Published March 18, 2015 This content is archived.
Fourteen faculty members with research and clinical expertise in various specialty areas have joined the school’s faculty during the past several months.
New faculty include:
Jonathan Claus, MD, assistant professor, provides infectious disease consultation services at two Buffalo hospitals and helps treat patients with infectious complications associated with solid organ transplantation. He completed training in infectious diseases at Rush University Medical Center.
Evelena Ontiveros, MD, PhD, is a clinical assistant professor who specializes in hematology and oncology. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in microbiology at the University of Iowa City and has researched a new model of LMP1-MYC interaction in B cell lymphoma.
Madan Kumar Nanjunde Gowda, MD, is a clinical assistant professor who completed his fellowship at UB.
Mohamed O. Atwaibi, MD, assistant professor, completed his fellowship in nephrology at UB.
He has researched persistent lysozymuria following treatment of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.
Mohamad H. Bourji, MD, clinical assistant professor, completed his cardiovascular fellowship at UB.
Mateusz Opyrchal, MD, PhD, clinical assistant professor, completed his oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.
Torin J. Finver, MD, is a clinical instructor and program director of the addiction medicine fellowship, which he completed in 2014. Finver takes a comprehensive, patient-centered approach to treating substance dependency and preventing addiction.
He also is medical director of two local residential rehabilitation service organizations.
Shamim M. Islam, MD, clinical assistant professor, is the infection control officer for pediatrics at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. He has conducted research supported by the Center for Disease Control’s New Vaccine Surveillance Network.
Padmavathi R. Perala, MD, clinical associate professor, has studied the anesthetic management of aortocaval fistula repair and weight loss following coronary artery bypass grafting in obese patients.
Jos Aarts, PhD, research associate professor, focuses on sociotechnical influences and human-centered design.
An elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, Aarts has investigated the impact of computerized provider order entry systems on health care professionals. He has guided doctoral students in studying issues such as drug interaction alert fatigue and workflow changes due to electronic prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines.
David Poulsen, PhD, professor, directed translational research at the University of Montana. His lab focuses on developing therapies to prevent behavioral and cognitive deficits following traumatic brain injury and stroke.
Poulsen’s research has demonstrated neuroprotective qualities of low-dose methamphetamine. He also is exploring adeno-associated virus vector-based gene therapy approaches to treat central nervous system injuries, such as post-traumatic epilepsy.
Cynthia S. Beatty, MD, clinical assistant professor, completed advanced training in pediatric neurology at UB and was recognized for teaching excellence in 2014.
She has researched long-term functional outcomes in children with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.
Lynn M. Connors, BS, clinical assistant professor, also is the chief microbiology technician at Erie County Medical Center.
Syed S. Husain, MD, is a clinical associate professor.