2007 APSA Annual Meeting
2007 APSA Annual Meeting attendees
APSA 2011 South Regional Meeting
 Richard Sutton, MD, PhD |
After finishing his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Dr. Richard Sutton enrolled in the MSTP at Stanford, where he obtained his PhD degree with Dr. John Boothroyd, working on African trypanosomes. He then completed a categorical residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in infectious diseases at UCSF. After post-doctoral stints with Drs. Harold Varmus, Dan Littman, and Pat Brown in which he worked on HTLV cell binding and entry and the development of HIV-based gene therapy vectors, he joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. In 2008 he was recruited to Yale University School of Medicine to continue his work on HIV replication and lentiviral vectors. Dr. Sutton spends approximately 75% of his time at the research bench and 25% in the clinical setting, both out-patient (HIV and general infectious diseases) and in-patient (internal medicine and infectious diseases). The focus of Dr. Sutton’s basic science research effort is the molecular biology of HIV replication, in which he is attempting to identify novel host factors involved in the viral life cycle and to develop a small animal model of HIV/AIDS. He is also involved in a project of whole exome sequencing of so-called ‘Elite Controllers’, patients who are somehow able to suppress HIV replication in the absence of medications. This may help identify coding variants of genes that are involved in viral replication, which should inform both the therapeutic and vaccine effort. Another translational project Dr. Sutton is involved with is the development and testing of a novel, multiple cycle ‘replication capacity’ assay of HIV, which may help improve decision making in terms of choice of antiretrovirals when viral drug resistance develops. Dr. Sutton is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, the State of Connecticut, and the Department of Defense. He has served as a reviewer on NIH peer review study sections for the last decade, and reviews manuscripts on an ad hoc basis for journals such as Journal of Virology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Blood, and Nature Biotechnology. He also serves on Yale’s Recombinant DNA and Institutional Biosafety committees. In his spare time, Dr. Sutton enjoys bicycling, alpine skiing, and sailing. He lives with his wife Sarah, who is also his lab manager, and his daughters in Woodbridge, CT. |
 Allan R. Brasier, MD |
Research Interests: Inflammation is a common mediator of many chronic human diseases, including asthma, heart disease, aging, and cancer. I am interested on how cellular signaling pathways induce inflammation with the goal of being able to monitor and modulate these pathways to treat these conditions. One of our major areas of concentration is to understand intracellular signaling pathways control a “master” regulator of inflammation known as nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB). We have shown that NF-kB is a mediator for respiratory virus- induced pulmonary inflammation, one of the important links between acute respiratory infections and asthma exacerbations. In recent work we have found that cyclin dependent kinases are critical for some of the inflammatory activities of NF-kB. We are currently investigating whether inhibition of cyclin dependent kinases can be used as anti-inflammatory agents in models of airway inflammation. In addition, were the first group to show that a blood pressure regulating hormone, angiotensin II, produces chronic vascular inflammation via NF-kB in smooth muscle cells. In fact, vascular inflammation is now known to be a major, independent risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. In recent work, we have further extended our findings to implicate the GTPase Rho A as a controller of angiotensin II-induced NF-kB signaling. We are currently pursuing animal studies to determine whether agents that affect the RhoA-NF-kB pathway can be used to treat atherosclerosis and other types of heart disease. Currently, we are developing exciting new proteomics technologies to identify predictive biomarkers in patients with airway disease. To this end, we recently have discovered a panel of cytokines that separate various groups of asthmatics and are seeking to validate these in independent studies. Our ultimate goal is to be able to predict treatment outcome in patients inflammatory disease as a first step towards personalized medicine. Lab URL: http://www.bioinfo.utmb.edu/Brasier_Lab/ SCMM URL: http://scmm.utmb.edu/ |
| Eric Carlsen |
Eric Carlsen is a fourth year MD-PhD student at UTMB. He studied Cellular and Molecular Biology at Ohio University and graduated in 2008. He was inspired to pursue the MD/PhD program after participating in a Chagas Disease Control Program in 2006 and 2007. His lab studies how the immune system recognizes Leishmania as well as how the parasite tries to avoid such recognition. |
| Javier Figueroa |
Javier Figueroa studied Biochemistry at the U.S. Air Force Academy and received his M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado in 2005. He has worked as a Department of Defense satellite engineer and in research with the Air Force on numerous bioterrorism agents. Javier is currently in the lab pursuing his MD/PhD at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. |
| Julian Leibowitz, MD, PhD |
Julian Leibowitz, MD, PhD is Professor of Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and has a cross-appointment as Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology in the Texas A& M University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Leibowitz did his undergraduate work in Chemistry at Alfred University and subsequently earned his M.D. and Ph.D. (in Cell Biology) degrees from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He subsequently completed his internship and residency in Pathology at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuropathology, also at UCSD. He serves as Program Director for the MD/PhD program at the Texas A& M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Under his direction the program has seen incredible growth. |
