The University of Toledo

Faculty Research and Profile...and Joint/Adjunct Faculty Appointments

Robert M. Blumenthal, Ph.D. - Professor - Dr. Blumenthal's laboratory is studying how bacteria control and coordinate the expression of their thousands of genes, and how well that regulatory architecture is conserved. This knowledge is important for developing bioinformatic methods to predict regulation in bacteria. One focus is a global regulator called Lrp, that (in Escherichia coli) affects the expression of several hundred genes and controls the transition between life in the digestive tract and life outside an animal host. Part of this work involves characterizing the Lrp regulon in the bacterial pathogens EHEC, Proteus mirabilis, and Vibrio cholerae. A second focus is on an unusual, broad host-range transcription activator that controls several restriction-modification systems, such that bacteria are protected against viral infection at minimum risk to the cell from the potentially-lethal nuclease.

Claudio Cortes, D.V.M., Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Activation of the complement system represents an important means of innate resistance to pathogen infections.  However, complement activation also contributes to the pathogenesis of acute myocardial infarction and atherosclerosis.  Chlamydiae pneumoniae is an intracellular pathogen that causes 12-15% of community-acquired pneumonias.  Although Chlamydia pneumoniae targets the mucosal respiratory epithelium, it does not always remain confined to these primary sites; it also often desseminates to extramucosal vascular tissues, and has been associated with cardiovascular diseases.  Due to the possible relevance of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection in chronic heart disease, our research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of the interactions between the host complement system and Chlamydia pneumoniae, and how activation of complement protects from or enhances Chlamydia pneumoniae-mediated damage of vascular tissues. 

Viviana P. Ferreira, D.V.M., Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Dr. Ferreira’s research effort is directed toward understanding the mechanisms by which humans are able to protect their tissues from excessive, inadvertent or bystander complement-mediated damage. The complement system is part of our body’s innate defense system against pathogenic microorganisms or cells.  In order to protect host cells from damage by complement activation, the complement system uses a complex set of regulator molecules that are either bound to cell surfaces or that are circulating in the blood. Although complement activation is essential to the body’s defense system and is tightly regulated it also contributes to the origin of many chronic and acute inflammatory diseases.

Jason F. Huntley, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Dr. Huntley’s laboratory studies the complex interactions between respiratory pathogens and the mammalian host.   Francisella tularensis is a highly-infectious bacterium that causes the deadly disease tularemia.  Little is known about how F. tularensis causes disease or why the host immune system fails to control F. tularensis infection.  Projects are currently underway to:  (1) Identify F. tularensis surface proteins, examine changes in surface protein expression during infection, and characterize the roles of the surface proteins as virulence factors; (2) Use the previous information to develop and test new vaccine formulations that prevent F. tularensis infection and disease; (3) Analyze protective and non-protective immune responses to F. tularensis infection. 

Hironori Matsushima, Ph.D. - Research Assistant Professor - Dr. Matsushima's research is studying molecular mechanisms regulating the function of dendritic cells, which play crucial roles in the induction of both innate and adaptive immunity.

Isabel Novella, Ph.D. - Professor - Dr. Novella studies the evolution of viruses and how this knowledge can help fight viral infections. Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is used as a model to study specific aspects of virus evolution and general issues of population genetics. VSV is grouped together with important pathogens (measles, influenza, poliovirus, HIV, hepatitis A, B and C viruses, etc.) among viruses whose genomic information is stored in RNA instead of DNA. RNA replication is error-prone, and therefore many mutations are constantly produced that allow extremely rapid evolution.

Z. Kevin Pan, M.D., Ph.D. - Professor - Dr. Pan's laboratory is interested in molecular mechanisms by which cells use the innate immune system to detect microbes and initiate defensive inflammatory responses. The main research interests are the structural features of the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and the structural changes by which binding of a microbial ligand to the receptor leads to intracellular signaling cascades, the involvement of TLRs for microbial pathogens in several inflammatory diseases, including asthma and acute lung injury, and G protein-coupled chemoattrant receptors function and biology.

Dorothea L. Sawicki, Ph.D. - Professor - Dr. Sawicki's research effort is directed toward determining the molecular mechanisms governing RNA synthesis. The systems being studied utilize the alphaviruses Sindbis and Semliki Forest viruses. These as well as other Togaviruses are of interest because they produce disease in a variety of animals, including humans, and because they replicate in invertebrate as well as vertebrate animals. A cDNA clone of Sindbis that is capable of expressing infectious RNA genomes is being utilized to determine the role of the viral nonstructural proteins in the alphavirus replication cycle.

