Wiley-Blackwell Scientific Advisory Group

Don Anderson
Graduate Student, Research Support Specialist
Cornell University

The focus of Don’s research has been to understand nuclear folate metabolism, and in particular the biosynthesis of thymidylate within the nucleus.

Seth Berger
M.D./Ph.D. Candidate
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics

Seth’s research involves using protein-protein interaction network analysis to better understand relationships between diseases and drugs.  More specifically, his main project has focused on understanding the relationship between congenital long-QT syndromes and drugs which have the side effect of prolonging the cardiac QT interval.  QT interval prolongation is a major risk factor for dangerous cardiac arrhythmias and this drug side effect has caused several medications to be removed from the market.  His group used a new approach based on random walks to identify disease selective modules in an integrated mammalian protein-protein interaction network.  Comparing disease centered subnetworks uncovers relationships between diseases with similar symptoms or causes.  The LQTS disease gene neighborhood we identified is able to serve as a classifier of drugs that prolong the QT interval and help suggest mechanisms by which drugs might increase risk of arrhythmias.  They validated their approach using adverse event reports associated with drugs not previously known to have this side effect.

Peter Blandino, Ph.D.
1st year Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Michigan
Department of Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience

Peter obtained his Ph.D. from Binghamton University with an emphasis on glucocorticoid and adrenergic regulation of stress-induced neuroinflammation.  He is currently a post-doctoral research fellow in the lab of Huda Akil at the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan.  In the Akil lab, his focus has expanded to examine the immunological underpinnings of mood and psychiatric disorders and the potential impact of these factors can have on behavior.

Catherine Brissette, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar
University of Kentucky
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics
 
Catherine's current research involves regulation of gene expression and bacterial interactions with host extracellular matrix in Borrelia burgdorferi. Her other research interests include spirochetes, bacterial interactions with mammalian hosts, innate immunity, bacterial pathogenesis, emerging infectious diseases, and public health.

Lauren Chessum
Graduate Research Assistant
Medical Research Council, Mammalian Genetics Unit
Department of Lung Development and Disease
 
Lauren is a graduate research assistant in a Lung Development and Disease laboratory group in Oxfordshire, UK. Her group is interested in the molecular mechanisms which underlie branching morphogenesis and lung development. They hypothesize that the genes which control these mechanisms are not only critical to lung development, but also accountable for lung disease.

Christopher L. Cunningham
Graduate Student
University of California, Davis
Neuroscience Graduate Program / MIND Institute
 
Chris is interested in the factors regulating proliferation and migration of neural precursor cells and postmitotic neurons in the embryonic forebrain. For his graduate work, he is researching the role of glutamate signaling in the developing forebrain.

Charlotte Dean, Ph.D.
Programme Leader
Mammalian Genetics Unit, MRC Harwell
Department of Developmental Genetics
 
Relatively little is known of the molecular events required for development of a fully functional lung. Charlotte’s group is seeking to understand these molecular events with particular emphasis on the process of branching morphogenesis. It is her group’s hypothesis that some of the genes critical to lung development will also be involved in lung disease. To identify developmentally important genes and investigate their role in lung disease pathogenesis, she uses both forward and reverse genetics. Once they have identified mouse mutants with developmental lung defects, they thoroughly characterise the lung phenotype and use inducible models of fibrosis and allergic airway disease (asthma) to test susceptibility to lung disease.

Alexa Dickson, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Colorado State University
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology
 
Alexa researches RNA stability and its relation to disease.  Specifically, her lab has found that CUGBP1, which is misregulated in myotonic dystrophy, is involved in mRNA degredation.  In myotonic dystrophy-like conditions, CUGBP1 is no longer able to degrade TNF mRNA, which may lead to increased TNF mRNA levels seen in myotonic dystrophy patients.

Becky Fallon
Research Assistant
Medical University of South Carolina
Department of Neurosciences
 
Becky has a BS in Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester; she is now using that degree to work as a Research Specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina's Neurosciences Department in the Aston-Jones Lab. Her research focuses on Addiction Behavior and Reward Circuitry in rodents using Self Administration Paradigms and Conditioned Place Preference Models. After behavioral manipulations, she will often process tissue for C-fos expression and Orexin expression using immunohistochemistry. Her goals for the near future are to look at the reward properties of Food by manipulating Dopamine projections from the VTA to other areas of the brain.

