The Board of Regents approved the appointment of Dr. Thomas Shanley as associate dean for clinical and translational research at the Medical School, and director of the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research. The National Institutes of Health also approved Shanley as principal investigator for U-M’s Clinical & Translational Science Award.
“Dr. Shanley is an ideal choice to lead MICHR and continue to pursue our vision for enabling and enhancing clinical and translational research at U-M,” said Dr. Ora Pescovitz, chief executive officer of the U-M Health System and executive vice president for medical affairs. “His vast experience and proven leadership at Michigan are highly valued, and we look forward to his contributions to enhancing our clinical research enterprise.”
Shanley replaces Dr. Kenneth Pienta, who previously held both positions before he stepped down in April of this year.
Shanley is the Janette Ferrantino Professor of Pediatrics. Before being appointed associate dean, he was the director of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and the director of Clinical and Translational Research for the Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases.
As a pediatric intensive care physician, his clinical interests include management of critically ill children, notably those afflicted with hypoxemic respiratory failure from severe lung diseases and severe sepsis and septic shock triggered by infections.
Shanley’s research roots are at U-M, where he trained in the early to mid-1990s. His interests have spanned the translational spectrum from basic science investigation into the role of phosphatases in modulating inflammatory signal transduction pathways to translational research examining the genomics of pediatric sepsis. His laboratory currently is examining the effect of tight glucose control on the immune response in children undergoing oxidant stress related to cardiopulmonary bypass for heart surgery.
Shanley is the site principle investigator for the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive-Care Unit’s participation in the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development-sponsored Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network, which is studying a number of outcomes in critically ill children. He also is the site PI for a National Heart Lung and Blood Institute-sponsored clinical trial in sedation management for children needing prolonged mechanical ventilation. He has been involved in the mentoring of a number of post-doctoral trainees from a variety of clinical subspecialties and research departments.
