Department News

Dr. Narendra Singh, Research Assistant Professor, was invited to Chair the Immunotoxicology Session at the 47th Annual Meeting of Society of Toxicology (SOT) held in Seattle from March 16-20, 2008.  An abstract entitled, "c-FLIP plays important role in TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin)-induced apoptosis in primary T cells and established T cell line in vitro" coauthored by Drs. Singh, Mitzi Nagarkatti and Prakash Nagarkatti was selected for platform presentation at this meeting. 

Dr. Venkatesh Hegde, Postdoctoral Fellow, has received the Postdoctoral Travel Award from the Regulatory and Safety Evaluation Specialty Section at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology.  He presented research entitled, "Attenuation of experimental autoimmune hepatitis by exogenous and endogenous cannabinoids: involvement of regulatory T cells" coauthored by Drs. Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti.

Dr. Udai Singh, Research Assistant Professor, has received the Junior Faculty Travel Award from American Association of Immunologists (AAI) to present an abstract entitled, “CCL5 modulates mucosal immunity against chlamydial infection" at the Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA from April 5-9,  2008.  Dr. Singh has also received the Federation of Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) Minorities Access to Research Careers (MARC) Travel Award to attend this meeting.

Dr. Juhua Zhou, Research Assistant Professor, is the recipient of the AAI Junior Faculty Travel Grant to present research at the AAI Annual Meeting.  Dr. Zhou presented an abstract entitled “Association between CD44 polymorphism and breast cancer”  with co-authors, Dr. Prakash Nagarkatti, Ms. Yin Zhong and Dr. Mitzi Nagarkatti, on April 8, 2008.

Ms. Rupal Pandey, a graduate student, is the recipient of a USC 2007-2008 Travel Award for graduate student participation in professional meetings.  She presented the abstract entitled “Delta-9-tetraydrocannabinol triggers mast cell degranulation through activation of cannabinoid receptors” co-authored by Drs. Venkatesh Hegde, Mitzi Nagarkatti and Prakash Nagarkatti at the 2008 Annual FASEB Meeting.  Ms. Pandey’s abstract has been selected for oral presentation at the 95th AAI Annnual Meeting held in conjunction with Federation of Societies of Experimental Biology 2008 meeting.  Ms. Pandey also presented her research at the SOM Newton Graduate Symposium where she won an honorable mention.

Ms. Sadiye Rieder, Graduate Student, received a Travel Award from the USC Graduate School for presenting the research entitled,  "Role of Natural Killer T (NK T) Cells in Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B-induced Vascular Leak" with coauthors, Drs. Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti at the AAI meeting.  Ms. Rieder serves as a Student Representative on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, USC School of Medicine Library Committee and the Student Alumni Board.