Program Director/Principal Investigator: Marie J. Stuart, M.D.
Marie J. Stuart, M.D. is Professor of Pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University and received her M.B.B.S from Madras Medical College, South India in 1965. She then trained at Boston City Hospital and the Children’s hospital of Philadelphia receiving her AB in Pediatrics and Pediatric hematology / Oncology. Dr. Stuart has received NIH peer reviewed continuing support since 1978 as the PI of various hematology research and program projects including Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center status and funding at St Christopher’s Hospital for Children (where she initiated the Marian Anderson Sickle Cell Research Center in 1991 and at the Thomas Jefferson University in 1998). She joined the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children/Nemours in 2012.
Dr. Stuart was recruited (September 2012) from a previous position at Jefferson Medical College to lead this COBRE application. Dr. Stuart is an established and renowned biomedical physician scientist who has dedicated her distinguished career to the study of sickle cell related complications. She has Directed 3 consecutive NHLBI funded, National Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center (CSCC) Programs at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She led these consortiums of programs, which included St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Corsair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky since 1998. She also served a term as Vice Chair of the10 Center Executive Committee of the last CSCC Program, and as a member of the NIH Sickle Cell Advisory Council. She has more than 15 years experience in the administrative leadership of Comprehensive Sickle Cell Programs and the mentoring of junior investigators in sickle cell disease related research. As clinical leader with 40 years experience, she started Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Training programs at both SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, NY and at St. Christopher Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.
Dr. Stuart has served as Program Director and Principal Investigator of the Delaware Comprehensive Sickle Cell Research Center Program from the inception of the Program through her retirement (6/30/18).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/collections/bibliography/48926826/
Interim-Principal Investigator: Vicky Funanage, Ph.D.
Vicky L. Funanage, PhD is the Operational Vice President for Research of The Nemours Children’s Health System and heads the Musculoskeletal Inherited Disease Laboratory. She is also Director of the CLIA-certified Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory. Dr. Funanage is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University, Adjunct Professor in the College of Health Sciences and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Delaware. Dr. Funanage obtained her PhD in genetics from the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on the genomic basis of pediatric musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, and cardiovascular disorders, and her work has been supported by the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the NIH.
In addition to her research duties, Dr. Funanage serves on the Steering Committee and the Coordinating Council for the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance (DHSA), Steering Committee for the Delaware IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program, University of Delaware College of Health Sciences Advisory Committee, Internal Advisory Committee for the Nemours Center for Pediatric Research Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) program, Interim PI of the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) – Delaware Comprehensive Sickle Cell Research Center, as well as the Delaware Clinical and Translational Research ACCEL Program (DE-CTR; where she serves as Chair) and Executive Committee for the Delaware Valley Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences.
She has received numerous honors, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware and the Bleyer Family Humanitarian Award from the Huntington’s Disease Society and most recently the Delaware Bioscience Academic Research Award. Dr. Funanage also holds six U.S. patents and one international patent for her research work.