Faculty
Auditory Systems Neuroscience of Voice and Speech Perception; Clinical and Translational Neuroscience in Epilepsy Surgery
Dr. Abel is a pediatric neurosurgeon-scientist who directs the Pediatric Brain Electrophysiology Laboratory (PBEL) at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The PBEL utilizes human intracranial recordings, neuroimaging, electroencephalography, and behavioral techniques to understand how the human brain mediates voice and speech perception.
Dr. Abel’s other interest is understanding the best strategies for epilepsy surgery using comparative effectiveness methods, clinical trials, and cost-effectiveness analysis.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Sameer Agnihotri, PhD, is a tenured associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery and serves as the director of the Brain Tumor Biology and Therapy Laboratory, based at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. His research primarily investigates pediatric and adult high-grade gliomas (HGG), including diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG), with a significant focus on NF1-associated tumor biology and its implications for brain tumor progression. Through integrated genomic and metabolic analyses, Dr. Agnihotri's laboratory aims to develop accurate preclinical models of high-grade gliomas. These models are essential for testing novel therapies and facilitating early-phase clinical trials, ultimately striving toward personalized brain tumor treatments.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Circuit dynamics underlying pathology and treatment of compulsive behaviors and anxiety disorders; Ongoing projects at the Translational OCD lab focus on identifying molecular changes and plasticity mechanisms related to compulsive behaviors, as well as exploring the molecular and circuit mechanisms of anxiety and the interplay between stress, anxiety, and the development of compulsive behaviors.
Our lab uses structural and functional MRI to study the brain changes associated with aging, and the disorders of aging
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Ambrose laboratory studies antiretroviral therapeutics used for HIV-1 prevention and suppression, including the characterization of new drug targets against early steps of the virus life cycle, and the impact of drug resistance on HIV-1 transmission, prevention, persistence, and treatment.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Timothy Anderson is a primary care physician and health services researcher whose primary research interests are identifying strategies to improve the quality and equity of care delivered to older adults and adults with chronic conditions and to optimize medication use for patients in the hospital and at home. Dr. Timothy Anderson is a primary care physician and health services researcher whose primary research interests are identifying strategies to improve the quality and equity of care delivered to older adults and adults with chronic conditions and to optimize medication use for patients in the hospital and at home.
Neural basis and treatment biomarkers of mood and anxiety in late-life.
Accelerated aging in late-life mood and anxiety disorders.
Dr. Andreescu is a Professor of Psychiatry and a licensed psychiatrist, with additional expertise in Geriatric and Interventional Psychiatry. Her research and the ARGO lab use multimodal imaging methods, behavioral measures and ecological momentary assessments to interrogate the neural basis of late-life mood and anxiety disorders, to identify biomarkers of treatment response and to explore the pathways linking mood/anxiety with cognitive aging. She is also interested in applying targeted interventional methods such as TMS for mood/anxiety disorders.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Bakkenist Lab identifies phosphorylations, dephosphorylations, and acetylations that regulate ATM activity in vivo.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Alison Barth studies plasticity in neurons. Her work focuses on understanding how experience transforms the properties of neurons to encode memory. Barth developed and patented the first tool to locate and characterize neurons activated by experience in a living animal, a transgenic mouse called the "fosGFP" mouse. These mice, which have been licensed to every major pharmaceutical company in the United States and distributed to more than 80 researchers worldwide, have facilitated studies into a wide range of neurological diseases as well as the study of learning and memory. Barth also conducts research on epilepsy. The Barth lab has identified a novel anticonvulsant target, an ion channel called the BK channel, whose activity is increased in response to a seizure. Barth has received the Society for Neuroscience’s Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience and Career Development Award.
The SMILE lab researches neurophysiology of sensory-motor coordination, brain-machine interfaces.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Research focused on the interface between clinical informatics and bioinformatics with a particular focus on translational research resources, particularly tissue banking informatics.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Our laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms regulating genetic and acquired cardiomyopathies to identify novel methods to prevent heart failure and sudden death.
The Behrmann lab uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore how the signals from the eye are transformed into meaningful percepts by the brain
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Benam Lab applies a multidisciplinary strategy to design and develop biologically and clinically inspired technologies that enable us to elucidate cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern tissue pathology or offer protection during lung and immune injury.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The mechanisms of cross-priming of antigens during immune responses to cancer, viruses and autoimmunity
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Mehret Birru Talabi, MD, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology. The Birru Talabi Research Lab is focused on optimizing reproductive health management and health care for people with rheumatic diseases and other chronic medical conditions that increase the risk of adverse pregnancy and perinatal outcomes.
Demand adapted hematopoiesis in infection and inflammation.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Borrero is a health services researcher with advanced clinical training in women’s health whose work and research at CONVERGE Lab strives to advance reproductive health equity.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Bridges focuses on how bacteria make developmental decisions based on extracellular sensory information. The Bridges laboratory studies the developmental program involved in the formation and disassembly of multicellular bacterial communities called biofilms. Previously, Dr. Bridges pioneered the use of new imaging approaches to investigate the full biofilm lifecycle in the global pathogen, Vibrio cholerae, from initial cell attachment to biofilm growth, to biofilm disassembly. These discoveries are relevant to infection and could inform the development of approaches to manipulate bacterial behavior, potentially leading to new strategies for controlling disease.
Miguel Brieno-Enriquez's research interests include human meiosis analysis, endocrine disruptor effects on meiotic prophase I, transgenerational epigenetics, NEK1 kinase regulation of cohesin removal, and ovarian reserve protection in mammals.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Protein “quality control”, diseases associated with misfolded proteins, and drug treatments for these diseases
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Brooks research has focused on the design, conduct, and analysis of multicenter clinical trials and cohort studies. Most of her work has involved the evaluation of treatments and risk factors in patients with coronary artery disease, diabetes and blood disorders and the epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases and women’s health. Dr. Brooks is the Principal Investigator of the Coordinating Center of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a longitudinal cohort study designed to characterize the physiological and psychosocial changes that occur during the menopausal transition and evaluate their impact on health outcomes in old age. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Data Coordinating Center for the Myocardial Ischemia and Transfusion (MINT) and the Sickle Cell Disease and Cardiovascular Risk - Red cell Exchange (SCD-CARRE) trials, two randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of transfusion interventions, and the Data Core for the Prospective Randomized Evaluation of Analgesia for Cardiac and Idiopathic Scoliosis Spine Fusion Elective Surgery in Children (PRECISE).
Dr. Bruno aims to understand B cell infiltration and TLS development within solid tumors to generate effective B-cell focused immunotherapies to augment the current successes of standard of care immunotherapies such as anti-PD1.
Dr. Buckanovich's research interests include tumor microenvironment, cancer stem cells, and novel therapeutics for cancer
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Bunimovich Lab does basic and translational investigations of the mechanisms and therapies of skin disease.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Byrne Lab develops gene therapies for retinal disease. Inherited retinal dystrophies include a diverse group of blinding disorders that have a profound impact on the quality of life of patients. There are currently no effective treatments for most forms of inherited retinal degeneration. However, gene therapy, in which a healthy copy of a mutated gene or a therapeutic protein is delivered to cells in the retina, is a highly promising approach to treating retinal disease. The Byrne lab uses bioengineering approaches, and high throughput, computationally guided methods, to create new gene therapies for retinal disease, including gene augmentation, genome editing and optogenetic strategies.
Clifton Callaway, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAHA, is a distinguished professor, executive vice chair of emergency medicine, and Ronald D. Stewart Endowed Chair of emergency medicine research at the University of Pittsburgh. His current research focuses on resuscitation medicine with emphasis on brain injury after cardiac arrest and translational research on the topic of resuscitation from sudden death. He has collaborated with pre-hospital care providers and emergency physicians to study acute cardiac interventions, developed a platform to study intensive care interventions, and worked with rehabilitation partners to study neurological and functional outcomes after cardiac arrest. His work in pre-hospital care has led to international guidelines for acute monitoring and regionalization of care.
