Faculty Research Projects
Dr. Jerry Zhao
Research in the Jerry Zhao Lab combines neurobiology, glycobiology, and genomics to understand the role of heparan sulfate and long genes in brain health and diseases, particularly in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Kallmann syndrome. Heparan sulfate is a sugar molecule that covers the surface of all human cells. Heparan sulfate plays an important role in the pathogenesis of multiple brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson’s disease. Long genes (> 100 kilobases) are specifically expressed in the brain and show unique genomic and epigenomic features. Long genes are associated with brain disorders, such as autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Satoru Kobayashi
Our research mission is to save heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) from diabetic stress. Diabetes kills two out of three patients by causing heart disease. It’s not a sudden death. It is a slow death process. The fatal stress is creeping into your heart before you know it. Diabetes gradually turns up the heat, but your heart muscle cells don’t know they’re dying. What we found is that too much sugar injures lysosomes. Lysosomes are the defense force in your heart cells. They are responsible for breaking down and removing damaged debris inside the cells for your health. High glucose, the sugar, is a moderate but still fatal stress to the cells. Our cell defense system is compromised and fails to respond to this sneaking stress. The projects are 1) to evaluate the changes in lysosomal enzymatic activities and 2) to test potential drugs to see if they can repair/protect against lysosome injury so that the lysosomes can stay functional to protect your heart muscle cells. Students are expected to contribute to the study by becoming proficient in at least one molecular or cell biological technique, such as qPCR, Western blotting, or immunofluorescence staining and imaging.
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Dr. Michael Granatosky
The Comparative Animal Motion Laboratory is housed at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. Broadly, our lab explores the evolution of biomechanical systems using classical experimental techniques grounded in a comparative phylogenetic framework. Such an approach proves a robust tool for uncovering mechanistic explanations underlying the remarkable abilities that have evolved across the animal kingdom. Recently, our lab has expanded our investigative abilities through the use of bio-inspired robotics, a powerful research tool allowing investigators to alter aspects of the anatomy and/or motor control to assess how these changes alter system optimization.