FROM THE DEAN

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing break. I also hope you enjoyed your time with family and friends.  I certainly enjoyed my time with my wife and daughters in North Carolina.

Here are the news bullets of note for last month and this month:

• The HSC Convocation and Groundbreaking Ceremony will be held Wednesday, January 16. The events include the Groundbreaking Ceremony for our new campus in the morning, and the Convocation at the Annenberg Conference Center in the afternoon. You will receive more specific information regarding this event in the next couple of days. Please make every effort to attend.
• We recently acquired space at Prodigene on Highway 6, so some of our researchers and labs will be moving to that building in the College Station Business Park sometime in the next couple of months. It is much needed space that will be very helpful in recruiting new faculty.
• We submitted our LCME Report for starting a branch campus in Round Rock. They will deliberate our request at the February meeting. In the meantime, we are moving forward with all of our plans for Round Rock and recruiting faculty. We have established affiliation agreements with Lone Star Circle of Care, St. David’s, Scott & White University Medical Center and Seton in Round Rock. We also have obtained office space for our administrative staff. Things are moving along!
• Congratulations to all who received service pins at our receptions in December. I am always amazed at what a wonderful group of faculty and staff we have here at the college, and I thank you for all you do to make this a great COM and a great place to work! An extra special congratulations to Bill Bertrand and Michelle Jeter for winning Employees of the Year, and Dr. Luis Camarillo for winning the 2007 Leonard P. Tow Humanism in Medicine Award! We appreciate all you do, and commend you for your commitment to excellence.
• We are again searching for a Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. We have hired the search firm, Korn Ferry to assist us with the process.& I will keep you posted as we move through this process.

I think that is it for this month – I want to welcome everyone back as we embark on another year of challenge and change at the College of Medicine.

COLLEGE NEWS

Student Affairs & Admissions Office Hosts “Round the Wards”

The Office of Student Affairs & Admissions hosted “Round the Wards” Wednesday, December 19 in Temple for prospective students holding acceptances to the college for the upcoming school year. The event is designed to provide additional information for these students and encourage them to select the college for matriculation.

After rounding with current third and fourth-year students at Scott & White during the morning, the prospective students had lunch with members of the college’s faculty and staff, as well as current students. Filo Maldonado, Dr. Kate Fallon and Dr. Tom Peterson welcomed the students, followed by the keynote speech from faculty member and alumnus Dr. Keller Matthews ’81.

We’re looking forward to another great group of incoming students – the Class of 2012!

Service Awards Ceremonies Hosted in College Station and Temple

Service awards ceremonies were held December 14 in College Station and December 18 in Temple. At the College Station ceremony, Bill Bertrand and Michelle Jeter were awarded Employees of the Year, while Dr. Luis Camarillo was presented with the 2007 Leonard P. Tow Humanism in Medicine Award at the ceremony in Temple.

The following faculty and staff were awarded service award pins:

College Station:

5 YEARS

• Bake, Shameena, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate, Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics
• Busic, Joyce, Business Coordinator I, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
• Cherla, Rama, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate, Microbial & Molecular Pathogenesis
• Dale, Joey, Business Coordinator, Office of Business Affairs
• Galindo, Jeannie, Office Associate, Learning Resources Unit
• Garrison, Gene, Special Assistant to the Dean, Office of the Dean
• Kang, Xiaofeng, Ph.D., Assistant Research Scientist, Molecular & Cellular Medicine
• Morgan, Jessica, Lead Office Assistant, Office of Business Affairs
• Yakisich, Juan, Ph.D., Assistant Research Scientist, Molecular & Cellular Medicine

10 YEARS

• Jeevan, Amminikutty, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Microbial & Molecular Pathogenesis
• Muthuchamy, Mariappan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Systems Biology & Translational Medicine
• Plaag, Chantel, Business Administrator I, Molecular & Cellular Medicine
• Rattler, Joyce, Anatomical Laboratory Manager, Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics

15 YEARS

• Kelly, Katherine, Associate Research Specialist, Systems Biology & Translational Medicine
• Tesh, Vernon, Ph.D., Professor, Microbial & Molecular Pathogenesis

25 YEARS

• Lindner, Luther, Ph.D., M.D., Senior Lecturer, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

30 YEARS

• Gelderd, John, Ph.D., Professor, Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics
• Nettum, John, Instructor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

Temple:

5 YEARS

• Baca, Katrina, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
• Barrow, Boone, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Bergeron, Jon, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
• Bielik, Joseph, M. ., Clinical Instructor, Medicine
• Bird, Erin, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Cobbs, Lauren, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Cornelius, Lisa, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Dehmer, Gregory, M.D., Professor, Medicine
• Fomby, Elizabeth, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Harrell, Amy, M.D., Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
• Harris, Jeffrey, O.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Hoekstra, Bruce, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Jaffe, Jon, M.D., Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
• Jeffries, Mark, D.O., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Katki, Kurshed, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Kohl-Thomas, Belinda, M.D., Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
• Konvicka, Jim, M.D., Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
• Kotrla, Kathryn, M.D., Chair and Associate Professor, Psychiatry
• Larsen, Daniel, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Mesa, Sarah, Business Administrator I, CVRI
• Monticciolo, Debra, M.D., Professor, Radiology
• Munroe, Scott, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Poling, Matthew, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Ritter, Robert, M.D., Associate Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Ruud, Christopher, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Shabahang, Moshen, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Sing, James, D.O., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Smith, Glen, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Stone, Charles Keith, M.D., Professor and Head, Emergency Medicine
• Strober, Mark, M.D., Assistant Professor, Radiology
• Williams, Dennis, PhD., Assistant Professor, Surgery

10 YEARS

• Antunes, Phillip, M.D., Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
• Bertsch, Nancy, M.D., Assistant Professor, OB/GYN
• Brien, James, D.O., Associate Professor, Pediatrics
• Brown, Michael, M.D., Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
• Cooney, Donald, M.D., Professor, Surgery
• Dwyer, Kevin, M.D., Assistant Professor, Radiology
• Hollingsworth, Mark, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Jaffers, Gregory, M.D., Associate Professor, Surgery
• Jones, Kathleen, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pathology
• Kenney, John, M.D., Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
• Kwan, Peter, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Ligon, William, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Maxwell, Shane, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Metzger, Paul, M.D., Assistant Professor, Radiology
• Meyer, Arlene, Instructor, Pediatrics
• Pfanner, Timothy, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Phillips, Michael, M.D., Assistant Professor, Radiology
• Pliska, John, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
• Santema, Sharyl, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
• Trotter, Bradley, M.D., Assistant Professor, Radiology
• Velasquez, Juvencio, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Wegener, Allen, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Wegener, Kimberly, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine

15 YEARS

• Averitt, William, D.O., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Barenholtz, Lawrence, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Buckley, Clifford, M.D., Professor, Surgery
• Denny, Nathan, M.D., Assistant Professor, Mental Health
• Campbell, Joel, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Chintapallli, Girija, M.D., Associate Professor, Mental Health
• Horner, Barbara, Administrative Assistant, Medicine
• Houck, Philip, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Jernigan, Floyd, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Keyser, Daniel, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Kuo, Lih, PhD., Professor, Systems Biology and Translational Medicine
• O’Shea, Thomas, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Reiter, Charles, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Smith, Michael, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
• Smith, Randall, M.D., Associate Professor, Surgery
• Tamimi, Raed, M.D., Assistant Professor, Mental Health
• Travis, Joy, Instructor, Pediatrics
• Wagner, Thomas, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Welch, Thomas, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Williams, Charlie, M.D., Assistant professor, Pediatrics

20 YEARS

• Beissner, Robert, M.D., Associate Professor, Pathology
• Cheung, Alan, M.D., Associate Professor, Radiology
• Fulcher, Samuel, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Grothaus, Peter, M.B., Associate Professor, Surgery
• Hicks, Paul, M.D., Professor, Mental Health
• Kimmey, Kathy, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Kuehl, Thomas, Ph.D., Professor, OB/GYN
• Miller, Michael, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Nipper, Michael, M.D., Assistant Professor, Radiology
• Ransom, Daniel, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
• Rascoe, Terry, M.D., Assistant Professor, Family/Community Medicine
• Resendes, George, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Waxman, Jeffrey, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery
• Weiss, Barbara, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Yandell, Paul, M. D., Assistant Professor, OB/GYN

25 YEARS

• Bollinger, Bruce, M.D., Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
• Chlapek, Ben, M.D., Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
• Fisher, John, M.D., Associate Professor, Surgery
• Gibson, Jeff, M.D., Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology
• Hendricks, John, M.D., Associate Professor, Surgery
• Hou-Sheng, Wu., M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Jew, Katherine, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine
• Klugo, Richard, M.D., Professor, Surgery
• Madler, Jerome, M.D., Associate Professor, Medicine
• Nickel, Allan, M.D., Associate Professor, Medicine
• Nickel, Susan, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
• Rappaport, Edward, M.D., Professor, Pathology
• Williams, Troy, M.D., Professor, Medicine

STUDENT NEWS

Students Host Cadaver Memorial Services on College Station, Temple Campuses

First-year students on both campuses held Cadaver Memorial Services to honor those who donated their bodies to the gross anatomy program.

