Mentorship Program

The Professional Development Core is developing both a mentorship program for TRANSCEND researchers and a program to train established researchers to become mentors.

TRANSCEND Mentorship Program

The mentorship program brings together mentors to provide support and consultation with TRANSCEND awardees and applicants. We've brought together a wide pool of highly-skilled researchers to match with mentees, based on research expertise, mentee needs, and project fit.

Mentor List

Mentor Biographies

Dr. David Bradely

Dr. David Bradley is an immunologist who has spent over 30 yrs investigating host immune responses to a variety of foreign threats, including microbial agents and cancer.  His research, going back to graduate school, has involved superantigens and their potential to stimulate a strong tumor specific immune response. He is the director of the North Dakota Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Honors include multiple selections as an outstanding block director for medical curriculum.

Dr. Catherine Brissette

The overarching theme of Dr. Catherine Brissette's research is to discover how microbes, particularly the Lyme disease pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi gain entry and subvert host defense mechanisms. Her laboratory was the first to characterize both the kinetics of meningeal colonization by B. burgdorferi and the associated histopathologic and host gene expression changes in the meninges, brain, and CSF as compared to other peripheral tissues. Ultimately, her lab's work will significantly advance the understanding of how B. burgdorferi potentiates damage in the CNS and offer insight into pathways that may serve as targets for novel therapeutics and interventions. As a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at UND, Dr. Brissette has secured extramural funds totaling $25,093,165 as the PI or Co-I on many NIH grants, including Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grants, R01s, R21s, R03s, and R41s. She is the author or co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed journal and proceeding papers. She also has a strong track record of mentoring junior faculty in securing extramural funding, navigating promotion and tenure, and developing as an educator. She has served on many study sections, including as a permanent member of a standing study section for NIH. In her role as Faculty Fellow at the School of Graduate Studies from 2023-2025, she was actively involved in development and implementation of a new mentoring program for junior faculty. She has served as both internal and external mentors for faculty on large multi-investigator COBRE grants. 

Dr. Dawn Denny

Dr. Dawn Denny is Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota’s College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines and currently serves as Co-Director of the TRANSCEND Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core. Dr. Denny has been at UND since 2015 when she came from Montana after earning her PhD in Nursing. Dr. Denny brings a strong background of over 27 years of clinical nursing experience in acute care, long-term care, and community, including a home health care agency and outreach clinics across the “Highline” in rural areas of northern Montana and has a passion for translating research to clinical practice to improve patient outcomes. She has extensive experience caring for geriatric populations and specializes in orthopedic nursing with a certification by the Orthopedic Nursing Certification Board (ONCB). Dr. Denny’s research has focused on learning more about subsyndromal delirium following surgery and the associated contributing factors, including pain and opioid intake. Another geriatric outcome that Dr. Denny’s has pursued or is exploring through research in collaboration with biomedical engineering and industry is the use of innovative surfaces to prevent pressure injuries in the perioperative and emergency setting. Dr. Denny teaches primarily research and ethics courses in the graduate nursing department at UND. In addition, she served as PI of the former U-RISE at UND program.

Dr. Archana Dhasarathy

Dr. Archana Dhasarthy’s research focuses on the role of epigenetic events in the cancer metastasis, particularly a process known as ‘Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition’ (EMT), which causes cells to change their shape and migrate. The molecular determinants of the transcriptional patterns observed during EMT in cancer are not completely resolved.  A major rationale for ongoing studies in her laboratory is to investigate the regulatory pathways operating at the level of chromatin that contribute to these patterns of gene expression. A second project involves EMT and epigenetic changes in Lyme disease. She received the UND Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award in 2025 and the Dean’s Special Recognition Award for outstanding contributions to UND SMHS in 2018.

Dr. Jonathan Geiger

Dr. Johnathan Geiger served as Chair of the UND Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics from 2003-2013, as the PI on a NIGMS-funded neuroscience center grant (COBRE) from 2003-2018, and Interim Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology from 2010-2013. He has consistently held multiple federal operating grants simultaneously throughout his career. Currently, he is funded by two R01 NIH grants, holds the position of Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor, and is the PI (Interim) of the Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency Research Center COBRE grant. The focus of his research continues to be on brain energy metabolism in general and purines in particular, regulation of levels of intracellular calcium with emphasis on intracellular pools of calcium, inter-organellar signaling with an emphasis on endolysosomes, the control of neuronal cell life and death in neurodegenerative diseases, and neurological complications associated with HIV-1 infection. Currently, his laboratory has the following research interests: (1) The role of brain energy metabolism in the pathogenesis of epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases and the ability of ketogenic diets to protect against these pathophysiological responses; (2) The role of endolysosome dysfunction in animals models of Alzheimer’s disease and HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorder; (3) The protective actions of caffeine in animal models of neurodegenerative disorders; and (4) The ability of iron and calcium in endolysosomes to provide signals to other organelles and to affect neuronal function. He has published over 200 manuscripts, delivered over 100 invited talks worldwide, and served on over 140 local, national, and international grant review study sections including those for the NIH. Dr. Geiger has extensive mentoring experience. Since 2000, as a director or Department Chair, he has hired 11 new faculty members, graduated 11 Ph.D. and 4 M.S. students from his laboratory, and trained 23 postdoctoral fellows, research associates and visiting professors as well as 48 undergraduate students, medical and dental students, and technicians.

Dr. Junguk Hur

Dr. Junguk Hur is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of North Dakota (UND), School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He received his B.S. in Life Science from Pohang University of Science & Technology, South Korea. He completed his M.S. in Bioinformatics at Indiana University and earned his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from the University of Michigan in 2010. Before joining UND in 2015, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan and a visiting research fellow at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He is also affiliated with the North Dakota Fargo Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System as a Research Without Compensation Scientist and with the University of Michigan, Department of Neurology as an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor. Dr. Hur’s area of expertise encompasses bioinformatics and systems pharmacology, particularly focusing on mining biomedical Big Omics and scientific literature data. He has actively developed computational tools and approaches and has leveraged his expertise to study the underlying mechanisms of diabetic neuropathy, the most prevalent complication of diabetes mellitus, and other neurological diseases, such as Lou Gehrig’s disease. To date, Dr. Hur has published over 150 peer-reviewed primary research manuscripts in literature mining, bioinformatics, and systems biology areas. He has made significant contributions, particularly to the fields of bioinformatics, diabetic complications, and systems pharmacology, by applying multiple bioinformatics protocols and developing his literature mining program, SciMiner. Dr. Hur currently holds two active externally funded research grants as multiple principal investigators (MPIs), including an NIAID U24 Knowledgebase grant and an NIDDK R01. He also serves as a co-investigator on one NIH R01 grant and oversees the UND Computational Data Analysis Core (CDAC), supported by the NIGMS P20 Center for Excellence in Host-Pathogen Interactions grant as the Core Director and the Research Design, Compliance and Data Management Core (RDCDC), supported by the NIGMS P20 Clinical & Translational Research Development (CTR-D) award, TRANSCEND, as the Core Lead.

