UI team receives neonatal research funding

Every year in the United States, 12 percent of babies are born prematurely. One of the most common medical problems for these infants is neonatal anemia-a deficiency of oxygen-carrying red blood cells that leads to shortness of breath, inactivity and failure to thrive.

Baby

A team of UI researchers led by John Widness, MD, professor of pediatrics, has received a five-year, $8.7 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to better understand, prevent and treat neonatal anemia. This award is the second renewal of the Program Project Grant for Neonatal Anemia: Pathophysiology and Treatment.

The reasons for neonatal anemia and the best ways to prevent or treat it are not yet well understood. For at least three out of four very preterm infants and a significant number of larger infants, however, the problem is severe enough to require a blood transfusion.

"Neonatal anemia is a complex problem, requiring a multidisciplinary approach," Widness said. "Our research team combines a wide range of clinical and scientific expertise to answer the questions that will help us improve treatment for infants affected by this condition."

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Laser ineffective for early age-related macular degeneration

An extensive National Institutes of Health (NIH) study found that low-intensity laser treatment does not prevent complications or vision loss due to early age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The treatment had been thought to possibly help slow or prevent vision loss from AMD, which is the leading cause of blindness in the United States for people age 60 and older.

This major finding of the Complications of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Prevention Trial (CAPT) appeared in the November 2006 issue of the journal Ophthalmology. The study involved 1,052 participants nationwide, including 56 who participated through the UI Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. The research was funded by the National Eye Institute of the NIH.

The study was designed to assess the safety and effectiveness of laser treatment in preventing vision loss among people who had large drusen in both eyes, said James Folk, MD, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and principal investigator of the UI portion of the study.

"Eyes with large drusen are at increased risk of progressing to advanced AMD, with accompanying vision loss. However, the CAPT study showed using laser treatment to reduce drusen does not improve outcomes. We found no difference in vision or how AMD advanced," Folk said. "This means doctors using this technique should reconsider its use in patients with AMD."

First used in the 1970s, low-intensity laser treatment had been shown to reduce the extent of drusen. However, previous studies evaluating the impact of laser treatment on vision had been small and inconsistent in their findings.

Study participants were age 50 or older (with an average age of 71), had 10 or more large drusen and a visual acuity of 20/40 or better in each eye. One eye of each participant was treated. Each volunteer's treated eye, along with the untreated eye, was observed for changes throughout the five-year trial.

After five years, 20.5 percent of the treated eyes and 20.5 percent of untreated eyes had lost three or more lines of visual acuity on a standard eye chart. Likewise, 20 percent of treated and untreated eyes progressed to advanced AMD.

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UI medical students named to Gold Humanism Honor Society

Twenty-two students in the UI Carver College of Medicine have been selected for membership in the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

The inductees are Mari Asper, Toni Biskup, Sarah Bronner, Abby Christian, Nathan Funk, Katie Gimbel, Shinkai Hakimi, Stephanie Hunstad, Elizabeth King, Lisa Lavadie-Gomez, Dan Leary, Justin Leitch, Ryan Murray, Terri Nordin, Andrew Oldroyd, Carlos Reyes, Miran Rhee, Ashley Sens, Sally Simons, Timothy Van Gelder, Zachary Washburn and Sara Wood.

Established in 2001 by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the Gold Humanism Honor Society recognizes fourth-year medical students who have demonstrated exemplary attitudes and behaviors characteristic of the most humanistic physicians. The society was an outgrowth of the Gold Foundation's objective to foster humanism in medicine in the education and training of physicians. Through grants and contributions, the Gold Foundation has created and supported curricular programs, conferences, ceremonies and awards to infuse humanism throughout the culture of academic medicine.

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Atkins receives AHA honor

Dianne Atkins ('83 F), MD, professor of pediatrics, received the 2006 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young during the American Heart Association's (AHA) Scientific Sessions. This award is presented to a council member who has made major contributions to the affairs of a scientific council over a continuing period of time and substantial professional contributions to the field.

