Core Facility News
Rothman Named Dean of Carver College of Medicine
Paul Rothman, M.D., has been named the new dean of the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. The appointment will be effective June 1, subject to approval by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa at its next meeting.
Rothman has served as head and professor of internal medicine at the UI Carver College of Medicine and UI Hospitals and Clinics since 2004. Rothman has served on or provided leadership for numerous college, university and professional committees. An expert in rheumatology, he has provided clinical care for more than 20 years, trained medical students, fellows and residents, and published extensively. He succeeds Jean Robillard, M.D., who is stepping down from the deanship to focus on serving as UI vice president for medical affairs.
Knosp Appointed Associate Dean of Carver College of Medicine
Boyd Knosp has been appointed to the new position of associate dean for information technology (IT) in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, effective May 5.
In his new position, Knosp will be responsible for providing leadership and setting the strategic direction for IT that supports the research and academic missions of the college. He will work closely with IT colleagues across the university to ensure that researchers and educators in the medical school have access to new and existing technologies to support their work.
Knosp will report jointly to Carver College of Medicine Executive Dean Peter Densen and to Associate Vice President for Information Systems Lee Carmen.
Event to Explore Career Possibilities for PhDs in the Biosciences
A panel discussion sponsored by the Carver College of Medicine and the Department of Microbiology on June 19 will highlight career opportunities for PhDs in the biosciences beyond becoming a faculty member at a major research university.
“There is a vast array of possibilities available to individuals with PhDs other than traditional career paths,” said Wendy Maury, PhD, associate professor of Microbiology and event co-chairperson. “The goal of this discussion is to give individuals earning or possessing a Ph.D. a better understanding of alternative careers in the biosciences.”
The event, which is open to all students and postdoctoral fellows in the health sciences, will give participants the opportunity to hear from and interact with six different panelists who hold Ph.D.s in the biosciences. These individuals are now professionals a variety of career fields, including:
- A scientist at a large pharmaceutical company
- A bioinformatics researcher
- A faculty member at a small liberal arts college
- A program officer at the National Institutes of Health
- A clinical microbiologist
- A biocontainment officer
Each panelist will discuss how and why they chose their career path with a significant portion of the event dedicated to answering audience questions. A reception will also be held following the panel discussion to facilitate one-on-one questions.
Individuals wishing to participate must register online by June 12 at
http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/research/careers/. Questions regarding the program may be directed to Wendy Maury at wendy-maury@uiowa.edu.
The Schedule
Thursday, June 19
1110A MERF
1:00pm - Panelists discuss career paths and their individual career paths
2:00pm - Discussion forum and question and answer period
3:00pm - Reception with panelists
The Presenters
- Mekhine Baccam, PhD
Toxicologist, Procter and Gamble - Tom Bair, PhD
Bioinformatics Research Support, DNA Facility, UI Carver College of Medicine - Susan Bjerke, PhD
Assistant Professor, Washburn University - Tom Hiltke, PhD
Program Officer, National Institutes of Health - Nate Ledeboer, PhD
Medical Director, Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics, Froedtert Hospital and Dynacare Labs - Molly McLendon, PhD
Director, Biosafety Level III Laboratories, UI Carver College of Medicine
Mark Your Calendars- Research Week 2009 Dates Announced
Dates have been announced for next year's Carver College of Medicine/ College of Public Health/ VA Iowa City Health System Research Week. The event will be held April 1 and 2, 2009. The annual event will again feature nationally-recognized researchers as well as two poster sessions.
Project 3000 Video Featured on Big Ten Network
The initiative spearheaded by Chicago Cubs star Derek Lee and Boston Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck, known as project 3000 has recently released an informational video being aired on the Big Ten Network. The video, produced to raise awareness of the effort to identify and test all estimated 3,000 U.S. individuals with Leber's Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), has been aired three times on the network with future dates possible.
The video has also been made available for viewing online at: http://www.healthcare.uiowa.edu/CCOM/news/p3k/index.html.
Further information about Project 3000 is available at: http://www.carverlab.org.
National Kidney Foundation Gives $775,000 for UI Research
The National Kidney Foundation of Iowa recently made a gift of $775,000 to the University of Iowa Foundation to advance kidney research in the UI Division of Nephrology.
John B. Stokes, M.D., professor and director of the Division of Nephrology, a unit of the Department of Internal Medicine in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, said the endowment established by the gift will greatly enhance the division's laboratory and clinical research.
"This gift will help us in our efforts to discover the causes of kidney disease and to search for treatments and cures," Stokes said. "We are very grateful and honored that the National Kidney Foundation of Iowa chose to direct this important gift to the University of Iowa."
The gift establishes the Battles Kidney Disease Research Fund. The gift, named in memory of the late Vivian Battles of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, was presented at Community Health Charities Iowa's "Celebrating Partnerships" event April 18 in Coralville, Iowa. UI Health Care and the National Kidney Foundation of Iowa are among the 19 health-related charities represented by Community Health Charities Iowa.
