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University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 11, No. 28
July 20, 2007
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MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN: Honoring UW Medicine faculty on the occasion of their promotions this month
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This week’s news:
* Study shows cane sugar and corn-based sweeteners have same effects on appetite
* Bruder Stapleton and James Hendricks to oversee UW research activities based at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center
* UW instructors in Washington and Idaho recognized for outstanding teaching of medical students and residents
* UW offering classes this summer on the System to Administer Grants Electronically
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MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
Dear Colleagues:
"The richness of faculty talent should be celebrated, not restricted." These brief words of Ernest L. Boyer, author of Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, speak to an essential component of what we celebrate at UW Medicine. We are fortunate to have nearly 6,800 faculty members, including affiliate and clinical faculty, who represent a wealth of specialties, skills, approaches, and interests. As evidenced by the increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of research, education, and clinical care, the diversity of specialties throughout UW Medicine represents a real strength and brings continued opportunities for growth and innovation.
Within the different specialties, some faculty distinguish themselves by their research, others by teaching, and still others by clinical application. Some faculty assume a combination of roles, and others focus their efforts most strongly within one realm. All of these core activities contribute to the rich totality of a community of scholars. I believe that the UW Medicine faculty is one of the finest such communities anywhere. The diversity of faculty roles adds immeasurably to our collective work that focuses on improving health for people in our region, nation, and the world.
The UW Medicine faculty on the list referenced below were distinguished this year by promotion to a higher academic rank. These promotions became effective July 1, 2007. I congratulate each of these individuals for outstanding contributions as a faculty member of UW Medicine. Your hard work on behalf of the UW Medicine mission makes a genuine difference, and I am honored to represent and work with you.
Sincerely,
Paul G. Ramsey, M.D.
CEO, UW Medicine
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and
Dean of the School of Medicine
University of Washington
** To view a list of faculty members who were promoted on July 1, 2007, please visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/ON+7-20-07+Promotions+List.htm
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SUGAR AND CORN SYRUP-SWEETENED BEVERAGES HAVE SIMILAR EFFECTS ON APPETITE
A new study of sweetened beverages shows that cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup have similar effects on hunger, fullness, and food consumption at lunch. According to the UW study, which appears in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this may be because sucrose (table sugar) in beverages splits into glucose and fructose molecules, such as are present in high-fructose corn syrup. The results suggest that while appetite and food intake are influenced by the number of calories consumed earlier, the types of sugars consumed in those calories seem to make little or no difference.
The study was led by Adam Drewnowski, UW professor of epidemiology and of medicine and director of the UW Nutritional Sciences Program. Pablo Monsivais, research fellow in the Nutritional Sciences Program, was the study's lead author.
The researchers gave subjects a beverage mid-morning, then tracked hunger, appetite, and thirst for two hours, then gave the study participants lunch. Cola beverages sweetened with sucrose or with two different types of high-fructose corn syrup were compared to an aspartame-sweetened diet cola, milk (1 percent fat), and to a no-beverage control group. Lunch consisted of a wide variety of savory and sweet foods, accompanied only by plain water. Each participant went through separate tests for each type of beverage over the span of several weeks.
Study participants who drank a non-caloric diet cola ate about the same amount at lunch as when they had no beverage at all. Participants ate somewhat less at lunch after drinking any of the caloric beverages, but only partially compensated for the calories they consumed in the beverage. People who drank any of the caloric beverages – whether cane-sweetened cola, one of the high-fructose sweetened colas, or 1 percent milk – consumed more total calories that day when both the beverage and lunch were taken into account. Researchers found no differences in how the four caloric beverages affected appetite and food intake.
Much of the evidence that linked corn sweeteners with obesity came from animal-based metabolic studies using pure fructose. This study, on the other hand, used beverages sweetened with two types of high-fructose corn syrup: HFCS 55, which contains about 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose; and HFCS 42, which is about 42 percent fructose and 58 percent glucose. Sucrose also contains both glucose and fructose, bound together in a 1-to-1 ratio. However, the researchers found that for the sucrose in the beverages tested in this study, the bond between fructose and glucose is broken. Because of this, the authors suggest that the body does not readily discriminate between beverages sweetened with sucrose and those sweetened with HFCS 42 or 55.
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STAPLETON AND HENDRICKS TO OVERSEE UW RESEARCH AT CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
Bruder Stapleton, UW professor and chair of pediatrics, and holder of the Ford/Morgan Endowed Chair in Pediatrics, has been appointed associate dean of the UW School of Medicine. Stapleton also serves as the chief academic officer for Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center. In his capacity as associate dean, he will coordinate student and graduate medical education between Children’s Hospital and the UW School of Medicine, and research programs for faculty based at Children’s Hospital. In these activities, he will work with the vice deans responsible for research, graduate medical education, and academic affairs for UW Medicine.
James Hendricks, president of the Children’s Hospital Research Institute and UW clinical professor of pediatrics, has been named assistant dean of research and graduate medical education in the School of Medicine. Hendricks will work closely with the vice dean for research and graduate education in coordinating research activities that involve UW faculty based at Children’s Hospital, particularly in the areas of compliance, research infrastructure, and research facilities. Hendricks will work closely with Stapleton in facilitating coordination of faculty research activities between the UW and Children’s Hospital.
Stapleton will serve as a liaison between UW departments and Children’s Hospital regarding educational and research initiatives within the Children’s Hospital strategic plan, in close collaboration with Hendricks in his position as assistant dean.
Hendricks became president of the Seattle-based Children’s Hospital Research Institute in 2007; before that he was vice president for research at the Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, and served on the faculty at the University of Florida before joining Children's Hospital in New Orleans.
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UW INSTRUCTORS RECEIVE TEACHING AWARDS
Four UW School of Medicine instructors have received awards for their teaching of medical students and residents.
Jill Watanabe, associate professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, has received the 2007 Paul B. Beeson Award from the Department of Medicine. The Beeson award is presented by the medicine residents to recognize outstanding clinical teaching by a faculty member who exemplifies scholarship, humility, compassion, and integrity. The late Paul Beeson was a UW faculty member and Seattle VA physician who was celebrated for his teaching skills.
Watanabe is the director of medical education at Harborview Medical Center, and a faculty member of the Denali College in the School of Medicine's Colleges Program.
Third- and fourth-year medical students in the Idaho Track of the School of Medicine nominated three instructors for the Dr. Judd Lunn Memorial Teacher of the Year Award. The honor recognizes preceptors for their outstanding teaching and commitment to medical education in Idaho.
Paula Carvalho, WWAMI instructor and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, was nominated by the third-year students for the Judd Lunn Award. Carvalho directs the intensive care unit of the VA Medical Center in Boise. Fourth-year students nominated Boise physician Shelley Jacks and Karin Lindholm, clinical instructor of neurology. Lindholm is the head of the neurology clerkship site in Boise.
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UW OFFERING ELECTRONIC GRANT CLASSES OVER SUMMER
The UW Office of Research Information Services (ORIS) is offering classes this summer on the university's new electronic grant application system.
The class, The Dos and Don’ts of Attaching Documents to eGC1s in SAGE, is being offered twice in the next few weeks. Designed for researchers and research administrators, this two-hour, hands-on class provides practice in attaching documents to eGC1s in SAGE, the System to Administer Grants Electronically. It will also address questions about the types of files that can be uploaded into SAGE, and what their corresponding file types should be.
The classes are scheduled for July 26 and August 2. To register online, visit:
http://www.washington.edu/research/oris/sage/training.php
For more information about arranging on-site training, contact ORIS Training Specialist Toyin Akisanya at ORIStraining@u.washington.edu or 206-616-9096.
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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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