Our Labs

The Dickson laboratory studies the mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) disorders, which are lysosomal enzyme deficiencies affecting the catabolism of glycosaminoglycans. Central nervous system manifestations include progressive intellectual disability, communicating hydrocephalus, dysmyelination, spinal cord compression, and cortical atrophy. Our lab studies cerebrospinal fluid delivery of recombinant enzymes to treat central nervous disease due to MPS, and has demonstrated biodistribution of intrathecally-delivered recombinant enzymes throughout the neuroaxis of MPS models, with correction of lysosomal storage. The laboratory also studies neuroimaging and neuropathology of white matter in MPS brain and the humoral immune responses to therapeutic enzymes. Projects range from bench to bedside including clinical trials.

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Research in our lab is focused on traumatic brain injury (TBI). Specifically, we are focused on utilizing clinical relevant animal models of TBI to study the effects of secondary insults — intracranial hypertension, hypoxemia and neuroinflammation — after moderate and severe TBI.

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Our research team studies the epidemiology, microbial virulence mechanisms and host defenses against community-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) colonization and disease.

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The Gilbert lab studies host-microbe and microbe-microbe (bacteria and virus) interactions in the female reproductive and urinary tracts. Our goals are to understand polymicrobial dynamics at urogenital mucosal surfaces and to determine the mechanisms underlying the associations between certain microbiome states and adverse health outcomes.

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Cancer develops through accumulation of DNA mutations and structural aberrations collectively known as genome instability. Genome damage in adult-onset malignancies can be traced to exogenous carcinogens or simply the process of aging. However, pediatric cancers do not arise as a result of aging or exogenous genotoxic agents. We are interested in the etiology of genome instability in pediatric cancers and the resulting genome-protective responses — also called DNA damage responses — that are activated. Our long-term goal is to identify predictors of mutagenesis and therapeutic vulnerabilities within DNA damage response pathways in order to develop new treatment options for children with cancer.

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The Greer lab is interested in how non-genetic information, termed epigenetics, regulates complex physiological and pathological phenotypes across generations.

Our lab’s overall focus is to understand how vascular elastic fibers, large arteries’ main extracellular matrix, develop and how abnormalities in their development lead to diseases such as aneurysms and hypertension.

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Work in our lab focuses on the integrated use of epidemiology, bioinformatics, and molecular virology to address questions in the developing childhood gut.

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The Horani lab research focuses on airway epithelial cell differentiation and regulation with special interest in cilia assembly and how it relates to impaired mucociliary clearance and the biology of primary ciliary dyskinesia. The lab uses primary culture of human and mouse cells and employs genetic manipulation methods to investigate the function of novel proteins involved in ciliogenesis.

Research profile