Research In Motion

Xuemei Huang, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Neurology

Transcript:
I love what I do because I have the opportunity to work with the people: my patients, their families, and the members of their community. Together, they educate, challenge, and humble me and my research team constantly by their needs, yet also provide such gratitude, even when we cannot deliver all they would like to.

My name is Xuemei Huang, the chair of the department of neurology at the University of Virginia. My own research is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and related conditions, as well as to understand the causes of these disorders.

The impact of the new Manning Institute for Biotechnology was a huge factor in pursuing me to come to UVA. The Manning Institute will bring researchers together to provide the right environment for them to talk and exchange ideas easily. This will keep UVA at the forefront of answering human-related health questions. For me personally, there is a growing burden of neurologic disorders that may be outpacing all the diseases as our population ages. I cannot imagine a better place to start the next chapter of my career to embrace these challenges here, right in the UVA grounds.

Jeff Gander, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Surgery

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I get to collaborate with wonderful people from many different fields- pediatricians, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, social workers, patient care technicians, residents and medical students- to improve the lives of children. Hi,

I'm Jeff Gander. I'm an associate professor of surgery and a pediatric surgeon at UVA Health Children’s. I look at two of the most important issues affecting children today: reducing opiate use and increasing access to healthy food.

Our group looks at ways to limit the amount of opiates a child receives after surgery, from as young as a neonate to as old as a teenager. We have seen that doing this reduces their time in the ICU, gets them eating quicker and going home faster. It also leads to less prescriptions and less opiates in the community. Diet-related diseases are the number one killer of Americans. We are looking at whether a produce prescription program increases the intake of fruits and vegetables in families and whether it can change their habits to hopefully prevent diet-related diseases.

Shayan Moosa, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Department of Neuro-Oncology

Transcript:

I have the privilege of being able to treat patients with complex neurological disorders in the operating room. In my research, I aim to make these surgical treatments more precise but less invasive. What I love about my research is that it has the potential to push the boundaries of what’s possible in medicine. And I'm able to see these positive effects directly in the lives of my own patients.

My name is Shayan Moosa, and I'm a stereotactic and functional neurosurgeon at the University of Virginia. My research deals with focused ultrasound, where we are developing cutting-edge and non-invasive therapies for treating the brain.

Focused ultrasound leverages the power of sound waves, which can travel through the skull to a targeted portion of the brain. And it's this mechanical energy of focused ultrasound that allows us to treat the brain in a non-invasive manner. One example of this is sonodynamic therapy. This is where we administer an inert drug that preferentially accumulates within a tumor, and it becomes activated by the focused ultrasound in order to have a localized cytotoxic effect. This research has the potential to result in novel and non-invasive therapies for the brain. In fact, I can envision a future where we’re able to cure neurological disorders, including brain tumors, without ever having to make an incision.

Laura Newman, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology

Transcript:

So what's really incredible about research is that you’re assembling a puzzle, but you don't have the full picture of the puzzle that you’re assembling until you’ve finished assembling it. But once you get that final picture, it's something that's new and can be incredibly transformative and change the way that you view the world around you. And that part of research is incredibly rewarding, and it's rewarding to see how that can drive humanity forward.

My name is Laura Newman, and I'm an assistant professor of cell biology. My research concerns how inflammation is initiated on a cellular level. And primarily, what we're interested in is how a little piece of the cell, called mitochondria, controls the initiation of inflammation.

We've all learned from our biology classes that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. However, they're way more interesting than that. Mitochondria originated from bacteria, and because of this, they have a wide ability to regulate how the cell responds to inflammation, including the fact that mitochondria are able to trick the cell into thinking that it’s been infected. If we can understand how mitochondria are able to do this, this will help us to develop new therapies to treat a wide variety of diseases where inflammation is dysregulated.

Hao Jiang, PhD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

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Our recent work has revealed that some of the most fundamental principles in physics and chemistry govern the very complex biological and pathological processes in our body. While we all assume so, it is actually very satisfying to actually directly see this in our own work. Moreover, the potential to use the knowledge and strategies we develop to benefit human health is very rewarding to me.

I'm Hao Jiang, professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. My laboratory studies how the expression of our genetic information is normally regulated and how cancer and certain developmental disorders are caused by disregulation of gene expression through novel mechanisms, including formation of liquid-like microdroplets of key proteins.

So, based on some of the newly discovered mechanisms in the formation of pathways that support cancer, we're developing strategies to perturb or reverse these processes with the hope that they can be used to treat human diseases driven by these mechanisms. Therefore, I believe that our research provides deeper understanding of how cancer develops and new ways to treat cancer and other diseases.

Steven Munger, PhD., Professor, Co-Director of Research, Otolaryngology, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

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One of the things that excites me about science is not only finding new answers, but finding new questions to reveal aspects of our world that we didn't even think about before. In our case, the sensory world of smell and taste, how we interact with foods and drink, how we sense dangers, and how disease may change our ability to do those things.

My name's Steven Munger. I'm a professor of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery here at UVA. And our group studies the senses of smell and taste. We're interested not only in the nitty-gritty of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that allow us to detect odors in taste, but also how disease disrupts those senses and impacts our daily lives.

The senses of smell and taste are critical for sensing dangers like smoke or spoiled food, for enhancing the palatability of the things we eat and drink, and for relating to each other. But there's a real need for increased testing, diagnosis, and treatment of smell and taste disorders, something that's really lacking currently in our medical system. Work we're doing now is to try to enhance the diagnostics and treatment of smell and taste to help to treat the millions of patients that are suffering from these disorders.

Chris Holstege, PhD, Professor, Department of emergency medicine and pediatrics

Transcript:
It's the multi-collaborative work that is actually probably the most fun from my standpoint. There are some great people doing this research, and it's really a community that does work in the toxicology realm. The research that we do has just been a phenomenal experience in my 26 years here at the University.

My name is Chris Holstege. I'm a professor in emergency medicine and pediatrics, and I'm the division chief of medical toxicology.
As you can imagine, at this time in society, there's a plethora of substances coming into society. Various drugs, things that are of risk to our populations. We're very closely, to do epidemiologic research as to what agents are coming in and to assure that if there's a danger to society working with others, such as the government, to make sure those are banned or taken off of the market.

It's exceedingly important that we're following trends and what kind of impacts they are. What's causing seizures in children? What's causing kids and poisonings to go to hospitals and making sure that we put restrictions or put protections on those. We're seeing a plethora of drugs entering society and other substances, that can prove to be a danger, to the young and to the old alike.


We've had some really high-profile criminal cases that we've actually worked to that I have started. But then my colleagues, I've worked with my colleagues across the globe, to try to both mitigate problems that are arising or to bring justice when, for example, there's a criminal poisoning that occurs.

Mark DeBoer, MD, Professor, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics

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I love that research gives you a chance to answer questions that no one has previously had the answers to. And since there are a lot of those kinds of questions, one of my favorite things about research is having a variety of topics I can work on at the same time. In any given week, I'll be working with some of the smartest diabetes technology engineers in the world to try to improve blood sugar control for children and adults with type 1 diabetes, or working with a long-term research partner in studying the metabolic syndrome in its health consequences.

I'm Mark DeBoer, and as a pediatric endocrinologist, I have chances to study hormonal problems and solutions for optimal health. I work with the UVA Center for Diabetes Technology in harnessing algorithms designed here at UVA to automate insulin delivery with a diminished need for patient time and trouble. I also do research in Tanzania with infectious disease and developmental physicians and an incredible field team in studying growth challenges among children in difficult nutritional settings. And I have a long-standing collaboration with Matt Gurka in public health sciences using a metabolic syndrome severity z-score that we developed as a tool to assess cardiovascular risk and track treatment progress.

As a physician, I've had the joy of seeing some of the technology developed at the Center for Diabetes Technology become available for clinical use for my patients. Going from approaches that were just a vision of the CDT founders, and were frankly doubted by many at first, to being widely available. I'm hoping that we'll see that same kind of translation from some of what we learn about childhood growth in developing areas, and in using the metabolic syndrome to motivate patients to improve their health outlook.

Craig Portell, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Hematology & Oncology

I love what I do because I take care of patients with lymphoma, and using our clinical research tools, we are able to improve their disease, their symptom burden, and hopefully try to cure their disease as much as possible.

My name's Craig Portell. I'm an associate professor of medicine in the Department of Hematology & Oncology. My clinical focus is in lymphomas and CLL. Lymphomas are cancers of the bloodstream, kind of immune system cancers.

And our goal in doing research in these diseases is to understand the diseases better, both utilizing prior patients' outcomes, some pathologic data, as well as understanding new treatments that are available for these patients. And we collaborate with various different institutions around the country, as well as the National Cancer Institute and pharmaceutical companies. My work in clinical research in lymphoma is really focused on improving patient outcomes, so sometimes that means identifying groups of patients who may not have the best outcomes with our current treatments and identifying better treatments for them. The goal of our research is to improve patient outcomes by focusing on biology that then allows us to decrease toxicity, yet still increase the chance of cure for their disease.

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Marilyn Huang, MD, Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology


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I love being able to elevate women's health across their cancer spectrum, from diagnosis to surgical treatment, to medical management and into survivorship.

My name is Marilyn Huang. I am a professor and director of gynecologic oncology. My primary research focus has been in developmental therapeutics and novel drug combinations across the spectrum of gynecologic malignancies, particularly with a focus in immunotherapy as a clinical trialist. I've also had the opportunity to develop both therapeutic and non-therapeutic trials to address cancer care delivery gaps, from prevention to management of toxicities and survivorship.

One study that I'm working on that I'm really excited and passionate about is chemotherapy or treatment-induced peripheral neuropathy, which is numbness and tingling that can occur in the hands and the feet. It can cause difficulty with walking, buttoning buttons, things that would impact patients on a day-to-day basis. And so looking at ways to improve our diagnostic ability, and then ways to improve our management and treatments of the peripheral neuropathy.

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Jamie Zoellner, PhD, Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences

What I love most about my research is I get to wake up every day thinking about rural health communities, particularly in Southwest Virginia, which is the Appalachia part of our state, but I get to work with amazing stakeholders every single day in schools and Head Starts, and federally qualified health centers, really just working alongside like-minded people who are trying to improve the overall health of their communities.

My name is Jamie Zoellner. I'm a professor of public health sciences. I'm also a registered dietician and am one of the co-directors of our Center for Community-Based Health Equity. In my work, I focus a lot on rural health, and specifically I focus on diet and nutrition risk factors in rural communities. More and more recently, I've also been spending time thinking about cancer screening and specifically how to improve colorectal cancer screening rates and some of our federally qualified health centers across rural Southwest Virginia.

My research has a direct impact on human health. A lot of what my group does is we think about how we get evidence-based interventions or programs embedded into rural healthcare systems or rural community-based organizations like schools and Head Starts. We're actively trying to evaluate if our interventions work and what is the potential or the capacity to be able to sustain those interventions within these systems after the research is done.

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Ferris, Heather, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Department of Medicine

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When patients come in to see me in clinic, I don't always have answers to their questions. What I love about my research is that I can start to answer them with some of the things that our lab and other labs have been studying. I can give them some hope that, someday, those questions might get answered.

My name is Heather Ferris, and I'm an associate professor in endocrinology and neuroscience. I take care of older adults with diabetes, and my lab is interested in how brain metabolism affects your risk for developing dementia. In particular, we’re interested in how buildup of cholesterol in the brain is a risk factor for developing dementia down the road.

