DUPUYTREN RESEARCH GROUP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Professor of Biochemistry
Dr. Van Wijnen is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Professor of Orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic. He has wide-ranging expertise in molecular mechanisms of musculoskeletal disease. His work includes investigation of RNA biomarkers in tissues affected by Dupuytren disease.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario
Dr. Leask is Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario and oversees the Leask Lab at the Schulich School of medicine and Dentistry. His research investigations focus on the relationships between genes and cell-matrix interactions in the abnormal biology of fibrotic diseases.
Dr. Hinz is Professor, Laboratory of Tissue Repair and Regeneration, Matrix Dynamics Group, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto. His interests include research of fibrocontractive diseases, biophysics and imaging techniques of cell contraction and motility, and cell-cell / cell-matrix interactions - key components of Dupuytren disease biology.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director of the Cellular and Molecular Biology Laboratory of the Roth McFarlane Hand
David B. O'Gorman is co-director of the Cellular and Molecular Biology Laboratory of the Roth McFarlane Hand and Upper Limb Centre (HULC) at St. Joseph's Healthcare. His focus of research is Dupuytren contracture, wound healing, fibrosis, and extracellular matrix interactions.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Oxford
Dr. Furniss is Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Oxford and a very active Surgeon Scientist at Oxford University. He established and leads the British Society for Surgery of the Hand Genetics of Dupuytren's Disease consortium (BSSH-GODD consortium) and has published extensively on Dupuytren research.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Surgeon With Extensive
Dr. Charles Eaton is a hand surgeon with extensive Dupuytren disease experience. He is the founder and executive director of the Dupuytren Research Group. He devised the IDDB research project and currently serves as chair of the Dupuytren Research Group Research Committee.
Dr. Charles Eaton is a triple board-certified hand surgeon with extensive Dupuytren experience. He established the Dupuytren Foundation in 2008 and has continued as Executive Director through its transition to the Dupuytren Research Group. Dr. Eaton has Dupuytren disease. He closed his clinical practice in 2012. He serves on advisory boards of the International, British and Canadian Dupuytren societies.
Dr. Gary Pess is a board-certified hand surgeon. He underwent extensive training in hand and upper extremity surgery and microsurgery at New York University, taught at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, and is now Senior Managing Partner of Central Jersey Hand Surgery. He is a lecturer and consultant on Dupuytren's contracture and minimally invasive hand surgery procedures.
Job Titles:
- Surgeon and Clinical Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at New York University School of Medicine
Dr. Keith Raskin is a board-certified hand surgeon and clinical associate professor of orthopedic surgery at New York University School of Medicine. With over twenty years of academic surgical experience, he has devoted his career to the diagnosis and treatment of upper extremity conditions. Dr. Raskin has published and lectured extensively in the field of upper extremity surgery.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Synthetic Systems Biology at the University of Amsterdam
Dr. Westerhoff is professor of synthetic systems biology at the University of Amsterdam and professor and chair of systems biology at the University of Manchester. He is a director of the Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology. He brings expertise in systems biology and personalized medicine to the design of the IDDB.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Director of the Diabetes
Dr. DiStefano is Professor and Director of the Diabetes, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases Division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute. Her work includes identifying relationships between genetic variants and molecular mechanisms of disease, a core component of IDDB research.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Michaud is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Co-Investigator at the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases (NDB). The NDB is the world's largest long-term observational data bank in rheumatology and provides the data backbone for Dupuytren Research Group IDDB research.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Dr. Satish is Research Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her research includes molecular biology and gene expression of Dupuytren disease. She received the 2016 International Dupuytren Society award for her work developing an animal model for Dupuytren disease.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Chandler Residential, Inc
Laura Holmes Jost is Vice President of Chandler Residential, Inc., a multifamily real estate company which has bought and managed over 8,000 apartments/condos in 30 complexes in Virginia, Florida, and Texas. She has held leadership positions in countless political campaigns and civic organizations including serving as a founding member of the Human Rights Commission in Arlington County, Virginia. Mrs. Jost received a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from George Washington University in 1984 and a Master of Business Administration from George Washington University in 1987. She was diagnosed with Dupuytren Disease at the age of 49.
Paul Werker MD PhD Professor Werker is Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery of the University of Groningen, which hosted the 2015 International Conference on Dupuytren Disease. He was an early advocate of large-scale genetic research for Dupuytren disease and remains a driving force in Dupuytren research.
Peter Geimer is a lawyer with more than 30 years experience with domestic and international commercial technology law. He has represented a range of commercial clients in law firms and served as General Counsel to a technology start-up. He has worked as Director of Technology Transactions law for Verizon, Regional Counsel for MCI, and Director of Business Management for Lucent Technologies. Mr. Geimer has provided pro bono work for a number of charitable organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. His current focus is research and strategic planning for the Dupuytren Research Group's International Dupuytren Data Bank.
Dr. Day is Reader in Synthetic Biology and Quantitative Genomics at Manchester University and Principal Investigator at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. IDDB biomarker analysis is based on his innovative work with aptamer array techniques.
Ilse Degreef is a professor of orthopaedic surgery, senior lecturer in Orthopaedic and hand surgery, and surgeon in chief at the Orthopaedic Department of Leuven University Hospitals. She maintains both full-time clinical practice at the Orthopaedic Department at Leuven University Hospitals in Leuven and active research in new biologic treatments for Dupuytren and other fibrotic diseases.
Dr. Bucala is Professor of Medicine (Rheumatology), of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Pathology at Yale School of Medicine. His extensive contributions to the fields of inflammation and immunology include the discovery of the fibrocyte, a unique cell involved in Dupuytren disease.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Psychiatry and Human Genetics at the UCLA School of Medicine
Dr. Ophoff is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Genetics at the UCLA School of Medicine. He has extensive experience in large-scale research of genetic susceptibility to human disease including Dupuytren disease.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research and Development
Dr. O'Hara is a Director of Research and Development in the area of molecular diagnostics with over 20 years of industry experience. His work spans from innovative biomarker discovery through development and test kit manufacturing in the fields of infectious diseases and circulating tumor cells. He is a co-inventor on 26 patent applications for methods of disease marker discovery and detection.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist at Evotec
Dr. Rehman is senior scientist at Evotec, Scientist at Infrastructure for Systems Biology Europe, and honorary staff at the University of Manchester. She pioneered the application of systems biology methods to analyze Dupuytren biology and continues with this in collaboration with the Dupuytren Research Group.
Dr. Kakar is Professor of Orthopaedics and surgeon scientist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is principal investigator of molecular studies on the pathogenesis and treatment of Dupuytren disease and principal investigator on several translational research grants. Dr Kakar has authored over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 30 book chapters and editor of 2 books relating to disorders of the hand and wrist.
Job Titles:
- CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of AC Kinetics
Stuart Landow is CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of AC Kinetics. He has over 30 years of business management and marketing experience. He has served as Senior Vice President of Purolator Products, marketing consultant to many multinational consumer and industrial entities, and CEO of Top Source Technologies, a technology development and marketing company that he listed on the American Stock Exchange. Mr. Landow holds a BS in Marketing from Farleigh Dickinson, served as an officer in the U.S. Military, and is the CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of AC Kinetics.
Job Titles:
- Technology and Media Executive
Tom Hardart is a technology and media executive and has overseen investments in more than 25 startups and media properties. He is the founder and partner at XOL Ventures, a venture capital firm. He is also a founder of Witnify, a digital media platform, and cofounder of Otolith Labs, a biotechnology company. Mr. Hardart was co-founder and CEO of Adirondack Pictures and was a senior executive at American Online (AOL) for more than eight years. He holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.