Dr. Kumi Nagamoto-Combs

Dr. Kumi Nagamoto-Combs’s overarching interest is to understand the contributory role of peripheral inflammation in neuroinflammation and associated neurodegeneration, focusing on examining how food-allergy-induced peripheral immunological events lead to the development of nervous system dysfunction. Her lab established a novel mouse model of subclinical cow’s milk allergy that allows the observation of behavioral changes after acute or repeated allergen challenges. They found that these mice exhibit not only allergen-specific antibody production, inflammatory cytokine elevation, and intestinal barrier damage and dysbiosis, but also behavioral changes associated with neuroinflammation and demyelination. She and her lab are investigating the mechanism by which these neurobehavioral pathologies develop in allergic mice through communication among the enteric, immune, and nervous systems

Dr. Sergei Nechaev

Dr. Sergei Nechaev received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms in Moscow, Russia. He did his postdoctoral training at the Center of Molecular Genetics at the University of California, San Diego with E. Peter Geiduschek as his advisor. He did another postdoctoral training at the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis (LMC), NIEHS/NIH, RTP at North Carolina with Karen Adelman as his advisor. His research interests deal with understanding the mechanisms of transcription-induced epigenetic reprogramming. With the use of in vitro cell culture models, new concepts and technologies are being developed to determine how environmental influences and chemotherapy drugs affect normal cell differentiation and influence the progression of cancer. He has had funding from the NSF (CAREER award) and the NIH (CoBRE P20, R21, National I-Corps). He has mentored 2 postdocs (1 Research Faculty, 1 Core Facility Director) and 3 PhD students (1 Senior Scientist at Illumina, 1 Assistant Professor at Quinnipiac University).

Dr. Cristina Oancea

Dr. Cristina Oancea has worked as an instructor of mathematics with full responsibility for 5 years, instructor of statistics/biostatistics with full responsibility for another 5 years and as a faculty teaching epidemiology, biostatistics and statistical programming for 11 years. During her time as a teaching assistant, as well as afterwards as an educator scholar assistant and then associate professor, she has taught a wide variety of courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, including Calculus I, Calculus II, Linear Algebra and Business Calculus, Algebra, Functional Analysis, Logic and Set Theory. In statistics and biostatistics, at the undergraduate and graduate level, she has taught Business Statistics, SAS programming, Applications of Excel to statistics, Probability and Statistics for Engineering, Linear Regression, Biostatistics I, Biostatistics II, Advanced Biostatistics, Applied Biostatistics, Public Health Data management in SAS and Advanced Statistical Computing. In addition, she has taught graduate level courses in Epidemiology and Environmental Health. Her research expertise is in depression among cancer survivors and the general population in the US and Brazil. In addition, she is working on identifying potential environmental risk factors for rare cancers. Dr. Oancea serves as the lead epidemiologist for the North Dakota Statewide Cancer Registry and is the associate editor for the Global Epidemiology journal. In the last few years most of her research projects were done in collaboration with the students she mentors. This collaboration has led to a total of 13 publications.

Dr. Gary Schwartz

Dr. Gary Schwartz is the chair of the Population Health Department at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences and PI of the TRANSCEND CTR-D. His academic experience includes two doctorates. The first Ph.D., in Biological Psychology, concerned the effects of ultraviolet radiation on nonhuman primates, a subject that equipped him well for studies of radiation and cancer. As a postdoctoral fellow in Epidemiology at UNC Chapel Hill, he proposed that the descriptive epidemiology of prostate cancer, i.e., an increased risk among African Americans, at older ages, and at higher latitudes, would be intelligible if vitamin D (whose major source is ultraviolet radiation) maintained the differentiated phenotype of prostate cells and that deficiency leads to cancer. From there, he conducted the first case-control study of that hypothesis as part of his PhD in Epidemiology. He subsequently conducted the first in vitro and in vivo studies of vitamin D analogues in prostate cancer and demonstrated that these promoted the differentiation and inhibited the proliferation, invasiveness, and metastasis of human prostate cancer cells. His research team conducted several clinical trials of 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D and analogues in patients with metastatic prostate cancer, and later, in patients with breast cancer and leukemia. These experiences show a broad range of clinical/translational research, from original hypothesis development and preclinical studies to human clinical trials. At UND, he and his collaborators have focused on diseases of unusual occurrence in North Dakota, e.g., chronic lymphocytic leukemia, as well as on important environmental hazards, e.g., radon, for which levels in North Dakota are the nation’s highest. They have developed community-based clinical trials focused on a novel method (a smartphone app) to increase radon knowledge and radon-testing of homes. His radon research has been supported by the NIEHS, the National Center for Healthy Homes, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Dr. Schwartz is part of a recently-funded NIH grant on radon and stroke in the Women’s Health Initiative. His role in that grant is to evaluate the role of indoor radon in diseases including stroke and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Dr. Sandeep Singhal

Dr. Sandeep Singhal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. He also holds an Adjunct Faculty position in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University, New York. With over 20 years of international experience spanning academia and industry, Dr. Singhal is a distinguished expert in translational research, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence (AI), and integrative multi-omics analysis. His current research integrates AI and machine learning with largescale multi-omics datasets - including transcriptomic, genomic, proteomic, epigenomic, clinical, and pathological data-to identify predictive and prognostic biomarkers across multiple cancer types, particularly breast and prostate cancer. His broader interests encompass toxicogenomics, systems biology, radiation biology, space health, and aging. Dr. Singhal is a pioneer in computational digital pathology, developing AI-driven pipelines and imaging analytics to enhance histopathological characterization and disease prediction. He has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on several NIH-funded projects, including R01-level grants, and has established a comprehensive research program focused on cancer multi-omics, AI-based clinical decision support, and scalable, cloud-based platforms for biomedical data analysis. His research has been published in numerous high-impact journals such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Genetics, Clinical Cancer Research, JCI Insight, Communications Biology, and Science Advances. He is actively engaged in national collaborative initiatives on cloud-based digital pathology and AI-driven education, spearheading the development of training modules in computational pathology and omics sciences through academic partnerships across the United States.

