What’s on my mind this month is how 2014 ended on an incredible “high note,” with the 2014 Festival of Science rounding out a very successful calendar year..
The 2014 Festival of Science was an incredibly exhilarating day of intellectual discourse. Our 11 faculty speakers gave us just a small sampling of their exemplary work, summarizing their most cutting-edge projects for our distinguished Scientific Advisory Council and the attendees at last year’s event—a herculean task considering the breadth and depth of innovative biomedical research going on at the School of Medicine. Their outstanding presentations represented our School proudly. My only “regret” of the Festival is that we could not include more speakers on the day’s agenda, as so many of our faculty investigators conduct remarkable work in the fields of infections, inflammation and vaccines. I applaud and commend our entire School of Medicine community for the tremendous work you do every day.
Last year, we made a concerted effort to share the ambitious goals of our Shared Vision 2020. Shared Vision 2020 was the roadmap to success that we established with our UMMS partners in 2013. The research component of Vision 2020 was embodied in the ACCEL-Med (Accelerating Innovation and Discovery in Medicine) Initiative, aimed at significantly and measurably increasing the pace and scope of discovery and innovation, with the ultimate goal of dramatically improving human health and wellbeing. I hope that, by now, the spirit with which the ACCEL-Med Initiative was established is deeply ingrained in your approach to the goals you have set for your research. My goal is to highlight all of our faculty’s work at a future Festival of Science, the cornerstone of the ACCEL-Med Initiative.
For those of you who couldn’t join us at the 2014 Festival, we closed the program by announcing the projects that received Dean’s Challenge Awards. This award opportunity was announced at the 2013 Festival of Science, and I was extremely pleased at the response from the faculty. Here are the inaugural awardees and their projects:
- Role of TLR4 in Virus-Induced Allergic Hypersensitivity—Achsah Keegan, PhD; Stefanie Vogel, PhD;
Rose Viscardi, MD; Kari Ann Shirey, PhD; and Dayanand Bagdure, MD - Pathogenic Role of HIV-1 p17 Variants in AIDS-Associated Lymphoma—Robert Gallo, MD;
William Blattner, MD; Joseph Bryant, DVM, MS; Alfredo Garzino-Demo, PhD; Wuyuan Lu, PhD; and
Fabio Romerio, PhD - A Genomic Vaccinology Approach to Malaria Vaccine Development—Christopher Plowe, MD, MPH;
Claire Fraser, PhD; Joana Carneiro da Silva, PhD; and Mark Travassos, MD, MSc - Metabolic Imaging and Sonodynamic Therapy for Invasive Brain Tumors Using 5-Aminolevulinic Acid—Rao Gullapalli, PhD, MBA; Dirk Mayer, Dr. rer. nat.; Joseph Kao, PhD; Jeffrey Winkles, PhD; and Graeme Woodworth, MD
Although I do not want to set a precedent for future Festival of Science events, I also announced a new award program, the “Special Interdisciplinary Recruitment Award.” This program is intended to accelerate and significantly expand the School of Medicine research portfolio and funding base; stimulate research to answer important, “big science” questions underlying human health and disease; and encourage multiple academic units to jointly recruit well-funded scientists. The awards will be given through a competitive process, with preference given to packages from a clinical department and basic science department, and will include contributions from the Dean’s Office to a recruitment package for new investigators, or teams of investigators. More information will be forthcoming.
I encourage you to continue to thinking boldly and strategically about the goals you wish to set for yourself and for your laboratory. Despite the setbacks of 2013 from the federal government’s “sequestration” issue, last year was a great success. I am confident that we can and will exceed our goals for 2015. In the words of the great artist Michelangelo, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” May we all achieve our high aims in this New Year.
In the relentless pursuit of excellence, I am
Sincerely yours,
E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA
Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and
Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine
2015 Festival of Science
Some of the world’s leading scientists gathered at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on December 12 for the second annual Festival of Science, a one-day celebration of research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) This year’s presentations included discussions on infectious diseases and global viruses that have made front page news over the past several months.
The keynote speaker was Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at NIH, who spoke about the current situation in the battle against Ebola. As head of the NIAID, Dr. Fauci has been at the center of U.S. efforts to deal with the disease, and his agency is overseeing several of the vaccine trials currently underway. In fact, he had to make his keynote via video when a last-minute meeting with President Obama kept him in DC.
The Festival of Science is a one-day celebration of research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM). It features a series of faculty presentations showcasing innovative work by UM SOM scientists. Topics this year included research on Ebola, malaria and HIV vaccine development, inflammation, and diabetes. The presentations were critiqued by our five-member Scientific Advisory Council.
