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December
12/20 - Inflammation
Associated with Gum Disease May Help Some Patients Fight Infection
- A bioactive fat known
as platelet-activating factor (PAF), which contributes to the inflammation
associated with chronic gum disease, also may stimulate production
of protective antibodies in some patients, suggests a new study.
Reported in the Jan. 1 issue of the Journal of Immunology,
the surprising results could influence treatment. "You have to be
judicious in how you treat periodontal disease," says Suzanne E.
Barbour, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology.
Barbour is part of an interdisciplinary team that has been studying
the biological and genetic aspects of gum diseases since the late
1970s and whose work has resulted in the world's largest database
of information on young patients suffering from aggressive periodontitis
and their families.
Read More.
12/18
-
National Public Radio interview
- NPR's All Things Considered
features
MCV Physicians President
Richard Wenzel on Smallpox vaccinations.
Audio available.
(Audio clip can be accessed with RealOne Player plug-in; free
copy available at
http://www.real.com.)
12/11
- Pitt, VCU Researchers Find Genetic Link to Bulimia Nervosa -
A team of researchers at VCU and the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center have linked an area of chromosome 10p to families with a
history of bulimia nervosa, providing strong evidence that genes
play a determining role in who is susceptible to developing the
eating disorder. The finding, gleaned from blood studies of 316
patients with bulimia and their family members, is the result of
the first multinational collaborative genome-wide linkage scan to
look exclusively at bulimia.
Read more.
12/3 - VCUHS Establishes
the Area's First Children's Oncology Clinic - The
VCU Health System has opened a new pediatric hematology/oncology
clinic with a $390,000 gift from a local volunteer organization,
establishing the only outpatient center in central Virginia dedicated
to treating children with cancer and blood-related diseases. ASK,
the Association for the Support of Children with Cancer, donated
the funds to design, construct and furnish the new clinic. Read
more.
12/14
- Jones and White Receive VCU's Highest Honor - The
Presidential Medallion was awarded to John E. Jones, M.D., former
VCU vice president for health sciences and special assistant to
the president, and H. George White Jr., M.D., M'62, former rector
of the VCU Board of Visitors and member of the VCU Health System
Board of Directors, also has served as a member of the Dean's Advisory
Committee for the School of Medicine. VCU honored two outstanding
leaders of the university community at the 2002 fall commencement
exercises. Read
more.
December - University
of the West of England Awards Degree to VCU Associate Dean -
The University of the West of England
has awarded an honorary doctor of science degree to an associate
dean in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine, for
decades of research as a biomedical scientist and for fostering
an international student exchange between the two universities.
As a researcher, Jan Frank Chlebowski, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry
and molecular biophysics and associate dean for graduate education
in the School of Medicine, has focused on the study of protein chemistry
and enzymology -- the study of proteins produced by living organisms
and their function as biochemical catalysts. Read
More.
November
11/21 - National Fertility Study Sparked by Medical School Researcher
- Endocrinology and Metabolism
Chief John Nestler, M.D., serves
as co-principal investigator on a clinical
trial underway at 13 medical centers across the country that aims
to discover which treatment holds the most promise for pregnancy
among women suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome, the
leading cause of female infertility in the U.S. Dr, Nestler's
team is one of the foremost research groups investigating the disorder's
connection to insulin resistance and the role that diabetes drugs
can play in its treatment. Read
more.
11/15
- Dr. Wyndham Bolling Blanton Jr. Honored - By
gubernatorial proclamation, Nov. 15 will forever be Dr. Wyndham
Bolling Blanton Jr. Day in Virginia, recognizing the numerous community
and civic contributions made by the School of Medicine's 1950 alum
and long-time faculty member who served as rector on the university's
Board of Visitors from 1969 to 1980. Dr. Percy Wootton, M'57, a
former member of the university's Board of Visitors, said "Dr. Blanton
is the epitome of a Virginia gentleman and physician, an unsung
Virginian." Read
more.
