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2014 School of Medicine Awards

September 19, 2014 by zrb8mf@virginia.edu

Congratulations to Kodi S. Ravichandran, Douglas A. Bayliss, Norbert Leitinger, Brant Isakson, Mark Yeager, Ulrike M. Lorenz, and Bimal Desai for winning the distinguished Dean’s Award for Excellence in Team Science Research! Colleagues described their research together as follows:

  • “The theme of their research is centered on an exciting and relatively new plasma membrane channel, the pannexin channels involved in nucleotide release from cells. This team studies the role of these channels in vascular biology and tissue inflammation, focusing on how this channel regulates cell clearance and inflammation, atherosclerosis, metabolism, and blood pressure regulation.”
  • “The team spans multiple departments and centers and is motivated by the goal of addressing an important scientific problem in a multidisciplinary way.”
  • “In every aspect, this team serves as a model for organization and research excellence in the 21st century here and elsewhere. I have watched the collaboration between two outstanding senior investigators grow, flourish, and expand to include the important contributions of more junior colleagues whose research programs have been strengthened by their outreach.”
  • “This team beautifully exemplifies team science: the whole being much greater than the sum of the parts.”

Drs. Ravichandran (Professor & Chair of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology), Isakson (Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics), and Yeager (Professor & Chair of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics) are all preceptors on the Pharmacological Sciences Training Grant (PSTG), along with Pharmacology Faculty members Drs. Bayliss (Professor and Chair), Leitinger (Associate Professor), and Desai (Assistant Professor).

You can see the other 2014 School of Medicine Awards winners by visiting the display in the link across from the entrance to the Health Sciences Library.  The Pharmacology program is well represented in the awards — in addition to the Team Science award recipients above, the following affiliated faculty received accolades:

  •  Zhen Yan (Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Pharmacology) and Jeffery Saucerman (Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering) each received a Thelma R. Swortzel Collaborative Research Award
  • Robert Nakamoto (Professor of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics) received the Robert J. Kadner Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching
  • Alison K. Criss (Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology) received a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

Drs. Yan, Saucerman, Nakamoto, and Criss are all preceptors on the PSTG and Dr. Yan holds a joint appointment in Pharmacology.