Success
Recruitment of Two New Faculty Members Broadens Texas Biomed's Research
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Assistant Professor Diako Ebrahimi, Ph.D.
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Continuing the strategic plan to double our research staff over the next decade, Texas Biomed has hired two new faculty members who add unique expertise to our mission.
Assistant Professor Diako Ebrahimi, Ph.D., who is a quantitative biologist. Dr. Ebrahimi joins us from the University of Minnesota.
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Professor Mahesh Mohan,D.V.M., M.S., Ph.D.
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His research focuses on
combining data and information from a variety of scientific disciplines, from chemistry and virology to cancer, genomics, evolution and bioinformatics to develop new research initiatives in viral and cancer genomics using quantitative biology.
You can read more about Dr. Ebrahimi
here
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Professor Mahesh Mohan, D.V.M., M.S., Ph.D., comes from the Tulane National Primate Research Center. His work in HIV in nonhuman primates has many applications, one of which is featured below under "Innovation." Click here to learn more about Dr. Mohan.
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Innovation
The newest Professor at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Dr. Mahesh Mohan, is an HIV researcher who focuses on what happens at the sub-cellular level when a person is infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Recently, he has branched out into studying the use of cannabinoids (a psychoactive component in marijuana) to manage the inflammation that often accompanies an HIV infection. His research using nonhuman primates could lead to new insights into using cannabinoids to treat other illnesses in humans as well.
"Ancient people used the marijuana leaves for medical purposes centuries ago," Dr. Mohan commented. "I'm very excited about moving this from nonhuman primates to the clinic. At small doses, no adverse side effects were detected after prolonged treatment."
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Crowdsourcing to Tackle Infectious Disease
 Crowdsourcing is when groups or businesses obtain goods, services, ideas or finances from large open groups of internet users. Now crowdsourcing is being tapped as a way to tackle an infectious disease! The Malaria DREAM Challenge was launched in April 2019.
"The challenge is to put data out there and have a sort of data Olympics," Texas Biomed Professor
Tim Anderson, Ph.D.
, said. "It would be far better for groups of scientists to get access to some of the best computational biologists around than to try to crunch the numbers on our own." Dr. Anderson's lab is providing malaria parasite-infected blood samples from Southeast Asia. The DREAM Challenges were initiated in 2007. Since that time, 15 have involved cancer. None has involved infectious diseases until now.
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Helping Girl Scouts "Be Prepared" for a Future in Science 
Texas Biomed is proud to have been a part of the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas STEM Expo in mid-September. The event was such a success! More than 700 people came to San Pedro Springs Park to learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math in a new and fun way. The girls, ages 5-13, and their families made their own microbes at our booth. We strongly believe in educating the next generation of researchers and scientists!
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New Podcasts
TXBioBytes from Texas Biomed
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