Dr. Matthew Knight
Dr. Ryan Cowley

The UAB Department of Surgery welcomes two new faculty this summer, Assistant Professor Matthew T. Knight, M.D., and Assistant Professor Ryan E. Cowley, M.D. While part of the UAB Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Knight and Cowley will work as general surgeons at Russell Medical Center in Alexander City, Alabama.

The Society of Asian Academic Surgeons provides an annual scholarship to surgical trainees interested in careers in academic surgery. The scholarship will pay for registration for the Association for Academic Surgery’s fall courses, which will be held on October 20, the weekend preceding the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress. In addition to registration, the scholarship will cover two nights’ lodging at the meeting hotel and domestic coach airfare with total not to exceed $1,500.

The UAB Department of Surgery opened a new resident resource center this summer on the second floor of the Boshell Diabetes Building. The roughly 3,000-square-foot area features a kitchen, a conference room, a sitting area, showers, lockers and several computers for UAB Surgery residents to use while they’re on campus.

Third-year general surgery resident Raoud Marayati, M.D., was recently named the 2018-2019 Society of University Surgeons Resident Research Scholar, making her the first resident in the UAB Department of Surgery’s recent history to receive a grant while in residency. Marayati received the $30,000 Resident Research Scholar Award after presenting her project, “PIM3 Kinase Promotes Tumor Metastasis in Hepatoblastoma,” to the SUS Scholarship Committee last week.

The UAB School of Medicine Featured Discovery initiative recognizes and celebrates the impressive science and discoveries taking place within the UAB SOM every day. It is proud to spotlight faculty members with research recently published in prominent science journals that make an extraordinary impact on the world around us. The Featured Discovery initiative is a way for us to share our colleagues’ findings, whether they have been publicized before or not, with those in the UAB community and beyond.

The Divisions of Surgical Oncology’s Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., M.E.H.P., has been invited to participate in the 2018-2019 American Board of Medical Specialties Visiting Scholars Program. As an ABMS Visiting Scholar, Lindeman will attend the 2018 ABMS Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 24-26.

The Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery’s Ramaraju Rudraraju, Ph.D., and his team of multidisciplinary co-investigators recently received funding for their research proposal, “Machine Learning for Predicting Mechanical Circulatory Support Outcomes.” The award was given in response to a request for applications from the American Heart Association’s Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine titled, “American Heart Association and Amazon Web Services 2.0 Data Grant Portfolio: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.” The proposed project will be funded in the amount of $100,000 per year for two years, starting July 1.

Second-year medical student Zach Burns (far right) and Dr. Rob Headrick from CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee (far left), discuss policy with Congressman Gary Palmer (center) from Alabama's sixth district at the June 11 STS Legislative Fly-in.

Second-year UAB medical student Zach Burns, president of UAB’s Surgery Interest Group and mentee of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery’s Robert Dabal, M.D., and Sara Pereira, M.D., attended the annual Society for Thoracic Surgeons’ Legislative Fly-in in Washington, D.C., last week after being awarded the STS Advocacy Scholarship.

Dr. Lauren Raff

Assistant Professor in the Division of General and Acute Care Surgery at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, as well as  2016 graduate of the UAB General Surgery Residency Program and 2017 graduate of the UAB Surgical Critical Care Fellowship, Lauren Raff, M.D., was recently awarded the UNC Department of Surgery’s Rookie of the Year Award. This annual award is presented by the Department’s general surgery chief residents and recognizes Raff for her impact on resident education.

Check out our photos from the 2018 UAB General Surgery Chief Resident Dinner and graduation ceremony on Flickr. This annual event was held on June 15 at The Club in Birmingham.

Dr. Babak John Orandi

Fall 2018 Department of Surgery faculty recruit Babak John Orandi, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., was recently asked to serve as associate editor of the popular transplant journal, Clinical Transplantation, where he will focus on research related to registry analyses and incompatible kidney transplants. This September, Orandi will join the Division of Transplantation as an assistant professor and will work with Jayme Locke, M.D., on her health services research.

The Alabama House of Representatives recently signed a resolution to observe National Stop the Bleed Day on March 31 and Alabama Trauma Awareness Day on March 21. The resolution encourages all Alabama citizens, particularly education administrators and faculty, to participate in the Stop the Bleed initiative and learn more about the importance of bleeding control measures.

UAB's trauma team has heavily promoted the national Stop the Bleed initiative and has also provided #StoptheBleed training to local schools.

Dr. Reema Mallick

The Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Reema Mallick, M.D., was recently named the winner of the Advocacy and Issues Committee of the Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons Symposium essay contest.

The Division of Surgical Oncology’s Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., has been asked to serve on the editorial board for the journal, PLOS ONE, as an academic editor.

More than 1,200 interns, residents and fellows train in every medical specialty at UAB in Birmingham, at our regional campuses in Montgomery, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, and in our program in Selma. In an ongoing series, the Department of Surgery will feature incoming and outgoing trainees for all UAB Surgery programs. This week, learn about the Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship.

Three new faculty will join the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy this summer, two of whom will work together with other vascular surgery faculty within the new UAB Limb Preservation Program.

Dr. Greg Kennedy

Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery Director Gregory Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., has received an NIH T32 training grant to support a Surgical Oncology Research Training Program.  The grant provides support for surgical residents to pursue two-year, full-time research training with the goal of preparing them for academic research careers.

