Dr. W. Robert “Bob” Taylor holds joint appointments in the Department of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He is a professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, the Marcus Chair in Vascular Medicine, executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine, and the director of the Division of Cardiology. 

He serves as principal investigator for a five-year, $51 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Emory-led Georgia CTSA, which includes partners from Georgia Tech, Morehouse, and the University of Georgia, focuses on transforming the quality and value of clinical research and translating research results into better outcomes for patients.

Dr. Taylor received his M.D., cum laude, from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. in Physiology from The Johns Hopkins University. After completing his Internal Medicine Training at Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Hospital in 1988, he came to the Emory University School of Medicine for subspecialty training in Cardiovascular Disease. 

Dr. Taylor's research interests are focused in the area of vascular biology with an emphasis on vascular biomechanics, inflammation, and regenerative medicine. He is also the Emory PI for the NIH-funded Georgia CTSA. Studies carried out by his group include both laboratory-based studies and translational work in humans.

Shu Takayama earned his BS and MS in Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Tokyo. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California studying bio-organic synthesis with Dr. Chi‐Huey Wong. He then worked as a postdoc with Dr. George Whitesides at Harvard University where he focused on applying microfluidics to studying cell and molecular biology.

Takayama began his career at the University of Michigan, where led his lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Macromolecular Science & Engineering for over 17 years. In 2017, the lab moved to Georgia Tech where Shu became the Georgia Research Alliance Price Gilbert Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Takayama’s research interests are diverse and motivated by clinical and biotechnology needs. He is always interested in hearing from stakeholders in these areas who are seeking engineering collaboration.

Mark Styczynski is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), doing research at the interface of synthetic and systems biology as applied to metabolic systems. His synthetic biology work focuses on the development of low-cost, minimal-equipment biosensors for the diagnosis of nutritional deficiencies in the developing world. His systems biology work uses computational and experimental methods to characterize metabolic dynamics and regulation using metabolomics data. He has received young investigator awards from the NSF, DARPA, and ORAU. He has won multiple department-and institute-level teaching awards at Georgia Tech. He founded and was the first president of the Metabolomics Association of North America (MANA), and is a Council Member in the Engineering BiologyResearch Consortium.

Educational Experience:
Ph.D., Ecology & Evolution, Florida International University, B.Sc. (Hons), Zoology with Conservation, University of Wales
Research Interests:
Evolutionary ecology, community ecology, species interactions, microevolution, macroevolution, herpetology, global change biology, climate change, invasive species, functional morphology

Overview:
Welcome to the Stroud Lab!

Our goal is to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for driving patterns of biodiversity across space and time. To do that, we study the evolutionary ecology of lizards: a fascinating and hyper-diverse group of organisms.

Our approach is highly multidisciplinary, integrating ecology, evolution, behavior, physiology, biomechanics, and natural history. To do this, we combine field studies in the wild with macro-ecological and evolutionary analyses.

For more information on our key research themes please take a look at our website (above; soon to be updated) and please get in contact if any of our research interests you!

Streelman grew up in Chestertown Md, where he developed a keen interest in the outdoors. He graduated with a BS in Biology from Bucknell University. While there, he attended a semester (plus one cold winter-mester) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole Massachusetts — where a chance encounter with Les Kaufman, Karel Liem, a few jars of pickled fish and a dental X-ray technician led to his lifelong love of cichlids. Streelman won the Pangburn Scholar-Athlete award (lacrosse) at BU. As a PhD student with Stephen Karl, Streelman developed approaches to identify, clone and sequence multiple, independent single-copy nuclear loci to reconstruct accurate phylogenies for cichlid fishes and their relatives. These phylogenies changed perspective about how these species groups evolved, and allowed new and improved inference about the evolutionary history of key ecological traits. Multi-locus phylogenies are now the standard in the field. 

As a postdoc in Tom Kocher’s lab and then a young investigator at Georgia Tech, Streelman worked on the first unbiased quantitative genetic (QTL) studies in Malawi cichlids, some of the first such studies in evolutionary systems. In particular, work showed that adaptive features of the cichlid jaw and the striking orange-blotch color polymorphism had a simple genetic basis.  

Streelman was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Faculty Research Fellow and a NSF CAREER Awardee.  

