New Research Faculty Introduction

Lingyong Li, Ph.D., joined the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Division of Molecular and Translational Biomedicine, as an Associate Professor on Sept. 1.

Li earned a bachelor’s degree in Food Nutrition from Anhui University of Science and Technology in 1999 and earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Nanjing Agricultural University in 2006. Additionally, he completed postdoctoral fellowships at Vanderbilt University and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Li has previously held positions at Baylor College, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Shanghai Institute of Material Medical (Chinese Academy of Sciences). Li’s research interests include chronic pain, comorbid psychiatric disorders in chronic pain, and opioid analgesic tolerance.

Yajing Wang, M.D., Ph.D., joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering as a Professor and Director of Basic and Translational Research in August.

Wang earned both her medical degree and Master of Science from the Shanxi Medical University in Taiyuan, China in 1999 and 2003, respectively, before earning a Ph.D. from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medical School in 2006. She completed postdoctoral training in Thomas Jefferson University’s cardiovascular program in 2010 and served as an instructor before joining the faculty as an assistant professor. In 2022, Wang was named Expertscape’s World Expert in Adipokines. Her research aims to examine the inter-organ communication between the cardiovascular system and fat in the process of cardiomyopathy.

Kala Dixon, Ph.D., joined the Department of Family and Community Medicine as an Instructor on Dec. 1.

Dixon has also assumed the role of Director of Interprofessional and Continuing Education. In this role, She aims to strengthen student and faculty understanding of interprofessional education and its impact on providing high-quality patient-centered care through collaborative shared-decision making. Dixon earned her Ph.D. in Interprofessional Healthcare Studies from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in 2020 and her master’s degree in biology from Clemson University in 2016.

Jamie Gajos, Ph.D., joined the Department of Family and Community Medicine as an Assistant Professor on Oct. 1.

Gajos earned her Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Florida State University in 2017. During 2017-2019, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Prevention and Methodology Training Program at the Pennsylvania State University, supported by a T32 award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in collaboration with the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center and the Methodology Center. She was recently awarded a K01 Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop to test a novel Just-in-Time Adaptive Intervention to reduce substance use in justice-involved young adults.

Drew Sayer, Ph.D., joined the Department of Family and Community Medicine as an Assistant Professor on Dec. 1

Sayer most recently was an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences, where he has been on faculty since 2019. He has received multiple recognitions for his growing research program, including the 2019 UAB NORC Named New Investigator, the inaugural Ronald L. and David B. Allison Endowed Scholar, and being named among the Emerging Luminaries in Nutrition, Exercise, and Metabolism. His research is supported by an NIH K01 Career Development Award, and his clinical research program will focus on using the Multiphase Optimization Strategy Framework and the Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial experimental approach to develop lifestyle-based interventions that are optimized for translation into primary care.

Wioletta Czaja, Ph.D., joined the Department of Genetics as an Assistant Professor, Director of the Genetic and Genomic Sciences Undergraduate Program, and Research Member of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center on Oct. 1.

Czaja has established a highly competitive research program on DNA repair and genome stability funded by R01 and R21 grants from the NIH. Her group is working on the development of new genomic methodologies enabling high resolution, genome-wide profiling of mutagenic and carcinogenic DNA adducts. The long-term goal of her research is to uncover new mechanisms governing DNA repair and genome maintenance that could be exploited for the development of preventive and therapeutic strategies relevant to cancer and other diseases.

Kenneth Boockvar, M.D., joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care as Professor and Division Director on Dec. 1.

Boockvar, a native of New York and a graduate of Harvard University undergrad, received his medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine as well as a Master of Science in Health Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology from Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Cornell University. After earning his medical degree, he completed postgraduate training and residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Over his career, he has been devoted to improving the health and quality of care for older adults. His research examines critical components of healthcare transitions that are amenable to intervention.

Renee Heffron, Ph.D., MPH, joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases as Professor and Director for the Center for AIDS Research at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, effective July 1.

