CSA Seminar Series

Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture

CSA Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture March 26, 2024

“Dynamic precision: a new frontier in cancer care and drug discovery”

Featuring:

Lynda Chin M.D.
Founder, President and CEO
Apricity Health

Adjunct Professor
Dell Medical School
University of Texas Austin

 

  • Dr. Chin’s research is focused on Cancer Biology, Genomics and Therapeutics. founding chair of the Department of Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
  • Served as Chief Innovation Officer of the University of Texas System.
  • Leader in the Application of AI/ML and BIG Data in Medicine. Leader in cross-Academic Industry Collaborations.
  • Elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

 

Prior Distinguished Lecture Series

Dr. Cameron

 

CSA Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture  March 7, 2023

“Antiviral Therapy: Towards The Personal And The Precise”

Featuring:

Craig E. Cameron, Ph.D. 

Jeffery Houpt
Distinguished Professor

Chair Microbiology & Immunology
University of North Carolina

 

  • Dr. Cameron’s  research is focused on the development of novel strategies to treat and/or prevent viral infections.
  • Member of the Board of Scientific Counselors, Vaccine Research Center, NIAID, NIH and Deputy Editor, Virology, Science Advances.
  • Inaugural Diversity Award from the Intl. Soc. Antiviral Research, the Howard Temin Award from the National Cancer Institute, and the Genesis Scholar Award from HBCU Digest.

 

CSA Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture  June 7, 2022

“Stem Cells:  Coping with Stress”

Featuring:

Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D.

HHMI Investigator
Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor
Rockefeller University

Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society.

 

  • Dr. Fuchs is renowned for paradigm shifting contributions in the field of skin biology, its stem cells and associated genetic disorders.
  • Her numerous awards include the Richard Lounsbery Award from the NAS, the National Medal of Science from the President of the United States, the Pezcoller Award in International Cancer Research and the Vanderbilt Prize for Science and for Mentoring Women Scientists.

 

CSA Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture March 26, 2019

“From Protein Folding to Cognition: a Serendipitous Path of Discovery”

Featuring:

Peter Walter, Ph.D.

HHMI Investigator
Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco

  • Dr. Walter’s seminal contributions to our molecular understanding of how cells control the quality of their proteins and organelles during stress is evidenced by his many honors and awards.
  • He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  • His Numerous awards include the 2009 Gairdner International Award, the 2014 Shaw Prize and the 2014 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.

 

Dr. Marc DiamondCSA Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture April 25, 2017

“Tau Prions: Insights into initiation and diversity of neurodegenerative diseases”

Featuring:

Marc Diamond, M.D.

Director, Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases
UT Southwestern Medical Center

Seminal work from Dr. Diamond’s laboratory revealed that tau, a key pathological player in many neurodegenerative diseases, adopts prion-like characteristics that help explain its pathological spread through the human brain. The primary focus of Dr. Diamond’s work is to understand how amyloid-forming proteins propagate a misfolded state between cells. Recent breakthroughs include the invention of a cell-based platform for detecting minute levels of amyloid seeds in biospecimens, and an immunotherapy-based approach that improves cognition in vivo. Dr. Diamond earned his MD from the University of California San Francisco and was the David Clayson Professor of Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis prior to his recruitment to UTSW.

Dr. Thomas CarmichaelCSA Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture February 24, 2015

“Neural Repair after Stroke”

Featuring:

Thomas Carmichael, M.D., Ph.D.

Department of Neurology
Brain Research Institute, UCLA

Dr. Tom Carmichael is Professor and Co-director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center and a leader in the study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neural repair following stroke. His work focuses on using endogenous or transplanted neural stem cells to promote remyelination and neuronal integration after stroke. Seminal findings include the identification of a neurovascular niche for neurogenesis, the role of neurotransmitters in the repair processes and how the aging brain responds to stroke. He has over 70 publications and book chapters and is currently the Associate Editor for Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.

His many honors include a Larry L. Holblom Foundation Distinguished Scholar and the recipient of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation Outstanding Clinician-Scientist Award. He is also the Director of the largest multi-site neural repair collaboration, the Adelson Program in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. Dr. Carmichael received his PhD and MD from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, was Chief Resident of Neurology at Washington University, School of Medicine and an HHMI Post-Doctoral Fellow at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Dr. TempleCSA Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture February 25, 2014

“Age-related Changes in the Neural Stem Cell Niche”

Featuring:

Dr. Sally Temple

Scientific Director
Neural Stem Cell Institute
Rensselaer, New York

Dr. Temple Co-founded the Neural Stem Cell Institute in 2007, where she serves as the Scientific Director and leads a team of 30 scientists focused on using neural stem cells to develop effective clinical treatments for CNS damage from trauma, malignancy, stroke or neurodegenerative diseases. She previously discovered that the embryonic brain contained a rare stem-like cell, which led her to make pioneering discoveries on the mechanisms as to how neural stem cells alter their development over time to generate diverse progeny. Presently, her work is funded by multiple grants from NINDS, NIA and NEI as well as the Ellison Foundation where she has received the Senior Scholar Award. Dr. Temple has authored or co-authored over 70 articles in very prestigious journals and written 10 book chapters.

She is on the Editorial Boards of Neuron, Developmental Cell, Cell Stem Cell and PLOS Biology, and serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the Genetics Policy Institute, and Board of Directors of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Dr. Temple has received many prestigious honors and awards including the Jacob Javitz Merit Award from the NIH and a MacArthur Award in recognition of her contributions to neural stem cell developmental biology.

A native of York, England, Dr. Temple received her undergraduate training at Cambridge University, her Ph.D. at the University College in London and then moved to New York to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University. Thereafter, she became a faculty member at the University of Miami before transferring to Albany Medical School where she is currently Professor of Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience. Additionally, Dr. Temple has a faculty position as Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at SUNY Albany.


2024 Edward G. Rennels Distinguished Lecture Flyer

Edward G. Rennels

May 7, 1920 – January 31, 2010

In 1966, the University of Texas opened a new medical school in San Antonio, Texas. Edward G. Rennels was selected as the founding Chair of the nascent Department of Anatomy. Over the next 14 years, he recruited faculty who shared his vision to build a department committed to excellence in scholarly achievement, graduate education and teaching. In 1980, he resigned as Chair and in 1982, was named Professor Emeritus upon retiring from the University.

Tribute to Edward G. Rennels

Tribute provided by Erle K. Adrian, Damon C. Herbert, and Vick F. Williams.