When you go to your doctors, they'll often check a blood cholesterol level, and if that's elevated, they might prescribe you a medication to lower that level and reduce your risk for heart disease. It's my hope through our research that we will have a similar scenario for the brain, where you go in and have a blood test drawn, and if it's abnormal, you’re prescribed a medication to help prevent the buildup of cholesterol in your brain and improve your brain health. We're particularly excited about the new Manning Biotechnology Institute, which will be bringing together researchers in neuroscience and clinical researchers to help speed ideas like mine into clinical practice.

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Chongzhi Zang, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Genome Sciences


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I am a computational biologist. I really love what I do because computational biology is an interdisciplinary field. One of the most exciting aspects of studying computational biology is that we can leverage knowledge and expertise from a wide range of scientific subjects, including mathematics, statistics, physics, computer science, and engineering. This is a comprehensive and unique approach that allows us to understand the fundamental mechanisms about how genes function in the genome across different biological systems and diseases.

My name is Chongzhi Zang. I'm an associate professor in the Department of Genome Sciences, and I serve as the director of computational genomics at the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center.

My lab focuses on computational biology. We develop new quantitative models and computational methods for analyzing high throughput data from emerging genomics technologies. A better understanding of the genetic and epigenetic code, or how the human genome works, can help us comprehend the mechanisms of many diseases like cancer, and can provide insights into novel diagnostic and therapeutic developments. Advances in modern biomedical sciences, especially genomics, are driven by new biotechnologies. We use computational approaches to connect biotechnologies with biological entities, with the ultimate goal of better understanding biology. The new Manning Institute of Biotechnology will provide us with better opportunities to advance our research.

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Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology

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So I get to take care of premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. What I really love about my research is that I get to take the data that we see at the bedside. Look at it in a different way. Test hypotheses. Build new tools. Tools that provide early warning to detect illnesses that derail normal, healthy growth and development.

My name is Brant Sullivan. I'm a neonatologist and associate professor of pediatrics. I take care of patients in the new Natal Intensive Care unit and work with a team of researchers, including data scientists, engineers, statisticians in my research and clinical care. I get to bridge what we find in the computer lab and bring it to the bedside.

In my research, we take vital sign data, analyze patterns, and then display it at the bedside as an early warning system. This information can bring information to the team that improves care and saves lives. By bringing the right people to the right bedside at the right time.

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James Zimring, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Pathology

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Investigating nature is basically an exploration in figuring out the workings of the world and the magic of the natural world. And so it's a great adventure and curiosity and exploration and discovery. And because it's in biomedical sciences, it's also tied to the ability to treat human disease, to mitigate suffering, and to basically improve the human condition. So those things all combined make it a wonderful thing to explore.

My name is James Zimring. I'm a professor here at the University of Virginia, and I'm a physician-scientist, meaning that I am involved in medical care and also the research of diseases and biological functions. Currently, I predominantly drive a basic research program studying blood biology,

I run a laboratory and I'm deeply invested in graduate education and making sure that the next generation of scientists gets the training and information that they need to keep the effort going in the next generation. So, we studied the biology and the diseases of red blood cells, which are the most abundant cells in the human body. And not only are they a source of disease during infections like malaria, but also they are themselves a treatment because we transfuse five million Americans a year who need those transfusions to survive, and that blood comes from altruistic donors. There are problems in the treatment of diseases of red blood cells. There are problems in giving transfusions correctly, and my lab focuses on the mechanisms by which those problems work with a goal of solving them with new technologies.

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Sameer Bajikar, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology


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So I love being a researcher because I get to use my creativity to study the underlying biology of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. And as part of being a researcher, I get to work as a team with other individuals to be able to design experiments and make new discoveries that can help improve the lives of these children.

My name is Samir Barakah, and I'm an assistant professor of cell biology and biomedical engineering. My lab uses a combination of cell models, animal models, and computational biology to try to understand more about the underlying mechanisms that go awry in childhood neurodevelopmental disorders.

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability have very few treatment options available to them currently. Our lab is studying these diseases using a number of different tools to help understand the underlying biology that may be going awry. And by understanding those processes, we hope to develop therapeutics and drugs that can help correct those processes and have these children lead healthier lives.

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Nassima Tiouririne, MD,
Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences


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I'm particularly fascinated by the biological underpinning of addiction. What makes a drug or a behavior becomes so compulsive that it controls and destroys every aspect of someone's life. This is one of the reasons I'm interested in neuromodulation tools for the brain so that we can target deep areas of the brain and networks in the brain to better understand the disease of addiction.


Hi, my name is Nascimento Turin. I'm a professor of psychiatry here at the University of Virginia. I'm a clinician, educator and a clinical researcher. I have the privilege in being involved in a very exciting research here. So currently we are investigating the use of focus ultrasound on targeting, insular cortex in the brain to assess its role in cocaine craving with focus ultrasound and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

We're able to go deep in the brain and understand connectivity and network so we can better understand, addiction.

46 million of Americans struggle with substance use disorder, and only 6% of them are able to reach treatment that works for them. My hope is that the work that I do can improve our knowledge about brain areas and brain connectivity that are responsible for development and maintenance of addiction, so that we can develop tools to reverse these changes and free up individuals and society from this burden of addiction.

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Jay Fox, PhD, Chair, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Cancer Biology

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What I love about my research is that it affords me the unique opportunity to discover things that have never been known before.

My name is Jay Fox. I'm a professor of microbiology, immunology and cancer biology in the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Years ago, when I arrived at the University of Virginia, my research was focused on discovering toxins in snake venoms that give rise to the hemorrhage associated with snake bites. Since that time, we've been able to develop antibodies as well as antidotes to those toxins, and more recently, we've been involved in exploring the mechanisms of passive biology associated with the toxins in the local tissue damage.

The World Health Organization estimates approximately 130,000 people die worldwide from snake and venom. In fact, it is designated snake and venom as an elected tropical health problem. The work we do in our laboratory helps attenuate the morbidities associated with those snake and venom to minimize amputations and other effects caused by the bite.

Madhusmita Misra, MD, Chair Department of Pediatrics

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I care for children, adolescents and young adults, and what I love about my research is the potential it has to have a positive impact on the medical management of the conditions that they suffer from. The data always have a story to tell. It may not be the story you expected, but it's still a story that is very exciting. And that is what makes my work so exciting and so much fun.

I'm Madhu Misra, I'm a pediatric endocrinologist, the chair of pediatrics at UVA, and the physician in chief of UVA Health Children's. I'm a physician scientist and my lab works on neuroendocrine, neuropsychiatric, metabolic, and bone outcomes.

We have demonstrated that girls with anorexia nervosa and athletes who lose their periods have low bone density and increased fracture risk. We've elucidated the mechanisms leading to low bone density in these young women, and also develop therapeutic strategies to address impaired bone health. In children with autism. we have again demonstrated low bone density increased fracture risk.

The mechanisms leading to these admissible outcomes. And a study with oxytocin will determine whether oxytocin is successful as a bone anabolic agent to improve bone health in this condition. And we're studying the impact of oxytocin as a weight loss strategy in children with obesity.

Scott Heysell, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health, Department of Medicine

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Research takes on all forms, from discovery of new knowledge to application of that knowledge to the people that need it the most. And I have the opportunity, and I'm so grateful to be able to work on different parts of that research continuum. With partners across the globe tackling infections, new infections like Covid 19 or ancient and persistent pandemics like tuberculosis.

My name is Scott Heysell and I'm an infectious diseases and internal medicine clinician. I'm the Thomas H. Hunter Professor of International Medicine, and I direct our university's center for Global Health Equity. Our work is an infection. We work in the infections of poverty like tuberculosis. Tuberculosis, for instance, is one of the leading killers from infection worldwide. So we work to develop diagnostics and therapeutics for tuberculosis to improve outcome, and do so in partnership with those communities.

Our work impacts human health for Virginians and for communities globally, such as those with whom we deeply collaborate in Tanzania, Uganda, Bangladesh. When we reduce airborne transmission from an infection like tuberculosis or reduce mortality in communities that are so economically vulnerable, we can interrupt cycles of poverty and we can rebalance instances of health inequity.

Monique Vaughan, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology

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Over the last 10 to 20 years, there's been an increased emphasis on team science and biomedical research. And this really refers to the concept of creating building a unique and multidisciplinary team, where each member of the team uses his or her unique knowledge, skills and expertise to solve medical problems and improve the care we deliver to patients.

I'm Monique Vaughn, I'm an assistant professor here in the department of ObGyn at UVA, and I'm specifically a uro gynecologist and reconstructive pelvic surgeon, which means that I treat women who have pelvic floor disorders.

We know that approximately 25% of all women and 50% of women who have had children will go on to develop a pelvic floor disorder in her lifetime, such as prolapse. And we know that many of our prolapse surgeries could be improved by in terms of success and complications. And that's really what my research aims to do. And I anticipate that the new Institute of Biotechnology will serve as a hub for collaboration to help refine new therapies and prepare them for the process toward FDA approval.

Scott Hollenbeck, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Plastic Surgery, Maxillofacial & Oral Health

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One thing I'm really excited about is our program and diseases of adipose tissue, specifically lymphedema and lipedema. These are conditions that we really don't know a whole lot about. But many patients suffer from swelling in the legs and arms and other areas. We hope to enroll patients in clinical trials here and study the tissue to be able to advance the understanding of this disease, both for our patients but also those around the country.

Hi, I'm Scott Hollenbeck and I'm the chair of the Department of plastic surgery, maxillofacial and Oral health. I'm a plastic surgeon and I primarily specialize in breast cancer reconstruction. One of the areas I focus on is free tissue transfer or free flaps, for the advanced level of reconstruction, but also focus on areas of research, including tackling disparities and access to care for patients trying to seek breast cancer reconstruction. And we offer that here at the University of Virginia, as well as a number of other sites across the state.

I think the area I'm most excited about with my research is the development of a soft tissue filler, which can be used to help patients recover from surgeries such as mastectomy and other disfiguring procedures where the material could be delivered to act as a reconstructive modality. This requires a lot of work in both the basic science area, but also in regulatory and innovation commercialization spaces, but may have a significant impact on patients health and their well-being in the future.

Kapur, Jaideep, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurology

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I'm a neurologist and a neuroscientist, and I love leading a life of mind. I can explore mechanisms and treatment of seizures and epilepsy in the lab, and I can also help human beings with epilepsy, both by doing clinical trials and being in clinic.

I'm Jaideep Kapoor, MD, PhD, a clinician investigator. I'm Eugene Meyer, the third professor of neuroscience and professor of neurology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. I'm also the director of the UVA Brain Institute. I take care of patients in clinic, do research in the lab, and help individuals doing brain research across the university.

Grand mal seizures are dramatic events. Most of them end by themselves, but some of them continue and threaten the life and brain health of individuals who suffer from them. My studies in the research lab provided unique and new insights into the mechanisms of such seizures, and were lucky enough to bring those advances to human research and conduct large-scale trials to understand and treat this condition, called status epilepticus.

Melissa Little, PhD, Associate Professor Department of Public Health Sciences

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So I get really energized when I meet directly with community partners to understand how they think and feel about tobacco in their community. I really love then working with them to try to understand how we can come up with innovative solutions to address tobacco-related disparities that they see in their communities.

