M-SURE Administration

Director

Ormond MacDougald

Ormond MacDougald, PhD

John A. Faulkner Collegiate Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Professor, Internal Medicine

Dr. MacDougald is the John A. Faulkner Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School(link is external). He received his education at the University of Guelph, Michigan State University, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. MacDougald's research program focuses on the regulation of adipocyte differentiation and metabolism.

Associate Director

Lei Yin, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Associate Professor, Internal Medicine

Dr. Yin is Assistant Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology. Dr. Yin’s lab investigates the functional link between insulin signaling and molecular clock in liver and its potential role in insulin resistance. Our initial results suggest that insulin signaling is tightly associated with circadian clock in liver cells, suggesting a functional crosstalk between these two pathways. We want to explore this finding using both cell culture and animal model. We have generated adenovirus for expressing or knocking down the core clock proteins and those reagents will be used to manipulate liver specific clock using tail-vein injection approach and then study insulin signaling and insulin function. The experimental approaches include RNA extractin, QPCR, protein isolation, immunoblotting as well as immunoprecipitation.

Xin Tong, MD, PhD

Tony Tong, MD, PhD

Research Associate Professor
Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Dr. Tong’s research focuses on posttranslational modifications of transcription factors in glucose and lipid metabolism. Specifically, Dr. Tong’s team has been using a combination of genetic, molecular and biochemical approaches to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying SUMOylation of the transcription factor E4BP4 in the liver as well as its role during liver steatosis and liver fibrosis in a variety of diet-induced fatty liver disease mouse models.

The Executive Committee members in addition to the above directors are:

Rodica Pop-Busui, MD, PhD

Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes
Current President of the American Diabetes Association

Her scholarship and research efforts on translational and clinical research focus on understanding the mechanisms of diabetic complications, particularly of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy. She will be an outstanding role model for those undergraduates interested in clinical and translational research.

Yatrik Shah, PhD

Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Former director of R25 on Enhancing Diversity in Gastrointestinal Research

Dr. Shah’s research focuses on determining    molecular mechanisms by which oxygen sensing transcription factors regulate gastrointestinal   homeostasis.

Kanakadurga (Durga) Singer, MD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics

Her scholarship is focused on understanding the influence of diet-induced obesity on hematopoiesis and the   generation of activated macrophages that lead to metabolic disease.

Student Program Administrator

Heather MacFarland, BS

Heather is the coordinator of the M-SURE Program. You can contact her at [email protected].