Computational drug discovery; My main research interests focus on modeling the physical interactions responsible for molecular recognition, and in the development of new technologies for structural prediction, their substrates and supramolecular assemblies.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Cantlon uses behavioral and neuroimaging methods to study the origins of quantitative reasoning in human adults, children, and non-human primates. Her research in the Kid Neuro Lab shows the impact of early-developing and evolutionarily primitive nonverbal concepts on human thought. Using behavioral methods, her work observed parallel numerical processing capabilities between human children and non-human primates. Using fMRI, she found that the IPS processes quantitative information in children as young as 4 years of age. Her research implicates a primitive cognitive and neural basis for the development of human mathematical cognition derived from very old, evolutionary processes.
Dr. Carja works to quantitatively understand the evolutionary architecture of intelligent, collective systems, using the tools of dynamical systems, network theory, population genetics, machine learning and statistical inference, and widely available, yet underused, datasets.
In the Carvunis lab, we study the molecular mechanisms of change and innovation in evolution.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Catov Research Lab utilizes large perinatal registries and cohort studies to evaluate the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and preterm birth, as well as the postpartum characteristics of women who delivered preterm infants.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Chan Lab uses basic science and translational research to study molecular mechanisms of pulmonary vascular disease and pulmonary hypertension.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The study of human tumor viruses;
The Chang-Moore Lab researches viral oncogenesis, focusing on Merkel cell polyomavirus in skin cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus in AIDS-related malignancies, and the discovery of new human pathogens using advanced genomic technologies.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Chapman's research aims to understand the psychological processes behind decision-making to design interventions that promote healthy and prosocial behaviors like vaccination and blood donation.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Chase Lab uses brain-computer interfaces to study motor learning and skill acquisition. His work stands to provide a better understanding of how movement information is represented in networks of neurons in the brain and will inform the development of neural prosthetics.
The Cheetham lab wants to understand how neurons wire together to form the intricate yet adaptable neural circuits that support complex brain functions. We are particularly interested in how newborn neurons form synaptic connections, and how this determines whether a neuron will survive. To answer these questions, we use in vivo 2-photon microscopy to track the structure and function of individual neurons and synapses over time in the living brain, as well as molecular genetic tools, electrophysiology, optogenetics, and behavior.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Chu Laboratory studies redox signaling & autophagy in neuroprotection and neurodegeneration; mitochondrial phosphoproteomics; genetic & toxin models of Parkinson's disease
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Coffman Lab focuses on the ovarian cancer microenvironment, specifically targeting carcinoma-associated mesenchymal stem cells (CA-MSC) that support cancer survival, growth, and spread.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Conway Lab aims to characterize the structural and functional repertoire of a virus throughout its lifecycle, which will have benefits in understanding protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions as well as the evolution of protein structure, and in developing new targets for interfering with viral infection and replication, and technological application of the knowledge.
The Cook Lab researches artificial lungs; hemodynamics, pulmonary drug delivery; liquid ventilation; right ventricular function, critical care medicine
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Cooper Lab studies how microbes adaptively evolve when colonizing new hosts; how bacteria form communities within biofilms; and why genome regions replicated at different times evolve at different rates. Research interests include: mechanisms of beneficial mutations, evolution during infections, ecological-evolutionary dynamics, adaptive dynamics within host-associated microbiomes and evolving STEM.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Cognitive Neuroimaging and Memory Lab studies human memory and perception with neuroimaging, cognitive studies, and advanced analysis methods. We seek to understand how the human brain learns, remembers, and ultimately creates knowledge.
The Creswell Lab studies stress, self-affirmation, mindfulness, and emotions, focusing on their neural mechanisms and impact on resilience and health.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Tracy Cui is William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Cui is the Director of the Neural Tissue/Electrode Interface and Neural Tissue Engineering Lab. She is also the Neural Engineering Track Coordinator for the Department of Bioengineering Graduate Committee.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Alison Culyba is Director of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Public Health, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Culyba is Director of the Career Education and Enhancement for Health Care Research Diversity Program (CEED) in the Institute for Clinical Research Education. Culyba's NIH, CDC, and SAMHSA funded research examines the role of social networks and environmental contexts in protecting youth from violence and translates findings into community-based interventions.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Dr Culyba's lab is focused on understanding how bacteria adapt to antibiotics and evolve antibiotic resistance. We fuse molecular and biochemical methodologies with experimental microbial evolution to study mutational phenomena and bacterial adaptation. There are two major areas of study in the lab: 1) We use Escherichia coli to study the bacterial SOS response, a pathway containing promutagenic activities that is linked to acquired resistance phenotypes; 2) We utilize clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to study the evolution of antibiotic tolerance pathways in vivo. The goal of our work is to understand the molecular mechanisms underpinning this rapid evolution in order to devise interventions to inhibit adaptation to antibiotics.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Modeling of CNS infections using induced pluripote; Modeling schizophrenia using induced pluripotents; Development of three-dimensional neuronal platform.
The research in Dr.da Silva's lab is centered on a small but highly specialized area of the retina named fovea. The fovea is a high acuity area responsible for our ability to read, drive and recognize faces. We are very interested in deciphering the molecular underpinnings of fovea development and subsequently establish new experimental models of human foveal diseases. Dr. da Silva's lab uses a multidisciplinary research program based on multiple model systems, such as chick embryos and human retinal organoids, combining classical embryological manipulations and state of the art genomic, molecular (multiomics) and human iPSCs 3D culture techniques.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The DeFranco lab studies steroid hormone action in neural stem cells and cancer
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Delgoffe lab researches the metabolic regulation of T cell function, with a specific focus of those T cells that infiltrate the nutrient-poor tumor microenvironment.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
HSV gene expression in productive and persistent infections
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Research in the Dermody laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of Mammalian Orthoreovirus (reovirus) and Chikungunya virus infections.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The central goal of my lab is to explore the structure-function properties and antimicrobial mechanisms of cationic amphipathic peptides to develop peptide-based therapeutics for drug-resistant infections and cancer.
Dr. Dong's laboratory long-term research goal is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying emotional and motivational responses. The laboratory focuses on animal models related to drug addiction. Addictive drugs are among the most effective and efficient external stimuli that evoke the strongest emotional and motivational states. The hypothesis is that strong incentive stimuli, such as experience of drugs of abuse, shift the emotional and motivational states by rewiring the neural circuits in the brain reward pathway. To test this hypothesis, they have been examining several novel forms of neural plasticity upon exposure to cocaine.
*Currently accepting new students
Conducts research in the areas of pharmaceutical policy and mental health, and has particular expertise in the Affordable Care Act.
When communicating with others, we have limited ability to appreciate their perspectives and knowledge, a phenomenon that extends even to our own beliefs prior to having learned what we now know. This limitation may explain in part why experts so often neglect public input when developing communications. As a result, the public often doesn’t get the messaging it needs to support sound decisions. Through my research in the Downs Research Lab, I have set out to bridge this gap, identifying ways of improving perspective taking to translate subject-matter expertise into accessible guidance, so that people might use what otherwise seems to be unusable information.
In some cases, people lack the ability to apply or integrate information that they otherwise would find useful for their decisions. In other cases, the experts have misjudged what people actually need or want to know to help guide them to a more satisfactory decision. I pursue this goal by making technical information more usable (e.g., calorie information for improving food choices), by shifting communications to decision-relevant concepts (e.g., adolescent sexual behavior, which is driven more by social influences than by perceived risk), by improving user interfaces to help the public understand what the experts need from them (e.g., risky online behaviors and self-report data collection), and by contextualization of risk (e.g., shifting from decontextualized assessment of a person’s overall risk level to a behavior-congruent identification of strategies for risk reduction).
These areas of research highlight domains in which communication can be improved by assessing what people need to know and what they value as a prerequisite for intervening to improve decision making. This approach requires meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration to establish domain-specific content that needs to be made accessible, and to this end I work closely with experts in numerous fields including public health, medicine, computer science, robotics, and engineering. In addition to informing strategies for improving decision-relevant policy, my research seeks to affect public welfare directly by building and evaluating tools that help individuals make better decisions.
