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Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Feinberg School of Medicine Research Office December 2013
FSM Researcher
Pediatrics, ctd.
Staff profile: Daniel Rademacher
Follow Feinberg Online
In this issue...
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Contact the Feinberg Research Office:
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Student Q&A: Jennifer Heller
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In the news Welcome new faculty
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Faculty profile: Neil Kelleher, PhD
High impact research
Sponsored research, ctd. Scientific images
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Sponsored research
10 Funding Events
Genes and Pediatric Diseases Arun Gosain, MD, professor of plastic surgery, is beginning to answer questions he couldn’t think of asking a year and a half ago.
“Prior to coming to Northwestern, our lab didn’t have the ability to pose a question and implement genetics research in an attempt to find the answer. The zebrafish has changed that,” said Gosain, a member of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Research Center. “The model is conducive to genetic research because we can externally fertilize hundreds of eggs at a given time, and conduct what would be in-utero manipulation in the mammal, to eggs in water.”
In the zebrafish, Gosain has found an impeccable system for studying early postnatal development of the skull and face.
“We have identified genes in normal zebrafish involved with the development of su-tures in the cranium – the sections of the skull bones that grow together shortly after birth,” Gosain said. “We are now looking to follow the pattern of those genes in zebraf-ish with abnormal skull development.”
The latest data show that 70 percent of protein-coding human genes are related to genes found in the fish, and 84 percent of genes known to be associated with human disease have a zebrafish counterpart.
Through an innovative approach that integrates genetics with cell biology and live imaging techniques, Gosain is able to study craniofacial development throughout the animal’s lifecycle.
His goal is to eventually define what causes conditions
Zebrafish have helped scientists better understand early postnatal development of the skull and face, and how genetic diseases affect them. In this image, dark purple areas indicate sections of skull bones that grow together after birth.
Continued on pg. 2
FSM Researcher December 2013
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like craniosynostosis, which occurs when the bones of the skull fuse prematurely in one of every 2,000 births. By genetically modifying molecular and cellular processes in the fish embryos, the lab is working to clarify gene regulation during suture formation.
“We are no longer looking for genes as-sociated with sutures, but the ones ac-tually causing the issues,” said Jolanta
Topczewska, PhD, research associate professor of plastic surgery. “We know there are associated genes in humans, but we don’t know if they are causative. In the animal mod-els, we can take that question of association and attempt to establish a cause-and-effect relationship.”
Gosain is among a cadre of scientists at Lurie Children’s Research Center assessing and targeting the molecular de-terminants of disease.
“Our genetic researchers are building the cornerstone of per-sonalized medicine,” said Mary Hendrix, PhD, president and scientific director of the research center. “The work taking place in our labs highlights what might be achieved by identi-fying specific genetic factors that cause pediatric diseases.”
Recognized for her work with rare disor-ders, Debra E. Weese-Mayer, MD, profes-sor in pediatrics-autonomic medicine, is a pioneer in the emerging discipline of pedi-atric autonomic medicine. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates breathing, body temperature, heart-rate, blood pres-sure, and more, with innately automatic functioning.
“Before our Center, there was no specific discipline of ANS research in pediatrics,” said Weese-Mayer, chief of the Center for Autonomic Medicine in Pediatrics (CAMP) at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. “We needed to better understand how all of the ‘automatic’ systems fit together and so in building the first CAMP in the world, we designed child-friendly tools to mea-sure autonomic dysregulation.”
The unique center has emerged as a leader in studying the genetic basis of congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS), rapid-onset obesity with hypothalamic dysfunction, hypoventilation, and autonomic dysregulation (ROHHAD), and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
“We had been taking care of and studying children with CCHS for years and at a certain point used deductive rea-soning to determine that it was going to be a genetic dis-ease,” Weese-Mayer said. “In 2003, after several years of
inquiry, we were able to show that PHOX2B is the disease-defining gene for CCHS.”
