Permian Basin School of Medicine Lab

Interim Director: Kushal Gandhi, PhD

Kushal Gandhi, Ph.D., is Interim director of the Permian Basin research lab at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Odessa, TX. Dr. Gandhi works on different research projects based on cytokines analysis, biofilm formation, Raman spectroscopy, placental perfusion and endocannabinoid level changes in offspring because of maternal diet during pregnancy. His research interests include pharmacological, biochemical and molecular biological research techniques.

Dr. Gandhi completed his Ph.D. in cardiovascular science at the University of Verona, Italy. While a doctoral student, Dr. Gandhi worked on the research project, “Investigate the regional heterogeneity of electrophysiological properties and intracellular calcium in the heart.” While working on his doctoral degree, Dr. Gandhi was a visiting research scholar at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. In addition to his Ph.D., Dr. Gandhi has a Master’s of Research in Pharmacology from Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, United Kingdom and a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Nirma University in Ahmedabad, India.

Group members

Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. To visit her faculty page, please click here.

Volunteers

UTPB

Internal Medicine Resident

Internal Medicien Resident

MS, Class of 2020

Collaborators

Brownbill Lab Visitors

Ivell's Lab Visitors

Group Alumni

Dr. Vera-Aguilera is now an oncology fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Marcel Chuecos is a research aide in the lab of Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at the Permian Basin. Chuecos has a bachelor’s of science degree in biology from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. While a student at UTPB, Chuecos volunteered in Dr. Schlabritz-Lutsevich’s lab. Chuecos presented a poster, Hepatic and Placental Endocannabinoid System (ECS) in Maternal Obesity, at the Society for Reproductive Investigation meeting in Montreal, Canada in February 2016. For this presentation, Chuecos won the 2016 Best New Investigator Poster Presentation Award. This presentation was also featured on UTPB’s “Recent Student Research” page on their website, this can be found at http://www.utpb.edu/campus-life/student-research/recent-student-research. In the lab, Chuecos assists with Immunohistochemistry and the quantification of the results on different tissue types.

Stacy Martinez, M.S. is the Unit Assistant Director in the Office of Medical Education, Department of Graduate Medical Education. Martinez also works in the lab with Dr. Natalia Schlabrtiz-Lutsevich. Martinez completed a master’s of science degree in Molecular Pathology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in May 2015. She is also certified under the American Society of Clinical Pathology. In the lab at TTUHSC at the Permian Basin, Martinez works with nucleic acid isolation, and quantitative real time PCR (qPCR). She also assists with lab inventory and organization.
In her prior experience, Martinez worked as a research assistant in the Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Smithville, Texas. In addition to her master’s degree, Martinez also has a bachelor’s of science in Biology from University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Publications

Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, N. and Jain, Sheilesh. Maternal Mental Status and Pregnancy -- Importance of the Missing Piece. Journal of Depression and Anxiety. 2015. 4/2015; 4(2):e109. DOI: 10.4172/21671044.1000e109.
Rafael Gonzxalez-Alvarez, Maria de Lourdes Garza-Rodriguez, Ivan Delgado-Enciso, Victor M Trevino-Alvarado, Laura E Martinez-De-Villarreal, Ricardo Canales-Del-Castillo, Angel Lugo-Trampe, Maria E Tejero, N E Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Maria Del Rufugio, Shelley A Cole, Diana Resendez-Perez, Mario Moises-Alvarez, Anthony G Comuzzie, Hugo A Barrera-Saldana, Raquel Garza-Guajardo, Oralia Barboza-Quintana, and Iram P Rodriguez-Sanchez. Molecular evolution and expression profile of the chemerine encoding gene RARRES2 in baboon and chimpanzee. Biological Research. 2015 Jun 12; 48:31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40659-015-0020-0.
Schenone MH, Mari G, Schlabritz-Loutsevitch N, Ahokas R. Effects of selective reduced uterine perfusion pressure in pregnant rats. Placenta. 2015 Oct 28.

