Principal Investigators

Principal Investigators VARI Leadership Peter Jones Scott Jewell Peter Jones, Ph.D., D.Sc., is a Scott Jewell, Ph.D., leads pioneer in epigenetics, a growing Van Andel Research Institute’s field that explores how genes Core Technologies and Services, are regulated and provides new which provides technology and avenues for developing therapies specialized expertise for research for cancer and other diseases. His investigators. Cores and services discoveries have helped usher in an entirely new include bioinformatics and biostatistics, cryo- EM, class of drugs that have been approved to treat optical imaging, flow cytometry, genomics, pathology blood cancer and are being investigated in other and biorepository, small-animal imaging, vivarium tumor types. Dr. Jones is a member of the National management and transgenics. Jewell is a past Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of president of the International Society for Biological Arts & Sciences. He and his colleague Dr. Stephen and Environmental Repositories (ISBER). Baylin co-lead the Van Andel Research Institute– Stand Up To Cancer Epigenetics Dream Team. Dr. Jones is the Institute’s chief scientific officer and Steven J. Triezenberg director of its Center for Epigenetics. Steven J. Triezenberg, Ph.D., explores the genetic and epigenetic control Patrik Brundin systems of viruses to understand how infections progress and to Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., reveal new ways to stop them. His investigates molecular discoveries with herpes simplex mechanisms in Parkinson’s viruses have opened up new possibilities for antiviral disease with the goal of drug development and have revealed new insights developing new therapies into how human cells control gene expression. In aimed at slowing or stopping addition to running a lab at VARI, Dr. Triezenberg is the disease progression or repairing damage. founding dean of Van Andel Institute Graduate School. He is one of the top-cited researchers in the field of neurodegenerative disease and leads international efforts to repurpose drugs to treat Parkinson’s. Brundin is director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Science and associate director of research for VARI. Bart Williams Bart Williams, Ph.D., studies the building blocks of bone growth on behalf of the millions suffering from diseases such as osteoporosis. He seeks new ways of altering cell signaling pathways to encourage healthy bone development and deter the spread of cancer to the skeleton. Williams is director of the Center for Cancer and Cell Biology. 1 Van Andel Research Institute | 1 Center for Epigenetics Research areas: Epigenetics, cancer, heart disease, neuroepigenetics, development, blood cancers and structural biology Stephen Baylin Huilin Li Stephen Baylin, M.D., studies the Huilin Li, Ph.D., uses cryo-electron body’s genetic control systems — microscopy (cryo-EM) to reveal called epigenetics — searching for the most basic building blocks of vulnerabilities in cancer. Baylin is a DNA replication and other systems leader in this field, ranking among the vital for life. He has been at the first to trace epigenetic causes of cancer. vanguard of cryo-EM for more than His studies have led to new therapies for common cancers, 20 years, and his research has implications for some like breast, lung, colorectal and many others. He is co- of the world’s most critical public health concerns, leader of the VARI–SU2C Epigenetics Dream Team with including tuberculosis, cancer, mental illness and Dr. Peter Jones, co-director of Johns Hopkins’ Cancer many more. He is a professor in the Center for Biology Division and associate director for research at Epigenetics. Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Stefan Jovinge Gerd Pfeifer Stefan Jovinge, M.D., Ph.D., develops Gerd Pfeifer, Ph.D., studies how the ways to help the heart heal itself and body switches genes on and off, a has led dozens of clinical trials in biological process called methylation regenerative medicine. As a critical care that, when faulty, can lead to cancer cardiologist and scientist, he uses a or other diseases. His studies range bench-to-bedside approach in an effort from the effects of tobacco smoke to give patients with serious heart conditions longer, on genetic and epigenetic systems healthier lives. The clinical platform for his research is the to the discovery of a mechanism that may help protect Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit at Spectrum Health’s the brain from neurodegeneration. Pfeifer’s studies Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center, and the basic science have implications across a range of diseases, including effort in regenerative medicine is performed at VARI. He cancer, Parkinson’s, diabetes and many others. Pfeifer serves as director of the DeVos Cardiovascular Research is