Research Interests:
Asthma, allergy and inflammation; functional genomics
Summary:
Asthma is an increasingly common disease that affects about 20 million American children and adults. We are working to understand how proteins made by the immune system act within the lungs to cause some of the most important problems experienced by people with asthma. We also work on understanding newly discovered ways in which genes are turned on and off during health and disease.
Research Interests:
De novo protein design, drug design, protein structure/function, membrane protein structure, integrins, antivirals, antibiotics.
Summary:
DeGrado’s group works on the design of molecules that inform our understanding of biological processes. They also have developed small molecules drugs for various as potential pharmaceuticals, including antithrombotics, heparin reversal agents, antibacterials, and antiviral agents.
Research Interests:
Cell-cell signaling during mammalian development and in postnatal physiology
Summary:
We use mouse as a model system to understand how embryos develop. This knowledge is critical for understanding the basis of human congenital defects. Moreover, many adult diseases have their origin in development. Thus, our studies have important implications for developing stem cell therapy and identifying the cause of cancers.
Research Interests:
Apoptotic cell and collagen clearance in health and disease.
Summary:
The accumulation of cellular and molecular debris in the extracellular compartment must be precisely regulated to preserve tissue integrity. We are interested in discovering the pathways that regulate tissue homeostasis through the removal of matrix molecules (collagen) and cellular debris (apoptotic cells) under normal and pathological conditions.
Research Interests:
Cellular dynamics of allergic immune responses underlying asthma
Summary:
Asthma is a chronic lung disease that afflicts tens of millions of people in the US and is particularly prevalent in children. In the majority of individuals with asthma, underlying allergic inflammation in the lung makes a significant contribution to the disease etiology. In order to understand the cellular and molecular events driving this allergic inflammation, we use advanced technologies, including two-photon microscopy and flow cytometry, to directly visualize and characterize inflammatory cells in the lungs as well as in lymphoid organs that ‘prime’ cells for immune responses in the respiratory tract. A particular emphasis of our research is on the generation and function of the IgE class of antibodies that contribute to allergic responses.
The 2015 Stein and Moore Award recipient is Dr. William DeGrado (University of California, San Francisco). Dr. DeGrado’s bold body of work spanning decades has taught us that proteins can be rationally designed in a staged modular manner based on simple chemical and conformational principles, and that both de novo and biologically-inspired functional elements can also be installed. His work has also taught us the pitfalls in rational design, and has provided a battery of biophysical and biochemical methods that can be powerfully applied to validate and understand the structure of these designs. His pioneering work has shown that simple chemical principles can be rationally applied to highly complex systems to both understand them and create new materials and potential therapeutics. His impact on the field of protein science can hardly be overestimated.
Research Interests:
Cardiac and skeletal muscle development, differentiation, and function
Summary:
Tissues and organs form during mammalian embryonic development through the integration of numerous signaling and transcriptional pathways. Our major goal is to define pathways controlling organ formation to understand normal development, the molecular basis for congenital defects, and potential mechanisms for organ regeneration and repair.
We use a combination of gene knockouts, transgenic reporter assays, biochemical, computational, and genomic approaches to investigate basic developmental mechanisms. We primarily use the mouse as a model system, but several current projects also use cultured cells or zebrafish as models to understand developmental gene regulation. Current work in the lab is focused primarily on cell autonomous mechanisms underlying gene regulation, tissue specification, organ formation and metabolic control during cardiovascular, craniofacial, and neural crest development.