My name is Melissa Little, and I'm an associate professor in public health sciences and a member of the Cancer Center in the Cancer Prevention and Control Group. I also direct a center for tobacco prevention and control research, and my research really aims to address tobacco-related disparities. So, I oversee a number of NIH and state-funded grants that work directly with community partners such as rural community pharmacists, federally qualified health centers, military populations, and high schools to address tobacco use in those communities.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. The good news is there are some evidence-based interventions that have shown to reduce tobacco use. Unfortunately, these interventions aren't reaching all populations equally. The goal of my research is to take these evidence-based interventions and translate them to high-risk populations through innovative and sustainable approaches.

I think that if we can successfully reduce tobacco use among all populations, we can have a significant impact on improving human health.

John Bushweller, PhD, Professor Department of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics

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The science that we do allows us to make new discoveries every day that can be understanding better the how the biology of a cancer works or developing a new agent to treat that cancer and that, those discoveries are what got me excited, every day.

Hi, I'm John Bushweller. I'm professor of molecular physiology and biological physics, as well as in the Department of Chemistry. And my lab does structural biology and chemical biology focused on transcription factor drivers and cancer.

We're developing drugs targeting transcription factors. These are proteins that regulate gene expression in the cell. They are important drivers and specific types of cancer. They were deemed very difficult targets to make drugs for by the pharmaceutical community. But we're making substantial progress. And we believe these will be paradigm-shifting in terms of therapy for these specific types of cancer.

Chris Moskaluk, MD, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology

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Well, the thing that I love about our research is that it's very translational. We use primary human cancer specimens that allowed us to identify a potential new therapeutic and to develop a couple of new diagnostic biomarkers.

My name is Chris Moskaluk. I am a professor of pathology. I perform surgical pathology diagnostics, I do cancer research, and I am the medical director of the clinical laboratories.

I think our research has already impacted human health. Our work led to a clinical trial of a novel therapeutic drug in a particular cancer type here at UVA. It was a fairly uncommon tumor, so over half the patients came from outside of the state of Virginia to come here for this trial. And we've developed a couple of the biomarkers that we're using diagnostically in cancer specimens right now.

Paola Gehrig, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology

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I love being a G1 oncologist. I've wanted to be a G1 oncologist since I was a third-year medical student. The opportunity to take care of my patients from the time of diagnosis through survivorship, and then ultimately as they transition to the next phase of life, should it come to that, really brings me great joy. It's difficult, but it's very rewarding to get to know my patients, get to know their families, and then to be able to impart that knowledge to the trainees, whether they're medical students, residents or fellows, really is why I do what I do.

Hi, my name is Paula Gehrig. I'm a practicing G1 oncologist and the chair of the Department of Ob-Gyn here at UVA. I got here in June of 2022, and it's just been super fun and exciting to really build this department and hire a lot of really intelligent, hardworking, innovative new faculty so that we can continue to deliver the best of care to the patients that we serve here in Virginia.

My primary research interest has been endometrial cancer, and throughout my career, I've been very interested in clinical trials, be they surgical trials or novel therapeutics. Unlike many other malignancies, endometrial cancer is seeing an increase in incidence as well as mortality. We are opening a clinical trial here looking at patients who have a mutation in ARod one D and looking to see if these patients may benefit from bevacizumab or neuropathic, is a novel therapy to improve the outcomes of the patients that we serve.

Charles Chalfant PhD, Professor, Division of Hematology & Oncology, Department of Medicine

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What I love about my research is that it's ever-changing, is that it's always a
puzzle you get to solve, and at the same time, I get to possibly help people or have something translate to the clinic that can benefit a number of patients with certain diseases.

My name is Charles Chalfant and I'm a professor of Medicine and Cell Biology here at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Here, I do basic biomedical research, examining how there are
different cellular mechanisms that are affected in disease states, and we try to take
advantage of those in order to possibly translate to the clinic.

Our current research is showing that there are particular proteins or enzymes in cells that are dysregulated in disease states, particularly in treating sepsis, this is a very difficult condition. More people die from sepsis every year than two 747s crashing every day. Also, this particular enzymes we look at that we're trying to develop these inhibitors and use ones that are already established and evolve those to where we can take them to the clinic, also will benefit certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer, as well as even enhance wound healing.

Colin Derdeyn, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging

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Mostly what I'm involved in is large-scale clinical trials for stroke. These procedures that we do for thrombectomy, removing a clot from the brain. We have people that wake up on the table coming in, unable to speak or move, that regain those functions as soon as the blood vessels open. And the research that we've done in these trials has made that happen.

My name is Collin Derdeyn, and I'm an interventional neuroradiologist. And what I do, I'm essentially a plumber. I navigate wires and tubes through the blood vessels up into the head using X-ray guidance, and we use those to either open up a blockage, like an acute stroke, to restore blood flow to the brain, or to plug something up like an aneurysm and prevent it from bleeding again.

We are just now launching the first-ever platform trial for acute ischemic stroke for patients that come in with a blockage of a large artery in the brain. This trial will be what's called a platform trial, where we can randomize patients into multiple arms at the same time. So the same patient may get a different neuroprotective agent on their way to thrombectomy, may get general anesthesia or not, may get a carotid stent or not, may get any number of different questions.

And doing this on a platform allows us to answer all of these questions much more efficiently, quicker, and get answers that are going to directly impact how patients do a stroke.

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What I love about my research is a chance to uncover the basic processes that keep balances in the cells, which affects everything from how our body functions normally to how diseases develop.

My name is Shengyi Iris Sun, PhD and the Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. Our research focuses on protein quality control process in the endoplasmic reticulum, which is an important hub for protein production in the cells.

We specifically look at how misfolded or unfolded proteins are recognized and degraded from the endoplasmic reticulum. Our goal is to understand this process in the context of liver physiology, neutron metabolism, and germline stem cell biology.

Our research have significant and direct impact on human health by understanding the basic mechanism of protein quality control, waken insights into the diverse human diseases associated with misfolded proteins such as liver diseases, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic diseases. In addition, our research enables us to identify potential therapeutic targets for future intervention.

Marc Breton, PhD, Professor, UVA School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Science


Transcript:
I'm a professor in the School of Medicine at the Center for Diabetes Technology. And, at the center, we try to develop new ways to leverage technology to help people with diabetes.

So I'm Mark Breton. I'm a professor in the school of medicine at the Center for Diabetes Technology. And I focus on finding new solutions that leverage technology to manage diabetes.

And so to use continuous glucose monitoring or automated insulin pump or even mathematical simulation to help patients, to help physicians make the right decision or even make the decisions for them.

The primary solution that we've brought to the field is really automated insulin delivery. It's also often referred to as artificial pancreas. What it is is an insulin pump connected to continuous glucose monitor, and with an algorithm in it that will make decision every five minutes and change the dose, if necessary. Every five minutes, taking most of the work out of the hands of the patients.

From what we hear, it's improved their glycemic. It's, improved sleep. Most definitely. and we are working on the next generation to make it even more seamless and more efficient.

Amy Mathers, MD, Associate Professor
Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health
UVA Department of Medicine

Transcript:
The thing I love the most about my research is the idea that I get to discover new things, and that allows me to see the world in a different way. For example, when we discover that drug resistant pathogens we're living in, hospital drains. It allowed me to look at drains and sinks differently, and I continue to try to problem solve as I look at drains and sinks to come up with better interventions to prevent them from getting to patients.

My name is Amy Mathers, and I am in both the Department of Medicine and the Department of Pathology and the School of Medicine. I am an infectious disease physician who focuses on antibiotic resistant bacteria. My research focuses on, how antibiotic resistance genes move between bacteria and how we detect them in the clinical micro lab, as well as how we detect them in the hospital, and try to eliminate transmission of drug resistant pathogens to and from patients.

With antibiotic resistant bacterial infections estimated to be the third leading cause of global deaths. It's going to be important to reduce the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, as well as understand the places where antibiotic resistant bacteria are emerging. Unfortunately, there has not been a large amount of drug development or new antibiotic discovery, and therefore we're going to have to protect the antibiotics that we have so that they can be used for future generations.

Douglas Bayliss, PhD, Chair Department of Pathology


Transcript:

What I love about my research with my colleagues, we really enjoy, devising and conducting experiments that reveal the underlying principles of how our complex and confusing biological systems work. And it's really gratifying when we can provide new answers into how those systems work under normal conditions and when there are problems.

My name is Doug Bayless. I'm the Joseph and Francis Lerner professor of pharmacology. Our lab is interested in the electrical and chemical signals in the brain, that control brain function, in particular in areas of the brain that regulate breathing. What we've been studying are the, changes. And in the body, how the brain senses changes in the body that reflect breathing disturbances.

And then how, those are corrected. by those same, brain regions.

Our current work is most relevant to breathing disorders, where the brain doesn't provide enough drive to the breathing systems. And some examples of that are apnea of prematurity, sudden infant death syndrome, and congenital central hyperventilation syndrome. We hope that our work, looking at the chemical and electrical signals that are used by the brain to drive breathing, will provide some new drug targets that can be used to treat patients that have those breathing disorders.

Robert Dreicer, MD, Professor in the Division of Hematology & Oncology, UVA Department of Medicine

Transcript:
So as a clinician investigator, one of the, privileges I have is to take care of patients, but also at the same time, work with others to try to develop new and better therapies, for patients with difficult diseases. And one of the great pleasures is to occasionally see those therapies move onto fruition. And the patients that I care for benefit from those treatments.

I'm Doctor Rob Dreicer, I am the associate director for clinical research and the deputy director of the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center. I'm also a professor of medicine and urology at the UVA School of Medicine. I'm a urologic medical oncologist caring for patients with advanced prostate, kidney, bladder, testicular, adrenal, and penile cancers, as well as conducting clinical research in those diseases to find better and new treatments.

As a clinical investigator in patients with urologic cancers, I have the privilege of both caring for these patients as well as being involved in development of new therapies for them. So when there's a win, patients directly benefit. So it's a very straightforward development process. if things win, patients benefit.

Anita Clayton, MD, Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences


Transcript:
What I love about my research is filling unmet needs of patients by making new and innovative treatments available, and in the process, reducing stigma and bias associated with major depressive disorder, postpartum depression, sexual dysfunction associated with psychiatric illness, and medication treatments, and female sexual dysfunction. The link is neuroactive. Steroids and neurotransmitters.

I'm Anita Clayton, professor and chair of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences here at UVA. For many years, I've helped develop treatments for major depressive disorder, primarily monoamine reuptake inhibitors, but most recently for postpartum depression with novel mechanisms of action, including alpha pregnant alone analogs, psychedelics, specifically psilocybin and kappa opioid receptor antagonists.

I hope my research will impact human health by advancing new treatments for patients who have not responded to current therapies with the promise of new options that treat major depressive disorder or postpartum depression to remission and restore quality of life.

Roger Anderson, PhD

Transcript:
I'm passionate about discovering ways to improve how we access cancer prevention, treatment and services in the population so that we can be more effective in reducing cancer disparities and burden. What I love about my research is the creative pursuit of solving these needs. By leveraging health care system and community-level resources.

I'm Roger Anderson, and I'm a professor of public health sciences and associate director of the UVA Cancer Center as lead of the Population Sciences program. My research is dedicated on reducing and eliminating social disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes. A lot of my research has been focused on rural cancer disparities, especially in Appalachia, where we see high rates of incidence and mortality from breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, and lung cancer.

