Featured Researchers
Evan Anderson
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Clinical Vaccinology
Evan has been working day and night to combat the COVID-19 pandemic by rapidly scaling up clinical trials of vaccine candidates within the VTEU. The progress he and his colleagues have made in such a short time is highly worthy of recognition.
Sara Auld
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Tuberculosis and HIV
Sara Auld is conducting groundbreaking research spanning public health and epidemiology to global health and laboratory sciences. Her project studies HIV and TB in Kenya and Atlanta to examine how HIV infection impacts the response to TB exposure and ultimately to produce new interventions to decrease the risk of TB infection and improve long-term outcomes for people with HIV. Particularly during COVID-19, she has been forced to suspend a considerable amount of her research project and instead she has developed and led a collaborative COVID-19 research team, the Quality and Clinical Research Collaborative (QCRC) that has published several seminal manuscripts while also caring for patients and selflessly providing protected time to her colleagues for their work.
Martina Badell
Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics
Research Focus: Infectious disease and pregnancy
Dr. Badell addresses gaps in the understanding of perinatal care and pregnancy outcomes associated with infectious disease. Her work with HIV infected pregnant women, both clinically and in the research realm, has made her one of the few OB/GYNs in the country who can address both. Badell has also helped develop guidelines for infectious disease and pregnancy including Zika virus, botulism, and plague in collaboration with the CDC. She is now setting up research to explore COVID-19.
Glaivy Batsuli
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Hemophilia
Dr. Batsuli is proving to be an up and coming superstar in the field of hematology as a physician and a scientist. As a physician she was first author on a 2019 manuscript describing a new clinical protocol nicknamed "The Atlanta Protocol" that is being used to treat hemophilia patients around the world. As a scientist she was selected to receive a K99/R00 from the NHLBI to study the immune response to coagulation proteins. This grant provides 5 years of K level funding followed by 3 years of R level funding. Dr. Batsuli is an outstanding physician scientist dedicated to improving care for the next generation of patients.
Alexis Bender
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Aging, co-occurring mental and physical health conditions
Dr. Bender’s research examines the psychosocial aspects of aging with co-occurring mental (e.g., substance use disorders) and physical health (e.g., HIV) conditions to improve the quality of life and care for vulnerable populations. Her contributions and potential for leadership in this area were recognized as one of four national scholars selected for the 2019-2022 NIMH-Funded Sustained Training in HIV and Aging Research program. In addition to her ongoing collaborations with Gerontology faculty, she is a PI on a newly funded Emory Center for AIDS Research R03 examining integrated substance use and HIV care in clinics across Georgia.
Sheree Boulet
Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics
Research Focus: Severe maternal morbidity and mortality; health disparities; social determinants of health
Dr. Boulet is building the Population Health Team and body of work that characterizes the complex multilevel pathways that shape maternal behavior. She is focused on understanding why socially disadvantaged women bear a disproportionate burden of maternal morbidity and mortality and how interventions can be integrated into obstetric practice to reduce these disparities. The Population Health Team leverages the strengths and expertise of a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, epidemiologists, and health informaticians to use a data-driven approach to design and test actionable strategies for addressing the underlying causes of adverse maternal outcomes at Grady and in other health disparities populations.
Sharon Castellino
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Pediatric Cancer
Dr. Castellino is nationally recognized as a leader in the treatment of children and adolescents with Hodgkin Lymphoma. Her senior authored report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that adjusted overall survival is significantly worse in nonwhite patients, particularly in postrelapse mortality rates. This national study provides the rationale for additional studies examining treatment and survival disparities based on race/ethnicity.
Ann Chahroudi
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: HIV, Pediatric ID
Ann is leading groundbreaking work in pediatric HIV care, as well as management of COVID-19 in children. She is the quintessential role model for balancing bench research with exceptional clinical leadership. She leads across the world of research into clinical care.
Victor Corces
Department of Human Genetics
Research Focus: Epigenetics
Dr. Corces has made ground-breaking discoveries in understanding how chromosomes are arranged in three-dimensional nuclear space and how this organization affects or is affected by gene expression. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year.
