— Office of Graduate Studies — Programs — Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (IGPBS) — IGPBS Faculty — Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology Faculty

Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology Faculty

Faculty Departments

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Cellular and Integrative Physiology
College of Dentistry
College of Pharmacy
College of Public Health
Eppley Institute
Genetics Cell Biology and Anatomy
Internal Medicine

Munroe-Meyer Institute
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology
Pediatrics
Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience
Radiation Oncology
Surgery

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Faculty

	Pooneh Bagher, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology Research focus: Vascular function; calcium imaging; extreme physiology.
	Hamid Band, MD, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Regulation of receptor signaling by endocytic traffic; Cbl-family and CHIP ubiquitin ligases; EHD-family endocytic recycling regulators; mouse genetic models; cancer and stem cell biology.
	Vimla Band, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Delineate molecular mechanisms of early steps in transformation of mammary epithelial cells with the goal of identifying novel molecular diagnostic/prognostic markers and potential therapy targets of breast cancers.
	Robert Bennett, PhD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (DEM) Research focus: Antifibrotic effects of the hormone relaxin and related peptides; expression and signaling of relaxin receptors; internalization and degradation of relaxin, insulin and related hormones; the role of relaxin in adipose function.
	Raymond Bergan, MD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Oncology and Hematology Research focus: Understanding how cancer cells regulate transformation to a high motility metastatic phenotype, and how that process can be therapeutically modulated.
	Tadayoshi Bessho, PhD Associate Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Molecular mechanism of DNA interstrand crosslink repair in mammalian cells.
	Kishor K. Bhakat, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Understanding the molecular mechanisms and alter the damage repair pathways and gene expression in tumor cells to promote therapy resistance and tumor recurrence, and develop second line of interventions to prevent tumor recurrence and metastasis.
	Chengfeng (Andy) Bi, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Oncology and Hematology Research focus: Pathogenesis and molecular mechanism of hematological malignancies.
	Jennifer Black, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Colon cancer; endometrial cancer; pancreatic cancer; cell signaling (kinases and phosphatases) cell cycle regulation; control of protein translation in cancer; protein kinase C; PP2A.
	Sandipan Brahma, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Mechanisms regulating chromatin structure, how cells use these mechanisms to establish and maintain gene expression programs, and the implications of these mechanisms for human health.
	Siddappa Byrareddy, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience Research focus: Understanding and developing therapeutics for emerging/re-emerging viruses, focusing on HIV, Zika and SARS-CoV-2.
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	Rey Carabeo, PhD Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology Research focus: Cytoskeletal dynamics and mechanostransduction in Chlamydia invasion and pathogen modulation of host epithelial cell-extracellular matrix interaction; Transcriptomic studies of Chlamydia stress adaption.
	Kishore Challagundla, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Role of extra cellular vesicles (EV's) and the non-coding RNAs in affecting immunotherapy and escaping immune surveillance in pediatric cancers, in particular neuroblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia.
	Gurumurthy Channabasavaiah, PhD Professor, Department of Genetics, Call Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Development and improvement of transgenic and genome editing technologies; development of versatile animal model resources and tools.
	Pi-Wan Cheng, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Study of the mechanism of altered glycosylation in human disease.
	Suyong Choi, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Phosphoinositide signaling pathways in cancer and immunology.
	Leah Cook, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology Research focus: Investigation of immune interactions within the tumor bone microenvironment that contribute to bone metastatic prostate cancer; identifying novel immunotherapeutic targets for treating and curing metastatic cancers.
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	Kaustubh Datta, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis.
	Rebecca Deegan, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Role of free radicals signaling to transform fibroblasts and inflammatory cells in normal tissue, which results in damage to these tissues; understanding the mechanisms by which ROS promote radiation induced fibrosis and prostate cancer progression.
	Punita Dhawan, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Development of novel therapeutic targets for Gastrointestinal Cancer progression and chemoresistance; Role of signaling pathways and cancer stem cells involved in this process using cell culture, mouse and organoid models.
	Bin Duan, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Cardiology Research focus: Integrate novel biomaterials, advanced biofabrication of tissue engineering to create multi-scale complexity within engineered tissue to understand the fundamentals of cell-material interactions and mimic the native tissue for tissue regeneration.
	Andrew Dudley, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Mechanisms that regulate the development and homeostasis of musculoskeletal tissue using methods from embryology, molecular biology, cell biology, genetics and tissue engineering, with the goal of generating novel therapies for regenerative medicine.
	Anna Dunaevsky, PhD Professor, Department of Neurological Sciences Research focus: Synaptic plasticity and neuron-glia interactions in neurocognitive disorders.