“The Festival of Science has become a tremendous event each year for the School of Medicine,” said E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. “The faculty presentations once again illustrate the impact that our scientific discoveries are having on critical global health issues. We are grateful to our presenters and, in particular, to our esteemed Scientific Advisory Council, for their invaluable questions and insights.”
Robert Gallo, MD, the Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine and Director of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV), is a towering figure in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He helped discover that HIV causes AIDS, and has spent much of his career studying the disease. He spoke on continuing efforts to create a vaccine to prevent HIV transmission—a possibility that would revolutionize the fight against the disease.
Myron M. Levine, MD, the Simon and Bessie Grollman Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), talked about his work testing an Ebola vaccine. He is currently leading the first-ever human trial in West Africa of an Ebola vaccine. The study is taking place in Bamako, Mali, in collaboration and conjunction with its sister institution, The Center for Vaccine Development of Mali (CVD-Mali) and the Ministry of Health of Mali. Dr. Levine also spoke about CVD’s work on developing other vaccines for typhoid, Salmonella and Shigella, among other diseases.
Dr. Fauci has made many major contributions to the battle against infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. He has been one of the leaders of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the multi-billion-dollar prevention and treatment program that has saved millions of lives throughout in Africa and elsewhere. In his talk, Fauci mentioned that in America, public concerns over Ebola have been overblown. He noted that of the recent travelers banned from leaving West Africa due to symptoms, none had Ebola. Instead, they were infected with malaria.
Christopher V. Plowe, MD, MPH, leader of the Malaria Group at CVD, thanked Dr. Fauci for mentioning this. Dr. Plowe, whose presentation was about the difficulty of developing a malaria vaccine, noted that every minute, 25 people die from malaria—millions more than die from Ebola. Dr. Plowe and his colleagues are trying to understand the molecular mechanisms of drug-resistant malaria. His team has developed methods to quickly test for mutations that allow the malaria parasite to resist antimalarial drugs.
Also presenting in this group was Aaron P. Rapoport, MD, the Gary Jobson Professor in Medical Oncology in the Department of Medicine and Director of Lymphoma/Gene Medicine at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center. He has focused his research on the use of immune cells and vaccines to enhance immune recovery after stem cell transplants. He hopes to harness the ability of a patient’s own immune system to recognize, target and eradicate blood cancers such as multiple myeloma.
Another of the Festival’s key focus areas was inflammation, and several speakers focused on their work in that area.
Stefanie Vogel, PhD, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, talked about her work exploring how immune cells can be modified to reduce the excess inflammation that sometimes occurs in cases of influenza. Immune cells recognize infectious agents, like the flu virus, and send out chemical signals to activate immune cells that migrate to the lungs to fight the infection. But sometimes in severe cases of flu, too many immune cells accumulate in the lungs and cause extensive lung damage. Her studies suggest that this lung injury may be treated with medicines that inhibit immune cell signaling.
Inflammation also plays a role in another lung problem, asthma. Achsah Dorsey Keegan, PhD, a professor in the department of Microbiology and Immunology, is examining a previously undiscovered role for a signaling molecule that might stop the chronic allergic inflammation such as asthma. Her studies indicate that increasing the activity of this molecule might help alleviate symptoms of asthma.
Inflammation can also lead to diseases not associated with infection or allergy. Stephen N. Davis, MBBS, the Theodore E. Woodward Endowed Chair, and the professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine, is studying the link between glucose metabolism and inflammation, and his discoveries may help to explain why people with diabetes often suffer from atherosclerosis and heart disease. He cites evidence from studies of groups of healthy, diabetic, and obese people, which suggest that improper glucose metabolism increases inflammation in blood vessels.
The Festival of Science is the cornerstone of the School of Medicine’s ACCEL-Med Initiative. ACCEL-Med stands for “Accelerating Innovation and Discovery in Medicine,” and encompasses the research component of our shared Vision 2020. Vision 2020 was established in conjunction with our hospital partners, led by System President Robert Chrencik. The research component of Vision 2020 was aimed at significantly and measurably increasing the pace and scope of discovery and innovation, with the expectation that the results of this growth would significantly impact human health and wellbeing. The achievements showcased at this year’s Festival of Science show that we are well on our way to meeting those goals.
Kudos to our colleagues who are experts in their fields and give their all to represent the School of Medicine!
