STARS T32 Mentors

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STARS T32 Mentors

Mentors will complete approved mentor training (before mentee's appointment or within the first 6 months) unless they have proof of completion in the last 1 to 2 years. All mentors are required to provide current CITI GCP and Human Subject Research certificates.

List of Approved T32 Mentors by Sphere

Mentors not listed may still be eligible for this program. If your proposed mentor is not on the lists below, please submit a mentoring request by sending Mentor's Biosketch with tailored personal statement toward training grants to Lyalya Sultanova (lyalya.sultanova@hsc.utah.edu)

Discovery Mentors

Discovery  emphasizes: mechanism studies, improved disease characterization, gene finding, personalized treatment, disease monitoring, drug discovery, drug delivery, novel algorithm development and discovery software. 

Demonstration Mentors

Demonstration  emphasizes: clinical trials, the development of tools for clinical and population decision making, the development of best practices, and the implementation of evidence-based research into clinical settings. 

Dissemination Mentors

Dissemination  emphasizes: risk communication, visual design, comparative effectiveness research, patient-provider communication, bioethics, and translation to population health. 


Discovery Mentors

Name/Degree(s)

Rank

Department Affiliation

Research Area

Research Interest
Orly Alter, PhD Assoc. Professor Bioengineering Genomics, Scientific Computing Genomic signal processing, integration of different types of large-scale molecular biological data
Amy Barrios, PhD Professor Medicinal Chemistry Biological Chemistry Developing chemical tools to interrogate and manipulate the biological activity of protein phosphatase enzymes
Brian Baucom, PhD Associate Professor Clinical Psychology Interaction in romantic relationships Well-being, psychological distress, psychopathology, chronic health conditions, assessment modalities
Joshua Bonkowsky, MD, PhD Assoc. Professor Pediatrics Neurology Human neurogenetic diseases Human variants in neurological disease in model organisms
Sihem Boudina, PhD Professor Nutrition & Integrative Physiology Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease Adipocyte energy dissipation, oxidative stress, weight gain regulation, adipose tissue expansion
Bradley Cairns, PhD Professor Oncological Sciences Genomics Utilization of epigenomics in understanding chromatin-transcription relationships
Nicola J Camp, PhD Professor Internal Medicine Genomics Developing methods to provide paradigm shifts for genetic discovery and applied gene-finding projects
Lisa Cannon-Albright, PhD Professor Internal Medicine (Genetic Epidemiology) Genetic Analysis/Genomics Genetic research utilizing the unique genealogies and high risk-pedigrees in Utah for complex disorders, including diabetes
Mingnan Chen, PhD

Assistant Professor

 Molecular Pharmaceutics Immunotherapeutics Autoimmune diseases, vaccine, protein engineering, recombinant protein and peptide materials, drug delivery, cancer immunotherapy, and metastasis.
Qi Chen, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

