The Department of Basic Medical Sciences encompasses molecular to whole animal approaches and generally emphasizes molecular processes in development as applied to growth, differentiation, regeneration, and oncogenesis.
Model systems are employed to investigate both animal and human disease, as well as biomedical engineering.
Current research programs involve: signal transduction in development and oncogenesis, cell adhesion molecules in development and oncogenesis; growth factors in musculoskeletal development; ovarian follicle development; neural regeneration; implantable therapeutic or diagnostic devices, and application of computers in veterinary and medical education.
Research facilities and equipment are excellent and include: state-of-the-art cell culture, electron and confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, microspectrofluorometry, image analysis, patch-clamp station, and HPLC systems, as well as a highly integrated computer network. |
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Dr. Paul Robinson
The Robinson lab studies microvascular function, tissue injury, and wound healing. Current projects are related to alterations in immune functions after tissue injury, as well as studies on the effects of toxic chemicals on immune function of neutrophils and monocytes. Particular interests are in flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, as well as the Biomedical engineering components of high technology research tools. In addition, the development of multimedia tools for educational purposes is also explored.
Dr. Kevin Hannon
Musculoskeletal atrophy, the decrease in size and strength of muscle, bone and connective tissue, is a sequela of many different diseases and states (e.g. aging, cancer, heart disease and stroke) as well as prolonged illness requiring bed rest. This atrophy progressively robs a person of his/her ambulatory function, thereby markedly diminishing the quality of life of millions of Americans each year. Age-associated musculoskeletal atrophy often necessitates costly nursing care, and disease-associated atrophy increases hospitalization time and extends requirements for regenerative therapy. Thus, in addition to quality of life issues, musculoskeletal atrophy is an important factor that drives up the cost of medical care. Our group's long-range goal is to discover potential treatments to prevent or reverse musculoskeletal atrophy. One approach our group has taken to treat atrophy is by gene therapy, as we have found that electroporation and ectopic expression of anabolic growth factors such as IGF-I and Shh within
the gastrocnemius muscle significantly attenuated the lost of muscle fiber area, muscle mass and muscle mass density that normally occurs during disuse muscle atrophy. |
 Dr. Paul Robinson of the BMS department has published a paper that has a citation index (Thompson (ISI)) placing it in the top 1% in its field: link to the article.
 Dr. Susan Mendrysa
joined the BMS department October 1st, 2005. She has come as an Assistant Professor of Basic Medical Sciences. She was formerly a post-doctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington where she took an integrated genetic-genomic approach combining mice with retroviral insertional mutagenesis in order to identify new oncogenes involved in cancer. Through these studies she has identified two new oncogenes that promote B cell lymphomagenesis in cooperation with c-Myc, a gene frequently deregulated in human cancer. In addition she has identified over 30 loci that are also predicted to harbor new cellular oncogenes. Her current research is focused on harnessing the power of mouse genetics to understand how the signaling pathways in which these oncogenes are involved contribute to the development of B cell lymphoma.
Dr. James Leary joined the BMS department on July 1, 2005. He has come as a Professor of Basic Medical Sciences (75%) and as a Professor of Biomedical Engineering (25%). He was formerly a Professor of Internal Medicine, Pathology, Biophysics, Microbiology and Immunology, and Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston. He also served as Assistant Director of the Biomedical Engineering Center and is an Affiliated Senior Scientist in the Sealy Centers for Molecular Sciences, Structural Biology, Cancer Biology, Vaccine Development and the Program in Bioinformatics. In addition, he taught in several graduate programs at the UTMB and the University of Rochester where he did his pioneering work on high-speed flow cytometry technologies, rare-event mathematical modeling, and single-cell molecular biology. Dr. Leary will be involved in the Birck Nanotechnology Center and the Bindley Bioscience Center in addition to his roles in the two departments. His current funded research spans three general areas: (1) engineering of new high-throughput cell separation technologies, including bio-mems microfluidic devices, (2) microgenomics and cell/tissue engineering of adult human stem cells, and (3) engineering of integrated, "smart" bionanosystems for nanomedicine. |
