New Research Faculty Introduction

Jessica Jaiswal, Ph.D., MPH, joined the Department of Family and Community Medicine as an Assistant Professor in March 2023.

Jaiswal earned her Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University in 2017. From 2018-2019, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Behavioral Science Training Program in Substance Use at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, supported by a T32 Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. During this time, she was also a fellow in the Research Education Institute for Diverse Scholars (REIDS) Program at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Yale School of Public Health. She was recently appointed as a scientist with the Benjamin-Carver FIRST program and awarded a CCTS KL2.

Jaiswal’s research program focuses broadly on treatment inequities related to opioid use disorder and HIV care and prevention. She uses qualitative-driven, mixed-method approaches to examine the interplay between social structures and individual health behaviors as well as how this interplay affects how people experience and make decisions about their health.

Zaid Al-Kadhimi, M.D., joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, as a professor of medicine, Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program and Section Chief of Bone Marrow Transplant in January 2023.

Al-Kadhimi received his medical degree from the University of Baghdad College of Medicine and completed his residency at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He then completed a hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplant fellowship at the City of Hope and UCLA.

Al-Kadhimi’s research interests include the development of cellular therapy trials for leukemia; developing regimens for the prevention and therapy of graft versus host disease, a major complication of allogeneic blood and marrow transplant; and developing allogeneic blood and marrow transplant regimens using partially matched donors in the absence of a human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched donor.

Claudia Hardy, MPA, joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, as an Instructor in July 2022.

For over 20 years, Hardy has developed and delivered community health workers/advisors training for cancer early detection and prevention across the state of Alabama and in the Mississippi Delta. Hardy plans to lead efforts to build the capacity of the Hematology and Oncology faculty in order to increase community engagement in their clinical and research practices.

Hardy is focused on research that involves outreach for survivors, community-based solutions, community health workers, and general Community Outreach and Engagement (COE). Hardy is also interested in training that impacts healthy community engagement as it relates to cancer screening, treatment, survivorship, and outcomes.

Sandeep Bodduluri, Ph.D., joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, as an Assistant Professor in January 2023.

Bodduluri received his MS and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2016. He then joined the UAB Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine as a research associate in 2016. Under the mentorship of Surya Bhatt, M.D., at the UAB Lung Imaging Core, Bodduluri transitioned into the instructor role in 2017.

Bodduluri’s research seeks to develop imaging solutions to better understand the pathophysiology of pulmonary diseases using computer vision and machine learning approaches.

Bernadette Marquez-Nostra, Ph.D., joined the Department of Radiology as an Associate Professor in January 2023.

Marquez-Nostra received a BSc in biochemistry from California State University, Fullerton in 2005 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Davis in 2011. She conducted her postdoctoral research in radiochemistry and cancer imaging at Washington University in St. Louis (2012-2017) and UAB (2017). She began her faculty career as an assistant professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at Yale University (2017-2023), where she established the Cancer Imaging and Therapeutics Research Program.

Marquez-Nostra's research focuses on predicting and monitoring responses to targeted treatments in various types of cancer. This translational research uses novel imaging probes and/or imaging strategies noninvasively in animal models of cancer. Her goals are to identify novel biomarkers, develop new imaging agents and translate these imaging tools into clinical research. She mentors her trainees to use interdisciplinary methods, such as bioconjugation, radiochemistry, biochemistry or immunobiology, to accomplish these goals and to become independent scientists.

Ryan Willoughby, Ph.D., joined the Department of Radiology as an Instructor in February 2022.

Willoughby completed his B.S. in biophysics in 2011 and his Ph.D. in physics in 2018 at UAB. In 2019, he accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Radiology. In 2020, he received a Career Enhancement Award from the Office of Postdoctoral Education to support collaborative work with General Electric to develop novel MRI hardware.

Willoughby currently serves as an MR physicist for the Civitan International Neuroimaging Laboratory (CINL) and the Research MRI Core (RMRIC). His research aims to elucidate the biophysical effects of ultrasound on tissues, especially the nervous system, and to develop novel multimodal imaging methods for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Anirban Kundu, Ph.D., joined the Department of Urology as an Instructor in October 2022.

Kundu earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp) India. He joined the UAB Department of Urology as a postdoctoral trainee in 2016.

Kundu is primarily interested in the biology of kidney cancer. His studies encompass epigenetics, metabolomics, and signal transduction. He uses various bioinformatics tools, and in vitro and in vivo (mouse) model systems to identify and intervene in druggable axes in kidney cancer. Kundu’s research goal is to find metabolic and signaling liabilities in kidney cancer that can be targeted with utmost potency using mono-or-combination therapies.

Hyeyoung Nam, Ph.D., joined the Department of Urology as an Instructor in October 2022.

Nam earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition at the University of Florida where she researched the molecular mechanisms of hepatic iron transport and homeostasis. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Endocrinology Department at the University of Utah, her work focused on the synergistic inhibitory effects of hypoxia and iron deficiency on hepatic glucose metabolism.

Nam’s current research interest focuses on the metabolic signatures of renal cancer. Her research aims to determine the cellular events that mediate these metabolic remodeling and their effects on tumor progression.