Dr. Dubowitz's research has looked at neighborhood investments and assets, from new full-service supermarkets in food deserts to greenspace and parks, housing and the streetscape and its impact on resident health outcomes including diet, food security, sleep, cardiometabolic outcomes, and cognitive.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Research in the Duncan lab focuses on liver development, homeostasis, and regeneration.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Ebrahimkhani Lab synthetic Morphogenesis of Human Tissues, Human Organoids, Epigenetic Engineering, Designer Tissues, Blood Development, Synthetic Biology, Systems Biology, Cellular Ecology
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
My lab is interested in developing mathematical models of biological regulatory processes that integrate specific knowledge about protein-protein interactions.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Feinberg Lab develops materials-based, engineering strategies to control the self-organization and assembly of various cell types into tissues using nanoscale fabrication and 3D bioprinting; understanding of higher-order function in biological systems.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The PyNeL Lab uses multimodal imaging techniques—high-density EEG, TMS, MRI, and MRSI—in healthy and psychiatric populations to study the neurobiology and cognitive dysfunctions of major disorders like OCD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Mind and Brain Lab studies cognitive and educational neuroscience of reading, language, math, and learning.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Finkel Lab studies aging, metabolism, mitochondria ; For over twenty years, my research group has studied mitochondrial function, cellular metabolism, oxidative stress, and aging, gaining expertise in mitochondrial assays, molecular biology, mouse models, and physiological measurements.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Immunology and Pathogenesis of Tuberculosis.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Jodi’s current research interests include: designing educational games that are engaging and effective, designing robots, AVs, and other technology services that use AI and ML to adapt to people’s needs, and designing for healthcare.
Forno’s overarching research interests are the epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and genomics of asthma. He is particularly focused on the effects of obesity and adiposity on childhood asthma.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Freeman lab studies viruses with tropism for the central nervous system using primarily human tissue models (organoids) of relevant sites derived from induced, pluripotent stem cells. Our current focus is on how enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) mediates acute flaccid myelitis, a polio-like paralysis syndrome, in children by using a human spinal cord organoid model.
The Gaffen lab takes a basic science approach to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underline cytokine-mediated inflammation, whether for good (prevent infections) or bad (promote autoimmune pathology). Our main focus is IL-17, which is produced mainly by T cells and other lymphocytes. We study IL-17 in antifungal mucosal and systemic host defense, particularly in response to the commensal fungus Candida albicans.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Kaposi’s sarcoma-associate herpesvirus (KSHV), AIDS-related malignancies, Cancer metabolism, Angiogenesis, Innate immunity, Microbiota, microRNAs, Genomics Epigenetics, RNA epigenetics, high-throughput screening (drug and genomic), systems biology
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The current focus of Dr. Gelhaus' research is on the mechanism of these electrophilic fatty acids in asthma. Asthma is a complicated disease that much like cancer is comprised of numerous disease states and phenotypes.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Ghazi Lab studies the genetics of aging, reproduction, lipid metabolism, immunity, protein homeostasis, age-related disease biology
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Ghuman’s research focuses on how our brain turns what falls upon our eyes into the rich meaningful experience that we perceive in the world around us. Specifically, The LCND Lab studies the neural basis of the visual perception of objects, faces, words, and social and affective visual images in the real-world.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
How do neural circuits transform our thoughts into actions? I study neural circuits in the basal ganglia, a multifunctional brain region that plays a role in the regulation of movement, learning, motivation, and reward. My specific interests include how neural circuits in the basal ganglia are altered by experience and why certain circuits breakdown in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. The Gittis Laboratory uses a variety of techniques including electrophysiology, optogenetics, histology, and behavior. We use mice as a model organism to understand how activity of specific basal ganglia circuits relates to motor control in both health and in animal models of movement disorders.
The SmaSH Lab focuses on designing, implementing, and testing new sensing systems. I typically focus on repurposing and extending the capabilities of sensors and devices around us. This approach allows us to add various functionalities to our daily-use devices with negligible hardware modifications. I am interested in solving problems in various domains, including health sensing, technologies for global development, and novel interactions.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Pain continues to be a major health problem with tremendous financial, social and psychological costs. Conservative estimates put the cost of pain to the US economy well into the hundreds of billions of dollars per year as a result of associated medical expenses and lost wages with a significant minority of Americans suffering from persistent or recurrent pain syndromes throughout the most productive years of their lives. Just one pain syndrome, migraine headache, directly impacts 20% of the adult population. Yet, there remain few if any effective therapies devoid of serious side effects that are currently available to treat pain, particularly persistent or recurrent pain associated with syndromes.
The clinical features of a number of pain syndromes serve as the organizing focus of research in the Gold laboratory. These observations include the following: 1) many pain syndromes are unique to a particular part of the body such as the head in migraine, the temporomandibular joint in temporomandibular disorder (TMD), or the colon in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); 2) many pain syndromes such as migraine, TMD and IBD occur with a greater prevalence, severity and/or duration in women than in men; 3) many pain syndromes are associated with changes in the excitability of primary afferent neurons; 4) there are time-dependent changes in the mechanisms underlying pain syndromes; and 5) the type of injury, (i.e., inflammation or nerve injury), are differentially sensitive to therapeutic interventions. These observations led to specific hypotheses that are tested in ongoing studies in the Gold laboratory. These include 1) characterizing the mechanisms underlying inflammation-induced changes in the evoked Ca2+ transients in sensory neurons, 2) characterizing the mechanisms underlying the initiation of migraine attacks, 3) characterizing the influence of estrogen on the excitability of spinal and trigeminal ganglion neurons, 4) characterizing the role of changes in inhibitory receptors, in particular GABA, in injury-induced increases in sensitivity, and 5) identification of ways to maximize the therapeutic utility of local anesthetics. The ultimate goal of these studies is to identify novel targets for the development of therapeutic interventions for the treatment of pain.
The Gomez lab studies the functional role of epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms in controlling fundamental properties of vascular smooth muscle cells. Using a combinatorial approach of epigenomic (Cut & Cut&Tag, ATACseq), transcriptomic (RNAseq), and functional assays, we aim to characterize the causal relationship between chromatin states or non-coding RNA signatures establishment and maintenance of vascular cell lineage identity and functions.
*Currently accepting students
Dr. Gottschalk's laboratory uses quantitative approaches to understand healthy versus aberrant regulation of inflammation with major projects including (1) computational modeling of signaling-to-transcription in macrophages, (2) interrogating tissue-specific macrophage signaling, and (3) dissecting molecular determinants of monocyte and macrophage inflammatory function. The lab uses experimental approaches, together with both data-driven and mechanistic modeling to integrate transcription factor activity, phosphorylation, and transcriptomic data to explore signaling mechanisms that shape stimulus-specific macrophage function. These efforts will yield insights into dysregulation of signaling and inflammation, while informing therapeutic strategies.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Grace Lab's research interest is in neurophysiology of basal ganglia system related to psychiatric disorders.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Gronenborn Lab combines NMR spectroscopy w/Biophysics, Biochem&Chem to investigate cellular processes at the molecular & atomic levels in relation to human disease
The For All Lab's current research includes fundamental and practical understanding of circuits and systems for processing and communicating information; flow of information in neural systems and neural interfaces (and use of this understanding to design radically new neural interfaces); and understanding information and its use by exploring the union of control and communication.
