John Ferraro, PhD, professor and chairman, Hearing and Speech, was awarded the Honors of the Association, the highest award given by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

University Distinguished Professor Curtis D. Klaassen, PhD, was recently awarded a Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence grant of more than $10 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop faculty research in the area of liver function. The award supports multidisciplinary centers – each concentrating on one general area of research – that strengthen institutional biomedical research capability and enhance research infrastructure.

Carol Smith, RN, PhD, received NIH funding of $3.3 million over five years from the National Institute of Nursing Research to address self-management strategies for cardiology patients.

Opendra (Bill) Narayan, DVM, PhD, received an $11 million COBRE grant from the NIH for the continued study of microbial pathogens. In addition, Narayan’s success in developing an AIDS vaccine was reported in the August 2006 issue of the journal VIROLOGY. Narayan and his collaborators have successfully prevented AIDS in animal trials using a DNA vaccine.

Two KU School of Medicine-Wichita faculty members lead the two largest primary care specialties in the country. Donna Sweet, MD, is chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians, and Rick Kellerman, MD, is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The Division of Nephrology and the Kidney Institute at the University of Kansas Medical Center were awarded an NIH grant providing nearly $1 million over five years for training post-doctoral fellows in nephrology to become physician-scientists and conduct leading-edge, biomedical research in nephrology and metabolic diseases. L. Darryl Quarles, MD, is the principal investigator.

Barbara Atkinson, MD, and Rick Barohn, MD, received a $220,500 NIH planning grant to develop the Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research to bolster KUMC’s basic science research capacity.

Jim Calvet, PhD, received more than $1 million in NIH funding for the Kansas Interdisciplinary Center for Polycystic Kidney Disease research.