VCU news

Manoj A. Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of technology, Department of Information Systems, School of Business

Microsoft granted Thomas two $20,000 Microsoft Azure research awards. The first award is to assess consumer sentiment about medical marijuana in social media. He will collaborate with VCU doctoral student Dapeng Liu. The second award is for a Continuing Medical Education capacity building, on which he will work with Mahabir Pun, winner of the renowned Magsaysay Award, a prize that celebrates transformative leadership in Asia. Both projects will use different Microsoft Azure-based technologies.

Thomas has been involved in information and communication technology projects around the world and his research has been published and presented internationally.

 

Guilherme M. Campos, M.D., chair, VCU Health Division of Bariatric and Gastrointestinal Surgery

Campos was recently named vice president of the Virginia Bariatric Society. The term will be 2016-2017. He will serve as president in 2018-2019.

The Virginia Bariatric Society was founded in 2005, purposed with studying morbid obesity and advancing the art and science of bariatric surgery. Among the society’s goals are encouraging improved perioperative and long-term care of patients, reducing patient risk and promoting outcome studies and quality assurance.

Campos, who began at VCU Health in 2015, said serving in a leadership role with the Virginia Bariatric Society is a chance to help further the study of bariatrics and subsequent care. He is director of the Bariatric Surgery Program at VCU Health.

“These appointments are an honor and an opportunity to assist with the development of the society and improve the quality of the care of the bariatric surgical patient in the state of Virginia,” he said.

 

Jerome Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean, School of Medicine

Strauss was honored in March with the 2016 Frederick Naftolin Award for Mentorship. Presented by the Society for Reproductive Investigation, the award recognizes the contributions of a society member to training and career development of investigators in the field of reproductive and women’s health. 

Strauss has always placed a priority on mentoring young scientists and has found time to nurture those relationships even during his nearly 11 years as dean.

Eun Lee, Ph.D., one of Strauss’ mentees, was on hand for the ceremony at the SRI 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting in Montreal.

An assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Lee met Strauss almost four years ago. At that time, “I was in a unique situation because I had taken a hiatus from research due to my family situation. It was very difficult to return to the workforce, especially with the current funding climate and as a woman with three little children. But he saw the potential in me and offered me the position I am currently in now. I will always be grateful for Dr. Strauss believing in me and continuing to support me in my research.” 

The two have weekly meetings and exchange emails at all hours of the day, said Lee. She shares with Strauss an interest in pre-eclampsia, which is a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality in the United States.

“His interest in all our projects is amazing,” Lee said. “He gently leads us to the right path and gives us the intellectual freedom to explore on our own to make discoveries. His suggestions and feedback have made our projects successful.”

The Frederick Naftolin Award for Mentorship was established in 2003 in honor of the former president of SRI who was a staunch advocate for creating a mechanism for the society to celebrate outstanding service to the scientific community through excellence in mentoring.

Strauss is a past president of SRI and in 2006 was honored with its Distinguished Scientist Award, the society’s highest honor for contributions to the field of women’s health research.

 

René Olivares-Navarrete, D.D.S., Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering, School of Engineering

Olivares-Navarrete received a two-year $300,000 grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research at the National Institutes of Health to study “Perturbation of Craniofacial Morphogenesis, Healing, and Regeneration by E-cigarette Aerosol Mixtures.” He is collaborating on the project with Amanda Dickinson, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biology, College of Humanities and Sciences, and biomedical engineering students Kelly Hotchkiss, Alexander Whitehead, Pranav Baderdinni and Cristian Coriano.

While the effects of conventional tobacco products on human health and pregnancy have been established, little is known about the new e-cigarette products.

“In our project, we are using a multisystem approach to examine the effects of e-cigarette aerosol mixtures on skull and face development,” he said. “We will use frogs and mice to determine whether indirect exposure to e-cigarette aerosols during development affects how the structures in the face form. The conclusions drawn from these studies are broadly relevant as more nicotine users turn to e-cigarettes as an alternative to traditional tobacco smoking. Today, the federal government has limited access to these products to children under 18, acknowledging their still-unknown effects.”

Olivares-Navarrete is a dentist who spent several years in private practice before pursuing his Ph.D. His research focuses on how clinical materials that are implanted in the body can be modified to control cells in the body — such as stem cells or immune cells. The materials are called “cell-instructive” and, as the name indicates, the idea is to control what the cells produce to reduce inflammation or produce specific tissues, for example.

The overall goal of Olivares-Navarrete’s research is to harness the intrinsic healing and reparative capacity of our bodies to induce faster healing and regeneration. To that end, his group is developing models of challenging clinical populations (e.g. smokers, diabetics, chronic prescription users) to understand why these populations have more difficulty healing and to find ways to reestablish the normal balance in these populations with regenerative medicine strategies.

 

Michael S. Ryan, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, and assistant dean of clinical medical education, VCU School of Medicine

Ryan was awarded the junior faculty teaching award from the Academic Pediatric Association during the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Baltimore on May 1. The national award is presented to one physician every year in recognition of their excellence in a commitment to teaching as evidenced by the quantity of teaching, quality of teaching, and engagement with the education community at a local, regional, national and/or international level.