Page 2 - Pharmacology Newsletter 2022

Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics Graduate Program
Note from the Director of Graduate Studies—Dr. Scott Dehm
It is my distinct plea- sure to write my in- augural message as Director of Graduate Studies for the Mo- lecular Pharmacolo- gy and Therapeutics Graduate Program (MPaT)! I began my
appointment as Director of Graduate Stud- ies (DGS) in July, so I don’t have a lot of ex- periences and observations to draw from to share in this note. However, what I have experienced and observed so far makes me excited for the rest of my first year as the MPaT DGS, as well as future service in his role. I am particularly grateful to the out- going DGS, Dr. Colin Campbell, who led the graduate program with passion and integrity for 14 years. He has been very generous with his time whenever I have questions like “how does this work?” or “what have you done in this situation?”. I am also grateful to our talented and capa- ble Graduate Program Coordinator (GPC), Marie Lindloff, who started her first year in this role during Dr. Campbell’s last year as DGS, She has the skill and knowledge of someone that has been in the GPC role for many years, and I learn from her every week. As the students and graduate fac- ulty in the MPaT program know very well, Marie is the reason our graduate program runs smoothly and our community is strong.
I have enjoyed getting to know the cur- rent graduate students in our program, as well as the new students who joined our learning community this fall. Noteworthy, this new group of students represents the first incoming class of the MPaT Graduate Program, which is a rebranding of the for- mer Graduate Program in Pharmacology. These new members include 16 first-year PhD students and 7 first-year MS students, whom I met at our MPaT Student Orienta- tion on September 6, 2022. Marie recruit- ed a wellness coach to present during this
orientation program on the topic of “Pro- active Self Care: Intentional Planning to Prevent Burnout”. Marie opened this ses- sion to all current MPaT students, and the turnout was overwhelmingly positive. This demonstrated strong interest in this type of programming, and we intend to deliver on this going forward.
Recently, we have requested Advising Statements from the MPaT graduate faculty, which are being posted online to com- municate individual advisors’ training expectations to current and prospective students. Thanks to those of you who have followed through on this important initia- tive! I have also had the pleasure of work- ing with the MPaT Steering Committee to appoint 4 new members to the MPaT graduate faculty this year. These new members include Dr. Branden Moriarity, an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics whose lab generates and ge- netically modifies primary human lympho- hematopoietic cells for research and ther- apy, Dr. Alon Herschhorn, an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine whose research is elucidating the molec- ular and cellular mechanisms underlying the interactions of the human immuno- deficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) with target cells and the immune system, Dr. William Pomerantz, an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry whose research characterizes epigenetic regulatory pro- teins and their role in disease, and also de- velops synthetic inhibitors for perturbing these processes as potential epigenetic therapies, and Dr. Paul Robbins, a Profes- sor in the Department of Biochemistry, Mo- lecular Biology, and Biophysics who is de- veloping approaches to regulate immune function for treatment of autoimmune diseases, cancer, senescence, aging, and age-related degenerative diseases. Drs. Moriarity, Herschhorn, Pomerantz, and Robbins bring the MPaT graduate faculty rank to 82 members, which collectively provide unrivaled training opportunities for MPaT MS and PhD students.
Graduations
Two PhD students completed their pro- gram requirements in 2022: Timothy Rose (advisor: Kevin Wickman) successfully de- fended his thesis in January (Relevance of inhibitory G protein-dependent signal- ing in prelimbic pyramidal neurons to co- caine-related behavior) and he is currently working as a medical writer for Medline In- dustries. Bethany Crouse (advisor: Marco Pravetoni) successfully defended her thesis in August (Identifying mechanisms and biomarkers predictive of efficacy of vaccines against opioid use disorders and overdose) and she is currently working as a Research Project Manager for HealthPart- ners. Good luck to Nawal Yahya (advisor: Jonathan Marchant) who will defend her thesis (Engagement of human host recep- tors by the antiparasitic drug praziquantel) on December 19, and to Maram Essawy (advisor: Colin Campbell) who will also be defending her thesis (The orchestration of DNA-protein crosslink recognition and repair in mammalian cells) in December.
We would like to recognize the following students for earning their MS degrees in Pharmacology in 2022: Jacklyn Artymiuk (advisor: Will Pomerantz); Jack Brown (advisor: Wensheng Lin); Yanjun Chen (advisor: Rueben Harris); Jongseok (Jay) Kang (advisor: Colin Campbell); Aaron Khaimraj (advisor: Marco Pravetoni); Tanvi Mathur (advisor: Branden Moriarity); Siddharth Sobti (advisor: Angela Birn- baum); Mei Kuen (Alex) Tang (advisor: Stephen Hecht); Michael Woods (advisor: Kevin Wickman); Dawei Zong (advisor: Hai Dang Nguyen).
UMN River Clean Up
2 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACOLOGY