It's hard to believe that we are almost finished with another academic year! I know the students are excited to be completing another leg of their journey through medical school. It has been a great year, and I am excited about all the changes on the horizon at the COM. It is certainly an exciting time to be a part of the College of Medicine.

The month of May always brings lots of events as we celebrate the accomplishments of our students. I encourage all faculty and staff to attend these events that celebrate our students to show our support for them as they move to the next phase of their lives.

Several of my staff members and I have been working on a response letter to the LCME that is due May 1. This is a very important response letter as the LCME wants to know our specific plans for class size expansion, and how we plan to develop two 4-year campuses. They will evaluate our response and decide whether or not another visit to our campus is in order.

The Health Science Center has been conducting interviews for a Chief Information Officer this past month. They interviewed five candidates initially, and two of those were invited back for second interviews. Following the interview process, one of the finalists withdrew. We are waiting to hear about the status of the second candidate. Hopefully, we will have a new CIO in place soon!

The new HSC mark is officially in place. Everyone is required to use the new letterhead, business cards, etc. Also, all publications produced by the College are to have the new mark on them. If you have any questions regarding the use of the new mark, please contact Summer Morgan (slmorgan@medicine.tamhsc.edu).

Rattanasavanh Wins Employee of the Quarter Award

The winner of the 2006 first quarter Employee of the Quarter Award is Soumaly Rattanasavanh, a research assistant in the Department of Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis. Soumaly has worked in the lab of Dr. Jim Samuel for the last two years and manages daily operations, including the shipping of hazardous material.

Below are just a few comments from Soumaly's supervisors and co-workers:

"Soumaly has successfully helped manage a lab of 17 researchers, graduate students, post-docs, rotational students and four student workers. She is always a happy, cheerful person to be around and tends to make those around her smile."

"Soumaly is amazingly pleasant to everyone she interacts with and provides a model to everyone in the college of how to create a positive environment with a team spirit attitude."

"Soumaly is a highly motivated person, which shows a lot of effort, commitment and interest often beyond her job responsibilities. She is always a very friendly and supporting person."

"Soumaly is a joy to work with. She always has a smile on her face and is willing to help others."

For more information about the Employee of the Quarter Award or to fill out the nomination form, visit: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/communications/employee.htm.

Family & Community Medicine Hosts 2006 Preceptorship Dinner

The Department of Family & Community Medicine hosted the 2006 Preceptorship Dinner Tuesday, April 18 at the 7F Lodge in Wellborn. The annual event serves to recognize physicians in the community that serve as clinical preceptors for our medical students. Hosted by Drs. Rachel Bramson and Robert Wiprud, the physicians and their spouses were treated to dinner and an awards ceremony, as well as the announcement of the Preceptor of the Year awards.

The 2006 Preceptor of the Year recipients were: Suzanne Black, M.D., Terry Jenkins, M.D., George McIlhaney, M.D. and Adil Nicolwala, M.D. The Department of Family and Community Medicine greatly appreciates the efforts of the preceptor physicians who have served as mentors and teachers to the second-year medical students. These dedicated physicians have spent many Tuesday afternoons working with the students in their offices and in the hospitals. The following preceptors have shown the students how to interact with the patients and have guided the students as they begin their clinical careers:

Betty Acker, M.D.
Irfan Ahmed, M.D.
Margaret Appleton, M.D.
Russell Bacak, M.D.
Boone Barrow, M.D.
Jaime Benton, M.D.
Nancy Bertsch, M.D.
Russel Biles, M.D.
Suzanne Black, M.D.
Jennifer Blasingame, M.D.
Heidemarie Boas, RNC, MPH
Sheila Bonds, M.D.
Stephen Braden, M.D.
Rachel Bramson, M.D., M.S.
Duane Brieger, M.D.
Michael Brown, M.D.
Barry Bushmann, P.A.
Donna Canney, M.D.
A. Joseph Castiglioni, M.D.
Shao-Jen Chang, M.D.
Scott Chennault, D.O.
Maria Childs, M.D.
John Cochran, M.D.
Mahesh Dave, M.D.
Thomas Davis, Jr, M.D.
Andrew de Jong, M.D.
Shailesh Dhaduk, M.D.
Stephanie Eijsink, M.D.
Ibraham El Nihum, M.D.
Mark English, M.D.
Joseph Fedorchik, M.D.
Dayne Foster, M.D.
Lacrecia Foster, D.O.
Gerald Garwood, D.O.
Roland Garza, M.D.
Justin Gayle, M.D.
Donald Gehring, D.O.
Scott Goble, M.D.
Asha Haji, M.D.
Karim Haji, M.D.
Richard Herron, M.D.
Bruce Hoekstra, M.D.
Mark Higgins, M.D.
Steven Higginbotham, M.D.
Christopher Imperial, M.D.
Terry Jenkins, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Noreen Johnson, M.D.
Michael Jones, M.D.
Manuel Jose, M.D.
Ume-Haney Kakwan, M.D.
Frederick Kash, M.D.
James Kirby, M.D.
John Knight, M.D.
Gary Lambert, M.D.
Mario Lammoglia, M.D.
Daniel Larsen, M.D.
Glenn Lawrence, M.D.
Marcel Lechin, M.D.
Robert Levinthal, M.D.
Mark Lindsay, M.D.
Kelly Lobb, M.D.
Michael Marquardt, M.D.
Joseph Martin, D.O.
John Mason, M.D.
Adel Massoud, M.D.
Bryan Maupin, M.D.
George McIlhaney, M.D.
John McNew, M.D.
Tom Meade, M.D.
Arlene Meyer, M.D.
Christopher Miars, D.O.
Michael Miller, M.D.
Garth Morgan, M.D.
Mary Helen Morrow, M.D.
Peter Napoli, M.D.
Van Ngo, M.D.
Adil Nicolwala, M.D.
Zenia Nicolwala, M.D.
Steve Opersteny, M.D.
Audrey Ormberg, M.D.
Jesse Parr, M.D.
Kia Parsi, M.D.
Anila Patel, M.D.
Barry Paull, M.D.
Sini Poulose, D.O.
Matthew Poling, M.D.
Melissa Powell, M.D.
David Prier, M.D.
C.H. Prihoda, M.D.
Daniel Ransom, M.D.
Mark Richards, M.D.
George Richardson, M.D.
Wade Richardson, M.D.
Haywood Robinson, M.D.
Lowell Rollins, M.D.
Warren Roquet, M.D.
Michael Ruggiero, D.O.
Christopher Saenz, M.D.
Patricia Sammarelli, M.D.
A. Lee Schlichtemeier, M.D.
David Scott, M.D.
Rick Seabolt, M.D.
Pollachi Selvakumarraj, M.D.
Aiyanadar Shanmugam, M.D.
Nolan Shipman, M.D.
Troy Simon, M.D.
Charles Smith, M.D.
Randy Smith, M.D.
Richard Smith, M.D.
Barry Solcher, M.D.
James Sterling, D.O.
Barker Stigler, M.D.
Elizabeth Suarez, M.D.
Betty Svendsen, M.D.
Frederick Tan, M.D.
Grant Taylor, M.D.
Terri Tomlin, M.D.
Kumud Tripathy, M.D.
Roque Villarreal, M.D.
Jeffrey Waguespack, M.D.
Allen Wegener, M.D.
Kenneth Welch, M.D.
David Weldon, M.D.
Andrew Whitmire, M.D.
Robert Wiprud, M.D.
Ben Zivney, M.D.

Special thanks go to Michelle Jeter and Teri Musia for all their hard work in planning this event.

Class of 2006 Senior Banquet and Commencement

This year's Senior Banquet to honor the Class of 2006 will be held Friday, May 19 at Reed Arena. A social hour with cash bar will begin at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and the program at 7 p.m. For more information about Senior Banquet, contact the Office of Student Affairs in Temple at 254-724-0242.

Commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2006 will take place Saturday, May 20 at 2 p.m. in Rudder Auditorium. The 2006 commencement speaker will be John R. Stone, M.D., Ph.D., FACP, FACC. Dr. Stone is a physician and philosopher at the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care in Alabama. His research includes bioethics issues such as health inequalities and social justice, cross-cultural healthcare, race, diversity, the work of community health advisors, deliberative decision-making and issues in objectivity and empathy in clinical medicine. For more information about Commencement, contact the Office of Student Affairs in College Station at 979-845-7743.

