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 George
J. Christ, Ph.D., is Professor of Urology and Head of the Program in
Cell, Tissue and Organ Physiology at the Wake Forest Institute for
Regenerative Medicine. He is the former Director and founder of the
Institute for Smooth Muscle at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
where he maintains an appointment as a Visiting Professor in the Depts. of
Urology & Physiology & Biophysics. He is an internationally recognized
expert in smooth muscle physiology. Dr. Christ is the Chairman of the
Division of Systems and Integrative Pharmacology of the American Society of
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and currently serves on the
Editorial Board of two journals, as well as being an Editorial Consultant to
the Investigative Urology section of the Journal of Urology. Dr. Christ has
authored more than 120 scientific publications and has co-edited a book on
smooth muscle. Dr. Christ has served on both national and international
committees related to his expertise in smooth muscle physiology and has
served on NIH study sections in both the NIDDK and NHLBI. Dr. Christ was the
Co-Chair of the Muscle Working Group for the NIDDK-sponsored Bladder
Progress Review Group, as well as being Co-Chair for the Pharmacology of
Erection Committee of the 2nd International Consultation on ED convened by
the World Health Organization. He has lectured worldwide on smooth muscle
physiology/dysfunction and is a frequent reviewer for more than a dozen
medical/basic science journals. Dr. Christ is a co-inventor on more than 20
patents that are either issued or applied for related to gene therapy
treatments for smooth muscle disorders/diseases, and is the Co-Founder and
Directing Member of Ion Channel Innovations, LLC., a development stage
biotechnology company pioneering the use of gene therapy for the treatment
of human smooth muscle disorders. Dr. Christ has been and continues to serve
as a consultant to major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Dr. Christ’s research interests are in the area of Functional Genomics, that
is, establishing a verifiable link between changes in gene expression and
alterations in cell/organ/tissue function/dysfunction. To this end, Dr.
Christ has developed a multidisciplinary approach that utilizes various
visceral and vascular smooth muscle tissues/organs to attempt to establish
"cause and effect" relationships between molecular/genetic alterations and
measurable changes in organ function, namely, contraction and relaxation of
smooth muscle cells. Animal vascular and visceral tissues are studied both
in vitro and in vivo. Molecular, biochemical, electrophysiological,
pharmacological, immunochemical, and whole animal techniques (rat and mouse
transgenics and knockouts) are all used to study the mechanistic basis for
integrative tissue physiology. Parallel in vitro studies are conducted on
corresponding human tissues for target validation whenever possible. |
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