Todd Evans

The Evans laboratory has explored and exploited the strengths of numerous developmental systems (chick, quail, mouse, human, zebrafish). With a great appreciation for other models (flies, worms, and yeast), the focus has been on vertebrate organogenesis and the work now translates mostly between zebrafish and mouse ES cell systems. A major theme over the past 10 years has been to dissect out specificity among related members of key gene families (Smads, GATA, Tbox, etc.), considering that this will be essential information for developing effective cellular, regenerative, or pharmacological therapies, since the related genes are in some contexts functionally redundant, but in other contexts have exquisite functional specificity. The laboratory has been continuously funded by the NIH and in addition from other sources (AHA, ACS, MOD, etc.). Having moved after spending the past 14 years at Albert Einstein, Dr. Evans now serves as Vice Chair for Research in Surgery at Weill Cornell, with a defined mission to develop a synergy of basic, preclinical, and translational research in Regenerative Medicine. Over the past several years his own laboratory has focused very much on stem cell biology. While this is a natural extension of a developmental perspective, it is also clearly driven by recent advances in the identification of new stem and progenitor cell populations (including cancer stem cells), the ability to manipulate potency (iPS), and the promise of regenerative medicine. Specifically, a partnership of developmental biologists (stem cell biologists) and tissue engineers, in the context of appropriate clinical expertise (oncologists, surgeons, etc. who understand the practical limitations of current clinical needs) has tremendous potential to impact our ability to treat debilitating diseases.