Cell biologists in FAU’s Department of Biological Sciences are engaged in research focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer, development, aging and oxidative stress/ vertebrate anoxia tolerance. Ongoing studies also include plant genomics and physiology, molecular and cellular neuroscience behind normal development, neurotransmission, behavior and neurological disorders. An excellent infrastructure in molecular biology, bioinformatics and biotechnology serves to bind these areas together. Faculty are members of the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and many are also members of the Florida Center for Excellence in Biomedical and Marine Biotechnology. The Integrative Biology Ph.D. program, which is a joint effort between the Biology and the Biomedical Science Departments, provides a focal point for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in these areas of research. Masters degrees, including the Professional Masters in Business Biotechnology and Bachelors degrees are also offered. Cell biologists in the department present a superb menu of laboratory courses in related fields for students at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
| Name | Area of Emphasis | Institution | Allani, Shailaja | The role of oxidative stress on aging and age-related diseases | FAU Chemistry and Biochemistry | Asghar, Waseem | Micro and nanotechnology in medicine | FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science | Assis, Raquel | Data science applications in evolutionary genomics | FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science | Barenholtz, Elan | Psychophysical and computational approaches to visual and multisensory perception and recognition. | FAU Psychology and Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences | Bidaye, Salil | Neuronal control of locomotion | Max Planck Florida Institute | Blakely, Randy D. | Synaptic Genetics, Neurochemistry and Pharmacology; Animal Models of Neuropsychiatric Disorders; Transporter Proteins and Psychoactive Drugs | FAU Brain Institute | Bolton, M. McLean | Disorders of neural circuit function | Max Planck Florida Institute | Caputi, Massimo | mRNA processing, mRNA splicing regulation, HIV-1 replication, Bcl apoptotic gene family regulation | FAU College of Medicine | Carvelli, Lucia | Molecular mechanisms of drug addiction; pharmacology and physiology of dopaminergic synapses | FAU Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College | Curet, Oscar | Biological propulsion, the interconnection of fluid dynamics and animal locomotion, biomimetics, energy harvesting, bat flight, fish swimming, and direct simulation of freely swimming fish. | FAU Ocean and Mechanical Engineering | Davis, Ronald L. | Molecular and cellular basis for learning; diseases that affect learning and memory | The Scripps Research Institute | Dawson-Scully, Ken | Neurobiology of cellular stress and neuroprotection using live cell imaging, electrophysiology and behavior genetics | Nova Southeastern University | DeGiorgio, Michael | Data science applications in population genomics | FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science | Du, Sarah | Biosensors and microfluidics for the study of cell biomechanics and biophysics, crossing disciplines by utilizing microfabrication, biosensing techniques, soft matter mechanics, biomaterials, and cell biology | FAU Ocean and Mechanical Engineering | Duboue, Erik | Effects of early stress on brain circuitry and function and the etiology of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | FAU Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College | Engeberg, Erik | Biomedical and Bioinspired robotics, sensors, actuators, control systems | FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science | Fields, Gregg B. | Extracellular matrix biochemistry, synthetic protein design and construction | FAU Chemistry and Biochemistry; Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology | Fitzpatrick, David | Functional organization and development of neural circuits in the cerebral cortex, neural basis of visual perception | Max Planck Florida Institute | Ghoraani, Behnaz | Biomedical signal analysis, data science, machine learning, deep learning, long-term and continuous health monitoring, remote and personalized therapeutic management, Cardiac electrophysiology, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease | FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science | Goodbody-Gringley, Gretchen | Understanding how coral reef ecosystems function in order to maintain biodiversity; health, evolution, and resilience of coral reefs, ranging from shallow inshore reefs to the mesophotic zone | Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences | Grant, Patrick | Chromatin Biology and Epigenetics | Biomedical Science, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Guthrie, Kathleen | Neurobiology | Biomedical Science, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Guzman, Esther | Discovery of novel cancer therapeutics including both development of novel molecular target based assays and determination of the mechanism of action of compounds | Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | Hahn, William | Deep learning neural networks, sparse modeling, compressed sensing, adversarial networks, and reinforcement learning models of brain function. | FAU Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences | Hallstrom, Jason | Sensing systems, data management, affective computing, software engineering | FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science | Huang, Xupei | Cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology, molecular cardiology | Biomedical Science, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Inagaki, Hidehiko | Neural dynamics and cognitive functions | Max Planck Florida Institute | Iragavarapu-Charyulu, Vijaya | Immunology, inflammation and cancer | FAU Biomedical Science | Isgor, Ceylan | Neuromorphological, behavioral and molecular consequences of chronic, variable stress during peripubertal-juvenile period in rats | Biomedical Science, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Isom, Daniel | pH regulation of cell signaling, drug discovery, informatics | Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami | Ja, William | Molecular genetics of aging, behavior and disease | The Scripps Research Institute | Kamasawa, Naomi | Electron microscopy | Max Planck Florida Institute | Kang, Kevin | Biomaterials, stem cell and tissue engineering, and bone regeneration. | FAU Ocean