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* (IM Translational Medicine Faculty Profile)

Brenda Flam

Brenda Flam, PhD

Affiliate Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, Medicine

Contact Info

Education

  • PHD, Molecular Medicine, University of South Florida, College of Medicine, 2006

Interdisciplinary and Emerging Signature Programs

  • Biomedical Engineering & Nanomedicine
  • Cardiovascular

Research Interests

  • 1. "Cardiovascular and Soft Tissue Battlefield Injury Diagnostic and Treatment Sensor and MEMS Technology Development" (Awardee: Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida; Funding Agency: Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, funding period 09/01/2006  03/31/2011)
  • Goals: Understanding the current knowledge and the limitations of that knowledge concerning the early pathophysiologic response to injury, the design of a prototype sensor, collection system, and therapeutic approaches. Specifically: 1) identification of early humoral response to injury potentially defining a set of biomarkers released into the plasma in murine models simulating blunt and multiple puncture wound injury to be confirmed in porcine, and clinical studies, of trauma of varying complexity and severity; 2) prototype surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor and biofluid collection systems development and validation studies; 3) pharmacologic and gene delivery development; and 4) identification of early biomarkers of severe trauma  a human validation pilot study.
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  • 2. "Diagnostic and Treatment Innovations for Mass Casualties" (Awardee: Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida; Funding Agency: Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of Defense, funding period 04/01/2007  03/31/2011)
  • Goals: The main hypothesis to be tested is that a systematic assessment of candidate biomarkers is able to define a molecular pattern that discriminates various degrees of trauma severity and outcome during the pre-hospital phase. Our overall objectives are to: identify a panel of biomarkers that can be incorporated into a point-of-care device and identify novel therapeutic strategies and delivery systems that can improve battlefield and mass casualty trauma care.
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  • 3. Use of Non-Ionic Surfactant Vesicle Immuno-niosomes to Target Sites of Vascular Endothelial Inflammation (Awardee: Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, University of South Floirda, Funding Agency: 2009 Pilot Grant Program, Signature Interdisciplinary Program in Cardiovascular Research, University of South Florida Health, funding period 07/01/2009  06/30/2011)
  • Goal: The data obtained from these experiments will allow us to improve, define and quantify the targeting efficiency of the immuno-niosomes to sites of vascular inflammation in a mouse model of atherosclerosis.

Memberships

  • Member (Health Care Compliance Association, 2010 - Present)
  • Member (Society of Women Engineers, 2004 - Present)
  • Member of Scientific Council: Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (American Heart Association, 2001 - Present)
  • Member (American Chemical Society, 1984 - Present)
  • Newsletter editor for Central Jersey section (Association for Women in Science, 1995 - 1996)
  • President (Society of Women Engineers, New Jersey Section, 1994 - 1995)

Recent Publications

  • Lane T, Flam B, Lockey R, Kolliputi N. TXNIP shuttling: missing link between oxidative stress and inflammasome activation. Frontiers in physiology. 4: 50, 2013.
  • Khanna P, Flam BR, Osborn B, Strom JA, Bhansali S. Skin penetration and fracture strength testing of silicon dioxide microneedles Sens Actuators A Phys. 170(1-2) : 180-186, 2011.
  • Elliott JA, Muffly K, Strom JA, Flam BR. In vivo Imaging of Vesicles Loaded with Near Infrared Dye Targeted to CD44 on Inflamed Endothelial Cells in a Mouse Model of Atherosclerosis Circulation. 122: A20505, 2010.
  • Elliott JA, Flam B, Muffly K, Strom JA, Hood E, VanAuker MD. Targeted drug delivery with PEGylated immuno-niosomes 25th Southern Biomedical Engineering Conference 2009. 24: 363-366, 2009.
  • Flam BR, Eichler DC, Solomonson LP. Endothelial nitric oxide production is tightly coupled to the citrulline-NO cycle. Nitric oxide : biology and chemistry / official journal of the Nitric Oxide Society. 17(3-4) : 115-21, 2007.
  • Van Zandt MC, Sibley EO, McCann EE, Combs KJ, Flam B, Sawicki DR, Sabetta A, Carrington A, Sredy J, Howard E, Mitschler A, Podjarny AD. Design and synthesis of highly potent and selective (2-arylcarbamoyl-phenoxy)-acetic acid inhibitors of aldose reductase for treatment of chronic diabetic complications. Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry. 12(21) : 5661-5675, 2004.
  • Solomonson LP, Flam BR, Pendleton LC, Goodwin BL, Eichler DC. The caveolar nitric oxide synthase/arginine regeneration system for NO production in endothelial cells. The Journal of experimental biology. 206(Pt 12) : 2083-2087, 2003.
  • Pendleton LC, Goodwin BL, Flam BR, Solomonson LP, Eichler DC. Endothelial argininosuccinate synthase mRNA 5''-untranslated region diversity. Infrastructure for tissue-specific expression. The Journal of biological chemistry. 277(28) : 25363-25369, 2002.
  • Flam BR, Hartmann PJ, Harrell-Booth M, Solomonson LP, Eichler DC. Caveolar localization of arginine regeneration enzymes, argininosuccinate synthase, and lyase, with endothelial nitric oxide synthase. Nitric oxide : biology and chemistry / official journal of the Nitric Oxide Society. 5(2) : 187-197, 2001.
  • Hellermann GR, Flam BR, Eichler DC, Solomonson LP. Stimulation of receptor-mediated nitric oxide production by vanadate. Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology. 20(9) : 2045-2050, 2000.
  • Malamas MS, Sredy J, Gunawan I, Mihan B, Sawicki DR, Seestaller L, Sullivan D, Flam BR. New azolidinediones as inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B with antihyperglycemic properties. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 43(5) : 995-1010, 2000.
  • Sredy J, Sawicki DR, Flam BR, Sullivan D. Insulin resistance is associated with abnormal dephosphorylation of a synthetic phosphopeptide corresponding to the major autophosphorylation sites of the insulin receptor. Metabolism: clinical and experimental. 44(8) : 1074-1081, 1995.
  • Russo A, Heydt L, Ferriter K, Flam B, Lucotch B, Sredy J, Babiak J. Measurement of para-nitrophenylphosphatase (pNPPase) activity by an enzyme-colorimetric high throughput screening assay Proceedings of the International Symposium on Laboratory Robotics & Automation. : 435-443, 1994.
  • Sredy J, Flam BR, Sawicki DR. Adenosine-triphosphatase activity in sciatic-nerve tissue of streptozocin-induced diabetic rats with and without high dietary sucrose - Effect of aldose reductase inhibitors P Soc Exp Biol Med. 197: 135-143, 1991.

Positions Held

  • Research Assistant Professor (Internal Medicine, Medicine, University of South Florida 2010 - 2012)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow (Internal Medicine, Medicine, University of South Florida 2006 - 2010)