Curricula Vitae in Cell Biology & Anatomy

Name	Personal Focus	Summary
Dr. Ambrish Kumar Research Assistant Professor		Ambrish Kumar is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, School of Medicine Columbia.
Austin Nicholas Worden Research Assistant Professor		Austin Worden is the Director of the Instrumentation Resource Facility. He first received his B.S. in biology from the University of South Carolina Aiken while performing HIV silencing research under Dr. Bill Jackson. He then completed his M.S. in biomedical sciences, concentrating on applied biotechnology at the USC School of Medicine Columbia. Finally, Dr. Worden received his PhD in biomedical science, concentrating on cellular and molecular biology from the USC School of Medicine Columbia.
Benjamin Allen Hawfield Clinical Assistant Professor		Ben Hawfield is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, School of Medicine Columbia.
Jack G. Goldsmith Clinical Professor	medical biochemistry sequence	Broadly speaking, Dr. Goldsmith is interested in applying analytical methods, including chromatographic, spectroscopic, and imaging, to biological problems. Serving as a principle faculty member in the medical biochemistry sequence and course director of the graduate biochemistry courses, Dr. Goldsmith is also interested in developing new educational resources and pedagogical methods in an effort to increase student comprehension and retention.
Dr. Mohamad Azhar, PhD Associate Professor	Heart, Lung, Blood Vessels Research, Growth Factors, Cytokines, Extracellular Matrix, Knock out, Conditional Knockout, Transgenic Mice	Dr. Azhar received his MSc in Biotechnology from the Aligarh University and his PhD in Developmental Biology from the Indian Institute of Science. He has a long background in research focused on transforming growth factor-beta and received an R01 from the NIH for “Analysis of TGF-beta ligands function in heart development and disease”. He also received an established Investigator grant (Grant-In-Aid) from the American Heart Association to study the role of TGF-beta in aneurysm.
Colin Evans Assistant Professor	thrombus formation and resolution, inflammatory lung injury and repair, improve the understanding and treatment of inflammatory vascular diseases	Dr. Evans obtained his PhD at King’s College London (2011) and performed postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge (2011-2017) and Northwestern University (2017-2019). Following his appointment to the research faculty of Northwestern University (2019-2023), he joined the University of South Carolina as Assistant Professor (2023-present). In his current role, he is a lead faculty member of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy and the Cardiovascular Translational Research Center.
Dr. Martin Morad Professor	Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology	Dr. Morad is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of cardiac electrophysiology and calcium signaling, specifically in the area of calcium-binding proteins. The cardiac muscle is a complex system composed of 40,000 proteins. These proteins "tell" the heart how to contract and how fast; they also control how heart muscle grows and regenerates. Calcium acts as a signaling mechanism in the function of these proteins. Dr. Morad seeks to discover what causes these calcium signaling mec
Fernanda Bruschi Marinho Priviero Research Associate Professor		Fernanda Priviero, Ph.D. is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, School of Medicine Columbia.
Dr. Jay D Potts Professor	Stem Cells, Development, Heart, Regenerative Medicine, bioengineering	My laboratory is using developmental biology and its tenets in the pursuit of problems facing regenerative medicine. We use novel stem cells and scaffolds to try and mimic in vivo development in the hopes of gaining knowledge for potential therapuetic uses. We have focused on the heart, bone and more recently wound healing. We use state of the art technologies to bear including bioengineering aspects in answering these challenging questions
Dr. Holly A Lavoie Professor	Reproductive Biology, Endocrinology, Cardiovascular	Our lab studies the transcriptional control of genes mediating ovarian follicular growth, differentiation, and steroidogenesis in the ovary. We study how mRNA biomarkers from granulosa cells can be used to improve IVF outcomes. We also study heart remodeling during and after pregnancy.
Dr. Edie C. Goldsmith Professor		The focus of my research is to understand the functional role of this new class of ECM receptors, particularly DDR2, in cardiac development. The main focus currently is exploring the role of DDR2 in mediating ECM remodeling during atrioventricular cushion formation during early valve development.
Dr. Daping Fan Professor		The general research interest of our laboratory is to promote the regression of atherosclerotic plaque through restoring macrophage cholesterol homeostasis and controlling macrophage inflammation.
Dr. Wayne Carver Department Chair/Professor	cardiovascular development and disease	The research in Dr. Carver's lab is focused on understanding how fibroblast behavior and gene expression are regulated in the heart. Cell culture and animal models are being used to examine the regulation of fibroblasts in cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Wenbin Tan Associate Professor	develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of CVM, investigate the neuro-vascular interaction and determine if nerve defects contribute to the PWS, determine the role of EC released exosomes in the development of vascular phenotypes in CVM	Wenbin Tan, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, School of Medicine Columbia.
Xiao-hua Zhang Research Assistant Professor		Xiao-Hua Zhang is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cell Biology & Anatomy Department in the School of Medicine Columbia.