11/12 - Kendler
Receives 2002 Rema Lapouse Award for Lifetime Contributions -
Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., the Rachel
Brown Banks distinguished professor in the School of Medicine's
departments of psychiatry and human genetics and director of the
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, has
been honored with the 2002 Rema Lapouse Award from the American
Public Health Association (APHA). Kendler is the 30th recipient
of the award, given annually for lifetime significant contributions
to the scientific understanding of the epidemiology and control
of mental disorders. Read
More.
11/8 - School of
Medicine Alumna Named Medical Society President - Hazle
Konerding, M.D., who completed her residency in dermatology in 1976
at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine, was sworn
in earlier this month as the 182nd president of the Medical Society
of Virginia. Only the second female to ever serve as president of
the growing medical society, Konerding will work closely with the
Virginia State Board of Medicine to ensure Virginia's citizens receive
the highest quality of health care. As president, Konerding also
plans to visit the state's local medical societies during her term
so she can listen and respond to the concerns of physicians across
Virginia. Read
More.
11/5 - Higher Education
Bond Bill Passes - Medical School Benefits - In
November, Virginians approved $846 million in bond funds for higher
education in the commonwealth. A vital issue for the School of Medicine,
the passage of this referendum will provide more thatn $40 million
toward projects in the School of Medicine, including construction
of a Medical Sciences Building that will house instructional and
research space, an addition to the Massey Cancer Center that will
provide state-of-the-art clinical research labs, and much-needed
Sanger Hall renovations.
October
10/31 - Kornstein's Book Receives Positive Review from NEJM -
Susan Kornstein, M.D., executive director of the VCU Institute for
Women's Health, and associate professor of psychiatry and obstetrics-gynecology
in the School of Medicine, received a glowing review in the Oct.
31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine for editing
the new textbook, "Women's Mental Health: A Comprehensive Textbook."
Co-edited with Anita Clayton, M.D., of the University of Virginia,
the book is for mental health and medical practitioners in a wide
range of specialty areas. Reviewer Carol Nadelson, M.D., of Harvard
Medical School, described the book as a must for a reference library
and for any clinician interested in women's health. Read
More.
10/4
- Missing
Molecules Could Hold Key to Reduced Immunity in the Aged -
It's commonly accepted that our immune
system slowly loses its ability to fight disease and sickness as
we age. It's less clear, however, which cellular changes in the
body cause the aging immune system to make fewer, less-potent antibodies
to fight viruses and diseases. A team of immunologists has discovered
a decline in the numbers of a critical molecule on the surface of
follicular dendritic cells in older individuals and linked that
shortage to immune deficiency. The finding is an important step
in unlocking the secrets of the immune system, particularly in the
aged. Read
more.
October - Surgery
Chair Named Honorary President of Kosovo Telemedicine Group -
Dr. Ronald C. Merrell, Stuart McGuire
professor and chair of the Department of Surgery, has been named
honorary president of the Telemedicine Association of Kosovo, one
of several healthcare initiatives in war-ravaged Kosovo involving
medical school faculty. The honor was granted to Merrell at the
First Intensive Balkan Telemedicine Seminar. Merrell and his team
were praised for initiating the telemedicine program in Kosovo,
a province of Serbia in the former Central European country of Yugoslavia
that is attempting to rebuild after a devastating 1999 war. Read
More.
September
9/26 - Infectious
Disease Expert Weighs In on New Drug Controversy - Controversy
over the nation's first drug to treat the biological causes of sepsis
- a potentially deadly blood stream infection - has resulted in
a series of articles in the latest issue of The New England Journal
of Medicine, which includes a summary of the issues by a
School of Medicine infectious disease expert. Read
More.
9/17 - Health System
Wins Consumer Choice Award for Second Consecutive Year -
For the second year in a row, the
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System has received a Consumer
Choice Award for providing quality healthcare services, based on
an independent survey of central Virginia residents. Read
More.
9/10 - Health
System Chief Announces Retirement, Successor Named -
The VCU Health System Authority Board
of Directors and the VCU Board of Visitors today approved the appointment
of Dr. Sheldon M. Retchin as chief executive officer of the health
system and VCU vice president for health sciences, effective July
1, 2003. Dr. Retchin will succeed Dr. Hermes A. Kontos, who
formally announced at the joint session his intention to retire
from the position. Read
More.
