OMRF is proud to announce the arrival of two new researchers. David Jones, Ph.D., and Umesh Deshmukh, Ph.D., recently joined the foundation.
Jones is a member and program chair of the Immunobiology and Cancer Research Program. His work is focused on “rehabilitating” cancer cells and redirecting them toward a less-harmful path.
“What is cancer, really? Cancer cells are misfated. They don’t know who they are,” he said. “What we want to know is: Can they be reprogrammed to be less lethal?”
Jones said he hopes to continue building OMRF’s cancer research team, including scientists working on translational medicine, which can transform discoveries into working therapies.
Deshmukh is an associate member of the Arthritis and Clinical Immunology Research Program. He’s interested in the environmental causes of autoimmune diseases, including lupus and Sjögren’s Syndrome.
Autoimmune diseases require a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental triggers that “flip the switch” and turn on the disease. Deshmukh is interested in the role of microbes in the mouth that could initiate and perpetuate those diseases.
“Our goal is to identify the microbial culprits and understand the mechanisms responsible for initiation of autoimmunity,” he said.
