RESEARCH & FACULTY
CARDIOVASCULAR & PULMONARY BIOLOGY
The cardiovascular system includes the heart and all blood vessels delivering oxygen to tissues and the transporting metabolic waste products to be cleared from the body. The pulmonary system includes the trachea (windpipe), the lungs, the muscles and bones of the rib cage, and the diaphragm. It transports oxygen to the blood and extracts carbon dioxide, along with directly interacting with external pollutants, bacteria, and viruses. Faculty study the molecular features that lead to diseased tissue and aim to leverage this information to design novel treatments and therapeutic strategies.
STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
Many of the faculty utilize multi-omics data and molecular structure to define how and where pharmacological processes occur. Knowledge of the omics profiles from an individual allows us to define the target of pharmacologically important molecules. Defining the molecular structure of the target protein allows pharmacological mechanisms of molecules to be defined. The centers and facilities that aid in this research include the Genomics Shared Resource, Mass Spectrometry Center, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center, Electron Microscopy Facility, and the X-ray Crystallography Center.
SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION
How the activities of different cell types are harmonized to provide integrated responses in an organism is the key feature that allows multi-celled organisms to flourish. This coordination is achieved by the activities of an array of neurotransmitters, hormones, and growth factors, which operate on timescales of milliseconds to days. The study of these processes is known as signal transduction, or cellular signaling, one of the key areas of biomedical research that tells us about normal functions and therapeutic opportunities. The majority of faculty study cellular signaling at some level, including ion channels, signal transduction pathways, second messengers, growth factor-signaling, and the cell cycle.
Joshua Black PhD
Assistant Professor
Completed Mentor Training Course; Completed Implicit Bias Training
My lab studies how cells use epigenetics to control gene amplifications. We have identified epigenetic pathways that cells use to create transient increases in gene copy number. These copy number changes play roles in tumor development, progression and drug resistance. By understanding the fundamental mechanisms that govern copy number control we hope to allow better cancer therapies.
Heide Ford PhD
(she/her/hers)
Professor
Completed Mentor Training Course
Our laboratory focuses on a specific family of homeoproteins, the Six family, and their transcriptional cofactors, Eya and Dach. The Six1 homeobox gene is overexpressed in 50% of primary breast cancers and 90% of metastatic lesions, and its overexpression.
Phone:3037243509
Joaquin Espinosa PhD
Professor
Our main research goal is to understand how gene networks control cell behavior in homeostasis and human disease. Our two main focus areas are cancer biology and Down syndrome.
Phone:3037247389
Patricia Ernst PhD
(she/her/hers)
Professor
Completed Mentor Training Course; Completed Upstander/Bystander Training
Our group focuses on epigenetic mechanisms regulating normal hematopoiesis and leukemia focusing on MLL-family histone methyltransferases.
Phone:3037248804
James Costello PhD
(he/him/his)
Associate Professor;
Director, Pharmacology Program
Completed Upstander/Bystander Training, Completed Mentor Training Course
Within the broad scope of systems biology, my lab focuses on 3 research areas: 1) Network inference for identifying drug targets, 2) Predicting drug sensitivity from -omics datasets, and 3) Modeling temporal effects of drug combinations.
Phone:3037248619
M. Cecilia Caino PhD
(she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor
Facilitated and Completed Mentor Training Course; Completed Upstander/Bystander Training, Completed Equity Certificate,
Our group aims to understand how mitochondria reprogramming in tumors impact cellular behaviors that drive progressive and lethal cancer. We use a broad repertoire of biochemistry, cell biology, live cell imaging and animal models to study the impact of mitochondria shape, number and subcellular distribution in metastatic dissemination.
