Basic and Translational Research
Allen Gao
Ralph deVere White Professor, Director of Urologic Research; Co-Leader of Prostate Cancer Program, Department of Urologic Surgery and UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Gao received his Ph.D. (1995) in Molecular Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX and his MD (1985) at Sichuan University West China Medical Center, China. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship (1995-1998) in the Department of Urology and Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. Dr. Gao served as an Assistant Professor of Urology and Pathology (1998-2002) at University of Pittsburgh, Associate Professor (2002-2006) and Professor (2006-2007) of Medicine and Pharmacology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and SUNY at Buffalo prior to relocating to the University of California at Davis. The mission of Dr. Gao’s laboratory is to understand molecular changes associated with the progression of prostate cancer cells, with the goals of identification of diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic targets for prostate cancer.
Paramita M. Ghosh
Professor of Urologic Surgery and Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
Dr. Ghosh holds joint appointments with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and VA Northern California Health Care System. Dr. Ghosh’s research is focused on signal transduction pathways in prostate cancer development and progression. Her research projects are strongly mechanistic but also utilize human tissues and animal models to prove the effects of various combinations of FDA approved drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer at various stages of its development.
Eric A. Kurzrock
Professor of Urologic Surgery and Pediatrics
The Pediatric Urology research laboratory is focused on the identification, characterization and isolation of urothelial stem cells. Dr. Kurzrock has received a $785,000 grant from the Department of Defense (DOD) for Vascularization of Bioengineered Bladder Wall in a Large-Animal Model. The study proposes to develop bladder grafts with blood vessels engineered from the patient’s own blood-derived stem cells. This is done in a novel way by removing the cells from donor bladder tissue while preserving the architecture to create what is called a matrix, or scaffold. The vessels of the matrix will then be rebuilt with stem cells that have been directly injected into the vessel architecture. Additionally, he has received a $389,926 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Bladder Volume Awareness for Individuals Living with Spinal Cord Injury. The long term vision of this project is to replace the current time-triggered catheterization regimen with volume-triggered (demand-based) timely catheterization.