From the Interim Dean

Colleagues, Faculty, Staff and Students,

Another month has flown by! Thank you to all the students, faculty and staff who attended the largest ever Convocation in January celebrating 10 years as a Health Science Center. Among the award presentations and remarks from the leadership, our very own College of Medicine student Britney Prince spoke on behalf of students as president of the HSC Student Government Association. Thank you, Britney, and thank you to all of the students who attended. You represented a fine showing from the College of Medicine.

And the spring semester is rapidly filling with more events of note. The college’s 5th Magnolia Tea, hosted by Mrs. Lou Ann McKinney, will welcome First Lady of Texas, Mrs. Anita Perry, as speaker on Tuesday, March 9 at The Reed House in College Station. Magnolia Tea raises money each year to benefit women’s health research at the College of Medicine. Match Day will be Thursday, March 18, in Temple and, for the first time, in College Station. More details on that event will follow soon.

As we prepare for these and other events, I encourage you to keep up the great work that you are doing for your departments and for the college.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Sherwood, M.D.
Interim Dean
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine
147 Joe H. Reynolds Medical Building
College Station, Texas 77843-1114
Phone: 979/845-3431; Fax: 979/847-8663
Email: sherwood@medicine.tamhsc.edu

Dates To Remember

• Mini-Med School: Thursday, February 18 and 25, 6-7:30 p.m., RMB Lecture Hall 1
• Commencement Rehearsal: Friday, May 21, 2:00 p.m., Rudder Auditorium
• Commencement: Saturday, May 22, 2:00 p.m., Rudder Auditorium

College News

Celebrating 10 years, Texas A&M Health Science Center reflects upon “Leading a Community of Excellence” at academic convocation

Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the Texas A&M Health Science Center hosted its fourth academic convocation Wednesday, January 20.

With a theme of “Leading a Community of Excellence,” the event at the Leonore and Walter Annenberg Presidential Conference Center in the George Bush Library Complex at Texas A&M University celebrated the renewed vision and reaffirmed commitment to providing quality programs and services throughout the state. For the first time ever, it was satellite broadcast to campuses in Dallas, Temple, Kingsville, Round Rock, McAllen and Corpus Christi.

A complete convocation article is available online.

 

 

Martha’s Clinic Reopens, Celebrates with Open House

(TEMPLE, TX) — Martha’s Clinic, a student-run free health clinic for the homeless and indigent population of Temple and surrounding Bell County, has reopened its doors after a brief hiatus thanks to the support of the community. The clinic, run by College of Medicine student volunteers out of Martha’s Kitchen, had been forced to temporarily vacate because of code violations cited against the building in June 2009.

Now with support from the City of Temple, the Temple Free Clinic, the Heart of Texas Angels Alliance, the Temple Help Center and the Texas A&M Health Science Center, Martha’s Clinic is cleared to resume operations in its original location. To celebrate its reopening, The College of Medicine, Scott & White Healthcare and the Board of Directors of Martha’s Clinic hosted an Open House on Thursday, January 28, at the clinic. The clinic will be ready to formally see patients in February.

Friedman Elected to NSA

Dr. Jonathan Friedman was recently elected to the Neurosurgical Society of America. He will be inducted into the Society during the business meeting at an upcoming annual meeting in Pebble Beach, California on April 11-14, 2010.

Latest News from the Center of Excellence

Jennifer L. Robinson, Ph.D. of the Texas A&M Health Science Center Neuroscience Institute and Scott & White Memorial Hospital submitted “Imaging the effects of glucocorticoids in the treatment of PTSD” for a CDA2 for three years, capped at $50,000 per year.

Dr. David Greenawalt has accepted the Office of Academic Affiliations post-doctoral research fellowship and will begin in February 2010. Dr. Greenawalt received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami in clinical psychology and completed an internship at the University of Texas at Austin Counseling and Mental Health Center. He is interested in conducting research on veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Dr. Greenawalt has been working as a project manager for Project RESPECT-P, a randomized, clinical trial of the Three Component Model (3CM) for treatment of PTSD in veterans receiving primary care in the VA. The three components of the intervention are a prepared practice, care management, and enhanced mental health support for the primary care clinician.

