Faculty

Denise E. Kirschner, Ph.D. - CSB CO-DIRECTOR, PROFESSOR OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

Research interests: Host pathogen interactions during persistent infections with emphasis on Tuberculosis

Email: kirschne@umich.edu

Website: Kirschner Lab

Gary D. Luker, M.D. - CSB CO-DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF RADIOLOGY, BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, AND MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

Research interests: DNA virus and cancer cell pathogenesis; non-invasive image analysis of signaling pathways and disease in living mice

Email: gluker@umich.edu

Website: Gary Luker

Jennifer J. Linderman, Ph.D. - PROFESSOR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Research interests: Receptor-mediated cell behavior, G protein coupled receptors, signal transduction, mathematical modeling, immunology, cell and tissue engineering

Email: linderma@umich.edu

Website: Linderman Group

Craig J. Galban, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Radiology Core Director, Center for Molecular Imaging Research Investigator, Biomedical Engineering

Research areas: Biomedical Imaging, Functional and Molecular Imaging

Email: cgalban@umich.edu

Website: Biomedical Engineering

Charles R. Meyer, Ph.D. - Professor Emeritus, Biomedical Engineering, Professor Emeritus, Radiology

Research areas: Multimodality Registration and its application to measurment of tumor therapeutic response

Email: cmeyer@umich.edu

Website: Biomedical Engineering

Brian D. Ross, Ph.D. - THE ROGER A. BERG, M.D., RADIOLOGY RESEARCH PROFESSOR

Research interests: Multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and imaging of intact biological systems, with an emphasis in experimental neuro-oncology, oxidative stress, and gene therapy

Email: bdross@umich.edu

Website: Department of Biological Chemistry

Santiago Schnell, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Research Associate Professor of Computational Medicine and Biology

Research interests: Molecular mechanisms of b-cell dysfunction, the role of macromolecular crowding in cell physiology, mechanism of cellular guidance in cell migration

Email: schnells@umich.edu

Website: Schnell Lab

Patrick Schloss, Ph.D. - ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

Research interests: Analysis of host-microbiome interactions; computational microbial ecology

Email: pschloss@umich.edu

Website: Patrick Schloss

Shuichi Takayama, Ph.D. - PROFESSOR DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Research interests: High throughput cell microenvironment engineering and gene expression/knockdown (RNAi), Endothelium and cancer metastasis on a chip, Embryonic stem cells, cancer, and 3D cultures, Muscle tissue engineering, Lung on a chip, Nanopatterning nanofluidics and single molecule DNA analysis, Computerized microfluidics and flow cytometry, Microfluidic in vitro fertilization, Spatio-temporal cell signaling

Email: takayama@umich.edu

Website: The Micro/Nano/Molecular Biotechnology Lab

Thomas Duen-Shyr Wang, M.D., Ph.D. - Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine

Research interests: Molecular imaging of gastrointestinal diseases, development of molecular probes to target detection of pre-cancerous lesions, novel optical imaging instrumentation for high resolution imaging, advance endoscopic imaging, and intra-vital microscopy

Email: thomaswa@umich.edu

Website: Directory Listing

Steven L Kunkel, Ph.D. - Pathology Research Endowed Professor, Professor of Pathology, Co-Director, Division of General Pathology and Senior Associate Dean for Research, Medical School

Research interests: Pathology, Immunoregulation, inflammatory cell mediator production, and molecular biology

Email: slkunkel@umich.edu

Website: Medical School, Senior Associate Dean

Cory M Hogaboam, Ph.D. - Professor of Pathology, Medical School

Research interests: Cellular and molecular immune mechanisms that regulate the pulmonary growth and persistence of fungus (Aspergillus fumigatus), idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs).

Email: hogaboam@umich.edu

Website: Department of Pathology Directory

Krishna Garikipati, Ph.D. - Professor, Mechanical Engineering; Professor, Mathematics

Research interests: Prof. Garikipati's work draws from nonlinear mechanics, materials physics, applied mathematics and numerical methods. He is particularly interested in problems of mathematical biology, biophysics and the mechanics of biology. Current research interests include: (1) growth and remodeling or biological tissue, cell adhesion and cell mechanics (2) stress-defect interactions and transport in semiconductor/microelectronic materials, and (3) multiscale aspects of material behavior with an emphasis on plasticity at small scales.

