Fellows

Fellows In the News

October 2022

Michael Cosmopoulos, the Hellenic Government-Karakas Foundation Professor of Greek Studies at UMSL, directs the Iklaina Archaeological Project, recently featured in The New York Times. (Photo courtesy of Michael Cosmopoulos.)

Academy Fellow Michael Cosmopoulos Ph.D., FRSC, and University of Missouri-St. Louis Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Professor in Greek Studies and Professor of Archaeology is featured in a recent article, “Unearthing Everyday Life at an Ancient Site in Greece,” in The New York Times on the Iklaina Archaeological Project in the Peloponnese Region in southern Greece where he directs excavations.

In June, Cosmopoulos was recognized by the president of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, for contributions in the fields of politics, science, or the arts, with the Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix. The Order of the Phoenix, established in 1926, honors Greek citizens who have excelled in the arts and literature, science, public administration, shipping, commerce and industry. Cosmopoulos was recognized for his work an archaeologist, most notably directing the the Iklaina Archaeological Project and for his work as an educator, teaching Greek studies in North America.

September 2022

Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., of Pharmacological and Physiological Science (front row center) and her team. (Photo Credit: Sarah Conroy)

Saint Louis University pain researcher, Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., and team, have discovered molecular events involved in the neurotoxic cancer-related cognitive impairment side effects of chemotherapy treatment and identified a novel target for therapeutic intervention with functional S1PR1 antagonists, two of which are already approved for treatment of MS. S1PR1 antagonists do not interfere with the efficacy of chemotherapy and have been shown in prior work to block tumor cell growth, inflammation, and metastasis. Cancer therapy drugs often leave patients suffering from the treatment’s debilitating side effects including cognitive impairments in processing speed, memory, executive function and attention. Her research, published in the September 1, 2022, Journal of Clinical Investigation, presents the first evidence that chemotherapy alters an important cellular pathway called sphingolipid metabolism in critical areas of the brain linked to cognitive function. Salvemini is the William Beaumont Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine where she is also the director of the university’s Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Center for Neuroscience.

Photo Credit: Washington University in St. Louis

Academy Fellow, Sarah Elgin, Ph.D., the Viktor Hamburger Professor Emerita in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, senior biology lecturer, Christopher Shaffer, and external colleagues, posit new evidence-based and active-learning classroom solutions for stemming, at scale, the national exodus of undergraduate students from STEM fields, with particular relevance for minority, underrepresented, and historically excluded populations. Their policy piece, “Achieving STEM Diversity: Fix the Classrooms—Outdated Teaching Methods Amount to Discrimination,” is published in the June 2, 2022, issue of Science.

Elgin founded the Genomics Education Partnership in 2006, a nationwide collaboration of 200+ institutions that integrates active learning into the undergraduate curriculum through Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) centered in bioinformatics and genomics.

July 2022

Photo Credit: Washington University in St. Louis

Academy Fellow and 2010 Outstanding St. Louis Scientist Innovation Award recipient, Randall J. Bateman, M.D., is named director of a new center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The Tracy Family Stable Isotope Labeling Quantitation Center for Neurodegenerative Biology (Tracy Family SILQ Center) focuses on the use of labeled proteins, or biomarkers, to help researchers improve diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases with currently limited treatment options such as Parkinson’s and ALS. The center builds on the SILK labeling technique developed by Bateman in the lab of Academy Fellow, David Holtzman, M.D., the Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Distinguished Professor of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

— Sources:  Steve Walentik, UMSL Daily, October 3, 2022, New York Times features Iklaina Archaeological Project, directed by UMSL Professor Michael Cosmopoulos, University of Missouri-St. Louis; Bridjes O’Neil, News, September 2022, SLU Researcher Unlocks Mystery of ‘Chemo-Brain’, Identifies Possible Treatment, Saint Louis University; Marta Wegorzewska, The Ampersand, September 7, 2022, Fixing the classroom: Welcoming all students into STEM, Arts & Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis; Judy Martin Finch, News Release, July 13, 2022, New center’s aim: to ID biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, contributed to these reports.