*Currently accepting students
Dr. Guo's lab is focused on the viral pathogenesis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and antiviral discovery. HBV is the etiologic agent of viral hepatitis B, a disease affecting approximately 300 million people worldwide who suffer the high risk of liver failure, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Dr. Guo's laboratory aims at understanding the molecular mechanisms of HBV DNA replication and morphogenesis, with special focus on the biosynthesis and regulation of HBV covalently closed circular (ccc) DNA, which is the persistent form of HBV infection, and is the culprit for the failure of current antiviral therapies.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Dr. Hall aims to develop reliable systems of healthcare delivery that are both technically excellent and directed toward the normative good of human flourishing, conceptualized as the well-functioning of the whole person as appropriate to each patient’s vocation.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Hammond Lab is particularly interested in the function of the plasma membrane, where one particular inositol lipid, commonly known as PIP2, is a key player in membrane protein recruitment and/or activation. Uniquely, this lipid is also a substrate to generate second messengers that transduce many of the signals from the cell’s surroundings. As such, PIP2 regulates plasma membrane function in general, and failures in specific interactions of the lipid or its synthesis are contributors in cancer, hereditary and infectious diseases.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Hand Lab's research focuses on how the immune system deals with newly colonizing bacteria, as colonization events are dangerous for the host, since too little immune response can lead to infection but too much can contribute to autoinflammation. Our group hopes to identify the factors derived from host genetics, the environment (diet, infection etc.) and the microbiota that shape host colonization.
*Accepting new graduate students
The Hartman Lab's broad research interests center on understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of RNA viruses, particularly arboviruses (viruses transmitted by insect vectors). The focus of her research is on arboviruses that have the potential to spread to new locations (emerging viruses), as well as those that have the potential for misuse through bioterrorism. In addition to understanding the disease-causing mechanisms of these viruses, Dr. Hartman works closely with the Department of Defense to assist in the testing of new treatments and vaccines to protect U.S. military personnel from exposure to virulent viruses.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Hatfull Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh studies the molecular genetics of the mycobacteria and their mycobacteriophages.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The He Lab's research is centered around neuroengineering with focus to functional neuroimaging, neural interfacing and neuromodulation. His lab is developing noninvasive dynamic brain imaging technology for studying mechanisms of motor and visual systems, and aiding detection, diagnosis, and management of various brain disorders.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Human visual perception and visual cognitive functions such as attention and perceptual decision-making require the highly specialized processing capabilities of the cerebral cortex. However, it has become increasingly clear that the visual capabilities of humans and other primates also depend vitally on coordinated interactions between cortical and evolutionarily ancient “subcortical” brain regions as well.
The Herman Lab aims to understand how visual functions of the brain depend on subcortical-cortical interactions with a particular emphasis on the role of learning. The lab employs carefully controlled psychophysical tasks, large-scale extracellular electrophysiology, neuronal perturbation, and computational modeling techniques to explain the relationship between both intact and perturbed neuronal activity to ongoing behavior. The lab is particularly interested in leveraging learning-driven structured variation in behavior to understand how groups of neurons guide specific cognitive functions.
The Hiller Lab addresses this question by examining microbial molecular mechanisms associated with disease. We study Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major human pathogen that causes over a million annual deaths in young children and the elderly, worldwide.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Hinck Lab is studying signaling proteins and receptors of the TGF-beta family, deciphering the molecular adaptations that the signaling proteins, single-pass transmembrane receptors, downstream effectors, and multitude of extracellular and intracellular modulators.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
My research involves the use of techniques from data science, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and information visualization to increase the usability and utility of clinical, public health, and other biomedical data.
My research focuses broadly on participatory and expertise-driven approaches to AI design, development, and evaluation, with a particular interest in AI's impacts on human workers. I draw on approaches from human–computer interaction (HCI), AI, design, cognitive science, learning sciences, statistics, and machine learning, among other areas.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
One of the most important functions of the brain is its ability to sense and rapidly respond to ongoing stimuli in the environment. Sensory information is distributed throughout multiple interconnected areas of the brain, but the precise identity of these circuits, and how they orchestrate sensory perception remain unknown. In order to understand even the simplest forms of sensory-guided behaviors, it is imperative to elucidate the mechanisms by which multiple, connected areas cooperate to mediate behavior.
The main questions that motivate our research are:
(i) How does the cortex modulate sensory information in downstream subcortical regions during sensation that guides behavioral decisions?
(ii) What are the mechanisms by which highly interconnected brain regions are affected by, and recover from, cortical injury or stroke?
The Hong Lab combines animal behavior, high-speed imaging, motion tracking, in vivo electrophysiology, and optogenetic methods, using the mouse whisker system as a model. We aim to determine how cortical and subcortical activity cooperate to mediate sensory-motor transformations in parallel, providing a foundation for understanding behavioral deficits and recovery mechanisms associated with cortical injury.
Dr. Xiaoming Hu's research seeks to understand how immune responses contribute to the pathogenesis of neurological disorders, including ischemic stroke, traumatic brain injury, and vascular cognitive impairment and dementia.
Identify renal progenitor cells, determine their role in patterning the embryonic kidney, and relate these events to kidney regeneration.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The neural basis of flexible auditory perception and behavior; novel neurotechnologies for restoring hearing
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Iordavova Lab researches multi-level translational studies of neurovascular and metabolic brain health with focus on aging and sex-specific differences.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
We plan to employ our methods to edit epigenetic processes for cell fate reprograming as well as correcting aberrant gene expression in human diseases like obesity and cancer.
Dr. Smita Iyer is an infectious disease immunologist whose Lab focuses on understanding the immunological and molecular mechanisms of CD4 T cell help in antibody responses, particularly in the context of HIV vaccines. Her research also explores the role of CD4 T cells in neuroinflammation, investigating viral infections like HIV and neurodegenerative diseases.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Joffe Lab's Interests include Prefrontal cortex; interneurons; Novel pharmacology; Alcohol use disorders & affective disorders
The Joglekar Lab has recently made significant progress in the area of T cell antigen discovery. A novel high-throughput approach developed by us has demonstrated the ability to identify the target antigen of a given T cell. Dr. Joglekar's lab proposes to use this platform to address major questions in Immunology: What is the breadth of the T cell response in a given disease? How do the antigenic landscapes of T cell responses evolve over time? And What is the fundamental mechanistic basis of antigen recognition by TCRs?
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Jurczak Lab is primarily interested in the relationship between nutrient excess, mitochondrial overload and the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases, such as fatty liver, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Mitochondrial dysfunction and ectopic lipid accumulation in liver are both associated with insulin resistance in human subjects, but the cause and effect nature of these associations remain unclear. Dr. Jurczak’s lab is specifically interested in a mitochondrial repair mechanism called mitophagy that regulates the selective removal of damaged mitochondria via the autophagosomal pathway.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Dr. Valerian E. Kagan is one of the world’s recognized leaders and one of the most prominent authorities in the field of Free Radical Biology and Medicine. The research performed by Dr. Kagan is a breakthrough in the field as it uncovers specific pathways through which enzymes of oxidative metabolism participate in the production of specific oxygenated lipid molecules that act as signals triggering cell death program as well as mechanisms involved in clearance of damaged or dead cells. Understanding these key signaling pathways is of prime importance for obtaining new insights into mechanisms of radiation injury, inflammation, and immune responses.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Biophotonic Lab’s research is focused on developing noninvasive optical imaging methods for disease detection and/or treatment monitoring, with an emphasis on diffuse optical imaging.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Kandler Lab's research is on plasticity of neuronal circuits during development and in pathology, focusing on the central auditory system
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Signal Transduction.
The role of the Akt kinase in NF-kB and T cell activation.
Role of TIM proteins in T cell activation.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Kaplan Lab's research goal is to understand how skin resident immune cells (e.g. dendritic cells, T cells) interact with specific pathogens
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Broadly speaking, my work focuses on:
- studying the psychological/social impact of fictional narratives, games, and computer-mediated interactions
- uncovering and empirically verifying user-specific, design-specific, and situational variables that increase that impact
- extrapolating techniques and best practices for the creation of stories, games, and new technologies as “interventions” for social change
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
My research interests are in nano-optics and nano-electronics: materials & devices; hierarchical integration of nanoscale structures into systems for multifunctional operations.
Develop and translate multi-modal ultrasound imaging technologies that are based on a fundamental understanding of how sound and light interact with soft tissues, and are capable of assessing their mechanical, compositional, and biological characteristics.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Kingsford Lab’s research is focused on developing new, efficient algorithms for extracting knowledge from large biological data sets, particularly high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing data. He has worked recently on algorithms for accurately quantifying gene expression, identifying compact regions of chromatin, and large-scale sequence search, among other topics. His group typically explores solutions using optimization, graph algorithms, and machine learning.
