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Faculty Profiles

Ernesto Bernal-Mizrachi

Ernesto Bernal-Mizrachi, M.D.

Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Clinical Profile | Publications
Biography: His research over the last 15 years has focused on the regulation of pancreatic beta cell mass and function, with a particular interest in Akt and mTOR signaling pathways in beta cell proliferation. His laboratory has made major contributions to our understanding of signaling pathways that regulate beta cell expansion and survival. The long term goal of these signaling...
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Sanjoy K. Bhattacharya, M. Tech., Ph. D., FARVO

Sanjoy K. Bhattacharya, M. Tech., Ph. D., FARVO

Professor of Ophthalmology Bascom Palmer Eye Institute
Publications
Biography: Sanjoy Bhattacharya is a tenured Professor at University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA. Professor Bhattacharya completed master’s degrees, in Biotechnology, in Bioengineering from Banaras Hindu University, and a PhD degree in Bioengineering from Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, India. He subsequently did fellowships in Pharmacology and Structural Biology at McGill University,...
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John L. Bixby, Ph.D.

Professor

Biography: Dr. John L. Bixby received his PhD from Caltech in 1980, and did postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He joined the faculty at UCSF in 1985 and moved to the University of Miami in 1988. He is Professor of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology and Neurological Surgery at the Miller School of...
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Defne Bayik Watson

Defne Bayik

Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology
Publications
Biography: Dr. Defne Bayik is a cancer immunologist focused on uncovering host regulatory pathways as targets for brain tumor immunotherapy. She completed her undergraduate degree in the Bilkent University Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and received her Ph.D. in 2016 through the National Institutes of Health-Bilkent University Graduate Partnership Program. Her dissertation...
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Peter Buchwald, Ph.D.

Peter Buchwald, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Publications
Biography: Dr. Buchwald obtained a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics (Computer-Aided Drug Design) from the University of Florida in 1997 under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas Bodor. Following his graduation, he worked both in industrial (IVAX Corp. and Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd) and academic settings including the University of Miami. He published >130 publications in peer-reviewed journals...
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Kerry Burnstein

Kerry Burnstein, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology

Biography: Kerry L. Burnstein, Ph.D., received her B.A. in biology (1981) from Wesleyan University, Middletown Connecticut and a Ph.D. in genetics (1986) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She pursued post-doctoral training with Dr. John Cidlowski at UNC-CH studying the regulation of steroid hormone receptors. In 1991, Dr. Burnstein joined the faculty at the University...
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Yangbo Feng

Yangbo Feng, Ph.D.

Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry
Publications
Biography: Dr. Feng is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is a medicinal chemist with extensive research experience in both academic and industry settings. Dr. Feng has been working on small molecule drug discovery and preclinical...
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Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D.

Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D., FASN

Professor of Medicine, Tenured, Katz Family Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
Clinical Profile | Publications
Biography: Dr. Fornoni is tenured Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.She serves as Director of the Peggy and Harold Katz Drug Discovery Center. She is also the Co-Director of the MSTP program and of the CTSI/KL2 and Mentoring program. In 2013, Dr. Fornoni gained experience in drug development as Global...
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Abigail S. Hackam, Ph.D.

Abigail S. Hackam, Ph.D.

Professor of Ophthalmology
Publications
Biography: Abigail Hackam, Ph.D. is a Professor at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Director of Laboratory Research at Bascom Palmer, and Associate Director of the Master’s of Science in Vision Science and Investigative Ophthalmology at the University of Miami. Her PhD training was in Human Genetics at Johns Hopkins University, followed by post-doctoral positions in Medical Genetics...
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Joshua Hare, M.D.

Joshua M. Hare, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.H.A.

