2022

With extreme winds, frigid temperatures and blizzard conditions, the winter storm expected to pummel much of the nation over the Christmas weekend will be one for the record books. David Holmes, MD, has plenty of advice on how to ride out the storm safely.

Jennifer L. Haak, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, has been honored by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for her displays of humanism in her work with underserved and vulnerable populations.

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences medical students celebrated their multicultural backgrounds at the annual Taste of Culture event Dec. 2 at the Jacobs School building.

Getting a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a career-crowning achievement for any medical researcher. This fall, within one week, it happened to two members of the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, both of whom also happen to be Jacobs School alumnae.

Nineteen faculty members with clinical and research experience have joined the departments of Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Orthopaedics, Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, Pediatrics, and Physiology and Biophysics.

Yongho Bae, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, has received a $250,000 sponsored research award from the Empire Discovery Institute (EDI) to investigate the role a novel mechanotherapeutic target, discovered in his lab, may have on vascular and cardiac stiffening commonly associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). 

As the holiday season kicks into high gear, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences physicians and scientists have recommendations for how people can stay safe and healthy this holiday season amid some increasingly concerning signs.

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has been elected to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Council of Deans Administrative Board.

Gil I. Wolfe, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and the Irvin and Rosemary Smith Chair of the Department of Neurology, is involved in trials of FcRn (neonatal FC receptor) antagonists that offers a new approach to treating myasthenia gravis (MG).

A promising alternative to opioids being developed in the Buffalo and Rochester regions is one step closer to meeting a critical need in pain management, thanks to a pivotal business partnership and exclusive licensing agreements with the University at Buffalo.

Steven J. Fliesler, PhD, has been named the 2022 recipient of the Retina Research Foundation’s (RRF) Paul Kayser International Award in Retina Research presented by the International Society for Eye Research (ISER).

For teens who have struggled with obesity, it probably sounded too good to be true: a weekly injection that could help them control their eating and lead to weight loss. But the results of the clinical trial on the drug semaglutide, released earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the discipline’s major conference, Obesity Week, turned out to be better than anything the participants — or even the researchers — expected.

The request by children’s hospitals nationwide this month that the federal government declare a formal state of emergency given the surge in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and flu cases was no surprise to Oscar G. Gómez, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics.

Three members of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences faculty have been honored with SUNY Diversity in Medicine Mentoring Awards.

Thaddeus P. Waters, MD, has been installed as the inaugural Amol S. Lele, MD, Professor and Chief of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Kathleen E. Bethin, MD, PhD, clinical professor of pediatrics and her research team have been lauded by the Pediatric Diabetes Consortium (PDC) for their contributions to the PIONEER TEENS clinical trial sponsored by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.

We are excited to welcome a new faculty member to our department — Kedar Aras, PhD.

Viewing intentional violence as a public health issue has led Robert Gore, MD ’02, down an interesting path, both personally and professionally.

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences researchers who have changed the way concussions are treated have been awarded $4.8 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct a clinical trial to evaluate whether incorporating elements from the Buffalo Concussion Protocol to the DOD’s current concussion protocol would improve outcomes for active members of the military who sustain a concussion.

A Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences researcher has been awarded a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute grant to explore how changes in arterial stiffness elicit vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) behaviors that contribute to cardiovascular disease.

A team of Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences researchers has published a paper that provides novel guidelines for clinicians when discussing brain atrophy with their multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

The late Jonathan D. Daniels, MD ’98, had a clear mission in life — to erase the term “underrepresented minorities in medicine” from the health care lexicon.

The legacy of the late Jonathan D. Daniels, MD ’98, lives on through the many students he mentored while encouraging them to apply to medical school and those he guided through its rigorous environment once they arrived.

A Black Men in White Coats chapter has been established at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and is named in honor of the late Jonathan D. Daniels, MD ’98, the school’s former associate director of admissions who died July 4 in a fire at his North Buffalo home.

Even before she had made up her mind about which career path to choose, emergency medicine has been at the center of E. Brooke Lerner’s professional life. 

UB’s Visiting Future Faculty Program (VITAL) returned for an encore as six outstanding doctoral students visited the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences as part of an initiative to increase the number of faculty at UB from traditionally underrepresented populations in North America.

When Aaron Epstein, MD, a trainee in UB’s general surgery residency program, received a call earlier this year that he was being awarded the prestigious 2022 Citizen Honors Award for Service, he thought it was a spam call.

Mam Deng, MD, has been inspired by the work of many health care professionals he has encountered along his journey from refugee to doctor.

“Your baby has a genetic disease.” It’s one of the most terrifying things that new parents can hear. Yet it frequently turns out not to be true because, while newborn screening is extremely accurate for many common conditions, screening accuracy rates for rare — even fatal — conditions can be abysmal, according to genetics specialists.

Residents of the Fruit Belt, Cold Spring and Masten Park neighborhoods and others received expert care for their feet at a recent free clinic organized by surgeons and medical students from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a paper Nov. 3 that described how children with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma responded to a targeted therapy for the disease that has been effective in adults.

