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News Briefs

Animal operations pose risk

Children who attend school near large-scale livestock farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) may be at a higher risk for asthma, according to a new study led by Joel Kline, MD, ('93 F, '05 MS), professor of internal medicine.

Researchers surveyed the parents of kindergarten through fifth-grade students attending two Iowa elementary schools to compare the prevalence of asthma among students. The “study” school was located a half-mile from a CAFO in northeast Iowa; the “control” school was in east-central Iowa, more than 10 miles away from any CAFO (generally classified as a livestock facility that houses more than 3,500 animals). Sixty-one participants responded from the study school, and 248 responded from the control school.

Study results indicated a significant difference in the prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma between the two schools: 12 children (19.7 percent) from the study school located near a CAFO and 18 children (7.3 percent) from the control school. The overall rate of physician-diagnosed asthma reported for Iowa is around 6.7 percent.

Using the broadest definition of asthma (physician diagnosis, asthma-like symptoms or asthma medication use) the prevalence rate was 24.6 percent at the study school, compared to 11.7 percent at the control school.

Lifelong Learning for seniors

The UI Center on Aging has received a $100,000 grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation to establish the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute that will provide more learning opportunities for older Iowans.

The UI was one of 20 institutions around the country selected to receive an Osher grant. Julie Bobitt is director of the Institute.

The Institute will partner with existing University and community outreach programs to develop aging-related programs and content.

Additionally, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute will develop a senior leadership program. The program will offer an active learning environment in which participants can enhance their leadership skills, expand their personal and community networks, and learn about current issues while discovering new opportunities for lifelong learning and community involvement.

AMD book is free online

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects nearly 50 million people worldwide. This incurable disease is the topic of a new book by James C. Folk, MD, professor, and Mark E. Wilkinson, OD, associate professor, in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

The book, Protect Your Sight: How to Save Your Vision in the Epidemic of Age-Related Macular Degeneration, includes a description of the disease, information about its causes and associated risk factors, current and potential treatments and ways to maximize remaining vision.

A free, full-text version of the book is available at www.medrounds.org/protect-your-sight.

College appoints research deans

Two senior members of the College faculty will head the College's research enterprise.

Michael Apicella, MD, professor and head of microbiology, has been named interim senior associate dean for scientific affairs, with special focus on the basic sciences.

Gary Hunninghake, MD, the Sterba Professor of Internal Medicine, has been named the College's senior associate dean for clinical and translational sciences, with special emphasis on patient-based research.

The newly created associate deanships will replace the position of associate dean for research and graduate programs, which had been held since 1995 by Allyn Mark, MD. Mark will remain a member of the medical faculty.

Apicella joined the UI in 1993 as professor and head of the Department of Microbiology. He serves as principal investigator for one of the largest research awards ever granted to the UI—a seven-year, $22.2 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (awarded in 2003) to establish a research unit that includes basic research programs and a clinical trials component to study bacteria that cause respiratory illness in humans. He will continue to lead the department in addition to his role in the College administration.

Hunninghake's clinical and research interests include asthma, acute lung injury, sarcoidosis and occupational lung disease. He directs the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine. Hunninghake also serves as director of the Graduate Program in Translational Biomedical Research and as director of the Training Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Lung. He is a staff physician and researcher at the Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System.

Specialists rank among the best

For the 17th year in a row, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics ranked overall as one of “America's Best Hospitals,” with six of the hospital's specialties listed in an annual survey published by U.S. News & World Report magazine in July.

Three of the honored specialties—otolaryngology (2nd), ophthalmology and visual sciences (6th), and orthopaedic surgery (7th)—ranked among the nation's top 10.

Other specialities receiving rankings included: urology (17th), gynecology (30th), and kidney disease (41st).

Donna Katen-Bahensky, director and chief executive officer of UI Hospitals and Clinics, said the rankings offer yet another confirmation of the institution's commitment to overall excellence.

“Putting patients first has always been our focus. Sometimes this translates into high rankings, but it always translates into the best that health care has to offer. I am very pleased and proud to see our physicians and staff recognized for the world-class care that they provide. This is a much-deserved honor,” Katen-Bahensky said.

Lance Armstrong testifies

Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner, and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), 2004 Democratic presidential candidate and cancer survivor, came to The University of Iowa to testify at a U.S. Senate field hearing on cancer in July.

“Winning the Race Against Cancer,” was attended by more than 600 people and led by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). It was organized to promote the advancement of cancer research and increase awareness about the disease.

George Weiner, MD, director of the UI Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, testified about cancer deaths in Iowa and the impact cancer research, detection and treatment have made over the past several years. Weiner's research at the UI focuses on developing new approaches to using the immune system to treat lymphoma.

