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Third-year general surgery resident Raoud Marayati, M.D., was recently named the 2018-2019 Society of University Surgeons Resident Research Scholar, making her the first resident in the UAB Department of Surgery’s recent history to receive a grant while in residency. Marayati received the $30,000 Resident Research Scholar Award after presenting her project, “PIM3 Kinase Promotes Tumor Metastasis in Hepatoblastoma,” to the SUS Scholarship Committee last week.

The UAB School of Medicine Featured Discovery initiative recognizes and celebrates the impressive science and discoveries taking place within the UAB SOM every day. It is proud to spotlight faculty members with research recently published in prominent science journals that make an extraordinary impact on the world around us. The Featured Discovery initiative is a way for us to share our colleagues’ findings, whether they have been publicized before or not, with those in the UAB community and beyond.

The Divisions of Surgical Oncology’s Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., M.E.H.P., has been invited to participate in the 2018-2019 American Board of Medical Specialties Visiting Scholars Program. As an ABMS Visiting Scholar, Lindeman will attend the 2018 ABMS Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 24-26.

The Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery’s Ramaraju Rudraraju, Ph.D., and his team of multidisciplinary co-investigators recently received funding for their research proposal, “Machine Learning for Predicting Mechanical Circulatory Support Outcomes.” The award was given in response to a request for applications from the American Heart Association’s Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine titled, “American Heart Association and Amazon Web Services 2.0 Data Grant Portfolio: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.” The proposed project will be funded in the amount of $100,000 per year for two years, starting July 1.

Second-year medical student Zach Burns (far right) and Dr. Rob Headrick from CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee (far left), discuss policy with Congressman Gary Palmer (center) from Alabama's sixth district at the June 11 STS Legislative Fly-in.

Second-year UAB medical student Zach Burns, president of UAB’s Surgery Interest Group and mentee of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery’s Robert Dabal, M.D., and Sara Pereira, M.D., attended the annual Society for Thoracic Surgeons’ Legislative Fly-in in Washington, D.C., last week after being awarded the STS Advocacy Scholarship.

Dr. Lauren Raff

Assistant Professor in the Division of General and Acute Care Surgery at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, as well as  2016 graduate of the UAB General Surgery Residency Program and 2017 graduate of the UAB Surgical Critical Care Fellowship, Lauren Raff, M.D., was recently awarded the UNC Department of Surgery’s Rookie of the Year Award. This annual award is presented by the Department’s general surgery chief residents and recognizes Raff for her impact on resident education.

Check out our photos from the 2018 UAB General Surgery Chief Resident Dinner and graduation ceremony on Flickr. This annual event was held on June 15 at The Club in Birmingham.

Dr. Babak John Orandi

Fall 2018 Department of Surgery faculty recruit Babak John Orandi, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., was recently asked to serve as associate editor of the popular transplant journal, Clinical Transplantation, where he will focus on research related to registry analyses and incompatible kidney transplants. This September, Orandi will join the Division of Transplantation as an assistant professor and will work with Jayme Locke, M.D., on her health services research.

The Alabama House of Representatives recently signed a resolution to observe National Stop the Bleed Day on March 31 and Alabama Trauma Awareness Day on March 21. The resolution encourages all Alabama citizens, particularly education administrators and faculty, to participate in the Stop the Bleed initiative and learn more about the importance of bleeding control measures.

UAB's trauma team has heavily promoted the national Stop the Bleed initiative and has also provided #StoptheBleed training to local schools.

Dr. Reema Mallick

The Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Reema Mallick, M.D., was recently named the winner of the Advocacy and Issues Committee of the Resident and Associate Society of the American College of Surgeons Symposium essay contest.

The Division of Surgical Oncology’s Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., has been asked to serve on the editorial board for the journal, PLOS ONE, as an academic editor.

More than 1,200 interns, residents and fellows train in every medical specialty at UAB in Birmingham, at our regional campuses in Montgomery, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, and in our program in Selma. In an ongoing series, the Department of Surgery will feature incoming and outgoing trainees for all UAB Surgery programs. This week, learn about the Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship.

Three new faculty will join the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy this summer, two of whom will work together with other vascular surgery faculty within the new UAB Limb Preservation Program.

Dr. Greg Kennedy

Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery Director Gregory Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., has received an NIH T32 training grant to support a Surgical Oncology Research Training Program.  The grant provides support for surgical residents to pursue two-year, full-time research training with the goal of preparing them for academic research careers.

Students in the 2018 Surgery Undergraduate Research Experience program participates in a scavenger hunt hosted by the UAB Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research.

The Department of Surgery is hosting two structured research programs this summer, the Pre-College Research Internship for Students from Minority Backgrounds and the Surgery Undergraduate Research Experience. Thirteen students joined the department this week to participate in these research experiences, including five rising seniors in PRISM and eight undergraduates in SURE. These students will participate in eight weeks of mentored research while exploring careers in surgery and learning the importance of research to advancing patient outcomes.

The PRISM and SURE programs provide promising high school and undergraduate students interested in careers in healthcare and medicine with a hands-on research experience under the mentorship of surgeons and peers.

The Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s James Bibb, Ph.D., and the Division of Surgical Oncology’s Sushanth Reddy, M.D., were recently awarded a grant from the SDHB Pheo-Para Coalition to study pheochromocytomas and paraganglioomas, two kinds of rare neuroendocrine tumors.

Incoming general surgery resident Dr. Mary Smithson is named the 2018 recipient of the Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery and the Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student at the May 18 UAB School of Medicine Birmingham campus awards luncheon at the UAB National Alumni Society House. (Photo by Dustin Massey)

At last Friday’s UAB School of Medicine Birmingham campus awards’ luncheon, recent UAB medical school grad and incoming general surgery resident Mary Smithson, M.D., was awarded both the 2018 Department of Surgery medical student awards, the Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery and the Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student.

Dr. Brenessa Lindeman

The Division of Surgical Oncology’s Brenessa Lindeman, M.D.., recently received a $10,000 Multi-Institutional Educational Research Grant from the Association of Surgical Education. The ASE MERG Research Grant is intended to fund a multi-institutional research project that will advance scientific knowledge and aim to improve undergraduate, graduate, or continuing surgical education.

Dr. Heinrich Matthies

The Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery’s Heinrich Matthies, Ph.D., recently received a UAB Faculty Development Grant for his proposal, “Dopamine Dysfunction in Autism.” Matthies will receive $10,000, split between the UAB Office of the Provost and the Department of Surgery, to study how dopamine levels affect the development of the brain and how these changes are connected to social and repetitive behaviors. Matthies will also present his research at a poster session hosted by the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate next fall.

Rhiannon Deierhoi Reed

Rhiannon Deierhoi Reed, M.P.H., a researcher in the Transplant Epidemiology and Analytics in Medicine lab of Associate Professor of Transplantation Jayme Locke, M.D., was recently awarded the American Society of Nephrology Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. This fellowship seeks to foster early career-stage Ph.D. students, under the direction of a sponsor, who are highly motivated to make contributions to the understanding of kidney biology and disease.

See also" "Locke’s lab member wins at symposium" and "Locke’s lab member receives research grant."