Program Faculty
Program Director
Professor
Graduate Program: Genetics, Development and Disease & Neuroscience
Research Interests: Gut-brain axis hormones and neuronal circuits underlying obesity, diabetes, hypoglycemia, cancer cachexia, ALS, and learning/memory
Faculty
Assistant Professor
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology; Genetics, Development, and Disease
Research Interests: Hematopoietic stem cell and leukemia metabolism, metabolites and the stem cell genome
Associate Professor
Graduate Program: Cancer Biology
Research Interests: Diabetes, obesity, metabolic imaging, and tracer techniques
Professor
Graduate Program: Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: NMR spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy in conjunction with the application of stable isotope tracers to study metabolic function
Professor
Graduate Programs: Immunology; Genetics, Development & Disease
Research Interests: Endosomal protein sorting: roles of the CCC and Retriever complexes Enteroendocrine cells of the colon and their metabolic activities
Assistant Professor
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology; Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Signal transduction, mitochondria function, cell growth and proliferation, cancer metabolism
Professor
Graduate Programs: Biomedical Engineering; Genetics, Development & Disease
Research Interests: Cancer, cell polarity, developmental biology, morphogenesis, stem/progenitor cells, tissue engineering and regeneration
Associate Professor
Graduate Programs: Neuroscience; Genetics, Development & Disease
Research Interests: Genetics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), molecular mechanisms underlying ASD, chromatin remodeling in neurodevelopmental disorders, the ubiquitin proteasome pathway in neurodevelopmental disorders
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program: Genetics, Development and Disease
Research Interests: Spatial and functional genomics and epigenomics, single-cell genomics and epigenomics, computational genomics, high resolution imaging, mammalian spermatogenesis, human fertility and reproduction
Professor
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology; Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Function and regulation of protein kinases in signal transduction pathways in breast cancer
Ralph DeBeradinis, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology; Genetics, Development & Disease
Research Interests: Metabolic pathways that support tumor cell growth and exploiting tumor metabolism to improve imaging and therapy in cancer
Professor
Graduate Programs: Biological Chemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Regulation of HMG-CoA reductase and sterol metabolism
Associate Professor
Graduate Programs: Genetics, Development & Disease; Neuroscience
Research Interests: Intracellular lipid surveillance and metabolic stress in age and traumatic brain injury
Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Functional neuroanatomy of the mammalian hypothalamus
Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythms and how they control metabolism
Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Brain development and Alzheimer's Disease, lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis, physiological functions of the LDL receptor gene family
Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Molecular signaling processes in cardiac hypertrophy and failure; mechanisms of structural, functional, and electrophysiological remodeling, using genetic and surgical mice models
Professor
Graduate Program: Genetics, Development and Disease
Research Interests: Identification of genetic factors contributing to inter-individual differences in the concentration of lipid levels in tissues
Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Hepatic steatosis, lipid metabolism
Assistant Professor
Graduate Programs: Biological Chemistry; Cancer Biology
Research Interests: Cancer metabolism, nutrient signaling, protein kinases
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Renal metabolism, inflammation and sepsis, acute kidney injury
Associate Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Host metabolism changes in chronic diseases of cancer and obesity
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Organelle biology, metabolism, lysosome, biochemistry, cancer, neurodegeneration
Associate Professor
Graduate Program: Genetics, Development and Disease
Research Interests: Amino acid metabolism, bone development, osteoporosis, stem/progenitor cells, fracture healing and regeneration
Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology of nuclear receptors and endocrine FGF
Professor
Graduate Program: Genetics, Development and Disease
Research Interests: Cellular signaling, gene regulation, and epigenetic control in the chromatin environment of the nucleus; biological systems include: reproduction, cancer, inflammation, adipogenesis, stem cells, differentiation
Associate Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Genetic causes of childhood obesity, drug-induced metabolic syndrome, and brain-body communication
Assistant Professor
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology; Genetics, Development & Disease
Research Interests: Nitrogen metabolism, crosstalk between the metabolome and epigenome, metabolic mechanisms of tumor initiation, synthetic lethality, glioma biology, CRISPR/Cas9-based mouse models of cancer
Professor
Graduate Programs: Genetics, Development & Disease; Neuroscience
Research Interests: Understanding the molecular basis of glycogen malformation in the fatal Lafora epilepsy and devising gene and small-molecule based therapies for this and other childhood neurogenetic disorders
Associate Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Metabolism, mitochondrial diseases, organelle behavior and function
Assistant Professor
Graduate Programs: Neuroscience; Biological Chemistry
Research Interests: Regulatory mechanisms impacting structure, function and location of glycogen; molecular consequences of glycogen storage diseases (GSD), development of GSD treatment strategies, engineering proteins for improved Gene Therapy
Associate Professor
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology; Genetics, Development, and Disease
Research Interests: Mechanisms of tumorigenesis; Regulation and function of cell surface receptors in lung cancer pathogenesis
Associate Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Study GPCR signaling in metabolic disease and develop targeted compounds to explore their therapeutic potential.
Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Energy metabolism in the kidney, mechanisms of aging and resilience to acute stressors, vascular biology
Professor
Graduate Programs: Biological Chemistry, Molecular Biophysics
Research Interests: Protein-lipid interactions at membrane interfaces
Kartik Rajagopalan, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program: Immunology
Research Interests: Influenza, COVID, leptin, adipose
Danielle Robertson, O.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Graduate Programs: Cell and Molecular Biology; Immunology
Research Interests: Epithelial cell biology, cornea, ocular surface, dry eye, Sjogren’s syndrome, diabetes, exosomes, corneal neuropathy, infectious disease
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program: Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy, accelerated imaging, pulse sequence development, image reconstruction, applications of advanced MRS and MRI techniques in clinical studies
Professor
Graduate Program: Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests: Identification and physiological characterization of novel secretory proteins that serve as potential links between the adipocyte and the processes of whole body energy homeostasis; inflammation and cancer; beta cell biology
Assistant Professor
Graduate Programs: Biological Chemistry; Cancer Biology
Research Interests: Lysosome biology, mTORC1 signaling, lipid metabolism and sensing, organelle communications
Assistant Professor
Graduate Programs: Genetics, Development, and Disease
Research Interests: Metabolism, cell fate, development, placenta, pregnancy
Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Molecular and genetic analysis of the mammalian circadian clock system
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program: Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Impact of diabetes, obesity and weight loss on brain function.
Associate Professor
Graduate Programs: Cell and Molecular Biology; Immunology
Research Interests: Forward genetics, mucosal immunology, host-microbe interactions, innate immunity, vesicle trafficking
Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Mechanisms of dyslipidemia; obesity and eating behaviors
Assistant Professor
Graduate Program: Biological Chemistry
Research Interests: Mechanisms by which starvation leads to persistence in bacteria, identifying new regulatory metabolite-RNA and metabolite-protein interactions, peptide synthesis and protein semi-synthesis
Associate Professor
Graduate Programs: Cancer Biology; Genetics, Development & Disease
Research Interests: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and energy homeostasis
Associate Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Understanding at a cellular level the neural of control energy balance as well as glucose metabolism, and elucidating how these events may participate in human disease
Professor
Graduate Program: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Circadian Physiology, feeding and light entrainment of the circadian system, live cell/tissue real-time imaging, mouse models for human disorders caused by disruption/ disorganization/ misalignment of the circadian system, neural circuit controlling feeding and locomotor activity rhythms, pacemaker coupling
Professor
Graduate Program: Biological Chemistry
Research Interests: Lipid-mediated signaling reactions, topological regulation of transmembrane proteins, ferroptosis