May 14, 2018
CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Ed Kernick for receiving the highly-distinguished "Professor Award" at graduation May 2018!! This award, selected by the senior class, is given in recognition of a faculty member who by his or her willingness, understanding and ability, has contributed the most to our students' medical education!
April 3, 2018
The mission of the March of Dimes Foundation is to prevent birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. The Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Awards support junior scientists just embarking on their independent research careers. This award ($150,000) will provide Jimena Giudice and her lab team with funding for two years to study the role of alternative splicing regulation in the development of muscles after birth.
February 26, 2018
UNC SOM lands 16 departments in top 25 for NIH funding! The Department of Cell Biology and Physiology is the highest ranked at 2nd overall and holding the highest ranking amongst all departments in the SOM!! Thanks to EVERYONE for an amazing accomplishment!!
November 21, 2017
Mark Zylka has been recognized by the world’s largest general scientific society for his contributions to the fields of biological and medical sciences. Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. This year 396 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. This year’s AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on November 24, 2017. New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate during the 2018 AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas on February 17.
November 14, 2017
An article by Dr. Damaris Lorenzo in collaboration with her postdoctoral advisor Dr. Vann Bennett at Duke University titled “Cell-autonomous adiposity through increased cell surface GLUT4 due to ankyrin-B deficiency” was published this week ahead of print in PNAS. In this study, Dr. Lorenzo shows that mice lacking the cytoskeleton-associated protein ankyrin-B only in adipose tissue become obese despite having normal appetite and physical activity levels. Using cellular essays, the study also shows that novel human mutations in the ankyrin-B gene also leads to cell-autonomous adiposity.
October 27, 2017
Dr. Cohen has developed state-of-the-art, super-resolution spectral imaging technologies to simultaneously label and track the position of 6 different cellular organelles in real time. In doing so, she has characterized a new cell organelle called a lipid droplet. In her future work, she hopes to use these techniques to address how lipid droplets from glia and astrocytes can be used to transfer lipids to neurons. This is an important question because neurons cannot synthesize their own lipids, but yet are dependent on huge amounts of lipids to extend lengthy neuronal processes and regulate membrane turnover at synaptic terminals.
October 27, 2017
Dr. Diering is a neurobiologist and biochemist focused on understanding the different mechanisms that neurons use to sleep. In one process, neurons change their synapses to accommodate the formation of memories. In another simultaneous process, synaptic plasticity supports the conservation of neuronal metabolism and “recharging”—which is critically important for cognition and behavior. Graham uses sophisticated biochemistry and genetic animal model behavior studies to map the neuronal circuits and molecular pathways that underlie these different types of sleep. His work has very important implications for sleep disorders, and particularly those related to neurodevelopmental disorders with aberrant sleep, such as Rhett syndrome and Autism spectrum disorders.
October 25, 2017
An article from the lab of Dr. Kathleen Caron titled “Adrenomedullin improves fertility and promotes pinopodes and cell junctions in the peri-implantation endometrium” is featured on the cover of the September 2017 issue of Biology of Reproduction. The cover image, “Pinopode Eclipse,” depicts pinopodes, or uterodomes, which are plasma extravasations of uterine luminal epithelial cells present during the window of implantation in rodents and humans and are thought to enable blastocyst attachment and invasion. Image courtesy of Brooke Matson and Kelsey Quinn.
October 11, 2017
Congratulations to Dr. Keith Burridge for being selected as a 2017 American Society for Cell Biology Fellow! The ASCB Fellows award recognizes ASCB members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of cell biology and to the community of cell biologists through their service to ASCB. This is an honor bestowed upon Dr. Burridge by his peers in recognition of Keith’s life-time achievements and meritorious efforts to advance cell biology and its applications.
October 11, 2017
The Academic Career Leadership Academy in Medicine (ACCLAIM) is a UNC School of Medicine one-year program, started in 2012, that provides leadership and career development opportunities to faculty members (ACCLAIM Scholars), with an emphasis on those underrepresented in medicine.