Faculty

Prockop Receives CPRIT Grant

Dr. Darwin Prockop was recently awarded a grant from CPRIT (Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas) for $947,367. The proposed project title is “Novel Therapy for Lung Cancers using Adult Stem/Progenitor Cells.”

A complete listing of all recipients and more information about the CPIRIT program are available online.

An article featuring Dr. Prockop's grant also appeared in the Temple Daily Telegram.

Wilson Publishes First Book on SUMO

Dr. Van Wilson, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies and Professor of Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis, has recently published a book, SUMO Regulation of Cellular Processes, a state-of-the-art, in-depth review of sumoylation, an essential and critical process that is critical for cell growth and survival. More about Dr. Wilson's book is available on the publisher's website.

Bix Honored as First Graduate McNair Scholar

 

Dr. Greg Bix was honored as the first graduate scholar of the Bob & Judith McNair Foundation at a special ceremony held during half-time at the Houston Texans football game at Reliant Stadium on December 13, 2009. The McNair Foundation provided a full tuition scholarship and stipend to Dr. Bix during his M.D., Ph.D. training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Students

Cadaver Memorial 2010

On Wednesday, February 3, M1s gathered, as they do annually, in the Reynolds lobby to honor the people that donated their bodies not only just to science, but specifically to the College of Medicine. Their contributions make it possible for the students to learn in ways that would not be possible without the physical presence of cadavers. Class CEO Andrew Tseng and Dr. Gary McCord gave remarks and students lit candles in remembrance of each person’s body used in this year’s gross anatomy lab. See more photos at the college of medicine facebook page.

 

Medical Mission to Uganda

Medical students, faculty members and several undergraduate students from Texas A&M University will soon embark on a medical mission trip to Uganda, organized by the College of Medicine. Last summer, the college proctored a mission trip to Mexico where students and faculty helped children at a local orphanage.

The trip invites students from any class year to provide relief and to administer basic medical treatment to the people of Uganda needing even the most basic medical care.

To help fund the students’ trip on this medical experience, please contact Donna Shipp at shipp@medicine.tamhsc.edu.

 

Administration

COM Bids Fond Farewell to Scholtz and Plaag

On January 26, the College of Medicine bid a fond farewell to Dr. Marty Scholtz, former Chair of the Department of Molecular & Cellular Medicine, and his assistant, Ms. Chantel Plaag. Dr. Scholtz accepted a position with the Texas A&M University  as the Associate Vice President for Research effective in January. He had served as department head since 2006. Faculty, staff and administrators turned out to wish them well and thank them for their service.

 

Ms. Chantel Plaag and Dr. Marty Scholtz

Pliego Presents at International Meeting

Dr. Jose F. Pliego, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs in Temple, presented two workshops at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona from January 24-26, “Experience Simulation: A Rough Delivery” and “Experience Simulation: Drama in the ER.”

Basic Science

HUMANITIES IN MEDICINE

Workshops Conducted

Barbara Gastel, MD, MPH, professor, Department of Humanities in Medicine, gave a scientific-writing workshop in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, on January 14 and 15. The workshop was sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Office of Fellows Career Development and the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Attendees included approximately 80 postdoctoral fellows and others from NIEHS and nearby universities.

Publications

Gul A. Russell, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Humanities in Medicine After Galen: Late antiquity and the Islamic World in History of Neurology (Handbook of Clinical Neurology, vol. 95, 3rd series). Elsevier (2010), chap. VI, pp. 49-61.

A Historic Reunion

Five alumni from the class of 2007, now completing their third-year residencies in various states, came to College Station on December 22 for a one-night reunion of their film class with Dr. G. A. Russell (Humanities elective Medicine and Society Through Film).

