IACUC Chair Announcement

David P. Norton, Vice President for Research

I am pleased to announce that Kerri O’Malley, Ph.D., research assistant professor of vascular surgery in the UF College of Medicine, has accepted the position of chair of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), effective July 1, 2023.

Dr. O’Malley has been a member of the UF IACUC since 2019, and a vice chair since 2022.  As an IACUC member, she has demonstrated commitment to animal welfare, regulatory compliance, collaborating with researchers to facilitate research within the regulations, and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the IACUC. She has been a member of the VA IACUC since 2013, and continues to serve both the UF and VA communities.

Dr. O’Malley received her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. Subsequently, she performed her postdoctoral research in trauma and sepsis as an NIH T32 fellow at UF in the laboratory of Lyle Moldawer, Ph.D., former IACUC vice-chair.  She was later appointed as research assistant professor in the Department of Vascular Surgery. With over 50 research publications, Dr. O’Malley’s current research interests include how inflammation affects surgical outcomes subsequent to vascular surgery, particularly with respect to intimal hyperplasia development following vein bypass and endovascular procedures, as well as the role of both inflammation and mitochondrial energetics in fistula patency. This builds upon her previous research experience, including hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury, sepsis, and hematopoietic stem cell development. She has previously been funded as a Florida DOH new investigator and an NIH U01 co-investigator. She has served as managing director of an NSF IUCRC as well as consultant to industry partners on murine models of surgery.

Dr. O’Malley succeeds Dr. Rebecca Kimball, professor of biology, who has served as interim IACUC chair since November 2022.