Pramod Dash named chair of neurobiology and anatomy at UTHealth

Pramod Dash, PhD, has been appointed term chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), announced Barbara Stoll, MD, dean of McGovern Medical School.

Dash is professor and the Nina and Michael Zilkha Distinguished Chair in Neurodegenerative Disease Research. He had previously been serving as interim chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy.

“I am sure that with his expertise and enthusiasm, the department will flourish under his leadership,” said Stoll, the H. Wayne Hightower Distinguished Professor in the Medical Sciences.

Dash earned his doctorate in biological sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and completed postgraduate training at Columbia University under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, MD. He joined McGovern Medical School in 1990 as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and rose to the rank of professor in 2003.

Dash holds a joint appointment at MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School. He has mentored dozens of PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty, and has sponsored countless medical students as part of the summer research program. His teaching responsibilities include an array of neuroscience topics, and he has been recognized with the Dean’s Teaching Award.

Dash is a member of TIRR Foundation’s Mission Connect and served as its scientific director from 2008 to 2017. He is also a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the National Neurotrauma Society. A well-funded investigator with five current NIH R01 grants, Dash is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. His research focuses on the biochemical and molecular changes that are critical for memory formation, with the goal of identifying potential targets for therapeutic interventions to alleviate memory disorders, especially those triggered by traumatic brain injury.

The mission of the department is “to decipher how the brain works and find a cure for diseases of the brain through groundbreaking research while providing outstanding education for medical and graduate students.”