Director, Donald Soffer Endowed Program in Regenerative Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine
Clinical Profile
Biography: Dr. Hare graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. He did his residency at Hopkins and fellowships at Hopkins, Harvard University and The Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Hare was Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering and director of cardiac transplantation at Johns Hopkins, leading their...
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Daniel Isom, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology
Clinical Profile | Publications
Biography: Dr. Isom was born and raised in the Cleveland area. He is a first generation college graduate and academic. After spending two years at the Cleveland Institute of Art, he earned degrees in Biochemistry and Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University. He then went on to earn a PhD in Molecular Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University followed by postdocs at both Duke...
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Kiran Kurmi, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology
Publications
Biography: Dr. Kiran Kurmi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. from the Mayo Clinic in 2018 and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in 2024. His research primarily focuses on cancer metabolism, with a particular emphasis on...
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Jae Lee

Jae K. Lee, Ph.D., M.S.

Professor
Publications
Biography: I received my PhD in Neuroscience from Georgtown University where I studied plasticity of local reflexes after spinal cord injury. I went on to do my postdoctoral research at University of California San Diego where I investigated molecules that inhibit axon regeneration. I joined the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis as a faculty in 2011 where I continue my research in...
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Sandra Lemmon

Sandra K. Lemmon, Ph.D.

Professor of Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology
Clinical Profile | Publications
Biography: Degrees
B.A. University of Rochester (1973)
Ph.D. Washington University (1982)

Positions
Postdoctoral Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University (1983-1985)
Research Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University (1985-1988)
Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University...
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David Benner Lombard, M.D., Ph.D.

David Benner Lombard, M.D., Ph.D.

Clinical Professor
Publications
Biography: Dr. Lombard received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and his PhD at MIT, where he studied Werner syndrome and related progerias. After Pathology residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Dr. Lombard pursued postdoctoral work in the area of sirtuin biology, supported by an NIA/NIH K08 award. Dr. Lombard was the first to describe a central role for the...
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Izidore Lossos

Izidore Lossos, M.D.

Professor of Medicine , Hematology
Clinical Profile | Publications
Biography: Dr. Izidore S. Lossos is a Professor of Medicine and the Director of Lymphoma Program at Sylvester. He holds a Sylvester endowed chair at the cancer center. He received his medical degree from Hadassah School of Medicine, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Hematology at Hadassah University Hospital...
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Zhipeng Meng, Ph.D.

Zhipeng Meng, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Publications
Biography: Dr. Zhipeng Meng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and an affiliated member of the Tumor Biology Program at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. With a focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling tissue regeneration, fibrosis, and carcinogenesis,...
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Sandra Merscher

Sandra Merscher, Ph.D.

Research Professor, Katz Family Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
Publications
Biography: Dr. Merscher obtained her Ph.D. degree in Human Genetics from the University of Saarland, Saarbrucken, Germany. For her postdoctoral fellowship, she joined Dr. Raju Kucherlapati’s Laboratory in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA where she worked...
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Alla Mitrofanova, Ph.D.

Alla Mitrofanova, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor, Katz Family Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
Publications
Biography: During my years as a student and postdoctoral fellow, I have developed a solid background in multiple disciplines, including physiology, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, along with very broad technical skills, including unique techniques of surgical manipulations with rodents, glomeruli isolation and podocyte primary cell culture. In the laboratory,...
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Ralf Paus

Ralf Paus, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.B.

Research Professor of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery
Publications
Biography: Born, raised, and schooled in a medieval town in Germany (Münster), I have studied medicine at the Universities of Würzburg/Germany, Vienna/Austria, and Berlin (FUB)/Germany. After performing my MD thesis work as visiting student at USF/Tampa and doing my internship/house officer training in Switzerland (University Hospitals Basel and Zürich), during my...
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Priyamvada Rai, Ph.D.

Priyamvada Rai, Ph.D.

Professor of Radiation Oncology
Publications
Biography: Dr. Rai received her Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the California Institute of Technology. She did her PhD research at University of California, Berkeley in the field of biophysics with Dr. Stuart Linn and Dr. David Wemmer as her co-advisors. She was a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute...
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Pedro J Salas, M.D., Ph.D.

Pedro J Salas, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Cell Biology
Publications
Biography: Dr. Salas obtained his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires (1976) and completed a PhD. (1981, same institution) in Biophysics focusing in paracellular (tight junction) diffusion of cations in epithelia. He continued his post-doctoral training at State University of New York (Downstate Medical Ctr) and Cornell University Medical College in New York city....
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Stephan C. Schurer, Ph.D.

