Explore UAB

Dr. Ammar Asban

UAB general surgery resident Ammar Asban, M.D., MAS, has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2020 STS Looking to the Future Resident Scholarship.

The UAB Department of Surgery recently established a new research unit to design and conduct clinical trials. 

UAB medical student Amaris Elston will receive a Student Diversity Travel Award from the Association for Academic Surgery to attend next year’s Academic Surgical Congress.

Eight faculty from the UAB Department of Surgery were initiated into the American College of Surgeons as fellows at the ACS 2019 Clinical Congress in San Francisco, California, on Oct. 27. (Photo by Brenessa Lindeman)

UAB Department of Surgery faculty, staff and trainees traveled to San Francisco, California, last month for the American College of Surgeons 2019 Clinical Congress, as well as a number of other national society meetings.

Dr. Brenessa LindemanUAB endocrine surgeon and Department of Surgery Wellness Officer Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., MEHP, FACS, has been selected to participate in Momentum’s Upward Early Career Leadership Program. 

UAB general surgery research resident Dr. Raoud Marayati presents “Novel Retinoic Acid Derivative Induces Differentiation and Growth Arrest in Neuroblastoma” at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2019 National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana, Oct. 25-29. (Photo by @RMarayati via Twitter)

UAB general surgery research resident Raoud Marayati, M.D., won the Rosenkrantz Award for Basic Science Research at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2019 National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana, Oct. 25-29. The AAP national conference is the premier venue for pediatric health care professionals to collaborate and allows attendees to engage in interactive, hands-on workshops, as well as pediatric-related plenary sessions.

Four Department of Surgery faculty members received promotions or tenure earlier this month.

Next month marks the start of the UAB Department of Surgery’s new Champ Lyons Lecture Series. Beginning with the Champ Lyons Medical History Lectureship, which will be presented on Nov. 12 by Joseph Woo, M.D., this annual talk series will support nine visiting lectures at Surgery Grand Rounds over the course of the next year through the Champ Lyons Lectureship Fund.

The UAB Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship will welcome four new fellows next year: Cragin Currence, M.D., Zain Hashmi, M.D., Jacey Loberg, M.D., and Thomas Muse, M.D.

The UAB Department of Surgery is excited to welcome breast surgeon Pamela L. Strickland, M.D., as its newest clinical assistant professor. Strickland will join the faculty in the Division of Surgical Oncology and will practice in Montgomery, Alabama, at the UAB Breast Health Clinic at Baptist Medical Center South.

Dr. Pamela L. Strickland

Strickland is an alumnus of the UAB School of Medicine, having graduated with her medical degree in 1996 after earning a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Mississippi in 1990. She then completed her residency training in general surgery at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, as well as an internship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She went on to practice in the U.S. Air Force for four years before going into private practice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Dr. Raoud Marayati wins first place at the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB Research Retreat on Oct. 11, 2019. (Photo courtesy of the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB)

General surgery resident Raoud Marayati, M.D., won first place last week at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center’s 21st annual Research Retreat. Marayati took home the award for best research poster in the Clinical Residents and Fellows Category for her project, "PIM3 Kinase Promotes Tumor Growth and Metastasis in Hepatoblastoma.”

UAB transplant surgeon Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, has been named one of “Birmingham’s Top 40 Under 40 of the Decade for the 2010s” by the Birmingham Business Journal. As one of the paper’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2015, Locke was chosen for this year’s list from the nearly 400 other winners who have been included in the annual series over the past 10 years.

Score some CME credit and check out two new videos and podcasts from Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy assistant professors Brent Haverstock, DPM, FACFAS, and Graeme McFarland, M.D. Haverstock and McFarland are both co-directors of the UAB Limb Preservation Program.

If you’re headed to this year’s American College of Surgeons Clinical Congressin San Francisco, California, Oct. 27-31, get ready with our guide to who’s presenting from the UAB Department of Surgery. All talks will be held at the George R. Moscone Convention Center.

The Department of Surgery is also hosting a cocktail reception during the conference, beginning from 5-7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28, at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square in Imperial A on the Ballroom level.