Atkins' clinical interests include pediatric electrophysiology. She conducts research in cardiac resuscitation and methods of defibrillation, especially in the use of automated external defibrillators in children.

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Hospitals boost economy

The three hospitals in Johnson County employ 9,682 workers, making Mercy Iowa City, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Veterans Affairs (VA) Iowa City Health Care System the county's largest employers with a total economic impact of $586,911,801, according to a study from the Iowa Hospital Association (IHA).

According to the IHA study, Iowa's health care sector directly and indirectly provides 355,374 Iowa jobs, currently equal to one-fifth of the state's total employment. The health care sector includes hospitals, employed clinicians, long-term care services and assisted living centers, pharmacies, and other medical and health services.

The IHA study found that Iowa hospitals directly employ 69,416 people and create another 79,316 jobs outside the health care sector, or so-called "spin-off" jobs. Johnson County hospitals create 3,850 "spin-off" jobs.

It is a success story that might be news to some, however the health care sector is now driving the U.S. economy and "has become the main American job program for the 21st century," according to a report in a recent issue of BusinessWeek magazine.

Statewide, Iowa's community hospitals generate nearly 149,000 jobs that add more than $5 billion to the state's economy, the study found. In addition, Iowa hospital employees by themselves spend $1.8 billion on retail sales and contribute more than $88 million in state sales tax revenue.

As an income source, Iowa hospitals alone provide $2.9 billion in salaries and benefits and they generate almost another $2.2 billion through other jobs that depend on hospitals.

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UI medical students inducted into AOA honor society

Twenty-seven students in the UI Carver College of Medicine were inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), the national medical honor society.

The inductees are Mark Abbott, Shauna Bose, Sarah Bronner, Nathaniel Curl, Benjamin Darbro, Joshua Eastvold, Elizabeth Ferluga, Nathan Funk, Sarah Grekin, Beth Hollinrake, Ali Jabbari, Leslie Johnson, Matthew Karafin, Lee Kimball, Elizabeth King, Leah Lamale-Smith, Justin Leitch, Anne-Marie Leuck, Jill Peterson, Ashley Sens, Jami Shepard, Jessi Stansberry, Matthew Teusink, Timothy Van Gelder, Jennifer Vogt, Zachary Washburn and Cherilyn Wicks.

Founded in 1902, AOA promotes scholarship and research in medical schools and encourages a high standard of character and conduct among medical students and medical school graduates. In recognition of high attainment and excellence in medical science, practice and related fields, the society elects outstanding medical students, alumni and faculty members to its ranks.

AOA has 105 chapters at medical schools throughout the United States and Canada. The UI chapter, Alpha of Iowa, was established in 1920.

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Dehn honored as state's Physician Assistant of the Year

Richard Dehn, ('73 BA, '76 PA) clinical professor and assistant director of the Physician Assistant (PA) Program, has been named Physician Assistant of the Year by the Iowa Physician Assistant Society (IPAS). The award recognizes individuals for outstanding care of patients as well as service to the IPAS and to the profession as a whole.

Dehn was cited for his efforts in collecting and analyzing PA workforce data that helps state leaders recognize the roles PAs play in providing a stronger health care system to Iowans. Dehn serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, and he also is chair of the research institute for the Physician Assistant Education Association, which helps to improve research practices. Dehn also was recognized for mentoring PA students and faculty colleagues in areas of research.

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Davidson named AAAS Fellow

Beverly Davidson, PhD, Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine and professor of internal medicine, molecular physiology and biophysics, and neurology, has been named a 2006 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Beverly DavidsonShe joins three faculty in the UI's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences who were also named fellows this year: Philip E. Kaaret, PhD, associate professor of physics and astronomy, Arthur L. Smirl, PhD, Lowell Battershell Chair in Laser Engineering and professor of physics and astronomy, and David F. Wiemer, PhD, UI Collegiate Fellow, professor and chair of chemistry.