Yoshida S, Martines J, Lawn JE, Wall S, Souza JP, Rudan I, Cousens S; neonatal health research priority setting group ... Schlabritz-Loutsevitch NE ... Setting research priorities to improve global newborn health and prevent stillbirths by 2025. J Glob Health. 2016 Jun; 6(1):010508.
N. Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, A.G. Comuzzie, M. Mahaney, G.B. Hubbard, E.J. Dick, Jr., M. Kocak, S. Gupta, M. Carrillo, M. Schenone, A. Postlethwaite, and A. Slominski. Serum D Concentrations in Baboons (Papio Spp.). Comp Med. 2016; 66(2): 137-42. Serum Vitamin D Concentrations in Baboons (Papio spp.) during Pregnancy and Obesity
Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Scott E Gygax, Edward Dick Jr., William L. Smith, Cathy Snider, Gene Hubbard, and Gary Ventolini. Vaginal Dysbiosis from an Evolutionary Perspective. Scientific Reports. 2016. 6. Article number: 26817. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep26817.
Iram P. Rodriguez-Sanchez, Josee Guindon, Marco Ruiz, Maria E. Tejero, Gene Hubbard, Laura E. Martinez-De-Villarrea, Hugo A. Barrera-Saldana, Edward J. Dick Jr., Anthony G. Comuzzie, Natalia E. Schlabritz-Loutsevitch. The Endocannabinoid System in the Baboon (Papio Spp.) as a Complex Framework for Developmental Pharmacology. Neurotoxicology and Teratology. 2016.
N. Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, K. Apostolakis-Kyrus, R. Krutilina, G. Hubbard, M. Kocak, Z. Janjetovic, S. Sathanandam, A. Slominski, G. Mari, E. Dick Jr. Pregnancy-Driven Cardiovascular Maternal MiR-29 Plasticity in Obesity. Journal of Medical Primatology. 2016.
Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Nedezhda German, Gary Ventolini, Eneko Larumbe, Jacques Samson. Fetal Syndrome of Endocannabinoid Deficiency (FSECD). Medical Hypotheses. 2016, Pages 35-38.
Heloise Labuschagne, C Burns, Stacy Martinez, Maira Carrillo, Melissa Waggoner, Irene Schwaninger, James Maher, Moss Hampton, Jaview Flores-Guardado and Natalia E Schlabritz-Loutsevitch. Coccidioidomycosis in pregnancy: case report and literature reveiw of associated placental lesions. Case Reports in Women's Health. October 2016 Volume 12, pages 5-10.

Madeline Manning Meurer, Kalyan Chakrala, Dinesh Gowda, Charles Burns, Randall Kelly, Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch. A case of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome with helicobacter pylori and pre-eclampsia in pregnancy. Substance Abuse. May 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08897077.2017.1356790.
Michael Tchirikov, Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Jorg Buchmann, Yuri Naberezhnev, Andreas S. Winarno, James Maher, Gregor Seliger. Midtrimester PPROM: etiology, diagnosis, treatment options and outcome. Review. May 2017. Journal of Perinatal Medicine.
Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Kushal Gandhi, Fatimah Soydemir, Paul Brownbill, Raghvendra Dengar, Gary Ventolini, Paul Bruillard, luke Gosink. Raman Spectroscopy as a Novel Method in Placental Research: Recognizing the Pattern of Placental Hypoxia. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. 15 September 2017; 1-4.
Kushal Gandhi, Cun Li, Nadezhda German, Cezary Skobowiat, Maira Carrillo, Raja Reddy Kallem, Eneko Larumbe, Stacy Martinez, Marcel Chuecos, Gary Ventolini, Peter Nathanielsz, and Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch. Effect of Maternal High-Fat Diet on Key Components of the Placental and Hepatic Endocannabinoid. American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpendo.00119.2017.
James Maher, Mamie Gao, Kathryn Hutton, Hanna Kodeih, Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch. Prenatal Diagnosis of an Urinoma and Dilated Azygous Vein. Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. 2017 October 13. DOI: 10.1005/jum.14425.
Kushal Gandhi, Marcel Chuecos, Lisa Bramer, Luke Gosink, Gary Ventolini and Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevitch. The search of placental fingerprints in serum samples using Raman spectroscopy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.07.188, volume 57, pages 281-282
Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Andrey Bednov David Moore, James Maher, Gary Ventolini. The pattern of the flow mediated vasodilation depends on increments of flow increase in an ex vivo human dual-perfusion system. Placenta, Volume 57, page 317, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.07.291\
Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Edward Dick, Gene Hubbard, Cathy Perez, Marcel Chuecos, Carlos Palma, Vyjayanthi Kinhal, Carlos Salomon. Extracellular vesicles (EV) size in shallow trophoblast invasion in old world non-human primates. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.07.153. Volume 57, page 269

Manning Meurer M, Chakrala K, Gowda D, Burns C, Kelly R, Schlabritz-Loutsevitch N. A case of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome with Heliobacter pylori and preeclampsia during pregnancy. Subst Abus. 2018 Jan 2;39(1):9-13. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2017.1356790. Epub 2017 Sep 1. PMID: 28723278
XuanJi Li, Christopher Rensing, William L. Taylor, Caitlin Costelle, Asker Daniel Brejnrod, Robert J. Ferry, Jr. , Paul B. Higgins, Franco Folli, Rao Kottapalli, Gene B. Hubbard, Edward J. Dick Jr., Shibu Yooseph, Karen E. Nelson, and Natalia Schlabritz-Loutsevitch. Papio spp. Colon microbiome and its link to obesity in pregnancy. Journal of Medical Primatology, 2018, July 24th doi: 10.1111/jmp.12366.
N. Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, J. Maher, R. Sullivan, G. Mari, M. Schenone, H. L. Cohen, R. A. Word, G. B. Hubbard, E. J. Dick Jr. Parturition in baboons (Papio Spp.). Scientific reports. 2018 Jan 19; 8(1):1174

Awards

Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich received the Award for Dedication to Research at TTUHSC at the Permian Basin at the TTUHSC at the Permian Basin Faculty Awards in July 2016.
Dr. Maira Carrillo received an NIH travel award to attend the International Federation of Placenta Associations meeting to be held in September 2016 in Portland, Oregon. At the meeting she will present the poster, "Gender-Specific Placental Expression of Cannabinoid Receptor One (CB1R) in Baboon Model of Obesity."
Dr. Maira Carrillo received an AMERSA travel award to attend the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) 40th annual national conference in Washington, D.C. in November 2016. At the conference she will present the poster, "The Evolutionary Approach to Cannabinoid Receptors Structure."
Marcel Chuecos received the 2016 Best New Investigator Poster Presentation award at the Society for Reproductive Investigation in Montreal, Quebec in February 2016.
Marcel Chuecos and Cassidy Taylor won 1st place pre-recorded presentation at the 2016 TTUHSC at the Permian Basin Research Day with their presentation, "Hepatic and Placental Endocannabinoid System (ECBS) in Maternal Obesity" in May 2016.
Laura Bush Institute Seed Grant awarded for "Development of fetal gender-specific therapy, targeting placental glutathione (GSH) antioxidant system in maternal obesity and alcohol consumption to multiple PIs, Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich and Dr. G. Henderson.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at the Permian Basin Dean's Publication Award to Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich and Dr. Maira Carrillo for the publication of the paper, "Serum Vitamin D Concentrations in Baboons (Papio Spp.) during Pregnancy and Obesity" in the April 2016 issue of Comparative Medicine (Vol. 66, No. 2).
Dr. Maira Carrillo received a travel award to attend the Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse meeting in Washington, D.C. in Fall 2016.
Meritorious Acknowledgement - Clinical and Translational Research Award to Stacy Martinez at the 2016 Gender-Specific Medicine and Women's Health Symposium for the poster, "Coccidioidomycosis in Pregnancy: Case Report and Literature Review of Associated Placental Lesions."
Meritorious Acknowledgement - Basic Science Award to Marcel Chuecos at the 2016 Gender-Specific medicine and Women's Health Symposium for the poster, "Maternal and Fetal Hepatic Endocannabinoid System (ECS) and Maternal Fat Consumption."
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at the Permian Basin Dean's Publication Award to Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich, Dr. Maira Carrillo, Stacy Martinez and James Maher for the publication, "Coccidioidomycosis in Pregnancy: Case Report and Literature Review of Associated Placental Lesions" in the October 2016 issue of Case Reports in Women's Health.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at the Permian Basin Dean's Publication Award to Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich and Dr. Gary Ventolini for the publication, "Fetal Syndrome of Endocannabinoid Deficiency (FSECD) in Maternal Obesity" being published in the November 2016 issue of the Journal of Medical Hypothesis.