Kristina Cossen
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Pediatric Diabetes
Dr. Cossen is a tireless advocate for her pediatric patients. Her primary research involves identifying patients with Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) at risk for severe hypoglycemic events (low blood sugar causing seizure, altered mental status, coma or death). She brings to Emory cutting edge diabetes research onan array of topics, including the study of inhaled insulin in pediatric patients, bionic pancreas, and appetite modulation in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome. While advancing the field of pediatric diabetes, she is directly impacting our local community through her work with the patients of the Diabetes Support Program. The goal of this program is to reduce recurrences of diabetes ketoacidosis, which is the leading cause of mortality in children with T1DM.
Adrianne Edwards
Department of Microbiology/Immunology
Research Focus: C. difficile
Dr. Edwards has generated data for multiple high-impact papers in the C. difficile field over the last few years. During the COVID shutdown, she single-handedly kept research going for our group, providing key data for the renewal of a R01 grant, and submitting an independent R21 proposal, which scored well. She accomplished all of this while working odd hours to juggle parenting 3 small kids.
Annette Esper
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Critical care / ARDS
Annette Esper has used her expertise in sepsis and ARDS to pivot into new collaborative research with infectious diseases and bioinformatics and metabolomics to develop broad-based predictive algorithms that utilize both clinical and biological data to predict disease events and therapeutic responses in patients with COVID-19.
Jennifer Felger
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus: Inflammation and Depression
Dr. Felger has conducted seminal research that informs our understanding of how inflammation impacts the brain to lead to symptoms of anhedonia. Her work is translational in nature and will inform novel treatment approaches towards patients who suffer from debilitating symptoms of depression.
Jennifer has been a pioneer in demonstrating the role of dopamine in the impact of inflammation on the brain and is testing new therapeutics to reverse these effects. Jennifer has also received funding including a recent R21 to study a novel therapeutic strategy to treat depression in patients with increased inflammation. If successful, this study would directly impact patient care in a profound way, leading to a change in how psychiatrists prescribe antidepressant medications.
David Gimbel
Department of Neurosurgery
Research Focus: Dementias
Dr. Gimbel’s research hopes to explain the root cause of CTE and its pathologic link to Alzheimer’s disease. The hypothesis is that CTE is latent Alzheimer’s activated by repetitive head injuries. If true, promising Alzheimer’s therapeutics may play a role in protecting athletes and soldiers from head trauma.
Michael Gottschalk
Department of Orthopaedics
Research Focus: Patient Reported Outcomes
Dr. Gottschalk is an expert in the upper extremity, with a focus on novel capture and implementation of patient reported outcomes. He has transformed his field and the entire orthopedic department at Emory with his innovative PROM capture and implementation to improve patient's lives.
Steven Goudy
Department of Otolaryngology
Research Focus: Maxillofacial development
Dr. Goudy's studies are focused on understanding the developmental biologic processes guiding facial formation. With this understanding, he is developing approaches to regenerate damaged and deficient facial bone as well as improve wound healing after surgery or injury. Using a combination of in vitro and in vivo approaches, he is collaborating within Emory as well as with Georgia Tech.
Diogo Haussen
Department of Neurology
Research Focus: Stroke and endovascular approach
They revolutionized stroke care when they proved thrombectomy to have positive impact on stroke outcomes. They continue to do innovative research in different stents, catheters, devices, technique and approaches to make advancements in the field. Dr. Haussen also makes significant academic contributions on the international level propelling Emory's name into the forefront for the advancement of stroke and neurosciences.
Kimberly Hoang
Department of Neurosurgery
Research Focus: Neuro-oncology
Kimberly is a surgeon-scientist with expertise in neurosurgical oncology of the brain and spine. Her surgical cases include complex techniques including brain tumor surgery performed with the patient awake, utilizing fluorescent tumor dyes, brain mapping for important functional areas, minimally invasive laser interstitial thermal therapy, and novel brachytherapy (radiation) techniques not previously used at Emory. Her research includes work on microrobots guided by ultrasound and magnetic forces for applications in neurosurgical oncology. Her research has also focused on minimally invasive endoscopic robotic devices in collaboration with engineers at Georgia Tech, large animal model development and complement inhibition for radiation necrosis.