Xiaochun Fan, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard Medical School
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
 
Xiaochun received his bachelor degree from University of Science & Technology of China, master degree from Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ph.D. degree from Cornell University. In Professor John Lis’s laboratory, he isolated RNA aptamers against different surfaces of transcription factor TBP by SELEX and discovered the dynamic nature of TBP interactions during transcription initiation and reinitiation with these molecular probes. Currently he is a postdoctoral research fellow in Professor Kevin Struhl’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School. His research involves mapping genome-wide association of transcription factors by ChIP-chip and ChIP-seq. He uses budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system to elucidate molecular mechanisms of transcription regulation.

Anne Ferguson
Research Technician I
SUNY Upstate Research Foundation
 
Anne Ferguson is a Research Technician I in Dr. Francesca Pignoni’s lab at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. The lab is a basic vision research lab, studying eye development in the Drosophila fruit fly. Currently, she is working on a large scale RNAi screen for eye development genes—they are looking to find all of the genes involved in fruit fly eye development. From there, the goal is to characterize these genes anew or augment their records with new information.

Evi Goggolidou, Ph.D.
Career Development Fellow
Medical Research Council Harwell
Mammalian Genetics Unit
 
Evi’s group is using ENU mutagenesis in the lab to identify mutants affecting cilia structure and formation and handling these to study the role of cilia in the establishment of L-R asymmetries. The ultimate aim of her work is to generate a network of factors controlling L-R axis determination during embryonic development. Thereafter, these genes and pathways could be investigated in humans and will shed light on the abnormalities that give rise to disease manifestation, with the ultimate aim of treating and extinguishing such diseases.

Nicole Graulich, Ph.D.
3rd year Postdoctoral Fellow
Justus-Liebig University Giessen
Institute of Organic Chemistry
 
The title of Nicole’s research is "Heuristic Chemistry." Her research focuses on the virtually neglected use of heuristic principles in understanding organic chemistry. The purpose is to combine psychological aspects of human decision making processes with adequate concepts of fundamental organic chemistry reactions.

Michael J. Grey, Ph.D.
Health Science Policy Analyst*
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases*
National Institutes of Health*
 
Michael is currently a Health Science Policy Analyst at the National Institutes of Health*. In this role he analyzes and reports on biomedical research advances in the area of digestive diseases for reports to policy makers, communications with patient advocacy groups, and publications that highlight the Institute’s research mission for the public. Before joining NIH, Michael earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University, where he developed and applied state-of-the-art NMR techniques for studying protein structure, dynamics, and folding. He then completed his postdoctoral research at the Immune Disease Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he received an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship for his research on the structural mechanisms of signaling by the epidermal growth factor receptor. He is interested in basic and clinical research on digestive and metabolic diseases and using biomedical communication within the research community and the general public to improve public health.

*Michael participates in the Wiley-Blackwell Scientific Advisory Group in his personal capacity. The views expressed are his alone and do not represent the views of the National Institutes of Health or the United States Government.

Oliver Hardt, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
McGill University
Department of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience
 
Oliver received his PhD with Lynn Nadel at The University of Arizona studying the updating of spatial memory in humans. Currently, he is a post-doctoral fellow funded by the German Research Society in the lab of Karim Nader at McGill University, where he investigates the neural mechanism involved in acquiring, maintaining, and modifying complex, i.e., event-like memories in rats. In relation to these projects on memory systems dynamics, his other research focuses on the molecular mechanisms involved in memory persistence, forgetting and experimental amnesia.

Reid Ivy
M.S., Ph.D. Candidate
Cornell University
Department of Food Science and Technology, B.S. Microbiology, University of Arkansas M.S. Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Arkansas.
 
Reid's current research project focuses on understanding how changes in the environment of the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes affect its ability to survive stress and cause disease.  His other interests include food processing and fermentation.

