Accolades & Accomplishments
November 15, 2023
Diego Adrianzen Herrera, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, has been appointed to serve as associate director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the University of Vermont Cancer Center (UVMCC). In this role, he will help to oversee the Cancer Center’s plan to enhance diversity, joining the UVMCC senior leadership team to coordinate programs that advance a culture of inclusion across the four pillars of the Cancer Center: research, education, community outreach, and clinical care.
After earning his doctor of medicine and surgery at Alberto Hurtado School of Medicine at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru, Adrianzen Herrera completed his post-doctoral training as a hematology and medical oncology fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and an internal medicine residency at the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
He currently serves on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs Committee for the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and was a participant in the 2023 ASH Health Equity Collective Roundtable. In 2022, he was named a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion at the annual ASH meeting. Adrianzen Herrera’s research focuses on health outcomes and translational epidemiology in hematologic malignancies.
Congratulations to the Medical Student Council’s newly elected Class of 2027 representatives (pictured left to right): Jonathan Palmer, chair of student leadership; Lajla Badnjević, chair of communications; Claudia Tarrant, chair of community service; Jeffrey Heithmar, chair of student life; and Benjamin Sebuufu, chair of finance.
The Medical Student Council serves as the official student governance body and represents all medical students enrolled at the Larner College of Medicine. The council serves as a liaison between all medical students, administrative offices, and other non-medical UVM student organizations. Duties include management of the class budgets, oversight of student interest groups and student leadership groups, and promotion of student camaraderie and community outreach through class and schoolwide social events, fundraisers, community service, and more.
The Larner Medical Student Council also works collaboratively with the Larner Graduate Student Council to provide ongoing support and advocacy for the Larner student community as a whole.
Most children are exposed to adversity by the time they reach adulthood, but a portion of children stay free of mental illness despite trying circumstances. Such resilience has been the subject of much research and debate. A recent study led by Professor of Psychiatry William Copeland, Ph.D., and supported by UVM researchers Julia Halvorson-Phelan, B.S., and Ellen McGinnis, Ph.D., alongside Lilly Shanahan, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the University of Zurich, challenges the notion that childhood resilience is common. Their investigation indicates that children who appeared resilient during childhood were still at risk of poorer mental health, physical health, and financial outcomes in adulthood. The findings, published in the Fall 2023 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, suggest that focusing on reducing childhood adversity exposures may be more beneficial than promoting resilience alone. By prioritizing the reduction of early adversities, public health efforts could potentially lead to improved long-term outcomes and overall well-being for individuals as they transition into adulthood.
Congratulations to clinical and translational science (CTS) Ph.D. student Adam Sprouse Blum, M.D., assistant professor of neurological sciences, attending physician, and pipeline investigator in the Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health (VCCBH), who was recently elected president of the Northern New England Neurological Society. The society brings together physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, residents, and other medical professionals with an interest in neurology.
CTS spans basic biology, clinical medicine, and community health policy to understand and develop new approaches to improving human health, studying how both biologic and non-biologic aspects of health care interact to influence individuals and populations.
Dr. Sprouse Blum and his fellow pilot project leader and VCCBH pipeline investigator Nicholas Klug, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology, recently were awarded a 2023 VCCBH Pilot Grant to study the source of the head pain of migraine. This award, supported wholly by funds from UVM entities, provide $200,000 over two years to fund meritorious research from early career faculty. Deans from the Colleges of Medicine, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Nursing and Health Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and the Graduate College, as well as the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont, support this program, with matching fund support from the Departments of Pharmacology and Neurological Sciences.
The Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health (VCCBH) is an NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) that provides a platform to build sustainable research programs built on the exceptional potential of early career faculty. VCCBH researchers are studying the vital health problems facing society: cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cognitive impairment.
The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) is a dedicated organization focused on advancing core and research biotechnology laboratories through research, communication, and education. ABRF boasts a community of more than 2,700 core facilities professionals in the United States and spans 17 international locations. Notably, the Northeast Regional Laboratory Staff and Core Directors (NERLSCD) chapter is the largest of ABRF’s five chapters, currently comprising 517 members in the northeastern region.
One of the highlights of the NERLSCD chapter is its annual meeting, which has emerged as a premier regional gathering for core facility directors, managers, staff, and administrators. The meeting serves as a platform for professionals to connect with colleagues, stay informed about the latest biotechnology advances and applications, discuss the challenges in implementing shared research resources, and share inspiring success stories. This year, the University of Vermont (UVM) had the privilege of hosting this pivotal event October 18–20, 2023.
During the meeting, core directors from diverse institutions were provided with exclusive tours of the state-of-the-art Firestone Medical Research Building, which opened in October 2022 and exemplifies UVM’s unwavering dedication to pioneering research infrastructure. The tours took place on October 18, with conference activities running from October 18 through October 20. The event also encompassed enlightening lectures delivered by distinguished figures in the field, including Rita R. Colwell, Ph.D., the 11th director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) from August 1998 to February 2004, as well as Bill Parker, Ph.D., CEO and director of technology at Creative MicroSystems Corporation. These speakers, among others, graciously shared their wealth of knowledge and experiences with a captivated audience of over 230 attendees.
The meeting was led by Julie Dragon, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the Larner College of Medicine, director of the Vermont Integrative Genomics Resource, and director of the Vermont Biomedical Research Network Data Science Core, and Roxana del Rio-Guerra, Ph.D., director of the Flow Cytometry and Small Particle Detection Facility at the Center for Biomedical Shared Resources, University of Vermont/Larner College of Medicine. Both played a significant role in ensuring the event’s success.
What sets the University of Vermont’s Center for Biomedical Shared Resources cores apart are the collective years of lab research expertise it offers. The Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Facility boasts an impressive 30 years of combined research expertise, while the Proteomics Facility leads with 50 years of combined research experience; the Microscopy Imaging Center and the Vermont Integrative Genomics Resource can each claim a remarkable 99 years of research expertise.
The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities and its NERLSCD chapter continue to foster innovation, collaboration, and excellence in the field of biotechnology, making a significant impact on core facility professionals and research laboratories nationwide. This year’s annual meeting was a testament to their dedication to advancing science and strengthening the ties that bind the scientific community.
Three UVM Cancer Center members—medical oncologist Steven Ades, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and medical director for the UVM Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office; first-year Hematology/Oncology Fellow Ryan Thomas, M.D. (pictured); and second-year Hematology/Oncology Fellow Rohit Singh, M.D.—were honored at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society (NNECOS) held October 27–28 at the Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Dr. Ades was recognized with the Distinguished Achievement Award, and Drs. Thomas and Singh received poster awards.
In addition, Kara Landry, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, James Gerson, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, and Natalie Bales ’24 (mentored by Christopher Anker, M.D.) each gave presentations at the meeting.
The University of Vermont Medical Center is the number one hospital in the state, according to data collected by Newsweek in partnership with Statista, which published its ranking of America’s Best-in-State Hospitals for 2024.
The list includes 600 of the country’s leading hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. From June to July 2023, Statista conducted an online survey featuring tens of thousands of health care professionals, including doctors and hospital managers. The score each hospital received was broken down into four main categories—recommendations from peers, patient experience, hospital quality metrics, and Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) implementations. Among the factors the survey took into account were quality of care, patient counseling, and accommodations and amenities, as well as mortality, safety, readmission, timely and effective care, and accreditation data. Newsweek provided details about how the rankings were calculated in the article “The Best Hospital in Every State.”