Dr. Sarah Rae Sletten

Dr. Sarah Rae Sletten is a biomedical sciences educator with over a decade of experience teaching undergraduate and graduate immunology, microbiology, and medical research. She specializes in designing and delivering active, student-centered learning using flipped classrooms and case-based learning. She has also developed and taught courses across modalities—face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online—focused on both foundational science and teaching pedagogy. Her research explores flipped learning, science pedagogy, technology integration, and student motivation. She is a contributing author on the ImmunoSkills Guide and CourseSource Immunology Learning Framework and has published in JMBE, ImmunoHorizons, and Journal of Science Education and Technology. She is particularly interested in how instructional strategies influence learner behavior, self-regulation, and long-term understanding. Dre. Sletten directs the Research Experience for Medical Students (REMS) program at UND and mentor undergraduate, graduate, and medical students as well as faculty. She has served on graduate committees spanning biomedical sciences, microbiology, and education, as well as leading efforts to study the impact of mentored research on student career development. She has chaired tenure and promotion committees, led and co-led NIH- and NSF-funded projects and served as a mentor through the PALM Network. She supports early-career faculty in developing their program of research, navigating academic careers, and aligning instructional approaches with scholarly goals. She also has experience supervising interdisciplinary curriculum development and assessment. Finally, she brings unique insight from her time as VP of People and Culture at a SaaS startup. This experience broadened her understanding of professional skill development and helped her better prepare students for the modern workforce—both in and out of academia.

Dr. Roxanne Vaughan

Dr. Roxanne Vaughan’s research is focused on structure, function, and regulation of dopamine and serotonin transporters (DAT and SERT), which control the levels of dopamine and serotonin in the brain. Dysfunction of these proteins leads to abnormal transmitter clearance and impacts on neurotransmission that are suspected mechanisms in idiopathic mood and psychiatric disorders such as Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. The carriers are targets for therapeutic drugs used in treatment of these disorders including citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (Prozac), methylphenidate (Ritalin) and bupropion (Wellbutrin), and also for many addictive and neurotoxic drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, and MDMA (ecstasy). One long-term area of inquiry performed in collaboration with Dr. Keith Henry is related to transporter structure and function. Together, they pioneered an approach that utilizes cross-linking of irreversible analogs of cocaine, escitalopram, and other high-affinity inhibitors to DAT and SERT active sites to provide a landmark for understanding ligand-protein interactions. She have also maintained a long-standing focus in collaboration with Dr. James Foster on post-translational regulation of DAT and SERT in normal and pathophysiological conditions, primarily related to phosphorylation and palmitoylation. These studies have revealed complex regulation of transporter function that enables local presynaptic control of reuptake and may be related to dysfunctions following from impacts of drugs, transporter single nucleotide polymorphisms, or signaling pathway defects. These areas of study have high potential for relevance to clinical or translational conditions. Dr. Vaughan has held significant grant support for these areas of research, including three independent NIH R01 grants (one for 12 years), as well as more recent funding for support of the COBRE Center on Epigenetics of Development and Disease (since 2012).  The findings of her and her collaborators have been published in over 100 research and review articles.

Dr. Akshaya Bhagavathula

Dr. Akshaya Bhagavathula is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and a recognized public health researcher with over 15 years of global experience in clinical medicine, population epidemiology, and translational science. He holds a PhD in Public and Occupational Health (Epidemiology & Biostatistics). His research integrates clinical evidence and epidemiologic data to advance translational research across diverse populations and health systems.  Dr. Bhagavathula’s work focuses on clinical epidemiology, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases, digital epidemiology, and health disparities. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, including high-impact work in The Lancet, JAMA, and Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, contributing significantly to global disease burden estimation, health services research, and digital health surveillance. His collaborative work with Mayo Clinic and other academic centers underscores his commitment to multidisciplinary and clinically relevant research. Currently, Dr. Bhagavathula mentors undergraduate, graduate, and professional students in public health, medicine, and pharmacy. He is deeply committed to developing the next generation of clinical and translational researchers by providing guidance in epidemiologic methods, research design, data analysis, and scientific writing. His mentorship approach emphasizes hands-on, inquiry-based learning that fosters independence and innovation among mentees.  As a mentor in the TRANSCEND Program, Dr. Bhagavathula brings extensive experience in guiding trainees—from early-career medical students to postdoctoral fellows—through clinical research development, grant writing, and career progression in academic medicine and translational science

Dr. Paul Carson

Dr. Paul Carson is an infectious disease specialist who has practiced in MN and ND for over 30 years.  He previously held several roles at Sanford Health including Chair of the Dept of Infectious Disease, Director of Clinical Research, and Chief Quality Officer.  In 2013, he joined the faculty of North Dakota State University in the Department of Public Health where he taught on the management of infectious diseases in the Master of Public Health graduate program, and founded and directed the Center for Immunization Research and Education (CIRE).  While at NDSU, he was the recipient of the Mary J. Berg Excellence in Teaching Award, the NDSU Faculty Lectureship Award, and the NDMA Physician Community & Professional Services Award.  He recently retired from NDSU but remains on faculty in the department of public health as an Emeritus Professor as well as a Professor in the UND SMHS and currently works part-time as a clinical research faculty member at Sanford Health. 

Dr. Bong-Jin Choi

Dr. Bong-Jin Choi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics and the Department of Public Health at North Dakota State University. He received research training in the fields of biostatistics and statistical programming. His research interests focus on a statistical and computational approach to big healthcare data. As a co-investigator or statistician on several privately-funded and federally-funded grants, he has extensive experience and knowledge in cancer registry data and health insurance claims data, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance. Dr. Choi is also familiar with advanced quantitative analysis methodologies and statistical machine learning for decision-making and data analysis, as well as experience in handling big health data using probabilistic linkage algorithms. These experiences have formed him into an effective collaborator, enabling him to work with other researchers from various backgrounds and contribute to healthcare research.

Dr. Loretta Heuer

Dr. Loretta Heuer is a Professor and previous Associate Dean at the NDSU School of Nursing. As a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow, Dr. Heuer developed and directed the Red River Valley Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers (MHSF) Diabetes Health program for 15 years. She also established the Diabetes Lay Educator Program (DLEP), which served Hispanic Migrant Farmworkers in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Texas. Through the National Diabetes Health Disparities Collaborative, the MHSI DLEP received the Outstanding Rural Health Program Award from the National Rural Conference for its excellent outcomes in improving diabetes care in Community Health Centers. Dr. Heuer has collaborated with the Spirit Lake Nation over the past 12 years as PI of the Sustaining Career Pathways for American Indian Health Professionals in North Dakota. This grant had multiple outcomes in collaboration with Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the Columbia University Medical School to teach public health courses and develop workforce and health activities for American Indian youth. Through her funded research, she is examining the effectiveness of the Spirit Lake Nation Enhanced Training and Services Program to “End Abuse in Later Life” grant, the Spirit Lake Dementia Caregiver Project, and the Alzheimer’s Disease Programs Initiative in Indian Country.

