Meet the JCI Insight Editorial Board

Maria G. Castro, PhD

Maria Castro is Professor of Neurosurgery and of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Her laboratory focuses on epigenetic regulation of cancer progression, uncovering the role of oncometabolites in the brain tumor microenvironment and the response to immunotherapies. Dr. Castro’s work has led to an FDA-approved phase I trial for gene therapy for malignant brain cancer. Dr. Castro is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is active in the American Association for Cancer Research.

Y. Eugene Chen, MD, PhD

Eugene Chen is Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Professor of Internal Medicine, Cardiac Surgery, Physiology, Pharmacology, and Medicinal Chemistry, and Director of the Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics at the University of Michigan. Dr. Chen’s research focuses on molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of diabetes-induced cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Dr. Chen is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

Sung Won Choi, MD, MS

Sung Won Choi is professor of Pediatrics and Edith S. Briskin and Shirley K Schlafer Foundation Research Professor at the University of Michigan. Her main area of expertise is hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), with a focus on the prevention and management of acute graft-versus-host disease. Dr. Choi directs a multidisciplinary research group that examines biological, clinical, and psychosocial outcomes in the HCT population. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

Kathleen L. Collins, MD, PhD

Kathleen Collins is the University of Michigan Department of Internal Medicine Collegiate Professor of HIV Research, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Associate Director of the Cellular and Molecular Graduate Program, and Senior Scholar of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute. Her research focuses on viral persistence, including mechanisms by which HIV evades the innate and adaptive immune responses. Dr. Collins is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile), Association of American Physicians, and National Academy of Medicine.

Gregory R. Dressler, PhD

Gregory Dressler is the Collegiate Professor of Pathology Research in the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan. His research examines molecular, genetic, and epigenetic mechanisms that drive embryonic development and differentiation. How such mechanisms contribute to disease in the kidney and reproductive tract is also of great interest. Dr. Dressler is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is active in the American Society of Nephrology.

Eric R. Fearon, MD, PhD

Eric Fearon is director of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and the Emanuel N. Professor of Oncology, as well as a faculty member in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Pathology. Dr. Fearon has made contributions in the fields of cancer genetics and biology, including discoveries into the nature and consequences of molecular defects in colorectal cancer and the generation of novel mouse models of colorectal tumorigenesis. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile), Association of American Physicians, and National Academy of Medicine.

David A. Fox, MD

David Fox is Professor of Internal Medicine, Co-Director of the Clinical Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, and Frederick G.L. Huetwell and William D. Robinson, M.D., Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. Dr. Fox’s research focuses on defining and characterizing pathways of human T cell activation, determining the role of these pathways in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease, investigating T cell interactions with synovial fibroblasts, understanding the role of IL-17 in arthritis, and exploring novel approaches to the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile) and the Association of American Physicians.

Katherine A. Gallagher, MD

Katherine Gallagher is Professor of Surgery, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and the John R. Pfeifer Collegiate Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Gallagher’s research focuses vascular inflammation and the intercept between epigenetics and peripheral macrophage phenotypes in wound repair and vascular disease. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile), the American Surgical Association, the Society of Clinical Surgery, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Santhi Ganesh, MD

Santhi Ganesh is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Michigan. Dr. Ganesh studies the genetic and molecular basis of vascular diseases, in particular arterial dysplasia phenotypes. Her laboratory employs genetic and genomic analysis methods to identify and study genetic mechanisms of arterial fibroplasia. Dr. Ganesh is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

Thomas W. Gardner, MD, MS

Thomas Gardner is Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, and Internal Medicine at the Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan. His group combines evaluations of patients and laboratory studies to determine how diabetes impacts the eye, determine the underlying molecular mechanisms, and develop new therapies. His laboratory’s studies test the hypothesis that altered growth factor signaling, combined with inflammation, impairs the survival of retinal nerve cells.

Johann E. Gudjonsson, MD, PhD

Johann Gudjonsson is Arthur C. Curtis Professor of Skin Molecular Immunology, Associate Professor Dermatology, and a Scholar of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute at the University of Michigan. Dr. Gudjonsson’s primary research focus is basic immunology, genetics, and genomics of inflammatory skin diseases, as well as understanding regulation of and the role of sexual dimorphism in inflammatory responses. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Nobuhiko Kamada, PhD

Nobuhiko Kamada is Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Kamada’s research aims to answer a fundamental question: how does the gut microbiota interact with host immunity in the context of gastrointestinal health and disease? Specifically, his research team focuses on the mechanism by which certain pathogenic members of the commensal microbiota promote chronic intestinal inflammation that leads to the development of inflammatory bowel disease.