Sudhir Kasturi
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Research Focus: Testing of novel vaccines and adjuvants in animal models
Outstanding scientific article published as senior author in 2020 about the testing of novel vaccines and adjuvants in animal models: Kasturi S et al., Science Immunology 2020
Dio Kavalieratos
Department of Family & Preventative Medicine
Research Focus: Palliative Care
Dr. Kavalieratos's paradigm-shifting research expands the status quo of palliative care science into understudied populations and settings, such as his current multi-site international clinical trial of palliative care in cystic fibrosis, the first-ever palliative care intervention in a genetic illness. In addition, his team develops methodological innovations to more rigorously study the effects of behavioral and health systems interventions in serious illness.
Nima Kokabi
Department of Radiology & Imaging Sciences
Research Focus: Liver directed therapies; Y-90 radioembolization; precision medicine to personalize treatment planning
Dr. Kokabi's work is fundamentally changing how we approach interventional oncology therapies by improving precision planning for Yttrium-90 radioembolization. His work will help us better delineate the narrow window between effective treatment and toxicity so we can further improve care for this patient population.
Deanna Kulpa
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Research Focus: Regulation of retrovirus transcription in CD4+ T cells
Outstanding scientific article published as first or senior author in 2020 about the regulation of retrovirus transcription in CD4+ T cells: Zanoni M et al., PLoS Pathogens 2020
Ambar Kulshreshtha
Department of Family & Preventative Medicine
Research Focus: Developing novel interventions utilizing telehealth for prevention of cardiovascular diseases and dementia, and to reduce health disparities
Ambar has made significant contributions in advancing telehealth research and education, which has become even more relevant in the current pandemic. He has published in top-tier journals, and his research is funded by private foundations and federal agencies. He works collaboratively with clinicians in different specialties, psychologists, and public health scientists.
Dr. K’s research cuts across divisional silos as he works toward making significant contributions in advancing telehealth research and education at Emory, which has become even more relevant at the time of this pandemic. He has been funded by private foundations and federal agencies, and is a 2020 Butler-Williams Scholar.
Frances Eun-Hyung Lee
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: B-cell/plasma cell biology
Dr. Lee has developed innovative and unique protocols and pipelines for single cell evaluation of the transcriptomics and repertoire analysis of human antibody secreting cell subsets in the blood, respiratory mucosa and other tissue compartments, which she is currently applying towards novel diagnostics and potential risk stratification in COVID19.
Dorothy Lerit
Department of Cell Biology
Research Focus: Developmental cell biology
Dr. Lerit’s research, recently funded by the NIH, will identify new pathways to regulate cell division and polarity by RNA regulation of centrosome function in a Drosophila model system. This basic research has important implications for understanding how defects in centrosome function lead to cancer and brain disorders.
Joanna Lomas Mevers
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Behavioral Treatments for Encopresis and Enuresis
Dr. Lomas Mevers is a leader in the field of behavioral treatments for issues of enuresis and encopresis in children with autism spectrum disorder. These concerns are some of the most crucial for families and her applied work is shaping the field of treatment options for these conditions.
Allison LoPilato
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science
Research Focus: Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescent Anxiety and Depression
Dr. LoPilato just received a K23 Award from NIH based on her outstanding pilot research conducted over the past 2-3 years. Prior to this work, Dr. LoPilato published several impactful papers with Dr. Elaine Walker and the NAPLES group working on Schizophrenia in youth. Dr. LoPilato guides the overall research program in the Child and Adolescent Mood Program, where she has served as a model investigator for upcoming faculty and Emory students planning to attend graduate school. She co-leads the division's research development group in an effective way.
Allison is conducting important work on the role of emotion regulation in the development of mood disorders in children and adolescents. Her studies have received special recognition in the form of a recent K23 Award from NIH. Allison is also helping lead the development of the new strategic plan for research in the Department.
Cheryl Maier
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Research Focus: Pathophysiology of blood and coagulation disorders
Outstanding scientific article published as first or senior author in 2020 about the pathophysiology of blood and coagulation disorders: Maier CL et al., Lancet 2020
Chad Mao
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Pediatric Heart Failure
Dr. Mao is the PI for the Novartis Entresto trial at CHOA/Emory, which aims to gain FDA approval for a pediatric heart failure drug.
