Cell Physiology and Molecular Biophysics
News 2004 - 2005
Sennoune Receives AHA Grant!
Congratulations to Dr. Souad Sennoune! Dr. Sennoune was just awarded a 4-yr. Scientist Development Grant through the American Heart Association � National.
This grant will cover her work on: �Vacuolar type H+-ATPases in Angiogenesis�
Great work, Souad!
Back to Top
Dounine-Barkovski Elected President-Founder of Russian Neural Network Society
Vitali Dounine-Barkovski, Ph.D., Visiting Physiology Professor, was mentioned in the November 2005 issue of StatLine, an e-Newsletter publisher by the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. According to the article, Dr. Dounine-Barkovski recently presented in Russia in the Conference- Hall of the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He presented �Episodes of Precise Rhythmicity in Activity of Cortical and Brain Stem Neurons.�
Dr. Dounine-Barkovski has been the Russian Neural Network Society president since 1991. In January at the society�s Annual Congress, he was elected the honorary president with the title President-Founder.
Congratulations on your presentation and election, Vitali!
Back to Top
New Graduate Student
The Physiology Department welcomes Jimmy Fraigne from La Rochelle, France as a Ph.D. student. Jimmy recently received his Masters from Universit� de Poitiers.
Back to Top
New Grant Funding
Congratulations to two Physiology researchers who received Federal Grant funding.
Dr. Lorenz Lutherer, for HRSA grant �Center for Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke� (year 2)
Dr. Thomas Pressley, for NIH grant �Physiological Significance of NA, K-pump Diversity�
Back to Top
Escobar Promotion
Congratulations to Dr. Ariel Escobar on his promotion to Associate Professor. Dr. Escobar has been with Physiology since 2000, and uses state-of-the-art optical and spectroscopic techniques to investigate the basis of excitation-contraction coupling in beating hearts isolated from wild-type and transgenic mice.
Back to Top
Omidvar Defends Masters
The Physiology Department congratulates Kamran Omidvar, who successfully presented his Masters Thesis Defense August 5. His work was titled: Akt: Its role in the neuronal viability and protection against ischemia in the rat hippocampus.
Kamran's mentor is Dr. John Fowler.
Great job, Kamran!
Back to Top
We�re in the Money!
Congratulations to our fine Physiology faculty researchers! The following are recipients of grant funding:
American Heart Association, Texas Affiliate
Dr. Raul Mart�nez-Zaguil�n, for his work on �Endosomes � lysoosomes are Ca2+ stores in angiogenesis and diabetes�
School of Medicine Seed Grant Program for FY 2006
Dr. Marie-Jos�e Duran, for her work on �Regulation of the Na,K-ATPase in Prostate Cancer: A Role for PKC�?�
Dr. Souad Sennoune, for her work on �Proton ATPase Modulates Tumor Angiogenesis and Tumor Size in Diabetes�
Cardiovascular Seed Grant Program
Dr. Ariel Escobar
Dr. John Fowler
Dr. Richard Nathan
Back to Top
Henne Earns Fellowship
Mike Henne from the Strahlendorf Lab has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF) that can sponsor his UK studies at Cambridge for up to 4 years.
Congratulations on this recognition of your outstanding work, Mike!
Back to Top
Duran Promotion
Best wishes to Marie-Jos�e Duran on her promotion to Research Instructor in March 2005! Dr. Duran has been a Post Doc in the Pressley laboratory since January 2001.
Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition of your hard work, MarieJo!
Back to Top
Titus Joining Family Medicine!
Congratulations to Rebin Titus, M.D., who will begin working June 2005 as a resident physician at the TTUHSC Department of Family Medicine. Rebin, who practiced medicine in India, earned his M.S. in Dr. John Fowler�s lab in 2003 and then passed the Step Exams for physician licensure.
Shubhkamna Rebin, and best of luck to you always!
Back to Top
Attridge Earns MBA!
Congratulations to Jennifer Attridge, of the Strahlendorf Lab, who will receive her MBA in Entrepreneurship Saturday, Dec. 18.
Way to go Jenn, and best of luck in the future!
Back to Top
Oomman Defends Doctoral Thesis
Sowmini Oomman successfully defended her Doctoral Dissertation on Wednesday, October 20, 2004. Mini�s work was titled, �Non-Apoptotic Role of Active Caspase-3 in the Development of Rat Cerebellum�.
Congratulations, Mini and best wishes for your future endeavors!
Back to Top
Grant Award for Mart�nez-Zaguil�n!
In Sept 2004, Dr. Raul Mart�nez-Zaguil�n was named as a Neely Treadwell cancer investigator for the Southwest Cancer Center.
Congratulations Dr. Mart�nez-Zaguil�n!
Back to Top
New Graduate Students
The Department of Physiology welcomes our 1st year Graduate Students, Yelena Dunina-Barkovskaya and Todd Ward. We wish you the best in your studies!
Back to Top
Fowler Awarded Seed Grant
Congratulations to Dr. John Fowler, who received a 2005 Seed Grant to study "Aging and PKB's role in recovery from ischemia in rat hippocampus".
Back to Top
2004 Convocation
Congratulations to Andrew Lovering, Ph.D. and Rebin Titus, MS, who were hooded at the GSBS Convocation ceremony on May 21 and received their diplomas at the TTUHSC Graduation ceremony on May 22, both at the United Spirit Arena.