Srikant Kannan Iyer
Graduate Student
Cornell University
Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
 
Srikant works on synthesizing Fluorophores (which are used to tag to proteins for bio-imaging), trying to incorporate Organic Fluorophores in an inorganic rigid silica matrix which are nanometer in size. This incorporation into a rigid matrix makes these organic fluorophores robust and long lasting. To understand if these matrices are robust, his team does a lot of characterization which involves Physical Chemistry/Physics. They then collaborate with the biologists and try to image the tagged proteins. They play a role in the Bio-imaging procedures that create all the pretty pictures of cells and various organelles that you see in books.

Zohre Kurt
Ph.D. Student
Georgia Institute of Technology
Department of Environmental Engineering
 
Zohre's work is about aerobic biodegradation of nitroaromatic compounds. Currently she is working on degradation of chlorobenzene in anoxic/oxic layer interface, 8-nitroguanine and amino imidazole biodegradation in environment. Her aim is to develop applicable techniques and understandings of degradation pathways of nitoaromatics. Her research does not only focus on natural attenuation, but also has an aim to study phytoremediation using endophytic bacteria with selected carriers.

Paul Langton, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
National Institute for Medical Research (UK)
Department of Developmental Neurobiology
 
Paul graduated from the University of Sussex in 2003 and began his PhD in Nic Tapon’s lab at Cancer Research UK. In 2008 he started his post-doc in Jean-Paul Vincent’s lab at the NIMR. His group uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model system and his research focuses on studying cell-cell adhesion and apoptosis using a combination of molecular biology, cell biology and genetics.

Jia Jing Lee, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Harvard Medical School
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
 
Jia Jing received her B. Sc (Honors) degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She then completed her PhD degree at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden under the supervisions of Dr. Catharina Larsson and Dr. Anders Höög. Her PhD thesis focused on the genetics and cytogenetics alterations in thyroid cancers. She has recently started her postdoctoral training in Dr. Kevin Struhl's laboratory at Harvard Medical School, USA. Jia Jing's group is currently using yeast as a model system to understand transcription regulation of ribosomal protein genes. Genetics and cooking are her lifelong passions.

Ju Youn Lee
Ph.D. Candidate
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department
UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School

Ju Youn studies the post-transcriptional gene regulation by computational approach. She has been working on the evolution of polyadenylation (PolyA) sites in mammal and the regulation of 3’UTR and regulatory elements by alternative polyadenylation (APA).  Currently, her research is focused on identifying the cis-elements to control mRNA decay and understanding the relationship mRNA stability with the alternative polyadenylation (APA).

Marianne Lindahl Allen, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow
Harvard Medical School
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
 
Marianne obtained a B.Sc. (Honors) degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Kings College London, UK and a M.Sc. in Molecular Medicine from University College London, UK.  She returned to Kings College London to complete her Ph.D. in Nuclear Biology, entitled 'Epigenetic Analysis of the DES and HNRPA2B1-CBX3 Dominant Chromatin Opening Elements' in the laboratory of Michael Antoniou. She recently joined Kevin Struhl's group at Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, USA and is researching how chromatin states are inherited.

Rebecca Lahti Matz
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Michigan, Department of Chemistry and Michigan Nanotechnology
Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences
 
Becky graduated from the University of Illinois in 2007 with a B.S. in Chemistry. At U of I, she did research with Prof. Scott Silverman on catalytic DNA. At Michigan, Becky's research with Dr. Mark Banaszak Holl focuses on understanding the mechanisms of non-viral gene delivery. She is also working towards an M.S. in Post-Secondary Science Education under the direction of Prof. Joe Krajcik of Michigan's School of Education.

Manos Mavrakis, Ph.D.
CNRS Researcher, Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseille
PhD: 2003, Université Joseph Fourier – Grenoble I and EMBL
Postdoctoral Research: Cell Biology and Metabolism Program, NICHD, NIH, Bethesda.
 
Membrane polarity is a key feature of cell membranes, allowing cells to functionally differentiate different membrane environments. Such polarity consists of an asymmetric lipid and protein distribution in the plasma membrane of cells. This asymmetric lipid and protein composition confers distinct functions to distinct membrane domains, and serves to facilitate cellular processes as diverse as differentiation, directional cell migration and vectorial transport of molecules across cell layers. Manos's current research uses the Drosophila embryo as a genetically tractable model system to explore the mechanisms that underlie the generation and maintenance of membrane polarity.