Note: Lists of presenters were provided by division administrators. If you are presenting as a part of the official ACS Clinical Congress program but aren’t featured here, tweet us the details of your presentation by mentioning @UABSurgery on Twitter, and we’ll retweet you!

Visiting medical student Kaitlin Weisshappel is preparing to head back to Rockford, Illinois, after completing her four-week visiting elective in general surgery this week at UAB.

Kaitlin Weisshappel

“I was told by several of our physicians back home about the excellence of the surgical department here at UAB, especially in regard to volume and the diversity of the caseload,” Weisshappel said. “I'm Midwest born and raised, and so seeing health care from a different regional perspective was what initially drew me to UAB. However, the more time I spend here, the more it feels like a natural home.”

Weisshappel joined the UAB Surgery team from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Rockford in September, as part of this year’s UAB Visiting Elective Scholarship Program, and said she was excited by the consistent presence of surgical residents at UAB.

“The only service in which we are exposed to residents [at the University of Illinois] is family medicine, so being able to see the dynamics of medical students, residents, fellows and attendings is exciting and extremely important for my professional development,” she said.

The UAB Visiting Elective Scholarship Program supports underrepresented minority students on a four-week visiting elective in general surgery at UAB. Students interested in applying for a general surgery residency at UAB also have the opportunity to interview for residency during their rotation.

“UAB has diverse patient demographics and serves many medically underserved patients from the entire state,” Weisshappel said. “Many of the main issues, both medical and socioeconomic, transcend from UAB to my future practice … My [long-term career] goal is to return to a tribal area or a population with a significant native population size.”

UAB Department of Surgery faculty members Babak Orandi, M.D., Ph.D., and Emily Spangler, M.D., were recently named two of this year’s UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science Deep South Mentored Career Development Program Scholars.

The program culminates in lead-author manuscripts and an extramurally funded research grant submission for scholars, including Orandi’s project, “The Role of Bariatric Surgery in Obese Liver Transplant Candidates and Recipients,” and Spangler’s project, “Assessment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Imaging Surveillance Practices in Veterans.”

The mentored career development – or KL2 award – program at the CCTS is sponsored by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and seeks to prepare early-career faculty for a career in translational research.

The goal is to impart the knowledge, experience and perspective required to develop a network of independent investigators, with an emphasis on research that addresses diseases and health disparities that disproportionately affect the Deep South.

UAB pediatric surgeon Colin Martin, M.D., was recently named the most recent member at large of the Children’s of Alabama Medical Executive Committee. Martin will serve in this position for a two-year term ending in December 2022.

Dr. Colin Martin

Martin is the surgical director of the Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation at UAB and Children’s of Alabama, as well as the program co-director of the UAB Department of Surgery’s Pre-College Research Internship for Students from Minority Backgrounds.

Assistant Professor Jillian Richter, Ph.D., was recently awarded a Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program Discovery Award from the U.S. Department of Defense’s office of Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.

Dr. Jillian Richter

Over the course of the next year and a half, Richter will receive $297,000 in total from the DOD for her project, “Role of Exostosin-1 in Regulating Hemorrhage-Induced Microvascular Dysfunction and Lung Injury.”

Richter is a trauma researcher in the Division of Acute Care Surgery and leads a research lab focused on understanding the role of the endothelial glycocalyx in regulating post-injury outcomes in trauma patients.

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 time, learn about the Division of Transplantation’s Abdominal Transplant Fellowship, as well as its newest trainee, Margaret Romine, M.D., and its most recent graduate, Robert Plews, M.D.

Professor and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery Martin Heslin, M.D., will participate in the American Surgical Association and European Surgical Association’s faculty exchange program next year.

Dr. Martin Heslin

Heslin is one of the two members selected for next year’s program and will be recognized as a member of the ASA-ESA Exchange Program at the ESA’s 27th annual meeting, May 22-23, 2020, in Köln (Cologne), Germany.

The ASA-ESA Exchange Program is designed to foster professional relationships between members of the two organizations and to give participants the opportunity to share information about these organizations, including their histories and notable publications, with one another.