The Department of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix is proud to celebrate the accomplishments and milestones of 2025–2026. This year, our faculty, researchers and students have continued to push the boundaries of discovery, innovation and education, reflecting our commitment to advancing medical science and improving health outcomes.
The 2025–2026 Year in Review highlights the remarkable achievements within the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, including new faculty, promotions, awards and honors, grants and funding, publications, and key dates and events.
As you explore this year's highlights, you will see the depth and range of expertise within BMS- from cancer immunology and infectious disease to paleoanthropology and precision medicine- all united by a shared mission to train the next generation of physicians and scientists while advancing discoveries that improve patient care.
Welcome New BMS Faculty
Janko Ž. Nikolich, MD, PhD
Regents Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Partnerships
Liya Yin, MD, PhD
Professor, Internal Medicine, BMS
Miao Zhang, PhD
Associate Professor, BMS
Youngwoo Nam, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, BMS
Hee-Dae Kim, PhD
Assistant Research Professor, BMS
Xia Xiao, PhD
Assistant Professor, Basic Medical Sciences
Faculty Promotions
Jerome Lacombe,
PhD
Promoted to Assistant Professor (tenure eligible)
Vasudeva Kamath,
PhD
Promoted to Associate Professor (Educator Scholar)
Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS)
The 8th Annual Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS) Winter Gathering event highlighted the advancement of women faculty at the college. Taben Hale, PhD, vice chair of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences and former director of WIMS, opened the event and spoke about the increased amount of female representation in tenured and permanent chair roles at the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix.
2026 BMS Spring Retreat
Faculty Awards
Below, we highlight recent publications from our talented faculty and staff. To learn more about a specific publication or explore a faculty member’s full research portfolio, visit their profile on the BMS Faculty page.
Amelia Gallitano, |
2025 Faculty Outstanding Peer Mentorship Award, UA COMP |
Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, |
2025 Faculty Excellence in Research Award, U of A COM-P |
Rayna Gonzales, MD |
Best Block of the Year Award |
Jian Gu, PhD |
2026 AHA (American Heart Association) Rapid Impact Research Award |
Additional faculty and trainee recognitions this year included
- Rayna Gonzales, PhD — elected to a 3-year term on the University Committee on Elections.
- Ashlee Harris (Postdoc, ANBM) — First Prize, oral presentation, Arizona Postdoctoral Research Conference (APRC).
- Rayna Shaik (undergraduate) and Sean Dunn (graduate student) — poster presentations, Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting (BMES 2025), San Diego.
- Dr. Burns - selected to receive IAMSE Distinguished Career Award for Excellence in Teaching and Educational Scholarship.
- Dr. Pawel Laniewski received a UACC pilot award to work on endometrial cancer in Native American women
- Dr. Zenhausern received a special recognition from the National Academy of Inventors as “Charter Fellow” in recognition for his achievements in leadership, innovation, and committee=mennt in the community
- Dr. Gonzales was 1 of 3 invited featured speakers at the international North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO) Symposium titled Decoding Vascular Aging: Unraveling the Enigma of Pathological Conditions & Premature Vascular Aging
Grants, Publications and Patents
Grants & Funding
- NIAID U01 grant (~$2.76M / 5 years) — Jerome Lacombe, PhD and Frederic Zenhausern, PhD (MPIs), for the SAMURAI Kit for field triage biodosimetry.
- Alternative Research & Development Foundation (ARDF) Annual Open Grant Award — Jian Gu, PhD and Rayna Gonzales, PhD.
- American Heart Association (AHA) Rapid Impact Research Award (~$100K / 2 years) — Jian Gu, PhD, Rayna Gonzales, PhD, and Shenfeng Qiu, PhD, MD.
- UA Cancer Center Internal Pilot Award ($100,000) — PI: Kim; co-I: Hastings.
- Honor Health Foundation awards for 3 ANBM projects, totaling $327,784 / 1 year.
- Flinn Translational Seed Grant to advance non-invasive diagnostic for endometrial cancer: Herbst-Kravlovetz
- Dr. Zhang, Dr. Chiamvimonvat and Dr. Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy (UC Davis) received a new R01 grant from NHLBI.