September - Brachytherapy for Breast Cancer - Massey
Cancer Center physicians helped develop brachytherapy for breast
cancer patients, which "enables radiation treatments to be
completed within five days, as opposed to the standard six weeks,"
says radiation oncologist Douglas Arthur, M.D. He hopes that the
advance will combat the findings from a recent NCI study that found
that time and convenience are the primary reasons many women don't
receive recommended radiation following tumor removal. Read
more about the approach.
August
8/29 - Scientist Closing in on Lyme Disease Test and Vaccine -
As states boost mosquito spraying
efforts to stop the nation's worst outbreak of West Nile Virus,
researchers are fighting another bug-borne illness that infects
hundreds of thousands of people every year - Lyme disease. Within
a few years, they hope to have more effective treatments available
for the debilitating disease, which can have serious consequences
if not caught early. Read
More. (A video news release is also available for viewing
with RealOne Player plug-in.)
8/19 - Discovery
Shows That Viagra Protects the Heart -
A researcher in the School of Medicine has invented a new and potentially
important use for the male impotence drug, Viagra - heart protection.
The discovery by Dr. Rakesh C. Kukreja, professor of internal medicine
and Eric Lipman Chair in cardiology, was reported in the September
issue of the American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory
Physiology. Read
More. (A video news release is also available for viewing
with RealOne Player plug-in.)
July
July -
Retired Human Genetics Chair: A Remarkable Career - "When
I woke up on July 1, I felt 20 years younger, so I shaved off my
beard," says Walter Nance, M.D., Ph.D., reminiscing recently
about the first morning this summer in almost 27 years that he began
his day as someone other than the chairman of the Department of
Human Genetics. Dr. Nance retired on June 30 as chair of human genetics,
a role he assumed on Sept. 29, 1975. Read
More.
July - O'Connell
Becomes Chair of Human Genetics - Peter
O'Connell, Ph.D., says he was looking for a new challenge and -
after eight years in Utah and 11 years in Texas - a return to the
East Coast. Dr. O'Connell became professor and chair of the Department
of Human Genetics on July 1, succeeding Dr. Walter Nance. Read
More.
7/26 - Richmond
Eye & Ear Hospital and VCU Health System to Open New Surgery
Center - A $10 million
outpatient surgery center for ophthalmology and otolaryngology,
a joint venture of Richmond Eye & Ear Hospital and the VCU Health
System, opened in July. The Richmond Eye & Ear Surgical Specialty
Center, now the largest facility of its kind in the region, is adjacent
to the VCU Health System's multi-specialty outpatient practice and
VCU's Massey Cancer Center satellite facility. Read
More.
7/3 - Researchers
Identify Gene with Schizophrenia Tie - This
summer, an international team of researchers identified a gene located
in the middle of the short arm of Chromosome 6 that appears to be
strongly associated with schizophrenia and related mental disorders.
Led by School of Medicine Professor Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., co-director
of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics,
the international team analyzed the genetics of 270 Irish families.
Schizophrenia is a complex disease that up to now has frustrated
researchers' attempts to identify the genes responsible for the
illness. Read
More. (A video news release is also available for viewing
with RealOne Player plug-in.)
June
6/27- New Breast Cancer Treatment
Offered at VCU's Massey Cancer Center;
Device Improves Pain Management,
Possibly Life Expectancy for Cancer Patients.
Read
More. (An Adobe
Acrobat Reader plug-in is required for viewing article.)
May
5/15 - Disease Detectives Solve Outbreak of Hospital-Acquired Infections
- Epidemiologists and
laboratory experts led by a researcher now in the School of Medicine
recently used genetic fingerprinting and microbiology testing to
identify bacteria that were the cause of more than two dozen hospital-acquired
infections. The disease detectives, as they sometimes are called,
traced the bacteria to intravenous bags of pain medication. Read
More.