 Urology tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) RNA modifications, epigenetic inheritance, embryonic development
Hilary Coon, PhD Professor Psychiatry Genetic Analysis/Genomics Genetics of psychiatric disorders, incorporating sequencing, gene expression, and epidemiology to understand risk
Bryn Dentinger, PhD Associate Professor Biology Fungal Biodiversity and Evolution Collections-based research, fieldwork, molecular data, DNA barcoding, genome sequencing, metagenomic discovery
Jennifer Doherty, PhD Assoc. Professor Population Health Sciences Cancer Population Science Using molecular epidemiology to leverage bioinformatic approaches towards better understanding cancer
Peter Fino, PhD Assistant Professor Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation improving mobility during daily life in people with neurological dysfunction, particularly those with brain injuries concentrates on functionally relevance that is typical during daily life: Cognitive-Motor interference, brain concussion, balance, motor rehabilitation
Jason Gertz, PhD Assist. Professor Oncological Sciences Genomics Developing technologies for genomics research including gene regulation in particular
Jacob George, PhD Assistant Professor Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Neural networks, artificial networks, and bionic devices Tactile senses, stroke rehabilitation, sensory processing, sensorimotor interactions, robotics
Hamid Ghandehari, PhD Professor Pharmaceutics and Bioengineering Experimental Therapeutics Development of methods for controlled delivery of bioactive agents
Martin Golkowoski, PhD Assistant Professor Pharmacology & Toxicology Cellular plasticity Proteomics, epigenomics, PPI (protein-protein interaction), Protein-Chromatin Interaction, Cancer Therapy Resistance
Christopher Gregg, PhD Assist. Professor Neurobiology and Anatomy Genomics Discovery of epigenetic effects that alter genetic architecture in the brain and the development of gene therapies
David Grunwald, PhD Professor Human Genetics studies cell-intrinsic and as well as intercellular signaling factors that regulate the maintenance or direct the differentiation of tissue precursor cells. 1) study of transcription regulation in Stem Cell populations; 2) identification of cellular and molecular pathways that confer vulnerability to osteoarthritis and study of the functions of these pathways in maintenance of healthy joints; and 3) optimization of genome modification strategies in the zebrafish
Stephen Guthery, MD Professor Pediatrics Genomics Genetics of immunological disease and clinical study design
Tanya Halliday, PhD, RD Assistant Professor Health and Kinesiology Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation appetite and food-intake regulation in response to lifestyle interventions such as dietary restriction and exercise. Research Interests: development of effective weight loss maintenance strategies like mindfulness-based interventions, lifestyle behavior changes, and exercise and dietary interventions for the prevention and treatment of obesity and related cardiometabolic conditions.
Keren Hilgendorf, PhD Assistant Professor Biochemistry Signal Transduction Pathways, Differentiation, Stem Cells, White Adipose Tissue, Primary Cilium, Breast Cancer, Tumor Microenvironment How the body regulates stem cell differentiation to enable tissue maintenance, repair, and growth.
Lynn Jorde, PhD Professor Human Genetics Genomics Human genetic variation and disease, whole genome sequencing analysis
Mei Koh, PhD Assistant Professor Pharmacology and Toxicology Cellular plasticity Proteomics, epigenomics, PPI (protein-protein interaction), Protein-Chromatin Interaction, Cancer Therapy Resistance
Daniel Leung, MD, MSc Tenured Professor Infectious Diseases immunology, epidemiology, and clinical management or diahrreal diseases MAIT cells, cholera, oral vaccines, diarrheal diseases
Carol Lim, PhD Professor Molecular Pharmaceutics Myeloid Leukemia Molecular mechanisms of signal transduction pathways in cancer, and use peptides or genes as novel therapeutics to disrupt oncogenesis or induce apoptosis
Gabor Marth, DSc Professor Human Genetics Genomics Development of genomic big data analysis tools
Martin McMahon, PhD Professor Dermatology Metastatic melanoma, lung, and thyroid cancer Genetic alterations, cultured human cancer-derived cells, genetically engineered mouse models
Frederic Noo, PhD Tenured Professor Radiology & Imaging Sciences CT Imaging Technologies Image Reconstruction, Medical Imaging Physics, X-ray Computed Tomography, Image Quality Assessment, Tomography, 3D-Imaging
Marcus Pezzolesi, PhD, MPH Associate Professor Nephrology Diabetes Diabetes etiology, complications, chronic kidney disease (CKD), sequencing, genomics
Vicente Planelles, PhD Professor Pathology Lab focus on VPR and signaling events Understand, at a molecular level, the succession of signaling events that ultimately lead to the induction of apoptosis
Aaron Quinlan, PhD Assoc. Professor Human Genetics Genomics Utilization of computer science and machine learning techniques to develop genomic technologies
Russell Richardson, PhD Professor Geriatrics Physiology Oxygen transport from air to tissue, the link between vascular and skeletal muscle function
Viola Rieke, PhD Research Associate Professor Radiology and Imaging Sciences MR-guided focused ultrasound Accurately predicting temperature change in bone during focused ultrasound treatments
John Rolston, MD, PhD Assist. Professor Neurosurgery Epilepsy Epilepsy surgery, deep brain stimulation (DBS) for movement disorders, focused ultrasound, trigeminal neuralgia, and neuromodulation for psychiatric disorders
Paul Sigala, PhD Assistant Professor Biochemistry Malaria Parasite Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Heme and Iron Metabolism, Organelle Metabolism, Regulation, and Adaptation To develop and apply diverse cellular, genetic, and biochemical tools to uncover general metabolic principles and adaptations governing the unique biology of P. falciparum parasites during infection of human red blood cells and To apply this knowledge to develop novel strategies to target the virulent pathogen.
Scott Summers, PhD Professor Nutrition & Integrative Physiology Diabetes and Metabolism The link between ceramides and metabolic disease
Kota Takahashi, PhD Assistant Professor Health & Kinesiology Biomechanics Prosthetics, energetics, locomotion, ankle-foot
Sean Tavtigian, PhD Professor Oncological Sciences Genomics Areas of genetic susceptibility to cancer
Joel Trinity, PhD Associate Professor Geriatrics Aging and cardiovascular function in health and disease Neural control, oxidative stress, vascular function, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Martin Tristani-Firouzi, MD Professor Pediatric Cardiology Genomics Genomic basis of inherited arrhythmia syndromes, functional validation and characterization of putative disease-causing genetic variants, and cardiac development
Katherine Varley, PhD Assist. Professor Oncological Sciences Genomics Gene expression, transcription factor binding, and DNA methylation profiles
Alana Welm, PhD Assoc. Professor Oncological Sciences Genomics Patient-derived xenograft models to allow direct testing of new drugs and comparison in vivo
Corrine K Welt, MD Professor Endocrinology and Metabolism Reproductive Disorders Early identification and intervention, and identification of new treatment targets for infertility
Karen Wilcox, PhD Professor and Chair Pharacology and Toxicology Biological Chemistry Program Anticonvulsant Drugs, inflammation, epilepsy understanding basic mechanisms underlying epileptogenesis, seizure generation, and therapy-resistance to anticonvulsant drugs with the use of electrophysiological, calcium imaging, pharmacological, behavioral, genetic, immunoblot, and immunohistochemical techniques in a variety of in vitro preparations and animal models of epilepsy
Mark Yandell, PhD Professor Human Genetics Genomics Software development for model system and human genome sequencing
Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, PhD Professor Psychiatry Neurobiology of Disease, Brain and Behavior, Developmental Neuroscience Application of MR imaging methods to understand emotional processing and cognitive changes associated with behavioral disorders

Demonstration Mentors

Name/Degree(s)

Rank

Department Affiliation

Research Area

Research Interest
Nathan Blue, MD Assistant Professor Obstetrics And Gynecology High-risk pregnancies Interested in studying the treatment of placental abnormalities, unanticipated pregnancy events, and fetal growth restriction
Alfred Cheung, MD Professor Internal Medicine Nephrology Chronic kidney disease and its cardiovascular complications and treatments
Clement Chow, PhD Assistant Professor Human Genetics Understanding the role of genetic variation on disease outcomes Genetic Variation Rare Diseases Genetic Modifiers ER Stress Drosophila Human and Mouse Genetics
Erin Clark, MD Assoc. Professor Obstetrics/ Gynecology Maternal-Fetal Medicine Genetic and environmental factors that contribute to preterm birth and neurodevelopmental sequelae
Mollie Cummins, PhD Assoc. Professor Nursing Clinical Informatics/Big Data Analytics Application of machine learning methods to induce predictive models from health care data
J. Michael Dean, MD, MBA Professor Pediatrics Clinical Research Informatics Data coordination for large scale multi-center clinical trials
Guilherme Del Fiol MD, PhD Assist. Professor Biomedical Informatics Clinical Informatics Delivery of patient-specific clinical evidence from the literature and Web into electronic health records to support clinical decision making
Stavros G Drakos, MD, PhD Professor Cardiology Cardiac Recovery Cardiac recovery associated with unloading and MCS in the chronic heart failure (HF) setting and the acute setting (i.e. acute HF/cardiogenic shock)
Karen Eilbeck, PhD Assoc. Professor Biomedical Informatics Genomics/Clinical Informatics Genome sequence annotation, gene ontologies, precision medicine
Lee Ellington, PhD, RN Assoc. Professor Nursing Acute and Chronic Care Communication with family caregivers of advanced cancer patients and the effect of caregiver wellbeing
Angela Fagerlin, PhD Professor Population Health Sciences Decision Aids Methods to communicate complex medical information to patients and populations
Tracy Frech, MD Assist. Professor Internal Medicine Systemic Sclerosis Early diagnosis and health care delivery to systemic sclerosis patients through meticulous patient phenotyping
Julie Fritz, PhD, PT Professor Physical Therapy Musculoskeletal Conditions Use of large datasets of clinical and claims data and the implementation of evidence-based treatment for low back pain
Tom Greene, PhD Professor Population Health Sciences Statistics Clinical trial design and statistical analysis with expertise in chronic kidney disease
Heidi Hanson, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Surgery demographer and has expertise in analysis of population health data focused on disentangling the interactions of genetic and environmental influences on disease risk throughout the life course
Rachel Hess, MD Professor Population Health Sciences Health Systems Innovation Research Health-related quality-of-life issues across life transitions and in chronic conditions
Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD Assist. Professor Biomedical Informatics Clinical Informatics Clinical decision support, application of informatics to support improvement of clinical outcomes in personalized health care
Anne Kirchhoff, PhD, MPH Tenured Associate Professor Pediatrics patient outcomes related to healthcare access and cancer late effects Cancer Survivorship Childhood Cancer Late Effects
Tommaso Lenzi, PhD Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering design, development and testing of wearable robots such as powered exoskeletons and robotic limb prostheses Rehabilitation robotics Mechatronics Prosthetics
Keith Lohse, PhD Assistant Professor Health-Kinesiology longitudinal data analysis in neurorehabilitation focuses on how the nervous system learns to perform motor actions, especially in the presence of neurological disease or injury.
Jennifer Majersik, MD Assoc. Professor Neurology Stroke Genetics Bringing disparate researchers from around the world together to provide clarity on phenotyping
Kathi Mooney, PhD, RN Professor Nursing Oncology Nursing Improving symptom science and the patient experience during cancer treatment and survivorship
Stefan Pulst, MD Professor Neurology Genomics Inherited diseases of the nervous system
Matthew Rondina, MD Assoc. Professor Internal Medicine Molecular Medicine Thrombotic disorders
Joshua Schiffman, MD Assoc. Professor Pediatrics High Risk Pediatric Cancer Evaluating, counselling, and treating children and families at high risk for cancer
Robert Silver, MD Professor Obstetrics and Gynecology Maternal-Fetal Medicine recurrent pregnancy loss and stillbirth, cesarean delivery, placenta accreta, vaginal birth after cesarean delivery, immunologic diseases in pregnancy, and medical disorders in pregnancy.
Debra Simmons, MD Professor Internal Medicine Diabetes and Endocrinology Diabetes, lipids, and prevention of complications
Rob Singleton, MD Professor Neurology Neurophysiology Relationship between early hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, obesity and length dependent nerve injury
Cornelia Ulrich, PhD Professor Population Health Sciences Cancer Epidemiology Genetic and lifestyle factors in the formation and prognosis of cancer with focus on colorectal cancer
Michael Varner, MD Professor Obstetrics/ Gynecology Maternal-Fetal Medicine High risk pregnancy
David Viskochil, MD, PhD Professor Pediatrics Clinical Genetics NF1 and lysosomal storage disorders
Kevin Watt, MD, PhD Professor Pharmacology & Toxicology Drug Therapy Critical illness physiology, pharmacokinetic modeling, pharmacodynamic modeling, biostatistics, clinical trial design, drug dosing
Karl Voelkerding, MD Professor Pathology Genomics and Bioinformatics Development of best practices to prioritize disease-causing variants in patients with no molecular diagnosis
Robert Weiss, PhD Professor Human Genetics Genomics Duchenne muscular dystrophy and behavioral and addiction phenotypes
David Wetter, PhD Professor Population Health Sciences Health System Innovation and Research Inequities in health-related behavior, focusing on high-risk and underserved populations

Dissemination Mentors

Name/Degree(s)

