Parveen Bazard, Ph.D.

Dr. Bazard received his master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. He then pursued doctoral studies in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, Florida. His doctoral research focused on developing second-generation neural stimulation (Nanomaterials-enabled optical) techniques for applications in auditory and sensorineural prosthetic devices. After his Ph.D., Dr. Parveen worked on multiple projects related to auditory pathologies, focusing on aging auditory and sensory deficits during his tenure as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Assistant Professor (Research) at the Global Center for Hearing and Speech Research, Medical Engineering Dept., University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. In Fall 2024, he joined as an Assistant Professor at the Chemical and Biochemical Eng. Dept., Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, and is currently building an interdisciplinary auditory research laboratory.

Some of his research projects include drug discovery and biomedical intervention for age-related hearing loss (ARHL), identifying novel biomarkers of auditory and sensory problems for diagnosing and better characterization, and developing new biomedical imaging tools for clinical diagnoses. His research is funded by various agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and two early-career foundation grants (American Hearing Research Foundation and American Otological Society).

Jacki Kornbluth, Ph.D.

Dr. Kornbluth is Professor of Pathology and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Saint Louis University and a Research Scientist at the St. Louis VA Healthcare System. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University and postdoctoral training at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. She held faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of Arkansas before joining Saint Louis University. She has studied natural killer (NK) cells and their anti-tumor activity throughout her research career. She developed the first and only NK cell line from the blood of a healthy donor; these cells are used by researchers worldwide. Her finding that extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from these NK cells have potent anti-tumor activity, with no toxic effect on normal, healthy cells, is currently in development as a new treatment for cancer patients.

James Sterling, Ph.D.

Dr. Sterling is Vice Provost and Founding Dean of the Kummer College of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development. He joined Missouri S&T in 2024 from the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California, which is a member of the Claremont Colleges. He joined KGI as a founding faculty member in 2000 and served many roles including vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, director of the professional sciences master’s degree program, director of the school’s intellectual property and technology transfer committee and director of its Ph.D. program. Sterling’s research interests include life science laboratory automation, microfluidics, nucleic acid diagnostics, glycobiology and biophysics. He earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1987. From 2013 to 2015, he joined the Minerva Schools at KGI, serving as the founding interim dean of the College of Natural Sciences and director of Minerva Labs. Sterling also co-founded and currently chairs the board of directors of Claremont BioSolutions, an entrepreneurial KGI spin-off focusing on nucleic acid sample preparation and point-of-use diagnostics. His interest in developing new products and entrepreneurship began when he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, TRW, and Advanced Projects Research as a systems engineer and project manager. Sterling has also taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the California Institute of Technology

Susan A. Farr, Ph.D.

I m a Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine with a secondary in Pharmacology and Physiology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. I also have an appointment with the St. Louis VA. My lab studies age-related dementias such as Alzheimer's disease in mouse models and risk factors for age-related dementia such as traumatic brain injury, diabetes and chemobrain. We look for ways to reverse/prevent dementia.

Yue-Wern Huang, Ph.D.

Dr. Huang received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After the postdoctoral training at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Michigan State University, he became a faculty member at Missouri S&T in 2000. He has published 84 peer-reviewed journal papers and 13 book chapters. He was a keynote speaker at two conferences and chaired several scientific sessions at international conferences. He delivered more than 40 invited speeches in institutes such as US-EPA, New York University, Clemson University, Texas A & M University, Academia Sinica, and National Taiwan University. His funding agencies include National Science Foundation; National Institutes of Health; Army Research Laboratories; EPA Region 7; US Fish and Wildlife Service; US Geological Survey; US Army Research Laboratories; Missouri Department of Natural Resources; Missouri Department of Conservation; Saint Louis Zoo; Missouri Water Resources Research Center; Doe Run Company. He received a Missouri S&T Faculty Research Award in 2008 and a Faculty Excellence Award in 2010. Currently he is Associate Dean for Research & External Relations of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education as well as Director of the Missouri S&T Center for Biomedical Research.

