USU Researcher Dr. Thomas Davis Earns Top Honors for Contributions to Military Health System
Dr. Thomas Davis, professor and vice chair of Research in the Uniformed Services University’s Department of Surgery, has earned the Military Health System Research Symposium’s (MHSRS) Distinguished Service Award
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USU's Dr. Thomas Davis received the Military Health System Research Symposium's Distinguished Service Award this week. The award recognizes his contributions to research, focused specifically on the unique medical needs of the warfighter. (Photo credit: Sarah Marshall, USU) |
August 14, 2023 by Sarah Marshall
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Dr. Thomas Davis (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU) |
For his tremendous contributions focused specifically on the unique medical needs of the warfighter, the professor and vice chair of Research in the Uniformed Services University’s (USU) Department of Surgery has earned the Military Health System Research Symposium’s (MHSRS) Distinguished Service Award. Davis accepted the honors during a ceremony Aug. 14 at the MHSRS annual conference in Orlando.
MHSRS is the Department of Defense’s foremost scientific meeting, and provides a collaborative setting for thousands of scientists and academic researchers to present new knowledge of military-specific medical research. The conference also recognizes the most notable accomplishments by military and civilian researchers through a number of awards. The Distinguished Service Award, in particular, highlights substantial contributions to advance the growth of Military Health System research, as well as outstanding leadership and service to the nation.
“I’m deeply honored to receive this award. More importantly, I did not achieve this on my own,” Davis said. “There’s a wealth of people who have helped me along the way throughout my career. It is because of their collaborations, their mentorship, and their friendships, that I consider this a multifaceted award.”
Davis has dedicated more than 42 years to the fields of immune modulation, immunotherapy, radiation injury, stem cell research, experimental hematology, wound healing, and transplantation biology. He has focused the bulk of his career on understanding how the body biologically responds to severe combat-related injuries.
In 1981, he started his federal service as a full time undergraduate research fellow at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, which is now part of USU but was then under the Department of Energy. He later became a research hematologist at the Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI). In 1995, he was recruited as an adjunct assistant professor of Medicine at USU, and later concurrently served as the head of the Stem Cell Biology Branch at NMRI. After a brief stint as a researcher in the private medical industry, Davis returned to serve for nearly a decade as the Chief Senior Scientist, before becoming the Science Director for four years in the Naval Medical Research Center’s Regenerative Medicine Department. Davis then left there to become the Vice Chair for Research and the Scientific Director of the Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine lab in the USU Department of Surgery.
A respected and valued research educator and mentor, Davis has also been the recipient or co-recipient of dozens of grants, including more than 15 competitive grants within the last five years alone. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters in high-impact journals on combat casualty-relevant topics, and holds five unique patents related to cell amplification, and immunotolerance.
Among his many achievements throughout his career, Davis developed an immune-booster used on the battlefield, which received FDA approval. He also helped lay the foundation upon which USU’s Surgical Critical Care Initiative (SC2i) was built, which has allowed for multiple ongoing, multi-center prospective clinical studies and trials. He has also made significant breakthroughs in understanding heterotopic ossification – a debilitating condition that tends to develop after severe local and systemic trauma, impacting about two-thirds of blast-injured combat casualties.
Army Col. (Dr.) Benjamin “Kyle” Potter, chair of USU’s Department of Surgery, nominated Davis for the MHSRS award. He noted Davis has made many profound contributions to the Military Health System, and has mentored more than a generation of clinician-scientists coming up through the military ranks.
“He has really helped pave the way for the future of military medical research by furthering the career and advancing the intellectual capacity of people who are now clinician-scientists,” Potter said. “He has also moved the needle with regard to our understanding of combat wound health and combat-related heterotopic ossification.”
Dr. Eric Elster, dean of USU’s School of Medicine, shared similar sentiments. As an individual investigator, he said, Davis has made significant contributions to understanding the immune response to injury and understanding the science behind formation of heterotopic ossification, which is a critical issue for wounded warriors. By understanding the biology behind the body’s response to injury, he added, this opens up new avenues for treatment and, ultimately, better ways of taking care of patients.
“It’s a privilege and honor to work with Dr. Davis, as a colleague, as a friend, as an investigator,” Elster said. “I look forward to doing more great work with him.”
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USU’s Dr. Thomas Davis received the Military Health System Research Symposium’s Distinguished Service Award this week. Davis is a respected and valued research educator and mentor with more than 42 years of experience working in the field of immunotherapy, radiation injury, stem cell research, and wound healing. (Photo credit: Sarah Marshall, USU) |
