UVM Extension 4-H partnered with the UVM Larner College of Medicine Office of Admissions to offer a series of fun, interactive Health Heroes workshops for teens this fall to promote practical health and wellness knowledge. The series of workshops, which allowed students to get hands-on with tools of the trade, such as blood pressure cuffs, microscopes, and stethoscopes, offered career-pathway discovery and practical health information to Vermont teens.

Dozens of students interested in the medical field joined Anthony Williams, M.D., a physician at Colchester Family Practice and assistant professor of family medicine and assistant dean of admissions at the Larner College of Medicine, along with Larner medical students and UVM STEM ambassadors, to explore such themes as chronic disease prevention, nutrition, and the impacts of lifestyle choices. Topics covered in the workshop series included “Health Care and Healthy Living: Careers in Health Care and Promoting Healthy Lifestyles”; “Strategies: What You Can Do to Enhance Personal and Community Health”; and “What is Mental Health and Why is it Important for Overall Health?”

Erika Ziller, Ph.D., recently received a $2.8 million grant from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to address the need for rural health care improvement. Ziller and her team will establish the Northeast Rural Health Research Center (NeRHRC) as a consortium between the University of Vermont (UVM) and the University of Southern Maine (USM) to conduct applied research focused on rural health care access. Individual projects will study such topics as rural health insurance, emergency medical services, behavioral health (including substance use), chronic disease and healthy aging, and policy strategies to support rural health care providers.

Ziller is the director of the UVM Larner College of Medicine Health Services Research Center and has more than 25 years of experience in rural health research. Prior to joining UVM, Ziller was the Director of Maine Rural Health Center at USM and is delighted to continue collaborating with her former colleagues through the NeRHRC.

Ziller notes, “So much of our ability to access the health care we need is affected by public policy at the federal and state levels. Through this regional collaboration with Maine, we hope to identify policy improvement opportunities so that our rural communities can be healthy.”

For more information about the NeRHRC or Health Services Research at the Larner College of Medicine, contact Dr. Ziller.

Douglas Taatjes, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and director of UVM’s Center for Biomedical Shared Resources, was recently appointed to serve on the strategic planning advisory group for the National Institutes of Health Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP). This group is responsible for developing a strategic plan for 2026–2030. Taatjes was selected specifically for Phase II of the plan, titled “Innovative Instruments and Equipment to Accelerate Research Discoveries.” His contribution to the advisory group is to explore various approaches, assess challenges, and devise actionable strategies to optimize programs within ORIP’s Division of Construction and Instruments (DCI).

DCI supports essential research infrastructure in two areas: Instrumentation Programs, which facilitate the acquisition of advanced research instruments through the S10 activity code; and Equipment Programs, which support the purchase of modern equipment to enhance shared-use biomedical research facilities using the S15 code (previously R24).

Kalev Freeman, M.D., Ph.D. (pictured with UVM Graduate College Alumni Award Winner Elizabeth J. Kovacs, Ph.D.’84, left), has been appointed as a member society representative to the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Science Policy Committee (SPC) for a three-year term. For over 100 years, FASEB has served as a collective voice for biomedical researchers, working closely with federal agencies to advance scientific research. 

On October 22, Freeman attended the FASEB SPC meeting and the 2024 Science Policy Symposium, “Ensuring a Sustainable Biomedical Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities,” held at FASEB headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. The symposium featured a keynote address by National Institutes of Health Deputy Director for Extramural Research Michael Lauer, M.D., that focused on policies and practices to support and expand the domestic biomedical research workforce.

The meeting’s context included recent National Science Foundation data showing significant changes in the biomedical research landscape. Although the number of science and technology doctorate recipients from U.S. universities has increased, many graduates are pursuing careers beyond academia, leading to a notable decline in U.S. postdoctoral positions over the past 20 years. Attendees argued that framing this issue as an “academia versus industry” dilemma oversimplifies a complex, multifaceted challenge. Instead, they agreed that the biomedical research community should focus on ensuring that Ph.D. training prepares graduates for a range of professional opportunities, both within and beyond academia, that rely on their specialized expertise in biomedical science. Panelists also discussed the opportunity to leverage the diversity of knowledge, cultural backgrounds, and experiences in the U.S. to propel the next wave of biomedical innovation.