The discovery, published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, opened a new world for Weese-Mayer’s lab. Today, the gene continues to aid investigators re-searching the basic science of breath-ing, heart-rate regu-lation, and cerebral blood flow.
“That discovery was the turning point for us, when the parts of CCHS became explainable. Based on the specific PHOX2B mutation, we were able to anticipate who would experience the prolonged sinus pauses (variations in heart rate), who was most likely to get a neuroblastoma, or who is going to need 24-hour-a-day artificial ventilation,” she said. “All of a sudden, this big quagmire became clearer, and we soon developed the first clinically available PHOX2B testing (for patients and expect-ant parents), which provided an early confirmation of CCHS diagnosis.”
The group donated the patent for that test to Chicago Community Trust, an organization that supports CCHS research.
In 2003 Weese-Mayer also met her first patient with ROHHAD. The boy seemed too chubby, had obstructive sleep apnea, hypoventilation, and had experienced a cardio-respiratory arrest after a viral illness. She says a lot of head scratching ensued before the epiphany: she realized the little three-year-old was one of those unique children described in 1965 – and rarely thereafter – who had sudden inexplicable rapid-onset weight gain. From there, Weese-Mayer and her team more thoroughly described the look of the disease and renamed it with the acronym ROHHAD.
“We have devoted years to researching ROHHAD and we hope to have the same good luck as with characterizing CCHS,” Weese-Mayer said. “We are deep into genetic in-quiry, are continuing to define the traits, and have built an international registry and tissue bank that have been critical-ly important to get a handle on this disorder as the children mature.”
Pediatrics, continued from pg. 1
Debra Weese-Mayer, MD, (shown with a patient) links genetic mutations to pediatric diseases.
Arun Gosain, MD
Debra Weese-Mayer, MD
FSM Researcher December 2013
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Neil L. Kelleher, PhD, Walter and Mary E. Glass Professor of Molecular Biosciences, profes-sor of chemistry and medicine, and director of the Proteomics Center of Excellence at Northwestern University, is a big picture kind of guy.
“The goal is to catalogue all of the protein molecules in all of the cells of the human body,” said Kelleher, regarding the international Human Proteome Project. “We believe that the estimated 20,300 genes in the
human genome are processed into upward of a billion dis-tinct protein molecules in a healthy person.”
Responsible for the first large-scale demonstration of top-down, or whole, protein identification at Northwestern in 2011, Kelleher’s training in high-performance mass spec-trometry and enzymology began in the late ’90s. He contin-ues to bridge the Evanston and Chicago campuses to drive technological development of high-performance mass spec-trometry for biology, chemistry, and medicine.
“Medicine is going molecular, and cancer genomes are cur-rently demonstrating this in clinical research,” Kelleher said. “Following the arc and legacy of the Human Genome Project, the role of high-resolution molecular measurement of small molecules and proteins in the body allows for a deeper molecular-level understanding of human disease. Mass spec-trometry—the core capacity of our Northwestern labs—has seen major improvements in performance, and stands ready to provide high return on investment.”
What are your research interests?
The Kelleher Group is focused on top-down proteomics, natural products discovery and biosynthesis, and cancer epigenetics. An underlying focus, driving the major line of
research, is our continued push toward optimizing instrumen-tation and bioinformatic approaches to best drive unique ap-plications of top-down analysis at Northwestern, in the areas of transplantation, HIV, and cancer research.
How does your research advance medical science and knowledge?
We measure precisely how abnormal enzymes that drive disease states create altered proteins and metabolites in precisely-grouped patient populations.
What collaborations are you involved in?
I collaborate with about four dozen laboratories; mostly with faculty in the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and the Comprehensive Transplant Center. The research consortium I've begun, the Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics, now has more than 200 members and investigators.
Why is now an opportune time to collaborate with more medical school faculty?
Dean Neilson wants to grow the research enterprise; one way to do this is through an increased competitiveness in re-search funding, where modern metabolomics and proteomics technology is highly enabling and valued during peer review.
How did you become interested in this research?
