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Congratulations, Scott Yeudall-F30 Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Award Recipient!

June 22, 2021 by zrb8mf@virginia.edu

The Pharmacology department is sending out a huge congrats to Scott Yeudall (Pharmacology Graduate Student and MSTP Student in Norbert Leitinger’s Lab) for being a recent recipient of the Ruth L. Kirschstein Individual Predoctoral NRSA for MD/PhD Students from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

The Kirschstein-NRSA program enables promising predoctoral students, such as Scott, who has the potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientist, to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research.

Scott’s NRSA will help him explore “Macrophage and Monocyte Metabolic Adaptation in Hemolysis and Sickle Cell Disease.”

Project Description: Hemolysis contributes to problems in a variety of diseases including Sickle Cell Disease, sepsis, malaria, and drug toxicity, when ruptured red blood cells release heme into the circulation, causing vascular inflammation, oxidative damage, and end-organ injury, which leads to significant morbidity for patients with these disorders. Macrophages and monocytes are immune cells that are responsible for clearing heme to prevent damage, but the mechanisms by which they are able to survive the stress of this process remain unclear. Here we examine how these cells adapt their metabolism to carry out these important functions, and to test whether manipulating these cells’ metabolism can improve heme clearance and reduce heme-induced inflammation and tissue damage in settings of pharmacological hemolysis and exacerbated SCD.

Way to go, Scott! Please give him your sincere kudos and well-wishing as he continues his outstanding work as a student in research!