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Evolutionary Medicine Cluster 

Evolutionary medicine is an inclusive term that encompasses how evolutionary biology and genetics help us better understand the causes of human illnesses, and how we can leverage evolution to design better, more long-lasting health interventions. An intrinsic part of a more evolutionary and genomic approach to medicine is ensuring health equity and addressing pseudoscientific attempts to racialize medicine in the past. Six new cluster hires will catalyze research and teaching initiatives in the emergent area of personalized medicine and shifting paradigms in how we approach treating human chronic and acute illnesses. The cluster aims to create fundamental and translational discoveries that will shape medicine and public health in the 21st century. The cluster will draw from six departments, four schools, a center, and an institute across the Rutgers-New Brunswick and Rutgers Health campuses.

Chancellor-Led Unit Support

  • Rutgers–New Brunswick
  • Rutgers Health

Siobain Duffy

Professor and Chair, Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources (DEENR), SEBS, New Brunswick

Siobain Duffy is an evolutionary virologist who studies emerging RNA and ssDNA pathogens -- viruses with small genomes and high mutation rates. Her wet lab uses phage model systems to understand the evolutionary genetics behind shifting onto novel hosts. The computational side of her lab works on a range of organisms, with a focus on epidemic ssDNA plant viruses.  She conducted her PhD research at Yale University with Paul Turner and was an NSF postdoctoral fellow with Edward Holmes at Penn State University.  Her research has won awards from the American Society for Microbiology and the American Society for Virology, and she has twice been awarded University-wide teaching awards.  She is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and co-Editor-in-Chief of Virus Evolution. 

Siobain Duffy

Rob Scott

Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director, Anthropology, SAS, New Brunswick

Rob Scott grew up in Hamilton, Montana and received his Ph.D from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. His research is united by an interest in environmental influences on hominid evolution. Previous work includes a strong quantitative and analytic program in evolutionary morphology and paleoanthropology including museum studies of fossil species, a record of fieldwork as part of international collaborations in Java, Turkey, Hungary, and China, finite element modeling of the human tibia, and extensive work reconstructing ancient environments relevant to the evolution of the human lineage.

Scott is the co-developer of a new repeatable method for quantifying primate and hominid dental microwear in three dimensions. This method has provided new insights into the diet of South African early hominins suggesting the importance of fallback food exploitation and was published in the journal Nature in 2005. Scott has a strong focus on late Miocene hominid paleoenvironments in Western Eurasia and is a leading expert in the application of the ecomorphology of fossil bovids and equids in the reconstruction of ancient environments. More recently, Scott has begun work on Homo erectus in Asia including field study an Ngandong in Java.

At Rutgers, Scott teaches the course “Extinction”, part of the pioneering SAS Signature course initiative [on YouTube]. Scott also teaches “Human Osteology” and “Quantitative Methods in Evolutionary Anthropology.”

Rob Scott

Vik Nanda

Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, RWJMS, RBHS

Our group is interested in constructing new proteins for applications in biomedical research, nanotechnology and as tools for understanding how proteins fold and evolve. Significant progress has been made in the last decade using sophisticated computer programs to design proteins with novel folds and functions. We maintain and develop software for protein design, structure prediction and docking of protein-ligand complexes. Several design projects our group pursues include the computational design of an extracellular matrix, thermostabilization of peptide therapeutics with D-amino acids and prediction of allergenicity of food proteins.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex network of collagens, laminins, fibronectins and proteoglycans that provides a surface upon which cells can adhere, differentiate and proliferate. Defects in the ECM are the underlying cause of a wide spectrum of diseases. The ECM mediates endothelial cell polarity and under normal conditions can suppress pre-oncogenic transitions to a neoplastic state. We are constructing artificial, de novo collagen-based matrices using a hierarchic computational approach. These matrices are physically characterized in the laboratory and used to probe the role of chemical and spatial organization in the ECM on the tumor forming potential of adhered cells.

Vikas Nanda

Carlos Pato

Vice President of Research, Training and Academic Affairs & Executive Chair of Psychiatry, RBHS

Carlos Pato, MD, PhD, is Vice President of Research, Training and Academic Affairs for Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) and the Executive Chair of Psychiatry for Rutgers RBHS.  Much of Dr. Carlos Pato’s work is related to social determinants of health. His research has focused on genomic psychiatry, with an emphasis on population-based genetic studies. Prior to Dr. Carlos Pato’s experience with the Institute for Genomic Health, he served for three-and-a-half years as senior vice president and dean of the College of Medicine at SUNY Downstate, doubling the number of affiliated hospital beds and affiliated faculty, and developing a focus on primary care, as well as building up research on population health and disparities, with a focus on genomics and social determinants of health. Previously, he served as chair of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, where, under his leadership, the clinical program grew 350 percent, the research program grew from two to 13 NIH-funded investigators and NIH funding grew 10-fold, while philanthropic support grew 15-fold.

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Dr. Carlos Pato received an honorary doctorate in medical genetics from Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, where he has served as a visiting scientist and co-lead of the Unit for Neuropsychiatric Genetics since 1990. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and subsequently served as a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md.

Dr. Carlos Pato is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a charter member of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics and has held leadership positions with the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry, among his many professional associations.

A co-editor of Revista Brasileira de Psiguiatria and field editor of the American Journal of Genetics, Dr. Carlos Pato also serves on the editorial board of Translational Psychiatry and as a reviewer for nearly a dozen peer-reviewed professional journals. He has nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles to his credit, as well as publications in other journals, book chapters and a book.

Charles Pato