What's the Buzz?

March 2024

Honors & Awards - March

Omer Awan, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was named the recipient of the Alliance of Clinician-Educators in Radiology (ACER)’s 2024 ACER Achievement Award, which honors a leader in radiology education who displays significant contributions to ACER, education, and academic radiology. The ACER Achievement Award presentation will be given on April 3, 2024, in Boston, MA, during the Alliance of Medical Student Education in Radiology Lucy Squire and American College of Radiology-Association of Program Directors in Radiology Keynote Lecture at the Association of University Radiologists’ annual meeting. Dr. Awan also is a Scripps News Medical Contributor, appearing every Wednesday night on Scripps News to discuss a topic in healthcare or public health.
 

Joseph Cheer, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurobiology, was elected fellow for the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology at the last annual meeting held in Florida in December 2023. Dr. Cheer also has been appointed as Basic Science Research Training Track Leader for the Center for Advanced Research Training & Innovation (CARTI).

Meagan Deming, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, was selected to attend ADVAC, the Advanced Vaccinology Course, in Annecy, France, in May 2024.

Vasken Dilsizian, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was selected as the recipient of the 2024 “Mario Verani Memorial Lecture Award,” which is considered one of the highest honors bestowed by the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC). The election for this award is based on his outstanding contributions in research, teaching, and patient care. The meeting will be held in Austin, TX, September 5-7, 2024.

Appointments - March

Paul Staats, MD, Professor of Pathology and Assistant Director of Anatomic Pathology Laboratory Operations, and a nationally recognized expert in cytopathology and gynecologic pathology, has been appointed Interim Chair of Pathology and the Department of Medical & Research Technology, effective February 1, 2024.

Emerson Wickwire, PhD, Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, has been appointed as the Associate Editor for the journal Research Directions: Sleep Psychology. He will serve a three-year term.

New Faculty - March

Melissa Ana Liriano Vyfhuis, MD, PhD, joined the Department of Radiation Oncology on January 16, 2024, as an Associate Professor. She will serve as Medical Director of the department’s new Radiation Oncology Center on the campus of the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center in Largo, MD.

In the News - March

Vasken Dilsizian, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was interviewed on the subject of “Cardiac Nuclear Medicine Stress Test: What to Look For?” by Maureen Umeh, FOX-5 DC (WTTG-TV), Washington, DC, on February 25, 2024.

Matthew Laurens, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics, Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, was interviewed on the Fox45 Baltimore News “CDC Issues Health Alert over Measles Outbreak,” on February 2, 2024. 

Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, FIDSA, the Myron M. Levine, MD, DTPH Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, was quoted in numerous outlets regarding a clinical study that supports the long-lasting impacts of typhoid conjugate vaccine. Sources included News Medical Life Science, Medical Xpress, Helio, The Mirage, HealthDay, and Managed Healthcare Executive.

Presentations, Events, Lectures & Workshops - March

Robert Bloch, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology, presented a lecture to students at University College, London, by Zoom on February 8, 2024, entitled “Xenografts of Skeletal Muscle to Study Muscular Dystrophies.”

Wilbur Chen, MD, MS, FIDSA, the Frank M. Calia, MD Endowed Professor, Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, presented “Foodborne Infections” at the UMSOM Department of Medicine Grand Rounds on January 24, 2024, as well as at the UMSOM Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds on February 1, 2024.

Vasken Dilsizian, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, delivered an oral presentation entitled “Hot Spot Imaging for the Assessment of Cardiovascular Infection” at the 2024 Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Mid-Winter Meeting, which was held in Orlando, FL, on February 2, 2024.

Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, FIDSA, the Myron M. Levine, MD, DTPH Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD), was an invited speaker at the virtual VaxCo Science Seminar Series, where she presented "Can Influenza Challenge Models Accelerate Vaccine Development?" on January 31, 2024. She also was an invited presenter at the virtual Stanford MED232, where she presented on “Vaccines as Tools for Health Equity” on January 31, 2024.

Phuoc Tran, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the authors of “Prognostic Value of PSMA-Extracellular Vesicles in Oligometastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer Treated with Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy: A Multi-Center Observational Study,” which was presented on February 14, 2024, at the 2024 American Society for Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, CA.

Miroslaw Janowski, MD, PhD, Professor, and Piotr Walczak, MD, PhD, Professor, both with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine and two of the co-founders of the Society for Image Guided Neurointerventions (SIGN), were part of the organizing committee for the 4th in-person only SIGN Conference that took place January 5-7, 2024, in Ramoji Film City and at KIMS Hospital in Hyderabad, India.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine was very well represented at the SIGN Conference.

The Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine’s Dheeraj Gandhi, MD, Professor, delivered a keynote lecture on “MR Guided FUS: Next Frontier in Image Guided (Non-Surgical) Neurosurgery.”

