Meet the JCI Insight Editorial Board

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.

Sharlene M. Day, MD

Sharlene Day is an Associate Professor and Director of Translational Research for Cardiovascular Medicine and the Cardiovascular Institute at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her research program focuses on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, spanning from the pursuit of basic/translational questions to design and execution of clinical trials. She is interested in the mechanisms by which mutations in sarcomere genes trigger and perpetuate disease and in developing novel pharmacologic and lifestyle-based strategies to prevent and attenuate disease progression. Dr. Day is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

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.

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.

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 the author of more than ninety peer-reviewed articles.

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.

John Y. Kao, MD

John Kao is Professor of Medicine and Associate Program Director of the GI Fellowship Program, Division of Gastroenterology, University of Michigan Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Kao studies the mechanism of gut microbe-host immune homeostasis related to H. pylori infection and IBD, as well as the role of diet and gut microbiota in diseases of the GI tract. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

Celina G. Kleer, MD

Celina Kleer is the Harold Oberman Collegiate Professor of Pathology and Co-Director of the Breast Pathology Program at the University of Michigan. Dr. Kleer is the principal investigator of an NIH-funded research laboratory at the Cancer Center working to understand mechanisms of breast cancer invasion and metastasis, and to develop useful breast tissue biomarkers. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

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.

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.

Lona Mody, MD, MSc

Lona Mody is Amanda Sanford Hickey Professor of Internal Medicine; Associate Division Chief, Geriatric & Palliative Care Medicine; Director, UM Pepper Center Pilot & Exploratory Studies Core; and Associate Director, Clinical and Translational Research, Geriatrics Center at the University of Michigan. Dr. Mody uses innovative clinical and molecular epidemiologic methods to define institutional, healthcare worker–, and patient-specific risk factors leading to infections and colonization with multidrug-resistant organisms in older adults and to design interventions that reduce these adverse events. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (profile).

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.

Alexey Nesvizhskii, PhD

Alexey Nesvizhskii is Professor in the Departments of Pathology and of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics. Dr. Nesvizhskii has developed new proteomics technologies as well as bioinformatics tools used by laboratories worldwide. In addition to his current research program in the areas of proteomics, proteogenomics, and integrative bioinformatics, he also directs the Proteomics Resource Facility, which provides cutting-edge proteomics capabilities to University of Michigan investigators.

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.

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).

Darleen Sandoval, PhD

Darleen Sandoval is Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Sandoval’s research focuses on the role of the gut-brain axis in regulation of normal glucose regulation; how dysregulation of this axis is involved in the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus; and how adaptations of the gut-brain axis contribute to the profound weight loss and improvements in glucose and lipid homeostasis seen with bariatric surgery. She is also Director of the Animal Studies Core at the University of Michigan, which is supported by the NIH-funded Michigan Diabetes Research Center.

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.