Department/Center Faculty

Dr. McMahon’s laboratory explores the mechanisms that maintain stem/progenitor cells and regulate their differentiation to mature cell types of different organ systems, particularly the kidney. By combining genetic and genomic approaches with high resolution imaging, his group is aiming to obtain a deeper understanding of stem cell biology and to develop novel therapeutic strategies for regenerative medicine.

Dr. Bonaguidi and his team investigate brain development, adaptation and aging through the lens of individual neural stem cells. His laboratory takes an integrative approach to establishing fundamental principles of tissue plasticity with the purpose of identifying and overcoming the limits of endogenous brain repair.

Dr. Cannon’s research is focused on viruses, stem cells and gene therapy. The viruses that her laboratory studies are HIV-1 and several biodefense related viruses, such as Ebola and Junin, that cause severe viral hemorrhagic fevers.

Dr. Chai’s laboratory is interested in early craniofacial development and malformations, including the molecular regulation of cranial neural crest cells. His laboratory has developed genetically engineered mouse models, and has made important discoveries about the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) niche in the craniofacial region and about utilizing MSCs with 3D printed scaffolds for tissue regeneration.

Dr. Crump uses zebrafish to understand how the cartilages and bones of our faces are patterned during development. His lab is discovering the local tissue-tissue interactions that control skeletal differentiation and morphogenesis in vivo, and also exploring novel ways of regenerating bone in adults.

The Evseenko Lab research program is designed to form a bridge between basic studies of early embryogenesis, stem cell biology, and the clinically relevant application of stem cell and small molecule-based therapies for degenerative joint disease known as osteoarthritis as well as chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases of the joint such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Fraser has a long-standing interest in the imaging and molecular analysis of intact biological systems, and has been developing new technologies for novel assays. His current research centers on the high-content imaging of embryonic zebrafish and analysis of craniofacial development in avians and mice.

Dr. Georgia’s research involves the regeneration of insulin-producing, pancreatic beta cells as a potential therapeutic for patients with type 1 diabetes. Some of her recent work describes how an enzyme DNMT1 is critical to stem cells differentiating into pancreatic beta cells.

Dr. Ichida’s research focuses on how genetic and environmental factors contribute to human neurodegenerative disease. His laboratory uses cellular reprogramming and stem cell technology to build patient-specific in vitro models of neurodegenerative disease, enabling the screening of drug-like compounds in search of potential therapeutics.

Dr. Li and his team aim to bridge basic studies of kidney organogenesis and translational applications of stem/progenitor cell-based kidney regeneration and disease modeling, with the long-term goal of rebuilding the kidney. They achieve this by combining state-of-the-art stem cell technologies and engineering methodologies.

Dr. Lozito's research compares skeletal regeneration in lizards and salamanders. The ultimate goal is to apply this knowledge to improve regeneration in humans.

Dr. Lu studies stem cell coordination, regulation and malfunction from a single cell perspective, using mouse hematopoietic stem cells as a model system. Research in her laboratory is focused on understanding the differences between individual stem cells and how they are coordinated in sustaining the common blood supply.

Dr. Mariani’s laboratory studies the development and repair of the mammalian skeleton, with an emphasis on the ribs and handplate. They use standard and conditional knock-out techniques in mouse models and mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells.

The overall interest of Dr. Maxson's laboratory is the molecular genetic basis of embryonic pattern formation. They focus on processes that regulate the development of the calvaria, the flat bones that compose the top of the skull.

Dr. McCain’s group leverages techniques in tissue engineering to understand mechanisms of development and disease on the cell and tissue level. They develop and utilize tools that can probe structure-function relationships in engineered cells and tissues across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Dr. Morsut is developing synthetic biology approaches for mammalian multicellular systems. His laboratory is engineering synthetic cell-cell communication pathways to advance tissue engineering applications as well as the fundamental understanding of multicellular dynamics.

Dr. Quadrato's laboratory focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular basis of human brain development and disease. By combining the use of emerging models of the human brain with single cell omics approaches, the laboratory is aiming to identify cell type specific disease mechanisms, and above all, new treatments for human neurodevelopmental disorders.

Dr. Rodgers’ laboratory focuses on uncovering the signals and communication networks that instruct stem cells to coordinate and effectively work together to grow and repair organs and tissues, including muscle, skin and bone.

Dr. Ryan (Firth) uses induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) generated from skin biopsies to study human lung diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She combines gene editing, iPSC technologies and directed differentiation: 1) to generate reproducible models of respiratory diseases in a dish; 2) to generate chimeric animal models to understand disease development and progression; and 3) to utilize these models in high-throughput screening.

Hearing loss and balance disorders affect more than half of adults in the US by retirement age, and loss of sensory hair cells in the inner ear is the major contributor. The long-term goal of Dr. Segil’s laboratory is the regeneration of these sensory hair cells of the inner ear.

Dr. Ying’s research focuses on understanding how embryonic stem cells decide whether to self-renew or to differentiate.

Dr. Yu researches the mechanism of cancer metastasis, the major cause of cancer-related death. Her laboratory is gaining a better understanding of the cancer stem cell properties in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and obtaining novel insights on how to target these rare populations.