Pharmacology department honors 2024's top lab researchers
On May 16, SIU School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology presented its annual awards to honor its lab researchers, past and present. Faculty, staff, students and friends attended the awards ceremony and reception in the Pearson Museum to salute those who have excelled in SIU research labs and classes during the most recent school year.
“Science in the 21st century is a team sport,” said Shelley Tischkau, PhD, chair of the departments of pharmacology and medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology. “To quote Phil Jackson, a legendary basketball coach, ‘The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.’”
The first two awards honored vital team members who contributed to SIU research programs.
The Barbara L. Armour Memorial Award was created to commemorate an outstanding senior researcher in Dr. Donald Caspary’s laboratory. The award recognizes employees who serve with consummate dedication in research positions. It was renamed in 2019 to add the name of Marcus Randall, who died unexpectedly after a distinguished 30-year career, mostly in the lab of Dr. Carl Faingold. This year’s recipient is Raheem Al-Aameri, PhD.
Al-Aameri is a postdoctoral fellow working in the lab of the late Dr. Vickram Ramkumar. Al-Aameri has persevered through numerous obstacles beyond his control. He joined the Ramkumar lab in 2017 as a postdoctoral fellow, with a strong background in cancer research. He made the transition to studying mechanisms of protection from ototoxicity by spending countless hours in the lab. In January 2020, he returned to his home country of Iraq, for what was planned to be a relatively brief visit. When the COVID pandemic hit, borders were closed and international travel halted. His visit lasted more than 2 years. He was finally able to return to SIU in May 2022.
In December of the following year, Dr. Ramkumar passed away suddenly, leaving an active, NIH-funded lab. “In the face of these circumstances, Raheem stepped up to essentially run the lab,” Tischkau said during the awards presentation. “He continues to drive his own research project forward, while helping mentor a graduate student and assisting with administrative functions of the funded projects. His work in the lab has yielded authorship on nine publications, and he has presented work at International meetings.”
The Department of Pharmacology honors a student each year with the Hemal Vakharia Memorial Award. It is presented in memory of Hemal Vakharia, a summer high school student who died in an automobile accident in 1992. The award recognizes the contributions of outstanding high school, undergraduate and graduate students to research efforts at the School of Medicine. The 2024 recipient is Erol Ikiz, an undergraduate student who has logged 1000+ hours of research experience in Dr. Kevin Hascup’s lab in the Department of Pharmacology.
Ikiz graduated this spring with a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois Springfield with an exemplary academic record. Beyond the classroom, he has pursued an array of research experiences to advance his development as a scientist and as a scholar. In 2022, Erol completed a mentor-guided summer research program at the University of Illinois Chicago through the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow program. In 2023, he was a Mayo Clinic Summer Research Fellow.
In the Hascup lab, Ikiz performed an independent research project exploring the role of a specific receptor in removing amyloid plaques, leading to improved cognitive performance in Alzheimer’s disease mouse models. He wrote a first-author review article on this topic that is under review in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.
Dr. Satu Somani was one of the three original faculty members of the SIU School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and a dedicated scientist/educator. He loved teaching, often asking for more time to teach additional material he felt was important to the student’s medical education. Dr. Somani passed in 2002, and a fund was established in his honor to provide an annual monetary award to an outstanding student of medical pharmacology. The medical students who achieved the top 10 scores on the Year 2 pharmacology exam compete for the award by writing a report that critically evaluates a prescription drug ad. Third-year medical student Bethany Daniels is the 2024 award recipient.
Daniels wrote on a very timely topic: diabetes and weight loss drugs. Among her conclusions, she states, “The physiology and pharmacology behind these medications and their intended use is advantageous for millions of Americans. However, like many other medications, unintended use or abuse can cause healthcare problems worldwide.”
Each recipients’ name has been inscribed on the respective award plaques that hang on the wall of honor within the Department of Pharmacology.
View photos from the event on Zenfolio. Pictured at top, left to right: Bethany Daniels, Erol Ikiz and Raheem Al-Aameri.