Abboud receives AAMC award

François Abboud, MD, ('61 R), the Edith King Pearson Chair of Cardiovascular Research and University of Iowa associate vice president for research, received the 2006 Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

His internationally recognized research has focused on identifying the causes of, and treatments for, heart disease. In particular, his studies have explored the brain's effects on the cardiovascular system, especially in relation to heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure, sleep apnea and obesity.

Abboud has served as president of several major professional associations, including the American Heart Association and the Association of American Physicians, and he is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Department head named

John Engelhardt, PhD, has been named head of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.

Engelhardt is the Roy J. Carver Chair in Molecular Medicine, and has served as interim department head since 2004. He joined the UI faculty in 1997 and is a professor of anatomy and cell biology and of internal medicine. He also is director of the UI Center for Gene Therapy, established under his leadership in 1998.

His research focuses on gene therapies for inherited and environmentally induced diseases, and molecular and cellular biology of the lung related to cystic fibrosis.

Schmidt gets named professorship

Thomas J. Schmidt, PhD, professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, has been named the Dr. Harold A. Myers Professor in the Basic Sciences. The appointment has a three-year term with the possibility for one renewal.

The Dr. Harold A. Myers Professorship was established by gifts to the UI Foundation from the Myers family. The Myers professorship recognizes a PhD faculty member who exhibits exemplary skill and passion for teaching and leadership in medical education.

Schmidt, a UI faculty member since 1983, is widely recognized for his contributions to medical education, and he plays a prominent role in curriculum development at the College. He is co-director of the Human Organ Systems course and curriculum co-director for the second semester of the first year. In addition to teaching the Human Organ Systems course, Schmidt also is a principal instructor in the Cell Biology course. He is a faculty facilitator in the Case-Based Learning component of Foundations of Clinical Practice I.

Schmidt's passion and skill as an educator have earned him numerous University awards. Schmidt also is actively involved in the efforts of several national and international professional organizations, including the American Physiological Society and the International Association of Medical Science Educators.

“Dr. Schmidt is one of our finest educators and is widely recognized for his innovations to the basic science curriculum,” said Kevin Campbell, PhD, the Roy J. Carver Chair of Physiology and Biophysics and professor and head of the department.

UIHC goes smoke free

To better protect the health of its patients, visitors, staff, faculty and volunteers, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) became a 100 percent smoke-free campus on July 1.

Smoking is not allowed anywhere (inside or outside) the UIHC, including Hospital Parking Ramps 1, 2, 3 and 4.

UIHC has been smoke free inside its buildings since the early-1990s. Prohibiting smoking outdoors on the campus will eliminate secondhand smoke exposure to individuals entering and exiting the hospital. Recent research suggests that secondhand smoke exposure, even when experienced outdoors, is more dangerous than previously believed. Secondhand smoke causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths and 35,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.

UIHC adopted the smoke-free policy following a call from the Iowa Hospital Association to its members to prohibit smoking on their campuses across the state. Hospitals in Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Des Moines, Waterloo and the Quad Cities already have adopted smoke-free campus policies or plan to do so in the near future. In addition, health care centers in communities across the United States, including St. Louis, and La Crosse, Wis., also prohibit smoking on their campuses.

Cochlear Implant Center funded

The Iowa Cochlear Implant Clinical Research Center has received its fourth consecutive grant renewal from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The five-year, $10 million grant renewal will fund ongoing basic research, clinical trials and clinical outcomes research on cochlear implants in children and adults.

The Center was established in 1985 when cochlear implants first became available and is directed by Bruce Gantz ('68 BS, '74 MD, '80 MS, '80 R), the Brian F. McCabe Distinguished Chair and professor and head of otolaryngology—head and neck surgery, and Richard Tyler ('78 PhD), professor of otolaryngology and speech pathology and audiology.

The Center's multi-year studies have made several important discoveries: the “hybrid” cochlear implant that combines acoustic with electrical hearing; technology that allows measurement of auditory nerve response; the use of bilateral implants, which is becoming the standard of care; and improving music perception for implant users.

The hybrid implant, which uses electrical perception of high-frequency sounds while preserving a patient's residual acoustic hearing of low-frequency sounds, was developed at the UI and grew out of basic research funded by the grant. One-third of the 65 patients who have received these new cochlear implants nationwide have had the operation at UI Hospitals and Clinics. NIH has funded the work by Gantz and his colleagues with $38 million over the past 25 years.

