Surgery Research - News
Congratulations to Trauma and Emergency Surgery research nurse, Janet McCarthy, RN, CCRC, who has received Nurse Imagemaker of South Texas award.
The honor was bestowed jointly by the Delta Alpha chapter
of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Nursing Honor Society and the
Texas Nurses Association, District 8. Read full story |
More about Trauma Research
(7-2-08)
Congratulations to Fruzsina Johnson, MD, Assistant Professor, Trauma,
who has been awarded a $140K Beginning Grant-in-Aid from the South Central Affiliate
Research Committee of the American Heart Association for her project entitled 'A novel
rat model of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) to study pathogenic
contributions of RBC arginase.' More about Dr. Johnson (6-19-08)
Congratulations to General Surgery research resident Sam Bastani, MD, whose abstract,
'A Prospective, Randomized, Crossover Study of Inhaled Nitric Oxide and Inhaled
Prostacyclin in Heart and Lung Transplant Patients,' was selected for presentation at the June 2008
meeting of the Western Thoracic Surgical Association.
More about Dr. Bastani (6-19-08)
Congratulations to General Surgery research resident Heather Pidcoke, MD, who has been
awarded a $1000 travel grant by the Shock Society to attend their 2008 International Shock
Congress in Cologne, Germany. More about Dr. Pidcoke
(6-17-08)
Surgery Injury Prevention Research Safe Riders Child Safety Seat program:
Within the next few weeks, our Injury Prevention Research group will receive 130 child
car safety and booster seats for distribution to South Central Texas parents.
These child safety seats are provided through the Safe Riders Traffic Safety Program, sponsored
by the Texas Dept. of State Health Services in cooperation
with the Texas Department of Transportation. Learn more about the
Surgery Injury Prevention Research group. (6-16-08)
Congratulations to Fruzsina Johnson, MD, Assistant Professor, Trauma,
who was awarded a $33k grant from Semp Russ Foundation of
the San Antonio Area Foundation (SAAF) for her research, 'Development of an
experimental animal model to investigate the role of arginase in blood
transfusion induced acute lung injury'. SAAF will recognize UTHSCSA for
this grant at their 2008 Grant Awards Celebration June 11,
2008. (6-4-08)
Congratulations to General Surgery research resident Heather Pidcoke, MD, whose abstract,
'Insulin therapy reduces loss of total muscle and adipose tissue mass in a burn/disuse rat
model of hypermetabolism,' has been accepted as an oral presentation at the September 2008 International
Society of Burn Injury Conference in Montreal. (6-2-08)
Congratulations to Amita Shah, MD, General Surgery research resident, whose abstract, 'Alterations
in metabolic activity of human umbilical vein endothelial cells cultured on gas-plasma treated poly(d,l-lactic)
acid scaffolds', has been accepted for presentation at the 2008 Society for Biomaterials Translational
Biomaterial Research Symposium in Atlanta, GA. (5-29-08)
Congratulations to Amita Shah, MD, General Surgery research resident, who was awarded AT&T Presidential Scholarship in 2008. This scholarship will assist Dr. Shah with tuition and expenses for her graduate studies in the joint program for advanced studies in biomedical engineering (UTSA and UTHSCSA). (5-29-08)
Regenerative medicine pursued by the Pentagon and top US medical facilities: Steven Wolf, MD, Professor of Surgery and Vice-Chair
for Researrch for the Department of Surgery, interviewed by CNN; Dr. Wolf discusses regenerative
medicine and the "pixie dust" used to form a microscopic scaffold to help cells grow into the desired
tissue.
