News Archive
22 December 2020
Christopher Solis, a postdoctoral researcher in the UIC College of Medicine, has received a prestigious grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund his research into heart muscle cells and support his transition to an independent researcher.
The grant, called a K99 Pathway to Independence Award, provides $200,000 over two years to fund his postdoctoral research, and then another $750,000 for three years after he secures a faculty position. Solis, who works in the lab of Brenda Russel, professor emerita of physiology and biophysics at UIC, is interested in how muscle cells in the heart respond to tension and more importantly, a reduction in tension. Heart cells are continually contracting and relaxing as they work to squeeze blood to the body. And like skeletal muscle cells, these cells can respond to increases in tension, or exertion, by growing in size. How cells react to a reduction in tension, known as ‘mechanical unloading’ in scientific circles, is the subject of Solis’s research project, which looks at structural changes in heart cells in the lab that have been dosed with a drug that reduces the strength of their contractions.
March 28, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Brenda Russell PhD was elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering with the citation stating this is for her “distinguished contributions in the field of mechanobiology and the exploration of forces in biologic responses of cells and tissues”. The award was presented in in Washington DC on 25th March 2019. Photo Christine Schmidt, AIMBE President (left), Brenda Russell (center), Tejal Desai, AIMBE College of Fellows Chair (right).
January 11, 2019
January 15, 2019 – Dr. Christopher Solís, who works in Russell lab at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, was instrumental in organizing the first Costa Rican Biophysics Symposium. Dr. Solís applied for Biophysical Society mini-grant funding and was awarded $500. Dr. Solís was born in Costa Rica and saw an opportunity to build an international network of scientists whose work is representative of the field of biophysics. The event took place on January 11, 2019 at the National Academy of Sciences of Costa Rica. It attracted nearly 80 attendees with scientists from Costa Rican and worldwide universities including Virginia Tech, USA and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Laussane, Switzerland. Announcement in the Biophysical Society site.
November, 2016
Major funding award for heart research from NIH
Major funding award for heart research from NIH
2016 Program Project Grant–Solaro, Russell, de Tombe–Integrated Mechanisms of Cardiac Maladaptation
Our program project addresses the mechanism of processes triggered by stresses on the heart that are adaptive and compensatory or are maladaptive and exacerbate the stressor, leading to decompensation, heart failure, and sudden death. The theme of our program is couched in the following hypothesis: Heart failure and sudden death commonly instigated by hypertension, coronary artery disease, and sarcomeric mutations, induce altered signaling, remodeling, and function at the level of the myofilaments–and that interventions operating at the level of the sarcomeres represent an important therapeutic approach. The program consists of three highly interactive and synergistic projects testing the overall hypothesis with diverse but meshing perspectives. Projects are supported by 3 Cores: Administrative, Human Cell and Tissue, and Proteomics and Analytical Biochemistry. Our approaches include novel mechanisms of signaling to and from the sarcomeres with a focus on translation of our findings to therapies for acquired and genetic cardiomyopathies.
Dr. Russell leads Project 2, entitled Mechano-Feedback Signaling and Sarcomere Assembly, which proposes innovative experiments using microstructures of varying stiffness in testing the hypothesis that sarcomeric actin assembly depends on posttranslational modification (PTM) of proteins regulated by external cues signaling via mechano-transduction pathways. The experiments employ bioengineered micro-rods and magnetic micro-magnets to establish baseline values and then test whether specific mechanisms of local actin assembly are via interaction of PKC-ε, HDAC3, and PIP2 with the actin capping protein, CapZ.
October 21, 2014
Scientist’s startup wins business competition
Dr. Russell’s biotech company Cell Habitats was the winner of the Business Plan Competition at the AdvaMed conference, the leading Med Tech conference in North America. The win was featured in UIC News.
November 2, 2010
UIC Department of Physiology awarded $12 million grant
(left to right): Dr. Brenda Russell, Dr. Douglas Lewandowski, Dr. Pieter de Tombe, and Dr. John Solaro
Dr. Russell’s biotech company Cell Habitats was the winner of the Business Plan Competition at the AdvaMed conference, the leading Med Tech conference in North America. The win was featured in UIC News.
May 4, 2010
IBIO Institute Icon Award: DR. Brenda Russell
Dr. Brenda Russell and Governor Pat Quinn discuss the benefits of collaborative research in Chicago at the iBIO conference on May 4, 2010
Dr. Brenda Russell is recognized by the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO Institute) as a recipient of the 2010 iCON Award. Click the link above to read about the award celebrating life science educators and researchers.
March, 2010
Focus on a fellow: DR. Brenda Russell
Dr. Brenda Russell is profiled in the March 2010 issue of The Ampersand. Click on the link above to read about Dr. Russell’s background and perspectives in an article by Kasia Plachta. Read more.
March, 2008
Medill Reports’ Thomas L. Day & Russell Lab
Dr. Brenda Russell is profiled in the March 2010 issue of The Ampersand. Click on the link above to read about Dr. Russell’s background and perspectives in an article by Kasia Plachta.