Participants

Tam Nguyen, M.P.P.
IMSD Program Coordinator
ttn018@health.ucsd.edu
(858) 534-9701

David M. Cauvi, Ph.D.
BMTL Director
dcauvi@ucsd.edu

Dennis Hawisher
BMTL Instructor
dhawisher@mail.ucsd.edu

Antonio De Maio, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Medicine, UCSD
PADRE Director
IMSD Program Director
858-822-6502
ademaio@mail.ucsd.edu

Director

Antonio De Maio, Ph.D., tenured Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Surgery, School of Medicine at UCSD, is the current founder and director of the IMSD program. Dr. De Maio is an active investigator in the areas of the cellular stress response and inflammation. Dr. De Maio was born in Venezuela and immigrated to the United States in 1987. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and continued with postdoctoral training in the U.S. Dr. De Maio was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and he relocated to UCSD in 2006. Dr. De Maio was the director of Research in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at John Hopkins School of Medicine from 2000-2005; Vice Chairman of Research in the Department of Surgery at UCSD from 2006-2010. He served as president of the Cell Stress Society International from 2008-2010. Dr. De Maio is the current PI of the IMSD program and Co-PI of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program at UCSD. Both are supported by NIGMS.

Dr. De Maio is very active in the mentoring of students from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Over the last 14 years, one fourth of the trainees in Dr. De Maio’s research group have been underrepresented students. Dr. De Maio was a key player in the Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) at John Hopkins University, where he was located until 2005. At that institution, he was also involved in the summer program for underrepresented students and the recruitment of minority graduate students to different Ph.D. programs. After joining UCSD, he became involved in the recruitment of underrepresented minority students to different UCSD graduate programs. Dr. De Maio is an active participant in national conferences directed at minority students, such as the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) meeting and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). He was recently awarded with the distinction of “Mentor of the Year” by the Compact for Faculty Diversity of the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring, which is a coalition of federal and foundation programs that mentor disadvantaged students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) careers. In addition, Dr. De Maio lectures on graduate study opportunities at many institutions that have an elevated minority student component. In fact, the number of disadvantaged student applications and acceptances into UCSD graduate programs has increased by a substantial percentage since he joined the faculty in 2006. Dr. De Maio also lectures at different high schools in the San Diego area to inspire students to pursue scientific careers. Dr. De Maio is a key player in the organization of the San Diego Science Festival. Dr. De Maio was awarded a UCSD Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences Equal Opportunity Diversity Award in 2008 in recognition of his efforts in recruiting students to UCSD.

Dr. De Maio is a member of the Cell Stress Society International (Past-President), American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Cell Biology, American Association of Immunologist, International Endotoxin Society, Shock Society, Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

De Maio Laboratory