Scholar Profiles

Wilbur Chen, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine – Center for Vaccine Development

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Chen completed his internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Maryland. He also finished a post-doctoral fellowship in vaccinology at the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is now an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geographic Medicine. His current clinical research involves a number of vaccine trials in the elderly, which include both experimental vaccines against Avian (H5N1) influenza and seasonal influenza. Dr. Chen’s laboratory research involves the study of an endotoxin-based vaccine as a potential therapy against gram-negative infections and the role of Toll-like receptors (TLR) in anti-bacterial host defense. The MCRCDP will be allowing Dr. Chen to study dendritic cells of the elderly and the use of TLR agonist-based adjuvants as a mechanism for reversing the immune dysfunction which occurs during aging, termed immune-senescence. His long term goal is to develop newer generation vaccines which would be tailored for the elderly, a population that generally exhibits the highest morbidity and mortality from infections and responds poorest to vaccination.

 

Coleen Damcott, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Damcott’s primary research interests involve the molecular basis and genetics of complex diseases in humans.  In particular, she is interested in the field of nutrigenomics or the role of diet and nutrition in genetic susceptibility to disease.  For the MCRCDP program, Dr. Damcott proposed a translational genomics project that involves genetic variation in perilipin (PLIN), an adipocyte phosphoprotein that coats intracellular lipid droplets and regulates lipolysis.  The study is designed to advance our knowledge of the role of genetic variation in the PLIN gene in lipid metabolism and its interaction with diet by examining the mechanism linking PLIN polymorphisms to hypertriglyceridemia and insulin resistance.  Understanding the link between PLIN polymorphisms and circulating triglyceride levels will provide new insights into the pathophysiological basis of diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The MCRCDP provides the educational opportunities and the multidisciplinary mentor-based research environment required to integrate knowledge and expertise in the fields of molecular genetics/genomics, clinical investigation, human nutrition and fat cell biology.

 

Jeanne Geiger-Brown, PhD

Associate Professor,  Department of Family and Community Health

Work and Health Research Center

University of Maryland School of Nursing

Dr. Geiger Brown’s research interests are at the intersection of occupational epidemiology, sleep medicine, and neuropsychology.  Her research project will examine patterns of sleep for registered nurses working successive 12 hour shifts, and relate this to sleepiness, fatigue, and neurocognitive performance.  Sustained work days (shifts lasting 12 hours or more) have become common in nursing, especially in combination with compressed schedules (e.g. three 12-hour days in succession).  This work schedule limits the opportunity for sleep, and can lead to fatigue-related accidents, injuries, and long-term adverse health effects.  As a faculty member of the Work and Health Research Center in the School of Nursing she and her colleagues are dedicated to improving health through research, education, advocacy, and practice directed at the prevention of occupational causes of illnesses and injuries.

 

Feng Jiang, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Jiang’s research has focused upon understanding molecular genetic aberrations and translating the resultant discoveries into clinical application for enhancing diagnosis and therapy of human malignancies. In the MCRCDP program, Dr. Jiang proposed to develop a noninvasive genetic test using an optimal panel of biomarkers for predicting recurrence of stage I lung cancer after surgery. There are three specific aims: 1) identify an optimal panel of genetic signatures that can be detected in sputum for accurately predicting lung cancer recurrence in an existing cohort of recurrent and nonrecurrent stage I lung cancer patients, 2) develop the genetic signatures as a robust and objective diagnostic test by labeling the genetic probes with quantum dots and counting signals with automation of fluorescent dot-counting, 3) prospectively validate the new diagnostic test for predicting recurrence in an independent cohort of stage I lung cancer patients by correlating the results with their clinical outcomes. The study will form the foundation for future multiple-center clinical trails designed to rapidly and widely adopt this prognostic approach in routine clinical practice. Its application in clinical settings will identify the patients at high risk for recurrence, potentially lead to more personalized treatment, and ultimately reduces lung cancer mortality.

 

Jennifer (Kristie) Johnson, PhD

Associate Director, Microbiology Laboratory

University of Maryland Medical Center

Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on bacterial resistance mechanisms focusing mainly on Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and resistant mobile genetic elements in gram negatives including extended spectrum β-lactamases and plasmid mediated AMP-C β-lactamases.  The goal of her proposed research is to measure the efficiency of transmission and acquisition of plasmid-mediated AmpC β-lactamase resistance in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species among intensive care patients. To accomplish this, a molecular understanding of the plasmid, its transmissibility, its resistance genes, and compatibility to infect divergent bacterial species needs to be studied. If plasmid transfer of AmpC β-lactamases is occurring, then the traditional infection control surveillances would fail to recognize transmission of this resistance.  The information obtained from her research will lead to the understanding of the molecular nature of patient-to-patient transmission of plasmid mediated AmpC β-lactamases and will identify the need for more effective interventions targeted to decrease transmission. This research project merges new generation molecular technology with the traditional approach which has been somewhat ineffective to prevent transmission.  It will also develop techniques to allow the analysis of plasmid transmission not currently used clinically to aid the clinician.