Cynthia Bearer, MD, PhD, the Mary Gray Cobey Professor of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, was an invited speaker at the Perinatal Pediatric Section of the AAP at its National Convention and Exposition in San Diego on October 13. Her talk was entitled “Medication Considerations for Neonatal Patients.” Dr. Bearer was also invited to attend a Wingspread Conference on “Creating a Vision for Protecting Children’s Environmental Health.”
Maureen Black, PhD, the John A. Scholl, MD, and Mary Louise Scholl, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, presented “The Role of Micronutrients in Brain Development: Biomarkers that Relate to Optimal Childhood Development” at the “Shaping the Developing Brain: Prenatal Through Early Childhood” conference at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York, NY, on November 13, 2014.
Howard Dubowitz, MB, ChB, MS, FAAP, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, presented three lectures at the Congress of the International Society on Child Abuse and Neglect in Nagoya, Japan in October: “The ISPCAN Medical Curriculum on Child Abuse and Neglect,” The Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK) Model,” and “World Perspectives on Child Abuse.” He also presented on “The Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK) Model” at the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2014 National Conference and Exhibition in San Diego in October.
Ann Farese, MS, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was an invited speaker at the Plenary Session “Radiological Countermeasures: Translational Efforts Using Leukocyte Stem Cell Factors” at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society, held September 21–24, 2014 in Las Vegas, NV. The title of her talk was “Animal-Based Scientific Evidence Supporting FDA Approval for Use of G-SF to Treat Radiation Casualties.”
Andrew Neuwald, PhD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and the Institute for Genome Sciences, presented “Protein Statistical Evolutionary Dynamics” at The National Center for Biotechnology Information in the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD on September 22, 2014.
Casey Overby, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, moderated a panel presentation on “Knowledge Representation” at the 9th AMIA Policy Invitational on “Personalized Medicine: Next-Generation Informatics Opportunities and Challenges” in Washington DC, from September 4–5, 2014. She was also discussion moderator on “Implementation Issues Surrounding Genomic Clinical Decision Support” at the National Human Genome Research Institute’s “Genomic Medicine Centers Meeting VII: Genomic Clinical Decision Support—Developing Solutions for Clinical and Research Implementation” meeting in Bethesda, MD, from October 2–3, 2014.
Elizabeth Powell, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, presented “Genetic Variations Lead to Differential Trajectories of Interneuron Ontogeny, Behavior and Physiological Correlates” at the 24th Neuropharmacology Conference, GABA Signaling in Health and Disease, held in Arlington, VA, in mid-November.
Charlene Quinn, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, was invited by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Assistant Secretary of Health to present in the “Healthy People 2020 Spotlight on Health Webinar: Emerging Technologies to Improve Glycemic Control among Persons with Diabetes.” The webinar was broadcast nationally on November 13, 2014 with more than 1800 participants.
Mark W. Rogers, PT, PhD, FAPTA, Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, presented “PhD Training in Research Intensive Programs in Physical Therapy, University of Maryland, Physical Rehabilitation Science (PRS) Program, Structure and Components” at the 2014 Educational Leadership Conference of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Research Intensive Programs in Physical Therapy (RIPPT) Workshop.
Ron Samet, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, presented “Intraneural Injections: Always, Sometimes, Never?” and “Management of the Traumatic Airway,” and also led a Workshop on “Regional Anesthetics in Trauma Patients” at the 23rd International Congress of the Israeli Society of Anesthesiologists & Critical Care Meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, from September 16–18, 2014.
Lynn Schriml, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health and the Institute for Genome Sciences, presented “Genomic Metadata Standards Pertinent to Fungi in the Built Environment” at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s “Fungi in the Built Environment—Next Steps” at The University of California, Berkeley on September 23, 2014. She was also an invited speaker at the “Biomedical Ontology in the Medical Informatics Domain” workshop, on November 3, 2014, in Silver Spring, MD, where she spoke on “The Human Disease Ontology: A Tool for Integrating and Standardizing Disease Data.”
Scott Strome, MD, Professor and Chair; Rodney Taylor, MD, Associate Professor; Jeffrey Wolf, MD, Associate Professor; and Amal Isaiah, MD, PhD, Chief Resident, all from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, were invited international faculty at “Updates in Otolaryngology,” a regional conference held in Cochin, India, organized by the Medical Trust Hospital and the Association of Otolaryngologists of India.
Hervé Tettelin, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Institute for Genome Sciences, presented “Comparative Genomics and Transcriptomics of Streptococcus pneumonia” at the Aarhus University mini-symposium for the retirement of Professor Mogens Kilian in Aarhus, Denmark, on September 10, 2014.
Jill Whitall
, PhD, Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, presented at two invited talks at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the Department of Kinesiology, one on “The Problem of Increasing Participation in Society Has Not Been Solved for Individuals With Stroke: Potential New Directions” and the other on “Sensorimotor Abilities in Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder.”
The Department of Radiation Oncology was well represented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), held October 10 and 11 in Washington, DC. The meeting was organized by the chapter committee and led by Yildirim Mutaf, PhD, Associate Professor, who is current president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of AAPM. Three other Department of Radiation Oncology faculty gave podium presentations, including Mariana Guerrero, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor, who spoke on “Initial Experience with a Commercial System for Volumetric Analysis of Patient-Specific QA”; Abdul K , PhD, Assistant Professor, who described “Standardization of Dosimetry Practices for Small and Large Animal Irradiation in Radiobiological Studies;” and Mu-Han Lin, PhD (pictured), Assistant Professor, who detailed a “Breath-Hold Treatment Technique for Left Breast Using Real-Time 3D Surface Imaging.” Department trainees, Huijun Xu, PhD, Senior Physics Resident, and Erhong Hu, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, gave podium presentations as part of the Young Investigator Symposium. Dr. Hu’s work was recognized with a Second Place Award in this competition.
Congratulations to our very productive faculty on their recent grants and contracts!
Thomas Blanpied, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, received a five-year, $2,220,872 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for the competing renewal of his research grant “Internal Dynamics of Postsynaptic Density.”
Man Charurat, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Institute of Human Virology, received a five-year, $3.1 million award from the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with Claire Fraser, PhD, Professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology and Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences, for “Microbiome Affects Risk of Growth in HIV-Exposed but Uninfected Infants-Nigeria.” This study posits that the acquisition of a distorted gastrointestinal microbiome resulting from exposure to maternal HIV infection in HIV-exposed but uninfected infants is associated with postnatal growth as measured by increased nutritional deficiencies, increased GI permeability, and adverse clinical outcomes.
Erik de Leeuw, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and the Institute of Human Virology, received a $100,000 award from the Maryland Innovation Initiative for a study that proposes to optimize a synthetic compound, BAS00127538, with proven potent antibacterial activity against multi-drug resistant ESKAPE bacterial pathogens. These six ESKAPE organisms (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella species, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) are among the biggest infection threats we face today. These multi drug-resistant (MDR) pathogens infect some of the most vulnerable patient populations, including those in the intensive care units, burn victims, cystic fibrosis patients, and the elderly.
Vasken Dilsizian, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, presented “Emerging Metabolic, Autonomic and Molecular Imaging Techniques for Assessing Myocardial Function” during cardiology Grand Rounds at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard School of Medicine, in Boston, MA, on October 15, 2014.
Joanne Dorgan, PhD, MPH, Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, received a two-year, $164,398 award from the American Institute for Cancer Research for “Prospective Study of Diet in Youth and Adult Breast Density.”
Howard Dubowitz, MB, ChB, MS, FAAP, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, received a one-year grant for $19,000 from the Governor’s Office on Crime Control and Prevention for “Training Law Enforcement on Medical Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect.”
Seth Himelhoch, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, received a four-year $2,000,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for “STIRR-IT: Co-located HIV/HCV Prevention & Treatment in a Behavioral Health Setting.”
Anthony Kim, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, received a three-year, $390,393 NIH K25 Career Development Award from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for “Fn14-targeted Therapeutics for Invasive Brain Cancer.” The primary mentor for this award is Jeffrey Winkles, PhD, Professor, Departments of Surgery and Physiology.
Jane Kim, MD, and Narendra Shet, MD, both Assistant Professors in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, along with Penny Olivi, CRA, FAHRA, Senior Administrator in the department, were awarded the AHRA & Toshiba’s Putting Patients First Program Grant. The $7500 grant, “Child Life Training for Radiology Technologists: Enhancing the Imaging Experience for Pediatric Patients,” will allow Drs. Kim and Shet to work with Shannon Joslin, MS, CCLS, Child Life Manager at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, to develop and implement a training program for radiology technologists to help reduce anxiety in pediatric patients undergoing imaging exams. The goals are to acquire better imaging, lessen the need for sedation, and reduce scan time, thereby increasing radiologists’ diagnostic confidence.
Casey Overby, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and the Program for Personalized & Genomic Medicine & Center for Health-related Informatics and Bio-imaging, received a two-year R21 award of $300,000 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for “Electronic Health Record-linked Decision Support for Communicating Genomic Data.” Toni Pollin, PhD, Associate Professor; Alan Shuldiner, MD, the John L. Whitehurst Endowed Professor and Director of the Program in Personalized & Genomic Medicine, and Amber Beitelshees, PharmD, MPH, Assistant Professor, all from the Department of Medicine, are co-investigators on the grant.
