Basic Sciences and Translational Research – Team Members
Kathryn Verbanac, PhD
Kathryn Verbanac, PhD, Professor of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research, REDE. Dr. Verbanac has been engaged in research, teaching, mentoring and leadership activities at ECU. Her cancer research in the division of Surgical Oncology is from the perspective of a biochemist and immunologist with a focus on translational research. Dr. Verbanac notably led a federally funded, practice-changing multicenter breast cancer sentinel node trial. This trial also identified tumor markers in the lymph nodes and blood of breast cancer patients in order to decrease morbidity, improve both staging and detection of relapse, and guide therapy. She continues to gather long-term follow-up health status on these study patients. In collaboration with Dr. Vohra, she has initiated RNASeq analysis of banked clinical tumor and sentinel node samples. They hypothesize that molecular characterization of the sentinel node(s) will provide distinctive, clinically relevant information about the cancer patient’s immune response. Dr. Verbanac’s current bench research is focused on understanding the complex factors that regulate tumor progression, with a focus on triple negative breast cancer. She has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications that have had translational impact in the fields of development and disease and has received $7 million dollars in grant funding from multiple sponsors, including the NCBC, American Cancer Society, Ortho Diagnostics, Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the DoD as PI. She has collaborated as Co-I and Co-PI with ECU faculty on multiple interdisciplinary NIH-funded research projects. Dr. Verbanac was appointed Director of the ECU Office of Postdoctoral Affairs in the Division of Research, Economic Development and Engagement in 2013 and appointed Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Research in 2018, after serving in an interim capacity. Prior to joining ECU, Verbanac was Project Leader of Cancer Radioimmunotherapy in the Bioproducts laboratory at the Dow Chemical Company. Dr. Verbanac’s honors for research include the ECU Sigma Xi Helms Faculty Research Award and the UNC Wolff-Hulka Innovators Award. In recognition of her teaching and mentorship, she has been awarded the ECU Scholar-Teacher award, ECU Woman of Distinction Award and Brody Women Faculty Advocacy Award.
Nasreen Vohra, MD, FACS
Nasreen Vohra, MD, FACS, Associate Professor of Surgery, Director, North Carolina Tissue Consortium, Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery.Dr. Vohra is a surgical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, sarcoma, breast cancer and gastrointestinal malignancies including cancers of the pancreas, liver and bile duct. She is also actively involved in pursuing translational research in tumor immunology. Her primary research focus is to interrogate the immune response both within the tumor and the tumor-draining lymph nodes with the ultimate goal of optimizing immunotherapy in a variety of cancers. Along with her collaborator, Dr. Verbanac, Dr. Vohra has initiated RNASeq analysis of banked clinical breast tumor and sentinel node samples with a hypothesis that molecular characterization of the sentinel node(s) will provide distinctive, clinically relevant information about the cancer patient’s immune response. In addition to pursuing her passions of oncologic surgery and translational cancer research, she also directs the North Carolina Tissue Consortium at ECU and is actively involved in facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations and translational research. Dr. Vohra plays an active role in bringing state of the art clinical care to her patients as well as performing regionally relevant health services and clinical research. She is the institutional principal investigator for a number of national clinical trials in oncology.
Eric A. Toschlog, MD, FACS, FCCM
Eric A. Toschlog, MD, FACS, FCCM: Professor, Chief of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at ECU. Dr. Toschlog is a Professor and Director of Surgical Critical Care in the Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma & Surgical Care, The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine in 1993. He completed residency and was named Chief Resident in General Surgery at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York, New York in 1998. He and completed a Fellowship in Surgical Critical Care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr Toschlog is interested in clinical research in general surgery and injury, and both clinical and basic science research in surgical critical care. He is board-certified in General Surgery and Critical Care.
Walter J. Pories, MD, FACS
Walter J. Pories, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery, Biochemistry and Kinesiology at East Carolina University (ECU). After graduation from Wesleyan University as an art major, he received his MD with Honors at the University of Rochester where he also completed his residency in general and cardiothoracic surgery. He was the first to report that zinc was an essential element not only for plants but also for animals and man. A pioneer in the development of bariatric surgery, he was the first to document that the gastric bypass produces rapid, full and durable remission of Type2 diabetes. His primary current research interest with over three decades of NIH funding is the pursuit of the molecular mechanisms underlying that disease.
He established and directed three cancer centers: at the University of Rochester, Case-Western Reserve and East Carolina University. He also served as President of the Society for Environmental Health and Geochemistry, the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, as the 2nd Vice President of the American College of Surgeons and Vice President of the Southern Surgical Association as well as editor-in- chief and associate editor of several journals. His multiple awards include the Oxford Cup, the highest national award of Beta Theta Pi and the Presidential Medal by The Obesity Society.
He retired from the US Army with the rank of Colonel after 24 years of service with the Legion of Merit and a Presidential Citation for the performance of the regiment under his command in the first Gulf War.
For fun, he publishes cartoons and tends to his farms that house cattle, goats, poultry deer and even a family of bears by the Tar River. He is married to Dr. Mary Ann Rose, Professor of Nursing. They have six children.