Stanislaw Stepkowski, DVM, Ph.D., D.Sc. - Professor - Dr. Stepkowski's overall work is focused on the development of novel strategies: 1) to improve the survival of organ allografts, with emphasis on non-toxic immunosuppressive agents; 2) to induce permanent acceptance of allografts (transplantation tolerance); and 3) to increase survival of islet.  Special efforts are made to better understand cytokine-induced signaling through Janus tyrosine kinases (Jaks) and signal transducers and activators of transcription (Stats) pathways in T cells.  Undergoing work aims to identify novel regulatory phosphotyrosine sites in function of Jak3, using knock-in mice with mutated Jak3 sites.  The role of Stat3 and Stat 5a/b transcription factors are explored in Stat3 and Stat5 conditional knockouts, respectively.

Akira Takashima, M.D., Ph.D. - Professor and Chairman - Dr. Takashima's major research interest is in the immuno-biology of specific leukocyte subsets known as dendritic cells (DCs), which play crucial roles in the induction of both innate and adaptive immunity.   The objectives in his laboratory are: a) to study molecular mechanisms regulating the function of DCs (Basic Immunology), and b) to develop novel DC-targeted immunotherapeutics (Applied Immunology).   For the first objective, Dr. Takashima’s group recently developed an intravital confocal imaging system that enables real-time visualization of dynamic 3D behaviors of DCs in living animals.  To achieve the second objective, his group established a DC-based biosensor system as a high-throughput drug screening platform for the discovery of agents that deliver DC activation signals.  Not only will these ongoing studies provide important insights into the mechanisms controlling the behaviors and functions of DCs under physiological and pathological conditions, they may also lead to the development of innovative therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of cancer, infectious disease, autoimmune disorders, and organ transplantation. 

Mark Wooten, Ph.D. - Associate Professor - Dr. Wooten's laboratory is interested in the host/pathogen interactions that lead to the development of Lyme disease. Borrelia burgdorferi is highly infectious and especially adept at evading host defenses and persisting in various tissues, even in an apparently immunocompetent host. His research takes an immunological approach to identification of host mechanisms involved in control of spirochete persistence and in mediating the inflammatory pathology related to Lyme disease.

Randall G. Worth, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor - Dr. Worth is employs two lines of study directed at his interest in the role of FcγR’s in inflammation and infection.  At a basic science level, he is interested in identifying pathways involved in pathogen destruction within host phagolysosomes. Dr. Worth has identified certain membrane domains that participate in phagocytosis and may also be important in mediating phagosome-lysosome fusion. Dr. Worth also heads a translational project directed at understanding the role of platelets in such autoimmune diseases as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. This project is revealing exciting new ways that platelets respond to IgG-complexes and the important interface between thrombosis and inflammation.

JOINT APPOINTMENTS

Joan M. Duggan, M.D.
Professor
Medicine and Physiology & Molecular Medicine Division,
     Infectious Diseases
Department of Medicine - Health Science Campus
Joint Appointment

Larisa Fedorova, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
Joint Appointment

Brian Harrington, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Professor
HSC Public Health, Homeland Security
Adjunct Appointment

M. Bashar Kahaleh, M.D.
Professor, Medicine
Chief, Division of Rheumatology
Department of Medicine - Health Science Campus
Joint Appointment

Richard W. Komuniecki, Ph.D.
Joan L. and Julius H. Professor of Biomedical Research
Distinguished University Professor,
Department of Biological Sciences
Joint Appointment

Eric Lafontaine, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine
Department of Infectious Diseases
Adjunct Faculty

Deepa Mukundan, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Div of Pediatric Infectious Diseases & Immunology
Dept of Pediatrics, UT-COM
Consultant: Toledo Children's Hospital (Pediatric Infectious Disease)
Consultant: St. Vincent Mercy Children's Hospital (Pediatric Infectious Disease)
Joint Appointment

Thomas J. Papadimos, M.D. MPH
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
Department of Anesthesiology - Health Science Campus
Joint Appointment

Anthony Quinn, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
University of Toledo, Main Campus
Joint Appointment

Michael A. Rees, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Urology - Health Science Campus
Director of Renal Transplantation and Kidney Paired Donation
Joint Appointment

Hermann von Grafenstein, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Departments of Pharm-Med/Bio Chem, Main Campus
Joint Appointment

M.A. Julie Westerink, M.D.
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases - Health Science Campus
Professor, Internal Medicine & Pathology  
Joint Appointment

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