Ed Cohen
Ed Cohen is a Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. His scholarship examines the intersections of philosophy, political economy, and medical discourses, focusing on how historical and theoretical frameworks shape concepts of health and life. Cohen’s research engages with biopolitics, autoimmune disease, and the cultural dimensions of medicine, drawing on thinkers such as Michel Foucault. He is the author of On Learning to Heal, or What Medicine Doesn’t Know (Duke, 2023) and A Body Worth Defending: Immunity, Biopolitics, and the Apotheosis of the Modern Body (Duke, 2009), influential studies on the politics of health and healing. His recent work investigates the biopolitics of pandemics and how societies conceptualize immunity and vulnerability.
Mike Kiledjian, Ph.D.
Mike Kiledjian is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Rutgers University and serves as Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the School of Arts and Sciences. His research centers on RNA biology, with an emphasis on mRNA degradation mechanisms and their impact on gene expression. His work investigates RNA modifications and decapping enzymes and their roles in neurogenesis and cellular communication, offering insights into fundamental biology and human disease. He has published extensively and leads NIH-funded projects that advance understanding of RNA metabolism.
Ping Xie, Ph.D.
Ping Xie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Rutgers University and a member of the Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that regulate immune responses and contribute to cancer development. Xie investigates how immune receptor signaling and adaptor proteins such as TRAF3 maintain immune cell homeostasis and functionality, with implications for lymphomagenesis and chronic inflammation. Her lab uses advanced approaches—including single cell RNA-seq, spatial omics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics—to uncover pathways involved in cancers, chronic inflammation, infections, and autoimmune disorders, aiming to inform new therapeutic strategies.