Department News

Congratulations Ph.D. Candidates

Congratulations to Departmental Graduate Students Receiving White Coats

Rebecca Ring, a graduate student in Dr. Maria Almeida-Schuller’s lab, Zinia D’Souza, a graduate student in Dr. Vladimir Lupashin’s lab, and Caitlin Caperton, an M.D.-Ph.D. student of Drs. Aime Franco and Jerry Ware received their white coats at the recent UAMS Graduate School’s Research Induction Ceremony. The annual event honors Ph.D. students who have successfully passed their candidacy exam in the past year. Way to go, Rebecca, Zinia and Caitlin!

Congratulations Zinia D’Souza

Ms. Zinia D’Souza for successfully passing her Ph.D. Qualifying Exam!

This summer Zinia presented her research at the Gordon Research Conference on Molecular Membrane Biology and was selected to participate in the EMBO Practical Course on Current Methods in Cell Biology, which will take place at EMBL Heidelberg, Germany in September.

She also published her first two papers:

D’Souza Z, Blackburn JB, Kudlyk T, Pokrovskaya ID, Lupashin VV. Defects in COG-Mediated Golgi Trafficking Alter Endo-Lysosomal System in Human Cells. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2019 Jul 3;7:118. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2019.00118. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31334232; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6616090.

Blackburn JB, D’Souza Z, Lupashin VV. Maintaining order: COG complex controls Golgi trafficking, processing, and sorting. FEBS Lett. 2019 Aug 5. doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.13570. [Epub ahead of print] Review. PubMed PMID: 31381138.

Parimal Chowdhury, Ph.D., Retirement Reception

Congratulations Dr. Chowdhury on your retirement! The department hosted a retirement ceremony on June 21, 2019.

Congratulations, Dr. Chowdhury

Parimal Chowdhury, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and a longtime member of the American Physiological Society was awarded APS FELLOW status by the governing board of the American Physiological Society on June 4, 2019. The rank of Fellow is an elite member status reserved to honor distinguished leaders who have demonstrated excellence in science, have made significant contributions to the physiological sciences and served the Society. Dr. Chowdhury will receive framed certificate and crystal memento from the American Physiological Society.

Welcome Summer Students!

This summer session, a number of our faculty are hosting undergraduate students in their laboratories to conduct research under the auspices of the INBRE and SURP Programs. We welcome these students to UAMS and to our Department.

INBRE- Richard ‘Jon’ Ward, Harding University (Dr. Rosie Simmen)

SURP- Daija Green, Jackson State University (Drs. Frank Simmen and Rosie Simmen); Nikyshaliz Velasquez, University of Puerto Rico at Humacao (Dr. Jerry Ware); Smit Patel (University of Arkansas (Dr. Patty Wight).

Also, Iad Alhallak, a Masters of Science student at the COPH (Biostatistics), UAMS is a Recipient of a highly competitive Summer Research Fellowship from The Endocrine Society ( https://www.endocrine.org/awards/research-fellowship-awards/summer-research-fellowships). Iad is only one of 15 students from across the US and International graduate programs selected for this 8-week fellowship award. His research focuses on investigating mechanisms underlying the intriguing inverse relationship between obesity and breast cancer risk in premenopausal women. As part of this Award, Iad will present results of his work at the 2020 Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society in San Francisco, CA in March. Dr. Rosie Simmen serves as his mentor to this project.

Dr. Kurten Honored by Arkansas Children’s Ruth Olive Beall Awards

Community leaders and physicians who have advanced pediatric health care shined at Arkansas Children’s annual recognition ceremony, the Ruth Olive Beall Service Awards & Honors.

Held at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, the ceremony recognized the tireless effort and dedication of physicians with signature awards.

The Dr. Robert H. Fiser, Jr. Research Achievement Award: Richard C. Kurten, Ph.D., co-director of the Lung Cell Biology Laboratory at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and a professor of Physiology and Biophysics at UAMS. This honor is awarded to an ACRI research scientist who has distinguished himself or herself through extraordinary scientific research that will have a lasting impact on the health, development, and well-being of children and their families.

Watch the video honoring Dr. Kurten:

[vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/329110447/59f3aed699″ /]

Symposium Presentation

Parimal Chowdhury, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and his team of collaborators that include students and faculty members from UAMS, UCA and UALR, presented five papers in 27^th Annual Arkansas Space Grant Consortium Symposium held at Winthrop Rockefeller Institute in Morrilton, Arkansas on April 19, 2019. Presentations were in both oral and poster formats. Source for funding by NASA provided through the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.

Congratulations Dr. Wight

Patricia Wight, Ph.D., received a NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke R01 grant entitled “Elucidation of Mechanisms Controlling Human and Mouse Myelin PLP1 Gene Expression” $1,093,750 (April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2024)

Congratulations Dr. Ware

In the most recent issue of Nature Medicine (April 1, 2019), the blood platelet receptor, glycoprotein Ib a, is shown to be critical for the develop of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and in particular the progression to liver cancer (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0379-5). Jerry Ware, Ph.D., (Professor, Physiology & Biophysics) participated in the study. Dr. Ware and his colleagues have long studied the relevance of glycoprotein Ib a in thrombosis, but the Nature Medicine results highlight the relevance of platelet biology in driving the progression of inflammation and cancer.

Congratulations Roy Morello, Ph.D.

Roy Morello, Ph.D., received an extramural grant ” Primary lung defects in mouse models of osteogenesis imperfect” from the NIH/Nat. Inst. of Child Health & Human Development (01/11/2019 – 12/31/2020), $150,750

Dr. Morello also received a $50,000 Research Scholar Pilot Grant Award “Respiratory Function in Animal Models of Skeletal Dysplasias” for two years.