Ali Azizi (Community Practice, New Mexico); Arash Mughaddam (Pediatric Psychiatry, Houston); Rebecca Levy (Pathology, Washington, D.C.); Heajeoung Koh (Emergency Medicine, Cleveland Ohio); Laura Tenner, (Oncology, Indianapolis, Indiana); Cecile Phan, (Maywood, Illinois) dubbed themselves the “Nostalgians” after the Russian film by Andre Tarkovsky. A poem composed by Laura Tenner, incorporating films they viewed, reflects their state of mind through their medical education.

MICROBIAL & MOLECULAR PATHOGENESIS

Publications

Hyde, J.A., Shaw, D.K., Smith, R., Trzeciakowski, J.P., and J. T. Skare. 2009. The BosR regulatory protein of Borrelia burgdorferi interfaces with the RpoS regulatory pathway and modulates both the oxidative stress response and pathogenic properties of the Lyme disease spirochete. Mol Microbiol. 74(6): 1344-1355.

This article was featured in the MicroCommentary section in the December 2009 issue of Molecular Microbiology.

Hyde, J.A., Shaw, D.K., Smith, R., Trzeciakowski, J.P., and J. T. Skare. 2010. Characterization of a Conditional bosR Mutant in Borrelia burgdorferi. Infect. Immun. 78(1): 265-274.

This article was highlighted as a “Spotlight” Article in the January 2010 issue of Infection and Immunity.

Bonilla DL, Fan Y-Y, Chapkin RS, McMurray DN. (2010) Transgenic mice enriched in omega-3 fatty acids are more susceptible to pulmonary tuberculosis: impaired resistance to tuberculosis in fat-1 mice. J. Infect Dis 201: 399-408.

Presentations/Meetings

Dr. David McMurray traveled to the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill from 14-17 January to attend the 3rd Southeastern Mycobacteria Meeting and to present a talk entitled “BCG vaccination modulates the local pulmonary cytokine environment of guinea pigs infected aerogenically with virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis.”

Dr. John Quarles attended the 2010 Association of Medical School Microbiology and Immunology Chairs annual meeting in Cancun, Mexico, from January 18-24.

Drs. John Quarles, Vernon Tesh and Van Wilson attended the Biosafety, Biocontainment & Biosurety: Issues, trends and regulations affecting your BSL3/High Containment Programs Conference sponsored by The Texas Society for Biomedical Research (TSBR), The University of Texas and Texas A&M Systems in Austin from January 5-6, 2010.

Grant Awards

Dr. Vernon Tesh received a notice of award for a subcontract with Boston University Medical Center for a project entitled “Shiga Toxins Preclinica Animal Model Development and Therapeutic Testing.”

MOLECULAR & CELLULAR MEDICINE

Recent Publications

Seabury, C.M., Seabury, P.M., Decker, J.E., Schnabel, R.D., Taylor, J.F., and Womack, J.E. (2010) Diversity and evolution of 11 innate immune genes in Bos taurus taurus and Bos taurus indicus cattle. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 107(1):151-156. Epub 2009 Dec 14.

McLean, J.R., McLean, J.A., Wu, Z., Becker, C., Pérez, L.M., Pace, C.N., Scholtz, J.M., and Russell, D.H. /(2010) Factors that influence helical preferences for singly charged gas-phase peptide ions: the effects of multiple potential charge-carrying sites. J. Phys. Chem. B. 114(2):809-816.

Wen, S., Zhu, H., Lu, W., Mitchell, L.E., Shaw, G.M., Lammer, E.J., and Finnell, R.H. (2010) Planar cell polarity pathway genes and risk for spina bifida. Am. J. Med. Genet. A. 152A(2):299-304.

Tharakan, B., Whaley, J.G., Hunter, F.A., Smythe, W.R., and Childs, E.W. (2010) (-)-Deprenyl inhibits vascular hyperpermeability after hemorrhagic shock. Shock. 33(1):56-63.

