Major Research Areas

Diabetes/Metabolic Disorders/Cardiovascular Diseases

These diseases share basic molecular and cellular mechanisms. Our interdisciplinary approach brings together existing strengths in biochemical signaling, electrical signaling, arrhythmogenesis, high-resolution imaging (both in vitro and in vivo), developmental cell biology and environmental science.

A critical goal is to develop therapeutic approaches to reverse—and prevent—degenerative changes that develop with these diseases. Cell migration, tissue remodeling, immune surveillance, wound repair, angiogenesis and a better understanding of metabolic pathways are vital and under study.

Jeffrey Amack, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Genetics and cell biology of organ morphogenesis during embryonic development.	Barry Knox, Ph.D. Professor Visual transduction, Gene Expression, Membrane proteins
David Amberg, Ph.D. Professor Regulation of actin dynamics and analysis of genomic influences on actin function.	Mira Krendel, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Physiological functions of myosin motors and their roles in diabetic kidney disease and cancer
Robert Barlow, Ph.D. Professor Neural basis of visual behavior; computational models of neural coding; circadian and metabolic modulation of human visual sensitivity.	Michael Meguid, M.D. Professor Neurophysiological regulation of food intake.
Edward Berry, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Biological energy transduction by membrane protein complexes, with emphasis on oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis.	Arkadii Perzov, Ph.D. Professor Biophysical mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias; fluorescence imaging.
Scott Blystone, Ph.D. Associate Professor Actin Cytoskeletal Dynamics in the leukocyte inflammatory phenotype.	Thomas Poole, Ph.D. Associate Professor Vascular development and the alignment of growing nerves and blood vessels in quail and zebrafish embryos.
Xin Jie Chen, Ph.D. Associate Professor Mitochondrial biogenesis and inheritance, aging and aging-related degenerative diseases.	David Pruyne, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Biochemistry and cell biology of formins as actin cytoskeleton organizers, using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system.
Richard Cross, Ph.D. SUNY Distinguished Professor Bioenergetics, enzymology, structural biology, membrane protein function	Jean Sanger, Ph.D. Professor Analysis of the assembly of the actin/myosin cytoskeleton in muscle and non-muscle cells.
Dipak Dube, Ph.D. Professor Molecular mechanism of cardiac myofibrillogenesis in vertebrates.	Joseph Sanger, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Cellular analysis of the formation of myofibrils, stress fibers, and cleavage furrows in living cells.
Thomas Duncan, Ph.D. Associate Professor Bioenergetics, enzymology, structural biology, membrane protein function.	Steven Scheinman, M.D. Professor Molecular genetics of nephrolithiasis and tubulointerstitial disease
Jeffrey Freedman, Ph.D. Associate Professor Membrane physiology in normal and sickle human red blood cells; Optical indicators of membrane potential and intracellular calcium; Membrane biophysics	Mark Schmitt, Ph.D. Associate Professor Ribonucleoprotein assembly and biogenesis; mitochondrial RNA import, mRNA degradation, cell cycle control
Steven Goodman, Ph.D. Professor Proteomic assessment of sickle cell severity.	Joseph Spadaro, Ph.D. Professor Electromagnetic and mechanical regulation of bone physiology, skeletal growth and bone density.
George Holz, Ph.D. Professor Drug development for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.	Christopher Turner, Ph.D. Professor Regulation of cell migration by focal adhesion adapter proteins and their role in cancer cell metastasis.
Ziwei Huang, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Discovery and mechanism of action of new pharmacological agents for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, infectious disease, and stem cell-based regenerative medicine.	Richard Veenstra, Ph.D. Professor Regulation of connexin-specific-gap-junctions; gap junction channel biophysics.
Patricia Kane, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Vacuolar H+ATPases (structure, function, assembly and regulation), cellular pH homeostasis, cellular stress responses, protein sorting, genomics, yeast as a model system	Stephan Wilkens, Ph.D. Associate Professor Structure and Mechanism of Membrane Bound Transport Proteins
Grant Kelley, M.D. Associate Professor Elucidating the regulation of PLC-epsilon and its role in glucose signaling and endothelial cell function in diabetes.	Richard JH Wojcikiewicz, Ph.D. Professor Intracellular signaling via InsP3 receptors and the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway.

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Complete Faculty List

Steven Goodman, PhD, Dean,
College of Graduate Studies,
Vice President for Research

SUNY Upstate Medical University has a strong base of scientific researchers and a relevant clinical setting which provides students with an excellent environment to learn and grow. More>

Steven L. Youngentob, PhD, Associate Dean,
College of Graduate Studies
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