*Currently accepting graduate students
His research on crowd-augmented cognition looks at how we can augment the human intellect using crowds and computation.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Cellular, structural and molecular studies of epithelial ion channels
The Kliment Laboratory is interested in identifying new molecular pathways in epithelial biology in the pathogenesis of tissue remodeling in chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) and pulmonary fibrosis to improve therapeutic options for patients. Our lab specifically studies the role of adenine nucleotide translocase (a canonical mitochondrial ADP/ATP transporter) in the airway and alveolar epithelium of the lung in the context of cigarette smoking-related lung disease and lung fibrosis. We want to better understand how in health and disease ANT regulates epithelial function through cell metabolism and cellular senescence, as well as, airway epithelial homeostasis through surface hydration and the action of tiny motile cilia in the airway. We utilize a repertoire of relevant murine models of injury, molecular genetic approaches, in vitro biochemical assays, and human bio-samples to examine epithelial cell homeostasis in the lung.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Koes's research is to develop novel computational algorithms and build full-scale systems to support rapid and inexpensive drug discovery while simultaneously applying these methods to develop novel therapeutics.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Our research focuses on deciphering mechanisms involved in lung repair and regeneration, with the aim to identify novel therapeutic targets relevant for age-related chronic lung diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Our translational research program focuses on the comprehensive characterization of primary lung epithelial (stem) cells from experimental models and human tissue samples from patients with chronic lung disease. we aim to identify and investigate target signaling pathways that impact cellular mechanisms we identified the developmental WNT signaling pathway as a potent contributor to impaired lung repair and epithelial cell reprogramming, which is amenable to therapy and have further characterized features of epithelial cell reprogramming, such as cellular senescence. We further pioneered and apply patient-derived 3D Lung Tissue Cultures that allow to further validate and test potential novel drugs in an individualized fashion.
*Accepting new students
The goal of The Kuang Lab's research is to identify the molecular basis of interactions between the microbiota and the circadian rhythms in mammalian metabolism and immunity. The laboratory uses various techniques including genomics, gnotobiotics, laser capture microscopy to delve deeper into the transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms that regulate host-microbial interactions. Dr. Kuang anticipates that these efforts will lead to important new insight into how intestinal microbes regulate host physiological functions, and identify new avenues for developing therapeutics against metabolic and immunological diseases of the intestine.
Clinical and laboratory translational studies (spatial and single cell genomics & transcriptomics) of breast cancer
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Levin lab studies the evolution of infectious diseases, seeking to understand how evolutionary “arms races” between hosts and pathogens dynamically shape the biology of immunity and pathogenesis. The laboratory approaches these questions using a combination of high-throughput genetics, microbiology, and evolutionary genomics, focusing on the opportunistic pathogen Legionella pneumophila and its natural hosts, environmental amoebae.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Lewis Lab studies the functional architecture of the prefrontal cortex and schizophrenia.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Li Lab focuses on the immunoregulatory mechanisms regulating anti-tumor immunity and autoimmune or allogeneic responses, with specific emphasis on regulatory CD8+ T cells and human immunology.
Our lab is focused on the host protective immune responses to M. tuberculosis, a major factor in outcome of infection.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Little Lab studies Drug Delivery, Biomimetics, Immunotherapeutics, Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, Synthetic Systems
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Lo Lab's research objectives are focused on elucidating the genetic causes and developmental mechanisms of human congenital heart disease (CHD).
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
My research with The Decision Lab focuses on applications of psychology to economics and, more recently, applications of economics to psychology (e.g., economic analyses of boredom, insecure self-esteem, and of the reluctance to thank and apologize). Specific interests include belief-based utility, the psychology and economics of attention, learning and forgetting, motivational feeling states associated with cognition (e.g., boredom, curiosity and mental effort), intertemporal choice, bargaining and negotiations, psychology and health, law and economics, the psychology of adaptation, the role of emotion in decision making, the psychology of curiosity, conflict of interest, various aspects of sex, unethical behavior, and issues involving research ethics. Links that will enable you to download my papers dealing with all of these topics are in my CV, which is organized by topic area. You can also access my publications on Google Scholar.
The Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development's research is in the brain basis of cognitive maturation through adolescence to adulthood.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Ma lab primarily focuses on developing AI/ML methods to study the structure and function of the human genome and cellular organization, with significant implications for health and disease. Recent interests include nuclear organization, single-cell epigenomics, spatial omics, and complex molecular interactions. These goals are often pursued through the development of probabilistic models and advanced deep learning techniques, particularly graph-based representation learning. The group is also actively exploring large language models to uncover gene regulatory mechanisms and the intricate connections among cellular components at various scales in complex tissues. The lab leads an NIH Center in the 4D Nucleome (4DN) Program and is involved in the NIH SenNet Consortium and the IGVF Consortium.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Magnani Lab focuses on social determinants of health and cardiovascular disease and outcomes. There is tremendous evidence that social factors significantly influence health care access and outcomes. Identifying social determinants of health can provide avenues for community-based interventions and insight regarding the etiologies for disparities. To this end, our lab's principal research agenda consists in (1) identification of the intersection of social determinants (household income and composition; educational attainment; health literacy) with health-related risk factors and outcomes; and (2) development of strategic interventions to reduce or address cardiovascular risk in disadvantaged individuals.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Mahon Lab's research is focused on understanding how object concepts are represented and organized in the human brain. We approach this broad issue through the lens of how object concepts are accessed from visual input, and how conceptual information guides access to object-associated actions and object names.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Mayo Lab's research interests are:
Cortical control of vision and eye movements in populations of neurons
Neural coordination of oculomotor plans
Influence of eye movements on vision and behavior
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The McClung Lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms of psychiatric disorders with a particular focus on the role of the circadian clock in these disorders
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The McElroy Lab studies the pathogenesis and immunity of emerging viruses with a focus on negative sense RNA viruses of zoonotic potential. To do this the lab uses cell culture systems, animal models and primary human derived specimens. The lab also uses molecular virology to create recombinant viruses to understand how viruses cause disease and perform various immunologic assays to understand how hosts prevent or mitigate disease.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Human immunology: Innate and adaptive immune responses to latent viruses and to allo-antigens after organ transplantation
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Mike lab is focused on dissecting the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use to sense, adapt, and respond to environmental signals. Klebsiella pneumoniae is a high-priority pathogen typically associated with UTIs, pneumonia, and blood stream infections. The laboratory is specifically focused on identifying how K. pneumoniae controls major fitness factors in these different host niches and how that impacts the outcome of infection.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Dr. Miljkovic's research focuses on the epidemiology of obesity, ectopic fat deposition, body composition, and associated metabolic disorders. In particular, Dr. Miljkovic studies skeletal muscle, changes in skeletal muscle and whole body composition with aging, their determinants, and associated metabolic disorders, with a special focus on high-risk minority, international, and elderly populations.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Pelvic Floor Disorders, Prolapse Meshes; To date, Dr. Moalli’s research has mainly focused on 1) the development of novel biomaterials for use in pelvic reconstructive surgeries; 2) defining and reducing maternal birth injury; and 3) vaginal biofabrication.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Monga lab is focused on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of normal liver characteristics such as development, regeneration, metabolism and growth as well as liver pathologies such as neoplasms (HCC and hepatoblastoma), fibrosis, cirrhosis, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and others. This research focus incorporates studies on cell proliferation, adhesion, differentiation, invasion, apoptosis, metabolism, and on stem cells in adult, fetal, and embryonic livers.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The study of human tumor viruses; The Chang-Moore Lab used pioneering genomic techniques to discover two different cancer viruses (Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus and Merkel cell polyomavirus) that are responsible for four different cancers.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
TheMorelli laboratory investigates the function of professional Ag-presenting cells, in particular dendritic cells of the immune system, during transplant rejection and transplant tolerance / immune-suppression. The better understanding of the role of dendritic cells in transplantation could lead to the development of novel dendritic cell-based therapies to promote donor-specific tolerance/immune-suppression in transplant recipients, one of the final goals in transplantation.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Pathogenicity of Intestinal Microbes in Milk Fed and Formula Fed Premature Infants - See more >>
The Mowery Lab utilizes genetically engineered mouse models, patient-derived samples and molecular biology techniques to study head and neck cancer development and progression, as well as the interplay between radiation therapy and the immune system in head and neck cancer.
