Research News

[Kelsey Bernard, PhD, and Lalitha Madhavan, MD, PhD, are among U of A College of Medicine – Tucson co-authors of a paper in Experimental Neurology showing that, in an animal model, the protein PNA5 appears to have a protective effect on brain cells. The discovery could help Parkinson's patients.]

Study identifies potential new drug for Parkinson’s-related cognitive decline, dementia

Parkinson’s disease causes difficulty in movement and balance, but its cognitive symptoms receive less attention and have no good treatments. A U of A College of Medicine – Tucson team, including Lalitha Madhavan, MD, PhD, a neurology associate professor with a dual appointment in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, hopes to change that.

[Collage of three images from the Department of Medicine’s participation in the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Physicians, Nov. 8-9, at the Casino del Sol Resort.]

Big crowds and big wins for DOM at ACP Arizona Chapter Scientific Meeting

Department of Medicine faculty, residents and students excelled at this year’s American College of Physicians chapter event hosted in Tucson, with DOM honors for Internal Medicine Physician of the Year, Educator of the Year, and Student of the Year, plus top prizes in poster contests in four of five student categories and a resident category. Poster entries, registrants and sponsorships also broke records.

Dr. Jil Tardiff honored with select lectureship at AHA Scientific Sessions

The Division of Cardiology professor and Sarver Heart Center member whose research focuses on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young people – will give the Thomas Smith Memorial Lecture at the American Heart Association event Nov 18.

[Collage of three images from the University of Arizona Department of Medicine DEI Mixer held Nov. 4, 2024, at the UAHS Health Sciences Innovationg Building]

Modest turnout for DOM DEI Mixer with great talk, sim lab experience

Thirty people attended the 2024 Department of Medicine mixer hosted by the DEI Committee in the HSIB Forum and ASTEC simulation lab, including 10 pre-med and medical students interested in internal medicine, with an inspiring talk by UAHS DEI associate vice president Dr. Francisco Moreno. See the mini-photo gallery.

[Collage of images from the first Tucson Transplant Symposium, hosted by the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson’s Division of Nephrology and Department of Surgery with a particular focus on kidney transplants.]

Tucson Transplant Symposium spotlights chronic kidney disease

The Division of Nephrology co-hosts inaugural symposium with Department of Surgery, offering 3.0 CMEs for clinicians across southern Arizona interested in the latest information on kidney transplants, the most commonly transplanted organ. Nearly 40 clinicians attended. See the mini-photo gallery.

[NIH/NIAID microscopy image of coccidioides fungal spore, which causes Valley fever, with images of U of A's Dr. John Galgiani in his lab and two Congressmen who introduced new legislation for a human vaccine]

Bipartisan bill to accelerate human vaccine for Valley fever introduced in Congress

Two U.S. representatives, a Democrat from Phoenix and a Republican from California’s Central Valley, recently filed legislation to fund creation of a national strategy for a human vaccine for Valley fever. DOM infectious diseases professor Dr. John Galgiani is quoted.

[Graphical illustration of NHLBI Workshop on Health Disparities in Pulmonary Vascular Disease]

U of A-led NHLBI Workshop explores disparities in pulmonary hypertension

A virtual national workshop, Oct. 22-23, chaired by the DOM Pulmonary division’s Dr. Franz Rischard goes beyond how much a person’s race outweighs their mixed ancestry, sex and/or social determinants of health in a disease directly affecting over 2 million people in the U.S. Read the Q&A with Dr. Rischard on why this is important.

[Collage of images related to testing of noncompression CT technology to detect breast cancers more accurately while increasing comfort and decreasing radiation exposure]

Researchers using $3.3M NCI grant to develop better breast cancer screening technology

College of Medicine – Tucson researchers, including the Division of Hematology & Oncology’s Dr. Sherry Chow, are leading a team that will test noncompression CT technology, which has the potential to detect more breast cancers more accurately while increasing comfort and decreasing radiation exposure.

[A collage of images from the 2nd Annual UACC Awards Dinner: (top image, from left) University of Arizona Cancer Center 2024 award winners (from left) Rachna Shroff, MD, Aaron Scott, MD, Jianqin Lu, PhD, Andrew Paek, PhD, Cynthia Thomson, PhD, Jennifer Erdrich, MD, Heidi Hamann, PhD, Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, MD.]

U of A Cancer Center honors members at annual awards event

Four Department of Medicine faculty members were among nine awardees at the Second Annual Awards Dinner for the U of A Cancer Center, hosted Sept. 4 at The Graduate. Five more were among the nominators. See who they are.