Davidson was elected to the medical sciences section for her contributions to the field of neurogenetic diseases, particularly for developing novel methods of treating fatal inherited recessive and dominant brain diseases. Davidson, who also serves as director of the Gene Transfer Vector Core, associate director of the Iowa Center for Gene Therapy and vice chair for research in the Department of Internal Medicine, studies RNA interference, also known as gene silencing, and its application in treating dominantly inherited disorders, like Huntington's disease, that are caused by abnormal sequence repeats within a gene. A second area of interest is gene therapy approaches to treat childhood onset neurodegenerative diseases caused by enzyme deficiencies.

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UI breaks ground for new Hygienic Laboratory

The new University Hygienic Laboratory (UHL) will be built on the UI's Oakdale research campus and replace the existing operations currently housed in the 89-year-old Oakdale Hall.

hygienic lab

Construction on the $37.75 million, 112,500-square-foot laboratory will begin in 2007 and is scheduled for completion by late 2009. Earlier this year, the Iowa Legislature allocated $36 million for the new facility.

"We are extremely grateful to the Iowa Legislature and to our federal delegation for their diligence and commitment in helping make this building a reality," said UI Vice President for Research Meredith Hay. "Without question, their support not only underscores their commitment to public health but also to the health of future generations of Iowans."

UHL is the state's environmental and public health laboratory and provides testing services for diseases such as influenza, mumps, whooping cough and West Nile virus; drinking and recreational water testing; air and environmental quality monitoring; and surveillance of potential biological and chemical agents.

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Robillard named UI Vice President for Medical Affairs

Jean E. Robillard, MD, ('74 F) dean of the Carver College of Medicine, has been appointed UI vice president for medical affairs, an announcement made on Dec. 11 by UI Interim President Gary Fethke. The appointment is for a three-year term, during which Robillard will remain dean of Carver College of Medicine.

Dean Robillard

In this role Robillard will head an administrative structure to better integrate three UI patient care organizations: UI Hospitals and Clinics, the Carver College of Medicine, and University of Iowa Physicians. University of Iowa Physicians is Iowa's largest multi-specialty physician group practice and is composed of 650 Carver College of Medicine faculty members who provide patient care at UI Hospitals and Clinics.

The office's senior management team will include: Donna Katen-Bahensky, whose title has been changed to senior associate vice president and CEO of UI Hospitals and Clinics; and Dr. Peter Densen, executive dean of the Carver College of Medicine.

As vice president with oversight of UI Health Care, Robillard will report to Interim President Fethke, as do all other UI vice presidents. As dean, he will continue to report to Executive Vice President and Provost Michael J. Hogan with respect to collegiate and decanal matters, as do all UI deans.

Robillard, who came to the UI as an assistant professor in 1974, has been dean of the Carver College of Medicine since 2003. From 1996 to 2003, he was chair and professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School and physician-in-chief at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. He is a pediatric nephrologist whose work focuses on the developmental physiology of the kidney. He has published more than 220 scientific papers during his career.

A native of Montreal, he earned bachelor's and medical degrees from the University of Montreal. He completed an internship at the Hôtel Dieu Hospital, residency training in pediatrics at Ste. Justine Hospital in Montreal, and pediatric nephrology fellowships at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles and UI Hospitals and Clinics.

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UI spin-off company receives small business research grants

VIDA Diagnostics, a company located in the UI's Technology Innovation Center, was awarded a $750,000, two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to advance an imaging system that can detect and treat lung diseases including lung cancer and emphysema.

VIDA received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, a highly competitive funding program used by the 10 largest federal agencies to fund small businesses that can meet the agencies' research and development interests. The program encourages small businesses to do research and development and then commercialize the technology. The SBIR Phase II grant was based on an earlier SBIR Phase I grant of $100,000 two years ago for initial work on the imaging system.

The company also received an SBIR Phase I grant for $100,000 for a tissue classification technology called adaptive multiple feature method (AMFM) that has many potential uses in the areas of lung disease detection, early detection of emphysema and early detection of pulmonary fibrosis. The initial AMFM patent has been issued to the University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF) with a second patent in the works, said John Garber, CEO of VIDA Diagnostics.