Heffron joins UAB from the Departments of Global Health and Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Currently, her research portfolio is focused on daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and novel PrEP agents for HIV prevention, utilizing research methods from clinical epidemiology and clinical trial design, implementation science, causal inference, behavioral science, and qualitative research. The conduct of this work also exemplifies Heffron’s core values: bringing a diverse set of voices to the conversation, promoting equity and inclusion, and commitment to principles of anti-racism and decolonization.

Nicole L. Lohr, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases as Professor and Division Director on Nov. 15.

Lohr will also serve as Co-Director of the UAB Medicine Cardiovascular Institute and Director of the Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center, a university-wide interdisciplinary research center. She comes from the Medical College of Wisconsin where she was an associate professor of Medicine and Director of Cardiovascular Clinical Trials. She served as Division Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center and is Chair-elect of the American College of Cardiology Board of Governors.

Her research, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Department of Veteran Affairs, aims to develop effective therapies for peripheral artery disease that use novel approaches to promote vasodilation and angiogenesis. She discovered that red light stimulates nitric oxide precursors that then release nitric oxide, which in turn dilates arteries and arterioles.

Chad Murchison, Ph.D., joined the Department of Neurology as an Assistant Professor on Oct. 1.

Murchison is a biostatistician and data scientist with a contextual focus on clinical neurodegeneration and neuroscience. He received his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, his master’s degree in Bioinformatics from the Oregon Health & Science University, and his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from UAB. His personal research focuses on the practical implications of data management at the center and enterprise scale and statistical learning applications in neurodegeneration.

Rick Burney, M.D., M.Sc., joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology as an Associate Professor and Director of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Division on Oct. 1.

Burney graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and completed his Master of Science in Immunogenetics at Oxford University. He completed residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Madigan Army Medical Center and fellowship training in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Stanford University. During his 28 years of service in the United States Army, he deployed twice to the Middle East as a field surgeon and established an REI fellowship program at Madigan for which he served as the Program Director.

His 2012 review titled “Pathophysiology and pathogenesis of endometriosis” was selected as one of 25 articles from the archives of Fertility and Sterility that have "marked a great leap forward in reproductive science and healthcare. His current research efforts center on Precision Medicine approaches to fertility and reproductive health.

Camilla Bell, M.Sc., Ph.D., joined the Department of Pathology on Oct. 1, as an Assistant Professor from the Department of Medicine’s Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, where she served as a postdoctoral trainee.

Bell received her Master of Science in Immunology and Oncology at the University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, before earning her Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis from Emory University in 2019. She worked at Emory University from 2015-2019 studying how neutrophil plasticity enables the development of pathological microenvironments and its implications for cystic fibrosis. Bell’s research is focused on understanding the regulation of the behavior and function of inflammatory cells in chronic and acute mucosal inflammation.

Megan Amerson-Brown, Ph.D., CIC, MLS, joined the Department of Pathology as an Assistant Professor on July 1.

Amerson-Brown received her Ph.D. in Human Pathophysiology and Translational Medicine in 2019 from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences before working as an infection control consultant in response to COVID-19 with hospital executive interim management and consulting at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York. She has served as a graduate research assistant at UTMB Galveston and as adjunct faculty, infection preventionist, and medical technologist in Microbiology at MD Anderson School of Health Professions and Cancer Center. She comes from the Baylor College of Medicine, where she recently completed a Medical and Public Health Microbiology fellowship.

Darshan Shimoga Chandrashekar, M.Sc., Ph.D., joined the Department of Pathology, Division of Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics, as an Assistant Professor effective Oct. 1.

Chandrashekar has been a Researcher V in the Department of Pathology’s Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology since 2021 and has been in the department since 2015 when he joined as postdoctoral researcher. He earned his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics in 2016 from Manipal University in Manipal, Karnataka, India. Prior to coming to UAB, he served as a research assistant at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology in Bangalore, India.

