Dr. Rene Przkora has received one of four awards presented to promising, young investigators from the International Anesthesia Research Society. He received a 2014 IARS Mentored Research Award for $150,000 for his project, “Preconditioning of older patients undergoing hip joint replacement surgery,” which explores the role of anesthesiology in relation to hip replacement surgery from the preoperative period to the surgery’s end. 

Dr. Przkora is a pain management doctor at the UTMB Multispecialty Clinic in League City.  To learn more about his work click here.  

James E. Blankenship has been named the new student ombudsman. His duties will include resolving issues for students and academic leaders. He has served in a number of positions in his four decades at UTMB including director of the neuroscience graduate program, associate dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and director of the M.D.-Ph.D. Combined Degree Program.  

 

Paul Bristol will be joining UTMB Health as administrator for primary care services in early August. Mr. Bristol brings leadership experience and a wealth of expertise to his new role, with a background that encompasses finance, human resources, IT, facility management and faculty support.

He comes to UTMB from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where has worked for more than a decade in various departments, most recently as administrator of the Vascular Surgery Section and Diagnostic Vascular Labs at multiple sites such as the University of Michigan Hospital, North Campus Research Complex, Briarwood Health Associates, Cardiovascular Center, Dominos Farm and remote Vein Clinics.


Alexander Bukreyev, professor in the Departments of Pathology and Microbiology & Immunology, has been awarded roles on multiple five-year grants funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Defense Treaty Reduction Agency totaling more than $6.58 million. Through these projects, Dr. Bukreyev will work to develop antibodies and small molecules to treat Ebola and Marburg infections, investigate their pathogenetic mechanisms and study the innate immunity that allows bats to harbor these viruses.


Lawrence C. Sowers, and Kangling Zhang have been awarded a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to study DNA modification and damage repair pathways in order to better understand genetic changes that drive cancer etiology.


They will work with co-investigators Marxa Figueiredo, assistant professor for the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Dr.Ping Wu, John S. Dunn Distinguished Chair in Neurological Recovery and professor for the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology.

                                               

Dr. Nicola Abate, chief of endocrinology; Dr. Luca Cicalese, director of the Texas Transplant Center; Maria-Adelaide Micci, assistant professor of anesthesiology; Dr. Cristiana Rastellini, director of cellular transplantation and transplant research; and Giulio Taglialatela, director of the Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases will be honored at the The Italian Cultural and Community Center of Houston Gala in August for their work in the medical community. The Italian Cultural and Community Center of Houston celebrates the work of Italian and Italian-Americans.