Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology

Edward J. Macarak, PhD
Dr. Macarak joined the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology in 1992 and currently serves as Professor and Chairman of the Department and Interim Chair of Biochemistry. One area of research in Dr. Macarak's laboratory is investigating the mechanisms of cellular response to externally applied mechanical deformations. He has developed, tested, and patented a device that permits the application of precise mechanical deformations to cells in culture. With this device, cells can be grown in vitro and evaluated with respect to their response to a variety of mechanical forces. In 1994, Dr. Macarak and several of his colleagues were honored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. They were awarded the Melville Medal by the Society, which is given yearly to the authors of the most outstanding paper in mechanical engineering. Dr. Macarak has a long history of involvement with teaching at the School of Dental Medicine in the fields of histology, physiology, and gross anatomy.

Elisabeth Barton, PhD
Dr. Barton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. She has been a member of the Penn Dental Medicine faculty since 2003. Her research interests focus on muscle physiology, where she is studying mechanisms of muscle repair and mechanical signal transduction through membrane complexes. The ultimate goal is to develop therapies which can aid in muscle disease. Dr. Barton is the course director for the physiology course at Penn Dental Medicine and also teaches in histology.

Carolyn W. Gibson, PhD
Dr. Gibson is Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology. Her research has focused on the regulation of enamel formation, by studying expression of the genes that encode enamel matrix proteins. She has cloned and characterized the coding and regulatory regions for the two bovine amelogenin genes on the X and Y chromosomes, and the murine X-chromosomal amelogenin gene, and has analyzed alternative splicing of the amelogenin RNA.  Her lab also studied several families with the enamel defect amelogenesis imperfecta in order to determine the mutations within their amelogenin gene that leads to this condition. She has produced several transgenic mice for studies of expression and function of amelogenin, including a mouse line with a null mutation in the amelogenin gene, which has a condition similar to human X-linked amelogenesis imperfecta. Her primary teaching responsibility is as Course Director for the histology course for first-year dental students.

Fernando Segade, MS, PhD
Dr. Segade is Assistant Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology. He holds a MS and PhD from University of Santiago de Compostela , Santiago, Spain, awarded in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Dr. Segade's areas of research expertise include extracellular matrix, cell-matrix interactions, gene structure, gene expression, and sequence analysis. His current research involves the molecular mechanisms that lie behind the defects in blood vessel wall structure that are induced by mutation of a sugar transporter gene.

Academic Support Staff/Associated Faculty

Haskell Askin, Adjunct Associate Professor
Paul A. Breslin, Lecturer
Marina D'Angelo, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Pamela S. Howard, PhD, Research Associate Professor
Eiki Koyama, DDS, PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor
Gordon Levenson, Associate Professor Emeritus
Concepcion Martinez-Alvarez, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor
Maurizio Pacifici, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor
Ronald Piddington, MS, PhD, Associate Professor Emeritus
Joel Rosenbloom, PhD, Professor Emeritus
Andrew Spielman, DMD, PhD, Adjunct Professor
Edward Terzian, Lecturer
Wenjie Wei, Research Associate

Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
Robert Schattner Center
University of Pennsylvania
School of Dental Medicine
240 South 40th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-898-8994