The mission of the Lemberg research group is to understand metabolism in childhood/young adult cancers in order to develop a better understanding of how these cancers develop, how they respond to treatments, and how children can go on to live healthy lives with or after a cancer history. We aim to investigate how tumors and the surrounding physiologic environments interact to drive nutrient use so that the tumor can grow and spread, and how the presence of a cancer affects the development of the whole child. Our ultimate goal is to improve outcomes for children and young adults with cancer.

We are interested in understanding how innate immune responses regulate lung health. Innate immunity involves ancient, and well-conserved mediators and their actions regulate the balance between homeostasis and pathogenesis. In the lungs, innate immunity play a critical role in response to environmental exposures such as allergen and ambient particulate matter. My lab focuses on how these exposures can promote aberrant mucosal responses that can drive the development of diseases like asthma.

Research in the Nadia Hansel Lab investigates the clinical, pathophysiologic and public health aspects of pulmonary diseases, with a focus on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We have explored how environmental exposures, nutrition and diet, comorbidity and other factors influence the outcomes of diseases such as asthma and COPD.

Our laboratory is interested in understanding the neural basis of auditory perception and vocal communication in a naturalistic environment. We are interested in revealing neural coding mechanisms operating in the cerebral cortex and how cortical representations of biologically important sounds emerge through development and learning.

Lauren Jantzie, professor of pediatrics and vice chair of research for the Department of Pediatrics, received her Ph.D. in neurochemistry from the University of Alberta in 2008. In 2013 she completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School and became faculty at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Jantzie then joined the faculty Departments of Pediatrics (Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine) and Neurology at Johns Hopkins University and the Kennedy Krieger Institute in January 2019.

The Jantzie lab investigates the pathophysiology of encephalopathy of prematurity, and pediatric brain injury common to infants and toddlers. Dr. Jantzie is dedicated to understanding disease processes in the developing brain as a means to identifying new therapeutic strategies and treatment targets for perinatal brain injury. Her lab studies neural substrates of cognition and executive function, inhibitory circuit formation, the role of an abnormal intrauterine environment on brain development, mechanisms of neurorepair and microglial activation and polarization.

Using a diverse array of clinically relevant techniques such as MRI, cognitive assessment, and biomarker discovery, combined with traditional molecular and cellular biology, the Jantzie lab is on the front lines of translational pediatric neuroscience.

The Stivers Lab is broadly interested in the biology of the RNA base uracil when it is present in DNA. Our work involves structural and biophysical studies of uracil recognition by DNA repair enzymes, the central role of uracil in adapative and innate immunity, and the function of uracil in antifolate and fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy. We use a wide breadth of structural, chemical, genetic and biophysical approaches that provide a fundamental understanding of molecular function. Our long-range goal is to use this understanding to design novel small molecules that alter biological pathways within a cellular environment. One approach we are developing is the high-throughput synthesis and screening of small molecule libraries directed at important targets in cancer and HIV-1 pathogenesis.

Dr. Anders’ laboratory focuses on the basic processes that lead to cancer. His team approaches these questions through the use of both experimental models and examination of human tissues. His team is specifically interested in interrogating the immune microenvironment of cancer, detecting circulating cancer cells and preventing cancer metastasis.

The mission of the Elisseeff Lab is to engineer technologies to repair lost tissues. We aim to bridge academic research and technology discovery to treat patients and address clinically relevant challenges related to tissue engineering. To accomplish this goal we are developing and enabling materials, studying biomaterial structure-function relationships and investigating mechanisms of tissue development to practically rebuild tissues. The general approach of tissue engineering is to place cells on a biomaterial scaffold that is designed to provide the appropriate signals to promote tissue development and ultimately restore normal tissue function in vivo. Understanding mechanisms of cellular interactions (both cell-cell and cell-material) and tissue development on scaffolds is critical to advancement of the field, particularly in applications employing stem cells. Translation of technologies to tissue-specific sites and diseased environments is key to better design, understanding, and ultimately efficacy of tissue repair strategies. We desire to translate clinically practical strategies, in the form of biomaterials/medical devices, to guide and enhance the body's natural capacity for repair. To accomplish the interdisciplinary challenge of regenerative medicine research, we maintain a synergistic balance of basic and applied/translational research.