Alex Ortega Loayza selected for prestigious mid-career faculty award
Alex Ortega Loayza, M.D., M.C.R., associate professor of dermatology in the OHSU School of Medicine, was awarded the Wound Healing Society’s 2024 Mid-Career Faculty Award at their annual meeting last spring. The WHS has been the premier organization focusing on the clinical and basic science of wound healing since 1989.
Ortega is now an NIH-funded investigator leading international expert in Pyoderma Gangrenosum, a rare chronic inflammatory disease characterized by painful skin ulcers of the lower extremities. As an awardee, he was invited to present at the European Tissue Repair Society’s annual meeting in the Netherlands next month. The title of his talk is “Pyoderma Gangrenosum: Current Landscape and Future Perspective from Upgrade.”
“It is really a true honor to be the recipient of this award,” Ortega said. “The support of the Medical Research Foundation and OHSU Foundation was pivotal to supporting my early research projects as an assistant professor. The support from my Chair, Dr. Leachman, has also been crucial through the Ettelson Award.”
Lisset Dumet honored for women’s health research on paid parental leave
Lisset M. Dumet, a Ph.D. candidate and researcher from the Oregon Health & Science University-Portland State University School of Public Health, has been selected as the Editor’s Choice in the prestigious Women’s Health Issues journal for the July/August 2024 issue. She is honored for her remarkable contribution to women’s health research in her study, titled “Barriers to Accessing Paid Parental Leave Among Birthing Parents With Perinatal Health Complications: A Multiple-Methods Study.”
Dumet’s study sheds light on a critical, yet often overlooked, issue: the accessibility of paid parental leave for parents facing perinatal health complications. Even in states like California, which boasts relatively generous paid leave programs, parents who could benefit most from these programs often find themselves struggling to understand and access the leave to which they are entitled.
“This study shows that it’s not enough to pass a family-friendly policy; careful implementation is also crucial to ensure everyone can benefit. Ideally, all states would not only ensure their workers have the right to paid parental leave, but also that paid leave is accessible to all — and especially to those facing significant health challenges,” said Karen McDonnell, editor-in-chief of Women’s Health Issues and associate professor of prevention and community health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Daniel Streblow part of $46.7 million grant for flavivirus research
Daniel Streblow, Ph.D., an associate scientist at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute and Research and an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at OHSU, is a collaborator on a major new grant called FLARE, or Flavivirus and Alphavirus ReVAMPP. The FLARE grant is for $46.7 million and establishes a multicenter research program to prepare for a potential pandemic caused by alphaviruses or flaviviruses. The FLARE grant is part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ newly established, $100 million Research and Development of Vaccines and Monoclonal Antibodies for Pandemic Preparedness, or ReVAMPP, Network.
Streblow's lab is known for generating a rhesus macaque chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection animal model to identify correlates of CHIKV pathogenesis and to test novel antivirals and vaccines. They are working on developing a zika virus rhesus macaque model.
“An important goal of this project is to not only develop vaccines against known human pathogens with pandemic potential but also to develop the tools to rapidly respond to pathogens that have yet to emerge in order to respond faster and better,” Streblow said. “This is based on the rapid success that we had with developing SARS-CoV-2 vaccines because of the lessons learned from previous studies to develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-1.”
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Every day, OHSU members do amazing things. We want to celebrate the significant achievements of OHSU members, units and programs, such as awards, grants, appointments, publications and public recognitions. Periodically, we publish these on OHSU Now and OHSU News: Awards and Accomplishments to celebrate with all 27,000 of our members and our community. Nominate yourself, a colleague or any OHSU member using this Accolades Smartsheet form. Submissions will be edited for length and clarity.