Kim Barrett
University of California, San Diego
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses:Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Kim Barrett received her PhD from University College London. For her postdoctoral training, Barrett decided it would be in her best interests to get a “BTA” (been to America), since she eventually wanted to get an academic job in Britain. She came to NIH for that postdoc and then ended up being offered a job as a Research Faculty member at University of California, San Diego and decided to stay in the US. She later became a regular faculty member at UCSD in the Department of Medicine. She is now also Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine at UCSD School of Medicine.
Barrett works on intestinal epithelial cells. Her lab is particularly interested in the interaction of epithelial cells with both harmful bacteria and beneficial commensal bacteria or probiotics that may protect the intestine from harm. They also know that the transport and barrier functions of the intestine a re disturbed in specific disease states, such as diarrheal diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, peptic ulcer disease, and cystic fibrosis. By understanding the basic mechanisms that control epithelial properties, Barrett hopes they might ultimately be able to identify targets that would be useful to develop new therapies for these conditions.
Barrett has served on a number of national and international bodies, including the APS. For the APS, she recently completed a term on the Council and became Chair of the Publications Committee in 2005.
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Frank Belloni
New York Medical College
Speaker
Courses:Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Francis (Frank) Belloni was awarded his PhD degree in physiology from the University of Michigan. In 1981 he joined the faculty of the New York Medical College, where he is now a Professor of Physiology and Dean of the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences.
Belloni's research focused on cardiovascular physiology, particularly the study of the mechanisms of adenosine's effect on vascular tissue.
Belloni is an active member of APS, serving as Chair of both the Education and Career Opportunities in Physiology Committees. He has also been on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology and Journal of Applied Physiology. He currently serves as the Chair of the APS Teaching of Physiology Committee.
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Dale Benos
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Dale Benos attended Case Western Reserve University and did research as an undergraduate in the lab of Dr. Bodil Schmidt Nielsen, the first woman President of APS. He received his doctorate at Duke University (training under another APS President) and remained there for his postdoctoral training. His first faculty position was at Harvard Medical School. He then moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and in 1996 was named Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. In 2005 Benos received an Endowed University Professorship in Physiology (the very first one) from the University of Alabama Board of Trustees. In 2006, Benos was the recipient of the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Benos’ lab works on aspects of ion transport as it relates to kidney, gastrointestinal, lung, and brain function. His work has become more translational, with applicability to such diseases as cystic fibrosis, hypertension, HIV dementia, and brain tumors.
Benos has been very active with the APS’s publications. He has published articles in all of the APS journals except the Journal of Neurophysiology and Journal of Applied Physiology. He was Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology and a member of the APS Publications Committee. He was appointed Chair of that Committee and served for 5 years. He was elected to APS Council and then in 2005, he was elected APS President. He took office in April 2006 and will serve until May 2007.
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Martin Farias III
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Speaker
Courses:Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Martin Farias III received his PhD from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) at Fort Worth, TX in 2003. He then did postdoctoral work at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, and is currently finishing his postdoctoral training in the Department of Internal Medicine - Hypertension Division at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX.
Farias' research deals with the neural control of skeletal muscle blood flow. Currently, he is examining the effects of nitrate tolerance on skeletal muscle vascular conductance during sympathetic stimulation.
Farias is a National Health Disparities Scholar and a National Biomedical Research Role Model for Minorities. He is also the cofounder of SALSA (Society for the Advancement of Latino Scholars in Academia) at UNTHSC. The group's main goal is to help minorities succeed in graduate school as well as serve the local community. Farias is an active member of the APS, serving as a Porter Committee Member and collaborator with the Education Office on many of its programs.
David P. Brooks
Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Instructor
Courses: Interviewing for an Industry Position
David P. Brooks received his PhD from Southampton University in the UK. In 1986 he joined Smithkline Beecham Pharmaceuticals as an Associate Senior Investigator and since has advanced his career in industry. Brooks is currently the Senior Director of Business Development and Licensing at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
Brooks was elected to and served on the APS council from 2009-2012. Brooks has also served on the editorial board of numerous journals including The American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology.
Heddwen Brooks
University of Arizona
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Heddwen Brooks received her PhD from Imperial College, University of London and did her post-doctoral training at the NIH, with Dr Mark Knepper, studying the role of vasopressin in regulating renal function, and with Dr Andrea Yool (UA) identifying novel inhibitors for aquaporins. Brooks is currently the Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Physiological Sciences at the University of Arizona.
Brooks is a renal physiologist and has developed microarray technology to address in vivo signaling pathways involved in the hormonal regulation of renal function. Current areas of research are focused on stress and proliferation pathways in the kidney, examining how lithium-induced kidney damage is activated and the importance of aging and sex differences in the onset of diabetic kidney disease.
Brooks is very active in the APS, has received the American Physiological Society (APS) Lazaro J. Mandel Young Investigator Award and the APS Renal Young Investigator Award (2009) and is currently Chair of the Renal Section, APS. She serves on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, and has served on study sections of the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. She is a current member of the Nephrology Merit Review Board for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and an incoming Associate Editor for American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
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Joe Dunbar
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Joseph Dunbar received his PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology at Wayne State University in 1970. His did his postdoctoral training at Sinai Hospital of Detroit before being named an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at Wayne State University. He rose through the ranks in the Department and was named Chair in 1998.
Dunbar is interested in the endocrine mechanisms associated with diabetes mellitus and its complications. Diabetes or insulin insufficiency is characterized by changes in nutrient metabolism as well as chronic alterations in multiple physiological systems. Since obesity is strongly associated with diabetes he is also investigating the role of insulin and adipose tissue hormones in the CNS-mediated regulation of cardiovascular responses. He is investigating the hypothalamic factors mediating the leptin signaling cascade pathway and their potential role in hypertention. He is also studying the CNS-mediated mechanisms of action of insulin and leptin on cardiovascular dynamics. He also has ongoing studies on the influence of diabetes on ischemia-mediated CNS neuronal apoptosis and the role of insulin and IGF1 on this process.
Dunbar serves on the Advisory Board for the APS Professional Skills Training Program. He is an active member of many NIH Review Boards and Committees and has served on the boards of several peer-reviewed national journals, including American Journal of Physiology, Diabetes, and Cancer.
