Celebrating the UVM Larner College of Medicine Community

This year’s University of Vermont Research Week festivities April 21–25 highlighted investigations and discoveries that contributed to the university’s prestigious Carnegie R1 designation. The Larner College of Medicine continues to play a significant role in the university’s research enterprise; in FY24, Larner garnered more than $100 million in funding to support biomedical and health care research that improves health, transforms lives, and tackles global health challenges.

Read about Larner research that contributed to UVM’s R1 designation

All Brains Belong in Montpelier, a nonprofit practice launched in 2021 by Mel Houser, M.D.’12, is a new model of health care delivery that provides not only medical care but also education and social connection for patients historically excluded from traditional health care settings—particularly neurodivergent people with complex chronic conditions and those who have experienced medical trauma.

Read more about Dr. Houser’s All Brains Belong practice

The impacts of wildfires, floods, drought, food insecurity, and vector-borne diseases on health are real and profound, especially for children, older adults, chronically ill people, and communities of color. Larner College of Medicine faculty and students explore linkages between human and planetary health, with an emphasis on solutions, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Read more about UVM’s Planetary Health Initiative

After more than two decades at the helm of UVM’s Vaccine Testing Center (VTC), Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D. (pictured at left), professor and chair of microbiology and molecular genetics (MMG), has transitioned the leadership of the center she founded in 2001. Moving forward, MMG professor Kristen Pierce, M.D., and MMG researcher and analyst Mary Claire Walsh, PA-C, will jointly oversee the VTC.

Read more about the VTC leadership transition

“Hearing all the wonderful stories from my dad about the Larner community made me very inclined to apply there and consider it a top choice for medical school. That was undoubtedly the right decision.” —Vinh Le, Class of 2025

JOIN LARNER ON BLUESKY

Please join the Larner College of Medicine in our newest social media community, Bluesky @uvmlarnermed.bsky.social. With over 34 million registered users and growing, Bluesky is a free, open social network similar to X/Twitter where everyone can highlight our incredible research to #MedSky, share news celebrating our medical community, and stay in the know. You can also connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.

ACCOLADES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Jan K. Carney, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for public health and health policy, professor of medicine, and chief of the Division of Public Health, has been named president-elect of the American College of Physicians (ACP). With members in more than 172 countries worldwide, ACP is the largest medical specialty organization and second-largest physician group in the United States.

Ty Walker of the Larner medical Class of 2025, and an Olympic snowboarder, was featured as a panelist at the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies Female Founders Speaker Series March 24 at Hotel Vermont. The panel of three women Olympic champions discussed “the Olympian mindset” and how they applied this mindset to their entrepreneurial journey after the Games.

For National Public Health Week, the April 10 episode of the University of Vermont’s Across the Fence program features Thomas Griffin, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Public Health at the Larner College of Medicine, speaking with program host Joleil Whitney about why “public health is a public good.”

Larner Associate Professor of Pediatrics Rebecca Bell, M.D., was honored with the Gregory Packan Children’s Advocacy Award from KidSafe Collaborative at the organization’s 36th annual Outstanding Service Awards held April 16 in Burlington. The award is given to an individual who has advocated strongly and diligently on behalf of child / youth victims of abuse and neglect.

Leila Amiri, Ph.D., Larner assistant professor of psychiatry and associate dean for admissions, has received the Outstanding Service Award from the Northeast Group on Student Affairs (NEGSA) for her exceptional leadership, mentorship, and dedication to the medical education community. The award was presented at the NEGEA / NEGSA / NEOSR spring conference in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

SAVE THE DATE

Multiple Locations | Professionalism Week celebrates Larner’s commitment to such principles as integrity, accountability, altruism, and social responsibility, honoring faculty, medical students, graduate students, and staff who exemplify these tenets. The week culminates in a Professionalism Awards Presentation & Celebration with keynote.

Ira Allen Chapel | Commencement for the Larner College of Medicine Class of 2025, Sunday, May 18, 3 p.m., Ira Allen Chapel, followed by reception, Grand Maple Ballroom, Davis Center. Ceremony will be livestreamed and recorded.

LARNER IN THE NEWS

NEW YORK TIMES
Bock Comments on 3D Mouse Brain Map

THE OTHER PAPER
New Free Health Clinic in South Burlington

PUBLISHED RESEARCH

Bansal K, Rawlley B, Majmundar V, Beale R, Shah M, Kosinski AS, Gupta T, Gilani F, Anwaruddin S, Khera S, Vemulapalli S, Elmariah S, Kolte D. Out-of- Hospital 30-Day Mortality After Mitral TEER: Insights From the STS/ACC TVT Registry. JACC Cardiovasc Interv. 2025 Apr 14;18(7):882-894. doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2025.01.425. Epub 2025 Feb 25. PMID: 40117403.