Stephan C. Schürer, Ph.D.

Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology
Publications
Biography: Dr. Schürer studied chemistry at Humboldt University of Berlin and University of California Berkeley. Following his PhD from the Technical University Berlin, he built and directed the international operations to the develop life science information technology and scientific content products at Libraria and Eidogen-Sertanty Inc, two technology startups in San Jose...
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Nima Sharifi

Nima Sharifi, M.D.

Professor
Publications
Biography: I am a prostate cancer medical oncologist and physician-scientist and the overall focus of my laboratory is to identify how steroid metabolism governs prostate cancer resistance to hormonal therapies, including development of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Advanced prostate cancer responds initially to gonadal testosterone deprivation therapy but tumors eventually...
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Robert Starke

Robert M. Starke, M.D.

Associate Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery, Neuroradiology and Neurosciences
Clinical Profile | Publications
Biography: Dr. Starke is a tenured member of the departments of Neurological Surgery, Neuroradiology, and Neuroscinces. He has a busy clinical practice performing more than 600 operations each year. He specializes in the treatment of cerebral vascular disease including aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations and fistulas, cavernous malformaitons, moyamoya disease, carotid and intracranial...
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Danuta Szczesna-Cordary, Ph.D.

Danuta Szczesna-Cordary, Ph.D.

Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology

Biography: Dr. Szczesna-Cordary received her Master of Science degree in Biophysical Chemistry from the University of Warsaw in Poland. In 1983, she initiated her research on skeletal muscle contraction and myosin regulatory light chain phosphorylation under the tutelage of Prof. Irena Kakol at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw....
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Justin Taylor, M.D.

Justin Taylor, M.D.

Associate Professor, Hematology
Publications
Biography: Justin Taylor, MD, is a physician-scientist devoted to improving outcomes for patients with hematologic malignancies. The Taylor lab studies the role of recurrent mutations in hematologic malignancies and how to target them with novel therapeutics using animal modeling, molecular biology, and single-cell genomic techniques. Dr. Taylor holds a faculty position in the Department...
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Marjana Tomic

Marjana Tomic-Canic, Ph.D.

Professor of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery

Biography: Dr Tomic-Canic is internationally recognized scientist, inventor and leader in a field of skin biology, with particular focus on understanding mechanisms that control tissue repair and regeneration. She has over 25 years of experience and has authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers in her fields of research. Dr Tomic-Canic completed her doctoral and postdoctoral training...
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Luis M. Tuesta, Ph.D.

Luis M. Tuesta, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Publications
Biography: By way of my training, my career started at the University of Miami Miller School of medicine (2006-2008) where I worked on leveraging the neuroregenerative properties of Schwann cells to achieve functional recovery following spinal cord injury. Then, at The Scripps Research Institute (2008-2013), I worked on mechanisms of addiction and pharmacology and identified the...
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Roberto I. Vazquez-Padron, Ph.D.

Roberto I. Vazquez-Padron, Ph.D.

Professor of Surgery, Vascular & Endovascular Surgery
Publications
Biography: I am a Tenured Professor of Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Senior Research Scientist at the Miami VA. My research goal is to make a highly significant scientific contribution to the field of vascular biology that will accelerate the discovery of effective therapies to treat and prevent proliferative vascular diseases. Early in my career,...
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Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D.

Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Publications
Biography: Claes Wahlestedt is Leonard M. Miller Professor and Director of the Center for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Miami where he also serves as Associate Dean for Therapeutic Innovation. A native of Sweden, Dr. Wahlestedt obtained his MD and PhD degrees from Lund University. Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Wahlestedt was a founding Professor and...
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Fangliang Zhang

Fangliang Zhang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Publications
Biography: Bachelor of Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, China,1999
PhD in Biochemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2005
Postdoc, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2005-2011
Assistant Professor, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 2011-2019
Associate Professor, University of Miami, Mimia, FL,...
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