VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System
VAAAHS Research Scientist Receives the AII Early Career Achievement Award
April 18, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 18, 2016
VAAAHS Research Scientist Receives the AII Early Career Achievement Award
ANN ARBOR - Dr. Christine Basmajian, a Research Scientist at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (VAAAHS) and an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan, has been selected by The American Thoracic Society (ATS) Assembly on Allergy, Immunology and Inflammation (AII) to receive the Early Career Achievement Award - recognized as a "rising star" with exemplary achievements in a scientific area of the Assembly, Dr. Basmajian clearly demonstrates promise for a future of sustained productivity.
Dr. Basmajian's laboratory, specializing in animal modeling and translational research, studies the role of the immune system in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), one of the VA's most problematic chronic diseases. COPD affects approximately 15 percent of VA health care users and causes significant morbidity and mortality with no known therapies to address the disease.
As a result of her work in the lab, Dr. Basmajian has published numerous immunologic studies that use human lung specimens to address key questions about COPD pathogenesis. Her career in COPD research has been fostered by the VA, first with a Career Development Award in 2009 and later with a VA Merit Review Award in 2012.
She also received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which recognized her work in COPD. The PECASE Award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States upon outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers.
Dr. Basmajian is set to receive her latest award at the AII Membership Meeting which will be held in San Francisco on May 16, 2016.
What are Assemblies?
The American Thoracic Society has 14 assemblies that are subdivisions of the Society composed of members with like interests within the broad fields of respiratory, critical care and sleep medicine. The purpose of an assembly is to improve the collection, interpretation and dissemination of information; improve communication among members; and participate in the planning of the International Conference. Assemblies area also responsible for creating and updating ATS official documents and ATS patient information series fact sheets. [Taken from the ATS website: https://www.thoracic.org/members/assemblies/about/assemblies-brochure.php]
About the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System
Since 1953, the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, including the VA Ann Arbor Medical Center, the VA Toledo Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC), the VA Flint CBOC, and the VA Jackson CBOC, as well as the VA Center for Clinical Management Research, an HSR&D Center of Excellence, has provided state-of-the-art healthcare services to the men and women who have proudly served our nation. More than 65,000 Veterans living in a 19-county area of Michigan and Northwest Ohio utilized VAAAHS in fiscal year 2015. With 109 acute care beds and 40 Community Living Center (extended care) beds, there were over 6,300 inpatient episodes of care provided in the hospital and extended care center, and as a referral center for specialty care, there were more than 872,000 outpatient visits made at our facilities in fiscal year 2015.
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