[Co-leaders, left, Taylor Riall, MD, PhD, FACS and, right, Rachna Shroff, MD, FASCO, organized the first Hepato Pancreatico-Biliary CME Symposium featuring, center, Matthew H.G. Katz, MD, CMQ, FACS, FASCO. (Photo: U of A Cancer Center)]

College of Medicine – Tucson’s Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary CME Seminar draws 50 clinicians

About 50 general surgeons, oncologists, gastroenterologists, primary care physicians, and HPB specialists who care for these patients attended the daylong event. Among presenters, moderators and panelists were five DOM faculty: Drs. Rachna Shroff, Oleh Haluszka, Aaron Scott, Joshua Melson and Junaid Arshad.

[Collage of images from UAHS Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion event Sept. 20 to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month 2024]

Hispanic Heritage Month to be celebrated with food, music and lectures

The Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at the U of A Health Sciences has worked up a series of activities for Hispanic Heritage Month, launched Sept. 20 with mariachi & salsa music, folklorico dancers and food trucks in the Hippocrates Courtyard that drew several DOM staffers. See a mini-photo gallery and other planned events.

U of A, Banner redesignated as Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Care Center

First named a PFF Care Center in 2014, the designation serves as kudo for Interstitial Lung Disease Program in Department of Medicine’s Pulmonary division, treating a variety of disorders caused by scarring of lung tissue. University of Arizona, Banner clinic is one of 74 such centers across country.

DOM gains 11 new faculty members in September

Augmented by an additional 15 new faculty in August and 11 more in July, the Department of Medicine added 37 faculty members this summer. The most recent include five hospitalists, three internists, two cardiology researchers and an oncologist. See who they are and what they’ve done.

DOM Internal Digest newsletters for July and August 2024

The August and July Internal Digest newsletters were highlighted by welcomes to new residents, fellows and faculty, the white coat ceremony for new med students, a plethora of honors and awards for DOM faculty and staff, and features on summer research intern mentors, DEI champions, Banner – UMC Tucson’s U.S. News top ranking and more.

[April Ehrlich, MD, a new geriatrics faculty member in the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, at the opening session of the Butler-Williams Scholars Program, a summer research institute hosted at the National Institute on Aging headquarters in Bethesda, Md.]

New geriatrics faculty member selected for National Institute on Aging scholars program

With just a few weeks under her belt as a faculty member, Dr. April Ehrlich, in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, was off to NIA headquarters for a weeklong summer aging research symposium named for the institute’s first two directors.

Rheumatology, Arthritis Center add ‘Joint Space’ podcast to community outreach

Dr. Kent Kwoh, division chief and center director, kicks off the podcast – offered on multiple platforms – on topic of “Joint Pain Explained.” Also in this news item are Living Healthy With Arthritis fall calendar, including lectures by Drs. Julie Jernberg and Joshua Farr, and the Bear Down Celebration.

[A portrait of Elizabeth Connick, MD, inset into an image depicting a single human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), as it was budding from a human immune cell, which the virus had infected, and within which the HIV virus had been replicated. (Credit: NIAID, 2012)]

U of A study seeks to understand factors that allow HIV to persist during antiretroviral therapy

Infectious Diseases division chief Dr. Liz Connick received $703,000 in NIH/NIAID bridge funding for a study to identify factors in secondary lymphoid tissues that lead to continuous low-level expression of HIV in people living with HIV and receiving antiretroviral therapy, or ART.

[Zoom image of presentation by Neil Ampel, MD, at an FDA/NIH/CDC workshop on a Valley fever vaccine for humans; U of A's John Galgiani, MD, also pictured to right of Dr. Ampel]

U of A infectious diseases faculty headline federal workshop on human vaccine for Valley fever

Shortly after award of $33M in National Institutes of Health contracts to develop human vaccine, Valley Fever Center team – including Drs. John Galgiani and Fariba Donovan – presents on prospects at workshop near Washington, DC.

[Collage image of portraits of 15 new University of Arizona Department of Medicine faculty members joining the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson in August 2024, pictured alphabetically from top left linearly.]

Fifteen new faculty to join Department of Medicine in August

Fifteen new faculty will join the DOM this month, including three pulmonologists, two hospitalists, two infectious diseases specialists, a cardiologist, dermatologist, endocrinologist, geriatrician, oncologist, and palliative medicine specialist – and two researchers, one studying GI cancers and the other the role of cellular aging (senescence) in age-related bone loss. Read all about them.

[A vehicle kicks up dust as it passes a bicyclist on a dirt road]

Pursuit of a Valley fever vaccine passes significant milestone

A human Valley fever vaccine candidate will proceed toward Phase 1 clinical trials thanks to a major investment from the National Institutes of Health, with a portion of the $33 million going to the University of Arizona through the Valley Fever Center for Excellence, led by Dr. John Galgiani.

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