Among the invited speakers:

• Linda Chang, MD, MS, Professor, presented “Focused Ultrasound to Enhance Drug Delivery in Humanized NOG-IL34 Mice for Eradication of HIV.”
• Miroslaw Janowski, MD, PhD, Professor, presented “Multi-Scale Image Guidance for Brain Cancer Treatment.”
• Yajie (Kevin) Liang, MB, PhD, Assistant Professor, presented “NanoSynFAST as a Chemigenetic Indicator of Alpha-Synuclein Aggregation Dynamics in Live Cells.”
• Guanda Qiao, PhD, Research Fellow, presented “Novel Combination of Osmotic Blood Brain Barrier Openers.”
• Abdallah Salemdawood, MD, Research Fellow, presented “CRISPR-Based Base Editing of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex 2 Gene in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells.”
• David Gulisashvili, MD, Research Fellow, presented “Image-Guided CD47 Blockade in Conjunction with the Focused Ultrasound-Based Blood-Brain Barrier Opening to Treat Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma in a Mouse Model.”
• Jung Soo Suk, PhD, Faculty Member, Department of Neurosurgery, presented “Focused Ultrasound- and Polymeric Nanoparticle-Mediated Nucleic Acid Delivery to the Brain.”

Research fellows Lukasz Kalkowski, PhD, and Jinghui Wang, PhD, doctoral student Shriya Madan, MsC, and UMBC undergraduate students Mikolaj Walczak and Colleen Russel received the very prestigious Gullapalli Young Investigator Awards, established this year in honor of Rao Gullapalli, PhD, MBA, an esteemed professor and vice-chair for research in the department, who passed away in April 2023.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded Radiation Oncology–Biology Integration Network (ROBIN) held its first annual symposium on January 18-19, 2024, at the University of Maryland Baltimore, hosted by the ROBIN Oligometastasis (OligoMET) Center, based in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

Funding for the ROBIN OligoMET Center at Maryland was awarded to project director/PI Phuoc T. Tran, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, and additional PIs Amit Sawant, PhD, Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, and Nicole Simone, MD, from Thomas Jefferson University, in August 2022, with support of more than $7.5 million over five years. ROBIN OligoMET projects are studying the ways in which radiation treatment can affect the metastatic process, particularly in low-volume or oligometastatic prostate cancer, to identify new treatment approaches.

Publications - March

Omer Awan, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was the last author of the following publications: “The Era of Artificial Intelligence in Radiology: How to Prepare for a Different Future;” “Benefits and Methods of Educating Undergraduate Medical Students on Contrast Media;” and “Disability in Radiology,” which were e-published in Academic Radiology in January 2024, December 2023, and November 2023, respectively.

Kevin Byrne, MSc, Research Medical Physicist; Yannick Poirier, PhD, Assistant Professor; Junliang Xu, PhD, Assistant Professor; Amit Sawant, PhD, Professor; and Kai Jiang, PhD, Medical Physics Resident, were among the authors of “Technical Note: A Small Animal Irradiation Platform for Investigating the Dependence of the FLASH effect on electron Beam Parameters,” which was published on January 11, 2024, ahead of print in Medical Physics.

Huanwen Chen, MD; Marco Colasurdo, MD, Fellow; Timothy Miller, MD, Professor; Jose Marino, MD, Fellow; Dheeraj Gandhi, MBBS, Professor; and Gaurav Jindal, MD, Professor, all with the Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, along with Michael Phipps, MD, MHS, Associate Professor; Carolyn Cronin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor; Marcella Wozniak, MD, PhD, Professor; and Seemant Chaturvedi, MD, Stewart J. Greenebaum Endowed Professor of Stroke Neurology, all with the Department of Neurology, and Jacob Cheria, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, were the authors of “The BAND Score: a Simple Model for Upfront Prediction of Poor Outcomes Despite Successful Stroke Thrombectomy,” which was published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases on January 27, 2024. Epub ahead of print. Dr. Chen was the first author and Dr. Jindal was the last author.

Hua-Ren R. Cherng, MD, Medical Resident, and Mark Mishra, MD, Professor, both with the Department of Radiation Oncology, were among the authors of “Evaluating the Sensitivity of EQ-5D-5L in Patients with Brain Metastases: A Secondary Analysis of NRG CC001,” which was published on January 27, 2024, ahead of print in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.  

Vasken Dilsizian, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, was the primary author of a book chapter entitled “Myocardial Viability Assessment by Nuclear Techniques,” which was published in Nuclear Cardiac Imaging: Principles and Applications.

Jason Falvey, PT, DPT, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, was a co-author of the publication titled "Community Mobility Among Older Adults Who Are Socioeconomically Disadvantaged: Addressing the Poverty Penalty," which was published in Physical Therapy on December 29, 2023.

• Dr. Falvey was also the senior author of the publication titled "Impact of Dementia and Socioeconomic Disadvantage on Days at Home after Traumatic Brain Injury among Older Medicare Beneficiaries: A Cohort Study," which was published in Alzheimer's & Dementia on January 31, 2024.
   