Publications
- Dr. He — Endocrine Connections; Nature Communications; Cell Reports; Science Signaling;
- Dr. Zenhausern — Analytica Chimica Acta; iScience; Microbiology Spectrum ; Biosensors & Bioelectronics; RSC advances; ACS applied materials & interfaces
- Dr. Seyoum — Science; PALEOANTHROPOLOGY
- Dr. Herbst-Kralovetz — Open Forum for Infectious Diseases; Encyclopedia of Reproduction; American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology; Microbiol Resour Announcements; iScience; AJOG global reports; The Journal of Infectious Diseases; Quality of life research an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation; RSC Advances; BMC microbiology; Infection and immunity
- Dr. Sharma — Stem Cells; Genome Biology
- Dr. Kamath — Journal of Biological Chemistry;
- Dr. Nikolich — Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; medRxiv; the preprint server for health sciences; Physical therapy; Aging Cell; Journal for immunotherapy of cancer; ImmunoHorizons; GeroScience; European journal of immunology ; Archives of gerontology and geriatrics
- Dr. Titelbaum — ScienceDirect, International Journal of Paleopathology
- Dr. Zack — Historical Biology; Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
- Drs. Lacombe and Zenhausern — VIEW (Wiley)
- Dr. Qiu - Translational Psychiatry; Journal of respiratory biology and translational medicine; Neural regeneration research; Research square; Nature; Biorxiv
- Dr. Hale — American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology
- Dr. Barthel- Nature biotechnology; Neuro-oncology; Nucleic acids research;
- Dr. Dinu- Case reports in genetics
- Dr. Ferguson- Neutral Regeneration Research; Translational psychiatry ; Biorxiv
- Dr. Glowacka- American journal of biological anthropology
- Dr. Gu- Microbiology spectrum; Analytica chimica acta; Biosensors & bioelectronics; RSC advances; ACS applied materials & interfaces
- Dr. Han- Biomolecules; British journal of cancer; Redox biology; ACS nano; Journal of immunotherapy and precision oncology; Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Dr. Huentelman- medRxiv; the preprint server for health sciences; EBioMedicine; Frontiers in aging neuroscience; Genome Biology; Molecular psychiatry; Frontiers in aging neuroscience; Alzheimer’s & dementia (New York, N.Y) ; Gerontology; Journal of Veterinary Medical Association; Brain: A journal of neurology; Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology; Behavioral neuroscience; Hispanic health care international: the official journal of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses; Frontiers in cell and developmental biology; Clinical genetics; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Dr. Jurutka- Cancers
- Dr. Lacombe - iScience; RSC advances
- Dr. Pirotte - Cancer Research; Neuro-oncology advances; Cancers; iScience; Blood advances ; Journal of translational medicine; Cancel cell; Journal of extracellular biology; Infection; Leukemia; BMC medicine; International journal of hygiene and environmental health; medRxiv: the preprint server for health sciences; Experimental hematology & oncology; Physiological reports; Frontiers in endocrinology ; Cancer & Metabolism ; Molecular Psychiatry ; Nature communications; Biorxiv
- Dr. Sattler- Stem cell research; Neurology and therapy
- Dr. Miao Zhang - Structure (London, England); Nature Communications
- Dr. Zheng- Hearth Rhythm; The journal of physiology
- Dr. Hee-Dae Kim- Translational Psychiatry; Experimental & Molecular Medicine; Biorxiv
- Dr. Chalachew- Science
- Dr. Gallitano- bioRxiv
- Dr. Hastings- Journal of Immunology; Springer Nature Link
2025-2026 Seminar Series
The Department of Basic Medical Sciences hosted 28 seminars this academic year, running weekly on Thursdays in a hybrid format (in-person and via Zoom) from September 2025 through May 2026. Speakers represented a broad range of institutions, including UA College of Medicine – Tucson and Phoenix, Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, McGill University, Ohio State, and Barrow Neurological Institute, among others.
