Beginning July 1, James M. Musser, M.D., Ph.D., becomes the 2018-2019 president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).

FASEB represents 125,000 national and international biomedical scientists and is recognized as the key policy voice of biological and biomedical researchers around the world. FASEB interacts extensively with U.S. legislators, and leaders at the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and many other scientific funding agencies. FASEB plays an important role in advocating for enhanced funding to support US scientists.

Musser is chair of the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute and Houston Methodist Hospital. 

He is serving three years on the FASEB executive committee: 2017-2018 President-Elect, 2018-2019 President, and 2019-2020 immediate past-President.

Musser has earned international recognition for his research and contributions to the field of infectious diseases, pathology, and disease mechanisms. For the past 25 years, Musser’s research has focused on ways to defeat Group A Streptococcus (GAS) and other human bacterial pathogens. While some strains of GAS are responsible for common cases of strep throat, other more virulent strains can cause potentially deadly infections such as necrotizing fasciitis, or “flesh-eating” disease. There is currently no vaccine against GAS, but Musser and his team have collaborated with groups nationally and internationally to map the entire GAS genome.

In addition to receiving many national and international awards, Musser has published more than 400 research articles and book chapters.

For interview requests, contact Gale Smith at [email protected] or 281.627.0439. For more information on Houston Methodist, visit www.HoustonMethodist.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

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