UW School of Medicine Online News 4-6-07

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University of Washington School of Medicine



Online News



Vol. 11, No. 14

April 6, 2007



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To view an archived version of Online News on the UW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:



* Starting estrogen therapy shortly after menopause may help in protecting against effects of stroke, mouse-based research suggests



* UW General Clinical Research Center awards 2007 Pilot and Feasibility Grants to UW and Fred Hutchinson scientists



* Students, staff, and teachers to be honored with School of Medicine graduating class awards



* Joseph Beavo elected president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics





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TIMING OF ESTROGEN THERAPY MAY MATTER IN PROTECTING AGAINST STROKE



Estrogen-replacement therapy may prove to have benefit in women suffering strokes if the therapy is started early enough, new research in mice suggests.



Recent studies, which showed no benefit or increased risk of stroke in women taking estrogen replacement, stand in stark contrast to earlier studies that had shown estrogen therapy to be protective against stroke and other age-related diseases. However, most women in the recent studies began estrogen therapy several years after menopause, suggesting to researchers that timing of estrogen delivery may be a crucial factor in its protective effects.



To investigate this link, UW researcher Phyllis Wise and colleagues removed the ovaries of female mice and began administering estrogen either immediately after surgery or after a 10-week delay. They found that the 10-week delay in estrogen therapy did not protect against stroke damage, whereas those that received estrogen immediately after surgery had significantly less extensive brain damage after stroke.



The researchers also linked this neuroprotective effect of immediate estrogen therapy to a reduction in the inflammatory processes in the brain – the primary causes of stroke damage. The results suggest that, in order to provide protection against stroke, estrogen therapy may need to be started immediately after menopause.



Wise is the UW provost and vice president for academic affairs. She is also a professor of physiology and biophysics, obstetrics and gynecology, and biology.





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GCRC AWARDS PILOT AND FEASIBILITY GRANTS



The UW General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) has named the recipients of its 2007 GCRC Pilot and Feasibility Grants, designed to facilitate career development in clinical research.



The GCRC is a university-wide resource funded by the National Institutes of Health to support peer-reviewed clinical investigations and other funded research involving human subjects. It is part of a national network of 78 centers that provide optimal settings for medical investigators to conduct safe, controlled inpatient and outpatient medical studies. The centers also provide infrastructure and resources that support career development for junior investigators. The Pilot & Feasibility Grant program is part of that effort. Mary Lenora “Nora” Disis, professor of medicine, is program director of the UW center.



Each year, the GCRC seeks applications for well-defined projects to support. The grants are open to young investigators or established investigators proposing a new direction in their clinical research. Up to three pilot projects are funded at a maximum budget of $25,000 each. There is one award for each of the center’s units — Adult, Pediatric, and Biotherapeutics. All applications undergo rigorous scientific peer review.



The 2007 grant recipients are:

Nathalia Jimenez, UW acting assistant professor of anesthesiology, who will study differences in morphine pharmacokinetics between Latino and non-Latino Caucasian pediatric patients. The project aims to determine if differences in opioid analgesic requirements for pain treatment between Latino and non-Latino Caucasian pediatric patients are explained by differences in the pharmacokinetics of morphine or its metabolites.



Brian Till, senior oncology fellow in the Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who will study adoptive therapy for relapsed lymphoma with genetically modified CD20-specific T cells. This study will test the feasibility of treating mantle cell and indolent B-cell lymphomas using autologous T lymphocytes that have been genetically modified to recognize the CD20 antigen present on B cells.



Nathaniel F. Watson, UW assistant professor of neurology, who will study sleep duration and metabolism in twins. This study of identical twin pairs discordant for sleep duration will test the hypothesis that sleep restriction increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease by adversely affecting key metabolic parameters.





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MEDICAL SCHOOL GRADUATING CLASS HONORS STUDENTS, STAFF, AND FACULTY



The 2007 graduating class of the UW School of Medicine has selected its annual award recipients. The awards will be presented at the medical school’s 58th commencement ceremony, Saturday, June 2, in the Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, on the main UW campus.



Medical student Greg Lipksi is this year’s recipient of the Ellen Griep Award, which was established by the class of 1983. The award honors a classmate who has provided inspiration to his or her peers, staff, and faculty by managing the academic demands of medical school and maintaining excellence in other endeavors in life. The honor includes a monetary award for personal use. Lipski was diagnosed with leukemia while in medical school at the UW and was the subject of a feature article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2005:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/253463_medstudent26.html



N. Michelle Fleming, the administrative manager of student affairs in the School of Medicine, will receive the Margaret S. Anderson Award, established by the class of 1982. It honors a deserving staff or faculty member who has shown exceptional concern for and support of medical students. Staff and faculty may only receive the award once. Past award winners include: Diane Noecker, Daniel Olson, Constance Lamb, Michael Copass, Erika Goldstein, Daniel Hunt, Michael Laskowski, Carol MacLaren, Thomas McCormick, Terry Mengert, Douglas Paauw, Paul Ramsey, Timothy Pohlman, and John Sheffield.



The recipients of this year’s Distinguished Teacher Awards are:

Eric Kraus, associate professor of neurology, and Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, who were selected as the clinical science award winners. Kraus may be reached at ekraus@u.washington.edu and Amies Oelschlager may be reached at aamies@u.washington.edu



Andrew Farr, professor of biological structure and of immunology, who was selected as the basic science faculty award winner. He may be reached at farr@u.washington.edu



David Conley, affiliate instructor of biological structure, and a faculty member in the WWAMI medical education program at the Washington State University/University of Idaho teaching site in Pullman, who was selected for the WWAMI Distinguished Teacher Award. He may be reached at dmc@wsu.edu





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JOSEPH BEAVO ELECTED PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL PHARMACOLOGY SOCIETY



Joseph Beavo, UW professor of pharmacology, has been elected president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The group, which is the largest one in the country representing the field of pharmacology, will be celebrating the 100th anniversary.



Beavo studies chemical cycles in the body, especially compounds called phosphodiesterases (PDEs), which help degrade messenger chemicals. PDEs help break down the chemical bonds in cellular messengers, allowing the degraded messengers to later be taken up by the body and recycled into other important compounds.



Beavo has been a faculty member since 1977, and was named a full professor in 1986. He completed his undergraduate degree at Stetson University in Florida. Beavo earned his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where he studied under Nobel Prize recipient Earl Sutherland Jr., and he completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Davis. He may be reached at beavo@u.washington.edu





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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 2007. All rights, including electronic

redistribution, are reserved.



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