Chairperson: Vimla Band, Ph.D.
No. of personnel in the department (faculty/staff):
Faculty – 23
Post docs – 1
Staff – 18
Graduate students – 30
Master’s medical anatomy – 15
Total personnel- 87
New faculty:
Tenure Track Faculty:
- Shannon Buckley, Ph.D., assistant professor. Dr. Buckley’s research focus is on the role of posttranslational modifications by the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) in hematopoietic lineage specification and malignant transformation.
- Kishor Bhakat, Ph.D., associate professor. Dr. Bhakat’s research interests include mitotic gene bookmarking and epigenetic memory in cancer.
Non-Tenure Track Faculty:
- Sameer Mirza, Ph.D., instructor. Dr Mirza’s research involves investigation of a mechanistic link between human papilloma viruses and the protein ecdysoneless.
- Peng Xiao, Ph.D., assistant professor. Dr. Xiao assumed the role of operational director for the bioinformatics core.
New programs:
- Teaching faculty have been developing and enhancing a group of e-Learning modules designed for enhancement of the medical curriculum
- Babu Guda, Ph.D., in collaboration is piloting early versions of Watson Genomic analytics solution from IBM.
- Babu Guda, Ph.D.,/Howard Fox, M.D., Ph.D. – data coordinating center
- First-year completion of new teaching track in Ph.D. program
- First-year completion of Master’s in Anatomy program
Significant research grants/publications:
Grants:
- The roll of calcium signaling in ErbB2-driven oncogenesis through a novel link between ecdysoneless and SPCA2 – Vimla Band, PI, U.S. Army/CMDRP, $375,000
- Exome screening and directed breeding of rhesus for human genetic disease models – Robert Norgren, PI – R21 – DHHS/NIH/Office of the Director – $406,398
- Nebraska Research Network in Functional Genomics – James Turpen – P20 – DHHS/NIH/NIGMS – $16,094,950
Significant Collaborative Projects:
- NTTC Data Coordinating Center – PI – Howard Fox, GCBA collaborating faculty – Babu Guda – DHHS/NIH/NIMH, U24, $4,417,142.
- Optimal stent selection for the femoropopliteal artery – PI – Alexey Kamenskiy, GCBA collaborating faculty – Carol Lomneth, DHHS/NIH/NHLBI, R01, $3,568,587
Publications Highlights:
- Romereim, S. M, Conoan, N. H., Chen, B. and Dudley, A. T. (2014) A dynamic cell adhesion surface regulates tissue architecture in growth plate cartilage. Development 141, 2085-95.
- Li Y, Wang X, Vural S, Cowan KH, Guda C. (2015) Exome analysis reveals differentially mutated gene signatures of stage, grade and subtype in breast cancers. PLoS ONE, 10(3):e0119383.
- Mittal AK, Chaturvedi NK, Rai KJ, Gilling-Cutucache CE, Nordgren TM, Moragues M, Lu R, Opavsky R,Bociek GR, Weisenburger DD, Iqbal J, and Joshi SS. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells in a lymph node microenvironment depict molecular signature associated with an aggressive disease. 2014. Mol Med. 20:290-301.
- Sandler, N. G., Bosinger, S. E., Estes J. D., Zhu, R. T. R., Tharp, G. K., Boritz, E., Levin, D., Wijeyesinghe, S., Makamdop, K. N., Del Prete G. Q., Hill, B. J., Timmer, J. K., Reiss E., Darko, S., Contijoch, E., Todd, J. P., Silvestri, G., Nason, M., Norgren, R. B. , Keele, B. F., Rao, S., Langer, J. A., Lifson, J. D., Schreiber, G. and Douek, D. C. (2014) "Type I IFN responses in rhesus macaques prevent SIV transmission and slow disease progression". Nature. 51: 601-605.
- Bhagirath D, Zhao X, West WW, Qiu F, Band H, Band V.Cell type of origin as well as genetic alterations contribute to breast cancer phenotypes. Oncotarget. 2015 Apr 20;6(11):9018-30.
- Yoachim SD, Nuxoll JS, Bynoté KK, Gould KA. Estrogen receptor alpha signaling promotes Sle1-induced loss of tolerance and immune cell activation and is responsible for sex bias in B6.Sle1 congenic mice. Clin Immunol. 2015 Jun;158(2):153-66.
Other highlights:
- Vimla Band, Ph.D. completed the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women.
- Sarah Keim, Ph.D. completed the 2015 Interprofessional Leadership for Excellence and Academic Development (iLEAD).
- 16 students completed Master’s in Medical Anatomy Program that was established last year.
- 12 students applied to professional or graduate school – 5 were admitted to medical school, 3 were admitted to PT school, 1 was admitted to Ph.D. program and 3 are on the wait list for D.O. school. Four remaining students will apply to professional schools next year.
- One student completed teaching track Ph.D. program and was moved on to a teaching assistant professor position.
Awards:
- Dr. Babu Guda – Distinguished Scientist Award from UNMC – 2014
- Dr. Runqing Lu – ASH Bridge Award from American Society of Hematology – 2014
- Dr. Kishor Bhakat – Distinguished Scientist Award from UNMC – 2014
- Dr. Karen Gould – Graduate Student Association’s Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award – 2014