Dr. Andrea Huseth-Zosel

Dr. Andrea Huseth-Zosel’s research focuses on improving public health outcomes for underserved and rural populations, particularly older adults, educators, and adolescents. Since 2020, she has led and collaborated on studies examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults’ well-being and social connections, as well as on the mental health of K–12 and higher education instructors. These projects have contributed to national discussions on resilience, adaptation, and prolonged stress during public health crises. She also led a robust line of research exploring vaccine uptake and hesitancy among older adults in rural settings, emphasizing the critical role of trust, access, and demographic variation. As PI of an NIH R21, she is currently exploring how menstruation impacts the health and education of American Indian adolescent girls, further expanding her commitment to addressing health disparities. Additionally, her research includes extensive work on injury prevention including anticipatory guidance in clinical settings, as well as child passenger safety and older adult driving, with a particular focus on rural/urban differences in provider counseling practices. She has secured state, federal, and foundation funding and has contributed to interdisciplinary teams aiming to inform policy, provider education, and community-based interventions. Her work integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods and seeks to translate findings into actionable strategies that support health equity.

Dr. Yagna Jarajapu

Dr. Yagna Jarajapu is a vascular pharmacologist by training and is currently pursuing research in vascular regeneration and microcirculation in aging or diabetes. He has significant contributions in the area of receptor pharmacology in human skeletal muscle and subcutaneous microcirculation in the disease setting of peripheral vascular disease. During his post-doctoral training, he worked with human CD34+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) for the vascular regenerative functions in the experimental and clinical setting of diabetes. He has specific training in the isolation and immunophenotypic & functional characterization of human and mouse stem/progenitor cells. With a recent R01 award from NIH, his team has been actively pursuing studies for understanding Mas receptor pharmacology in human and murine vasculogenic progenitor cells and ischemic injury in the experimental setting of diabetes and aging. Discovery of splice variants of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) is accidental in their focused studies for dissecting out the molecular mechanisms of the protective effects of Angiotensin-(1-7) or TGFβ1-slicing in diabetic CD34+ cells. These studies led to novel hypotheses targeting β-TERT variant for enhancing vasorepartive functions of diabetic stem cells. Some of these studies were supported by AIREA grant and the recent Transformative Project Award from the American Heart Association (AHA). Dr. Jarajapu has trained post-docs, graduate and undergrad students, and visiting scholars in routinely used in-vivo, in-vitro, and ex-vivo techniques in his lab for understanding physiology of vascular repair by HSPCs and pharmacology of angiotensins in mouse models of diabetes and aging. His mentoring involves implementing 3Rs in day-to-day operations of research until the stage of dissemination of the study outcomes.

Dr. Elisabetta Liverani

Dr. Elisabetta Liverani is an assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy at NDSU. Her research interests include 1) platelet function and regulation during inflammation, 2) the role of the P2Y12 signaling pathway in regulating platelet-lymphocyte interactions during sepsis, 3) sex-related differences in platelet activity and regulation in patients with sepsis, and 4) sex-specific targeting of purinergic signaling pathways as novel drug-based therapies for the improved treatment of sepsis. She is the current PI for a pilot project, Modulating platelet and cancer cell crosstalk as a therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer, and an NDSU Interdisciplinary Research Planning Grant, Anti-platelet therapy as a sex-specific therapeutic option for sepsis.

Dr. Mohiuddin Quadir

Dr. Mohiuddin Quadir is an Associate Professor in the Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials at North Dakota State University (NDSU). His lab synthesize polymers and macromolecules with stimuli-sensitivity and self-assembling properties. Harnessing the tools and techniques of organic polymer chemistry, he and his lab utilize these systems in the areas of materials science, biomaterial development and nanomaterials to improve human health and safety. His research area encompasses 1) developing delivery technologies for bioactive compounds, 2) Exploring interactions at bio-synthetic interfaces, and 3) Synthesis of biobased, engineered materials with newer forms and functions.

Dr. Katie Reindl

Dr. Katie Reindl is a cancer pharmacologist who has established a research program at North Dakota State University (NDSU) focused on therapeutic interventions for pancreatic cancer. As a PI and co-PI on grants funded by NIH, NSF, private industry, and foundations, she has developed the expertise to successfully manage a research team skilled in 2D and 3D cell-based cancer assays, numerous animal models, functional assays, and omics research to delineate unique mechanisms of anticancer agents and to identify new drug targets. Further, she has developed collaborations with clinicians to conduct human studies and was the first researcher in the state of North Dakota to generate patient-derived xenograft (PDX) and human organoid cancer models. She has a strong passion for mentoring and sparking science interest in young people. Over the past 15 years, her research program has involved 8 high school students, 35 undergraduate students, 10 graduate students, 2 postdoctoral fellows, and 1 visiting scientist. Dr. Reindl has had the privilege of training outstanding undergraduates who have gone on to become physicians, dentists, scientists, and more. She has graduated 6 PhD students who are all pursuing science careers. Her graduate trainees have published 17 manuscripts, presented at regional and national conferences, and received a numerous research awards. She currently has 2 undergraduate and 4 graduate students on her research team. Through interactive weekly lab meetings and one-on-one meetings with her trainees, her lab has built a research program that has been successful in advancing science and careers for young investigators. Her dedication to enhancing biomedical research infrastructure at NDSU has grown through her participation in two different NIH-funded COBRE programs.

Dr. Jagdish Singh

Dr. Jagnish Sing’s laboratory studies gene and drug delivery for preventing and treating neurodegenerative diseases using liposomes, solid nanoparticles, cationic nanoparticles/nanomicelles, biodegradable microparticles and thermosensitive polymers. He has a strong background and training in pharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics. He has over 250 peer-reviewed publications and 450 abstracts in the area of drug, gene, and DNA vaccine delivery using rat, mice, rabbit and pig models. As PI on several previous Department of Defense and NIH-funded grants, and as a PI of a Center of Excellence, he is aware of the importance of communication among project members, research plan, timeline, and budget. The major challenge in the therapy for neurodegenerative diseases is to deliver therapeutics across the blood brain barrier and target the desired cells in the brain to induce neurogenesis. His laboratory develops innovative and targeted nanoparticles loaded with cannabidiol and pBDNF for enhanced neurogenesis by delivering into brain after intravenous administration. The long-term goal of his pre-clinical research is to optimize the nanoparticulate formulations for efficient delivery of cannabidiol and pBDNF to brain for enhanced neurogenesis, synaptic and cognitive functions. He collaborates with Dr. Kanekiyo at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and has NIH funding together as MPI. Dr. Kanekiyo and he have numerous publications together.