Some of my work is involved in improving access to evidence-based interventions such as HPV vaccination, smoking cessation, cancer screening.

So the health impact of my research is really by preventing the leading cause of premature death and disability in the population, and that's from cancer. A second major impact is by intervening with communities where we can impact the lives of many individuals at once. I think the overall health impact of my research, though, is by eliminating preventable cancers, the ones that will never get to see in our clinics.

Anne Kenworthy, PhD, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics


Transcript:
So what I love about being a scientist is being able to solve puzzles, and nature has given us the most intriguing puzzles of all. What my lab is really interested in is trying to understand how the building blocks of cells come together to make the outer coat of the cell, called the membrane. And so, in particular, we're really interested in this kind of crazy- looking molecule looks almost like a UFO, a protein known as caveolin.

And to figure out how it contributes to the cells function.

So my name is Ann Kenworthy. I am a professor here at UVA School of Medicine in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, and I'm also associate director of the center for Membrane and Cell Physiology. We use a wide range of approaches, ranging from computer models to looking at cellular components, to studying the protein structure at atomic level to understand how proteins that are found at the surface of cells contribute to cell function.

So our studies are important for improving human health, because we know that this protein, caveolin, contributes to a wide range of diseases, including cancer, lipid dystrophy, muscular dystrophy and dysfunctions of the cardiovascular system. And so by understanding how it's put together at the molecular level, as well as understanding how it functions in the context of the surface of the cell, we hope to be able to come up with better ways to target this molecule therapeutically.

Transcript:
What I really love is the translational work that we're doing and doing. The ability of our work can directly have impact to the public health and patient lives is essentially the driving force of my everyday activity.


I'm Jie Sun, I'm a professor in the ID division in the Department of Medicine and the Immunology Center. I direct a recipe immunology lab studying pulmonary immunity and pathology in the context of lung infection and cancer. I also mentor undergraduate and graduate student postdoc fellows, as well as a junior faculty in the lab.


Our body's immune system is very powerful in kidney viruses, cancer cells, as well as it to promote a tissue repair and a normal organ function. We try to better understand the rest of the immune system so we can develop a tools to treat lung disease. The coming many institute will greatly facilitate our mission, so we can be able to harness the power of immune system to develop a better molecular and cellular therapy for devastating lung disease, including non-COVID pulmonary fibrosis and then lung cancer.

Joanne Pinkerton, MD

Transcript:
I love providing solutions that improve women's health and quality of life. For example, if you have a woman who has an estrogen sensitive breast cancer and she can't take hormone therapy and she has these debilitating hot flashes and night sweats. I love being able to come up with non hormone therapy options that work, and it's incredibly exciting to be part of advancing the field of women's health.

I am Joann Pinkerton. I'm a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UVA Health. I am the emeritus director and past president of the Menopause Society, and I direct a large midlife division where we provide care for women 40 and above. And most importantly, I'm a clinical researcher, and I'm active in trying to find new therapies to treat hot flashes, to prevent bone loss, prevent fractures, or to treat vaginal changes.

There are 55 million menopausal women, and all women go through menopause about 80% have hot flashes, 25% of debilitating, but they cause loss of work time productivity. And my research is really looking to try to improve their quality of life and their health. Currently researching a non hormone that treats hot flushes and the top-line data just released showed an improvement in hot flashes and frequency and severity as well as sleep and mood. And it's not an estrogen. And it can be taken by women who can't or don't want to take estrogen.

Ling Qi, PhD, Andrew Pisano District distinguished Professor in Physiology, and department chair for Molecular Physiology and of Biological Physics in the laboratory.


Transcript:
As a project scientist, I'm driven by the curiosity and the thrills of discoveries. I have enjoyed the process of unlocking this, the secrecy of how protein degradation system works in physiology, and how it breaks down in disease. The other aspect I enjoy the most as a basic scientist is the is the training of the next generation. Scientists.

My name is Ling Qi. I am the Andrew Pisano District distinguished Professor in Physiology, and I also serve as a department chair for Molecular physiology and of biological physics in the laboratory. We try to understand how the protein degradation system works in health and disease. My goal is to elevate the department to new heights by creating a environment that fosters innovation and excellence in both research and education.

Our work has impact on human health in two ways. Our work can elucidate how the mechanisms, how this protein degradation system works in health and disease. The second, the most direct ways that we have identified the human patients that carry the genetic mutations in the pathways we study.

J Kim Penberthy, PhD, Professor of Research in Psychiatric Medicine Chester F. Carlson Professor

Transcript:
What I love about my research is that I get to help people who may have given up on ever feeling better. My name is Dr. Kim Penberthy, and I'm the Chester F Carlson, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia Health System. Part of my research is developing and implementing novel and innovative treatments for people living with chronic or persistent symptoms of depression, anxiety or even prolonged grief or trauma.

In my lab, we work to help these folks who may not have responded to other treatments. We do this by developing specific treatments tailored to the individual, to their circumstances, their developmental history, and the needs they have in their life now.

We know our mental health and our physical health are connected, and therefore, by targeting treatments to help people alleviate their symptoms of depression or anxiety or address their trauma or grief, we know we can have a positive impact on their health outcomes and make a difference in their lives.

Jianjie Ma, PhD,


Transcript:
My passion for research stems from the joy of working together with a team of complementary expertise where a ripple of small ideas can mature into a deeper understanding of the human physiology.

I am Jianjie Ma, a professor in the Department of Surgery at UVA. As director of the Division of Surgical Sciences, I interact with both surgeons, scientists and basic researchers striving to build a future of dreams where academia, medicine seamlessly translates into human medications.

My laboratory research is focused on regenerative medicine, aging biology, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and cancer therapy.

One area of focus is to develop a cure for diabetic foot ulcer, which is a severe complication of diabetes, often necessitating amputation. We have a novel monoclonal antibody that reduces inflammation and enhances healing of diabetic wounds. We have also humanized this antibody, making it ready for clinical use. We are collaborating currently with Licensing and Ventures group at the UVA to engage with the FDA and establish a partnership with the pharmaceutical industry for commercialization of this groundbreaking technology.

Lukas Tamm, PhD, Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics and the Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology.


Transcript:
What I love about my research is going to the lab every day and discover new fundamental biological mechanisms on how our body works, and in particular how membranes communicate with one another in order to allow for virus entry, neurotransmitter release and hormone secretion.

I'm Lukas Tamm, and I'm a professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics and the Center for Membrane and Cell Physiology.

Our research is currently focused on two main areas. First, we are very interested to figure out the mechanism of higher enveloped viruses such as flu, HIV, Ebola virus and SARS and Purcell's bi membrane fusion. And the second area we study how neurotransmitters and hormones are released from neurons and secretory cells, and how this process is very highly controlled by calcium.

Our fundamental new studies on neurotransmitter release and hormone secretion will help with new basic understanding and new treatments for diseases such as epilepsy, depression and Parkinson's disease. As well as diabetes.

Mete Civelek, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Transcript:
Well, what I love about my research is that we follow our curiosity wherever it takes us and our research results bring me hope that one day we will be able to help patients who are living with cardiovascular disease.

My name is Mete Civelek. I'm an associate professor of biomedical Engineering and I am a resident faculty at the Center for Public Health Genomics. I'm a cardiovascular researcher and my lab aims to understand how our genetic makeup increases our risk of having a heart attack. And we do this by using both computational approaches and experimental approaches.

In the last 15 years or so, human genetic studies showed us that there are many additional untapped potential targets to prevent heart attacks. So my laboratory is studying smooth muscle cells, which make up an important part of our arteries, which is where plaques develop. And when these plaques rupture, that leads to heart attacks. So we're trying to find targets that will prevent this flat rupture.

And we hope that the Manning Biotechnology Institute will accelerate our findings into therapeutics.

Brant Isakson, PhD, Professor in Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics


Transcript:

I love the discovery aspect about research. That's really what drives the work in our lab is discovery, and we work in the microcirculation. It's the business end of the blood vessels. It's where inflammation is regulated, it's where blood pressure is regulated. And there's a lot of new things that we're discovering all the time. A lot of things that we think can be used for translational aspects of discovery of new potential targets for therapeutics.

My name is Brant Isaacson, and I'm a professor in molecular physiology and biological physics. I'm also a resident faculty of the Robert and Bernard Cardiovascular Research Center, and that's where our work is focused. We're in the cardiovascular system and specifically in the microcirculation, and we take out very small blood vessels about the width of one of your hairs and try to figure out how they dilate and how they constrict.

We use other imaging techniques to look at how lipids are taken up and how inflammatory cells enter the tissue.

Because of the collaborative environment here at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. We've been able to work closely with physicians to test some of our ideas and some of our targets that we've discovered on human samples and see if this could be a way that we could modulate blood pressure.

Karen Johnston, MD, Director of the Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia, or iTHRIV.

Transcript:
I feel like I have the best job around. I get to work with brilliant scientists on interdisciplinary teams and think with them about new ways for research discovery to benefit human health. I especially love working with early career researchers as their enthusiasm and energy is just infectious.

My name is Karen Johnston and I'm a vascular neurologist and the director of the Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia, or iTHRIV.

I lead a large team of diverse researchers across the state of Virginia. We're helping to mitigate the barriers that slow down the translation of new discoveries, getting to our patients and communities to improve their lives.

Our iTHRIV team helps researchers to translate their most innovative ideas into actual treatments and cures for our patients. Innovative translational discoveries include things like gene therapy for rare diseases or the repurposing of existing medicines to treat other conditions. There are many things that can slow down the process of getting these new treatments and cures into our communities.

This is where iTHRIV comes in. We help overcome these obstacles to find solutions to complex health challenges. We are excited about the opportunity to accelerate all types of health related discoveries, including all the work that is about to start in the new Manning Institute for Biotechnology.

Ahmad Jomaa, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics at UVA School of Medicine

Transcript:
They look at the eye of a student coming to me with a result from an experiment they run the day before, Just for me is fascinating and makes me very excited. Coming to work every day.

My name is Ahmad Jamal and I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics at UVA School of Medicine.

My lab is interested in understanding mitochondrial protestations and mitochondria. Being a signaling hub in the cell are imports. Almost 99% of its proteins to perform its function.

The mitochondria is a cell stress sensor. It can sense stress at different stages of their cell cycle, and we're interested in that because that happens quite a lot in diseases, particularly in some neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, but also can happen in a lot of types of cancer and in tumor micro environments where the cancer cell tend to eat up basically a lot of the nutrients around it and starve itself.

So a lot of cancer cells become dormant and this is usually sensed by the mitochondria where a lot of processes are shut down in the cell. So we're trying to understand this process because when these cells become dormant, they simply escape drug treatment. And that's something we want to understand a bit better.

Jamieson Bourque, professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the medical director of nuclear Cardiology

Transcript:
So I love research. I love the ability to examine the new frontiers in our understanding of heart disease and gather data and make and link new connections to improve the care of our patients with heart disease.

I'm Jamie Bourque. I'm a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the medical director of nuclear Cardiology. Echo choreography in the stress lab.

So my research is focused on patients who have unexplained chest pain. They often have significantly reduced functional status and uncomfortable symptoms, and we are looking at ways to use exercise and other novel therapies to help diagnose these patients so they understand why they're having chest pain and how to manage their symptoms and improve their functional status.

