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The founding director of the Taubman Institute, Eva L. Feldman, MD, PhD, has been honored with a professorship in her name, established by longtime institute benefactor Edith Briskin. Dr. Feldman, the James W. Albers Distinguished University Professor and Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology, is known internationally for her groundbreaking research and leadership across neurological…

Emerging Scholar, Sami Barmada, MD, PhD, is one of six U-M scientists and engineers receiving the Mid-career Biosciences Faculty Achievement Recognition Award, which recognizes exceptional mid-career faculty in the biosciences. Dr. Barmada is the Angela Dobson Welch and Lyndon Welch Research Professor and associate professor of neurology, and the institute’s Danto Family Foundation Emerging Scholar.…

Taubman Emerging Scholar Katherine A. Gallagher, MD, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the highest honorary society in the country for researchers in the fields of health and medicine. Dr. Gallagher, who received Taubman Institute funding for her early research into the mechanisms of impaired wound healing in patients with…

Taubman Scholar Kanakadurga Singer, M.A., M.D. has been appointed assistant dean for tenure track faculty in the University of Michigan Medical School, effective Nov. 1. Dr. Singer will provide oversight of tenure track faculty appointments and promotions and advancement, and serve as an advocate for tenure track faculty in the medical school and university. As…

Taubman Scholar Kathleen Collins, MD, PhD, has been awarded a 2022 Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award by U-M’s Rackham Graduate School. Each year, five faculty members from throughout the university are selected for the award, which honors senior faculty who have consistently demonstrated outstanding achievements in scholarly research and/or creative endeavors, have a record of sustained…

Charles F. Burant, MD, PhD, will lead Michigan Medicine’s Taubman Institute for an additional five-year term, announced Marschall Runge, MD, PhD, executive vice president for medical affairs and dean of the U-M medical school. Burant was first appointed in 2017, succeeding founding director Eva L. Feldman, MD, PhD. His second term will span 2022-2027. “We…

Taubman Emerging Scholar Rajesh Rao, MD, is leading a new clinical trial of a stem cell treatment for patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Eighteen patients in the trial will receive as many as 250,000 specially engineered cells derived from adult retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. The experimental cells are injected under the macula,…

Research supported in part by the Taubman Institute has developed new findings about the immune systems of patients with the autoimmune disorder lupus erythematosus. Investigators including Taubman Emerging Scholars Michele Kahenberg, MD, PhD, and Johann Gudjonnson, MD, PhD, note in a recently published paper that the normal-appearing skin of lupus patients contains the same inflammatory…

Taubman Institute Innovation Project finds new use for heart rate data By Morgan Sherburne Michigan News If you become ill with COVID-19, your smartwatch can track the progression of your symptoms, and could even show how sick you become. That’s according to a University of Michigan study that examined the effects of COVID-19 with six…

Kanakadurga (Durga) Singer, MD has been elected to a one-year term as vice chair of the university’s Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA). SACUA advises and consults with the president, provost and other executive officers of the university on issues that affect faculty interests. Dr. Singer is the Valerie Castle Opipari, MD Professor of…