Event Title
Global Research and Exchange between Institutions: Pre-Clinical, Translational, Clinical and Applied Research: Panel #1
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Start Date
1-30-2017 11:00 AM
End Date
1-30-2017 11:30 AM
Description
Steven B. McMahon, PhD (Moderator)
Steven McMahon is Professor of Cancer Biology in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He also serves as Jefferson’s first Associate Provost for Programmatic Research. In his role as Associate Provost, Dr. McMahon facilitates collaborative research projects among Jefferson faculty, as well as between our faculty and their regional, national and international colleagues. Dr. McMahon has also held a number of leadership roles within Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, including serving as Deputy Director during the most recent renewal of its National Cancer Institute designation.
Dr. McMahon obtained his undergraduate degree from Albright College and his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted fellowship training at Princeton University and accepted his first faculty position at The Wistar Institute. Dr. McMahon joined Jefferson’s Department of Cancer Biology in 2006. His research program has focused on understanding how the deregulation of transcriptional programs contributes to human cancer. Much of this work has focused on biochemical and molecular genetic analyses of the MYC oncoprotein, the p53 tumor suppressor and the epigenetic enzymes that they utilize to reprogram the transcriptome of incipient tumor cells. Dr. McMahon’s research has been recognized by awards from the ACS, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, AACR, V Foundation, and the Falk Medical Research Trust.
Dr. McMahon has served on the editorial boards of a number of journals in the fields of Cancer and Biochemistry. Similarly he has served on advisory panels making research funding recommendations for the NIH, DOD, ACS and NCI in the US and for the national cancer agencies of Canada, Italy, Belgium, Finland, France, Austria and the United Kingdom.
Isidore Rigoutsos, PhD
Dr. Rigoutsos is the founding Director of the Computational Medicine Center at Jefferson. He is a Professor in the Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, and has joint appointments in the Department of Cancer Biology and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is also a member of Jefferson's Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. Prior to joining Jefferson in 2010, Dr. Rigoutsos spent 18 years at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where he co-founded the Computational Biology Center in 1992. In parallel with his IBM tenure, Dr. Rigoutsos was a Visiting Faculty at MIT's Dept. of Chemical Engineering for a decade (2000-2010). He is a member of the Editorial Boards of several academic journals that focus on Genomics, Molecular Biology, and Computational Biology.
He has authored or co-authored many peer-reviewed journal and conference articles in two fields (Computer Science and Biology/Medicine), and written many book chapters. He is named inventor or co-inventor on 27 US Patents. Since 2002, Dr. Rigoutsos has been studying the molecular biology of short non-coding RNAs with a particular emphasis on microRNAs (miRNAs), miRNA isoforms (isomiRs), transfer RNA (tRNA), and tRNA fragments (tRFs). His research activity focuses on discovering novel regulators and elucidating how they mediate post-transcriptional regulation. Over the years, Dr. Rigoutsos’ laboratory made several key contributions to the field.
Central to Dr. Rigoutsos’ work is “transcriptomic heterogeneity” (TH), a concept that he introduced. In TH, disease is associated with differences in the RNA molecules that are produced from a given segment of DNA. This is unlike genomic heterogeneity where disease is associated with variations in the DNA template.
Matthias J. Schnell, PhD
Matthias Schnell studied Biology in Stuttgart-Hohenheim in Germany and completed his PhD thesis at the Federal Research Center for Virus Diseases of Animals in Tuebingen, Germany. Dr. Schnell was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University.
In 1998, Dr. Schnell joined Thomas Jefferson University in the Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology department. He focused his research on rabies virus, and became one of the leading experts in rabies virus vaccines and pathogenicity. In 2005, he became Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr. Schnell is an expert in the use of viral vectors as vaccines and established a center for vaccine research at TJU in 2007. As Director of the Jefferson Vaccine Center, his current research is largely directed toward developing novel vaccines against emerging infectious diseases, such as those caused by Lassa virus, filo viruses (Ebola virus and Marburg virus), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Zika virus. Currently, Dr. Schnell heads the WHO Collaborative Centre for Rabies Research, Neurovirology.