| Susan M. Carlton, PhD |
Susan M. Carlton, PhD, is a full Professor at UTMB in the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology. She has been funded by NIH for over 25 years to study mechanisms underlying chronic pain. The lab is currently funded by 3 RO1 grants to study mechanisms underlying spinal cord injury pain, neuropathic pain, inflammatory pain, and opiate-induced hyperalgesia. She has mentored grade school, high school, college, graduate and medical students who are interested in understanding what basic science is all about. |
| Ernesto Lopez, MD |
Ernesto Lopez, MD, studied medicine at the University of Monterrey in Mexico having his medical internship at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain. Currently, he is in the second year of the Neuroscience PhD program at UTMB. He works with Dr. Benjamin Gelman studying the pathogenesis of dementia in patients infected with HIV. |
| Sen Shiraj |
Sen Shiraj is in the MD/PhD program at UT-Houston and has completed the first three years of medical school and three years in the laboratory of Dr. Heinrich Taegtmeyer in the Division of Cardiology. His project involves studying how metabolic signals regulate growth signaling pathways in the heart. Specifically, he has characterized how load-induced changes in glucose metabolism regulate mTOR activation and endoplasmic reticulum stress. |
| Hossein Ameri, M.D., FRCSI, MRCOphth |
Hossein Ameri, M.D., FRCSI, MRCOphth is pursuing joint residency-doctoral studies in the Opthalmology and Visual Sciences Residency Program and the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UTMB. |
| Michaela Huynh |
Michaela Huynh is a first year MD/PhD student at UTMB, researching DNA repair mechanisms and epigenetic modication with Dr. Lawerence Sowers. She graduated from Texas A&M with a double major in biochemisty and genetics in 2011. She did undergraduate research in nanotechnology, enzymology, and genetics in various labs. |
| Dr. Norbert Herzog, PhD |
Dr. Norbert Herzog, PhD did his undergraduate work in Bacteriology at University of California, Los Angeles prior to obtaining an M.S. from California State University,Northridge and subsequently a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin. He continued his training at The Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, CA and then at UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston before joining the faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Herzog is currently a Professor in the UTMB Departments of Pathology and Microbiology and Immunology and Associate Dean in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. He has been selected as a member of the UTMB Academy of Master Teachers and has been named a UT System Distinguished Teaching Professor. Dr Herzog has been named a member of The University of Texas Academy of Health Science Education. Among his graduate school responsibilities is direction of the UTMB Summer Undergraduate Research Program, and he is also in charge of the graduate school recruitment efforts. |
| Maryann Mbaka |
Maryann Mbaka is a second year medical student at UTMB and is from Houston, Texas. She graduated from Westside High School in Houston and attended Northwestern State University in Louisiana. She is interested in the field of surgery and loves to play soccer. |
| Shama Shaukatali |
Shama Shaukatali is a Clinical Laboratory Science student at UTMB School of Health Professions. She is a Pre-Medical student working for Healthcare Epidemiology and is involved with many organizations on campus. |
| Mary Anne Mani, PhD |
Mary Anne Mani, PhD studied at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2002. She was awarded NIEHS fellowships in 2003 and 2004 for her post-doctoral training at the University of Texas at Austin in the Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology. She worked as a scientific writer and editor for a biotechnology company from 2004-2008. Mary Anne is in her 4th year of medical school at UTMB and is currently applying to residency programs. |
| Sydney Ramirez |
Sydney Ramirez is in the MD/PhD program at UTMB. |
| Denise Wilkes, MD, PhD |
Denise Wilkes, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and practices in the UTMB Anesthesiology Pain Clinic and UTMB Cancer Center. Her training began at UTMB in 1994 with the combined MD-PhD program, followed by training in the anesthesiology residency and a pain fellowship. She joined the UTMB Pain Medicine practice in 2007. She treats acute and chronic pain conditions with emphasis on cancer and facial pain. Her practice provides medical management and interventional procedures such as steroid injection, neurolytic blocks, spinal cord stimulator, vertebroplasty, and kyphoplasty. She also works with other scientist in the Department of Neurosciences translating basic science discoveries into potential clinical treatments. Her research focus is to study novel therapeutic approaches for neuropathic pain such as the introduction of foreign genes into sensory neurons. Her research is currently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. |
| Chris Romero |
Chris Romero is in the fourth year of medical school in the MD/PhD program at UTMB. |
| Cornelis Elferink, Ph.D., Professor |
