News Release

Bangs joins the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School.

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Release Date: September 27, 2012

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- James (Jay) D. Bangs, PhD, professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and an expert in the cell biology of the agent that causes African sleeping sickness, has been appointed the Grant T. Fisher Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The announcement brings to nine the number of new chairs and chair-level appointees recruited by Michael E. Cain, MD, UB vice president for health sciences and dean of the UB medical school, in the past four years. These national hires, Cain says, are a critical piece of his strategic vision for the medical school's future.

According to Cain, Bangs rapidly emerged as the top candidate following a comprehensive national search, possessing all the skills needed to advance the UB department and expand its basic research programs in service of UB's 2020 strategic goals. Under Bangs, Cain says, the department will enhance the excellence of its research enterprise, undergraduate and graduate student education and mentored research training programs.

Bangs succeeds J. Iain Hay, who has served as chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology for 20 years.

A faculty member and trainer for the microbiological doctoral training program at UW, and a member of its Center for Research and Training in Parasitic Diseases, Bangs will join UB in January 2013.

He conducts research on African trypanosomes, one-celled parasites transmitted by the tsetse fly, which cause African sleeping sickness in humans, a fatal disease that is reemerging throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

See the original post:
UB Medical School Names New Chair of Microbiology and Immunology