From the Dean

It never ceases to amaze me how fast time flies. Our first and second-year students have been back on campus for over a month now!

Right around the time the last newsletter was coming out, we held our Reunion ’08 weekend to welcome our alumni and their families, as well as welcome our new students to the college. It is always fun to have alumni back on campus, help them reconnect with each other and the faculty, and show them the advances we’ve made since they were students. The weekend was a great success, and I’d like to give a special thanks to my office staff, especially Brenda Long, for their help in organizing another great event this year.

As of August 1, the Brazos Family Medicine Residency in Bryan is part of the College of Medicine. I look forward to working with the physicians, residents and staff of the residency program as we combine our strengths to create an even better training experience for residents and continue to provide excellent care to Brazos Valley residents.

Also in August, Dr. Darwin Prockop, Director of our new Institute for Regenerative Medicine, officially hit the ground running in the institute’s new space in Temple. We’re so excited to have Dr. Prockop and his faculty and staff on board and we look forward to the exciting scientific advances they will make.

Our Vice Dean of the Houston campus, Dr. David Huston, and his colleagues have begun to see patients under the banner of the College of Medicine at Methodist Hospital. Plans are in the works to allow third and fourth-year students to complete rotations with Dr. Huston’s group. More information to come…

The first building of the Health Science Center campus in Round Rock is closer to reality, as the construction company broke ground a few weeks ago. We anticipate this building will be completed by next fall.

The interviewing season for the Admissions Office officially kicked off August 4, with two sessions taking place each Thursday – one in College Station and one in Temple. This will allow us to interview more prospective students each fall, which is important as we look to fill an incoming class of 170 for the next academic year. Thanks to Filo Maldonado and his staff for all the hard work they put into making these interview days happen each week.

And finally, I am thrilled that we are formally affiliated with the Memorial Family Medicine Residency program in Sugar Land. I was at their facility a few weeks ago, and they are proud to be on our team.

Have a great month!

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

Dates to Remember

• September 10: HSC Faculty Senate Speaker Series, Speaker: Dr. Monica McGrann – “Diamonds for Life: HIV in Botswana” – 12 pm; Lecture Hall 1 RMB – broadcast to Rm 206 MEC (Temple)
• September 11: College Station Dean’s Town Hall Meeting – 4 p.m.; Lecture Hall 1, RMB
• September 16: Temple Dean’s Town Hall Meeting – 5 p.m.; Mayborn Auditorium, MEC at Scott & White
• September 28: George C.Y. Chiou Lectureship in Pharmacology, Speaker: Dr. Frank Anderson – “ Innovation and Ophthamology” – 11 a.m.; Lecture Hall 2 RMB
• October 31 – November 5: AAMC Annual Meeting; Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio

College News

Student Blogs Now Online

Three medical and two graduate students have started blogs on the college’s website. They’ll be writing throughout the year about their experiences at the College of Medicine and what’s going on in their lives.

Check out what Codey, Phillip, Erin, Jennifer and Christina have to say at: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/blogs/index.html.

HSC Faculty Senate Speaker Series Slated for Sept. 10

The next HSC Faculty Senate Speaker Series is slated for Wednesday, September 10 at 12 pm in Lecture Hall 1 of the Reynolds Building. The speaker will be COM 2002 graduate Dr. Monica McGrann, who has had a distinguished record with a unique experience in an international Pediatric AIDS program in Botswana. Her talk is entitled “Diamonds for Life: HIV in Botswana.”

The lecture will also be broadcast to the BCD portable unit (Dallas), Rm. 243 COP (Kingsville), Rm. 1105 IBT (Houston), Rm. 108 SRPH and Rm. 206 MEC at Scott & White (Temple).

For more information, contact Mary Ann Wolff at mawolff@medicine.tamhsc.edu.

Ninth Annual Chiou Lectureship in Pharmacology Scheduled for Sept. 18

The 9th annual George C.Y. Chiou Lectureship in Pharmacology will take place Thursday, September 18 at 11 a.m. in Lecture Hall 2 of the Reynolds Building. Dr. Frank G. Anderson, professor of Ophthamology and Humanities in Medicine, will present a lecture titled “Innovations and Ophthamology”, followed by refreshments and pizza.

