In recognition of their outstanding scholarly activity, four UT Southwestern faculty members have been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest medical honor societies. Tamia Harris-Tryon, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Dermatology and Immunology, Rodney Infante, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Center for Human Nutrition and of Internal Medicine, Nikhil Munshi, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Molecular Biology, and in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, and Amil Shah, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Internal Medicine, are among 100 new members representing 50 different institutions. They were inducted April 5.

Founded in 1908, ASCI focuses on the special role of physician-scientists in research, clinical care, and medical education, as well as leadership positions in academic medicine and the life sciences industry. It has more than 3,000 members, adding no more than 100 members to its ranks each year. The society publishes two high-impact journals, the Journal of Clinical Investigation and JCI Insight.

Tamia Harris-Tryon, M.D., Ph.D.

“I am tremendously honored to be joining ASCI and its prestigious community of physician-scientists,” Dr. Harris-Tryon said. “ASCI will increase the reach of our science, through attendance and networking at the annual meeting and through greater involvement across disciplines with physician-scientists who center their work on both discovery and therapeutic goals.”

Bridging the fields of immunology, microbiology, and metabolism, Dr. Harris-Tryon’s research focuses on the interface between the skin surface and the community of microbes that colonize this niche.

Currently the Harris-Tryon Lab is defining how hormones secreted at the skin surface impact bacteria. Her team has also defined novel ways in which small molecules secreted by the skin impact Staphylococcus aureus colonization specifically. Through collaborations with researchers at UTSW and beyond, she is developing novel therapeutic options to combat antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, such as MRSA.

“I love the thrill of discovery,” said Dr. Harris-Tryon, who received the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s prestigious Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award in 2023. “With each experiment, we learn more about a previously uncharacterized system and define why the crosstalk between microbes and the human host matters in medicine. I also love leading the team of scientists in my lab, whose hard work, ingenuity, and dedication drive innovations at the bench.”

Rodney Infante, M.D., Ph.D.

“My nomination and election into ASCI is a great honor due to the rich history and caliber of scientists who are members of the organization,” Dr. Infante said. “Election into ASCI confirms our approach to understanding the mechanisms driving metabolic disease states. Therefore, election into the organization will strengthen our laboratory’s commitment to our process.”

His laboratory focuses on elucidating basic pathways leading to the development of cancer-associated cachexia, with the goal of identifying new biomarkers and therapeutics. He also investigates the role of the same pathways in obesity and obesity-related complications.

Dr. Infante’s discoveries include defining STK11/LKB1 mutations as the first genetic biomarker/causal genes that drive cancer cachexia in humans as well as the signaling pathways that promote cachexia-associated adipose/muscle wasting and anorexia. His discovery that JAK inhibitors suppress cancer cachexia in mice led to a phase one clinical trial of ruxolitinib treatment for cancer cachexia. His research also has revealed that the cachexia inflammatory signaling axis is activated in obesity.

“I have enjoyed building a program centered around a clinically relevant problem with talented members of the UTSW community conducting bench research, clinical science, translational studies, and therapeutic/imaging trials,” Dr. Infante said.

Nikhil Munshi, M.D., Ph.D.

“This honor is a nice recognition of the work that my colleagues have done in my lab over the last 10 years or so. ASCI election will open doors to new collaborations that I envision will enrich the scientific research that we are performing in the lab,” said Dr. Munshi, a member of the Division of Cardiology, where he serves as the Assistant Director of the Physician Scientist Training Program.

His research focuses on identifying the molecular drivers of normal cardiac rhythm and disease-associated dysrhythmias. The Munshi Lab uses mouse genetics to study the development of heart muscle cells. His team has developed a series of unique mouse molecular tools to perturb gene expression within muscle cells in the heart’s electrical system and also has created unbiased approaches to map tissue-specific regulatory elements genome-wide in human cardiac muscle cells.

“In close collaboration with my lab colleagues, I really enjoy developing creative scientific hypotheses and solving the many hurdles that often become apparent only after we set off on answering a particular scientific question,” Dr. Munshi said.

Amil Shah, M.D., M.P.H.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for the caliber and impact of research performed by ASCI members,” said Dr. Shah, Director of Population Sciences for the Department of Internal Medicine, a member of the Division of Cardiology, and Director of the Dallas Hearts and Minds Study. “I felt truly privileged to be nominated and elected to this society. It is a very meaningful recognition of the quality and rigor of our research efforts to date.”

His research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of cardiac dysfunction leading to heart failure, with the aim of identifying novel preventive interventions. He uses longitudinal and multimodal cardiac imaging (echocardiography, CT, SPECT imaging) and multi-omics (proteomics and metabolomics) in exercise-based physiologic studies, large observational cohorts, and randomized clinical trials to identify novel biologic pathways underlying heart failure. His research is funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, and he is Principal Investigator on six R01 awards and a K24 mentoring award.

“The collaborative nature of our research allows me to interact with and learn from a multidisciplinary group of colleagues with distinct and complementary scientific, clinical, and methodological expertise,” he said. “An excellent example is our recent work using high dimensional ‘omic’ data – proteomics, metabolomics – to gain insights into the pathways underlying cardiac dysfunction and heart failure. We’ve learned a tremendous amount from pursuing these studies, and it has been very exciting.”