News

Welcome new faculty!

CMB formally welcomed its three new faculty members on December 10, 2025 with a recognition event.  The new faculty are Dr. Matthew Pitts, who specializes in selenoproteins in nervous system development and function, Dr. Kathryn Schunke, who focuses on cardiovascular biology, hypoxia, diabetes and cardiac autonomic neuropathy, as well as Dr. Michael Ortega, who specializes in cellular stress and damage response in kidney disease. 

Pictured from left to right: Dr. Schunke, Dr. Olivier Le Saux, Department Chair, Dr. Ortega, Dr. Pitts.

Dr. Jesse Owens wins highly competitive "dream grant" for gene therapy research.

• Dr. Jesse Owens secures NIH R01 grant to advance safer and more efficent gene editing tools.
• Building the tools that will make tomorrow's medicine possible.

JABSOM reaches a major milestone!

•  JABSOM is 60 years old!

$2.3M NIH grant renews support for diabetes research.

• The Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) has secured a $2.35 million renewal from NIH to continue their groundbreaking work through the Diabetes Research Center.

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has once again earned the highest research designation. 

• UH has once again received the Carnegie Foundation and American Council on Education’s top-tier designation, Research 1 (R1)

Read some exciting news about successful grant awards and data science projects involving Dr. Alex Stokes!

• UH part of consortium awarded $10M NSF alliance supporting data science in Hawaiʻi
• $1.5M STEM scholarships to advance future biologists with data science skills(opens in a new tab)
• $300K to teach data science for the jobs of the future