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Getting A Good Look: Researchers Collaborate to Move Biomedical Research Further, Faster

Monday, November 17, 2014

Four individually accomplished investigators, in four labs, are working toward one goal. The URMC is increasing collaboration among its scientists in order to move biomedical research further, faster. In the process, it’s winning support from the National Institutes of Health.

Deborah J. Fowell, PhD, is very familiar with Leishmania major, a particularly nasty parasite that infects the skin of twelve million people around the world, including more than seven hundred US soldiers who returned from Iraq with “Baghdad boil.” David J. Topham, PhD, is well known for all things-influenza. MinSoo Kim, PhD, is pretty handy at turning living T-cells different colors with beams of light. And James F. Miller, PhD, likes to sit in on cross-talk between T-cells and the molecules that help push them into action.

Read More: Getting A Good Look: Researchers Collaborate to Move Biomedical Research Further, Faster

Researchers Receive $4 Million to Study Common and Costly Cause of Death: Sepsis

Thursday, October 9, 2014

A diverse team of immunologists, engineers and critical care clinicians at the University of Rochester Medical Center received $4 million from the National Institutes of Health to study sepsis, an over-the-top immune response to an infection that leads to organ failure and death in about one third of patients. Beyond administering antibiotics, fluids and other supportive measures, physicians have no specific treatment to stop the syndrome, which is the most expensive condition treated in U.S. hospitals, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Read More: Researchers Receive $4 Million to Study Common and Costly Cause of Death: Sepsis

Yelena Lerman Selected as Recipient for the 2014 International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society (IEIIS) Young Investigator Award

Monday, August 11, 2014

Yelena Lerman, a graduate student in Pharmacology and Physiology and member of the Minsoo Kim Lab, has been selected as a recipient for the 2014 International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society (IEIIS) Young Investigator Award for her abstract, titled: "Massive neutrophil extravasation during sepsis and TLR2-induced cytokine production are regulated by integrin a3ß1." As an awardee Yelena will give an oral presentation Thursday, October 23rd at the SLB IEIIS Joint Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.

Brandon Walling Accepted into Howard Hughes Medical Institute Med-into-Grad Fellowship

Monday, August 4, 2014

Brandon Walling, an IMV graduate student in the Minsoo Kim Lab, has been accepted into the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Med-into-Grad Fellowship in Cardiovascular Science.

In 2005, HHMI launched the Med into Grad (MIG) Initiative to address the growing gap between basic biology and medicine. The Institute recognized that biomedical scientists could benefit from additional training to help them translate biological knowledge into effective medical treatments and diagnostics. MIG training includes the fundamentals of pathobiology, an introduction to how medicine is practiced, and a survey of the problems and challenges faced by medical practitioners.

HHMI has held two MIG Initiative competitions, awarding $26 million in grants to 25 graduate institutions. This funding has enabled them to initiate or enhance existing programs designed to help students obtain the skills necessary to partner with clinician-scientists in the application of emerging biological knowledge to medical practice. These programs train students to recognize and capitalize on translational opportunities that may arise from their research and, in some cases, may influence the direction of their future investigations.

NIH Awards Team of U of R Scientists $9 Million to Study Immune System in Action

Friday, July 18, 2014

Since the early days of Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb, Rochester-area innovators have been making astounding discoveries in optics and imaging. Researchers at the University of Rochester are beginning a major study that will add to the region’s imaging expertise, while also advancing global understanding of how the body’s immune system works.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year, $9 million Research Program Project Grant (PO1) to scientists in the School of Medicine and Dentistry to adapt and develop cutting-edge imaging techniques, allowing them to view the immune system while it is fighting infection and disease.

Read More: NIH Awards Team of U of R Scientists $9 Million to Study Immune System in Action

Yelena Lerman Receives Medical Faculty Council Travel Award

Monday, June 23, 2014

Yelena Lerman is the recipient of the Medical Faculty Council Travel Award in Basic Science Research for Spring 2014. Yelena is in her sixth year of the Pharmacology PhD program under the mentorship of Dr. Minsoo Kim in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. Yelena gave an oral and poster presentation of her work on “Exacerbated tissue homing of neutrophils during sepsis and TLR2-induced cytokine production are regulated by integrin a3b1” at the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) meeting in May 2014. Her work evaluated the surface expression kinetics of b1 and b3 integrin heterodimers on neutrophils during sepsis in both mice and humans. She showed that only integrin a3b1 is significantly upregulated during sepsis. Previous studies suggested a role for IL-10 as a regulator of the transition from mild sepsis to irreversible septic shock. Thus, sepsis progression could be modulated by altering IL-10 release and α3β1 upregulation.

Tara Capece Receives Trainee Poster Award at 2014 AAI Meeting

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Graduate student, Tara Capece received the Trainee Poster Award at the 2014 AAI Immunology Conference for her work, Regulation of the integrin LFA-1 in T cell activation.

Tara is currently working on LFA-1 in T cell activation and migration in Dr. Minsoo Kim's lab. The Kim lab is focused on understanding how T cells and neutrophils home to and migrate within tissues.

Yelena Lerman Receives Trainee Abstract Award at 2014 AAI Meeting

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Graduate student, Yelena Lerman received the Trainee Abstract Award at the 2014 AAI Immunology Conference for her work, Exacerbated tissue homing of neutrophils during sepsis and TLR2-induced cytokine production are regulated by integrin a3b1.

Yelena currently works in Dr. Minsoo Kim's lab.

Young-min Hyun Receives 2014 AAI Early Career Faculty Travel Grant

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Young-min Hyun, a research assistant professor in Minsoo Kim's lab, has received the 2014 AAI Early Career Faculty Travel Grant. Hyun's research focuses on leukocytes migration from blood vessel to inflamed tissue through endothelial cell layer and basement membrane.

Yuexin Xu Receives HHMI Translational Medicine Award

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Yuexin Xu, a graduate student in Minsoo Kim's lab, has received the HHMI translational medicine award at the University of Rochester Annual Poster Competition 2014 for her work Optogenetic control of chemokine receptor signal and T-cell migration.

Tara Capece Awarded NIH/NIAID F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Tara Capece, MS/MPH was awarded an NIH/NIAID F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship for the grant titled: Regulation of the integrin LFA-1 during T cell migration and activation. Tara, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in , Minsoo Kim's lab, was awarded a two and a half year fellowship from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to investigate how the integrin LFA-1 is modulated by chemokine signals and T cell receptor signals to serve different functions, as the former induces cell migration while the later mediated stable cell-to-cell contact. Answering these questions will provide novel insight for vaccine and immunomodulatory drug design.