The executive committee is comprised of Taubman Scholars and Emerging Scholars who assist the director with recommendations about the institute’s programs and policies.

Members include:

Charles F. Burant, MD, PhD

  • Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Professor of Metabolism
  • Professor, Internal Medicine
  • Professor, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
  • Professor, Nutritional Sciences, School of Public Health
  • Director, A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute at Michigan Medicine, Medical School
  • Chair, Taubman Institute Executive Committee

Dr. Burant studies how individual differences in metabolism affect longevity and risk for metabolic diseases, spanning the range from basic to translational to clinical research.

Sung Won Choi, MD, MS

  • Edith S Briskin and Shirley K Schlafer Foundation Research Professor of Pediatrics
  • Professor of Pediatrics and Fellowship Director, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Dr. Choi treats children with cancer.  Her research focus is in the prevention and treatment of graft versus host disease (GVHD), the major complication of the bone marrow transplants that some cancer patients receive.  With collaborators, she has conducted a novel clinical trial of GVHD prevention using the anti-cancer drug, vorinostat.

Katherine Ann Gallagher, MD

  • John R. Pfeifer Collegiate Professor of Vascular Surgery
  • Professor, Surgery
  • Professor, Microbiology & Immunology
  • Friends of Judy and Alfred Taubman Emerging Scholar

Dr. Gallagher’s research is focused on histone methylation changes in bone marrow progenitor cells and the impact on peripheral macrophage phenotypes as it relates to wound healing and inflammations.

Donna Martin, MD, PhD

  • Ravitz Foundation Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases
  • Professor, Human Genetics
  • Chair, Department of Pediatrics
  • Taubman Scholar

Dr. Martin’s research focuses on the genetic basis of neural development and disorders of human development.

Jack Parent, MD

  • William J. Herdman Professor of Neurology
  • Director, Neurodevelopment and Regeneration Laboratory
  • Co-director, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center

Dr. Parent studies biology of neural stem cells in the neonatal and adult mammalian brain, and the response of neural stem cells to brain injury

David Pinsky, MD

  • J. Griswold Ruth MD & Margery Hopkins Ruth Professor, Internal Medicine
  • Division Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Director and Science Lead, Frankel Cardiovascular Center
  • Founding Taubman Scholar

Dr. Pinsky’s research focuses on understanding the relationship between blood flow and heart and brain diseases

Rajesh-C-Rao-MD

Rajesh C. Rao, MD

  • Leonard G. Miller Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
  • Associate Professor, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
  • Associate Professor, Pathology
  • Associate Professor, Human Genetics
Dr. Rao’s research uses stem cell biology and epigenetics as languages to decipher the pathogenesis of retinal disease.