So we're using exercise stress testing to diagnose the cause of chest pain in patients and then we're using high intensity exercise on a treadmill, along with other novel therapies, to help improve symptoms and functional status in our heart disease patients.

Wendy Lynch, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neural Behavioral sciences.

Transcript:
I love that every day is new, different from the last and that I have. I am continuously learning new information and acquiring new skills, new technologies. I love addressing research questions related to addiction, looking at how the brain changes once addiction has developed.

My name is Wendy Lynch and I'm an associate professor of psychiatry and neural behavioral sciences here at UVA, and I study addiction.

I study the neurobiology of addiction. So looking at how the brain changes once addiction has developed, I use preclinical models to look at these changes in the brains, and I include both males and females in my studies so that I can look at the sex differences not only with the behavior and how the addiction process develops, but also what the underlying brain changes.

The ultimate goal for the work in my lab is to discover new interventions that can be used to treat substance use disorders in humans. So we screen various interventions, environmental interventions such as exercise and neuro modulatory tools such as focused ultrasound. And these things. Can we use them to target and repair circuits that are disrupted by addiction? With the ultimate goal of helping men and women with addiction.

Hongji Zhang, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery

Transcript:
The most inspiring aspect of my research is the potential to make a tangible impact on people's lives. Witnessing the transformation of scientific discoveries into practical applications that directly benefit individuals is truly motivating.

My name is Hongji Zhang, I am an assistant professor in the department of surgery at University of Virginia School of Medicine. As a cancer immunologist, my overarching research direction revolves around the understanding of the role of the tumor microenvironment in various oncologic disease processes, such as colorectal cancer, and liver cancer, and providing novel strategy for prevention and cure, especially the role of inflammatory responses with different treatments, such as immune therapy.


In a series of studies that, my lab signified a novel approach to targeting the tumor microenvironment alone or in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced colorectal cancer. And as a junior faculty, with the support by UVA School of medicine, especially Manning Institute for Biotechnology, is pivotal in this journey. The Institute's unwavering support positions our research at the forefront of cutting-edge medicine such as cellular and genomic therapies, enabling us to accelerate discoveries and translate them into real-world applications faster.

Michael E Williams, MD
Professor, Department of Medicine
Transcript:
I'm a clinical investigator in the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center, and I'm so grateful and excited to be involved in a field where there's been such dramatic progress in treatment options and cures for so many patients with cancer and blood disease.

I'm Dr. Michael Williams. I'm a professor of medicine in the hematology oncology division and associate director for clinical affairs in the UVA, comprehends of Cancer Center.
My work is focused in lymphoma, specifically understanding the molecular underpinnings that drive these cancers and also employing and testing in clinical research, novel targeted agents and immunotherapies that are improving survival and cure while minimizing the traditional use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Lymphoma therapy has really evolved rapidly in recent years so that we are no longer using nearly as much traditional chemotherapy. Instead, we're using targeted drugs which block a key pathway that the tumor cells depend upon, and also to use immunotherapeutics, which are engineered to activate a patient's own immune system or to deliver immunologic effect that destroys the tumor cells.

We can do this because we have such robust collaborators in the UVA Cancer Center laboratories and coming soon in the new Manning Institute.

Sarah Ewald, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology


Transcript:
When we make a discovery, oftentimes we're the first people that know that that aspect of biology exists. By working with other researchers and clinicians, we get a chance to put those pieces of the puzzle together, and that's how we really start to develop new ideas for therapeutics or ways to treat infection and disease. My name is Sarah Ewald.

I am an associate professor of microbiology. microbiology, immunology, and cancer biology. And my lab is really interested in understanding how we fight infections. When you're infected, your body can produce up to a softball worth of cells a day. And the role of those cells is specifically to identify microorganisms and to clear them from your body. Unfortunately, a side effect of generating that immune response is the feeling of sickness.

We're starting to understand that as we age, a lot of the health problems we encounter are due to an inappropriate activation of an immune response. One aspect of my lab is interested in developing new technologies that allow us to study the immune response in a tissue at a biopsy scale.

In this way, we can add molecular handles to proteins in those tissues, which allow us to understand which ones are causing disease, long before the disease has progressed. And that gives us an opportunity to intervene in a timeframe when we can fully reverse those processes.

Bon Q. Trinh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology

Transcript:
Most of our human genome do not code for protein and is it called non-coding DNA? It will also consider an important. However, with advances in whole genome sequencing technology, it become clear that the genomic material contain many hidden charm. They include DNA proprietary element and non-coding RNA that control fundamental biological and pathological processes.

I am Bon Q. Trinh and I am an assistant professor in experimental pathology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. My group employs experimental and computational approaches to understand how Biomolecule regulates gene expression at the chromatin level during normal blood cell development and cancer.

We have demonstrated the important roles of a bimolecular interplay in the control of 3D chromatin architecture. In my life cells, these immune cells play a crucial role in our body defense against infection. But abnormality during their normal development either cause a fatal breast cancer or acute myeloid leukemia. We are investigating epigenetic gene regulation in drug resistance and in the disease in these immune cells to become either pro or anti-tumor.

The Manning Institute of Biotechnology could provide valuable support in our efforts to translate our basic research findings to good critical application.

Transcript:
Discovering how things work never gets old. I'm still excited about my research after 30 years. It's particularly true when it involves the human brain, the most complex and fascinating organ in our body. Only by gaining a better understanding of how we interact with the world, with each other, how we form emotions and memories and the narrative, if you will, will we be able to better understand Alzheimer's disease and depression?


I'm Harrison Taimur and I'm a neuroscientist. I'm also the chair of Neuroscience at the UVA School of Medicine. I study glial cells called astrocytes, the brain support cells that provide nourishment to neurons that regulate blood flow in the brain and help to form a protective barrier that prevents pathogens and toxic molecules from entering the brain.


For the longest time, the glial contribution to injury and disease has been overlooked and understudied. I firmly believe that work of our laboratory and many others will change that, that we will be able to develop glial targeted drugs to attenuate the inflammation that occurs in the context of Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy or acute brain injury.

Kari Ring, MD
Associate Professor Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology


Transcript:
The world of cancer genetics has exploded in the last decade and we have learned so much about ways to help prevent cancer for patients and learning how to do that better for patients. And new ways to do that for patients is really exciting.

My name is Kari Ring. I am a Gyn oncologist here at the University of Virginia. I'm also Director of High Risk Breast and Ovarian Cancer Clinic, as well as our subspecialty leave for our mini clinics. In a nutshell, what I do in my job in the high risk clinic is I take care of patients who have a family history of cancer or have a mutation in their DNA that put them at risk for cancer.

I help develop screening protocols for them, as well as risk reduction options to help prevent cancer for them.

Really, the understanding of genomics and genetics is the future of preventing cancer and taking care of cancer and the ability to have the Manning Institute to integrate genomics and genetics with our prevention and care options is really going to be practice changing for everyone here at the university of Virginia.

Chuanxi Cai, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Surgery

Transcript:
Right now I still clearly remember the exciting moment when I first discovered the function of MG53 as a membrane repair molecule. We call this magic molecule because it can release from the muscle to the blood. It can find where our body got injured and go there to be repaired. And our recent study also showed that MG53 can suppress the tumor growth via its nuclear action.

My name is Chuanxi Cai. I'm an associate professor in the Department of Surgery, the new Division of Surgical Science. The research in my lab is mainly focused on the biology of MG53 as a regenerative medicine and efficiently plays the important role in tissue repair and inflammation, as well as functioning as a tumor suppressor.

Right now, we're testing MG53 as amyokine to protect our body from acute injury against virus infection, or suppress cancer cell growth. So with the support of from UVA and other funding agency, we expect to translate our new discovery into future regenerative medicine, so that patients can recover faster after injury, and we can slow down the tumor growth for cancer patients.

transcript:
I love what I do because it's all about discovery. So there's nothing to me that's more enjoyable than finding out new facts about how cells work that we didn't know before. So many times in my career, we've stumbled upon things that nobody previously knew, and that for me is the exhilarating part of it.

My name is Eric Hendrickson. I'm a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, and my laboratory works on mammalian DNA double strand break repair, which is related to a variety of human disorders. Aging cancer, immune deficiencies.

Our research is related to human health because DNA repair is intimately involved in a large number of human disorders from the dysregulation of your immune system to aging phenotypes to cancer predisposition. And my lab tries to understand the basic processes of repair that are dysregulated in those diseases. And then at the same time, you can use DNA repair or in personalized medicine to go in and correct some of those mistakes in patients and cure them of their disease, and that is personalized medicine or gene editing.

Jinghang Xie, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics

Transcript:
I am truly fascinated by the interplay of lights and colors that emerge when we employ our imaging techniques to illuminate living systems. It is remarkable to witness the details of dynamic biological processes with the imaging probes we created.

I'm Jinghang Xie, the translational imaging scientist and the founder of the Imaging Innovation Lab, I lead a multidisciplinary research lab at the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine. Our lab is dedicated to developing novel imaging tools that enable us to visualize and study the biological processes within our bodies.

After comprehensive pre-clinical characterizations, our research culminates in the translation of our novel imaging technologies into clinical applications. This allows us to make a tangible impact on human house by aiding the diagnosis and treatment of a condition such as cancer and infection. The groundbreaking Many Institute for Biotechnology will provide a tremendous support to investigators in the field of translational medicine, particularly in the area of cellular aging and immunotherapy.

Our lab studies, the biological mechanisms that drive these therapies as we aim to visualize the dynamics of cell and immune therapy in patients. The Institute's support will be a valuable asset to advance our research and improve patient outcomes.

Jeff Martens, PhD
Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Senior Associate Dean of Research in the School of Medicine

Transcript:
So what excites me most about science is the process of discovery and the hope that it brings for improving human health.

My name is Jeff Martens and I'm a professor of pharmacology and also senior associate dean of research in the School of Medicine. My laboratory studies olfaction, which is our sense of smell. Specifically, we're interested in a unique population of neurons in the nose that connect to our brain, but are also unique in that they're exposed to the external environment.

Now, these neurons are necessary for our ability to detect chemicals in the air when we breathe in, when these neurons don't function properly. We are unable to smell.

Unfortunately, there are no curative therapies for olfactory loss. My laboratory has championed the use of gene therapy to provide hope to those patients who can't smell. So gene therapy means taking a lost gene or a defective gene and replacing it with a normal, healthy copy into these olfactory neurons. The Manny Institute, catalyzed by a gift from Paul and Diane Manning, is going to be a state of the art center to bring together novel biological therapies.

This will help our research by bringing together not only the expertise but also the technologies into a single location that will help to move our discoveries made at the bench to the bedside to better patients.

What I love about my research is that it's at the intersection of basic science discovery and clinically impactful research. So what I do is called translational research. That means the ultimate goal is to translate our insights in the lab into therapeutics that are meaningful and translational be relevant for patients.

My name is Kristen Anderson and I'm an assistant professor in the Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology Department, and I'm jointly appointed in obstetrics and gynecology.

My research is focused on modifying immune cells, specifically T cells, to recognize and kill cancer more effectively. Solid tumors like ovarian and pancreatic cancer present additional obstacles that we need to overcome for this therapy to work. So what my group does is we identify those obstacles and then we come up with creative engineering approaches to overcome them and translate that into a therapeutic for the clinic.