Dr. Elizabeth Skoy

As the Director of the Center for Collaboration and Advancement in Pharmacy (CAP Center), Dr. Elizabeth Skoy has developed strong relationships and collaborations with pharmacies across the state, pharmacy stakeholders such as the North Dakota Board of Pharmacy and the North Dakota Pharmacy Association, as well as partners within the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services. Her expertise of understanding and facilitating the expansion of healthcare services, as well as project implementation, research development and research dissemination is a critical strength towards building a research infrastructure within North Dakota. She has been a practicing healthcare professional for 17 years and has collaborated with many disciplines. This experience, coupled with her leadership role within the CAP Center, will help to ensure success on that front. The CAP Center has been essential in the development of successful innovative programs, such as the ONE Program. CAP Center programs have been centered around innovation and implementation, which is designed to have a positive public heath impact. Specifically, CAP members follow the principles of implementation science (IS) and utilized IS framework to help ensure project success. Dr. Skoy’s knowledge and experiences have allowed her to effectively procure grant funding and conduct research related to these innovative programs. She has been collaborating with grant team for several years, as her team has striven to improve health through vaccination, tobacco cessation, screening for infectious diseases, prevention and treatment of chronic disease, and reducing opioid overdose and misuse. Examples of her ongoing and recently completed include 1) Enhancement of Education and Chronic Disease Management within North Dakota Pharmacies, 2) Opioid and Naloxone Education: A State-wide Approach to Prevention, Education, and Interventions, 3) Improving Vaccination Coverage Among Under Vaccinated Populations Through Pharmacy Collaboration, 4) Implementation of a Strep-A Test-to-Treat Program Within Community Pharmacies, and 5) Implementation of a student scholarship program to enhance chronic disease management within North Dakota Community Pharmacies.

Dr. Mark Strand

Dr. Mark Strand has significant experience in epidemiology research and translational research. He is currently P.I. on a translational research grant to implement opioid misuse screening in community pharmacies across the state of North Dakota. His experience in designing and carrying out translational research also lends itself to expertise in designing and implementing a scaled up version of his research that would work to a multistate region. Dr. Strand has worked collaboratively with Co-PI Dr. Oliver Frenzel on previous grants related to opioid safety, as well as with other research team members, with four recent publications illustrating the success of prior research collaborations.

Dr. Sathish Venkatachalem

Dr. Sathish Venkatachalem is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at NDSU. He is the interim director of the Administrative Core for the Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies in Pancreatic Cancer COBRE at NDSU and Co-director of the Health Research Core of the Translational Science Engaging North Dakota (TRANSCEND) program at UND. His recent honors include the Bison Faculty Spotlight Recognition, Innovation in Teaching Award, Inspiring Colleague Award, and Dean's Award for Excellence in Research from NDSU. He is a course coordinator and instructor for the NDSU Pharm D Program and a primary mentor for 9 PhD students, past and present. He also advised professional students through the Pharm D curriculum and a variety of research mentorship, including postdocs, undergraduates, and high school students. He has 85 peer-revied research publications, 6 book chapters, 17 invited research presentations, and co-authored 70 region and 102 international conference abstracts and/or presentations.

Dr. Stefan Vetter

Dr. Stefan Vetter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at North Dakota State University (NDSU). His research interests include 1) pharmaceutical biotechnology, development of novel biological therapeutics, and manufacturing of biological therapeutics, emerging technologies; 2) protein biochemistry, in particular engineering, recombinant expression, purification and biophysical characterization of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), S100 proteins, HMGB1, CAMKV and several other proteins, 3) antibody generation, expression, purification, and characterization; 4) cell based assays using engineered protein to study activation of RAGE and inhibition of RAGE by antibodies; 5) cellular signaling analysis and protein-protein interactions (PPI) in live cells, as well as the biophysical characterization of PPIs, 6) phase separation processes in the cytoplasm under cell stress (stress granule formation, liquid-liquid phase separation); and 7) critical review and analysis of experimental design and data interpretations, including making suggestions for improved experimental design and proper control experiments. He teaches a class on pharmaceutical biotechnology in the PharmD program at NDSU and has several active grants.

Dr. Gail Kerver

Dr. Gail Kerver is an Assistant Scientist with the Center for Biobehavioral Research at Sanford Research. Broadly, her program of research aims to elucidate biobehavioral and psychosocial factors associated with the development and maintenance of maladaptive eating behavior among a variety of clinical populations, including individuals with eating disorder psychopathology, individuals with obesity, and patients undergoing metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS). In her work to date, she has gained extensive training and experience in the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to study the naturalistic relationships between maladaptive eating behaviors and various other biobehavioral, neurocognitive, and affective constructs. Recently, she was granted the opportunity to develop and direct a research project, funded through an NIH-supported Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE; P20GM134969), which utilized naturalistic assessment methods (e.g., EMA paired with passive continuous glucose monitoring) to examine the mechanistic relationship between negative affect, inhibitory control, and hypoglycemia on loss of control eating following MBS. Her clinical work as a licensed psychologist has allowed her to gain insights from patients on the experience of maladaptive eating behavior in the context of weight management and MBS, which helps to inform her program of research.

Dr. Lauren Schaefer

Dr. Lauren Shaefer’s research program attempts to better understand the mechanisms through which the onset, maintenance, and remission of eating disorders occur. In doing so, she seeks to identify clinical targets that, if effectively engaged, have a strong potential to improve treatment outcomes for individuals with eating disorders. In particular, the identification of reward-related factors that may precipitate and maintain eating disorder behaviors has become a strong focus of her work. This research frequently incorporates both naturalistic and laboratory-based methods to provide a comprehensive assessment of the relationships under investigation. As an example, her NIH-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the Sanford Center for Biobehavioral Research (CBR) provided her with training in the application of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to study the micro-temporal processes surrounding disordered eating behaviors among individuals with eating disorders. As an Assistant Scientist at CBR, Dr. Shaefer has continued this line of research, including authoring numerous papers that utilized EMA to examine the immediate antecedents and consequences of eating disorder behaviors, which were supported by NIH-funded grants (R01 022336; R34 MH099040; R34 MH098995). She will soon be completing her role as a Project Director on an NIH-funded CoBRE (P20 GM134969- 8455; PI: Wonderlich). In this role, she led a large study that examined the role of reward in the onset of binge-eating, using EMA and 6-month follow-up in combination with a variety of laboratory-based behavioral tasks. In addition, she was a Multiple-PI (with Dr. Glen Forester) on an internally-funded pilot project that examined the relationship between food reward responding and binge eating using EMA and electroencephalography (EEG). Currently, She serves as a Co-I on an NIH-funded study (R01 DK130926) that examines laboratory-assessed food reward responding as a potential moderator of the naturalistically-assessed relationship between stress and binge eating. The current application represents a natural progression of this line of research, which - if funded - would meaningfully extend the literature base on the reward-related processes underlying maintenance of binge-eating disorder and contribute to the development of more effective interventions for this patient population.

