Dr. Karen Wagner, vice chairwoman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry, will serve as interim chairwoman of UTMB’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences beginning March 1. An internationally recognized expert in the treatment of childhood disorders, Wagner has served as vice chairwoman of UTMB’s department since 1992. She will step into the position that will be vacated by Dr. Robert Hirschfeld, who has served as chairman of the department for 25 years, upon his retirement March 1.
Elizabeth Lyons, assistant professor in the department of nutrition and metabolism, has received a $712,000 award from the American Cancer Society for a five-year project looking at whether middle-aged breast cancer survivors are more likely to exercise if they participate in narrative-based active video games. Lyons says regular physical activity is associated with a decrease in the risk of many negative health outcomes, including breast cancer recurrence and mortality, but that most breast cancer survivors don’t get enough exercise.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Dr. Gustavo Valbuena, associate professor in UTMB’s department of pathology, $426,198 for a two-year grant, “Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in Nipah Virus Pathogenesis.” The research will test how Nipah virus infection affects human immune cell response. The research potentially could be used for the development and testing of new ways to treat and prevent the lethal disease.
Grant Hughes, assistant professor in the department of pathology, has received a $250,000 Rising Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention Program award from the University of Texas System. Hughes has just come to UTMB from Pennsylvania State University, where he studied Anopheles mosquitoes and the insect-symbiotic bacteria Wolbachia. Hughes plans to use the Rising STARs award to establish a molecular laboratory where he can conduct his state-of-the-art molecular research combining techniques from medicine with current vector biology control strategies to reduce pathogen transmission.