Richard Smith elected to IOM

Richard Smith, MD, the Sterba Hearing Research Professor in Otolaryngology, has been elected to membership in the Insititute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. Smith, professor and vice chair of the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery with joint appointments in internal medicine and pediatrics, joins the UI's 16 other faculty and administrators in the 1,501 member organization.

Smith is director of the Molecular Otolaryngology Research Laboratories and co-director of the Center for Auditory Regeneration and Deafness. The Center explores new treatments for inner ear diseases and deafness.

Smith's research focuses on inherited hearing impairment. Hereditary deafness is common and the number of deafness-causing genes may exceed 100. Smith's group is studying both syndromic and non-syndromic types of deafness. Their research involves mapping and identifying the genes that cause deafness and hearing-related research on mouse mutants targeting specific genes by RNAi (RNA interference), also referred to as gene silencing, to correct deafness. Smith is also studying the genetics of two rare forms of kidney disease to develop effective treatments.

Cooper named associate dean

Christopher S. Cooper ('87 BA, '91 MD, '97 R) associate professor of urology, has been named the UI Carver College of Medicine's associate dean for student affairs and curriculum.

He replaced Kimberly S. Ephgrave, MD, professor of surgery, who had held the position since 2002. Ephgrave will remain a member of the medical faculty.

Cooper will provide guidance for the four-year medical degree program and coordinate that program with the Medical Scientist Training Program.

A faculty member since 1999, Cooper directs pediatric urology in the Department of Urology. His research interests include congenital hydronephrosis, congenital bladder obstruction, pediatric voiding dysfunction, vesicoureteral reflux, pediatric genitourinary reconstruction and undescended testicle conditions.

Fairley named dermatology head

Janet Fairley, MD, has been named head of the Department of Dermatology, effective Jan. 1, 2007. She also will have an appointment as a staff physician with the Veterans Affairs (VA) Iowa City Health Care System.

Fairley is a professor of dermatology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where she also is director of the residency program. She is co-director of the Immunodermatology Laboratories at MCW and section chief of dermatology for the Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee.

Fairley's patient care emphases include psoriasis, clinical immunology, malignant and benign tumors and autoimmune and allergic diseases. Markham named assistant dean

Sanford M. Markham, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, has been named the College's assistant dean for student affairs and curriculum. Markham replaces Jess Mandel, MD, who held the position from September 2002 until he stepped down in June to become an associate dean at University of California, San Diego.

In this position Markham will help manage the Office of Student Affairs and Curriculum, which oversees all aspects of undergraduate medical education at Iowa, including curriculum development, admissions, financial aid, and advising.

On the UI faculty since 1999, Markham is a professor and clinical clerkship director. A distinguished researcher with interest in endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, osteoporosis, and menopause, Markham plans to continue his research, teaching and clinical activities.

New master's program starting

Beginning in January 2007, faculty, fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and residents will be accepted into the UI Carver College of Medicine's Master's in Medical Education program. The professional degree program will educate a core of faculty and staff with skills in curriculum development, assessment strategies and innovative teaching strategies.

“The program's goal is to create and sustain a culture of educational excellence in the College, the University and the medical education community,” said Kristi Ferguson, PhD, director of the Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education.

An additional benefit is the recruitment and retention of faculty with outstanding educational leadership skills, the ability to provide educational programs that attract top candidates, deliver innovative curriculum, achieve superior outcomes and lead the field in the development of new models of teaching excellence.

The graduate program is the only one of its kind in the state. There are currently seven other comparable programs across the country. For more information, visit /ocrme/.

Name change for department

The UI Department of Physiology and Biophysics has been renamed the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.

Headed by Kevin Campbell, PhD, the Roy J. Carver Chair of Physiology and Biophysics, professor and head of the department, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, the new name more accurately reflects the nature of the research conducted by departmental faculty and the curriculum offered to graduate students.

Interim assistant dean named

S. Ramaswamy, PhD ('04 F, '05 F), associate professor of biochemistry, has been named the interim assistant dean for scientific affairs.

The position replaces the assistant deanship for research and graduate programs, held since 1999 by Marc Wold, PhD, professor of biochemistry. Wold will remain on the medical faculty.

Ramaswamy will manage core research facilities and help chart future directions of core research resources. The College's core research facilities provide UI investigators DNA and molecular analysis, crystallography, flow cytometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, among other services.

“There is wide recognition that big leaps in scientific progress in the future will come from interdisciplinary research,” Ramaswamy said. “The hope is that the core research facilities and the College's graduate programs will act as the nucleus to promote this for the benefit of the faculty at large.”

Ramaswamy joined the faculty in 2000. His research interests are structural biology, and the study of three-dimensional structures of proteins and other molecules to better understand the function and relationship of these molecules in cellular processes.