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Research within the Department of Internal Medicine

The Department of Internal Medicine is committed to advancing research through robust and innovative programs across a range of specialties, including neurology, infectious diseases, cardiology, oncology and pulmonology. Our faculty lead nationally recognized efforts in basic, clinical and translational research, contributing to meaningful scientific discoveries. Additionally, our faculty hold key leadership roles in several interdisciplinary, school-wide research centers.

 

Clinical and Research Centers   

The Heartland National TB Center, led by Lisa Armitage, MD, is located in San Antonio, Texas. Contractually funded by the State of Texas and under the auspices of The University of Texas at Tyler, Heartland is recognized for its excellence, expertise, and innovation in training, medical consultation, and research aimed at reducing the impact of TB throughout Texas. 
  • Training and Education: Heartland offers a variety of training programs and educational materials for healthcare professionals, focusing on TB screening, diagnosis, treatment and case management. These programs are designed to enhance the skills of nurses, physicians, and public health workers in managing TB cases effectively. Heartland also participates in the NIH-funded IN-TRAC program designed to mentor early-career TB investigators.
  • Medical Consultation: The center provides expert medical consultation services to healthcare providers managing complex TB cases, ensuring that patients receive the most effective care.
  • Research Activities: Heartland is actively involved in research initiatives aimed at improving TB prevention and treatment strategies. The center participates in studies evaluating new diagnostic tools, treatment regimens, and public health interventions. Heartland is an active participant in CDC’s Tuberculosis Trials Consortium.
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The University of Texas at Tyler has been formally recognized as a member of the Bronchiectasis and Nontuberculous Mycobacterial (NTM) Care Center Network, a national consortium of clinical centers dedicated to excellence in the care of patients with bronchiectasis and NTM lung disease. This designation places UT Tyler among a select group of institutions that meet rigorous national standards for clinical expertise, multidisciplinary collaboration, and research infrastructure in the field of NTM and bronchiectasis care.
  • Participation in the Bronchiectasis and NTM Research Registry: UT Tyler contributes patient data to this national registry to support large-scale observational studies on disease progression, treatment response, and long-term outcomes.
  • Clinical Trials: Investigators at UT Tyler are engaged in industry- and investigator-initiated clinical trials evaluating novel antimicrobial agents for NTM disease as well as novel anti-inflammatory therapies. UT Tyler was heavily involved in the ASPEN Trial, recently published in the NEJM. This trial demonstrated that targeting neutrophilic inflammation improved health outcomes in patients with bronchiectasis. 
  • Translational Research: Shashi Kant, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine, leads a translational research program aimed at advancing therapeutic strategies for drug-resistant tuberculosis and NTM lung infections. His work leverages a regulatory agency-endorsed hollow fiber system model to conduct advanced pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies, integrating mathematical modeling, genomics, and transcriptomics to translate laboratory findings into clinical applications. He recently launched UT Tyler’s first drug development initiative for Buruli ulcer, a rare and neglected tropical disease.
UT Tyler is home to an accredited Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Center, which provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary care to individuals living with CF across East Texas and surrounding regions. The Center is part of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s accredited care network, reflecting UT Tyler’s commitment to clinical care and research excellence.
  • Diagnostic testing:  UT Tyler is the only referral site in East Texas for sweat chloride screening and other diagnostic testing
  • Clinical Care:  Multidisciplinary team-based care for both pediatric and adult patients, including pulmonologists, respiratory therapists, dietitians, social workers, pharmacists, and nursing support.
  • Research:  The CF Center at UT Tyler is also a member of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Development Network, the largest network of CF centers in the world.  By participating in this network, patients with CF seen in Tyler can access the latest therapies being tested.

Research Initiatives   

Principle Investigator: Monika Kumaraswamy, MD

Led by Dr. Monika Kumaraswamy, Division Chief for Infectious Diseases, our program aims to combine antimicrobial susceptibility testing with studies of bacterial virulence and host immune responses in order to develop innovative diagnostics and host-directed therapies that improve patient care.
For example, in a recent paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Kumaraswamy et al. observed that more physiologic testing conditions identify clinically relevant antibiotic susceptibilities that could have clinical implications for the treatment of multi-drug resistant bacteria.
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Principle Investigator: Jarrett Berry, MD, MS, FAHA

Our school has a robust collaboration with the Kenneth H. Cooper Institute at Texas Tech University Health Sciences that established the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study in 1970 as a prospective cohort study of more than 100,000 participants that tracks the long-term health effects of lifestyle behaviors in middle-aged adults.  Our ongoing collaboration creates a unique opportunity to characterize the upper limit of health benefits for exercise.  In a recent paper published in Circulation, Dr. Berry, Chair, Department of Internal Medicine, and his team observed that adults who exercised 10 hours per week had the same heart attack risk as adults who did not exercise. These findings suggest that there is an upper limit to the cardiovascular benefits of aerobic exercise.  View the Study

Principle Investigator: Jarrett Berry, MD, MS, FAHA

Prior research has established that patients living in rural communities have a higher risk for CVD compared to patients living in urban communities. However, mechanisms through which rurality contributes to an increased risk for CVD remain incompletely understood. In 2024, we established a cohort of more than 25 million Medicare beneficiaries defined according to residential zip code. This project will allow us to characterize the association between healthcare utilization patterns and CVD outcomes in rural vs. urban U.S. adults.

Principle Investigator: Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS

This program led by Dr. Erminia Massarelli, Division Chief for Hematology/Oncology, and supported by the Department of Defense Idea Award, explores novel mechanisms to reverse resistance to platinum-chemotherapy and immunotherapy in the tumor microenvironment of head and neck cancers, in particular laryngeal cancer. Dr. Massarelli previously published articles investigating markers of immunosuppression in thyroid carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer in the Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer to discover strategies to reverse immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment.

Dr. Massarelli also oversees a growing clinical trial portfolio characterized by more than 30 industry-sponsored trials providing novel therapies to patients in East Texas with complex malignancies.

Principle Investigator: Jarrett Berry, MD, MS, FAHA

UT Tyler is an active partner in an NIH-funded Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) consortium, led by UTHealth Houston, and includes other institutions such as MD Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University, UT Rio Grande Valley, and Texas Tech Health El Paso. UT Tyler’s involvement in the CTSA program underscores its commitment to advancing clinical and translational research, particularly in serving rural and underserved communities in East Texas. UT Tyler has been previously recognized for its significant contributions to clinical trials, including being one of the nation's top enrollers in COVID-19 clinical trials.

This funded collaboration enhances UT Tyler’s research infrastructure, promotes community engagement, fosters interdisciplinary collaborations, and provides training opportunities for the next generation of clinical and translational scientists.