DOM faculty host 3 of 7 sessions and grand rounds at COM-T Research Day 2025

April 11, 2025
David Mogollon, Communications Manager, Department of Medicine

Research presentations by Department of Medicine faculty were among mainstays of the annual event, with a special focus on CTSAs, cardiovascular health, and the impact Arizona’s unique climate and soils have on skin cancer and fungal respiratory disease.

[Attendees, presenters and panelists sign-in April 2 for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Research Day 2025 activities at the HSIB Forum at the U of A Health Sciences Tucson campus.]

Attendees, presenters and panelists sign-in April 2 for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Research Day 2025 activities at the HSIB Forum at the U of A Health Sciences Tucson campus.

University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson

Other than a delay in the poster session due to high winds preventing putting up the tent to house it on the plaza outside of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson south entrance, all was hunky dory for participants of the college’s Research Day 2025 activities.

[As fellows and residents listen, the Carl Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Jonathan Himmelfarb, MD, notes how breakthroughs in understanding genetic/genomic biomarkers in medicine translate to kidney care advances.]

As fellows and residents listen, the Carl Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Jonathan Himmelfarb, MD, notes how breakthroughs in understanding genetic/genomic biomarkers in medicine translate to kidney care advances.

Under this year’s theme, “Unity in Discovery,” multiple Department of Medicine faculty participated as attendees, presenters, panelists and session chairs, including its newest one, Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, who had just started as a professor in the Division of Cardiology, associate director of the Sarver Heart Center, associate dean for translational research and training, and director of the MD/PhD Dual Degree Program. He was among several DOM attendees and presenters at the Cardiovascular Health Breakout Session hosted by James K. Liao, MD, department chair, the Robert S. and Irene Flinn Endowed Professor in Medicine, and a Sarver Heart Center member. Dr. Ardehali spoke on the “Role of iron and metabolic processes in cardiovascular disease.” Cardiology professor and Sarver Heart Center member Luke Szweda, PhD, also presented on “Daily Rhythms in Cardiac Metabolism and the Impact on Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Disease” in the session.

[In the HSIB Forum for the Medicine Grand Rounds on precision medicine in kidney care are: (top row from left) Jackie May, MS, FNP; Frank “Chip” Brosius, MD; Venki Ariyamuthu, MD; (second row down) Laura Meinke, MD; and (first row) DOM Chair James Liao, MD. ]

In the HSIB Forum for the Medicine Grand Rounds on precision medicine in kidney care are: (top row from left) Jackie May, MS, FNP; Frank “Chip” Brosius, MD; Venki Ariyamuthu, MD; (second row down) Laura Meinke, MD; and (first row) DOM Chair James Liao, MD.

Another breakout session on the U of A’s “Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards (CTSA) Program” — yet to be funded by the National Institutes of Health — was hosted by Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, professor and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, who also gave an overview on strategic management of a proposal for the university to unite with the University of New Mexico to present a joint CTSA application to the National Institutes of Health under the Southwest Center for Advancing Clinical & Translational Innovation, or SW CACTI. CTSAs offer hub funding by the NIH to accelerate translation of research discoveries into clinical practice and improving public health. During the CTSA session, U of A Arthritis Center director and former Division of Rheumatology chief C. Kent Kwoh, MD, also spoke on pilot projects and funding cycles. And he and Dr. Parthasarathy were part of a panel discussion at the end of the session.

[Dermatology chief Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, MD, lays out prospects for research into better sun blocks, related clothing, and screening/monitoring technologies for melanoma and carcinoma, as well as treatment regimens due to Arizona’s year-round sunny days increasing UV exposure and risk of skin cancer.]

Dermatology chief Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, MD, lays out prospects for research into better sun blocks, related clothing, and screening/monitoring technologies for melanoma and carcinoma, as well as treatment regimens due to Arizona’s year-round sunny days increasing UV exposure and risk of skin cancer.

A third breakout session, “Arizona for Arizona,” was hosted by the Division of Infectious Diseases’ John Galgiani, MD, founding director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence, and Division of Dermatology Chief Clara Curiel-Lewandrowksi, MD, who’s co-director of the U of A Cancer Center’s Skin Cancer Institute. In it, Dr. Curiel spoke on “Dual Treat-and-Prevent Strategy Using Oncolytic Viruses for Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer.” Dr. Galgiani spoke on “Risk Assessment of Severe Valley Fever.”

[Valley Fever Center director John Galgiani, MD, outlines the impact the fungal respiratory disease has not only on residents, but tourists and others visiting the state, as well as research into why it affects some and not others, the need for improved testing, and vaccines under development to prevent it.]

Valley Fever Center director John Galgiani, MD, outlines the impact the fungal respiratory disease has not only on residents, but tourists and others visiting the state, as well as research into why it affects some and not others, the need for improved testing, and vaccines under development to prevent it.

In addition, the Department of Medicine grand rounds talk was moved to the HSIB Forum for the day, with Division of Nephrology Chief Bekir Tanriover, MD, MPH, MBA, introducing Jonathan Himmelfarb, MD, co-director of the Carl Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Center for Kidney Disease Innovation. He spoke on precision medicine in kidney care.

Others attending Research Day 2025 from the DOM included Joseph Alpert, MD; Venki Ariyamuthu, MD; Frank “Chip” Brosius, III, MD; Jennifer Carew, PhD; Phetcharat “Pat” Chen; Sandesh Dev, MD; Fariba Donovan, MD, PhD; Maryam Emami, PhD; Mindy Fain, MD; George Fantry, MD; Gina Favela; Janet Funk, MD; Jackie May, MS, FNP; Laura Meinke, MD; Anna Morenz, MD, MPH; Shibani Mukerjee, PhD; Steffan Nawrocki, PhD; Hesham Sadek, MD, PhD; Francesca Vitali, PhD, and a number of residents and fellows.

ALSO SEE:
“DOM well represented at delayed 2025 College of Medicine – Tucson Research Day poster session” | Posted May 6, 2025

For more Research Day 2025 photos, see this link.

Photos courtesy of David Mogollon, communications manager, Department of Medicine.

MINI-PHOTO GALLERY
Click images to enlarge and for captions:

[The COM-T Research Day 2025 lineup for the day’s events at the Health Sciences Innovation Building include two keynote speakers and two grand rounds lectures, one by the Department of Surgery and one by the Department of Medicine, as well as several Breakout Sessions that include three hosted by DOM faculty.]
[Second keynote speaker Jacqueline Jeruss, MD, PhD, a University of Michigan professor of surgery, addresses the audience in the HSIB Forum. Her talk was on, “Caring for breast cancer patients from bench to bedside.”]
[Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine Chief Mindy Fain, MD (center, maroon jacket), and Jennifer Carew, MD, PhD (to Dr. Fain’s left), a Division of Hematology & Oncology professor and co-director of the Hematological Malignancies Disease Team at the U of A Cancer Center, listen to Michigan’s Dr. Jacqueline Jeruss discuss breast cancer care.]
[Janet Funk, MD (in left foreground), the Department of Medicine vice chair for research and an investigator in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, checks her phone while listening to one of the 2025 Research Day speakers in the upper area of the HSIB Forum.]
[The day’s dance card for HSIB Room 567, where two morning sessions hosted by Department of Medicine faculty will be held at COM-T Research Day 2025, Pulmonary division Chief Sairam Parthasarathy, MD (in background above), and DOM Chair Jim Liao, MD. ]
[The DOM’s Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, tees up the first speaker on an alliance between the U of A and University of New Mexico to leverage their strengths for a joint effort at a CTSA grant as the Southwest Center for Advancing Clinical & Translational Innovation (SW CACTI).]
[Anna Morenz, MD, MPH, a U of A Cancer Prevention & Control Program member and assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, listens as U of A Rural Health Center director Dan Derksen, MD, comments on leveraging the Area Health Education Centers to advance the CTSA effort in Arizona and New Mexico, where he returned from in 2012 to join the U of A faculty.]
[All the SW CACTI panelists and the audience listen as C. Kent Kwoh, MD (gesturing as he talks at upper right), director of the U of A Arthritis Center and a Division of Rheumatology professor, talks about various angles the universities can press forward on to best position Arizona and New Mexico to win a federal CTSA grant to drive research needs. ]
[The DOM’s Francesca Vitali, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and neurology and Center for Innovation in Brain Science member, listens while students present on research about brain health in HSIB 306.]
[George Fantry, MD (lower left), a Gastroenterology division associate professor, listens to Class of 2025 med student Jacob Ref discusses his cardiac MRI research in HSIB 306 during a session on Medical Student Research, Scholarly Projects & MD/PhD Trainees.]
[Luke Szweda, PhD, answers a question from Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, about his presentation on genetics in arterial cell molecular processes during the Cardiovascular Health Breakout Session. Both are Division of Cardiology faculty and Sarver Heart Center members.]
[Audience members, including DOM biostatistician Maryam Emami, PhD (fourth from right), listen to Luke Szweda, PhD’s presentation: “Daily rhythms in cardiac metabolism and the impact on diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.”]
[DOM Chair James Liao, MD, introduces Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, who spoke on the “Role of iron and metabolic processes in cardiovascular disease.”]
[Cardiology’s Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, discusses analysis of various proteins and other biomarkers affecting his research and their impact on cardiovascular health.]
[Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, from the Sarver Heart Center, talks about how DOX-induced cardiomyopathy is protected against by mechanisms reported on in his research.]
[Jonathan Himmelfarb, MD, co-director of New York’s Mount Sinai Center for Kidney Disease Innovation, and U of A Division of Nephrology Chief Bekir Tanriover, MD, MPH, MBA, prior to Dr. Himmelfarb’s Medicine Grand Rounds address at COM-T Research Day 2025.]
[In discussing “Precision Medicine in Kidney Care,” Carl Icahn/Mount Sinai’s Jonathan Himmelfarb, MD, shows a slide on how kidney genetics made its way to the International Space Station via its genomic code on a chip.]
[Infectious Diseases’ John Galgiani, MD, from the Valley Fever Center for Excellence, in the Arizona For Arizona Breakout Session, talks about how the fungal respiratory disease caused by inhaling spores endemic to soils of the U.S. Southwest seems to affect some people very harshly while leaving others with mild to no symptoms.]
[Fariba Donovan, MD, PhD, a colleague of Dr. John Galgiani at the Valley Fever Center for Excellence, and fellow professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, listens to his presentation.]
[Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, MD, Division of Dermatology chief and U of A Skin Cancer Institute co-director, talks about what makes Arizona unique in terms of melanoma and other skin cancers – lots of sunshine and year-round weather perfect for outdoor activities leading to greater UV exposure.]