Honors, Awards + Achievements
Elias Sayour M.D., Ph.D., was selected by UF Innovate and Tech Licensing as 1 of 7 Innovations of the Year awards for, “Intratumoral Type I Interferons Sensitize Response to Checkpoint Inhibitors,” an immunotherapy that uses the immune system to fight cancer. READ MORE
Dr. Sayour was also appointed co-leader of the UF Health Cancer Center Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response (CTHR) research program. READ MORE
Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D. was invited to give closing keynote and closing remarks at the AACR Virtual Special Conference on Brain Cancer on Tuesday 10/26.
Dr. Mitchell also joined the UF Health Cancer Center’s executive leadership team as associate director for innovation and discovery. READ MORE
Hendrik Luesch, Ph.D., was selected by UF Innovate and Tech Licensing as 1 of 7 Innovations of the Year awards for “Gatorbulins – Novel Microtubule Destabilizing Agents,” a marine organism that produces a compound that can fight cancer. READ MORE
Carlos Rinaldi-Ramos, Ph.D., was selected by UF Innovate and Tech Licensing as 1 of 7 Innovations of the Year awards for, “Stable Magnetic Cryopreservation Agents and Long Circulating Blood Pool Imaging Agents,” a technology that could cryopreserve an entire organ. READ MORE
Greg Sawyer, Ph.D., was selected by UF Innovate and Tech Licensing as 1 of 7 Innovations of the Year awards for, “Clear Single-Use Passive Perfusion Enabled 3D Bio-Reactor Well Plate for Cell Culture and Experimentation,” a 3-D culture system that is accessible and easy to use, allowing researchers to do the work in their own laboratory environments. READ MORE
Janice Krieger, Ph.D., was selected by UF Innovate and Tech Licensing as 1 of 7 Innovations of the Year awards for “Precision Health Interventions Using Virtual Clinicians,” referring to ALEX, a virtual health assistant that delivers precision messages to the diverse population in Florida. READ MORE
Jonathan A. Chatzkel, M.D., was recently named the head of the Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Clinical Investigator Track.
Carolyn Tucker, Ph.D., presented “Engaging the Community to Support Health Equity in Weight Control Interventions,” at the Obesity Society’s 2021 Annual Meeting.
Zhigang Li, Ph.D., was recently elected Section Councilor for the Applied Health Statistics Section of American Public Health Association for a three-year term (2021-2023).
He also joined the Rema Lapouse Award committee of the American Public Health Association (2021). This award reflects outstanding achievement in Epidemiology, Mental Health and Applied Public Health Statistics.
William A. Friedman, M.D., was recognized as the 2021 Honored Guest by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons at its annual meeting.
Pharm.D.
Julie Johnson, Pharm.D., was presented the 2021 Precision Medicine World Conference Luminary Award.
Oluwadamilola Oladeru, M.D., answered common patient questions about breast cancer in an American Society for Radiation Oncology session titled, “Ask a Radiation Oncologist.” READ MORE
Dr. Oladeru also received a $240,000 NRG New Investigator Mentor Program for her study titled, “Underrepresented Minority Scholars Comparison of Proton Therapy Fractionation for Breast Regional Nodal Irradiation.”
Raymond Mailhot Vega, M.D., was selected by the American Society for Radiation Oncology Education Council and Committee on Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion as one of three 2021-2023 protégés for its prestigious Leadership Pipeline Program.
Mei He, Ph.D., received a $110,968 Cystic Fibrosis Foundation grant for her study titled, “Therapeutic Development of Homogeneous hMSC Exosomes for Cystic Fibrosis.”
Additionally, she received a $140,857 NIH Diversity Supplement to R35 grant for a study titled, “3D biomimetic lymph node engineered extracellular vesicles for understanding the heterogeneity of adaptive immunity.”
Dr. He also received a $135,400 NIH Equipment Supplement grant for a study titled, “3D biomimetic lymph node engineered extracellular vesicles for understanding the heterogeneity of adaptive immunity.”
Dr. He presented the following:
“Understanding 3D tissue microenvironment for developing precision therapeutic delivery,” in a UF Biomedical Engineering Departmental Seminar, Sept. 2021
“Extracellular Vesicles for Cancer Immunotherapy,” at an AAPS annual meeting as an invited speaker, Oct 18, 2021, Philadelphia.
