Kudos

Congratulations to Kimberly Holloway, Ph.D.  Dr. Holloway graduated in May, and is now working as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.  Kevin Pruitt, Ph.D. was Dr.  Holloway's mentor.  Dr. Holloway's disseration is entitled, "Characterization of the Role of SIRT 1 and Its Potential as Chemotheraeutic Target in Breast Cancer".

Kevin Pruitt, Ph.D. has been awarded a $1,344,600 grant by the National Cancer Institute.  The grant is entitled, "Mechanisms of Epigenetic Gene Silencing" which investigates how epigenetic alterations of tumor suppressors and growth control genes contribute to tumorigenesis.

D. Neil Granger, PhD, Boyd Professor and Head of the Department of Molecular & Cellular Physiology was honored by the British Microcirculation Society with the Wiley-Blackwell Basic Science Lecture and Award. His lecture, entitled “Platelet recruitment in inflamed microvessels: mechanisms and consequences” was presented at the William Harvey Research Institute in London on April 18th during the 61st annual conference of the Society.

Congratulation to Dr. Maureen Ajuebor.  She was recently awarded a grant for one year from the NIH/NIAID for her project entitled, 'Dynamics of iNKT Cells in the Presence and Absence of Acute Viral Replication".  The total amount of the award is $366,250.

Kudos to Dr. Steve Alexander for being awarded a $146,500 grant for one year from the CDMRP (Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs) Department of Defense for his project entitled, "Plasma Endothelial Microparticles in Multiple Sclerosis:  A Novel Metric Assay of Disease Activity and Response to Treatment".

Dr. Matthew Grisham was recently awarded a grant from the NIH for his project entitled, "Chronic Gut Inflammation".  The R21 grant is for two years, and the total award is $275,000.  Congratulations!

Congratulations to Jamie Newman and Wei Li , postdoctoral fellows, for their recent accomplishments at the 2011 Graduate Research Day.  Dr. Newman placed first, and Dr. Lie placed second in the Post-Doc division of the poster session.  Dr. Newmancurrently work in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin Pruitt.  Dr. Li works in Dr. Aw's laboratory.

Dr. Neil Granger has been awarded a grant from the NIH for his project entitled, "Risk Factor Enhanced Microvascular Responses to Ischemia-Reperfusion.  The grant is effective for four years beginning 4/7/2010.  The total award is $1,465,000. 

Congratulations to Elena Senchenkova, post-doctoral fellow in the Granger Lab, for receiving a 2010 Cardiovascular Section Research Recognition Award.  Dr. Senchenkova is one of eight winners selected from a group of 88 applicants, and will present her research at the 2010 Experimental Biology Meeting in Anaheim, California this spring.  The title of the abstract is, "T-lymphocytes contribute to angiotensin II-mediated thrombosis in cremaster muscle arterioles", by Elena Y. Senchenkova, D. Neil Granger, Department of Molecular & Cellular Physiology, LSU Health Science Center.

Physiology graduate students, Serena Li-Su Yan and Fridrik Karlsson presented abstracts at the 5th Annual Meeting of the Gulf Coast Physiological Society Meeting held in New Orleans.  Ms. Yan's abstract was entitled: "Role of EGF-generated ROS in regulating cell surface PDGFRa:  Cross-Talk Between EGF and PDGF Signaling Pathway".  Mr. Karlsson's abstract was entitled: "Reversal of established colitis by adoptive transfer of ex vivo-generated regulatory T-cells."

Dr. Lynn Harrison has accepted an invitation to serve on the Editorial Board of the journal Mutagenesis. 

Karen Stokes, Ph.D. has been named to the Region II Vascular Wall Biology Peer Review Committee.

Tak Yee Aw, Ph.D. has been awarded an NIH grant for the project entitled, "Glutathione redox control of intestinal cell responses".  Dr. Aw's grant will be awarded through 2012.

YJ Jin, Ph.D. will serve on the Basic Science and Molecular Biology Study Group of the American Heart Association, National Center.

An $8.2 million Program Project Grant from the National Institutes of Health was awarded to researchers in the Departments of Molecular & Cellular Physiology, and Pathology at LSUHSC-Shreveport. The 5-year grant, directed by Dr Matthew Grisham, is entitled "Role of the microcirculation in intestinal inflammation" and is focused on defining how blood vessels and blood cells contribute to the pathogenesis of the inflammatory bowel diseases which include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Funds are provided to support 4 projects directed by Drs. Matthew Grisham, Neil Granger and Norman Harris (all in Physiology) as well as Dr. Chris Kevil (Pathology). In addition, funds are provided to support 3 core facilities directed by Drs. Grisham, Granger, Price (Physiology) and Jianxiong Bao (Pathology). The team of LSUHSC-S researchers hope that the research supported by this major multimillion dollar grant will help identify new treatments for the treatment of the inflammatory bowel diseases that afflict over one million individuals in North American and several million world-wide.