Translational Medicine | Research Interests

Name	Email	PhD Program
Laidman, Ashlyn EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Molecular Medicine, Stem Cells, Translational Medicine	“I am interested in the cell-fate decisions stem cells make during development and how we can use this knowledge to aid translational research.”
Scoville, Deena EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Genetics, Pathology, Translational Medicine	“I am interested in studying genetics, specifically epigenetics in cancer and disease. I am specifically interested in endometrial cancer, infertility, and other female diseases. I also have interested in translational medicine.”
Perrault, Laura EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Cancer Biology, Stem Cells, Translational Medicine	“My biggest interests fall under questions of development, specifically from stem cell origins and the different signals that lead to differentiation and ultimate cell function. Within this broad topic, I have had specific interests in neurological development, and how neuron fates can arise from stem cells. I want to approach these questions from the translational side of science to think more about applications within cancer and disease rather than the basic mechanisms of cell division.”
Ackermann, Sarah EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Cancer Biology, Pathology, Translational Medicine	“I am interested most interested in cancer biology. My background had been primarily within the realm of cancer genetics and disease modeling frequently with a translational lens. I would like to continue to study cancer preferably with some translational aims but am happy to branch away from genetics as the primary focus and potentially focus on immunology, metabolism or epigenetic as examples. “
Uchenna, Ikenna EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Cell Signaling, Drug Discovery, Translational Medicine	“I am interested in understanding the mechanism of dysregulated signaling in disease, particularly, cancer and cardiovascular disease. I am also interested in translating my findings to help advance clinical practice and therapeutic innovations in this field. “
El Merhebi, Omar EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Computational Biology, Molecular Medicine, Translational Medicine	“Machine learning and deep learning have opened the door to new approaches in personalized medicine, including immunotherapy, drug design, and gene editing. I am interested in utilizing machine learning to help create personalized cancer treatments for patients, either through personalized drug combinations or vaccines, and predict tumor responses to these treatments. With these novel methodologies, I hope to help medicine progress towards the inevitable future model of individualized care and treatment.”
Yoo, Jaesung EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Computational Biology, Neurobiology, Translational Medicine	“I’m interested in using artificial neural networks (ANNs) to model systems neuroscience circuits. This approach can accurately model systems neuroscience measurements compared to traditional models. And we can leverage explain-ability tools of ANNs to investigate how the ANN recreates the neural measurements, and its responses to perturbations. By bridging the connection between systems circuits and ANNs, I hope to develop more accurate ANNs, and use it as in-silico testbed for clinical neuroscience.”
Moore, Makala EMAIL	PHD PROGRAM RESEARCH INTEREST Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology, Translational Medicine	“I am very interested in all aspects of the microbiome: microbial ecology and the establishment of microbial niches within a complex system (why are these microbes where they are?), the functionality of the microbiome in terms of metabolites (what are these microbes doing here?), the interaction between the microbiome and the immune system (how is the microbiome established and maintained?), and how the microbiome influences health and disease (how does the microbiome interact with other systems and/or respond to insults/exposures?)”
Xi, Gang WEBSITE EMAIL PUBLICATIONS	PHD PROGRAM Cell Biology & Physiology RESEARCH INTEREST Autoimmune Disorders, Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Cell Signaling, Diabetes, Physiology, Signal Transduction, Translational Medicine	My research focuses on signal transduction, proteins posttranslational modification, and protein/protein interaction under varieties of stress/disease conditions. One of my major research areas is vascular smooth muscle signal transduction under hyperglycemic and oxidative stress conditions. Most recently, regulation of vascular smooth muscle cells phenotypic switch under hyperglycemic/uremic conditions was funded by NIH. In addition, I investigate autoantigens that are responsible for autoimmune diseases, such as MCD/FSGS, which make the precise diagnosis and individualized treatment plan possible.
Lee, Craig WEBSITE EMAIL PUBLICATIONS	PHD PROGRAM Pharmaceutical Sciences RESEARCH INTEREST Cardiovascular Disease, Genetics, Metabolism, Pharmacology, Translational Medicine	Craig Lee, Pharm.D, Ph.D. is a professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics (DPET). A key aspect of DPET’s mission is to optimize drug therapy through translating experimental and clinical pharmacology discoveries into precision medicine and accelerating application of these discoveries to improve patient care. Dr. Lee is trained as a clinical/translational pharmaceutical scientist with expertise in cytochrome P450 metabolism, cardiovascular experimental therapeutics, and precision medicine/pharmacogenomics. He is an active member of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute and UNC Program for Precision Medicine in Healthcare, and has an adjunct faculty appointment in the UNC School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology. The overall objective of Dr. Lee’s research program is to improve the understanding of the central mechanisms underlying inter-individual variability in drug response as a means to develop novel therapeutic strategies that will improve public health. A major scientific focus of the Lee laboratory is the metabolism of drugs and eicosanoids by the cytochromes P450 enzyme system. The major therapeutic area of application of their research is cardiovascular and metabolic disease. The Lee laboratory seeks to identify and elucidate the key factors that exacerbate inter-individual variability in the metabolism of and response to drugs currently on the market, and determine whether implementation of genomic and biomarker-guided drug selection and dosing strategies can reduce this variability in metabolism and response and improve patient outcomes. The Lee laboratory also seeks to develop a thorough understanding of how cytochrome P450-derived eicosanoids (bioactive lipid mediators of arachidonic acid) regulate hepatic and extra-hepatic inflammatory responses, and determine whether modulation of this pathway will serve as an effective anti-inflammatory and end-organ protective therapeutic strategy for cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Using genomics and biomarkers, the lab seeks to translate their preclinical discoveries into humans and determine which subsets of the population may be most likely to respond to the therapeutic strategies under evaluation in the laboratory. The Lee laboratory is a highly collaborative and translational research program that integrates mechanistically-driven rodent and cell-based preclinical models with observational and interventional clinical studies. They have received funding from the National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association, authored over 100 manuscripts and over 100 abstracts in the areas of cytochromes P450, eicosanoid and drug metabolism, pharmacogenomics, and experimental therapeutics. Dr. Lee has served as the major research advisor for over 40 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and professional students.

Research Interest: Translational Medicine