NEWS

April 18, 2008

Physiology department faculty met with researchers and administrators at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences in RTP to learn about respective programs and begin discussions about possible new collaborations.

Our faculty represented the first group to meet following the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between The Hamner and UNC schools of medicine, public health, and pharmacy as well as the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

The Hamner's focus on reproductive and developmental biology and respiratory biology aligns with the work of several faculty members here in Physiology. The Hamner has "adopted systems biology as a guiding research paradigm," which relates back to the fundamentals of physiology, as is described on their website:

In a sense, contemporary systems biology is a renaissance of physiology, a traditional integrative discipline. Biological research has enjoyed decades of success in dissecting the structures and functions of individual molecular and cellular components comprising an organism. However, the inherent complexity of biological systems, due not only to the large number of their constituents, but also to the intricate web of interactions between these constituents, have proven difficult to understand with reductionist approaches. Research has to be conducted at a more global, systems-level in order to gain understanding of the overall behavior of the biological networks that maintain normal physiology and the perturbations in these networks that lead to toxicity and disease.

 Read The Hamner's press release here [pdf].

HONORS & AWARDS

John F. Rawls has been chosen as a 2008 Pew Scholar. The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences is designed to support young investigators of outstanding promise in the basic and clinical sciences relevant to the advancement of human health. Scholars are awarded $60,000 per year for a four-year period.

more >>

Sushmita Jha

Graduate student Sushmita Jha (Ting lab) received the Hulka Innovators Award for her presentation on "Cryopyrin(CIAS1): a novel regulator of IL-1beta production and its role during neuroinflammation and demyelination" at the 2008 Women's Health Research Day, sponsored by the Center for Women's Health Research at UNC.

This award is given "in honor of Dr. Jaroslav F. Hulka in recognition of innovation in methods, population, study design, or study content area, with an emphasis on having made a novel contribution to advancing science."

Nicole Ramocki, PhD

Recent Physiology graduate Nicole Ramocki was awarded a 2008 Impact Award by the UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School's Graduate Education Advancement Board. The Impact Awards "recognize graduate students whose research provides special benefits to the citizens of North Carolina." Read more about Impact Awards >>

Dr. Lund is one of three recipients of this year's University Awards for the Advancement of Women. This prestigious award was created in 2006 as an opportunity for the UNC academic community to recognize and reward individuals for their contributions on behalf of women on this campus. Read UNC School of Medicine press release.

Ann Stuart, PhD, received the Educator of the Year Award given by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN). The current president of FUN, Bruce R. Johnson, PhD, of Cornell University, presented the award and acknowledged her work on the Neurons in Action software.

Eleni Tzima, PhD

Assistant professor of cell and molecular physiology in the School of Medicine, Tzima has been named a 2007 Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar. The award provides $200,000 over four years in support of research on the role of blood flow in cardiovascular disease, primarily among the elderly.

The Ellison Foundation New Scholars award supports exceptional young faculty who are nominated by U.S. medical institutions and universities for their outstanding promise in aging research.

Rachael Rigby, Ph.D. received a 2007 Postdoctoral Scholars Award for Research Excellence for her research in the Lund lab on inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease, particularly how the disease affects the epithelial lining of the intestine and its risk of inappropriate cell division leading to cancer.

The awards are given in recognition of the research promise demonstrated by individual postdoctoral scholars.

Gazette article

Dr. Carlton Cuyler Hunt, professor emeritus of physiology, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Hunt led in the discovery and description of a system of neurons controlling the sensitivity and activity of the muscle stretch receptor (the vertebrate muscle spindle), which was a first indication that the central nervous system can control the activity that it receives from peripheral sense organs. Hunt's subsequent work on vibration reception by the Pacinian corpuscle and on the correlation between afferent fiber conduction velocity and afferent function are important landmarks in the development of insight into somatic sensory mechanisms.

UNC News release

Dr. James M. Anderson receives the 2007 Takeda Distinguished Research Award

The Takeda Distinguished Research Award is given by the American Physiological Society's Gastrointestinal & Liver Physiology Section and recognizes an outstanding investigator who is internationally recognized for his/her contribution to research in areas represented by the GIL Section.

Anderson homepage

Center for Women’s Health Research Award for Excellence, 8TH Annual  Women’s Health Research Day, Chapel Hill, NC, April 2007

Congratulations to Dr. Silvia Goicochea, Research Instructor in Cellular & Molecular Physiology,  for receiving the Center for Women's Health Research Award for Excellence at the 8th Annual Women's Health Research Day held on April 3-4, 2007 at the Friday Center.  The cash award is presented for multidisciplinary research that best demonstrates the strength of collaborative investigation. 

She received the award for her poster presentation, "Palladin expression in metastatic breast cancer cells: a role in invasive motility."

Over 60 presentations were selected for the program this year.  Women's Health Research Day is sponsored by the Center for Women's Health Research at UNC.