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Dianna E. Willis, Ph.D.
FACULTY - LAB DIRECTOR

Dianna E. Willis, Ph.D.

Associate Director
Burke Neurological Institute
Lab Director
Laboratory for Axonal and RNA Biology
Burke Neurological Institute
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Weill Cornell Medicine
Co-Director
Burke Neurological Institute

Biography

Dianna E. Willis, Ph.D., is the head of the Laboratory for Axonal and RNA Biology, Director of the Center for Pain Research, and Associate Director at the Burke Neurological Institute, an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Director of the Burke-Blythedale Program in Pediatric Clinic Neuroscience.

Dr. Willis received her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994, and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Delaware in 2002. Her postdoctoral training at Nemours Biomedical Research at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children from 2002 – 2007 focused on the newly emerging understanding of local translation in neuronal axons.

After completing a visiting scientist position in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology at Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands in 2007, she returned to Nemours as an Assistant Research Scientist in the Center for Translational Neurobiology. In 2010, Dr. Willis was recruited to be the Director of the Center for Pain Research at the Burke Neurological Institute. Her research has focused on understanding how aberrant axonal translation may lead to maladaptive plasticity as is evident in neuropathic pain and neuropathy.

Education

Degree: 
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Institution: 
Nemours Biomedical Research, Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE
Year Completed: 
2007
Degree: 
Ph.D., Biology (Molecular Biology and Genetics)
Institution: 
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Year Completed: 
2002
Degree: 
B.S., Biology
Institution: 
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Year Completed: 
1994

Recent Publications

PUBLICATION: 
Other (Non-Standard Citation)
Wilfredo Mellado, Dianna E Willis
PLoS Biol . 2023 Apr 21;21(4):e3002094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002094. eCollection 2023 Apr.
Full Text on PMC
PUBLICATION: 
Journal Article
Gareth R Tibbs, Rajendra Uprety, J David Warren, Nicole P Beyer, Rebecca L Joyce, Matthew A Ferrer, Wilfredo Mellado, Victor S C Wong, David C Goldberg, Melanie W Cohen, Christopher J Costa, Zhucui Li, Guoan Zhang, Noah E Dephoure, Dipti N Barman, Delin Sun, Helgi I Ingólfsson, Anthony A Sauve, Dianna E Willis, Peter A Goldstein
Br J Anaesth . 2023 Aug 9;S0007-0912(23)00375-6. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2023.06.067. Online ahead of print.
Full Text on BJA
PUBLICATION: 
Journal Article
Christopher J Costa, Melanie W Cohen, David C Goldberg, Wilfredo Mellado, Dianna E Willis
Dig Dis Sci . 2023 Jul;68(7):2963-2974. doi: 10.1007/s10620-023-07913-5. Epub 2023 Mar 15.
Full Text on Springer