Vol. 37 | August 2024 – 8 minute read

UT Southwestern was recently named one of the top 16 medical schools for research by U.S. News & World Report, earning Tier 1 status, the highest performing category. 

The methodology was updated this year from ordinal rankings to tiers to recognize the top medical schools by placing them within four different levels of performance. The scoring formula for the research-oriented computation factored measures of research productivity (60%), student selectivity (20%), and faculty resources (20%). UT Southwestern is among the 16 schools that earned top-performing scores in the 85-99 percentile.  

UT Southwestern Medical School trains roughly 950 medical students and 1,600 clinical residents and fellows each year. With the guidance of our faculty, students, and other learners engage in educational opportunities – in classrooms, laboratories, patient wards, and clinics across five affiliated hospitals – in their journey to become well-rounded physicians, researchers, and leaders. Upon graduation, our medical students consistently match at leading medical residency programs, including UT Southwestern. 

Alyssa H. Hasty, Ph.D., is the new Vice Provost and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Career Development. She joined UT Southwestern on Aug. 1 from Vanderbilt University, where she was Senior Associate Dean for Faculty in the Basic Sciences, Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. 

A leader in the field of immunometabolism, Dr. Hasty studies the role of the immune system in obesity-accelerated diseases such as cardiometabolic disease and cancer.

At Vanderbilt, Dr. Hasty was involved in all aspects of recruiting new faculty members and oversaw the creation and implementation of programs to promote professional development of trainees and faculty. She led the School of Medicine efforts to revise the criteria for promotion. She also established an annual evaluation for nontenure track faculty, leading to a doubling of annual promotions for faculty on those tracks. 

Dr. Hasty brings demonstrated skills enhancing faculty recruitment, development, promotion, and wellness. In her new role, she will work closely with Steven Bloom, M.D., Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, to further position UT Southwestern as a place where faculty members can thrive professionally and personally.

Ava Pierce, M.D., is the new Chair of the Medical Student Admissions Committee, succeeding Craig Rubin, M.D., who retired after serving in the role for the past five years. Dr. Pierce, Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Outreach and Engagement in the Department of Emergency Medicine, has served on the committee for the past 12 years. Among her other roles, she is also Co-Director of the Joint Admissions Medical Program.

Dr. Pierce brings a longstanding commitment to recruiting the brightest students to the Medical School, ensuring UT Southwestern continues to produce top specialists and primary care physicians as well as physician-scientists for the future.

Kathryn O’Donnell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, has been named Scientific Advisory Board Chair of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation, which seeks to improve lung cancer outcomes by funding research for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of the disease.

Dr. O’Donnell, who is also Co-leader of the Development and Cancer Program at Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, has made important contributions to our understanding of cancer initiation and progression. Her current work is focused on understanding the mechanisms that contribute to lung tumor development, the regulation of immune checkpoint pathways, and applying insights from these studies toward the development of new therapies for lung cancer.

James J. Collins III, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology, is UT Southwestern’s newest Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator.

Dr. Collins’ research focuses on schistosomiasis, which after malaria is the most devastating parasitic disease. As the first to set up the culture conditions to monitor the reproductive cycle of female parasitic worms without having to pass it through a host, Dr. Collins has transformed the understanding of schistosomes.

He joins a class of 26 distinguished scientists nationwide named new HHMI Investigators. Each will receive about $11 million in support over a seven-year period, which is renewable pending a scientific review by HHMI. Dr. Collins is the 14th current HHMI Investigator at UT Southwestern. Read more. 

UT Southwestern Graduate School student Luis Rodríguez-Rodríguez and his adviser, Kevin Forsberg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Microbiology, were named to the 2024 cohort of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Gilliam Fellows Program for their work to discover or improve phage-based therapies.

Defensive strategies developed by bacteria to prevent infection by their viruses include phages. Research by Dr. Forsberg and his student aim to identify new examples of these defense systems that could lead to novel tools in molecular biology or advance current therapies. 

In total, 50 student-adviser pairs from 43 institutions across the U.S. were recognized for their outstanding research as well as their commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in science. The Gilliam Fellows Program will provide each duo with $53,000 in support each year for up to three years of the student’s dissertation research. Read more.

UT Southwestern Medical Center is the #1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth for the eighth consecutive year in the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings, which were recently released.

In addition, 11 of our specialty care areas ranked among the best in the nation – more than any other hospital in Texas. Six specialties placed in the top 25: cancer; cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; neurology and neurosurgery; pulmonology and lung surgery; and rehabilitation. 

U.S. News evaluates more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for its Best Hospitals rankings. For those of you who participated in the U.S. News survey earlier this year and voted for UT Southwestern, thank you for your support! 

Supported by the Dean’s Office, the Charles Y.C. and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research, and the Department of Internal Medicine, the Charles Pak Family Cancer and Bone Initiative Grant Awards fund faculty investigating various aspects of skeletal metastasis and/or bone metabolic disease due to cancer or resulting from therapy.

$125,000 Award

Mechanisms underlying lobular breast cancer metastasis to bone: Does tumor glucocorticoid receptor activity contribute to increased ILC metastatic bone burden?

$75,000 Award

Proteostasis and phosphate sensing as regulators of the phosphate transporter SLC20A1/PiT1 in lung adenocarcinoma

First team, from left: Principal investigator Suzanne Conzen, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Division Chief of Hematology and Oncology; Co-Investigator Kevin Dean, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics; and postdoctoral researcher Baylee Porter, Ph.D.

Second team, from left: Principal investigator Christoph Zechner, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Physiology and in the Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research; and Co-Investigators John Minna, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology and Director of the Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research, and Ralph DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D., Professor in the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute and Division Chief of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism.

The Office of Faculty Development and the Southwestern Academy of Teachers (SWAT) have launched an Educator Development at UTSW (EDU) course.

The EDU course is designed to provide faculty members at all levels with helpful tips to become better educators, scholars, and academic medicine professionals. The course contains 10 modules, with a total duration of fewer than 2.5 hours. Those who complete all 10 modules will receive a certificate of completion and recognition during the November SWAT meeting.

Learn how to cultivate a psychologically safe learning environment in this EDU module, where Reuben Arasaratnam, M.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, discusses the art of giving constructive feedback. Access the full module on Taleo Learn by searching for “EDU 2024.”

LEAD Application Period

The Leadership Emerging in Academic Departments (LEAD) program is designed for junior faculty who aspire to develop their leadership skills.

• Submit an application from Aug. 20 to Sept. 20.

Effective Teaching Practices

Two fully online, asynchronous courses designed to enhance didactic skills will be offered this fall by the Office of Faculty Development, in partnership with the UT System and the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). Participants will earn credits toward becoming certified in Effective Teaching Practices. Register by Aug. 20.

• Promoting Active Learning Application
• Inspiring Inquiry and Preparing Lifelong Learners Application

Fourth Annual Texas Health Informatics Alliance Conference

This conference will bring together the health informatics community in Texas and feature presentations and speakers from our state.

• Registration closes Aug. 30.

SUCCESS Program Workshop: Part 1

This virtual event will focus on educator and wellness development and discuss the promotion and tenure process.

• Sept. 17. Register to attend.

UT Southwestern Medical School New Faculty Research Forum

Members of the Medical School research community are invited to exchange innovative ideas and contribute to shaping the future of research at UT Southwestern. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the newest members of our research community.

• Sept. 24. Register to attend.

WISMAC/Women’s Careers Fall Faculty Reception

The event will include a faculty panel. Topics will encompass the theme "Growing Into Leadership."

• Oct. 24. Save the date.