Dr. Huang’s research encompasses three areas: aerosol health, drug delivery, and tissue regeneration. Today his presentation focuses on aerosol health research that aims at deciphering the mechanisms of biological effects in the presence of aerosols and bioaerosols. The aerosols studies focus on electronic cigarettes while bioaerosol research investigates behaviors and evolution of infectious pathogens in indoor environments. His team invented a filter device that can simulate the human respiratory system to produce representative secondhand electronic cigarette smoke to study biological effects. His team also invented a smart mask that can detect infectious pathogens in a minute with 5a much higher sensitivity compared to qPCR.

Nermi Parrow, Ph. D.

Dr. Parrow is affiliated with Dr Robert Fleming's laboratory in the Department of Pediatrics, where she is an Assistant Research Professor. She completed a PhD at the University of Montana in laboratory of Micheal Minnick, studying mechanisms and regulation of hemin uptake in pathogenic bacteria. She completed postdoctoral studies at Weill Cornell and the National Institutes of Health. She has a long-standing interest in iron homeostasis in health and disease. Recent studies have focused on characterizing transgenic mouse models that are unable to bind iron in either the N-lobe (N-blocked) or the C-lobe (C-blocked) of the iron carrying molecule, transferrin.

Matt Thimgan, Ph.D.

Dr. Thimgan is an associate professor at Missouri S&T. He graduated from UCLA with a Microbiology and Molecular Genetics where he studied the genes that underlie human obesity through linkage analysis. His doctoral degree was earned at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill studying neurotransmitter transporter function. He then conducted postdoctoral research at Washington University School of Medicine studying the genetics and biomarkers of sleep under Paul Shaw. Currently, his lab studies sleep in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster as well as in humans. The goal of the lab is to understand the patterns of sleep that result in deleterious consequence and what molecular events translate sleep loss into problematic cellular events that may be responsible for disease states associated with sleep loss. His research has been supported by the NIH and Department of Defense.

Susana Gonzalo, PhD.

I received Biology/Biochemistry degree from “Universidad Complutense de Madrid” and Ph.D. from Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). After a postdoc in Dr. Dean’s laboratory (WUSM) studying the retinoblastoma family of tumor suppressors, I received NSF International Postdoctoral Fellowship and joined Maria Blasco’s team at CNIO, a top cancer research center in Spain. During these years, we uncovered the epigenetic regulation of telomeres. In 2006, I was recruited to WUSM as faculty of the Radiation Oncology Department, where I developed a program studying the crosstalk between nuclear architecture, chromatin structure, and genome stability. In 2012, I joined the Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at St Louis University School of Medicine, where I am currently Professor.

My research interest is understanding molecular mechanisms behind the genomic instability that drives aging and cancer, focusing on alterations in structural nuclear proteins. We demonstrated key roles for lamins in telomere function, DNA repair, and DNA replication. We also found that activating vitamin D receptor signaling ameliorates genomic instability in breast cancer cells and in lamins-deficient cells. Our current work is focused on understanding mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS); premature aging laminopathy that causes cellular and organismal decline and patient’s death in their teenage years. We find that metabolic dysfunction is a driver of early mortality in progeria mice. Metabolic defects in progeria mice, HGPS patients, and progerin-expressing cells are accompanied by accumulation of self-DNA in the cytoplasm and activation of sterile inflammation pathways. We are making strides in understanding the crosstalk between nuclear architectural defects, innate immune signaling, genomic instability, and inflammation in aging-related diseases.

Manashi Nath, Ph.D.

Prof. Nath has been a Professor of Chemistry at Missouri S&T since 2008. She received her PhD from Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and conducted her postdoctoral training at the Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Her research is primarily focused on materials chemistry with emphasis on materials innovation for sustainable energy conversion, storage, and biosensing. Specifically, the Nath group is currently involved in identifying new electrocatalysts for selective upconversion of atmospheric CO2 to value-added chemicals, green hydrogen generation utilizing earth-abundant resources, and non-enzymatic biosensors for detecting neurotransmitters in peripheral body fluids such as tear, sweat, and saliva. The research activities in the Nath group are funded from National Science Foundation (NSF) and ACS Petroleum Research Funds (PRF).

Andrew Butler, Ph.D.

Dr. Butler is a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacological and Physiological Science at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. His research focuses on endocrine and autocrine/paracrine factors that link feeding behavior and cellular stress responses across metabolic organs and the cardiovascular system. He is best known for discovering adropin, a peptide hormone that plays a key role in fuel selection and metabolic homeostasis, with implications for conditions such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and cognitive aging.

