Looks like two more folks—and then some—will be joining the UA contingent headed for the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2017 International Conference in Washington, DC, May 19-24, 2017.
Last week, we announced that Joshua Dill, DO, and See-Wei Low, MBBS, had received Bressler-Alpert Society Travel Awards from the UA Department of Medicine, and Khushboo Goel, MD, had won an ATS Abstract Scholarship to present at ATS 2017. For that news item, click here.
It turns out a lot more folks are going from the UA Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine (PACCS), including Suresh Mereddy, MD (left), a fellow in the UA Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program, and Todd Golden, a UA College of Medicine – Tucson third-year student—both of whom also won scholarships to present at ATS 2017.
Dr. Mereddy won an abstract scholarship award from the ATS Assembly on Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology. He’ll present during the ATS Big Data Comes to Sleep Medicine Mini-Symposium on “Altitudinal Central Apneas and Adherence to Positive Airway Pressure Therapy.”
Golden won a similar award from the National Emphysema Foundation honoring Claude Lenfant, MD, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute—a unit of the National Institutes of Health—until his retirement in 2006. His poster presentation is titled: “Frailty Assessment for Predicting Readmission and Discharge Disposition among Patients Hospitalized for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbation.”
Cristine Berry, MD, MHS, UA assistant professor and director, Pulmonary Function and Exercise Physiology Lab, and Laith Ghazala, MD, chief resident, Internal Medicine Residency Program – Tucson Campus, contributed to Golden’s work and also will be attending ATS 2017. Dr. Berry also will participate in several presentations, sessions and symposiums—largely related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She will both chair and speak at an all-day, post-graduate session entitled, “Pulmonary Function and Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing: Moving from Theory to Clinical Practice.”
In all, nine PACCS fellows are attending—eight of whom will be presenting, including Drs. Dill and Mereddy. Other presenting fellows are:
Billie Bixby, MD (Pulmonary & Critical Care) – Critical Care Case Reports - Acid-Base, Electrolyte, and Endocrine Abnormalities Poster Title: “Emergent Hemodialysis for Severe Hyperammonemia of Uncertain Etiology;”- Elaine Cristan, MD (Pulmonary & Critical Care) — Thoracic Oncology Case Reports Poster Title: “Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma Presenting as an Endobronchial Lesion;”
- Naser Mahmoud, MD (Pulmonary & Critical Care) — Physiologic Assessment Poster Title: “ Closing the Gap Between the ATS Criteria and Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease Criteria in Defining Obstruction: Does Additional PFT Characterization Refine the Diagnosis?;” and
Ryan Nahapetian, MD (Pulmonary & Critical Care) — Asthma and Allergy Clinical Studies Poster Title: “Evaluation of Impulse Oscillometry in the Diagnosis of Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction;”- Abhishek Pandey, MD (Sleep Medicine) — Will make an oral presentation, “Health Disparities in Adherence to Positive Airway Pressure Therapy: A Population Level Analysis,” at a mini-symposium entitled, “Big Data Comes to Sleep Medicine,” and
- Snehal Patel, DO — Asthma and Allergy Clinical Studies Poster Title: “Reduction of Medication Use in Asthmatics Following Minimally-Invasive Nissen Fundoplication for Severe GERD.”
Among other PACCS faculty attending and presenting:
- Christian Bime, MD, UA assistant professor and medical director, Medical ICU, Banner – University Medical Center Tucson, is a senior author on research entitled, “Use of Renal Replacement Therapy in Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Single Center Retrospective Review,” and first author in a poster discussion session entitled, “GWAS Association of the SELPLG Gene with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Susceptibility in African-Americans: Preclinical Validation” besides contributing to other UA research being presented from PACCS.
- Tara Carr, MD, UA assistant professor and director, Adult Allergy Program, is a contributor to Dr. Patel’s work above and will be part of three of her own poster sessions: 1) “Improvements in Asthma Symptom Control, Quality of Life, and Perception of Treatment Effectiveness After Omalizumab Initiation in Adolescents and Adults: Results from a 48-Week, Observational Study,” 2) “Lung Function Deficits to Age 32 Are Associated with History of Transient Wheeze During RSV-Positive Lower Respiratory Illness,” and 3) “Obesity and Nutrients in Lung Disease: Inverse Relationship Between Leptin and Lung Function.” She will facilitate a thematic poster session entitled, “Asthma and Allergy Clinical Studies,” and present a rapid abstract presentation entitled, “Lung Function Deficits to Age 32 Are Associated with History of Transient Wheeze during RSV-Positive Lower Respiratory Illness.”
- Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, MD, professor of medicine, is a senior author on many original research presentations from the UA. Cutting edge original research in acute lung injury, sarcoidosis, pulmonary hypertension, and lung fibrosis from his laboratory and his mentees that includes Drs. Wang, Mascarenhas, Hecker, Rischard and Bime will be presented at ATS2017.