Email: krishna@umich.edu

Website: Homepage of Dr. Krishna Garikipati

Marisa Cristina Eisenberg, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Assistant Professor of Mathematics, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Research interests: Mathematical modeling, parameter identifiabilty and estimation, infectious diseases, cholera and waterborne diseases, and cancer modeling.

Email: marisae@umich.edu

Website: School of Public Health - Department of Epidemiology

Victoria Booth, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Mathematics, Anesthesiology

Research interests: My research in mathematical and computational neuroscience focuses on constructing and analyzing biophysical models of neurons and neuronal networks in order to quantitatively probe experimental hypotheses and provide experimentally-testable predictions. In my collaborative projects, my goal is to provide continuous reciprocal interactions between modeling and experimental results that will allow for maximum impact of mathematical modeling in advancing scientific understanding.

Email: vbooth@umich.edu

Website: Mathematics at the University of Michigan

Nouri Neamati, Ph.D. - John G. Searle Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry

Research interests: Structure- and ligand-based drug design Cellular and molecular pharmacology Preclinical drug development. Select targets of interest include: ER stress (GRP78 and PDI); DNA-binding proteins (HIV-1 integrase, APE-1); Protein-protein interactions (HIV-1 integrase-LEDGF/p75, integrin _ v _ 3 , BCL2, MDM2-p53); GPCRs (CXCR2, CXCR4); Mitochonrial-targeted agents; Transcription factors (STAT3, Nrf2)

Email: neamati@umich.edu

Website: College of Pharmacy

Jianping Fu, Ph.D. - ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Research interests: Bio-Microelectromechanical and -Nanoelectromechanical Systems (BioMEMS/NEMS), Lab-on-Chip (LOC), mechanobiology, stem cell biology, and applying microfabrication technology to illuminate biological systems at both the molecular and cellular levels.

Email: jpfu@umich.edu

Website: Integrated Biosystems and Biomechanics Laboratory

Barry J. Grant, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics

Research interests: Nature’s nanomachines: molecular motors and switches, which lie at the heart of important biological processes, from the division and growth of cells to the muscular movement of organisms. A major portion of our research is focused on deciphering how these fascinating proteins work, and how to manipulate them for industrial and medical advantage.

Email: bjgrant@umich.edu

Website: The Grant Lab

Allen Liu, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering; Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Research interests:Mechanobiology and mechanotransduction, bottom-up synthetic biology, droplet microfluidics, systems biology of endocytosis and cell migration.

Email: allenliu@umich.edu

Website: The Liu lab

Daniel Forger, Ph.D. - Professor of Mathematics

Research interests: My research is devoted to understanding biological clocks. I use techniques from many fields, including computer simulation, detailed mathematical modeling and mathematical analysis, to understand biological timekeeping. My research aims to generate predictions that can be experimentally verified.

Email: forger@umich.edu

Website: U of M Dept of Mathematics : Daniel Forger, Ph.D.

Kevin Wood, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Physics and Biophysics

Research interests: The role of environmental dynamics in shaping and potentially controlling the distribution of phenotypes in bacterial populations; The interplay between multi-drug interactions and ecological dynamics in bacteria (with S.aureus and E.faecalis as model systems) and human cancer cells (with melanoma as a model system); The role of network structure and critical dynamics in determining the responses of large statistical mechanical systems, including those close to and far from equilibrium, to single and combined perturbations; The effect of network topology on the responses of genome-scale metabolic networks to combined changes in environmental conditions (such as nutrient availability) and intracellular network dynamics (such as flux through a particular pathway); Synchronization and pattern formation in complex networks and self-replicating populations.

Email: kbwood@umich.edu

Website: Wood Lab

Qiong Yang, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Biophysics

Research interests: We employ interdisciplinary approaches for a quantitative understanding of self-organizing behaviors of single cells and single molecules during early embryo development.