Miranda Moore
Department of Family & Preventative Medicine
Research Focus: Health economics in primary care access, workforce and delivery
Dr. Moore’s research supports multiple clinical and health services research teams. Dr. Moore paused her ongoing research efforts to focus on COVID-19 and has recently published 2 peer-review journal manuscripts on telehealth and COVID-19. Her contributions and potential for leadership in the area of team science have been recognized in multiple venues. Most recently the Georgia Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program Team, in which Dr. Moore leads the Evaluation Core, was awarded the 2020 CTSA Team Science Award of Distinction for Early Stage Research Teams.
Claudia Morris
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Sickle Cell Disease
Claudia had been the driving force behind Arginine for sickle cell patients with pain crisis. She has also been instrumental in getting the ER into the PECARN national collaborative .
Dr. Morris has dedicated her career to finding better ways to decrease total opioid use, decrease pain scores and length of hospital stay in pediatric patients with sickle cell disease during a pain episode. Her research is proving to be promising and her trial will be starting in Phase 3 very soon! Additionally she has been dedicated to finding the prevalence of SARS-CoV2 antibodies in healthcare workers during the pandemic and she is involved in multiple Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) projects.
Colin Muething
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Treatments for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Dr. Muething conducts groundbreaking research on relapse following the successful treatment of challenging behavior in children with ASD. He has conducted studies with some of the largest sample sizes to date to identify the prevalence of various causes of relapse, an essential step in promoting long-term success for the most challenging cases.
Jennifer Mulle
Department of Human Genetics
Research Focus: 3q29 Deletion Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder that increases risk for autism and schizophrenia
Dr. Mulle has been awarded an R01 grant by NIH to examine 3q29 Deletion Syndrom (3q29DS) in detail - the first study of its kind, and one likely to shed light on the much more common neuro-developmental conditions the syndrome associates with. Her work has organized a multidisciplinary team (genetic medicine, psychiatry, neurology, neuropsychology, and others) to provide in-depth knowledge of 3q29DS. Dr. Mulle then won a second R01, now running concurrently, on this same syndrome in which neuro-imaging is a mainstay. It is already emerging that the patients with this syndrome have profound differences in cerebellar morphology on MRI. She is a rising star in her field.
John Nickerson
Department of Ophthalmology
Research Focus: Vision research
John has devoted his career to advancing our understanding of retinal disease states as a means of developing innovative therapeutic strategies. He is currently focused on the retinal pigment epithelial layer (RPE), which is critical in the development of age related macular degeneration.
Roberto Pacifici
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Osteoimmunology
Dr. Pacifici has made seminal contributions to elucidating the role of the immune response, and of gut microbiota, in estrogen deficiency bone loss and in hyperparathyroidism, and in the bone anabolic actions of parathyroid hormone. In the process, he co-founded the fields of osteoimmunology and osteomicrobiology.
Mirko Paiardini
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Research Focus: Immune-mediated intervention for HIV eradication
Outstanding scientific article published as first or senior author in 2020 on Immune-mediated intervention for HIV eradication: Harper J et al., Nature Medicine 2020
Rachel Patzer
Department of Surgery
Research Focus: Kidney Transplantation
Dr. Patzer has conducted seminal work during her >10 years at Emory to advance our understanding of barriers in access to kidney transplantation and has developed effective interventions to reduce disparities in access to transplantation, especially for the African American community, a key priority for the American Kidney Health Initiative
Chrystal Paulos
Department of Surgery
Research Focus: Immuno-oncology
Dr. Paulos has developed novel T-cell therapeutics in melanoma and provided novel insights into T-cell biology and its relationship to cancer.
Cassandra Quave
Department of Dermatology
Research Focus: Ethnobotany
Dr. Quave's research analyzes natural, plant-based medicine of Mediterranean indigenous cultures to help combat infectious disease and antibiotic resistance. She inspires students on field trips, reaches out via social media and the press to inform the public of what's new in this exciting area of medical (re)discovery. She's one of a kind on the antibiotic resistance research team.
