Connecting BRITE People

The Biomedical Research, Innovation, Training, and Employment (BRITE) Consortium trains students for biomedical research careers, facilitates research collaborations between researchers (on campus and stimulate interactions with off-campus partners), trains research mentors in how to prepare students for biomedical research careers, and serves as a hub to spin out many training and research grants, especially from the National Institutes of Health.

Biomedical research encompasses diverse fields across multiple colleges. BRITE has a goal of connecting members within the university and with outside community collaborators. Current SHSU college partners include the College of Sciences and Engineering Technology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Health Sciences, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

News

• Congratulations to BRITE Co-Director Sharmin Hassan, who was recently awarded a SHSU 2025 BRIDGE 2.0 Center of Excellence Award. Dr. Hassan and her team’s winning $250K proposal established the university’s Aging Research Collaborative (ARC), a multidisciplinary service dedicated to advancing research, education, and community engagement in healthy aging. Along with Hasan, the ARC will be led by co-principal investigators Berna Abed El Sater (Nutrition) and Khalid M. Khan (Public Health, also a BRITE Executive Member). Their leadership is supported by a multidisciplinary team of investigators, including Harsh Buddhadev (Kinesiology), Owen Kelly (Nutrition, College of Osteopathic Medicine), James Harper (Biological Sciences & BRITE Executive Member), Hosam Abdelhady (Physiology & Pharmacology, COM), and Dr. Tze-Li Hsu (Sociology). The grant was announced 9/12/2025.
• Congratulations to BRITE Co-Director Donovan Haines and his colleagues, Adrian Villalta-Cerdas and Dustin Gross, in the SHSU Department of Chemistry, along with Lydia Fox, for being awarded a $2M National Science Foundation S-STEM grant (#2527247) "Scholarships, Mentoring, and Research Training: A Chemistry Program at Sam Houston State University". The award, under the leadership of Dr. Villalta-Cerdas, will provide extensive financial support and training for undergraduates in the department. The grant starts 10/1/25.
• Congratulations to BRITE Executive Members Jim Harper (SHSU Biology) and David Thompson (SHSU Chemistry), co-Directors of the SHSU STEM Center. They, along with their colleagues Praphul Joshi, Tracey Hodges, and Falguni Mukherjee, have been awarded a $1M National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education (NSF-IGE) grant "IGE Track 2: Improving STEM Graduate Student Success and Workforce Readiness at a Regional R2 Public University", grant #2529993. This IGE project will inform institutional strategies for strengthening STEM pathways, contribute to the development of a technically skilled, industry-aligned workforce, and generate knowledge on STEM graduate education interventions. The project embeds structured career exploration, applied skills development, and mentoring into existing graduate pathways to improve transitions into and through STEM graduate programs. The grant started 9/1/25.
• Dr. Hassan has been working hard, and her group has two recent papers to pass along:
  • Mendoza, A., Nassar, K.M., Marston, M. et al. Role of DENN Domain-Containing Protein 5b (dennd5b) during early embryonic development of zebrafish. Mol Biol Rep 52, 947 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-025-11023-y
  • Alam, S.; Duncan, D.; Hasan, S. Profilin and Non-Canonical Wnt Signaling: Coordinating Cytoskeletal Dynamics from Development to Disease. J. Dev. Biol. 13, 31 (2025). https://doi.org/10.3390/jdb13030031

BRITE Consortium Events and Programs

• Visit us at our table at Lone Star College - Montgomery's Texas Gulf Coast Biotechnology & Biomanufacturing Education Conference on Saturday, October 18th in The Woodlands!

Select SHSU Events

Are you a current SHSU Faculty, Staff, or Student? You may be interested in our intranet BRITE Consortium News site.

Want more information about the BRITE Consortium or have a question? Email us at brite@shsu.edu.

Want to join BRITE, associate as an external partner or collaborator, or talk about sponsoring student or mentor training opportunities? Please use this form to let us know.

For additional help or questions, please contact us at: brite@shsu.edu.