In my youth, I rebuilt automobile engines and became in-terested in scientific hardware, but always loved enzymes, too. Enzymes led me through chemical biology and enzymol-ogy, which led to an interest in how abnormal enzymes drive disease.
How is your research funded?
Mostly through the National Institutes of Health, but Northwestern also invested in the launch phase of the Proteomics Center of Excellence. We are now planning a sec-ond growth phase on the Chicago campus, as the need for proteomics far outstrips our current capacity.
What is the future of top-down proteomics?
The promise of a top-down strategy is that the molecular data collected on proteins will be more closely linked to disease. Accurate identification of whole proteins (instead of small, artificially-created peptides) should lead to a sharply increased rate for the identification of high-value biomarkers and early detection of disease. Another use will be the abil-ity to track the outcome of treatments. We are dramatically changing the strategy for understanding protein molecules at a fundamental level. It’s a slow moving revolution, and Chicago has the chance to be the world’s epicenter.
Who has been your biggest influence?
My career path was largely influenced by my work in the late ’90s with Fred McLafferty at Cornell University and Christopher Walsh at Harvard Medical School. My mother was also a big influence and taught me never to put limits on the height of my goals, though I did not expect to be quite so well-positioned at this point in life.
Faculty Profile: Neil Kelleher, PhD Walter and Mary E. Glass Professor of Molecular Biosciences
Q&A
FSM Researcher December 2013
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Staff Profile: Daniel Rademacher Manager, Research Administration,Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University
Where are you originally from?
I am from a small town named Fowler, Michigan (located north of Lansing).
What is your educational background?
I attended Central Michigan University, where I studied politi-cal science. I have taken two busi-ness law classes at Northwestern University.
Tell us about your professional background.
I have worked numerous jobs, including restaurant waiter and at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Why did you decide to work at Northwestern?
This is a great story. I applied to Northwestern University at the recommendation of my former boss at the Art Institute. The position I applied to was in the medical school develop-ment office. When I was called for an interview, I assumed it was for that position. I arrived for the interview and realized it was for a different position, nowhere close to development. Since I had the Friday afternoon off, I was basically thinking about who would meet me out for happy hour, and couldn't care less about whether I got the position. A few weeks later
they called and offered me the job in the Office for Clinical Research and Training. It paid more, and I could take more classes than the AIC. That was 15 years ago.
How do you personally help investigators at Feinberg?
I assist Northwestern faculty with large grant applications and contracts. If awarded, I help administer the grant funds and monitor spending.
What professional activities do you take part in?
I was a founding member of the Northwestern University Research Administration Professionals (NURAP), a educa-tional, mentoring, and professional network for people in research. I am a 12-year member of the Society of Research Administrator International (SRA). I have presented at NURAP and SRA meetings. I also serve as a community volunteer for the Institutional Biosafety Committees of the Ann and Robert H. Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
What is your favorite part of the job?
Having a grant or contract funded.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to travel and eat out.
Anything else we should know about you?
I am a rabid college sports fan.
NUCATS Corner: The Membership ModelThe Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute is introducing myNUCATS, a free membership open to faculty, staff, students, and trainees of Northwestern University, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, as well as a number of our community and industry partners.
Through myNUCATS, members will be able to more readily access a variety of specialized resources and services like personal research navigation, Clinical Research Unit and regulatory support services, and competitive funding oppor-tunities such as pilot grants, vouchers for core services and funded training positions. Over the next year, NUCATS will be adding a number of new and enhanced services and resources that will only be available to members. In addition, MyNUCATS will make your interaction with NUCATS more efficient and effective to meet your translational research needs.
Become a member today! Signup can be completed online in less than 60 seconds.
FSM Researcher December 2013
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Student Q&A: Jennifer Heller Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences
Jennifer Heller knew she want-ed to study immunology when she started in the Walter S. and Lucienne Driskill Graduate Training Program in Life Sciences (DGP). After spending her first year taking courses and rotating in labs, she is completing her thesis in the lab of Liang Zhou, MD, PhD, assistant professor in pathology and microbi-ology-immunology, who joined the University in 2009.
