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New Head of Genetics Division Joins UCI
Dr. Virginia Kimonis joins UCI Pediatrics this fall as the head of our Genetics Division.
Dr. Virginia Kimonis comes to UCI from Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She is clinically experienced in prenatal, dysmorphology and metabolic genetics. Her laboratory research is focused on understanding the molecular basis of inherited muscle disorders that occur in combination with bone disease such as Paget and dementia. Her clinical research involves studies in non-syndromic craniosynostosis and the natural history of Prader Willi syndrome and morbid obesity. She is a professor of pediatrics and chief of the Division of Genetics and Metabolism.
To learn more about Dr. Kimonis, visit her Faculty Profile.
To learn more about Dr. Kimonis's research, visit her lab website.
Dr. Tallie Z. Baram Receives Top Neuroscience Award
Dr. Baram received the prestigious NIH Javits Award for her outstanding work on epilepsy.
The Javits Award is considered the highest and most prestigious NIH award for Neuroscientists. It is given just once yearly
to an outstanding RO1 in Neuroscience and provides support for seven years. It has rarely been
awarded to workers in Epilepsy and Dr. Baram is only the second woman to receive one in this field.
Neonatology Fellow Shines in Research
Dr. Zahra Gharraee's research into neonatal lung development has led to several
awards.
Dr. Gharraee is a neonatology fellow conducting research in the lab of Dr.
Houchang Modanlou, head of the
Neonatology Division. Her research of normal and pathological lung development focuses on two areas. The first is the role
of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors The second is the role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)
and their inhibitors (TIMPs). Her work has earned her several awards including the 2005 AFMR Hematology Scholar
Award, the 2006 AFMR Neonatal-Pulmonary Award, the 2006 AFMR Henry Christian Award, and the 2006 APS/SPR Young Investigator's Travel Award.
The AFMR Hematology Scholar Award was earned for her role as investigator in a study examining the effects of antenatal betamethasone on MMP activity and TIMPS
during human fetal lung maturation. She presented this study at the 2005 Western Society for Pediatric Research Meeting and
the 2005 Society for Pediatric Research meeting. The results of the study have been published in the Journal of Investigative
Medicine.
Dr. Gharraee received the AFMR Neonatal-Pulmonary Award for her work as investigator in a study looking at the effects
of antenatal indomethacin on fetal rabbit lung MMP activity and VEGF levels. She published this work in the Journal of
Investigative Medicine and is preparing a manuscript for Pediatric Pulmonology. This work was presented at the 2006 meetings
of the Western Society for Pediatric Research and the Society for Pediatric Research.
Also presented at these meetings was another study investigated by Dr. Gharraee that examined the effect of indomethacin
and ibuprofen on rat lung VEGF and soluble VEGF receptors during early postnatal development. This study resulted in the receipt
of the AFMR Henry Christian Award in 2006.
The most recent award, the 2006 APS/SPR Young Investigator's Travel Award, invited Dr. Gharraee to attend the Pediatric
Academic Societies' Annual Meeting as a guest and presents her with a contribution to further her research.
Dr. Gharraee has done wonderful work in the lab and continues to discover new and exciting information on the development
of the fetal lung.
Dr. John Jay Gargus Receives Headache Lectureship
New research into migraine earned the UCI researcher this award.
Professor J. Jay Gargus has been selected to receive the "National Headache Foundation Lectureship Award" for 2006 for his work on genetic causes of migraine. Dr. Gargus discovered how specific mutations of the sodium/potassium pump (ATP1A2) causes a rare dominantly inherited migraine syndrome in families. Migraine has a strong genetic component, but is most commonly a complex polygenic trait. Recently, however, reports of rare inherited Mendelian dominant migraine with aura, Familial Hemiplegic Migraine (FHM), have provided important insight into migraine pathophysiology. Mutations in voltage-gated calcium and sodium channels can also cause FHM, and now Dr. Gargus' work has shown how the sodium pump, an enzyme transporter that sets concentration gradients for sodium and potassium across plasma membranes, can also result in the phenotype of migraine headache (see Segall et al J Biol Chem 279:43692-43696, 2004; Segall et al Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 102:11106-11111, 2005). This award is generously underwritten by an unrestricted educational grant from Merck & Co., Inc. Dr. Gargus' lecture titled “Molecular lesions underlying Familial Hemiplegic Migraine provide insights into migraine pathogenesis and potential drug targets” reflects an extended collaboration between the Departments of Physiology & Biophysics and Pediatrics, section of Human Genetics, at the University of California, Irvine, and the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, at McGill University, Montreal, Canada and will be presented at the National Headache Foundation’s 3rd Annual Headache Research Summit in Palm Springs on Thursday, February 16.
Dr. Tallie Z. Baram Wind Nation's Top Epilepsy Research Award
UCI researcher honors for groundbreaking work on childhood seizures.
Dr. Tallie Z. Baram, received the Epilepsy Research Recognition Award from the American Epilepsy Society at its national meeting in December in Washington, D.C. She is the first woman and the first UC Irvine researcher to receive this honor.
Dr. Baram is the Danette Shepard Chair in Neurological Sciences in the UCI School of Medicine, and also Professor of Pediatrics and of Anatomy & Neurobiology. Dr. Baram’s research investigates the basic neural mechanisms involved in childhood febrile seizures – seizures caused by high fever – and how prolonged febrile seizures might lead to the onset of adult epilepsy. Her work has identified the molecular changes within brain cells that result from early life febrile seizures, and thus has helped establish an understanding of the neurobiology behind infantile spasms, a devastating form of epilepsy in infants. Dr. Baram’s research on this topic identifies targets for the design of new and more effective drugs that may help calm these childhood seizures without the side effects of drugs designed for adults.
Please see her article on UCI today for details.
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