Chemical Inhibition of Sterol Biosynthesis

Dr. Eric Peeples, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Children’s Nebraska Division of Neonatology. He received his B.S./M.D. at Creighton University, his pediatrics training at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, his neonatology training at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital, and then received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He leads the Newborn Brain Injury Lab at UNMC which seeks to better understand the underlying cell signaling and pathophysiology occurring after neonatal hypoxic–ischemic brain injury to design novel neuroprotective interventions. His research interests include investigating novel neuroprotective interventions for neonatal hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy; profiling the mechanisms of neonatal brain injury and development including transcriptomics and metabolomics (such as sterol changes); and optimizing cell-based therapies for inflammatory neonatal brain injuries.

Dr. Karoly Mirnics, M.D., Ph.D., serves as the Director of the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation and Hattie B. Munroe Professor of Psychiatry, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE. He obtained his M.D. from the University of Novi Sad and his Ph.D. from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. Karoly established his laboratory at the Department of Psychiatry at University of Pittsburgh and worked at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he served as James G. Blakemore Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. In addition to his studies of schizophrenia and neuroimmune disfunction, he investigates inborn errors of sterol biosynthesis and the effects of prescription medications on this process. He has authored more than 160 scientific publications, which have been cited more than 16,000 times. He has received multiple prominent national and local awards for his scientific endeavors and community engagement, including the 2018 Help is Hope Award from the Autism Action Partnership recognition, and was named the 2019 Friends of Scottish Rite Honoree. He serves on the board of directors of Special Olympic International and chairs its Global Medical Advisory Committee. Since 2022, he is also a member of the National Committee on Individuals with Disabilities & Disasters ASPR committee.

Dr. Zeljka Korade is a Professor at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Nebraska Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. in Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh. Moreover, she is a Peer Reviewer of the Journal of Affective Disorders, Experimental Brain Research, NPJ Schizophrenia, Journal of Lipid Research, American Journal of Autism, etc. Her research interests include developmental neuroscience and disorders of cholesterol metabolism.