The Atlanta Business Chronicle has selected two Emory researchers as winners of its 2022 Health Care Heroes awards. Roxana Chicas, assistant professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (SON), won the Health Care Hero award in the Rising Star category; and Nadine Rouphael, professor at Emory University School of Medicine (SOM) and executive director of the Hope Clinic, the clinical research arm of the Emory Vaccine Center, won as Health Care Hero in the Innovator/Researcher category. Read more.

Emory Clinic is the first ambulatory or outpatient practice in Georgia to receive the prestigious Magnet recognition as a reflection of its nursing professionalism, teamwork, and superiority in patient care. Emory Clinic, a part of Emory Healthcare, is the most comprehensive physician group practice in Georgia, consisting of nearly 2,100 specialists, sub-specialists and primary care physicians and additional team members including 1,200 nurses, more than 1,100 nurse practitioners and physician assistants and others. Read more.

The NIH has awarded Emory $28.5 million over the next five years to conduct research toward the prevention and cure of HIV. More than 20 researchers across seven institutions are collaborating as part of the new Consortium for Innovative HIV/AIDS Vaccine and Cure Research in Nonhuman Primates. The consortium co-leaders are Rama Amara, a core researcher at the Emory National Primate Research Center, and Eric Hunter, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. Read more.

Researchers at the Emory National Primate Research Center recently discovered that a well-known anti-inflammatory protein, called interleukin-10, may be responsible for helping sustain cellular reservoirs that shelter the HIV virus, allowing it to take cover in certain immune cells and rapidly rebound in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. The research team says this finding, could lead to treatments that block the effects of interleukin-10 and, therefore, reduce viral persistence. Read more.

William M. McDonald has been appointed chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, SOM. McDonald is professor and J.B. Fuqua Chair for Late-Life Depression and Reunette W. Harris Chair for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and has led the department as interim chair since January 2021. Read more.

Stacy L. Palmer joined Winship Cancer Institute on June 6 as the new vice president of clinical administration and strategy. In this role, she will be responsible for coordinating Winship's clinical strategy and supporting standardization of cancer care across Emory Healthcare's clinical sites and partners. Read more.

Emory is participating in a trial to evaluate the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in HIV vaccines for the first time in humans. The Hope Clinic of Emory Vaccine Center is currently recruiting trial participants. Read more.

In December 2018, the Emory Proton Therapy Center opened its doors. In early 2022, it treated its 2022nd patient—27-year old Wisconsin native and Dahlonega, Ga., resident Megan Smith, pictured above. Read more.

Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital (ESJH) has earned a three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American College of Cardiology for its patient care and outcomes in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places the hospital among the elite for the TAVR procedure in the US and Canada. Pictured above, George Hanzel, Jeffrey Miller, and Steven Macheers lead the TAVR program. Read more.

With $52 million in federal funding for the next three years, researchers at Emory and Georgia State will establish a new drug development center aimed at preventing the next pandemic. The Antiviral Countermeasures Development Center is one of nine around the country. The center will be directed by George Painter, CEO of the Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE), and Richard Plemper, director of the Center for Translational Antiviral Research at Georgia State. Read more.

Winship has been awarded a grant from the National Cancer Institute to support research aimed at improving the effectiveness of immunotherapy for lung cancer in patients with a mutation of the LKB1 gene, a group for whom the present immunotherapy options do not provide robust benefit. The award will provide nearly $11 million over five years to a team of Winship researchers led by Haian Fu and Suresh Ramalingham. Read more.

The 25th report of the Blue Ridge Academic Health Group explores the role Academic Health Centers (AHCs) play in educating the next generation of clinicians and researchers and in making critical advances in medicine. However, the AHC research enterprise always requires financial support from other sources. This funding gap necessitates investment of clinical margin into the academic enterprise to cover the financial shortfall, and today that support is estimated at more than $20 billion annually. Read Financially Sustaining the Academic Enterprise.