Rebecca Schweppe PhD
(she/her/hers)
Professor and Director, Cancer Biology Program
Completed Mentor Training Course
The focus of my lab is to identify novel molecular targets relevant to papillary and anaplastic thyroid cancer (PTC and ATC) with the ultimate goal of advancing these studies to clinical trials for thyroid cancer patients who do not respond to standard treatment. Trainings Completed: Certificate in Multicultural Mentoring, Implicit Bias Training, Bystander/Upstander Training, Active Listening Training to Support Student Mental Health
Phone:3037243179
CANCER BIOLOGY
Our faculty are developing a detailed understanding of the underlying
molecular mechanisms that drive cancer cell behavior and then applying this
understanding to develop better, more tailored treatments for cancer. Faculty
are also members of the University of Colorado Cancer Center to translate
findings into the clinic. Specific areas of cancer biology research include: cancer drug resistance, metastasis, and tumor cell growth and death. We leverage cutting-edge technologies, in single cell multi-omic approaches, multispectral imaging, cell biology, structural biology, biochemistry, genetics, and systems biology.
COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY & PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
Faculty utilize the human genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and molecular structure to define how and where pharmacological processes occur. Studying biological systems is complex and drawing statistical inferences from large compendium data of genetic factors requires novel computational methodology and compute infrastructure. Faculty are designing the methods to translate these large datasets into knowledge.
Specific areas of computational biology and personalized medicine include systems pharmacology, development of network inference methods, prediction of novel gene function, genome and transcriptome-wide association studies, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and structure modeling. Faculty also have a strong interest in the ethical concerns raised with applying artificial intelligence models and the collection of large training and testing datasets.
NEUROPHARMACOLOGY
Faculty working in the area of neuroscience and neuropharmacology focus their research on characterizing the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie neuronal function and behavior. Because neuroscience/neuropharmacology is an increasingly integrative discipline, we incorporate cutting-edge multidisciplinary approaches including animal behavior, advanced microscopy, in vivo measurements of neural activity, electrophysiology, optogenetics and molecular and cell biology. One of the strengths of our faculty lies in the fact that they have experience in a number of different scientific disciplines.
Specific areas of neuropharmacology research at CU Anschutz include the study of molecular memory and synaptic plasticity, neurodegenerative diseases and molecular mechanisms that control synaptic transmission and neuromodulation. In addition, the pharmacology faculty has a particularly strong interest in the neuropharmacology of psychedelics and drugs of abuse.
PHARMACOLOGY AFFILIATE FACULTY
PharMM affiliated faculty are not available to serve as primary PhD mentors, but are available to serve on mentoring teams and student committees.
Mair Churchill PhD
Professor
Research Focus:
Accepting Students
Chromosome Biology
Gene Regulation
Genomics Bioinformatics
Macromolecular Structure
Microbiology Virology
Structural Biology
My lab is interested in understanding the molecular basis of essential processes that regulate gene expression. We use biophysical, biochemical methods, and structural methods, including X-ray crystallography. Our insights into these fundamental mechanisms will contribute to a better understanding and ability to regulate gene expression processes involved in human diseases and will assist in drug development efforts.
Our studies focus on the following questions: (1) How is chromatin structure modulated for DNA-dependent processes? and (2) How do transcription factors and pioneering factors activate gene expression?
Scott Cramer PhD
Professor
Research Focus:
Accepting Students
Cancer Biology
Genomics Bioinformatics
Prostate Cancer Tumor Suppressors, Stem Cells, Tumor Initiating cells, Signal Transduction, Receptor Signaling.
Charles Edelstein MD, PhD
Professor
Research Focus:
Accepting Students
Signal Transduction
Caspases and apoptosis in Polycystic kidney Disease (PKD).
Elan Eisenmesser PhD
Associate Professor
Research Focus:
Accepting Students
Cancer Biology
Signal Transduction
The Eisenmesser lab takes a unique approach to understand protein function, and particularly enzyme function, by utilizing molecular engineering methods to control both structural interactions and the underlying movements that underlie their conformational changes. The ultimate goal of the Eisenmesser lab is to fully characterize molecular interactions at both atomic resolution and biological levels with a particular emphasis on medically relevant systems that may be exploited to either block or promote events underlying disease progression.
David Jones PhD
Associate Professor
Research Focus:
Accepting Students
Structural Biology
Research in my lab uses NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, molecular biology and biophysical approaches to answer the fundamental questions of how mediators of signal transduction interact with proteins of neuronal signaling pathways.
J. David Port PhD
Professor
Research Focus:
Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Biology
Genomics Bioinformatics
Signal Transduction
G-protein linked receptors and their regulation; regulation of mRNA stability.