Our seminars covered a wide span of biomedical research areas — cardiovascular disease and cardiac repair, immunology and precision psychiatry, cancer biology and drug delivery, metabolic and mitochondrial disease, pulmonary and vascular biology, and neurodevelopment/neurodegeneration. The series also featured a talk from College of Medicine – Phoenix Dean Fredric Wondisford, with BMS Chair Dr. Nipavan Chiamvimonvat served as host for the majority of sessions.
Speaker |
Seminar Title |
|---|---|
| John P. Konhilas, PhD | Does the Gut Play a Role in Heart Disease? |
| Xun Ai, MD | JNK2: A Pathological Hub Connecting Stress and Disease |
| Donata Vercelli, MD | How Microbe-rich Environments Protect from Asthma |
| Chen Gao, PhD | Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation in Heart |
| Jack Rubinstein, MD | TRPV1 Channel Mediated Remote Ischemic Preconditioning (RIPC) Signaling |
| Ling Yang, PhD | Shaping Immuno-metabolic Homeostasis by Organelle Stress Response |
| Shenfeng Qiu, PhD | MET Receptor Tyrosine Kinase – From Neurodevelopment to Neurodegeneration |
| Ling He, PhD | Improving Mitochondria Dynamics to Alleviate Metabolism in Obesity and Aging |
| Vladimir Kalinichenko, MD, PhD | Bioengineering of Lung Tissue and Nanoparticle Delivery Systems for Pulmonary Vascular Diseases |
| Isabelle Schrauwen, PhD | Harnessing Transcriptomics for Precision Medicine |
| Yin Chen, PhD | Fungal Exposure: A Neglected “E” in the Gene-Environment (GxE) Interaction Research |
| Jianqin Lu, PhD | Sphingomyelin-Derived Nanovesicles: A New Frontier in Drug and Gene Delivery for Cancer Treatment |
| Huabo Su, PhD | Emerging Role of Neddylation in Cardiovascular Homeostasis |
| David R. Walt, PhD | Single Molecule and Single Particle Analysis for Clinical Diagnosis |
| Alexander B. Niculescu III, MD, PhD | Precision Psychiatry and the Whole Body: Towards a “Hearts and Minds” Program |
| Fredric Edward Wondisford, MD, MS, MBA | Novel Regulation of mTORC1-Mediated Hepatic Lipogenesis |
| Megan E. Spurgeon, PhD | Development of Preclinical Models to Study HPV Pathogenesis and Cancer Development |
| Inna Gladysheva, PhD | Impaired Neurohormonal Pathways in Heart Failure |
| Prabhu S. Arunachalam, PhD | Developmental and Epigenetic Remodeling of Inflammation in the Aging Human Innate Immune System |
| Haobo Li, PhD | Epi(c)-transcriptional Regulation of Cardiometabolic Disease |
| Artak Tovmasyan, PharmD, PhD | Drug Development for CNS Disorders |
| Jiandong Liu, PhD | Fixing Broken Hearts: Mechanisms of Cardiac Repair and Maturation |
| Y. Eugene Chen, MD, PhD | Translating Cardiovascular Genomics into Potential Drug Targets and Disease Mechanisms |
| Xi Fang, PhD | Genetic Mitochondrial Cardiomyopathy: From Barth Syndrome to Beyond |
| Andreia Zago Chignalia, PhD, PharmD | Glypican 1 Mechanosensing in Acute Pulmonary Edema |
| Allen Ehrlicher, PhD, P.Eng. | Biophysical Determinants of YAP Nuclear Mechanotransduction |
| Mario Romero-Ortega, PhD | Bioelectronics in Orthopaedic, Cardiovascular, Immune and Pelvic Health |
| Emily Goldberg, PhD | How the Metabolic Environment Controls Inflammatory Disease |
Retirement / Farewell
|
|
Associate Professor, Tenure — Basic Medical Sciences |
Kurt E. Gustin, PhD, Associate Professor of Basic Medical Sciences, retired after dedicated service to the College. Dr. Gustin served as Director of the Molecular Basis of Life and Disease (MBLD) Block, shaping the foundational curriculum for undergraduate medical education. A committed educator and accomplished researcher in microbiology and immunology. Dr. Gustin fostered a rigorous and engaging learning environment for a generation of medical students, leaving a lasting legacy on the college.