MOHAMMED UMAR
AWARDED AHA FELLOWSHIP
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY FACULTY
Zhongjie Sun, MD, PhD, FAHA
Professor and Chair
Thomas A. Gerwin Chair of Excellence in Physiology
Ioannis Dragatsis, PhD Professor
Zheng Fan, PhD Professor
Jonathan H. Jaggar, PhD
Maury W. Bronstein Professor
Salvatore Mancarella, PhD Associate Professor
Helena Parfenova, PhD Professor
Kaushik Parthasarathi, PhD Associate Professor
Gadiparthi N. Rao, PhD
George and Elizabeth Malloy Professor
Radhakrishna Rao, PhD Professor
Donald B. Thomason, PhD Professor Dean, College of Graduate Health Sciences
Gabor J. Tigyi, MD, PhD Van Vleet Professor
Junwang Xu, PhD Associate Professor
Djamel Lebeche, PhD Professor
Ki-Suk Kim, PhD Assistant Professor
Rahima Zennadi, PhD
Associate Professor
Rajeshwary Ghosh, PhD
Assistant Professor
Graduate Research Assistant Mohammed Umar, who works in the lab of Dr. Rajeshwary Ghosh, was awarded a prestigious Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association for 2024. These awards are given in order “to enhance the integrated research and clinical training of promising students who are matriculated in pre-doctoral or clinical health professional degree training programs and who intend careers as scientists, physicianscientists or other clinicianscientists, or related careers aimed at improving global cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health.” In the Ghosh lab, Mohammed’s research focuses on the role of NBR1 protein in maintaining cardiac function in hypoexia.
For more information about Mohammed’s research, contact him at mumar@uthsc.edu. For information about the AHA Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, visit https://professional.heart. org/en/research-programs/aha-funding-opportunities/ predoctoral-fellowship
DR. TESSA GARRUD
PUBLISHES PAPER IN PNAS
Dr. Tessa Aimee Catriona Garrud, a Postdoctoral Scholar in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Jaggar, published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS. The paper, titled “WNK Kinase is a Vasoactive Chloride Sensor in Endothelial Cells,” appeared in the celebrated journal on April 3rd, 2024, with Dr. Garrud appearing as the first author on the article. The paper posits important findings about chloride signaling in endothelial cells, demonstrating how “TMEM16A channels regulate intracellular Cl− signaling which controls WNK kinase activity in ECs to modify arterial contractility.” The list of additional collaborators on the project include Drs Jaggar, Mata-Dabouin, and Peixoto-Neves from the lab that Dr. Garrud works in, as well as members of the Cordero and Collier labs.
For more information about Dr. Garrud and her research, contact her at tgarrud@uthsc.edu. To read the article, visit https://www. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2322135121
DIVERSITY MATTERSPHYSIOLOGY NEWS
DR. ZHONGJIE SUN
AWARDED NEW NIH R01
Professor and Chair of our Physiology Department, Dr. Zhongjie Sun, was recently awarded a new R01 research grant from the National Institute of Health. The award, from the NIH’s Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, features $2.4 Million in Federal support for a project attempting to explain the mechanisms of age-related salt-sensitive hypertension. This research focuses on filling a knowledge gap in the existing literature by focusing on the role of exosomes derived from renal stem cells. The objective of the study is to determine whether these stem cells play a role in the maintenance of normal kidney function and blood pressure, and whether RSC-exosomes are involved in the pathogenesis of aging-associated kidney dysfunction, and hypertension. This project will employ several approaches which are novel from a technical standpoint. These include stem cell exosome engineering, in vivo dene modification using CRISPR/ Cas9, and in vivo cell-specific gene delivery. Dr. Sun hopes that the project “may offer new insights into therapeutic strategies for agingassociated kidney dysfunction and hypertension and related cardiac disorder.”
To learn more about Dr. Sun’s research endeavors, please contact him at zsun10@uthsc.edu. To learn more about the NIH, visit https://www.nih.gov
BAHAR MESHKAT
ELECTED GSEC VICE-PRESIDENT
The Graduate Student Executive Council, the student organization whose mission is to “represent, negotiate, and act on behalf of the student body in matters affecting the environment and lives of students in the College of Graduate Health Science, and to foster integration, cooperation, and scientific excellence among peers,” has once again chosen one of our own Molecular and Translational Physiology students among its leadership for the coming year.
Bahar Meshkat, a fifth year PhD candidate who works in the lab of Dr. Monica Jablonski, was elected this spring by the members of the organization to be the Vice President for the 2024-2025 school year. Coming into this role, she takes her place on a leadership board that was most recently led by outgoing president Chris Pitzer, also a member of our MTP track ranks.
