Jeffrey Zigman is a Professor with the Center for Hypothalamic Research of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He received a B.A. degree in Biological Sciences in 1989 from the School of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He subsequently moved to Chicago to begin an eight-year combined M.D./Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago, with funding through the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program. His doctoral research on G-proteins in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans was performed in the laboratory of Donald F. Steiner, M.D. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1994 and his M.D. degree in 1997. He completed an Internal Medicine residency (1997–2000) at University of Chicago Hospitals and a combined research and clinical fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism (2000–2003) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was elected for the Association of American Physicians in 2021. His laboratory investigates the neuronal/hormonal basis for eating, body weight, and blood glucose control with the goal of designing new methods to treat obesity, diabetes, hypoglycemia, cachexia/anorexia, associated disorders of mood, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Steven Gray earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Vanderbilt University in 2006, after receiving a B.S. degree with honors from Auburn University. He undertook a postdoctoral fellowship focusing on gene therapy in the laboratory of Jude Samulski at UNC Chapel Hill. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He was awarded the Outstanding New Investigator Award from the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy in 2019. His core expertise is in AAV gene therapy vector engineering, followed by optimizing approaches to deliver a gene to the nervous system. His main focus is in AAV vector development to develop vectors tailored to serve specific clinical and research applications involving the nervous system.
Ryan Butler joined the Psychiatry and Pediatric departments at UT Southwestern Medical Center to work towards developing genetic therapies for a number of neurological and psychiatric conditions in 2018 and is currently an Assistant Professor. He completed his Ph.D. at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is also a member of the Society for Neuroscience. His main research interests include the evolution of the molecular components of the nervous system; gene therapy for genetic disorders; how pain alters cognitive function and leads to co-morbid addiction; and how pain is altered by cognitive states.