Bhawna Poonia, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Institute of Human Virology, received a two-year, $150,000, award from the National Institutes of Health, for “Genetic Polymorphisms in Rhesus Macaque FcRn and Association with IgG Levels.” The aims of this study are to confirm polymorphism in regulatory region of the rhesus macaque FcRn gene; develop an FcRn haplotype assay for rhesus macaques and test for polymorphisms in the coding and regulatory regions of FcRn in a cohort (n=200) of rhesus macaques; and show whether the discovered polymorphisms affect FcRn expression levels or IgG levels.
Fabio Romerio, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Institute of Human Virology, received a one-year Administrative Supplement in the amount of $183,677 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Cell Surface Marker Combinations to Identify Latently Infected CD4+ Cells In Vivo.” This supplement will allow Dr. Romerio to further his studies into the identification of biomarkers that may be used for the identification of HIV-1 latently infected cells.
Lynn Schriml, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, received a four-year, $226,797 award from the National Institutes of Health via Scripps for “Gene Wiki: Expanding the Ecosystem of Community-Intelligence Resources.”
Eric Sundberg, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Institute of Human Virology, received a $75,000 award from the National Psoriasis Foundation for “Treating Psoriasis by Inhibiting IL-36 Signaling Inside the Cell and Out.”
Hervé Tettelin, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Institute for Genome Sciences, received a three-year, $361,723 subcontract from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, as part of a multi-PI R01 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Cardiac Microlesion Formation During Invasive Pneumococcal Disease.”
Sandy McCombe Waller, PhD, PT, NCA, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, received a nine-month subcontract from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC) for “Hierarchical Capacitive Sensing for Gesture Recognition in Paralysis Patients.” This is a subcontract of a UMBC grant from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO).
Jeffery Wolf, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, received two grants from the University of Maryland Seed Grant program in 2014. One grant was for $20,000 for development of an emergency apneic oxygenation device, and a second was for $19,130 for development of an Ultrasound testing platform.
Congratulations to the following who have received honors!
Robert Gallo, MD, the Homer and Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine, and Director of the Institute of Human Virology, received the Bonino Pulejo International Prize on October 14, 2014, at the University of Messina in Sicily, Italy. The prize was given by the Fondazione Bonino-Pulejo, a Foundation dedicated to fostering fellowships for newly graduated medical and law students from Universities in Sicily and Calabria. Dr. Gallo received the award for his research on viral proteins and human retroviruses.
Deanna Kelly, PharmD, BCPP, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Treatment Research Program at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC), received an award at the 17th Annual College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacy meeting in Phoenix, AZ, for her service as the 2014 Program Chair for the meeting.
The Graduate Program in Life Sciences held its Annual Awards Ceremony on October 30, 2014. This year’s winners were:
- Gabrielle Eades, Molecular Medicine, PhD Thesis Award Recipient
- Clare Rock, MS in Epidemiology, MS Scholar Award Recipient
- Grace Maldarelli, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, PhD Scholar Award Recipient
- Rasheeda Johnson, Gerontology, The Elaine Miye Otani Memorial Award
- Christopher Coleman, PhD, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Postdoctoral Scholar Award
- Mark Williams, PhD, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, GPILS Teacher of the Year Award
Hats off to those who have been published!
Jennifer Albrecht, PhD, Assistant Professor; Ann Gruber-Baldini, PhD, Professor; Clayton Brown, PhD, Associate Professor; Joseph Rosenberg, BS; Angela Comer, MPH, all from the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health; Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine; and Richard Goldberg, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, were among the co-authors on “Hospital Discharge Instructions: Comprehension and Compliance among Older Adults” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2014 Nov; 29(11):1491-1498.
Melissa Armstrong, MD, Assistant Professor; Stephen Reich, MD, Professor; Paul Fishman, MD, PhD, Professor; and Lisa Shulman, MD, Professor, all from the Department of Neurology; Ann Gruber-Baldini, PhD, Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health; and Christian Lachner, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, were co-authors on “Which Features of Parkinson’s Disease Predict Earlier Exit from the Workforce?” in Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 2014 Nov;20:1257-1259.
Cynthia Bearer, MD, PhD, the Mary Gray Cobey Professor of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, and Maureen Kane, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy, were among co-authors on “Choline Partially Prevents the Impact of Ethanol on the Lipid Raft Dependent Functions of L1 Cell Adhesion Molecule” in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2014 Nov;38(11):2722-30. Dr. Bearer was also invited to submit an editorial for The Journal of Pediatrics entitled, “Universal Screening Programs for Gestational Exposures.” She was also a co-author on the book chapter “Adverse Exposures to the Fetus” in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, 10th edition, Mosby-Yearbook, St. Louis, 2014.