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Greg Florant
Colorado State University
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Greg Florant received his PhD at Stanford University. He then taught at Swarthmore College (10 years) and Temple University (5 years) before moving to the Department of Biology at the Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO.
Florant’s research focuses on energy metabolism in animals. He is investigating how animals store fat and then use that fat to survive under environmentally harsh conditions, specifically winter hibernation. He is searching for new mechanisms that will help scientists understand body mass regulation and obesity in animals, in the hopes that it will apply to humans.
Florant is active in APS programs. He currently serves as Chair of the APS Porter Physiology Development Committee, overseeing the minority graduate fellowship and minority travel fellowship programs. He is also very involved in NIH and the Ford Foundation, running workshops for minority scientists.
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Yolanda Scott George
Deputy Director, Education and Human Resources
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Yolanda Scott George is Deputy Director and Program Director, Education and Human Resources Programs. Her responsibilities include planning, development, management, implementation, and evaluation of multi-year science, mathematics, and technology (SMT) education and educational research projects. She also provides technical assistance to community-based organizations, science-based organizations, schools, colleges and universities, and churches interested in developing science, mathematics and computer education initiatives. She develops and coordinates conferences related to recruitment and retention of minorities, women, and persons with disabilities in SMT. She works with UNIFEM, UNESCO, and non-governmental organizations on gender, science, and technology initiatives related to college and university recruitment and retention and women leadership in SMT.
George currently serves as PI or Co-PI on six grants related to developing evaluation capacity of PIs, project directors and evaluators for the NSF Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP); development of a digital library for biology educators in undergraduate, graduate and professional schools; and international gender, science, and technology. George has authored or co-authored over 50 papers, pamphlets, and hands-on science manuals.
George has served as Director of Development, Association of Science-Technology Centers, Washington, DC; Director, Professional Development Program, University of California, Berkeley, CA; and as a research biologist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore, CA involved in cell cycle studies using flow cytometer and cell sorters. She received her MS from Atlanta University in Georgia.
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Rayna Gonzales
University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Rayna Gonzales was awarded her Ph.D. degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California at Irvine in the Department of Pharmacology and was recently promoted to Associate Researcher.
Gonzales studies the effects of androgens on vascular reactivity in rat middle cerebral arteries. She has shown that androgens modulate vascular tone by suppressing endothelium-dependent dilation and enhancing the vasoconstrictor thromboxane pathway.
Gonzales is an active member of both APS and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. She has served as a committee member on the APS Porter Physiology Development Committee, the APS Advisory Board for Minority Students in Biomedicine and the UC Irvine Biomedical Minority Training Program. She has been a recipient of the APS Porter Physiology Pre-doctoral Fellowship, the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, the APS Travel Award Fellowship for Experimental Biology meetings, and is now serving as a mentor in that program.
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Robert Hester
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Robert Hester received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Mississippi Medical Center and Mississippi State University. He did his postdoctoral training at University of Virginia before accepting a faculty position in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Hester's research is on the compensatory mechanisms that regulate the balance between tissue function and blood flow that are essential for the overall function and survival of the tissue. There appears to be a close relationship between blood flow and tissue metabolism. His current work addresses the following hypotheses: In response to mismatches in blood flow and tissue metabolism, decreases in pO2 or increases in H+ and pCO2 are sensed by the venular endothelial cells resulting in the release of vasoactive metabolites of arachidonic acid which dilate the adjacent arteriole. His lab is testing the hypothesis that the release of vasoactive factors from venular endothelial cells is responsible for vasodilation of the feed arterioles during increases in tissue metabolism. His recent studies have on focused on the control mechanisms of blood flow to muscle in an animal model of metabolic syndrome, focusing on the role of arachidonic acid metabolites.
Hester serves on the APS Education Committee and continues to be active in various APS programs. He serves on editorial boards for Microcirculation, AJP: Heart and Circulatory Section, AJP: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. He has reviewed grants for NIH and American Heart Association. He is the Past-President of the Microcirculatory Society.
Carmen Hinojosa-Laborde
U.S Army Institute of Surgical Research, Fort Sam Houston, TX
Instructor
Courses: How to Present a Scientific Poster
Carmen Hinojosa-Laborde received her PhD from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Iowa. She maintained a faculty position at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio from 1992-2009. She is currently a research physiologist at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research.
Hinojosa-Laborde’s research incorporates an integrated physiology approach to understanding how multiple organ systems contribute to the regulation of blood pressure. During her academic career, she studied the pathology of hypertension, and how organ systems respond differently between males and females. As a research physiologist for the US Army, she continues to use an integrative physiology approach to study blood pressure regulation during hemorrhage.
Hinojosa-Laborde has served on the International Physiology and Porter Physiology Committees of the APS, and the editorial board of the AJP-Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology. She is currently serving on the Water and Electrolyte Homeostasis Section Steering Committee as the Committee on Committees Representative.
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Barbara Horwitz
University of California, Davis
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Barbara Horwitz obtained her PhD from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. She also received training at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Davis. She accepted a faculty position at the University of California, Davis in the Department of Physiology. In 1991 she was named Chair of the Department of Animal Physiology, and in 1993 Chair of the Section of Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior. In 2001 she was appointed Vice Provost for Academic Personnel at the University.
Horwitz’s research program centers on the genetic, neural, and hormonal regulation of energy balance. Current studies are focused on the underlying mechanisms associated with altered gene expression and brain regulation of energy balance in genetic and diet-induced animal models of obesity; the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying sympathetic (adrenergic) stimulation of energy expenditure; the role of mitochondrial uncoupling proteins in energy balance and oxidative stress; and the physiological basis of altered metabolism during various stages of aging.
Horwitz has been very active in the APS and Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, including being elected to serve on the Council for both societies and subsequently elected to the presidency of both. She was the second woman President for APS. She has served APS also as an Associate Editor for News in Physiological Science, on the Editorial Board for Journal of Applied Physiology, and as a section editor for a Handbook of Physiology.
