Faculty & Research Interests

Bruce Appel: Investigation of mechanisms that regulate neural precursors and progenitors during development.
Kristin Artinger: Neural crest progenitor stem cell development in zebrafish.
Vivek Balasubramaniam: The role of local and bone marrow derived progenitor cells during lung development and in the repair of the neonatal lung after injury.
Neil Box: Human Pigmentation, Melanoma, Stem Cells, Mouse Genetics, Cancer, p53, Mouse Embryonic Development.
Ellen Burnham: The role of endothelial progenitors in critical illnesses, specifically acute lung injury and sepsis.
Stephen Davies: The primary focus of my research program is the development of novel therapies for the injured or diseased central nervous system, with a particular emphasis on repairing traumatic spinal cord injuries.
James DeGregori: We study how competitive dynamics in stem and progenitor cell compartments influence whether initiating oncogenic events lead to clonal expansion and cancer.
Stijn De Langhe: Development, regulation and function of lung stem cell niches in homeostasis and repair after injury.
Brian Freed: The University of Colorado Cord Blood Bank is one of the oldest public banks in the country and has facilitated >400 hematopoietic stem cell transplants in 20 countries.
Curt Freed: The goal of my laboratory is to convert human embryonic stem cells to dopamine neurons for implantation into patients with Parkinson's disease.
Jacob E. (Jed) Friedman: Fetal Origins of Obesity and Diabetes in Mouse, Monkey, and Man; Transcription factor Regulation of Metabolism.
Mayumi Fujita: The role of melanocyte stem cells and melanoma stem cells in melanomagenesis, melanoma progression and therapeutic resistance
James Hagman: My work focuses on mechanisms that drive the differentiation of stem cells or progenitors to activate B cell lineage-specific programs and undergo commitment.
Chris Hogan: My interests are in the self-renewal and developmental potential of various stem cell populations found in umbilical cord blood.
Hua Huang: Investigate interaction between adaptive immunity and bone marrow stem cells, study differentiation of allergic effector cells from bone marrow progenitors, and develop methods to expand hematopoietic stem cells in vitro.
William Janssen: I am interested in endothelial progenitor cell function in lung disease, including COPD and ARDS.
Antonio Jimeno: To bridge the lab and the clinic by
1) developing direct patient xenograft models of head and neck cancer to test new therapies and as a platform to study cancer stem cells, and
2) conducting Phase I clinical trials of agents targeted against de-regulated pathways and cancer stem cells.
Karen King: Ongoing research includes the measurement of the biological, biochemical, and biomechanical effects of in vivo mechanical load on articular joints, the effects of diabetes on bone and cartilage, and tissue engineering studies for the development of bone and cartilage grafts.
Dwight Klemm: My laboratory is interested in the contribution of bone marrow-derived stem cells to the adipocyte population of the major adipose depots.
Peter J. Koch: The role of cell adhesion molecules in normal development and diseases.
Maranke Koster: Transcriptional control of epidermal morphogenesis.
Chuan Li: Cancer stem cell behavior and mechanism in tumor therapy. Deciphering mechanisms of stem cell activation during wound healing. Mechanistic studies of mammalian cellular nuclear reprogramming.
Carlin Long: Our lab is interested in determining the importance of an open artery in cardiac regeneration as a function of how this effects the extent of bone marrow-derived stem cell (BMSC) integration into injured myocardium and cardiac function following BMSC mobilization. An additional interest is determining the factor(s) that are present in the post-infarct heart responsible for BMSC homing as well as the cell-specific source of these substances.
Shi-Long Lu: Understanding the mechanisms of the PI3K/PTEN/AKT signaling pathway in maintenance of tentative esophagus, oral, and skin stem cells in their tissue homeostasis, with focus on the roles of the tentative stem cells in development of squamous cell carcinoma in esophagus, oral cavity, and skin.
Susan Majka: The role for resident lung stem cells in pulmonary vascular tissue homeostasis and remodeling.
Stephen Malkoski: Identification of cancer stem cells in lung squamous cell carcinoma and targeting of these stem cells in preclinical chemotherapeutic trials.
Carrie McCurdy: Fetal programming of adult metabolic disease; skeletal muscle stem cells and diabetes.
Lee Niswander: Genetic mechanisms of neural progenitor fate and lung development.
Bradley Olwin: Regeneration of skeletal muscle by a self-renewing resident stem cell.
Manoj Pillai: Defining the role of stromal and accessory cells, (especially macrophages) in the regulation of the hematopoietic stem cell niche and subsequent hematopoietic lineage development.
Christopher Porter: Our lab is focused on the development of novel therapeutic strategies for hematopoietic diseases and leukemia, with particular emphasis on hematopoietic and leukemic stem cells.
Yosef Refaeli: The role of MYC in the regulation of hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal, proliferation, differentiation and survival.
Susan Reynolds: Roles for wnt/b-catenin signaling in cell fate determination within the tracheobronchial and bronchiolar stem cell hierarchies.
Dennis Roop: Understanding the role of epithelial stem cells in acquired and inherited diseases and developing corrective stem cell therapies.
Kurt Stenmark: The role of bone marrow derived mesenchymal precursor cells in hypoxia-induced hypertension and remodeling.
David H. Wagner Jr.: The laboratory is interested in autoreactive T cells, how these cells arise and mediate autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, and COPD , etc. We are beginning to examine the role of autoimmune T cells in COPD including emphysema. We have found a population of T cells, that express a unique marker. We show that these cells infiltrate various organs associated with autoimmune diseases, and importantly that we can functionally alter these cells. The focus of the lab is to continue characterizing these cells using flow cytometry, microscopy, molecular biology and disease transfer models. We also study T cell development in how they become auto-aggressive to attack in 1) pancreas 2) myelin sheaths in type 1 diabetes and MS.
Xiao-Jing Wang: Identification of cancer stem cells in head & neck cancer and skin cancer; studying stem cell fate decisions during skin development and cancer.
Trevor Williams: Our laboratory is interested in the transcription factors and signaling molecules that program cells in the early embryo to adopt either a trophoblast or embryonal cell fate. We are especially focused on the role of the transcription factor AP-2 gamma in this early stem cell fate decision.
Wenbo Zhou: I am interested in the purification of dopamine neurons from embryonic stem cells and the reprogramming of human somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells.