Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D. Institute for Regenerative Engineering, UConn Health
The treatment of bone injuries that necessitate bone regeneration continues to be a major challenge for the orthopaedic surgeon. This burden is compounded by the constraints of supply and morbidity associated with autograft tissue, the gold standard of repair. The use of allografts, xenografts, or metal and ceramic implants overcomes many of the limitations associated with autografts but fails to provide a viable solution. Dr. Cato T.
Brigid Hogan, Ph.D. Duke University School of Medicine
There have been recent exciting advances in our understanding of the stem and progenitor cells of the mammalian lung. Classic studies, including genetic lineage tracing experiments in the mouse using cell-specific Cre drivers, have shown relatively slow cell turnover and replacement of the respiratory epithelium at steady state. However, when cells are damaged by infection or toxic agents, the previously quiescent progenitor populations are activated to promote repair.
Dr. Mardis has research interests in the application of next-generation sequencing to characterize cancer genomes and transcriptomes, and using these data to support therapeutic decision-making. She also is interested in facilitating the translation of basic science discoveries in cancer into the clinical setting.
Amita Sehgal, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
The overall goal of the Sehgal lab is to determine the mechanisms that drive circadian rhythms and sleep, and to address the importance of these processes for organismal fitness. Most physiological processes display circadian (~24h) rhythms driven by endogenous clocks. Dr. Sehgal’s interest is in sleep in particular, which, in addition to the clock, is controlled by a homeostatic system that ensures adequate sleep for an organism. Most of our work is conducted with Drosophila, although we also use mammalian models.
Diane Rehm is a native Washingtonian who began her radio career in 1973 as a volunteer producer for WAMU 88.5, the NPR member station in Washington, D.C. She was hired as an assistant producer and later became the host and producer of two health-oriented programs. In 1979, she began hosting WAMU’s local morning talk show, “Kaleidoscope,” which was renamed “The Diane Rehm Show” in 1984. The lecture will be in interview format with NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins interviewing Ms.
More than $200 billion is spent worldwide annually on biomedical research but estimates suggest as much as 85 percent may be wasted. What are the determinants of research waste, and is such a high figure justified? A series of five papers in The Lancet (January 8, 2014) introduced this topic in detail and is updated in this lecture. This presentation focuses on redundancy and duplication of research hypotheses, research designs that cannot reliably test hypotheses, publication bias, and irreproducibility. Solutions for reducing waste and increasing value are discussed.
Antibodies are potent components of the human immune system and show great potential as therapeutics for the treatment of infectious diseases. In this lecture, Dr. Tan will provide two examples on how the antimicrobial discovery teams at Genentech isolated and engineered human antibodies to treat viral and bacterial infections. First, using an innovative in vivo human-plasmablast enrichment technique, his laboratory discovered antibodies that neutralize all seasonal and pandemic influenza A viruses.
Dr. Singleton’s talk will focus on the most effective route to testing disease-modifying therapies in neurodegenerative disease earlier in the disease process, with a particular focus on Parkinson disease. He will discuss attempts to make headway in identifying at-risk patients as early as possible in the disease process, when interventions may be most effective.
Allan Basbaum, Ph.D. University California, San Francisco
Many chronic pain conditions result from alterations in the how the central nervous system processes injury messages. In this respect, chronic pain is a “disease” of the nervous system, rather than a symptom of some other condition. Allan Basbaum’s laboratory studies mechanisms by which tissue and nerve injury induce chronic pain.
Nicole King, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Choanoflagellates are the closest living relatives of animals, and the mechanisms underlying their interactions with bacteria promise to illuminate both the origin of animals and the interactions between animals and bacteria. By studying the choanoflagellate S. rosetta, Dr. King’s lab has discovered that specific lipids produced by environmental bacteria determine the development of multicellular “rosettes” from a founding cell. Recently, she has found that bacteria in the genus Vibrio regulate gametogenesis and mating in S. rosetta.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, August 10, 2021
