News

Drs. Cindy Miranti (CMM) and Yitshak Zohar (AME/Engineering) are co-investigators on a grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study the mechanisms that underly prostate cancer development. As part of this collaboration, they developed the first human Prostate-on-Chip model by culturing basal epithelial cells next to prostate stromal cells within a microfluidic device which recapitulates human prostate biology, for basic and translational cancer research.

A research team led by Jessika Iwanski, MD/Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine (GPMM) and including CMM faculty members Dr. Carol Gregorio and Dr. Jared Churko, studied the effects of blood pressure medication on patients’ susceptibility to COVID-19 infection.

The Arizona Geriatrics Society honored Janko Nikolich-Žugich, MD, PhD, as the 2021 Gerontologist of the Year at its Annual Fall Symposium.

The 43rd annual Founders Day Lecture will honor Janko Nikolich-Žugich, MD, PhD. Presenting "Dotting the I's (Immunity) & Crossing the T's (Cells)" lecture to start at 5:15pm on Wednseday, November 17th.

The Founders Day lectureship was established in 1979 to commemorate the founding of the College and to recognize and honor UArizona College of Medicine - Tucson faculty for their scientific accomplishments. Each year, faculty members select one of their peers who embodies the spirit of discovery, whose research is impactful in its contribution to the advancement of science, and who can inspire others through presentation of their work.

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.”

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.

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.