Dear friends and colleagues,
I am delighted to share the good news with you that in March, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC successfully recruited two outstanding new faculty research team leaders.
Dr. Matt Weston will relocate his laboratory from the University of Vermont School of Medicine to the FBRI in Roanoke this summer. Before joining the faculty at the University of Vermont, Dr. Weston completed his BA in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in writing at the University of Virginia followed by his PhD in neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He then completed postdoctoral training at the Texas Neurological Institute before establishing his own research program in Burlington. Dr. Weston studies how the brain balances excitation and inhibition to generate proper patterns of network activity in the context of gene variants that cause childhood epilepsies. His research program is directed at understanding gene variants that cause severe, intractable epilepsies of childhood (Developmental Epileptic Encephalopathies) that can have devastating effects on children and their caregivers and identifying therapeutic targets.
Dr. Kathleen Mulvaney will move her research program to the FBRI’s cancer research facility in Washington, D.C., at the new Children’s National Research and Innovation campus this fall. Dr. Mulvaney joins us from the MIT Broad Institute and Harvard’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Before working as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT/Harvard, Dr. Mulvaney completed her BS in biology with a concentration in molecular genetics at the University of Rochester followed by her PhD in cell biology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Her research at the FBRI is directed at analysis of protein-protein interactions in signaling pathways that are important in cancer with a particular focus on a target that is lethal in 15% of all cancers including in 40% of pediatric gliomas and 45% of glioblastoma multiforme tumors.
In both cases these accomplished early career scientists add to the growing emphasis on leading edge research in children’s health at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and across the health sciences at Virginia Tech.
We are fortunate to have been able to attract these talented researchers. These successful outcomes are the result of hard work and commitment of many people including VT leadership, the FBRI faculty, staff, students (and their families) as well as our advisory board members, friends and donors, our colleagues at the Children’s National Hospital as well as members of the Roanoke community. What a team – onward!
Yours truly in the spirit of Ut Prosim,
Michael J. Friedlander, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
Vice President for Health Sciences and Technology, Virginia Tech
Senior Dean for Research, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
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International Precision Neuroscience Conference to explore brain cancer, mental health, neurodegeneration
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Rare disease research gives families hope, ‘vital’ to advancing medicine
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Virginia Tech scientists find link between microorganisms and early brain development
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Samy Lamouille, Ph.D., recognized as Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Research Mentor of the Year
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Occupational therapists train colleagues, treat children in Morocco clinic
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Empower leading scientists to pursue bold new research strategies to improve human health
Your gift to science today impacts human health and well-being for generations. Here's how you can support the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute's mission:
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