Annabelle (Mimi) Belcher, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, was first author on the book chapter “Society and Addiction: Bringing Understanding and Appreciation to a Mental Health Disorder,” in The Cognitive Neurosciences (Fifth Edition), published in October 2014 by MIT Press. The chapter reviews the neuroscientific evidence to substantiate the notion that addiction is not a disease of choice, but a mental disorder with neurobiological underpinnings, and discusses the responsibility that researchers should share in disseminating this information to practitioners, health care professionals, and society at large.
Andrea Berry, MD, Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Structural Insight Into Host Recognition by Aggregative Adherence Fimbriae of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli” in PLoS Pathogens, 2014 Sep 18;10(9):e1004404.
Uttam Bodanapally, MBBS, Assistant Professor; Kathirkama Shanmuganathan, MBBS, Professor; Stuart Mirvis, MD, Professor; and Jaroslaw Krejza, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor, all from the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors on “Traumatic Optic Neuropathy Prediction After Blunt Facial Trauma: Derivation of a Risk Score Based on Facial CT Findings at Admission” in Radiology, 2014 Sep;272(3):824-831.
Rebecca Brotman, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health; Pawel Gajer, PhD, Research Associate; Douglas Fadrosh, Laboratory Manager, Ravel Lab; Emmanuel Mongodin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology; and Jacques Ravel, PhD, Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Associate Director of Genomics, all from the Institute for Genome Sciences, were among the co-authors on “Association Between Cigarette Smoking and the Vaginal Microbiota: A Pilot Study” in BMC Infectious Diseases, 2014 Aug 28;14(1):471.
Rong Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor; Jaroslaw Krejza, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor; Edward Herskovits, MD, Professor; and Elias Melhem, MD, PhD, Professor & the Dean John M. Dennis Chairman, all from the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors on “A Prospective Longitudinal Brain-Morphometry Study of Children With Sickle-Cell Disease” in AJNR: American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2014 Sep 18 [Epub ahead of print].
Wilbur Chen, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Immunogenicity of Avian Influenza A/An/05 H5N1 Vaccine with MF59 Adjuvant: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Previously H5 Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Persons” in JAMA, 2014; 312(14):1420-1428. He was also among the co-authors on “A Novel Intramuscular Bivalent Norovirus VLP Vaccine Candidate—Reactogenicity, Safety and Immunogenicity In a Phase I Trial in Healthy Adults” in the Journal of Infectious Disease, 2014 Dec 1;210(11):1763-71; “Norovirus Vaccine Against Experimental Human GII.4 Virus Illness: A Challenge Study in Healthy Adults” in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2014 Sep 9;pii: jiu497 [Epub ahead of print] and “Robust Mucosal-Homing Antibody-secreting B cell Responses Induced by Intramuscular Administration of Adjuvanted Bivalent Human Norovirus-like Particle Vaccine” in Vaccine, 2014 Nov 22;pii:S0264-410X(14)01465-0. Dr. Chen and Karen Kotloff, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics (senior author), were among the co-authors on “Safety, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity of Inactivated Monovalent Influenza A/H5N1 Virus Vaccine Administered With or Without AS03 Adjuvant” in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 2014 Sep 10;1(3).
Lauren Cohee, MD, Fellow, Department of Pediatrics; Sarah Boudova, MD/PhD student; Sudhaunshu Joshi, Research Specialist, Center for Vaccine Development; and Miriam Laufer, MD MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, were among the co-authors on “Submicroscopic Malaria Infection During Pregnancy and the Impact of Intermittent Preventive Treatment” in Malaria Journal, 2014 Jul 15;13:274.
Timm-Michael Dickfeld, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Outcomes in African-Americans Undergoing Cardioverter Defibrillators Implantation for Primary Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death: Findings from The Prospective Observational Study of Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators (PROSEICD)” in The Journal of Heart Rhythm, 2014.
Vasken Dilsizian, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was a co-author on the book chapters “Nuclear Cardiology,” “Appropriate Use Criteria: Nuclear Cardiology,” and “Appropriate Use Criteria: Multimodality Imaging in Stable Ischemic Heart Disease and Heart Failure” in Braunwald’s Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, 10th ed, Elsevier Science, 2014.