- Stefano Guerra, MD, PhD, associate professor and the UA’s Henry E. Dahlberg Chair in Asthma Research, will facilitate a poster session discussion on “Epidemiology of Airways and Chronic Lung Diseases” and present his work as a co-author on, “Large Scale Epigenome Wide Meta-Analysis Reveals DNA Hypomethylation Patterns Associated with Asthma throughout Childhood.”
- Louise Hecker, PhD, UA assistant professor and research investigator, Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, is a presenter in the Molecular Targets and Pathways in Aging Mini-Symposium on “NAMPT Mediates Age-Associated Pro-Fibrotic Myofibroblast Phenotypes and Persistent Fibrosis,” and the Fibrosis: Mediators and Modulators Poster Session on “Identification of Selective and Effective Small-Molecule Inhibitors Targeting NOx4.” She studies the genetic basis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
- James Knepler, MD, UA associate professor, director, Interventional Pulmonology, and associate chief, PACCS — contributor on Dr. Low's work above.
- DOM Chair Monica Kraft, MD, will be speaking at a faculty development seminar on “Strategies for Fellows and Early Career Faculty to Get Closer to Work/Life Balance.” She’ll be chairing a rapid abstract discussion session entitled on “Advances in Asthma.” She’s also a senior author on many original research presentations from the UA and is a past ATS president.
- Julie Ledford, PhD, UA assistant professor, will present on “The Role of Club Cell Secretory Protein during Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pulmonary Infection”; “Club Cell Secretory Protein Deficiency Leads to Altered Lung Function in Naive Mice;” and “Short Peptides Derived from the Lectin Domain of Surfactant Protein A2 Attenuate IL-13 Induced Mucin Production in Asthma and Normal Subjects.” She is a co-author on a study being presented entitled, “Inverse Relationship between Leptin and Lung Function.”
- Joseph Mascarenhas, PhD, UA research assistant professor, will be presenting at a thematic presentation entitled, “The Splicing Factor hnRNPA1 Regulates Critical MYLK Splicing Involved in Lung Endothelial Barrier Regulation”
- Jarrod Mosier, MD, associate program director, Critical Care Fellowship — contributor on Dr. Nahapetian’s work above.
- Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, Interim Chief, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, and UA professor of medicine, will chair a mini-symposium “Big Data Comes to Sleep Medicine” and chair and speak at a symposium entitled, “In Memory Of Nicholas A. Antic. Positive Pressure + Negative Adherence = High Priority For Sleep Medicine.” Additionally, he will be a speaker at the “Patient-Centered Outcome Research Institute (PCORI): PCORnet And Evidence To Action Networks Update.”
- Franz Rischard, DO, UA assistant professor and director, Pulmonary Hypertension Program, will present on “Baseline Afterload Not Resting Right Ventiricular Function Determines Successful Long-Term Transition from Parenteral to Oral Treprostinil.” He is a senior author for a mini-symposium presentation entitled, “Resting Right Ventricular Diastolic Function and Pulmonary Arterial Compliance Associate with Right Ventricular Contractile Reserve in Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension” and will be talking at an NHLBI hosted session entitled, “Right Ventriculo-Arterial Physiologic and Morphologic Phenotyping in Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Cohorts”
- Sachin Chaudhary, MD, UA assistant professor and director, Interstitial Lung Disease Program — contributor on Dr. Low's work above.
- Ting Wang, PhD, UA research assistant professor will be presenting at a thematic presentation entitled, “Particulate Matter Increases Connexin 43 Expression and Function, Exacerbating Endothelial Barrier Disruption” as well as a co-author of “Inhibition of Integrin β4 Phosphorylation Attenuates Lung Endothelial Cell Inflammatory Responses.”
Many of the PACCS and DOM faculty have appointments in the University of Arizona Health Sciences (UAHS) Asthma and Airways Research Center (A2DRC) and the above list of scientific presentations included collaborations with UAHS A2DRC as well as the UAHS Center for Sleep & Circadian Science. The UAHS centers have other members and contributors who are also making a significant splash at ATS 2017 as well, so stay tuned on more news about their contributions. In short, the UA contingent is continuing to make impactful scientific contributions on the international stage of lung, allergy, critical care and sleep medicine.
For a full list of UA presenters and a schedule of their presentations at ATS 2017, click here (enter last name in search box) or 
view this PDF.
ALSO SEE:
"DOM Faculty, Fellows, Residents and Students Share Pulmonary Postcards from ATS 2017" | Posted May 24, 2017
“Residents, Fellow Headed to 2017 ATS Conference Courtesy of Bressler-Alpert Travel Fund” | Posted April 24, 2017