The December 4 ceremony in Temple was presided over by campus executive officer, Azeem Tajani. Students Blake Bond, Cory Broehm and Thomas Delmas gave moving tributes to the men and women who gave up their bodies for the sake of the class's medical education.

The faculty speaker, Dr. John Hubbard, discussed the importance of cadavers in medical education and the value of the sacrifices that were made.

“Although we never knew these people in life, this ceremony gives all of us a chance to remember and give thanks for what we learned from them,” Dr. Hubbard said. “We are here to reflect upon the amazing opportunity to peer into the human body and to remember the remarkable gift given by those precious people who, when their time on earth was through, found a way to continue to contribute to humanity. I am awed by their great courage and altruism.  They had hopes, fears, dreams, ambitions, but most clearly a generous spirit that lead them to bestow the ultimate gift, the gift of themselves, upon us whom they didn’t even know.”

Students on the College Station campus hosted their ceremony December 6. Comments were provided by class president Daniel Binz and gross anatomy course coordinator Dr. Wei-Jung Chen.

“I would like everyone to remember that our cadavers were truly our first patients, and have touched our lives and the lives of every patient we will see throughout our careers,” Binz said. “The impact they have made has begun to shape us into the great physicians we all strive to be. It’s humbling to know that they have found a way to give life, in their time of passing, to so many different people.”

BASIC SCIENCE DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

HUMANITIES IN MEDICINE

HSC Faculty Senate Distinguished Lectureship

Hosted by the College of Medicine and organized by the Senate Speaker Series ad hoc Committee, the HSC Faculty Senate Distinguished Lectureship was held November 15 and followed by a reception. Tom Koch (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) gave a talk on “Mapping Science Making Medicine:  Medical Cartography and the Study of Disease.

Dr. Gul A. Russell also chaired the keynote address by Tom Koch on “Cartographies of Cancer: The Transformation of a Disease” at the Symposium on GeoSpatial Technologies and Public Health: Mapping Disease, Promoting Health which was jointly sponsored by the HSC Faculty Senate Speaker Series and TAMU at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center on Nov. 17.

Presentations

Mary Elizabeth Herring, J.D., Associate Professor, Department of Humanities in Medicine, gave invited testimony regarding her research involving the Texas Medical Board before the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee Regulatory on October 23, 2007.

Dr. Russell was invited to give a keynote presentation on “The Origins of Visual Science and Ibn al-Haytham (d. 1040)” at the UNESCO International Conference in cooperation with the Academy of Science of Malaysia and other international institutions on "Science, Technology and Innovation"  held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 9-11, 2007.

MICROBIAL AND MOLECULAR PATHOGENESIS

Publications

Wu, YC, Deyrieux, A and Wilson, VG. “Papillomaviruses and the Host Sumoylation System,” Biochemical Society Transactions 35:1433-1435 (2007).

MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR MEDICINE

Faculty News

Dr. Geoffrey Kapler attended the Cold Spring Harbor Eukaryotic DNA Replication meeting in Cold Spring Harbor, NY from September 5-9, 2007. He presented a talk entitled “Tetrahymena ORC contains a ribosomal RNA fragment that participates in ribosomal DNA origin recognition.” Dr. Kapler also attended the FASEB Ciliate Molecular Biology Conference in  Tuscon, AZ from August 1-4, 2007. He presented a talk entitled “Tetrahymena ORC contains a ribosomal RNA fragment that participates in rDNA origin recognition.”

Dr. Siegfried Musser attended the ASCB Annual Meeting in Washington, DC from December 1-5, 2007 where he gave an oral presentation entitled “Dissociation of Importin alpha/Cargo Complexes at the Nuclear Pore Requires CAS and RanGTP.”

Dr. Gregg Wells attended the 37th annual meeting for the Society for Neurosciences in San Diego, CA from November 3-7, 2007.  Dr. Wells presented a poster at the meeting entitled “Epibatidine binding to α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors with ligand depletion and nonspecific binding.”