 

Lauren Jones- Lush, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science

Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Jones-Lush’s educational background is in computational neuroscience. She received her undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Wesleyan University and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Maryland Baltimore. In her postdoctoral work at Brandeis University in the Volen Center for Complex Systems, she investigated mechanisms of dynamic sensory encoding in cortical neural ensembles. She is currently an assistant professor in the department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Maryland School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Using robotics, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and functional imaging (fMRI) to study mechanisms of neuroplasticity in humans, she is applying advanced methods in complex systems analysis to problems of motor rehabilitation after stroke.

 

Janet Lam, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neurology

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Lam's research interest is in the neurocognitive impact of napping on preschool-aged children. At this time, there are no evidence-based guidelines to determine when children outgrow their nap. This study addresses a significant problem with recent changes in the early childhood curriculum which have eliminated napping time to increase educational time. However, preschoolers have a diurnal sleep drive and are able to maintain wakefulness for only limited periods of time. It is known that children who are sleep deprived display difficulty with attention and emotion regulation. The aims of this study are to determine the normative sleep/wake pattern and to establish a relationship between napping and cognitive and attention-related skills. The results of this study have the potential to guide health and educational policies that affect young children.

 

Michael Lindsey, PhD, MSW, MPH

Assistant Professor,

University of Maryland School of Social Work

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry – Center for School Mental Health

University of Maryland School of Medicine

MSW/MPH Joint Degree Program Coordinator

Dr. Lindsey’s research agenda examines social and behavioral factors associated with access to and use of mental health services among vulnerable and underserved adolescents with depression.  Although research indicates that depression is highly amenable to treatment, few adolescents, especially those living in high-stressed urban environments, receive care.  In the MCRCDP Program, Dr. Lindsey will develop a culturally and contextually-informed engagement intervention for depressed adolescents to improve their acceptability (i.e., engagement, perceived relevance and satisfaction) of school-based mental health services.  The specific aims are to: 1) develop the session manual and guidelines for program procedures, including development of fidelity measures regarding clinician adherence; 2) assess the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention; and 3) establish initial effect size estimates for a future trial. At the completion of his participation in the MCRCDP program, Dr. Lindsey will be poised to lead independent investigations that improve service acceptance among adolescents with depression. 

 

Giora Netzer, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

University of Maryland School of Medicine

 

Ebere Onukwugha, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research

University of Maryland School of Pharmacy

Dr. Onukwugha’s work is focused on the relationships between health care decisions and costs/outcomes as well as the statistical models used to analyze these relationships using observational data.  She is also very interested in health disparities and cost-effectiveness analysis.  Previous work has examined disparities in discharge disposition among stroke patients, the variations in cost-effectiveness of treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Veterans Health Administration, and the statistical modeling of binary outcomes using observational data.  Her primary interest in patient compliance behavior is reflected in her MCRCDP projects, in which she will estimate the incremental cost of hospital discharges against medical advice using observational data and examine the reasons behind discharges against medical advice using primary data.  Understanding the costs and reasons behind discharges against medical advice will benefit hospital institutions and patients alike by informing individual and collective efforts to reduce avoidable discharges against medical advice.   Ultimately, this research will allow improved interventions aimed at reducing discharges AMA and avoiding detrimental health and cost consequences

 

Afshin Parsa, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology

University of Maryland School of Medicine

 

Gloria Reeves, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Reeves’ research project is to investigate the metabolic side effects of antipsychotic treatment of children, using state of the art assessment tools to study changes in insulin sensitivity, fat mass, and lipid profile as well as food intake and activity monitoring.  Antipsychotic medications are increasingly being used to treat young children with severe aggression and mood instability, yet data on side effects is limited for prepubertal children to guide clinical care.  This project is a vehicle for her to learn about an important psychopharmacology issue in child psychiatry, but also an opportunity to receive training on metabolic assessment techniques.  Her future goals are to combine her expertise in childhood development and psychiatry with newly developed skills in metabolic assessment to study issues related to obesity and mental illness in young children. 

