Areas of Study
Redox, gene expression, and diet research
Education
- Dartmouth College1983PhD
Research
Dr. Crawford's laboratory is primarily involved in redox, gene expression, and diet research. He has identified a number of genes (e.g., RCAN1 and mitochondrial polynucleotides) that are modulated by oxidative stress and is characterizing their function and possible clinical use in stress-related disorders. Most recently, this has focused on the involvement of mitochondrial RNA and DNA (both native and oxidized) in inflammation.
The laboratory is also involved in diet and nutrition as a healthy, low-cost, and translational approach to treating multiple disorders, a project we call dietary rational gene targeting. This novel approach uses healthy dietary agents to modulate key disorder-causing genes and proteins back toward the normal, in turn providing potential complementary and alternative treatment therapies. These studies include our creation of a new online dietary app (“Eat4Genes”) in collaboration with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Crawford also chairs the Capital Region Cancer Research (CRCR) group, an inter-institutional organization devoted to the cure of cancer.
Publications
Ford ML, Cooley JM, Sripada V, Xu Z, Erickson JS, Bennett KP, Crawford DR. Eat4Genes: a bioinformatic rational gene targeting app and prototype model for improving human health. Front Nutr. 2023 May 26;10:1196520. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1196520. eCollection 2023.PMID: 37305078
Crawford DR. Compassion and Empathy in Basic Medical Science Teaching: A Suggested Model. Cureus. 2021 Dec;13(12):e20205. doi: 10.7759/cureus.20205. eCollection 2021 Dec. PubMed PMID: 35004025; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8729821.
Bagyi J, Sripada V, Aidone AM, Lin HY, Ruder EH, Crawford DR. Dietary rational targeting of redox-regulated genes. Free Radic Biol Med. 2021 Sep;173:19-28. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2021.07.021. Epub 2021 Jul 15. Review. PubMed PMID: 34274490.
Saxena AR, Ilic Z, Sripada V, Crawford DR. Lower concentrations of curcumin inhibit Her2-Akt pathway components in human breast cancer cells, and other dietary botanicals potentiate this and lapatinib inhibition. Nutr Res. 2020 Jun;78:93-104. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2020.05.007. Epub 2020 May 19. PubMed PMID: 32563955.
Ilic Z, Saxena AR, Periasamy S, Crawford DR. Control (Native) and oxidized (DeMP) mitochondrial RNA are proinflammatory regulators in human. Free Radic Biol Med. 2019 Nov 1;143:62-69. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.07.019. Epub 2019 Jul 19. PubMed PMID: 31330178.
Saxena AR, Gao LY, Srivatsa S, Bobersky EZ, Periasamy S, Hunt DT, Altman KE, Crawford DR. Oxidized and Original article degraded mitochondrial polynucleotides (DeMPs), especially RNA, are potent immunogenic regulators in primary mouse macrophages. Free Radic Biol Med. 2017 Mar;104:371-379. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2017.02.009. Epub 2017 Feb 4. PubMed PMID: 28179110.
View Dana R. Crawford's articles on the National Institute of Health's PubMed website.