and Mechanical Engineering | Kantorow, Marc | The molecular genetics of eye diseases including age-related human cataract and age-related macular degeneration | Biomedical Science, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Kelso, Scott | Mechanisms of self-organization underlying the coordination of brain and behavior. | FAU Psychology and Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences | Khamoui, Andy | Use of pre-clinical mouse models and human subjects to study cancer cachexia, skeletal muscle biology, exercise physiology, and mitochondrial function in health and disease. | FAU Exercise Science and Health Promotion | Kishi, Shuji | Gene identification and phenotype characterization; Age-related disorders in humans, using zebrafish as a model system | The Scripps Research Institute | Levy, Arkene | Understanding mechanisms of resistance in cancer and development of combination treatment strategies | College of Medical Sciences, Nova Southeastern University | Li, Dawei | Genomics and bioinformatics | FAU Biomedical Science | Li, Zhongwei | RNA metabolism, oxidative stress, biodefense | Biomedical Science, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Macleod, Greg | Mitochondrial support of neurotransmission, pH influences on synaptic plasticity, neurotransmission and aging | FAU Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College | McCoy, Krista | Understanding how environmental pollutants alter development, physiology, and behavior, and to devise ways to ameliorate their negative effects- from molecules to populations. | FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | Miller, Courtney | Neurobiological underpinnings of memory disorders, with the goal of developing novel therapeutics | The Scripps Research Institute | Miller, Debra | Pathology of wildlife and exotic species (especially amphibians, sea turtles and marine mammals) | Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Tennessee | O'Corry-Crowe, Greg | Investigating interactions between these apex predators and their environment | Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | Oleinikov, Andrew | Malaria studies with emphasis on mechanisms of sequestration of infected erythrocytes, protective immune response and vaccine development, anti-adhesion drugs; high throughput and engineering approaches to advance studies of complex biological systems | Department of Biomedical Science, FAU | Page, Damon | Genetic regulation of growth and connectivity in the developing brain, and how cognition is shaped by the interplay of these "hard-wiring" processes and adaptation via plasticity. | The Scripps Research Institute | Page-Karjian, Annie | Investigating the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and disease ecology of infectious diseases and neoplasia of marine mammals and turtles. | FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | Pavlovic, Mirjana | Bioengineering, translating lab data to the clinical arena, autoimmune diseases, autism | FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science | Perry, Gary | Molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating cell growth during neural development, regeneration, plasticity and neo-plasticity; SIDS; educational neuroscience: brain-based learning | Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, FAU | Pomponi, Shirley | Developing in vitro techniques for production of sponge-derived bioactive molecules | Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | Prentice, Howard | Hypoxia and the cardiovascular system | Department of Biomedical Science, FAU | Puthanveettil, Sathyanarayanan | Molecular and cellular basis of long-term memory storage and its disorders | The Scripps Research Institute | Rangaraju, Vidhya | Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neuroenergetics | Max Planck Florida Institute | Rathinavelu, Appu | Standardization and application of real-time PCR techniques in gene expression | Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nova Southeastern University | Robishaw, Janet | Genomics and Precision Medicine | Biomedical Science, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Rumbaugh, Gavin | How synaptic proteins actively contribute to memory formation and storage | The Scripps Research Institute | Shanbhag, Venkatesh | Organic Synthesis, Bio-active molecules, Natural Products | Department of Chemistry and Physics, Nova Southeastern University | Shen, Wen | Neurophysiology, receptor pharmacology, synapsis, glutamate toxicity | Department of Biomedical Science, FAU | Smith, Roy | Basis of metabolic diseases and identifying the physiological changes that cause loss of function during aging | The Scripps Research Institute | Stern, Sarah | Neuroscience, Neural Circuits and Behavior, Transcriptomics | Max Planck Florida Institute | Stewart, Kelly | Marine vertebrate ecology and behavior, population dynamics and genetics, biogeography, threatened species biology and conservation and field biology | Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Toll, Lawrence | Neuropharmacology of opioid and nicotinic receptors with respect to pain and drug abuse | FAU College of Medicine | Van Praag, Henriette | Regulation and function of adult hippocampal neurogenesis | Department of Biomedical Science, FAU | Varela, Carmen | Thalamic circuits and their contribution to the mechanisms of learning. | FAU Psychology | Vertes, Robert | Behavioral neuroscience, functional organization of the brainstem and its role in controlling the activity of the forebrain and neurophysiology of sleep | Department of Psychology and Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, FAU | Voss, Joshua | Coral reef ecology, development of advance molecular technologies with field-based ecological applications, molecular profiling of bacterial communities, marine conservation and management, integration within and among academic disciplines | Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute | Wang, Yingxue | Neuronal mechanisms of episodic memory | Max Planck Florida Institute | Wei, Jianning | Neurodegenerative disorders | Department of Biomedical Science, FAU | Wojcikiewicz, Ewa | Inflammation and cancer research | Department of Biomedical Science, FAU | Wu, Jang Yen | Neurotransmission and brain disorders | Department of Biomedical Science, FAU | Xu, Baoji | How neural circuits are formed, modified, and maintained in the brain | The Scripps Research Institute | Yasuda, Ryohei | Neuronal signal transduction | Max Planck Florida Institute |
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