He will present "Deciphering Signal Patterning in Health and Disease" at noon on Thursday, Jan. 20, in the Strada Patient Care Center conference room. Lunch will be served.
For more information, contact Patrick Carlisle at 251-471-7753 or pcarlisle@health.southalabama.edu.
Short- and long-term neurocognitive dysfunction is common among critically ill patients who develop pneumonia, but the reasons behind this dysfunction are poorly understood. The dysfunction can present as impaired learning and memory, or as anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Our recent work demonstrates that bacteria causes a tau protein found within the lung to become dysfunctional; it becomes cytotoxic to the lung and the brain,” said Troy Stevens, Ph.D., director of the USA Center for Lung Biology. “Dysfunctional tau moves from the lung through the circulation to the brain, where it impairs the physiological processes responsible for learning and memory.”
Stevens, who also is professor and chair of physiology and cell biology at the USA College of Medicine, said their studies suggest that cytotoxic variants of tau represent a novel therapeutic target during lung infection.
“Effectively removing the cytotoxic tau from the lung, the circulation and the brain may help the lung, brain and other organs recover from infection; and it may improve patient health in the aftermath of their illness,” he said.
Further, severely ill patients may be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to support their heart and/or lungs. “In this study, we found cytotoxic forms of tau in the ECMO oxygenators, illustrating how the tau circulates throughout the body in infected patients who are critically ill,” Stevens said.
Lead investigators of the study, which recently was published in The FASEB Journal, were Ron Balczon, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; Ji Young Lee, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology and cell biology; and Mike T. Lin, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and cell biology.
Supporting authors from USA were Phoibe Renema, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow; Sarah Voth, Ph.D., recent graduate; Chun Zhou, research associate; Anna Koloteva, research technician; Michael Francis, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology and cell biology; Jessica Bell, research technologist; Chung-sik Choi, research associate; and Stevens.
The USA Center for Lung Biology comprises more than 40 faculty members and 25 postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows, and graduate students representing both basic and clinical science departments, all interested in aspects of lung biology.
The FASEB Journal, published in cooperation with the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, is an international journal covering transdisciplinary research in all fields of biology.
View the full article: “Pneumonia initiates a tauopathy.”
Age: 36 1/2 (almost)
Class of: 2022
Hometown: Athens, Ala.
Undergrad/grad institution: University of Alabama at Birmingham (Go Blazers!)
Degrees earned: Bachelor of Science in molecular biology, minor in chemistry
Interests/hobbies: Aquaponics, brewing beer, Call of Duty, shooting guns, volunteering with veterans and special needs children
Something unique about me: Nothing. I’m as basic as they come, unfortunately. 😃
Three of my favorite things: Charlie, Atom, Adenine (current kiddos)
What I enjoy most about being a student at the USA College of Medicine: I have enjoyed the leadership opportunities afforded to me, the positive learning environments (clinical and pre-clinical), and I appreciate how responsive the administration has been to the needs of the student body.
All music styles are welcome. Tickets for admission to the show will go on sale later this month. The performance will be March 31 at the Soul Kitchen in downtown Mobile.
Learn more at www.usahealthsystem.com/doc-rock.
“In the United States, cervical cancer causes significant mortality in racially disparate women living under constant socioeconomic stress. In fact, the mortality rate for cervical cancer is the highest in Alabama and continues to rise every year,” Dasgupta said. “Our goal is to identify the early epigenetic changes in cervical cancer to help in risk assessment and develop improved prevention strategies in these women.”
Dasgupta, an assistant professor of pathology at the USA College of Medicine, is the principal investigator of the project. “My long-term goals are to identify specific factors relating to high mortality due to cervical cancer in our region and work in collaboration to reduce the existing disparity gaps,” he said.
The study will be conducted in collaboration with Ajay Singh, Ph.D., head of the Cancer Biology and Cancer Health Disparities Programs at the MCI and professor of pathology at the USA College of Medicine; and Jennifer Young Pierce, M.D., M.P.H., a gynecologic oncologist, head of the Cancer Control and Prevention Program at the MCI, and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the USA College of Medicine.
The Elsa U. Pardee Foundation awards one-year grants for research projects devoted to the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer. Since 1944, the foundation has given $110.5 million to more than 300 nonprofit institutions across the United States.
