Here are this week’s Accolades, a roundup of some of the honors and accomplishments of College of Medicine and UAMS faculty, staff, residents, fellows and students I’ve heard about recently!
Groundbreaking Study
Congratulations to Dr. Intawat Nookaew, Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, and colleagues on the publication of a groundbreaking study into the presence of extrachromosomal circular DNA in the human male germline (sperm cells) and its connection to the recombination rate of different chromosomes. The article was published in and featured on the cover of Molecular Cell. Dr. Nookaew collaborated on the study with researchers in Denmark along with former UAMS post-doctoral fellows and lecturers Dr. Piroon Jenjaroenpun and Dr. Thidathip Wongsurawat. The team provided high-resolution experimental results using third-generation (long read) sequencing and advanced bioinformatic algorithms, which were essential for this discovery.
Clinical Informatics Honor
Dr. Feliciano “Pele” Yu Jr., Clinical Informatics Section Chief in the Department of Pediatrics, was named Volunteer of the Year by Health Level Seven International (HL7) for his longstanding dedication and contributions to the nonprofit health care data standards development organization. Dr. Yu was a founding member of the HL7 Child Health Work Group and served as its Chair in 2008-2016. Kudos to Dr. Yu for his international leadership in clinical informatics as well as his service as Section Chief, Program Director for the UAMS Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program and Chief Medical Information Officer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Cancer Society Fellowship
Congratulations to Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute researcher Dr. Kirk West on becoming the first UAMS scientist to be awarded the prestigious American Cancer Society (ACS) Postdoctoral Fellowship. The three-year fellowship will support Dr. West’s research in the cutting-edge, ACS-funded laboratory of his mentor, Dr. Justin Leung, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology. Read more in the UAMS Newsroom.
Pediatric Resuscitation Leadership
Dr. Steve Schexnayder, Chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, has been reappointed as one of four U.S. representatives on the 17-member International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Pediatric Task Force. Dr. Schexnayder has served on the task force since 2017. Kudos for his national and international contributions in the field as well as his leadership of pediatric critical care medicine here in Arkansas.
Winning Abstract
A shout-out to postdoctoral fellow Dr. John Sherrill and Associate Professor Dr. David Bumpass in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, who co-authored the winning basic science abstract submitted to the Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS). Dr. Bumpass presented the top-scoring abstract, “Posterior Cervical Spine Fusion Assemblies Intended to Cross the Cervicothoracic Junction: A Mechanical Analysis,” at the recent annual meeting of CSRS. The full manuscript, with Dr. Sherrill as first author, has been accepted for publication in the journal Clinical Spine Surgery. Dr. Sherrill and Dr. Bumpass collaborated on the study with former faculty member Dr. Erin Mannen.
Top Posters
Congratulations to UAMS Northwest Internal Medicine residents Dr. Lawrence “Tony” Hoyt and Dr. Yash Shah on their winning posters in the Arkansas Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP)) poster competition. Dr. Hoyt, a third-year resident, took top honors for “Initial CAD Evaluation with CCTA and FFRCT” and has been invited to present the poster at the National ACP Annual Meeting in April. Dr. Shah, a second-year resident, was a third-place finisher for his poster “Mixed AIHA as initial presentation of hereditary hemochromatosis.”