Top 10 Health Sciences Connect stories of 2023

Let’s take a look at the top 10 Health Sciences Connect stories of 2023 before we bid a final adieu to the year. Last year’s most-viewed stories covered firefighter health; the launch of the new sleep center; expert tips for staying safe on campus; a new café opening; a spotlight on lab superstars; and five faculty profiles.

 

Improving firefighter health through research 
Jan. 17, 2023 

Jeff Burgess, MD, MS, MPH, a professor in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and a member of the UArizona Cancer Center and the BIO5 Institute, has spent 30 years advocating for firefighter health and safety. His research, which has benefited firefighters worldwide, received funding from the National Institute of Occupational Health and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, allowing him and his team to work collaboratively with the Tucson Fire Department and other firefighting organizations. Burgess’ research and collaborative projects led the World Health Organization to classify the occupational exposures firefighters face as carcinogenic. Burgess is a principal investigator and director of the biomarker core in the Firefighter Cancer Cohort Study. He received a federal grant for ongoing research on toxicity of exposures for women firefighters and a grant to examine ways to cut firefighter cancer and cardiovascular risks. And he is a co-director of the college’s new Center for Firefighter Health Collaborative Research.

 

 

Oscars red carpet welcomed UArizona Cancer Center researcher 

March 9, 2023 

Rachna Shroff, MD, a professor of medicine, associate dean of clinical and translational research and chief of the UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Division of Hematology and Oncology, was inspired by her nephrologist mother and University of Arizona scientist father to pursue her interest in medicine and translational research. Shroff, an avid Bollywood dancer who once attended the Academy Awards, is also the University of Arizona Cancer Center’s interim clinical affairs director, associate director of clinical investigations and co-leader of the gastrointestinal clinical research team. Shroff’s return to the Cancer Center was a homecoming of sorts because she had previously participated in a prestigious summer fellowship between her freshman and sophomore years of high school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the JEDI nurses Dr. Tarnia Newton is looking for… 
May 4, 2023 

From beauty pageant contestant to clinical assistant professor in the UArizona College of Nursing, Tarnia Newton, DNP, FNP-C, has been integral in expanding equity, diversity and inclusion at her college since arriving at the university three years ago. Newton is also training the next generation of nurses to prioritize the principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, or JEDI, by being involved in the community and addressing inequities and disparities. “When I think of my nursing career, it’s been vast,” Newton said. “I used to do home health with pediatrics. I’ve worked extensively in critical care and care for older adults. It all goes back to I really like working in a community, as a nurse and as an individual, urban or rural. And when I became a family nurse practitioner, that was one of the reasons why.”

 

Sky is the limit for research at new sleep center facility 
May 15, 2023 

The University of Arizona’s Center for Sleep, Circadian and Neuroscience Research, which moved to a new location in the spring, will help researchers study the impacts of sleep and circadian rhythms on everything from cognition to the body’s response during interplanetary travel.  Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson, said the new facility will help researchers simulate the International Space Station or a Mars mission as well as the impact of climate change.

“This facility will allow us to conduct time-isolation research where individuals are cut off from all time cues,” said the center’s associate director, Michael Grandner, PhD, MTR, CBSM, FAASM, an associate professor and director of the Sleep and Health Research Program in the College of Medicine – Tucson’s Department of Psychiatry and a member of the BIO5 Institute. “This allows us to study circadian rhythms and the timing mechanisms in our body that control so many important functions. Some of these are related to sleep, but, really, this opens the door to studying biological rhythms in a completely new way.

 

 
 

Staying safe at UArizona Health Sciences 
May 22, 2023 

Whether you frequent the University of Arizona Health Sciences campuses in Tucson, Phoenix or Gilbert, it’s important to know what to do in the event of an emergency. University specialists and safety experts agree the best way to stay safe on campus is to know what to do before an emergency happens. This means being aware of your surroundings and locating emergency exits and stairwells in every building you go into. For individuals with a disability, it also means knowing where accessible exits are, the best routes to take and any areas of safe refuge. The university’s Critical Incident Response Team website provides procedures for sheltering in place during a lockdown, when there is an imminent threat and during building or campus evacuations due to power failure, criminal activity, discovery of a suspicious object, fire or an unexpected release of a hazardous material. 

