Members
Andreas Gahlmann
Andreas Gahlmann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Gahlmann leads an interdisciplinary research lab that focuses on two primary objectives: (i) Development of new quantitative 3D super-resolution microscopy methods for live cell imaging and (ii) Application of these methods to analyze molecular and cellular interactions inside intact cells and cellular communities. The Gahlmann lab has recently constructed a high-throughput 3D microscope capable of providing quantitative insights about spatial and temporal processes in living systems. One particular application of this microscope is the determination of the in-situ architectures of macromolecular assemblies in bacterial pathogens. Future work using a second microscope which is currently under construction will investigate the competition and cooperativity in mixes-species bacterial communities.
Andreas Gahlmann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Gahlmann leads an interdisciplinary research lab that focuses on two primary objectives: (i) Development of new quantitative 3D super-resolution microscopy methods for live cell imaging and (ii) Application of these methods to analyze molecular and cellular interactions inside intact cells and cellular communities. The Gahlmann lab has recently constructed a high-throughput 3D microscope capable of providing quantitative insights about spatial and temporal processes in living systems. One particular application of this microscope is the determination of the in-situ architectures of macromolecular assemblies in bacterial pathogens. Future work using a second microscope which is currently under construction will investigate the competition and cooperativity in mixes-species bacterial communities.
Kirsten Gelsdorf
Kirsten Gelsdorf is the Director of Global Humanitarian Policy and senior lecturer at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Kirsten brings 19 years of experience working in the humanitarian sector; most recently serving as the Chief of the Policy Analysis and Innovation section at the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Her career includes long-term field postings and operational deployments to numerous emergencies including the international responses where she helped coordinate responses to health crises. She also helped develop and promote the policies to link the response to HIV/AIDs, food insecurity, and poverty during the 6-country southern Africa crisis. She has led major policy processes and authored numerous high-profile policy reports documents that have been implemented by Member States and adopted in key UN resolutions. She has been the guest editor of Journal special editions and a Senior Researcher for Tufts University.
Kirsten Gelsdorf is the Director of Global Humanitarian Policy and senior lecturer at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Kirsten brings 19 years of experience working in the humanitarian sector; most recently serving as the Chief of the Policy Analysis and Innovation section at the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Her career includes long-term field postings and operational deployments to numerous emergencies including the international responses where she helped coordinate responses to health crises. She also helped develop and promote the policies to link the response to HIV/AIDs, food insecurity, and poverty during the 6-country southern Africa crisis. She has led major policy processes and authored numerous high-profile policy reports documents that have been implemented by Member States and adopted in key UN resolutions. She has been the guest editor of Journal special editions and a Senior Researcher for Tufts University.
Amanda Gibson
Amanda K Gibson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. The Gibson lab studies the evolution and ecology of infectious disease in natural populations. We’re particularly interested in the variety of genetic and environmental factors that can limit disease spread. We ask questions like: does genetic diversity limit disease transmission in host populations? Do migrating hosts spread disease, or purge pathogens from the population? We also look at these processes from the pathogen’s perspective. In particular, we’re interested in how parasites adapt to infect heterogeneous host populations that continually change in time and space. Our approach combines lab experiments, including experimental evolution, with theory and field collections. We do much of this work with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and its natural microsporidia parasite or with the agricultural nematode pest Meloidogyne and a bacterial parasite used as biological control. A central goal of our work is to develop and test fundamental theory on the transmission and evolution of infectious diseases.
Amanda K Gibson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. The Gibson lab studies the evolution and ecology of infectious disease in natural populations. We’re particularly interested in the variety of genetic and environmental factors that can limit disease spread. We ask questions like: does genetic diversity limit disease transmission in host populations? Do migrating hosts spread disease, or purge pathogens from the population? We also look at these processes from the pathogen’s perspective. In particular, we’re interested in how parasites adapt to infect heterogeneous host populations that continually change in time and space. Our approach combines lab experiments, including experimental evolution, with theory and field collections. We do much of this work with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and its natural microsporidia parasite or with the agricultural nematode pest Meloidogyne and a bacterial parasite used as biological control. A central goal of our work is to develop and test fundamental theory on the transmission and evolution of infectious diseases.
