Wolverine Foundation Research Team
The Wolverine Foundation is currently engaging in a variety of innovative and cutting edge initiatives to expand research into MAPK8IP3 genetic disease studies to address this issue, but we are constantly seeking out new, innovative and cutting edge research initiatives. The Wolverine Foundation (“WF”) is sponsoring the following research studies which are investigating possible treatments for the MAPK8IP3 genetic mutation.
Research teams
The Davis Lab at UMass
Dr. Davis
Dr. Roger J. Davis is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is the H. Arthur Smith Professor and Chair, Program in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He received his initial training as a student at Cambridge University. He also trained as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation fellow with Michael P. Czech at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He subsequently joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and was a founding member of the Program in Molecular Medicine.
Dr. Davis’ studies of signal transduction mechanisms led to the molecular cloning of the first human stress-activated MAP kinase, the cJun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). Subsequent studies defined the molecular structure of the JNK pathway, including the identification of upstream and down-stream pathway components and scaffold proteins. This signaling pathway is activated in response to many pathological / physiological stimuli and is implicated in inflammatory diseases (e.g. arthritis), cancer, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes. The overall goal of Dr. Davis’ research is to understand the molecular basis for these diseases and to design novel therapeutic strategies.
About Dr. Davis →
The Ferguson Lab at YSM
Dr. Ferguson
About Dr Ferguson →
In 2010, he established his independent laboratory in the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine which focuses on the intersection between fundamental cell biology questions and neurological disease mechanisms He currently holds the rank of Associate Professor (tenured) and has a secondary appointment in Neuroscience.
The Chung Lab at BCH
Dr. Chung
About Dr Chung →
Dr. Chung directs NIH funded research programs in human genetics of birth defects including congenital diaphragmatic hernia, congenital heart disease, and esophageal atresia, autism, neurodevelopmental disorders, pulmonary hypertension, cardiomyopathy, obesity, diabetes, and breast cancer. She leads Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She has authored over 450 peer reviewed papers and 75 reviews and chapters in medical texts.
BCH Team
Alexa Geltzeiler
About
The Gowrishankar Lab at UIC
Dr. Gowrishankar
About Dr Gowrishankar →
The Precision Medicine Institute at UAB
Dr. Might
About Dr Might →
From 2016 to 2018, Dr. Might was a Strategist in the Executive Office of the President in The White House. At The White House, he worked primarily on President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative with both the NIH and the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2015, Dr. Might joined the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School as a visiting professor. At DBMI, his research focused on rare disease discovery and diagnosis, and on the development of personalized therapeutics for rare disease.
UAB Team
Dr. Crowder
About
Cammie joined UAB’s Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute as the Assistant Director of Education, Research, and Science Communication in 2020. As a senior laboratory scientist at PMI, she uses CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis to develop patient-guided zebrafish models of rare-genetic disorders associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disease. Through her research, she aims to describe molecular mechanisms contributing to patient symptoms and complete drug screens in zebrafish models to identify potential therapeutic options that could be repurposed to treat patients. She uses research in her teaching and has developed a series of laboratory-based curriculum for UAB undergraduate programs in the areas of genetics, molecular biology, and precision medicine. Cammie is an Assistant Professor of Neurobiology at UAB Birmingham.
Prior to her current position, she was awarded an NIH Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) and completed her postdoctoral fellow at UAB examining endocrinological disease and rare-human genetic disorders in the labs of Dr. Daniel Gorelick and Dr. Matt Might. She received her PhD in 2016 from Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. She is originally from Birmingham, AL.
Dr. Yeo
About
Dr. Yoder
About
Dr. Bradley K. Yoder is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology in the School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He holds the UAB Health Science Foundation Endowed Chair in Biomedical Research and was the 2019 recipient of the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Advancement in the Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease. He is the Director of the NIH funded Childhood Cystic Kidney Disease Center, Co-director, with Dr. Matt Might, of the NIH funded Center for Precision Animal Modeling (C-PAM), and the Director of the Graduate Training Program in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental, Biology. He joined the faculty at UAB in 1997 after completing his postdoctoral studies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory under the guidance of Dr. Rick Woychik, where Dr. Yoder was an Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow. He received his Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 1993.
His research focus is on the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating assembly, maintenance, and function of the primary cilium utilizing complementary approaches in rats, mice, C. elegans, and cell culture models. Utilizing genetic screens in C. elegans, his group identified multiple proteins required for ciliogenesis and cilia mediated sensory and signaling activities and have extended these studies into mammalian systems demonstrating critical roles for the cilium in embryogenesis and for maintaining normal tissue function in adults. His studies have uncovered a novel role of neuronal cilia in regulating feeding behavior and satiation response that when disrupted leads to obesity and diabetes. His group has contributed to the identification of several new loci involved in human cilia related diseases. In summary, the research conducted by his group is providing innovative insights into how cilia are constructed and how they are established as a unique signaling and sensory structure with a distinct protein composition from the rest of the cell membrane.
Dr. Haycraft
Dr. Crouse
The Yu Lab at BCH
Dr. Yu
About Dr Yu →
BCH Team
Dr. Demirbas
About
Megan Seferian
About
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