architecture and function of biological membranes

Cardiovascular Biology

Regulation of Polarized Morphogenesis

Neuroscience

The role of glia in the development, maintenance and regeneration of the nervous system

Precision medicine, translational science, regeneration, organoids, high resolution imaging, computational modeling

RNA regulatory networks and RNA binding proteins during cardiovascular development and in cardiovascular disease

Molecular and metabolic adaptations of cancer cells.

Neural tissue engineering, biomaterials, drug delivery, redox regulation of stem cell fate, engineering cell-interactive microenvironments

Bioanalytical Chemistry on Microchips

Restoration of Homeostasis in Disease

Cellular Engineering

Cancer Biology, Tumor Cell of Origin and Tumor Microenvironment, Neurofibromatosis and Schwann Cell Biology, Skin and Hair Stem Cell Biology & Regeneration

Role of lipid oxidation products in inflammation and vascular immunology in atherosclerosis and diabetes

Composition, Biophysics and Physiology of Cellular Membranes

Gene regulation in cancer, RNA processing; Epigenetic modification; Stem cell and development

Plastic Surgery

Cardiovascular Biology

Developing novel neuroprotection strategies to preserve vision in glaucoma

Genetic and Epigenetic stability in human cancer

Hematologic malignancies; bone marrow disorders; leukemia; large granular lymphocyte (LGL)

Wnt/PCP signaling in inner ear development Mouse models for human deafness Wnt/PCP signaling in neural tube closure

Neuron-glia communications, brain plasticity and homeostasis, glial responses to neurodegeneration

Immune Memory

Understanding How Immunological Pathways Contribute to Neurodegenerative, Neurodevelopmental, Mental and Behavior Disorders

Anesthesiology

Chemical biology of sphingosine 1-phosphate

Behavioral Pharmacology, Sex Differences, Animal Models of Addiction

Physiology & Biophysics

Statistical Genetics, Genetic Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Network analysis

Pharmacology

Identifying tumor selective drug targets, Understanding the genetic drivers of tumor immune evasion

Pathology

Urology

Transcriptional Regulation by NFKB

Immune System Regulation of Cardiometabolic Disease

Neural Mechanisms of Pattern Learning and Recognition in the Auditory System

Neuroscience

Genetic variation, Complex diseases, Coronary artery disease, Genomics, Epigenomics, Regulatory mechanisms, Vascular biology, Pharmacology and Physiology

Cell signaling, stem cell biology, molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of blood and breast cancers

Molecular pathogenesis and genomic analysis of human cancers

Regulation and function of tyrosine phosphorylation in complex networks

Pathogenesis of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli and Shigella.

Mitochondrial regulation of innate immune and antiviral signaling

Understanding the neural code underlying motivated behaviors like feeding, drinking, and social interaction, with a focus on how malfunction in associated brain areas are involved in diseases like addiction and eating disorders

Obesity and Aging

Identification of Factors and Mechanisms that Regulate the Stability of Late Stage Atherosclerotic Lesions and the Probability of Thromboembolic Events Including a Heart Attack or Stroke

Investigating the cell-biological foundations of development

Systems biology, infectious disease, cancer, toxicology, metabolic engineering

Developmental Genetics, Evolution and Regeneration

Mechanisms of tissue/organ homeostasis and tumorigeensis

Cell and molecular physiology, regenerative medicine, cancer biology, muscle and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, geriatric medicine and Alzheimer’s disease, and therapeutic development.

Nuclear Transport, Signaling, and Cancer

Understanding the cellular mechanisms by which seizures are initiated in SCN8A epileptic encephalopathy (DEE13) and temporal lobe epilepsy. My lab uses a number of experimental techniques including patch clamp electrophysiology and in vivo seizure monitor

Our research uses a systems bioengineering approach to investigate how aberrant signaling leads to distinct metabolic and epigenetic states, and to devise strategies for therapeutic reprogramming.

Tissue Engineering and Regeneration, Computational Systems Biology, Vascular Growth and Remodeling, Stem Cell Therapies

Neurology

Director of Graduate Studies for Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology

Exploring epilepsy circuits then preventing seizures using gene therapies. Developing drug-inducible genetic switches for insulin replacement gene therapies.

Gene regulatory networks, Systems genetics, Multi-omic data integration, Network science

Bioanalytical tools for inflammatory disease

Image Guided Drug and Gene Delivery for Neurodegeneration and Cancer; Focused Ultrasound and Immunotherapy; Arteriogenesis and Angiogenesis

The Proctor Laboratory integrates systems biology with molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience into a cutting-edge framework for investigation of multi-scale mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease risk, onset, and progression.

The Role of Melanopsin Retinal Ganglion Cells in the Photic Regulation of Mammalian Circadian Rhythms

Innate Inflammatory Pathways Associated with Acute Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Novel therapeutic approaches to brain cancers and to other neurologic diseases

“Machine Learning for Big Data Analytics In Biomedicine"

Delineate the physiological importance and structure-function relationship of ER-associated degradation in humans.