Email: qiongy@umich.edu

Website: Yang Laboratory - Biophysics of Living Systems

Gustavo Rosania, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research interests:

  • Exploring the application of in silico models, such as the cell-based molecular transport simulations we use in our experiments, to pharmaceutical discovery and development
  • Exploring cell-based molecular transport simulations as a way to probe the role of microscopic drug transport as a determinant of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion
  • Using mathematical and experimental approaches to explore how specific chemical moieties can be used to massively target small-molecule drugs to specific cell types in animals and humans
  • Dissemination of free modeling and simulation tools to help educate the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists and medicinal chemists and to facilitate the development of drugs neglected by the pharmaceutical industry

Email: grosania@umich.edu

Website: Rosania Laboratory

Vijay G Subramanian, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Research interests: My main research interests are in stochastic modeling, communications, information theory and applied mathematics. A large portion of my past work has been on probabilistic analysis of communication networks, especially analysis of scheduling and routing algorithms. In the past I have also done some work with applications in immunology and coding of stochastic processes. My current research interests are on game theoretic and economic modeling of socio-technological systems and networks, and the analysis of associated stochastic processes.

Email: vgsubram@umich.edu

Website: Prof. Vijay G Subramanian

Betsy Foxman, Ph.D. - Hunein F. and Hilda Maassab Professor of Epidemiology, Director of the Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases (MAC-EPID), and Director of the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Infectious Diseases (IPID)

Research interests: Molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases, particularly infectious agents causing urinary tract infection, otitis media, lactation mastitis and vaginitis. Other interest include sexual behavior, antibiotic resistance and translation of epidemiologic information to policy.

Email: bfoxman@umich.edu

Website: The Center for Molecular and Clinical Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases (MAC-EPID)

Alejandra Ventura, Ph.D. - Director of Theoretical Systems Biology Group, in the Institute of Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Neuroscience, University of Buenos Aires

Research interests: I would define myself as a young scientist who applies a physical/mathematical training to the study of biological mechanisms and the physics involved in them. Both my doctoral and my postdoctoral projects were focused on the physical and mathematical “modeling” of a biological process of critical importance at the cellular level, and connected to intracellular signaling. “Modeling” means here the act of building a mathematical framework. In both cases, I combined analytical and numerical (computational) studies with the analysis of experimental data. Even though my studies are focus on biology, and I know biology is intrinsically complex, my research philosophy is based on the search of simplicity. That does not mean that I am satisfied by a mere qualitative description, my challenge is to develop simple models to give quantitative answers to biological/physical questions. I am particularly interested in mathematical approaches to information transfer in cellular signaling. I am interested in understanding the molecular regulatory mechanisms and protein networks that perform certain signal transduction and computations within the cell, and how these mechanisms are deregulated in different diseases.

Email: alejvent@gmail.com

Website: Theoretical Systems Biology group at University of Buenos Aires

Kelly B. Arnold, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Research interests: The Arnold Lab uses various computational and experimental approaches to generate new systems-level insight into the immune system, for potential use in development of new therapeutics and diagnostics. Of special interest are mucosal surfaces in the female reproductive tract and the lung where the immune system is the first line of defense against infection but also contributes to problematic inflammatory processes. Specific projects in the lab currently involve: 1) working with South African researchers to understand complex immune processes involved in infectious disease susceptibility in the female reproductive tract and 2) collaboration with University of Michigan clinicians to better understand the role of the immune system in organ transplant success.

Email: kbarnold@umich.edu

Website: The Arnold Lab

Daniel Beard, Ph.D. - Carl J. Wiggers Collegiate Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology

Research interests: Dr. Beard’s research interests center on:

(1) Cardiac energy metabolism. One of the Beard lab’s significant contributions is the discovery of the primary pathway regulating mitochondrial ATP synthesis in the heart in vivo. In demonstrating that inorganic phosphate acts as the key feedback signal controlling the rate of oxidative phosphorylation in the heart, the group has disproved the entrenched theory that oxidative phosphorylation and cellular energetic state in the heart are maintained in the absence of a feedback mechanism. Current work focuses on the question of how the control of energy metabolism breaks down in heart failure, how loss of specific cytoplasmic pools in heart failure disrupts the energetic state, and if/how this metabolic failure determines the loss of mechanical function in heart failure.

(2) Oxidative metabolism and energetics in skeletal muscle. We investigating how oxidative ATP synthesis, coupled to physiological glucose disposal, is regulated in skeletal muscle and how this system becomes dysfunctional in type II diabetes.

