天美传媒

In the summer of 2005, Catherine Ivy and her husband Ben were on vacation when Ben started to complain that his thumb was going numb. Shortly after their trip, Ben went to get what he thought was a pinched nerve examined, only to discover he had an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme. On Thanksgiving Day, just four months later, Catherine lost her husband and found herself defeated by a disease that didn鈥檛 seem to have a cure in sight. Instead of being consumed by her grief, just a few months after Ben鈥檚 passing, Catherine changed the mission of their recently established Foundation to find a cure for brain cancer so that others wouldn鈥檛 have to suffer the same fate.

Since the inception of the Ben & Catherine Ivy Foundation, Catherine Ivy has become a trailblazer within the medical community. In 2014, she was honored by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) with the John S. McCain Leadership Award, which recognizes leadership and dedication making a significant impact in the fight against disease and helping patients worldwide. Catherine has also been instrumental in finding ways to bring major institutional collaborators together to fight brain cancer and she has been honored by a variety of her partners for the Foundation鈥檚 investment in finding a cure.

Without Catherine鈥檚 pioneering leadership, compassion and perseverance the industry-leading and live-saving work at the Ivy Brain Tumor Center would not be possible. She is not only the reason the needle is moving forward on brain cancer research, but she is the reason why millions of people across the world impacted by brain cancer are finding a sense of hope.

Assistant Professor
Clinical Assistant Professor
Assistant Scientist
Assistant Scientist
Director, Leukemia Molecular Epidemiological Resource Core
Clinical Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor of Health and Human Physiology
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine - Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation

Education
BS, Biology, University of California
PhD, Philosophy, Physiology, The Pennsylvania State University
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pediatrics, The University of Wisconsin

Audrey A. Vasauskas, PhD, serves as Director of Research & Grant Development and Associate Professor of Physiology. Dr. Vasauskas obtained her Bachelor of Science in biology from Mount Saint Mary鈥檚 University in Maryland. She earned her PhD and completed post-doctoral training from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. Dr. Vasauskas has been the recipient of several extramural research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. She has also served as a science policy and research advocate to the United States Congress. Dr. Vasauskas has been teaching cell and system physiology for over a decade and has mentored many undergraduate, graduate and medical students both in academia and industry. Prior to her career in academia, she spent several years in the biotechnology industry as project leader for oncology diagnostic development. During her time at ACOM, she has served as Research Committee chair and principal investigator. Dr. Vasauskas鈥檚 current research includes the molecular changes that occur within endothelial cells in the pathology known as pulmonary arterial hypertension. Specifically, her NIH-funded research investigates potential players in endothelial to mesenchymal transition, or the process by which endothelial cells transition to a smooth muscle, constrictive phenotype.

Education:
PhD., 1991. Zoology. University of British Columbia
M.S., 1985. Biology. Portland State University
B.S., 1980. Biology. Lewis and Clark College

Larissa A. Shimoda, PhD is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Bench Research in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Department. Dr. Shimoda received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University. She pursued fellowship training in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine during which time she successfully competed for an individual Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award and an American Lung Association fellowship award.

Dr. Shimoda has been active in various scientific and academic society committees. She is the past Chair of the Respiration Section and a current Councilor for the American Physiological Society and has served as the Chair of the Nominating and Planning Committees of the Pulmonary Circulation Assembly of the American Thoracic Society. She has been a permanent member of study sections for both the American Heart Association and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH.

Dr. Shimoda鈥檚 research focuses on vascular physiology and pathobiology of the lung. In particular, her work examines non-canonical roles for ion channels and transporters in mediating the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension. Another interest is regulation of endothelial barrier function, with a focus on calcium signaling pathways. She has authored more than 100 publications and has given invited research lectures nationally and internationally. Her research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health for the past 20 years and she has been awarded the Giles F. Filey Memorial Award and the Henry Pickering Bowditch Lectureship of the American Physiological Society.

Dr. Mullin鈥檚 research focuses on the role of tight junctional leakiness in cancer, aging, infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases in the GI tract, respiratory tract, the oral epithelium and the lining of the uterus. He also is investigating the effect of micronutrient consumption/nutrition on reducing epithelial barrier leak, and the role of barrier (junctional) leak in infectious diseases such as Ebola, Marburg and coronaviruses. He is a professor for the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, part of Main Line Health.