Newswise — Bethesda, MD – Nora D. Volkow, M.D., and Peter Agre, M.D., are this year’s featured guest speakers for the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) Research Days.
The annual two-day forum encompasses three events -- the USU Graduate School of Nursing research colloquium, graduate student colloquium, and the Faculty Senate Research Day – and reflects the complementary roles that basic science, medicine, nursing, public health and behavioral science play in health promotion. Poster presentations, invited speakers and panels demonstrate USU’s unique role in civilian, military and public health research initiatives across the health sciences.
On Monday, May 14, Volkow, the director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, since 2003, will present the Presidential Lecture, “The Science of Addiction: What Do We Know?” Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate the toxic effects of drugs and their addictive properties. She has also made important contributions to the neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and the behavioral changes that occur with aging. Volkow is a member of the Institute of Medicine. Time magazine recently named her one of the "Top 100 People Who Shape our World" and Newsweek magazine included her as one of 20 people to watch in 2007. She was listed in Washingtonian magazine's 2009 and 2011 "100 Most Powerful Women" feature, and named "Innovator of the Year" by U.S. News & World Report in 2000.
Agre will deliver the annual Bullard Lecture, named for former USU associate dean for Graduate and Continuing Education, Dr. John Bullard. Agre’s lecture, “Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Malaria,” will be given on Thursday, May 15. Agre, a molecular biologist, professor of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003 for his discovery of aquaporins, water-channel proteins that move water molecules through the cell membrane. He is now using his basic science discoveries about aquaporins to understand the role the proteins play in the parasite that causes malaria. ----The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is the nation’s federal health sciences university. USU students are primarily active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service who have received specialized training in tropical and infectious diseases, preventive medicine, the neurosciences (to include TBI and PTSD), disaster response and humanitarian assistance, and acute trauma care. A large percentage of the university’s more than 4,700 physician and 500 advanced practice nursing alumni are supporting operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, offering their leadership and expertise. USU also has graduate programs in biomedical sciences and public health, open to civilian and military applicants committed to excellence in research, which have awarded more than 375 doctoral and 800 masters degrees to date. For more information, visit http://www.usuhs.mil.
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