My research interests within the Cardiovascular Heath Tech Laboratory are in cardiovascular monitoring including novel sensors and algorithms and incorporating physiology.
We have been investigating and comparing signal transduction, rate of cell proliferation, and cell communication in normal and cancerous tissues.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The scientific goal of The Nacev Lab is to understand how cancer-associated genetic alterations in chromatin regulators promote cancer and to leverage this understanding to advance new therapeutic approaches in the clinic.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Neal Lab's research interests include co-leading the NIH-sponsored ACTIV-4 program, trauma-induced coagulopathy, clinical outcomes in trauma and hemorrhagic shock, and outcomes research in acute care and emergency general surgery.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Nejak-Bowen Lab's goal is to understand the cellular and molecular basis of liver injury, regeneration, and cholestatic liver disease
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Hormone response and treatment resistance in breast and ovarian cancer, including the analysis of aberrant genetic and epigenetic changes
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
We use Drosophila, iPSC models, mouse models, and human patient datasets to identify new therapeutic targets for Parkinson’s disease and related disorders.
The Opresko lab aims to develop novel strategies that preserve telomeres in healthy cells and delay aging-related diseases including cancer, or that conversely target telomeres to stop proliferation in cancer cells.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Orwig Lab studies spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) and male germ lineage development
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Our group extracts biological insights and disease mechanisms from multiomics data including single-cell and spatially resolved data.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Overacre is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and a member of the Tumor Microenvironment Center (TMC) at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. The Overacre Laboratory is centered around understanding how the microbiota and immune system interact and contribute to anti-tumor immunity, immunotherapy, and immune-related adverse events. Specifically, they assess how external factors that shape the gut microbiome, including diet, impact T cell responses across cancer types in both preclinical models and patient samples.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The O’Sullivan lab at the Hillman Cancer Center conducts research into proteins that alter the structural and epigenetic functions of human telomeres.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Molecular mechanisms underlying various neurological disorders using human genetic approaches as well as research on animal and cell culture models
The Pagano Lab studies NADPH oxidase (Nox) & reactive oxygen species in signaling, vascular dysfunction and cardiopulmonary disease; Nox drug therapy development
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Palladino lab uses Drosophila and human cell lines as model systems to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases. The Palladino lab has identified numerous novel neurodegenerative mutants using forward genetics and developed these as unique disease models. The research program forces on metabolic disease and the neuromuscular dysfunction they produce with three main goals: 1) discovering and characterizing novel pathways that cause disease, 2) understanding the physiological, cellular, and molecular dysfunction that causes disease in vivo, and 3) using our animal system in pharmacological screens to identify neuroprotective compounds for the treatment of human diseases.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Pandey laboratory is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and other related motor neurons diseases. Recently, several RNA-binding proteins have been found to be mutated in both sporadic and familial forms of ALS. Disease causing mutations in these RNA binding proteins suggest that underlying defects in RNA metabolism might play an important role in causing motor neuron degeneration in ALS. The Pandey lab is looking for genetic and small molecule modifiers of ALS in fly and mammalian neuronal models. We expect that these modifiers will not only allow us to understand molecular basis of ALS but also help in developing therapeutic interventions for ALS.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Parthasarathy lab studies how the peripheral auditory system and the central auditory pathway interact in various forms of hearing loss. The research program integrates study of human clinical populations and animal models. In humans, we combine perceptual tasks with measures of listening effort (pupillometry) to assess behavioral and cognitive aspects of speech comprehension. In animal models we use neuronal recordings from various stages of the auditory pathway combined with immunohistology to inform mechanistic hypotheses. The overall goal is to inform diagnosis and track the benefits of interventional therapies in clinical populations with hearing loss by utilizing insights obtained from animal models with similar forms of pathology.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD, is a neurologist and associate professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The Pascoal Lab’s clinical and research interests include cognitive disorders of multiple etiologies, including Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
The Translational Neuropsychopharmacology & Neuroimaging Lab's main focus in research is to examine individual differences in mechanisms of antidepressant treatment response in order to identify new targets for therapeutic interventions.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
His research integrates data visualization and machine learning techniques to create visual interactive systems to help users make sense out of big data. Lately, his research focuses on human-centered data science and extracting insights from clinical data to support data-driven medicine.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
What features do the genes and the genomes of vocal learning species have in common relative to those without the ability?
The Phillippi Lab studies how cell-matrix signaling influences microvascular dysfunction to uncover new mechanisms of cardiopulmonary diseases, organ/tissue failure, and preserving donor organ function. A long-term goal is to develop less invasive treatments options for cardiopulmonary diseases such as aortic aneurysm, heart failure and lung failure.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Phillips Lab works on the identification of neural correlates that underlie the symptoms of specific abnormalities in emotion processing in people with mood disorders
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Razani laboratory studies atherosclerotic macrophages, macrophage polarization, foam cell formation, adipose tissue metabolism, adipose tissue macrophages, liver metabolism, the autophagy-lysosome system, lysosomal biogenesis, lysosomal acidification, lysosomal acid lipase and lysosomal lipolysis, selective autophagy (particularly p62/SQSTM1), lipophagy, aggrephagy, mitophagy, mTOR signaling, differing roles of mTORC1 and mTORC2, nanoparticle delivery systems, and iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cells).
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Rizzo Lab focuses on investigating the mechanisms that drive divergence from healthy aging towards inception and progression of Alzheimer’s disease, in order to identify novel pathways and targets that may enable the discovery of new therapeutic agents to treat and prevent disease. Dr. Rizzo is a behavior pharmacologist by training and holds a BS in Animal Sciences from Rutgers University and a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London.
Vascular development, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, zebrafish, BMP signaling, mechanotransduction.
The eBrain Lab studies brain adaptation, neuroepidemiological approaches to the causes, biomarkers and consequences of brain aging, advanced data reduction analyses
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Rosland research focuses on innovations in care for chronic health conditions and studies health system efforts to improve primary care delivery. Dr. Rosland's work draws on her expertise in health intervention design and evaluation, health behavior change, social and family support, primary care for complex patients, and Participatory Research.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Ross Lab studies the functional organization of spinal microcircuits using molecular genetic, electrophysiological, optogenetic & behavioral approaches
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr Rosso leads the Brain, Environment, Aging, and Mobility (BEAM) lab. The laboratory's research aims to improve function of older adults, reducing disability and helping individuals stay independent in their communities.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Rubio Lab focuses on investigating neuron-glia communication in the normal hearing and in the hearing impaired
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The goal of The Runyan Lab is to understand the circuit mechanisms that control the flow of information between brain regions. How do networks filter out irrelevant information? How does incoming sensory information interact with the animal’s internal brain state? To answer these and related questions, the Runyan lab uses two-photon imaging, genetic labeling, and optogenetic manipulation of specific cell classes in mice performing perceptual tasks.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Dr. Sabik is a health economist & health services researcher focused on investigating the role of state & federal policies in affecting healthcare access, utilization, & health outcomes among low-income populations, with a particular focus on cancer care.
We develop materials-based, engineering strategies to control the self-organization and assembly of various cell types into tissues using nanoscale fabrication and 3D bioprinting. Understanding of higher-order function in biological systems.
The Area 41 Lab studies neural mechanisms underlying complex sound perception in health and disease.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
We use interdisciplinary approaches to understand how the nervous system regulates homeostasis and disease, including pain syndromes, cancer, and immune responses.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Schopfer laboratory studies the formation and signaling of bioactive lipids under physiological and pathological conditions and develop therapeutic approaches based on our findings.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Schwartz Lab works in the general area of computational biology, with emphasis on computational genetics and the modeling and simulation of biological systems
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Schwartz lab investigates mechanisms of immune dysregulation, with a focus on genetic and epigenetic regulation of immune cells and cytokines. Our group seeks to improve the basic understanding of human immune dysregulation diseases using “pathway to phenotype” approaches that are rooted in understanding the molecular drivers of immune activation. In contrast to phenotype-based approaches, that characterize diseases based on clinical presentation and then explore molecular mechanisms, we take a “phenotype-agnostic” approach that seeks to start with a molecular immunologic phenotype and understand the resulting disease spectrum in subjects with dysregulation of specific pathways.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Seal Lab's work is focused on neural circuits that mediate two neurological conditions: pain and Parkinson’s disease. We are also developing novel therapies to treat these conditions.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Shlomchik Lab is interested in the establishment of long term B cell immunity and in pathogenesis of systemic autoimmune diseases and graft vs host disease
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Shushruth Lab's main interest is in understanding how abstract properties of sensory information (say, the color of an object or its direction of motion) are stored and used to guide actions.
We are interested in abstraction for two reasons:
- Abstraction is an essential substrate of thought, language and most higher order cognitive functions. It endows near infinite flexibility to our actions, allowing us to construct and follow instructions like "Press the red button if you saw something moving to the right". We investigate how such complex computations transpire in the neural networks of the brain.
- Abstraction is affected in psychiatric and neurological disorders of higher order cognition. By understanding the computations underlying abstraction, we hope to gain insights into their pathologies. We are particularly interested in thought disorders (e.g., Schizophrenia) and early dementia (e.g., MCI).
To study abstraction, we train animals to decide on abstract properties of ambiguous sensory stimuli. We record neural activity in their brain while they are making such decisions to understand the underlying computations. In parallel, we work with human patients, using the same behavioral tasks as the animals, to characterize deficits in abstract decision-making. Our ultimate goal is to develop animal models of these deficits using causal manipulation techniques (e.g., pharmacology and chemogenetics).
The research in the Silva laboratory centers on virus-host interactions required for chikungunya virus to initiate and complete its replication cycle within cells and establish infection and spread within a host. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we are investigating mechanisms of CHIKV cell entry, replication, egress, and pathogenesis, with the goal of better understanding the viral and host determinants that dictate CHIKV virulence, which will inform strategies for the development of antiviral therapeutics and vaccines.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Smith Laboratory studies the neurophysiology of visual perception and cognition, computational neuroscience, cortical circuitry, neural population coding
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Non-receptor protein-tyrosine kinase structure, regulation and signal transduction in cancer, AIDS, and embryonic stem cell biology
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Ferguson Lab studies biomarker discovery, beneficial effects of mechanical loading, & implementation in targeted exercise therapies for musculoskeletal conditions
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Ocular Microbiome and Immunology Laboratory has pioneered research in a historically understudied area of ophthalmology, the ocular microbiome and its effect(s) on ocular disease. Normally a highly contentious topic in ophthalmology, the ocular microbiome does, indeed, tune local immunity to prevent fungal and bacterial infection.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Steinhauser laboratory is broadly interested in how metabolism is altered by and contributes to disease. Within this context, the lab is focused in three inter-related areas: (1) how systemic metabolic function is modulated by local cellular and molecular derangements in adipose tissue arising during development, aging, or in contexts of energy imbalance. (2) Development of novel stable isotope- based methods to study metabolism. This includes a new quantitative imaging platform called multi- isotope imaging mass spectrometry (MIMS). We have established MIMS as a powerful tool for interrogation of cell turnover and metabolism, in situ, at sub-organelle resolution with studies in model organisms and more recently with first-in-human studies. (3) Defining the molecular and metabolic responses to physiological stressors of relevance to aging biology that drive resiliency.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Mechanisms of white blood cell differentiation & its inhibition in leukemias; Mechanisms of stem cell differentiation & growth control
The Straub Lab's studies will be a direct outgrowth of this work, where we will focus on the molecular, cellular, and in vivo contribution of somatic hemoglobins and CytB5Rs as it pertains to vascular physiology and disease.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Subramanya Lab's work is focused on the relationship between biomolecular condensates, cytoplasmic crowding, cell fluid volume and size control, and kidney tubule function in health and disease
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Sun lab is interested in understanding the role of ion transporter proteins (Na+-K+ -Cl- cotransporter, Na+/H+ exchanger, and Na+/Ca2+ exchangers) in ionic dysregulation and neurodegeneration associated with stroke, traumatic brain injury, or glioma tumor. In particular, we study how changes of cytosolic ionic concentrations (Na+, H+, Ca2+) as well as organelle Ca2+ (ER and mitochondria) cause cell death and proinflammatory responses in ischemic or traumatic brain damage. We are also interested in studying Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumor. We investigate how the Cl- cotransporter functions in regulation of intracellular Cl- and cell volume in GBM cancer cell survival and migration.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Dr. Swanson's research focuses on developing, improving, and increasing the transparency of methods for causal inference in epidemiologic studies. To learn what works to improve public health, Dr. Swanson often uses these methods in settings for which randomized trials are not feasible and for learning how to improve health in populations who have been excluded from randomized trials.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Sweet Lab studies loss and altered plasticity of auditory cortex synapses in schizophrenia; mediators of vulnerability to psychosis in Alzheimer disease.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Psychosocial issues in organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Our research interest is development of novel molecular and metabolic imaging strategies for early detection and risk stratification of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases using high-resolution SPECT and PET.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Tejero Lab focuses on heme proteins, aiming to characterize nitrite reactions with hemoglobin and myoglobin, understand the cytoprotective roles of neuroglobin and cytoglobin, and develop heme-based antidotes for carbon monoxide poisoning.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Thathiah Lab use molecular, biochemical, and cellular approaches to study the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Regulation of the immune response; role of dendritic cells and T cells in tolerance induction; mechanism of action of novel immune suppressants
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Torres-Oviedo lab investigates the human ability to adapt walking patterns and learn new movements through interactions with the world. To this end we combine psychophysical experiments and computational tools to investigate locomotor learning in unimpaired subjects and patients with cortical lesions. Current studies specifically study 1) the adaptability of muscle coordination in patients and healthy subjects when they experience novel walking conditions, 2) the prediction error driving locomotor learning to sustained environmental perturbations, and 3) the generalization of adaptation effects from treadmill walking to over ground locomotor movements and 4) cognitive factors mediating locomotor learning and its generalization.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Trebak Laboratory uses biochemical, biophysical and imaging techniques to understand the signalling mechanisms of native Ca2+ permeable channels in a variety of cell systems, including a number of cancer cells, astrocytes, lymphocytes, vascular and airway smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells. Dr. Trebak's laboratory is particularly interested in two classes of ion channels: the transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels and the components of the store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) pathway, STIM and Orai proteins as they pertain to cell proliferation, migration, growth, survival and invasion.
*Currently accepting graduate students
Zebrafish Heart Development and Regeneration; Research in Dr. Tsang’s lab has focused on the role of Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) signaling in zebrafish development. Another area of research in Dr. Tsang’s lab is using zebrafish as a model for human congenital heart disease and in understanding the early events that establish left-right patterning.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Turner Lab studies basal ganglia-cortical dysfunction in Parkinson's disease and therapeutic mechanisms of deep brain stimulation
The Turnquist Lab works on understanding and controlling the cytokine networks that direct immune responses responsible for both protective and pathological immunity.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Van Houten Lab studies the repair of DNA damage in nuclear and mitochondrial genomes; 2) Structure and function of nucleotide excision repair proteins.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Van Tyne Lab studies how bacteria evolve to become superbugs, using comparative genomics and functional analysis. Our research falls into two main areas. First, the lab works to understand how bacteria evolve during human infection to resist antibiotics and host immune defenses. We sequence bacterial strains from human infections and use functional genomics to identify and characterize novel resistance mechanisms. These include the ability of bacteria to resist the host immune system, or to persist in the face of antibiotic pressure. Second, the lab helps develop new approaches to treat resistant bacterial infections more effectively.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Soft Tissue Biomechanics Lab studies Extracellular Matrix Remodeling, Tissue Engineering, Biomechanics, Computational Modeling
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The NeuroImaging Lab focuses on neural, vascular and metabolic imaging of normal brain function in vivo with extensions to neurological pathologies, especially Alzheimer’s disease. I use an array of computational and optical methodologies.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Verstynen laboratory research centers on how we plan our actions, how this changes with experience and how the organization of the underlying neural pathways regulates these abilities. Using a combination of psychophysics, computational modeling and multimodal brain imaging (fMRI, diffusion imaging, TMS, etc.), the lab focuses on three main research themes.
