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University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 11, No. 23
June 8, 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To view an archived version of Online News on the UW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:
* Monkeys rely on probabilistic reasoning, UW researchers find
* Department of Rehabilitation Medicine celebrates 50th anniversary with symposium and gala
* Washington state Life Sciences Discovery Fund holding information sessions for researchers interested in new grant competition
* Mark Doescher named director of UW's WWAMI Rural Health Research Center and WWAMI Center for Health Workforce Studies
* Carlos Pellegrini, chair of surgery, receives honorary membership in the Society of Black Academic Surgeons in recognition of mentorship to minority surgeons
* Michele Despreaux to join faculty of Colleges program in UW School of Medicine
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MONKEYS RELY ON PROBABILISTIC REASONING, UW RESEARCHERS FIND
Much like humans, monkeys make choices based on information at hand and their assessment of the possible outcomes of their choices, according to research by UW scientists. The study, published online June 3 by the journal Nature, is the first to show that monkeys rely on probabilistic reasoning when making decisions.
The research was led by Michael Shadlen, UW professor of physiology and biophysics, staff scientist at the Washington National Primate Research Center, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Shadlen and his colleagues conducted experiments in which rhesus macaque monkeys chose between different colored targets displayed on a screen, based on another image of four shapes displayed randomly. The arrangement of the four shapes determined the probability of reward, and the macaques learned to use that probability to better determine how to receive a reward.
Researchers also measured neural activity in a region of the macaque brain known as the parietal lobe, and found that neurons in this region of the brain are involved in the process of probabilistic reasoning.
The research shows that macaques have a crude form of reasoning that may underlie cognitive reasoning in humans. The work may also help us better understand how human cognition works, and how neurological disorders may affect those cognitive processes, the researchers suggested.
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REHABILITATION MEDICINE CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY
The UW Department of Rehabilitation Medicine celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this month with a symposium and gala dinner. The department was founded in 1957 by the late Justus F. Lehmann, who chaired the department until 1986. The UW department was the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, between Denver, Colo., and Vancouver, B.C.
The anniversary celebration included the 22nd Annual Justus F. Lehmann Day Symposium, the department's annual symposium for residents, graduate students, and practitioners in physical medicine and rehabilitation that honors him. The featured speakers were Leighton Chan, chief of rehabilitation medicine at the NIH Clinical Research Center and a former UW faculty member, and Alan Jette, professor of health policy and management at the Boston University School of Public Health.
For more information about the history of the UW Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, visit:
http://depts.washington.edu/rehab/50history.html
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LIFE SCIENCES DISCOVERY FUND HOLDING INFORMATION SESSIONS ON GRANT COMPETITION
The Washington state Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) will soon be funding $20 million in health-related research in its largest grant competition since its founding in 2005. To help researchers prepare for the fund's call for proposals this summer, the agency is holding a series of public information sessions around the state.
The first of the sessions held at the UW campus is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Monday, June 11, in Room T-625 of the UW Health Sciences Center. Two other sessions will be held at the same location: 9:30 a.m., Thursday, June 21; and 1:30 p.m., Monday, June 25. Other sessions will be held at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, as well as in Olympia, Richland, Spokane, Pullman, and Bellingham. A full calendar of the information sessions, and information about the grant competition, is available at the fund's Web site, at:
http://www.lsdfa.org
The information sessions will include presentations by the LSDF's John Des Rosier, director of programs, and Mark Hertle, senior program officer. They will describe the funding opportunity, explain the proposal process, and answer questions about the program.
The fund's first grant program is already under way, but this second competition is much larger and focuses on ambitious, large-scale projects aimed at significant health challenges or improving the competitiveness of the state's life sciences sector. Researchers at public and private universities, non-profit research institutions and hospitals, health-care systems, and public health departments are eligible to apply for funding. For-profit companies are encouraged to participate through collaborative proposals with non-profit entities.
The LSDF plans to follow this funding pattern in the future: two competitions each year, with one for focused, investigator-initiated research studies, and the other for large-scale, capacity-building projects. The LSDF's operating expenses and grants are primarily supported by a settlement the state received following a large, multi-state lawsuit against tobacco companies. The fund's mission is to support innovative research that promotes life-sciences competitiveness, enhances economic vitality, and improves health and medical care.
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DOESCHER WILL LEAD WWAMI HEALTH RESEARCH CENTERS
Mark Doescher, UW associate professor of family medicine, has become the principal investigator and director of the UW's WWAMI Rural Health Research Center and the WWAMI Center for Health Workforce Studies. Gary Hart, who has led both centers for nearly two decades, is leaving the UW to become chair of rural health and professor and director of the Arizona State Rural Health Office at the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.
Doescher has worked as an investigator in both centers for the past 10 years, and has studied health-care access, disparities in care delivery, chronic-illness care, tobacco cessation, and childhood obesity. He specializes in the delivery of high-quality primary care to high-risk rural and urban populations.
Both the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center and WWAMI Center for Health Workforce Studies are based in the UW Department of Family Medicine, and both focus on health issues in the five-state WWAMI region of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. For more information, visit the rural health center's Web site at:
http://depts.washington.edu/uwrhrc/index.html
And the workforce center's Web site at:
http://depts.washington.edu/uwchws/
Doescher may be reached at mdoesche@u.washington.edu
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PELLEGRINI HONORED FOR MENTORING MINORITY SURGEONS
Carlos Pellegrini, professor and the Henry N. Harkins Chair of the Department of Surgery, has received honorary membership in the Society of Black Academic Surgeons. Pellegrini was honored by the society for his outstanding service and mentorship to minority surgeons throughout the world.
The society was founded in 1989, and is aimed at providing a network of African American surgeons to stimulate, mentor, and inspire young surgeons and medical students to pursue academic careers.
The UW Department of Surgery will host the society's annual meeting in 2009. The meeting is intended to stimulate academic excellence among its members by providing a forum for scholarship in collaboration with leading surgery departments around the nation.
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MICHELE DESPREAUX TO JOIN COLLEGE FACULTY
In last week's letter from Dr. Paul Ramsey about changes in personnel among the College faculty, one new College faculty member was inadvertently omitted. In addition to the six individuals previously listed, Michele A. Despreaux will join the College faculty in July. Despreaux is a UW clinical assistant professor of medicine who practices at the UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinic in Kent/Des Moines. She received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed an internal medicine residency at Yale University.
She may be reached at micheled@uwpn.org
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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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