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Peter Igarashi
Peter Igarashi, MD, has been named as the Nesbitt Chair and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota (UMN) School of Medicine. Dr. Igarashi joined UMN from the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center, where he was the Robert Tucker Hayes Distinguished Chair in Nephrology, in honor of Dr. Floyd C. Rector, Jr. He also served as professor of internal medicine and pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and directed the UT Southwestern O'Brien Kidney Research Core Center. Dr. Igarashi succeeds Wesley Miller, MD, who served as Nesbitt Chair and Head of the Department of Medicine since 2008. Dr. Miller retired from the post. Dr. Igarashi's appointment began on December 31, 2014.
Dr. Igarashi earned his MD from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine in 1981. He completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center and fellowship in Nephrology at Yale University School of Medicine (YSM). He subsequently served on the faculty at YSM until joining UT Southwestern in 1999.
Dr. Igarashi's research has focused on kidney development, transcriptional regulation, and polycystic kidney disease. His work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and he received an NIH MERIT Award in 2011. Dr. Igarashi is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Physiological Society, American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Heart Association, American Society of Nephrology and the Association of American Physicians.
Baylor College of Medicine Names McNair Scholar
Massimo Pietropaolo
Massimo Pietropaolo, MD, has been named as a McNair Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). Dr. Pietropaolo, an internationally recognized leader in type 1 diabetes research, joins BCM as a professor of medicine in the department of pathology and immunology from the University of Michigan. The McNair Medical Institute was established at BCM in 2007 and is supported by the Robert and Janice McNair Foundation. The Institute recruits top scientists and physician-scientists to conduct research in breast and pancreatic cancer, juvenile diabetes and neuroscience at BCM.
Dr. Pietropaolo earned his MD from the University of Perugia, Italy, and completed a research fellowship at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School. He discovered the neuroendocrine autoantigen ICA69, and his work has led to improved methods for identifying patients with the greatest risk of developing juvenile diabetes. His current work is focused on achieving a better understanding of the autoantibody responses in children with type 1 diabetes and first degree relatives of type 1 diabetic patients undergoing immunologic treatment for type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Pietropaolo serves as chair and reviewer in a number of National Institutes of Health study sections and is co-director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Biomarker Working Group. He is a standing member of the Type 1 Diabetes Exchange Biobank Scientific Review Committee. He has received numerous distinctions for his work, including the Investigator Award from the Association of American Physicians, the Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association and the Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Perugia, School of Medicine, Italy.
IU School of Medicine Names Chair of Radiation Oncology
Richard C. Zellars
Richard C. Zellars, MD, has been named professor and chair of radiation oncology at the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine. Dr. Zellars joins IU from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he was Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences. He also served as assistant director of clinical trial accrual at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Zellars earned his MD from Johns Hopkins and completed residency training in Radiation Oncology at the University of Michigan. Prior to returning to the Johns Hopkins as a faculty member in 2001, he served as an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and was Vice Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Dr. Zellars’ research is focused on improving the safety and efficacy of radiation treatment for breast cancer and has included studies of targeted and combination therapies. His work has also focused on health care disparities in African-American women treated for the disease.
During his tenure at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Zellars founded CUPID, the Cancer in the Under-Privileged, Indigent or Disadvantaged Summer Fellowship. The fellowship is designed for medical students who have an interest in bringing the benefits of modern cancer research to underserved populations in the US. Dr. Zellars is a member of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Breast Cancer Panel.
Assistant Dean for Research Appointed at Temple University School of Medicine
Jennifer Gordon, PhD, has been appointed Assistant Dean for Research at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM). Dr. Gordon joined the faculty at TUSM in 2001 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. She joined the School's Department of Neuroscience when it was formed in 2006 and is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at TUSM. In her new position, Dr. Gordon will assist the research faculty with regulatory compliance and resource management.
