The Life Sciences Institute (LSI) has hired five new faculty members, bringing the number of faculty in the multidisciplinary research institute to 25.
The institute’s latest recruits include two researchers for the Center for Stem Cell Biology, two chemists and a geneticist. Three of the five are women. Each scientist jointly was recruited in collaboration with other U-M departments, including the LSA, the School of Pharmacy and the Department of Human Genetics in the Medical School.
“These stellar recruits bring a breadth and depth to our life sciences research and firmly establish the LSI as a significant presence in scientific discovery,” President Mary Sue Coleman says. “LSI has succeeded in its mission to bring scientists from different disciplines together to encourage them to look for important problems that can be addressed from the many perspectives where their expertise lies.”
The new LSI faculty:
|
Carroll (Photo by Brian Carlson) |
Kate Carroll studies the biology of sulfur-containing compounds that play an important role in immune diseases and antibiotic resistance. She joined the institute in summer 2006 as an assistant research professor, and also will be an assistant professor of chemistry in LSA. She recently received a Special Fellow Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Association. She completed her Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in Carolyn Bertozzi’s lab. A California native, she received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Mills College and her doctoral degree in biochemistry from Stanford University. |
|
Garneau-Tsodikova (Photo courtesy Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova) |
Sylvie Garneau-Tsodikova studies organic compounds that may help inhibit microbial agents and cancer cells. Garneau-Tsodikova joined the institute as an assistant research professor in August. She also is the John G. Searle Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy. A French Canadian, Garneau received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in organic chemistry from Université Laval in Québec, and her doctoral degree in organic chemistry from the University of Alberta. Before joining LSI she completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School with LSI Advisory Board member Christopher Walsh. |
|
Kim (Photo courtesy John Kim) |
John Kim uses the roundworm C. elegans to study the functions of small RNA molecules in animal development and disease. Kim joined the institute this fall as an assistant research professor and assistant professor in the department of human genetics at the Medical School. He completed a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School with Gary Ruvkun. He received his doctoral degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Davis, and his bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University. |
|
Lee (Photo by Susan Hollowell) |
Cheng-Yu Lee investigates the biology of neural stem cells in the fruit fly Drosophila, with implications for human neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. Lee joined the institute’s Center for Stem Cell Biology in the summer as an assistant research professor, as well as an assistant professor within the Division of Molecular Medicine and Genetics in the Medical School Department of Internal Medicine. He received the prestigious 2006 Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Award in Biomedical Science. He completed a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon and received his undergraduate degree in zoology and his doctorate in biology from the University of Maryland-College Park. |
|
Yamashita (Photo courtesy Yukiko Yamashita) |
Yukiko Yamashita investigates how stem cells become different adult cells. She will join the Center for Stem Cell Biology and LSI in January as an assistant research professor and assistant professor in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at the Medical School. She currently is completing her postdoctoral fellowship in Margaret Fuller’s laboratory in developmental biology at Stanford. She received both her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in biophysics from Kyoto University in Japan. She held the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellowship and the Jose Carreras International Leukemia Foundation fellowship. |
“We reached for some real scientific stars this year,” says LSI Director Alan Saltiel. “We competed with the best institutions and landed a group of faculty who represent a wide range of disciplines and approaches to research. With the possibilities created through collaborations among our multidisciplinary faculty, we envision major strides forward, building knowledge that we hope will improve the human condition.”
The two recruits in the stem cell biology center mark an important milestone in U-M’s increased effort in this key area. The center, opened in September 2005, is located in the LSI and headed by noted researcher Sean Morrison, who has made several important discoveries in stem cell science this year.
“With these talented new faculty, the U-M Center for Stem Cell Biology will conduct basic science research that has the potential to change the way people think about important questions in biomedical research” Morrison says.
In the institute’s first three years of operation, its interdisciplinary faculty have won more than $20 million in research funding and published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles appearing in top journals, including Nature, Science and Cell. There now are more than 500 researchers working in the LSI on faculty-led teams, including more than 100 students. LSI has joint appointments with three schools and colleges and 13 departments.