We�re proud of you both and are looking forward to great things!
Back to Top
Parish Wins Undergraduate Award!
Congratulations to Lauren Parish, HHMI Fellow in the Pressley lab, who won the David S. Bruce Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research during the final competition held at the Experimental Biology 2004 Meeting, held April 17-21 in Washington, DC. Her poster was entitled �Differential regulation of the Na,K-pump in human metastatic prostate cell lines.�Great showing Lauren!
Back to Top
GSBS Outstanding Graduate Student
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences has just announced Andrew Lovering as the winner of the 2004 Outstanding Student award.
Andy graduated in August 2003 with a Ph.D. in Physiology. He worked under the direction of Dr. John Orem and conducted research involving the control of breathing during hypoxia and the effects of hypoxia on sleep. Dr. Lovering is currently a postdoctoral research trainee at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine.
All students completing the degree requirements in August 2003, December 2003, and May 2004 were eligible for this award. This honor is no surprise to anyone in Physiology who worked with him.
Congratulations Andy!
Back to Top
Physiology Baby Arrival!
Congratulations to new parents, Serge and Dina Viatchenko-Karpinski. Their son Alexander arrived yesterday, April 19 at 4:16pm.
Best wishes to the Viatchenko-Karpinski family!!
Back to Top
Physiology Grand Slam for Student Research Week!
Physiology undergrads in the HHMI program shut out the competition last week at the Student Research Week poster competition, taking 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd place awards!
William (Mike) Henne (Strahlendorf Lab) was the 1st place winner, with his presentation titled: �AMPA-induced excitotoxicity generates unique nuclear degradation and activation of CAD, AIF, and Endonuclease G.�
Jenny Chua-Tuan (Martinez-Zaguil�n Lab) was 2nd place winner with her poster titled: �Vacuolar H+-ATPase in human breast cancer cells with distinct metastatic potential, distribution, and functional activity.�
Lauren Parish (Pressley Lab) came in 3rd with her poster titled: �Differential regulation of the Na,K-pump in human metastatic prostate cell lines.�
Physiology�s 4th winner for the week is Sowmini Oomman, PhD candidate (Strahlendorf Lab), who walked away with a 2nd place award in the �3rd year and up graduate students� category with her presentation of: �Active caspase-3 expression during postnatal developments of rat cerebellum is not systematically or consistently associated with apoptosis.�
Congratulations to all our fantastic students!
Back to Top
Omidvar Receives Scholarship!
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is awarding scholarships for the Spring 2004 semester. Congratulations to Graduate Student Kamran Omidvar whose hard work was recognized with a scholarship from the Houston Endowment!
Back to Top
Mike Henne a Goldwater Scholar!
Congratulations to Mike Henne, HHMI student in the Strahlendorf Lab! Mike has been named a Goldwater Scholar. Congress established the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program in 1986. The purpose of the Foundation is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.
Congratulations Mike, and keep up the good work!
Back to Top
Lutherer Helps Procure Funding
Physiology Professor Lorenz Lutherer was instrumental in preparing the Red Book submission for a Center for Education, Research and Clinical Service in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke at TTUHSC. The proposal requested $5,000,000 over a three-year period. Congress appropriated approximately $375,000 for the first year as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill. The first year of such proposals is rarely fully funded, but funding in the first year increases the likelihood of funding for subsequent years. An application for 2.65 million for year two and 2 million for year three has been submitted for inclusion in the next budget bill. The Center should fund internal seed grants for TTUHSC faculty that can be leveraged into extramural sources, provide training for students, residents and health care providers within the regions served by TTUHSC and begin to address health disparities in public education and health care delivery within the region.
A detailed list of Federal appropriations is available in the Avalanche-Journal article.
Back to Top
SABR Student Success!
Our 2002 and 2003 summer SABR student Jimmy Fraigne has been selected to join the Sleep and Chronobiology Summer Behavioral Sciences Research Apprenticeship program at Brown Medical School in Providence, RI as a William C. Dement Fellow. This prestigious position includes attendance at the Sleep Society meeting in Philadelphia.
During his studies in Lubbock, Jimmy worked in the lab of Professor and Chair John Orem.
Congratulations Jimmy, and best wishes on your work this summer!
Back to Top
Sarvazyan Grant
Dr. Narine Sarvazyan has been awarded an NIH grant to support her laboratory research on �Origins of non-reentrant arrhythmias: ectopic nexus hypothesis.�
Congratulations Dr. Sarvazyan!
Back to Top
HESS Promotions
Congratulations to our joint faculty members from Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences (HESS). Jacalyn McComb was recently promoted to Professor, and Jim Williams was promoted to Associate Professor.
Best wishes to you both in this new stage of your careers!
Back to Top
Excellence in Undergrad Research!
Lauren Parish, HHMI student in the Pressley lab, was chosen as a finalist for the 2004 David S. Bruce Excellence in Undergraduate Research Awards. The winner of this award will be chosen after interviews held in Washington during the annual FASEB meetings in April.
Congratulations, Lauren, and good luck during the interviews!
Back to Top
| Contact Information: |
| Cindy Rolfe, Administrator |
| Department of Cell Physiology |
| Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center |
| 3601 4th Street at Indiana Avenue |
| Lubbock, TX 79430-6551 |
| 1-(806)-743-2520 |