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Internationally Respected Scientist Joins UT Health Northeast

Posted/updated on: December 13, 2013 at 2:11 pm
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Mitsuo IkebeTYLER — An internationally known scientist who has received about $9 million in competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2000 has joined UT Health Northeast. Mitsuo Ikebe, Ph.D., will chair the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology. In partnership with other UT Health biomedical researchers, he will help identify new ways to improve patient outcomes in diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis, lung infections, and cancer.

The NIH first funded Dr. Ikebes research in 1985 and has awarded him a total of 18 research grants, so far. He comes to UT Health after 18 years with the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) in Worcester, Mass. He studies cell motility, the ability of a cell and its components to move when stimulated by something outside the cell. This means his cutting-edge research can be applied to a broad range of medical problems, such as how cancer cells move, how inflammatory cells invade injured tissue, and how these tissues repair themselves.

Dr. Ikebe is a highly accomplished and internationally recognized scientist with a world-class research team. His work integrates well with our ongoing research programs, especially those in lung injury and repair, lung immunology, and cancer, said UT Health Vice President for Research Steven Idell, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Ikebe is also interested in how smooth muscle cells work. These cells control the constriction of blood vessels which can lead to atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries and the narrowing of the lungs airways, which occurs in asthma. He has served as vice chair of the Department of Physiology at UMMS Medical School and as professor in the UMMS Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems. Officials say because of his considerable experience in graduate biomedical education, Dr. Ikebe will direct UT Healths Biotechnology Graduate Program. In addition, he plans to bring scientists from Korea and Japan to this area for post-graduate training as part of exchange programs he directs.

Dr. Ikebde has served on committees that reviewed NIH grant applications in the fields of experimental cardiovascular science and physiological chemistry. He has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biology from Osaka University in Japan and a masters degree in biochemistry from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.



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