a professor in the Center for Epigenetics. Program. Peter W. Laird Scott Rothbart Peter W. Laird, Ph.D., seeks a detailed Scott Rothbart, Ph.D., studies the ways understanding of the molecular in which cells pack and unpack DNA. foundations of cancer with a particular This complex process twists and coils focus on identifying crucial epigenetic roughly two meters of unwound DNA alterations that convert otherwise into a space less than one-tenth the healthy cells into cancer cells. He is width of a human hair. Although this widely regarded as an international leader in this effort process is impressive, it is also subject to errors that can and has helped design some of the world’s state-of-the cause cancer and other disorders. Rothbart seeks new art tools to aid in epigenetics research. Laird is a principal targets for drug development in this process. He is an investigator for the National Cancer Institute’s Genome assistant professor in the Center for Epigenetics. Data Analysis Network and played a leadership role in The Cancer Genome Atlas, a multi-institutional effort to molecularly map cancers. He is a professor in the Center for Epigenetics. Van Andel Research Institute | 2 Hui Shen Timothy J. Triche, Jr. Hui Shen, Ph.D., develops new As a statistician and computational approaches to cancer prevention, biologist with an interest in clonal detection and treatment by evolution and cancers of the blood, studying the interaction between Tim Triche, Jr.’s, Ph.D., work focuses genes and their control systems, on wedding data-intensive molecular called epigenetics. Her research phenotyping to adaptive clinical focuses on women’s cancers, particularly ovarian trial designs in an effort to accelerate the pace of cancer, and has shed new light on the underlying drug targeting and development in rare or refractory mechanisms of other cancer types, including breast, diseases. Triche is an assistant professor in the Center kidney and prostate cancers. She is an assistant for Epigenetics. professor in the Center for Epigenetics. Piroska Szabó Piroska Szabó, Ph.D., studies the flow of epigenetic information from parents to their offspring, with a focus on how epigenetic markers are remodeled during egg and sperm production and how these markers are rewritten after fertilization. These processes have profound implications for fertility and embryo development. Disturbances in epigenetic remodeling are thought to contribute to disease conditions lasting well into adulthood. Szabó is an associate professor in the Center for Epigenetics. Center for Neurodegenerative Science Research areas: Parkinson’s disease, depression/suicide, aging, prion disease, Alzheimer’s disease and neuroepigenetics Lena Brundin Gerhard Coetzee As a psychiatrist and a scientist, Lena Gerhard Coetzee, Ph.D., searches Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., seeks ways to the human genome for minuscule diagnose and treat depression and changes that contribute to the onset, suicidality by studying inflammation progression and drug resistance of of the nervous system. Her findings many diseases, including cancer, may lead to earlier interventions Parkinson’s and rare and heritable for depressive patients and for the development of a disorders. His team deploys genome sequencing new class of antidepressants that targets the immune technologies and high-powered computational arrays system. She also investigates how inflammatory to tease out patterns and interactions of markers and mechanisms can damage nerve cells in Parkinson’s treatment targets from among the human genome’s disease. She is an associate professor in the Center for more than three billion DNA base pairs. Coetzee is a Neurodegenerative Science. professor in the Center for Neurodegenerative Science. 2 Van Andel Research Institute | 3 Jeffrey Kordower Darren Moore Jeffrey Kordower, Ph.D., is an Darren Moore, Ph.D., seeks new international authority on the onset diagnostic and treatment approaches of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and for Parkinson’s by investigating the Huntington’s diseases, and works inherited form of the disease, which to develop new procedures aimed accounts for 5 to 10 percent of cases. at slowing disease progression or He aims to translate the understanding reversing damage to the brain. He holds a primary of these genetic mutations into better treatments and appointment at Rush University in Chicago and is new diagnostic tools for Parkinson’s, both inherited a Director’s Scholar at VARI, where he focuses on and non-inherited. Discoveries in Moore’s lab routinely designing preclinical studies and clinical trials to elucidate the faulty molecular interactions that transform translate these new approaches into meaningful healthy, functioning neurons into diseased ones. Moore is changes for people suffering

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