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Irving Joshua
University of Louisville
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Irving Joshua was awarded his PhD from Pennsylvania State University He has been a faculty member for the last 25 years at the University of Louisville where today he is the Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
Joshua does small animal research to investigate the mechanisms associated with the control of microvascular function during normal and disease states. Specifically, he is investigating alterations in the vasoconstrictor responses of several vessel levels of the microcirculation during the development of several cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and aging.
Joshua has been active in both the APS and the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology, where he served both on the council and as President of the Society. With APS he has served on numerous committees before being elected to the APS Council in 2005.
Erin Keen-Rhinehart
Susquehanna University
Instructor
Courses: Abstract Writing for Scientific Meetings
Erin Keen-Rhinehart received her PhD from the University of Florida and is currently an Assistant Professor of Biology at Susquehanna University.
Keen-Rhinehart is a neuroscientist interested in how nutrition during gestation can have long-term effects on the brain, endocrine system and behavior. She and her students investigate the effects of nutrient restriction during pregnancy on offspring central nervous system regulation of ingestive behavior and reproductive system function in rats and hamsters. They are interested in determining changes in neuropeptides in the brain that are responsible for the phenomenon of low birth weight offspring being predisposed to obesity and infertility.
Keen-Rhinehart is an active member of APS and recently served on the Education Committee.
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Mark Knuepfer
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Group Leader
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Mark Knuepfer received his PhD from the University of Iowa. He was previously on the staff of Johns Hopkins University, University of Heidelberg, and University of Western Ontario.
Knuepfer studies the role of the central nervous system (CNS) in regulating cardiovascular responses to pharmacological and physiological stress. His initial studies were focused on the effects of startle and cocaine administration in conscious rats. Cocaine is a widely abused drug considered "safe" despite many reports suggesting that cocaine causes cardiovascular toxicity in some humans. Behavioral stress also contributes to or causes cardiovascular disease yet the genetic factors that determine this predisposition are not understood. His lab uses the rat as a model to elucidate the CNS neurotransmitters and sites responsible for susceptibility to cardiovascular disease.
Knuepfer is active in both the APS and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
Johanna Krontiris-Litowitz
Youngstown State University
Instructor
Courses: Interviewing for an Academic Position
Johanna Krontiris-Litowitz received her PhD from Cleveland State University and is currently a Professor Anatomy and Physiology at Youngstown State University.
Krontiris-Litowitz studies gender-based differences in architecture of the hypertrophied heart using the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) as an experimental model.
Krontiris-Litowitz is active in the APS and has served on the Education Committee and the Women in Physiology Committee.
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Charles Lang
Pennsylvania State University
Group Leader
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Charles Lang is currently Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology. Lang began his scientific career in the Department of Physiology at the LSU Medical Center as a post-doctoral fellow in shock and trauma. After more than a decade at LSU, he moved to the Department of Surgery at SUNY-Stony Brook as Professor of Surgery and the Director of Surgical Research. For the past nine years, he has been in his current position at the Penn State College of Medicine.
Lang’s research has focused on the mechanisms for sepsis-induced changes in glucose and protein metabolism, and the role of cytokines in the regulation of the insulin-like growth factor system. He has worked extensively in recent years on the regulation of translational control by growth factors and nutrients during various catabolic states, including sepsis, thermal injury, disuse atrophy, alcoholism and HIV infection.
Lang has served on the editorial board of American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, and is currently on the board for Shock and Journal of Nutrition. He has served as the basic science councilor for the Shock Society as well as the Chairman of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Section Program Committee and Steering Committee for APS.
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Dexter Lee
Howard University College of Medicine
Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Dexter Lee earned his PhD in 2000 in the Department of Physiology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received his postdoctoral training in the Vascular Biology Center and the Department of Physiology at Medical College of Georgia. In 2006 Lee accepted the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Howard University, College of Medicine in Washington, DC.
Lee's research focus is on the renal mechanisms for chronic blood pressure control during hypertension. Specific interests are to investigate the role of inflammatory cytokines on renal function and their contribution to end-stage renal disease.
Lee has been active in APS and has received numerous travel awards to APS meetings as a result of his research. He has also received several New Investigator Awards from APS, the Council for High Blood Pressure Research, and the Jackson Cardiovascular Meeting.
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Carole Liedtke
Case Western Reserve University
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Carole Liedtke graduated with a PhD in physiology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. She stayed to do her postdoctoral work there, helped to position the department/division in an entirely new area of research, and was hired as a researcher, then instructor, then Assistant Professor. She is now a full professor in the department/division. In addition, in 1989, Liedtke continued her own professional education and development by earning an M.B.A. degree, as a part-time student.
Liedtke investigates how Na-K-Cl cotransport (NKCC1) and CFTR are activated during fluid secretion in epithelia. NKCC1 is an electroneutral transport pathway that is critical for supplying Cl for secretion and for mediating energy-efficient absorption of Na and Cl in renal tubules. She is dissecting signal transduction cascades involved in activation of NKCC1. Her studies provided the first evidence for activation of NKCC1 cotransport by alpha-adrenergic agonists, hyperosmotic stress and intracellular Cl. Subsequent investigation of membrane-associated events, including activation of phospholipases A2, C, and D, their regulation by G proteins, and generation of lipid mediators, led to more detailed study of protein kinase C (PKC) regulation of cotransport.
Liedtke instituted and has run the postdoctoral training program at Case for the past 5 years. She has served APS as a member and then Chair of the Women in Physiology Committee, which is the committee that is the impetus behind these courses. She was then elected to APS Council where she served for three years, until May 2007.
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Melinda Lowy
Higher Education Programs Coordinator
American Physiological Society
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Melinda Lowy is the Higher Education Programs Coordinator for the undergraduate, graduate, postdoc, new investigator, and continuing education programs for the APS. She has held that position since 2001.
Previously, Lowy served as a copy editor for the APS for 8 years. She has worked on the Handbooks of Physiology series, as well as most of the APS journals. She was Journal Copy Editor for American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology, Physiological Reviews, and Journal of Applied Physiology.
She also held the position of Executive Assistant to the Executive Director before joining the Education Office.
Prior to joining APS, Lowy was a lab technician at the University of Michigan, studying ion transport in the colon. She has an M.S. degree from Oregon State University.
