I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was nice to have a couple of days to get caught up on things over the holiday weekend.

At the beginning of November, several of my colleagues and I went to the AAMC Annual Meeting in Boston, which was excellent. I visited with a few of the LCME site team members who were here for our accreditation visit last spring, and they were very complimentary of the college. Of course I believe we have a great medical school, but it was nice to hear it from our contemporaries. In addition, we had an enjoyable dinner at Legal Sea Foods for all COM faculty and staff that were in Boston for the meeting. It is always fun to get together outside the office in a relaxed atmosphere.

I recently had lunch with Congressman Chet Edwards. He is highly supportive of the College of Medicine and I am hopeful he will be able to champion our cause in Washington.

Happy Holidays to all of you and thanks for all your hard work this year!

Undergraduate Medical Academy Signing Ceremony

Prairie View A&M University welcomed representatives from the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (HSC) and College of Medicine for the Undergraduate Medical Academy signing ceremony Monday, Nov. 29. The ceremony signified our official partnership and commitment to preparing undergraduate students for careers in medicine.

The academy, which currently has 18 students, provides opportunities for hands-on training and research with our basic science faculty here in College Station and clinical faculty at the Temple campus. Prairie View students interested in pursuing a career in the medical field can receive assistance in preparing for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and applying for medical school, as well as glimpse what the medical profession is like at an up close and personal level.

COM Faculty Named “Texas Super Doctors”

Four faculty members from the College of Medicine were selected in their specialties as Texas Super Doctors in the December issue of Texas Monthly. Fewer than three percent of the doctors in Texas were selected!

Congratulations to
Dr. Kirby Hitt in Orthopedic Surgery, Temple
Dr. William Rayburn in Ob/Gyn, College Station
Dr. Veronica Piziak in Endocrinology, Temple
Dr. Jose F. Pliego in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Temple

In the spring of 2004, Key Professional Media (Consumer Research Council) asked more than 52,000 Texas physicians who they would refer a loved one or patient to for medical diagnosis and/or treatment. The research team also identified Texas doctors who had achieved special recognition from their peers and/or had demonstrated other indicators of expertise in their specialties.

Congratulations to Drs. Hitt, Rayburn, Piziak and Pliego!

Dean’s Annual Holiday Luncheon

We held the Dean’s Annual Holiday Luncheon Monday, November 22, 2004 from 11:30 - 1:00 p.m. in the lobby of the Reynolds Medical Building. Approximately 270 faculty, staff and students attended the event.

In following the tradition of the dean’s staff acting as servers for the meal, Dr. McCallum, Dr. Tommerdahl, Doug Venuti, Dr. Hester, Dr. Green, Filo Maldonado, Dr. Fallon, Dr. Quarles, Tom Pool and I dished out the traditional turkey dinner catered by Buppy’s. The peach cobbler was a big hit and the pecan pie was a close runner up!

We received many compliments on the event, the quality of the food and the decorations. Overall, I would say this year’s luncheon was a great success from start to finish!

Special thanks to Monica Krenz, Brenda Long, Kathy Warren and Sandy Bruno for their excellent planning.

Humanities in Medicine

Medical Ethics Grand Rounds

The Department of Humanities in Medicine hosted the Ethics Grand Round and Internal Medicine Lecture November 1 at Scott & White. The speaker was Victor Sierpina, MD. His title for the lecture was “Cultural Aspects of Medicine." Dr. Sierpina was also a guest speaker at the Department of Humanities in Medicine Consultation held November 1 in Salado. The next Ethics Grand Round Lecture will be Monday, December 6, at noon in the Sid Richardson Auditorium in Temple with the Medicine and Humanities Consultation to follow at 1:30 p.m. in Salado. Please contact the Department of Humanities in Medicine for further information. 2004 McGovern Award Lectureship

The Department of Humanities in Medicine held the 2004 McGovern Award Lectureship in the Art and Science of Medicine October 26. The speaker was Randolph B. Schiffer, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Vernon & Elizabeth Haggerton Chair in Neurology, Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at Texas Tech University Health Science Center. The title of his lecture was “Doctors’ Mistakes; The Matrication of the Patient, Category Errors in the Care of the Sick." Students from the classes of 2007 and 2008 visited with Dr. Schiffer and his wife Lynn Bickley, M.D. at a reception held immediately after the lecture in the College of Medicine lobby.

