PhD Program: Genetics & Molecular Biology
| Name | PhD Program | Research Interest | Publications |
|---|---|---|
| Young, Sam WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
My research is focuses on two general areas: 1) Molecular principles of auditory information processing, and 2) Gene Therapy approaches to treat neurological disorders. In regard to our auditory focus, we seek to understand how the molecular machinery in auditory brainstem synapses enables neuronal computations at some of the fastest speeds in the central nervous system to enable the ability to identify and interpret sound information received by the ears. In regard to our gene therapy approaches, we seek to develop novel viral vector technology to create novel therapeutic strategies to treat neuronal dysfunction and degeneration to improve the quality of life of individuals who suffer from neurological diseases. To address these research areas, I employ a multi-disciplinary strategy that encompasses, molecular biology, virology, viral vectors, biophysics, light microscopy, electron microscopy, electrophysiology, and transgenic mouse models. Keywords: Gene therapy, synaptic transmission, Hearing, viral vectors, biophysics, ion channels, calcium signaling, neurodegeneration, molecular medicine, synaptic plasticity, molecular engineering, nanomedicine |
| Haendel, Melissa WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
The Translational and Integrative Sciences Laboratory (TISLab) aims to weave together healthcare systems, basic science research, and patient generated data through development of data integration technologies and innovative data capture strategies. Our research focuses on the development of semantic technologies for data harmonization and analytics, such as ontologies, knowledge graphs, and data models. We leverage these semantic resources to standardize phenotypic information coming from clinical encounters, model and veterinary species, and directly from patients. As part of a longstanding international consortium called the Monarch Initiative, we utilize structured phenotype data to integrate of genotype-phenotype data across species to improve rare disease diagnosis, mechanism discovery, and to identify treatments. We work with a number of rare disease communities around the world with the goal of making our data standards available for everyone and translated into different languages so that everyone can have access to the same knowledge and have the same chance for a diagnosis. We are passionate about environmental health and understanding new ways of making environmental and nutrition data computable alongside clinical data. For example, we have integrated patient nutrition survey data together with basic research knowledge to reveal dietary risk factors of women’s reproductive disorders. We recently obtained funding to create an atlas for toxicological experiments and phenotypic outcomes in the zebrafish. TISLab has also recently created a veterinary One Health program, which focuses on understanding health influences affecting veterinary species together with their pet parents. During Covid, we led a national initiative to harmonize Electronic Health Record data to aid discovery analytics, called the National Covid Cohort Collaborative (N3C). The N3C is now the largest publicly available HIPAA-limited dataset in US history, and has ~5,000 users. We have studied long-Covid, advised the White House and governor’s offices, and have won the NIH/FASEB DataWorks! Grand prize for our work on N3C. We also lead the Center for Linkage and Aquisition of Data (CLAD) for the All of Us Research Program. The CLAD aims to link passive data streams such as insurance claims, mortality, and environmental data to program participants to provide a more comprehensive picture of their health trajectories. We have produced several global standards, such as the Human Phenotype Ontology, Phenopackets (Global Alliance for Genomics and Health and ISO certified), Mondo, and LinkML. We regularly attend the American Medical Informatics Association, the American Association of Human Genetics, the International Biocuration Society, and the Bioinformatics Open Source at ISMB conferences. TISLab members come from a wide variety of of scientific backgrounds and interests, making us effective partners in translational science and collaborative analytics. |
| Liu, Qingyun WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
Infectious diseases due to highly pathogenic microbes continue to pose a persistent and evolving threat to humans. In this laboratory, we study the evolutionary mechanisms underlying drug resistance and transmissibility in bacterial pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium abscessus, among others. |
| Miller, Brian WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
The Miller lab is working to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy to treat cancer. We aim to develop personalized immunotherapy approaches based on a patient’s unique cancer mutations. We have a particular interest in myeloid cells, a poorly understood group of innate immune cells that regulate nearly all aspects of the immune response. Using patient samples, mouse models, single-cell profiling, and functional genomics approaches, we are working to identify novel myeloid-directed therapies that allow us to overcome resistance and successfully treat more patients. |
| Parr, Jonathan WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
