Inside:
Cell Biology & Physiology NEWSLETTER VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 SPRING SEMESTER 2023
From the Chair
Awards & Presentations
Announcements & Highlights
Alumni News
Farewell to Helen
The first signs of spring are showing in my garden, highlighting the new beginnings and continued growth of the season!In our department, this includes some new job titles, some new accomplishments, and a new face! For getting new job titles, I want to congratulate Professor Nikki Jernigan for her new role as the interim Associate Dean of Graduate Studies.In this role, Dr. Jernigan will oversee and support multiple aspects of the graduate school enterprise including Academic Program and Curriculum Review, Faculty mentoring programs and the selection of Research, Scholarship, and Fellowship Awards. An outstanding choice for this important role. In addition, Dr. Yamhilette Licon Munoz was given a Letter of Academic Title in the department in recognition of her research accomplishments and for her continuing contributions to the research program of Dr. Sara Piccirillo. Also in the laboratory of Dr. Piccirillo, Leo Garcia Montoya passed his comprehensive examination to become a PhD candidate. Congratulations to both of you. Another student who received recognition is Rosstin Ahmadian, an MD/PhD student in Professor Tom Resta’s laboratory who was awarded an NIH F-grant. Congratulations Rosstin! We bid farewell to Professor Helen Hathaway who retired from the department in December. Rebecca Hartley has written an nice summary of Helen’s contributions in the newsletter.Helen has since rejoined us as a working retiree so goodbye and welcome back Helen! I also received a notice from the office of Learning Environment that Rebecca Hartley, Jay Naik (and myself) were recognized by students for teaching contributions. (It is nice to be recognized). Additional recognition to all of everyone who participated conducting the inventory in record time! The last item was identified and recorded this week completing this demanding annual task. Great work Luis and Tristian for leading this task along with Tamara, Carolyn, Mika, Roxana and the many students and faculty who contributed. Thank you all. Finally, as we move into Spring, some changes are developing in the HSC. The new HSC strategic plan is in the final stages of development with input from multiple members of our department. There are also new buildings taking shape which will provide more opportunities for care and for expanding research in public health. I hope this season finds all of you also stretching and reaching for new goals and accomplishments. The rest of the newsletter gives more details on all of these items as well as a highlight of one of our alumni, Dr. Charles Norton, Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri. Happy Spring! - Nancy
The UNM SOM Learning Environment Office runs an Exemplary Recognition Program called iTeach and any teacher who is recognized receives an apple lapel pin. iTeach recognitions are a way for learners to shout out someone who made their learning environment exemplary or helped them learn something. This can be a faculty member who taught a class, a student who tutored another student, a nurse who taught a procedure, a resident who supported an intern on a tough day – anything! All learners, staff members, and teachers are eligible to receive iTeach recognitions. Here are the iTeach Recipients for this period: Dr. Rebecca Hartley: Blue pin, 96 recognitions this Period and 6 Batches all time Dr. Nancy Kanagy: Red pin, 2 recognitions this Period and 2 Batches all time Dr. Paul McGuire: Red pin, 1 recognition this Period and 3 Batches all time Dr. Jay Naik: Red pin, 2 recognitions this Period and 2 Batches all time For more details visit: hsc.unm.edu/medicine/education/leo/iteach/
Grad student Leo Garcia Montano, passed his comprehensive exam on Jan. 19. On Feb. 2, he received an acceptance notification from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) informing that his abstract was accepted for a poster presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting 2023 this April in Orlando, Florida. On Feb. 15, he was awarded the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program travel award and on Feb. 21, he was awarded the Doctoral Conference Presentation Award offered by UNM Graduate studies.
Dr. Sara Piccirillo gave a seminar presentation entitled, "From surgery to genomics: dissecting cellular and molecular heterogeneity of human glioblastoma," at the UNM College of Pharmacy on Feb. 24. She has been invited to speak at the 4th Annual Glioblastoma Drug Development Summit, which will be held March 14-16 in Boston, MA. She will be presenting on behalf of NoVo cure in the session entitled: "Dodging the Side Effects & Risks of Glioblastoma Treatment through Non-Invasive Therapies"
Dr. Selina Garcia received noticed her manuscript was published in the Journal of General Physiology: "Acid-sensing ion channel 1a activates IKCa/SKCa channels and contributes to endothelium-dependent dilation" J Gen Physiol. 2023 Feb 6;155(2):e202213173. doi: 10.1085/jgp.202213173. Epub 2022 Dec 9. PMID: 36484717
Dr. Yahmilette Licon Muñoz received notice from AACR that her Poster Presentation got accepted for the 2023 Annual Meeting. Also, she received the, "AACR-American Brain Tumor Association Scholar-in Training Award," as well as her official UNM SOM Letter of Academic Title.
