SANFORD HEALTH - Key Persons
Dr. Denison partners with Gilead Sciences and begins work with antiviral agents including Remdesivir to show their effectiveness against coronavirus.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Professor at the University of North Dakota
Dr. Anu Gaba is a Clinical Professor at the University of North Dakota and is an Investigator with the North Central Cancer Treatment Group. She is the Chair of Cancer Services, Sanford Roger Maris Cancer Center, Fargo, Adjunct Faculty, Sanford Research, and Attending Hematologist and Medical Oncologist. She is the principal investigator for breast cancer trials at the Cancer Center and has initiated trials in genomics and evaluation of racial health disparities. She graduated from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India, followed by residency in Internal Medicine at the Good Samaritan Hospital, affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD and a hematology/oncology fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY. She has a special interest in breast cancer, gynecological cancers, brain cancers and cancer genomics. She is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Oncology and Hematology. She received the Innovator Award for the year 2017 by Sanford Health, Fargo and was nominated for the YWCA Woman of the year 2018 in the field of science.
Dr. Mark Atkinson is the American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar for Diabetes Research and the Jeffrey Keene Family Professor at The University of Florida, where he also serves as Director for their Diabetes Institute. The author of over 600 publications, he is now in his 38th year of investigation into the field of type 1 diabetes (T1D). He has been the recipient of multiple scientific and humanitarian based awards for these efforts.
Dr. Atkinson has been active in a leadership service to the T1D community, with active administrative or advisory service to JDRF, ADA, The National Institutes of Health (NIH), The Immunology of Diabetes Society (IDS), and a variety of companies from the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Dr. Atkinson is an internationally recognized authority on multiple aspects pertaining to T1D, with particular interests in disease prediction and prevention, the role for environment in the initiation of the disease, stem cells and pancreatic regeneration, identifying markers of tolerance and immunoregulation, and the identification of biological agents as a means to cure the disease and prevent it's complications. Indeed, Expertscape (an organization that tracks scientific citations of researchers) notes that Dr. Atkinson was the second most cited authority of over 65,000 investigators in the world in all categories of diabetes, over the last decade.
Finally, Dr. Atkinson is active at a global level for causes related to the care and treatment of those in the third world; especially and including persons with T1D. For this cause, he serves as the founding President of Insulin for Life USA, and is an Advisor to Life for the International Diabetes Federation's Life for a Child Program.
2020 will be known as the year of the coronavirus. But for Dr. Mark Denison, it's been his focus for more than 30 years. Dr. Denison was the first to discover the virus' ability to "proofread" itself for mutations, a groundbreaking revelation for the field and his driving force to research antiviral treatments that could defeat it. Thanks to Dr. Denison, we now have Remdesivir, the only FDA-approved treatment for coronavirus. For his tenacity and willingness to think outside the box for the greater good, he's nominated for the Sanford Lorraine Cross Award.
When Dr. Mark Denison started his career, he didn't know he was destined to become an authority on one of the world's largest health threats.
"I don't think I could spell pipette, let alone hold one, when I started," he says. Not until he started a fellowship with Dr. Stanley Perlman did he take an interest in investigating medicine's unanswered questions.
"I was confronted with doing the same experiment over and over again without it succeeding," Dr. Denison says. "And then finally I found a way to make that work. I think that taught me a lot about my tenacity."
Through a side project, Dr. Denison started studying coronaviruses - an RNA virus known for its flexibility and resilience. Though a household term today, coronaviruses weren't widely researched in the 80s and 90s, and some scientists thought studying them was a dead end.
"There have been many points where I was on the last version of a grant," says Dr. Denison. "I can remember at least one anecdote where a high-level scientist stood in my doorway and said, ‘You seem like a bright young man. If you just find something important to work on, it would really be useful.'"
This didn't deter Dr. Denison, and he continued researching coronaviruses to uncover a potential weakness. In 2007, he found it.
While most RNA viruses don't correct mutations, Dr. Denison found that coronaviruses are different. Instead, they contain a protein that acts as a proofreader, looking for mistakes so the virus doesn't incorporate problems when it replicates. This breakthrough was huge for the virology field, as the concept of an RNA virus having a proofreader wasn't in textbooks anywhere.
Dr. Denison's open mind and unusual way of looking at problems helped him discover this insight where others may not have been looking.
"I like new ideas," he says. "I like to test beyond what we're thinking about and say, ‘why are we thinking of it this way?'"
This discovery gave Dr. Denison and his colleagues a window into how to beat the virus - by blocking its proofreading function. Next, his lab started working to find antiviral treatments that could do just that.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease that affects 70,000 people worldwide. But for years, little was known about it. Dr. Michael Welsh pioneered the field of CF by identifying how it disrupts the lungs. He went on to study four kinds of genetic mutation that cause the disease and prove they can be treated, developing a roadmap that guided drug creation for life-saving therapies for 90% of patients. For his compassion and dedication to a cure, he's nominated for the Sanford Lorraine Cross Award.
Dr. Michael Welsh was born and raised in Iowa. But his discoveries in cystic fibrosis have reached the farthest parts of the globe, impacting patients around the world.
"When I started, what we knew about cystic fibrosis was pretty limited," says Dr. Welsh.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Distinguished Professor
Dr. William Mobley is a Distinguished Professor of Neurosciences and Associate Dean for Neurosciences Initiatives at the University of California, San Diego. He came to UCSD in June of 2009 from Stanford University where he served as the John E. Cahill Family Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and was the founding director of the Neuroscience Institute. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California in Neuro- & Behavioral Science in 1974 and an M.D. from the same institution in 1976. Dr. Mobley completed an internship in Pathology in 1977, and a Pediatric residency in 1979, both at Stanford University and then completed a residency and fellowship in Neurology and Pediatric Neurology at The Johns Hopkins University in 1982. While there, he was selected to serve as Chief Resident in Pediatric Neurology from 1981 to 1982. In 1983, he was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and in 1987 by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with Special Competence in Child Neurology. He is a Past President of the Association of University Professors of Neurology, the Professors of Child Neurology, and the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (2001) and in 2004 was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine). In 2006, Dr. Mobley was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 2011 received the International Sisley-Jérôme Lejeune Prize for research in Down Syndrome and in 2014 was named to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. Dr. Mobley currently serves as President of the T21 Research Society. In 2019 he was appointed interim Director of the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion. His research focuses on the biology of Alzheimer disease, especially as manifest in those with Down syndrome. It encompasses studies that extend from basic cellular mechanisms to the discovery of treatments and to the compassionate care of these individuals.
Keith L. March, MD, PhD, FACC, has dedicated his career to bringing new medical approaches to patients. His publications include more than 170 manuscripts. He was the editor of the first book dedicated to cardiovascular gene transfer. Dr. March's research has resulted in more than 60 worldwide (20+ U.S.) patents, with others pending. He invented the Closer, a widely-utilized patented suture-mediated closure device, used to close the puncture wound in an artery following heart catheterization. This device allows a patient to "walk off the table" after a catheterization without requiring prolonged bedrest. In 1999, Abbott Vascular, an affiliate of Abbott Laboratories, acquired the company that developed this technology; and the Closer approach has been used worldwide to treat more than 9,000,000 patients. He has served as a scientific advisor to numerous pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. More recently, he co-founded Theratome Bio, based on a patented platform of technology originating in his laboratory that establishes the therapeutic factors secreted by stem cells as powerful therapeutics for critical medical needs, including degenerative and ischemic diseases of the nervous system. With FDA input, Theratome Bio is pursuing this off-the-shelf approach to markedly reduce stroke and prolong quality life in ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), as two near-term goals.
His laboratory focuses on vascular biology, with a particular emphasis on the function and translational study of stem cells found in the adipose (fat) tissue, which his laboratory identified as cells with critical roles in blood vessel growth and control of inflammation. Dr. March is recognized as a leading expert in the field of adult stem cell research, particularly that involving adipose-derived stem cells. From 2008-2012, he was Chair of the National Institutes of Health Data and Safety Monitoring Board that oversees cell therapy trials in the areas of heart, lung, and blood diseases. Since 2012, he has been an investigator in the Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network (CCTRN), involving seven lead centers in the USA working together to conduct NIH-sponsored cell therapy clinical trials. He has spearheaded FDA approval to conduct multiple U.S. trials employing one's own fat-derived stem cells or umbilical cord lining-derived stem cells, including an ongoing trial (SUCCESS) to test these cells in the treatment of COVID-19, and three cell-based therapy trials authorized by FDA in early 2021, addressing critical medical needs in other pediatric and adult patient populations.
In addition to his research roles, Dr. March has served as the President (2007) of the International Federation of Adipose Therapeutics and Science (IFATS), and on the IFATS Board as well as other advisory committees and boards in the field. He continues to work to advance collaboration as well as public awareness about the significance of adult stem cells, and to provide consultative assistance in obtaining FDA approval for cell-based therapies. During the recent pandemic, he developed a complementary passion for advancing a disruptive digital health model using a high-touch patient-centered approach to improve wellness. This vision is being implemented by the team of Kindly Reminders, LLC.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa
Kym Boycott is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa in Canada, where she is a Clinical Geneticist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), Chair of the Department of Genetics, and a Senior Scientist at the CHEO Research Institute. Dr. Boycott is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Rare Disease Precision Health whose research program bridges clinical genomics to basic research and is focused on understanding the molecular pathogenesis of rare diseases to improve patient care and family well-being. She leads the national Care4Rare Canada Consortium integrating genomic and other -omic technologies to improve our understanding of rare disease, with a particular focus on solving the unsolved and most difficult rare diseases. To leverage these discoveries, she co-leads the Canadian Rare Diseases: Models & Mechanisms Network, established to catalyze connections between newly discovered rare disease genes and basic scientists who can rapidly study them in model systems. Globally, she moves the rare disease agenda forward as part of the Global Commission to End the Diagnostic Odyssey for Children.
Dr. Lynne Maquat is the J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair, Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics who holds concomitant appointments in Pediatrics and in Oncology, Founding Director of the Center for RNA Biology, and Founding Chair of Graduate Women in Science at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY. After obtaining her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and undertaking post-doctoral work at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, she joined Roswell Park Cancer Institute before moving to the University of Rochester.
Job Titles:
- Associate Scientist at Sanford Research
Michael Kareta, PhD is an Associate Scientist at Sanford Research, and an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. His laboratory is focused on the underlying mechanisms of tumor initiation, clonal evolution, and treatment resistance in cancer. They utilize genetically engineered mouse models and ex vivo models of tumors including cell lines and organoid culture combined with large-scale genomic data and single cell technologies to investigate these fascinating cancer mechanisms. It is their goal that by understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying many devasting cancers, including small cell lung cancer, that they can drive new therapeutic options and improve the outlook for patients. As an educator, Dr. Kareta is also heavily invested in the training of future scientists who will continue to drive innovative research and improve healthcare for the future.
Dr. Welsh begins teaching at the University of Iowa as an assistant professor and pursues his passion for research.