Genetics and Development Graduate Program

John M.  Abrams* -- Molecular genetics of cell death. 

James Amatruda* -- Defining novel cancer genes and understanding the developmental biology of tumors using the zebrafish system. 

Leon Avery -- Genetics of excitable cell function in nematodes. 

Linda Baker -- Molecular mechanisms of normal genitourinary development and congenital birth defects. 

Michael Bennett* -- Immunogenetics and immunobiology of marrow-cell grafts; differentiation and function of NK cells; graft-versus-host reactions; natural immunity to infection; tumor immunology. 

David Boothman* -- Low dose radiation and cancer. 

Rolf A.  Brekken* -- Tumor-host interactions in pancreatic cancer.  

James Brugarolas* -- Molecular mechanisms of cell growth proliferation control. 

Richard Bruick* -- Regulation of the mammalian hypoxic response pathway in cancer. 

Sandeep Burma* -- Recognition, signaling, and repair responses mounted by DNA-PK and ATM upon DNA damage inflicted by terrestrial radiation (X-rays and gamma rays) as well as by radiation in outer space (HZE particles). 

Michael Buszczak -- Chromatin regulation and translation repression in stem cells.

Scott Cameron* -- Cell lineages and programmed cell death. 

Thomas Carroll -- Molecular mechanisms regulating kidney tubule formation and maintenance. 

Diego Castrillon* -- PI3K / PTEN / AKT / FoxO pathway; ovarian function / infertility / premature ovarian failure; cancer biology and model systems. 

David Chen* -- Radiation biology and  DNA damage signaling. 

Peter Chen -- Epigenetic gene regulation in an immune privileged environment; ocular
immunology; tumor immunosurveillance.

Zhijan James Chen -- NF-kB signaling and the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. 

Ondine Cleaver -- Molecular mechanisms of cell fate specification during blood vessel development and organogenesis. 

Melanie H.  Cobb* -- Function and regulation of protein kinases in signal transduction pathways in breast cancer. 

Jonathan Cohen -- Genetics of quantitative traits; Genetic determinants of plasma lipoprotein levels.

David R.  Corey* -- Cancer therapeutics: Engineering proteins and nucleic acids for novel function. 

Ralph J. DeBerardinis -- Regulation of metabolism during cell growth and tumorigenesis; integrating signal transduction with metabolic flux; understanding pediatric metabolic diseases.

Jef De Brabander* -- Synthesis of natural products and other molecular architectures and interrogation of their mode-of-action using molecular pharmacology and biochemistry for the development of novel cancer therapeutics. 

Errol C.  Friedberg* -- Cellular responses to DNA damage in eukaryotic cells with emphasis on cancer-prone human hereditary diseases. 

Jinming Gao* -- Cancer nanomedicine; targeted drug/siRNA delivery; cancer molecular imaging. 

Christine Kim Garcia -- Pulmonary medicine; human genetics; molecular genetics. 

Joseph Garcia -- Integrative biological studies of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors; identification of genetic factors controlling the cardiovascular-respiratory response to hypoxia. 

Harold R.  (Skip) Garner, Jr.  * -- Automation and instrumentation for genomics research; DNA sequence analysis; computational biology. 

William T.  Garrard -- Regulation of immunoglobulin gene expression during B-cell development; chromatin structure-function relationships; regulation of the terminal stages of apoptosis. 

Robert Gerard* -- Specific research projects in my lab focus on in vivo tumor targeting using recombinant protein and adenoviral vector technology. Peptide ligands and monoclonal antibodies, as well as new technologies, are used as proven methods of targeting tumors for molecular imaging and therapy.

Jonathan M.  Graff* -- Signaling pathways in development and cancer. 

Robert E.  Hammer* -- Transforming growth factor beta signaling. 

Mark Henkemeyer -- Molecular genetics of axon guidance and brain development; bidirectional tyrosine kinase signaling. 

Helen H.  Hobbs -- Identification of genetic factors contributing to interindividual differences in the concentration of lipoproteins in the blood. 

Jenny Hsieh -- Stem cell biology; neurogenesis and gliogenesis in CNS; chromatin remodeling; neurological diseases. 

Jer-Tsong (J.T.  ) Hsieh* -- Human cancer gene therapy; signaling defects in urogenital cancers. 

Lily Huang* -- Cytokine receptor; signal transduction; hematopoiesis; structure-function analysis of protein; cancer. 

Peter Igarashi -- Transcriptional control of tissue-specific gene expression and organogenesis; polycystic kidney disease. 

Jin Jiang* -- Signal-transduction pathways in development and human disease; genetic control of organ growth and patterning; tumor suppressor genes. 

Jane E.  Johnson -- Development of the mammalian nervous system; transcriptional regulation of neural cell-type specification. 

Helmut Kramer -- Molecular genetics endosomal trafficking in Drosophila. 

Beth Levine* -- Molecular mechanisms of virus-host interactions; HSV-1 and alphavirus pathogenesis.