Chandrashekar played a major role in the development of a highly cited web-based cancer data analysis platform, UALCAN. His current research interests include investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in various solid tumors and lymphoma development and progression using integrative genomic, proteomic, and systems biology approaches.

Ming He, M.D., Ph.D., joined the Department of Pathology as an Assistant Professor on Oct. 1.

He received his medical degree in clinical medicine and Ph.D. in internal medicine from Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China, before working as a Resident Physician at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiao Tong University. He joined the University of California San Diego’s Department of Medicine in 2014 as a Postdoctoral Scholar and became Project Scientist in 2019.

Dr. He’s current research is focused on atherosclerosis, both epitranscriptomic changes in endothelium aggravate atherosclerosis and aging-accelerated atherosclerosis. In 2018, He won the Best of American Heart Association (AHA) Specialty Conferences Award.

Aishwarya Ravindran, M.D., joined the Department of Pathology, Division of Laboratory Medicine on July 1, as an Assistant Professor.

Ravindran earned her medical degree from Stanley Medical College (Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University) in Chennai, India. She subsequently pursued a two-year research fellowship in Hematology at Mayo Clinic where she also completed her residency and served as Chief Resident in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology in 2021.

In 2020, Ravindran was featured on The Pathologist’s Power List in the Big Breakthroughs category for her contribution to the discovery of exostosin 1/exostosin 2-associated membranous nephropathy. In 2021, she was featured a second time in The Pathologist among the Top 75 Pathologists and Laboratory Medicine Professionals, for her work on the discovery of OCT2 in Rosai-Dorfman Disease and LEF1 overexpression in DUSP22-rearranged anaplastic large cell lymphoma. In June 2021, she was named a 40 Under Forty honoree by the American Society of Clinical Pathology.

Karen Scott, Ph.D., joined the Department of Pathology, Division of Laboratory Medicine as an Associate Professor, and Director, Forensic Toxicology Laboratory on July 1.

Scott joins us from Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, where she served as associate professor of Forensic Science and Program Director of the Forensic Science Division for nearly a decade. Scott’s research in forensic toxicology focuses on hair analysis for drugs and drug stability in solvents, biological matrices, and postmortem toxicology.

Scott earned her Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, UK, in Forensic Medicine and Science-Toxicology in 1998. Scott served as an advisor in Forensic Toxicology for the Police Directorate Forensic Science Laboratories in Abu Dhabi from 2002-2006. She completed postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Health Sciences in Tokyo, Japan, before serving as Senior Lecturer and Forensic Toxicologist at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and later the University of Glasgow before joining Arcadia University as an associate professor in 2012. In 2019, Scott was elected as President of the Council for Forensic Science Educators, where she served until 2021.

Fedora Biney, Ph.D., joined the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as an Assistant Professor on Dec. 1.

Biney joined the department as a Neuropsychologist with a specialization in Neuropsychological Interventions for individuals with strokes and traumatic brain injury. Biney earned her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Houston, and she completed a Neuropsychology Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona.

Virendra R. Mishra, Ph.D., joined the Department of Radiology as an Associate Professor on Oct. 1.

Mishra completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering in 2005 from Mumbai University, India, his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 2009 from the University of Texas at Arlington, and his Ph.D.in Bioengineering in 2014 from the University of Texas at Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the University of Texas at Arlington (joint) under the tutelage of Hao Huang, Ph.D.

He carried on as a postdoctoral fellow in Huang’s lab until 2014 before joining the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (CCLRCBH) in Las Vegas from 2015 until 2022, where he served in multiple positions He has published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and is currently serving as an editor for the Journal of Neuroimaging, Brain and Behavior, and Frontiers in Neuroscience.

Mishra was awarded the Young Scientist Award at CCLRCBH in 2016 for his work on understanding the cognitive decline in active professional fighters. His research is focused on developing machine-learning models to predict dementia in neurodegenerative disorders. He was awarded an R01 award from NIH/NINDS (2020) to develop a machine-learning model to predict dementia in Parkinson’s disease by utilizing various imaging and clinical measures.