UAB President, Ray Watts, presents Dr. Baskin's award at the annual faculty convocation with Provost Pam Benoit (left) and Odessa Woolfolk (right).
Monica Baskin, PhD (Professor, Preventive Medicine) was honored with the prestigious Odessa Woolfolk Community Service Award at the annual Faculty Convocation last week. Her research is focused on community-based participatory methods that link academic partners to the community- and faith-based networks to better understand and address factors associated with healthy eating, physical activity, obesity, and cancer prevention and control. Well deserved, Dr. Baskin!
More Good News for September 18, 2019
Lynndrick Holmes of Mobile underwent a gene therapy treatment at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. that has left him “sickle cell free.” This ongoing trial is just one of many ways Julie Kanter, MD (Associate Professor, Hematology and Oncology) is working to combat this devastating disease. WBRC's Steve Crocker filed an investigative report last week highlighting these new sickle cell advances.
Badhma Valaiyapathi, MBBS, MPH, a postdoctoral scholar in the Dr. Suzanne Oparil's lab, was awarded the Clinical Science Investigator Award for Excellence in Translational or Clinical Hypertension Research for her research on “Amplification of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure is higher in resistant hypertensive patients irrespective of blood pressure control” at the Hypertension 2019 Scientific Sessions. Kudos to you for this important work!
Susan McCammon, MD (Professor of Medicine and Otolaryngology) is expanding the reach of palliative care with telehealth innovation in our Supportive Care and Survivorship Clinic. With the engagement of the e-Medicine technical support team, their first clinics have been seamlessly delivered, and patients are "delighted" that this type of care is available to them around the corner from home. We look forward to the continued expansion of this virtual care delivery model, and its integration into the in-person model in the near future.
Pankaj Arora, MD (Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular Disease) has received a pilot grant from the UAB Obesity Health Disparities Research Center to study the effects of a new medicine on cardiometabolic health in African-Americans. They will use metabolic carts to determine whether sacubritril/valsartan will improve the insulin resistance and energy expenditure for these patients. Best of luck on this investigation!
Max Cooper, MD, an internationally renowned immunologist who spent 40 years at UAB, has been awarded the 2019 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. Cooper's discoveries elucidated the evolution and function of the adaptive immune system and laid the foundation for our understanding and treatment of immunological diseases and many cancers in humans. All of us are thrilled that this year’s Lasker Award recognizes his extraordinary work.
Troy Randall, PhD (Professor, Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology) is the latest SOM Featured Discovery recipient. Dr. Randall and colleagues discovered that the establishment of resident memory B cells in the lung requires local antigen encounter. This finding, published in Nature Immunology, helps us better understand the role of memory B cells in respiratory viruses, like the flu. Three cheers to you, Dr. Randall!
Stefan Kertesz, MD (Professor, General Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine) provided comments last week to both the Washington Post and the journal Nature on the challenges affecting pain patients who are forced off opioid pain medications in response to regulatory pressures. Dr. Kertesz will deliver a Medical Grand Rounds on opioids, at noon on Wednesday, November 6, in Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium.
Nephrologists Ashita Tolwani, MD, and Song Ong, MD, delivered the 15th annual Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Academy last month. The CRRT Academy has attracted clinicians from all across the U.S. to learn the fundamentals of continuous dialysis for ICU patients with acute kidney injury in a setting that includes both didactic and hands-on/simulation-based learning for attendees. This year's academy had over 100 attendees from across the U.S., as well as Mexico, Canada, and India. Well done, team!
Coming next week to Medical Grand Rounds: Gary Gilkeson, MD, Professor of Medicine/Microbiology and Immunology and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development at the Medical University of South Carolina, will present "Progress Towards Taming the Wolf Within" at noon on Wednesday, September 25.