Dear Medical College of Georgia friends,
IMMCG’s Dr. Marco Orecchioni receives prestigious NIH Director’s Pioneer Award
One of the hallmarks of MCG is its culture of discovery. For nearly 200 years, faculty here have tackled some of medicine’s most important questions, helping advance care in fields from cardiovascular disease and neuroscience to cancer and immunology. That tradition certainly continues today.
Here’s a great example: Dr. Marco Orecchioni of our Immunology Center of Georgia and Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, recently received a five-year, $3.7 million NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. The Pioneer Award is one of the NIH’s most prestigious and competitive honors. Part of the institute’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program, it is specifically designed to support exceptionally creative scientists pursuing bold, innovative ideas that have the potential to transform biomedical research. Unlike many federal grants, applicants are not required to provide extensive preliminary data. Instead, the program invests in investigators with a demonstrated record of creativity and innovation who are embarking on entirely new research directions.
His project is focused on how “smell” receptors on immune cells shape inflammation and tumor immunity
Dr. Orecchioni has built an impressive reputation for innovative research focused on the role of the immune system in chronic disease. His research has uncovered a previously unknown connection between olfactory receptors on immune cells called macrophages and the inflammation that drives atherosclerosis, opening new avenues for research into cardiovascular disease and other conditions.
Through the Pioneer Award, he will explore how diet-driven activation of these receptors influences disease and whether blocking those signals could lead to new therapies for cancer and other conditions. Since joining MCG in 2023, he has quickly earned national recognition for his contributions, including selection to the Circulation Research Early Career Editorial Board, a 2026 American Association of Immunologists Early Career Faculty Travel Grant and an invitation to share his work on The Immunology Podcast.I look forward to seeing where this promising new investigation leads. Congratulations, Dr. Orecchioni, on this remarkable honor.
Dr. Justine Abais-Battad earns first RO1 grant from the National Institutes of Health
One of the most rewarding aspects of academic medicine, for me, is seeing the growth of talented young investigators into scientific leaders in their own right. That is certainly true of Dr. Justine Abais-Battad, assistant professor in the Department of Physiology, who recently received her first major independent NIH award: a $3.5 million, five-year grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to investigate how the gut microbiome contributes to sex differences in hypertension.
Dr. Abais-Battad began studying the mechanisms of hypertension and kidney disease as a trainee in the laboratory of Physiology Chair, Dr. David Mattson, while both were at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Over the years, those experiences helped shape her development as a scientist and today, she is leading a nationally recognized research program of her own and earning support for work that addresses one of the biggest unanswered questions in cardiovascular medicine: why men and women experience high blood pressure differently.
The team is investigating whether the gut microbiome and the compounds they produce help drive the differences in cardiovascular disease risk between men and women
Her research focuses on gut microbiomes and its role in regulating inflammation, immune function, blood pressure and kidney health. What began as studies of salt-sensitive hypertension led to an intriguing discovery: differences between the gut microbiomes of males and females were often more pronounced than differences caused by diet itself. Those findings prompted Dr. Abais-Battad and her team to investigate whether these microbial “communities” and the compounds they produce help drive the well-documented differences in cardiovascular disease risk between men and women.
The project also brings together several rapidly advancing fields, including microbiome science, immunology and sex-based biology. Through a collaboration with researchers leading the Georgia Twin Study, at our own Georgia Prevention Institute, her team will examine whether patterns identified in laboratory models can also be found in humans, providing an important link between basic science discoveries and future clinical applications.
Dr. Abais-Battad’s success is a reminder that breakthroughs rarely happen in isolation. They emerge from years of training and mentorship. Watching former trainees reach this stage of their careers is one of the greatest joys for our faculty (I speak from experience). Congratulations Dr. Abais-Battad. We are proud of you.
Dr. Eric Belin de Chantemele and trainees honored at AHA Scientific Sessions
Here’s another great example of the commitment to mentorship I see every day at MCG. At this year’s American Heart Association Hypertension Scientific Sessions, Dr. Eric Belin de Chantemele, associate director of the Vascular Biology Center, received the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension’s Mid-Career Award for Research Excellence, one of the field’s most prestigious honors. The award recognizes his significant contributions to understanding the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular and metabolic disease, as well as his growing national and international impact in hypertension research.
What makes that recognition even more special is that it reflects not only his own accomplishments, but also the success of the trainees he is helping to develop. At the same meeting, three members of his lab earned competitive travel awards: postdoctoral fellow Dr. Yoichi Ono, graduate student Ishara Menik and medical student Benjamin Wall. In addition, Dr. Ono and graduate student Beryl Khakina were selected to give oral presentations. Together, these honors underscore the strength of the research program Dr. Belin de Chantemele has built and the opportunities it provides for emerging scientists to gain national visibility. They also remind us that the true measure of a scientist’s success is not only the discoveries they make, but the future investigators they help develop along the way.