 

Mohammad Sajadi, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Institute for Human Virology

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Sajadi's research interest involves detailed characterization of a cohort of individuals with HIV-1 infection who can naturally, without  medication, suppress HIV-1 replication to very low levels (HIV-1 Natural  Viral Suppressors). As opposed to the vast majority of other human  infections caused by a variety of bacteria, parasites, and viruses, to date there have been no documented cases of individuals being able to  clear HIV-1 infection once infected. The cohort of patients that will be  assembled in this study will represent one extreme outcome of HIV-1  infection (where individuals are infected but are able to successfully control infection). The aim of this study is to better elucidate the mechanisms of viral suppression in these individuals.

 

Mark Scheper, DDS, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Oncology and Diagnostic Sciences

University of Maryland Dental School

University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center

Dr. Scheper graduated from Xavier University in 1991 with a bachelors of science degree, and entered dental school at the Ohio State University, which he graduated from in 1995. Upon graduation, Dr. Scheper entered the Public Health Service, servicing the oral health needs of Native Americans. He practiced general dentistry and oral surgery, while following a post-doctorial path, studying the epidemiological incidence of early childhood caries within this patient population, forming an early intervention program, poised at educating new parents within the first six months on baby-bottle tooth decay; including causes and prevention strategies. Following his service in the Indian Health Service, he took a position with the Food and Drug Administration, reviewing drug applications and drug safety. In 2003, Dr. Scheper became a resident in Oral Pathology, pursuing a certificate in Oral Pathology and PhD in oral cancer research, looking at the effects of COX inhibitors on survivin expression in a Stat3 dependent manner in oral, laryngeal and salivary gland carcinomas, which he completed in 2006. Dr. Scheper in 2007 became a K12 Clinical Research Scholar researching the multimodality signaling pathways in early oral precancerous lesions.

 

Shannon Takala, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine – Center for Vaccine Development

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Takala received her PhD in molecular epidemiology from University of Maryland School of Medicine and obtained training in population genetics and evolutionary ecology during her postdoctoral fellowship at University of Maryland and Arizona State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Malaria Section of the Center for Vaccine Development, where she plans to develop a research program focused on understanding the evolution of the malaria parasite in response to the human immune response and interventions such as drugs and vaccines. As a MCRCDP Scholar, Dr. Takala will work with her collaborators to map regions of the malaria parasite genome associated with resistance to an important class of antimalarial drugs, the artemisinins, with the ultimate goal of understanding the mechanisms of resistance and identifying molecular markers that can be used to track and contain resistant parasites before they spread to other malaria endemic areas.

 

James Waltz, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry – Maryland Psychiatric Research Center

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Waltz’s educational background is in experimental psychology, with concentrations in cognitive science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  He received his PhD from UCLA in 1999, submitting a doctoral thesis on the cognitive effects of damage to the brain’s frontal lobes.  Following graduate school, he did postdoctoral work in Germany, at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, studying the physiological basis of learning and memory in humans and nonhuman primates.  He  came to the University of Maryland to apply what he learned to the study of schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder characterized by a collection of psychotic “positive” symptoms, and a range of cognitive and motivational deficits.   He conducts his present research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, a division of the UMB Department of Psychiatry, and at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  His work focuses on brain systems involved in reward-based decision-making and learning, and the K12 award is an instrumental part of his training as a clinical researcher.  The work is necessarily multidisciplinary, involving the combination of clinical, physiological, and experimental behavioral data.  The goal of his research is, through the use of behavioral experiments and functional neuroimaging techniques, to understand how dysfunction in the brain’s reward systems – dopamine systems in particular – contributes to psychopathology in schizophrenia, as well as the effects that antipsychotic medications have on these systems.

 

Ikwunga Wonodi, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry - Maryland Psychiatric Research Center

Faculty, Program in Genetics and Genomic Medicine

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Associate Faculty, University of Maryland Graduate School

Dr. Wonodi completed his psychiatry residency following the extended Research Track at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Residency program, and a post-doctoral fellowship in schizophrenia research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC), University of Maryland School of Medicine.  He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of psychiatry, with a primary assignment at the MPRC.  His research interests are broadly focused on pharmacological probes, genetics, pharmacogenomics, and predictors of antipsychotic drug response and untoward events in the schizophrenia spectrum.  More specific areas of interest and current research include the application of endophenotypes in the genetic  dissection of schizophrenia.  Specifically, his studies examine the associations of dopamine-related genes with intermediate phenotypes in schizophrenia using association, gene expression (in living and postmortem samples), and neuroimagining  paradigms.  Data generated from this line of work could help better characterize the neurobiology of aberrant genes in schizophrenia, explore their causal paths, with high translational potential for testing in animal models.  This could lead to the discovery of novel molecular targets for drug development.