Introducing the faculty and codirectors of CHARM

The main goal of the Zima lab research is to define the mechanisms that regulate SR calcium release in the normal and failing heart.

The Sojka lab’s primary interest lies in advancing endometrial health and helping treat preganancy complications by targeting resident natural killer cells in the female reproductive tract.

Dr. Sodhi’s laboratory has a longstanding commitment to translate discoveries from molecular neuroscience to improve our understanding of psychiatric illnesses that are associated with suicide.

The Singh laboratory is interested in understanding how gonadal hormones, particularly estrogens, progestins and androgens, regulate brain function and influence the trajectory of brain aging or the development of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases. 

Dr. Saban’s research seeks to integrate social context and inflammation with epigenetic signature to explain disparities in cardiovascular disease/stroke in disadvantaged women and to examine interventions that may ameliorate stress-related inflammation in vulnerable populations.

The goal of research in the Robia lab is to understand how the heart muscle responds to the varying demands of exercise and rest, as well as how it becomes disordered in disease states. 

The Piedras Lab seeks to understand the factors that modulate neuronal excitability in disease, from the study of ion channel function and dysfunction

Dr. Mattix Kramer’s research areas include Obesity, intersection between kidney and cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and genetic variants for kidney disease.

Dr. Kubasiak’s research has been primarily into the areas of Burn-shock, the outcomes of burn patients and age related injuries from escalators. 

The Kirk lab studies cardiovascular disease from the perspective of the sarcomere, the force-generating unit in heart muscle cells.

Dr. Kartje’s research focuses on using a novel immunotherapy to increase neuroplasticity after brain damage to improve functional recovery after ischemic stroke

Dr. Greer’s lab is investigating links between gene expression regulation and memory formation. We are particularly interested in how these mechanisms are disrupted in diseases affecting cognitive processes, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The Hu Lab focuses on one of the major hallmarks of aging: the loss of stem cell function. We utilize dual fly and mouse barrier epithelial models to elucidate mechanisms of stem cell aging.

The Wainwright lab has 3 primary goals: understanding glioblastoma, active application of immunotherapy for patients, and to better understand why older adults with glioblastoma die significantly faster as compared to younger adults.

Dr. Kekenes-Huskey’s laboratory uses computational and experimental techniques to probe how cells function in diverse scenarios.

The Iwashima lab’s current area of interest is the Cell Biology of T cell subsets.

Dr. Gogliotti’s research focuses on the integration of genomics and human biomaterial into the drug discovery process for pediatric diseases of the nervous system

Dr. Fareed’s major research is in the areas of pathophysiology of thrombotic and cardiovascular disorders and their pharmacologic management. 

The Denning lab is interested in understanding the regulation of cell fate decisions (proliferation, differentiation, death) for keratinocytes and melanocytes within the normal epidermis as well as how the processes become perturbed during ultraviolet radiation-induced skin carcinogenesis.

The Chai Lab integrates next-gen sequencing, molecular biology, cellular imaging methods, as well as in vivo animal models to understand the molecular mechanisms for protecting genome stability under replication stress

The Campbell Lab’s primary focus is on Cellular factors promoting or inhibiting HIV-1 infection; prion-like spread of amyloid proteins in neurodegenerative diseases and their role of inflammation in disease pathogenesis.

The Barefield Lab is interested in studying the pathological mechanisms of human gene mutations that cause inherited cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias, and how additional genetic and environmental factors influence the progression of the disease.