Here are this week’s Accolades, a roundup of some of the honors and accomplishments of College of Medicine and UAMS faculty, staff, residents, fellows and students I’ve heard about recently.
The Case of the Killer Agar
Scientists are inherently sleuths, but the description would be especially apt for members of the laboratory of Dr. Wayne Wahls, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. A news article published last week by Science tells of the mystery of how toxic agar – used to grow colonies of microbes in petri dishes – was killing the yeasts being studied in the Wahls lab and other laboratories around the world.
“This was a major problem,” explains Dr. Wahls, “because it interrupted our NIH-funded research on how chromosomes behave during cell divisions.” Staff Scientist Dr. Reine Protacio discovered the nature of the problem and diagnosed the bad agar last summer. Dr. Wahls posted about it on an international email list, setting off a concerted effort by scientists around the world to try to get to the bottom of the matter. Professor Dr. Mari Davidson also shares insights in the news article in Science. If you like a good mystery – or a great story about the scientific community – check out the Science article or read more on the Biochemistry website.
UAMS Named MDS Center of Excellence
UAMS has been designated as a Center of Excellence by the MDS Foundation, an international organization dedicated to improving the lives of patients and families impacted by myelodysplastic syndromes. MDS is a group of bone marrow disorders that can cause infection, anemia, spontaneous bleeding and bruising, and which sometimes progresses to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The Center of Excellence designation was the result of multifaceted efforts including scholarly work and outstanding patient care. Kudos to Dr. Muthu Veera Kumaran, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Director of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, and everyone on the Hematology and Myeloma teams, for their dedication to patients with MDS. Dr. Kumaran and Dr. Ankur Varma, Associate Professor, will focus on further enhancing MDS patient care.
Assessing Parkinson’s Disease
First-year Neurology resident Dr. Jennie Burns is first author on a new article that analyzes how gait markers track with the progression of Parkinson’s disease severity. The article, accepted for publication in the journal Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, discusses how tandem gait step-width increases more rapidly in individuals who are more severely affected with Parkinson’s disease. Tandem gait refers to walking with very small steps in a straight line, and it is used by neurologists to diagnose and assess disorders such as Parkinson’s. Dr. Burns conducted the research while still in medical school at UAMS under the mentorship of Dr. Tuhin Virmani, Associate Professor, Chief of the Division of Neurodegenerative Disorders and Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Neurology, and Dr. Reid Landes, Professor in the Department of Biostatistics.
Summer is for Science
Summertime may conjure images of the beach for some, but at UAMS, it’s an opportunity for medical students, undergraduates and even high school students to hit the lab or join in other activities where the focus is on science. Researchers across the College of Medicine and UAMS devote countless hours to mentoring students at every level and helping them understand how they can be a member of the next generation of scientists devoted to improving health. The 11th Annual Arkansas Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium, where students from 39 colleges and universities presented research, is a great example. Another, the National Institutes of Health-supported Partnership in Cancer Research, is now in its fourth year of providing eight-week research internships for medical students. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to read about these outstanding programs and the faculty and staff who make them successful. We appreciate all who are involved in these programs and the many other summer research programs at UAMS.
Potential Alzheimer’s Treatment
Dr. Akshatha Ganne, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geriatrics, is first author on a new article reporting the potential of an FDA-approved cholesterol drug, ezetimibe, as a treatment for Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. Joining her in the study were senior and corresponding authors Dr. Srinivas Ayyadevara, Associate Professor of Geriatrics, and Dr. Robert J. Shmookler Reis, Professor of Geriatrics, and colleagues from multiple departments at UAMS. The team’s findings were published in the journal Aging Biology. Read more in the UAMS Newsroom.
Hello, Class of 2028!
Finally this week, a very special welcome to our incoming M1s. It was a joy to see all of you on the first morning of Freshman Orientation yesterday. I hope the rest of your week and the start of classes next Monday go well. All of us in the College of Medicine wish you the very best during your four years of medical school. We are excited to think about the great things you will do while you are here and in the decades ahead.
As we welcome these future doctors, I also want to take a moment to thank all of you who have been working hard to ensure the Class of 2028 gets off to a great start. Kudos to our Academic Affairs and Admissions leaders, faculty and staff, including Program Manager Jennifer VanEcko, who has worked tirelessly on activities for incoming freshmen.
A shout-out as well to the 20-plus student volunteers who have been helping this week and/or with the MedEd Ready program last week. MedEd Ready provided a jumpstart for 13 incoming freshmen, with tours, workshops, lectures on study skills, and more. The M2 volunteers for this program, all of whom participated in MedEd Ready last year, included M2 Class President Harmoney Overturf, Andria Carter, Jason Muka and Grace Tidwell.