Areas of Research

Cardiac

John Elefteriades, MD, Professor
Genetics of thoracic aortic aneurysms; novel heart transplantation technique.

Graeme Hammond, MD, Emeritus
Genetic Methods to Effect Xenograft Transplantation; MHC Suppression as a model for transplant tolerance.

George Tellides, MD, Associate Professor/C-S Track
Dr. Tellides has achieved recognition for furthering the understanding of basic mechanisms of arteriosclerosis. He was awarded the Hellman Family Fellowship Award by Yale for his research.

Emergency Medicine

Gail D’Onofrio, MD FACEP, Professor/C-E Track
Dr. D’Onofrio is involved in research related to prevention, early detection and intervention of alcohol-related problems. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is providing funding to Dr. Gail D’Onofrio to examine strategies for enhancing screening and brief interventions in medical settings. Involved in research regarding screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT). She has been involved in many federally funded initiatives including the development of the strategic plan for training all health professionals in SBI, funded by HRSA, AMERSA and SAMHSA (Substance Abuse 2004); the NIAAA advisory board for National Alcohol Screening Day; and a NIDA funded grant for training chief residents in all disciplines.

Sandra Bogucki, MD, PhD, Associate Professor/C-E Track
Investigating the use of oximetry in self-contained breathing apparatus for firefighter physiology monitoring through a grant by the National Istitutes of.

David Cone, MD, Associate Professor/C-E Track
Research into emergency medical dispatch systems effects on EMS resources (funded by the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch.) Dr. Cone, the current National Association of EMS Physicians president, is also examining mass casualty triage in cooperation.

Linda Degutis, DrPH, Associate Professor/C-E Track
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is providing funding to Dr. Linda Degutis and to examine strategies for enhancing screening and brief interventions in medical settings. Dr. Degutis also has funding from the National Institute of Health.

Leigh Evans, MD, Assistant Professor/C-E Track
Resident education in Trauma Care, Airway Management.

Gregory Larkin, MD, Professor/C-E Track
Mental health causes and consequences of injury; biostatistics; mathematical modeling; public health; suicide.

Christopher Moore, MD, Assistant Professor
Dr. Christopher Moore is the ultrasound program director, is examining ways to measure pretest probability of pulmonary emboli through grants from the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Brain Institute. This is a multi-center collaboration.

Basmah Safdar, MD, Assistant Professor
Dr. Safdar is interested in pain research in the Emergency Department. As the Director of the Chest Pain Center and as a member of the Steering Committee of Women’s Heart Advantage Initiative, she also has a focused interest in cardiovascular research.

Carin Van Gelder, MD, Assistant Professor
Examining heat storage in working firefighters.

Endocrine/General Surgery

Sanziana Roman, MD, Assistant Professor/C-E Track
The effects of surgery on psychiatric and cognitive disorders in hyperparathyroidism; quality of life in oncology patients after surgery; thyroid cancer information on the internet.

Julie Ann Sosa, MA, MD, Assistant Professor
Outcomes research in endocrine and transplant surgery

Robert Udelsman, MD, MBA, Professor
Endocrine surgery; surgery of the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal glands, and endocrine pancreas; outpatient minimally invasive parathyroidectomy and laparascopic adrenalectomy; surgery for thyroid nodules and cancer, parathyroid disease, adrenal diseases and endocrine cancer.

Gastrointestinal/General Surgery

Walter Longo, MD, Professor
Colon and rectal cancer surgery; inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); benign and malignant anorectal diseases; pelvic floor disorders, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis.

Robert Bell, MD, Assistant Professor
New applications in laparoscopic surgery; Laparoscopic bariatric surgery.
Metabolic changes following bariatric surgery.

Andrew Duffy, MD, Assistant Professor
Surgical skills training; virtual reality surgical simulation; clinical outcomes for bariatrics; hernia; colon surgery.

John Geibel, MD, DSc, Professor
Gastrointestinal physiology, specifically ion transport in the stomach and colon, using a series of intracellular fluorescent indicators.
Gastric Acid Secretion, Colonic Fluid Transport, Renal Physiology, Intracellular Ion Activity Measurements, Calcium Sensing Receptor.

Irvin Modlin, MD, Professor
Neuroendocrine tumors; carcinoid disease; molecular markers of neuroendocrine disease; radiopeptide therapy; gastric acid secretion; parietal cell function; acid peptic disease; esophagitis; Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).

Gross Anatomy

Lawrence Rizzolo, Ph.D., Associate Professor/C-E Track
The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE); research focuses on the development and regulation of RPE tight junctions.

William Stewart, Ph.D., Professor
Examining the basis for the neurologic deficits resulting from perinatal hypoxia.

Neuropathology

Laura Manuelidis, MD, Professor
Focuses on clinical and experimental models of dementia. The goal is to elucidate the mechanisms of infection in Transmissible Encephalopathies (TSEs), and to delineate how the host responds to infection.

Oncology/General Surgery

Ronald Salem, MD, Professor/C-E Track
Pancreas tumors including Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms (IPMN); esophagus cancer; metastatic tumors to the liver.

Charles Cha, MD, Assistant Professor

Donald Lannin, MD, Professor
Role of PCR in sentinel lymph node biopsy
Surgery exclusively for benign and malignant diseases of the breast, including breast cancer; procedures: high-risk screening; breast biopsy; sentinel lymph node biopsy; ductal lavage; ductoscopy.

Otolarynogolgy

Douglas Ross, MD, Professor
Adult and pediatric maxillo-facial injuries; facial reconstructive surgery; endoscopic nasal and sinus surgery; surgery of sinus, larynx, pharynx and nose neoplasms; surgical treatment of maxillo-facial injuries; diagnostic and therapeutic broncho-esophag.

Joseph Santos-Sacchi, Ph.D, Professor
Auditory Physiology.

Clarence Sasaki, MD, Professor
Laryngeal physiology; head and neck cancer.

Pediatrics

Christopher Breuer, MD, Assistant Professor
Minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery for neonates, newborns, infants and children; neonatal surgery, including prenatal consultation, fetal intervention and postnatal surgical care; extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO); esophageal atresia; necrotizing enterocolitis; intestinal atresia.

Lawrence Moss, MD, Professor
Outcomes research in Pediatric Surgery; surgery for necrotizing entercolitis; evidence-based surgery
Yale Center for Children’s Surgical Research; separating conjoined twins; surgical repair of complex pelvic malformations; minimally invasive pediatric surgery; extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a sophisticated infant life-support system.

Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery

Michael Centrella, PhD, Professor
Molecular aspects of bone growth factor and receptor expression and activity.

Thomas McCarthy, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Hormonal and molecular control of IGF-I expression and TGF-b function in osteoblasts. Osteoblast gene expression, including steroid hormone interactions with signaling pathways that control gene expression.

Deepak Narayan, MD, Associate Professor
Breast reconstruction; melanoma; head and neck reconstruction; pediatric plastic surgery; oncologic reconstruction (head, neck and breast); skin cancer; melanoma; vascular malformations; facial nerve palsy paralysis repair; salivary-gland tumors.

John Persing, MD, Professor
Outcomes research in Plastic Surgery; results of surgery for craniofacial syndromes in children
Craniofacial disorders; cosmetic surgery; craniofacial trauma; cranial base tumor surgery; vascular anomalies; skin cancer; melanoma.

Thoracic

Frank Detterbeck, MD, Professor
Cancer biology; cancer imaging techniques; prognostic markers of cancer; multimodality (multiple therapies for) treatment of cancer; evidence-based medicine.

Transplantation

Sanjay Kulkarni, MD, Assistant Professor
Weight reduction in obese renal-disease patients.

Trauma

Kimberly Davis, MD, Associate Professor
Inflammation and infection; trauma, surgical critical care; emergency and elective general surgery; re-operative surgery; sepsis and resuscitation.

Lewis Kaplan, MD, Associate Professor
Acid-base physiology; shock; acute lung injury; re-operative abdominal surgery; surgical infections.

Vascular

Bauer Sumpio, MD, PhD, Professor
Molecular biology and physiology of vascular endothelial cells; Mechanical forces and cytokine response
Diabetic foot disease; cerebrovascular disease; peripheral vascular disease; wound healing; atherosclerosis and hemodynamics.

Alan Dardik, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor
Molecular regulation of endothelial cells
Effects of hemodynamic forces on blood vessels.

Urology

Harris Foster, MD, Professor
Benign prostatic hyperplasis clinical trials; interstitial cystitis clinical trials: basic science investigations into changes in receptor system in the prostate in response to treatment with standard pharmacotherapies.

Edward Uchio, MD
Urologic oncology; molecular basis of genitor-urinary malignancies; prostate – MET receptor function in metastatic prostate cancer; predictors of mortality in prostate cancer; clinical trials- chemotherapy in high risk prostate cancer, bone metastasis in prostate cancer; renal- aging effects on the von Hippel Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor pathway in the development of renal carcinoma; bladder cancer- the use of spectral and spatial information to improve the utility of urine cytology.

Charles Walker, MD, Assistant Professor
Urological oncology; laparoscopy; minimally invasive surgery; prosthetic surgery.

Robert Weiss, MD, Professor
Receptor pharmacology and signal transduction in smooth muscle; Effects of age and diabetes on endothelin; The NFkB/akt signal transduction pathway; Role of NO in urinary tract infections; Role of survivin in bladder cancer
Smooth muscle pharmacology and signal transduction; interstitial cystitis.