- Selecting or stopping actions: How do we quickly convert sensory cues into motor plans? How do we stop a planned action? How do these abilities break down in different populations?
- Dynamics of skill learning: Why are some skills learned quickly while others require days or weeks of practice? What are the computational and neural mechanisms involved?
- Structure-function associations: Does the topography (i.e., “wiring diagramâ€) of a neural pathway reveal aspects of its computations? What features predict individual differences in the organization or integrity of these connections?
*Currently accepting students
The Vignali Lab studies inhibitory mechanisms, including inhibitory receptors & regulatory T cells, that limit anti-tumor immunity in cancer patients.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Villanueva's research in the Imaging Therapeutics Lab focuses on the development of medical diagnostic and therapeutic strategies based on ultrasound and ultrasound contrast agents (gas-filled microspheres, or microbubbles).
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Vis Lab studies computer-aided diagnosis and patient-specific prediction, genomic and precision medicine, clinical decision support, research data warehouse
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Vockley Lab focuses on mitochondrial energy metabolism, branched chain amino acid metabolism, inborn errors of metabolism, and development of novel therapies for inborn errors of metabolism.
The Wagner Lab does cardiovascular engineering with projects that address medical device biocompatibility and design, tissue engineering, and imaging.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Wang’s research focuses on understanding how the immune system behaves within the microenvironment of a tumor in head and neck cancer and B cell lymphoma. She also studies how changes in the DNA of B cells alter how the body produces antibodies that are used to fight pathogens and cancer cells. Her research will shed light on how cancer cells evade detection by the immune system, findings that will help develop new immunotherapies and improve existing treatments.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
His research is focused on androgen action in prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia. The Wang lab is actively pursuing following research directions: (a) the roles of androgen-responsive genes in prostate carcinogenesis, particularly the mechanisms of tumor suppression by ELL-associated factor 2 (EAF2), which is encoded by up-regulated androgen-responsive gene U19, (b) improvement of intermittent androgen deprivation therapy of prostate cancer based on differential action of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), (c) the mechanisms regulating androgen receptor (AR) intracellular trafficking, level and activity, and (d) developing novel small molecule inhibitors targeting AR signaling for the treatment of prostate cancer that are resistant to current anti-androgens
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Douglas Weber is broadly interested in understanding the role of sensory feedback in supporting and regulating a wide range of perceptual, motor, cognitive, and autonomic functions. The NeuroMechatronics Lab combines fundamental neuroscience and engineering research to understand physiological mechanisms underlying sensory perception, feedback control of movement, and neuroplasticity in sensorimotor systems. Knowledge gained from these studies is being applied to invent new technologies and therapies for enhancing sensory and motor functions after stroke, spinal cord injury, or limb loss. These principles are also being applied to develop wearable devices for enhancing sensory, motor, and cognitive functions in healthy humans. He is committed to transitioning outputs of his academic research into practical technologies that support real-world applications, and he works actively with industrial partners to bridge the gap from bench to market.
I use machine learning and brain imaging to study the brain representations underlying language comprehension and other high-level functions.
Focuses on asthma phenotypes and the molecular mechanisms, particularly in the airway epithelium that control them
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Laboratory for Research on Arm Function and Therapy (RAFT) studies upper extremity motor function in healthy and disease states and particularly focuses on methods to improve recovery of motor function after stroke, using non-invasive brain activity-recording and stimulation techniques, robots, and wearables.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Brain development and aging; Neuroimaging
*Currently accepting graduate students
Leveraging novel systems imaging to uncover molecular mechanisms underlying epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, fetal alcohol syndrome, in utero exposure, congenital heart disease, mitochondrial disorders, childhood-onset epileptic encephalopathy and developmental origin of adult-onset diseases.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Xia Lab's research addresses clinically relevant questions: (1) how does multiple sclerosis start and how to prevent this chronic neurological disease, (2) what contributes to individual variation among people with multiple sclerosis and how to bring precision medicine to multiple sclerosis. He leads an interdisciplinary research team to harness multi-dimensional, longitudinal, patient-derived data and deploy integrative quantitative science approaches. The long-term goal of his research program is to gain insights into the underlying disease and translates these findings into the clinical arena to improve individualized risk prediction, prevention, and management in multiple sclerosis and other related disorders.
The Xing Lab currently focuses on Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transiton (EMT). EMT is defined as the conversion of epithelial cells to mesenchymal cells, characterized by loss of cell-cell adhesion and increased cell motility.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
Dr. Yates has over 15 years of experience in fibroblast, chemokine, and extracellular matrix biology and the pathogenesis of organ fibrosis. She has a continuous track record of innovative research and therapeutic development in the field of tissue repair. Her research focuses are on understanding immune cell and stromal cell mediated interactions that contribute to the pathogenesis of fibrotic diseases such as systemic sclerosis (Scleroderma) and IPF.
*Currently accepting graduate students
The Yechoor Lab focuses on developing targeted therapies that target beta cell mass and function in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Currently funded projects include 1) the role of the circadian clock in beta cell metabolic flexibility, 2) Interventions and mechanisms addressing the role of circadian clock disruptions in diabetes, atherovascular, and Alzheimer's' diseases 3) the role of Tead1 and the Hippo pathway in the transcriptional regulation of quiescence and proliferation of beta cells. We are also interested in how these pathways affect obesity, adipose biology, and cardiac biology.
The Yien lab is interested in the interplay between iron metabolism and development. Using an innovative multidisciplinary approach using multiple model systems (mouse, zebrafish, yeast and cell biology), the lab is identifying tissue specific roles of mitochondrial homeostasis proteins that couple iron metabolism with the specific needs of cells, with an eye towards identifying pathological and therapeutic mechanisms of iron dysregulation in specific tissues. Secondly, the lab is working to interrogate the mechanisms by which iron functions within developmental signalling pathways and cell fate. Lastly, the lab is actively attempting to identify hematopoietic and iron metabolism adaptations in the pregnant female's bone marrow (using mouse models) as they progress through pregnancy.
The goal of The Yttri Lab is to establish how neural circuits lead to these action selection decisions. The vital ability to make appropriate actions requires the coordination of motor, reward, and cognitive brain systems.
Hassane Zarour's research focuses on identifying MHC class II tumor epitopes from cancer-germline antigens in melanomas, analyzing CD4+ T cell responses, and studying immune responses in melanoma patients receiving peptide- and protein-based vaccines with CpG oligonucleotides.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
We are employing a quantitative approach using microfluidics, systems biology modeling and in vivo systems to investigate how microenvironmental signals (paracrine, hypoxia, mechanical forces and ECM composition) impact cell growth, migration and therapeutic response in the context of cancer (ovarian and breast) and remodeling tissues
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Zhang Lab studies phase transition process of liquid-liquid de-mixing organizes proteins and RNAs into liquid compartments in cells. We study how this process promotes cellular functions in healthy cells and how mis-regulation of it leads to cancer.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Zhang Lab investigates the immunopathogenesis of respiratory viruses-induced lung injury and repair, with a particular focus on the immunomodulation of pulmonary endothelial cells during innate and adaptive immune response. We aim to develop novel therapies to reduce inflammation, enhance tissue repair, and decrease patient mortality.
The Zhao Biophotonics Lab is an interdisciplinary research group that combines diverse bioengineering and chemical approaches to develop novel techniques for interrogation of biological and pathological processes in cells and tissues.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students
The Zhu Lab is currently investigating the regulation as well as the physiological/pathological functions of the 12h-clock, taking a combination of computational, biochemical, genetic, cellular, imaging and genomic approaches.
*Currently accepting Graduate Students