The latest news regarding PMI-sponsored events and notable accomplishments by our members and their labs…
Save the date for our PMI Winter Symposium – Fri. Dec. 5, 2025.
More details to come — make sure you are on the PMI Seminars/events listserv to receive info for registration, speakers, and additional information.
Please contact via email if you would like to be added to the email distribution list for announcements and reminders for PMI-sponsored events.
Save the date – Fri. 12/12 – for the annual PMI Holiday Party! More details to come.
“We are pleased to announce the appointment of Zoltan (Zolt) Arany, MD, PhD, as Chair of the Department of Physiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, effective July 1, 2025. The Department of Physiology has long been a cornerstone of scientific excellence at Penn, advancing discovery in cellular and molecular biology through pioneering research and collaboration, and we are excited to see its continued success with Dr. Arany‚Äôs leadership.”
“Having served in this role as interim since April 2024, Dr. Ostap will continue to oversee all aspects of research and research training, including our nationally recognized Biomedical Graduate Studies, Medical Scientist Training Program, and Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs.”
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Erika Holzbaur who was elected Associate Member EMBO in July 2024.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Nathaniel Dyment, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering, who won the 2024 Kappa Delta Young Investigator Award through the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and Orthopaedic Research Society in February 2024, one of the most respected awards in Orthopaedic Research for Junior Faculty.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Michael Lampson who was elected 2024 AAAS Fellow in April 2024.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Zolt Arany, who was elected to National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in October 2024.
“Zoltan Pierre Arany, Samuel Bellet Professor of Cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, is awarded for elucidating the causes of peripartum cardiomyopathy, a leading cause of maternal death after pregnancy, and for his world leadership in quantitative metabolic studies to address mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure and insulin resistance.”
Please join us on 11/12 at 3pm for our second PMI Science Social w guest speaker Dr. Jennifer Levy!
See the terrific line-up of confirmed speakers, including Dr. Paul Titchenell, for the 2025 Advances in Skeletal Muscle Biology (ASMB) Conference. Register soon to have the opportunity to hear from these, and more to come, renowned speakers! March 19-21, 2025 on the University of Florida campus Gainesville, FL.
Our first PMI Science Social Hour of the fall is coming up on October 1, from 3:00-5:00 PM. Please come catch-up with PMI colleagues while enjoying snacks and drinks.
For this session, PMI trainees will have the opportunity to practice their scientific elevator pitches; sign-ups now open!
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Erika Holzbaur! | Dr. Michael Ostap, interim Chief Scientific Office for PSOM & Dr. Kevin Foskett, Chair of the Department of Physiology, are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Erika L. F. Holzbaur as the new director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute (PMI), effective May 1, 2024.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Michael Ostap as interim Senior Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer for the Perelman School of Medicine!
In 2002, Sally Zigmond and other UPenn/PMI scientists made the seminal discovery of formin’s ability to nucleate and elongate actin filaments (Science; DOI: 10.1126/science.1072309). Utilizing UPenn’s cryo-EM facility, Nick Palmer and Kyle Barrie, students in the Dominguez Lab, have just published in Nature (https://rdcu.be/dJ8mW) the cryo-EM structures of INF2 and Dia1 that now provide a step-by-step visualization of the mechanisms of actin filament severing and elongation, bringing this story full-circle here at Penn! The implications of this study are profound since formin dysfunction is linked to pathologies, including cardiomyopathies, cancers, and neurological disorders. Mutations in the two formins studied in their paper, INF2 and Dia1, produce focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy (INF2), and deafness (Dia1). Please join us in congratulating the Dominguez Lab on this accomplishment!! | Palmer, N.J., Barrie, K.R. & Dominguez, R. Mechanisms of actin filament severing and elongation by formins. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07637-0
Congratulations to Adam Fenton (Holzbaur and Jongens Labs) for receiving the 2024 Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation.
The Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation was established in 1995 in honor of the founding Director of BGS, Saul Winegrad, MD, Emeritus Professor of Physiology. The award was created to recognize a dissertation of outstanding quality which makes a significant contribution to biomedical science.