Bing Li -- Chromatin Regulation and Eukaryotic transcription.

Fangming Lin -- Stem cells in kidney development and regeneration.

Rueyling Lin -- Cell-fate specification in Caenorhabditis elegans early development. 

Yi Liu -- Molecular mechanisms of circadian biological clocks. 

Zhi-Ping Liu -- Elucidate transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of genes involved in cardiovascular diseases and characterize the signaling pathways coupling these transcriptional programs to extracellular signals that trigger this disease. 

Qing Richard Lu* -- Differentiation mechanisms in the mammalian central nervous system: gliogenesis as a model. 

Lawrence Lum* -- How information from multiple signaling molecules, including Hh and Wg, integrate in developmental and disease-related contexts. 

Raymond J.  MacDonald -- Transcriptional control of organogenesis. 

Ralph Mason* -- Animal imaging in cancer.

John Minna* -- Molecular pathogenesis of human cancer; signal transduction in human tumors; cancer stem cells; targeted cancer therapy. 

Jerry Y.  Niederkorn* -- Immune surveillance of intraocular tumors; immune modulation of cancer metastases. 

Eric N.  Olson -- Transcriptional control of cell differentiation; muscle development. 

Luis F.  Parada* -- Mechanisms of neural development; trk receptors and neurotrophins; mouse models of neurological tumors. 

Gray Pearson* -- 

Alexander Pertsemlidis -- MicroRNA regulation of lung cancer pathogenesis and genetic determinants of cardiovascular disease.

Matthew Porteus -- Regulation of DNA double-stranded break repair; regulation of homologous recombination. 

Stuart Ravnik -- Molecular control of germ-cell development and meiosis. 

Robert B.  Rawson -- The role of SREBP pathway in Drosophila; using both Drosophila and mammalian cells in culture to identify novel components of the signaling pathway responsible for the feedback regulation of the LDL receptor and the enzymes of cholesterol biosynthesis. 

Scott Robertson -- Lineage commitment from mesoderm; initiation of hematopoietic development. 

Michael Roth* -- High throughput screening for novel cancer therapeutics; recognition and sorting of cell-surface glycoproteins. 

Pier Paolo Scaglioni  -- Characterization of the function of the PML tumor suppressor, mechanisms of K-RAS induced tumorigenesis, role of oncogene induced replicative senescence in tumor suppression, mouse models of lung cancer.

Richard H.  Scheuermann* -- Regulation of immunoglobulin gene expression; regulation of lymphocyte growth, development and apoptosis; lymphocyte receptor signal transduction; technology development; novel approaches to cancer therapy. 

Roger A.  Schultz -- Human genome instability, including Bloom and Roberts syndromes, centromere structure and function, and molecular evolution chromosome structure. 

Nima Sharifi -- Mechanisms of androgen receptor gain-of-function in “hormone refractory” prostate cancer and novel therapies designed to target the androgen receptor.

Jerry W.  Shay* -- Defining the molecular mechanisms of human cell immortalization; telomeres and telomerase in aging and cancer. 

Michael Story* -- Radiation biology/oncology, cancer genomics, intrinsic radiosensitivity. 

Michelle D.  Tallquist -- Receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in mammalian development and disease. 

Philip Thorpe* -- Development of novel angiogenesis inhibitors and agents for inducing thrombosis of tumor blood vessels for cancer treatment. 

Jonathan Uhr* -- Improving cancer treatment through: diagnosis at an earlier stage; analysis of cancer dormancy at the cellular and molecular levels; and targeted killing of human cancer cells in SCID mice by treatment with cell reactive monoclonal antibodies. 

Ellen S.  Vitetta* -- The targeting of cytotoxic reagents to lymphoid cancers. 

Keith A.  Wharton* -- Pattern formation in development and disease; control of Wnt signal transduction by naked cuticle proteins. 

Michael A.  White* -- Molecular mechanisms for control of cell growth and differentiation. 

Tom Wilkie -- G-protein signaling during mouse development, energy homeostasis and feeding behavior. 

Stephen Wooding -- Genetic variation in taste sensitivity, population genetics, and evolution.

Woodring E.  Wright* -- The role of telomeres and telomerase in cellular senescence and cancer; developing normal immortalized cells for therapeutic uses. 

Jiang Wu -- Chromatin regulation of neural development; neural stem cell differentiation; activity dependent gene expression.

Hiromi Yanagisawa -- Extracellular matrix proteins and maintenance of vessel microenvironment during development and disease; molecular mechanism of neural crest development in vivo. 

Hongtao Yu* -- Study of cell division cycle. 

Chun-Li Zhang  -- Nuclear receptor signaling and adult neural stem cells.

Andrew R.  Zinn -- Genetic disorders of human growth and reproduction; Turner syndrome, infertility and obesity. 

Hui Zou -- Regulation of chromatid cohesion and separation in vertebrates. 

*Cancer Biology training track  appointment