Over the past two decades as an independent investigator, with support from the NSF, NIH and the Human Frontier Science Program, Streelman’s group has pioneered genomic and molecular biology approaches in the Malawi cichlid system to solve problems difficult to address in traditional model organisms. Major projects include (i) tooth and taste bud patterning and regeneration; (ii) the underpinnings of complex behavior; and (iii) developmental diversification of the face and brain.  

Generally, we are captivated by context-dependent traits like development and behavior because they must be executed in space and time with exquisite control. We analyze and manipulate genomes and development in multiple species of Malawi cichlids, spanning divergence in embryonic/adult traits and behavior – and collaborate with folks studying these same traits in zebrafish, mouse and human. In 2014, Streelman helped to coordinate a large effort to sequence the genomes of five East African cichlids, including one from Lake Malawi. This was a landmark for our research community and has recast attention to genome-wide approaches. We are motivated by the prospect to dissect evolutionary change with genetic and cellular precision.  

In his free time, Streelman likes mountaineering, skipping rocks and pickling.

Education
B.S., Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004; B.S., Aerospace Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004; M.A., Chemistry, Brown University, 2006; Ph.D., Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, 2010

Research
Dr. Stockton joined the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology in January 2015. Her research plans include (1) instrument development for in situ organic analysis in the search for extraterrestrial life, (2) microfluidic approaches to experimentally evaluating hypotheses on the origin of biomolecules and the emergence of life, and (3) terrestrial applications of these technologies for environmental analysis and point-of-care diagnostics.

Graduate
University of Salford
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Undergraduate
University of Ghana
Degree: Bachelor of Science

Research Interests

Molecular pathogenesis of neglected diseases that affect the central nervous system (CNS) with emphasis on cerebral malaria and African trypanosomiasis ("Sleeping Sickness")

Our research is focused on three main areas; a) Understanding pathogen-induced brain encephalopathy, and b) Research and development of anti-parasitic drugs and c) Understanding immunopathogenesis of Sickle Cell Disease
Pathogen-induced brain neuropathy (Cerebral malaria & African Trypanosomiasis). In collaboration with the Neuroscience Institute here at MSM, Queens College, NY, University of Ghana Medical School, and CDC, Atlanta, GA, we are studying the role of cerebral malaria (CM) and African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in brain neuropathy. Both diseases impact the central nervous system and result in diffuse encephalopathy in the infected. The encephalopathy associated with malaria for example is associated with 10-14% of mortality with an estimated annual death of 1-2.5 million annual deaths globally. The molecular mechanisms controlling these outcomes are unclear. Current studies ignore malaria-induced gross neurological defects and the impact of this disease on learning, cognitive function and neuro-psychology. The absence of effective vaccines or drugs to protect against these diseases coupled with the increasing drug resistance has resulted in the re-emergence of malaria and trypanosomiasis in the tropics and subtropics. We are employing bio-informatics, functional genomics, and proteomics in human and mouse disease models to study the role of immunomodulators, apoptosis, and signaling factors in CM and HAT-induced brain pathology.

Research & Development of anti-parasitic drugs. In collaboration with Yale University, University of Mississippi Medical Center, (UMC), and Noguchi Medical Research Institute in Ghana, we are targeting cation homeostasis mechanisms of trypanosomes during infection. Millions of Latin Americans infected with Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease) suffer chronic splenomegaly, cardiac myopathy and megacolonitis while millions are at risk of infection with African trypanosomes (HAT) in Africa. HIV infection exacerbates susceptibility to and further complicates malaria and HAT. Available drugs are very toxic while supplies are precariously low. We are targeting cation pumps (cation ATPases) utilized by trypanosomes for uptake of nutrients, as well as for regulating cell volume and intracellular pH as drug targets. Blocking these ion pumps by specific drugs or antibodies inhibit proliferation of these parasites in vitro and in their hosts. By understanding parasite ion homeostasis during infection, we hope that novel strategies to intervene by drugs may be developed.

Genomics & Immunopathogenesis of Sickle Cell Disease SCD. In collaboration with Drs. Adamkiewicz, Hibbert, Gee, and Buchanan at Morehouse School of Medicine, we provide postdoctoral research training in various aspects of sickle cell disease (SCD) immuno-pathogenesis in human and murine models. SCD and other hemoglobinopathies are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality among people of African, Mediterranean and South Asian descent.