The Academic Minute for 2022.04.25-2022.04.29

The Academic Minute from 04.25 – 04.29

Monday, April 25th
Anthony Dick – Florida International University
Disaster News Can Trigger Post-Traumatic Stress in Kids
Anthony Steven Dick is a Developmental Science and Cognitive Neuroscience Professor at Florida International University. He studies the neurobiology of language and executive function using diffusion-weighted and functional imaging. He is specifically interested in how these cognitive processes are mutually supported by developing structural and functional neural networks, in both typically developing and atypically developing children (e.g., children with ADHD, pediatric stroke). He received baccalaureate degrees in Music and Psychology from The Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. from Temple University in Philadelphia. Following his Ph.D., he received additional training as a NIDCD NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neurology at The University of Chicago.

Tuesday, April 26th
Diana Azzam – Florida International University
Neuroinflammation Protein Linked to Worse Survival In Men With Glioblastoma
Dr. Diana Azzam earned her PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Miami in 2012. Her research has focused on the identification, functional characterization and targeting of therapy resistant and metastatic cancer stem cells in the most lethal forms of breast and ovarian cancers. Based on her work and publications, she received the 2014 Women in Cancer Research scholar award from the American Association for Cancer Research.  During her postdoctoral training at the Center for Therapeutic Innovation, Dr. Azzam implemented a patient-specific ex vivo high-throughput drug screening platform for personalized cancer therapy. This novel iterative functional/genomics approach was a multidisciplinary collaborative project with oncologists that enabled clinical application of individualized treatments for refractory patients with no alternative options. Significantly higher response rates were observed in patients whose treatment was based on drug screening and mutation profiling compared to non-guided therapy. In addition, Dr. Azzam optimized a high-throughput screening approach to identify novel drugs that target therapy-resistant cancer stem cell subsets in a tumor. Her research efforts led to the identification of new cancer stem-cell specific functions of histone methyltransferases (HMT) and histone deacetylases (HDAC) in breast and ovarian cancer.

Wednesday, April 27th
Asia Eaton – Florida International University
How A Culture of Care Can Help Change a Problem Like Homelessness
Asia Eaton is a feminist social psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Florida International University, where she directs the Power, Women, and Relationships (PWR) Lab. Eaton’s research explores how gender intersects with identities including race, sexual orientation, age and class to affect individuals’ access to, and experience with, social power in intimate partner relationships and in the workplace. Since 2016, Eaton has also served as Head of Research for Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), which is working to understand and end the emerging epidemic of nonconsensual porn in the U.S. She is also working with leadership at Lotus House to better understand and meet the needs of women experiencing homelessness.

Thursday, April 28th
Kenneth G. Furton – Florida International University
Canines Prove Accurate Detection Tools For COVID-19
Kenneth G. Furton is a leading scholar in forensic chemistry, specializing in scent detection. Dr. Furton joined Florida International University (FIU) in 1988 as an assistant professor in chemistry and founded FIU’s International Forensic Research Institute (IFRI) in 1997, which is globally recognized as one of the premier research and teaching institutes on forensic science. He subsequently served as associate dean of budget, facilities and research and remains director emeritus at IFRI, where he continues to be active, directing the research of graduate and undergraduate students and publishing papers and filing patents.

Friday, April 29th
Nasar U. Ahmed – Florida International University
COVID-19: When is it Safe to Reopen After a Pandemic Lockdown
Dr. Nasar U Ahmed, founding chair, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and an associate professor of epidemiology at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University. Dr. Ahmed’s background is in social epidemiology and intervention development. Currently, his research focuses on chronic disease, cancer epidemiology, health disparities, intervention development, and evaluation.