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The University of North Texas Health Science Center has announced the appointment of Lisa Hodge, Ph.D., as the first Heritage Basic Science Research Chair for the national Osteopathic Research Center.

While Dr. Hodgeâ??s primary faculty appointment will continue to be in the Molecular Biology and Immunology Department, she will spend approximately 80% of her time working with researchers from the national Osteopathic Research Center to explore the efficacy and mechanisms of osteopathic manipulative medicine.

The Heritage Basic Science Research Chair position was created under a 2005 grant from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation to develop a research team within the national Osteopathic Research Center that would enhance efforts to advance the evidence base of osteopathic manipulative medicine. The basic science research chair will work in conjunction with the Heritage Clinical Research Chair and other researchers at the Osteopathic Research Center to design, seek funding for and conduct research and research training needed across the osteopathic profession relative to osteopathic manipulative medicine.

Dr. Hodge earned her doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth in 2001, and her bachelor of science degree in microbiology from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1995. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center from 2001-2003.

She returned to the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth as a research assistant professor in 2005 and was named the first Heritage Basic Science Research Chair in January 2007.

Dr. Hodgeâ??s research interests include mucosal immunology, respiratory disease, vaccine strategies, and osteopathic manipulation and the immune system. She currently has research funding from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the American Osteopathic Association and the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation. She has been working with researchers in the national Osteopathic Research Center on the UNTHSC campus to study the effects of lymphatic pump manipulation on the immune system in animal models.

â??I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue to work with the Osteopathic Research Center to study the effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment on immune function and to enhance that work through my role as the first Heritage Basic Science Research Chair,â? said Dr. Hodge. â??I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Fred Downey, Ph.D., who provided me with the opportunity to study the effects of osteopathic treatments on the immune system. It has been my pleasure to work with Dr. Downey, Scott Stoll, D.O., Ph.D., and Hollis King, D.O., Ph.D., on existing projects, and to develop research projects in my own area of expertise that were derived from some of the original projects in Dr. Downeyâ??s lab.â?

Scott T. Stoll, D.O., Ph.D., said, â??Dr. Hodge is a talented researcher who has been a tremendous asset to our research team. We are excited to expand her contributions to advancing the body of research about the efficacy and mechanisms of osteopathic manipulative medicine through the first Heritage Basic Science Research Chair position.â?

The national Osteopathic Research Center was founded in 2002 through the support of the American Osteopathic Foundation, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. In addition to the original seed money from the osteopathic profession, the center has generated more than $10 million in external research funding since its inception. Its vision is to see osteopathic manipulative medicine be nationally recognized as evidence-based medicine through federally funded, peer-reviewed, published, quality research.

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