Where is your hometown?
Mesa, Arizona.
What is your educational background?
I earned dual bachelor’s degrees in evolutionary biology and ecology and Spanish from the University of Arizona, then worked at Novartis in pharmaceuticals. Coming from a non-traditional background hasn’t hindered me in any way at Northwestern University; if anything, it has made me a stronger scientist.
What are your research interests?
My thesis project is focused on immunology, specifically, where the immune system responds to the environment. I work at the interface of bacterial interactions with immune cells, and my specific project looks at the regulation of a subset of immune cells that fall in the adaptive side.
The immune system has two responses: one is the initial, or innate, response, a general response against a pathogen or something recognized as foreign. The later stage is the adaptive response, which is more specific and it is tailored to the actual pathogen it is responding to.
In autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the body becomes disregulated; you have excess inflammation in the gut, which causes horrible symptoms for patients. We are trying to figure out at the molecular level why this occurs and why the inflammation can’t be regulated.
What is the ultimate goal of your research?
Ultimately, I would like to identify a new target for thera-peutics in autoimmune disease. We hope to find a molecu-lar component of the inflammation pathway that could be targeted more precisely, instead of the more generic TNF inhibitors that have a lot of side effects for patients.
Why did you choose Northwestern?
First, I chose Northwestern because of the caliber of fac-ulty. The school was hiring a lot of new immunology faculty at the time I interviewed, which was exciting, and there seemed to be a lot room for growth within the University in immunology area. Second was the location. I love being downtown, and being close to the hospital has been helpful for my progress. The city in general is a great place to live, and it was a great place for my spouse to relocate.
Why did you pick the Zhou lab for your research?
I choose the lab of Liang Zhou because this is a new area of immunology, and I’m excited about the progress being made. The lab is joint pathology and microimmunology, so there are many potential collaborators and a lot of resources available to us inside and outside of the university.
What have you enjoyed about your experience at Northwestern?
I’ve really enjoyed the vast opportunities available to gradu-ate students. I was appointed to a training grant during my first year in the lab (second in university), a cellular and molecular basis of disease training grant, and through that grant I have been involved in large symposia at the university.
I’ve been able to see high-impact speakers through the grant, the university, and the Lectures in the Life Sciences series. And I was a graduate writing fellow. I’ve also been involved in over the past few years as a founding officer and as co-president of the Advanced Degree Consulting Alliance of Northwestern, which is a student organization that spans both campuses as well as multiple schools to provide infor-mation on consulting as an alternative career option.
Watch Jennifer Heller discuss choosing a thesis advisor.
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FSM Researcher December 2013
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Sponsored ResearchDaniel Mroczek, PhD Professor of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine Professor of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Project title: Personality and Well-Being Trajectories in Adulthood
Sponsor: National Institute on Aging
Two sets of recent and intriguing findings may tie together the previously separate areas of lifespan personality develop-ment and health psychology. It is now known that personal-ity traits change over the lifespan, and that certain personal-ity traits predict disease onset and mortality. By combining these two approaches, Mrozek's team has begun to demon-strate that change in personality traits predicts mortality.
In this grant, the team will test several mechanisms that link personality (both level and change) to health (i.e., onset of disease and mortality). Considering each of the Big Five traits (and subtraits), they will test two competing models of the mechanisms linking personality to health. These two models of the personality-health association are the physio-logical (Smith & Gallo, 2001; Suls & Rittenhouse, 1987) and the health behavior models (Contrada et al., 1990; Hampson & Friedman, 2008).
In aim one, they will test both models for each trait, keep-ing open the possibility that each pathway might account for a portion of the personality-health pathway. In aim two, they will add the effect of personality change to these two conceptual models.
