New MSU Foundation Professors Announced for 2019

Michigan State University recently named four new MSU Foundation Professors, a designation given to outstanding faculty who demonstrate excellence in research and teaching while enhancing the prominence of the institution.

Laura McCabe, David Morgan, Amirpouyan Nejadhashemi and Terrie Taylor join 36 of their peers who have previously been named MSU Foundation Professors.

“From human health to water resources, these scholars have each made important advances related to the world’s most challenging problems,” stated Stephen Hsu, Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation.

The MSU Foundation Professorship was established in 2014 through the generosity of the Michigan State University Foundation. In addition to the permanent title, honorees are typically provided with five years of supplemental scholarly funding.

“It’s a great pleasure to recognize exceptional faculty members who contribute to the success of MSU,” said David Washburn, Executive Director of the Michigan State University Foundation. “Their research, teaching and scholarship drives intellectual power at this university.”

Laura McCabe, professor in the Departments of Physiology and Radiology, has long been engaged in exploring the mechanisms regulating bone cell differentiation and bone formation and in developing new strategies for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. McCabe’s research has generated an expansive body of work, with critical contributions to more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book chapters. Many scientific symposia have benefited from her organizational leadership, and she has been a frequent advisor on a wide range of grant review boards and committees both here and abroad. She holds several patents, with additional patents pending, related to the treatment of osteoporosis. Her internationally recognized research program has been continuously funded for nearly 20 years through external federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense, and private foundations.

David Morgan, professor in the Department of Translational Science and Molecular Medicine in the College of Human Medicine, has spent his career studying the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. His research has led to several clinical trials, including a vaccine and antibody injections, to activate the body’s immune response and stop the buildup of a protein called beta amyloid in the brain. Morgan’s work has been supported by multiple grants from the National Institutes for Health and private foundations. In addition, he regularly sits on review panels for the NIH and other agencies, evaluating grants to develop new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. He has served on numerous editorial and scientific review boards, contributed to over 200 peer-reviewed publications, and participated in symposiums and conferences the world over as he continues to pursue the development of effective diagnostic tools for the prevention of Alzheimer’s.

Amirpouyan (A. Pouyan) Nejadhashemi is a professor in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering and the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences. A leading expert in water resources modeling, Nejadhashemi examines water and its distribution, movement and quality in a variety of environments. Nejadhashemi has been the principal or a co-principal investigator on grants totaling more than $30 million. His research team has been consulted by many national and international governmental agencies to help make informed decisions on such subjects as water resource management, sustainable crop production and climate change mitigation strategies. The author of roughly 100 peer-reviewed publications, Nejadhashemi has served on the board of several leading journals and led more than 150 oral and poster presentations at national and international conferences. In 2018, Nejadhashemi was elected to the board of the International Environmental Modelling & Software Society, the largest society of its kind in the world.

Terrie Taylor, University Distinguished Professor of Tropical Medicine in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, is an internationally recognized scientist and physician who has waged a 33-year battle against malaria. Her research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, determined swelling of the brain and pressure on the respiratory center as the cause of death in pediatric patients. This discovery is now leading to the development of interventional therapies and expanded use of ventilators. Dr. Taylor spends six months of every year in Malawi conducting malaria research, treating patients, and hosting students for six-week rotations at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. She also cofounded the Blantyre Malaria Project, becoming its director in 2000, to carry out research and patient care in the area of pediatric cerebral malaria. Taylor has been the recipient of countless honors and awards, including the American Medical Association Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award, the AOA Osteopathic Pioneer Award and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Ben Kean Award. She has authored or co-authored well over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has received over $35 million in grant awards.

New MSU Foundation Professors and other distinguished awardees will be recognized during a special investiture event on September 26, 2019.

To view the full roster of MSU Foundation Professors or learn more about the nomination process, visit the website of the Office for Research and Innovation.

COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE TO RECOGNIZE 2019 PATENGE AWARD WINNERS

The MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine will recognize four distinguished leaders with its highest honor, The Walter F. Patenge Medal of Public Service, on May 13.