Read CNN.com story |
San Antonio Regenerative Medicine Association (SARMA) |
More about Dr. Wolf
(5-28-08)
Congratulations to Miguel Fernández, MD, Associate Professor and Director, South
Texas Poison Center, whose research poster, 'Reversal of Atrial Fibrillation in Cyanide
Poisoning' has been accepted for presentation at the North American Congress of Clinical Toxicology September 2008
annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.
| More about Dr. Fernández (5-21-08)
Congratulations once again to General Surgery research resident Francis Ali-Osman, MD, who has been awarded
1st place in the resident competition of the Department of Medicine 11th Annual Research Day. (5-14-08)
Congratulations to General Surgery research resident Francis Ali-Osman, MD, whose abstract, 'Lentiviral Mediated Genetic Downregulation of Murine CCR2', was accepted for poster presentation for the UTHSCSA 11th Annual Department of Medicine Research Day, May 13, 2008. (5-07-08)
Congratulations to General Surgery research resident Susannah Nicholson, MD, whose abstract,
'Heme derived iron reduces wound thickness,' has been accepted for
presentation at the October 2008 American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress
Surgical Forum in San Francisco, CA. (4-29-08)
Congratulations to Michael Corneille, MD, Assistant Professor, Trauma,
who has been awarded a $50k American Association for the Surgery of Trauma / KCI
Research and Education scholarship, which will be awarded to him at the September 2008 AAST
annual meeting in Hawaii. More about Dr. Corneille (4-29-08)
Congratulations to General Surgery research resident Shaun Gifford, MD, who has been awarded $102k in
funding by the Office of Biomedical Research, Surgeon General of the Air Force, for his project,
'Global War on Terror (GWOT)
Vascular Injury Initiative'. (4-24-08)
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for Hispanics between the ages of 1 and 44. Lizette
Villarreal, coordinator of the Madrina-Padrino Traffic Safety Project, discusses issues of Hispanic traffic
safety at a press conference in Laredo, TX.
Read HSC News article |
Surgery injury prevention research programs
(4-11-08)
Department of Surgery experiences growth in research funding: From 2007 to 2008, Surgery research awards increased by 220 percent (from $1,463,869 to $4,678,003); during the same timeframe, the department's total research expenditures, including indirect costs, increased 16 percent. (04-9-08)
UT Department of Surgery's Madrina-Padrino program reaches out to the Hispanic community:
Interviewed by the Laredo Morning Times, and with additional articles and interviews
in the Rio Grande Guardian and on Pro8 News, Lizette Villarreal, program coordinator, was in Laredo
in early April to promote awareness of the Madrina-Padrino Traffic Safety Program.
The program focuses on increasing awareness of drunk driving, seat belt use, and child safety seats.
Read articles:
Laredo Times |
Rio Grande Guardian |
Pro8 News
(4-03-08)
Congratulations to General Surgery resident Shaun Gifford, MD, who has, along with mentor
Todd Rasmussen, MD, been awarded $81k from the Air Force Surgeon General Biomedical Research
Office for their project entitled, "Temporary Vascular Shunting in a Porcine Model of Extremity
Vascular Injury and Ischemia Reperfusion." (3-14-08)
Congratulations to Paula K. Shireman, MD, Vascular Surgery, on
receiving R01 funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council on the
recommendation of the National Institutes of Health Scientific
Review Group for her research project, "Chemokines and Immune Cells in Hind Limb Ischemia." (3-07-08)
Congratulations to Renata Bastos, MD, Cardiothoracic Surgery, on
her 15K discretionary grant from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical
Research to perform a pilot study entitled “Development of an off-pump
coronary artery bypass in non-human primates to evaluate the effect of
Botox on the flow of arterial grafts.” (2-13-08)
The Department of Surgery is pleased to have been awarded an NIH T32 training grant to support our surgical resident research training program. The five-year grant will provide stipend and research funds for residents during their two-year research assignments (PI - Stephen M. Cohn, MD, Chair). Of the 248 U.S. surgical residency training programs, the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio's general surgery research residency program is one of only 33 to have received NIH T32 funding. (1-22-08)
Congratulations to Maureen Sheehan, MD, Vascular Surgery, on her 15K research award from the
Society for Vascular Surgery for her project, "Utility of infrared spectroscopy to detect and
monitor peripheral arterial disease in vascular surgery." (10-5-07)
Congratulations to Luis Angel, MD, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Pulmonary Medicine
on his award for lung transplant research from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park,
California, for the Barbara Melikan Lung
Transplantation Research Fund. (9-11-07)
Congratulations once again to Dr. Paula Shireman, who has received NIH bridge funding for her
"Chemokines and Immune Cells in Hind Limb Ischemia" research. (9-11-07)
Congratulations to Paula K. Shireman, MD, and her research team on receiving $550k VA Merit Review grant funding for research costs and staffing through 2011 for "Macrophage Regulated Muscle Regeneration: Fat Deposition and Function." (8-2-07)
Congratulations to Carlo Martinez, MD, on NIH acceptance of his NHLBI fellowship application for 'Angiogenesis,
macrophages, and tissue recovery from injury'. Dr. Martinez will be working with Paula Shireman, MD, Vascular Surgery.
