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tFACULTY, STAFF & ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS12 IN FOCUS t ISSUE 2025-2026Dr. Anthony Verkerke is a new tenure track Assistant Professor joining the research faculty in IBP. He joined our department in July. Dr. Verkerke attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as an undergraduate. He received his PhD in Nutrition and Integrative Physiology from the University of Utah. As a postdoctoral fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, he characterized the orphaned protein SLC25A48 as a mitochondrial choline carrier. The Verkerke lab will continue to study the role of choline metabolism in pathophysiology. Dr. Frank Duca is a new Associate Professor with tenure joining the research faculty in IBP. He joined our department in May from Arizona. Dr. Duca attended The Pennsylvania State University, where he received his undergraduate degree in Bioengineering and MS in Nutritional Sciences. He received his PhD in Physiology and Pathophysiology from Pierre and Marie Curie University, now Sorbonne University. He was a Banting Fellow at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute where he had several high impact publications demonstrating the glucoregulatory role of the gut microbiome and metformin via gut-brain-liver signaling. The Duca Lab is currently focused on how dietary and environmental exposures can impact gut-brain signaling mechanisms that regulate metabolic homeostasis. Overall, the goal is to better understand the role of gut-brain signaling on host health, and to understand how diet and other environmental exposures impact the gut microbiome, with the hope of developing novel targeted therapeutics to treat obesity, diabetes, and cancer. In his free time, Frank enjoys watching sports, being active, playing hockey, and is very excited to explore the natural beauty of Minnesota.NEW FACULTY: ANTHONY VERKERKE, PHDNEW FACULTY: FRANK DUCA, PHDDr. Nathan Zaidman joined the UMN Integrative Biology and Physiology graduate program in 2011 after earning an undergraduate degree from the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He performed his thesis research under the mentorship of Drs. Scott O%u2019Grady and Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari on the role of corticosteroids on iontransport phenomena in the airways. During his tenure in IBP, Nathan was awarded the Allan Hemingway Scholarship, a Bacaner Research Award, the Lifson/Johnson Memorial Award and an NRSA F31 predoctoral fellowship. Dr. Zaidman%u2019s manuscript %u201cDifferentiation of human bronchial epithelial cells: role of hydrocortisone in development of ion transport pathways involved in mucociliary clearance,%u201d was selected as the American Journal of Physiology %u2013 Cell Physiology Paper of the Year for 2016. Nathan joined Dr. Jennifer Pluznick%u2019s lab at Johns Hopkins University in 2016 to begin his research into orphan GPCRs in the kidney. Dr. Zaidman%u2019s research in the Pluznick lab uncovered a critical role for the adhesion-GPCR Gpr116 in renal acid-base homeostasis. Specifically, they discovered that Gpr116 is an essential regulator of V-ATPase proton pumps on the surface of A-type intercalated cells in the collecting ducts. He was awarded an NRSA F32 as well as a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the NIDDK and accepted a tenure-track faculty position at the University of New Mexico in 2022. His lab investigates the physiological significance of adhesion-class GPCRs in the kidney as well as acid-base homeostasis at the single-cell level. He currently mentors two PhD students and a postdoctoral fellow in his lab, and is the co-chair of the Adhesion GPCR Consortium, an international network of laboratories studying adhesion GPCRs. Dr. Zaidman lives in Albuquerque, at approximately 5,000 feet of elevation, with his wife Sarah, their two children, and their cat. They are all looking forward to a mild winter and tulips sprouting in February.ALUMNI PROFILE: NATHAN ZAIDMAN, PHD