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is seeking to put Buffalo on the map by leading the future of health care innovation in Western New York. During her first State of the School address, Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, presented how the Jacobs School is intent on making that goal a reality through impactful research, education and clinical programs.

A University at Buffalo training program that aims to address the nation’s shortage of clinician-scientists has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Fifteen faculty members and three staff members from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences were among those honored for notable achievements and service at the 19th annual University at Buffalo Celebration of Faculty and Staff Academic Excellence. 

In addition to training for a career as an emergency room physician, fourth-year medical student Grant Parrelli has been busy with a new business venture — Professionally Proud, a clothing line geared toward LGBTQ+ medical professionals and their allies.

Peter L. Elkin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and chair of biomedical informatics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has been awarded an R25 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NLM) to train underrepresented minorities in biomedical informatics and data science.

Research by Matthew A. Wysocki, doctoral candidate in the computational cell biology, anatomy and pathology (CCBAP) program, has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients may be better equipped to stave off the cognitive decline that the disease can cause by using a smartphone-based app now under development at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Peter L. Elkin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and chair of biomedical informatics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics, has received two prestigious honors.

Gabriela K. Popescu, PhD, professor of biochemistry, is an internationally known researcher in neuroscience. She is also an effective advocate for making science a more welcoming and inclusive environment — efforts that have earned her a significant new honor.

Women in medicine were celebrated and strategies to overcome underrepresentation in leadership positions were discussed during the UB DoctHERS Annual Symposium.

A leading psychologist challenged her audience to view love as co-experienced positive emotions during her presentation at the 20th annual Lawrence & Nancy Golden Memorial Lectureship on Mind-Body Medicine.  

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, recently spoke on the impact the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade will have on obstetricians and gynecologists.

Steven E. Lipshultz, MD, the A. Conger Goodyear Professor and Chair of pediatrics, is co-author on a new paper that validates the long-term efficacy and safety of metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) for treatment of adolescent obesity.

The Department of Psychiatry’s 17th Annual Comprehensive Review of Psychiatry conference featured an array of internationally renowned speakers updating the latest advances in the diagnosis and management of a wide array of psychiatric disorders.

The University at Buffalo and UBMD Physicians’ Group have launched the region’s only long COVID registry in order to learn more about the condition and to connect Western New Yorkers with treatment options and the potential to participate in clinical trials.

The University at Buffalo Center for Advanced Technology in Big Data and Health Sciences (UB CAT) has awarded six life sciences companies a total of $253,000 to support new biomedical technologies.

As public health experts cautiously anticipate how COVID-19 will play out this fall, Michael W. Russell, PhD, professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology, is reiterating that substantial immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus will only happen with a vaccine that can be delivered through the nose.

Nineteen faculty members with clinical and research experience have joined the departments of Biomedical Informatics, Family Medicine, Medicine, Orthopaedics, Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, Pediatrics, Physiology and Biophysics, and Psychiatry.

In 1939, Sol Messinger, MD ’57, and his parents boarded the MS St. Louis, the ship carrying 900 Jewish refugees who were desperately fleeing Nazi Germany. 

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences team that a decade ago helped usher in a new era in acute stroke treatment has turned its innovative approach to addressing the rare but potentially deadly phenomena when multiple blood clots strike deep in the veins of the brain.

Gabriela K. Popescu, PhD, professor of biochemistry, has been voted president-elect of the prestigious Biophysical Society.

Freshmen and transfer students in the undergraduate biomedical education program completed a series of “Amazing Race” style tasks in order to familiarize themselves with information and resources available to them on UB’s South Campus.

The University at Buffalo Motivational Interviewing Center (UBMIC) has only been in operation for two years, but it is already making an impact on the local, state and national levels.

A summer research program focused on providing undergraduate students from diverse groups guidance toward graduate and professional careers in the biosciences recently wrapped up a successful 2022 campaign. 

The 25th anniversary of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ Research Day — A Celebration of Scholarship — honored residents, fellows and medical students for their research.

Researchers at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and their collaborators have developed powerful new ways to study and potentially reverse the cellular mechanisms that cause mitochondrial diseases and premature aging.

The more than 200 people who gathered in-person and remotely on Aug. 13 for the fifth annual Igniting Hope conference at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences did so in the aftermath of a series of unprecedented losses sustained recently by the community.

Svetlana Blitshteyn, MD ’02, clinical associate professor of neurology, has been named the winner of Dysautonomia International’s 2022 Physician of the Year Award.

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Class of 2026 celebrated entry into medical school with a traditional White Coat Ceremony Aug. 5 at Kleinhans Music Hall.

Developing a more effective vaccine for tuberculosis is the goal of research led by Jonathan F. Lovell, PhD, SUNY Empire Innovation Associate Professor of biomedical engineering, that has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Steven E. Lipshultz, MD, A. Conger Goodyear Professor and Chair of pediatrics, is launching the first international pediatric cardio-oncology conference this fall.