2006 GSO Symposium

The Graduate Student Organization hosted the 11th Annual Student Research Symposium April 13 at the Reynolds Medical Building. Participants were judged on their poster and oral presentations, and were treated to a lecture entitled "Cellular Actions of Angiogenesis Inhibitors on Blood Vessels" from guest speaker Donald McDonald, M.D., Ph.D., who was visiting from the University of California – San Francisco.

This year's award winners were as follows:

Junior Category Poster:
1st: Saul Trevino
2nd: Andrea Julian
3rd: Patrick Dougherty

Senior Category Poster:
1st: Gang Chen
2nd: Danielle Lewis
3rd: Brett Chamberlin

Oral Presenters:
1st: Robert Widmer
2nd: Gregory Chen
3rd: Eric Bridenbaugh

First place winners received $200, as well as a copy of "How to Publish a Scientific Paper", a recent publication by one of the college's own faculty members, Dr. Barbara Gastel. Second place winners were awarded $150 and third place winners received $100.

The 2005-2006 GSO officers are: Andrew M. Smith (president), Eric Bridenbaugh (vice president), Adebayo Akintola (co-vice president), Chinatsu Kojima (treasurer), Jared Trefethen (secretary) and Samantha Bruce (GIC representative).

COM Receives Award from AAMC for Tulane Assistance

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) awarded national recognition to the four medical school members of the Alliance of South Texas Academic Health Centers and to the Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine in Shreveport for the assistance they provided to the academic medicine community following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

The "Award of Exceptional Service to Academic Medicine" honors Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and University of Texas Medical School at Houston for outstanding leadership in providing facilities, resources, and personnel to support displaced Tulane University medical students, residents, and faculty.

The AAMC also awarded the same recognition to LSU-Shreveport for the assistance it provided to the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and to the academic medical community following Hurricane Katrina.

Don't Miss the Faculty Colloquium Slated for May 3

The College of Medicine is hosting a Faculty Research Colloquium Wednesday, May 3 from 5 to 6 p.m. Sponsored by the Faculty Advisory Committee, the event will take place in Lecture Hall 1 at the Reynolds Medical Building on the College Station campus, and will be simulcast to Room 109 in the Education Center at Scott & White on the Temple campus.

Featured speakers are Rajesh C. Miranda, Ph.D., associate professor of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, and David J. Earnest, Ph.D., professor of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Miranda will present "From Stem Cells to Brain: Recapitulating Ontogeny in a Dish", and Dr. Earnest will speak on "Unwinding the Biological Clock: Implications for Health, Disease and Therapeutics".

A reception will follow. For more information, contact Mary Ann Wolff at 979-862-4013 or mawolff@medicine.tamhsc.edu.

2006 Cadaver Ball

The first-year students hosted this year's Cadaver Ball in honor of the Class of 2008 on Friday, April 21 at Pebble Creek Country Club. With a casino theme, the M1s did a great job sending the Class of 2008 off in style. Each class also gave out awards, and they are as follows:

Class of 2008 Awards
Class friend: John Nettum
Best lecturer: Dr. Van Wilson
Best department: Family & Community Medicine
Best system block: Cardiovascular

Class of 2009 Awards
Class friend: Dr. Wei-Jung Chen
Best lecturer: Dr. Gary McCord
Best department: Anatomy
Friendliest: David Galloway
Most helpful: David Pham
Most hardworking: Becky James
Class comedian: Srini Yallapragada
Most outspoken: Jason Muesse
Class flirt: Brian Barnett & Alan Swearingen
Athletic guy: Vasanth Coorg
Athletic girl: Lindsay Fish
Most beautiful in scrubs: Grace Brown
Most handsome in scrubs: Ian Whitney
Class politician: Salman Hasan
Life of the party: Vasanth Coorg

Crawford Elected Texas Academy of Family Physicians Delegate

Eight College of Medicine students recently attended the 2006 Texas Academy of Family Physicians (TAFP) Convention in Austin, and second-year student Kris Crawford was named the TAFP student/resident section alternate delegate to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) national conference.

In August, Crawford will travel to Kansas City for the AAFP National Conference, where he will assist the current delegate in voting on various issues on behalf of the TAFP student/resident section. During the next school year, Crawford will become the delegate, meaning that he will vote at the 2007 AAFP National Convention.

"The convention I recently attended in Austin was my first time to attend a TAFP convention," Crawford said. "Rae Adams is the current Family Medicine Interest Group president and has done an exceptional job at providing opportunities for my involvement in the TAFP."

Reflections from Future Aggie Physicians

The Christian Medical Association (CMA) chapter at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine has been taking a medical missions trip to Mexico for almost a decade. This year, a group of more than 70 medical students, college faculty members, local physicians, translators and pre-med undergraduate students traveled to Morelos, Mexico, south of Piedras Negras.

Two of the college's aspiring Aggie docs, Daniel DeSalvo and Grace Brown, kept a diary of their experiences on the trip.

To read Daniel's reflections, visit: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/student-affairs/organizations/diary-desalvo.html .
To read Grace's, visit: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/student-affairs/organizations/diary-brown.html

COM Featured in AAMC Reporter for Class Expansion Plans

The College of Medicine was featured this month in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Reporter magazine for its class expansion plans.

"We have one medical school with one curriculum, but we're going to have two four-year campuses, as well as additional clinical campuses in other communities like Corpus Christi as we grow bigger," said Chris Colenda, M.D., M.P.H., dean of the medical school.

To read the full article, visit: http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/april06/expansion.htm

Zawieja Elected to Executive Council of Microcirculatory Society

David C. Zawieja, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Division of Lymphatic Biology at the Cardiovascular Research Institute and Associate Head in the Systems Biology and Translational Medicine Department, has been elected to the Executive Council of the Microcirculatory Society. The Microcirculatory Society encourages the exchange and dissemination of information on the microcirculation, or the tiny blood vessels of the body, and promotes innovative research and teaching.

The Executive Council of the Microcirculatory Society is the official body consisting of six society members elected by majority vote of the society and is responsible for the direction and management of the Society. The elected Councilors serve three years, so Dr. Zawieja will serve until 2009.

"I am excited about the prospects of serving and helping to determine the direction of the Society, as I have been a member for more than 15 years," Dr. Zawieja said. "As a Councilor, I hope to help the other Society Officers grow and strengthen our society while still retaining its unique strengths and identity."

Visit Dr. Zawieja's bio page at: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/basic-sciences/sbtm/faculty/david-zawieja.html

Rosen Awarded Distinguished Life Fellow Status at APA

David H. Rosen, M.D., professor in the department of Humanities in Medicine, was recently awarded Distinguished Life Fellow status at the American Psychiatric Association (APA). As the national association of psychiatrists, the APA awards Distinguished Life Fellow status as the "highest honor the profession can bestow".

In 2004, Dr. Rosen received the Psychiatric Excellence Award from the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians for a "sustained and unusual degree of excellence in psychiatric endeavor." This current distinction is recognition of achievement at a national level.

Visit Dr. Rosen's bio page at  http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/basic-sciences/him/faculty/david-rosen.html and his website at http://psychology.tamu.edu/Faculty/Rosen/index.html.

DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY

Roy W. Smythe, M.D. – Department Head

Dr. Georgia Haynes-Holder, one of our categorical General Surgery residents, working in the laboratory of Dr. Ed Childs, a faculty member in the Division of General Surgery and Section of Trauma/ETS, recently won the prestigious Claude H. Organ, Jr. award for the best resident research paper at the annual Society of Black Academic Surgeons meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is a great honor, and we are very proud.

In addition, Dr. Don R. Cooney, the Division Chief for Pediatric Surgery and Director of Children's Surgical Service has been named by the Consumers Research Council of America as one of "America's Top Surgeons".

Please join me in congratulating Drs. Haynes-Holder, Childs and Cooney for these honors and the spotlight they shine on our department.

FACULTY

Division of Molecular Cardiology

Ajay Rana, Ph.D., has been named a member of the Cellular Signaling and Dynamics Study Section, Center for Scientific Review at the National Institutes of Health and has also been elected to serve in the Prostate Cancer Grant Review panel of the Department of Defense. Dr. Rana has also been elected to serve as an editorial board member of the Journal of Molecular Signaling.

Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics

William H. Griffith, Ph.D., professor of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics presented a talk entitled, "Nicotine and synaptic mechanisms in the basal forebrain" at the Second Annual Neuroscience Symposium entitled "Neuroscience on the Border", at the University of Texas Brownsville on April 7. Dr. Griffith also presented a seminar entitled "Physiology, Pharmacology and Calcium Signaling in Basal Forebrain neurons during Aging" to the Department of Physiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio on April 24.

Systems Biology and Translational Medicine

Warren Zimmer, Ph.D. presented "Critical regulatory elements on Nkx3.1 upstream flanking region" and "Structural and functional analysis of domains mediating the interaction of Nkx3.1 and SRF" at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Texas Forum on Reproductive Sciences in Houston in April.

H. Wayne Sampson, Ph.D. and Warren Zimmer, Ph.D. presented "The effect of Nkx3.2 knockout on the murine appendicular growth plate" at the 28 th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in Philadelphia in March.

Jerome Trzeciakowski, Ph.D. and Warren Zimmer, Ph.D. presented "Mechanotransduction studies in live cells using combined AFM-TIRF/IRM techniques" at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in Salt Lake City in February.

Warren Zimmer, Ph.D. was invited to join the Editorial Board of Experimental Biology and Medicine: Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Division of Molecular Cardiology

Dostal, DE and Watson, LE. Understanding Diastolic Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction: Choosing the Right Model. Hypertension , 47:1-3, (2006).

Jewell, C, Watson, LE, Sanghi, S and Dostal, DE. Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists: A Changing of the Guard?. Cardiovascular and Hematological Agents in Medicinal Chemistry 4:129-153 (2006).

Joshi, S, Guleria, R, Pan, J, DiPette, D and Singh, US. Retinoic acid receptors and tissue-transglutaminase mediate short term effect of retinoic acid on migration and invasion of neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Oncogene. 25:240-247 (2006).

Sanghi, S, MacLaughlin, EJ, Jewell, CW, Chaffer, S, Naus, PJ, Watson, LE and Dostal, DE. Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibitors: A Painful Lesson. Cardiovascular & Hematological Disorders-Drug Targets , Vol 6, (2006).

Weylie, B, Zhu, J, Singh, US, Sandy, A and Forough, R. Phosphatidylinositide-3-Kinase (PI3K) is important in late stage fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF-1) mediated angiogenesis in vivo. J Vasc Res. 43:61-69 (2006).

Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis

Decaluwe, H, Harrison, LM, Mariscalco, MM, Gendrel, D, Bohuon, C, Tesh, VL and Proulx, F. Procalcitonin in children with Escherichia coli O157:H7 associated hemolytic uremic syndrome. Pediatric Research 59:579-583 (2006).

Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics

Allen, GC, Farnell, YZ, Maeng, J-U, West, JR, Chen, W-J and Earnest, DJ. Long-term effects of neonatal alcohol exposure on photic re-entrainment and phase–shifting responses of the activity rhythm in adult rats. Alcohol 37: 79-88 (2006).

Huang, LZ, Hsiao, SH, Trzeciakowski, J, Frye, GD and Winzer-Serhan, UH. Chronic nicotine induces growth retardation in neonatal rat pups, Life Sciences 78:1483-1493 (2006).

Systems Biology and Translational Medicine

Weylie B, Zhu J , Singh U , Ambrus S , Forough R . Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase is important in late-stage fibroblast growth factor-1-mediated angiogenesis in vivo. J Vasc Res ;43(1):61-9 (2006).

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DATES TO REMEMBER

May 3: Magnolia Tea, The Greenbranch; 2 p.m.
May 3: Faculty Research Colloquium, LH 1 (CS) – Room 109 (Temple); 5 p.m.
May 19: Senior Banquet, Reed Arena
May 20: Class of 2006 Commencement, Rudder Auditorium; 2 p.m.
May 29: Memorial Day Holiday
July 24-28: Orientation Week for Class of 2010
July 28-29: 25 th Reunion Weekend for the charter Class of 1981
July 29: White Coat Ceremony for Class of 2010



Christopher C. Colenda, M.D., M.P.H.
Dean, College of Medicine
The Texas A&M 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