Research
The Mission of Research in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science at
Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is to provide outstanding teaching, research and
service to FAU, State of Florida and beyond. The faculty at the College is engaged
in cutting edge research in all fronts of modern biomedical sciences. Some of the
focused areas are summarized below:
- RNA metabolism in bacterial pathogens and its functions promoting oxidative
stress survival and governing virulence gene expression (Z. Li and C. Burns).
- Novel treatment approaches for treatment of arthritis and other inflammatory
diseases by engineering enzymes and inhibitors (K. Brew)
- Neurotransmitter systems and neurodegenerative diseases with concentration on GABA
and glutamate neurotransmitter systems as well as brain diseases, e.g., Parkinson's
Disease, Alzeheimer's Disease, Huntington's Disease and stroke (J.-Y. Wu, J. Wei,
Z. Li and D. Maharaj).
- Developmental neurobiology and responses to brain injury with a concentration
on adult neurogenesis and neuronal survival, and their underlying mechanisms,
particularly the roles of synaptic connections, trophic factors and sensory
activity.
(K. Guthrie).
- Behavioral neurobiology with concentration on drug abuse and addiction (R.Tao and
C. Isgor).
- Physiology and pathophysiology of cardio vascular system with focus on heart
development, heart vascular biology and heart physiology (L. Lemanski, X. Huang and
H. Prentice).
- Molecular genetics and biochemistry of mitochondrial and oxidative stress
diseases of aging including age-related cataract, age-related macular degeneration
and glaucoma. (M. Kantorow).
- Visual system with concentration on macular degeneration, diabetes retinopathy,
retina electrophysiology, dry eyes and gene therapy for retinal diseases (W. Shen,
K. Dorey, C. Dougherty and A. Azzarolo).
- Immunology and allergy research with concentration on immune response and asthma
(Y. Shibata).
- Immunobiology of dendritic cells with focus on designing therapeutic strategies
for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection (M. Nouri-Shirazi).
- Cancer research with concentration on prostate cancer, HIV and other forms of
cancer (M. Lu, M. Caputi, V. Iragavarapu, K. Brew and D. Maharaj).
- Other areas of research interest include stem cell technology, biomarkers
identification and validation, epidemiology and medical education.
(M. Friedland, W. Paull, R. Blanks, D. Maharaj, D. Lichtstein, and S. Wragg).