Claude Gagna
Professor, Biological and Chemical Sciences, NYIT. Adjunct Associate Professor (Pathology), and Adjunct Associate Professor (Medicine) Rutgers – Medical School.
Claude Gagna, Ph.D., is an Professor in the Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, New York Institute of Technology, holding a central position (i.e., Course Director) as a senior biology educator in lecture and laboratory learning in the anatomical sciences (e.g., human gross anatomy, pathophysiology, comparative anatomy, histology, Embryology, comparative animal physiology, human physiology, biomedical research and independent research courses). Dr. Claude Gagna holds adjunct Professor positions at the Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) in the Departments of Medicine (i.e., Dermatology) and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He is a molecular biologist, DNA nanotechnologist and anatomist who produces patents, refereed conference proceedings/abstracts, book chapters, copyrighted materials, original peer-reviewed journal article publications, and obtains internal and external grants. His continuing goal is to increase the knowledge of DNA and RNA structure and function in normal and diseased tissues. He is actively developing new "omics" technologies, i.e., Genomesorganizomics and Structural Spatial Transcriptomics. Additionally, he is creating novel histotechnological processing techniques, and new nucleic acid-based medical and nanotechnological devices [e.g., next generation of intact, unaltered canonical (e.g., B-DNA), alternative (e.g., Z-DNA) and multistranded (e.g., quadruplex G4-DNA) nucleic acid microarrays]. His research places a heavy emphasis on the relationship between nucleic acids and cell death [terminal differentiation (denucleation)]. He and his Rutgers School of Medicine colleagues are researching the molecular biology of dermatopathological conditions to enhance health outcomes. They are studying the role of exotic DNA structures that play a role in skin diseases (e.g., melanoma, xeroderma pigmentosum, and Cockayne syndrome). Employing immunohistochemistry and next generation DNA microarrays, they are trying to find a connection between DNA repair deficiency, and nucleic acid structures as means to achieve meaningful health results. Dr. Claude Gagna involves undergraduate, graduate and medical students, and postdoctoral fellows and residents in research projects, scientific meetings and publications, at multiple institutions. He has produced tailor-made laboratory manuals with ISBN numbers for Human Anatomy, Comparative Anatomy, Pathophysiology, Histology, Human Physiology, Embryology, and Biomedical Research I, II and III courses. In addition to collaborating in research projects with faculty at the Rutgers Medical School, he is working in partnership with other university faculty in the Tri-State area performing molecular biological research. As a researcher, he is presently involved in several projects, i.e., commercializing the 2005 Gagna-NYIT microarray-based patent, expanding the field of spatial genomics, working with researchers at Albert Einstein Medical School to reveal, for the first time, the presence and distribution of quadruplex G4-DNA in embryological tissue, and completing a project with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, that reveals the effects of cell death on a just recently discovered type of quadruplex nucleic acid, i.e., i-motif DNA. As part of a group who just obtained a $ 427,000 NSF grant (i.e., microCt scanner), he will begin scanning the 3D structure of mammalian and non-mammalian eyes as part of an evolutionary study. He is also involved in STEM projects. Dr. Gagna received his B.S. in Biology from St. Peter’s University, his M.S. in Human Gross Anatomy from Fairleigh Dickinson University-Dental School, and his Ph.D. from New York University-Basic Medical Sciences. He was a postdoctoral fellow at NYU-Basic Medical Sciences, and UMDNJ-Medical School.
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