AWARDS AND HONORS

Dr. Shulin Li is the co-editor of a new (2009) book release from Springer titled "Targeted Immune Cancer Therapy". CBS graduate students Jeffry Cutrera and Denada Dibra both contributed chapters to the book.

Dr. Shulin Li has been invited to chair the Physical Gene Therapy Committee of the American Society of Gene Therapy.

Dr. Shulin Li has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Springer on-line journal Biological Proceedures Online (www.biologicalprocedures.com) which will begin publication in January, 2009.

Dr. Shulin Li has been invited to serve on the editorial board of the journal Molecular Biotechnology, published by Humana Press, now in its fifteenth year of publication.

Dr. Henrique Cheng has been invited to give 2 talks on the “Regulation of insulin secretion by TRP proteins” at the meeting of Functional Foods in the Prevention and Control of Diabetes from May 3-10 of 2008 at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kyungpook National University and Daegu Bio Industry Center (DBIC), Daegu, South Korea.

Dr. Arthur Penn has been invited to serve a 3-year term as a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Carbon Monoxide Review Panel.  Among other things,
this panel provides advice to the EPA Administrator regarding the Health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Carbon Monoxide.

A new book from Humana press has just been published titled "ELECTROPORATION PROTOCOLS, Preclinical and Clinical Gene Medicine." Dr. Shulin Li is the Editor of this book, as well as the contributor of several chapters. The book is one in the Methods in Molecular Biology series published by Humana.

Dr. George Strain presented two invitedtalks on deafness in dogs and cats at the 11th Congreso Internacional de Medicina, Cirugía y Zootecnia en Perros, Gatos y otras Mascotas, in Alcapulco, Mexico, April 24-25, 2008. The congress was sponsored by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the Federación Canofila Mexicana (Mexican Kennel Club).

Dr. George Strain gave two invited presentations on deafness in dogs at the National Veterinary College (Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse) in Toulouse, France, in March, 2008, where he was also presented with the University Medal.

Dr. Arthur Penn has been invited to serve on an American Heart Association study section meeting in March, 2008.

Dr. Gary Wise's research on tooth eruption was featured in an article entitled "Lifting the Lid on Tooth Eruption" published in the autumn, 2007 issue of LSU Research.

Dr. Gary Wise has been invited to be a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the 2008 Conferences on Orthodontic Advances in Science and Technology (COAST) meeting.  The conference will be titled "Biomedicine in orthodontics: From tooth movement to facial growth" and will be held September 11-14, 2008, at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, Calif.

Dr. Steven Barker received the University of Alabama - Birmingham School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Outstanding Alumni Award for 2007.

Dr. Shulin Li has been invited to serve on the Non-viral Vector Committee of the American Society for Gene Therapy for the next three years. He has also been asked to give an invited presentation at that organization's annual conference in June.

RESEARCH AND INSTRUCTION

NIH grants and administrative supplements to NIH grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 awarded in CBS:

• Dr. Henrique Cheng received an RO3 award of $150,000 for two years (08/01/2009-07/31/2011). The project title is "Role of Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin type 4 in dental follicle stem cell differentiation."
• Dr. Marxa L. Figueiredo has received an Administrative Supplement Award to her NIH K01 grant entitled, “Regulation of Normal and Neoplastic Growth,” under the ARRA for $100,000 for two years (09/30/2009-09/29/2011).
• Dr. Shulin Li received a supplement award to the current RO1 project "Gene-Product Auto-Targeting to Tumor Vessels" in the amount of $219,403 (08/01/2009-07/31/2011).
• Dr. Gary E. Wise and Dr. Shaomian Yao have received an Administrative Supplement Award to their NIH R01 grant entitled, “Molecular Basis of Tooth Eruption,” under the ARRA for $97,679 in 2009 and for $76,145 in 2010 (08/01/2009-07/31/2011).
• Dr. Arthur Penn has received a sub-award for his project entitled, “Mitochondrial associated CVD susceptibility in humans and mice” (09/01/2009-08/31/2011). This is a joint award with the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Shireen Hafez was hired as an Instructor in microscopic and macroscopic anatomy beginning August 1, 2009.

Dr. Shulin Li an RO1 renewal award of $1.51 million for the project entitled, "Elimination of residual malignancy by programmed systemic cytokine gene therapy" (09/01/2009-07/31/2014).

Dr. Shaomian Yao was hired as a tenure-track Assistant Professor beginning February 1, 2009.

Dr. Shaomian Yao received an R03 award from NIH for his proje ct entitled "Development of Selection Techniques for Purifying Stem Cells from Dental Tissues" for $147,000 for a period 3/6/09-2/28/11.

Dr. Masami Yoshimura received an R54 award from NIH for his project entitled "Action of Ethanol on Cyclic AMP Signal Transduction" for $344,480 for the period 5/15/08-4/30/09.

Dr. Masami Yoshimura received an R21 award from NIH for his project entitled, “Real-time measurement of ethanol’s effect on cyclic AMP metabolism in live cells” for $360,966 for the period 7/20/08-6/30/10.

Dr. Gary E. Wise, with Dr. Shaomian Yao as co-principal investigator, has been awarded his competitive R01 NIH grant renewal beginning August 1, 2008. The grant is for 5 years with a total funding of almost 1.8 million dollars.  Dr. Wise has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1991.

Dr. Shisheng Li has received a 3-year National Science Foundation grant award entitled, “The role of RNA polymerase II in transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair” for $450,000. The project was funded on its first submission and is the first NSF award in the SVM.

Dr. Ji-Ming Feng was hired as an Associate Professor beginning September 1, 2007.

Dr. Xiaochu Wu was hired as an Instructor and Director of the Microscopy Center beginning October 1, 2007.

Dr. Marxa Figuieredo was hired as an Assistant Professor beginning May 1, 2008.

10/2/09