This research will clarify which mechanism (physiological or health behaviors, or a combination) provides a better link between personality and health outcomes for each of five key traits. The two conceptual models will compete against one another, using long-term longitudinal data. Clarification of mechanisms will permit deeper understanding of the explanatory pathways that connect personality to disease and death. The research will contribute to the shift of both personality and health researchers to thinking of personality as dynamic rather than static.
Instead of treating personality as a fixed risk factor, sci-entists may begin to think of traits as dynamic, and that disease or mortality risk associated with a certain level of a trait is itself variable. As personality traits change over the lifespan, so do the risks associated with them. This has the potential to transform current thinking about the influ-ence of personality traits on health. It also opens avenues for application by suggesting which kinds of intervention will work for people with certain traits and particular trait change patterns.
For example, if physiological activation is the main conduit by which high neuroticism or high hostility influence chronic disease and mortality, and then effective interventions for people high on those traits (and who increase) may need to be different from those who are low in these characteristics.
Finally, by testing antecedents of personality change, Mroczek believes he can potentially identify early points of intervention in a long-term explanatory chain that ultimately leads to chronic disease or mortality.
Robert Murphy, MD Director, Center for Global Health, Institute for Public Health and Medicine John Philip Phair Professor of Infectious Diseases Professor of Engineering
Project title: Developing Innovative Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Programs in Africa (D43)
Sponsor: John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences
Broad interdisciplinary training programs which address critical needs in low and middle income countries (LMIC) can significantly increase the translation of research find-ings into realized health benefits. Northwestern University is establishing comprehensive training programs in biomedical engineering that include identification of critical health care needs, product design, delivery, clinical evaluation, scalabil-ity and product launch. The theme of our program involves the development of effective, affordable, and easy to use innovative biomedical devices that can advance diagnostics, therapeutic interventions and disease monitoring.
The overall goal of this project is to provide the tools to de-velop critically needed healthcare technologies in LMICs with a special emphasis on HIV-related diagnostic technologies. The specific aims of the project are to:
• Establish new and enhance existing training programs in biomedical engineering in Africa
• Train biomedical engineers and medical doctors how to evaluate newly developed HIV-related and other testing and treatment products
• Train post graduates from business schools to scale up development and launch new products in LMICs
The healthcare technologies being developed and em-ployed include innovations that improve health outcomes and are cost-effective, including novel point-of-care medical
Continued on pg. 6
FSM Researcher December 2013
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diagnostic devices, therapeutic interventions, information systems, and telemedicine diagnostics facilitated through mobile phones.
The primary emphasis of this project is to develop products related to HIV/AIDS. We are using a bottom-up approach and emphasizing South-South research training and assessment. The overall result of these efforts is to develop trans-institu-tional, cross-disciplinary and innovative training programs in biomedical engineering, starting with needs assessment and product design, continuing to validation, intellectual property protection, production and finally to marketing and distribu-tion in the LMICs.
This project builds on Northwestern’s successful original
Framework Programs for Global Health (Frameworks-1) which supported the development of a multidisciplinary global health curricula and creation of the Center for Global Health in the Feinberg School of Medicine, the Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies in the McCormick School of Engineering and the Global Health Initiative at the Kellogg School of Management. Frameworks-1 specifically led to the close collaboration of clinical and basic research involving medical, engineering and business schools as well as the es-tablishment of the Northwestern Global Health Foundation, an independent not-for-profit which supports post-university commercial development of new healthcare products. Our LMIC partners include the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and the University of Ibadan and Lagos University in Nigeria.
Sponsored research, continued from pg. 7
Stunning ScienceFor the fourth year in a row “Capturing the Beauty of Science” celebrated the aes-thetic side of research, featuring the work of faculty, students, and staff in disci-plines from genetics to engineering.
Cindy Danielson, who recently earned her PhD while working in the lab of Thomas Hope, PhD, professor in cell and molecu-lar biology, submitted the fourth place im-age “Mapping the Road Blocks.”
