Faculty

Elena Mueller received her PhD in 2001 from the University of Lausanne for research on renal hormonal mechanisms of sodium channel regulation. Her PhD work concentrated on the dysregulation of Nedd4-mediated ubiquitination of ENaC channel in Liddle syndrome, a salt-sensitive form of human hypertension, and on the mechanisms of aldosterone action. From 2005, she conducted biomedical research at Cornell University first as a postdoc and then a research associate, with focus on gene-diet-environment interactions in several cellular pathways, including vitamin B9 and B12 metabolism. Impairments of folate-mediated metabolic network are associated with several human diseases including neural tube defects, megaloblastic anemia, intestinal cancers, vascular disease, cognitive decline, and severe combined immunodeficiency. Her current research interests are in deciphering signaling cascades and metabolic networks on the molecular level, in understanding how their impairment leads to disease, and in testing pharmacological and dietary interventions to ameliorate disease outcomes.