Shreya Raja
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Fecal Incontinence and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Dr. Raja's research focuses on the role of gut microbiota in the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal diseases like fecal incontinence and Irritable Bowel syndrome. Using innovative methods like human fecal transplant into germ free mice, Dr. Raja hopes to understand the underlying pathophysiology and develop new treatments for these diseases.
Dr. Raja's research is advancing the field because fecal incontinence is a poorly understood, debilitating condition which severely impairs quality of life, and it is highly prevalent particularly in veterans. Treatment options are limited for this disorder. The goal of the research is to identify a novel mechanism that is microbiota-related and can be used to develop new and more effective treatment options.
Philip Rather
Department of Microbiology/Immunology
Research Focus: Infectious Diseases
Dr. Rather's research has identified a high frequency genetic change that impacts bacterial virulence and levels of antibiotic resistance. This work centers on Acinetobacter baumannii and has the potential to result in a vaccine. His work is funded by the NIH and VA and his research has been published in high impact journals.
Renee Read
Department of Pharmacology
Research Focus: Cancer
Renee teams up with physician scientists to address critical unmet medical needs for the treatment of devastating brain tumors. With the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation Emerging Leader Award, she will evaluate therapeutic strategies in human clinical trials and identify biomarkers to advance the field.
Erica Riedesel
Department of Radiology
Research Focus: Button Battery
Dr. Riedesel is a collaborative and impactful researcher. She is involved in national and local efforts to better understand and advocate for post button battery ingestion rapid diagnosis and appropriate clinical care and imaging. Her work is cutting edge and she is a true expert in this field.
Rene Romero
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Hepatology Research, Hepatitis C, Liver Transplant
Over the years Dr. Romero has been involved in multiple different clinical trials for Hepatitis C. Due to his work and contributions, many of our pediatric study patients have been cured and new treatments for hepatitis C are able to be approved and available to affected populations. This represent a major advancement in this field. Outside of research, he takes on many of the responsibilities of a faculty member, physician, and director of our liver transplant program, is always passionate, and has excelled in everything he has done.
Christina Rostad
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: COVID-19
Dr. Rostad has been crucial in enrolling pediatric patients into COVID-19 studies not only to support her own research, but also in support of the majority of clinical research occurring at CHOA (> 50 investigators within the Department of Pediatrics and others in the SOM).
Nadine Rouphael
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Immunology
Nadine has been a pioneer in bringing new studies, building a research team, and advancing the science of vaccine research and immunology. She is a trusted and considerate colleague! She leads the COVID-19 vaccine trials at Emory.
Mindy Scheithauer
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Developmental Disabilities/ Autism Spectrum Disorder
Dr. Scheithauer is conducting the largest treatment study to date targeting elopement (i.e., leaving supervision without permission) in children with autism spectrum disorder. Elopement is one of the most concerning behaviors exhibited by this population and this research can dramatically increase access to care for this very dangerous behavior.
Vinita Singh
Department of Anesthesiology
Research Focus: Neuropathic and cancer pain
Dr. Singh is innovatively utilizing ketamine to advance the treatment of refractory cancer and neuropathic pain.
Sarah Slocum Freeman
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Treatment for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Dr. Slocum-Freeman conducts research on behavioral treatments for severe challenging behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder. She started a single-subject research lab that allows for detailed analyses about behavior analytic processes that underlie successful treatments, a crucial step in advancing care for this underserved population.
Mehul Suthar
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: COVID-19
Dr. Suthar developed a novel SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody test (FRNT-mNG) that improves the speed at which neutralizing results can be obtained. This assay is being used to assess COVID-19 vaccine candidates. He has been a great team player with multiple collaborations and funded COVID-19 related grants.
Aaron Trammell
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Pulmonary hypertension
Dr. Trammell's research focuses on secondary pulmonary hypertension related to chronic lung disease and left heart disease, a large portion of the pulmonary hypertension disease burden. His work is focused on identifying risk factors that influence outcome as well as investigating the interaction between metabolism and pulmonary hypertension.
Antoine Trammell
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, and related dementias (ADRD)
Dr. Trammell has a grant exploring cognitive resilience in African Americans of advanced age. He is passionate about improving health through community engagement. Dr. Trammell works with community organizations and churches dedicated to the health of minority populations. His work includes service on the Center for Black Women’s Wellness Board.
