Marion J. Siegman, PhD, FAPS

I am a scientist, educator, and professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. The major focus of my research is on special characteristics of smooth muscle including the energetics, biomechanics and ultrastructure. Specifically, we are now investigating the nature and basis of remodeling of intestinal smooth muscle in diseases such as type 1 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease that compromise force transmission and shortening during muscle contraction. We are seeking strategies to relieve or prevent the remodeling of the colon that leads to obstructive changes that impede motility, such as fibrosis and hypertrophy, correlating such functional changes with structural composition that can be visualized with electron microscopy.

Currently, we are trying to understand the basic mechanisms by which inflammation of the nerves that control motility of the intestine lead to changes in motility manifest as constipation in patients with Parkinson’s disease as well as in type 1 diabetes. A very large number of patients with Parkinson’s actually develop constipation many years before problems affecting brain function are manifest. Our hope is that by finding the earliest signals of inflammation that compromise motility of the gut, therapeutic agents can be developed that target these processes, thereby preventing the progression of disease. In the study of type 1 diabetes, other strategies are being used aimed at alleviating and possibly preventing the fibrotic changes of the gut that occur in these patients. 

I am a visual learner and have always been intrigued by how things work. As a child, I was nurtured by my late physician-father to explore and learn about devices in his medical office. I was also introduced to the basics of photography, from developing x-rays and ECG traces to printing photos of babies he delivered. Years later, this made a switch from a career in pharmacology (my PhD) to medical physiology seamless, and few things have given me more joy than interacting with and teaching physiology to medical students. I also enjoy being a “foodie” (the kitchen is my “other” lab) and entertaining friends, inspired by my late mother’s Viennese cuisine, the cuisine of New Orleans during my college days at Tulane, and the cuisine of many countries made possible by extensive world travel. If not all this? Animal rescue in Africa, camera in hand!