Martin Flajnik, PhD, Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, was senior author of “The Immunoglobulin J Chain is an Evolutionarily Co-opted Chemokine,” which was published in PNAS on January 16, 2024. Yuko Ota, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, was a co-author. 

Vicki Gray, MPT, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, was a co-author of the book chapter titled "Balance Dysfunction" in Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology.  

Michy Kelly, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology, and her lab members authored a new publication exploring the functional impacts of PDE11A variants linked to sleep quality (Y727C) and high-risk suicide (M878V): “The Sleep Quality- and Myopia-Linked PDE11A-Y727C Variant Impacts Neural Physiology by Reducing Catalytic Activity and Altering Subcellular Compartmentalization of the Enzyme,” which was published in Cells on December 14, 2023.

Jason Molitoris, MD, PhD, Associate Professor; William F. Regine, MD, the Isadore & Fannie Schneider Foxman Chair of Radiation Oncology and Professor; and Phuoc Tran, MD, PhD, Professor, all with the Department of Radiation Oncology, were among the authors of “A Longitudinal Metagenomic Comparative Analysis of Oral Microbiome Shifts in Patients Receiving Proton Radiation Versus Photon Radiation for Head and Neck Cancer,” which was published in the Journal of Cancer and Allied Specialties on January 22, 2024.

• Dr. Molitoris, along with Sina Mossahebi, PhD, Associate Professor, were among the authors of “Dosimetric Evaluation and Reproducibility of Breath-Hold Plans in Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy: An Initial Clinical Experience,” which was published in the March 2024 e-collection of Advances in Radiation Oncology.
    

Elizabeth Parker, PhD, RD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, was a co-author of the publication titled "A Feasibility Study Describing the Successes and Challenges of Implementing a Virtual Community Health Worker Training Among High School Students Participating in a Summer STEM Enrichment Program," which was published in the Journal of STEM Outreach on January 22, 2024.

Yannick Poirier, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the authors of “Achieving Consistent Reporting of Radiation Dosimetry by Adoption of Compatibility in Irradiation Research Protocols Expert Roundtable (CIRPER) Recommendations,” which was published on January 11, 2024, ahead of print in Radiation Research.

Phuoc Tran, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the authors of “Cardiovascular Mortality and Duration of Androgen Deprivation in Locally Advanced Prostate Cancer: Long-Term Update of NRG/RTOG 9202,” which was published on February 1, 2024, ahead of print in European Urology Focus.

Marco Venniro, PhD, Assistant Professor, his lab members, and Adam Puche, PhD, Professor and Vice Chairman, and his colleagues, all in the Department of Neurobiology, authored “Social Odor Choice Buffers Drug Craving,” which was published in Neuropsychopharmacology on December 21, 2023. Kimberly Papastrat is the first author.

Emerson Wickwire, PhD, Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, was lead author of "Depression and Comorbid Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Association between Positive Airway Pressure Adherence, Occurrence of Self-harm Events, Healthcare Resource Utilization, and Costs," which was accepted for publication in the Journal of Affective Disorders on December 26, 2023.
 

• Dr. Wickwire also was lead author of "Virtual First: Implementation of a Novel Sleep Telehealth Platform in the United States Military," which was accepted for publication in Frontiers in Sleep on January 8, 2024.
• He was also lead author of “Occult, Undiagnosed Obstructive Sleep Apnea is Associated with Increased Healthcare Resource Utilization and Costs among Older Adults with Comorbid Depression: A Retrospective Cohort Study among Medicare Beneficiaries,” which was accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine on November 28, 2023.
  
  

Jean Yared, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, was the senior author of a multi-institution study entitled “Phase 2 Trial of Defibrotide for the Prevention of CAR-T-cell-associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome,” which was published in Blood Advances on November 14, 2023.

• Dr. Yared also was the senior author of the UMGCCC single center experience entitled “Outcomes of Busulfan, Fludarabine, and 400 cGy Total Body Irradiation Compared With Busulfan and Fludarabine Reduced-Intensity Conditioning Regimens for Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation in Adult Patients With Hematologic Diseases: A Single-Center Experience,” which was published in the February 2023 issue of Transplantation Proceedings.
   

Reza Zarinshenas, MD, Medical Resident; Kai Sun, PhD, Statistician; Jason Molitoris, MD, PhD, Associate Professor; and Matthew Ferris, MD, Assistant Professor, all with the Department of Radiation Oncology, were among the authors of “Disease and Toxicity Outcomes for A Modern Cohort of Patients with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Cutaneous Origin Involving the Parotid Gland: Comparison of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy and Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy,” which was published on February 1, 2024, ahead of print in Radiotherapy and Oncology.

Michael Zarro, PT, DPT, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, is a co-author of the publication titled, "Resistance Training: Put the Physical into PT for Older Adults," which was published in the January 2024 issue of GeriNotes, a member magazine for APTA Geriatrics (an Academy of the American Physical Therapy Association). Fellow co-authors on the publication are PTRS Alum and Class of 2023 graduates Joanna Ye, PT, DPT, and John Morgan, PT, DPT, DMA.