Shen, D.Y., Fang, Z.X., You, P., Liu, P.G., Wang, F., Huang, C.L., Yao, X.B., Chen, Z.X., and Zhang, Z.Y. (2010) Clinical significance and expression of Cks1 and Cks2 in hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver International. 30: 119-125. PMID 19845855

Sims-Lucas S., Eswarakumar, V., Hains, D., Kish, K., Becknell, B., Zhang, J., Wang, F., and Bates, C. (2009) Deletion of Frs2α from the ureteric epithelium causes renal hypoplasia. Am. J. Physiol. Renal Physiol., 297(5):F1208-1219. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19741018

Cai, Z., Shi, Z., Sanchez, A., Zhang, T., Liu, M., Yang, J., Wang, F., and Zhang, D. (2009) Transcriptional regulation of TLR11 gene expression in epithelial cells. J. Biol. Chem. 284(48):33088-33096 [Epub ahead of print Oct. 2, 2009], PMID: 19801549.

Haling, J.R., Wang, F., and Ginsberg, M.H. (2009) PEA-15 Re-Programs Growth Factor Signaling by Inhibiting Threonine Phosphorylation of FRS2{alpha} Mol Biol Cell. 2009 Dec 23. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 20032303

Grants

Dr. Wallace McKeehan was awarded a grant of $83,500 from Amgen, Inc. for “Metabolic Studies in Adipocyte-specific FGFR1 Knockout Mice”.

Announcements

Dr. Darwin Prockop was nominated, accepted and agreed to serve on the TAMEST (The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas) O’Donnell Awards Committee. The O’Donnell Awards were established by The Academy in 2005 to recognize Texas’ rising researchers. Nominations are considered annually in four categories: Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology Innovation (http://www.tamest.org/). The fifth annual O’Donnell Awards will be presented at The Academy's annual conference in January.

Dr. Greg Bix was invited by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to give a news conference featuring his research “Perlecan Domain V Is a Novel Stroke Treatment,” emerging potential stroke treatment and trends at the International Stroke Conference 2010 in San Antonio from February 24-26.

Dr. James Martin has been appointed interim director of the Center for Molecular Development and Diseases at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology in the Texas Medical Center.

NEUROSCIENCE & EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS

Grants

George C.Y. Chiou, Ph.D. was awarded a grant from Healthcare of Today, Inc. for Anti-AMD drugs totaling $10 million for 2010-2013. The current amount is $2.0 million.

Interviews

Ian Murray, Ph.D. was interviewed by Amanda Gardner with HealthDay for the article “Alzheimer’s ‘Cocktail’ Shows Promise.” Full article here: http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=634685

Presentations

Farida Sohrabji, Ph.D. presented the following seminars:

• 12/18/09 Steroid and peptide hormone interactions: Stroke Therapy for Aging, Indian Academy of Neuroscience, Jaipur India
• 12/22/09 Sex, Stroke and the Aging Brain: A neuroendocrine perspective, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay India
• 12/24/09 Stroke and the Aging Brain, Department of Applied Psychology Alumni Series, Bombay University, India

National Grants Reviewed/Review Panels

Dr. Ursula Winzer-Serhan served on an NIDA special emphasis panel ZDA1JXR-D(05), reviewed a PPG, 2 projects of a PPG, and 2 cores.

SYSTEMS BIOLOGY & TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

Sanjukta Chakraborty, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate in Systems Biology & Translational Medicine, has been awarded the NPA travel award for attending a summit in March. As an elected officer of the Resource Development Committee of the NPA, Chakraborty’s award will be applied to registration and lodging for attending the NPA Annual Meeting following the summit.

 

Clinical Science

INTERNAL MEDICINE

Dr. Alpini is currently serving as an Editorial Board Member of World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology and in a study session with the American Liver Foundation.

Dr. DeMorrow is currently serving as Associate Editor of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology.

Glaser SS, Gaudio E, and Alpini G published “Vascular factors, angiogenesis and biliary tract disease.” Curr Opin Gastroenterol.

A complete summary of monthly activities in available for download.