Distinguished Scientists Seminars

The Distinguished Scientists Seminar (DSS) program comprises invited talks by leading scientists from outside institutions. Speakers are selected to complement the Graduate Training Program in the College of Medicine and cover a wide range of cutting-edge biomedical research. Seminars are held monthly during the fall and spring semesters. One seminar per semester is reserved for the Charles M. Baugh Lecture featuring a nationally/ internationally recognized scientist.

Nominations for seminar speakers should be forwarded to departmental representatives on the DSS Committee. If the speaker is approved, the DSS representative notifies the faculty nominator that the speaker has been approved, gives them a list of available dates, and the faculty member then invites the speaker.

Spring 2025 Distinguished Scientists Seminar Schedule

Date/Time	Speaker	Host and Department	Location
February 20, 2025	Dr. Martha A. Alexander-Miller Dolores G. Evans PhD Chair in Microbiology and Immunology; Professor, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology; Co-Director, Center for Vaccines at the Extremes of Aging; Wake Forest University School of Medicine *"Safe starts: Vaccine strategies to protect newborns from influenza"*	Rusty Elliott, Ph.D. Microbiology & Immunology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
March 6, 2025	Dr. Morayma Reyes-Gil Medical Director, Hemostasis and Thrombosis; Vice Chair, Research; Cleveland Clinic; Cleveland, OH "Evolution of the coagulation field"	Mohammad Barouqa, Ph.D. Pathology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
March 13, 2025	Dr. Glen Borchert Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Whiddon College of Medicine "Genomic enhancers directly target promoters via a G4 DNA-based mechanism"	Department of Pharmacology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
March 20, 2025	Dr. Afshin Beheshti Professor, Surgery and Computational and Systems Biology; Director, Space Biomedicine Program; Associate Director, McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine; University of Pittsburgh “Mitochondrial Stress as the Epicenter of Spaceflight Impact”	Simon Grelet, Ph.D. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
March 27, 2025	Dr. Johnny Wise Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics; Pediatric Research Institute, Neurotoxicology; University Of Louisville School of Medicine “Poison in the Water: Hexavalent Chromium is Our New #1 Culprit”	Aishwarya Prakash, Ph.D. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
April 3, 2025	Dr. Stephanie Page Robert B. McMillen Professor of Medicine in Lipid Research; Head, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition; University of Washington School of Medicine "Male contraceptive developments: from the bench to the bedroom"	Brian Fouty, Ph.D. Internal Medicine Pharmacology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
April 10, 2025 Charles M. Baugh Lectureship	Dr. Andrea J. Sant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology; David H. Smith Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology; University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry “The impact of immune memory on responses to influenza vaccination: re-shaping of the CD4 T cell phenotype, modulation of lung homing potential and quantification of bystander effects”	Rusty Elliott, Ph.D. Microbiology & Immunology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
April 17, 2025	Dr. Jochen Buck Professor of Pharmacology; Weill Cornell Medicine; Graduate School of Medical Sciences “Non-hormonal on-demand male contraception via soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC)”	Tom Rich, Ph.D. Pharmacology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
April 24, 2025	Dr. Qianben Wang Professor of Pathology, Member of the Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University School of Medicine "mRNA 3′UTR-Targeted Therapy Overcomes Cancer Immune Evasion by Restoring MHC-I Expression”	Debanjan Chakroborty, Ph.D. Mitchell Cancer Institute	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium
May 1, 2025	Dr. Troy Stevens Chair, Department of Physiology & Cell Biology, Whiddon College of Medicine "Deep complexities of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa exoenzyme Y"	Department of Physiology & Cell Biology	Medical Sciences Building, 1st Floor Auditorium

DSS Committee

Meghan Hermance, Ph.D.
Committee Chair
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
mhermance@southalabama.edu

Brian Fouty, M.D.
USA Health Physician Enterprise
bfouty@health.southalabama.edu

Glen Borchert, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmacology
borchert@southalabama.edu

Simon Grelet, Ph.D.
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
sgrelet@southalabama.edu

Debanjan Chakroborty, Ph.D.
Mitchell Cancer Institute
dchakroborty@southalabama.edu

Amber Bokhari, M.D.
USA Health Physician Enterprise
abokhari@health.southalabama.edu

Thiago Bruder, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology & Cell Biology
tbruder@southalabama.edu