Each month, the Dean’s Office recognizes and celebrates the achievements of our students, faculty, and staff with this summary.

Kim Fasula, PhD, MS, MPH, RDH, PHDH, director of assessment and interprofessional education, presented a talk titled “Teeth to Toe: A Comprehensive Approach to Integrated Dental and Primary Care” on July 24 at the Illinois Primary Health Care Association Conference, held in Springfield, IL. 

On August 1, Dr. Fasula and Jeanette Morrison, MD, FACP, executive vice dean for CMS and vice dean for medical education, presented at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s 24th Annual Health Professions Education Summer Conference. In their presentation, Dr. Fasula and Dr. Morrison shared their work in designing a framework for distinction programs and highlighted our two new distinction opportunities at CMS: the Distinction in Medical Education and the Distinction in Nutrition and Health Promotion.

Raúl Gazmuri, MD, PhD, FCCM, director of RFU’s Resuscitation Institute and professor of physiology and biophysics, received the Monica Ply Research Innovation Award from RFU. The $59,667 grant was awarded for Dr. Gazmuri’s research project titled “Does Selective Peripheral α2-Adrenoceptor Stimulation during Cardiac Resuscitation Improve Survival with Favorable Neurologic Outcome Compared to Epinephrine?” This award was established in honor of Monica Ply, an esteemed supporter of research at RFU during her lifetime, to support research in the areas of cardiovascular health and Parkinson’s disease.

Alissa Kainrath, CMS ’26, recently presented a poster titled "The PharmFree Campaign at AMSA: Evaluating the Conflict of Interest Policies at the Top 30 Medical Schools in the United States" at the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) National Convention, where it won second place in the AMSA Academy Scholars Programs and Institutes Category.

This project is associated with AMSA's PharmFree program, which was established in 2002 to promote evidence-based prescribing practices and eliminate conflicts of interest in medicine. The initiative began with the AMSA Scorecard in 2007, assessing the transparency of medical schools' conflict of interest (COI) policies. Over the years, as medical schools and academic medical centers have aligned their policies with high standards set by the AAMC and the Institute of Medicine, the PharmFree program has continued to adapt and uphold its mission of transparency.

Alissa, who is the president for the CMS chapter of AMSA, is currently serving as a PharmFree Fellow and working on releasing an updated version of the AMSA Scorecard. This ongoing effort aims to create and distribute resources such as toolkits, educational materials, and training sessions, empowering medical students to advance the core goals of evidence-based medicine and reduce conflicts of interest in the medical field.

Two CMS faculty members, Neelam Sharma-Walia, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Immunology, and Infection; and Robert Marr, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease and Therapeutics and assistant dean for research, CMS, were recognized as by the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition. This honor spotlights university researchers throughout Illinois who are driving innovation and making a positive impact on their respective fields.

Several CMS faculty members have recently received grants for their research projects:

• Weihang “Valerie” Chai, PhD, director of the Center for Genetic Diseases and professor of microbiology and immunology, received a two-year, $1,202,541 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her research study “Molecular Basis of Coats Plus Disease.” Dr. Chai also received a one-year, $115,000 NIH grant for her research study “Molecular Modulator of RPA and RAD51 in Maintaining Genome Stability.”
• Johnny He, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology, Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Immunology and Infection, received a five-year, $3,391,990 NIH grant for the research study “Positive Allosteric Modulator PNU-120596 to Treat HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorders.”
• Holly Hunsberger, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease and Therapeutics, received a two-year, $25,305 grant from Ataraxia to study “The impact of POLY:IC on Neuronal Activity.”
• Hongkyun Kim, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and anatomy, Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Immunology and Infection, received a two-year, $434,225 NIH grant for his research study “Homeostatic Regulation of CaV2 Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels at Synapses.”
• Robert Marr, PhD, CMS assistant dean for research and associate professor of neuroscience, Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Therapeutics, was awarded a two-year, $434,225 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for his research study “Pharmacological Inhibition of NEP-like Enzymes in Traumatic Brain Injury and Dementia.”
• Daniel A. Peterson, PhD, professor of neuroscience and director of the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, received a two-year, $429,925 NIH grant for his research study “Generation of Parkinson-Derived Human Glial Progenitor Cells for Dopaminergic Neuronal Conversion.”