We are now accepting applications for entry Summer 2024.
Our faculty mentors work at the cutting edge of the biomedical and related sciences. They are all full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty with exceptionally productive research programs in the seven strongest biomedical-related research units on campus (Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Medical Pharmacology & Physiology, Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, Veterinary Pathobiology).
Many of our faculty mentors are part of the Translational Biosciences PhD Program that spans the biomedical research spectrum from basic science discoveries to improved clinical outcomes and population health.
All PREP Scholar Faculty Mentors have completed comprehensive, NIH-approved mentoring training programs that include a Culturally Aware Mentoring component.
The following 40 faculty mentors are representative of the more than 200 potential PREP Scholar faculty mentors across the MU campus.
Lee-Ann Allen
Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
We study the biology of phagocytes, both neutrophils and macrophages, and manipulation of their function by bacterial pathogens Helicobacter pylori and Francisella tularensis, focusing on the roles of capsule and bacterial lipoproteins in virulence and links between cell metabolism and inflammation.
Deborah Anderson
Associate Professor of Veterinary Pathology
Our laboratory is interested in understanding the host pathogen interactions involving virulence factors that contribute to the extreme virulence of Y. pestis, enhanced transmission to the flea vector, and the worldwide persistence of the plague.
James Birchler
Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences
Our laboratory studies gene expression in multicellular eukaryotes on both the specific gene and chromosomal levels using Drosophila and maize as experimental organisms. We are interested in the mechanisms involved, how the two levels are interconnected and how they evolve.
Dan Bergstralh/Tara Finegan
Associate Professor/Research Scientist of Biological Sciences
Our lab works on two questions. How do epithelial cells figure out the right direction in which to divide? What happens when they don’t? These questions sit at the intersection of basic cell and developmental biology, biomedical research, and the physical sciences, so we take an interdisciplinary approach to answer them using techniques that include traditional genetics, protein biochemistry, advanced light microscopy, and computational modeling.
Erika Boerman
Assistant Professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology
Our lab focuses on vascular function in health and disease. Current work centers on the interaction of perivascular nerves, immune cells, and perivascular adipose in inflammatory bowel disease using advanced microscopy, live vessel studies, flow cytometry and genomic sequencing.
Charles Brown
Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology
We want to understand the mechanisms used by the host immune response to remove pathogenic microbes, and mechanisms used by the microbes to combat this removal.
Pamela Brown
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Our lab uses Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a plant pathogen and the cause of crown gall disease, as a model to understand how bacteria constrain peptidoglycan synthesis to specific cellular localizations in the context of the mechanism underlying growth and division of A. tumefaciens.
Donald Burke-Aguero
Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Biochemistry
Our lab uses cell biology, biochemistry, and computational approaches to compare millions of RNA molecules, looking for the ones that can do helpful jobs: e.g., RNA aptamers that bind tightly to proteins from HIV and prevent this virus from replicating, and artificial ribozymes that catalyze chemical reactions and have implications for the study of evolution.
Michael Calcutt
Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology
We focus on the molecular genetics and pathogenesis of Mycoplasmas, a diverse genus of cell wall-less bacteria that includes many important pathogens of food animals and humans. We analyze the repertoire, function and potential antigenic variation of surface membrane proteins, together with chromosomal dynamics and the role of mobile genetic elements in plasticity.
Chiswili Yves Chabu
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
We want to understand how cell-cell signaling events are initiated, interpreted, and integrated in tumor cells to modulate tumor cells behavior. We use a Drosophila tumor model to investigate how epithelial tumor cells communicate with each other and with host cells, including immune cells, to promote tumor overgrowth and metastasis.
Anand Chandrasekhar
Professor of Biological Sciences
We use cell biology and genetic knockout methods to decipher the mechanisms regulating the migration of cranial motor neurons, and how they organize to establish functional neuronal circuits. These studies will provide insight into the underlying causes of neural tube defects such as spina bifida, and of human neuronal migration disorders, such as lissencephaly.
Dawn Cornelison
Professor of Biological Sciences
Our lab studies how muscle satellite cells get information from the local environment, then use that information to decide whether to divide, move to another area in the muscle, or differentiate into functional muscle cells.
Timothy L. Domeier
Associate Professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology
Our research program investigates the mechanisms by which calcium homeostasis and cardiac muscle contractile function are altered in disease conditions including heart failure, cardiomyopathy, muscular dystrophy, and arrhythmia.
Michael Garcia
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
We study the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and spinal muscular atrophy. We generate genetically modified mice to investigate the role of the neurofilament network in establishing axonal diameter and to determine the mechanisms of disease pathogenesis in CMT2E.
Stephanie Gates
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Protein Quality Control (PQC) is important for cellular function and implicated in human diseases, including cancer and neurodegeneration. PQC pathways include molecular chaperones that regulate protein folding and the Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS), which targets proteins for degradation. My group studies the chaperones involved in the pro-degradation pathway that directly target proteins to the proteasome. We characterize these interactions using biochemical assays, single molecule FRET and cryo-electron microscopy.
