News Capsules 06/08/05

June 8, 2005

AHC NEWS

Celebrate the grand opening of the McGuire Translational Research Facility on June 14 at the new facility, located next to the Lions Research Building (see location map at http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/LionsRes/LionsRes-map.html). The program begins at noon. Guided tours of the building and refreshments will be offered between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. The entire AHC community is invited, but replies are required by calling 624-9163 or sending an e-mail to mailto:ahccomm@umn.edu.

Faculty research development grants with an average award of $200,000 are available through the Academic Health Center. It is anticipated that six projects will be funded in the next round. The application deadline is Sept. 16 and grants will be awarded through a competitive peer review process. The program is designed to support new or expanding interdisciplinary and interscholastic research that is innovative and has a high potential for return. Awards will be announced in December 2005 and funding will begin Jan. 1, 2006. Funds can be applied to a one- to three-year project. For more information, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/research/funding/devgrants.

OTHER NEWS

David L. Dunn, Jay Phillips Professor, will step down as head of the Medical School’s Department of Surgery to accept the position of vice president for health sciences at the University at Buffalo/SUNY. He will be responsible for leading five health sciences schools and hospital and clinical affiliates. In Dunn's 28 years with the surgery department--nearly 10 years as head--he published more than 400 scientific articles and book chapters, recruited more than two dozen new surgeon-scientists, doubled research funding, and established seven endowed chairs. David A. Rothenberger, chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, will be interim head of the department. Jonathan I. Ravdin, head of the Medical School’s Department of Medicine, will lead the search committee for Dunn’s replacement.

Leonard M. Schuman, formerly of the School of  Public Health, died May 31 at age 92. Schuman established the country’s first doctoral program in epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and served on the first Surgeon General’s Committee on Smoking and Health from 1962-64. The committee’s work contributed to the first formal declaration from the government that smoking causes cancer. “Dr. Schuman’s contributions to the areas of cancer prevention and infectious disease have made monumental impacts on human life throughout the world,” said John Finnegan, interim dean of the School of Public Health. For more, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/schuman053105.

Medical School researchers have found a direct link between how sexual and neural development interact by locating a gene in roundworms that controls how nervous systems form. “It is possible that similar genes present in humans are responsible for some of the differences in nervous systems of men and women,” said David Zarkower, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development.  For more, go to http://www.ahc.umn.edu/news/releases/neural.

PEOPLE

Mustafa al’Absi, Medical School, behavioral sciences, has received an NIH grant award of $115,000 to fund an international research program titled Concurrent Use of Nicotine and Khat. The three-year project, funded by the NIH’s Fogarty International Center, will expand al'Absi's research in the area of stress, neurobiology, and addiction.

Bashar Bakdash, School of Dentistry, received the 2005 American Academy of Periodontology Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring in Periodontics Award.

Casey Hooke, a doctoral student in the School of Nursing, received a $30,000, two-year Doctoral Scholarship in Cancer Nursing from the American Cancer Society. Hooke’s dissertation research focuses on fatigue, physical performance, and carnitine levels in children with cancer. Nursing faculty Ann Garwick and Janice Post-White co-sponsored this award.

Medical student Rob Schleiffarth recently was given two additional years of financial support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Last year, he was one of 60 students nationwide chosen for a Howard Hughes Medical School Fellowship, which supported a year of laboratory research with Anna Petryk, Medical School, pediatrics. Recently, based on the merit of his research presentation, Schleiffarth, and a percentage of the other students, was awarded a full tuition scholarship and a stipend for the rest of his medical school training.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Paul J. Simmons will present “Stem Cell or Niche?  The Yin and Yang of Marrow Stromal Cells” on June 15, 1 p.m., in 2-101 Hasselmo Hall (formerly BSBE). The presentation is part of the Stem Cell Institute’s Special Seminar Series. Simmons is program head in stem cell biology and director of adult stem cell platform at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in East Melbourne, Australia. For more information, contact Lauri Anderson at 625-0602.

Steve Miles, Medical School, and others will share their experiences working in tsunami-affected regions of South Asia at a June 16 campus event at the Ted Mann Concert Hall, 2128 4th St. S. The event, “Thanks a Boatload,” begins at 6:30 p.m. with a reception and photo exhibit followed by the program at 7:30 p.m. The free event is sponsored by the American Refugee Committee and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. If you plan to attend, please call 612-872-7060 or register online at http://www.archq.org/donate_thanks.shtml.