Joseph M. Miano, Ph.D.

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Dr. Miano grew up in Chili, a suburb of Rochester, NY, and graduated from Gates-Chili High School. His PhD research was done at New York Medical College where he identified genes that could be turned on immediately after experimental angioplasty. His post-doctoral training was done in a world-class lab at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas where he continued his studies related to the control of turning genes on and off. Miano states that, "DNA is a quaternary code and the most sophisticated code known to human kind. Most common diseases occur because of the inappropriate turning on and off of genes, which relate to defective codes in our genome or altered signaling that converges on the quaternary code to turn on/off genes. My research in the Aab CVRI aims to decipher the codes that dictate how genes involved in cardiovascular disease are either turned up or down. Much like a thermostat controlling the heat in your home, cells normally have exquisite control over the level of gene activity. Diseases of the heart and blood vessels occur when this 'geneostat' control runs awry. Thus, identifying and understanding how certain codes control genes turning on and off is a foundation for developing novel methods of predicting and perhaps treating various diseases of the body. To date, Dr. Miano has published over 70 research papers and is a Consulting Member of a University start-up company called Socratech, whose charge is to develop novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.

Links of interest for the lay public:

http://www.cureresearch.com/genetics/dna.htm

Current Appointments

• Associate Professor - Department of Medicine, Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute (SMD)
• Associate Professor - Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (SMD)