Neurobiology postdoc fellow; orthopaedic, physics residents join faculty

Medical Center leadership is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff.

Lais Fernanda Berro, Ph.D.

Dr. Lais Fernanda Berro, recently a neurobiology and behavior postdoctoral fellow in the UMMC Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in psychiatry and human behavior.

After receiving her B.Sc. in biomedical sciences with highest honors in 2011 and her M.Sc. in psychobiology in 2014 at Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo, Brazil, Berro was an exchange Ph.D. student at Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, from 2014-16 and earned her Ph.D. from Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo in 2017. She then came to UMMC for her postdoctoral research fellowship, which she completed in 2020. She also has served as an adjunct professor of health sciences at Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil, since 2017.

An active member of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Berro serves on the Mississippi Sleep Society Board of Directors. She is a member of the editorial board of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, and has given 26 presentations at scientific meetings throughout the world.

She is the author or coauthor of 52 articles in peer-reviewed publications, four book chapters and 30 scientific abstracts. She received an Alkermes Pathways Research Award in 2018 and a K99/R00 award from the NIH/NIDA in 2020. Her research interests focus on sleep medicine, neuroscience and drug abuse, with emphasis on the relationship between sleep and drug addiction.

Marshall Gillette, M.D.

Dr. Marshall Gillette, recently an orthopaedic resident at the University of Toledo Medical Center, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in orthopaedic surgery.

After receiving his B.S. in biology and kinesiology cum laude from the University of Texas Pan-American, Edinburg, in 2010, Gillette obtained his M.S. in medical sciences from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, in 2011 and earned his M.D. at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, in 2015. He then had residency training in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Toledo Medical Center from 2015-20.

An Alpha Omega Alpha and Gold Humanism Honors Society inductee, Gillette is the author or coauthor of five articles in peer-reviewed professional journals, seven scientific presentations and one scientific abstract.

Kyle R. Jacobs, M.S.

Kyle Jacobs, recently a medical physics resident at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor in radiation oncology.

After receiving his B.S. in physics from Utah Valley University in 2014, Jacobs earned his M.S. in medical physics at the University of Arizona in 2016 while serving as a radiation oncology technician for Banner University Medical Center, Tucson.

He served as a product training physicist for Sun Nuclear Corporation from 2016-17 and as a medical physicist for Mountain States Medical Physics/Gamma West from 2017-18 before completing his physics residency at UMMC from 2018-20.