The Cell Biology & Physiology Department was present in National Wear Red Day on Feb. 3.
"National Wear Red" is celebrated each year on the first Friday in February to bring greater attention to heart disease as a leading cause of death for Americans.
Dr. Jernigan named interim Associate Dean of Graduate Studies The University of New Mexico Graduate Studies has announced the appointment of Nikki Jernigan as the interim associate dean of Graduate Studies. Interim graduate dean Jesse Alemán appointed Jernigan to the post based on her experience with graduate curricular processes, her outstanding research record, and her experience supporting graduate students through grant funding, curriculum development, and mentoring across the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program. Here is the link to the article.
On Friday, Feb. 24, Dr. Piccirillo served as the faculty host of Dr. Xing Fan from the University of Michigan as part of the CMBD Seminar Series that Cell Biology & Physiology are running as a Department and for which she is serving as the Chair. The title of his talk was ‘“Brain Cancer Stem Cells: The Cell-of-Origin and Targeting Therapy.” Dr. Fan gave a comprehensive overview on his work on brain cancer stem cells and his presentation was very well received. Dr. Fan, Dr. Piccirillo's Lab also spent time with the students of the Biomed 525 class after his presentation.
Charles (Chuck) Norton, PhD
Alumini News
Dr. Charles (Chuck) Norton began working in the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology as an undergraduate student while attending UNM. He developed a project in Dr. Resta’s laboratory evaluating how intermittent hypoxia causes pulmonary dysfunction. Chuck was so intrigued by the blood vessels within the lung he stayed around to pursue his PhD studying mechanisms of enhanced pulmonary vasoconstriction following chronic hypoxia. Chuck is incredibly grateful for the training and research interactions that he developed while in New Mexico which benefit him to this day. For his postdoctoral fellowship, Chuck joined the laboratory of Dr. Steven Segal at the University of Missouri. Nearly a decade later, and he is still acclimating to the high humidity after spending his prior life in the American Southwest. During his time as a postdoctoral fellow, Chuck’s research focused on sensory neuronal control of the circulation and evaluating how a variety of vascular responses occur independently and interdependently in smooth muscle and endothelial cells. He also assisted with the development of Dr. Segal’s new research direction evaluating vascular regeneration following skeletal muscle injury. Current Position: Presently, Chuck is focusing on his research as an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia. His research program centers on understanding the effects of tissue hypoxia and reactive oxygen species on the vasculature. His current research is focused on the role of sensory nerves to ameliorate pulmonary fibrosis-induced pulmonary hypertension and understanding mechanisms which enhance the resilience of vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells in the cerebral microcirculation to acute oxidative stress during ischemia/reperfusion injuries such as stroke. Images from this research were recently exhibited in the Kempler Museum of Contemporary Art.
Her expertise and guidance enabled me to successfully transition my research model from frogs to transgenic mice. Her door and lab were always open to me, my students, postdoc, and other laboratory members. Helen served as Director of the BSGP, mentoring all of the students, not just those who joined her lab. She recruited me to teach in Biomed 508 when she was the course director and she in turn taught histology whenever (and wherever) we needed her in the medical school curriculum. More recently, she took on course directorship roles in two medical school courses, directly preceding (and hopefully not hastening) her retirement. Helen always contributed to the good (success) of the whole while keeping sight of the individuals that comprised it. Her hands and heart helped to shape Cell Biology and Physiology into the department it is today. By Dr. Rebecca S Hartley
Since I arrived at UNM in August 2002, Helen has been my mentor and my friend. The month before I arrived, we both attended an International Cancer Conference in Norway. She introduced me to leaders in the field at a time when I was just establishing myself in breast cancer research. She was instrumental in helping me set up my lab and recruit staff and students to work with me. Shortly after I arrived, she organized a weekly Developmental and Cancer Biology group meeting, where Paul McGuire, Sherry Rogers, Helen and I critiqued each other’s manuscripts and grants and brainstormed projects for collaboration. Helen and I secured NIH funding to support a joint graduate student and joint projects, in addition to her rich and extended collaboration with Eric Prossnitz and others.