Faculty

DBBS mentors and educators are key to our training mission. Those who serve as primary mentors are DBBS Program Members, and others who participate in the educational mission are General Members. Learn about DBBS Faculty Membership »

To provide a supportive learning environment for our trainees, many DBBS-affiliated faculty have completed eight or more hours of CIMER-based mentorship training with a trained facilitator, as indicated below with a profile badge.

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Find faculty of interest by entering a name, program or expertise keyword in the search bar; selecting a PhD program from the drop-down menu; or selecting the last name initial from the A-Z filter.

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Laura Ibanez, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
Our lab is focused on developing new, minimally invasive tools for rapid and accurate diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases during the pre-symptomatic phases and predicting of outcomes during the acute phase of ischemic strokes.

Key words

Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD

Professor

Program affiliation
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Neurosciences
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Molecular Cell Biology

Research summary
Understanding the molecular mechanism of aging and longevity in mammals

Key words
aging, longevity, hypothalamus, metabolism, NAD biosynthesis, Sirt1, NAMPT, NAD World

Masatoshi Inoue, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Cell Biology
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology

Research summary
Our research program integrates protein engineering and systems neuroscience to address previously inaccessible questions about brain function, particularly in the area of social behavior.

Key words
Social Behavior, Protein engineering, Optics, Neural dynamics, Genetically encoded optical tools

Sayaka Inoue, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Molecular Cell Biology

Research summary
We aim to understand neural basis controlling behaviors in females across the lifespan

Key words
neurobiology, behavior, hormone, plasticity, maturation, aging, optogenetics, calcium imaging, and circuit tracing

Joseph Ippolito, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

Program affiliation
Cancer Biology
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Cell Biology
Neurosciences

Research summary
Precision medicine through metabolism-based imaging and therapy: from laboratory to clinical translation

Key words
cancer, metabolism, imaging, sex differences, body composition

Meredith Jackrel, PhD

Associate Professor

Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Molecular Cell Biology
Neurosciences

Research summary
Protein folding and misfolding, and the engineering and application of protein disaggregases to reverse misfolding

Key words
protein folding and misfolding; intrinsically disordered proteins, phase separation, and neurodegenerative disease; protein chaperones; protein engineering; amyloid; yeast models of protein misfolding

Sanjay Jain, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

Program affiliation
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science

Research summary
Interactions between the nervous and genitourinary systems during development, molecular basis for heterogeneity in progenitors and their lineage commitments in the GU tract, injury and regeneration using animal models, mechanisms of malformations using organoids from iPSCs

Key words
cell fate, gene expression, genomics, disease models, growth factor signaling, kidney, bladder, innervation, stem cells, organogenesis, nervous system development, birth defects

Umang Jain, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Molecular Cell Biology
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology

Research summary
I am interested in studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which gut mycobiota (fungi) modulates local and systemic health with a goal to develop better biomarkers and therapeutic approaches.

Key words

Aimee James, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor

Program affiliation
Human and Statistical Genetics
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary
Cancer prevention and control, health disparities and community-based research

Key words

James Janetka, PhD

Professor

Program affiliation
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology
Cancer Biology
Molecular Cell Biology
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Research summary
The rational structure-based drug design and synthesis for cancer and infectious disease

Key words
protease, kinase, cancer, infection, lectin, chemistry, synthesis, drug discovery, peptidomimetic, inhibitor

Joanna Jankowsky, PhD

Professor

Program affiliation
Neurosciences
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Molecular Cell Biology

Research summary
Cellular and molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease

Key words
Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegeneration, amyloid, tau, mouse models, risk factors, lysosome, gene therapy

Andrew Janowski, MD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis

Research summary
Characterization of human diseases associated with novel viral infections

Key words
Virology, microbiology, pathogen discovery, host-virus interactions, viral immunity, astroviruses, encephalitis, myocarditis, viral RNA structures

Silvia Jansen, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Molecular Cell Biology
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology

Research summary
we study the molecular mechanisms that regulate the architecture, dimensions and dynamics of actin filament networks, and tune them to support essential cellular functions including cell migration, intracellular trafficking and cytokinesis.

Key words
actin cytoskeleton, microtubule, single molecule, live cell imaging, protein transport, Golgi, confocal microscopy

Ali Javaheri, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Molecular Cell Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Research summary

Key words

Reyka Jayasinghe, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
General

Research summary
Using single-cell sequencing and spatial imaging to learn about cancer initiation, progression and treatment.

Key words
scRNA, spatial transcriptomics, computational oncology, sequencing

Joseph Jez, PhD

Spencer T Olin Professor and HHMI Professor

Program affiliation
Plant and Microbial Biosciences
Biochemistry Biophysics and Structural Biology

Research summary
Exploring regulatory networks in metabolism – structural biology and biochemistry of plants and microbes

Key words
biochemistry, enzymology, plant biology, protein engineering, protein structure, structural biology

Shu (Joy) Jiang, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Cancer Biology

Research summary
Development of novel statistical methods for precision medicine

Key words
Biostatistics; Image analysis; Dynamic risk prediction; Multistate models

Peter Jin

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Computational and Systems Biology
Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Human and Statistical Genetics

Research summary
We use human genetic, functional genomic, and bioinformatic approaches to understand the consequence of genetic variants underlying diseases

Key words
Functional genomics, bioinformatics, human genetics, data science, rare diseases, structural variation

Ramon Jin, MD,PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology
Molecular Cell Biology
Cancer Biology

Research summary
I am interested in precursor conditions or metaplasias in the stomach and esophagus (i.e Barrett’s esophagus) as these lesions are key to understanding the formation of gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas.

Key words
Intestinal metaplasia, gastroesophageal cancer, Barrett’s esophagus, GI development, Organoids

Tanner Johanns, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor

Program affiliation
Immunology
Cancer Biology

Research summary
Novel immunotherapeutic strategies to treat solid tumors

Key words

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