(3) Regulation of coronary blood flow. Because the left ventricle extracts approximately 90% of oxygen from the coronary arterial blood supply, changes in myocardial work rate must be matched in lockstep with changes in myocardial perfusion. Because vascular signaling mechanisms integrate a number of parallel open-loop and feedback signals to determine vessel tone, and because sympathetic innervation causes different responses in vessels in different locations in the coronary network, blood flow emerges as a consequence of phenomena that occur on multiple time and space scales.

(4) Etiology and sequalae of hypertension. Despite over 100 years of research, little is understood about the mechanisms causing hypertension. We are developing theoretical/computational models representing the short- and long-term mechanisms controlling arterial pressure, and using these models to guide experiments on animal models of hypertension. Specifically, models are used to generate hypotheses regarding the underlying mechanisms, and to design experiments to rule out competing hypotheses.

Email: beardda@umich.edu

Website: The Beard Lab

David Sept, Ph.D. - Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Research interests: Research in the Sept lab covers four primary areas. The first focuses on the molecular interactions underlying cell migration, a process central to many aspects of development, differentiation and the cellular response to diseases such as cancer. Related to this is work characterizing and developing drugs that target sub-cellular filaments to treat parasitic diseases like toxoplasmosis, leishmaniasis and malaria. The third area of research is on channels that regulate the flow of ions in and out of the cell, how these channels are activated and how they malfunction in diseases such as epilepsy. The final research area is on nanoparticle based drug delivery and how these particle drug combinations are metabolized and distributed within the body.

Email: dsept@umich.edu

Website: The Sept Lab

Sriram Chandrasekaran, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Research interests:Sriram Chandrasekaran’s lab develops computer models to understand how complex networks in a cell – spanning metabolism, gene regulation and signaling – interact with each other, how these networks break down in disease, and how they can be targeted for therapy using drug combinations. The genome-scale computer models that his lab develops have several basic biological and medical applications. For example, they will be applied to understand the interplay of metabolic pathways and transcription factors during stem cell differentiation. On the biomedical front, the models will be used to design effective drug combination therapies for cancer and infectious diseases that have enhanced efficacy, diminished side effects, and reduced potential for developing drug resistance. Research Areas include Biomedical Computation and Modeling, Drug Delivery and Therapeutics, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials, and Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.

Email: csriram@umich.edu

Website: Sriram Chandrasekaran, Ph.D.

Mohammad Fallahi Sichani, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Research interests: Research in the Fallahi-Sichani lab is at the interface of bioengineering, cancer biology and quantitative pharmacology, and uses a combination of multiplex biochemical measurement, single-cell analysis, and multi-scale and network-level modeling to address a variety of challenges in the cancer biology area. In particular, we are interested in: (i) decoding signaling networks that enforce cancer cell fate decision in response to environmental and therapeutic perturbations and elucidating their differences with healthy cells, (ii) uncovering molecular origins of plasticity in cancer cell signaling that underlie heterogeneity in drug response among genetically diverse tumors or among genetically homogeneous tumor cells, and (iii) developing predictive computational models that guide novel approaches to enhance therapeutic response and overcome drug resistance, a major challenge facing cancer therapy.

Systems Biology, Cancer, Pharmacology, Signal Transduction, Epigenetics

Email: fallahi@umich.edu

Website: Fallahi Lab

Robert P. Dickson, M.D. - Assistant Professor, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Research interests: Dr. Dickson's research focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which microbial communities in the respiratory tract mediate respiratory illness and health. Utilizing culture-independent techniques of microbial identification, he studies how changes in the lung microbiome interact with host factors, clinical interventions and patient outcomes in order to generate novel mechanistic hypotheses regarding the pathogenesis of respiratory infections and inflammatory lung disease. His laboratory performs integrative translational research, spanning from molecular characterization of respiratory microbiota to animal modeling of acute lung disease to prospective trials of human subjects. Areas of clinical interest include the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), lung transplantation and the healthy respiratory tract. His work is supported by the NIH/NHLBI T32 Multidisciplinary Training Program in Lung Diseases, the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) and by the University of Michigan's Host Microbiome Initiative.

Email: rodickso@umich.edu

Website: Robert P. Dickson, MD

Zachary Thomas Freeman, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor of Laboratory Animal Medicine, Medical School

Research interests: Dr. Freeman's research interests include development of novel immunotherapy and understanding immunology as a variable in animal models.

Email: freemanz@umich.edu

Website: Zachary T. Freeman, DVM, Ph.D.