José M. Barral, MD, PhD

Biography

Chair of Biomedical Science; Professor

Biomedical Science

Before joining Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Dr. José Barral served as tenured Professor and Vice Chair for Operations in the Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Anatomy; Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; and Director of the MD-PhD Combined Degree Program at the University of Texas Medical Branch. As the school’s Chair of Biomedical Science, Dr. Barral collaborates with the Clinical Science and Health Systems Science Departments to lead faculty members in developing and implementing our medical school curriculum, which incorporates concepts and skills from each of these three major disciplines. His commitment to education and research has been recognized by several awards and appointments, and his work has been published in many prestigious journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell.

Education and Training

Degrees: MD, Escuela de Medicina Ignacio A. Santos, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)
PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Fellowship: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry

Professional Positions

Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track: Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch; 2005-2012

Associate Professor, Tenured: Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch; 2012-2016

Member, Academy of Master Teachers: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2013-2018

Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2014-2015

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2015-2018

Vice-Chair for Operations, Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Anatomy: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2015-2018

Professor, Tenured, Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Anatomy: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2016-2018

Director ad interim, MD-PhD Combined Degree Program: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2017-2018

Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2018

Member: University of Texas System Kenneth I. Shine, MD, Academy of Health Science Education; 2018

Director, MD-PhD Combined Degree Program: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2018

Chair of Biomedical Science; Professor: Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine; 2020-present

Honors and Awards

Prof. John J. Trentin Award for Scholastic Excellence: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; 1996

Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award for outstanding achievement during Graduate Studies in the Biological Sciences: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington; 2001

Pew Scholar: Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, San Francisco, California; 2006

Basil O’Connor Scholar: March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, White Plains, New York; 2008

Jimmy Doyle Dickens Memorial Faculty Award: School of Medicine, UTMB (selected by students; regarded as "best teacher" award); 2013-2017

The Dr. Leon Bromberg Professorship for Excellence in Teaching in Memory of Truman Graves Blocker, Jr., MD: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2015

The Hiram and Gloria Arnold Endowed Professorship for Teaching Excellence: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2017

The John Sealy Distinguished Chair for MD-PhD Combined Degree Studies in Honor of Dr. Truman G. Blocker: University of Texas Medical Branch; 2017

Member: The University of Texas System Kenneth I. Shine, MD Academy of Health Science Education; 2018

Scholarly Activities

Peer-reviewed research manuscripts

Barral, J.M.; Hutagalung, A.H.; Brinker, A.; Hartl, F.U. and Epstein, H.F. Role of the myosin assembly protein UNC-45 as a molecular chaperone for myosin. Science 295: 669-671 (2002).
Agashe, V.R.; Guha, S.; Chang, H.-C.; Genevaux, P.; Hayer-Hartl, M.; Stemp, M.; Georgopoulos, C.; Hartl, F.U. and Barral, J.M. Function of trigger factor and DnaK in multi-domain protein folding: Increase in yield at the expense of folding speed. Cell 117:199-209 (2004).
Hoppe, T.; Cassata, G.; Barral, J.M.; Springer, W.; Hutagalung, A.H.; Epstein, H.F. and Baumeister, R. Regulation of the myosin-directed chaperone UNC-45 by a novel E3/E4-multiubiquitylation complex in C. elegans. Cell 118:337-349 (2004).
Kaiser, C.M.; Chang, H.C., Agashe, V.R.; Lakshmipathy, S.K., Etchells, S.; Hayer-Hartl, M.; Hartl, F.U. and Barral, J.M. Real time observation of Trigger factor function on translating ribosomes. Nature 444:455-460; (2006).
Siller, E.; DeZwaan, D.C.; Anderson, J.F.; Freeman, B.C. and Barral, J.M. Slowing bacterial translation speed enhances eukaryotic protein folding efficiency. J. Mol. Biol. 396:1310-1308 (2010).
Anderson, J.F.; Siller, E. and Barral, J.M. The neurodegenerative disease-related protein sacsin is a molecular chaperone. J. Mol. Biol. 411:870-880 (2011).
Spencer, P.S.; Siller, E.; Anderson, J.F. and Barral, J.M. Silent substitutions predictably alter translation elongation rates and protein folding efficiencies. J. Mol. Biol. 422:328-335 (2012).
Zhou, M.; Guo, J.; Cha, J.; Chae, M.; Chen, S.; Barral, J.M.; Sachs, M.S.; and Liu, Y. Non-optimal codon usage determines the expression, structure and function of a circadian clock protein. Nature 495:111–115 (2013).
Kim, S.J.; Yoon, J.S.; Shishido, H.; Yang, Z.; Rooney, L.; Barral, J.M. and Skach, W.R. Translational tuning optimizes nascent protein folding in cells. Science 348:444–448 (2015).

Educational publications, abstracts and presentations

Barral, J.M. and Buck, E. What, how and why is problem-based learning in medical education? ASBMB Today. 12:34-35 (2013).
Barral, J.M. and Buck, E. Integrating Basic Science and Clinical Teaching Using Problem Based Learning. International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Meeting, Nashville, Tennessee, June 8, 2014.
Barral, J.M. and Rampy, A. PowerPoint-Based Assessment of Microscopic Anatomy Knowledge and Skills. International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Meeting, San Diego, California, June 13-16, 2015.
Barral, J.M. and Niesel, D.W. Recalibrating Biomedical Science Education. Poster presentation. NIGMS Symposium on Catalyzing the Modernization of Graduate Education, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, April 11, 2016.
Peng, B.-H., Coggeshall, R.E. and Barral, J.M. Narrated Animated Videos for Self-Learning of Histology. Oral presentation (by Dr. Peng). International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Meeting, Burlington, Vermont, June 10-13, 2017.
Barral, J.M., Niesel, D.W., Peek, K., Howrey, B.T. and Fowler, G.A. An Interactive Competency Approach to Career Exploration and IDP Implementation. Poster presentation. Future of Bioscience Graduate and Postdoctoral Training Conference, University of Colorado Denver-Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, Colorado, June 8-10, 2017.
Aronson, J., Ainsworth, A., Morey, O., Barral, J., Perez, N., Rudnicki, A. Launch Ramp: An expanded prematriculation course to introduce competency based medical education. Poster presented at the 21st Annual International Association of Medical Science Educators Meeting, Burlington, Vermont, June 10-13, 2017.
Barral, J.M. Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques: Unsolved Challenges in Healthcare Education. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Technology (SIGGRAPH), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, August 12-16, 2018.