Fourth-year student Afsha Hossain is a 2026 Pisacano Scholar
Another great privilege of serving as dean is watching our students develop into compassionate leaders whose commitment to service is every bit as, if not more impressive as their academic accomplishments.
Just one of those examples is Afsha Hossain, who recently became MCG’s second Pisacano Scholar in the past two years. The Pisacano Scholarship is one of the highest honors in family medicine, recognizing medical students who demonstrate leadership, scholarship, integrity, communication skills and an enduring commitment to serving others.
A fourth-year medical student at our Athens Campus, Afsha’s commitment to caring for underserved populations is rooted in her own experiences as the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants and the first member of her family born in the United States. From volunteering in clinics serving refugees, uninsured patients and individuals experiencing homelessness to her work with the Athens Free Clinic and community-based research initiatives, she is laser focused on improving access to care for those who need it most. Afsha hopes to become a family physician who builds lasting relationships with patients, serves vulnerable communities and helps remove barriers to care. No doubt she is more than deserving of this honor. Having two Pisacano Scholars in consecutive years also speaks to the exceptional caliber of MCG students and their desire to make a difference in the lives of their patients and communities. Congratulations, Afsha.
Service Recognition Ceremony reminds us that people truly make the place
This week brought us a chance to celebrate the people who truly make up the fabric of this medical school at the annual Service Recognition Ceremony. From those marking five years of service to those celebrating nearly five decades at MCG.
This year that included Dr. Robyn Hatley, who has served MCG and the Wellstar Golisano Children’s Hospital of Georgia for and incredible 45 years. A nationally respected pediatric surgeon, educator and mentor, Dr. Hatley has devoted his career to caring for children, advancing programs like ECMO and trauma care, and training generations of physicians. Beyond his many professional accomplishments, he’s a devoted husband and father and even brought a little gridiron experience with him to MCG as a former star offensive tackle at Eastern Kentucky University. He’s also a fellow native of New Jersey!
We also celebrated Dr. Fenwick Nichols for 40 years of service. An MCG graduate, Dr. Nichols has left a profound impact on our institution through decades of teaching, mentorship and leadership in vascular neurology and stroke care. He has guided more than 100 neurology residents and helped train generations of stroke specialists, including me and Neurology Chair Dr. Jeff Switzer. Countless former residents and students still talk about his leadership and trademark calm demeanor. In fact, the Department of Neurology’s excellence in teaching award was renamed to honor him in 2008 because he had been the recipient so many times.
We also recognized Ida Walker, who has spent 45 years here and is a calm, steady and trusted presence and “the heart of” the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In the words of Department Chair Dr. Vinata Lokeshwar, “Her tireless work ethic, pursuit of perfection, resourcefulness, and loyalty to our department and AU, are matched only by the kindness and care she shows everyone, whatever their title.”
Dr. Susan Sato, longtime director of the university’s Employee-Faculty Assistance Program, and Donna Wheatley, manager of the Clinical Trials Office at the Georgia Cancer Center, also marked 40 years of service.
Celebrating all of our honorees was a great reminder that MCG’s greatest strength has always been, and always will be, its people.
Join us next Saturday, Oct. 24 for the Class of 2030’s White Coat Ceremony
As we close today, I wanted to remind you all of the opportunity we have to officially welcome our most junior colleagues into our profession at the Class of 2030’s White Coat Ceremony, next Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m. at the Bell Auditorium. These 304 freshmen medical students joined us in July, but this ceremony marks the first time they officially get to don that iconic white coat. It’s always so refreshing to see excitement on our students’ faces and the pride shared by their families and loved ones. I hope to see you there.
This year’s keynote speaker is another MCG icon, Dr. Robert Nesbit, who may be an emeritus faculty, but that status certainly hasn’t slowed him any. He continues to teach a senior elective on the history of medicine, which has been taken by hundreds of students, teaches two academic half-days for each 6-week Surgery Clerkship, and serves as MCG’s Historian-in-Residence. His love of history is lifelong – he was a “History of Science” major at Harvard. A general and vascular surgeon, he first came to us over 50 years ago, in 1974, after serving as chief surgery resident and fellow at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. I’m grateful he’s never decided to leave.
My best to you all,
David C. Hess, MD
Dean, Medical College of Georgia
Upcoming Events
October 23 – MCG Faculty Senate Meeting, noon, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium
October 23 – MCG Raft Debate, 6 p.m., J. Harold Harrison, MD Education Commons, Registration: Augusta University: MCG Raft Debate 2026 · GiveCampus
October 24 – MCG White Coat Ceremony, 2 p.m., Bell Auditorium
November 13 – Annual Memorial Service for Body Donors, 1 p.m., Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium
November 20 – MCG Faculty Senate Meeting, noon, Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditorium