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University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 10, No. 48
December 15, 2006
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To view an archived version of Online News on the UW
Medicine Web site, visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/index.htm
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This week’s news:
* Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire's proposed budget includes funding to expand UW's WWAMI Medical Education Program and Regional Initiatives in Dental Education (RIDE) Program at WSU-Spokane campus
* International team led by UW researcher Teri Brentnall discovers gene for inherited pancreatic cancer; findings could have implications for all forms of pancreatic cancer and other cancers
* National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute awards $10.2 million to UW bioengineering group for tissue engineering and embryonic stem cell research
* Pioneering neuropsychiatry expert Gary Tucker, former professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, dies following prolonged illness
* Mary L. "Nora" Disis receives Superhero grant from Cancer Treatment Research Foundation
* Save the Date: Annual Faculty Development Days scheduled for March 28-29
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GOVERNOR'S BUDGET PROPOSAL INCLUDES FUNDING FOR EXPANSION OF MEDICAL AND DENTAL EDUCATION IN SPOKANE
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed budget for the state includes funding for the expansion of the UW's WWAMI Regional Medical Education program and Regional Initiatives in Dental Education (RIDE) program at Washington State University-Spokane. Gov. Gregoire announced the budget components at a press conference in Spokane on Thursday, Dec. 14.
The UW, Washington State University (WSU), and Eastern Washington University (EWU) have proposed an expansion of the WWAMI and RIDE programs in the Spokane area to meet growing demand there for medical and dental professionals. Under that plan, some medical and dental students could take their first-year courses at the Riverpoint campus of WSU-Spokane.
The governor's budget proposal would fund a new WWAMI medical education site at WSU-Spokane, with spots for up to 20 medical students at that campus. It would also fund up to eight spots for dental students in Spokane through the RIDE program, a new expansion program of the UW School of Dentistry. If this funding is approved by the state legislature, students would start in the two programs in 2008.
Medical students at the proposed Spokane site, like those at other WWAMI first-year sites, would take their first-year curriculum in Spokane before coming to the main UW campus in Seattle for their second year of study. They could then return to clinical training sites in the WWAMI region for their third and fourth years.
Gov. Gregoire also announced a proposal to freeze community- and technical-college tuition for the next two years and to limit annual tuition increases at state universities.
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UW-LED INTERNATIONAL TEAM DISCOVERS GENE FOR FAMILIAL PANCREATIC CANCER
An international group of researchers has discovered that the mutated form of a gene called Palladin causes familial pancreatic cancer. The findings, published online Dec. 12 in the journal PLoS-Medicine, may help explain why the disease is so deadly. The research project was led by Teri Brentnall, UW associate professor of medicine, and supported by The Lustgarten Foundation, Canary Foundation, and other private sources.
The discovery also reveals that the Palladin gene behaves abnormally in both the hereditary and non-hereditary, or sporadic, forms of pancreatic cancer. Previous studies by co-author Carol Otey, associate professor of physiology at the University of North Carolina, have revealed that when the Palladin gene is functioning properly, it gives a cell its shape and enables the cell to move. In the case of pancreatic cancer, a mutation in Palladin allows the cell to move much more quickly than normal, essentially invading the surrounding, healthy tissue.
Palladin, identified six years ago by Otey, is involved in the cytoskeleton, the structural backbone of all human cells. Brentnall discovered that Palladin played a role in pancreatic cancer and began to collaborate with Otey. The team believes that the mutated Palladin gene causes cancer by causing the cytoskeleton to malfunction, which allows the cells to move much more quickly than normal cells.
Brentnall began her search for the pancreatic cancer gene in 1996 after meeting with a patient whose family members had been stricken with the disease. She and her colleagues developed a surveillance program for the early detection of pancreatic pre-cancer in families who inherit the disease. They took DNA from pre-cancerous cells in family members with the disease and compared it to DNA in pancreas cells from those patients who did not have the disease. This allowed the researchers to isolate the cancer-causing gene to an area on Chromosome 4.
The researchers used a custom DNA microarray to isolate the gene responsible for the cancer. They searched for the genes most abnormally expressed in that area on Chromosome 4, and found one gene, Palladin, that was expressed 21 times more than any others. Each of the family members with the mutated Palladin gene got cancer or pre-cancer, while those without the mutation were cancer-free. The researchers also found that the mutant Palladin gene was over-expressed in pancreatic cells from patients with the non-hereditary form of pancreatic cancer, meaning the gene likely plays some role in all forms of pancreatic cancer.
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UW RECEIVES $10.2 MILLION GRANT FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING AND STEM CELL RESEARCH
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health has awarded $10.2 million over five years to a bioengineering research partnership at the University of Washington devoted to heart muscle regeneration through tissue engineering and embryonic stem cell research.
The award is the second such five-year grant in this amount that the research team has received. The partnership is led by Buddy Ratner, director of UW Engineered Biomaterials, Department of Bioengineering, and Chuck Murry, professor of pathology and co-director of the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the UW. The partnership also includes researchers from the Hope Heart Program at the Benaroya Research Institute.
Known as the BEAT (Bioengineered Allogeneic Tissue) partnership, the interdisciplinary team is composed of chemists, bioengineers, biochemists, cell biologists, pathologists, cardiologists and cardiac surgeons working together to develop a new approach to treat myocardial infarction, or heart attack. The new therapy is a comprehensive approach to heart muscle repair that will involve a combination of molecular medicine, cell therapy, and new concepts in tissue engineering.
The team will use tissue engineering methods to create miniature units of living heart muscle, which will be injected into the damaged heart wall to promote remuscularization, stimulate new blood vessel development, and minimize scar tissue formation. They hope this will help restore contractile function in the heart. The team also will develop methods to pre-treat the damaged heart muscle to improve survival of the implanted tissue and help the repair process. In addition, bioengineers will develop new medical devices to inject the engineered cardiac muscle and will test the success of their therapy in animal models.
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GARY TUCKER, FORMER CHAIR OF PSYCHIATRY AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, DIES
Gary J. Tucker, former chair of the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, passed away peacefully on Dec. 6 following a prolonged illness.
Tucker was educated at Oberlin College and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He completed an internship at the University Hospitals of Cleveland and his residency in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He then attended the U.S. Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, where he was designated a naval flight surgeon.
Following his tenure in the naval service, Tucker became a faculty member at Yale and later at Dartmouth School of Medicine. At Dartmouth, Tucker served as professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry from 1978 through 1985. He then moved to Seattle to become professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences from 1985 to 1998, when he retired to return to teaching and research. As professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry he remained active clinically and was finishing his book on the neurologic basis of psychotic delusions.
Tucker was an internationally respected scholar and clinician who served in leadership positions of many national organizations and editorial boards. He was president of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry, and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training. He was a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health and also served as chief editor of both Journal Watch for Psychiatry and Seminars in Clinical Neuropsychiatry.
His wide experience in medical education and scientific research is evident, with more than 170 publications, including three books, covering diverse areas of medical education, psychosis and behavioral neurology. He is considered a pioneer in the field of neuropsychiatry. Thomas Detre, former senior vice chancellor for health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, noted that Tucker was phenomenally bright and creative, and that his textbook with Jonathan Pincus, Behavioral Neurology, represents a major contribution to society.
The Gary Tucker, MD, Career Teaching Award has been established in the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences to honor his lifelong commitment to clinical teaching.
Tucker is survived by his wife, Sharon; his children, Clare and Adam; and two infant granddaughters, Hannah and Chiharu. A memorial service will be held in the spring.
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NORA DISIS RECEIVES SUPERHERO GRANT FROM CANCER TREATMENT RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Mary L. "Nora" Disis, UW professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology and director of the UW Center for Translational Medicine in Women's Health, has been recognized as a "Superhero" by the Cancer Treatment Research Foundation (CTRF). Disis, an expert on cancer immunology, was awarded a $300,000 grant by the Chicago-based nonprofit to continue her cancer research.
Disis, a recipient of previous CTRF grants, focuses her research efforts on earlier detection, more effective treatments, and the elimination of cancer recurrence. She is greatly interested in translational research, in which she works together with scientists, physicians, patients and organizations to bring the latest research breakthroughs from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside.
Since earning her medical degree and master's of immunology at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Disis has spent more than a decade investigating cancer immunology and spearheading the development of new cancer vaccines. The CTRF grant will be used to help develop a multi-antigen vaccine for breast cancer.
CTRF is dedicated to curing cancer through funding patient-centered clinical studies that deliver innovative treatment options to cancer patients.
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SAVE THE DATE: FACULTY DEVELOPMENT DAYS TO BE HELD MARCH 28-29, 2007
The UW School of Medicine's annual Faculty Development Days workshops will be held March 28 and 29, 2007. The workshops are run by the Office of Faculty Development, headed by Christina Surawicz, professor of medicine and assistant dean for faculty development.
The 2007 workshops will include presentations on appointments and promotions, leadership skills, workplace diversity, and other topics. The Office of Faculty Development will be providing more information on the 2007 program. Visit their Web site for more information: http://depts.washington.edu/facdev/
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Online News is published by Health Sciences/UW Medicine News and
Community Relations.
Justin Reedy, editor:
206-685-0382, jreedy@u.washington.edu
Online News is copyright 2006. All rights, including electronic
redistribution, are reserved.
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