Caitlin McOmish, Ph.D.
2nd year Postdoctoral Researcher
Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, NYSPI
Department of Psychiatry
 
Caitlin obtained her Ph.D from the University of Melbourne, Australia, investigating gene x environment interactions in an animal model of schizophrenia. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia Unveristy in the lab of Dr. Jay Gingrich where her research is focussed upon the serotonin 2A receptor, and its role in mediating and/or modulating psychotomimetic responsiveness, hallucinogenic activity and impulsivity. Her work has also expanded to include investigations into the mechanism of action of currently prescribed antipsychotics with a view to enabling the development of drugs possessing improved efficiency and reduced side effects.

Christian Mueller
Ph.D. Student
Justus-Liebig University Giessen
Institute of Organic Chemistry
 
Christian’s Ph.D. thesis is titled “(Thiourea) Oligopeptide Organocatalysts und Organo-catalytic Tandem Reactions.” Natural amino acids are the most important parts of the “molecular machinery” of mammals (e.g., enzymes). With the synthesis and application of non-natural amino acids, these powerful natural structures may be modified with regard to rigidity, turn structures, and lipophilicity. Christian’s Ph.D. project mainly concentrates on the synthesis of peptides incorporating novel non-natural y-amino adamantane carboxylic acids as well as catalytically active amino acid moieties. These peptides are tested as catalysts in organocatalytic transformations, e.g. esterifications or epoxidations. In the filed of esterifications his group has identified a highly efficient and enantioselective peptidic organocatalyst.

Michelle H. Nelson
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Texas Medical Branch
Microbiology and Immunology Department
 
Michelle’s research activities are aimed at investigating the adaptive immune system involved in resolution and protection from herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection. Particularly, her team wants to contribute to understanding the significance of CD8+ memory T cells at mucocutaneous sites following dendritic cell vaccination to prevent primary HSV-2 infection, which will likely correlate to adjuvants given at the time of antigen exposure.

Abbie Porter, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate, Rutgers University
Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment
 
Abbie is interested in how microorganisms are able to degrade toxic compounds in the environment. Her current research focuses on this process in two ways: First, she would like to isolate microbes that are able to grow in conditions where oxygen is absent and petroleum compounds are supplied as a carbon source. These organisms can be further studied so that we can understand the genetic and biochemical pathway by which the substrates are degraded. Secondly, she can use a combination of genetic tools and metabolic biomarkers as probes to examine the environment for degradation activity.

Tom Ricketts
2nd year Ph.D. Student
Institute of Neurology, University College London
Mammalian Genetics Unit at Medical Research Council - Harwell
 
Tom’s Ph.D. is centered around Motor Neurone Disease (MND). His main focus is working with transgenic Superoxide Dismutase 1 (SOD1) mice.

Avtar Singh
2nd year Ph.D. Student
Cornell University
Department of Applied Physics
 
Avtar did his undergrad at Cornell in Physics (Class of 2008) and is currently a 2nd year Ph.D. in Applied Physics working in a Biomedical Optics lab (his advisor is a faculty member in the BME department). His lab develops techniques for biological fluorescence microscopy and collaborates with a number of groups on instrumentation and fluorophore development with applications to in vivo medical diagnostics, molecular biology, neurobiology and other fields.

Julie Smith
Graduate Student, Pathology Ph.D. Program
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Department of Pathology
 
Julianne obtained her B.S. from the University of Rochester in 2008 and returned to School of Medicine and Dentistry to pursue her PhD as part of the Pathways of Human Disease program.  She is doing her graduate research in an endocrine and cancer biology laboratory studying the bone marrow microenvironment, its influences on hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem cell self renewal and also how the microenvironment may change in various pathologies.

Kevin Sokoloski
Senior Level Graduate Student
Colorado State University
Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology Department
 
Kevin’s dissertation work involves mechanistically examining the relationships between viral RNAs and the cellular RNA decay machinery. More specifically, he examines the role that RNA decay does, or doesn't, impact viral replication. Currently this work employs several cell culture models, including both the mammalian host and mosquito vector species.

