Molecular and Developmental Biology Graduate Program

Central to the mission of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is the development of therapeutics for both childhood and adult diseases. Starting with Albert Sabin’s polio vaccine and Dr. Jeffrey Whitsett’s development of surfactant replacement therapy for premature infants to the development of the oral rotavirus vaccine by Drs. Ward and Bernstein, Cincinnati Children's research has changed the outcome for many patients. Faculty in the Molecular & Developmental Biology Graduate Program are actively engaged in drug target identification and validation, the development of therapeutics through virtual and experimental screening techniques, structure-aided drug design, as well as the development of immuno- and gene therapies. There is a well-developed pipeline to translate these discoveries to clinical trials, with a particular emphasis on pediatric diseases.

Faculty

	Steven A. Crone, PhD, Assistant Professor The Crone laboratory studies how neural circuits controlling motor behaviors are affected by disease and injury. Our goal is to develop strategies targeting neural circuits capable of improving motor function and the quality of life of patients suffering from developmental defects, neurodegenerative disease or injury. [Visit the Crone Lab]
	Lee Grimes, PhD, Professor Hematopoiesis, molecular biology, and molecular oncology including mouse modeling of hematopoiesis, myelopoiesis and leukemia. [Visit the Grimes Lab]
	Rashmi Hegde, PhD, Professor The Hegde laboratory studies molecular mechanisms of angiogenesis in development, cancer and retinal diseases, and is involved in structure- and mechanism-based drug development. [Visit the Hegde Lab]
	Michael P. Jankowski, PhD, Assistant Professor Our lab is interested in the molecular mechanisms of sensory neuron plasticity after peripheral injuries and focuses on peripheral mechanisms of ischemic myalgia, and the developmental sensitization of sensory afferents. Using a multidisciplinary experimental approach, our studies will hopefully lead to the development of new treatments for chronic pediatric pain. [Visit the Jankowski Lab]
	Helen N. Jones, PhD, Assistant Professor My research focuses on placental development and function in pathological pregnancies such as Fetal Growth Restriction and Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. My laboratory is also developing placenta-specific Nanoparticle-mediated gene therapies to improve placental function and pregnancy outcome. [Visit the Jones Lab]
	Vladimir Kalinichenko, MD, PhD, Professor Transcriptional regulation of epithelial and endothelial cell functions during lung embryonic development and lung carcinogenesis. [Visit the Pulmonary Biology]
	Richard Lang, PhD, Professor Eye development with an emphasis on lens induction and vascular patterning [Visit the Lang Lab]
	Doug Millay, PhD, Assistant Professor We are interested in the mechanisms of cell-cell fusion, using skeletal muscle development and regeneration as a model system. [Visit the Millay Lab]
	Ertugrul Ozbudak, PhD, Associate Professor Gene regulatory circuits and signaling pathways controlling pattern formation and cell fate determination in tissues and organs during embryonic development. [Visit the Ozbudak Lab]
	Dao Pan, PhD, Associate Professor Combining translational and basic research on virus-mediated, in vivo and ex vivo, gene transfer into stem cells or hepatocytes, as well as their potential application for gene therapy of patients with inherited or acquired diseases. [Visit the Pan Lab]
	Nancy Ratner, PhD, Professor The Ratner lab studies how nerve development is subverted in cancer.  We aim to identify targets for therapy in the inherited cancer predisposition syndromes neurofibromatosis type 1 and type 2. [Visit the Ratner Lab]
	Yi Zheng, PhD, Professor Molecular mechanisms of Rho GTPase signal transduction. Development of novel therapeutic reagents to inhibit Rho pathways related to human pathological conditions [Visit Zheng Lab]