For more information about Bahar’s research, please contact her at bmeshkat@ uthsc.edu. To learn more about GSEC, please visit https://uthsc.edu/gsec
DRS. HELENA PARFENOVA AND MASSROOR POURCYROUS
AWARDED NEW NIH/NINDS R01 TO PREVENT CEREBROVASULAR DISEASE CAUSED BY NEONATAL ASPHYXIA
Helena Parfenova, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology, has been awarded $2.5 million from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) for a new 5-year project titled “Neonatal cerebral vascular injury by prolonged asphyxia” that may lead to novel treatment strategies for neonatal encephalopathy. Dr. Massroor Pourcyrous is the co-investigator for this project. This award recognizes strong scientific collaboration between Dr. Parfenova, a basic scientist, and Dr. Pourcyrous, a clinician scientist, who is a Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Physiology. For over 25 years, productive collaboration between the teams of basic and clinical scientists have been focused on the prevention and treatment of cerebrovascular disease that occurs due to devastating neonatal brain disorders, including epilepsy and asphyxia. Perinatal asphyxia caused by lack of oxygen delivery to the brain is among the most frequent abnormal neurological events in newborns, and is a leading cause of neurodevelopmental morbidities. Cerebral vascular disease and blood-brain barrier leakage caused by brain oxidative stress during asphyxia/ reventilation can lead to debilitating neurological complications. Presently, there is no effective treatment for neonatal asphyxia. The centerpiece of this collaboration’s research is the neurovascular unit, including endothelial cells and astrocytes, that represents the key functional
HECTOR PAEZ
component in the regulation of cerebral blood flow and blood-brain barrier permeability. A novel mechanism-based combination therapeutic strategy is proposed that selectively targets both cellular components of the neurovascular unit that may prevent cerebrovascular disease and improve the outcome of neonatal asphyxia.
For information about Dr. Parfenova’s research, contact her at hparfeno@uthsc.edu. For information about Dr. Pourcyrous’s work, contact her at mpourcyrous@uthsc.edu. For information about the NINDS, visit https://www.ninds.nih.gov
RECEIVES AWARD AT GRADUATE RESEARCH DAY
Hector Paez, a Graduate Research Assistant who is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the Molecular and Translational Physiology program, was awarded “Outstanding Graduate Research Student” at the annual Graduate Research Day held on May 31st by the Graduate Student Executive Council, or GSEC.
Hector works in the lab of Dr. Stephen Alway, where he is studying the role mitochondria play in skeletal muscle atrophy and how therapeutic manipulation of mitochondria can mitigate muscle dysfunction and atrophy in murine models of aging, stroke, and obesity. He is working toward a goal of defending his thesis later this year. To learn more about Hector and his research, please contact him at hpaez1@uthsc.edu. For information about GSEC awards and events, visit https://uthsc.edu/gsec
Dr. Helena Parfenova Dr. Massroor Pourcyrous
DR. ALEJANDRO MATA DABOIN
RECEIVES AHA CAREER DEVELOPMENT AWARD
Dr. Alejandro Mata Daboin, an Instructor who works in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Jaggar, received a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association in April.
Dr. Mata Daboin has received the award for a project studying neurovascular coupling by endothelial cells. The AHA describes their Career Development grant program as being intended to support “highly promising healthcare and academic professionals, in the early years of one’s first professional appointment, to explore innovative questions or pilot studies that will provide preliminary data and training necessary to assure the applicant’s future success as a research scientist.”
To learn more about Dr. Mata Daboin’s research, please contact him at amatadab@uthsc.edu. To learn more about the AHA’s Career Development program, visit https://www.heart.org
DR. ULRICH MBIAKOP
AWARDED AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION FELLOWSHIP
Dr. Ulrich Mbiakop, a Postdoctoral Scholar who works in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Jaggar, was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association this year.
This grant is funded to support a project in which Dr. Mbiakop is investigating the involvement of endothelial cells polycystin (PC1/PC2) and Wingless (Wnts) proteins in arterial contractility.
For more information about Dr. Mbiakop’s work, please contact him at umbiakop@uthsc.edu.
To learn more about AHA fellowships, please visit https://professional.heart.org/en/researchprograms/aha-funding-opportunities
For more information, please contact: Department of Physiology | 956 Court Ave. | Memphis, TN 38163 t 901.448.9605 | f 901.448.7126
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