Michael Cutaia, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division, University of Pennsylvania VA Medical Center
University of Pennsylvania VA Medical Center
Membrane ion transport systems in endothelial cell injury, specifically the role of Na/H exchangers in mammalian cells. Topics include: The role of changes in intracellular pH, Ca+2 and Na+ concentrations in the loss of viability in "ischemic" cell injury in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells; Regulation of oxidant production in the endothelium in situ at the organ system level using a rat isolated perfused lung preparation; The regulation of intracellular pH in normal versus malignant mammary epithelial cells.
Dawn M. Elliott, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Departments of Orthopaedic Surgury and Bioengineering
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Elliott joined Penn and the IME in November 1999 from Duke University where she received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Elliott studies the biomechanical function of orthopaedic soft tissues in health, aging, degeneration, injury and healing, with special focus on the intervertebral disc. She uses mathematical models and mechanical tests in combination with biochemical composition and microstructural measurements for studies of complex material behaviors of tissues, including anisotropy, nonlinearity, inhomogeneity, and viscoelasticity of tendon, ligament, meniscus, and articular cartilage.
Jonathan A. Epstein, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine (Cardiovascular Division)
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Epstein joined Penn in 1996. His research focuses on the genetic and molecular processes that regulate cardiac formation and function, with special attention to the pathways likely to be disrupted in human congenital heart disease, specifically, the transcriptional mechanisms of members of the Pax family of transcription factors.
Mark Goulian, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Goulian joined the Physics department at Penn in August 2000 from the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics at Rockefeller University. His research is focused on two-component signaling in bacteria. Dr. Goulian is exploring the regulation of endogenous cross-talk between signaling modules, the evolvability of two-component systems, and the implementation of synthetic signaling networks.
Thomas R. Kleyman, M.D.
Associate Professor
Departments of Medicine and Physiology
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Kleyman has been on the Penn faculty since 1988, including two years as head of the Department of Medicine at the VA Hospital. He will become an external IME Member when he leaves Penn in the fall, to become Chief of the Renal Division at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Kleyman¹s research interests are cellular and molecular characteristics and regulation of epithelial transport proteins, focussing on Na+ channels. Specific topics include: regulation of these channels by mechanical forces; functional interactions between Na+ channels and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) Cl- channels, and the identification and characterization of novel Na+ channel mutations that result in a gain of function.
Brian Litt, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Departments of Neurology and Bioengineering
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Litt joined Penn and the IME in July 1999, from Emory University School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on his clinical work as a neurologist specializing in the care and treatment of individuals with epilepsy. Projects include: (1) Interpretation of brain signals in disease. A major thrust at this time is seizure prediction from intracranial recordings, leading to the development of an implantable brain device to predict seizures and arrest their genesis prior to their clinical expression; (2) Localization of seizures in extratemporal epilepsy; (3) Minimally invasive tools for acquisition and display of high fidelity electrophysiologic recording; and (4) automated systems for intensive monitoring neurologic function.
Tom C. Lubensky, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania
A member of the Penn faculty since 1971, Dr. Lubensky investigates the elastic, dynamic, rheological, and statistical properties of soft materials including liquid crystals, complex fluids, polymer and biopolymer networks, and DNA-lipid complexes.
Vladimir Muzykantov, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology
Institute for Environmental Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Drug delivery in the bloodstream. Targeting of drugs, enzymes and genes to the vascular endothelium and to the lung (anti-oxidant protection, regulation of fibrinolysis and immune functions of lungs). Physiology and pathophysiology of vascular endothelium, mechanisms of oxidative injury to the endothelial cells. Endothelial surface determinants and heterogeneity.
Daniel J. Rader, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Departments of Medicine and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Laboratory-based research with translation into animal experiments and ultimately into patient-oriented research in the areas of lipoprotein metabolism and premature atherosclerosis. Specific topics include: Regulation of in vivo metabolism of lipoproteins by inflammatory and genetic factors; Molecular and cellular mechanisms by which HDL-associated proteins inhibit atherogenesis and induce regression of atherosclerotic lesions; Dietary and genetic regulation of hepatic lipoprotein production; Genetic factors associated with premature atherosclerotic disease and high or low levels of HDL cholesterol.
Kenneth Ryan
Junior Member of the Joseph Stokes Jr. Research Institute
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Dr. Ryan joined CHOP and the IME from Cambridge University in the UK in January of 2000. His research is in early heart development, mesoderm induction and patterning, neural induction, and cardiovascular disease. Current focus is on TGF-ß responsive gene promoter regulation, specifically, the early TGF-ß response gene Eomesodermin, one of the earliest markers of mesodermal cells in embryos which is required in the process of forming heart and skeletal muscle tissues.
Senior Research Investigator, Center for Bioinformatics
The Computational Biology and Informatics Laboratory (CBIL) builds databases and tools for the management and analysis of biological data. In particular, CBIL is interested in understanding gene regulation. The approach is to use the genomes and transcriptomes for human, mouse, and other organisms to identify genes, their expression patterns, and their regulatory sequences. Starting with a global schema for all phases of genomic data we can build system-specific views for data mining. Databases and tools can be found at www.pcbi.upenn.edu and www.allgenes.org.
