By Lin Lofley

Dr. Carole Mendelson, Professor of Biochemistry, and of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will deliver the 2015 commencement address when UT Southwestern Medical Center honors graduates of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Graduate school exercises begin at 7 p.m. on May 28 in the Tom and Lula Gooch Auditorium on South Campus.

Degrees will be conferred to 105 graduate students by Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern.

Dr. Mendelson joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 1978. Her research interests include defining the mechanisms for developmental and hormonal regulation of surfactant production by the fetal lung, and the regulatory mechanisms for maintenance of uterine inactivity during pregnancy and activation of contractile genes leading to term and pre-term labor. The initiation of normal labor only occurs when the embryo is capable of surviving outside the womb.

Dr. Mendelson’s research has led to important discoveries into the signals and events that lead to labor’s initiation. In one investigation, she and her colleagues identified a protein released from the lungs of the developing mouse fetus that may be the key signal that initiates labor. This protein, called surfactant protein A (SP-A), is a component of pulmonary surfactant, a substance made by the lungs that is essential for normal breathing after birth.

In addition to her research, Dr. Mendelson co-chairs the Women in Science and Medicine Advisory Committee at UT Southwestern. She also serves on the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Training and Career Opportunities Subcommittee and on two national review committees for career development awards for young faculty.

Graduate school marshals are Associate Deans Dr. Stuart Ravnik and Dr. Nancy E. Street, as well as Assistant Deans Dr. Deirdre L. Brekken, and Dr. Lisa P. Gardner.