Microbial Pathogenesis

Genomics, Molecular Evolution, Algorithm Design and Analysis

Chromosome segregation and aneuploidy in meiosis and mitosis

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Gene Expression; Human Endogenous Viruses; SARS-CoV-2 Protein Trafficking; Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation

Assembly and Plasticity of Neural Circuits

Genetic basis of common human disease, including type 1 diabetes, diabetic complications, ischemic stroke, atherosclerosis

Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences

Objective and quantitative modeling of data from imaging and other types of sensors

Anti-tumor immunity in brain tumors, Cancer Neuroscience

Influence of commensal microbes on immune homeostasis, anti-tumor immunity, and metastasis

Roles of complex signaling networks involved in the regulation of cardiovascular function and disease

Regulation of transcription by nuclear hormone receptors, transcriptional control of metabolism and inflammation, small molecule approaches to drug discovery

Advanced Immunotherapies, Nanotechnology, Biomaterials Science, Tissue Engineering

Regulatory T Cell biology in Inflammatory and Autoimmune Diseases.

computational biology & bioinformatics; high performance computing; epigenomics & chromatin; pediatric cancer; computational regulatory genomics; machine learning

Biomedical Engineering

Proteoform Systems Biology: proteogenomic approaches to uncover the role of proteomic variation in human disease

Molecular and genetic determinants of atherosclerosis and cardiometabolic disorders.

Auditory Neurobiology

Regulation of neural stem cell proliferation during development and adulthood

Transcriptional Silencing and Aging in Yeast

Asthma, Allergy & Immunology

biophysics, biophysics & structural biology, cardiovascular biology, and physiology

Identify the calcium signaling abnormalities that lead to vascular dysfunction and blood pressure elevation in cardiovascular disorders

Sensory processing and plasticity

Role of Glia in Neurological Illnesses and Cancer

Gram-positive pathogenesis; type VII secretion; impact of secreted effectors on host-pathogen interactions and immune responses

Immune Responses in asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, and lung injury.

Spatial Cell Biology. Neuronal Morphogenesis and Disease. Cancer Migration and Invasion.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Mechanisms of chromosome segregation in Mitosis and generation of Chromosomal Instability in tumors

Lung injury, repair, and fibrosis; B cell immunology

Viral immunology, Cancer immunology, Aging, Mucosal Immunology

Role of endoplasmic reticulum-associated protein degradation in health and disease

Cell behavior and morphogenesis during early mouse development.

Molecular and bioelectric devices; tissue regeneration.

Regulation of cell-surface stability and intracellular trafficking of membrane proteins in epithelial cells

Prokaryotic immune systems, bacteriophage virology, programmed cell death, pore-forming proteins, evolution of immunity, cGAS-STING, protein engineering

Biomembrane Structure and Function; Cell Entry of Enveloped Viruses; Neurosecretion by Exocytosis; Structure of Bacterial Pathogen Membrane Proteins; Lipid-Protein Interactions

Complex Genome Rearrangements

Pathology

B cell Analysis and Engineering

Cardiovascular Medicine

Understanding Protein and RNA regulations of gene expression via chromatin structure in myeloid cell development and diseases

Membrane-transport physiology and biophysics

Vascular Biology, Nanotechnology, Biomaterials, Drug Delivery

Neuroscience

Analytical Neurochemistry; Dopamine and Serotonin Neurotransmission in Drosophila; Mechanisms of rapid adenosine signaling in rodents

Iron metabolism and Immunometabolism in inflammation and autoimmune diseases

Clonal hematopoiesis: A new mechanism of cardiovascular disease

Genome instability in cancer and repeat expansion diseases

Cancer biology and immunology, Immuno-oncology, Immunometabolism, Genetically-engineered mouse models

Mechanisms of DNA repair in chromatin

Psychiatry And Neurobehavioral Sciences

Neural control of cardiorespiratory function in health and disease

The formation, function, coordination, and pathology of multinucleated cell types that make up the placenta and musculoskeletal system.

Endosomal function and dysfunction in neurons. Development of the nervous system: cytoskeleton and membrane traffic in axon and dendrite growth.

Unraveling the Role of Obesity, Diet, and Lifestyle Factors in Melanoma Progression and Treatment Efficacy

Identification of genes and pathways that cause or modify cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure.

The immune response to common cold and allergens in health and disease.

Investigating regeneration through genetics and single-cell analysis

Regulation of Gene Expression, Development and Tumor Progression by TGF beta Signaling

Cardiovascular Development and Cerebrovascular Pathologies

Molecular Imaging; Cancer Immunology; Vaccines.

Researching fundamental roles of the epigenome in control of the context-specific transcriptional programs.

Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology; Cancer; Human Microbiome

Structural biology, Cryo-EM, Mitochondrial stress, Integrated stress response, De novo protein design, Drug development, Neurodegeneration, Heart disease, Cancer

Development and regulation of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and blood vessels as they relate to retinal diseases.

Bioinformatics methodology development; Epigenetics and chromatin biology; Transcriptional regulation; Cancer genomics and epigenomics; Statistical methods for biomedical data integration; Advanced machine learning; Theoretical and computational biophysics

Unraveling the role of host microbe interactions in autoimmune diseases

Pathogenesis of infectious diseases and the development of new therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases and cancers.

Mechanisms of Huntington's Disease Pathogenesis

Data Mining, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, Health Informatics

Integrating high-throughput proteomic, chemical, genetic and computational tools for target identification and drug discovery in cancer biology

MD-RONC Radiation Oncology

Genetics, Functional Genomics, Epigenetics, Lung repair/regeneration, Metabolic regulation, Alveolar stem cells, Chromatin interaction, Innate immune response, Live-cell imaging

Transport of biopolymers across biological membranes with a particular interest in polysaccharide and protein translocation.

Single Cell Analysis

Neuroscience and Anesthetic Neuroprotection