“3D Tissue Microenvironment and Extracellular Vesicles,” in a University of Maryland Biochemistry Departmental Seminar, Oct 28th, 2021.
Patrick Tighe, M.D., received a $773,695 career development award (K07 AG073468) from the National Institute on Aging for his study titled, “Perioperative Cognitive Anesthesia Network Extension for Socially Vulnerable Older Adults.”
Linda Cottler, Ph.D., received a $6 Million CDC grant for, “PANDEMIC (Program to Alleviate National Disparities in Ethnic and Minority Immunizations in the Community).”
Sergei Kusmartsev, Ph.D., was appointed as Associate Editor, section Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy, for Journals: Frontiers in Immunology & Frontiers in Oncology.
Jia Chang, D.S.S., was appointed an NIH Ad hoc Reviewer for Skeletal Biology Development and Disease (SBDD) Study Section.
Dr. Chang also presented, “Effect of antidepressants on periodontal stability and dental implant health,” at an invited lecture at University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, October 5, 2021.
Daohong Zhou, M.D., was an invited speaker at Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 3rd Annual PROTACs and Targeted Protein Degradation, Boston, MD.
He was also Invited to present, “Symposium on Radiation and Senescence,” at the 2021 Radiation Research Society Annual Meeting, a virtual meeting Oct. 2021.
Dr. Zhou was invited to speak at a Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (October 11, 2021).
Additionally, he was an invited speaker at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists 2021 PharmSci 360 meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Lastly, he was an invited speaker at the 4rd Targeted Protein Degradation Summit, a virtual meeting.
Kathryn Hitchcock, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed to an NCI working group aimed to catalogue and improve diversity and representation by women in GI cancer clinical trials across the NCI Cooperative Group Network.
Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D., co-organized, contributed content and served as a panelist for the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Grant Writing workshop.
Robert Amdur, M.D., presented, “Human Papillomavirus-Negative Oropharyngeal Cancer Survival Outcomes Based on Primary Treatment: National Cancer Database Analysis.” This comparison of outcomes for primary surgery vs. primary radiation therapy in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma concludes that primary surgery may provide improved survival.
Young-Rock Hong, Ph.D. was awarded $35,880 for a Cancer Control and Population Sciences research program-based pilot titled, “Utilization Patterns of Next-Generation Sequencing Tests and Treatment Cascade among Cancer Patients in Florida.”
Dongyu Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., was awarded $50,000 for a Cancer Control and Population Sciences research program-based pilot titled, “Nicotinamide riboside and walking exercise intervention to reduce fatigue in older breast cancer survivors.”
Sherise Rogers, M.D. is a new co-leader of the UF College of Medicine Cancer Biology and Clinical Oncology course for first year medical students.
Public Health Ph.D. Student
Sandhya Yadav, Public Health Ph.D. student in the Health Services Research concentration, published her first-author paper in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA). In her paper titled “Smoking-Cessation Advice from Dental Care Professionals and Its Association with Smoking Status,” she, along with Young-Rock Hong M.D., examined the association between smoking cessation advice from dental care professionals and the quitting behaviors of adult smokers in the general population.
Mei He, Ph.D., Piyush Jain, Ph.D., Brian Ramnaraign, M.D. and Padraic G O’Malley, M.D., received a $100,000 Cancer Center + UF department of urology collaborative pilot award for “Urine- based early diagnosis of bladder cancer.”
Mei He, Ph.D. and Kiley Graim, Ph.D. presented, “An End-to-End Artificial Peptide-to-Receptor Targeting Strategy to Develop Exosome Homing Ability for Precision Drug Delivery,” at the AAPS annual meeting on October 18, 2021 in Philadelphia and received Best Abstract Award and Best Poster Award.
Jaclyn Hall, Ph.D., Ramzi Salloum, Ph.D. Mildred Moldanodo-Molina, Ph.D., Elizabeth Shenkman, Ph.D. and Dominick Lemas, Ph.D. had an abstract accepted for the Annual Pregnancy Meeting (Society for Maternal/Fetal Medicine) on February, 2022 titled,“Smoking During Pregnancy, Birth Outcomes, and Discordance Between Biomarker and Self-Reported Smoking Status.”