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Dr. Payne graduated from Stanford University in 1993 and received her MD and PhD (Molecular and Cellular Biology) from Washington University in 2001. She completed her internal medicine internship, dermatology residency, and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined Penn’s faculty in 2006, where she is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Dermatology, Associate Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, and faculty advisor for the Association of Women Student MD-PhDs (AWSM). Through these roles she has been active in the recruitment and retention of physician-scientists nationwide, including trainees and junior faculty. Dr. Payne’s clinical practice specializes in autoimmune blistering diseases. She is also active in teaching and mentoring medical students, graduate students, dermatology residents, and research fellows. Dr. Payne’s research interests are in autoimmunity and cell adhesion, specifically in the context of the autoantibody-mediated blistering disease pemphigus. Her research has focused on 3 major areas of investigation: cloning and characterization of B cell repertoires to understand how autoimmunity occurs in pemphigus, cell biologic studies to identify signaling pathways that modulate desmosomal cell adhesion, and patient-oriented research to develop better targeted therapies for disease. Dr. Payne has received several honors for her research, including the Albert M. Kligman Endowed Chair, the Charles and Daneen Stiefel Scholar Award in Autoimmune Diseases, a "Top 10" Clinical Research Forum Award, and election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Donna B. Jeffe received her PhD in Education in 1993 from Washington University in St. Louis. She is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Medical Education Research Unit and Director of the Health Behavior, Communication, and Outreach Core at Washington University School of Medicine. For over 20 years, Dr. Jeffe has been principal investigator or co-investigator of several clinical and behavioral studies and of medical-education and program evaluations funded by the National Institutes of Health (primarily by the National Cancer Institute and National Institute of General Medical Sciences). Dr. Jeffe studies personal and environmental factors in relation to health-risk/health-promoting behaviors and emotional adjustment to disease, focusing on quality of life in cancer patients and cancer prevention and control in underserved groups. She has expertise in survey design, validation, and psychometrics, qualitative research, and program evaluation. She has an active educational-outcomes research program, with special interest in recruitment, retention and promotion of women and underrepresented minorities in science and biomedical research careers, a research program that grew directly from her abiding interest in reducing health disparities.
Dr. Insel received his M.D. from the University of Michigan and subsequent clinical training on the Harvard Medical Service at Boston City Hospital. He then began research training/efforts at NIH in the NICHD Gerontology Research Center and the NCI Laboratory of Theoretical Biology and subsequently at UCSF in the Cardiovascular Research Institute and Depts. of Medicine and Pharmacology. He joined the UCSF faculty as Assistant Professor-in-residence in the Dept. of Medicine and then moved as an Assistant Professor to the Division of Pharmacology, Dept. of Medicine at UCSD, where he is currently Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine at UCSD. Since 1989, he has been the Director of the UCSD Medical Scientist (M.D./Ph.D.) Training Program. Dr. Insel has been actively involved in the National Association of M.D/Ph.D Programs, serving as its inaugural President. He holds a Doc. Hon Causa from the University of Paris and is a Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Insel has served as Associate Editor and Editor of numerous scientific journals. He is currently Editor of the Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology and co-Head of Faculty of the Faculty of 1000Prime in Pharmacology and Drug Discovery Dr. Insel’s research efforts have focused on studies of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) with respect to their expression, signaling mechanisms, regulation, effects in target cells and roles in health and disease through the use of biochemical, cell and molecular biological approaches. Studies have emphasized heterotrimeric G-proteins, G-protein-regulated effectors, compartmentation of signaling entities in lipid raft/caveolin domains, cAMP-promoted responses and the use of “omics” approaches to define GPCR expression and the cAMP-regulated transcriptome and proteome. Dr. Insel has published >280 original articles and >150 reviews, invited articles and book chapters.