Lauren McIntyre
University of Florida
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Lauren McIntyre received her MStat in 1994 and PhD in 1996 from North Carolina State University under the direction of Dr. Bruce Weir. Her PhD, on testing Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, was an interdisciplinary endeavor in Genetics/Statistics. As a Research Assistant Professor at Duke University Medical School she developed methods for mapping multigenic binary traits.
In 1999, with a move to Purdue University, Dr. McIntyre developed an interest in the genotype to phenotype map. The emergence of new technologies for measuring gene expression, and the increasing availability of sequence data have provided motivation for her work on analytical approaches to modeling gene expression networks, and relating them to phenotypes. In 2006 Dr. McIntyre moved to the University of Florida to join a campus wide Genetics Institute. She works on a wide variety of organisms, and remains interested in the fundamental questions about the role of genetic variation.
McIntyre is a member of the Genetics Society of America. McIntyre is an associate editor at Molecular Biology and Evolution, BMC Genetics, Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology and Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B. She is a Senior Editor at GENETICS where she organizes the section on complex traits.
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Lori McMahon
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Group Leader
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Lori McMahon received her Ph.D. from St. Louis University Health Sciences Center in St. Louis, Missouri. She did postdoctoral training at Duke University Medical Center and, in 1998, joined the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
McMahon’s laboratory is interested in understanding the role of inhibitory interneurons and inhibitory mechanisms in governing the activity of local synaptic circuits. A major effort is aimed at understanding the role of the inhibitory amino acids, glycine and taurine, and glycine-gated chloride channels in providing neuronal inhibition in hippocampus, a brain region highly susceptible to seizure activity and excitotoxic cell death. Another major focus of the laboratory is directed toward elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie long-term changes in the strength of excitatory synaptic transmission and how these mechanisms are altered in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. Finally, the lab is examining the effects of estrogen on synaptic function and plasticity. McMahon is interested in determining how estrogen-induced changes in synaptic plasticity contribute to the memory enhancing effects of this hormone.
She has been active in both the APS and the Society for Neuroscience and is currently a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Neurophysiology.
Cindy Meininger
Texas A&M Health Science Center
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Cindy Meininger received her PhD from Texas A&M University. She did postdoctoral training at Texas A&M as well as Harvard Medical School/Children’s Hospital before accepting a faculty position at the Texas A&M College of Medicine (now the Texas A&M Health Science Center). She is Professor in the Department of Systems Biology and Translational Medicine; Director of the Division of Vascular Biology of the Cardiovascular Research Institute; Director of Graduate Studies on the Health Science Center Temple Campus; and Associate Director of the MD/PhD Program at the Texas A&M Health Science Center.
Meininger focuses primarily on vascular complications of diabetes linked to decreased bioavailability of nitric oxide. Using animal models of human diabetes, she demonstrated that the inability of endothelial cells to produce adequate nitric oxide is partly due to a deficiency of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), an essential enzymatic co-factor for nitric oxide synthesis. Since BH4 is also one of the most potent endogenous cellular antioxidants, reduced levels of BH4 may render the endothelial cell more susceptible to oxidative injury. Currently, she and her collaborators are studying ways to modulate BH4 levels in endothelial cells, including developing “targeted” nanoparticles to deliver BH4 to endothelial cells oxidatively damaged by diabetes to restore nitric oxide production and reverse the vascular dysfunction seen in diabetes. This approach should not only reverse the damage caused by disease but will increase antioxidant levels to protect the endothelial cells from future damage and/or dysfunction.
Meininger is active in the cardiovascular section of the APS, where she serves on the Awards Committee, and the Microcirculatory Society, where she served in various capacities before being elected President in 2007. She routinely reviews grants for the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, and a variety of other national and international scientific agencies.
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Patricia Molina
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Patricia Molina received her MD in 1986 from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala and did her internship at Hospital General San Juan de Dios. She then came to the US and received her PhD in 1990 from Louisiana State University Medical Center, Her postdoctoral training was at Vanderbilt University. She is currently Professor of Physiology at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
Molina's research interests include the impact of chronic alcohol consumption on the progression of AIDS-associated muscle wasting and on the metabolic and pro-inflammatory counteregulatory responses to shock and trauma, as well as understanding the neuro-endocrine mechanisms that regulate peripheral metabolic and inflammatory responses to hemorrhagic shock and trauma.
Molina is active in the APS, serving on the International Physiology Committee and in the leadership of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Section. She also was a member of the US National Committee for the International Union of Physiological Sciences meeting.
Mesia Steed
Wake Forest University
Instructor
Courses: How to Present a Scientific Poster, Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Mesia Steed received her PhD from the University of Louisville and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Physiology & Pharmacology at Wake Forest University. Steed is an active member of APS.
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Evangeline Motley
Meharry Medical College
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Evangeline Motley received her PhD in 1991 from Howard University in Washington, DC, after completing her dissertation research at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals in King of Prussia, PA. Her postdoctoral training was done at the University of Cincinnati. She was then hired as an Assistant Professor of Physiology at Meharry Medical College in 1993. Motley is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Biology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. She served as Chair of the Division for a few months before she accepted her new position as Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research.
Motley's research is in the area of cardiovascular physiology. She studies signal transduction mechanisms that lead to hypertension, atherosclerosis and insulin resistance.
Motley has been active in APS, serving on committees and helping with educational and minority programs. She is also an active member of the Endocrine Society and the American Heart Association.
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L. Gabriel Navar
Tulane University
Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
L. Gabriel Navar received his PhD from the University of Mississippi under Dr. Arthur Guyton, author of the famous Textbook of Medical Physiology. He served on the faculty at the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama at Birmingham before becoming Chair of the Physiology Department at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, LA.
Navar’s laboratory investigates the hormonal and paracrine mechanisms regulating renal hemodynamics, glomerular filtration rate, and sodium excretion with specific focus on the tubuloglomerular feedback mechanism and its role in renal autoregulation. Another area of interest is the intrarenal mechanisms mediating changes in sodium excretion that occur in response to changes in arterial pressure, a phenomenon termed "pressure natriuresis." More recent work has focused on the roles of the kidney and the renin-angiotensin system in the development of high blood pressure and the associated changes in kidney function.