The goal is to bring the tools we build in the lab into the clinic for patients. The Manning Institute for Biotechnology is going to support this kind of research extensively. It's going to provide us with access to new technologies and state of the art equipment colleagues and collaborators with diverse expertise. So we can do interdisciplinary studies. And biotechnology and pharmaceutical colleagues who can help us rapidly translate our tools into the clinic.

Ultimately, we're going to be surrounded by colleagues with the same shared goal bringing immunotherapies to UVA patients as well as all around the globe.

Transcript:
It is fascinating how clinical question can survive the direction of my research. For instance, many people suffer from back pain on the leg pain, understanding why they experience pain and how to treat it is at the core of my research.

I'm Joshua Lee, the professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering. In my clinical role, I serve as a director of the Spine Fellowship program, where I do surgery to help patients. I also the director of the Spine Research. Our work is generously supported by multiple grant.

Our research holds great promise for improving human health in our lab. We are pioneering targeted therapy to trade discrimination through a simple preference injection. If successful, this innovation could revolutionize our car to treatment for disc herniation. The coming Manning Institute will bring my research to another much higher level. I hope with his help we can translate our bench side research to clinical practice.

Edward Horng-An Nieh, PdD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology


Transcript:
I love the feeling of discovery. I love learning something new and exciting that really changes the way we think about the brain and ultimately gives us new insights into how to design better treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders like drug addiction and PTSD. I also love working with students. I love helping them take that enthusiasm and energy and really harness it to tackle some of medicine's greatest challenges.

I'm Ed Nieh. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology, and I study the brain more specifically. I combine cutting edge imaging technologies with machine learning to study how large populations of neurons in the brain work together to encode memories, pass information along, and ultimately generate lots of different kinds of behavior. I'm especially interested in the parts of the brain that are involved with deciding whether something is worth pursuing or not.

For example, if you have a very tasty but unhealthy food, should you eat that or how much of that should you eat? So my research really focuses on the brain's ability to make those kinds of decisions.

Our research focuses on the brain's ability to separate the good experiences from the bad. And you can imagine that that ability is disrupted in patients fighting neuropsychiatric disorders like substance use disorders and anxiety disorders and eating disorders. So our goal is really to figure out the exact changes that are happening in the brain so that we can engineer devices or design drugs to reverse those changes and return the brain's activity back to normal.

George Christ, PhD
Professor, Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopedic Surgery


Transcript:
I do what you would refer to as translational research. That means everything from basic science to clinical applications. And for me personally, that means every single day I'm doing something different, learning something new. And the group of people that you have to assemble to do that is diverse, incredibly talented, brilliant and dedicated and committed in many different ways.

I'm George Christ, professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedic surgery at the University of Virginia, where I hold the Commonwealth Chair in engineering. I run the laboratory for Regenerative Therapeutics, and we're a diverse group of interdisciplinary researchers dedicated to developing regenerative medicine and tissue engineering technologies to treat craniofacial and extremity trauma. Our wounded warriors. And this work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, as well as primarily the Department of Defense and Industry stakeholders.

Because any time you're doing translational research and trying to get things into the clinic, giving a diverse funding portfolio, our work is focusing on creating replacement tissues and organs for those in need and primarily for wounded warriors with head, neck and extremity trauma injuries. But this is where the Manning Institute has an enormous potential to be impactful because the GMP state of the art GMP facilities there could provide a place where we could create replacement tissues and organs right on the campus here at UVA to serve not only our wounded warriors, but the civilian population as well.

Melina Kibbe, MD
Professor, Departments of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering

Transcript:
What I love about research is the process of discovery and the fact that something that we might discover can actually improve human health. My name is Melanie Kibbe. I am a vascular surgeon and professor in the Departments of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering. Our lab focuses on developing novel drug eluting technologies.

The overall goal of our research laboratory is to develop novel drug eluting technologies for patients with vascular disease. One example is arterial stenting. So after a stent is put into an artery, let's say your coronary arteries. Those stents eventually can fail. And so we're developing a novel therapy based on a nanotechnology platform that will target a nano fiber to the area that was stunted and then release a drug to keep that artery open longer and healthier.

Xinyu Zhou, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery

Transcript:
I'm passionate about my research because it's originates from the basic science, but also expand towards unlocking the potential of understanding the human health and diseases. The vision that my work could someday make a difference in people's health and lives is incredibly fulfilling.

Hi, I am Xinyu Zhou, a research assistant professor in the Department of Surgery. My research focuses on the role of ion channels in the calcium homeostasis in the heart, as well as a potential function of chromatin positioning and a gene regulation.

I also employ advanced microscopy and develop innovative image analysis to AIDS, myself and my colleagues. Deciphering complex visual data and also uncover the hidden insights. Our research on ion channels could provide crucial information on the cardiac and muscular physiology and also uncover the potential targets for the treatment of human diseases. The ultimate goal to offer our research is to transform the discoveries into the clinical trial, to treat off the human diseases.

Boris Kovatchev, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences

Transcript:
I am a mathematician by training and a scientist and inventor by trade.
The best part of my job is seeing a concept, an idea, to go all the way through and materialize in a technology, in a product that serves people's better health.

My name is Boris Kovatchev. I'm the director of the UVA Center for Diabetes Technology. I'm also a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Our center works on technologies for the treatment of diabetes. Our claim to fame is automated insulin delivery, also known as the artificial pancreas, which is a system that automates insulin delivery for people with diabetes, eliminating thousands of finger sticks and injections during their lifetime.

The story of the artificial pancreas started 15 years ago. In 2012, Charlottesville became the first city where people could go downtown to restaurants wearing a portable artificial pancreas system.
In 2019, we delivered what we promised, and the first commercial system came out at that time.
Now it is worn by 450,000 people around the world, helping those with diabetes live near-normal lives. The recent very generous gift of $100 million by Paul and Diane Manning to the University of Virginia is going to establish a biotechnology institute that will be unique and will make possible things that are currently considered impossible.

Ed Egelman, PhD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

Transcript:

Well, I love my research because it continues to be incredibly exciting since I was a graduate student in the last century. We've developed many new techniques and instrumentation that allow us to do things now that we simply couldn't have imagined even five or ten years ago. I'm Eric Lowman Harrison, distinguished professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.

My laboratory is focused on structural biology, and the main technique we use is cryo electron microscopy, which enables us to determine the atomic structure of many biological assemblies. These cover of the range from pathogenic bacteria that infect humans to archaea that live in the boiling acid.

So we are involved in very basic scientific and biological research, and the applications may not always be clear. Many times those applications emerge ten, 20 or 30 years in the future. But for example, one of the things we work on is how pathologic all bacteria attach to human cells using things called pili. And by understanding the structure of these appendages or filaments, we'll be able to develop therapies that can prevent their infection.

Mariano Garcia Blanco, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology

Transcript:
Lately in society, we've been challenged by an RNA virus and we've solved the problem with an RNA vaccine and among RNA biologists. So what a better time to be an RNA biologist than right now. Love what I do and I love coming to work every morning and it is exciting to be able to do discoveries and also to apply them.

I'm Mariano Garcia Blanco. I am a professor and chair of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology here at University of Virginia. My laboratory works on two areas of RNA biology, both very important for human health. The first area is RNA viruses. The second area is autoimmune diseases and the RNA virus site of the lab. We've done work that identifies targets for new antivirals and that gives new ideas for vaccines against these viruses and the autoimmune disease side of it, we discover a completely novel pathway that we believe could be the target for new therapeutics that would be much better than what we currently have.

We believe these are all RNA based therapies that these can be a terrific addition to the Manning Institute of Biotechnology.

Jayakrishna Ambati, MD
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology





Transcript:
Research is fun because it's about solving the biggest unsolved puzzle out there.

How does the human body work, and what makes it malfunction?

And answering these questions can help us discover treatments for diseases.

I'm Jayakrishna Ambati, and I'm the director for the Center for Advanced Vision Sciences here at UVA. My team and I tackle something called inflammation and how it promotes aging and diseases like Alzheimer's, macular degeneration, and diabetes, and we've been able to create molecules that can not only prevent these diseases but reverse them.

Diseases like Alzheimer's, and macular degeneration, and diabetes affect billions of people around the world, and the treatments that we have for these conditions are less than adequate.

So we're actually developing new treatments that can not only improve the course of these diseases but potentially prevent them in the very first place.

As we know, prevention is a lot better than cure.

Todd Bauer, MD
Professor, Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery


Transcript:
What I love most about my research is that we're able to look to the clinic where we're treating cancer patients and identify our biggest challenges, and then go to the research laboratory, design experiments to understand and overcome those challenges.
The two biggest challenges we face are first, cancer metastasis, which is spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body and the second challenge is the resistance of cancer to chemotherapy.

My name is Todd Bauer. I am a surgical oncologist and chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, and I'm also a physician scientist. I perform surgery for patients with cancer of the pancreas, liver, and other organs. In addition, I lead a research laboratory that studies pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer.

By developing newer, more effective treatments for pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer, we will improve survival and quality of life for our patients. We are passionate about our research and we're able to share with our patients the hope and optimism that we are making progress towards more
effective treatments and a greater chance for cure in the future.

Huiwang Ai, PhD
Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics


Transcript:
I am excited that our work can contribute to not only the understanding of chemistry and biology in lives, but also to the development of a new therapy and procedures that can help patients.

My name is Huiwang Ai. I'm a biophysicist and a chemical biologist. We develop molecular bio stasis to better understand processes related to redox biology, metabolism, and neuronal activity.

At UVA, it has a very strong medical score which provides us a unique environment. As a basic scientist, we can collaborate with physicians to translate our study to help patients. For example, you know, we are applying our biosensors to understand Alzheimer’s disease, and
also help a patient to find new therapy, and you know, lifestyle changes, for example.

Meanwhile, you know, we have collaborations with physicians to apply our bio sensors to study diabetes and develop new therapy for diabetes.

Professor, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology

Transcript:
I'm a clinical researcher and I love clinical research for two main reasons. The first reason is that it allows me to offer my patients novel state of the art care for their cancer. And the second reason is because the research we do today will change the future and the treatments for the patients in the future.

I'm Linda Duska and I'm a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and I'm also a clinical researchers studying novel therapies for gynecologic cancers.

Here at UVA, we've had clinical trial opportunities for our patients that have actually changed the way we take care of cancer moving forward. A great example is endometrial cancer, where we had two studies opened here at UVA that were just very recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and have changed the way we take care of enemy oral cancer moving forward.

Eric Houpt, MD
Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health, Department of Medicine

Transcript:
My group, we develop molecular diagnostic tools, which are really precise
tools that can document and detect what is the exact cause of different infections.

I'm Eric Houpt, a professor in the division of Infectious Diseases. I work in two main areas, one is on mycobacterium lung diseases, the other is in childhood infections, from fever, to tuberculosis, to diarrhea.

So the main focus of my research is to develop these
molecular tools, think of it like a magnifying glass, that can really
finely diagnose the cause of different infections. We apply this to lung diseases,
to childhood infections, diarrheal diseases.

The way I see it, if you don't know exactly what's the cause of the infection,
you don't know how to treat it.

Roger Abounader, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer Biology

Transcript:

Antonio Abbate,, MD, PhD, Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine

Transcript:
I love the opportunity to discover, find out why some people get worse and some others don't, and I would love the opportunity to treat people and get them better.