Because HIV can only infect certain types of cells, and these cells are located deep within the tissue (autofluorescent green with nuclei shown in blue), Tte virus must first travel through a protective layer of dead cells (yellow) located close to the edge of the tissue. If HIV makes it through that protective layer, it still has to get past proteins that hold cells together, like adherens junctions (red), before it can find cells to infect. The Hope lab uses human tissue samples obtained from biopsies or surgeries to study the biologi-cal barriers that HIV encounters during sexual transmission. If scientists can learn more about these barriers, they have a better chance of developing new methods to strengthen these natural defenses and protect against HIV infection. The imaging technique used here was Deconvolution microscopy with false coloring.
"Mapping the Road Blocks," by Cindy Danielson, recently won fourth place in Northwestern's Scientific Images Contest.
FSM Researcher December 2013
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High Impact Factor Research: October 2013
The Feinberg Research Office regularly tracks research published by Feinberg investigators. The citations are used on web pages, in newsletters and social media, for internal reporting, and more. To more accurately track these journals, the Research Office asks that Feinberg investigators use the following institution name in the address field when publishing in peer-reviewed journals: “Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.”
Help Feinberg Track Journals
Bilimoria KY, Chung J, Ju MH, Haut ER, Bentrem DJ, Ko CY, Baker DW. Evaluation of surveillance bias and the validity of the venous thromboembolism quality measure. JAMA- Journal of the American Medical Association. 2013 Oct 9;310(14):1482-9.
Bulun SE. Uterine fibroids. New England Journal of Medicine. 2013 Oct 3;369(14):1344-55.
Fowkes FG, Rudan D, Rudan I, Aboyans V, Denenberg JO, McDermott MM, Norman PE, Sampson UK, Williams LJ, Mensah GA, Criqui MH. Comparison of global estimates of prevalence and risk factors for peripheral artery disease in 2000 and 2010: a systematic review and analysis. Lancet. 2013 Oct 19;382(9901):1329-40.
Green JR, Costa AB, Grzybowski BA, Szleifer I. Relationship between dynamical entropy and energy dissipation far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A. 2013 Oct 8;110(41):16339-43.
Jensen SA, Day ES, Ko CH, Hurley LA, Luciano JP, Kouri FM, Merkel TJ, Luthi AJ, Patel PC, Cutler JI, Daniel WL, Scott AW, Rotz MW, Meade TJ, Giljohann DA, Mirkin CA, Stegh AH. Spherical Nucleic Acid Nanoparticle Conjugates as an RNAi-Based Therapy for Glioblastoma. Science Translational Medicine. 2013 Oct 30;5(209):209ra152.
Klos Dehring DA, Vladar EK, Werner ME, Mitchell JW, Hwang P, Mitchell BJ. Deuterosome-mediated centriole biogenesis. Developmental Cell. 2013 Oct 14;27(1):103-12.
Leung CY, Palmer LC, Kewalramani S, Qiao B, Stupp SI, Olvera de la Cruz M, Bedzyk MJ. Crystalline polymorphism induced by charge regulation in ionic membranes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A. 2013 Oct 8;110(41):16309-14.
Manson JE, Chlebowski RT, Stefanick ML, Aragaki AK, Rossouw JE, Prentice RL, Anderson G, Howard BV, Thomson CA, LaCroix AZ, Wactawski-Wende J, Jackson RD, Limacher M, Margolis KL, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Beresford SA, Cauley JA, Eaton CB, Gass M, Hsia J, Johnson KC, Kooperberg C, Kuller LH, Lewis CE, Liu S, Martin LW, Ockene JK, O'Sullivan MJ, Powell LH, Simon MS, Van Horn L, Vitolins MZ, Wallace RB. Menopausal hormone therapy and health outcomes during the intervention and extended poststopping phases of the Women's Health Initiative randomized trials. JAMA- Journal of the American Medical Association. 2013 Oct 2;310(13):1353-68.