Navar has been an active member of the APS since 1966, serving on many committees, in the Renal Section, and in the publications program. In 1991 the APS membership elected him to serve on the APS Council to assist in running the Society. The members then elected him again in 1998 to serve as President. During his presidency, Dr. Navar coordinated an effort to increase the membership of the Society, enabling APS to hit the 10,000 member mark. He also oversaw the granting of full membership benefits to overseas members, allowing them to vote in elections, serve on committees, and serve on Council or as President.
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Judy Neubauer
UMDNJ-RW Johnson Medical School
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Judy Neubauer received her PhD from Rutgers University. She did her postdoctoral training at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is currently a Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Neubauer’s research focuses on the neurobiology of respiratory control and the neuronal responses to hypoxia and CO2.
Neubauer has been very active in the APS, serving in the Respiratory Section leadership, as Chair of the Hypoxia Group, and as member and Chair of the APS Joint Program Committee. She also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Physiology.
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Rudy Ortiz
University of California, Merced
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Rudy Ortiz worked at NASA before getting his PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. After completing a University of California Office of the President's postdoctoral fellowship at UC Santa Cruz, Ortiz continued his postdoctoral research at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, LA. He was appointed as one of the first faculty at the new University of California, Merced, where he started in January 2005.
Ortiz studies the kidney function and metabolism of elephant seals during a unique post-weaning fast period. By monitoring hormones in the pups, Ortiz hopes to learn why they are able to fast for such long duration, what makes them stop fasting, and how the kidneys function supports the fast. This type of research may contribute to a greater understanding of human eating behaviors and obesity. He also studies the role of the kidneys in hypertension (chronic high blood pressure). Specifically, he studies the role of the adrenal steroid aldosterone, which damages soft tissue such as the heart in patients with hypertension. Drugs that block aldosterone prevent such damage, but paradoxically also seem to stimulate more aldosterone production.
Ortiz has been active in APS programs and recently served as one of the first members of the new APS Trainee Advisory Committee, where he organized their first Experimental Biology workshop on “Transition from Postdoc to Jr. Faculty: Surviving the Initial Years” to be held at EB 2006 in San Francisco.
Ian Paul
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Ian Paul obtained his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989. He received a National Research Council Associate award to continue his postdoctoral training in neuropharmacology at the NIH where he remained from 1989 to 1993. In 1993, he took a faculty position in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He has been active in research education for many years, developing a summer internship program in neuroscience funded by the NCRR in 2002. In 2007, he founded and continues as director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, the first interdisciplinary graduate training program at UMMC with 42 faculty participating from 15 departments. In 2010, Dr. Paul established the 800 sq. ft. Rodent Behavioral Core facility, funded by the NCRR, to serve the needs of the neuroscience community at UMMC.
Paul’s laboratory utilizes behavioral, pharmacological, biochemical and anatomical techniques in neuropharmacological research. For most of his career, he has focused on utilizing animal models of major depressive disorders to understand the mechanism of action of antidepressant treatments. Recently, his group has focused on developmental psychopharmacology – that is, the long term behavioral and neurobiological effects of early life exposure to psychiatric medications. This work has led to the development of an animal model of autistic spectrum disorder based on early life exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants. Dr. Paul has published extensively and has been funded by the NIH as well as foundation grants and industrial contracts. He is currently funded with his collaborators by the NIMH.
Rebecca Persinger
Grifols
Instructor
Courses: Interviewing for an Industry Position
Rebecca Persinger, RD, PhD, FCCP is a Medical Science Team Lead in Biotechnnology in the Medical Affairs Department of Grifols. Persinger has experience as a molecular biologist and clinical research coordinator.
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Keri A. K. Poi
Eli Lilly & Company
Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Keri Kles Poi received her PhD in 2002 from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, investigating intestinal nutrient transport during hypoperfusion. She obtained her postdoctoral training in the Institute of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at the University of Chicago School of Medicine.
During her postdoctoral training as she was writing up her results as manuscripts, Poi discovered that she really enjoyed writing. While investigating various career paths, she decided to be a scientific or medical writer. Poi is now working at Eli Lilly & Company as a scientific writer. She has the opportunity to write about clinical trials that investigate therapies for people with diabetes. Currently, she is in the role of writing about pharmaceutical funded clinical trials and publication planning.
Poi has been active in the APS, receiving the 2004 Young Investigator Award from the Cell and Molecular Section of the APS. She has also been a recipient of the APS NIDDK Minority Travel Awards from APS for several years. In addition, she has received awards from the American Society for Nutritional Sciences for her research.
Frank Powell
University of California, San Diego
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Frank L. Powell is the Chief of the Physiology Division and a Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego, where he has been since 1980. He obtained his Ph.D. in respiratory and comparative physiology at UC Davis in 1978 and did pre- and post-doctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Gottingen, Germany. His early research focused on respiratory gas exchange, including factors that limit gas exchange for oxygen and other gases, breath testing, and defining the mechanisms responsible for better oxygen exchange at high altitude in birds compared to mammals.
Powell's research has continued to focus on hypoxia at the systems level. Currently his laboratory studies respiratory neurobiology, ventilatory acclimatization to hypoxia and the mechanisms of neural plasticity, tolerance and susceptibility to chronic hypoxia. From 1995-2012, he directed the University of California's high altitude research laboratories at White Mountain Research Station, which has ideal facilities for studying long-term hypoxia in humans. Additional collaborations with the UCSD Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care are testing the clinical significance of results obtained from animal models in Powell’s laboratory.
Powell's teaching efforts have been focused in the UCSD School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Currently, he is the director of interdisciplinary courses on the Pulmonary System for first and second year in the new UCSD School of Medicine curriculum. Powell also teaches in the Physiology track of the UCSD Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program and directs an NIH institutional training grant in Respiratory Biology, which is a new collaboration with the UCSD Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He has supported professional training in physiology and educational outreach through the American Physiological Society, and has served APS as the Chair of the Education Committee and a Councilor.