Kushal Gandhi, Ph.D., was the runner-up for the 2017 Metrohm USA, Inc. Young Chemist Award and received a $500 award.
Marcel Chuecos and Daniella Pino, M.D., were each recipients of SRI's Reduced Registration award for underrepresented minorities at the Meeting for the Society for Reproductive Investigations in Orlando, FL in 2017.
Vanessa Montoya-Uribe won Best Basic Science Presentation at the 2017 Permian Basin Research Forum at TTUHSC at the Permian Basin with the presentation "Characterization of CB1 (Cannabinoid Receptor 1) Isoforms in Fetal and Maternal Tissues" in April 2017.
Kushal Gandhi, Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow received a travel award to attend the International Cannabinoid Research Society 2017 Symposium in Montreal, Canada in June 2017.
Vanessa Montoya-Uribe received a travel award to attend the International Cannabinoid Research Society 2017 Symposium in Montreal, Canada in June 2017.
Vanessa Montoya-Uribe recieved a Basic Science Award for the poster "Characterization of CB1R Isoforms in Fetal and maternal Tissues in a Baboon (Papio spp.) Model" at the 2017 Gender-Specific Medicine and Women's Health Symposium in Lubbock, TX.
Dr. James Maher, Mamie Gao, Dr. Kathryn Hutton, Dr. Hanna Kodeih, and Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich for the paper “Prenatal Diagnosis of an Urinoma and Dilated Azygous Vein” which was published in the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. (Dec. 2017)

1st Place Basic Science presentation at the 2018 Permian Basin Research Forum. Jay English, UTPB/TTUHSC at the Permian Basin (Mentor: Dr. Samuel David) “Cannabinoid-Receptors Mediated Regulation of Long-Chain Poly-Unsaturated Fatty Acid (LC-PUFA) Transporter (MSFD2A) in Placental and Blood-Brain (BBB) Barrier”
2nd Place Basic Science presentation at the 2018 Permian Basin Research Forum. Jonathan Garcia, Lane Williams, Andy West, MSIII; UTPB/TTUHSC at the Permian Basin (Mentor: Dr. Gary Ventolini) “Real Time Detection of Bacterial Biofilm Growth”
1st Place Basic Science poster at Permian Basin Reserach Forum. Vanessa Montoya-Uribe, UTPB/TTUHSC at the Permian Basin (Mentor: Dr. Natalia Schlabritz-Lutsevich) “Fetal Hypoglycemia Stimulates Expression of Fetal Cerebral Glucose-sensing Cannabinoid 1 Receptor (CB1R)
Kushal Gandhi, Ph.D., received a travel award to attend the International Cannabinoid Reserach Society Symposium in Leiden, The Netherlands that will take place from June 30-July 5, 2018.

PB SOM Lab