New faculty join UMMC academic ranks

Published on Monday, November 13, 2023

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

Dr. Lavanya Challagundla

Dr. Lavanya Challagundla, a bioinformatician in the Molecular and Genomics Core Facility (MGCF) at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an instructor of cell and molecular biology in the School of Medicine. 

She earned her PhD in biological sciences in 2013 at Mississippi State University after completing her B. Tech. (biotechnology) degree at the Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) in India.   

Challagundla is the coauthor of approximately 20 peer-review publications and has participated in more than 30 scientific presentations at regional, national and international conferences and meetings. She has received numerous academic and research honors and is a reviewer or editorial board member for several scientific journals.  

Challagundla is involved in performing standard and custom bioinformatics analysis of large genomic datasets generated in the MGCF. She is experienced in multiple programming languages, along with multiple analysis pipelines, including but not limited to metagenomics, population and phylogenomics, scRNA sequencing and data visualization of complex biological data. 

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Dr. Elisa Miguel-Qin

Dr. Elisa Miguel-Qin, recently a pediatrics resident at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of pediatrics-ambulatory in the School of Medicine. 

She earned a Master of Science in Biology-Medical Sciences at Mississippi College in Clinton before graduating in 2020 from the UMMC School of Medicine. 

At the Medical Center, she has taken on leadership and teaching roles and has been active in community service and volunteering for health care initiatives directed toward the underserved. 

Miguel-Qin has research experience in the areas of pulmonology and pharmacology/toxicology and has co-authored professional publications and presented at professional conferences.  

She holds a Neonatal Resuscitation Program certification and is also certified in pediatric advanced life support and basic life support.  

Dr. Zachary S. Smalley

Dr. Zachary S. Smalley, recently a neurological surgery resident at UMMC, has joined the Medical Center faculty as an assistant professor of neurosurgery in the School of Medicine. 

Smalley, who earned his medical degree in 2016 at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, completed a neurocritical care fellowship at UMMC before his residency. 

He is the co-author of several publications in peer-reviewed journals and has made a number of Grand Rounds presentations, poster presentations and invited lectures.  

Smalley is licensed in basic life support and advanced cardiac life support. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons,  Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and Neurocritical Care Society.