News
Drs. Donata Vercelli and Julie Ledford are co-investigators on a grant awarded to Dr. Monica Kraft, Chair of the UArizona Department of Medicine. The grant was received from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study innate immunity and viral infection in asthma.
The American Society of Microbiologists (ASM) has honored Michael D.L. Johnson, PhD, with its William A. Hinton Award for Advancement of a Diverse Community of Microbiologists for his creation of the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP). “I’m very honored,” Dr. Johnson said. “Doing the summer program was definitely not one of those things you do to get an award. It’s more something you do to help the community at large. But it’s a nice recognition that this program is beneficial to the scientific community.” The program started in June 2020 as a way to create a “virtual matchmaking program” to pair underrepresented minority students with microbiology labs to promote research experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. It gained momentum quickly and grew to more than 250 students and 170 volunteer mentors worldwide for that first eight-week summer session. According to a paper in Nature Microbiology, 54% were first-generation college students and about 53% were Black, 44% were Latinx and 3% were Native American. “A lot of people were missing out on in-person summer research. People were canceling them because of the pandemic. This was affecting underrepresented minorities the most,” Dr. Johnson said. “So, what I did was start a virtual summer research program.”
David Harris, PhD, MS, University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson professor of immunobiology and director of the UArizona Health Sciences Biorepository, has received a 2021 Leader of the Year award in the COVID-19 Response & Management category from the Arizona Capitol Times.
Dr. Noel Warfel's lab has discovered a mechanism to control blood vessel growth in cancerous tumors. Dr. Warfel was recently featured on the local news. Click for more.
The Immunobiology department is delighted to recognize and congratulate the 2021-2022 Infection and Inflammation as Drivers of Aging (IIDA) Training Grant Awardees.
Janko Nikolich-Žugich, MD, PhD, department head and professor of Immunobiology, co-director of the Arizona Center on Aging and member of the BIO5 Institute, has been named the 2021 Arizona Bioscience Researcher of the Year by the Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio) for his work on aging, immunology, and COVID-19 testing and prevention.
Dr. Carol Gregorio is the inaugural chair holder of the Czarina M. and Humberto S. Lopez Endowed Chair for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research.
Adam Watson, Gus Mouneimne, and a cadre of stellar collaborators in CMM and beyond, demonstrate that the stiffness of the tumor microenvironment can persistently alter cancer cell behavior, even after dissemination to softer microenvironments, by a process termed “mechanical memory.”
We would like to congratulate Dr. Bhattacharya for receiving the 2021 COM-T Faculty Excellence – Basic and Translational Investigator Award!
Drs. Julie Ledford and Michael Johnson were awarded a $2.5M grant to study biomarkers of obstructive lung disease.
Work from Dr. Noel Warfel’s lab, led by recent CBIO graduate Andrea Casillas, recently published a paper in Oncogene describing a new signaling axis that promotes blood vessel growth in solid tumors.
Anne E. Cress, PhD, has been named Vice Dean, Operations and Strategy, and chief of staff at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson (COM-T) effective July 1, 2021.
Real-world data from the AZ HEROES study show COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections, and when breakthrough infections do occur, the level of infection and impact of the disease are significantly reduced.
The UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson has accepted six high school graduates in a new program that reduces the time to a medical degree to seven years.
The Medical Scientist Training Program is designed to train students planning careers in academic medicine or biomedical research.