Dr. Torry A Tucker is the Associate Dean for Research at the UT Tyler School of Medicine. He is also an Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Biology. Dr. Tucker was trained as a cell biologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His early academic training focused on airway epithelial cells and their role in lung disease progression, specifically cystic fibrosis. He came to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT) as a postdoctoral fellow in 2007 and joined the faculty in 2009. He was also the first recipient of a UT System Rising STAR Award at UTHSCT. Dr. Tucke's research focuses on understanding the role of pleural mesothelial cells and lung fibroblasts in lung injury progression and subsequent scarring. Specifically, he studies the phenotypic plasticity of pleural mesothelial cells and their contribution to the myofibroblast population found in pleural fibrosis. He has developed several novel animal models to understand disease etiology and evaluate diverse treatment strategies. His current research investigates the causes of pleural scarring in the context of infectious disease. He also studies signaling pathways involved in developing and progressing interstitial lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Prof. Dr. Karan P Singh is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the new School of Medicine at The University of Texas at Tyler. He has served as PI, Co-PI, Co-I, Core Director, Chief Biostatistician or Biostatistician on multi-million-dollar grants and/or at various research centers, supporting projects by providing innovative statistical approaches, statistical consultation, and database management, in compliance with NIH and FDA regulations. He has served on the NCI Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee (GCSC) and the GCSC Cervical Task Force. As Chair or a member, Dr. Singh has served on numerous Data Safety Monitoring Boards, External Advisory Boards, and Scientific Study Sections. His research interests include developing methods for the analysis of proteomic data, identifying cut-off points for biomarkers, clinical trial design and longitudinal data analysis, survival methodology, health services research methodology, infectious and chronic disease modeling, and health disparities research. Dr. Singh is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Modeling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand, and the Indian Society for Medical Statistics. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and an editor and associate editor on multiple scientific journal editorial boards.
Prof. Dr. Ali O Azghani is a Professor at the Department of Biology at the University of Texas at Tyler. He received a B.Sc. in Medical Technology from the University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran, a M.Sc. in Microbiology from TWU, and a Ph.D. in Radiation Microbiology from Texas Woman’s University (TWU). His research interests mainly include Cell Culture, PCR, Cancer Biology, Western Blot Analysis, Gel Electrophoresis, Flow Cytometry, Electrophoresis, and immunofluorescence.
Prof. Dr. Steven Idell M.D., Ph.D. is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Lung Therapeutics, Inc. Steven is a clinical investigator continuously funded over the past 25 years by the National Institutes of Health for his work in acute lung injury and pleural diseases. Dr. Idell received his M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1977, followed by a Ph.D. in Physiology in 1987 from the same institution. He is a board-certified internist and pulmonologist who has also directed the Intensive Care Units at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and The University of Texas Health Science Center in Tyler, Texas. He is now Vice President for Research, a Professor of Medicine and Temple Chair of Pulmonary Fibrosis at UTHSCT, and Director of an NIH-sponsored Program Project Grant to study the role of the fibrinolytic system in the pathogenesis of lung and pleural disease. He specialized in research into thrombosis, the process by which blood clots, and clot destruction and how these processes relate to the pathogenesis of lung injury and repair.