Dr. Schnell serves as a member of the NIH study section “Vaccines against Microbial Diseases” (VMD) and on the editorial boards of numerous peer reviewed journals. Dr. Schnell has authored over 110 peer reviewed publications. His lab is highly collaborative with several national and international projects in viral disease and vaccine research. The vaccine against Ebola virus that was developed in the Schnell laboratory has finished the preclinical phase and should enter its first clinical trial in 2017.
Michael R. Sperling, MD, PhD
Michael R. Sperling is the Baldwin Keyes Professor of Neurology and Vice Chair for Research at Thomas Jefferson University. He is an internationally known clinician scientist in the field of epilepsy, known particularly for his work in the field of epilepsy surgery and electrophysiology. He developed the Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, a center devoted to diagnosis, treatment and research in epilepsy. He trained in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at UCLA, and was a faculty member at UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania prior to joining Jefferson. His approach to epilepsy surgery integrates clinical practice with research, fostering both.
Over the years, his research interests have included epilepsy surgery, the electrophysiology of epilepsy, cognitive electrophysiology, genetics in epilepsy, and experimental therapeutics for epilepsy. He lectures widely in the US and overseas about epilepsy and has organized many courses and conferences related to epilepsy. Dr. Sperling has trained many physicians as clinical and academic specialists in epilepsy from the U.S. and abroad. He has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers, over 80 book chapters and reviews, and three books. He is presently Editor-in-Chief of Epilepsia, having previously served as an associate editor of this journal. He is a former president of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, former president of the Philadelphia Neurological Society, and is active in the American Epilepsy Society, American Academy of Neurology and International League Against Epilepsy.
Matthew L. Thakur, PhD
Mathew Thakur is Professor of Radiology and Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University. Also, he is Director of the laboratories of Radiopharmaceutical Research and Molecular Imaging, and an active member of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. He obtained his MS and PhD degrees from the University of London, England. The major thrust of his research is to develop radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. He has published more than 500 original articles, review papers, book chapters, abstracts, and editorials. He has also published 4 books and translated his basic research into clinical applications. He has given more than 500 invited presentations at home in the US and abroad, in academic institutions, private industries, and at national and international scientific gatherings.
Dr. Thakur holds 26 active and pending patents and serves on the editorial board for 14 journals. As a PI and Co-PI, his research has always been funded by federal, foundational, and industrial grants. Currently, he holds three INDs from the US FDA to perform translational clinical research. His contributions to the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging are well recognized by his peers, for which he has received 10 national and international awards, including the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s highest honor, the Benedict Cassen award and is a fellow of five prestigious professional organizations. He has been elected as President of three international societies, including the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
Jouni Uitto, MD, PhD
Jouni Uitto has been Professor of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University since 1986. He is also Director of the Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and Co-Director of the Jefferson Center for International Dermatology. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and completed his residency training in dermatology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Uitto is internationally recognized for his research on connective tissue biology and molecular genetics in relation to cutaneous diseases. Dr. Uitto's publications include 679 original articles in peer-reviewed journals, 320 textbook chapters and review articles, and 988 abstracts on presentations at National and International meetings. Dr. Uitto has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including Honorary Doctorate degrees from the University of Kuopio, University of Oulu and University of Turku, all in Finland, as well as Honorary Professorships in China Medical University, Shenyang, The 4th Military Medical University, Xi’an, and Hebei United University, Tangshan, all in China and he has been honored by Dermatological Societies in Austria, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States. In 2012 he was appointed to the membership of The National Academy of Science and Letters of Finland.
Dr. Uitto has held office in several scientific and professional societies, including President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology; and President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dermatology Foundation. Dr. Uitto is Section Editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Pathology, and he is on the editorial boards of numerous peer-reviewed journals.
