Associate Dean for Research

The Office of the Associate Dean for Research (OADR) oversees and enhances research endeavors from all 13 departments at JABSOM and over 12 centers and institutes. It also oversees master’s and doctoral degree programs and related certificate programs offered by five JABSOM departments. The role of the OADR is to drive strategy, assist research with facilities and administrative needs, and celebrate research discoveries.

The OADR was established to support JABSOM’s efforts to grow its research portfolio and support its research endeavors, partnerships, and graduate training programs. Research is recognized as an essential component for accreditation of the medical school. Further, research addresses the critical need for the translation of research findings into medical practice to improve health outcomes for our local community. As a community-based medical school, this involves substantial partnerships with all our local hospitals and clinics.

Dr. Mariana Gerschenson is Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). She completed her doctoral training at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Experimental Pathology. She pursued her postdoctoral work in the Department of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. She then worked at the National Cancer Institute and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute for six-years in Bethesda, Maryland and joined the University of Hawaiʻi in 2002. Dr. Gerschenson is a tenured Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. She leads a federally-funded translational research program to understand the mitochondrial mechanisms of cardiovascular and metabolic disease (including lipoatrophy, insulin resistance, diabetes, and hepatic steatosis) and neurological diseases, e.g. peripheral neuropathy and dementia.

Mariana Gerschenson