Two undergraduate students in the Department of Biochemistry have been selected as recipients of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Undergraduate Scholarship Program (UGSP).

The honors continue to accumulate for two medical students in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ Class of 2023.

The University at Buffalo is one of five universities nationwide that has been awarded an important grant from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) that supports teaching health sciences students how to dispel medical disinformation.

Hundreds of children in the city of Buffalo received free backpacks filled with school supplies July 31 as the result of the first Jonathan D. Daniels, MD, Memorial School Drive: The Next Generation of Transformational Leaders.

Incoming residents at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences had the opportunity to make improvements to the community and get to know their classmates during the first GME Morning of Service.

To his colleagues in neurology in the 1980s and ’90s, the late Lawrence Jacobs, MD, was a brilliant and visionary biomedical researcher whose research changed forever how multiple sclerosis was treated around the world. 

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences celebrated scientific achievements and outstanding service and teaching contributions during the 2022 Faculty and Staff Recognition Awards event.

An annual conference that has received national attention for its work addressing the social determinants of health is being seen this year as one important way for the community to heal and move forward after the devastating, racially motivated mass shooting of May 14.

The U.S. Surgeon General is warning that America’s youth face a “devastating” mental health crisis. The American Academy of Pediatrics calls it “a national children’s mental health emergency.” And obstetrician/gynecologists and other primary care providers are seeing increased anxiety and depression in their pregnant and postpartum patients.

A Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences scientist has launched two pilot studies that focus on how dietary interventions might affect cancer treatment. 

The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences hosted the 2022 National Library of Medicine (NLM) T15 Informatics Training Conference June 22-24.

Andrew B. Symons, MD, clinical professor of family medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has been elected the new president of the New York State Academy of Family Physicians (NYSAFP), which represents nearly 7,000 physicians, residents and medical students in family medicine across the state.

Seven of the 20 UB faculty and staff members who have been named recipients of the 2022 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence have connections to the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

A convergent mechanism may be responsible for how two top-ranked genetic risk factors for autism spectrum disorder/intellectual disability (ASD/ID) lead to these neurodevelopmental disorders. 

David Poulsen, PhD, professor of translational neuroscience in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, died June 16 at Buffalo General Hospital after an extended illness.

He was 59.

A woman’s right to the best health care includes the right to the best reproductive health care, Allison Brashear says.

The Office of Research and Graduate Education conducted its sixth annual white coat ceremony to recognize 19 students from the Class of 2021-2022 in the PhD Program in Biomedical Sciences (PPBS) who are matching to their doctoral laboratories.

Mark D. Hicar, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases, wrote a chapter titled “The Vaccine, Public Trust, and Doubt,” in the book “Playing With Reality: Denying, Manipulating, Converting, and Enhancing What is There.”

UB receives $4 million from NIAID to develop new treatments that prevent 'hypermutations' in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

John J. Leddy, MD ’85, clinical professor of orthopaedics and one of the foremost world leaders in the diagnosis and treatment of concussion, has received the 2022 Stockton Kimball Award for outstanding scientific achievement and service.

The scientist, who with a collaborator, invented and developed the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that is the basis for Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines, embodies the textbook definition of perseverance.

UB’s Global Health Day Symposium brought together experts from WHO, NIH and UB to discuss the next stages of response to the pandemic.

The Women’s Vascular Summit, hosted at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, continues to shine a light on disparities in vascular care between men and women and to promote research and education to initiate change.

Twenty-eight doctoral, 62 master’s and 205 baccalaureate candidates were eligible to receive degrees in biomedical science fields during the May commencement ceremony.

The school lit its atrium orange and encouraged its members to wear the color to honor those who have died or been injured by gun violence.

Dara Kass met with UB and community partners about the innovative opioid treatment program developed by UB physicians.

New research led by Jian Feng, PhD, professor of physiology and biophysics, has important implications for developing future treatments for Parkinson’s disease (PD), a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement, often including tremors.

Arin Bhattacharjee, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology, has been selected to serve on the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Neuropathy of Pain and Itch (NPI) Study Section for a four-year term.

The induction of Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences medical students, residents, fellows and faculty into UB’s Richard Sarkin Medical Emeritus Faculty Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) provided an opportunity to shine a light on countless acts of compassion.

Paxlovid, the COVID-19 medicine developed by Pfizer, is being evaluated in Western New York in children who are symptomatic with COVID-19 infection, and who are at risk of progression to severe disease.

The Jacobs School community expressed its thanks to retired Buffalo police officer Aaron Salter, whose actions on May 14 likely saved lives.

The reviews are in. The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ virtual talent show continues to be an unqualified success.

Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia had a 13.5% survival advantage when treated with a combination of leukotriene inhibitors (LTIs) and the steroid dexamethasone.

New research on an enigmatic neurotransmitter receptor in the brain reveals it may be a promising target for future novel therapeutic treatments for a host of neurological diseases, according to Gabriela K. Popescu, PhD, professor of biochemistry.