Students in the 2018 Surgery Undergraduate Research Experience program participates in a scavenger hunt hosted by the UAB Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research.

The Department of Surgery is hosting two structured research programs this summer, the Pre-College Research Internship for Students from Minority Backgrounds and the Surgery Undergraduate Research Experience. Thirteen students joined the department this week to participate in these research experiences, including five rising seniors in PRISM and eight undergraduates in SURE. These students will participate in eight weeks of mentored research while exploring careers in surgery and learning the importance of research to advancing patient outcomes.

The PRISM and SURE programs provide promising high school and undergraduate students interested in careers in healthcare and medicine with a hands-on research experience under the mentorship of surgeons and peers.

The Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s James Bibb, Ph.D., and the Division of Surgical Oncology’s Sushanth Reddy, M.D., were recently awarded a grant from the SDHB Pheo-Para Coalition to study pheochromocytomas and paraganglioomas, two kinds of rare neuroendocrine tumors.

Incoming general surgery resident Dr. Mary Smithson is named the 2018 recipient of the Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery and the Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student at the May 18 UAB School of Medicine Birmingham campus awards luncheon at the UAB National Alumni Society House. (Photo by Dustin Massey)

At last Friday’s UAB School of Medicine Birmingham campus awards’ luncheon, recent UAB medical school grad and incoming general surgery resident Mary Smithson, M.D., was awarded both the 2018 Department of Surgery medical student awards, the Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery and the Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student.

Dr. Brenessa Lindeman

The Division of Surgical Oncology’s Brenessa Lindeman, M.D.., recently received a $10,000 Multi-Institutional Educational Research Grant from the Association of Surgical Education. The ASE MERG Research Grant is intended to fund a multi-institutional research project that will advance scientific knowledge and aim to improve undergraduate, graduate, or continuing surgical education.

Dr. Heinrich Matthies

The Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Heinrich Matthies, Ph.D., recently received a UAB Faculty Development Grant for his proposal, “Dopamine Dysfunction in Autism.” Matthies will receive $10,000, split between the UAB Office of the Provost and the Department of Surgery, to study how dopamine levels affect the development of the brain and how these changes are connected to social and repetitive behaviors. Matthies will also present his research at a poster session hosted by the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate next fall.

Rhiannon Deierhoi Reed

Rhiannon Deierhoi Reed, M.P.H., a researcher in the Transplant Epidemiology and Analytics in Medicine lab of Associate Professor of Transplantation Jayme Locke, M.D., was recently awarded the American Society of Nephrology Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. This fellowship seeks to foster early career-stage Ph.D. students, under the direction of a sponsor, who are highly motivated to make contributions to the understanding of kidney biology and disease.

See also" "Locke’s lab member wins at symposium" and "Locke’s lab member receives research grant."

The UAB Department of Surgery recently hosted the Plastic Surgery Research Council's 63rd Annual Meeting, bringing approximately 300 plastic surgeons from across the country to Birmingham, Alabama. The event, led by PSRC President and Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery Timothy King, M.D., Ph.D., began on Thursday, May 17, at the Sheraton hotel with a wlcome from UAB Department of Surgery Chair Herbert Chen, M.D., and a history of the UAB Division of Plastic Surgery from the division's former director, Luis Vasconez, M.D.

UAB medical student Benjamin Smood recently received an American Society of Transplant Surgeons Presidential Student Mentor Grant.

Residents in the Robotic Surgery Curriculum train in robotic surgery to provide them with the skills necessary to become practicing, credentialed robotic surgeons through an integrated approach of computer-based learning modules and testing, hands-on training, and a case log system.

This April, UAB Medicine surpassed the 10,000 robotic surgeries mark, a feat that helps make UAB the leader in robotic surgery volume in the country. On May 23, UAB will commemorate this milestone with a free, public celebration in the North Pavilion Atrium at 1 p.m. 

Dr. Laura Stafman

General surgery resident Laura Stafman, M.D., recently received a travel scholarship from the UAB Graduate School to attend the 2018 American Pediatric Surgery Association Annual Meeting last week in Palm Desert, California, where she presented her research on PP2A activation as a novel therapy for hepatoblastoma.

Former mentee of Dr. Herbert Chen and Dr. Renata Jaskula-Sztul, Danilea Carmona-Matos, presents her award-winning research at the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons 39th Annual Meeting last week in Durham, North Carolina.

Former mentee of Department of Surgery Chair Herbert Chen, M.D., and Assistant Professor of Surgery Renata Jaskula-Sztul, Ph.D., Danilea Carmona-Matos received a $1,000 travel scholarship, supported by Neurovision Medical Products, for the research she presented at the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons 39th Annual Meeting last week in Durham, North Carolina.

Match Day 2018 ushered in a new group of surgery residents, while saying goodbye to others who will soon leave UAB for different programs across the country. With 98 percent of students’ matching into residency positions, UAB students will continue their medical educations at 74 institutions across 27 states.

The Division of Acute Care Surgery welcomes a new trauma medical director this summer with the addition Daniel B. Cox, M.D. Cox is currently an active-duty Air Force surgeon assigned as the medical director for en route care in the Office of the Command Surgeon, Air Mobility Command. He also serves as a clinically active trauma and emergency general surgeon in the Department of Trauma, Critical Care, and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Cincinnati.