New neonatology division chief joins Children’s & Women’s Hospital

USA Health is expanding with the addition of Manimaran (Maran) Ramani, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.H.A., M.S.H.Q.S., the new division chief and medical director for the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital. 

Previously, he was the associate fellowship program director for the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and director of the neonatal neuro intensive care unit at UAB.

Ramani will now serve as a professor of pediatrics at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama. He also holds an honorary professorship at UAB.

“I believe in lifelong intellectual stimulation, improvement in patient care through research and teaching the next generation of physicians,” he said. “Academic health centers promote innovation and best practices in patient care through research and education. Hence, I have chosen to work in academic medicine settings.”

In July 2022, Ramani was awarded a three-year grant from The Thrasher Research Foundation to conduct a multinational clinical study, known as the Azithromycin Brain neuroprotection for Children (ABC) study, to determine whether a single oral dose of the antibiotic azithromycin can be repurposed to have neuroprotective benefits for infants who suffer a lack of oxygen to the brain before or during birth. The study is ongoing in five countries: India, Pakistan, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guatemala. Through the grant, Ramani is working with a team of physicians and scientists from those countries to ultimately improve the health outcomes for infants born in low-resources settings. 

Ramani is board certified in general pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine by the American Board of Pediatrics. He completed a fellowship in neonatology at UAB and a pediatric residency at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas.

In addition to medical training, Ramani continued his education to earn master’s degrees in healthcare administration and hospital safety and quality from UAB. His experience includes expertise in strategic planning, operational management, people management, healthcare policy, finance, patient quality and safety knowledge. His research interests include global health and neurodevelopmental outcomes of prematurity and birth asphyxia.

USA Center for Lung Biology announces Murray Bander Faculty Development Award recipients

The USA Center for Lung Biology at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine recently announced the recipients of the 2022 Murray Bander Faculty Development Awards. The $5,000 awards, which provide support for one year, are intended to foster innovative discoveries in pulmonary research.

Natalie Bauer, Ph.D.

Natalie Bauer, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology, will use the funds to further her lab’s research on extracellular vesicle signaling in the pulmonary circulation. “Our lab studies tiny circulating packets of information called extracellular vesicles (EVs),” Bauer explained. “The ones we are currently studying come from pulmonary endothelial cells, which are the cells that line blood vessels in the lung.”  

These EVs contain a molecule called cAMP that can be beneficial to treating a variety of vascular inflammatory diseases, including pulmonary hypertension, she said.  

“We recently found that our EVs containing cAMP can improve outcomes in an animal model of pulmonary hypertension, but we do not fully understand how the EVs work,” Bauer said. “The funding from the Murray Bander Faculty Development Award allows us to study, in a more in-depth way, how the EVs interact with vessels to improve their health.”  

Amy R. Nelson, Ph.D.

Amy R. Nelson, Ph.D. assistant professor of physiology and cell biology, and her lab are examining how pneumonia impacts blood vessels in the brain. Specifically, her team will be investigating a protein known as tau, which is released from the lung in response to pneumonia. “Interestingly, this same protein has been implicated in brain diseases including Alzheimer's disease,” she said. “There is growing appreciation that microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses may impact cognitive function.” 

Scientific research from faculty in the USA Center for Lung Biology, including Mike Lin, Ph.D., Ron Balczon, Ph.D., and Troy Stevens, Ph.D., has shown that a bacteria known to cause pneumonia causes the lung to produce amyloids, previously implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease. 

“Receiving this award will help my lab initiate this new project to understand how pneumonia-elicited tau crosses the blood-brain barrier and impacts blood vessels in the brain," Nelson said.

Sarah Sayner, Ph.D.

Sarah Sayner, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and cell biology, and her lab team are studying how P. aeruginosa, a common lung pathogen, causes life-threatening pneumonia. The bacteria uses an injection-like needle to transfer toxins into cells, causing direct injury but also promoting the release of amyloids from toxin-infected cells.  

“The studies funded through this proposal will help us understand how these toxic amyloids further cell injury and hinder repair independent of the bacteria,” Sayner said. Data from these studies will generate critical preliminary data for upcoming extramural grant applications.

“My lab is very excited to receive this award and grateful to the Bander Endowment and the Center for Lung Biology for providing this opportunity to conduct this research,” she added.

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.

Murray Bander, a World War II veteran who moved from New York to Mobile to operate a clothing shop, died from complications of pneumonia in 2001. He left his estate to the Whiddon College of Medicine in 2003, and the Murray Bander Endowment for the Center for Lung Biology was established to support scholarly activities in lung biology.

Med students invited to attend GME virtual open house

Medical students interested in applying for residency at the University of South Alabama/USA Health are invited to a virtual open house focused on diversity, equity and inclusion in graduate medical education on Friday, Sept. 23.

The open house, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., will serve to answer questions for medical students from underrepresented, disadvantaged or diverse backgrounds and for those who have an interest in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at USA.

Students can interact with current residents in a Q&A session about thriving in residency and living in Mobile, and they can attend program-specific breakout sessions.

Register to attend online. For more information, contact the Office of Graduate Medical Education at thawkins@health.southalabama.edu.

Borchert receives $1 million from National Science Foundation to study Salmonella survival

Glen Borchert, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology, is studying the survival of Salmonella bacteria during cellular stress.

A grant from the National Science Foundation will help scientists at the University of South Alabama improve the ability to combat agricultural diseases and foodborne illness outbreaks caused by Salmonella bacteria. 

Salmonella live in the intestines of animals and humans, and people commonly are infected by consuming food or water that has been contaminated by feces. Symptoms of infection include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), antibiotic resistance is increasing in Salmonella, which can limit treatment options for people with severe infections. 

Glen Borchert, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, was awarded $998,655 to study the survival of Salmonella during cellular stress. 

“The ability of certain species of nematodes, vascular plants and bacteria to survive desiccation (or extreme dehydration) for extended periods is a particularly striking example of the ability of cells to adapt to and survive even the most drastic environmental fluctuations,” said Borchert, principal investigator of the project.

Importantly, several groups have now shown that bacterial small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) are frequently associated with stress and often contribute to survival during environmental challenges, such as desiccation or nutrient starvation, he said.

Bacteria have two principal strategies for survival during cellular stress. The first is the active expression of molecular tools capable of dealing with specific stressors. The second strategy is the generation of persister cells, which are comparatively metabolically dormant cells capable of prolonged survival in harsh environments. 

“In either event, mounting evidence suggests that sRNAs represent key regulators of Salmonella stress survival,” Borchert said. “Understanding what drives the decision between active stress resistance and persister dormancy can significantly improve our ability to combat a number of societal challenges such as antibiotic resistance, foodborne illness outbreaks and agricultural diseases.”

The CDC estimates Salmonella causes about 1.35 million illnesses, 26,500 hospitalizations and 420 deaths in the United States every year.

Menger wins Young Neurosurgeon Award from Congress of Neurological Surgeons

USA Health neurosurgeon Richard P. Menger, M.D., M.P.A., has been awarded the Samuel Hassenbusch Young Neurosurgeon Award from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) for his research on how variations in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement among the states affect access to healthcare.

The award is given to the top socioeconomic abstract selected amongst the thousands of abstracts submitted to the Congress of Neurological Surgeons annual meeting. This research in collaboration with the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Menger, chief of complex spine surgery at USA Health, is an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine and an assistant professor of political science at USA. The abstract will be presented on Oct. 10 at the 2022 CNS Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The abstract is titled: “State-to-State Variation in Medicaid and Medicare Reimbursement: Implications for Healthcare Access Among Vulnerable Populations.”

“We are fortunate to have a neurosurgeon like Dr. Menger at USA Health. This is a great accomplishment to be recognized nationally,” said Anthony Martino, M.D., professor and chair of neurosurgery. “His academic career is skyrocketing, and his future is bright!”

Menger focuses on complex spinal reconstructions for spinal deformity in children and adults. He performs minimally invasive spinal procedures and has a special expertise in the entire spectrum of state-of-the-art surgical and conservative management of complex spinal deformity and scoliosis. He is the lead editor of the textbook “The Business, Policy, and Economics of Neurosurgery.”

The Congress of Neurological Surgeons is the leading organization dedicated to advancing neurosurgery through education and innovation.