Farhat K, Obradovic A, Siebert A, Tun HN, Noch EK, Kwan JM. Evaluating factors impacting early career physician-scientists' decisions to continue research careers in the United States of America. BMC Med Educ. 2025 Apr 17;25(1):564. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07144-4. PMID: 40247298; PMCID: PMC12007356.

Gottlieb DJ, Hansen SL, McClelland RL, Cornell E, Kim JS, Tracy RP, Lederer DJ, Redline S, Jelic S. Association of obstructive sleep apnea with soluble biomarkers of lung and vascular injury: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Sleep. 2025 Apr 11;48(4):zsae271. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsae271. PMID: 39565921; PMCID: PMC11985382.

Khurana B, Bayne HN, Temple J, Andover P, Loder R. Comparative analysis of injuries related to self-harm, assault, and intimate partner violence: Insights from U.S. Emergency Departments (2005-2021). Inj Prev. 2025 Jan 3:ip-2024-045435. doi: 10.1136/ip-2024-045435. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39753337.

Krumholz S, Hurd M, Tenney A, Iacono L, Vollbrecht C, Calkins W. Cooking with the curriculum: a pilot culinary medicine program at the Larner College of Medicine. BMC Med Educ. 2025 Apr 11;25(1):517. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07103-z. PMID: 40217237; PMCID: PMC11987183.

Lester-Coll NH, Dal Pra A, Murthy V, Kamran SC. Advancements in Prostate Cancer Radiotherapy: The Role of PSMA PET Imaging. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2025 Apr 15:S1879-8500(25)00073-6. doi: 10.1016/j.prro.2025.03.008. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40246072.

Little KM, Speck E, Pulcini CD, Paradise M, Rideout M, Raszka WV Jr. Altered Mental Status and First-Time Seizure in Teen With a Subacute Inguinal Mass. Pediatrics. 2025 Apr 17:e2024069855. doi: 10.1542/peds.2024-069855. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40240005.

Ruzhansky K, Li Y, Wolfe GI, Muppidi S, Guptill JT, Hehir MK, Dimachkie MM, Kaminski HJ, Howard JF Jr, Narayanaswami P. Standardization of Myasthenia Gravis Outcome Measures in Clinical Practice. A Report of the MGFA Task Force. Muscle Nerve. 2025 Apr 22. doi: 10.1002/mus.28417. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40260547.

Sigmon SC, Batchelder SR, Badger GJ. Novel intervention to improve food insecurity among individuals with opioid use disorder: A randomized clinical trial. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2025 Apr 8;271:112673. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112673. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40250065.

Sutherland I, Ho MF, Croarkin PE. Psychedelic Treatments in Adolescent Psychopharmacology: Considering Safety, Ethics, and Scientific Rigor. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2025 Apr;35(3):118-125. doi: 10.1089/cap.2024.0082. Epub 2025 Jan 6. PMID: 39761065.

Vagher B, Gullickson SK, Snyder JP, Hogan T, Del Rio-Guerra R, Fairfax KC, Amiel E. UDP-glucose Regulates Dendritic Cell Mitochondrial Respiration via a Nitric Oxide-Dependent Mechanism. J Leukoc Biol. 2025 Apr 17:qiaf047. doi: 10.1093/jleuko/qiaf047. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40241651.

Waheed M, Patel D, Anderson P, Patel RD, Aleem I. Preoperative teriparatide intervention is cost-effective for osteoporotic patients undergoing lumbar fusion: A break-even cost analysis. Spine J. 2025 Apr 5:S1529-9430(25)00193-7. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2025.04.007. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40194707.

Whitledge JD, Kennedy J, Watson CJ, Malley C, Simone K, Neavyn M. The Impact of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists on Pharmacokinetics and Toxicokinetics: Is a New Diagnostic and Therapeutic Framework Needed? J Med Toxicol. 2025 Apr 11. doi: 10.1007/s13181-025-01075-8. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40216700.

Yu W, Thurston G, Shao Y, Zhang Y, Copeland WE, Stein CR. Ambient air pollution and depressed mood in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) wave 4. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 Apr 8;194(4):975-983. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwae314. PMID: 39191648; PMCID: PMC11978609.

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