Rank

Department Affiliation

Research Area

Research Interest
Lisa Aspinwall, PhD Professor Psychology Self-Regulation Melanoma genetic testing and prevention strategies and self-regulation via processing of negative events
Brian Baucom, PhD Associate Professor Clinical Psychology Interaction in romantic relationships Well-being, psychological distress, psychopathology, chronic health conditions, assessment modalities
Margaret Clayton, PhD, APRN Assoc. Professor Nursing Patient-provider communication Mixed methods to investigate patient-provider communication during cancer survivorship and at the end of life
Guilherme Del Fiol MD, PhD Assist. Professor Biomedical Informatics Clinical Informatics Delivery of patient-specific clinical evidence from the literature and Web into electronic health records to support clinical decision making
Angela Fagerlin, PhD Professor Population Health Sciences Decision Aids Methods to communicate complex medical information to patients and populations
Jacob George, PhD Assistant Professor Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Neural networks, artificial networks, and bionic devices Tactile senses, stroke rehabilitation, sensory processing, sensorimotor interactions, robotics
Tom Greene, PhD Professor Population Health Sciences Statistics Clinical trial design and statistical analysis with expertise in chronic kidney disease
Rachel Hess, MD Professor Population Health Sciences Health Systems Innovation Research Health-related quality-of-life issues across life transitions and in chronic conditions
Jakob Jensen, PhD Professor Communication Health Communication Design and evaluation of strategic health communication with a special focus on cancer
Christopher Johnson, PhD Professor Computer Science Scientific Visualization and Computing Scientific computing, visualization, and image analysis
Kimberly Kaphingst, PhD Professor Communication Genomic literacy Understanding preferences for return of results and investigating preferences for models of consent among women in the context of utilization of biospecimens for secondary research purposes
Kensaku Kawamoto, MD, PhD Assist. Professor Biomedical Informatics Clinical Informatics Clinical decision support, application of informatics to support improvement of clinical outcomes in personalized health care
Jacob Kean, PhD Assoc. Professor Population Health Sciences Health System Innovation and Research Treatment effectiveness in rehabilitation, including stroke, traumatic brain injury, and chronic pain.
Ana María López, MD Professor Internal Medicine Oncology Improving access to care, specifically through the use of telemedicine to reach underserved communities
Kathi Mooney, PhD, RN Professor Nursing Oncology Nursing Improving symptom science and the patient experience during cancer treatment and survivorship
Frederic Noo, PhD Tenured Professor Radiology & Imaging Sciences CT Imaging Technologies Image Reconstruction, Medical Imaging Physics, X-ray Computed Tomography, Image Quality Assessment, Tomography, 3D-Imaging
Elissa Ozanne, PhD Assoc. Professor Population Health Sciences Health System Innovation and Research Decision-making, development and testing of clinical decision aids, risk communication methods, cost-effectiveness, and risk modeling
Marcus Pezzolesi, PhD, MPH Associate Professor Nephrology Diabetes Diabetes etiology, complications, chronic kidney disease (CKD), sequencing, genomics
Ken Smith, PhD Professor Human Development and Family Studies Demography Utilization of computer science and machine learning techniques to develop genomic technologies
Louisa Stark, PhD Professor Human Genetics Genetics Comparative effectiveness of educational materials and programs and the effectiveness of health-focused, community-based participatory research projects with diverse, underserved communities
David Wetter, PhD Professor Population Health Sciences Health System Innovation and Research Inequities in health-related behavior, focusing on high-risk and underserved populations
Karen Wilcox, PhD Professor and Chair Pharacology and Toxicology Biological Chemistry Program Anticonvulsant Drugs, inflammation, epilepsy understanding basic mechanisms underlying epileptogenesis, seizure generation, and therapy-resistance to anticonvulsant drugs with the use of electrophysiological, calcium imaging, pharmacological, behavioral, genetic, immunoblot, and immunohistochemical techniques in a variety of in vitro preparations and animal models of epilepsy

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Us

Shaylee Scott
Program Assistant
Email: shaylee.scott@hsc.utah.edu

Lyalya Sultanova
Grants & Contracts Officer
Email: lyalya.sultanova@hsc.utah.edu

Jennifer Zitterkoph
Associate Director, Grants & Contracts
Phone: 801-213-1504
Email: jennifer.zitterkoph@hsc.utah.edu