Grants and Contracts: 

Thomas Blanpied, PhD - SOM bridge funding - one year - $100,000

Bob Bloch, PhD - Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) - 3 years - $300,000

Christina Ferrer, PhD, Assistant Professor, was awarded an American Cancer Society – Institutional Research Grant (ACS-IRG) in early January. The one-year, $40,000 grant will support the project: “CD47-CXCL5 Axis Regulates Macrophage-Mediated Pruning and Invasion in Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer.”

Wei Li, PhD – University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center – $172,470

Margaret McCarthy, PhD and Steffen Wolff, PhD – Simons Foundation Autism Research – $399,876

Oluwatomiwa Oladunni, Graduate Program: Neuroscience – National Institute of Neurologic Disorders (F31) – $42,464

Alex Poulopoulos, PhD – UMSOM Bridge – $100,000

Owen Woodward, PhD – AdVia Therapeutics, UK – $10,500

Honors and Awards: 

Colleen Jodarski, MGC, CGC, Instructor, Departments of Pharmacology and Physiology and Medicine, was selected as a recipient of a 2025 Maryland and DC Society of Genetic Counselors (MDCGC) Research Award for her work on KCNMA1 gene curation in the lab of Andrea Meredith, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. She will present her project at the 2026 MDCGC Annual Education Conference.

Presentations, Events, Lectures & Workshops:

Brian N. Mathur, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, was featured on the "Mind & Matter" podcast episode entitled: "The Claustrum Cognition, Consciousness, Alcohol & Psychedelics", available on all major streaming platforms.

Christina Ferrer, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, presented a talk selected from abstracts at the Keystone Symposia: Spotlight on the Cancer Cell, held in Raleigh, NC, in January. Dr. Ferrer’s presentation was entitled: “Glutathione-Sensing GSTT1+ Cells Drive Metastasis and Persistence in Pancreatic Cancer.”

Matthew Trudeau, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, presented a lecture at Georgetown University entitled “N-terminal PAS domains regulate hERG K channel gating” on December 18, 2025.

Publications: 

The Journal of Neuroscience has selected a paper from the lab of Thomas Blanpied, PhD, Professor and Vice-chair, in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology as one of its 8 Spotlight Publications of 2025. The selection highlights articles that the journal’s reviewers "gave the highest marks for both methodological merit and significance." The study published Feb 12, 2025 was titled “Large-donor CRISPR for whole-CDS replacement of the cell adhesion molecule LRRTM2” and was led by former postdoctoral fellow Stephanie Pollitt, PhD, with co-authors Michael Anderson, PhD, formerly a graduate student, and Aaron Levy, PhD, Research Associate, all in the Department. (https://www.jneurosci.org/spotlight)

Shengyun Fang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, was last author of “A small molecule VDAC ligand inhibits ERAD and induces selective cancer cell death via disruption of calcium homeostasis”, which was published in Nature Communications January 17, 2026.

Wei Li, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and Institute for Health Computing, is quoted in a recently published Nature Biotechnology article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-026-03002-w) on how protein language AI models are used to develop new genome engineering tools.

Bruce Vogel, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology was senior author of “TEP-1, a glial thioester protein is required for cilia organization and intraflagellar transport in ensheathed sensory neurons in C. elegans,” which was published in Molecular Biology of the Cell on January 28, 2026.