Thomas Pressley
Texas Tech University Health Science Center
Course: Interviewing for an Academic Position, Presenting a Scientific Poster, Creating a Scientific Poster
Tom Pressley earned his Bachelor degree at Johns Hopkins University and then entered doctoral training at the Medical University of South Carolina. His dissertation research in blue crab acclimation to changing salinity prompted a lifelong interest in membrane transport. After postdoctoral training at Columbia University with Dr. Isidore Edelman, he was recruited by the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. In 1995, he transferred to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.
Pressley has been a Welcome Professor in the Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Northern Iowa, an invited professor at the University of Poitiers in France, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy. His research has focused mainly on the physiological relevance of protein diversity in transport proteins such as the Na,K-ATPase.
Within the APS, Pressley has served as Chair of the Education Committee and an ad hoc member of Council, as well as a member of various society task forces. When not in the classroom or laboratory, he is likely to be flying his sailplane.
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Darlene K. Racker
Northwestern University Medical School
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Darlene K. Racker received her PhD degree from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Heath Sciences/The Chicago Medical School (now, Rosalind Franklin University) in 1987. She did her postdoctoral training at Columbia University in the Department of Pharmacology before being named Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology in 1990. After joining the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago in 1994, she was named Associate Professor in 2006.
Racker's research interests are in cardiovascular anatomy and electrophysiology. She studies the conduction system of the heart, myocardial infarction, and the electrophysiological and anatomical properties associated that disease and rhythm disturbances.
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Hector Rasgado-Flores
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science
Group Leader
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Hector Rasgado earned his PhD from the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland in 1984. He also received his postdoctoral training in that department as well as in the Department of Physiology at the Chicago Medical School. In 1988, Rasgado received his first NIH grant and joined the Department as a faculty member. He remains at the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the university, now renamed as the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science.
Rasgado’s research focuses on the regulation of intracellular Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions and cell volume regulation in muscle cells. His main contributions to these fields have been characterizing a novel plasmalemmal transporter for Mg2+, helping to understand the mechanisms by which muscle cells sense and control their volume in response to their needs and/or to changes in their environment, and contributing to our understanding of how and why muscle cells undergo cell volume changes during their contraction.
Rasgado has been an active member of APS, including serving on the International Physiology Committee. His leadership abilities on the Committee led to his being named Chair for two consecutive terms. He initiated a program to support specialized meetings for physiologists in Mexico and Latin and South America that are held in their own countries and have speakers from the US that are paid for in part by APS.
For the International Physiology Meeting held in 2005 in San Diego, Rasgado and his brother wrote a symphony about the body and physiology called "Body Notes" that was performed by the San Diego Chamber Orchestra for the first time during the meeting. It debuted in Mexico, his home country, in 2006 and included video images and dance in addition to the music. This year it will be performed at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
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Margaret Reich
Publications Manager and Executive Editor
American Physiological Society
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Margaret Reich is Director of Publications and Executive Editor for the 15 journals of the APS. She was named to that position in 1999.
Previously, Reich served as Director of Annals of Emergency Medicine, and before that as Production Manager of the American Heart Association’s 5 journals. She started her career as an Editorial Assistant at Yale University Press.
Reich is a member of Society for Scholarly Publishing, has served on their Board of Directors, the Education Committee, and the Program Committee before being elected President in 2004. She has also served as the Council of Science Editors Education Committee Chair and was Chair of their Program Committee.
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Alberto Roca
University of California – Irvine
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Alberto Roca received his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Roca was an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biochemistry Department at Rice University in Houston. He is a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow. He currently is a Project Scientist in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine. He has also conducted research at the Institute Curie in France funded by a Chateaubriand Fellowship.
Roca’s research involves using biophysical approaches to understand the molecular mechanism of recombinational DNA repair.
Roca is a founding co-chair of the Postdoc Committee of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). He is principal investigator of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant that allowed him to create http://www.minoritypostdoc.org/ and to organize the Minority Postdoc Summit at the 2004 SACNAS annual conference. Alberto credits his success in proposal writing to a FASEB/MARC grantsmanship training seminar.
Roca has been an invited speaker on minority postdoctoral issues at the following conferences: the Compact for Faculty Diversity’s annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring; the Howard University/University of Texas-El Paso’s Institute on Preparing for Postdoctoral Experiences in STEM; and the COSEPUP Second Convocation on Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience. In addition, he is a member of the Diversity Committee of the National Postdoctoral Association.
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Michael F. Romero
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Michael Romero received his PhD in 1991 in Genetics (unofficially Physiology & Biophysics) from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. His postdoctoral training was in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Physiology at Yale University School of Medicine and was subsequently promoted to Associate Research Scientist there. In 1997 he accepted an Assistant Professorship in Physiology & Biophysics back at Case Western Reserve University followed by an Assistant Professorship as well in the Department of Pharmacology. He became an Associate Professor in both departments in 2003, received tenure in 2006 and has recently moved to the Department of Physiology & Biomedical Engineering at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.
Romero is interested in ion and solute transporters associated with cellular acid-base homeostasis: HCO3- transporters, anion transporters, H+ transporters and monocarboxylate transporters. In particular, he focuses on epithelial cell physiology and development in several model organisms.
Romero clones mammalian, vertebrate, and invertebrate transporter cDNAs and expresses the corresponding proteins in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Many of his studies use a variety of electrophysiology techniques including microelectrodes to measure ion activities and membrane potential/current. To better understand these ion transporters, he determines which cations and/or anions are transported. Using both chimeric protein approaches and site-directed mutagenesis, he is beginning to understand critical domains and residues of particularly HCO3- transporters. He also develops antibodies for protein localization in epithelial tissues. His lab is presently supported by the National Eye Institute (NIH) and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Romero has been active in APS, serving on the Education Committee and featured in the APS Career Opportunities in Physiology brochure and web site. He is presently the Vice Chair of the Cellular & Molecular Section of APS and on the Epithelial Transport Group steering committee. He has been the recipient of APS travel awards, tum Suden Award, and section postdoctoral and new investigator awards. Several of his fellows have also won APS sectional awards for their Experimental Biology presentations. He was previously on the Editorial Board of American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal, Liver Physiology and currently serves on the Editorial Boards of American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
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Michael Ryan
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Instructor
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Michael Ryan received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Iowa and subsequently moved to Jackson, MS as a faculty member in the Department of Physiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center where he holds the rank of Associate Professor.
