National Academy of Medicine Elects Four New Members in Texas
TAMEST is proud to welcome four new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) this month, including a past TAMEST Protégé.
The four elected were among 90 regular members and 10 international members elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The new members bring the Academy’s total membership to more than 2,200 and the number of international members to approximately 172.
Meet our new members:
Samuel Achilefu, Ph.D., Inaugural Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, UT Southwestern Medical Center
For his outstanding contributions in the field of optical imaging for identifying sites of disease and characterizing biologic phenomena noninvasively. (Dr. Achilefu will join the faculty at UT Southwestern in January 2022.)
Kendall Marvin Campbell, M.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Family Medicine, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
For his work in assessing academic and community factors impacting the development of a diverse medical workforce to further health equity, co-developing a Center for Underrepresented Minorities in Academic Medicine, and creating a research group for underrepresented minorities in academic medicine, presenting and publishing his findings regionally and nationally.
Helen Elisabeth Heslop, M.D., D.Sc. (Hon), Dan L. Duncan Chair, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine; Director, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine
For pioneering work in complex biological therapies, leadership in clinical immunotherapy, and for being the first to employ donor and banked cytotoxic T cells to treat lethal virus-associated malignancies and infections in pivotal trials.
Anil Kumar Sood, M.D., Professor and Vice Chair for Translational Research, Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Past TAMEST Protégé)
For discovering the mechanistic basis of chronic stress on cancer and the pivotal role of tumor-IL6 in causing paraneoplastic thrombocytosis; developing the first RNAi therapeutics and translating multiple new drugs from lab to clinic; and devising and implementing a paradigm shifting surgical algorithm for advanced ovarian cancer, dramatically increasing complete resection rates.
TAMEST will welcome these and other new members at the June 20, 2022 opening reception of the TAMEST 2022 Annual Conference, Forward Texas: Imperatives for Heath, in San Antonio, Texas.
