We are excited to introduce Dr. Yuksel Agca as our feature researcher. Dr. Agca is an Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine at University of Missouri Columbia. He and his team of researchers induced menopause in rats to study cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease with hormone depletion. According to Dr. Agca, “These animal models can be useful for future testing to examine the impact of a variety of other factors, such as alcohol, smoking, diet, exercise, hypertension or previous traumatic brain injuries.” Learn more about his work here.

Learn about their work here.

Dr. Philip Payne is the founding director of the Institute for Informatics (I2) at Washington University, where he also serves as the Robert J. Terry Professor and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. The Institute of Informatics is doing critical work to help guide the State’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and building a rapid response to public health data management. In addition, Dr. Payne is part of the leadership team building a national synthetic data COVID-19 resource. You can follow him on twitter @prpayne5 and learn more about his work here.

Dr. Tom Curran has been working on the frontline of cancer research and developmental neurobiology for more than 30 years and continues to contribute as a scientist, administrator, leader and mentor in the research community. In 2016, he became the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Children’s Research Institute, Children’s Mercy, Kansas City with the ambition of establishing a world class center for pediatric translational research. His goals for the Children’s Research Institute are to develop a strong focus on pediatric translational research and developmental therapeutics throughout the region. Learn more about him and the Children’s Mercy Research Institute here.

Dr. Enrico Di Cera was recently named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his distinguished contributions to science. Dr Di Cera, who is the Alice A. Doisy professor and chairman of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at SLU, is being recognized for his key contributions to the theory of ligand binding and to the structural enzymology of proteins controlling blood coagulation. He is also the Interim Vice Dean for Research at Saint Louis University. Learn more about his work here.

Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D., is a professor in the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine –Biomedical and Health Informatics Department. She is also the director of the Community Health Research Group, the director of the UMKC Health Equity Institute, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Psychology at UMKC. Her expertise is in using community-engaged approaches to test and disseminate evidence-based health screening and linkage to care interventions focused on HIV/STDs/Hepatitis C, diabetes, heart disease, and mental health in community settings. She is dedicated to engaging students and community-health-academic partnerships along with underserved populations to address health disparities using novel scalable and sustainable methods. She recently spoke at one of our Brews & Breakthroughs. Find out more about her work here!

Dr. Walter Gassmann is Interim Director at the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri. The Bond Life Sciences Center at MU allows researchers to form collaborations rarely seen on college campuses to solve problems in human and animal health, the environment and agriculture. Dr. Gassmann’s research focuses on the inner working of plant immune systems. In particular, he is interested in how it is activated, and how it is kept in check to prevent harmful side effects from an overactive immune system. Learn more about his work here.

This Month, we’d like to introduce you to Fran Sverdrup, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Saint Louis University. He and his team are working on finding a way to shut down the toxic protein that leads to facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), an illness that starts with facial, shoulder and upper arm weakness and eventually affects nearly all skeletal muscles of those with the disease (full story linked above).

Dr. Sverdrup was motivated to search for a cure for FSHD after his own daughter was diagnosed with the illness. His research suggests a way forward in developing the first treatment or cure for FSHD. You can learn more about his groundbreaking work here.

Meet Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, Distinguished University Professor of Pathology & Immunology, Biology and Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine, and Director, Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology.

Dr. Gordon’s outstanding work on studying how gut microbes could make processed foods healthier is a highlighted in a featured article above. His lab’s focus is on the role of the gut microbiota in defining our nutritional status.

You can learn more about his team and his fascinating work here.