Carol Gilchrist
Globally an estimated one million children in low and middle-income countries die before their fifth birthday from enteric infections that result in diarrhea. The virulence of the major causes of diarrheal illness in these settings, the protozoan parasites Entamoeba and Cryptosporidium, is highly variable. My hypothesis is that both parasite genetics and host environment factors control the virulent phenotype and my current focus is on the use of molecular methods to identify the approaches that would be most effective in preventing disease.
Globally an estimated one million children in low and middle-income countries die before their fifth birthday from enteric infections that result in diarrhea. The virulence of the major causes of diarrheal illness in these settings, the protozoan parasites Entamoeba and Cryptosporidium, is highly variable. My hypothesis is that both parasite genetics and host environment factors control the virulent phenotype and my current focus is on the use of molecular methods to identify the approaches that would be most effective in preventing disease.
Jorge Giron
Jorge Girón is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Girón has over 20 years of experience in the field of bacterial pathogenesis, specifically in the discovery, structural, molecular and functional characterization of fimbrial adhesins in the different Escherichia coli pathogroups and other bacterial pathogens including Vibrio cholera, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycoplasma penetrans, Shigella spp., Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Brucella abortus. His work has contributed significantly to the understanding of the mechanisms of adherence and pathogenicity of several diarrheagenic E. coli groups and his papers are highly cited by many investigators in the field. In the role of PI, he established the groundwork for the research projects, managed staff, trained students and postdocs, wrote papers, presented data at national and international meetings, and managed timelines and budgets. Throughout his career Dr. Girón has collaborated and continues to collaborate, with many other researchers in the USA and overseas enriching the quality of his research as documented in his peer-reviewed publications.
Jorge Girón is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Girón has over 20 years of experience in the field of bacterial pathogenesis, specifically in the discovery, structural, molecular and functional characterization of fimbrial adhesins in the different Escherichia coli pathogroups and other bacterial pathogens including Vibrio cholera, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycoplasma penetrans, Shigella spp., Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Brucella abortus. His work has contributed significantly to the understanding of the mechanisms of adherence and pathogenicity of several diarrheagenic E. coli groups and his papers are highly cited by many investigators in the field. In the role of PI, he established the groundwork for the research projects, managed staff, trained students and postdocs, wrote papers, presented data at national and international meetings, and managed timelines and budgets. Throughout his career Dr. Girón has collaborated and continues to collaborate, with many other researchers in the USA and overseas enriching the quality of his research as documented in his peer-reviewed publications.
Don Griffin
Don Griffin is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering with a secondary appointment in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia. He received a Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, Davis in 2006. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011. Dr. Griffin develops biomaterial platforms for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that combine unique material chemistries, microscale geometries, and novel therapeutic delivery approaches. His research focuses on understanding how acellular scaffolds can control host tissue response and how material-tissue interactions can adapt over time towards equilibrium, including both resorbable and permanent material settings. His macroporous, injectable scaffolds employ both immobilized bioactive components to control surface-cell signaling and soluble signal gradients to control (and promote) tissue integration within the scaffold interior. His research spans basic science discovery to the design of new material therapies. In addition, Dr. Griffin founded a biomaterials-focused start-up company that is growing in San Diego, CA and commercializing the material platform he invented during his postdoctoral research. At UVA, his specific areas of interest include cutaneous wound healing and infection management, vocal tissue rehabilitation, articular cartilage regeneration, and volumetric muscle loss recovery. Dr. Griffin is a past recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Award and an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellow.
