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Investigators

Primary Investigator and Mentors:

Vincent Falanga, MD (PI of the COBRE)
Dr. Falanga is Professor of Dermatology and Biochemistry and head of the training program. He is Board certified in Internal Medicine and Dermatology. He is an established investigator and expert in the field of tissue repair and impaired healing, including basic science work and key translational studies. His interests have been largely focused on impaired healing, growth factors (particularly TGF-β), bioengineered skin, and stem cells. He is the lead author on the first demonstration of the effectiveness of bioengineered skin in wound healing. Due to his work, the use of pentoxifylline is now established for use in chronic wounds. He has worked out the conditions for cultured bone marrow-derived autologous mesenchymal stem cells in human chronic wounds. Largely due to his work, the principles of wound bed preparation for the successful use of advanced therapeutic agents in wound healing have been adopted and are widely used. He has been continuously funded by the NIH for the last 22 years for work related to tissue repair. In 2004, he was president of the Wound Healing Society, a major multidisciplinary organization dedicated to the science of wound healing. He has a long and successful history of mentoring, thesis advisor, and career development of junior investigators from the United States and abroad. He is the author of over 400 publications.

Richard Junghas Richard Junghans, MD, PhD – Professor, Surgery department. Hematologist/oncologist. Interest: T cells as a platform for immunological therapy and cancer treatment, gene therapy. Marshall Kadin Marshall Kadin, MD – Professor, department of Dermatology. A hematopathologist and one of the world’s expert on the biology of cutaneous lymphomas. Interest – immunology, lymphoid malignancies.
Robert Sackstein Robert Sackstein, MD, PhD – Associate professor, Harvard Medical School. Interest – bone marrow transplantation, lymphocyte trafficking, stem cell biology and targeting of stem cells. Marianne Hadzima Marianne Hadzima, MLS - COBRE Program Administrator
Deborah Greer Deborah Greer, MS - COBRE Laboratory Manager    

 

Project Investigators:

The COBRE can rely on a group of key and highly interacting investigators at the institution. The following partial list is in alphabetical order and specifies their main interest. Only those with a strong investigative interest and component to their activities are included.

Mehrad Abedi Mehrdad Abedi, MD – Assistant professor, Medicine department. Hematologist and bone marrow transplantation expert. Interest: bone marrow derived cells and their differentiation into muscle, skin structures. Leslie Cousens Leslie Cousens, PhD – Assistant professor. Her work has been focused on immunology, including doctoral and post-doctoral work at Brown University. Interest: immunology, bispecific antibodies.
Satori Iwamoto, PhD, MD – Assistant professor, Dermatology department. Interest: molecular biology, wound healing and stem cells, advanced immunohistochemistry techniques for tumors in the eye and skin, novel methods for visualizing immunostained sections by laser technology. Paul Liu Paul Liu, MD – Associate professor, Surgery. A plastic and general surgeon, chief of the department of Surgery. Interest: immunology, gene therapy, viral constructs, and wound healing.
Luguang Luo Luguang Luo, PhD – Assistant professor. Interest: basic aspects of pancreatic cell transplantation, including islet survival and rescuing using stem cell technologies.
    

 

Other Investigators and Key Personnel:

  Polly Carson, CWS – Instructor in dermatology. Interest: clinical and translational research, regulatory issues related to clinical trials, GMP facility, NIH and FDA.   Jisun Cha, MD – Trainee in research track in the Dermatology department for her expertise in investigative work related to TGF-ß, developed during a research fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Interest: molecular biology, TGF-ß, chronic wounds, dermatopathology and cancer.
  Erica Gomes, PhD – a recent addition to our institution, working with Dr. Junghans. Interest: signaling modifications of T cells for improved functions.   Nicola Kouttab, PhD – Professor, Pathology department. Interest: flow cytometric analysis and basic science related to differentiation markers.
  Taehee Kwak, MD – Research Scholar, Dermatology department. She spent two postdoctoral years at the NIH, where she developed transgenic animals with inducible system for βig-H3, a downstream protein regulated by TGF-β. Interest: the effect and role of βig-H3 in cell adhesion, wound healing, and cancer. Joseph Ma, PhD – Assistant professor. A recent addition to the surgical research group. Interest: chimeric immune receptor modified T cells in cancer.
  Scott Hammerman, MD – A recent addition to the clinical research activities in wound healing. Interest: tissue repair, oxygen-related function to accelerate wound healing, estrogen and keratinization, bioengineered skin.   John Morgan, PhD – Associate professor. Pathology department. Interest: neural stem cell differentiation, advanced instrumentation techniques, flow cytometry and cell sorting.
  Bharat Ramratnam, MD – Associate professor. A recent graduate of the COBRE, maintains faculty appointment at Brown and interacts with our institution. Interest: siRNA, microRNA studies, HIV.   Gail Skowron, MD – Professor, Medicine department and chief of infectious disease, and an established investigator. Interest: HIV and HIV immunology.
  Jinbo Tang, MD – Associate professor, Surgery department. Interest: tendon repair, gene therapy with growth factors enhancement. Yinsheng Wan, PhD - Assistant professor at Providence College. Interest: water channel aquaporin-3 in bone marrow-derived epidermal cells and tissue repair.
  Zhengke Wang, PhD - Instructor at Brown, Orthopedic Department, Interests: microRNA, wound healing, muscle development, cartilage.   Tatyana Yufit, MD – Instructor in dermatology, tissue repair laboratory. Interest: Molecular biology, transforming growth factor-β, collagen.
  Linda Zhou, MD – Assistant professor, Dermatology department. Interest: wound healing, biologic effects of antiseptics, molecular biology.