Todd Evans, Ph.D.

Professor
Vice Chair for Research
Weill Cornell Medical College
tre2003@med.cornell.edu

The Evans laboratory has explored and exploited the strengths of numerous developmental systems (chick, quail, mouse, human, zebrafish). With a great appreciation for other models (flies, worms, and yeast), the focus has been on vertebrate organogenesis and the work now translates mostly between zebrafish and mouse ES cell systems. A major theme over the past 10 years has been to dissect out specificity among related members of key gene families (Smads, GATA, Tbox, etc.), considering that this will be essential information for developing effective cellular, regenerative, or pharmacological therapies, since the related genes are in some contexts functionally redundant, but in other contexts have exquisite functional specificity. The laboratory has been continuously funded by the NIH and in addition from other sources (AHA, ACS, MOD, etc.). 

Having moved after spending the past 14 years at Albert Einstein, Dr. Evans now serves as Vice Chair for Research in Surgery at Weill Cornell, with a defined mission to develop a synergy of basic, preclinical, and translational research in Regenerative Medicine. Over the past several years his own laboratory has focused very much on stem cell biology. While this is a natural extension of a developmental perspective, it is also clearly driven by recent advances in the identification of new stem and progenitor cell populations (including cancer stem cells), the ability to manipulate potency (iPS), and the promise of regenerative medicine. Specifically, a partnership of developmental biologists (stem cell biologists) and tissue engineers, in the context of appropriate clinical expertise (oncologists, surgeons, etc. who understand the practical limitations of current clinical needs) has tremendous potential to impact our ability to treat debilitating diseases. 

Select Publications

Kadereit B, Kumar P, Wang WJ, Miranda D, Snapp EL, Severina N, Torregroza I, Evans T, Silver DL. Evolutionarily conserved gene family important for fat storage. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Jan 8;105(1):94-9. Epub 2007 Dec 26.

Zafonte BT, Liu S, Lynch-Kattman M, Torregroza I, Benvenuto L, Kennedy M, Keller G, Evans T. Smad1 expands the hemangioblast population within a limited developmental window. Blood. 2007 Jan 15;109(2):516-23. Epub 2006 Sep 21.

McReynolds LJ, Gupta S, Figueroa ME, Mullins MC, Evans T. Smad1 and Smad5 differentially regulate embryonic hematopoiesis. Blood. 2007 Dec 1;110(12):3881-90. Epub 2007 Aug 29.

Holtzinger A, Evans T. Gata5 and Gata6 are functionally redundant in zebrafish for specification of cardiomyocytes. Dev Biol. 2007 Dec 15;312(2):613-22. Epub 2007 Sep 22.

Torregroza I, Evans T. Tid1 is a Smad-binding protein that can modulate Smad7 activity in developing embryos. Biochem J. 2006 Jan 1;393(Pt 1):311-20.

Yergeau DA, Schmerer M, Kuliyev E, Evans T, Mead PE. Cloning and expression pattern of the Xenopus erythropoietin receptor. Gene Expr Patterns. 2006 Apr;6(4):420-5. Epub 2005 Dec 27.

Gupta S, Zhu H, Zon LI, Evans T. BMP signaling restricts hemato-vascular development from lateral mesoderm during somitogenesis. Development. 2006 Jun;133(11):2177-87. Epub 2006 May 3.

Ghatpande S, Brand T, Zile M, Evans T. Bmp2 and Gata4 function additively to rescue heart tube development in the absence of retinoids. Dev Dyn. 2006 Aug;235(8):2030-9.

Schmerer M, Torregroza I, Pascal A, Umbhauer M, Evans T. STAT5 acts as a repressor to regulate early embryonic erythropoiesis. Blood. 2006 Nov 1;108(9):2989-97. Epub 2006 Jul 11.

Stanton SE, McReynolds LJ, Evans T, Schreiber-Agus N. Yaf2 inhibits caspase 8-mediated apoptosis and regulates cell survival during zebrafish embryogenesis. J Biol Chem. 2006 Sep 29;281(39):28782-93. Epub 2006 Aug 4.