Don Griffin is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering with a secondary appointment in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia. He received a Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, Davis in 2006. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011. Dr. Griffin develops biomaterial platforms for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that combine unique material chemistries, microscale geometries, and novel therapeutic delivery approaches. His research focuses on understanding how acellular scaffolds can control host tissue response and how material-tissue interactions can adapt over time towards equilibrium, including both resorbable and permanent material settings. His macroporous, injectable scaffolds employ both immobilized bioactive components to control surface-cell signaling and soluble signal gradients to control (and promote) tissue integration within the scaffold interior. His research spans basic science discovery to the design of new material therapies. In addition, Dr. Griffin founded a biomaterials-focused start-up company that is growing in San Diego, CA and commercializing the material platform he invented during his postdoctoral research. At UVA, his specific areas of interest include cutaneous wound healing and infection management, vocal tissue rehabilitation, articular cartilage regeneration, and volumetric muscle loss recovery. Dr. Griffin is a past recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Award and an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellow.
Gianluca Guadagni
Gianluca Guadagni is a Lecturer in Applied Math in the Department of Engineering and Society in SEAS and affiliated with the Data Sciences Institute. Dr. Guadagni’s expertise is in mathematical modeling of [apparently] non-deterministic dynamics and randomness, which is typical of complex systems such as the evolution and spread of pandemic infectious diseases. He uses cutting-edge computational methods and data analysis tools to provide key insights into the analytical techniques of statistical mechanics.
Gianluca Guadagni is a Lecturer in Applied Math in the Department of Engineering and Society in SEAS and affiliated with the Data Sciences Institute. Dr. Guadagni’s expertise is in mathematical modeling of [apparently] non-deterministic dynamics and randomness, which is typical of complex systems such as the evolution and spread of pandemic infectious diseases. He uses cutting-edge computational methods and data analysis tools to provide key insights into the analytical techniques of statistical mechanics.
Richard Guerrant
Richard L. Guerrant, Thomas H. Hunter Professor of International Medicine, is Founding Director of the Center for Global Health at UVA, one of the first trans-University Centers for Global Health in the country in 2001, having chaired the Division of Geographic Medicine from 1979 before that. His longstanding research interest is in enteric infectious diseases. Dr. Guerrant has lived and worked in the Congo, Bangladesh and Brazil. Guerrant edits the major textbook on Tropical Infectious Diseases, among 5 other books, and is author of over 600 original scientific papers, major textbook chapters and reviews, including some 18 coauthored scientific publications with UVA’s 3 Nobel laureates, Gilman, Murad and Marshall. His work is focused on the recognition, diagnosis, pathogenesis, impact and treatment of enteric infections. With colleagues in Brazil, Guerrant’s research documents the effects of and potential solutions for diarrhea and enteric parasitic infections on the long-term physical and cognitive development in malnourished children. He is past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and recipient of its Walter Reed Medal, recipient of the Mentor Award of IDSA (2009), the University’s Distinguished Scientist Award (2009) and its highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award in 2010, was named Outstanding Scientist of Virginia in 2012 and was honored by the NFID with the Maxwell Finland Award in 2014. Elected to the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003, Guerrant chaired its Board on Global Health (2007-2013) and currently serves on its Forum on Public-Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety.
Richard L. Guerrant, Thomas H. Hunter Professor of International Medicine, is Founding Director of the Center for Global Health at UVA, one of the first trans-University Centers for Global Health in the country in 2001, having chaired the Division of Geographic Medicine from 1979 before that. His longstanding research interest is in enteric infectious diseases. Dr. Guerrant has lived and worked in the Congo, Bangladesh and Brazil. Guerrant edits the major textbook on Tropical Infectious Diseases, among 5 other books, and is author of over 600 original scientific papers, major textbook chapters and reviews, including some 18 coauthored scientific publications with UVA’s 3 Nobel laureates, Gilman, Murad and Marshall. His work is focused on the recognition, diagnosis, pathogenesis, impact and treatment of enteric infections. With colleagues in Brazil, Guerrant’s research documents the effects of and potential solutions for diarrhea and enteric parasitic infections on the long-term physical and cognitive development in malnourished children. He is past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and recipient of its Walter Reed Medal, recipient of the Mentor Award of IDSA (2009), the University’s Distinguished Scientist Award (2009) and its highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award in 2010, was named Outstanding Scientist of Virginia in 2012 and was honored by the NFID with the Maxwell Finland Award in 2014. Elected to the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003, Guerrant chaired its Board on Global Health (2007-2013) and currently serves on its Forum on Public-Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety.