Sanjeeva Srivastava, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
School of Biosciences and Bioengineering
 
Dr. Sanjeeva Srivastava obtained his Ph.D. degree at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and he did his post-doctoral training at Harvard Institute of Proteomics, Harvard Medical School, USA. He has received several prestigious fellowships and awards, including a national young scientist award in Canada. Recently he has joined an Assistant Professor position at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, India. His current research interests are to use proteomic techniques such as Two dimensional gel electrophoresis, Mass Spectrometry, Protein microarrays and Surface Plasmon Resonance for biomarker discovery in cancer and endemic diseases of India as well as study protein-protein, protein-drug interactions.

Jessica Trimble
DNA Technician, Forensic Scientist 1
Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory
 
Jessica has a B.S. in Forensic Science from Mercyhurst College.  During her time there she has done research including the quantitaion and contributors of bacteria in the Lake Erie watershed.  Upon her graduation she spent a year and a half as a laboratory specialist in the Forensic Biology section of the Virginia Department of Forensic Sciences in Richmond VA where she worked with serology and DNA evidence for criminal cases.  She currently works at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) where she develops casework DNA profiles from high quality samples for up link into a major DNA database.

Alexandra Twyman
4th year Ph.D. Student
Temple University
Department of Psychiatry
 
Alex is interested in the broad topic of spatial cognition. Particularly, she is interested in how spatial skills develop, and how they relate to other domains. In her particular area of research, she uses a comparative cognition approach to better understand how we maintain our sense of direction - or the "You are here" part of navigation, and how this changes across species and during development.

Lei Wang, Ph.D.
Frederick B. Rentschler Assistant Professor
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, California
 
Lei Wang received his B.S. from Peking University and Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley. During his graduate study guided by Dr. Peter Schultz he developed a general method for genetically incorporating unnatural amino acids in live cells and expanded the genetic code for the first time. For this work he was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the journal Science. He then had postdoctoral training with Dr. Roger Tsien as the Merck Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, where he developed a new method for evolving proteins in live mammalian cells. His lab at Salk expanded the genetic code to incorporate unnatural amino acids into proteins in mammalian cells (including primary neurons), stem cells, and currently multicellular organisms to study signal transduction, stem cell differentiation, and neurobiology. His lab is also investigating the origin and evolution of the genetic code using synthetic biology methods. He is a Top Young Innovator named by MIT Technology Review, a Searle Scholar, a Beckman Young Investigator, a Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar, and the recipient of the CIRM New Faculty Award and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

Jessica Watson
Laboratory Technician
Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory
 
Jessica’s lab runs nuclear DNA extractions, amplifications, Typings (using  capillary electrophoresis) and data analysis.  She has used the Powerplex 16  STR typing platform and is currently getting trained to run Y-filer.  She also has previous experience in a State forensic laboratory in similar areas as well as reagent preparation and evidence handling.

Jeremy Wilusz, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
 
Jeremy’s research is focused on identifying and characterizing the functions of non-coding RNAs in mammalian cells.

Rebecca Wilusz
Duke University
Department of Biomedical Engineering
 
In articular cartilage, each chondrocyte is surrounded by a narrow region called the pericellular matrix (PCM) that is distinct from the extracellular matrix in its biochemical composition, ultrastructure, and mechanical properties. Rebecca’s research is focused on developing techniques to measure the properties of the PCM in situ and understand PCM degradation in the larger context of cartilage degeneration during osteoarthritis.

Ali Zarrabi
Ph.D. Candidate
Sharif University of Technology
Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
 
Ali is studying at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.  His research is concentrated in the fields of Nanobiotechnology, Nanomedicine, Targeted Drug Delivery, Cancer Nanomedicine, and Nanoparticulate polymeric carriers.

Ying Vincent Zhang
Graduate Student
Cornell University
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
 
Ying's journey of science started in Dr Xuebiao Yao's lab at University of Science and Technology of China. He started studying mitosis checkpoints which special focus on kinetochores. After graduation he came to Cornell University and joined Dr. Tudorita Tumbar's lab working on hair follicle stem cells. His current research interests are tissue stem cell differentiation and self-renewal, and his science dream is to regenerate tissue/organ using these adult stem cells

Zhiguo Zhang, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Reasearch Fellow
Justus-Liebig-University
Institute of organic chemistry
 
Zhiguo is now working as PostDoc in organic chemistry and focusing on organocatalysis; that is, to catalyze organic transformations using small organic molecules such as thioureas, proline derivatives, etc., thereby to mimic natural processes.