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Translational Research Institute

Sayem Miah, PhD

Dr. Sayem Miah is an assistant professor of the Department of Biochemistry and molecular biology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He is also a full member of Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, UAMS. Now he is leading a research laboratory focusing on tyrosine kinase signaling in tumorigenesis and metastasis in the UAMS cancer research institute.

Dr. Miah received his doctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr. Kiven E. Lukong at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. During his doctoral studies, he demonstrated that the promotion of tumorigenesis by BRK in vivo primarily relies upon the full activation of BRK. He also showed that BRK targets the tumor suppressor Dok1 for proteasomal degradation to induce tumorigenesis.

For the postdoctoral training, Dr. Miah was drawn to the lab of Dr. Michael Washburn at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research (SIMR) for a “systems-wide” interrogation of signaling networks using innovative proteomic and genomic techniques. I showed that activated BRK directly interacts with and phosphorylates SMAD4 and causes proteasomal degradation to repress tumor suppressor gene FRK and to increase expression of the mesenchymal markers SNAIL and SLUG published in Sci. Adv.

He has authored and co-authored over 20 research articles, reviews, and book chapters. He received several awards, including Research excellence award KU Cancer Center Annual Research Symposium (2018), Saskatchewan Innovation and opportunity scholarships (2014).

Dr. Miah received a Bachelors and Master in Applied chemistry from the University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh and Masters in Medical Biology from the University of Linkoping, Linkoping, Sweden.

Nakita Lovelady, PhD, MPH

Dr. Lovelady is an Assistant Professor in the College of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education and a native of the Arkansas Delta. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and a Master of Public Health and Doctor of Philosophy in Health Promotion and Prevention Research from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She completed a T32 NIDA-funded postdoctoral fellowship with the UAMS Translational Training in Addiction Program.

Dr. Lovelady’s primary research interests are centered around investigating health disparities and violence prevention, particularly developing and implementing multi-level public health interventions to improve mental and behavioral health outcomes and reduce gun violence among vulnerable racial-minority populations such as young African American men and their families. This includes exploring linkage interventions that leverage peer support, enhance healthy coping, and improve access to structural/systemic supports to confront persistent post-traumatic stress among African American men in both institutional settings (i.e. hospitals, jails, and prisons) and non-traditional community settings (i.e. barbershops).

Dr. Lovelady’s most recent research highlights barriers and facilitators to implementing a Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) designed to reduce the risk of recurrent injury and enhance recovery from violent assault by connecting patients to necessary mental, behavioral, and social services. With recently awarded funding from the City of Little Rock, a local HVIP will be piloted to examine preliminary intervention and implementation effectiveness. Her KL2 research will further explore the rural expansion of an HVIP to identify factors and strategies for providing HVIP follow-up services for UAMS patients returning to underserved rural Arkansas communities.

Dr. Lovelady has an extensive background in community engaged research dating back to her years with the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute and UAMS Translational Research Institute. She wholeheartedly believes that community is the essence of public health and key to reducing complex health disparities and achieving health equity. It is her hope to build a robust research program to inform and effect real-world meaningful change among communities with the greatest need.

 

Cody Ashby, PhD, M.S.

Dr. Ashby joined the UAMS Myeloma Center as a Post-Doctoral fellow from Arkansas State University in 2014 and was promoted to assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics in 2015. In 2014, he obtained a PhD in molecular biosciences from Arkansas State University as well as a master’s degree in computer science from the same institution in 2007. He has spent the last eight years studying the genomics of multiple myeloma at UAMS and has managed several projects. Dr. Ashby has eight years of experience in multiple myeloma research and twenty years of experience in computer science.  Currently, his research focuses on cancer genomics. He uses and develops algorithms for sequencing technologies, such as whole-genome sequencing and RNA sequencing, to identify key genes in cancer development and potential therapeutic targets. His research also includes cutting-edge technologies, such as single-cell and long-read sequencing.

 

Jennifer Andersen, PhD

Jennifer Andersen, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in UAMS’ College of Medicine. Her research focuses on how interventions utilizing medical technology (e.g. telemedicine, remote monitoring) can improve healthcare access and health outcomes in underserved and minority communities, as well as examining how the social determinants of health affect healthcare access and health outcomes, particularly for people with cardiometabolic disease (e.g., diabetes) and cancer in rural and minority populations.