 

Dr. Marvin Slepian follows where inspiration leads
June 1, 2023  

From a curious kid studying pond water under a microscope to an innovative inventor and respected mentor, this profile shines a spotlight on Marvin Slepian, MD, JD, Regents Professor of Medicine and Medical Imaging in the College of Medicine – Tucson and biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering. Slepian, a member of the BIO5 Institute, said successful innovation takes more than just a curious mind; it thrives on exposure. Over the last few decades, he has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments, including having his name on more than 160 issued or pending patents; co-founding SynCardia Systems, which makes the only FDA-approved total artificial heart; and winning awards for his work from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Atomic Energy Commission. “You need to excite, inspire, guide and propel others,” Slepian said. And he does just that mentoring more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students each year and teaching an Innovation, Translation & Entrepreneurship course he created for the Eller College of Management.

 

 

 

Grand opening of Café Bolo brings new dining option to HSIB 
Aug. 17, 2023 

Café Bolo, a Wolfgang Puck Catering site, opened its doors on the first floor of the Health Sciences Innovation Building on the Health Sciences campus in August. The café brings creative culinary programming, seasonally inspired dishes and wellness offerings to the table. The café’s grill offers sandwiches and chef-crafted specials; a salad bar with an assortment of rotating greens and proteins; a grab-and-go market; and a coffee bar. Wolfgang Puck Catering is also the exclusive catering partner for all events and conferences in HSIB.

 

 

Nicole Henry empowering health care from two directions 
Aug. 28, 2023 

Nicole Henry, PharmD, always knew she would have a career in health care, but a tragedy that took the life of a family friend set her on a course toward a career in pharmacology with a goal of providing medication counseling and education as a pharmacist. Now Henry, an assistant professor of practice at the UArizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy and a district leader for CVS Health, is making an impact on the health care system by both teaching pharmacy students and using her expertise and insights as a working pharmacist and industry leader. Her real-world experience from front-line pharmacy has shaped Henry’s teaching to focus on patient-centered care, which, to her, means giving people the knowledge and tools to be the agents of their own well-being.

 

 

 

 

Reluctant doctor finds her passion helping women, children 
Sept. 21, 2023 

Growing up in India, Purnima Madhivanan, PhD, MBBS, MPH, an associate professor of health promotion in the Zuckerman College of Public Health, wanted to be an engineer and get an MBA, but her family decided it would be best for her to study medicine, so she did. Today, Madhivanan’s public health research, teaching and clinical support helps women and children in underserved communities. Madhivanan and her husband, Karl Krupp, PhD, an assistant professor of public health practice in the Zuckerman College of Public Health, run the Public Health Research Institute of India, which has 27 staff members, two mobile clinics and a molecular lab. PHRII is an NIH training site for doctoral and postdoctoral candidates. Madhivanan also shares how she first became interested in helping people with HIV in the late 1990s and how a chance encounter in a music shop led her to meet her husband. 

 

Unsung heroes make Health Sciences labs work 
Sept. 28, 2023 

Research coordinator Edgar A. Villavicencio, research technician Dana Floyd and lab manager Wei-Tai Chen were selected by their principal investigators as lab superstars – the people who play a vital role, often behind the scenes, in the smooth operation of a lab and the success of a project. Villavicencio works closely with David O. Garcia, PhD, FACSM, a Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health associate professor of health promotion sciences, on the Nosotros Comprometidos a Su Salud (Committed to Your Health) team, where their mission is to reduce health disparities faced by Mexican-origin and other Hispanic communities in Southern Arizona. Floyd handles both day-to-day operations and contributes to research on fibrosis, hypertension and heart failure in the lab of Taben Hale, PhD, a professor of basic medical sciences at the UArizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. Chen works with R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy professor of pharmacology and toxicology Donna D. Zhang, PhD, and Matthew Dodson, PhD, an assistant research professor of pharmacology and toxicology, in the Zhang lab, where he is primarily involved in their arsenic-induced-diabetes project.