“Intrinsic mechanisms of pancreatic repair”, GSBS MIG Guest Speaker Dr. Lisa Elferink

GSBS Guest Speaker Dr. Lisa Elferink will present “Intrinsic mechanisms of pancreatic repair” on Monday December 2.

Seminar location: LIB-110 beginning at 10 a.m.

Dr. Elferink completed her PHD at the University of Adelaide, South Australia in Biochemistry. She completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. Richard Scheller at Stanford University where she identified and published on “SNARES”, integral membrane proteins driving the calcium dependent fusion of membrane vesicles with their target membranes during neurotransmitter release. in 1993, she was recruited to Wayne State University, Michigan as an Assistant Professor where she established herself in the field of endocytosis with a particular emphasis on Rab GTPases as coordinators of vesicle traffic, and in the development of innovative receptor trafficking techniques. She joined the UTMB faculty in the now Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Anatomy in 2001, and assumed the role of Vice-Chair in 2008. Elferink’s research focused on the endocytic signaling of the Hepatocyte Growth Factor (MET) receptor function, with a focus on Pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis.

Dr. Elferink has a strong track record in mentoring doctoral fellows and doctoral students many of the later completing successful postdocs at premier research institutions including Stanford, Mayo, UCSD, Univ. Michigan and UCLA. She has extensive educational experience in graduate and undergraduate medical teaching, including course directorships in the SOM Integrated Medical Curriculum at UTMB and more recently as Assistant Dean for Educational Affairs, overseeing the design, production, implementation and assessment of the preclinical foundational science courses in the SOM Integrated Medical Curriculum. At the National level she has served or chaired study sections/review panels for the NIH and NSF, more recently on an ad hoc basis.