Kudos

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Awards and Honors

Sarah A. Felknor, Dr.P.H., director, Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health (SPH), has been appointed to a three-year term as chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness for U.S. workers.

Margo Y. Melchor, registered dental hygienist, clinical assistant professor of periodontics, School of Dental Hygiene, Dental Branch (DB) has been elected treasurer of the national Hispanic Dental Association. With this position, she will advance to serve as the association’s president in 2010.

The Spondylitis Association of America has appointed John D. Reveille, M.D., to its board of directors. Reveille is the George S. Bruce, Jr. Professor in Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases and director of the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunogenetics, Medical School (MS). Spondylitis is a group of chronic, inflammatory diseases that cause pain and stiffness and, in the most severe cases, can result in a total fusion of the spine and/or neck, leading to disability. Reveille, chief of rheumatology at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, is principal investigator of the Triple “A” Spondylitis Consortium Genetic Study (i.e. the TASC or Australo-Anglo-American Spondylitis Consortium), which involves a team of researchers in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

Sean Savitz, M.D., assistant professor of neurology, MS, is among the new Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Early Career Award recipients. Each year, alumni of the HHMI-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program and the HHMI Research Training Fellowships for Medical Students are invited to apply for Early Career Awards as they begin their careers as physician-scientists. Each awardee will receive $375,000 over a five-year period. Savitz is focusing his research on the chemical necrostatin, which inhibits necrosis (death of cells), such as occurs in the brain during a stroke. Savitz is working to develop necrostatin as a therapy for stroke and in combination with the only currently approved agent for stroke, tissue plasminogen activator. His goal is to develop a therapy that will protect patients from brain cell death after they suffer a stroke.

Keri C. Smith, Ph.D., research instructor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, MS, received a young investigator award at the XXI Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis Inc. (ISTH ) July 6-12 in Geneva, Switzerland. ISTH is a scientific and educational nonprofit organization with over 2,800 members from more than 70 countries. Smith, one of the initial K12 grant recipients from the UT Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, is using her grant to study “Chemical Immunological Concepts and Their Possible Use in the Clinical Setting.”

Presentations

Miguel da Cunha, Ph.D., professor of integrative nursing care, School of Nursing (SON), was invited to participate in the International Conference of Nursing, June 20-24, in the University of Panama School of Nursing at Santiago de Veraguas, Panama. He presented “Genetic Basis of Human Disease.” The School of Nursing provides bachelor’s level practitioners to the region of Veraguas, a rural area lacking adequate health care delivery. The conference was sponsored by the Cable and Wireless Foundation and the Adan Rios Foundation.

Publications

“Prevalence and Consequences of Sleep Disorders in Traumatic Brain Injury” was published in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine by Richard J. Castriotta, M.D., professor and division director, Pulmonary and Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, MS, and director, Memorial Hermann Hospital Sleep Disorders Center; Mark C. Wilde, Psy.D., assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, MS, and clinical neuropsychologist, Memorial Hermann; and co-authors from other institutions.

Sandra K. Hanneman, Ph.D., the Jerold B. Katz Distinguished Professor for Nursing Research, associate dean for research, and director, Center for Nursing Research, SON, had two research articles and an editorial published in the July 2007 issue of Biological Research for Nursing.

The editorial, “Chronobiology in Health Care,” laments the slow progress with translation of chronobiology theory, methods and research findings to health care.
Co-authors of “A Pilot Home Study of Temporal Variations of Symptoms in Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease” were Cynthia McCarley, D.S.N., alumna of the Doctor of Science in Nursing program, SON; Nikhil Padhye, Ph.D. , research assistant professor and biostatistician, Center for Nursing Research, SON; and Michael Smolensky, Ph.D., professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, School of Public Health. The article reports findings from McCarley’s dissertation research, which was partially funded by the Cinda Heist-Clark D.S.N. Dissertation Research Award, SON.
Padhye was co-author with Hanneman of “Cosinor Analysis for Temperature Time Series Data of Long Duration.”

James Langabeer II, Ed.D., associate professor, management and policy sciences, SPH, had a texbook published in August. The book, Healthcare Operations Management: A Quantitative Approach, published by Jones & Bartlett Publishers, will be used in graduate health care management courses. It focuses on improving patient flow, efficiency, and performance of hospitals and health systems.

Kathleen Becan-McBride, Ed.D., director, Community and Educational Outreach, Health Science Center, has published Phlebotomy Simplified and the Phlebotomy Simplified Instructor’s Resource Manual, her 20th and 21st books. The books, with long-time co-author Diana Garza, Ed.D., were published by Prentice Hall in July. Becan-McBride also is coordinator of the Texas-Mexico Border Health Projects and professor of family medicine, MS.

Susan Ramin, M.D., the Berel Held, M.D., Professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, MS, is a co-author of the Aug. 2 article, “A Trial of 17 Alpha-Hydroxyprogesterone Caproate to Prevent Prematurity in Twins,” in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Kishore Shetty, D.D.S., associate professor of restorative dentistry and diagnostic sciences, and director, Medically Complex Patient Clinic, DB, and Charles Streckfus, D.D.S., professor of diagnostic sciences, DB, are co-authors of “Oral Mucositis: Review of Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, Prevention, and Management” published in the July 2007 issue of the Journal for General Dentistry. Both Shetty and Streckfus also are faculty members of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS).

Jon R. Wiener, Ph.D., assistant dean for academic affairs, GSBS, and his research group, made up of GSBS faculty with primary appointments at UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, published an article, “Lysophosphatidic Acid Induction of Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Secretion Requires Activation of the P38MAPK Pathway,” in the August issue of the International Journal of Oncology. The paper is important because it dissects the mechanism by which a growth factor found in the ascites (excess fluid in the abdominal cavity) fluid of late-stage ovarian cancer patients stimulates the production of an enzyme used in the metastasis process.