William Guilford
William Guilford is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Medicine, and Director of Educational Innovation in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. His expertise is historically in the field of molecular biomechanics, including the mechanics of intermolecular bonds and molecular motors, and also the design of novel instrumentation and software. He recently began studying the mechanics of motility in the pathogenic parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Motility is vital to the lifecycle of this and related organisms, such as the causative agent of malaria, as it allows parasites to invade host cells. Dr. Guilford is using a laser trap to directly measure force generation by the motile apparatus of a living parasite, providing a fundamentally new viewpoint on this poorly understood mechanism. He is also working with clinicians in Infectious Disease (esp. Dr. Amy Mathers, and collaborators at the Centers for Disease Control) to understand and mitigate the spread of infectious diseases in clinical settings, and to more easily and effectively treat Clostridium difficile infections by fecal microbiota transplantation (Dr. Glynis Kolling). Finally, Dr. Guilford directs the undergraduate program in Biomedical Engineering, as well as the new Educational Innovation Awards program in the School of Engineering. Much of his scholarship has been in the domain of educational research, most recently on psychometrics for assessing non-cognitive learning.
William Guilford is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Medicine, and Director of Educational Innovation in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. His expertise is historically in the field of molecular biomechanics, including the mechanics of intermolecular bonds and molecular motors, and also the design of novel instrumentation and software. He recently began studying the mechanics of motility in the pathogenic parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Motility is vital to the lifecycle of this and related organisms, such as the causative agent of malaria, as it allows parasites to invade host cells. Dr. Guilford is using a laser trap to directly measure force generation by the motile apparatus of a living parasite, providing a fundamentally new viewpoint on this poorly understood mechanism. He is also working with clinicians in Infectious Disease (esp. Dr. Amy Mathers, and collaborators at the Centers for Disease Control) to understand and mitigate the spread of infectious diseases in clinical settings, and to more easily and effectively treat Clostridium difficile infections by fecal microbiota transplantation (Dr. Glynis Kolling). Finally, Dr. Guilford directs the undergraduate program in Biomedical Engineering, as well as the new Educational Innovation Awards program in the School of Engineering. Much of his scholarship has been in the domain of educational research, most recently on psychometrics for assessing non-cognitive learning.
Jennifer Guler
Jennifer Guler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. The Guler lab studies the human infective malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Dr. Guler has a strong background in molecular and biochemical parasitology from her training in some of the premier parasitology labs in the country. The Guler Malaria Lab broadly investigates the mechanisms of antimalarial resistance; they use a variety of innovative tools to understand both genetic and metabolic adaptation by the parasite. This work is highly collaborative, involving partnerships that span the UVa grounds (Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and the Division of Infectious Disease) and beyond (Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda). The lab attracts students from across grounds, generating a vibrant mix of biology, biomedical engineering, and biomedical science backgrounds.
Jennifer Guler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. The Guler lab studies the human infective malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Dr. Guler has a strong background in molecular and biochemical parasitology from her training in some of the premier parasitology labs in the country. The Guler Malaria Lab broadly investigates the mechanisms of antimalarial resistance; they use a variety of innovative tools to understand both genetic and metabolic adaptation by the parasite. This work is highly collaborative, involving partnerships that span the UVa grounds (Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and the Division of Infectious Disease) and beyond (Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda). The lab attracts students from across grounds, generating a vibrant mix of biology, biomedical engineering, and biomedical science backgrounds.