The Arkansas INBRE, led by Drs. Lawrence Cornett and Jerry Ware (UAMS Physiology), held its annual Research Conference on November 6-7. The Arkansas INBRE Research Conference involves participation from colleges and universities in Arkansas and surrounding states in biological sciences, physics, chemistry, and biochemistry. In a first, the meeting was held as a virtual Zoom conference with the participation of 288 registrants from 24 institutions. Over the two-day meeting, there were 87 oral presentations from undergraduate students and 14 workshops on a range of topics from graduate school opportunities and applications, to genomics, bioinformatics, and specialized research methods.

A highlight of the meeting was a keynote address by Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. His talk “Preventing the Next Pandemic” focused on the current COVID pandemic, vaccine development, and the national efforts required for effective vaccination. In 2017, Dr. Hotez was named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the 34 most influential people in health care, while in 2018 he received the Sustained Leadership Award from Research America. Most recently, as both a vaccine scientist and autism parent, Dr. Hotez has led national efforts to defend vaccines and to serve as a champion of vaccines amid a growing national “antivax” threat. Dr. Hotez appears frequently on television (including BBC, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC), radio, and in newspaper interviews (including the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal).

Brian Storrie, Ph.D., along with graduate student Lindsey James Dickson and postdoctoral fellow Shijie Liu, Ph.D., were mentioned on LinkedIn by Scientific Volume Imaging for their paper showcasing how Huygens deconvolution helped uncover the role of Rab6 in intra-Golgi anterograde transport.

Scientific Volume Imaging is a leading scientific imaging software firm that specializes in software that corrects images for haze and renders them in three dimensions. This paper is the first example of evidence that a small GTPase, Rab6, modulates secretory protein transport through the Golgi apparatus specifically by affecting events within a limited sub-region of the organelle. The paper is highlighted by SVI because it makes excellent use of their software tools to refine and analyze the quantitative imaging data.

Dr. Storrie is the Director of the College of Medicine Microscopy Core of the department of Physiology and Biophysics. All the spinning disk confocal work highlighted above was performed within the Storrie laboratory and all the super resolution 3D-SIM work was done at this core.

Read the mention on LinkedIn.

The Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) recognizes that the ARA Academy of Scholars and Fellows represents enormous potential for scientific innovation and economic return at the highest levels. ARA is launching the second round of ARA Impact Grants to identify 12-month projects that support the Academy with competitive grants in any amount up to $75,000i to address specific challenges and opportunities identified by Academy members. A 50% match is provided by the university (for example, a $75,000 project receives $37,500 from ARA and $37,500 from the host institution). Interested Academy members may review the guidelines in the request for proposals (RFP) and submit the required proposal through their office of research and sponsored programs to Douglas Hutchings via e-mail no later than 5:00 p.m. Central Time on January 11, 2021.

The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Annual Meeting is the world’s largest and most diverse meeting in the bone, mineral and musculoskeletal research field. The 2020 Annual Meeting was held virtually September 11-15, 2020, attracting more than 3,000 attendees from over 70 countries. The platform included clinicians and researchers ranging in many career levels specializing in various disciplines and served as a forum for young researchers to network. The meeting agenda included a symposium, discovery hall, and educational programs consisting of over 1,100 poster presentations. 

Teresita Bellido, Ph.D., President of ASBMR 2020, and other colleagues from UAMS participated in the oral and poster presentations. 

“UAMS Physiology faculty participation at the 2020 ASBMR meeting highlighted the high level of research taking place in our department,” Dr. Bellido said. “That along with the participation of other departments and divisions from UAMS, demonstrate the commitment of our  institution to the advancement of research in bone and cancer.”  

Faculty members who presented are: Roy Morello, Ph.D., Associate Professor; Melda Onal, Ph.D., Assistant Professor; Jesús Delgado-Calle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor; and Amy Sato, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Bellido’s lab. Learn more about their presentations below.

Dr. Frank A. Simmen with co-authors Iad Alhallak (M.Sc. Public Health, UAMS) and Dr. Rosalia C.M. Simmen recently published an invited review in the Journal of Molecular Endocrinology entitled “ Malic Enzyme 1 (ME1)in the Biology of Cancer: It’s Not Just Intermediary Metabolism’.

Hayley Sabol, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Jesus Delgado-Calle’s group, gave an oral presentation during the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Pre-Meeting Symposium The Seed and Soil: Therapeutic Targets.  The title of her presentation is ‘Autocrine and paracrine Notch receptor 3 signaling in the myeloma niche stimulates tumor growth and bone destruction.’ Hayley presented the same work at the ASMBR Plenary Poster session.

Jesus Delgado-Calle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has received one grant of $1.7 million to study new bone-targeted therapies for the treatment of multiple myeloma, the second-most common blood-related cancer.

This National Health Institute-National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded study will examine the efficacy of novel therapeutics directed to the bone to decrease tumor growth, control dormant cancer cells, and repair damaged bone. Successful completion of this project could provide new approaches to guide development of new therapies that prevent or delay disease relapse and improve bone health in myeloma patients.

This project, which will run through 2025, has been awarded a MERIT Award (R37). The goal of R37 awards is to provide long-term grant support to investigators whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior and who are highly likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner. Under this mechanism, Dr. Delgado-Calle is eligible to obtain up to seven years of support in two segments: an initial award of up to five years and an opportunity for an extension of up to two additional years, based on an expedited NCI review of the accomplishments during the initial funding segment.

“Keep going, Physiology! COVID is not stopping us!” – Dr. Bellido

Physiologists wearing masks

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Teresita Bellido, Ph.D., Chair of Physiology and Biophysics, held the first Annual Town Hall meeting for the Department. She discussed goals and methods to reach them and held a question and answer session. The meeting was held in the Walton Auditorium as well as virtually for social distancing

Dr. Bellido presented her predecessor Michael Jennings, Ph.D., with an appreciation plaque from the department.

Chair Teresita Bellido, Ph.D., is the president of The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. The ASBMR just launched its new website. Visit the site to read the President’s Letter from Dr. Bellido and watch the video that includes Amy Sato, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow and member of Dr. Bellido’s lab.