I'm Antonio Abbate, I'm the Ruth C. Heede Professor of Cardiology in the Berne Cardiovascular Research Center. I'm a cardiologist and I see patients in the coronary care unit and outpatient in Fontaine Heart and Vascular Center. I treat patients with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, as well as patients with pericarditis, myocarditis and I run a research program focused on inflammation and heart disease.

The focus of my research is inflammation and interleukin-1, the fever molecule and how it can make heart disease worse specifically in the heart attack. It can promote heart failure. It can make heart failure worse, it can cause pericarditis, myocarditis. We run clinical trials in patients and interfere block interleukin-1 and other molecules and make patients better, heal the heart better, recover their function when we test them on exercise testing. We also work with basic scientists who develop new drugs.

Jonathan Lindner, MD
Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine



Transcript:
I absolutely love on a daily basis being able to get into what
we call a research sandbox, an area where there's interaction between a diverse set of people with different scientific backgrounds. They include people who are clinicians, people who have expertise
in vascular biology, physiology, chemistry, even acoustic physics.

I'm Jonathan Lindner. I'm a physician scientist in cardiology, and I serve as the
vice chief for research in the cardiovascular division. I am a cardiovascular imager.

That is where my research lies in developing new ways of being able to image
the heart non-invasively. Many years ago, we developed the field of contrast ultrasound where we use these tiny micro bubbles, smaller than the blood. cells of your body, that ring in an ultrasound
field like a musical instrument. These are now used in millions of patients a year to better diagnose
heart disease. We're now creating the next generation of ultrasound contrast agents that are smart, that can hone in on disease so we can diagnose it earlier, or even micro bubbles that ring rather violently that we can deliver genes or drugs to specific tissues of the body.

Research in Motion
Jennifer Payne, MD
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences


Transcript:
Well, I love playing detective. I like finding out things that other people don't know that really help us try to understand the underlying biology of psychiatric illness.

I'm Jennifer Payne. I'm professor and Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Psychiatry here at UVA, and I do research on postpartum depression and how to manage psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and during the postpartum time period. I partner with other basic scientists to try to understand the underlying biology of postpartum depression.

My research has identified two epigenetic biomarkers of postpartum depression, which are about 80% accurate in predicting who's at risk for this potentially devastating illness. With these biomarkers, we are able to identify women at risk during pregnancy before the onset of symptoms and do prevention in order to prevent the onset of mental illness. Hopefully understanding
the underlying biology of postpartum depression will help us understand
the underlying biology of psychiatric illness in general and lead to better treatments.

Ariel Gomez, MD
Director of the Child Health Research Center, and the director of the Center of Excellence in Pediatric Nephrology.

Transcript:
The very thrill of discovery, figuring out how nature works, be, how a cell moves through a surface how it changes its identity, et cetera. And then apply that knowledge to the care of people, particularly children.

My name is Ariel Gomez. I'm the Director of the Child Health Research Center, and the director of the Center of Excellence in Pediatric Nephrology.

I try to understand how cells know who they are, and this is very relevant for understanding disease because cells change their identity when they are sick, or when they are trying to defend the organism against a disease.

When a cell doesn't know who she is, this immediately results in
the potential for disease. If we were able to revert a cell to its original state. And just think cancer,
for instance, or other diseases of the kidney and so forth. Then we may be able to solve disease by working on what we call, cell fate.

Kevin Pelphrey, PhD Discusses Brain Development in Children
Professor, Department of Neurology


Transcript:
We get to study brain development, one of the most interesting subjects I can think of, and it allows us to understand how the developing brain allows children to do more and different things as they grow up. And we're getting more and more information about how we can optimize child development and optimize healthy brain development.

I'm Kevin Pelphrey, I'm a professor of neurology at the University of Virginia, and as a neuroscientist, I direct the University of Virginia's Autism Center of Excellence. Our research we are interested in understanding children's brain development, children with or without autism and optimizing each child's individual potential.

Those of us who work with children with autism all know is that each individual child is different and unique. And so we're taking a
precision medicine approach to our research where we utilize brain imaging techniques, genetics, observing the child's behavior, talking with them and bringing that all together using artificial intelligence, machine learning, data
analytic techniques to allow us to predict which treatment will work best for each child at their
particular stage of development.

Research in Motion Zhiyi Zuo, MD, PhD

Transcript:
As a clinician investigator, I've been enjoyed taking care of my patients. Also, as we all know, through research we can develop a new therapy and also novel technology to improve the care of our patients.

I'm Doctor Zhiyi Zuo, people just call me Dr. Z, I'm a clinician scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology, and also a professor in the Department.

So I have two research a focus. The first one is on stroke. We're particularly interested in targeting proteins so that we can improve the outcome of patients after ischemic stroke. And then the second focus we have is post-op cognitive dysfunction. So we are studying whether any medications and the other situations will make the situation much worse or will increase the incidence of this post-op cognitive dysfunction.

Studying diseases that arise from defects in DNA replication with Anja Bielinsky, PhD.


Transcript:
I love that I'm able to study a fundamental process in biology. Each cell in our body has about two meters of genetic material that needs to be duplicated before the cell can divide, and thus needs to happen a million times during human development. And it requires a precise biochemical machine. And I find that fascinating.

My name is Anja Bielinsky. I'm the department chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and we study diseases that arise from defects in DNA replication and repair, including immune deficiencies and cancer.

So we actually know a lot about DNA replication, and it was a big surprise how easily that process is derailed. And that is what's happening in cancer cells. Cancer cells let down all of their safeguards and they accumulate mutations. They have broken chromosomes that they stitch together in an abnormal fashion. And these chromosomal rearrangements give them new cancer specific properties, for example, that they are able to proliferate very rapidly.

At the same time. To make that happen, they need to let down their safeguards and they develop specific vulnerabilities that we don't have in normal cells. And those give us an entry to develop new drugs and new treatments for the patients that are afflicted with cancer. And we're doing that in collaboration with the UVA Cancer Center.

Research in Motion Jeff Elias

Transcript:
I'm a Neurosurgeon and I really love seeing patients and trying to help the problems that they're dealing with. Then we had the opportunity to go back to the lab or or to the office and to creatively design our ways to treat or to solve their problems.

I'm Jeff Elias. I'm a neurosurgeon at the University of Virginia Hospital, and mostly I use surgery to try to ease the problems of neurologic disease. And we have a lot of tools available to us. We have stereotactic laser ablation. We can manipulate the nervous system with deep brain stimulation, and we can also treat disorders deep inside the brain with focus ultrasound technology.

I'd like to think that our research has immediate and direct effects for people suffering neurologic disease like focus Ultrasound was a procedure we brought from the laboratory to the clinic and had immediate impacts on patients disabilities actually alleviating them. And we're hopeful that we can bring that strategy or other technologies to other neurologic problems like Parkinson's disease or epilepsy or even chronic pain problems.

Charles Farber, PhD
Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences

Transcript:

So what's really excites me about the genetics research that we're doing here at UVA is the thrill of discovery for me. That's why I love research. Being one of the first people to discover something about the human genome that we hadn't known before. To me, that's that's super exciting.

I'm Charles Farber. I'm the mcn, and my lab focuses on the genetics of osteoporosis. The debilitating disease that increases an individual's risk of experiencing bone fractures.

So my lab here at UVA is focused on identifying specific genetic variants that influence an individual's risk of developing osteoporosis. Our hope is this information could be used both for drug development as well as developing tools in precision medicine that would allow us to identify individuals earlier in life who are at high risk for developing this debilitating disease.

Thomas Loughran, MD
Professor, Division of Hematology & Oncology, Department of Medicine

https://med.virginia.edu/research/

Transcription:
Very excited about our research. Researchers focused on leukemia. I see patients with leukemia. Those samples from patients go back to our laboratory. The researchers focus on the fundamental properties of why the leukemia cells survive and that will lead to better treatment down the road for our patients.

My name is Tom Loughran, and I'm a Professor of Medicine and Director of the UVA Cancer Center. My job is very exciting. I do a lot of different activities. One is a physician scientist, see patients, run a laboratory. And I most importantly, I'm director of the cancer center. And that's a really strategic administrative job to make sure that we remain an NCI designated comprehensive cancer center.

Our research is really focused on patients, starting with the discovery of a rare human disease called LGL Leukemia. We explore the mechanisms or how the leukemia cells survive in the patient's body. And based on that information, we can develop new therapy for the disease. New therapy means new drugs. In our case, it's usually medicines that suppress or turn off the immune system because these patients suffer from an activated immune system.

Coleen McNamara, MD, is focused on understanding the role immune cells play in heart disease. With new research and understanding, eventually immunotherapy will help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Learn more about Coleen McNamara’s research here:

#internalmedicine
#immunology

Transcription:
My work focuses on the role of immune cells in heart and vascular disease. It's a new field with novel discovery, and we're identifying new pathways related to heart disease every day that can be translated to help our patients.

I'm Colleen McNamara. I'm a physician scientist in the cardiovascular division in the Department of Internal Medicine and also director of the Carter Immunology Center. It's really emerged that the immune system's important in heart and vascular disease and taking those two areas together, we're able to really advance the field in novel ways that will lead to immunotherapy to prevent heart attacks and stroke.

So as director of the Carter Immunology Center and the great pleasure of working with a large group of immunology experts that are really leading their fields in understanding how the immune system impacts on infection, cancer, heart disease, lung disease and having tremendous impact on human health.

Coleen McNamara, MD
Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine

Mitch Rosner, MD, MACP researches how your body metabolizes water. In particular, he’s focused on extreme endurance athletes. How you drink water and other electrolytes during activity can impact your performance, and he’s going to find out how.

#endurancesports
#electrolytes

Transcription:
My research focuses on salt and water metabolism in endurance athletes mostly. And what I really love about that research is that it brings physiology to the research side in studying a problem that I think is of relevance to many people.

My name is Dr. Mitchell Rosner. I'm a professor of medicine and also chair of the Department of Medicine here at the University of Virginia. My research focuses on sodium or salt and water metabolism, and I'm a kidney specialist as well.

Based upon our research findings, we've been able to develop guidelines for how people should drink water and other electrolytes during endurance activities. And in doing so, we think we've really improved the outlook for patients when they're involved in these extreme environments, doing prolonged activities.

Mitch Rosner, MD, MACP
Chair, Department of Medicine

Li LI, MD, PhD, MPH is a researcher focused on understanding why colon cancer impacts people differently. From race, to environment, many factors come together to cause colon cancer. And everything from the side of the colon to the age of onset can affect survival.

Get to know more about Li here: https://www.uvaphysicianresource.com/get-to-know-family-medicine-chair-li-li-md-phd/

#coloncancer
#healthequity

Transcription:
So I am a family doc, but also cancer researcher. And my research really is at the intersection of population and a molecule. We try to understand how our environment work together with the genome to drive the colon cancer Carcinogenesis.

So I'm Li Li and I'm a Professor of Medicine and I in the composition and the cancer research and my research focus on the stand in the etiology, epidemiology and prevention of colon cancer.

So my research really trying to understand the disparity between black and white in terms of the risk and the survival of colon cancer. We know now the left and the right side of the colon are two different disease and also the age of onset has been getting younger, younger. So my research is trying to focus on understanding this disparity and how we can prevent this.

Li Li, MD, PhD, MPH
Chair, Department of Family Medicine

John Lukens, PhD, helps us understand how the immune system can contribute to major brain diseases like #Alzheimers and #Parkinson’s. By harnessing the immune system, we hope to learn about new ways to treat these disorders.