Dr. Gordon earned her PhD in Molecular Pathobiology from Drexel College of Medicine in 1999. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Neurovirology at Temple University in 2001. Her research has focused on neurological disorders such as demyelination, neurodegeneration, and brain tumors and, specifically, the neurotropic viruses HIV-1 and the JC virus. Her research has been supported consistently by the National Institutes of Health since 2001, and she will continue the work of her laboratory in her new role. Dr. Gordon is currently the Secretary of the International Society of Neurovirology and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of NeuroVirology.
USF Names VP and CEO of USF Health
Edmund Funai
Edmund F. Funai, MD, has been named as vice president and chief operating officer of the University of South Florida (USF) Health. He also holds the newly established post of USF System vice president for strategic development and serves as a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Dr. Funai began his tenure at USF in November of last year, prior to which he was the interim dean of The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine and chief operating officer for the five hospitals that comprise the OSU Health System.
Dr. Funai earned his MD from the New York Medical College, and he completed residency at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and a fellowship in maternal–fetal medicine at New York University School of Medicine. He previously served as director of Obstetrics at Bellevue Hospital and as chair of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation's Regional Perinatal Care Task Force. He also was chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and chief of obstetrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Funai's research has focused on hypertension in pregnancy and patient safety, and his work has been recognized with the Award for Research Excellence by the Society for Maternal–Fetal Medicine.
Texas A&M Recruits Research Duo
Husband and wife research team, Elizabeth Sally Ward Ober, PhD, and Raimund J. Ober, PhD, have joined Texas A&M University. Dr. Ward Ober, a molecular immunologist, serves on the faculty for the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Dr. Ober, a biomedical engineer, serves on the faculty of the University's Dwight Look College of Engineering. Their collaborative, interdisciplinary research has focused on developing therapeutics for autoimmune disorders and cancer.
Prior to joining Texas A&M, Dr. Ward Ober was the Paul and Betty Meek-FINA Professorship in Molecular Immunology at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Ober previously served as a professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas and as adjunct professor in the Department of Immunology at UT Southwestern. In his new post at Texas A&M University, he is a professor of biomedical engineering and holds an appointment in the Texas A&M College of Medicine Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine.
Dr. Ober and colleagues pioneered multifocal plane microscopy (MUM), which has made it possible to for researchers to conduct three-dimensional sub-cellular trafficking studies within living cells. The couple is using this technology to track cellular function in order to determine which engineered therapeutic antibodies are most effective at stopping tumor growth and to develop targeted therapies for cancer treatment. The team has already worked to develop improved, engineered antibodies targeting growth factor receptors such as the HER2 protein for breast cancer therapy.
Dr. Ward Ober and Dr. Ober trained at Cambridge University, UK, where they earned doctoral degrees. They receive grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
UND Names Associate Dean for Bismarck Campus
A. Michael Booth
A. Michael Booth, MD, PhD, has been appointed associate dean for the Southwest (Bismarck) Campus at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Booth has served in the Department of Surgery at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences since 1989, where he is a clinical professor of surgery. A cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, he also practices at the St. Alexius Heart and Lung Clinic in Bismarck. Dr. Booth assumed his new role in September of last year, succeeding Dr. Nicholas Neumann as Southwest Campus dean.
Dr. Booth earned his MD from Johns Hopkins University. He completed general surgery residency at the University of Minnesota (UMN), serving as chief resident. He earned his PhD in Physiology at the UMN School of Medicine, conducting graduate work in cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology with the late Irwin J. Fox, MD. His work at UMN was recognized with a National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award. He subsequently completed a residency in thoracic surgery at Albany Medical Center, where he was also an instructor in surgery.
Dr. Booth is a past president of the North Dakota Medical Association (NDMA), the North Dakota Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and the Sixth District Medical Society of the NDMA. He has been recognized for his work with numerous honors and awards and received the Wayne Swenson Teaching Award in Surgery from UND in 2000. He is board-certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and is also certified in cardiac pacing and cardioversion defibrillation. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Cardiology and American College of Chest Physicians. He is also a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Association for Surgical Education, and NDMA.