معرفی
Shawn Flanagan serves as an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Health and Human Physiology within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa. He teaches foundational and advanced courses spanning human physiology, pathophysiology, immunology, nutrition, and aging, including HHP:1300 Fundamentals of Human Physiology and HHP:5300 Advanced Human Physiology.
Dr. Flanagan earned his PhD in Integrative Physiology from the University of Iowa.
His research investigates free radical biology in health and disease, with emphasis on stress response mechanisms and nutritional impacts across whole-organism, cellular, and molecular levels. This work bridges physiological adaptation, oxidative stress pathways, and disease pathogenesis, particularly in neurodegenerative conditions like ALS. His experimental approaches integrate molecular techniques with whole-animal models to dissect cytoprotective mechanisms.
Analysis of his publications reveals a chronological evolution from 1990s heat-shock protein studies in thermotolerance and prostate cancer to 2000s investigations of superoxide dismutase in ALS models. His work consistently centers on oxidative stress mechanisms, demonstrating how free radical flux influences cellular survival in disease contexts across physiology, biochemistry, and neuroscience disciplines.
His scientific recognition includes:
- NRSA Institutional Pre-doctoral training fellowship (1991-1994)
- Gatorade student research grant (1994-1995)
- NRSA Institutional Post-doctoral training fellowship (1997-1999)
- Two Young Investigator Awards from the Oxygen Society (2000, 2001)
Dr. Flanagan's research has been supported by NIH training grants and industry partnerships, with collaborative work spanning the Department of Internal Medicine and University of Iowa Center on Aging. His mentorship extends through classroom instruction and laboratory research guidance for undergraduate and graduate students in health sciences.
His laboratory collaborations focus on oxidative stress mechanisms, particularly with the Oberley research group on superoxide dismutase function in neurodegenerative models and with urology researchers on thermal ablation techniques for prostate cancer.
