Faculty Mentors

Program Director, T32 Program
George & Cynthia Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Neurosciences, Department of Pediatric Surgery
Director, Program in Children’s Regenerative Medicine, Department of Pediatric Surgery
Co-Director, Texas Trauma Institute

Research Areas of Interest:

• Injury and the physiological consequences of resuscitation
• Novel cellular therapies for neurological trauma
• Immunomodulation of the inflammatory response to TBI

Assistant Program Director, T32 Program
Distinguished Professorship, Department of Surgery
Director, Center for Translational Injury Research (CeTIR)

Research Areas of Interest:

• Hemorrhagic shock
• Resuscitation
• Burns
• Animal models

Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Dan L. Duncan Distinguished University Chair in Pediatrics
Pediatrician-in-Chief, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital

Research Areas of Interest:

• Primary prevention of pediatric injury, including major injury mechanisms that disproportionately impact the health of rural and low-income children
• Develop novel approaches to community-based injury prevention in the areas of safe sleep, all-terrain vehicles, and booster seat use
• Prevention of TBI in at-risk families

Professor, Department of Surgery
John B. Holmes Professor in Clinical Sciences, Department of Surgery
Director, Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
Co-Director, Shock-Trauma ICU at Memorial Hermann -TMC

Research Areas of Interest:

• Massive transfusion protocol development
• Early identification of patients who will require large amounts of blood and blood products
• Rapid and optimal correction of the acute coagulopathy in trauma and defining end-points, or more specifically, futility points (lab values) for those receiving large amounts of blood and blood products
• Identify the appropriate timing and balance of anticoagulation and venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in severely injured patients who are hypocoagulable and bleeding on admission

Chair, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Nina and Michael Zilkha Distinguished Chair in Neurodegenerative Disease Research

Research Areas of Interest:

• Goal of reversing the consequences of spinal cord injury, brain injury, and neurological disorders
• Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neural plasticity and memory dysfunction following TBI
• Identifying prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for neurological diseases including TBI

Chair, Department of Anesthesiology
John P. and Katherine G. McGovern Distinguished University Chair
Professor, Anesthesiology, Surgery, and Biochemistry
Associate Vice President, Translational Medicine
Director, Center for Perioperative Medicine

Research Areas of Interest:

• Study perioperative organ injury, including cell culture, hypoxia exposure, basic immunologic approaches, and a wide range of animal models of organ injury
• Endogenous adaptive pathways that are controlled by hypoxia-inducible factors

Associate Professor, Department of Neurosurgery

Research Areas of Interest:

• Improving patient outcomes after spinal cord and brain injury
• Biomarker discovery in order to predict which patients may benefit from future intervention
• Relationship between antibodies and the development of neuropathic pain

Professor, Department of Surgery
Division Director, Division of Acute Care Surgery
John B. Holmes Professor of Clinical Sciences
Vice-Chair for Research and Faculty Development, Department of Surgery
Vice-Chair for Quality of Care, Department of Surgery
Co-Founder and Co-Director, Center for Surgical Trials and Evidence-based Practice (C-STEP)

Research Areas of Interest:

• Soft tissue infections
• Comparative effectiveness research, quality improvement, and implementation of evidence-based practices

Jack H. Mayfield Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Vice-Chairman, Harris Health
Chief of Surgery, Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital

Research Areas of Interest:

• Cell signaling and transduction during traumatic injury
• Organ dysfunction