Global Research and Exchange between Institutions: Pre-Clinical, Translational, Clinical and Applied Research: Panel #1
Steven B. McMahon, PhD (Moderator)
Steven McMahon is Professor of Cancer Biology in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He also serves as Jefferson’s first Associate Provost for Programmatic Research. In his role as Associate Provost, Dr. McMahon facilitates collaborative research projects among Jefferson faculty, as well as between our faculty and their regional, national and international colleagues. Dr. McMahon has also held a number of leadership roles within Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, including serving as Deputy Director during the most recent renewal of its National Cancer Institute designation.
Dr. McMahon obtained his undergraduate degree from Albright College and his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted fellowship training at Princeton University and accepted his first faculty position at The Wistar Institute. Dr. McMahon joined Jefferson’s Department of Cancer Biology in 2006. His research program has focused on understanding how the deregulation of transcriptional programs contributes to human cancer. Much of this work has focused on biochemical and molecular genetic analyses of the MYC oncoprotein, the p53 tumor suppressor and the epigenetic enzymes that they utilize to reprogram the transcriptome of incipient tumor cells. Dr. McMahon’s research has been recognized by awards from the ACS, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, AACR, V Foundation, and the Falk Medical Research Trust.
Dr. McMahon has served on the editorial boards of a number of journals in the fields of Cancer and Biochemistry. Similarly he has served on advisory panels making research funding recommendations for the NIH, DOD, ACS and NCI in the US and for the national cancer agencies of Canada, Italy, Belgium, Finland, France, Austria and the United Kingdom.
Isidore Rigoutsos, PhD
Dr. Rigoutsos is the founding Director of the Computational Medicine Center at Jefferson. He is a Professor in the Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, and has joint appointments in the Department of Cancer Biology and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is also a member of Jefferson's Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. Prior to joining Jefferson in 2010, Dr. Rigoutsos spent 18 years at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where he co-founded the Computational Biology Center in 1992. In parallel with his IBM tenure, Dr. Rigoutsos was a Visiting Faculty at MIT's Dept. of Chemical Engineering for a decade (2000-2010). He is a member of the Editorial Boards of several academic journals that focus on Genomics, Molecular Biology, and Computational Biology.
He has authored or co-authored many peer-reviewed journal and conference articles in two fields (Computer Science and Biology/Medicine), and written many book chapters. He is named inventor or co-inventor on 27 US Patents. Since 2002, Dr. Rigoutsos has been studying the molecular biology of short non-coding RNAs with a particular emphasis on microRNAs (miRNAs), miRNA isoforms (isomiRs), transfer RNA (tRNA), and tRNA fragments (tRFs). His research activity focuses on discovering novel regulators and elucidating how they mediate post-transcriptional regulation. Over the years, Dr. Rigoutsos’ laboratory made several key contributions to the field.
Central to Dr. Rigoutsos’ work is “transcriptomic heterogeneity” (TH), a concept that he introduced. In TH, disease is associated with differences in the RNA molecules that are produced from a given segment of DNA. This is unlike genomic heterogeneity where disease is associated with variations in the DNA template.
Matthias J. Schnell, PhD
Matthias Schnell studied Biology in Stuttgart-Hohenheim in Germany and completed his PhD thesis at the Federal Research Center for Virus Diseases of Animals in Tuebingen, Germany. Dr. Schnell was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University.
In 1998, Dr. Schnell joined Thomas Jefferson University in the Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology department. He focused his research on rabies virus, and became one of the leading experts in rabies virus vaccines and pathogenicity. In 2005, he became Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr. Schnell is an expert in the use of viral vectors as vaccines and established a center for vaccine research at TJU in 2007. As Director of the Jefferson Vaccine Center, his current research is largely directed toward developing novel vaccines against emerging infectious diseases, such as those caused by Lassa virus, filo viruses (Ebola virus and Marburg virus), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and Zika virus. Currently, Dr. Schnell heads the WHO Collaborative Centre for Rabies Research, Neurovirology.
Dr. Schnell serves as a member of the NIH study section “Vaccines against Microbial Diseases” (VMD) and on the editorial boards of numerous peer reviewed journals. Dr. Schnell has authored over 110 peer reviewed publications. His lab is highly collaborative with several national and international projects in viral disease and vaccine research. The vaccine against Ebola virus that was developed in the Schnell laboratory has finished the preclinical phase and should enter its first clinical trial in 2017.
Michael R. Sperling, MD, PhD
Michael R. Sperling is the Baldwin Keyes Professor of Neurology and Vice Chair for Research at Thomas Jefferson University. He is an internationally known clinician scientist in the field of epilepsy, known particularly for his work in the field of epilepsy surgery and electrophysiology. He developed the Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, a center devoted to diagnosis, treatment and research in epilepsy. He trained in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at UCLA, and was a faculty member at UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania prior to joining Jefferson. His approach to epilepsy surgery integrates clinical practice with research, fostering both.
Over the years, his research interests have included epilepsy surgery, the electrophysiology of epilepsy, cognitive electrophysiology, genetics in epilepsy, and experimental therapeutics for epilepsy. He lectures widely in the US and overseas about epilepsy and has organized many courses and conferences related to epilepsy. Dr. Sperling has trained many physicians as clinical and academic specialists in epilepsy from the U.S. and abroad. He has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers, over 80 book chapters and reviews, and three books. He is presently Editor-in-Chief of Epilepsia, having previously served as an associate editor of this journal. He is a former president of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, former president of the Philadelphia Neurological Society, and is active in the American Epilepsy Society, American Academy of Neurology and International League Against Epilepsy.
Matthew L. Thakur, PhD
Mathew Thakur is Professor of Radiology and Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University. Also, he is Director of the laboratories of Radiopharmaceutical Research and Molecular Imaging, and an active member of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. He obtained his MS and PhD degrees from the University of London, England. The major thrust of his research is to develop radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. He has published more than 500 original articles, review papers, book chapters, abstracts, and editorials. He has also published 4 books and translated his basic research into clinical applications. He has given more than 500 invited presentations at home in the US and abroad, in academic institutions, private industries, and at national and international scientific gatherings.
Dr. Thakur holds 26 active and pending patents and serves on the editorial board for 14 journals. As a PI and Co-PI, his research has always been funded by federal, foundational, and industrial grants. Currently, he holds three INDs from the US FDA to perform translational clinical research. His contributions to the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging are well recognized by his peers, for which he has received 10 national and international awards, including the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s highest honor, the Benedict Cassen award and is a fellow of five prestigious professional organizations. He has been elected as President of three international societies, including the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
Jouni Uitto, MD, PhD
Jouni Uitto has been Professor of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Chair of the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University since 1986. He is also Director of the Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and Co-Director of the Jefferson Center for International Dermatology. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and completed his residency training in dermatology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Uitto is internationally recognized for his research on connective tissue biology and molecular genetics in relation to cutaneous diseases. Dr. Uitto's publications include 679 original articles in peer-reviewed journals, 320 textbook chapters and review articles, and 988 abstracts on presentations at National and International meetings. Dr. Uitto has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including Honorary Doctorate degrees from the University of Kuopio, University of Oulu and University of Turku, all in Finland, as well as Honorary Professorships in China Medical University, Shenyang, The 4th Military Medical University, Xi’an, and Hebei United University, Tangshan, all in China and he has been honored by Dermatological Societies in Austria, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States. In 2012 he was appointed to the membership of The National Academy of Science and Letters of Finland.
Dr. Uitto has held office in several scientific and professional societies, including President of the Society for Investigative Dermatology; and President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dermatology Foundation. Dr. Uitto is Section Editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Pathology, and he is on the editorial boards of numerous peer-reviewed journals.