VIDA Diagnostics is a UI spin-off company based on research done at the UI and core technology licensed from the UIRF. The company was founded by four UI faculty members from diverse backgrounds: Eric Hoffman, PhD, professor of radiology, biomedical engineering, and nursing; Geoffrey McLennan, MD, professor of internal medicine; Joseph M. Reinhardt, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering; and Milan Sonka, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering.

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UI scientists receive NASA grant

Fiorenza Ianzini, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, has received a three-year, $900,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study the relationship between high-LET radiation, which is found in space, and cancer.

Solar graphicIanzini's project is one of 12 research studies being funded by NASA as part of the agency's Space Radiation Program. The overall goal of the program is to better understand and counteract the risks posed to astronauts by space radiation. Exposure to high-LET radiation in the form of high-energy protons, heavy ions and secondary by products of space radiation may be harmful to human tissue and DNA and could cause cancers or degenerative tissue diseases. Radiation hazards in space include solar flares (or solar particle events), geomagnetically trapped radiation, galactic cosmic radiation and secondary radiation.

The UI team will investigate whether high-LET radiation can cause carcinogenic DNA mutations by disrupting normal cell division through a process known as mitotic catastrophe.

The UI team's experiments aimed at studying cell survival after irradiation will rely heavily on the Large Scale Digital Cell Analysis System, an automated, state-of-the-art, live-cell imaging system developed by Ianzini and Michael A. Mackey, PhD, UI associate professor of biomedical engineering and pathology and a co-investigator on the NASA grant. In a single experiment, the system can monitor tens of thousands of individual cells for weeks following irradiation, allowing for the detection of rare events in the cell population.

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Researchers seek new therapy for prostate cancer treatment

A team of UI researchers has launched an important clinical trial of a novel therapy that may eventually lead to new treatments for men diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The Ad5-TRAIL gene therapy for prostate cancer research trial is a Phase I study designed to test the optimal dosage at which the therapeutic agent can safely be given to patients.

The clinical study is being co-led by Thomas Griffith, PhD, associate professor of urology, and Richard Williams, MD, the Rubin H. Flocks Chair in Urology and professor and head of urology.

"This is the first use of this type of anti-cancer agent which was developed at The University of Iowa. This new gene therapy may help us successfully manage patients with high-risk prostate cancer," Griffith said. "We hope to be able to say at the conclusion of this trial that this novel agent is safe and performs as intended by causing the death of prostate tumor cells with no harm to normal cells."

The team has developed a vaccine using a common cold virus, but which has been engineered to be non-replicative in humans. The disabled virus, known as an adenovirus, can then be used as a vector, or carrier, of other genes that researchers insert into the virus.

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Shields named director of PT

Richard Shields ('85 MA, '92 PhD) professor of physical therapy, has been named director of the UI Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences.

Shields, a UI faculty member since 1993, will take over leadership of the program from David Nielsen, PhD, who has served as director since 1992. Nielsen is retiring from the directorship and will become a professor emeritus.

Shields is the director of the neuromuscular research/motor control laboratory, and his research focuses on neuro-musculoskeletal plasticity following spinal cord injury. He also studies neuromuscular control strategies to prevent and/or rehabilitate sports-related injuries of the knee.

He has published numerous scientific articles and received the National Research Excellence Award from the Neurology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. He also received the College of Medicine's Outstanding Teaching Award (2000) and the Graduate College Distinguished Mentor Award (2005).

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Research earns MERIT award

Curt D. Sigmund, PhD, professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics, received a five-year, $1.8 million MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) award from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to continue investigating renin, an enzyme that contributes to hypertension, or high blood pressure. The study is a project in the UI Center on Functional Genomics of Hypertension, which Sigmund directs. The award is given only to researchers whose NIH projects rank in the top two percent of productivity and promise.

Renin is involved in the earliest step in generating a hormone called angiotensin, which in turn plays a major role in regulating cardiovascular functions. Abnormalities in the renin-angiotensin system are thought to play a role in high blood pressure.

Understanding these signals could eventually allow scientists to assess which pathway is abnormal in hypertension, and even further down the road, develop appropriate therapies.

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