As a member of the SPC, Freeman will participate in FASEB’s annual Capitol Hill Day in spring 2025, joining other representatives from FASEB member societies to advocate for FY 2026 funding priorities for biomedical research. The day will conclude with a reception on Capitol Hill featuring selected members of Congress and FASEB leadership.

Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and principal investigator in the Weiss Laboratory, has been named president-elect of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) for 2026–28. Established in 1992, ISCT is a global society of clinicians, regulators, researchers, technologists, and industry partners—more than 4,000 cell and gene therapy experts across five geographic regions and representing over 60 countries—with a shared vision to translate cell and gene therapy into safe and effective therapies to improve patients’ lives worldwide.

Weiss is a pulmonologist and critical care specialist who splits his time between leading his research team in several projects in the Weiss Laboratory and working at the University of Vermont Medical Center doing clinical work. His research focuses on repairing damaged lungs using a variety of novel approaches, including studying stem and progenitor cells, employing cell-based therapies, and utilizing various bioengineering techniques, with the ultimate aim of regenerating lung tissue in order to fix cellular and structural damage. Recent research grants include $4.5 million from the Department of Defense for “Clinical Development of a Pleural and Tracheal Sealant”; a $500,000 R33 Catalyze Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for “Clinical Development of a Pleural and Tracheal Sealant”; a $275,000 R21 from NIH for “Extracellular Matrix Regulation of Airway Epithelial Homeostasis”; and $413,000 from United Therapeutics for “Increasing functional recellularization of decellularized pig lungs with human lung cells.”

A recent study by UVM faculty members and a medical student—including Eric Stoutenburg, fourth-year medical student; Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and pathology & laboratory medicine; Russell Tracy, Ph.D., research professor emeritus of pathology and laboratory medicine; Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor of medicine; Neil Zakai, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and pathology & laboratory medicine; and Timothy Plante, M.D.’11, M.H.S., assistant professor of medicine—examined the link between leptin levels and incident hypertension.

The study, titled “The association of leptin and incident hypertension in the reasons for geographic and racial differences in stroke (REGARDS) cohort” and published in the Journal of Human Hypertension, found that higher leptin is associated with hypertension in non-obese adults but not in those with obesity. Notably, while Black adults showed a 52 percent higher risk of developing hypertension, leptin levels did not contribute to this increased risk.

Timothy Plante ’06, M.D.’11, M.H.S., assistant professor in the Larner Department of Medicine’s Thrombosis and Hemostasis Program, was invited to Georgetown University last month as the Allan J. Goody, M.D., memorial visiting professor. He presented his group’s work on inflammation and hypertension at medicine grand rounds. He also was able to spend time with residents, students, and faculty, including Georgetown’s newest faculty member, Anthony Fauci, M.D.

Thomas Ahern, Ph.D., recently received an R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to identify genetic screens that could predict when patients are at high risk for late breast cancer recurrence.

The project will assemble a multi-disciplinary and international team, including UVM Cancer Center members Julie Dragon, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, and Paula Deming, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, as well as investigators at Aarhus University (Denmark), Emory University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Colorado, and BioRealm LLC. The project team will create a study population comprising late-recurrence cases and recurrence-free controls among pre- and post-menopausal women diagnosed with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. They will then collect archived primary breast tumors to carry out comprehensive gene expression profiling. Gene expression data will be augmented with high-quality clinical data on tumor, treatment, and patient characteristics. Applying cutting-edge machine learning approaches, the team will attempt to identify a concise array of genes that robustly predict late recurrence.

Ahern and colleagues have already seen the potential of their approach. In a small pilot study, they identified several genes predictive of late recurrence that do not appear in current risk models, reinforcing the need for gene expression models specifically tailored for late recurrence prediction.

Read more about Dr. Ahern's R01 grant

Larner College of Medicine faculty and staff performed with the Burlington Civic Symphony Orchestra at a concert on November 9 at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester: Gerald Davis, M.D., professor of medicine emeritus (timpani); Nina Jaffe, UVM ’85, senior editorial assistant for the AAP journal Pediatrics (violin); Friederike Keating, M.D., professor of medicine (flute and piccolo); Paul Rosenau, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics (cello); and Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine (double bass). The program included compositions by Gioachino Rossini, Jean Sibelius, and Ludwig van Beethoven and was supported in part by the Concert Artist Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation.