News

Dr. Ellis and Dr. Wall Appointed Research Directors for Department of Medicine

Rajiv Dhand, MD, Chair of Medicine, recently appointed Carol Ellis, MD, as Director of Clinical Research and Jonathan Wall, PhD, as Director of Experimental Research for the Department of Medicine. As directors of research, Dr. Ellis and Dr. Wall will promote research activities and encourage participation by students, residents and fellows; foster collaboration; enhance grant opportunities; and develop clinical trials and translational research.

Dr. Carol Ellis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine.  After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr. Ellis completed internal medicine training at the University of New Mexico and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. After a brief stint as a faculty member at UTHSC, Dr. Ellis worked at McNeil Pharmaceutical (a Johnson and Johnson affiliate) as an assistant director of clinical research.  She designed research plans, wrote Phase 3 clinical trials, collaborated with investigators and consultants around the country, organized and led investigator meetings, and analyzed results. She submitted New Drug Applications to U.S. Food and Drug Administration and was the presenter of the drugs' safety results to the FDA Advisory Committee. She was promoted to director of post-marketing surveillance, and she later joined SmithKline Beckman, reviewing clinical research and post-marketing data for safety issues. After moving to Knoxville, she wrote clinical research protocols for the Thompson Cancer Survival Center before starting as a faculty member in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Jonathan Wall is a Professor in the Human Immunology and Cancer Program and Director of the Preclinical and Diagnostic Molecular Imaging Program. He obtained a PhD in membrane biophysics from the University of Essex in Colchester, UK. Later, he moved to the UT Graduate School of Medicine as a post-doctoral fellow, where he has worked on elucidating biochemical and biophysical aspects of immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis. His work led to the "first-in-human" clinical trial studying the biodistribution of a novel radio-iodinated amyloid fibril-reactive monoclonal antibody in patients with light chain amyloidosis using PET/CT imaging. In addition, he leads a National Institutes of Health-funded multidisciplinary team of researchers focused on developing novel therapeutic and molecular imaging agents for amyloid disease, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

February 14, 2013