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University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 11, No. 35
Sept. 7, 2007
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This week’s news:
* Statins may prevent brain changes seen in Alzheimer's disease
* UW granted $10 million to study basic biology of human embryonic stem cell research
* ZIP codes and property values can predict obesity rates
* New medical school policy prohibits ghost authorship of academic articles
* School of Medicine welcomes largest incoming class of first-year medical students in school history
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STATINS MAY PROTECT BRAIN TISSUE FROM CHANGES IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Statin drugs may help prevent the changes in the brain that signal the beginning of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study by the UW and Group Health Cooperative. The research was published Aug. 28 in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Statins are widely used to reduce blood cholesterol in people who are at risk for or have heart disease. Previous studies had suggested that people taking statins might be less likely to develop Alzheimer's.
This study was the first to compare the brains of people who had taken statins to those who had not. Researchers examined the brains of 110 members of Group Health Cooperative, aged 65 to 79, who had donated their brains for science research. They found that people who had been taking statins had significantly fewer "tangles" -- one of the changes in brain tissue that is commonly seen in Alzheimer's disease.
Gail Li, UW assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was the study's lead author. The research team included people from the UW departments of Medicine and Pathology, the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and the Group Health Center for Health Studies.
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NIGMS FUNDS UW RESEARCH PROGRAM ON BASIC BIOLOGY OF STEM CELLS
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), one of the National Institutes of Health, has funded a new research program at the UW focused on the study of the basic biology of human embryonic stem cells.
As one of only two such programs in the nation, the UW group is composed of investigators with diverse expertise to research the unique properties of human embryonic stem cells. The findings will lead to a better understanding of how stem cells self-renew and become specific cell types, bringing stem cell-based therapies a step closer to clinical practice. The research funded through this grant is restricted to the 21 human embryonic stem cell lines approved by President Bush in August 2001.
The UW research program is comprised of four projects and a human embryonic stem cell core laboratory, directed by Carol Ware, UW associate professor of comparative medicine. The program is led by C. Anthony Blau, professor of medicine and hematology and co-director of the UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. Blau’s team, which will receive about $10 million over five years, will study the pathways human embryonic stem cells use to self-renew and how they differentiate into heart muscle cells and retinal nerve cells.
The program will include core facilities that will develop new methods and resources to advance research on human embryonic stem cells and train investigators in the specialized techniques and technologies needed to study them.
The source of human embryonic stem cells is limited to federally approved stem cell lines listed on the National Institutes of Health Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry. The new research program joins an ongoing NIGMS-supported effort, launched in 2003, to uncover the basic molecular and genetic features of human embryonic stem cells. NIGMS funds three exploratory centers and several independent projects focused on human embryonic stem cell research.
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ZIP CODES AND PROPERTY VALUES PREDICT OBESITY RATES
Neighborhood property values predict local obesity rates better than education or incomes, according to a UW study published online Aug. 29 by the journal Social Science and Medicine. For each additional $100,000 in the median price of homes, UW researchers found, obesity rates in a given ZIP code dropped by 2 percent.
The study, based on analyses of responses to a telephone survey conducted in King County by the local health department and the federal Centers for Disease Control, found six-fold disparities in obesity rates across the Seattle metropolitan area. Obesity rates reached 30 percent in the most deprived areas but were only around 5 percent in the most affluent ZIP codes.
The study was led by Adam Drewnowski, professor of epidemiology and adjunct professor of medicine and director of the UW Center for Obesity Research. Working with the local health agency, Public Health-Seattle & King County, the researchers aggregated multiple-year data from Washington state's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to analyze data for more than 8,000 respondents.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention use the same data to map rising obesity rates in the United States at the state level. However, unlike most states, Washington codes the BRFSS data by the respondents’ ZIP code, which permits more detailed analyses of local obesity rates at a finer geographic scale. Other information about the ZIP code areas was provided by data from the U.S. Census. Residential property values were used as a proxy measure of ZIP code socioeconomic status.
The UW study was the first to examine obesity rates by area-based indexes of poverty and wealth across a metropolitan area. Previous studies have found higher obesity rates among racial and ethnic minorities and groups of lower education and incomes. Analyses of the same BRFSS data for King County showed that obesity rates were higher for African-Americans (26 percent) than for whites (16 percent), and were higher for people with annual incomes below $15,000 (20 percent) than for those with incomes above $50,000 (15 percent), all consistent with national trends. These disparities were much lower than those dependent on ZIP codes and geographic location. The study concluded that social and economic disparities were more important in predicting obesity than previously thought.
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NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL POLICY PROHIBITS GHOST AUTHORSHIP
The School of Medicine has adopted a new policy on academic ghost authorship. The policy prohibits UW medical school faculty, staff, trainees, and students from serving as an author on any publication in which ghost authorship has occurred.
Ghost authorship is a practice in which a third party writes or makes contributions to an article without being credited as an author. For example, ghost authorship can allow a company or organization with a vested interest in a research project to be involved in the publication of that research without the knowledge of the academic community or the public. Journals and medical editors have warned that ghost authorship is occurring in academic medicine, and that the practice can distort the scientific record.
A copy of the new policy is available through the School of Medicine's regulatory guidance office in the Office of Research and Graduate Education. The policy can be found at:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Research/RegulatoryGuidance/
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SCHOOL OF MEDICINE WELCOMES LARGEST EVER INCOMING CLASS
The UW School of Medicine welcomed the largest medical student class in school history last week. There were 191 students entering as first-year students at the UW Seattle campus and programs in the five-state WWAMI region of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.
Of the 191 entering students, there are 102 women and 89 men. There are 23 Asian American students, nine Hispanic Americans, two African Americans, and two Native Americans in the first-year class.
More entering students -- 35 -- attended UW for their undergraduate education than any other college. Ten students attended Montana State University, eight attended Brigham Young University, and eight attended the University of Wyoming. Several students attended Stanford University, Whitman College, or Gonzaga University. The most popular undergraduate major among the entering students was biology, with 45 students, followed by biochemistry, psychology, and neurobiology.
The orientation for first-year Seattle students was held Aug. 27 through 31, and classes began Sept. 4. First-year students in Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho went through orientation earlier in August.
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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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