Andrew Lieberman, MD, PhD

Andrew Lieberman is the Gerald D. Abrams Professor of Pathology and Director of Neuropathology at the University of Michigan Medical School. His research focuses on the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in inherited neurological disorders, including Niemann-Pick type C disease and spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy. Dr. Lieberman is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

Nicholas W. Lukacs, PhD

Nicholas Lukacs is the Godfrey D. Stobbe Professor of Pathology and Scientific Director of the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Lukacs’s research has examined leukocyte migration and chemokine biology during acute and chronic inflammatory disease. His laboratory is currently focused on the innate and acquired immune responses in allergen- and respiratory virus–induced diseases, as well as the role of the gut microbiome in early-life immune system development.

Carey Lumeng, MD, PhD

Carey Lumeng is the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor for the Cure and Prevention of Birth Defects and Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Lumeng’s research centers on inflammatory mechanisms that relate to obesity-associated diseases and metabolic diseases, with a focus on the function of adipose tissue leukocytes. Dr. Lumeng is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

Donna Martin, MD, PhD

Donna Martin is the Donita B. Sullivan Research Professor in Pediatrics and Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the genetic basis of neural development and disorders of human development, with an emphasis on genes predicted to influence neuronal stem cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration. Her laboratory explores how transcription factors and chromatin remodeling proteins control gene transcription and nucleosome remodeling, thereby influencing expression of key signaling and developmental pathways. Dr. Martin is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile), serving as Councilor 2017–2020; and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Daniel E. Michele, PhD

Daniele Michele is Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and of Internal Medicine–Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on the mechanisms of inherited diseases of cardiac and skeletal muscle, including muscular dystrophies. Dr. Michele’s broader interests are the regulation of mechanosignaling, extracellular matrix, cytoskeleton, and cellular injury and repair.

Bethany B. Moore, PhD

Bethany Moore is the Galen B. Toews, MD Professor and Interim Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, Professor of Internal Medicine, and Principal Investigator for the T32 grant that supports the Graduate Program in Immunology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Moore’s research has focused on the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis, and she has studied chemokines, eicosanoids, matricellular proteins, fibrocytes, microbiome dysbiosis, and viral infections as profibrotic mediators. In her work on stem cell transplantation, she has focused on the reconstitution of innate and adaptive immunity using both bacterial and viral infections as model systems.

David P. Olson, MD, PhD

David Olson is David Murray Cowie, MD Research Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and Associate Professor of Pediatrics and of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Olson’s group uses genetic models and stereotaxic delivery of viral vectors to selectively control identifiable cell groups in the brain in order to investigate the neurobiology of feeding, energy expenditure, and metabolism. Active project areas include genetic dissection of the paraventricular hypothalamus, ventromedial hypothalamic regulation of blood glucose, and mechanisms of feeding regulation housed in the lateral parabrachial nucleus.

Marina Pasca di Magliano, PhD

Marina Pasca di Magliano is an Associate Professor of Surgery and of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan, where she also serves as co-leader of the Cancer Biology Program for the Rogel Cancer Center. Dr. Pasca di Magliano's work focuses on pancreatic cancer. Her laboratory is particularly interested in the crosstalk between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment, using a combination of genetically engineered mouse models and primary human samples. Dr. Pasca di Magliano is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Subramaniam Pennathur, MD

Subramaniam Pennathur is the Norman Radin Professor of Nephrology, Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Chief of the Division of Nephrology, and Director of the NIDDK-funded O’Brien Kidney Translational Research Center at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on understanding the metabolic basis of diabetic complications and chronic kidney disease in model systems, utilizing metabolomics and systems biology, and translating these findings into therapeutics.

Pavan Reddy, MD

Pavan Reddy is Frances and Victor Ginsberg Professor of Hematology/Oncology, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Michigan. His research is focused on improving outcomes after allogeneic HCT, with the aims of discovering and translating novel immune modulators; and elucidating fundamental aspects of immune responses of T cells, dendritic cells, and target tissues. Dr. Reddy is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

Ernestina Schipani, MD, PhD

Ernestina Schipani is the William Wikoff Smith Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and full professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Schipani’s research focuses on the role of hypoxia-driven pathways and mitochondrial metabolism in skeletal development, disease, and regeneration. Dr. Schipani is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile) and a Fellow of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Metabolism (ASBMR).

Yatrik Shah, PhD

Yatrik Shah is the Horace W. Davenport Collegiate Professor of Physiology and Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. Dr. Shah’s lab studies the role of oxygen, metabolic waste products, and nutrients in the tumor microenvironment.

Andrew Tai, MD, PhD

Andrew Tai is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Tai’s research focuses on the cell biology of flavivirus infection — initially hepatitis C virus, and more recently dengue and Zika viruses. He is also a staff physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, caring for veterans with a variety of liver conditions.

Weiping Zou, MD, PhD

Weiping Zou is Charles B. de Nancrede Professor and Director of the Center of Excellence for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Michigan. Dr. Zou’s research focuses on the human cancer microenvironment. His team demonstrated that the tumor microenvironment comprises immune cells that have been reprogrammed by active tumor-mediated processes to defeat spontaneous and therapy-induced immunity; these studies have provided insights into designing novel anticancer immunotherapies, including PD-L1/PD-1 blockade.