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September 2026
Honors & Awards
Vikas Kundra, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, received the Loyola University Natural and Applied Sciences 2026 Alumni Award for Exceptional Professional Accomplishments.
Melissa Vyfhuis, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was honored on Saturday, September 5, as a 2026 Woman of Distinction by Emmanual Health Education at its 5th Annual Prostate Cancer Survivor Gala. At the event, she also received a prestigious State of Maryland Governor’s Citation Award for “outstanding services to the citizens of the state.” She was praised not only for her efforts in extending the UM radiation oncology practice to Prince Georges County but also for her continued dedication to enhancing the availability of life-saving cancer treatments throughout the community.
Grants & Contracts
Bob Bloch, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Physiology, received a grant from the Jain Foundation for one year, $127,530.
New Faculty
Osaretin E. Asowata, PhD, joined the Department of Pathology on July 27, 2026, as an Assistant Professor. He will serve as Associate Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, primarily focusing on equipment and general quality standards for patient care, maintaining the quality assurance program for the laboratory, and participating in the development of clinical pathways and new testing development to improve the delivery of patient care.
Sarah R. Helman, MD, joined the Department of Pathology on July 13, 2026, as an Assistant Professor. Her primary focus is on surgical pathology and hematopathology.
Addisalem Taye Makuria, MD, joined the Department of Pathology on July 27, 2026, as an Associate Professor. She will serve as Medical Director of the Transfusion Medicine Service at the University of Maryland Medical Center Laboratories of Pathology, primarily focusing on clinical services including transfusion, chemistry, hematology, blood bank, and clinical consultations.
Abigayle R. Norwood, MD, joined the Department of Pathology on July 13, 2026, as a Clinical Instructor/Fellow, where she will receive advanced training in surgical pathology.
Publications
Li Jiang, PhD, Research Associate; Ze Wang, PhD, Professor; Steven Roys, MS, Research Associate; Rosy Linda Njonkou Tchoquessi, MS, Clinical Research Associate; Prashant Raghavan, MD, Professor; Rao P. Gullapalli, PhD, MBA, Professor (deceased); and Jiachen Zhuo, PhD, Associate Professor, all from the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, along with Neeraj Badjatia, MD, MS, from the Department of Neurology, were the co-authors of "Resting-State Brain Entropy Reveals Altered Neural Dynamics and Cognitive Associations in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Longitudinal Study,: which was published in Journal of Neuroscience Research in September 2026. Dr. Jiang was the first author and Dr. Zhuo was the last author.
Charles S. White, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, was the first author of "Contrast-enhanced Chest Computed Tomography in Acute Heart Failure: a Narrative Review of Imaging Clues to Precipitating Factors and Underlying Cardiac Disease," which was published in Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science in September 2026. Dr. White was also the last author of "Differentiation of Shock Thyroid on Enhanced Chest CT from Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Multinodular Goiter-A Pilot Study in Ten Patients with Shock Thyroid," which was published in Journal of Clinical Medicine in August 2026.
Vivek Garg, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, and postdoctoral fellows Anshu Kumari, PhD, and Dung M. Nguyen, PhD, were among the co-authors of "Excessive EFHD1-dependent ER-mitochondrial contacts drive a maladaptive antiviral response in metabolic liver disease," which was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation on September 1st, 2026.
Michele Vitolo, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Physiology, and Stuart Martin, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, were the senior authors, along with additional coauthors John Schmitz, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine; Min Yu, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology; and Taofeek Owonikowo, MBChB, DrMed, MS, Professor of Medicine and UMGCCC Director, of "Single-Cell Profiling of Anoikis Resistance in Patient-Derived Xenografts and Primary Circulating Tumor Cells using TetherChip," which was published in ACS Applied Materials Interfaces on August 14, 2026.
Hairong Chen, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow; Arezoo Modiri, PhD, Assistant Professor; and Amit Sawant, PhD, Professor, all in the Department of Radiation Oncology, were among the authors of "Stand-Alone Graph-Based Lung Airway Labeling with Quantitative Validations," published in the September issue of Medical Physics (2026 Sep;53(9):e70634).
Akshar N. Patel, MD, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the authors of "Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy vs Moderately Hypofractionated IMRT for Localized Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial," published on August 13 ahead of print in JAMA.
Chayu Yang, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the authors of "Exploratory Personalized Radiobiological Modeling of Bystander and Immune Effects to Inform SFRT-SBRT Scheduling," published in the September issue of Medical Physics (2026;53(9):e70643).
Baoshe Zhang, PhD, Associate Professor, and Byong Yong Yi, PhD, Professor, both in the Department of Radiation Oncology, were the authors of "Redundancy Strategies for Cyber Resilience in Radiation Oncology," published online ahead of print in Seminars in Radiation Oncology (2026 Aug 20;39:151053).
Juan Chen, PhD, Medical Physics Resident, was among the authors of "Myofibroblasts Slow Down Defect Recombination Dynamics in Mixed Cell Monolayers," published in the August 5 issue of the Journal of the Royal Society. Interface (2026 Aug 5;23(241):20260007).
Sheng Feng, PhD, Assistant Professor; J. Kristie Johnson, PhD, D (ABMM), Professor; and Robert H. Christenson, PhD, Professor, all with the Department of Pathology, were among the co-authors of "False-Reactive Fourth-Generation HIV Screening Results Before, During, and After COVID-19 Pandemic in a High-Prevalence Urban Medical Center," which was published in the Journal of Clinical Virology, 2026.