Faculty
The Gaffen lab takes a basic science approach to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underline cytokine-mediated inflammation, whether for good (prevent infections) or bad (promote autoimmune pathology). Our main focus is IL-17, which is produced mainly by T cells and other lymphocytes. We study IL-17 in antifungal mucosal and systemic host defense, particularly in response to the commensal fungus Candida albicans.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Kaposi’s sarcoma-associate herpesvirus (KSHV), AIDS-related malignancies, Cancer metabolism, Angiogenesis, Innate immunity, Microbiota, microRNAs, Genomics Epigenetics, RNA epigenetics, high-throughput screening (drug and genomic), systems biology
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The current focus of Dr. Gelhaus' research is on the mechanism of these electrophilic fatty acids in asthma. Asthma is a complicated disease that much like cancer is comprised of numerous disease states and phenotypes.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Genetics of aging, reproduction, lipid metabolism, immunity, protein homeostasis, age-related disease biology
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Ghuman’s research focuses on how our brain turns what falls upon our eyes into the rich meaningful experience that we perceive in the world around us. Specifically, his lab studies the neural basis of the visual perception of objects, faces, words, and social and affective visual images in the real-world.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
How do neural circuits transform our thoughts into actions? I study neural circuits in the basal ganglia, a multifunctional brain region that plays a role in the regulation of movement, learning, motivation, and reward. My specific interests include how neural circuits in the basal ganglia are altered by experience and why certain circuits breakdown in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. My laboratory uses a variety of techniques including electrophysiology, optogenetics, histology, and behavior. We use mice as a model organism to understand how activity of specific basal ganglia circuits relates to motor control in both health and in animal models of movement disorders.
My research focuses on designing, implementing, and testing new sensing systems. I typically focus on repurposing and extending the capabilities of sensors and devices around us. This approach allows us to add various functionalities to our daily-use devices with negligible hardware modifications. I am interested in solving problems in various domains, including health sensing, technologies for global development, and novel interactions.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Pain continues to be a major health problem with tremendous financial, social and psychological costs. Conservative estimates put the cost of pain to the US economy well into the hundreds of billions of dollars per year as a result of associated medical expenses and lost wages with a significant minority of Americans suffering from persistent or recurrent pain syndromes throughout the most productive years of their lives. Just one pain syndrome, migraine headache, directly impacts 20% of the adult population. Yet, there remain few if any effective therapies devoid of serious side effects that are currently available to treat pain, particularly persistent or recurrent pain associated with syndromes.
The clinical features of a number of pain syndromes serve as the organizing focus of research in the Gold laboratory. These observations include the following: 1) many pain syndromes are unique to a particular part of the body such as the head in migraine, the temporomandibular joint in temporomandibular disorder (TMD), or the colon in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); 2) many pain syndromes such as migraine, TMD and IBD occur with a greater prevalence, severity and/or duration in women than in men; 3) many pain syndromes are associated with changes in the excitability of primary afferent neurons; 4) there are time-dependent changes in the mechanisms underlying pain syndromes; and 5) the type of injury, (i.e., inflammation or nerve injury), are differentially sensitive to therapeutic interventions. These observations led to specific hypotheses that are tested in ongoing studies in the Gold laboratory. These include 1) characterizing the mechanisms underlying inflammation-induced changes in the evoked Ca2+ transients in sensory neurons, 2) characterizing the mechanisms underlying the initiation of migraine attacks, 3) characterizing the influence of estrogen on the excitability of spinal and trigeminal ganglion neurons, 4) characterizing the role of changes in inhibitory receptors, in particular GABA, in injury-induced increases in sensitivity, and 5) identification of ways to maximize the therapeutic utility of local anesthetics. The ultimate goal of these studies is to identify novel targets for the development of therapeutic interventions for the treatment of pain.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Gomez lab studies the functional role of epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms in controlling fundamental properties of vascular smooth muscle cells. Using a combinatorial approach of epigenomic (Cut & Cut&Tag, ATACseq), transcriptomic (RNAseq), and functional assays, we aim to characterize the causal relationship between chromatin states or non-coding RNA signatures establishment and maintenance of vascular cell lineage identity and functions.
*Currently accepting students
Dr. Gottschalk's laboratory uses quantitative approaches to understand healthy versus aberrant regulation of inflammation with major projects including (1) computational modeling of signaling-to-transcription in macrophages, (2) interrogating tissue-specific macrophage signaling, and (3) dissecting molecular determinants of monocyte and macrophage inflammatory function. The lab uses experimental approaches, together with both data-driven and mechanistic modeling to integrate transcription factor activity, phosphorylation, and transcriptomic data to explore signaling mechanisms that shape stimulus-specific macrophage function. These efforts will yield insights into dysregulation of signaling and inflammation, while informing therapeutic strategies.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Neurophysiology of basal ganglia system related to psychiatric disorders.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Combining NMR spectroscopy w/Biophysics, Biochem&Chem to investigate cellular processes at the molecular & atomic levels in relation to human disease
Dr. Pulkit's current research includes fundamental and practical understanding of circuits and systems for processing and communicating information; flow of information in neural systems and neural interfaces (and use of this understanding to design radically new neural interfaces); and understanding information and its use by exploring the union of control and communication.
*Currently accepting students
Dr. Guo's lab is focused on the viral pathogenesis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and antiviral discovery. HBV is the etiologic agent of viral hepatitis B, a disease affecting approximately 300 million people worldwide who suffer the high risk of liver failure, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Dr. Guo's laboratory aims at understanding the molecular mechanisms of HBV DNA replication and morphogenesis, with special focus on the biosynthesis and regulation of HBV covalently closed circular (ccc) DNA, which is the persistent form of HBV infection, and is the culprit for the failure of current antiviral therapies.
*Currently accepting graduate students