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	James Eudy, PhD Associate Professor, Director of UNMC DNA Microarray and Sequencing Core Facility, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Next Generation DNA Sequencing strategies for rare Mendelian disease gene identification and functional genomic technologies; biomedical interest in cancer, cardiovascular disease and virology.
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	Gargi Ghosal, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Understand the basic science underlying replication stress response in cancer and aging, identify new targets and bio-markers for cancer therapy and facilitate the development of strategies to overcome drug resistance and improve cancer therapies.
	Karen Gould, PhD Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Estrogen receptor alpha regulation of B cell receptor signaling, B cell fate, and lupus pathogenesis. B cell transcriptomics and genomics.
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	Kyle Hewitt, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy Research focus: Hematopoitic stem and progenitor cell control of blood production during development and/or regeneration following disease or injury; transcriptional and epigentic mechanisms that cause hematologic disorders; tissue and cellular heterogeneity; CRISPR/Cas9-mediated disruption of gene regulatory networks and cell signaling mechanisms.
	Michael A. (Tony) Hollingsworth, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Basic and translational research in pancreatic cancer, including investigation of the biology of tumor progress, discovery and validation of biomarkers of early detection and disease progression, development and testing of novel therapeutics, including targeted therapies and immunotherapies.
	R. Katherine (Kate) Hyde, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Understand the mechanisms that regulate leukemia development; develop treatments for hematological malignancies.
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	Maneesh Jain, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Development of genetically engineered antibody fragments for improved radioimmunotherapy for solid tumors; development of serum assays for the early diagnosis of lethal pancreatic cancer.
	Keith R. Johnson, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: The role the cell adhesion molecules (cadherins) play in metastasis.
	Shantaram S. Joshi, PhD Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Improve therapy for human B lymphocytic malignancies and pediatric cancers by means of translational research involving molecular characterization of progressive/therapy resistant malignant cells.
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	Georgette D. Kanmogne, PhD, MPH Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience Research focus: HIV/AIDS, vascular biology and cell signaling.
	Adam R. Karpf, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Ovarian cancer biology and therapeutics; Cancer epigenetics.
	Kusum Kharbanda, PhD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research focus: Alcohol liver injury with emphasis on alcohol's deleterious effect in altering the methionine metabolic pathway and lowering the ratio of the methyl donor, SAM, to its product, SAH.
	Tammy Kielian, PhD Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology Research focus: Host-pathogen interactions, immunology, neuroimmunology, translational therapeutics.
	So-Youn Kim, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research focus: Oncofertility, cachexia, ovarian cancer.
	Mohan Krishnan, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Pathophysiology of Tranfusion-associated Necrotizing Enterocolitis (TA-NEC) and Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome(SIRS) in premature infants.
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	Brian Lowes, MD, PhD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Cardiology Research focus: Novel education clinical trainees and education program with a goal to develop clinicians and scientists in sub-Saharan Africa.
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	Luis Marky, PhD Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Biophysical chemistry and molecular forces that control the conformational stability and flexibility of nucleic acids, including Okazaki fragments, hairpin loops, intramolecular triplexes, G-quadruplexes, C-quadruplexes, and three- & four-arm DNA junctions and their interaction with drugs.
	Grinu Mathew, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Genetic and epigentic regulation of prostate cancer metastasis.
	Paras Kumar Mishra, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology Research focus: MicroRNomics of cardiovascular diseases and diabetic cardiomyopathy.
	DJ Murry, PharmD Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science Research focus: Ways to individualize drug therapy using pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenomics information; from in vitro metabolism and transport studies, animal pharmacokinetic studies, to clinical studies evaluating drug therapy in patients.
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	Amarnath (Amar) Natarajan, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Developing novel target and mechanism specific therapeutics.
	Ali Nawshad, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry Research focus: Transforming Growth Factor (TGF) ß signaling during palate development; mechanisms of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) by TGFß in HNSCC; role of TGFß signaling during dentinogenesis.
	Caroline Ng, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology Research focus: Biology and pathogenesis of Plasmodium falciparum, genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying drug resistance.
	Robert B. Norgren, PhD Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Use of nonhuman primate genomics to better understand human genetic disease.
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	Michael M. Ouellette, PhD Professor, Department of Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research focus: Molecular mechanisms that determine the lifespan of human cells, including telomeres and telomerase. Role of the small GTPases K-Ras and Rac1 in the development of pancreatic cancer and its response to conventional therapies.