Dr. Butler's lab uses genetically modified mice, non-human primates, and human data to investigate metabolic control. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Auckland and held previous positions at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and The Scripps Research Institute before joining Saint Louis University as a full professor in 2014.

Ryan Gilbert, Ph.D.

Dr. Gilbert received his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. He then pursued doctoral studies in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. His doctoral research focused on hydrogel development to create in vitro environments that recapitulate chemical and molecular environments generated following central nervous system injury. For the past 20 years, he has led research laboratories (at Michigan Technological University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Albany Veterans Affairs, and Missouri S&T) focused on 1) developing scaffolds for tissue regeneration, 2) designing drug releasing biomaterials for nervous system repair, 3) and designing gene delivery platforms vaccine delivery and peripheral nerve regeneration. His research has been funded by the Veterans Affairs, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, New York State Department or Health, and various private foundations. He is currently Professor and Doshi Endowed Chair of the Linda and Bipin Doshi Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Cells Tissues Organs and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Jianguo Liu, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Liu is a Professor - Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine

His laboratory studies gene regulation and immune responses during chronic inflammation, with a particular interest in identifying the roles of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in regulation of immune evasion during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. His lab is investigating how RBPs regulate cytokine expression, cell death pathway, and the effects on pathogen-specific T cell development, as well as identifying new targets for host-directed therapy against tuberculosis, especially with the drug-resistant Mtb.

Michael Eze, Ph.D.

Dr. Eze is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Missouri S&T. He completed a dual-doctoral program in 2021 and was awarded a Dr.rer.nat. in Biology (Germany), and a Ph.D. in Analytical & Organic Geochemistry (Australia). Prior to joining Missouri S&T, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Eze’s research focuses on characterizing organismal exposure to environmental pollutants; innovating mass spectrometry-based metabolomics methods for disease diagnosis and health monitoring; and developing novel ecofriendly methods for the remediation of contaminated soils. This has resulted in more than 17 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals. As evidence of Dr. Eze’s outstanding contributions as an early career researcher, he has received over 20 awards and grants, including from the Metabolomics Association of North America, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the Otto Bayer Fellowship of the Bayer Science and Education Foundation. In 2019, he was the recipient of the AAPG’s Carlos Walter M. Campos Memorial Award for Best International Student Paper. Dr. Eze is currently the 2025 Chair of the American Chemical Society’s South Central Missouri Section.

Melissa Berrien-Elliott, Ph.D.

Dr. Elliott is a translational immunologist with an interest in understanding how natural killer (NK) cells can be used to treat cancer and chronic viral infections. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 2014. She joined the Fehniger Lab at Washinton University School of Medicine as a post-doctoral scholar where she became an expert in NK cell biology, immunotherapy, and translational immunology. She has recently started her own group at Saint Louis University furthering her studies on allogeneic NK cell therapies. Specifically, her lab uses preclinical and translational approaches to understand the cross-talk between adoptively transferred memory-like NK cells and the immune/tumor microenvironment and to explore new approaches for improving patient responses to NK cell therapy.

Risheng Wang, Ph.D.

Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Missouri University of Science and Technology, which she joined in 2014. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry at New York University in 2010 under the mentorship of Professor Nadrian C. Seeman, a pioneer in DNA nanotechnology, and subsequently conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University. Her research focuses on developing innovative DNA-based strategies for organizing functional nanomaterials and fabricating integrated molecular-scale devices. By leveraging DNA as a programmable building material, her group explores applications across biomedicine, optoelectronics, and biotechnology.

Vernat Exil, M.D.

My research integrates mitochondrial biology, metabolic regulation, and environmental exposures to advance our understanding of pediatric heart failure, arrhythmias, and transplant outcomes. I contributed to the discovery of TMEM135, a mitochondrial protein regulating lipid metabolism and stress adaptation, and have expanded this work into transgenerational toxicities of tobacco and electronic cigarette (ENDS) exposure using murine models and adolescent cohorts.

Currently, my laboratory is funded through an NIH/AHA U54 A-TRAC grant to study the cardiovascular and epigenetic consequences of vaping. I serve as Division Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Saint Louis University, where I foster collaborative translational research, mentor physician-scientists, and lead clinical programs in pediatric heart failure and transplantation.

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