Dr. John Engelhardt is the director at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

Center for Gene Therapy of Cystic Fibrosis, as well as the head of the department of anatomy and cell biology. He is a well known scientist and inventor who created the first cloned ferret and has made huge strides in finding the cure for

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. O ...

Education

Dr. Engelhardt got his undergraduate degree in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

in 1985. He then went on to get his doctorate in human

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

in 1990.

Research

Dr. Engelhardt is most widely known for his creation of new animal models for the study of cystic fibrosis. In the 1990s he developed the human tracheal xenograft models that allowed study of humanized airways on denuded rat tracheal scaffolds. However, he soon found that there were major limitation of mouse models to study CF. He later found that the ferrets represent a much better model for lung disease and in 2006 his laboratory became the first in the world to clone ferrets. Dr. Engelhardt's research has been geared towards finding gene therapies for cystic fibrosis. Specifically, he focuses on: # the study of lung molecular and cellular biology as it relates to the pathogenesis and treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease and associated diabetes # molecular mechanisms underlying redox-mediated signal transduction in environmental injuries of the liver and the development of molecular therapies for ischemia/reperfusion injury, sepsis, and the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) # the biology of adeno-associated virus infection and the development of this vector for

gene therapy Gene therapy is a medical field which focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect or the treatment of disease by repairing or reconstructing defective genetic material. The first attempt at modifying human DN ...

of cystic fibrosis lung disease.

Honors

* 1999: Philip C. and Ethel F. Ashby Lecturer, University of Oklahoma * 2003–2006: Elected to board of directors of the American Society of Gene Therapy * 2004: Roy J. Carver Chair in Molecular Medicine * 2005: NIH MERIT Award (NIDDK) * 2011: University of Iowa Graduate College Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award: Biological and Life Sciences * 2012: University of Iowa Graduate College Fall Commencement Address * 2012: Liupan Mountain Friendship Award, Ningxia Foreign Experts Bureau, Ningxia, P.R.C. (Commends foreign experts for their contributions to Ningxia's economic construction) * 2015: Regents Award for Faculty Excellence, University of Iowa * 2019: Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Engelhardt, John American geneticists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)