The UI Division of Nephrology provides clinical, teaching and research programs that serve individuals and families throughout the Midwest as well as nationally and internationally.
UI Researchers Report Results of Prostate Cancer Vaccine Study
A team of University of Iowa Health Care researchers is now conducting the next phase of a clinical trial that may eventually lead to new treatments for men diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The researchers recently reported that they have successfully completed a Phase I study of an adenovirus/prostate-specific antigen (Ad/PSA) vaccine for prostate cancer. The results showed that the therapeutic agent can safely be given to patients.
A total of 32 men with advanced prostate cancer received a single dose of the vaccine in the study's initial phase in order to assess its safety. The treatment is not designed to prevent prostate cancer like a traditional vaccine prevents a disease. Instead, it stimulates the body's immune system to fight existing cancer cells.
The outcome of the study showed that the average survival time for patients in the study was 18 months, compared to the six to nine months that patients with such advanced disease typically survive. The study also showed evidence that the therapy did boost the patients' immune systems.
"The results of the Phase I portion of the trial are encouraging," said Richard Williams, M.D., the Rubin H. Flocks Chair in Urology and professor and head of the UI Department of Urology. "Eventually, vaccines such as this may play an important role, in combination with other therapies, in the treatment of prostate cancer."
Following that positive result, the Food and Drug Administration gave approval for the UI researchers to begin Phase II of the trial. Several patients have already received treatment under the new segment of the study.
The UI researchers say it will take several years before the treatment could be approved and come into general use, if it is shown to be effective.
Other UI investigators involved in the study include: David Lubaroff, Ph.D., the developer of the vaccine, Badrinath Konety, M.D., Brian Link, M.D., Timothy Ratliff, Ph.D., and Tammy Madsen, a certified physician assistant.
Turning on Cell-cell Communication Wipes out Staph Biofilms
University of Iowa researchers have succeeded in wiping out established biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus (staph) by hijacking one of the bacteria's own regulatory systems. Although the discovery is not ready for clinical application, the findings offer insight into a dispersal mechanism for staph biofilms and might help identify therapeutic targets.
Biofilms are communities of bacteria that grow on moist surfaces, including heart valves, bone and medical implants. Encased in self-produced slime and highly resistant to antibiotic therapy and the body's own immune defenses, biofilm infections represent a tough and dangerous medical problem. The findings were published in the journal Public Library of Science - Pathogens (PLoS-Pathogens) on April 25.
"We have shown that activating the cells' communication system, also known as quorum sensing, in established biofilms causes the biofilms to disperse rapidly," said Alexander Horswill, Ph.D., UI assistant professor of microbiology and senior study author. "This is the first report of an existing dispersal pathway in Staph aureus. If we can tap into this mechanism, then that might lead to better treatments."
UI Contributes to Gene Therapy Breakthrough for Blinding Eye Disease
Researchers at the University of Iowa played a key role in a landmark gene therapy breakthrough reported Sunday, April 27, in an online article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study reported improvement in vision following gene transfer to the retina in three patients with an inherited form of blindness known as Leber congenital amaurosis or LCA. The study was carried out at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia by an international team led by the University of Pennsylvania, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Second University of Naples and the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (both in Italy), the UI and several other American institutions.
This is the first report of successful gene therapy of an inherited eye disease in humans. Although the patients have not achieved normal eyesight, the preliminary results set the stage for further studies of an innovative treatment for LCA and possibly other retinal diseases. Patients' vision improved from detecting hand movements to reading lines on an eye chart.
Edwin Stone, M.D., Ph.D., UI professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, led the genetic testing portion of the study. Stone's group developed a method for distinguishing disease-causing mutations from benign genetic variants, and this method was used to choose the patients who were treated in the gene therapy study. The Iowa group also developed a highly efficient nonprofit testing strategy that has allowed genetic testing for LCA to be offered on a national scale.
Discovery has Implications for Heart Disease
A study, led by University of Iowa researchers, reveals a new dimension for a key heart enzyme and sheds light on an important biological pathway involved in cell death in heart disease. The study, published in the May 2 issue of Cell, has implications for understanding, and potentially for diagnosing and treating, heart failure and arrhythmias.
The UI researchers and colleagues from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., focused on calmodulin kinase II, or CaM kinase II, a well-studied enzyme critical to many fundamental processes including heartbeat and thought.
Scientists know that CaM kinase's activity is sustained by adding a phosphate group -- a process known as phosphorylation. The new study proves that oxidation -- adding oxygen -- also can sustain the enzyme's activity, and like phosphorylation, the mechanism can be reversed to inactivate the kinase.
"Our results suggest that oxidation of CaM kinase is a dynamic and reversible process that may direct cell signaling in health and disease," said Mark Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., UI professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics and senior study author. "Because CaM kinase activity is involved in arrhythmias, hypertrophy and heart cell death, this work also provides new insights into a disease pathway in heart that may lead to development of new drugs to treat heart disease."