Ryan’s research program is focused on understanding mechanisms that promote the development and consequences of hypertension. He is currently utilizing an experimental model of the autoimmune disorder systemic lupus erythematosus to examine the link between immune system activation and renal changes that promote hypertension. He also has an ongoing project examining mechanisms by which hypertension during pregnancy impairs cerebral vascular function and structure.
Ryan is an active member of the APS, having served on the Porter Physiology Development, Education, and Animal Care and Experimentation Committees. In addition, he is active in the Gulf Coast Physiology Chapter and routinely participates in APS sponsored outreach activities. Ryan serves on the editorial board for a number of journals including AJP:Regulatory, and participates in grant review study sections for the several funding agencies.
W.K. “Rick” Samson
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Instructor
Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
W.K. “Rick” Samson, Ph.D., D.Sc., attended Duke University before being invited by Uncle Sam to serve in the United States Army in 1968. After returning to civilian life, Rick studied Endocrine Physiology under S.M. McCann at UT Southwestern receiving his PhD in 1979. He stayed on at UTSWMC first as a postdoctoral fellow in Neuroendocrinology and then an Assistant Professor in Physiology until 1988, when he moved to the University of Missouri (Columbia) rising to full Professor in 1990. In 1992, he accepted the Chair in Physiology at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine, where he served until 1999, fleeing the frigid North to take his current position as Professor of Pharmacological and Physiological Science and Director of Graduate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Rick and his group study hypothalamic and pituitary mechanisms controlling reproduction, cardiovascular function, and fluid and electrolyte homeostasis. Their work employs both classical behavioral and endocrine manipulations as well as modern molecular technologies. In addition, the group uses a bioinformatic approach to discover previously unrecognized, biologically active ligands (peptides) and to match those ligands to their cognate receptors (often orphan G protein-coupled receptors).
Rick is currently the Head of the Faculty in Diabetes & Endocrinology for the Faculty of 1000, has served on several editorial boards and grant review panels, and has organized numerous national and international scientific meetings/symposia. He has served the American Physiological Society most recently as a member of the Joint Program Committee and for the past 5 years has been Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physiology (Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology). Rick has been selected to be the next Editor-in-Chief of AJP RIC when Curt Sigmund’s term ends in July 2013.
Thomas J. Schmidt
University of Iowa
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Tom Schmidt earned his Ph.D. degree in Physiology from Cornell University. He completed two postdoctoral positions, first at the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD) and then at the Fels Research Institute, Temple Medical School (Philadelphia, PA). In 1983 he accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA) He is now a Professor in that department and holds the Harold Myers Professorship in Medical Education.
Schmidt’s primary interests are in how steroid hormones, especially the adrenal steroids cortisol and aldosterone, mediate their diverse physiological effects at the cellular and molecular levels. These steroids bind to intracellular receptor proteins that function as ligand-activated transcription factors. Thus, much of his research has focused on these steroid receptors and their abilities to regulate specific gene expression.
Schmidt is active in the American Physiological Society, having served previously on the Education Committee and currently serving on the Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee.
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Gary Schoenwolf
University of Utah
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Gary Schoenwolf obtained his PhD from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 1979 and did postdoctoral work at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque from 1977-79. He has been at the University of Utah since 1979 and is currently Distinguished Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Pediatrics.
Schoenwolf’s current research focuses on development of the inner ear and the roles of BMP, SHH, and FGF in establishing its patterning to specify auditory and vestibular compartments. His work is supported by the NIH.
Schoenwolf is active in the American Association of Anatomists and is the Editor-in-Chief of the society’s journal, Developmental Dynamics.
Annabell Segarra
University of Puerto Rico
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Making Scientific Presentations: Critical First Skills
Annabell C Segarra obtained her BS and MS from the University of Puerto Rico and her PhD from NYU. She did a 6 months post-doc at NYU and 3 yrs at Rockefeller University. She is currently a Professor at the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico.
Segarra’s main area of interest is neuroendocrinology. The research in her laboratory focuses on the interactions between sex steroids, glucocorticoids and the opioid system in modulating motivated behaviors such as sexual behavior and drug abuse. The long term goal is to elucidate the mechanisms by which alterations in brain neurochemistry and/or synaptic connectivity result in dysfunctional motivational and reward circuits. Since many of these motivated behaviors are sexually dimorphic, their laboratory also investigates the developmental window when this dimorphism is established and the factors involved. Her current research efforts are concentrated in studying the interactions between estrogen and the opioid system in modulating behavioral sensitization to cocaine.
By studying the interaction between limbic brain neurochemistry and plasma steroids in normal and aberrant motivated behaviors, their laboratory can obtain physiologically relevant information that may contribute to elucidate the mechanisms involved in many psychiatric disorders, and to identify gender bias. A better understanding of the factors that lead to differential sensitivity to drugs of abuse is crucial for the development of pharmacotherapy that is equally effective in males and females.
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Catherine Uyehara
Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu
Group Leader
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Cathy Uyehara received her PhD from The University of Hawaii. Following that, she did her postdoctoral research at SmithKline Beecham before accepting a position at Tripler Army Medical Center. She is currently Deputy Chief and Director of Collaborative Research at the Department of Clinical Investigation.
Uyehara's research is on vasopressin regulation and action in fluid and electrolyte balance. Her current focus of study involves two different lines of research: 1)renal fluid regulation in alcohol exposure and vasopressin, and 2)vasopressin regulation of regional blood flow in septic shock.
Uyehara is active in the APS, serving on the Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee and working with the Education Office on both K-12 and undergraduate programs. She serves as both the Chair and reviewer for both the Scientific Review Committee and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for her institution. She also reviews grants for various funding and government.
Johana Vallejo-Elias
Midwestern University of Osteopathic Medicine
Instructor
Courses: How to Network at a Scientific Meeting, Creating a Scientific Poster
Johana Vallejo-Elias received her PhD from the University of Missouri and is currently an Assistant Professor at Midwestern University of Osteopathic Medicine.