Faculty Development

Drs. Paul Ogden, Jeremy Gibson, and Darrell Crisp updated clinical faculty in Temple on evaluation of medical students and residents and how to integrate cutting edge technology into their teaching methodology October 22. Dr. Ogden's and Gibson's presentations were videotaped by Dr. Crisp; the audio/video merged with their Power Point slides for posting on the web. Dr. Crisp also taught faculty how to use video clips of patients with unique disorders to supplement student learning.

Drs. Ben Green, Mark Via, and Paul Ogden presented a faculty development conference in Corpus Christi entitled "Helping Medical Students and Residents Learn in a Clinical Setting" to the Coastal Bend and Rural Track COM faculty October 23. Dr. Green introduced them to the history and programs of the College of Medicine and recent trends in medical education. Dr. Via presented an overview of Evidence Based Medicine and Dr. Paul Ogden taught efficient clinical teaching, evaluation and feedback.

Educational Evaluation

Drs. Ben Green and Sandra Oliver presented, “A Commitment to Quality Clerkships through Internal Review” at the 24th Annual Conference of The Generalist in Medical Education November 5 in Boston.

The COM also had two posters at the 29th Annual Session of Innovations in Medical Education Exhibits at the AAMC:

1) " Educating Medical Students About Weapons of Mass Destruction and Bioterrorism - An All Hazards Approach;” authors: Drs. Alan Parrish, Sandra Oliver, Donald Jenkins, Bruce Ruscio, Ben Green and Christopher Colenda.

2) “A Triangularion Method of Course Evaluation;" authors: Drs. Tom Peterson, Kelly Hester, Ben Green and Rebecca Baker.

RESEARCH

Cardiovascular Research Institute

Drs. Mohammad Forough and Janet Parker received a $124,000 American Heart Association, Texas Affiliate grant entitled “Fibroblast growth factor-1 signaling in angiogenesis” for the period 07/01/04-06/30/06.

Drs. Cindy Meininger and Guoyao Wu received the following three grants: a $363,750 National Institutes of Health R21 grant entitled “Oxidative stress and pteridine metabolism in diabetes” for the period 07/01/04-06/30/06; a $55,000 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation grant entitled “Development of an endothelium-targeting DNA-nanoparticle to reverse diabetic vascular complications” for the period 07/01/04-06/30/05; and a $15,000 Texas A&M University Health Science Center Research Development Grant entitled “Development of an endothelium-targeting DNA-nanoparticle to reverse diabetic vascular complications” for the period 2004-2005.

Drs. Mack Wu and Gerry Meininger received a $1,636,875 National Institutes of Health grant entitled “VEGF regulation of microvascular permeability” for the period 07/01/04-06/30/09. Drs. Emily Wilson and Jay Humphrey received a $388,750 National Institutes of Health R21 grant entitled “Fibrillin-1 and pressure-induced arterial remodeling” for the period 07/01/04-06/30/06.

Medical Pharmacology and Toxicology

Dr. Gerald D. Frye submitted a competing renewal for NIH-NIAAA with Jennifer L. Bixon, William H. Griffith, Alan R. Parrish and Warren Zimmer entitled “CNS development, GABAARs and vulnerability to ethanol for the period 7/01/05 – 6/30/10. Total direct costs are $1,025,000; total costs are $1,480,000.

FACULTY

Cardiovascular Research Institute

Dr. Mike Davis presented “Regulation of smooth muscle calcium channels by integrins and extracellular matrix” to the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Missouri in Columbia, July 12-14.

Dr. Mohammad Forough presented “Molecular mechanisms of fibroblast growth factor-1 signaling” at t he University of Texas Health Science Center in Tyler, June 21-23 and “Molecular mechanisms of FGF-1 in angiogenesis” to the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Scott & White, September 1.

Dr. Mariappan Muthuchamy presented “Thin filament regulatory mechanisms in cardiac muscle” presented at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio August 13-20.

Dr. Thomas Peterson, Dr. James Baker, Dr. Kelly Hester and Dr. Ben Green presented “A comprehensive course evaluation system utilizing combined on-line student and faculty evaluations, student performance measures and course director meetings” at the International Association of Medical Science Educators Annual Meeting in New Orleans in July.

Dr. Cindy Meininger attended the National Institutes of Health, Member - Clinical Studies Subcommittee D, Program Project Initial Review Group, National Cancer Institute, Washington, DC, September 2004.

Dr. Gerry Meininger participated in the NIH Study Section “Musculoskeletal and Skin Sciences – Reparative Medicine” in Arlington, Virginia July 12-14 and the NIH Study Section “Shared Instrumentation”, in Washington, DC, September 1-3.

Dr. Emily Wilson was an Invited Session Moderator for the Adhesion Molecules Session at the Gordon Conference “Mechanisms of Toxicity” in Waterville, Maine July 24-30.

Medical Pharmacology and Toxicology

Dr. George Chiou presented “Treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with NO related agents” to China Pharmaceutical University Nov. 8 and “Clinical trial and treatment of AMD” to Nanjing Medical College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, both in Nanjing.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Cardiovascular Research Institute

Chao J-T, Meininger GA, Patterson JL, Jones SAL, Partridge CR, Neiger JD, Williams ES, Kaufman SJ, Ramos KS and Wilson E. Regulation of a7-integrin expression in vascular smooth muscle by injury-induced atherosclerosis. Am J Physiol (Heart and Circ Physiol) 287: H381-H389, 2004.

Gashev AA, Davis MJ, Delp MD and Zawieja DC. Regional variations of contractile activity in isolated rat lymphatics. Microcirculation. 2004. 11 (6) 477-492.

Jones SA, Patterson JL, Chao J-T, Ramos KS and Wilson E. Modulation of cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor proteins and ERK 1/2 activity in allylamine-injured vascular smooth muscle cells. J Cell Biochem 91: 1248- 1259, 2004.

Tong C, Gaffin R, Zawieja D, Muthuchamy M. Roles of phosphorylation of myosin binding protein-C and troponin I in mouse cardiac muscle twitch dynamics. J Physiol 558.3: 927-941, 2004.

Family and Community Medicine

Norris M, Arnau R, Bramson R, Meagher M. “The Efficacy of Somatic Symptoms in Assessing
Depression in Older Primary Care Patients." The Clinical Gerontologist, 2004, 27(1/2): 43.

Edwards J, van Walsum K, Sanders C, Fossum T, Sadoski M, Bramson R, Wiprud R: “Attitudes of Veterinary Medical Students and Medical Students Toward Collaborative Learning: An Experiment.” Journal of Veterinary Medical Education, Spring 2004; 31(1): 76-78.

Medical Biochemistry and Genetics

Smith, J.J., J.S. Yakisich* (co-first author), E. Cole, G.M. Kapler and D.P. Romero (2004) A b_tubulin mutation selectively uncouples nuclear division and cytokinesis in Tetrahymena. Eukaryotic Cell 3:1217-1226.

Yakisich, J.S. and G.M. Kapler (2004) Role of the PI3-kinase pathway in programmed nuclear death and the fate of pharmacologically-induced survival nuclei in Tetrahymena thermophila. Cell Death and Differentiation 10:1146-1149.

Medical Pharmacology and Toxicology

Han, S.-H., Murchison, D., and Griffith, W.H. Low voltage-activated calcium currents and fast tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium current identify cholingergic and noncholinergic cell types of the rat basal forebrain. Molecular Brain Research (in press).

Hsu, Y.J., Zimmer, W.E., and Goodman, S.R. Erythrocyte Spectrin’s Chimeric E2/E3 Ubiquitin Conjugating/Litgating Activity. Cell Mol. Biol., in press.

Dates to Remember

• December 7 – Holiday Reception in Temple, 5 p.m.

• December 17 - HSC Holiday Open House, 10 a.m.

• December 17 – Dean’s Holiday Dinner in Temple, 6:30 p.m.

• December 20 – COM Holiday Reception, 3-4 p.m.

• January 27 – Mini-Medical School: Session 1 with Dr. Don DiPette, 6:30-8 p.m.

• January 28 – Strategic Planning Retreat at Pebble Creek in College Station, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Christopher C. Colenda, M.D., M.P.H.
Dean, College of Medicine
The Texas A&M University Health Science Center
147 Joe H. Reynolds Medical Building College Station, TX 77843-1114
Phone:979-845-3431
Fax:979-847-8663
Email: Colenda@medicine.tamhsc.edu