The winners, who will be honored for their commitment to excellence in medicine, government and public service, are Tressa K. Gardner, Sandra Kilbourn, Mark Notman and Terrie Taylor.

Gardner, an alumna, is a fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians and the American College of Emergency Physicians. She serves as director of McLaren Greater Lansing’s emergency department and is founder and president of DeGarA, PLLC, a physician services company. She is president of the Michigan division of American Physician Partners. Gardner is widely recognized as a tireless champion of access to health care for underserved populations.

Kilbourn has served the college for over 45 years and is the executive director for external programs. She has dedicated her career to advancing issues around social justice and cultural competence within the university and throughout the broader community. She has influenced generations of osteopathic physicians and the individuals who support the osteopathic profession. 

During Notman’s distinguished 30-year career at MSU, he has served the College of Osteopathic Medicinein numerous capacities. For the last eight years, heserved as associate dean of planning, finance and administration and as chief technical officer. His steady guidance has been indispensable to the college in good times and bad.

Taylor, a University Distinguished Professor and an internationally recognized scientist and physician, has waged a 33-year battle against malaria. She spends six months of the year in Malawi, conducting malaria research and treating patients, the majority of whom are children. She co-founded the Blantyre Malaria Project to carry out outstanding research and patient care in the area of pediatric cerebral malaria. Taylor has been the recipient of countless honors and awards, has authored or co-authored well over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has received over $35 million in grant awards. 

The award is named for Walter F. Patenge, the first president of the Michigan Osteopathic Medicine Advisory Board. 

MSU DOCTOR WILL USE $8.5 MILLION GRANT TO HELP ERADICATE MALARIA IN MALAWI

Continuing her crusade against malaria, Terrie E. Taylor is once again on the hunt to find out why this deadly disease is still going strong in the African nation of Malawi, despite ongoing malaria control efforts in the country.

Taylor, Michigan State University Distinguished Professor of internal medicine and an osteopathic physician, will use a 7-year, $8.5 million federal grant to study why previous malaria prevention and eradication methods have been unsuccessful and how progress can be made.

“This program has two major aims, preventing malaria infection in the first place, and understanding how some individuals can remain infected without ever becoming sick,” said Taylor. “That latter group represents ‘reservoirs of infection’ – people going about their daily lives not realizing they are infected, all the while transmitting the disease to others through mosquitoes.”

Her work is part of the International Centers of Excellence in Malaria Research, a program created in 2010 and funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This is the second ICEMR grant Taylor and her team have been awarded.

Taylor’s team also will focus on the mosquitoes themselves, from learning which people are good sources of parasites for the mosquitoes, to determining how changing mosquito behavior and insecticide resistance are impacting the effects of mosquito netting hung in houses.

While increased efforts targeting malaria elimination and eradication have had some effect on malaria infection and illness, death rates from malaria are still too high. The World Health Organization estimates that 212 million new cases of malaria and 429,000 malaria deaths, mostly in Africa, occurred in 2015.

This research is a companion to Taylor’s ongoing efforts to prevent childhood deaths from cerebral malaria by developing the first malaria treatments. Taylor’s battle against malaria, which she refers to as the “Voldemort of parasites,” has been waged since 1986.  She spends six months every year in Malawi conducting malaria research and treating children.

In addition to Taylor’s team at MSU, partners in the ICEMR program include University of Malawi, University of Michigan and University of Maryland. 

MALARIA FACTS AND FIGURES

• Terrie Taylor’s groundbreaking research into cerebral malaria was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015. She identified that children who die from cerebral malaria do so from massively swollen brains that compress the brain stem and cause the child to stop breathing.
• Taylor is using a separate $8.4M NIH grant to identify the first-ever treatments for children with cerebral malaria. The research will be conducted in Malawi's first pediatric surgery and intensive care unit built by Raising Malawi, an organization founded by pop legend Madonna.
• Cerebral malaria kills a child every two minutes.
• In 2015, malaria killed an estimated 303,000 children under 5 years of age globally, including 292,000 in the African region.

Read a story about Taylor's work and the ICEMR grant in The State News.