Congratulations to Jiepei Zhu, MD, PhD, who has been awarded an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) grant to go on a yearlong assignment assisting with traumatic brain injury (TBI) research at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center.
Dr. Zhu will serve as the Co-Investigator on the research study of Kevin Wang, PhD, titled “Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Opiate Exposure Crosstalk: Neuropathological, Neurobehavioral, and Neuroproteomic Assessments.”
In this role, Dr. Zhu, an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology in the research division, will work closely with Dr. Wang to characterize neural injury in post-experimental TBI. He will assess opiate substance abuse in addition to TBI as well as neural cell death and neurobiochemical alterations. In addition, he will use his expertise to help with neurobehavioral measurements and optimization of neural injury assay (immunohistochemical staining). Dr. Zhu will also work with Dr. Wang to write reports and manuscripts.
Dr. Wang is a Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Physiological Sciences as well as Director of the Program for Neurotrauma, Neuroproteomics and Biomarker Research. He serves as a Health Research Scientist at the VA Medical Center and is internationally renowned for his contributions to research in proteolytic enzymes linked to central nervous system disorders, neuroproteomics, and disease biomarker discovery.
IPA agreements are contracts between UF and a federal sponsor that allow UF employees to go on assignment to a federal sponsor and provide research, administrative, or other services for a limited time.