Dr. Emery Bresnick has been awarded a WARF Named professorship, a very high honor at UW-Madison. Emery is the Gary Felsenfeld Professor of Cell and Regenerative Biology. A bio on both Gary Felsenfeld and Emery is pasted below. It is a great honor to be conferred this WARF foundation professorship. Congratulations on this recognition of your achievements and contributions Emery!
Gary Felsenfeld biosketch:
Gary Felsenfeld (BA from Harvard; PhD from California Institute of Technology) is a senior investigator of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Diabetes Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH, and NIH Distinguished Investigator. Dr. Felsenfeld has won numerous international awards in molecular biology and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has authored >200 papers in peer-reviewed publications. After developing physico-chemical principles with Dr. Linus Pauling, Dr. Felsenfeld helped demonstrate how chromatin, the DNA-protein complex in the nucleus, regulates gene expression and endows each cell type with unique characteristics. Dr. Felsenfeld focused on understanding how genes are switched on when covered in histone proteins that wind DNA into tighter structures. He showed that a DNA “regulatory” region remained histone-free, leaving room for proteins that control gene activity. Dr. Felsenfeld discovered essential proteins including CTCF that prevents DNA regulatory regions from interacting when binding to a site that lies between them. Dr. Felsenfeld’s team demonstrated the broad importance of this “insulation” property in health and disease, which created new opportunities in biotechnology and gene therapy.
Emery H. Bresnick biosketch:
Emery H. Bresnick, PhD, joined UW-Madison in 1994 and is Professor of Cell and Regenerative Biology, Founding Director of UW-Madison Blood Research Program and Co-Director of the Cancer Genetic/Epigenetic Mechanisms Program of the Carbone Cancer Center. His multidisciplinary research discovered genetic/epigenetic mechanisms that unveiled new paradigms of blood stem and progenitor cell development/function and human disease diagnostic strategies. Dr. Bresnick has published >150 peer-reviewed publications (18702 citations; H index: 59), and his work has been continuously NIH-funded since 1997. His national/international leadership contributions include chair of study sections, advisory and editorial board positions and mentoring program director. Dr. Bresnick has been honored with multiple awards including Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar, NIH Research Career Development, NIH MERIT R37, Shaw Scholar, Romnes, and Kellett Mid-Career awards. His trainees have received distinguished awards including Herbert Tabor Young Investigator, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Senior Fellow, ASH Scholar and Goldwater Scholar. Dr. Bresnick has contributed significantly as an educator, having developed the course Fundamentals of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, participated in diverse graduate courses and taught endocrine pharmacology to medical students. He is passionate about training the next generation of scientists/scholars and building alliances to enhance training opportunities, unite fields and achieve synergistic outcomes.