	David Oupicky, PhD Professor, College of Pharmacy Research focus: Design on multifunctional nanoparticles and polymers with applications in the treatment of metastatic cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and acute kidney injury.
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	Youri Pavlov, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Cellular systems of mutagenesis and antimutagenesis.
	Gurudutt N. Pendyala, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology Research focus: Animal models of addiction, sex differences in drug abuse; Synaptic biology; Epigenetic regulation, role of microRNA's at the synapse in drug addiction, mechanisms and role in gene regulation; Prenatal drug exposure and synaptic development; Integrative Systems Biology approach to understand synaptic aberrations in chronic drug abuse; High input technologies-genomics, mass spectrometry-based proteomics and metabolomics.
	Aimin Peng, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry Research focus: Cell cycle regulation and the DNA damage response (DDR); cellular recover process from DNA damage; protein phosphatase-dependent cell cycle and DDR regulation and its implication for cancer progression and therapy.
	Palsamy Periyasamy, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience Research focus: Investigate the epigenetic changes that occur during HIV-1 infection and drug abuse, leading to glial cells (microglia and astrocytes) activation; identify potential therapeutic strategies for HAND treatment.
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	Subu Ramanathan, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Principles that underpin how cells with divergent sizes pack into epithelial tissue and how alterations in cellular packing influence tissue homeostasis.
	Sutapa Ray, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics Research focus: Molecular mechanisms of pediatric brain and central nervous system tumors initiation, maintenance, progression and drug resistance.
	William Rizzo, MD Professor, Department of Pediatrics Research focus: Sjogren-Larsson Syndrome and other inherited metabolic diseases.
	Kerry Rodabaugh, MD Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research focus: Gynecologic oncology.
	Don Ronning, PhD Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Research focus: Discovery and development of anti-infective and anti-cancer compounds.
	Jordan Rowley, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy Research focus: 3D organization of DNA within the nucleus.
	Shyamal K. Roy, PhD Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Cellular & Integrative Physiology Research focus: Endocrine regulation of follicular development, growth factors, signal transduction in ovarian cells and biochemistry of granulosa cells.
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	Micah Schott, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Research focus: Cell biology of lipids in metabolic disease.
	Polina Shcherbakova, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Mechanisms controlling genome stability in eukaryotic cells, particularly the functions of DNA polymerases, DNA replication fidelity and the relationship between DNA polymerase defects and cancer.
	Jawed Siddiqui, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Bone metastasis, bone microenvironment, chemokines and cytokines, osteoimmunology, bone-muscle cross-talk, and cancer therapeutics.
	Paul Sorgen, PhD Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research focus: Advancing our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of gap junction regulation in the heart, with particular interest and expertise in protein-protein interactions mediated by the carboxylterminal domain of connexins.
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	Tahir Tahirov, PhD Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Reveal the structure basis of the mechanisms covering the key stages in the expression and duplication/repair of genes and to learn how the disease-related mutations in proteins disrupt these key processes.
	Wallace B. Thoreson, PhD Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Research focus: Visual information processing by the retina; electrophysiology and optical imaging techniques to study transmission at ribbon synapses of rod and cone photoreceptors.
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	James Wahl, PhD Professor, College of Dentistry Research focus: Understand the role of desmosomes play in maintaining the normal phenotype of squamous epithelial tissues and to determine if their alteration during tumorigenesis influences cell motility, metastasis and signaling.
	Shibiao Wan, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy Research focus: Bioinformatics, machine learning and computational biology, especially in single cell analysis, multi-omics analysis, spatial transcriptomics, cancer research, intelligent healthcare and precision medicine.
	Hanjun Wang, MD Associate Professor, Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology Research focus: Cardiovascular reflexes during exercise; neural control mechanisms underlying the exaggerated cardiovascular response and hyperventilation during exercise in the chronic heart failure state.
	Nicholas Woods, PhD Assistant Professor, Eppley Cancer Institute Research focus: Systems biology based analysis of cancer signaling pathways.
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	Jingwei Xie, PhD Professor, Department of Surgery-Transplant Research focus: Synthesis, surface modification, self-assembly of materials at nanometer scale to address problems in the field of tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and drug/gene delivery.
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	Ying Yan, PhD Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology Research focus: Tumorigenesis, cancer progression and metastasis, and development of new anticancer agents.
	Sowmya Yelamanchili, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology Research focus: MicroRNAs in neurodegenerative diseases, HIV, Parkinson's Disease.
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	Peng Zhong, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Neurological Sciences Research focus: Relationship between sleep disturbance and neurodegenerative disorders to learn how to repair the diseased nervous systems.
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