Department News

We are excited to have seven students from schools in and out of the state joining MBIM labs to conduct their summer research.

Lucy Fry from the Weinkopff Lab successfully defended her dissertation (“Host Factors in Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: Mechanisms of Inflammatory Response, Lymphatic Remodeling, and Protective Immunity”) on April 10, 2025. Lucy will be pursuing her postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Beth Tamburini at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, CO. Congratulations Dr. […]

A discovery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) that a viral protein helps a cancer-associated herpesvirus evade the immune system has led to a five-year, $2.9 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

UAMS researcher Lu Huang, Ph.D., has received a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support his pursuit of a more effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, a feat that has eluded scientists for more than 100 years.

Presentations Our undergraduate interns completed their summer programs on July 26. This culminated in the presentation of their research in the Arkansas Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium last July 24, 2024 here at UAMS. Congratulations to all the students! They are: Oral Presentation (12 chosen from 53 submissions) Allie Farrar, Hendrix College (Manzano Lab), pictured above […]

Presentations by Trainees in International Meetings LeKivia Cobb (Boehme Lab), oral presentation at the American Society for Virology Annual Meeting at Columbus, OH last June 25. Steven Murdock, Jr. (Forrest Lab), oral presentation at the International Symposium on EBV and KSHV and Related Agents and Diseases at Boston, MA last July 3. Shana Owens, Ph.D. […]

Bacterial pathogens are coated by a wide array of glycan layers that protect against antimicrobials, immune systems, and environmental hazards. Though formidable, these protective layers harbor a critical weakness: most are assembled on a vulnerable lipid carrier known as undecaprenyl phosphate (Und-P). While most studies have focused on the consequences of decreasing Und-P levels, very […]

Dr. Cannon receives the UAMS College of Medicine Red Sash Dr. Martin Cannon received the Red Sash at the UAMS College of Medicine Honors Convocation last May 17, 2024. Red Sash honorees are outstanding teachers voted by the members of the seniors class. New R21s awarded to Drs. Cannon (National Cancer Institute) and Li (National […]

Dr. Ashley Groshong is an alumnus of our Ph.D. program in Microbiology & Immunology (2014). Working in the laboratory of Dr. Jon Blevins, she studied virulence factors of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. She continued her work on B. burgdorferi as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut Health Center focusing on gene […]

We welcome eight undergraduates joining MBIM labs for their Summer Research Programs. They are: Youssef Baghat, University of South Carolina (Forrest Lab) Nicole Chong, UC Berkeley (Lee Lab) Allie Farrar, Hendrix College (INBRE, Manzano Lab) Armari Jackson, Arkansas State University (SURP, Aachoui Lab) Kalayna King, Arkansas State University (SURP, Liu Lab) Brianna Lee, Xavier University […]

Lucy Fry, fourth year Ph.D. student, Weinkopff Lab) won the best poster (Graduate Student category) in this year’s Student Research Day (SRD) on March 5, 2024, which highlighted her parasitology project involving a non-healing form of cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania amazonensis.

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology hosted the American Society for Microbiology South Central Branch Meeting at the Statehouse Convention Center last November 10-11. Close to 200 scientists and trainees from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi participated in the two-day event and shared their work in the plenary and poster sessions.  This include several trainees from […]

UAMS now officially has a chapter of the American Society of Microbiology for students and postdoctoral trainees.

MBIM students and postdocs continue to make the MBIM department and UAMS proud in recent international meetings and courses this summer. Great work everyone! Conferences and Meetings Het Adhvaryu (student, Voth Lab)Poster (Travel Award), American Society for Rickettsiology, Snowbird, UT, July 8-11 Naiha Ahmad (student, Liu Lab)Talk (Travel Award), American Society for Virology, Athens, GA, […]

Congratulations to our newly minted Ph.D. graduates Dr. Hayley Theriot and Dr. Michael Eledge who both defended this July.

UAMS’ Jon Blevins, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology, is leading the four-year study funded by a $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) will use a $7.9 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to expand its infectious disease research capacity and establish a Pandemic Response and Public Health Laboratory by renovating existing research space.

Employee Spotlight Q & A with Matt Jorgenson, Ph.D., Recently Promoted to Assistant Professor Where did you grow up and are there any fun or interesting facts about your hometown? I grew up in southeast Minnesota in the small town of Kasson, an old community of old timey buildings. Kasson holds the distinction of being […]

Employee Spotlight Steven Murdock, Graduate Assistant – Forrest Lab Where were you born and raised? I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana but I grew up here in Bryant. Best childhood memory? My best childhood memory would probably be playing pickup games of basketball with all the kids in my neighborhood growing up. Who is someone you […]

Employee Spotlight Changhoon Oh, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow – Aachoui Lab How long have you been with UAMS? Oh, time flies. I started working in the UAMS on Jan, 1st, 2019. I’ve already been here more than two years. Where is your hometown? My hometown is a small city called Jin-Ju in the southern part of South Korea. […]

Download the Winter 2021 MBIM Newsletter Employee Spotlight Samantha Crane, Graduate Assistant – Pechous Lab Where is your hometown? My hometown is Kansas City, Missouri, which is home to great barbecue, major sports teams like the Chiefs and the Royals, and a lot of fountains. Allegedly, Kansas City is second to Rome in the number of […]

Employee Spotlight Marcelle Dina Zita, Graduate Assistant – Boehme Lab Where are you from and what do you miss most? I’m from Cameroon (central/west Africa). I was born and raised in the capital, Yaounde. I definitely miss my family and the food the most. Any interesting facts about your country? We have more than 200 tribes and […]

Employee Spotlight Raj Singh, Research Technician – Cannon Lab How long have you been working at UAMS? I’ve been a part of the UAMS family for roughly three years now, but weirdly enough, it still feels like I just started working here yesterday. Where is your hometown? I actually have many “hometowns” because I moved and traveled […]