Ono M, Yin P, Navarro A, Moravek MB, Coon JS 5th, Druschitz SA, Serna VA, Qiang W, Brooks DC, Malpani SS, Ma J, Ercan CM, Mittal N, Monsivais D, Dyson MT, Yemelyanov A, Maruyama T, Chakravarti D, Kim JJ, Kurita T, Gottardi CJ, Bulun SE. Paracrine activation of WNT/β-catenin pathway in uterine leiomyoma stem cells promotes tumor growth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A. 2013 Oct 15;110(42):17053-8.
Powell ND, Sloan EK, Bailey MT, Arevalo JM, Miller GE, Chen E, Kobor MS, Reader BF, Sheridan JF, Cole SW. Social stress up-regulates inflammatory gene expression in the leukocyte transcriptome via β-adrenergic induction of myelopoiesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A. 2013 Oct 8;110(41):16574-9.
Samuelov L, Sarig O, Harmon RM, Rapaport D, Ishida-Yamamoto A, Isakov O, Koetsier JL, Gat A, Goldberg I, Bergman R, Spiegel R, Eytan O, Geller S, Peleg S, Shomron N, Goh CS, Wilson NJ, Smith FJ, Pohler E, Simpson MA, McLean WH, Irvine AD, Horowitz M, McGrath JA, Green KJ, Sprecher E. Desmoglein 1 deficiency results in severe dermatitis, multiple allergies and metabolic wasting. Nature Genetics. 2013 Oct;45(10):1244-8.
Wang BS, Feng L, Liu M, Liu X, Cang J. Environmental enrichment rescues binocular matching of orientation preference in mice that have a precocious critical period. Neuron. 2013 Oct 2;80(1):198-209.
Webb RC, Bonifas AP, Behnaz A, Zhang Y, Yu KJ, Cheng H, Shi M, Bian Z, Liu Z, Kim YS, Yeo WH, Park JS, Song J, Li Y, Huang Y, Gorbach AM, Rogers JA. Ultrathin conformal devices for precise and continuous thermal characterization of human skin. Nature Materials. 2013 Oct;12(10):938-44.
FSM Researcher December 2013
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Research in the NewsReuters, November 20 Team of Chicago hospitals awarded grant to accelerate stroke research Shyam Prabhakaran was quoted.
FOX News, November 19 How playing music can keep your brain healthy Nina Kraus' research was featured.
The New York Times, November 17 Physicians can tailor treatment for each patient Clyde Yancy authored an article.
WGN-TV, November 15 Local doctors breathing new life into COPD treatment Ravi Kalhan's work was featured.
NPR, November 12 US doctors urge wider use of cholesterol drugs Neil Stone and Donald Lloyd Jones' work on the new cholesterol guidelines was featured.
► This work was also featured in the New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and all major US news media.
The New York Times, November 11 Long-term benefits of music lessons Nina Kraus' resesarch was featured.
► This study was also featured on MSN.com, CNN, in Time, and more.
NPR, November 8 Rickets making a comeback in the UK Craig Langman was interviewed.
US News & World Report, November 6 Bipolar disorder drug may need adjusting in pregnancy, study finds Crystal Clark's research was featured.
UPI.com, November 5 Smartphones know what we're doing could improve health Konrad Kording's research was featured.
More headlines
Welcome New FacultyJunhee Seok, PhD, joins as assistant professor of preventive medicine-health and biomedical informatics.
He received his Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in California. There, he also completed his postdoctoral research jointly in the Department of Statistics and the Stanford Genome Technology Center.
Seok’s research involves developing and applying com-putational methods to study complex diseases, utilizing
big biomedical data and knowledge. His current focus is integrating hetero-geneous multiscale information from the molecular level to environmental level. He is also interested in computational issues coming from innovative bio/information/health-technology developments for medical applications.
Betina Yanez, PhD, joins as assistant professor of medical social sciences.
She received her Doctor of Philosophy and master’s degrees in clinical psychology, health psychology track, from the University of California–Los Angeles. She completed her clinical health psychology intern-ship at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and her postdoctoral research fellowship at Feinberg in healthcare studies and clinical psychology-supportive oncology. She was chief postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medical Social Sciences.
