麻豆传媒

Dr. Jeremy Nathans is a professor of molecular biology and genetics, neuroscience and ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on molecular mechanisms of visual system development, function, and disease.

Dr. Nathans is responsible for landmark discoveries that have changed our understanding of how humans see the world. His investigations into the mechanisms that allow us to see colors led him to identify the genes that code for color-vision receptors in the light-sensing cones of the retina. This breakthrough finding allowed him to show that variations in these genes cause color blindness. His work has also led to new understandings of the development, function and survival of the retina.

Dr. Nathans received his undergraduate degree in Life Sciences and Chemistry from MIT and earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and M.D. from Stanford University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech, Inc. Dr. Nathans joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1988.

He serves on the editorial board of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is on many scientific advisory boards including The Foundation Fighting Blindness and Merck Research Laboratories. He became a member of the Institute of Medicine in 2011 and his work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience by the McGovern Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Frank M. LaFerla, Ph.D., is the dean of the UCI School of Biological Sciences and a chancellor鈥檚 professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. He joined UCI in 1995 as an assistant professor and later served as chair of Neurobiology and Behavior from 2010 to 2013 and the director of the UCI Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) from 2009 鈥� 2018.

Dean LaFerla is the current director of the National Institutes of Health funded UCI Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Research Center and the co-director of the National Institute on Aging funded Model-AD at UCI, a research consortium to develop the next generation of model organisms to evaluate and cure Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.

His research focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease, the most common form of dementia. His scholarly work has had a global influence on the field, as some of the model organisms he has generated have been distributed to over 150 researchers in more than 20 countries throughout the world. He has published more than 200 original peer-reviewed articles and has been listed among the top 1% cited researchers in his field.

Dean LaFerla has received many honors for his research accomplishments throughout his career, including the Promising Work Award from the Metropolitan Life Foundation for Medical Research, the Ruth Salta Investigator Achievement Award from the American Health Assistance Foundation, the Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer鈥檚 Association and the UCI Innovators Award. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected member of the American Neurological Association, the American Society for Cell Biology, the International Society for Stem Cell Research and the Society for Neuroscience.

Geneticist Bill Cresko studies the genomic basis of evolutionary change using comparative studies of natural populations in the wild and experimental approaches in the laboratory. He uses the threespine stickleback fish as his primary model to understand how molecular genetic variation can modify networks of genes and proteins to produce variation in evolutionarily important traits. Most recently, his lab has developed stickleback as a model for studies of how host genetic variation can influence their associated microbial communities. His lab is also well known for developing genomic tools (e.g. RAD-seq) and super-computing software (e.g. Stacks), both of which are now used by thousands of scientists around the world. Cresko鈥檚 group has published nearly 100 papers that have been cited thousands of times. In addition to several prestigious fellowships throughout his education from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), Cresko received the Fund for Faculty Excellence Award from the University in 2013 and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016. 

Cresko holds numerous leadership roles on campus. He is associate vice president of research and leader of the Presidential Initiative in Data Science and a member of the Internal Advisory Board at the University for the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact (KCASI). 

Work in his laboratory has been supported by grants from the NIH, NSF, the Murdock Charitable Trust and the W. M. Keck Foundation. Cresko co-founded the Applied Graduate Internship Program in Genomics and Bioinformatics, an interdisciplinary training program at UO, which is now part of KCASI. He has also provided key faculty leadership for over $600 million dollars in philanthropic donations to the University of Oregon over the last decade, primarily in support of research, including the largest single gift to a comprehensive public university from Phil and Penny Knight. 

Realizing increased Photosynthetic (RIPE) Project Deputy Director Donald Ort is the Robert Emerson Professor in Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois. His research seeks to understand and improve plant growth and photosynthetic performance in changing environmental conditions, such as increasing CO2 temperature and drought. Don's research ranges from improving photosynthetic efficiency to the molecular and biochemical basis of environmental interactions with crop plants to ecological genomics. His research spans from the molecular to crop canopies in the field. Don earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree in biology from Wake Forest University and his doctorate in plant biochemistry from Michigan State University. He has served as the president of the American Society of Plant Biologists, the International Society of Photosynthesis Research, and the International Association of Plant Physiology. He also served as editor-in-chief of Plant Physiology and is an associate editor of Annual Review of Plant Biology. Don has received numerous awards and recognitions, including election to the National Academy of Sciences and being named one of Thomson Reuters鈥� Most Influential Scientific Minds. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers in journals that include Science.

Dr. Chaevien Clendinen is an analytical chemist with the Biomolecular Pathways team. She is an expert in metabolomics data analysis and workflow development using a variety of analytical pipelines, including liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS), gas chromatography MS (GC-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. She is also an expert in structural elucidation using LC-MS and NMR.  
Clendinen has 10 years of research experience across multiple disciplines, including analytical and physical chemistry, microbiology and virology, cancer biology, and biotechnology. At EMSL, Dr. Clendinen assists users in the collection and analysis of metabolomics data from a variety of sample matrices. She is currently working with PNNL researchers to improve LC, GC, and NMR metabolomics workflows and identification confidence.