Sanne van Rooij
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus: Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Dr. van Rooij’s research focuses on understanding the neurobiology and biomarkers for developing PTSD in high risk persons. She just received a K01 award to examine neuromodulation in the treatment of PTSD. She has received early career awards from the American Society of Psychopharmacology (2019) and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (2019).
Ann Vandenberg
Department of Medicine
Research Focus: Health services research in aging
Dr. Vandenberg’s research examines how providers and patients, particularly frail older adults, can work together for better health care delivery. Her health services research incorporates valuable patient viewpoints to suggest healthcare solutions that work for them; it encompasses shared decision making, medication safety, and technology use. This research focus is especially important in this time of a pandemic, which has so acutely affected older adults.
Brian Vickery
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Food Allergy Research
Food allergy is a growing public health issue with 8% of kids affected. He is conducting multiple clinical trials looking at treatment options and was the primary investigator on the trial for a recently FDA-approved peanut oral immunotherapy product. Food allergy has significant physical, mental, and psychosocial implications and his research will have a huge impact on patients and families.
Eric Wagner
Department of Orthopaedics
Research Focus: Shoulder arthritis
Dr. Wagner is a pioneer in his field of shoulder arthritis. His body of research, which includes over 150 manuscripts, has had a lasting impression in how people treat shoulder ailments.
Chia-shi Wang
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: Childhood nephrotic syndrome
She has collaborated with Georgia Tech scientists and used qualitative methods and implementation science to design and test an app to improve the care of children with nephrotic syndrome in a multicenter clinical trial .
Zhexing Wen
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus: Stem cell and Neural Plasticity
Dr. Wen's research regarding pluripotent stem cell research and psychiatric and other diseases is truly outstanding. His work has been supported by NIH and other funding since his arrival. He has made major contributions to the collaboration between Emory, Mayo, and Duke. Dr. Wen leads groups that reach across a variety of departments within the university. His work has already made a major impact as it is published in leading journals and is being cited by other investigators in this area.
Zhexing is making major contributions to the understanding of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders using induced pluripotent stem cells. He is extremely collaborative recently leading to 2 major NIH R01 grants studying genetic determinants of Alzheimer's Disease and the genetic mechanisms of 22q11 disorder (a neurodevelopmental disorder with overlapping features with schizophrenia).
Aliza Wingo
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Research Focus: Psychiatric risk and resilience/PTSD
Dr. Wingo studies the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms of depression, PTSD, and resilience the molecular processes through which these psychological factors modify risk for Alzheimer’s disease. She has received numerous national research awards and four federal grants and has an extensive publication history in prestigious journals.
David Yu
Department of Radiation Oncology
Research Focus: Cancer research
David is a physician scientist with 2 RO1s in cancer cell signaling, a busy clinician at Grady, and the director of the department's division of cancer biology. He has now applied for a T32 training grant to further strengthen training of young physician scientists of any Emory department interested in cancer research. This grant will transform our training of such critical investigators.
Hongjie Yuan
Department of Pharmacology
Research Focus: Genetic basis of neurological disease
Dr. Yuan has conducted groundbreaking research to allow diagnosis of patients with rare genetic diseases. His work involves functional characterization of the effects of missense mutations, which is essential to design precision therapies and will lay the groundwork for patient stratification, a critical aspect of clinical trials in rare disease.
Keivan Zandi
Department of Pediatrics
Research Focus: SARS-CoV-2, Yellow Fever, Dengue, Zika
Dr. Keivan Zandi was recruited to the Division of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology in the Dept. of Pediatrics for his extensive experience and expertise in emerging infectious diseases (Dengue, West Nile, Zika, Ebola, Yellow Fever). As the Covid19 pandemic began, he rapidly helped to set up certified BSL-3 facility and acquire access to SARS-CoV-2 to propogate and use in screening antivirals compounds using in vitro assays. He has helped to establish multiple collaboration projects and submit over 10 new Emergency COVID-related grant applications (NIH, DOD) in the last 6 months. In addition, he recently was awarded his first NIH R21 grant for Yellow Fever Virus, and published 2 key papers in the last year.