For more information, contact Lisa Lero at lero@medicine.tamhsc.edu.

Faculty

Rohack Named UTEP 2008 Distinguished Alumni

The University of Texas at El Paso and the UTEP Alumni Association recently announced the 2008 recipients of their Distinguished Alumni Award. This year’s recipients are: J. James Rohack, president-elect, American Medical Association; Ruben Salazar (posthumously), groundbreaking journalist honored on a U.S. postage stamp in 2008; and R. Paul Yetter, nationally recognized attorney, co-founder of Yetter & Warden, LLP.

UTEP’s Distinguished Alumni Award honors some of the university’s most accomplished graduates who have not only distinguished themselves professionally, but also have demonstrated dedication to the university or their community. The honorees will be recognized during UTEP’s Homecoming Week Oct. 5-11.

J. James Rohack recently was named president-elect of the American Medical Association, the nation's largest physician organization. He will assume the presidency in June 2009, followed by a term as immediate past president ending in 2010.

For the full story, visit: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/communications/news/08august2008.html

Students

Van Winkle Awarded TMLT Scholarshop

Texas Medical Liability Trust (TMLT) is proud to announce the winners of the 2008 TMLT Memorial Scholarships.

• Alexander J. Alvarez is a third-year medical student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
• Megan Gentry is a third-year medical student at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
• Douglas James Heiner is a third-year medical student at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
• Michael Merrick is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
• Ana Nguyen is a fourth-year medical student at the Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Medicine.
• Kyle Piwonka is a fourth-year medical student at the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine.
• Jenny Van Winkle is a fourth-year medical student at the Texas A&MHealth Science Center College of Medicine.
• Ajit Vyas is a fourth-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine.

For the past 4 years, TMLT has awarded a $5,000 scholarship to one student at each Texas medical school that participated in the competition. Scholarship recipients are chosen based on each student’s financial need and written essay. Winning essays are available on TMLT web site (www.tmlt.org) and will be published in TMLT’s newsletter, the Reporter.

For the full story, visit: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/communications/news/18august2008.html

Alikhani Receives $10K AMA Foundation Scholarship

The American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation awarded Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarships to fifteen rising fourth-year medical students. Recipients were nominated by their medical school dean and chosen by a selection committee based upon their academic standing and financial status, as well as community involvement, letters of recommendation and personal statement. Each student will receive a $10,000 scholarship to help defray medical school expenses.

The recipients are:

• Puya Alikhani, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
• Diana Badillo, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Andrew Barina, Saint Louis University School of Medicine
• Karl Bezak, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
• Rozalina Grubina, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Nadia Hernandez, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
• Stephanie Hu, Harvard Medical School
• Arman Kilic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
• Youssra Marjoua, Yale University School of Medicine
• Monica Patton, University of Vermont College of Medicine
• Janae Phelps, Howard University College of Medicine
• Dominic Sanford, University of Missouri- Columbia
• Javay Ross, UCLA Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science
• Matthew Bivens, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Helena Hart, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

"These medical students represent the very best of the next generation of U.S. physicians," said AMA Foundation President Jean Howard. "Their academic achievements as well as their leadership and volunteer activities speak to their commitment to make a difference in the medical profession."

For the full story, visit: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/communications/news/11august2008.html

Administration

Office of Academic Affairs

Dr. Jose Pliego attended the 2008 SEIPS Human Factors Course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, August 18-22. He also presented “Human Error: Theory and Prevention Techniques-The Role of Clinical Simulation” and “Debriefing Techniques” at the Laerdal Denver SUN Conference, held in Aurora, Colorado, August 13-14.

Office of Faculty Development

The College of Medicine’s Education Grand Rounds presents “Updates From the LCME” with featured speaker Christopher C. Colenda, M.D., M.P.H. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, September 24 from noon to 1 p.m. The presentation will be scheduled in Lecture Hall I, Reynolds Medical Building, College Station and broadcast to the following locations: R109, Medical Education Center at S&W, Temple; Suite 400, Old Town Square, Round Rock; and 1R21, CVRI, Temple.

The College of Medicine Education Grand Rounds are to be held monthly throughout the year over the noon hour, except December. The College of Medicine Education Grand Rounds have been approved for CME Category 1 Credit through the Scott & White Office of Continuing Medical Education.

Office of Research

Opportunities for Funding

Ted Nash Long Life Foundation Application for grants

Research under a Ted Nash Long Life Foundation grant should be conducted under the leadership of a "Principal" who is a full-time regular faculty member with tenure or is on tenure track. Applications for up to two years of support may be submitted at any time but must be received by October 15, to be considered for the next grant year, December 1 - November 30. Only one proposal may be submitted naming a particular Principal. For more information and the application, go to: http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/dean/2008/files/nash-application.pdf

Basic Science Departments

Humanities in Medicine

Future Event Dates

October 14, 2008 – The John P. McGovern Lecture in the Art & Science of Medicine, Speaker, David Bolinsky

October 27, 2008 – The Paxton Howard/Gerald Keegan Lecture in Bioethics, Speaker, Tom Irons

November 13, 2008 – The Eleventh Annual Black-Zandveld Lecture in the History of Medicine, Speaker, David N. McMurray

November 17, 2008 – Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University: Roundtable Discussion: Medical Practice and Humanities Research, Speakers, Nancy Dickey, Barbara Gastel, David Rosen, Gül Russell, Charles Sanders, Barbara Sharf

Faculty

Dr. Ming Tai-Seale (SRPH), Dr. David Rosen, Dr. Chris Colenda and two colleagues received the Article-of-the-Year Award from AcademyHealth for “Two-minute mental health care for elderly patients: Inside primary care visits,” by M. Tai-Seale, T. McGuire, C. Colenda, D. Rosen, & M. A. Cook, which was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (55:1903-1911).

Recent Publications

Sanders, CW, Sadoski, M, Wasserman, RW, Wiprud, R, English, M and Bramson, R. Comparing the effects of physical practice and mental imagery rehearsal on learning basic venipuncture by medical students. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 27, 117-127 (2008).

Sanders, CW, Sadoski, M, van Walsum, K, Bramson, R, Wiprud, R and Fossum, TW. Learning basic surgical skills with mental imagery: using the simulation centre in the mind. Medical Education, 42: 607-612 (2008).

Scientific Presentations

Dr. Chuck Sanders gave three presentations at The Female Patient conference, co-sponsored by Scott & White and the College of Medicine, June 16-20 in South Padre Island. His presentations were entitled “Vaginitis: Diagnosis and Misdiagnosis”, “Premenopausal Bleeding” and “The Path to Professionalism.”

Dr. David Rosen gave the following presentations this summer:

• “The Healing Spirit of Haiku.” Workshop presentation at the 3rd Multidisciplinary Academic Conference of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich, Switzerland, July 3, 2008 with K. Stephenson.
• “Research is Me-Search: Valuing the Wounded Researcher.” Presentation part of a panel “Honoring the Wounded Researcher,” with Robert Romanyshyn, at the 3rd Multidisciplinary Academic Conference of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich, Switzerland, July 4, 2008.
• “Symbols of the Self: Creating Mandalas.” Workshop presentation at the 3rd Multidisciplinary Academic Conference of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) at the ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, July 4, 2008, Patti Henderson with D. Rosen.
• “Empirical Study of Kanji as Archetypal Images: Understanding the Collective Unconscious as Part of the Japanese Language.” Poster presentation at the 3rd Multidisciplinary Academic Conference of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) at the ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, July 5, 2008. Milena Sotirova-Kohli with D. Rosen, S. Smith, S. Taki Reece and P. Henderson.
• “The Healing Nature of Haiku: An Empirical Study.” Poster presentation at the 3rd Multidisciplinary Academic Conference of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) at the ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, July 5, 2008, Kittredge Stephenson with D. Rosen and P. Henderson.

Dr. Gül A. Russell gave the following presentations this summer:

• She was invited to the Vth International Cognitive Neuroscience Conference (May 17-21, Marmaris, Turkey) as one of two medical historians to address leading vision scientists by a presentation on “The Origins of Point to Point Correspondence in Anatomical Projection Prior to Descartes: Ibn al-Haytham (d. 1040) (Her expenses were covered).
• She also gave a presentation at the XIIIth Annual Meeting of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) (June 18-22; at the Max Planck Institute’s Harnack House, Berlin, Germany) on “ The Science Behind the Art of Seeing: Ibn al-Haytham’s Theory of Point to Point Projection and Renaissance Theory of Perspective”. She also organized and chaired a seminar on the “Neurosciences and the Cinema”.
• She participated at the XIIIth Colloquium Hippocraticum (What is Hippocratic About the Hippocratics?) (August 11th-13th at the University of Texas at Austin) as a commentator.

