Roxanne Vaughan, PhD, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has accepted the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) invitation to serve as a member of the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR) Molecular Neuropharmacology and Signaling Study Section. Vaughan was selected on the basis of her demonstrated competence and achievement in her scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of her research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors.

The NIH’s Center for Scientific Review is the portal for NIH grant applications and their review for scientific merit. It organizes the peer-review groups or study sections that evaluate 70 percent of the research grant applications sent to the NIH, which is the nation’s medical research center and is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world.

“Service on a study section also requires mature judgment and objectivity as well as the ability to work effectively in a group,” said Toni Scarpa, MD, PhD, and director of the CSR, in his announcement to UND’s SMHS. “Qualities we believe Dr. Vaughan will bring to this important task.”

“Dr. Vaughan’s appointment speaks very highly of the regard that the science community has for her,” said Katherine Sukalski, PhD, associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Vaughan’s research focuses on the major role that dopamine, a critical neurotransmitter, plays in drug addiction. She earned her PhD in Zoology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Department of Biological Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Vaughan was a Senior Staff Fellow in the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology at the National Institute on Drug Abuse before her appointment at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences. 

“I am honored to be chosen for this assignment,” said Vaughan. “I hope that this will provide a platform for increasing the visibility of UND at the national level.”