2012-2013 Physician-Scientist Speaker Series
The University System of Georgia MD/PhD Program presents the inaugural Physician-Scientist Speaker Series. The series features prominent dual-degree physician-scientists from across the country. Faculty, students, residents and fellows are encouraged to attend these seminars that focus on career progression/development with clinical work and scientific research.
Sponsored by:
The Office of the President
The Vice President for Research
Chair of the Department of Medicine
The Medical College of Georgia Dean's Office
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Thursday, October 18, 2012 12N - 1 PM Auditoria Center, BC 130 Lars Berglund, MD, PhD Senior Associate Dean for Research, UC Davis Medical Center "Lipoprotein(a)—at the translational crossroads of biochemistry, genetics and cardiology" As the Senior Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Berglund oversees all aspects of the School of Medicine research portfolio at UC Davis Medical Center. In his capacity as the Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Center and the PI for the NIH CTSA award, he is responsible for all CTSC infrastructure activities, including services, education and translational science projects. He currently serves in an advisory capacity to national organizations (NIH, AAMC, AHA, Endocrine Society) and he represents the SOM at the institutional and national level in issues related to research. Dr. Berglund’s research focus is in the area of lipoprotein metabolism and cardiovascular disease and his research is funded by NIH. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and is a member of the Editorial Board of several journals. |
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Thursday, November 15, 2012 12N - 1 PM Auditoria Center, BC 130 Chadwick McKinley Hales, MD, PhD Senior Associate of Neurology, Emory University University System of Georgia MD/PhD Alumnus, Class of 2005 “From neurology residency to microelectrode arrays, gephyrin, and RNA splicing” Dr. Chadwick Hales graduated from the University System of Georgia MD/PhD Program in 2005. He pursued a Neurology residency at Emory University and is now a Senior Associate of Neurology, Research Track, at Emory University. Dr. Hales sees patients with cognitive problems in clinic weekly and dedicates his research to advancing our understanding of the basic cellular mechanisms in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Dr. Hales is active in medical education and helps trains second and third year medical students at Emory University. He has published numerous articles in refereed journals and has served as a grant reviewer for the American Academy of Neurology summer scholars for the past four years. |
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Thursday, December 6, 2012 12N - 1 PM Auditoria Center, BC 140 Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology, Duke University “The Synapse Whisperer: What listening to synapses has revealed about the mechanisms of compulsive behavioral disorders in mouse models” Dr. Nicole Calakos joined the Movement Disorders program at Duke University in 2005. She received her MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University. A residency in Neurology was completed at the University of California-San Francisco. Thereafter, Dr. Calakos returned to Stanford University for a fellowship to gain laboratory research expertise in synaptic plasticity as well as subspecialty clinical experience in Movement Disorders before joining the Duke faculty in 2005. At Duke, in addition to seeing patients in the clinic, Dr. Calakos runs a laboratory research program whose goal is to understand how defects in synaptic transmission within the basal ganglia circuitry contribute to diseases such as Parkinson’s, dystonia, and compulsive behaviors. Her research program is nationally recognized and she has been the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Klingenstein Fellowship in the Neurosciences and NARSAD Young Investigator Award, in addition to NIH funding from the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). |
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Thursday, January 17, 2013 12N - 1 PM Auditoria Center, BC 140 Mark Knepper, MD, PhD Principal Investigator, Epithelial Systems Biology Laboratory, NHLBI, Division of Intramural Research ”Vasopressin signaling in renal collecting duct” Mark Knepper is an MD/PhD biomedical engineer with a lifelong interest in systems biology. His studies concentrate on the physiology and pathophysiology of the kidney, with particular focus on regulation of water and NaCl transport in the kidney by the peptide hormone vasopressin. Dr. Knepper received a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, a PhD in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), and an MD from CWRU. He did an internship and residency in internal medicine at Boston University Hospital. He also has an honorary PhD from the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Dr. Knepper has published over 400 peer reviewed papers on renal physiology, hypertension, nephrology, and systems biology. His awards include the H.W. Smith Award (the highest award of the American Society of Nephrology), the R.W. Berliner Award at Yale University, the C.W. Gottschalk Award of the American Physiological Society, and the D. W. Seldin Lectureship of the American Heart Association (Council on the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease).
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Thursday, February 21, 2013 12N - 1 PM Auditoria Center, BC 140 Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University ”Translational Approaches from the Neurobiology of Fear to Disorders of Fear and Anxiety" Dr. Ressler’s expertise is in translational neuroscience, specifically focused on biological mechanisms of fear disorders and their underlying neurocircuitry. He has received numerous national research awards for basic and translational research on fear in animals and humans including recently being named an HHMI Investigator, the Freedman Award in Basic Science from NARSAD and the Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund; and previously, the Pfizer Fellowship in Biological Psychiatry, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America Junior Faculty Award, two NARSAD young investigator awards, a Rockefeller Brother’s Fund Young Investigator Scholarship, and K01 from the National Institutes of Health. He is currently Principal Investigator (PI) on 3 R01 grants and an RC1 Challenge Grant to understand translational, genetic and psychological risk factors for PTSD. |
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Thursday, March 14, 2013 12N - 1 PM Auditoria Center, BC 140 Jim Goldenring, MD, PhD Professor of Surgery, Vanderbilt University University System of Georgia MD/PhD Program Director from 1994-2002 "Understanding plasticity in life, metaplasia and carcinogenesis" James R. Goldenring received his MD and PhD degrees from Yale University in 1986. Following residency training in general surgery from 1986 to 1988 at Yale New Haven Hospital, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in surgical research as an American College of Surgeons Research Fellow. In 1993, Dr. Goldenring relocated to the Medical College of Georgia as one of the founding members of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and an Associate Professor of Medicine and Cell Biology. He was promoted to Professor in 1998 and assumed the position of Chief of the Program in Cell Signaling for the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics. Dr. Goldenring also served as the founding Director of the Georgia University System MD/PhD Program from 1994 to 2002. In 2002, Dr. Goldenring moved to Vanderbilt University as the Paul Sanger Professor of Surgery and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. In 2009, Dr. Goldenring became Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Epithelial Biology Center. Dr. Goldenring has received continuous funding from both the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health since 1990. Dr. Goldenring’s research spans multiple topics across the broad area of epithelial biology. He has been a leader in investigation of the roles of specific roles of Rab small GTPases in regulating vesicle trafficking and membrane recycling in polarized cells. His recent studies are focused on how these small GTPases may regulate cell polarity and the initiation of gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Goldenring was also one of the earliest investigators in the field of A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs). His work has focused on the characterization of a large multiply spliced gene coding for the AKAP350 family of scaffolding proteins. His work ahs determined important roles for AKAP350 in the regulation of centrosomal and Golgi apparatus structure and function. In addition, his recent work has demonstrated that AKAP350 is an important regulator of RNA trafficking along microtubules. Finally, Dr. Goldenring has been a leader in the field of gastric cancer research focusing on the mechanisms responsible for the induction of metaplasia and specific markers for metaplastic and neoplastic transitions. Importantly, his recent findings have shown that pre-neoplastic metaplasia does not arise from professional mucosal stem cells, but rather from transdifferentiation of mature chief cells into a proliferative metaplasia. These studies have major implications not only for our understanding of the origin of cancer, but also for the identification of treatment and early detection strategies for gastric cancer. |
University System of Georgia
MD | PhD Program
1459 Laney Walker, CB 2200
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