Dr. Leah Irish

Dr. Leah Irish’s recent work has focused on examining the links between sleep and binge eating behavior (Irish et al., 2024a, 2024b). Findings of a recent NIH-funded project (1P20GM134969) identified napping and sleep timing as aspects of sleep that may be particularly relevant to binge eating behavior. Ongoing work continues to investigate potential bidirectional links between patterns of sleep, negative affect and binge eating using an intensive longitudinal design (1R01MH139617). Although sleep itself is a physiological process, many behavioral factors combine to determine sleep health, which is essential for human health and functioning. Thus, the application of health behavior theories can further understanding of how individuals make choices about their sleep and ultimately how to best intervene to improve sleep health in the general population. Two previous pilot projects funded through the NIH-funded NDSU Center for Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience (5P30GM114748) investigated the processes underlying decisions about sleep (Irish et al., 2021). In addition, he and his collaborators have published findings of an ecological momentary assessment investigation of social cognitive predictors of sleep behavior, finding distinct patterns across the day that may inform momentary sleep health interventions (Mead & Irish, 2021, Mead & Irish, 2022). Chrononutrition refers to the circadian timing of caloric intake, which has been shown to affect weight-related outcomes. In collaboration with a former graduate student, he developed and validated two self-report measures of chrononutrition (Veronda et al., 2020, 2022). In addition, they defined and characterized the construct of eating misalignment (i.e., the discrepancy between preferred and actual timing of food intake), finding common misalignment (Veronda & Irish, 2021).  

Dr. Jeffrey Johnson

Dr. Jeffrey Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at North Dakota State University (NDSU) and an Adjunct Research Scientist in the Sanford Center for Biobehavioral Research (CBR). He has a broad background in the cognitive and neural systems mediating cognitive processes, and specific expertise in the use of behavioral, electrophysiological recording (EEG), and non-invasive brain stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation) methods of investigating the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying attention and working memory. More recently, he has expanded these skills to include the use of resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to study the role of attention and memory processes in the maintenance of binge eating and related behaviors.

Dr. Paola Vermeer

Dr. Paola Vermeer’s research program focuses on defining the mechanisms of nerve recruitment and function within solid peripheral malignancies. Her graduate training in developmental neurobiology coupled with postgraduate work in epithelial cell biology provided her with the expertise to address biologically and clinically relevant questions regarding the roles of tumor-infiltrating nerves in cancer progression. Her laboratory demonstrated that tumor-released small extracellular vesicles lure nerves to the tumor bed and showed that these nerves promoted tumor growth (Nature Communications 2018). Since this initial finding, she has gained expertise in electrophysiology and showed that tumors harbor electrical activity stemming from their tumor-infiltrating nerves. In addition, she showed that Substance P, a neuropeptide released by tumor-infiltrating nociceptors, promotes cancer cell proliferation and migration (Science Advances, 2023). Her team went on to show that another nociceptor-released neuropeptide, CGRP, promotes immune suppression by directly inducing CD8+ T cell anergy (Nature, 2022). Using intra-tumoral injection of neural tracer, she found that tumor-infiltrating nociceptors connect to the brain and impact behavior (eLIFE 2024). Current work in the lab focuses on mechanistically defining neuro-immune bi-directional interactions that ultimately impact brain functions and, subsequently, pain- and pain-related behaviors. Given that cancer-associated pain significantly contributes to quality of life and survival, mechanistically defining these pathways is critical for the advancement of cancer therapies. Her goal is to mechanistically define the neural regulation of cancer. The ultimate hope is that this knowledge contributes to the utilization of neural-focused therapies in oncology that improve patient outcomes.

Dr. Scott Engel

Dr. Scott Engel’s research program primarily involves the study of momentary cognitive, behavioral, and affective variables which are measured in the natural environment. He has used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology to investigate these constructs and has trained and worked with the leading experts in the field in this area.  He has published multiple papers using EMA with eating disorder and bariatric surgery participants, including publishing on the largest naturalistic assessment of anorexia nervosa patients to date.  He has also worked in a wide variety of areas using EMA, some of which are bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, bariatric surgery, depression, self-injurious behavior, tic disorder, drug use, and child abuse. Dr. Engel has trained numerous predoctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members in EMA methodology.  Additionally, he has worked with a variety of novel assessment methodologies in many research protocols. 

Dr. Leslie Laam

Dr. Leslie Laam is a biostatistician and health services researcher with a multidisciplinary background spanning mathematics, biostatistics, quality improvement and healthcare operations, and healthcare research. Her academic training includes a BS in Mathematics from Creighton University, an MS in Evaluative Clinical Sciences from Dartmouth College, and a PhD in Health Services Research & Policy from the University of Rochester. She also completed a fellowship in Quality, Education, Measurement, and Research at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Her career began at Geisinger Health System, where she applied clinical data analytics to improve decision-making in healthcare operations and patient care. Over the past two decades, she has worked across academic and clinical settings, contributing to NIH-funded studies, publishing peer-reviewed research, and presenting at national conferences. These experiences have shaped her commitment to using rigorous statistical methods to bridge research and practice in healthcare. She currently serves as Director of Biomedical Statistics at the Center for Biobehavioral Research (CBR) at Sanford Research, where she leads a team of statisticians and data managers in supporting NIH-funded investigators. She also directs the Biomedical Statistics Core for the COBRE Center for Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Eating Behavior (P20 GM134969), where she provides methodological consultation, support early-career investigators, and foster multidisciplinary collaboration. Her work involves study design, advanced modeling techniques, and data analysis with a particular focus on ecological momentary assessment and intensive longitudinal data. Dr. Laam’s current research centers on eating disorders, disordered eating, and outcomes related to metabolic and bariatric surgery. A central theme of her work is the development and application of statistical methods to better understand patient experiences and inform evidence-based interventions.