Dr. Amir Ahkami is a biologist and the leader of the . Ahkami joined EMSL in 2015 to support the development of the plant science research program. He also holds the position of adjunct assistant professor at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. He is currently leading research projects as a principal investigator focusing on poplar (Populus spp.) and model grasses’ (Brachypodium鈥痑nd鈥疭etaria) responses to abiotic stresses, molecular physiology of root formation, and physiological phenotyping to narrow the genotype-to-phenotype knowledge gap for crop improvement. He employs state-of-the-art technologies, including single cell-type specific molecular profiling coupled with high-resolution cellular imaging to address plant biology research gaps on molecular and physiological mechanisms that control bioenergy crop productivity and fitness in relationship to microbial communities in the rhizosphere. He is also assisting EMSL collaborators and users in the development of creative new applications for plant sciences.鈥� 

Dr. José Ordovás is a senior scientist in precision nutrition at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. His research focuses on the genetic factors that predispose individuals to heart disease and obesity as well as the interaction of these genetic factors with the environment and behavioral factors. In particular, Dr. Ordovás examines the impact of diet on genetic factors. 

Coralie Salesse-Smith is a postdoctoral researcher within the lab of Stephen Long at the University of Illinois. She earned her bachelor's degree in biology—specializing in molecular biology and biotechnology—from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and completed her doctorate in plant physiology at Cornell University in New York. Coralie's work has been published in Nature Plants, Plant Physiology, and the Journal of Experimental Botany, among others. She currently works on improving the mesophyll conductance of crops important to Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia as part of the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project.

Dr. Lisa Waidner, an Assistant Professor, has a Ph.D. from the College of Marine Science at the University of Delaware. Before she joined UWF in 2016, Waidner had the unique opportunity to work in several small biotechnology companies in the capacity of genetic engineering, phylogenetics, and directed evolution to improve biofuel and bioenergy-producing microorganisms.  Her academic mentors were Richard Karpel (UMBC, M.S. program), David Kirchman (Delaware, Ph.D. program), Thomas Hanson (Delaware, post-doctoral position), and co-mentors Robin Morgan and Joan Burnside (Delaware, post-doctoral fellowship). 
Her findings have been published in the Journal of Shellfish Research, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Virology, and Environmental Virology. Topics have included aspects of Marek’s disease, virioplankton populations, and crab populations near the mouth of the Delaware Bay. Waidner’s current research interests are in environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, and bioremediation in oceans, coastal waters, inland bays, and rivers. 
These studies include developing a better understanding of global elemental cycles, as well as ‘applied’ bioremediation research.  Her work uses model bacteria called the aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs (AAP), which are a diverse group of proteobacteria that may be involved in light-stimulated uptake of dissolved organic matter and of point-source pollution and legacy contaminants.  Cultured and uncultured AAP are used in molecular biological, microbiological, and ecological studies on this diverse group of freshwater, estuarine, and marine bacteria. Dr. Waidner has taught classes in Introduction to Bioinformatics and Environmental Genomics and is currently a UWF instructor for Genetics Lab.  She is now working with undergraduate students to characterize unique AAP bacteria from coastal and inland waters in and around the Pensacola Bay system.

The brain is composed of billions of neurons forming a complex network. Improper connections of these neurons have severe consequences on the sensory, motor, and cognitive functions of the nervous system. During embryonic development, neuronal axons are guided to their target by attractive and repulsive axonal guidance molecules. We have recently demonstrated that Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) acts as a chemoattractive molecule for the axons of certain neurons in the spinal cord.
One of the objectives of Dr. Frédéric Charron's team is to identify and characterize the components of the Shh signaling pathway in axonal guidance. In addition to helping better understand the immense complexity underlying the formation of nervous system circuits, this research will aid in identifying new strategies to promote the guidance and reconnection of axons damaged by neurodegenerative diseases and brain or spinal cord injuries.

Dr. Sierra’s career has spanned academia, industry and government, including his role as Director of the Division of Aging Biology at the NIA/NIH, from 2006 to 2019, where he was an important contributor to the development of the concept of Geroscience, including the creation and leadership of the trans-NIH Geroscience Interest Group (GSIG). Before joining Hevolution in 2022, he was Director of Geroscience for Inspire.
Dr. Sierra holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Florida and was an Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and an Associate Professor at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Pennsylvania.

Enke researches development and diseases of retinal neurons, epigenetic regulation, genomics and bioinformatics, molecular biology and neuroscience. 
Enke is interested in the molecular processes that neuronal precursors undergo during development into mature retinal neurons, such as rod and cone photoreceptors. He also researches blinding diseases that afflict the retina, such as age-related macular degeneration. In 2018, Enke received $463,915 from the National Institutes of Health to investigate early clinical detectors of age-related macular degeneration and potential medical interventions if early detectors are discovered. 
Enke earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Salisbury University and his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.