Hemodialysis, Feline Parasite Subject of Next DOM Research Seminar, Oct. 13

Themes for the two speakers in the next UA Department of Medicine Research Seminar 2016-17 lecture series have been announced.

  • Prabir Roy-Chaudhury, MD, PhD, will speak on “Vascular Access for Hemodialysis: Of Flow, Fistulae and Finance.”
  • Anita Koshy, MD, will discuss the topic, “Toxoplasma gondii & the Central Nervous System (CNS): Frenemies?”

Both have labs at the UA BIO5 Institute. Their addresses will be in UA Health Sciences Room 8403 from noon to 1 p.m. It is the second of 10 lectures, each held on the second Thursday of the month. A light lunch also will be served.

Click here to view photo gallery [PDF] from this event or, for an archived video of the presentation, visit this site.

The seminars—new this academic year—are designed to pair a senior and junior faculty investigator from different divisions or disciplines and highlight the innovative, groundbreaking research under way at the Department of Medicine. The department, with more than 200 faculty physicians, 130 residents and 70 fellows, is the largest in the UA College of Medicine – Tucson.

Dr. Roy-Chaudhury is a professor of medicine and chief of the UA Division of Nephrology. He joined the faculty here in July 2015, having served previously as a staff nephrologist at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center and transplant nephrologist at the University of Cincinnati, where he built a unique multi-disciplinary bench-to-bedside research program for innovative therapeutic interventions in dialysis vascular access.

Dr. Roy-Chaudhury earned his medical degree from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India, and did his internal medicine and nephrology training at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and Beth Israel Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, in Boston.

An important aspect of his research, currently funded through the National Institutes of Health and Veterans Administration, relates to development of novel devices for dialysis vascular access. He has ongoing related collaborations with a number of industry partners and is co-chair of the Kidney Health Initiative, a public-private partnership of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a member of the ASN Board of Advisors.

Dr. Koshy is an assistant professor in the UA Department of Neurology and Department of Immunobiology. She studied biology at Stanford University and earned her medical degree from Duke University.

During her research year, when she was a Howard Hughes Medical Student Fellow, she confirmed her desire to become a clinician-scientist by working in the lab of Donna Ferriero at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).  Her clinical and research interests led her to specialize clinically in Neuro-Infectious Diseases by training in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington, Neurology at UCSF, and Infectious Diseases at Stanford. 

At Stanford, Dr. Koshy was fortunate to do a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of John Boothroyd, PhD, a world renowned molecular parasitologist.  In the Boothroyd lab, she was able to establish a technique to identify which mouse cells (but especially in the brain) interacted with parasite Toxoplasma gondii.  In 2012, she moved to the University of Arizona to establish her own lab which continues to pursue better understanding the molecular underpinnings of the brain-Toxoplasma interaction.

T. gondii is an obligate intracellular, parasitic protozoan that causes the disease toxoplasmosis. A common parasite, it’s found in cat feces and contaminated food. It can cause serious complications for pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include muscle pain, fever, and headache, all of which can last for weeks.

Drs. Sai Parthasarathy and Louise HeckerThe next lecture in the DOM Research Seminar Series is Thursday, Nov. 10, and will include speakers Sai Parthasarathy, MD, a professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine (PACCS) and medical director, Center for Sleep Disorders, Banner – UMC Tucson; and Louise Hecker, PhD, a PACCS assistant professor and research investigator, Southern Arizona VA Health Care Systems. She holds degrees in biology from Hartwick College, biological sciences from Binghamton University and cell and developmental biology from the University of Michigan, where she also earned her doctorate is in applied physics and completed a fellowship in lung injury repair.

Click here to learn about other speakers in the Seminar Series, which extends this year through June 2017.

ALSO SEE:
"Standing Room Only for Initial DOM Research Seminar on Asthma" | Posted: Sept. 8, 2016
[View photo gallery or archived video of the above event.]

Release Date: 
09/26/2016 - 5:00pm