Announcements & News Releases

-8/12/2011:Congratulations to Drs. Bob Skinner and William Culp who have just published a paper in STROKE for which they have received word that it has been reviewed by the Faculty of 1000 (F1000) which is equivalent to an editorial review. The paper is entitled “Successful Microbubble Sonothrombolysis Without Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator in a Rabbit Model of Acute Ischemic Stroke.” It was evaluated by Johannes Boltze a member of the faculty of 1000 which places their work in the top 2% of published articles in biology and medicine. The reviewer wrote, “ … an excellent contribution to the field of translational stroke research, describes the preclinical safety and efficacy assessment of microbubble-based sonothrombolysis for ischemic stroke.” It was given a score of 8 (out of 10) which is a “Must Read” designation.

-7/28/2011: Congratulations to Mrs. Jennifer Watts who successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation on June 28th. It is titled: Novel Mechanisms of Visceral Pain: Functional Properties of Microglia. Jennifer has diligently conducted her research under Dr. Al-Chaer's direction.

-7/1/2011:
*UAMS Press Release regarding Dr. Paul Drew: UAMS’ Drew Coauthors Promising M.S. Discovery

-3/16/2011:
*UAMS Press Release regarding Dr. Gwen Childs: UAMS Researcher Childs Named Prestigious AAA Fellow

-12/2/2010:
*UAMS Press Release regarding Dr. Gwen Childs: UAMS Researcher Finds Genetic Link to Obesity

*KARN and KUAR radio stations have aired taped interviews with Dr. Childs.
*CBS, Channel 11 news (local): Interview and online article, Video
*KARK NBC news broadcast: Genetic Link to Obesity Found by UAMS Researcher
*ABC local news: Study Finds Possible Link To Obesity
*Fox news: Obesity Hormone
*MDLinX editorial commentary: The Somatotrope as a Metabolic Sensor: Deletion of Leptin Receptors Causes Obesity
*Endocrinology Journal: Gwen V. Childs, Noor Akhter, Anessa Haney, Mohsin Syed, Angela Odle, Michael Cozart, Zachary Brodrick, Dana Gaddy, Larry J. Suva, Nisreen Akel, Christopher Crane, Helen Benes, Amanda Charlesworth, Raul Luque, Streamson Chua, and Rhonda D. Kineman. The Somatotrope as a Metabolic Sensor: Deletion of Leptin Receptors Causes Obesity. Endocrinology, Rapid Electronic Publication first published on Nov 17, 2010 as doi:doi:10.1210/en.2010-0498. Abstract, full pdf article from our website

-7/20/2010: Press Release regarding Dr. Robert Burns: UAMS’ Robert Burns Helps Arkansas Teachers Through Partnership

-6/10/2010: Congratulations to Jennifer and Martin Watts for having been individually selected for Diversity Travel Awards ($500/each) to attend the 25th Annual National MD/PhD Student Conference that is scheduled for July 23rd-25th in Keystone, Colorado. Only ten of these awards are given, and they both certainly merit this honor, as was evident from your recent presentations at the UAMS’s First Annual MD/PhD Student Symposium in late April.

-6/1/2010: Press Release regarding Dr. Garcia-Rill: Brain Mechanism Could Be Key to New Stimulants, Anesthetics. UAMS News Bureau.

-11/25/2009: Press Release regarding Drs. Cynthia Kane and Paul Drew: Alcohol, the brain under study -  3 Grants helping UAMS team look for treatment medicines - Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Download this article in pdf

-10/27/2009: Congratulations to Dr. Edgar Garcia-Rill. He received the Chancellor’s Faculty teaching award. He was presented by Dean Bobby Mcgehee, from the Graduate School (one of two awardees). Bobby reminded us that Edgar came here over 3 decades ago, in 1978 (joking that he came with the Arkansas Land Rush). However, Bobby noted that whereas many faculty have come and gone, Edgar has stayed here, building UAMS and the Department and his entire career. He noted his tremendous research program and the fact that he has mentored over 15 graduate students. He pointed out how important the mentoring process is, helping students design experiments, holding their hands when the experiments fail and helping them become scientists, training tomorrow’s graduate faculty. Edgar has done an outstanding job and the award is well deserved.

-10/12/2009: Congratulations to Christen Simon and her advisor, Dr. Edgar Garcia-Rill. Christen won the Best Poster by a Graduate Student at the Arkansas Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience meeting today. The title of her poster is "Differential Responses of PPN Neurons to Kainate and Cholinergic Receptor Agonists"

-9/28/2009: Congratulations to Dr. Cindy Kane for the receipt of her R01, funding date 9/30/2009 (She is PI, Paul Drew is Co-I). We learned that it received the highest score in the study section that reviewed the RFA’s. This is quite an achievement! Way to go Cindy!

Yuzhi Chen’s R01 grant got a score at the 5th percentile (she is PI). This will be her first R01!
Abdallah Hayar is Co-I on a grant that got a score at the 5th percentile.

Dr. Drew has received notice that his RC-1 grant is awarded (he is PI, Cindy Kane is Co-I)! This is the only one at UAMS as far as we know. We also think it is one of 300-400 out of 22,500 submissions thus far. So, that is quite an achievement! We will be sending out a press release soon. Paul also received an award notice that his R21 is funded (he is PI, Cindy is Co-I). So they have a lot to celebrate.

Congratulations to Mrs. Jennifer Watt and Chaoxuan Dong and their mentors, Drs. Elie Al-Chaer and Sunny Anand who received white lab coats today in the Induction Ceremony.

Also, Jennifer received an Achievement award based on the Awarding of her NRSA Pre-doctoral Fellowship for 4 years (the award notice was received today).

In addition, Angus MacNicol received an Outstanding Mentor Award for his recent Ph.D. Graduate.