Barry M. Forman, M.D., Ph.D. , Ruth B. and Robert K. Lanman Chair in Gene Regulation and Drug Discovery Research; recipient of the 2005 ASBMB-Amgen Award
Forman's laboratory focuses on identification of orphan nuclear receptor ligands and the relationship of nuclear receptors to metabolic disease, xenobiotic clearance and gene transcription.

Wendong Huang, Ph.D., assistant professor, Division of Gene Regulation and Drug Discovery
Huang's work is in nuclear receptor signaling pathways, metabolic regulation and the development of cancer, and mouse models of metabolic diseases and cancers.

Janice Huss, Ph.D., assistant professor, Division of Gene Regulation and Drug Discovery
Huss’s laboratory investigates nuclear receptor mediated mechanisms regulating developmental, physiologic and pathophysiologic alterations in muscle metabolism.

Lily Lai, M.D. (Department of Surgery)
Lai studies the relationship between nuclear receptors and colon cancer.

Rama Natarajan, Ph.D. (Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism)
Natarajan studies glucose regulation of the transcription factor NF-kB, oxidized lipids and diabetic vascular complications.

Mark Sherman, Ph.D. (Division of Biomedical Informatics)
Sherman concentrates on homology modeling of nuclear receptors and other proteins. Homology modeling is a computer-based technique for predicting the three-dimensional structure of drug receptors and other proteins.

Yanhong Shi, Ph.D. (Department of Neurosciences)
Shi studies how nuclear receptors in neural stem cells influence neurogenesis.

Barry M. Forman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Gene Regulation and Drug Discovery and professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine and the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism, is the first holder of the Ruth B. and Robert K. Lanman Chair in Gene Regulation and Drug Discovery Research. This endowed chair supports the division’s efforts to understand the abnormal gene expression responsible for major metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and to design custom-tailored drug therapies to target these diseases. This has important implications in preventing the development of heart disease, stroke and cancer, all of which are related to metabolic disorders.

Forman specializes in the study of nuclear receptors. Certain small molecules, including hormones and lipid metabolites, bind to these receptors, which then activate or inactivate gene expression. Forman has discovered several new hormones that activate genes responsible for producing disease-causing proteins involved in diabetes and atherosclerosis. A significant breakthrough was the discovery of androstanol, the first new steroid hormone discovered in years, which inactivates gene expression. By understanding how these hormones interact with the nuclear receptors, Forman and his colleagues are designing drugs to prevent gene expression leading to serious disease.