(7-3-07)
Congratulations to Srey Ram Kuy, surgery intern, who has been accepted into the
Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars program. Her program will be funded for two
years of clinical research, and include coursework in research methodology and
public health policy. The RWJ Clinical Scholars Program
prepares Scholars to work effectively across disciplines, think
creatively and rigorously about health care issues, generate ideas and test
hypotheses, participate in policy development, work within communities, and
lead organizational change. This preparation is achieved by a curriculum that
develops skills for investigation and proficiency in the application of
research. The Program balances classroom experience with ample time for
research project development and individual mentoring.
Upon completion of the program, Dr. Kuy will be awarded a masters degree. Please visit Yale University School of Medicine Clinical Scholars Program and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program for more information.
. . . .
2006 Student Summer Research Stipends Funded Congratulations to the following students and their Surgery faculty mentors for receiving funding from the Medical Dean's office for their summer research projects:
- Tanner Boyd (Juliane Bingener-Casey, MD)
- Gary Barber (Steve Borron, MD)
- Scott Bassett (John Calhoon, MD)
- Jon-Michael Ong & Grant Hogue (Michael Corneille, MD)
- Wendy McCurley (Daniel Dent, MD)
- Kathryn Swann, Raul Reyes, Seema Mahale (Yuchuan Ding, MD)
- Matt Hendley (Seenu Reddy, MD)
- Ryan Coleman & Scott Demarest (Jorge Salazar, MD)
- Kirsten Wennermark (Maureen Sheehan. MD)
- Rachel Giese (Paula Shireman, MD)
- Casey Lagan (Mark Sparkman, MD)
. . . .
Congratulations to Thelma Hurd, MD, Associate Professor in the Surgical Oncology Division
of the Department of Surgery, who has been awarded $250,000 from the Susan
G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for her project titled 'Integrating
Health Literacy and Community Based Education to Improve Breast Health
Among Hispanics.' This project will develop and pilot Esperanza y Vida,
a novel, culturally relevant breast cancer education program in a south
Texas community with the goals of improving health literacy and
increasing breast cancer screening rates. A potential outcome of this
program is the enhanced understanding of the relationship between health
literacy, community based education, and determinants of cancer
screening in both the male and female Hispanic populations. The
ultimate goal is to increase screening utilization, promote guideline
concordant screening health behaviors and reduce breast cancer mortality
among Hispanic women in south Texas.
Read article in February 2006 Research Newsletter
. . . .
Congratulations to Howard Tzu Wang, MD, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery,
who has received a one-year grant for $35,555 from the
ERC for his submission, "Tissue culture of pre-adipocyte precursor for reconstruction of calvarial defects." Dr. Wang's funding
begins July 1, 2006.
. . . .
Congratulations to Paula Shireman, M.D.,
and Oscar Ochoa, M.D., on their successful application for
supplemental funding under Dr. Shireman's NIH-NHLBI RO1 entitled "Chemokines and immune cells in hind
limb ischemia." This funding will provide for Dr. Ochoa's two year resident research fellowship.
Total funding: $146,000 over two years.

