Jonathan Licht, M.D., and Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., were elected members of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.

Martina Murphy, M.D., Carma Bylund, Ph.D., Merry-Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, and Jordan Alpert, Ph.D., received an $80,555 grant from the UF Clinical and Translation Science Institute for their study titled “Doctor-Patient Cancer Communication through Telemedicine during COVID-19.”

The University of Florida Research Foundation has named 33 faculty members as UFRF Professors for 2020, including six Cancer Center members — Mansour Mohamadzadeh, Ph.D., Jatinder Lamba, Ph.D., Diana Wilkie, Ph.D., R.N., Rolf Renne, Ph.D., George Michailidis, Ph.D., and William Hogan, M.D.

The recognition goes to faculty who have a distinguished current record of research and a strong research agenda that is likely to lead to continuing distinction in their fields. READ MORE

John Wingard, M.D., was named the chair of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research Advisory Board.

Jaclyn Hall, Ph.D., received a $300,000 funded infrastructure grant from the National Science Foundation and the Census Bureau as co-principal investigator of the next Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC). The Florida Research Data Center, set to open in 2021, will be within the CTSI and will consist of a secured data lab on campus where researchers can access protected federal micro-data. This is the first and will likely remain the only FSRDC in Florida. The only two others in the south are in Atlanta and at Duke.

Natalie Silver, M.D., mentored by Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., and Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., received a
$776, 520 multi-year NIDCR K08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Career Development Award for her study, “Remodeling host immunity in oral cancer with personalized RNA nanoparticle vaccines.”

Biljana Horn, M.D., was awarded the 2020-2021 Children’s Miracle Network Award for the Florida Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapy Consortium.

Arun Srivastava, Ph.D., received a $762,500 multi-year grant from Sarepta Therapeutics for his study “Development of NextGen, GenX, GenY, and GenZ AAVrh74 Vectors.” He was also appointed a member of the Gene Therapy Resources’ Scientific Review Board in the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D., was awarded the Thomas H Maren Junior Faculty Award by the UF College of Medicine.

Chenglong Li, Ph.D., received a $800,510 multi-year NIGMS T32 grant for his study “Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program.”

Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H., FACE, and Catherine Woodstock Striley, Ph.D., MSW, ACSW, MPE and their multi-institutional team received a five-year, $3.5 million National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) grant. NDEWS is a surveillance program that will detect novel psychoactive substances nationwide with the assistance of 18 sentinel sites. As part of a COVID-19 supplement to this grant, the team will interview first responders (EMTs) and last responders (funeral directors) about the effect of the pandemic on drug use.

Merry-Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, has been promoted to a professor in the UF College of Medicine’s Division of Hematology and Oncology.