College of Arts, Letters and Sciences announces Faculty Excellence Award winners

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 14:14:51 +0000

The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock College of Arts, Letters and Sciences has selected Darin Jones, Rolf Groesbeck, and Rosalie Cheatham as the winners of the college’s Faculty Excellence Awards. “All the nominees were exceptional, and I am thrilled for them all,” said Tom Clifton, interim dean of the College of Arts, Letters and Sciences. “They’ve all done tremendous work in their disciplines, with scholarship, service and teaching, and it’s wonderful that they are being recognized by their colleagues and the university.” Jones, graduate coordinator and associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, is the winner of the Excellence in Research Activities award. The general focus of Jones’ research is stimulating biological processes against diseases using innovatively designed chemicals. His research has resulted in over 40 publications, consisting of 23 peer-reviewed articles, three book chapters, and 18 patents or patent applications. Jones has been successful in obtaining external funding, predominantly from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, to support his research program. He has been a principal investigator on grant awards totaling over $16 million and is the first researcher at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to receive an R01 grant from the. Rolf Groesbeck, professor of music history and director of the Indian Percussion Ensemble, won the Excellence in Teaching award. Groesbeck is as an ethnomusicologist and performer who plays the piano, synthesizer, and percussion instruments from Asia and the Middle East. His research has focused on the temple drumming of Kerala, India, where he conducted fieldwork between 1988 and 1990, 2000, and 2006, receiving a grant from the American Institute of Indian Studies. As a scholar, teacher, and performer, Groesbeck bridges classic and contemporary modes of musical inquiry better than most ethnomusicologists. His journal articles and contributions to edited volumes have consistently pushed the boundaries of the discipline without abandoning methodological approaches and theoretical issues that have nourished the field since the 1960s. Rosalie Cheatham, assistant professor of French, is the recipient of the Excellence in Public Service award. Cheatham annually receives the highest ratings for teaching and research within the Department of International and Second Language Studies. Her work has impacted teaching communities at the local, regional, and national levels consistently over her more than 40 years at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Cheatham was a founding member of the Arkansas Foreign Language Teachers Association over 35 years ago and has served the organization in some capacity throughout its life. For years, she ran the state’s World Language contest for K-12 students, bringing more than 1,000 students to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. For more than a decade, Cheatham and colleagues have offered professional development workshops to local and area teachers, bringing cadres of 30 or so world language teachers to the campus once a month during the school year. Cheatham served as the principal grant writer for the support of these grants from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education with awards totaling more than half a million dollars over the years. Jones, Groesbeck, and Cheatham will compete for the university-wide Faculty Excellence Awards, which will be announced Thursday, April 12, at 5:30 p.m. in the College of Engineering and Information Technology Auditorium.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor researches enhanced cancer therapy

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 13:45:11 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor is making strides toward developing an effective cancer treatment without the severe side effects of traditional therapies. Dr. Darin Jones, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock associate professor of chemistry, envisions a day when patients can battle cancer without chemotherapy side effects such as hair loss, muscle atrophy, and compromised immune systems. “We are developing a therapy that targets and kills tumor cells, which is unique compared to today’s therapies that are based on nonselective, toxic chemotherapy options,” Jones said. In partnership with Dr. John Tainer from the University of Texas, Jones received a five-year grant of $795,683 from the National Institutes of Health in 2016. They are also collaborating with Dr. Zamal Ahmed at MD Anderson Cancer Institute. “Most chemotherapeutic agents as well as radiation therapy kill cancer cells by inducing DNA damage,” Jones said. “They do so in an indiscriminate manner. If the cancer cell is able to repair the damage, the cancer cell survives and perpetuates the disease.” Within the human body, there are a variety of proteins that cause cells to repair damage to DNA. They are known as DNA repair proteins. Jones and his colleagues are designing and preparing small molecules that prevent these proteins from “turning on the DNA repair process.” “By blocking the DNA repair process, the damaged DNA is not repaired, which results in the death of cancer cells,” Jones said.

Dr. Darin Jones stands in front of a projected image of the crystal structure of the enzyme he is studying to develop an effective cancer treatment without the severe side effects of traditional therapies. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

In currently available hormonal cancer therapy, doctors rely on proteins present in the patient’s body. If the patient does not have the necessary protein receptors, the cancer treatment will not work, and its effectiveness could fade over time if a patient were to go into remission and then later develop cancer, Jones said. Research by Jones and Tainer could provide more options. What makes their research unique is that patients would not need to have a protein receptor in order to receive the treatment. “If we are successful, it would represent a brand new paradigm in cancer therapy research,” Jones said. Tainer, who is testing the medicine in this form of therapy, is excited to work with Jones on the project. “Without a doubt, the creative chemistry from Dr. Jones is the heart of the project and what is driving its success,” Tainer said. Jones has an extensive background in cancer therapy research. Before joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, he was a senior scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine and the senior principal scientist and research scientist at Pfizer, a prominent pharmaceutical company. In 2014, Jones received national attention for his research into dehydroleucodine, a molecule found in Ecuadorian plants. Jones thinks the molecule, often used as an anti-inflammatory and treatment for skin infections, could one day form the basis of a treatment for leukemia.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

College of Arts, Letters and Sciences announces Faculty Excellence Award winners

����Vlog��ý Little Rock professor researches enhanced cancer therapy

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor researches enhanced cancer therapy