UNMC | Faculty & Staff

The Faculty and their Research Interests

PRIMARY FACULTY
Surinder K. Batra	Professor and Chairman, Distinguished Helen Freytag Professor of Cancer Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Associate Director for Training and Education, Eppley Institute; Ph.D., Kurukshetra University (India), 1983. Structure/Function Analysis of Tumor-Associated Genes.
Steve Caplan	Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., Hebrew University (Jerusalem), 1998. Molecular mechanisms controlling endocytic recycling and internalization.
William G. Chaney	Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1979. Biological function of complex carbohydrates.
Pi-Wan Cheng	Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, 1975. Regulation of mucin glycan biosynthesis in lung diseases and cancer.
Judith K. Christman	Stokes-Shackleford Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Director, Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope Core Facility; Ph.D., Columbia University, 1967. Gene regulation; DNA methylation.
G. Stanley Cox	Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1973. Chromatin structure; DNA methylation; Transcription factors; and Regulation of gene expression.
Kaustubh Datta	Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (India), 1999. Molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis.
Maneesh Jain	Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., IMTECH (India), 2002. Development of diagnostics and therapeutics against cancer and allied diseases.
David W. Li	Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ph.D., University of Washington, 1992. Molecular and cellular mechanisms of the ocular diseases (cataractogenesis, glaucoma, and retina degeneration) and cancer.
Ming-Fong Lin	Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., State University of New York, Buffalo, 1983. Tyrosine phosphorylation and Redox signal transduction in androgen regulation of cell proliferation and carcinogenesis.
Richard G. MacDonald	Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Vermont, 1981. Transmembrane signaling and regulation of cell growth.
Parmender P. Mehta	Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., Kobe University, Kobe, Japan, 1983. Connexins and cell-to-cell contact-dependent intercellular communication.
Justin Mott	Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; M.D., St. Louis University, 2004; Ph.D., St. Louis University, 2003. Control of apoptotic signaling in liver cancer of the biliary tree, namely cholangiocarcinoma.
Paul Sorgen	Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Florida, 1999. Structure, function, and regulation of cardiac gap junctions.
Laurey Steinke	Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Director, Protein Structure Core Facility; Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1987. Meta-proteomics and metabolomics of microbial communities.
Melissa Teoh-Fitzgerald	Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Alberta, Canada, 2005. Understanding the role of redox signaling in the tumor microenvironment that drives the oncogenic hepatocyte growth factor, HGF/c-Met activation during epithelial-fibroblast interaction in breast cancer.
RESEARCH FACULTY
David Klinkebiel	Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Director, Epigenomics Core Facility; Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1990. Influence of DNA methylation on gene expression and the association with cancer development.
Naava Naslavsky	Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., Hebrew University (Jerusalem), 1998. Control of receptor localization to the plasma membrane is central to normal cell function, and dysregulation is the underlying cause for diseases as diverse as atherosclerosis, diabetes and cancer.
Moorthy Ponnusamy	Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Madras (India), 2005. Mucins in ovarian cancer; cancer stem cells.
EMERITUS FACULTY
Margaret L. Heidrick	Emeritus Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Nebraska, 1971. Aging and immunology; Cytochrome P-450.
John F. Hofert	Emeritus Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1963. Metabolic alterations in diabetes mellitus; Cytochrome P-4502E1.
Robert F. Ramaley	Emeritus Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1964. Microbial enzymology of bacterial sporulation and the thermostable enzymes of bacteria.
COURTESY FACULTY
Sudhakar Akulapalli, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Boystown/Creighton University Hamid Band, Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute Vimla Band, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy Robert G. Bennett, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Internal Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Gloria Borgstahl,Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute Michael Brattain, Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute Shilpa Buch, Ph.D., Professor, Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience Carol A. Casey, Ph.D., Professor, Internal Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Pawel Ciborowski, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience Dominic Cosgrove, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Boys Town National Research Hospital John S. Davis, Ph.D., Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pharmacology; Director, Research & Development, Olson Center for Women's Health Jixin Dong, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Eppley Institute Terrence Donohue, Ph.D., Professor, Internal Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Anna Dunaevsky, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Munroe-Meyer Institute Jered C. Garrison, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences Chittibabu Guda, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy; Director, Center for Genomics & Bioinformatics Duygu Dee Harrison-Findik, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Internal Medicine Michael Hollingsworth,Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute Keith Johnson, Ph.D., Professor, Oral Biology, College of Dentistry Kusum Kharbanda, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Internal Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Jodi Kreiling, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemistry, UNO Robert Lewis,Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute Oksana Lockridge,Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute Xu Luo,Ph.D., Associate Professor, Eppley Institute Luis Marky, Ph.D., Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences Michel Ouellette, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Eppley Institute Youri Pavlov, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Eppley Institute Angie Rizzino,Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute James M. Salhany, Ph.D., Professor, Internal Medicine-Administration Pankaj Singh, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Eppley Institute Rakesh Singh, Ph.D., Professor, Pathology and Microbiology Joyce Solheim,Ph.D., Professor, Eppley Institute Mark Swanson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biology, UNO William E. Tapprich, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Biology,UNO Kay-Uwe Wagner, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Program Director for MBEPP Guangshun Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pathology and Microbiology Jing (Jenny) Wang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Eppley Institute