Dr. Andersen received a KL2 Mentored Career Development Award to explore the feasibility and acceptability of a remote glucose monitoring program for Marshallese women whose pregnancies are complicated by pre-gestational and gestational diabetes. Remote patient monitoring technology can transform management of pre-gestational and gestational diabetes during pregnancy for Marshallese women. Remote patient monitoring may have even greater benefits for Marshallese women when there is a lack of language concordance with their provider by overcoming language barriers to facilitate accurate transmission of patient data. The goals of this KL2 award are to propel the independent research career of Dr. Andersen, as well as to use the knowledge gained from this project to improve the outcomes for Marshallese women and their infants.

Dr. Andersen previously worked as a patient financial counselor where she saw the effects of health disparities in underserved communities. A first-generation college student, she entered the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (with distinction, 2015) and a Master’s (2017) and PhD (2020) in Sociology with a focus on health and medicine. Dr. Andersen completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in the College of Medicine’s Office of Community Health and Research (OCHR).

Akilah A. Jefferson, MD, MSc

Akilah A. Jefferson, MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology at the UAMS College of Medicine. She is an asthma researcher in the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. Dr. Jeffersons research is primarily focused on increasing understanding of asthma and asthma disparities through innovative investigation of individual and population level determinants of health.

Dr. Jefferson received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine. She completed Internal Medicine residency at the George Washington University Hospital, and Allergy and Immunology fellowship at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. She is also trained in health policy and bioethics, completing MSc in Biomedical Science Policy and Advocacy at Georgetown University and postdoctoral fellowship in Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Allergy and Immunology. She joined the UAMS and ACH faculty in 2020.

 

 

 

Amy Y. Sato, Ph.D.

Project Title: “Identification of cardioprotective signatures induced by targeting MuRF1 and Vitamin D signaling in glucocorticoid-associated cardiac disease”

Amy Y. Sato Ph.D. recently joined the College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology on March 1st 2022. The KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award will support her long-term career goal of establishing an independent line of research focused on the identification of cardioprotective mechanisms and novel target for therapeutic intervention in GC-associated cardiovascular disease.

Glucocorticoids (GC) are commonly used as immunosuppressants to manage a wide range of conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, autoimmune disease, organ transplantation and even some cancers, resulting in an estimated 4 million being prescribed GC as immunosuppressants in the United States. Unfortunately, GC excess leads to harmful cardiac effects with marked increases in cardiovascular disease and mortality risks. Currently, there is an unmet need for identifying the mechanisms by which GC excess promotes heart failure. Recent preliminary findings by Dr. Sato and published preclinical and clinical observations support the notion that MuRF1 upregulation and insufficient Vitamin D signaling contribute to heart failure. During her KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award, Dr. Sato will investigate the hypothesis that MuRF1-mediated ubiquitination is critical for GC-induced cardiac disease, and that the active metabolite 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3) counteracts the pathological gene expression patterns induced by GC that lead to cardiotoxicity. The overall goal of these studies is to identify cardioprotective mechanisms and novel targets for therapeutic intervention in the context of GC-induced cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Sato completed her Ph.D. program in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) in 2017. She then became a postdoctoral fellow at IUSM and moved to UAMS during the 2020 COVID pandemic with Dr. Teresita Bellido’s laboratory into the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology. She recently accepted the Assistant Professor position in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology as of March 1st 2022 in the College of Medicine, and is excited for the TRI KL2 opportunity which will further support the development of her independent line of research investigating the effects of GC on cardiac tissue.

Mentors:

Marjan Boerma, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Department; Director of UAMS Ultrasound Imaging Core, UAMS

Alan Tackett, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department; Director of Quantitative Proteomics Facility, UAMS

Jawahar Mehta, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Internal Medicine; Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine; Stebbins Chair in Cardiology, UAMS

Teresita Bellido, Ph.D., Chair of Physiology and Cell Biology Department, Center for Musuloskeletal Disease Research Investigator, UAMS; VA Career Research Scientist Expertise