Cornelis Elferink, Ph.D., Professor Mary Gibbs Jones Distinguished Chair in Environmental Toxicology The major focus of Dr. Elferink’s research is the role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a ligand-activated transcription factor, in liver homeostasis with an emphasis on the AhR-mediated regulation of cell cycle control. The long-term objectives are to garner a mechanistic understanding of AhR activity in liver regeneration following hepatic injury. These studies hold the promise of identifying new therapeutic targets for the treatment of various liver diseases such as hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In a second research endeavor, the laboratory is actively seeking to identify serum biomarkers for early detection of HCC in Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infected patients at-risk for developing cancer. The approach involves proteomic strategies based on 2D-difference in gel electrophoresis and stable isotope labeling coupled to mass spectrometry, and multiplexed Selected Reaction Monitoring for use in validation studies. Successful development of serum biomarkers will enhance surveillance of millions who are HCV-positive and at risk of developing HCC. |
| Lora Kahn |
Lora Kahn is a fourth year medical student at UTMB. She participated in the Howard Hughes Institute Medical Research Fellows Program. |
| Daniel DiLorenzo, MD, PhD, MBA |
Daniel DiLorenzo, MD, PhD, MBA is a clinician, inventor, entrepreneur with backgrounds in neurosurgery, electrical and mechanical engineering, and medical device venture creation. He earned SB and SM degrees in Electrical Engineering at MIT, received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, an MBA (Masters in Management of Technology) from MIT Sloan School of Management, and the MD from Harvard. He took time off from neurosurgery residency as founding CEO/CTO to launch NeuroVista (formerly BioNeuronics), which has begun human studies on an implanted seizure prediction and advisory system for patients with epilepsy. He holds 17 issued US patents, with several dozen patents pending, and is the editor of a text on “Neuroengineering”. He is presently completing his neurosurgery residency at UTMB. |
| Jean T. Jacob, PhD |
Jean T. Jacob, PhD is Director of Research Development, LSU School of Medicine, as well as Director of Research of the LSU Eye Center and a Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience. Her success as a material scientist, whose research interests focus on the biocompatibility of synthetic and bio-polymers in the ocular environment and device development, in securing federal and corporate grant funding greatly aid in ability to facilitate faculty research collaborations within the clinical and basic sciences and outside LSUHSC-NO. |
| William Whitehead, MD, PhD |
William Whitehead, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UTMB. |
| Rimma Osipov |
Rimma Osipov is a fourth year MD/PHD student studying at the Institute for Medical Humanities at UTMB. Her interests in the medical humanities field include history of medicine, narrative and medicine, and especially medical education. After completing her degree, she is planning to practice in internal medicine and eventually become involved in clinical and classroom teaching at the medical school level. |
| Sarah Baker |
Sarah Baker received her undergraduate degree from Rice University, where she majored in history. Her undergraduate interests included the history of medicine and the social aspects of medical care, and she also did research on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children with developmental disabilities. As an MD/MA student, Sarah hopes to develop a strong social and historical context to carry into clinical encounters with each unique patient she serves as a physician. |
| Alyssa Shell |
Alyssa Shell is a fourth year MD/PhD student in Sociomedical Sciences in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. Her focus is on understanding how variables at the neighborhood level influence health and well-being. She plans to pursue an integrated career in rural family medicine and community health research. |
| Gustavo Valbuena, MD, PhD |
Gustavo Valbuena, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Director of the Master in Medical Science Program. Dr. Valbuena is a physician-scientist with training in Anatomical, Clinical, and Experimental Pathology. He obtained his MD degree from Javeriana University in Bogota, Colombia. He subsequently completed residency training in Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas, where he also received a Ph.D in Experimental Pathology in 2003. His expertise includes pathogenesis, immunology, and development of animal models and in vitro systems for the study of rickettsial diseases. The research interests of his laboratory currently focus on four areas that are funded by NIH: 1) role of the endothelium in the regulation of the anti-rickettsial immune response; 2) identification of rickettsial antigens recognized by T cells and B cells (the first step in the development of an anti-rickettsial vaccine); 3) optimization of a humanized mouse model of rickettsial infections; and 4) development of a mouse model of scrub typhus, a disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi. Dr. Valbuena is also interested in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of rickettsial diseases. He addresses this aspect through his collaboration with scientists in Latin America, particularly Colombia. Lastly, Dr. Valbuena is heavily involved with biomedical graduate education. He is currently developing the curriculum of a new PhD program in Translational Medicine using a new approach that focuses on competencies. |
| Judith L. Rowen, MD |
Judith L. Rowen, MD serves as Assistant Dean for Educational Affairs and the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education; and is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland and her M.D. from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. She completed her residency at the University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, where she also served as Chief Resident. She completed her fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. |
| Mathieu Bakhoum |
Mathieu Bakhoum is a fifth year student in the MD-PhD program at UTMB. |
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