Mark Paller, M.D., M.S., will serve in the role of executive vice dean for the University of Minnesota Medical School beginning July 1, 2009. The selection of an executive vice dean is part of an overall restructuring effort within the AHC and Medical School. Pending Board of Regents approval, Frank Cerra, M.D., senior vice president for health sciences for the Academic Health Center, will take on the additional role of dean of the Medical School on July 1, 2009. As dean, Cerra will handle long term strategic direction, foster strong external relationships with clinical partners, and promote financial stability. As executive vice dean, Paller will focus on the critical day-to-day operations of the Medical School, working with Cerra to implement the school’s strategic plan.
A highlight of the 2009 Celebration of Faculty and Faculty Assembly May 26 was the presentation of the first Carole Bland Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award to Elizabeth R. Seaquist, M.D. The late Carole Bland, Ph.D., devoted her career to faculty development. Faculty were recognized for awards from the Medical School and Minnesota Medical Foundation as well as promotion to associate professor and full professor (see list below). Click here for details about the award and the assembly.
For the third summer, students under-represented in medicine gain insights into the field through Minnesota's Future Doctors, a joint program of the University of Minnesota and Mayo Medical Schools. This cohort of 20 Elks moved onto the Twin Cities campus May 31 and, until July 10, will learn about biochemistry, surgery, and the lives of physicians, as well as interviewing and other skills they will need to succeed. The first class who entered, 25 Alligators, are preparing their medical school applications and taking the MCAT this summer. The 27 Coyotes, who started last summer, are studying at Mayo Medical School this year. Thanks to all who share their time and expertise to make this program illuminating for students.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a key area of research for the Center for Lung Science and Health, is the focus for two recently announced research projects. IPF is an interstitial lung disease of unknown cause characterized by progressive scarring of lung tissue and impairment of lung function. No effective treatments are currently available, and lung transplantation is the only life-saving option. Craig Henke, M.D., Medicine, was awarded a large NIH/NHLBI Program Project Grant to characterize the fibroblast cell phenotype associated with IPF and the related cell and molecular processes that contribute to its abnormal, ongoing proliferation in response to acute lung injury. An NIH/NHLBI RO1 grant to investigate the translational control of fibroblasts in IPF also was awarded to Peter Bitterman, M.D., Medicine.
Dennis Niewoehner, M.D., Medicine, was awarded the American Thoracic Society Annual Recognition Award for Scientific Accomplishment last month at the ATS international conference. Niewoehner received this prestigious award for his notable contributions to the understanding, prevention and treatment of lung disease, especially in regard to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Congratulations to David Masopust, Ph.D., Microbiology, who will receive a Young Investigator Award at the September 2009 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Bethany Nelson, a Ph.D. candidate in the Medical School -- Duluth campus Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Biophysics program since 2005, was awarded the Annette Boman Women’s Fellowship for Cancer Research. Annette Boman, Ph.D., was a gifted medical researcher at the University of Minnesota Medical School — Duluth campus who died as a result of complications from cancer in 2003. Click here for the rest of the story.
Five Milne/Brandenburg Award recipients presented their research May 28 during the second annual Biomedical Sciences Graduate Programs Research Recognition Day: Hon Man Hamlet Chu, MICaB; Farjana Fattah, BMBB; Michael Gerner, MICaB; Guylaine Hache, BMBB; Fen Liu, BMBB; and Hui Zheng, Pharmacology. Graduate students presented 90 posters of their work. Kudos to all.
Refugee and immigrant health is the topic for the first week of the Global Health Course. Continuing through Aug. 21, the course offers both full course and weekly registration and is open to physicians and other health care providers, residents, medical students and community members. CME credit is available.
Robert Cormier, Ph.D., will be formally named the Chair in Cancer Biology, 5 p.m., Monday, June 8. At the gathering in room 142 of the Medical School-Duluth campus, Cormier will present a talk: "Transposon Mutagenesis for Cancer Gene Discovery."