Dr. Parr’s research focuses on the infectious diseases of poverty, with translational projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other sites. His research concentrates on the molecular epidemiology of malaria and the evolution of “diagnostic-resistant” strains of Plasmodium falciparum, in particular. As a founding member of a World Health Organization laboratory network, he collaborates with malaria control programs and ministries of health to support surveillance of these parasites across Africa. His recent work in Ethiopia uncovered genetic signatures of strong positive selection favoring parasites with pfhrp2 gene deletion and influenced malaria diagnostic and surveillance policy in the Horn of Africa. Dr. Parr has recently expanded his research program to include studies of other diseases that disproportionately impact marginalized populations worldwide, including viral hepatitis and syphilis, and serves as the director of the genomics core for a large NIH-funded syphilis vaccine development project that spans sites in Malawi, Columbia, China, North Carolina, and the Czech Republic. Rotating students can expect to undertake translational projects that apply cutting-edge methodologies to real-world problems. Examples include application of novel enrichment methods that enable pathogen genomic sequencing from challenging field samples, development of CRISPR-based diagnostic assays, and evaluation of how infectious disease interventions affect pathogen population structure. Trainees will interact with diverse investigators and benefit from a highly collegial training environment in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab. Dr. Parr continues to attend on the infectious disease inpatient services at UNC Medical Center and, in response to the pandemic, co-directed the UNC division of infectious diseases’ inpatient COVID-19 services. He also serves as Associate Editor for global health for Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation. Dr. Parr and his work have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and other media outlets. |
| Maeda, Nobuyo PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
Overall goal of our research is to gain better knowledge of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions in common cardiovascular conditions in humans. We have been modifying mouse genome in such a way that resulting mice can model quantitative variations of a specific gene product that occur in human population. With these mice, we explore causes, mechanisms, and nutritional treatments of cardiovascular complications resulted from common conditions such as diabetes, lung infections, and pregnancy-associated hypertension. Current focus is on the oxidative stress and effects of vitamin B12 as antioxidant and beyond. |
| Ferris, Marty WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
In the Ferris lab, we use genetically diverse mouse strains to better understand the role of genetic variation in immune responses to a variety of insults. We then study these variants mechanistically. We also develop genetic and genomic datasets and resources to better identify genetic features associated with these immunological differences. |
| Smith, Keriayn WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
We are interested in elucidating context-specific functions of products from single long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) loci. Since lncRNAs have been implicated in many cellular processes, it is critical to delineate specific roles for each lncRNA. Moreover, as they are increasingly associated with diseases including developmental disorders, degenerative diseases, and cancers, defining their functions will be an important precursor to their use as diagnostics and therapeutics. We specialize in adopting -omics approaches including genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, combined with single molecule methods to study the intermolecular interactions – RNA-protein, RNA-RNA and RNA-chromatin that lncRNAs use to execute their functions in normal stem cells and cancer. |
| Rau, Christoph WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
Heart failure is an increasingly prevalent cause of death world-wide, but the genetic and epigenetic underpinnings of this disease remain poorly understood. Our laboratory is interested in combining in vitro, in vivo and computational techniques to identify novel markers and predictors of a failing heart. In particular, we leverage mouse populations to perform systems-level analyses with a focus on co-expression network modeling and DNA methylation, following up in primary cell culture and CRISPR-engineered mouse lines to validate our candidate genes and identify potential molecular mechanisms of disease progression and amelioration. |
| Shpargel, Karl WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS |
PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST |
Our laboratory studies the coordination of histone-modifying enzymes in regulating chromatin structure, enhancer activation, and transcription. We utilize mouse genetics and cell culture model systems to study the mechanisms of enhancer activation in neural crest cell epigenetics, craniofacial development, and altered enhancer regulation in cancer. This is accomplished through a variety of techniques including mouse mutagenesis, fluorescent reporters to isolate primary cells of interest, low cell number genomics, and proteomic approaches. |