Gloria Culver, Ph.D. is a graduate of Ithaca College with a BA in Biology (minor: Art History). She earned her Ph.D. at University of Rochester in Biochemistry before going to the University of California, Santa Cruz for a post-doctoral appointment with Professor Harry Noller. Dr. Culver came to Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology. After more than 6 years at ISU, Dr. Culver returned to the University of Rochester as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Biology, of Biochemistry and Biophysics and as a member of the Center for RNA Biology. Dr. Culver served as Chair of the Department of Biology for 4 years, and is currently serving as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences since Spring 2015. In this role, she handles matters relating to eighteen departments and twelve programs covering the areas of arts and humanities, social sciences, and natural and physical sciences. She also served on the NIH Molecular Genetics A Study Section and acted as its Chair from Fall of 2014. Currently, Dr. Culver is a Director of the RNA Society.
Dr. Culver’s research centers on the assembly of ribosomal machinery essential for growth of all cells. By focusing on bacterial ribosomes, she has contributed to understanding how infections might be controlled through selective inhibition of specific control points of ribosomal assembly. Her research has been continually funded by the NIH for more than 16 years, and the labs work has also received funding from the American Cancer Society and the NSF.
Dr. Joaquín Espinosa is the Associate Director for Science at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome. He is also a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, the co-Leader of the Molecular Oncology program at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, and the founding Director of the Functional Genomics Facility at the University of Colorado.
Dr. Espinosa received his B.S. in Biology from the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1994, and a PhD in Biology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1999\. Supported by a fellowship from the PEW Charitable Trusts, Dr. Espinosa completed his post-doctoral at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. In 2004, supported by a fellowship from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, he began his independent appointment at the University of Colorado Boulder, in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. In 2009 he was appointed to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an Early Career Scientist, an appointment that he held until his move from Boulder to the Anschutz Medical Campus in 2015.
Dr. Espinosa directs a diverse research program both at the Department of Pharmacology and the Linda Crnic Institute, with an emphasis on understanding how gene networks control cell behavior and organismal function. Their two main focus areas are cancer biology and Down syndrome. To learn more about the research projects in the Espinosa lab and read their publications, please visit their website here.
In his role as the Associate Director for Science, Dr. Espinosa works in collaboration with all the scientists in the Institute, both in the intramural and extramural programs, to identify research priority areas, promote collaborations within and outside the Institute, facilitate interactions with the clinical care operations at the Sie Center for Down syndrome, facilitate adoption of new technologies, and advance the research mission of the Institute in the national and international arenas.