Microbial & Molecular Pathogenesis

Faculty

Dr. McMurray traveled to Baltimore, MD, from July 7-11to attend the 43rd Annual US-Japan Tuberculosis and Leprosy Research Conference sponsored by the US-Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program (USJCMSP) and hosted by colleagues at Johns Hopkins University. As the U.S. Chair of the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Panel, he participated in the planning and organization of the meeting and presided over a business meeting of the Panel. A member of his research team, Dr. Ammini Jeevan, presented a poster based upon her research: Jeevan A, Bonilla-Escobar D, McMurray DN. “The functional activity of lung digest cells in BCG-vaccinated guinea pigs challenged with virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis”.

Grants Received

Dr. Tesh received notification of the non-competitive renewal of grant “Pathogenic mechanisms of Shiga toxin pathogenesis” (5RO1 AI34530-12) from the NIAID, NIH.

Recent Publications

Allen, SS, Mackie, JT, Russell, K, Jeevan, A, Skwor, TA and McMurray DN. Altered inflammatory responses following transforming growth factor - b neutralization in experimental guinea pig tuberculous pleurisy. Tuberculosis 88: 430-436 (2008).

Cho, H, de Hass, R, Jeevan, A and McMurray, DN. Differential activation of alveolar and peritoneal macrophages from BCG-vaccinated guinea pigs. Tuberculosis 88: 307-316 (2008).

Ly, LH, Barhoumi, R, Cho, SH, Franzblau, SG and McMurray, DN. Vaccination with Bacille-Calmette Guerin promotes myco-bacterial control in guinea pig macrophages infected in vivo. J Infect Dis 198: 768-771 (2008).

Ly, LH and McMurray, DN. Tuberculosis: vaccines in the pipeline. Exp Rev Vacc 7: 635- 650 (2008).

Padilla-Carlin, DJ, McMurray, DN and Hickey, AJ. The guinea pig as a model of infectious diseases. Comp Med 58: 1-17 (2008).

Scientific Presentations

Dr. Van Wilson attended the DNA Tumor Virus meeting in Madison, WI and presented “Modification of Papillomavirus E2 Proteins by the Host Sumoylation System” by Van G. Wilson and Jessie Wu.

Dr. Julian Leibowitz presented poster at the International Nidovirus Symposium in Oxford, England and was co-author on an oral presentation.

Molecular & Cellular Medicine

Faculty

Dr. Gregory Bix, in conjunction with the COM, has filed a provisional U.S. patent entitled "Stroke-generated Angiogenesis enhancers and uses thereof" basedon his research onperlecan domain V in the brain.

Grants Received

Dr. Sarah Bondos received an American Heart Association Beginning Grant-in-Aid entitled “Differential function of Hox transcription factors in cardiac development”, $70,000/year for 2 years, starting July 1, 2008.

Scientific Presentations

Dr. Siegfried Musser presented a talk entitled "What can Single Molecule Studies Tell us about Nuclear Transport?" at the "Nuclear Pore Complex: Biology, Physics and Nanotechnology" Workshop in Santa Fe, NM, sponsored by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Center for Nonlinear Studies, August 9-10.

Dr. Siegfried Musser, Dr. Weidong Yang, C. Sun and L.-C. Yu presented the poster "Dissociation of Importin /Cargo Complexes at the Nuclear Pore Requires CAS and RanGTP" at the "Single Molecule Approaches to Biology" Gordon Conference in New London, NH, August 17-22.

Dr. Sarah Bondos presented a seminar entitled “Using intrinsically disordered domains to drive tissue-specific function and for biomaterial self-assembly” at the Developmental Biology Supergroup Meeting August 20.

Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics

Grants Received

Dr. Gerry Frye received a NIH grant award notice: R01 AA012386-05 CNS Development, GABAARS and Vulnerability to Ethanol, Gerald D. Frye, P.I. 25% effort, Jennifer Bizon, 10% effort; 08-1-08 to 7-31-12, $540,000 total direct cost; $773,868 total costs.

Dr. Ian Murray (PI) and Dr. Tina Gumienny (Co-PI) received an internal award from the Research Development and Enhancement Awards Program (RDEAP) of $15,000 for the period 08/1/2008-07/31/2009 for the project “Metabolite Mediated Misfolding”. The study goal is to identify how the lipid metabolite contributes to Amyloid b protein misfolding in the transgenic C.elegans Alzheimer’s disease model.

Scientific Presentations

A poster presentation, “A Successful Reciprocal Peer Teaching Program for Medical Gross Anatomy and Histology Labs”, by Dr. Douglas Dohrman, Dr. Wei-Jung Chen and Dr. Tom Peterson received Outstanding Presentation Award Finalist at the 12th Annual meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators.

Dr. Bill Griffith presented a seminar entitled “Can mutant mice serve as model systems to study calcium signaling during aging?” to the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the TAMHSC-College of Pharmacy in Kingsville on August 22.

Dr. Ian Murray presented the inaugural talk at the NEXT Department Informal Dinner Seminar series on August19.

Clinical Departments

Emergency Medicine

Scientific Presentations

Department of Emergency Medicine resident physicians presented the following abstracts at the International Shock Congress in Cologne, Germany in June:

• Cory Kebert , MD presented “MDRD calculated GFR predicts in-Hospital Mortality in ED patients with Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock”.
• Chris Quitadamo, MD presented “Role of BNP for Predicting in-Hospital Mortality in ED Patients with Severe Sepsis or Septic Shock”.

Department of Emergency Medicine faculty will have the five following abstracts presented at the North American Congress of Clinical Toxicology in Toronto, September 11th-16th:

• David, Morgan, MD will present “Validity of the AAPCC Atypical Antipsychotic Ingestion Guideline for Quetiapine”, “Validity of the AAPCC Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Poisoning Guideline for Escitalopram” and “Clinical Effects Following Acute Donepezil (Aricept) Ingestion by Young Children”.
• Ron Kirschner, MD will present “Drug Combinations Associated with Serotonin Syndrome in Patients Admitted to a Toxicology Treatment Center” and “Drugs Associated with Seizure in Patients Admitted to a Toxicology Treatment Center”.

Internal Medicine

News

Eric Lazcano, a summer student working with mentor Dr. Sharon DeMorrow, won the most outstanding presentation of the Scott & White Early Career Experience on August 8.

Grants Received

Dr. Gianfranco Alpini’s third NIH grant DK76898 was funded from 2008 to 2011.

Recent Publications

S Glaser, S DeMorrow, H Francis, Y Ueno, E Gaudio, S Vaculin, J Venter, A Franchitto, P Onori, B Vaculin, M Marzioni, C Wise, M Pilanthananond, J Savage, and G Alpini. Progesterone stimulates the proliferation of female and male cholangiocytes by an autocrine mechanism. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol (2008) 295(1):G124-G136.

H Francis, S Glaser, S DeMorrow, J Venter, Y Ueno, M Marzioni, S Vaculin, B Vaculin, G Alpini. Small Murine Cholangiocytes Proliferate in Response to H1 Histamine Receptor Stimulation by Activation of the IP3/CAMK I/CREB Pathway. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2008 Aug;295(2):C499-513.

G Fava, G Alpini, C Rychlicki, S Saccomanno, S DeMorrow, L Trozzi, C Candelaresi, J Venter, A Di Sario, M Marzioni, I Bearzi, S Glaser, D Alvaro, L Marucci, H Francis, G Svegliati-Baroni, A Benedetti. Leptin Enhances Cholangiocarcinoma Cell Growth Cancer Res. 2008; 68(16), 6752-6761.

Gatto M, Drudi-Metalli V, Torrice A, Alpini G, Cantafora A, Blotta I, Alvaro D. Insulin-like growth factor-1 isoforms in rat hepatocytes and cholangiocytes and their involvement in protection against cholestatic injury. Lab Invest. 2008 Jul 7. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 18607346 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Academic Medicine

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