Find out more about Lukens’ research here: https://med.virginia.edu/neuroscience/faculty/primary-faculty/john-lukens-ph-d/lukens-lab/

Transcript:
So one of the things I like most about research in our lab
is the creative process, and in particular,
the creative process of working with students
to come up with new ideas
that will hopefully affect the lives of people.
Coming in every day to work,
I feel like I have multiple lottery tickets,
and if one of them hits, we could
make a huge difference in in terms of
helping people's lives.
I'm John Lukens. I'm an associate professor
in the Department of Neuroscience,
and also part of the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia,
and we're trying to understand how immune cells,
which are typically thought to be out in the periphery,
can actually act on the brain and contribute to disease.
For the longest time, we thought the immune system
was completely separated from the brain,
but within the last five to 10 years,
because of work that's been been done at UVA,
we now know that the immune system is a key contributor
to neurological diseases such as
Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's.
And we're trying to work on ways to
harness this immune system to treat these disorders.

John Lukens, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience

Using computer models, Jason Papin, PhD, is able to figure out which genes and proteins should be focused on. Computer models simplify complex cellular structures. This makes it easier to understand and treat disease.

Find out more about Papin’s Research here: https://med.virginia.edu/faculty/faculty-listing/jap8r/

#biomedicalengineering
#medschool

Transcript:
We build computer models of networks inside cells.
We apply these computer models to problems in cancer,
infectious disease, and use those models to understand
of all of these different genes or proteins,
which are the most important ones for us to focus
on developing a new drug to treat this disease.
My name's Jason Papin.
I'm a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
in the School of Medicine
and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
I teach graduate and undergraduate courses
on how we can use computer models
to solve important problems in medicine.
I also lead a research group with PhD students,
post-doctoral fellows, other scientists,
to help develop these models
and apply them to important problems in medicine.
These computer models that we develop
account for all the complexity that are in cells
in a way that would be impossible
without the computer models.
We've applied these to try to figure out
what are the right drug targets,
the right changes in the environment,
to stop cells from growing when you don't want them to,
like in cancer or infectious disease.
And we've designed different therapeutic strategies
that allow us to tackle problems in medicine
that affect many, many people.

Jason Papin, PhD
Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Maria Luisa Sequeira Lopez, MD, explains how it’s the basic research that truly drives discovery. As a professor of #pediatrics, a UVA faculty senator, and associate editor for 3 scientific journals, she understands a lot more than the basics. But without these building blocks, you can’t cure a disease, as she explains above. Lopez's innovations focus on the #kidneys.

Find out more about her research here: https://med.virginia.edu/pcen/investigators/maria-sequeira-lopez-m-d/

Transcript:
From the challenge of designing experiments
to make fundamental discoveries,
to the training of the next generation of scientists.
My name is Maria Luisa Sequeira Lopez.
I am a professor of pediatrics.
I'm a UVA Faculty Senator
and an associate editor for three scientific journals.
I do basic research on renal expressing cells, which are
endocrine cells in the kidney,
that maintain blood pressure homeostasis.
We studied their role in the development
of the kidney vasculature
and how they sense and respond
to small changes in blood pressure
to maintain blood pressure and overall homeostasis.
The major advances in science applying
to human health occur from basic research discoveries,
which were not originally targeted to cure diseases.
So we cannot predict the impact of the discoveries.
It is very important to do basic research,
because without that basis,
you cannot have something to apply
and translate to cure a disease,
and that is the ultimate goal
of any physician scientist, including me.

Maria Luisa Sequeira Lopez, MD
Professor, Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Department of Pediatrics

William Petri, MD, PhD, studies infectious diseases like COVID 19 and helps explain it to the public. By studying how the immune system protects us, his research team made a surprising discovery. #Covid19 #covid19treatment

Find out more about Petri's research here: https://med.virginia.edu/petri-lab/

Transcription:
One of the things I love about my research is this opportunity to explain to the public things that come up in infectious diseases. This most recently has been with COVID 19, where I've been writing a column of questions and answers about COVID 19, also about polio, or what's new with the flu vaccine this year. And so the ability to understand the science and then be able to explain it to the public is a very rewarding part of my profession.

My name is Bill Petri. I'm a professor of infectious diseases at UVA, and my research involves not just the Department of Medicine and our infectious disease fellows, but also graduate students in the Microbiology, immunology, Cancer Biology Department and Biochemistry, as well as in pathology.

In my lab, we study infectious diseases and how the immune system protects us from infections. And we do that in infections that are important in countries like Bangladesh as well as here in the U.S. and even at the University of Virginia Hospital. And what is so interesting about that is that the more that we learn, the more we understand about how beautifully created the immune system is to provide protection against parasites, viruses and bacteria. I think one example of the impact of what we're doing is in COVID 19, where we've discovered that an allergy drug called Dupilumab is an effective treatment for patients hospitalized with the most severe forms of COVID 19.

William Petri, MD, PhD
Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health, Department of Medicine

Many conditions, including #autoimmune diseases, #cardiovascular diseases, and cancers, are correlated to the extracellular matrices and how they’re formed. By understanding how they’re formed, Jochen Zimmer, PhD, hopes to design artificial tissues.

Learn more about Jochen Zimmer’s research here: https://med.virginia.edu/faculty/faculty-listing/jz3x/

Transcript:
Every day I'm learning something new about a new biological process that I hadn't been aware of or we are learning about new techniques that allow us to address our questions from different angles.
My name is Jochen Zimmer. I'm a professor in the molecular physiology and biological physics department at the UVA School of Medicine, and we are using techniques from structural biology, primarily cryo-electron microscopy and x-ray crystallography to identify how nano machines that are responsible for producing these biological polymers that are deposited on the cell surface, how they're formed, how they're transported to the cell surface, and how they're assembled at the surface to actually produce unique materials. The formation of the extracellular matrix in vertebrates, in humans, correlates with many different pathological conditions. This includes autoimmune diseases, arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancer. So forming these extracellular matrices is very critical for a healthy system, organism to function and thrive. Furthermore, if we are able to actually reconstitute or recapitulate the formation of these extracellular matrices in vitro, we can use this information to design artificial tissues which is important for therapeutic as well as diagnostic purposes.

Jochen Zimmer, PhD
Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics

Recovering from surgery faster is something every patient and doctor wants. Doctor Tsung’s research is helping his surgical patients return to their regular lives faster than ever. As a #surgeon and a #researcher, Tsung works to improve patient care.

Get to know more about UVA Health’s Department of Surgery Chair : https://news.med.virginia.edu/faculty/get-to-know-allan-tsung-md-chair-of-the-department-of-surgery/

Transcript:
To me. I see myself as a surgeon, as well as a scientist, as a surgeon in the hospital. I can see all the questions that are unanswered that we need to better help my patients. However, as a scientist, I'm able to study as well as come up with new knowledge to better answer these questions.

My name is Alan Tsung and I'm the chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Virginia.
I am a cancer surgeon as well as a cancer researcher. One of my research interests is trying to figure out how I can help my patients recover faster from an operation. For me, the most important goal is to have my patients return to normal activities, be able to do the things they want to do as soon as possible. After any operation.

There has been a lot of emphasis on improving the quality and outcomes for patients undergoing surgery for their cancer. One of my research goals is to determine the role of exercise exercise before an operation and how can help with the outcomes. We have found that exercise can not only decrease the inflammation but help patients recover faster. But even more interesting exercise could actually decrease the chance of cancer coming back after any surgery.

Allan Tsung, MD
Chair, Department of Surgery

Shayn Peirce-Cottler, PhD, solves the problems of human health with the tools of engineering. Learn about how her research uses solutions like #3Dprinting to solve problems with blood vessels. Including the smallest blood vessels, #capillaries.

Learn more about her research here: https://med.virginia.edu/faculty/faculty-listing/smp6p/

Transcript:
I'm a biomedical engineer and it's the best job in the world because we get to solve problems in human health by bringing together all the tools of engineering to figure out all the complexity of biology and physiology.

I'm Shayn Peirce-Cottler. I am the chair of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia, and I study small blood vessels. I study the smallest blood vessels in our body, the capillaries, and they are responsible for feeding oxygen and nutrients to all of our cells. And when our bodies are sick, our blood vessels are sick. And if we can figure out how to keep our blood vessels healthy, we can stay healthier.

So as biomedical engineers, we develop computer models, and those computer models create the designs that the 3D printer then takes and forms using cells and gels essentially into 3D tissue structures that have blood vessels and that function, and it can deliver oxygen and nutrients. And so if we can figure out how to make this work, then we can apply it to all different types of organs and tissues where we need structures that can be implanted into the body and stay alive and keep that part of the patient healthy and functioning.

Shayn Peirce-Cottler, PhD
Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Understanding the cells of the brain, including #microglia helps us figure out how diseases like #alzheimers progress. The more we understand the biological processes behind neurodegenerative diseases.

Find out more about Microglial cells and the work Eyo’s team is doing at UVA Health here: https://med.virginia.edu/neuroscience/faculty/primary-faculty/ukpong-eyo-ph-d/eyo-lab/

Transcript:
My research is really fun. I study these cells called Microglia in the brain. I really love studying them because they are really animatic. We're getting to know a lot more about them, but each time we know a little bit more about them, we find out that we know a lot less.

My name is Ukpong Eyo. I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience. I study microbial cells and I study them as glial cells, which are non neuronal cells in the brain.

What has become clear is that these immune cells that we study in the brain are critical regulators of the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Our findings suggest that these cells actually regulate the vasculature in these diseases. And we've also been able as a team to recruit one of the foremost researchers that studies the human version of these cells.

And we're going to be studying them in our context to see and enlighten us if they indeed play a role in Alzheimer's disease.

Ukpong Eyo, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience

Sana Syed, MD, is a #pediatric #gastroentologist. She uses her research on issues like childhood stunting to improve health equity. Syed also acts as a mentor to the future generation of doctors at UVA Health.

Find out more about Syed’s research at : https://med.virginia.edu/sana-syed-lab/

Transcript:
I think for me as a pediatrician researcher is at its very core about equity and justice. When I take care of children in my clinical practice, we see all these gaps of care, which as a researcher I can then go back and help try and find answers to so you can then create a new future and opportunities for the children that we're seeing today. My name is Sana Syed. I'm a pediatric gastroenterologist and physician scientist. I take care of children with diseases of the gut. So I really think science is about developing the next generation. I hope my career will be about mentoring and developing the next generation with a focus on women and underrepresented minorities. From a science perspective, I think it will be such a huge contribution if we, in any small way will help reduce the burden of childhood stunting and understand what causes it and how to solve it.

Sana Syed, MD
Associate Professor
Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Department of Pediatrics

Kevin Janes, PhD, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Transcript:
I love what I do because of the sheer difficulty of the research we do in the lab. I and my group fail 19 times out of 20, but we race into the lab each day because of that one in 20 times when we succeed. There's nothing like it in the world.

My name is Kevin Janes. I'm the John Marshall Money Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and I have a courtesy appointment in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. My laboratory studies cancer and infectious disease from a complex systems perspective. What that means to us is that we combine quantitative experiments in the laboratory with computer models that formalize how we think the disease works.

Modern medicine has a lot of magic bullets, but we don't always know where to point them. I hope that my research in the future will help inform which medicines work best with which patients and when to deploy them.