Dr. Lance Lee

The focus of Dr. Lance Lee’s lab is identifying the genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms regulating motile cilia and understanding how dysfunction of those mechanisms results in the pediatric syndrome primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). Motile cilia play a critical role in fluid clearance in the respiratory system, the brain, and the reproductive system, as well as directional flow of morphogens in the early embryo. However, the mechanisms regulating motile cilia and flagella remain poorly understood. His lab has demonstrated that mice lacking ciliary central pair apparatus (CPA) proteins CFAP221/PCDP1, SPEF2, or CFAP54 have a PCD phenotype due to structural or functional ciliary defects. His lab’s goals are to understand the mechanisms by which the CPA and other ciliary components regulate mammalian ciliary motility and establish a foundation for new therapies that target those mechanisms. Current projects include determining the functional constituency of ciliary structures and identifying the cellular responses to ciliary dysfunction in the airway ciliary microenvironment. In his laboratory, he has trained fifteen undergraduate students, three post-graduate interns, one medical student, and a postdoctoral fellow. These trainees have gone on to success in varied careers in research, medicine, science writing, and technology transfer. He has also served on dissertation committees for twelve graduate students (PhD, MD/PhD, and MS), and has formally mentored one junior faculty member. As the Director of Higher Education for Sanford Research, Dr. Lee oversees training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students within the Biomedical Division, serve as a liaison to affiliated graduate programs at USD and SDSU, organize and administer career and professional development training for trainees at all levels (graduate students, undergraduate students, and postdoctoral fellows), and providing annual mentor training for faculty and lab staff.

Dr. Kyle Roux

As a cell biologist, Dr. Kyle Roux’s postgraduate research career has been focused on the structure and function of the mammalian nuclear envelope (NE) and its relationship to human disease. He has substantially contributed to the characterization of novel proteins and structures in the NE. Technical challenges encountered while working in this field led him to develop a method called BioID to monitor protein-protein associations in living cells. Development of BioID, investigating the inherent strengths and limitations of the method, and pursuing novel applications of the method had been a major focus of his research group for several years. Dr. Lee’s vision for his research program is to continue to contribute to the collective understanding of the biology of the NE and its relationship to human health and disease, both by studying specific disease mechanisms as well as general cellular processes. He established and currently directs a technical service core, the Biochemistry Core, that predominantly provides BioID services to investigators both at Sanford Research and external to the institute. He additionally served as the Program Coordinator and now lead the Center for Pediatric Research as PI. He also has had a leadership role at Sanford Research for the past nine years, currently as Vice President of Biomedical Research, effectively functioning as a department chair in the recruitment, mentorship and leadership of the ~20 discovery science faculty at the institute that is located in Sioux Falls, SD and is an integral part of Sanford Health. He is also responsible for the financial oversight and strategic planning of the biomedical science program and PROMISE STEM education and outreach program, seeking educational engagement at all levels, whether supporting K-12 and community outreach programs that are integrated within our research programs, providing rich and impactful research experiences for high school, undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate trainees, or recruiting top notch early-stage independent investigators from around the county and world to establish their own successful independent research programs. This is all accomplished by providing high quality research facilities and infrastructure and fostering a culture that promotes a sense of shared success and that has an excellent track record of independent funding and faculty retention.

Dr. Alexei Savinov

Dr. Alexei Savinov is an Associate Scientist at the Sanford Research, Diabetes Group; co-Director of Flow Cytometry Core at Sanford Research, and Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, at the Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota. He has a well-documented record of productive research in fields of immunology and cellular biology, specifically in studies of autoimmune machinery associated with the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D). His research program seeks to understand the key mechanisms driving initiation and progression of autoimmunity in human T1D patients, and model these mechanisms in rodents. Throughout his career, his has put substantial effort into clarifying molecular and cellular events that regulate hyper-activation, migration, and cytotoxic potential of diabetogenic T lymphocytes, self-reactive cells that mediate autoimmune destruction of pancreatic islets, and ultimately cause T1D. During his research, he routinely uses all the experimental approaches and techniques pertaining to the scope of proposed work, such as: isolation and FACS-based characterization of different subsets of lymphocytes, cloning and assembly of CAR constructs, primary cells transfections and transductions, assessments of T cells proliferation, tropism, activation, cytokines production and examinations of suppressive activity in complex mixed cultures assays. He is also proficient with the use and characterization of human and mouse diabetogenic T cell clones, and experienced in animal models of T1D and experimental human and mouse islets transplantations. Dr. Savinov is well aware of the importance of good interaction between investigators on the given project and has established productive collaborations with Drs. Scott (consultant), Griffin, Mathews and Sévigny.  He frequently reviews manuscripts for several immunology and diabetes journals, serves as a regular member on the US DOD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs study section, and serves as a member on several graduate student committees. In support of education and training, he mentors three graduate students, one postdoctoral fellow, and is always happy to provide mentorship and advice to his research colleagues.

Dr. Kamesh Surendran

Dr. Kamesh Surendran’s lab studies kidney development and disease by determining the molecular basis by which diverse cell types of the kidney develop and are maintained. The Surendran Lab uses novel genetic mouse models, along with cell and ex vivo organ cultures, to identify genes critical for kidney development and/or maintenance of kidney functions. The Surendran Lab focuses on two areas, 1) the molecular mechanisms regulating kidney collecting duct development and maintenance, and 2) the cellular and genetic basis of kidney diseases associated with Alagille Syndrome patients. The lab uses mouse genetic tools for ectopic expression, loss of function and cell lineage tracing studies in specific populations of cells of the developing mouse kidneys to understand the molecular regulators that ensure normal kidney development and maintenance. These studies have provided insights into the potential genetic and cellular causes of cystic kidney diseases, including those that occur in Alagille Syndrome patients and collecting duct disorders such as Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus. He and his lab have also identified transcription factors and signals that potentially regulate principal versus intercalated cell differentiation. He has taught graduate student courses in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease, Developmental Biology of Disease, Genetics of Human Diseases, and Developmental Biology of Pediatric Diseases. He has also mentored faculty, post-docs, graduate students, medical students, undergraduate students, and high school students.

