Dr. Jianhua Xiong is an Assistant Professor of Urology at Emory University School of Medicine. The laboratory investigates the metabolic regulation of cell fate and function, with a focus on urological disorders and cancer. Research explores how fatty acids influence cell behavior in T cells, endothelial cells, and cancer cells. A multidisciplinary approach integrates cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, super-resolution imaging, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, histology, tissue studies, and mouse models to understand cellular mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic strategies.

Vision is energy-intensive. Mutations that impair a person's ability to generate energy disproportionately affect vision. Common diseases that cause blindness may also be related to a failure of the eye to generate sufficient energy to serve its needs. Our goal is to understand the metabolic function of individual cells in visual tissues, primarily the retina and retinal pigment epithelium. We want to know which cells in the eye carry out particular metabolic processes (glycogen synthesis, nucleotide synthesis, etc.), what causes a cell to be metabolically 'wired' as it is, the extent to which retina generates metabolic intermediates de novo vs. from circulating, and the extent to which neurodegenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma are linked to metabolic impairments.

Kyle Allison is a bioengineer and chemical engineer whose research has focused on understanding the behavior of bacteria in order to improve antibiotics. The Allison Lab tracks individual bacteria using microscopy approaches they developed.  Kyle and his lab have made foundational discoveries in the metabolite potentiation of antibiotics, the resuscitation of persistent bacteria, and the multicellularity of E. coli (the best-studied unicellular organism).  Kyle was named to the first “30 under 30” list in Science by Forbes Magazine and received the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award to bypass traditional postdoctoral training. His research has been published in Nature, PNAS, Molecular Systems Biology, Nature Methods, Nature Chemical Biology, and other journals.  Kyle also holds a master’s degree in literature and wrote his thesis on James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.

Dr. Jacob Berchuck is a Medical Oncologist at the Winship Cancer Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Emory, Dr. Berchuck was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Medical Oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In addition to caring for patients, Dr. Berchuck leads a translational research lab focused on utilizing "liquid biopsy" tools that enable multi-omic profiling of tumor-derived cell-free DNA circulating in the bloodstream to pioneer advances that transform how we manage and treat individuals living with cancer. The core research objectives of the Berchuck Lab include include developing biomarkers to guide treatment decisions, working towards a future where a simple blood draw can enable real-time insights to choose the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, and studying mechanisms of therapeutic resistance. Dr. Berchuck’s research has been published in several high-impact journals, including Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Annals of Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, and others.

Anthony B. Law, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Emory University School of Medicine. A board certified head and neck surgeon, Dr. Law's clinical interest include the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and pathology of the upper aerodigestive tract, particularly laryngeal cancer. He treats disorders involving voice, airway, and swallowing using a wide array of techniques ranging from open surgery, endoscopic minimally invasive surgery, and laser surgery.

Dr. Law earned his MD and also his PhD in biophysics and biochemistry from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC. He completed his residency in otolaryngology/head & neck surgery and his fellowship in laryngology at University of Washington in Seattle, WA.

Dr. Law's primary research interests lay in modeling of complex biology and clinical systems. He has broad experience in mathematical modeling and computational models. Historically, he has used machine learning to predict rates and locations of metastasis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. His current focus is in applying machine learning to characterize and categorize pathology of the larynx.

The effortlessness of moving your body belies the lurking complexity driving it. We are trying to understand how the nervous system makes something so complicated as controlling a human body feel so natural. We use human subjects studies, animal experiments, mathematical biology, and artificial intelligence to understand neural control of movement. New theories and insight promise advances in physical therapy, human-machine collaboration, brain-computer interfaces, neural modulation of peripheral reflexes, and more.

The Shoichiro's lab primary research interest is the mechanisms that regulate dynamic rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton during various cellular events including development, cell movement, cytokinesis, and human diseases. We have been studying this problem using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system. C. elegans has been used to study many aspects of development, because of its relative simplicity in the body patterning, and application of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology. We are especially interested in the functions of the actin depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin family of actin-binding proteins, which are required for enhancement of actin filament dynamics. We found that two ADF/cofilin proteins that are generated from the unc-60 gene have different actin-regulating activities. Mutation and expression analyses demonstrated that one of the two ADF/cofilin isoforms (UNC-60B) was specifically required for organized assembly of actin filaments in muscle. ADF/cofilin promotes depolymerization and severing of actin filaments, but tropomyosin inhibits this effect by stabilizing filaments. The other ADF/cofilin isoform (UNC-60A) is highly expressed in early embryos and regulates cytokinesis and embryonic patterning. In addition, we found that actin-interacting protein 1 (AIP1) is a new regulator of muscle actin filaments. AIP1 (UNC-78) specifically interacts with ADF/cofilin-bound actin filaments and enhances filament depolymerization. We also found that the gene product of sup-12 (an RBM24 homolog) regulates alternative splicing of the unc-60 gene and is required for generation of the unc-60B mRNA. We are currently studying functions of these proteins and other regulators of actin dynamics in several developmental aspects in C. elegans.