M Bishr Omary

Bishr Omary is professor and chair of physiology and professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, and an investigator at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2008, he was at Stanford University for 19 years where he served as Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, director of its NIH-supported digestive disease center, director of its NIH-supported training grant, and an investigator...See more

Bishr Omary is professor and chair of physiology and professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, and an investigator at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2008, he was at Stanford University for 19 years where he served as Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, director of its NIH-supported digestive disease center, director of its NIH-supported training grant, and an investigator at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System. He received his undergraduate degree from George Mason University, his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California (UC) San Diego and his MD from the University of Miami. He completed internal medicine residency training at UC Irvine then gastroenterology fellowship at UC San Diego prior to starting his first faculty position at Stanford University. He has published more than 160 original papers and 30 reviews and commentaries. Most of his publications involved studies pertaining to the function, regulation and disease association of keratin intermediate filament proteins in digestive organs. For example, his laboratory developed genetic disease models and showed that human mutations in keratin polypeptides 8, 18 and 19 (K8/K18/K19) predispose their carriers to acute and chronic liver disease progression. His group identified and characterized several keratin associated proteins, and multiple posttranslational modifications of keratins including phosphorylation, glycosylation, sumoylation, transamidation and acetylation. His group also helped define the importance of keratins and their posttranslational modifications in formation of the hepatocyte inclusions termed Mallory-Denk bodies. More recently, his work extended to drug discovery to identify compounds that could be used as potential therapy for intermediate filament associated diseases. He chaired the Gordon Conference on Intermediate Filaments in 2006 and has served as editor or co-editor of several review series on intermediate filament proteins. He has trained more than 20 postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have secured academic positions. See less