Vallejo-Elias’ research is in compartmentalization and organization of cellular metabolism to plasma membrane domains such as caveolae. Her current project relates to insulin signaling and the onset of insulin resistance during diabetes.
Vallejo-Elias is active in APS and currently serves on the Education Committee.
Peter Wagner
University of California, San Diego
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Peter Wagner is Distinguished Professor of Medicine & Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, CA. After obtaining his M.B., B.S. and B.Sc. (Medicine) degrees from Sydney University in 1968, he did postdoctoral work with Professor John West at UCSD in La Jolla, CA, USA. He then joined the UCSD medical faculty and has remained there to the present time.
Wagner’s research addresses the theoretical and experimental basis of oxygen transport and its limitations in the lungs and skeletal muscles in health and disease. A particular focus is muscle capillary growth regulation using molecular biological approaches in integrated systems¬the role of O2, microvascular hemodynamics, physical factors, nitric oxide and inflammatory mediators in transcriptional regulation of angiogenic growth factors. Of particular interest is the role of VEGF in both pulmonary and skeletal muscle structure and function.
Wagner has served NIH as a study section member and chair, as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Physiology, was President of the American Thoracic Society 2005-2006, and was President of the American Physiological Society in 2010. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed research articles and over 100 invited chapters and other contributions. He is currently Editor in Chief of the Journal of Applied Physiology.
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R. Clinton Webb
Medical College of Georgia
Group Leader and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Clinton Webb received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He had postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Michigan and Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen in Antwerp, Belgium. His first faculty position was at the University of Michigan, where he rose through the ranks, reaching full professor in 1989. He then moved to become chair of the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia in 1999.
Webb’s research focuses on vascular smooth muscle, with particular emphasis placed on: 1) vascular reactivity in hypertension and diabetes; 2) penile erection; 3) cellular and subcellular mechanisms of contraction and relaxation of vascular smooth muscle (cell signaling, electrogenic sodium pump, subcellular calcium distribution, monovalent cation movements, nitric oxide, RhoA/Rho kinase, etc.); 4) adrenergic neurotransmission in blood vessels; and 5) intercellular communication between vascular smooth muscle cells.
Webb has served both APS and Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine on many committees. In 2004, he was named the first Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Awardee by the APS.
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Charles Wood
University of Florida College of Medicine
Group Leader
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Charles Wood obtained his PhD from the University of California at San Francisco in 1980 and did postdoctoral work at UCSF with Dr. Abraham Rudolph, from 1980-1983. He has been at the University of Florida since 1983. He is now Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics at the University of Florida College of Medicine.
Wood's lab focuses on the mechanisms controlling the responses to stress in the fetus in utero and on the mechanisms controlling the timing of birth. Present work in this laboratory focuses on three projects: 1) the interaction of prostanoids with the cardiovascular and endocrine controlling elements of the brain and the role of the locally-generated prostanoids in brain in the control of fetal stress responses (hypoxia and hypotension); 2) the influence of estrogen on the fetal brain regions which are important for cardiovascular and endocrine responsiveness to stress; and 3) the biological activity of sulfoconjugated estrogens in fetal plasma.
Wood is active in the APS, a member of the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology, a member of the Fluid and Electrolyte and the Endocrine sections of the APS. He is also a past editorial board member of the AJP Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative section.
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Christopher Woodman
Texas A&M University
Instructor
Courses: Abstract Writing for Scientific Meetings
Christopher Woodman received his PhD in Physiological Sciences from the University of Arizona and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Vascular Biology at the University of Missouri. In 2006, Woodman joined Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor and currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology. Woodman’s research interests are in exercise and vascular physiology.
Woodman is active in the APS and has served on the Education Committee.
J. Michael Wyss
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Instructor and Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Michael Wyss received a PhD from Washington University in Saint Louis and completed a HHMI Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Washington University Medical School under Dr. Max Cowen and with fellow trainees Larry Swanson and Clif Saper. After his fellowship he took a position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he is currently Professor of Cell Biology, Cardiology, Medicine, Neurology, Neurobiology and Psychology, Director of the Center for Community OutReach Development, Co-Director of the UAB Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and Director of the NIH Neuroscience Blueprint Rodent Phenotyping and Behavior Cores.
Wyss’ biomedical research focuses on two major areas. The first research focus is on the mechanisms by which the hypothalamus regulates blood pressure in salt-sensitive individuals and how this contributes to metabolic disease. This work has recently focused on the ability of polyphenols to blunt hypertension and metabolic signs (especially obesity and insulin resistance). The second research focus is on neuronal plasticity and grows out of his studies demonstrating that a specific group of pyramidal neurons in the rat retrosplenial cortex display a dramatic alteration in their structure as the animal ages. Concurrent with these changes in structure, they have demonstrated that cellular, molecular, and behavioral changes occur, including a significant decrease in spatial learning.
Wyss has been an active member of the APS since 1979, serving on many committees including the CNS Section Steering Committee, SAC, Membership, ACE, Education, and the JPC. In 2003 the APS membership elected him to serve on the APS Council to assist in running the Society. He currently is Chair of the CNS Committee and a member of the Education and ACE Committees. He is also on Council at AAALAC International and the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of AHA. He serves on APS, AHA, and other Editorial Boards, and is on the AHA National Peer Review Steering Committee.
Irving Zucker
University of Nebraska College of Medicine
Speaker
Courses: Writing and Reviewing for Scientific Journals
Irving Zucker received his doctorate from New York Medical College. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and then was hired on faculty there. He has remained there and in 1989 was named Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
Zucker’s research revolves around an understanding of the mechanisms that regulate sympathetic nerve activity in disease states such as heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes. His lab is interested in understanding what substances in the brain are responsible for abnormal sympathetic nerve activity in these disease states. These substances include angiotensin II, nitric oxide, and oxidant stress.
Zucker is active in APS, the American Heart Association, NIH, and the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology (ACDP). He has served as Councilor and President for the ACDP. He has served on many APS Committees, most recently Science Policy Committee, which deals with biomedical research funding. In 2004 he was elected to the APS Council to help govern the Society.