UNT Health Biomedical and Translational Sciences

👏 Hats off to our incredible students!

Jeff Brown, a CRM student, and Jenny Steward, a Med Sci alum, shared their paths to UNT Health and their “whys” with the UNT System Board of Regents last month.

👉 Brown, a non-traditional student in our Clinical Research Management program, spent several years in the workforce before returning to higher education. He plans to attend medical school.

“When it came time to choose my career path I wanted to do something I could really dedicate myself to. I wanted to help people who are dealing with life’s curveballs, especially having gone through my own turbulent life experiences. So I decided to go to medical school and that’s where UNT Health came in, especially the Master’s degree in Medical Science,” Brown said.

“It’s been a great experience. Very key to my professional development.”

👉 Steward, second year medical student at TCOM, completed the Med Sci program at CBTS before she was accepted to medical school. She described how her faith has guided her throughout her academic career and highlighted the importance of service to others as she works toward becoming a physician.

“This semester, I had the honor of creating opportunities for students to give back to our wonderful facilities staff. We had the chance to shadow them in January, care for them in a health clinic in April, and just last week, got to share some sweet desserts with them,” Steward said.

“Serving them has been one of my favorite moments so far here at UNT.”

You could say that Dr. Amber Heck wrote the book on thriving as a medical science educator.

She’s first author of a new book titled “Medical Science Educator Handbook: A Guide to Flourishing.”

The book is a comprehensive resource for medical science educators focused on three areas: personal development, curriculum development, and professional development.

“This book is important because medical science educators dedicate their careers to supporting the success and well-being of others. We wanted to create a practical resource for educators at every career stage that helps them reflect on their own flourishing and identify meaningful strategies they can apply in their personal, curricular, and professional lives,” Dr. Heck said.

“Working on this project with more than 30 outstanding medical educators was incredibly meaningful because it reflected the same spirit of collaboration, purpose, and care that we hope the book inspires.”

To complete the project she collaborated with internationally known medical educators and colleagues at Medical College of Wisconsin, Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, and Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.

The book was supported by the Kern National Network for Flourishing in Health and is available from Elsevier Health and Barnes and Noble.

🌟 Faculty Spotlight: A career milestone for Dr. Raghu Krishnamoorthy. 🌟

Dr. Krishnamoorthy, professor of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, was named a 2026 Gold Fellow by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. The honor recognizes ARVO members for their accomplishments, leadership and contributions to the Association. Dr. Krishnamoorthy was recognized at the ARVO Annual Meeting last month in Denver.

👉 Read more: https://bit.ly/4xvW7ae

Three weeks later and we’re still feeling the pride 🎓✨

🌟 Alumni Spotlight 🌟

A big accomplishment for Christine Nwanna marks another first for our BS in Biomedical Sciences program!

Christine, who was a member of the first graduating class of the program, was accepted to attend Howard University College of Dentistry and will start in August. She is the first graduate of the program, which launched in 2022, to be accepted to dental school.

Christine credits the program as a key factor in her acceptance. She says the support she received in the program helped to strengthened her study habits, learn how to manage a heavy course load and improve her resilience.

“This program gave me a realistic sense of what to expect in a graduate-level environment. I feel more confident in my ability to handle the demands of dental school and succeed in a fast-paced, challenging academic setting,” Christine said.

“I was fortunate to be part of the first graduating class, which made my experience unique. Being in an inaugural cohort allowed me to watch the program grow while contributing to its foundation. The faculty always wanted feedback and worked to create an environment that helped both academic and personal development. For all those reasons, I am forever grateful and proud to be a UNT Health alumni!”

Welcome UNT Health Pulse interns!

Over the next 10 weeks, these interns will join labs in UNT Health’s Department of Physiology & Anatomy, gaining hands-on, mentored research experience focused on cardiovascular health.

In addition to lab work, students will take part in seminars, career development, peer mentoring, and present their research at Summer Student Research Day. It's all designed to prepare them for future careers in healthcare and biomedical science.

The program is supported by the American Heart Association and led by Dr. Paula Gregory.

Last month, the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience hosted the 2026 Neurobiology of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Symposium to highlight research that explores how aging contributes to Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cataracts, glaucoma and other neurological disorders.

The symposium also featured CBTS student research supported by The T32 Training Grant in the Neurobiology of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health.

🎉 Congratulations to students who took home awards for their presentations:

🏆 Nathan Jones - James W. Simpkins Predoctoral Award in Neurobiology of Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

🏆 Ysabella Ruiz Pick - 2nd Place Oral Competition

🏆 Dr. Sal Essajee - 3rd Place Oral Competition

Highlighting our Clinical Research Management graduates!

These graduates completed internships, defended their work, and tackled some truly impressive projects along the way.

Get a closer look at what they accomplished: https://bit.ly/42ZeqXg

Graduation one day, orientation the next!

Big thanks to these Med Sci grads who walked the stage yesterday at commencement and are back today as orientation leaders to ensure a strong start for the new class.

So proud of our grads! 🎓 🎉 👏