FROM THE DEAN

This is a busy month for me as we continue to implement several aspects of our expansion plans. Also, I will be out of the office a fair amount this month, so it will be a hectic several weeks.

Here are some of the news bullets from the last month including some of the things we are currently working on:

• We continue to hire staff for the Round Rock campus. Dr. Kathryn Kotrla recently hired an Education Specialist, Allyson Brandt, to assist her with campus planning and implementation. They have been busy working to locate temporary office space. In addition, we have been meeting with the various hospitals to develop affiliation agreements.
• The planning for the new HSC Campus continues. Ground-breaking will be held January 16, 2008 as part of the HSC Convocation.
• I have appointed Dr. Ben Green as Interim Director of the Office of Educational Development. As you know, Dr. Green retired about a year ago but has graciously accepted my offer to assist us with the development of the new curriculum as well as the implementation of our campus expansion plans.
• A group from the college recently flew to New Orleans to recruit a Regenerative Medicine group from Tulane.  We had an excellent meeting, and I am excited about this potential opportunity for the college.
• We are planning to hire several new faculty and staff positions with the expansion money we received, so there will be lots of changes going on over the next year. It is definitely an exciting time to be at the College of Medicine.

COLLEGE NEWS

COM Rated Top 20 Medical School by Hispanic Business Magazine

The College of Medicine has been named in the top 20 medical schools in the United States for Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine. Ranked number 13 on the list, the College of Medicine is noted for its commitment to diversity within the student body.

For the 2006-2007 academic year, the college had an enrollment of 324 students, including 34 Hispanics, which comprises approximately 11 percent of total enrollment. The College of Medicine awarded 77 degrees this spring, including nine Hispanic recipients.

Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine educational programs are designed to meet the health workforce needs of Texas. Admissions criteria are aligned to foster the graduation of health professionals who will be responsive to the needs of the increasingly diverse population of the state. The college is committed to the importance of diversity in the recruitment and education of future health professionals because of the belief that a diverse student body raises the cultural competence of all health professional students.

Hispanic Business Magazine informs and represents the most highly educated, affluent and influential segment of the booming Hispanic market through integrated channels of print, online and events. With a primary circulation of 230,000 and a total audience of over one million readers, Hispanic Business reaches CEOs, business owners, corporate decision makers and professionals in all sectors, including business, law, accounting, healthcare, government and engineering.

STUDENT NEWS

Healthy Heart 5K

First and second-year medical students are hosting the Healthy Heart 5K on Saturday, November 3 to raise funds for the June Rusch Hamrah Camp For All. The race fee is $10 and includes a t-shirt (if registered before October 14).

Registration is at 8:30 a.m. and the race starts at 9:00 a.m. The 5K will be held on the Texas A&M University west campus, starting and ending at the Reynolds Medical Building.

All proceeds will be donated to the June Rusch Hamrah Camp For All. Camp For All, located in the rolling hills of Washington County, Texas, is a unique camping and retreat facility that strives to enrich the lives of people with special needs. A not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, Camp For All works in partnership with special needs groups whose members gain self-esteem, self-awareness and independence by participating in programs that are recreational, therapeutic and educational. The camp provides a fully-accessible environment and programs that are tailored to meet the needs of campers of all ages, interests and abilities.

On race day, the TAMHSC-COM Women in Medicine interest group will be collecting gently used running shoes for the One World Running program. This is a non-profit organization that sends shoes to children in sub-Sahara Africa, Haiti, and Central America. So please bring any and all shoes you may have around the house! For more information on the One World Running Program, please visit http://oneworldrunning.blogspot.com

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE NEWS

OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

IAMSE Audio Webcast Series

The International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) will be offering a webcast audio seminar series starting this month on “Maximizing Your Leadership Potential – Part II”. This particular series will complement Part I of this series topic that was given last spring. These types of programs are offered on a regular basis by this organization and provide valuable and useful information on various topics in medical education. This particular series consists of one-hour presentations on the following dates and topics:

• October 2 – “Leadership and the Complexity of Change”
• October 9 – “Effective Committees/Meetings”
• October 16 – “Negotiations and Conflict Management”
• October 23 – “Money Matters”
• October 30 - “Multi-disciplinary Team Building”
• November 13 – “Aspiring to a Leadership Position”

All of the presentations are at noon (CST). The OED is subscribing to this series as an institutional group meaning that any interested faculty may attend any of these programs. Room locations are: College Station - Reynolds Medical Building Room 163 and Temple – SW/TAMU Education Center Room R205.

Faculty Review of NBME Subject Exams

For the last several years the OED has organized a biennial faculty review of the NBME Shelf (Subject) exams in the basic and clinical sciences on both the College Station and Temple campuses. This year we will again be arranging exam reviews to take place in October and November. The OED has already sent out announcements and instructions about the program to all Course Coordinators and Clerkship Directors. All faculty are encouraged to take advantage of this unique opportunity to review the construct, breadth and depth of the NBME Shelf exams. The exam review dates are as follows:

Basic Science Exams:

• Wednesday, October 24th: Temple – TAMU Education Center Room R110, 3:00 – 6:00 pm.
• Thursday, October 25th: College Station – Reynolds Medical Building Room 162, 1:30 – 4:30 pm

Clinical Science Exams:

• Wednesday, November 14th: Temple – TAMU Education Center Room R110, 3:00 – 6:00 pm.
• Thursday, November 15th: College Station – Reynolds Medical Building Rooms 150 & 152, 3:00 – 6:00 pm

**It is important to note that all faculty wishing to participate in this exercise must sign up in advance because a list of names of those individuals reviewing the exams must be turned in to the NBME prior to the exam review date. Faculty may sign up by contacting either Rebecca Baker in College Station Office of Educational Development by phone at (979) 862-8926 or by e-mail at baker@medicine.tamhsc.edu or Pam Wilson in Temple by phone at (254) 724-6190 or e-mail at PWILSON@swmail.sw.org. Because of the need to order the exams in advance, the deadline for signing up is Monday, October 8th.

OFFICE OF RESEARCH

Funding Opportunities

Please take this opportunity to check out the 2008 DeLill Nasser Award application at http://www.genetics-gsa.org/pages/delill.shtml. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to be considered for a travel award to a scientific meeting, conference or course.

Awards have been in the $1000 to $1500 range. The deadline will be December 4, 2007.

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Sharon DeMorrow and Shannon Glaser were asked to join The Faculty of 1000 Medicine (http://www.f1000medicine.com).

Gianfranco Alpini presented the Wright Lecture at the British Association for the Study of The Liver, September 14 in London. His talk was entitled “Autocrine Regulation of Cholangiocyte Growth by Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor.”

Grants Awarded

PI Gianfranco Alpini was awarded $202,325/year from 2007 to 2011 for NIH-R01 – DK58411 “Growth Regulation of the Intrahepatic Biliary Tree.”

PI Shannon Glaser was awarded $39,000 from October 2007 to September 2008 from a Scott and White grant for “The Role of the Renin-Angiotensin System in the Regulation of Biliary Proliferation during Extrahepatic Cholestasis.”

Publications

Francis, H, LeSage, G, DeMorrow, S, Alvaro, D, Ueno, Y, Venter, J, Glaser, S, Marucci, L, Benedetti, A, Mancino, MG and Alpini, G.  The a-2 adrenergic receptor agonist, UK 14,304, inhibits secretin-stimulated ductal secretion by impairing activation of the cAMP system. American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology, Jul 18; [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 17634418 (2007).

Glaser, S, Ueno, Y, DeMorrow, S, Chiasson, V, Katki, K, Venter, J, Francis, H, Dickerson, I, DiPette, DJ, Supowit, S and G Alpini. Knockout of a-calcitonin gene-related peptide prevents growth of cholangiocytes induced by extrahepatic bile duct obstruction. Laboratory Investigation Epub. PMID:17618297 (2007).

Marzioni, M, Alpini, G, Saccomanno, S, Candelaresi, C, Venter, J, Rychlicki, C, Fava, G, Francis, H, Trozzi, L, Glaser, S and Benedetti A. Glucagon-like peptide-1 and its receptor agonist exendin-4 modulate cholangiocyte adaptive response to cholestasis. Gastroenterology. Jul;133(1):244-55. PMID: 17631146 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] (2007).

Taffetani, S, Glaser, S, Francis, H, DeMorrow, S, Ueno, Y, Alvaro, D, Marucci, L, Marzioni, M, Fava, G, Venter, J, Vaculin, S, Vaculin, B, Lam, I, Lee, V, Gaudio, E, Carpino, G, Benedetti, A and Alpini, G. Prolactin stimulates the proliferation of normal female cholangiocytes by differential regulation of Ca2+-dependent PKC isoforms. BioMed Central Physiology 7(1):6 [Epub ahead of print] (2007).

Ueno, Y, Francis, H, Glaser, S, DeMorrow, S, Venter, J, Benedetti, A and Alpini, G. Taurocholic acid feeding prevents tumor necrosis factor-a induced damage of cholangiocytes by a PI3K mediated pathway. Experimental Biology and Medicine. 232(7): 942-9 (2007).

HUMANITIES IN MEDICINE

Sam Black Week

Dr. Samuel H. Black, Ph.D., (May 1930-March 2007) was Emeritus Professor of Humanities in Medicine and Medical Microbiology and Immunology and made many contributions to the College of Medicine. He was a founding faculty of the COM and an outstanding lecturer. To honor his memory, the Department of Humanities in Medicine will lead in the celebration of “Sam Black Week” October 1-5, 2007.

A highlight of the week will be the Tenth Annual Black-Zandveld Lecture in the History of Medicine, Thursday, October 4, 1:00 p.m. in the Sam Black Lecture Hall. Dr. Sally Knight, from New Orleans, will be our guest speaker. Dr. Knight’s lecture is entitled “The Medical Aspects of Katrina: Fact and Fiction.”

All are invited to the lecture and other events of the week. Browse the Sam Black memorabilia display in the lobby and bring your lunch and enjoy the musical concert at noon, Tuesday, October 2.

The Paxton Howard/Gerald Keegan Bioethics Lectureship in Medicine/Humanities Consultation

Herbert L. Fred, M.D., M.A.C.P., Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will be the guest speaker for two events on Monday, November 5, 2007. The first event will be the 2007 Paxton Howard/Gerald Keegan Bioethics Lectureship in Mayborn Auditorium at Scott & White in Temple. The lecture will begin at 12 noon and lunch will be provided.

On the same day the second Medicine and Humanities Consultation will take place at the Halley House in Salado, Texas, from 1-6 p.m. The consultation will engage clinicians of medicine, nurses, social workers, clergy and academic humanists in an in-depth exposure to “Dishonesty in Medicine”. The day will be spent in informal discussion led by Dr. Fred as our facilitator. If you would like information on either of these events, please contact the office at 979-845-0755.

MICROBIAL AND MOLECULAR PATHOGENESIS

Grants Awarded

Dr. Helene Andrews-Polymenis was awarded a Research Development and Enhancement Awards Program grant of $15,000 from the HSC Office of Research for the project entitled, Functional Genomic Analysis to Identify Salmonella Genes Important for Colonization and Intestinal Persistence in Poultry.

Dr. Veronica Sanchez was awarded a Research Development and Enhancement Awards Program grant of $15,000 from the HSC Office of Research for the project entitled, Role of Cholesterol in HCMV Assembly and Pathogenesis.

Dr. David McMurray received an Award Notice from NIH for the final (5th) year of the T32 training grant, entitled “Mechanistic studies at the host-pathogen interface”. The total award for AY 2007-2008 is $110,046, which will support four pre-doctoral trainees.

Scientific Presentations

Dr. Van Wilson attended the DNA Tumor Virus meeting in July at Trieste, Italy and presented at talk entitled “Modulation of host cell sumoylation by high-risk E6 proteins” and visited the European Institute for Oncology in Milan, Italy and presented an invited seminar entitled “The Interplay Between the Papillomavirus Early Proteins and the Host Sumoylation System”.

MOLECULAR & CELLULAR MEDICINE

Gumienny Hired as Assistant Professor

The Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine is pleased to announce that Tina L. Gumienny, Ph.D., has been hired as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Gumienny joined the department in July 2007.

Dr. Gumienny received her B.S. in Genetics from Texas A&M University in 1993. She earned her Ph.D. in Genetics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2000, working with Dr. Michael Hengartner at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in the Waksman Institute.

Dr. Gumienny has been working on the regulation of transforming growth factor β(TGFβ) superfamily signaling. Her work has appeared in a number of top journals including Cell, Current Biology, Development, Developmental Biology, and Nature Cell Biology. Dr. Gumienny has been invited to speak at international scientific meetings and has written three scientific review articles and a book chapter by invitation. While at Rutgers University, her work was funded by the NIH.

Her long-term goals are to apply her knowledge in signal transduction and developmental biology and previous training in nematode genetics to investigate the links between environment and TGFβ pathway signaling and to identify and characterize novel regulators of this pathway, using the model system Caenorhabditis elegans. TGFβ superfamily signaling in humans is involved in a wide range of developmental and homeostatic processes, and misregulation of or mutations in signaling components are associated with several disorders and diseases. The ultimate goals of her lab are to elucidate how this growth factor family is controlled extracellularly and to discover conserved regulators of TGFβ signaling for potential therapeutic targets.

Dr. Gumienny invites you to visit her lab (Room 446 in the Reynolds Bldg.) to see her worms.

Publications

Trevino, SR, Schaefer, S, Scholtz, JM and Pace, CN. Increasing protein stability by optimizing β-turn sequence, Journal of Molecular Biology, 373, 211-218 (2007).

NEUROSCIENCE & EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS

Dr. Farida Sohrabji has been appointed Associate Department Head for the department effective September 1, 2007.

8th Annual George C.Y. Chiou Lectureship in Pharmacology Slated for October

The 8th Annual George C.Y. Chiou Lectureship in Pharmacology will be held Thursday, October 4 at 11 a.m. in the Sam Black Lecture Hall (LH 2) of the Reynolds Medical Building. Gerald D. Frye, professor of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, will present his talk, “Alcohol, Ambien and Amnesia: A Molecular Pharmacology of Forgetting?” Dr. Chiou will introduce the lectureship and the speaker, followed by Dr. Frye. Refreshments and pizza will be served at 12 noon.

The late Dr. Sam H. Black, Professor Emeritus of Humanities in Medicine and Medical Microbiology & Immunology, established the lectureship in 2000. The endowment was originally intended to support the Department of Medical Pharmacology & Toxicology, and now supports the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics in bringing eminent scholars to the college to speak on various topics relating to pharmacology. It was Dr. Black’s hope that this lecture series should serve as a way of enriching the academic environment of the College of Medicine.

Grants Awarded

Dr. Bill Griffith is a co-investigator on the $1,250,000 grant from the NIH/National Institute on Aging (R01-AG029421) entitled “Basal Forebrain and cognitive aging: novel experimental and therapeutic avenues.” J.L. Bizon is the principal investigator for the grant, for the period August 1, 2007 through July 31, 2012.

Dr. Gerry Frye is the principal investigator on a grant from the NIH-NIAAA (2R56AA012386-05A1) entitled "CNS development, GABAARs and Vulnerability to Ethanol.” Co-investigators are J. Bizon (5%), D. Earnest (5%) and W. Griffith, (10%) effort each, yrs 05 (04/01/07-03/31/08), $190,000 direct cost, $265,644 total cost; 08/05/2007 – 07/31/2008.

Drs. William H. Griffith, Gerald D. Frye, Rajesh Miranda, Mendell Rimer, Farida Sohrabji and Ursula Winzer-Serhan are co-investigators on a $2,145,086 grant through the Texas Consortium Program in Behavioral Neuroscience from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2010. The principal investigator is F. Gonzalez-Lima from the University of Texas, Austin.

Dr. Ian Murray is the principal investigator on a $88,000 grant from the NIH/NIA entitled Positive chemical feedback mechanisms in Amyloid beta amyloidogenesis” until March 31, 2008.

Publications

Jiang, W and Chiou, GCY: The development of AMD experimental models, International J. Ophthalmol. 7:585 - 589 (2007)

Komatsu, H, Liu, L, Murray, IVJ and Axelsen PH. A Mechanistic Link Between Oxidative Stress and Membrane Mediated Amyloidogenesis Revealed by Infrared Spectroscopy. BBA, 1768(8):1913-22 (2007).

Scientific Presentations

Dr. George Chiou presented a talk entitled, "Enjoy retired life with good vision" as a Plenary Speech in the 12th Congress of Chinese Ophthalmology Society on August 29, 2007. He presented a talk entitled, "Recent advanced in ocular pharmacology" as a key note speaker in the session of Ocular Pharmacology in the 12th China Academy of Chinese Med. Sci. on August 31, 2007. Dr. Chiou also attended a research conference with Opko Health in Miami in August 13-14, 2007 and presented a talk entitled, "Pharmacological treatment of AMD" on August 14.

Dr. Bill Griffith attended the 7th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience, July 12-17, 2007 in Melbourne, Australia and presented a talk entitled, “Aged-related changes in intracellular calcium homeostasis in basal forebrain cholinergic neurons from middle-aged behaviorally characterized rats”, on July 17, 2007. He also attended the satellite meeting “Neurobiology of the Aging Brain” in Hobart, New Zealand on July 10, 2007.

SYSTEMS BIOLOGY AND TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

Grants Awarded

Dr. Warren Zimmer and colleague Dr. S. Goodman received a $297,760 US Congress Initiative – Institute for Biomedical Sciences and Technology (UT Dallas) grant entitled “Interdisciplinary Studies on the Combat Readiness and Health Issues Faced by Military Personnel” for the period July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. Dr. Zimmer also received a $15,000 VPR Research Development and Enhancement Award entitled “SMGA Contribution to Prostate Differentiation Using a TIGM Resource Mouse Strain” for the period August 30, 2007 through August 30, 2008.

Dr. Mariappan Muthuchamy received a $502,145 National Institutes of Health K02 Career Award entitled “Regulatory Mechanisms in Lymphatic Muscle Contraction” for the period September 1, 2007 through July 31, 2012.

Dr. Alan Parrish received a $15,000 VPR Research Development and Enhancement Award entitled “Role of MMPs in age-related renal injury” for the period August 30, 2007 through August 30, 2008.

Scientific Presentations

Dr. Andreea Trache presented “Integrated imaging techniques applied to live cell biophysics” at OSA Annual Conference – Frontiers in Optics 2007/Laser Science XXIII held in San Jose, CA September 16-20, 2007.

DATES TO REMEMBER

• October 4: 8th Annual George C.Y. Chiou Lectureship in Pharmacology, 11 a.m.; Lecture Hall 2, RMB
• October 4: 10th Annual Black-Zandveld Lecture in the History of Medicine, 1 pm; Lecture Hall 2, RMB and Room 109 MEB, Temple
• November 1-7: AAMC Annual Meeting; Washington, D.C.
• January 16, 2008: HSC Convocation

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