What Faculty Need to Know: News & Updates From Faculty Affairs – Winter 2015

What Faculty Need to Know: News & Updates From Faculty Affairs – Winter 20152015-11-24T11:01:44-08:00

Promotions

We are pleased to announce the promotions of three of our faculty to the rank of Professor with tenure in the fall of 2014.

Our congratulations to all!

Robert Chow, MD, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
Dr. Chow received his MD training at Brown and his PhD degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute in Goettingen, Germany, he joined the faculty at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He was recruited to the University of Southern California in 1999 and joined the faculty of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics as an associate professor on the tenure track with tenure awarded in 2004.

In his early career Dr. Chow became known as an impeccably trained leader in the study of insulin and neurotransmitter secretion. He became internationally known for his development of novel electrophysiology and cell imaging methods that have allowed him to significantly advance the field. For example, he pioneered the use of carbon fiber amperometry in the study of exocytosis from neuroendocrine cells. A series of his papers using this methodology, now considered classics in this area, are cited in every important paper in the field. Subsequent papers on the use of total internal reflection microscopy (TIRFM) are considered equally influential. More recently, his work with the small protein, complexin, has completely altered the understanding of the role of this protein in exocytosis and membrane fusion by clearly demonstrating its positive effect on membrane fusion. Complexin had previously been thought to play an inhibitory role in exocytosis.

David Conti, PhD, Professor of Preventive Medicine
Dr. Conti was recruited to the Keck School of Medicine in 2003 as an Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine, and was promoted to Associate Professor and awarded tenure in 2009.

Dr. Conti, a genetic epidemiologist, is an internationally recognized expert in Bayesian modelling and the integration and application of advanced statistical methods into molecular and genetic epidemiology to solve complex problems. One of the ways in which Dr. Conti has been influential in his field has been on how his work has centered on the improvement of statistical methods used in complex genome wide association studies (GWAS), where he has made important methodological contributions in the study of gene-environment interactions. Much of Dr. Conti’s work involves collaborations with investigators looking at the epidemiology of a number of clinically important problems such as smoking cessation, asthma, psychiatric disorders, lymphoma and cancers of the colon and prostate. Using the hierarchical model he has developed, he is able to more precisely distinguish between the relatively small number of true causal genetic variants and the millions of non-causal variants. Most recently, he has created a Genomics Analysis and Translation Center that along with his expansion of the USC Statistical Consultation and Research Center will make these novel analysis techniques available to investigators in multiple disciplines who are looking at potentially clinically important gene-environment interactions.

Richard Watanabe, PhD, Professor of Preventive Medicine
Dr. Watanabe was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine in 2001, and was promoted to Associate Professor and awarded tenure in 2006.

As a statistical biologist with training and expertise in physiology, biostatistics and genetic epidemiology, Dr. Watanabe has been able to utilize this rare combination of skills to become an internationally recognized expert in type 2 diabetes and obesity and a major driving force in the design, conduct and analysis of high profile genome wide association studies (GWAS). As founding members of MAGIC (Meta-Analysis of Glucose and Insulin-related Traits Consortium), Dr. Watanabe’s group has been able to identify loci underlying fasting glucose and insulin, stimulated glucose levels and fasting proinsulin levels. In addition to his prominent role in consortia, Dr. Watanabe has made significant contributions in the understanding of gene-adiposity and gene-gene interactions, including the first demonstration of the role of adiposity in the variation of TCF7L2 and diabetes-related traits and the role of this genetic locus in gestational diabetes. Dr. Watanabe has also made significant contributions in the area of pharmacogenetics by demonstrating the association of several specific genetic variations with changes in diabetes-related traits following treatment with thiazolidinedione medications.