News
Check out the latest interview with Dr. Vijay Yadav and health.com, on a recent Nature paper on Taurine and Leukemia Can a Common Energy Drink Ingredient Really Raise Your Risk of Blood Cancer?
Dr. Jason Weinstein and Dr. Tessa Bergsbaken were promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
Dr. Dane Parker was promoted to Associate Professor and awarded grants from Rutgers Innovation-TechExpress and Rutgers Research Council.
Check out the latest interview with TheScientist Magazine and Dr. Dane Parker. This paper was noting how efforts to develop a vaccine to Staphylococcus aureus have not been successful. They discovered that previous exposure to this pathogen can affect vaccine efficacy and potentially generated a nonprotective immune memory. This could influence how preclinical studies are conducted in the future to better replicate the immune response in humans.
Dr. Jojo Reyes, former PhD student in Dr. George Yap’s lab in the Center for Immunity & Inflammation, was recently selected to receive a prestigious Irvington Fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute. The fellowship will support her postdoctoral studies at the Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, for a period of three years. Dr. Reyes, was also selected as “2024 Outstanding PhD Graduate” by the Rutgers Health New Jersey Medical School Faculty Organization. The award is to recognize academic achievement and contributions to life and missions of New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Reyes was notified of this award by New Jersey Medical School Faculty Organization President, Dr. Joshua Kaplan.
Dr. Azadeh Nasuhidehnavi, former PhD student in Dr. George Yap’s lab in the Center for Immunity & Inflammation, and current postdoc at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, was recently selected for a faculty position at SUNY, Binghamton. Dr. Nasuhidehnavi will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Science, SUNY, Binghamtom.
Dr. Bhupendra Singh Rawat (Bessman lab) was awarded a 3-year fellowship from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, for his research project titled ‘Hepcidin and iron homeostasis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Dr. George Yap was elected to the esteemed American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Yap joins 64 new fellows, who were elected via a highly selective, peer review process, based on scientific achievements in the advancement of microbiology.
Dr. Nicholas Bessman was selected to be one of only two Rutgers University nominees for the Searle Scholars Program.
Researchers from New Jersey Medical School at Rutgers Health received a 5-year multi-million-dollar grant in 2023, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how previous infections help or hinder the body’s subsequent response to unrelated pathogens that cause lung disease.
The five-year grant will support the work of immunologists William C. Gause, Amariliz Rivera and Mark Siracusa, who will examine how mice fight lung infection after exposure to various parasites, fungi and viruses. Full article in Rutgers Today.
William C. Gause, PhD and Patricia Fitzgerald-Bocarsly, PhD were named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Read more
Dr. William Gause, Dr. Mark Siracusa and their teams, published a paper in Cell reports showing that during helminth infection, monocytes recruited to the lung can assume an alveolar-like macrophage phenotype and differentially express markers associated with tissue remodeling and allergic inflammation, including arginase-1 (Arg1). They further showed that Arg1 mediates helminth killing through depletion of arginine, indicating nutrient deprivation as a novel host resistance mechanism against nematode parasites. Read more
Asthma and allergies are chronic health conditions that continue to adversely impact the quality of life for many around the world. Thanks to exciting breakthroughs by Mark Siracusa, a researcher at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, there may be early signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Read more
Centers of Excellence at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School – the newly established Center for COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness (CCRP2), the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), the Center for Immunity and Inflammation and the Center for Emerging Pathogens – combine to form a new institute to pursue novel approaches to detect, treat and prevent a wide range of current and emerging diseases caused by infectious agents and harmful inflammation.
The Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (i³D), is expected to act as a springboard to further develop this already strong area of research excellence at Rutgers. The institute is located within the Rutgers International Center for Public Health, an advanced research facility for infectious disease research on the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Campus in Newark.
Research at i³D focus on the breakthrough field that examines the link between infectious and inflammatory diseases. Dysfunction of the immune system has recently been implicated in diseases that include AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autism, asthma and obesity. Studies have suggested that dysfunction of the immune system is an important common basis for many of these diseases. For example, estimates by the National Institutes of Health indicate that up to 23.5 million people in the U.S. are afflicted by autoimmune diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Type 1 diabetes, and for unknown reasons their prevalence is increasing.
In other diseases and conditions, including cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, studies indicate a significant contributing role for harmful inflammation. It is now anticipated that understanding interactions between infection, inflammation and the immune system will lead to novel treatments and advanced diagnostics for a wide range of current and emerging diseases.
Recent discoveries by i³D scientists are leading to novel approaches that use the body’s immune response to combat inflammation and help patients manage both acute and chronic diseases. Currently, there are limited effective treatments for inflammatory diseases besides steroids, which can have harmful side effects. Research teams focus on new approaches to regulate harmful inflammatory responses, in some cases harnessing immune regulatory pathways that prevent tissue-damaging inflammatory responses.
Other groups focus on improved detection of diseases at the earliest stages of infection when targeted treatments may be most effective. Recent studies by researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School already have led them to develop breakthrough technologies in molecular biology that are now used for more rapid detection of tuberculosis. Working together, these research teams share state-of-the-art methodologies and conceptual breakthroughs leading to more rapid translation of basic discoveries into novel and improved diagnostics and treatments.
The more specific goals of the new institute include:
- Developing new treatments, diagnostics and preventive measures for infectious and inflammatory diseases
- Moving new therapies and treatments from bench to bedside more quickly
- Helping to break the cycle of poverty and disease in impoverished communities locally and worldwide
- Offering continuing education to all health professionals as well as science writers and health educators
- Sharing research and information with the public through publications, blogs, social media and video
William C. Gause, Senior Associate Dean for research at Rutgers Health New Jersey Medical School, said: “Dysfunction of the immune system is increasingly recognized as contributing to a broad spectrum of infectious and noninfectious diseases. The specific focus of our new institute provides a unique opportunity to build an innovative and significant program of biomedical research excellence for Newark and the State of New Jersey. It provides the opportunity to develop innovative perspectives and insights for the development of new treatments and diagnostics that can be rapidly translated to the clinic.”