Diana Gil Pages
Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and Bioengineering
We investigate how antigen recognition by T cell receptors (TCRs) turns on cell adaptive immune function, focusing on the TCR-associated CD3 multiprotein complex. CD3 conformational change (CD3Dc) is at the foundation of our ongoing research studying structural, biochemical, developmental and physiological levels of control exercised over CD3Dc.
Caroline Grunenwald
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Our laboratory focuses on understanding how the bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus senses and responds to stress during host infection, and how these stress response mechanisms contribute to S. aureus virulence, pathogenesis, and intrinsic resistance to antibiotic treatments.
Bumsuk Hahm
Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
We investigate the mechanisms of RNA virus-host interaction, viral regulation of host immunity, and viral pathogenesis. We hope to assist in the development of novel therapies including anti-viral drugs and immune therapeutics to remedy diseases caused by viral infections.
Mark Hannink
Professor of Biochemistry
We study the molecular mechanisms that regulate cell responses to their environment, e.g., how human cells sense and respond to oxidative stress. We identified several protein complexes that regulate cellular responses to oxidative stress and are developing therapeutic approaches to target these protein complexes and increase the ability of normal cells to withstand oxidative stress.
Xiao Heng
Associate Professor of Biochemistry
The main research interest in our lab is to understand the structure of viral RNA and the structural basis of virus:host interactions to begin to decipher the mechanism of HIV-1 viral replication.
Michael A. Hill
Professor and Associate Director of the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center
We study signaling mechanisms that underlie the vasoconstrictor response of an arteriole following an acute rise in intraluminal pressure. We include approaches to determine the relationships between pressure-induced changes in smooth muscle membrane potential, sub-cellular Ca2+ signaling, and the resulting signaling events that lead to the contractile response.
Marc Johnson
Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Our lab studies the interactions that occur between viruses (particularly HIV) and their hosts, in particular how viruses use host machinery to transport all of the viral pieces to correct location in the cell for assembly. A clearer understanding of these interactions will provide new avenues for the development of antiviral drugs.
Jill Kanaley
Professor of Nutrition & Exercise Physiology
Our focus is on exercise endocrinology and metabolism including: issues related to obesity and type 2 diabetes and weight loss with diet and exercise; the effects of exercise timing on glycemic control through the overnight period; obesity and adipose tissue inflammation; effects of meal frequency and composition on the hormonal responses.
Elizabeth King
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
The core life processes for every organism, such as surviving in the environment, finding food and mates, and reproducing, require the organism to allocate some of its limited resources to these functions. We use computational and empirical techniques to understand how different allocation strategies evolve and the underlying genetic architecture of this highly complex trait.
Margaret J. Lange
Assistant Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology
Host and viral factors influence pathogenesis and infection outcomes. We target the cellular mechanisms at the host-virus interface in an innovative therapeutic strategy. We hope to understand mechanisms at the host-virus interface that dictate biological outcomes, highlighting the molecular tug-of-war between host and virus and the complexity underlying co-evolution.
Christian Lorson
Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
We focus on spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of infantile death, characterized by degeneration and loss of lower spinal motor neurons. We discovered a relationship between SMA and cardiac problems, suggesting that SMA is a multi-system disease. We are developing new drugs to encourage the body to produce more SMN protein.
Luis Martinez-Lemus
Professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology
We are determining changes in the position and function of cells within the intact blood vessel wall that occur in response to common mechanical and vasoactive biochemical stimuli, an adaptive cell behavior that appears to allow the vessel to maintain a reduced diameter for extended periods of time with reduced levels of activation and energy expenditure.
Susan McKarns
Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Our research goal is the prevention and treatment of human autoimmune disorders, organ transplantation, inflammatory diseases, wound healing and cancer by better understanding the molecular mechanisms governing the differentiation and function of CD4 T lymphocytes and their role in immunity and tolerance.
Enoch Ng'oma
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
My goal is to understand the environmental components that cue different rates of aging within and among natural populations and the mechanisms behind those rates. I integrate traditional genetics and modern omics methods over scales of biological organization, across populations and species, and between contrasting environmental conditions.
Nicole Nichols
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences
We utilize a multidisciplinary approach to develop novel models of motor neuron death that mimic aspects of neurodegenerative diseases related to ventilatory and swallowing functions, in order to study the mechanism that underlies plasticity in surviving motor neurons responsible for breathing and swallowing, and how plasticity can be enhanced following motor neuron death.
Solomon "Wole" Odemuyiwa
Assistant Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology
Our research interests include virology, immunology, molecular diagnostics; pathogen discovery, molecular evolution, and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
Juame Padilla
Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
Our research program incorporates biochemical and molecular techniques, in vitro cell and tissue culture models, to understand the mechanisms linking metabolic and cardiovascular disease. A primary focus is the study of mechanisms causing endothelial insulin resistance and vascular dysfunction associated with physical inactivity, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Elizabeth Parks
Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
We study the cephalic phase of food intake and sensory effects on absorption of lipid, effects of dietary macronutrients on the development of obesity-related disorders, non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis, liver inflammation, and postprandial metabolism, and model non-steady state kinetics in metabolism.
Michael Petris
Professor of Biochemistry
Our lab investigates how minerals are accumulated within the body at the right locations and in the right concentrations. Using cells and animal models, we are interested in how copper functions in Alzheimer’s disease, tumor growth, and microbial killing by the immune system.
Charlotte Phillips
Associate Professor of Biochemistry
We investigate the regulation and structure/function of extracellular matrix and its tissue specific expression in the pathogenesis of inherited connective tissue disorders. Current projects include: therapeutic approach to improve bone quality in children with osteogensis imperfecta, and the pathogenesis of Type I collagen fibrosis in a renal disease mouse model.
Cheryl Rosenfeld
Professor of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences
We study the putative therapeutic effects of type I IFN on treating human endometrial cancers. We are examining the combined effects of IFN-a and the anti-estrogen raloxifene on various human estrogen-responsive endometrial cancer cells, including a microarray approach to examine the effects of IFN on estrogen-responsive genes.
Joe Santin
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Our lab studies how neuroplasticity allows the brain to overcome disturbances to function, such as ischemia (as seen in stroke) and loss of activity (as seen in neural injury). We use a range of approaches to address these questions that include in vivo and in vitro animal models, electrophysiology, and molecular biology.
Adam Schrum
Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and Bioengineering
Our lab is focused on physiologic signaling networks and how they function in molecular and cellular immunity. A main goal is to increase understanding of how T cells of the immune system decide whether to destroy or tolerate healthy, infected or cancerous tissue, with an eye toward applying lessons learned to design immunotherapies.
David Schulz
Professor of Biological Sciences
We are interested in how spinal cord injury changes the neural networks below the injury. We combine molecular expression profiling with electrophysiology to understand how neuron and network physiology change, as well as the cellular basis for those changes. We use mouse models of spinal cord injury and neurological disease to conduct these studies.
Laura Schulz
Associate Professor of Ob, Gyn, and Women’s Health
Our laboratory uses mouse models to focus on understanding how the maternal hormonal and nutritional environment during pregnancy, particularly maternal diabetes and the hormone leptin, affects the function of the placenta, and, in turn, the development and future health of the fetus.
Steven Segal
Curators Distinguished Professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology
Our research centers on how the microvascular supply and neural control of skeletal muscle recover following injury. Questions focus on the nature of intercellular crosstalk that governs angiogenesis, myogenesis, and neurogenesis during regeneration.
Jack Tanner
Professor of Biochemistry
We study protein structure and its relationships to protein function at the molecular and cellular levels. We use X-ray crystallography and a variety of computational methods to focus on understanding how biomolecules recognize and engage one another.
Emma Teixeiro-Pernas
Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Our lab researches T lymphocytes of the immune system defining the process of providing protection against infection and cancer. Our focus involves T cells that become effective at clearing pathogens and tumor cells and at providing long-term protection (immunological memory) to use this information to develop or improve therapies against cancer and infection.
Peter Tonellato
Professor of Health Management and Informatics
Biomedical Informatics, Mathematical Modeling, Simulations
Bret Ulery
Assistant Professor of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering
As director of the Biomodulatory Materials Engineering Laboratory, he leads a team of researchers focused on the design, development and production of novel biomaterials for a variety of biomedical applications primarily in the fields of immunology and regenerative medicine.
Victoria Vieira-Potter
Associate Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
The main focus of our laboratory is how behavioral (e.g., diet, exercise, environmental toxin exposure) and biological (e.g., aging, hormonal changes) factors influence metabolic function, specifically via modulation of the immuno-physiology of adipose (i.e., fat) tissue.
Xiu-Feng (Henry) Wan
Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Our long-term goals are to understand how zoonotic pathogens (especially influenza A viruses) emerge and re-emerge at the animal-human interface and to improve the effectiveness of the influenza vaccines in disease prevention and control by developing and applying systems biology based translational approaches combining laboratory, clinical and computational methods with an explicit goal of developing effective means of control of biological processes for improving human health and rapid clinical application.
Gary Weisman
Professor of Biochemistry
Our lab studies the relationship between inflammatory disease and “nucleotide receptors” present on the surface of most cells and control a range of functions including platelet aggregation, muscle contraction, neurotransmission, insulin secretion, wound healing, and cell growth. One receptor subtype prevents plaque formation associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Sen Xu
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
We are interested in understanding how genetic mechanisms underlying meiosis can be modified to allow the origin of obligately asexual reproduction, the genetic mechanisms responsible for the regulation of recombination rate in meiosis, and the how environmental changes/agents can impact the fundamental molecular processes such as mutation and meiotic recombination.
Esma Yolcu
Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
We use hematopoietic stem cells as a powerful scheme for immunomodulation with main focus on the treatment of autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, and allograft rejection as well as bone marrow failure syndrome and hematological malignancies.
Bing Zhang
Professor of Biological Sciences
We use the fruit fly as a genetic organism to study the basic and clinical aspects of the brain. At basic levels, we study the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which synapses form, develop, and function. In addition, we use cutting-edge molecular genetic tools to map neural circuits underlying behaviors, with a goal to understand the neural substrate of behavior or misbehavior.