Dr. Bradley McConnell Honored with a National Institutes of Health/NHLBI R15 Academic Research Career Enhancement Award
Dr. Bradley McConnell of the University of Houston, Texas Medical Center, received a National Institutes of Health/NHLBI R15 Academic Research Career Enhancement Award to study the biophysical, cellular, and physiological properties of A-Kinase Anchoring Proteins (AKAP) scaffolding protein network dynamics using molecular-defined mutants to integrate structure-function relationships, local sub-cellular signaling, co-complex regulation associated with cardiac cell signaling.
Dr. McConnell is a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and he along with his team will investigate the effect of human mAKAP mutations on the modification of protein-protein interaction binding kinetics and its role as an interaction network to regulate second messenger dynamics. McConnell said that “Characterization of mAKAP scaffolding protein-protein interactions will improve our understanding for this central regulator of kinase, phosphodiesterase, and phosphatase cardiac intracellular signaling.”
Dr. McConnell with his team (Santosh Suryavanshi, Revanth Vadlamudi, Moawiz Saeed, Ashley Malone, Faisal Fa'ak, Sonal Singh, and Ahad Azimuddin. Not pictured - Andrea diaz and Yan Li)
Academic research enhancement awards like the R15 are designed to support meritorious research, expose students to research, and strengthen and institution’s research environment. As a new principle investigator of an R15 award, Dr. McConnell has already spearheaded a mini symposium at the University of Houston titled “Opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): An Introduction of Health Sciences to High School Students” this past June. The mini symposium hosted several local area high school students and the primary goal was to expose them to a variety of activities including basic science research presentations by faculty and students, laboratory demonstrations, and a campus tour.
In recognition of his recent success in receiving a grant along with his longstanding devotion to integrate education and research, while supporting outreach and service, and creating opportunities for students he was recently recognized by the University of Houston and the College of Pharmacy with a 2015 Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Service.
Dr. McConnell has been a member of ASPET since 2013. He is a member of the Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology.
Last updated: August 13, 2015