Howard Dubowitz, MB, ChB, MS, FAAP, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, edited “World Perspectives on Child Abuse,” published by the International Society on Child Abuse and Neglect. He edited a special issue of Pediatric Annals on child neglect, including the article “The Safe Environment for Every Kid Model: Promotion of Children’s Health, Development, and Safety, and Prevention of Child Neglect” (2014 Nov 1;43(11):e271-7). Dr. Dubowitz also co-edited a volume of Pediatric Clinics of North America on child maltreatment, including the article “The Pediatrician and Child Maltreatment: Principles and Pointers for Practice” (2014 Oct;61(5):865-71). He co-authored “Forensic Medical Evaluations of Child Maltreatment: A Proposed Research Agenda” in Child Abuse and Neglect, 2014 Sep 12 [Epub ahead of print]. Together with Wendy Lane, MD, MPH, he co-authored “The Effectiveness of Food Insecurity Screening in Pediatric Primary Care” in the International Journal of Child Health and Nutrition 2014;3:130-138. Dr Dubowitz also co-authored “Linking Mother and Youth Parenting Attitudes: Indirect Effects via Maltreatment, Parent Involvement, and Youth Functioning” in Child Maltreatment, 2014; Aug 11 [Epub ahead of print].
Steven Feigenberg, MD, Professor, and Kruti Patel, MD, Resident, both from the Department of Radiation Oncology, were among the co-authors on “RTOG 9003: The Untold Story” in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, 2014 Oct 1;90(2):251–252.
Claire Fraser, PhD, Professor, Departments of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology and Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), and Owen White, PhD, Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health and Associate Director at IGS, were among the co-authors on “Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea: Sequencing a Myriad of Type Strains” in PLoS Biololgy, 2014 Aug 5;12(8):e1001920. Dr. Fraser and Jacques Ravel, PhD, Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Associate Director of Genomics, IGS, were among the co-authors on “Probiotics: Achieving a Better Regulatory Fit” in Food and Drug Law Journal, 2014;69(2):237-72. Dr. Ravel was among the co-authors on “Associations of the Fecal Microbiome With Urinary Estrogens and Estrogen Metabolites in Postmenopausal Women” in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2014 Dec;99(12):4632-40.
Howard Goldman, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, was among the co-authors on “Stigma, Discrimination, Treatment Effectiveness, and Policy: Public Views About Drug Addiction and Mental Illness” in Psychiatric Services, 2014 Oct;65(10):1269-72. He was also among the co-authors on “Do Not Turn Out the Lights on the Public Mental Health System When the ACA is Fully Implemented” in the Journal of Behavioral Health Services Research, 2014 Oct;41(4):429-33.
Bryan Hayes, PharmD, DABAT, FAACT, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine; Brian Grover, PharmD, BCPS, Clinical Specialist, Department of Pharmacy Services, UMMC, and Kristin Watson, PharmD, BCPS (AQ-Cardiology), Associate Professor and Residency and Fellowship Program Coordinator, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, were co-authors on “Feedback in Clinical Pharmacy Education” in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 2014 Sep 15;71(18):1592-6.
Scott Jerome, DO, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Patient-Centered Imaging: Shared Decision Making for Cardiac Imaging Procedures With Exposure to Ionizing Radiation” in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2014 Apr 22;63(15):1480-9.
Judy LaKind, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, was among the co-authors on “Improving the Risk Assessment of Lipophilic Persistent Environmental Chemicals in Breast Milk” in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2014 Aug; 44(7):600-17, “Pharmacokinetics of Selected Exogenous and Endogenous Estrogens: A Review of the Data and Identification of Knowledge Gaps” in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2014 Sep; 44(8):696-724, and “A Proposal for Assessing Study Quality: Biomonitoring, Environmental Epidemiology, and Short-Lived Chemicals (BEES-C) Instrument” in Environment International, 2014 Dec;73C:195-207.
Miriam Laufer, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, was among the co-authors on “Prevalence and Spectrum of Illness Among Hospitalized Adults with Malaria in Blantyre, Malawi” in Malaria Journal, 2014 Oct 2;13:391.
Dirk Mayer, Dr. rer. nat, Associate Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Associations Between in vivo Neuroimaging and Postmortem Brain Cytokine Markers in a Rodent Model of Wernicke’s Encephalopathy” in Experimental Neurology, 2014 Nov;261:109-119.