Yanez’s research focuses on the psychosocial aspects of undergoing cancer diagnosis and treatment and on quality of life outcomes among post-treat-ment cancer survivors. She has a strong interest in racial/ethnic disparities in patient-reported outcomes among cancer survivors, especially among Latinos, and in investigating psychosocial, cultural, and economic mecha-nisms underlying disparities.
Lorand Honored at SymposiumA group of preeminent scholars recently joined University leaders, distinguished guests, and current faculty to honor Laszlo Lorand, PhD, professor emeritus in Cell and Molecular Biology, at a scien-tific symposium.
“I am so pleased to be able to take this opportunity to look back on a number of landmark achievements our group has made,” said Lorand, who has been at Northwestern University since 1955.
Read more about the symposium.
Laszlo Lorand, PhD
FSM Researcher December 2013
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Funding OpportunitiesSpecialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) in Human Cancer for Years 2013 and 2014 (P50) More information
Sponsor: United States Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of HealthSubmission Deadline: January 21Upper Amount: $12.5 million
Synopsis: This program will fund five-year P50 SPORE grants to support state-of-the-art translational research that will contribute to improved prevention, early detec-tion, diagnosis, and treatment of an organ-specific cancer (or a related group of cancers). SPOREs are expected not only to conduct a wide spectrum of research activities, but also to contribute to the development of specialized shared resource core facilities, improved research model systems, and collaborative research projects with other institutions. The research must be translational in nature and must al-ways be focused upon knowledge of human biology stem-ming from research using cellular, molecular, structural, biochemical, and/or genetic experimental approaches with the goal of an endpoint within the five-year term of the grant. In addition, SPOREs must include a developmental research program for pilot studies and a development pro-gram to foster careers in organ-based translational science.
NEI Translational Research Program (TRP) on Therapy for Visual Disorders (R24) More information
Sponsor: United States Department of Health and Hu-man Services, National Institutes of Health, National Eye InstituteSubmission Deadline: January 28Upper Amount: $6.5 million
Synopsis: This program focuses on the development of novel therapies to treat visual diseases and disorders. Here, an expert develops a multi-disciplinary research team that applies an integrative approach to develop rapid translation of innovative research findings into clinical therapeutic development. It involves collaborative teams of scientists and clinicians with expertise in multiple disci-plines. Such a collaborative approach is appropriate for re-search focused on pathways that will likely be targeted by biological intervention, such as gene therapy, cell-based therapy, and pharmacological approaches. The intention of this program is to make resources available to scientists from several disciplines to address scientific and technical questions that would be beyond the capabilities of any one research group.
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12.20 Physiology Seminar Presented by Stephen Moss, PhD, Tufts University. Moss' lab focuses on "receptors that meditate the actions of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter in the verte-brate nervous system."Date: Friday, December 20, Noon to 1 p.m. Location: Ward Building — Rm. 5-230 303 E. Chicago Ave. (Chicago campus)Contact: [email protected] More information
Lurie Cancer Center Tumor Cell Biology Seminar "Lost in ubiquitination, found by mass spectrom-etry: Novel proteolytic mechanism implicated in lymphoma pathogenesis," presented by Kojo Elenitoba-Johnson, MD, University of Michigan Health System.Date: Thursday, December 19, 1 to 2 p.m.Location: Lurie Research Center — Searle 303 E. Superior St. (Chicago campus)Contact: [email protected] More information
12.19
1.6 First Mondays Faculty Development Seminar Series "The NIH grant review process," presented by Rick McGee, PhD, and William Lowe, MD, Northwestern University.Date: Monday, January 6, Noon to 1 p.m. Location: Lurie Research Center — Searle 303 E. Superior St. (Chicago campus)Contact: [email protected] More information
SAVE THE DATE:TENTH ANNUAL LEWIS LANDSBERG RESEARCH DAY APRIL 3, 2014