Dr. Jill Weimer

Dr. Jill Weimer is a developmental neuroscientist and oversees the management and continued development of the translational arm of Sanford Research in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She started at Sanford Research in 2009, and her research program focuses on the molecular mechanisms mediating development of the cerebral cortex and how disruption in these processes can lead to a whole host of neural pediatric disorders, including Batten’s disease and Neurofibromatosis Type 1. Work in Dr. Weimer’s lab helped lead to the first ever gene therapy trial programs for CLN3 and CLN6 – Batten disease.  In June 2019, Dr. Weimer joined the Amicus Therapeutics team as the Senior Vice President of Discovery Research and Gene Therapy Science and now serves as the Chief Science Officer.  She plays a unique dual role holding leadership positions with both Sanford Research and Amicus, in addition to leading her research lab. Dr. Weimer grew up in north central Missouri and moved to upstate New York where she received her bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Rochester. She completed her postdoctoral training in the Neuroscience Research Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill with a focus on developmental neuroscience. Dr. Weimer also serves as a scientific advisor to a number of rare disease foundation as well as serving as the President of the Alumni Council for her alma mater, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Dr. Preston Steen

Dr. Preston Steen currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the Sanford Community Cancer Program’s NCORP project. Prior to that, he was the Principal Investigator for the Sanford Community Cancer Consortium CCOP (previously MeritCare Hospital CCOP) from 2003-2014 and the Associate Principal Investigator for the CCOP from 1992 to 2003. He was the co-chair of the NCCTG Cancer Control Committee from 2007 to 2011 as well as the co-chair of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Research Consortium Executive Committee from 2008-2010. He has been active in Oncology Clinical Trial research throughout his career, including acting as Co-Principal Investigator on several NCCTG clinical trials. He was a member of the NCCTG Audit Committee and was been chosen to continue on the Alliance Audit Committee. He is a voting member of the Alliance Board of Directors and a member of the Alliance Community Oncology Committee. He is a current member of ASCO’s Cancer Research Committee as a Community Oncology representative. His areas of interest and expertise are colorectal, pancreatic and genitourinary cancer. Throughout my career Dr. Steen have been intimately involved in clinical research with trial development, accrual and management. His fellowship training was heavily based in basic science cancer immunology.

Dr. Lee Baugh

Dr. Lee Baugh has established himself as a leader in psychology and neuroscience, with a strong foundation in cognitive neuroscience research, particularly in understanding skilled movement and clinical conditions of stroke, posttraumatic stress disorder, and alcohol use disorders. His track record includes impactful publications in high-impact journals, and the successful training of 33 undergraduate, 28 graduate, medical, and MD/PhD students, and one post-doctoral fellow. During his graduate studies at the University of Manitoba, he acquired a deep theoretical understanding and practical skills in both general behavioral studies and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This training was essential in his subsequent patient-focused research, including groundbreaking studies on Posterior Cortical Atrophy, Stroke, and aging. His recent work, such as in Brown-Rice et al. (2018) and Scholl et al. (2022, 2023), exemplifies my continued commitment to exploring clinical disorders. Dr. Lee currently serves as Director of the Human Functional Imaging Core at the University of South Dakota, where he oversees a broad portfolio of neuroimaging research involving fMRI, structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), electroencephalography (EEG), eye-tracking, and behavioral methods. His experiences with major research infrastructure grants and NIH Training Awards, combined with involvement in NIH-COBRE and CTR grants, demonstrates capabilities in research administration and collaboration. His work's translational nature, coupled with his expertise in intellectual property and industry partnerships, is highlighted by his numerous invention disclosures, patents pending, and granted patents. His commitment to mentorship and education has been a constant thread throughout his career. He has actively engaged in teaching and guiding students at all levels, emphasizing experimental rigor, ethical research practices, and comprehensive statistical analysis. He has completed formal mentorship training through the CIMER program and has been involved in the creation of multiple training events and activities. In summary, Dr. Lee’s extensive background in research, teaching, and administration, combined with his ongoing commitment to advancing the field of neuroscience, provides him with the research, training, and administrative experience to provide strong leadership, direction, management, and administration assistance to pilot awardees.

Dr. Lisa McFadden

Dr. Lisa McFadden is an Associate Professor in the Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Dakota. Her research focuses on translational approaches to understanding substance use disorders, rural health disparities, and infectious disease surveillance. She applies interdisciplinary methodologies, integrating neuroscience, epidemiology, and advanced analytics to address public health challenges. Dr. McFadden’s work includes leading projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIDA, NIH/NIGMS) in areas such as wastewater epidemiology for substance use and COVID-19 surveillance, the impact of healthcare policy changes on substance use disorder treatment access in rural settings, and the development of novel therapeutics for methamphetamine overdose. She has published extensively on the neurochemical consequences of methamphetamine exposure, pandemic-related shifts in treatment utilization, and the application of machine learning to public health data. Throughout her career, Dr. McFadden has emphasized research that addresses health inequities in underserved populations, particularly in rural and frontier communities. She has also contributed to capacity building through leadership roles in programs such as SPURA (Summer Program for Undergraduate Research in Addiction) and USD G-RISE, which foster the development of the next generation of clinical and translational researchers. Her current interests include leveraging environmental surveillance, real-world clinical data, and predictive modeling to enhance public health interventions and reduce health disparities.

Dr. Khosrow Rezvani

Dr. Khosrow Rezvani has established a productive research program focused on elucidating the biological and clinical significance of a novel ubiquitin-like protein, UBXN2A, in colorectal cancer (CRC) over the past 14 years of his professional career as an assistant and then associate professor in the Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences, His lab has generated unique mouse models for investigating the underlying mechanism of UBXN2A as a novel tumor suppressor protein in CRC. They were the first group to show that UBXN2A functions as a key tumor suppressor protein in murine and human intestinal cancer by utilizing these comprehensive tools that mimic human CRC. To examine the druggability of UBXN2A as an anti-cancer protein, they completed a high-throughput drug screen and discovered veratridine (VTD). This plant-based compound enhances the expression of UBXN2A in cancer cells. Completing patient-derived organoids and in vivo experiments along with their smart nanoparticle delivery approach will provide key preclinical data for advancing to early clinical trials. His lab’s evolving understanding of the function of veratridine as a UBXN2A enhancer in human colon cancer patient-derived organoids (PDOs), and its biological impact on tumorigenic pathways in cancer cells will certainly contribute to a novel paradigm in the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer. Since 2015, he has started a productive collaboration with Dr. Grigoriy Sereda in the Department of Chemistry at the University of South Dakota. These mutual collaborations have led to 25 publications in the past twelve years, plus unique sharing experiences. The above efforts, plus his background as a medical doctor, give him a sound foundation in both the theoretical and technical areas directly related to this collaborative pilot project with Drs. Sereda and Baack.

Mentorship Training Program

Under development.