Minesh Mehta, MB, ChB, Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the co-authors on “Preservation of Memory With Conformal Avoidance of the Hippocampal Neural Stem-Cell Compartment During Whole-Brain Radiotherapy for Brain Metastases (RTOG 0933): A Phase II Multi-Institutional Trial” in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2014 Dec 1;32(34):3810-6. Dr. Mehta was also the senior author on “Secondary Analysis of RTOG 9508, a Phase 3 Randomized Trial of Whole-Brain Radiation Therapy Versus WBRT Plus Stereotactic Radiosurgery in Patients With 1-3 Brain Metastases; Poststratified by the Graded Prognostic Assessment (GPA)” in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, 2014 Nov 1;90:526–531; and on “Introduction” in Seminars in Oncology, 2014 Sep 10 [Epub ahead of print].
Andrea Meredith, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, and collaborator Michael Lai, a Bioengineering graduate student from the University of Maryland, College Park, were among the co-authors on “BK Channels Regulate Sinoatrial Node Firing Rate and Cardiac Pacing in vivo“ in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 2014, Nov 1;307(9):H1327-1338.
Alba Miranda-Ribera, PhD, Research Associate, Department of Medicine; Antonino Passaniti, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology; and Simeon Goldblum, MD, Professor, Departments of Medicine and Pathology, were among the co-authors on “a1-Acid Glycoprotein Disrupts Capillary-Like Tube Formation of Human Lung Microvascular Endothelia” in Experimental Lung Research, 2014 Dec;40(10):507-19.
Garry Myers, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Institute for Genome Sciences, was among the co-authors on “Comparative Genomics of Koala, Cattle and Sheep Strains of Chlamydia Pecorum” in BMC Genomics, 2014 Aug 8;15(1):667.
Elizabeth Powell, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, was among the co-authors on “Interneurons Are Necessary for Coordinated Activity During Reversal Learning in Orbitofrontal Cortex” in Biological Psychiatry, 2014 Aug 1 [Epub ahead of print].
Prashant Raghavan, MBBS, Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine was among the co-authors on “Dynamic CT for Parathyroid Disease: Are Multiple Phases Necessary?” in AJNR: American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2014 Oct;35(10):1959-1964.
Mark W. Rogers, PT, PhD, FAPTA, Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, was among the co-authors on “Postural Dependence of Human Locomotion During Gait Initiation” in the Journal of Neurophysiology, 2014 Dec 15;112(12):3095-103.
Neeraj Saxena, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Honokiol Inhibits Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Breast Cancer Cells by Targeting Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3/Zeb1/E-Cadherin Axis” in Molecular Oncology, 2014 May; 8(3): 565-580, and on “Concomitant Activation of Elk1 and CHOP Via ERK/RSK Signaling Axis Regulating Death Receptor 5 Expression Mediates Anti-Tumor Effects of Withaferin A in Breast Carcinoma” in Cancer Research, 2014 May 1;74(9):2617-29.
Vincent See, MD, Assistant Professor; Anastasios 
, MB, BCh, Assistant Professor; Stephen Shorofsky, MD, PhD, Professor; and Timm-Michael Dickfeld, MD, Associate Professor, all from the Department of Medicine, co-authored “Safety of Computed Tomography in Patients With Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices: Assessment of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Advisory in Clinical Practice” in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2014 May 6;63(17):1769-75, and “Impact of ICD Artifact Burden on Late Gadolinium Enhancement Cardiac MR Imaging in Patients Undergoing Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation” in Pacing Clinical Electrophysiology, 2014 Oct;37(10):1274-83.
J.W. Snider, MD, Resident, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the co-authors on “IMRT with Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy Boost for High Risk Malignant Salivary Gland Malignancies: A Case Series,” in Frontiers in Oncology, 2014 Oct 21;4:268.
Soren Snitker, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, was the senior author on “Development of Heart Failure in Medicaid Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Treated with Pioglitazone, Rosiglitazone, or Metformin” in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, 2014 Sep;20(9):895-903.
Getachew Teshome, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor; Rajender Gattu, MD, Assistant Professor; and Richard Lichenstein, MD, Professor, all from the Department of Pediatrics; along with Janet Braun, RN, BSN and Diane Constantine, RN, BSN, both from the Department of Radiology; as well as 2014 med school graduate Kiran Belani, MD, were among the co-authors on “Comparison of Dexmedetomidine With Pentobarbital for Pediatric MRI Sedation” in Hospital Pediatrics, 2014 Nov;4(6):360-365.
Jade Wong-You-Cheong, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was among the co-authors on “A Pilot Study to Evaluate Renal Hemodynamics in Cirrhosis by Simultaneous Glomerular Filtration Rate, Renal Plasma Flow, Renal Resistive Indices and Biomarkers Measurements” in the American Journal of Nephrology, 2014;39(6):543-552.