Berman Lab

• About the lab |
• News |
• Lab Members |
• Research

Career Opportunities: From time to time, the lab has openings for students and fellows. To inquire about openings please provide the following information by clicking here.

Lab Members

David Berman (Principal Investigator) gave up his role as a New York City bicycle maven to pursue M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at U.T. Southwestern where he cloned the cDNA for the enzyme 5-alpha reductase and elucidated its role in prostate development. He then performed anatomic pathology residency training and a postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins. He performs diagnostic surgical pathology one morning a week and devotes the rest of his professional efforts to fundamental research. David’s hobbies include playing barista for his wife Peggy and his friends and co-workers, wave-jumping with his two daughters, and masters’ swimming.

Xiaobing He (Postdoctoral Fellow) earned a Ph.D from the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Science for his work on GABA receptor signaling in male reproduction. Currently, Xiaobing orchestrates complex and elegant studies of tumor stem cells. When not spinning, flowing, or painting cell populations, Xiaobing enjoys modeling his hip Shanghai wardrobe and making dumplings with his bride and his son.

Zhenhua Huang (Postdoctoral Fellow) received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, where he studied drug resistance in cancer cells. Zhenhua, also known as the stem cell whisperer, studies the cellular pathways that organize early prostate development.

Hiu Yeung Lau (Undergraduate Student) is in constant motion, juggling several critical duties within and without the lab. In addition to a full load Cellular and Molecular Biology college courses, Hiu and his trusty Mitsubishi Eclipse hold high ranking positions in the Baltimore office of Singapore’s Ministry of Transportation, catering to the needs of his country’s finest students. Hiu’s interest in transportation extends to his laboratory investigations as well, which focus on cell movement in the developing prostate. For fun, Hiu likes to transport himself on foot up and down mountains, or chill with a chendol. He also subscribes to these wise words, which have comforted many an experimental biologist and play often from his iPod:

Shizhang Ling (Postdoctoral Fellow) received his M.D. from Wannan Medical College in China and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada where his dissertation work focused on calcium –sensitive potassium channels. In the Berman lab, Shizhang focuses on understanding and manipulating the molecular choreography of epithelial injury repair, using the urinary bladder as a model system. He and his wife, Xiaofei choreograph their roles as postdoctoral fellows and parents of a young son.

Brian Simons (Pathobiology Graduate Student) earned his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Texas A&M University and completed a veterinary pathology residency at Johns Hopkins before joining the laboratory. Brian studies cell fate determination in the embryo and in cancer formation and is becoming the laboratory’s leading experimental embryologist. In his spare time, he likes to examine lumps and bumps removed from people’s pets and ferry them around Baltimore for show-and-tell. This hobby is much appreciated by his wife and her furry patients (she’s also a veterinarian).

Faculty Collaborators

Luigi Marchionni (Instructor in Oncology/Collaborator) received his MD from the University of Turin, Italy and a Ph.D. in structural and functional genomics from the International School of Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy. Luigi expertly performs bioinformatic analyses of millions of data points and designs new tools and approaches so that thousands of potential Luigi protégés can more insightfully analyze trillions of additional data points. He and his biologic collaborator Elisabetta have produced two genetic protégés whom they analyze in their spare time. In more lighthearted moments, Luigi makes a mean focaccia and cheers for his beloved Team Toro.

Edward (Ted) Schaeffer (Assistant Professor of Urology/Collaborator) received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago where he was the first to characterize signal transduction by the BTK family of non-receptor tyrosine kinases in T-cells. He then moved to Baltimore to master the art of urologic surgery. Finding humans to be an incomplete outlet for surgical self-expression, Ted devoted a year and a half of his residency subspecializing in mice. Ted’s mouse work focuses on early prostate morphogenesis and prostate cancer. When he’s not healing the sick or hunkered down over the dissecting scope, he likes hiking, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and driving long distances.