CTSciNET, the Clinical and Translational Science Network, results from a partnership of the AAMC with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science Careers, and several other organizations. The new CTSciNet is designed to assist clinicians interested in research, M.D.-Ph.D. trainees and recipients, Ph.D.-track scientists who want to work closer to the clinic, and anyone considering these career paths. The project is supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Paul Snyder, M.S.W., M.Div., program director, Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health and Social Work, and Jennifer Andrashko, social work fellow in the Division’s Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Program, are recipients of the 2009-10 Buckman Fellowship for Leadership in Philanthropy. Buckman Fellows participate in a 10-month series of seminars with University of Minnesota and community experts on philanthropy and fundraising. As a part of their applications, they identify specific philanthropic projects and are awarded a stipend to be used to develop their leadership skills and implement their chosen projects.
In November 22, 1994, in Russia, a conference of chronobiologists endorsed the name "Cornelissen-series" for the contribution of Germaine Cornelissen, Ph.D. This recognition honored her studies broadening the mapping of circadian systems, first by focus upon the physiologic half-week and week and eventually by her mapping of the broader and broader spectrum of multifrequency biologic rhythms. The Cornelissen series, documented since 1994 in 1,034 published titles (549 journal papers and book chapters and 485 abstracts), was the evidence that led to Cornelissen's election in May to the Leibniz Society of Science (founded by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1700 and thus one of the oldest academies of science). Germaine Cornelissen-Guillaume serves on the faculty of the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology.
"We're extremely fortunate to have faculty of this caliber," Deborah E. Powell, M.D., said to promoted faculty members, their family, colleagues, and friends at a May 28 celebration. (They also were recognized at the May 26 event, first item, above.) Promoted to full professor are: Robert Johnson, M.D., Family Medicine; Michael Miner, Ph.D., Family Medicine; Carol Lange, Ph.D., Medicine; Karen Margolis, M.D., M.P.H., Medicine; David Tupper, Ph.D., Neurology; Andrew Schmidt, M.D., Orthopaedic Surgery; James Sidman, M.D., Otolaryngology; Julia Steinberger, M.D., M.S., Pediatrics; and, Todd Tuttle, M.D., M.P.H., Surgery. Promoted to associate professor are: Timothy Griffin, Ph.D., BMBB; Lihsia Chen, Ph.D., GCD; Deanna Koepp, Ph.D., GCD; Eric Gross, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Robert Reardon, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Steven Stovitz, M.D., Family Medicine; Brian Zamboni, Ph.D., Family Medicine; David McKenna Jr., M.D., Lab Medicine and Pathology; Selcuk Adabag, M.D., Medicine; Patrick Arndt, M.D., Medicine; Susan Everson-Rose, Ph.D., M.P.H., Medicine; Steven Fu, M.D., M.S.C.E., Medicine; Jian-Guo Geng, M.D., Ph.D., Medicine; Areef Ishani, M.D., M.S., Medicine; Betsy Kren, Ph.D., Medicine; David Nelson, Ph.D., Medicine; Siamak Noorbaloochi, Ph.D., Medicine; Susan Raatz, Ph.D., R.D., Medicine; Jasvinder Singh, M.D., Medicine; William Stauffer, M.D., M.S.P.H., D.T.M.&H., Medicine; Patricia Walker, M.D., D.T.M.&H., Medicine; Tim Whelan, M.D., Medicine; J. Riley McCarten, M.D., Neurology; Lorene Lanier, Ph.D., Neuroscience; Peter Argenta, M.D., OBGYN; Andrew Harrison, M.D., Ophthalmology; Margaret MacMillan, M.D., Pediatrics; Alexander McKinney, M.D., Radiology; Essa Yacoub, Ph.D., Radiology; Kenneth Liao, M.D., Ph.D., Surgery; Klearchos Papas, Ph.D., Surgery; Aseem Shukla, M.D., Urologic Surgery; and, Robert Sweet, M.D., Urologic Surgery. Congratulations to all.
Contributing Editor: Kathleen Watson, M.D., drwatson@umn.edu
The garden flew round with the angel,
The angel flew round with the clouds,
And the clouds flew round and the clouds flew round
And the clouds flew round with the clouds.
--Wallace Stevens
Submissions or questions, contact: Allison Campbell Jensen, aac@umn.edu