Department: Office of Research


What Is It Eating? A Researcher’s Six-Year Chase to Understand How a Deadly Mold Survives Inside Human Lungs

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Portrait of Dr. Jarrod Fortwendel sitting in the lab

Every day, we breathe in spores of Aspergillus fumigatus without a second thought. The mold is everywhere — in soil, in compost, in the air of nearly every room we enter. For most people, the immune system clears it out before it ever becomes a problem. But for someone with a weakened immune system, those… Read More


The Long Way Around: How Dr. James Parrett Became UTRF Memphis’s New Vice President

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“My background is a little atypical of how people do things,” says James Parrett, PharmD, JD, and it’s hard to argue. Chemist, patent litigator, pharmacist, technology transfer manager: Dr. Parrett has worn all four hats on his way to a fifth. This July, he became vice president of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation’s Memphis… Read More


One Conversation Led to a $225,000 Cancer Research Award. This Year’s Conference Could Lead to the Next

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Dr. Kondapa Naidu Bobba speaking at a podium

When Kondapa Naidu Bobba, PhD, walked into the Tennessee Statewide Cancer Collaborative Scientific Meeting led by the University of Tennessee Health Sciences in Nashville last year, he didn’t know the conversations he’d have there would help reshape the direction of his research and ultimately help secure a $225,000 award to fight prostate cancer. Dr. Bobba,… Read More


Landmark Aging Study by UT Health Sciences Researcher Published in Nature

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Portrait of Dr. Rob Williams in the lab

A University of Tennessee Health Sciences researcher has published findings that could reshape how medicine approaches aging, longevity and late-life health, including the prospect of personalized interventions that keep people healthier longer. Rob Williams, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Genetics, Genomics, and Informatics in the College of Medicine, is the lead author… Read More


From Honeymoon to Pitch Table: UT Health Sciences Graduate Student Embodies ‘Discovery to Impact’

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Portrait of CJ Rudolph in the lab with a scoliosis brace on the counter next to him.

On June 18, CJ Rudolph landed in Memphis at 1 a.m. after nearly 24 hours of travel home from his honeymoon. By mid-day, he was standing before a room of researchers, investors and industry leaders pitching a medical device he had spent three years developing. Hours later, the third-year University of Tennessee Health Sciences biomedical… Read More


Researcher Receives $466,000 Federal Grant to Study Eye Damage from Chemical Warfare Agents

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Dr. Nawajes Mandal looks into a microscope

Nawajes Mandal, PhD, professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences, has been awarded a $466,103 grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, to investigate how chemical warfare agents, specifically blister agents like mustard gas, damage the eyes and cause long-term vision loss. Blister agents like… Read More


Innovation Developed by UT Health Sciences Research Program Passes Landmark Trial for Cardiac Amyloidosis

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Portrait of Dr. Jon Wall sitting in a lab in front of shelves containing scientific instruments and materials

A new diagnostic tool developed at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences may soon make it significantly easier for physicians to detect cardiac amyloidosis, a progressive and frequently underdiagnosed disease caused by abnormal protein deposits in the heart. The tool is a novel imaging technology, a radioactive molecule that, when injected into a patient and… Read More


Brain Chemical Could Hold Key to Helping Veterans Escape Cycle of Trauma and Alcohol

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Headshot of Dr. Bryan Cruz

Why do people engage in compulsive behaviors? It’s a question Bryan Cruz, PhD, has been turning over since his undergraduate days, and one that became impossible to set aside as he watched people close to him struggle with compulsive and addictive behaviors that didn’t fit neatly into simple explanations. What others might attribute to personality… Read More