Publications

Mohammad, MM, Smith, AG, Donti, TR  and Kapler, GM. Tetrahymena ORC contains a ribosomal RNA fragment that participates in rDNA origin recognition. EMBO Journal 26:5048-60 (2007).

Wei, Y, Huyghues-Despointes, BM, Tsai, J and Scholtz, JM. NMR study and molecular dynamics simulations of optimized beta-hairpin fragments of protein G  Proteins 69:285-295 (2007).

Martens, RJ, Mealey, K, Cohen, ND, Harrington, JR, Chaffin, MK, Taylor, RJ, and Bernstein, LR. Pharmacokinetics of gallium maltolate after intragastric administration in neonatal foals. Am. J. Vet. Res. 68:1041-1044 (2007).

Samuel, S, Beifuss, KK and Bernstein, LR. YB-1 binds to the MMP-13 promoter sequence and represses MMP013 transactivation via the AP-1 site. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1769:525-531 (2007).

SYSTEMS BIOLOGY AND TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

Dr. Andreea Trache organized the “Atomic Force Microscopy Workshop” in November and attended the American Society for Cell Biology 47th Annual Meeting held in Washington D.C. in December 2007.

Scientific Presentations

Hung Chung Huang, Daniel Jupiter, Heather Briggs and Dr. Vincent VanBuren presented “Identification of conserved water sites in bacterial alanine racemase for drug design” at the American Society for Cell Biology 47th Annual meeting, Washington DC, December 2007.

Daniel Jupiter and Dr. Vincent VanBuren presented “StarNet: visual data mining for inferring gene regulatory networks in mouse cardiac development” at the same meeting.

Publications

Gasheva, O, Knippa, K, Nepiyushchikh, Z, Muthuchamy, M and Gashev, A. Age-Related Alterations of Active Pumping Mechanisms in Rat Thoracic Duct. Microcirculation. 14:8, 827-839 (2007).

Huang, HC, Jupiter, D, Qiu, M, Briggs, JM and VanBuren, V: Cluster analysis of hydration waters around the active sites of bacterial alanine racemase using a 2-ns MD simulation. Biopolymers 2007 Nov 19 [Epub ahead of print].

CLINICAL DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

INTERNAL MEDICINE

Scientific Presentations

Dr. Shannon Glaser served as co-moderator with Dr. Michael Trauner for “Advances in the Molecular and Cellular Biology of Bile Formation,” a parallel session at the AASLD Annual Meeting, November 6, 2007.

Faculty and staff also presented the following presentations at the AASLD meeting: “Mechanical stretch stimulates cholangiocyte proliferation and profibrotic gene expression via the angiotensin type I receptor;” “Progesterone regulates cholangiocyte proliferation during cholestasis by autocrine signaling mechanisms;” and “Morphological and functional heterogeneity of the murine intrahepatic biliary epithelium.”

Publications

DeMorrow, S, Francis, H, Gaudio, E, Ueno, Y, Venter, J, Onori, P, Franchitto, A, Vaculin, B, Vaculin, S and Alpini, G. Anandamide inhibits cholangiocyte hyperplastic proliferation via activation of thioredoxin 1/redox factor 1 and AP-1 activation.  Epub – ahead of print PMID 18096608.

ACADEMIC MEDICINE NEWS

For the latest AAMC news, visit http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/aamcstat/aamcnews.htm.  A subscription option is available to receive free weekly updates.

DATES TO REMEMBER

• January 16: HSC Convocation; 1:30 p.m. – Frymire Auditorium at Annenberg Conf. Center.
• January 17: Mini-Medical School Session 1 - Bioterrorism in the United States; 6 p.m. – Lecture Hall 1
• January 24: Mini-Medical School Session 2 - Heart Disease in Women:  Diagnosis and Care that Require New Approaches; 6 p.m. – Lecture Hall 1
• January 31: Mini-Medical School Session 3 - Mental Health Resources in the Brazos Valley; 6 p.m. – Lecture Hall 1
• February 7: Mini-Medical School Session 4 - Chronic Disease Management Efforts in the Brazos Valley; 6 p.m. – Lecture Hall 1
• February 14: Mini-Medical School Session 5 - Current Treatments of Stroke; 6 p.m. – Lecture Hall 1
• February 21: Mini-Medical School Session 6 - Bone Health and Osteoporosis; 6 p.m. – Lecture Hall 1

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