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Lab personnel

Diane M. Simeone, M.D.
Associate Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Diane M. Simeone, M.D. is an Associate Professor in the Section of General Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Associate Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. Dr. Simeone received her bachelor's degree from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and a medical degree from Duke University Medical School in Durham, North Carolina. She completed her General Surgery residency training in 1995 at the University of Michigan Medical Center. She joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1995. Dr. Simeone's clinical interests are in the area of gastrointestinal oncology. She has a special interest in the surgical treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and is the Surgical Director of the Multidisciplinary Pancreatic Cancer Clinic. Dr. Simeone is the principal director of a research laboratory that is funded by the National Institutes of Health. Her basic science laboratory investigates mechanisms of pancreatic growth regulation and molecular events important in the development and progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. She is also an associate member of the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), an NCI-funded initiative to identify and validate early detection biomarkers for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Huibin Yang, M.D.,
Research Investigator

Dr. Huibin Yang, M.D., is a Research Investigator in the Section of General Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, at the University of Michigan Health Systems. Dr. Yang received his M.D. degree in 1982, from the Suzhou Medical College in China. He received a masters degree in medical science, immunopathology/cell biology in 1988, from Suzhou Medical College. He joined the faculty of Suzhou Medical College in 1989, in the Department of Pathophysiology. In 1994, Dr. Yang went on for postdoctoral training at the Department of Neurobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1998, Dr. Yang became a Research Associate in the Department of Pediatrics and Neurology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and in September of 2005, Dr. Yang joined the faculty in the Section of General Surgery, Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, at the University of Michigan Health Systems.

Dr. Yang's research interest/focus is transforming growth factor (TGF-?)/SMAD signaling pathway in the development of surgical pancreatic disease, including pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis.

Chenwei Li, M.D., Ph.D.,
Research Associate II

Dr. Li is currently a Research Associate working on the identification of pancreatic cancer stem cells and studying the role of specific signaling pathways (including Bmi-1, Hedgehog, and Notch) in regulating the proliferation of pancreatic cancer stem cells. This research is aimed at the development of novel therapeutic strategies to selectively target this cell population, which has been shown in other tumor models to be highly resistant to standard chemotherapy.

Dr. Li has previously published work on the effect of PKCs on amylase release and ERK activation of pancreatic acinar cells, the translocation of PKCs in vascular smooth muscle cells, and the effect of PKC on actin, smooth muscle remodeling, and smooth muscle contraction.

Education:

C.J. Lee, M.D.

Dr. Lee completed his Bachelors in Biochemistry at the University of Michigan. He attended and graduated with honors from the University of Michigan Medical School. Currently Dr. Lee is undergoing his residency in General Surgery at the University of Michigan. His current projects involve identifying and characterizing pancreatic stem cells, as well as genetic and protein profiling of pancreatic cancer.

Lidong Wang, Ph.D.

After graduated from Peking Normal University with M.S and PhD degree, Lidong Wang engaged his postdoctoral fellow training in Dr. T. Yamada's laboratory in the department of internal medicine, at the University of Michigan. His postdoctoral projects focus on the regulatory mechanism of brain-gut peptides releasing. Through his postdoctoral studies, he gained extensive training in biochemical and molecular cell biology. Subsequently, Dr. Wang joined the Peking Union Medical College with an appointment as Assistant Professor in the department of physiology. There, He performed outstanding research on the effects of the gastrointestinal hormones microinjected into cerebroventricles on the pancreatic exocrine and gastrointestinal tract motility. Later, he joined the research laboratory of Dr. John Del Valle in the department of internal medicine, at the University of Michigan. While working with Dr. Del Valle, he was a lead author on the studies that describe the molecular basis of the structure and function of the G protein coupled receptor. Currently, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Diane Simeone in the department of general surgery, at the University of Michigan. Right now, he studies the molecular mechanism of pancreatic carcinogenesis. His investigation mainly focuses on characterizing the biological functions and clinical relevant of a novel DNA repair gene, Ataxia-Telangectasia group D associated complementing gene (ATDC), in pancreatic cancer by the biochemical and molecular biology approaches, and transgenic mouse strategy.

Stephanie Laurinec, B.S.
Research Lab Specialist Intermediate

Stephanie Laurinec, is a Research Lab Specialist Intermediate in the section of General Surgery, at the University of Michigan. Stephanie received her B.S. in Biology from Purdue University in 1995. After graduation, she joined the research lab of Dr. James Walker, Department of Basic Medical Sciences at Purdue University, where she studied the affects of alcohol on the developing brain. In 1999 she moved to Boston and joined the research lab of Dr. Sylvia Sanders (HHMI Investigator), at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at M.I.T., Stephanie's research focused on yeast cell polarity and bud-site selection. In 2001, she accepted a position with Dr. Ben Margolis at the University of Michigan (HHMI Investigator/Department of Nephrology) continuing her focus of cell polarity, this time in the kidney. Stephanie left the Margolis lab to briefly work with Dr. James Bardwell (HHMI Investigator) at the University of Michigan, focusing on the study of disulfide bond formation and the three-dimensional structure of proteins. In 2006, Stephanie joined the laboratory of Dr. Diane Simeone, in the Department of General Surgery, at the University of Michigan.

Currently, Stephanie's position encompasses managerial responsibilities for the Simeone lab, as well as assisting with research investigating mechanisms of pancreatic growth regulation, molecular events important in the development and progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and the identification of biological markers for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Simeone Lab Group

Back (Left to Right): Joe Dosch, C.J. Lee, Dawn Barnes, Chenwei Li
Back (Left to Right): Diane Simeone, Stephanie Laurinec, Huibin Yang, Lidong Wang

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