5/1 - Study Finds
Teenage Girls Who Smoke Tend to Avoid Health Foods -
Teenage girls who risk their health
by smoking may be increasing their overall health risks further
by avoiding healthy foods, according to a new study. The study's
lead investigator, Diane Baer Wilson, Ed.D., R.D., associate professor
of preventive medicine and community health in VCU's School of Medicine
and a cancer prevention research investigator at VCU's Massey Cancer
Center, assessed data on more than 7,000 female teens in grades
nine through 12 collected by the CDC. Read
More.
April
4/16 - Understanding Thinness May Be Key to Fighting Obesity, Eating
Disorders - Heredity,
as opposed to social and environmental factors, largely determines
why some people stay thin while others get larger, according to
a new study by VCU. The study, conducted over 10 months by a team
of researchers at VCU's Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral
Genetics, concludes that about 68% of a person's tendency to remain
thin is controlled by his or her genetic makeup. Read
More.
March
3/8 - Surgeon Implants Pacemaker in Premature Baby - Doctors
have implanted a pacemaker in a premature baby girl, one of the
youngest children ever to undergo the surgical procedure. Using
a small, newly designed pacemaker, Inder Mehta, M.D., assistant
professor of surgery in the School of Medicine, corrected a congenital
condition known as a heart block. Read
More.
3/6 - Gateway Building
Opens; First Lady Dedicates Health Education Center -
The first sections of the $59-million,
nine-level Gateway Building opened in February. The building features
a state-of-the-art imaging center that boasts a PET scanner that
can detect metabolic changes at the cellular level. The facility
also offers the Community Health Education Center, a multimedia
health information center designed to make it easier and quicker
for patients and the local commununity to research health topics
and get answers to health questions. In March, Laura Bush visited
campus to dedicate the center. Read more about the Gateway
Building , the education
center , and Laura
Bush's visit.
February
2/21 - New Study Says Cigarette Promoted as Less Lethal May Be More
Addictive - A new cigarette
designed to produce less toxic smoke and contain fewer of the cancer-causing
agents found in tobacco may be more addictive than conventional
light or ultra-light cigarettes, according to a Virginia Commonwealth
University study released today. Read
More.
2/19 - Understanding
Frequency, Intensity of Pain Associated with Sickle Cell Disease
is Focus of New Study - Researchers
in teh School of Medicine are seeking volunteers in Virginia with
sickle cell disease to participate in a federally funded, three-year
study of sickle cell's unpredictable and sometimes incapacitating
pain. The researchers are hoping to enroll 350 patients for the
study, which started in March and is funded by a $1.4 million grant
from the National Institutes of Health. Read
More.
2/19 - VCU Developing
Electronic Brain Sensor - Every
year, more than 36,000 people are diagnosed with brain tumors, and
another 150,000 learn that cancer has spread to their brain from
other parts of their body. More than half of those diagnosed with
malignant tumors are told they won't live another five years. Finding
ways to more accurately identify those tumors and target the appropriate
treatment, therefore, is a high priority for researchers and doctors.
Read
More.
2/14 - Liver Disease
Specialist Wins $1.5 Million NIH Grant -
Arun Sanyal, M.D., professor and chair of the Division of Gastroenterology
in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, has
been awarded a $1.5 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes
of Health to study the causes and treatments of a common, yet poorly
understood, liver disease. Read
More.
2/11 - Imaging Archive
International and Compaq Bring Top Medicine Expertise Virtually
Anywhere - A Picture Archiving
and Communications System currently in use by Virginia Commonwealth
University's MCV Hospitals may be a diagnostic superhighway for
medical professionals who practice in rural areas, who staff medical
centers in more than one community or who need that often-sought
second opinion about a patient's condition. For patients, it will
mean fewer headaches from traveling between consulting physicians
carrying medical records and images. Read
More.
January
1/14 - First-Known
Anesthesiology Via Internet - Under
normal circumstances, surgeons and anesthesiologists work side by
side in the operating room, but recently - for the first time known
- they worked half a world apart to help an ailing patient in one
of the most remote areas of South America. Read
More.
School
of Medicine News 2003
For more news about the university
and health system, visit the VCU News Services Web
site.
For "Medlines" -- a special
report highlighting health system news and information -- visit
the "Medlines"
home page. "Medlines" files can be viewed with the
Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in.
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