PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Jun-2014

Contact: Sam Gellman gellman@chem.wisc.edu 608-262-3303 University of Wisconsin-Madison

MADISON, Wis. By swapping replacement parts into the backbone of a synthetic hormone, UWMadison graduate student Ross Cheloha and his mentor, Sam Gellman, along with collaborators at Harvard Medical School, have built a version of a parathyroid hormone that resists degradation in laboratory mice. As a result, the altered hormone can stay around longer and at much higher concentration, says Gellman, professor of chemistry at the UW.

Hormones are signaling molecules that are distributed throughout the body, usually in the blood. Hormones elicit responses from only those cells that carry appropriate receptor molecules. "Receptors have evolved to recognize a very specific signal in a sea of biological fluids that is full of molecular messages," Gellman says.

The relationship between a receptor and its signaling molecule is often likened to that between a lock and a key.

"We're excited because we have preserved the ability to activate the receptor" by altering the backbone of the hormone, which holds the essential contact points in place, Gellman says. "While retaining, even enhancing, the signaling ability, we have diminished the peptide's susceptibility to the biodegradation mechanisms that nature uses to eliminate signals over time."

Peptides are segments of proteins. Peptide hormones, like the better-known steroid hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, can convey a signal to billions of cells at once, even at tiny concentrations.

For a study published June 15 in Nature Biotechnology, the researchers altered a highly successful synthetic parathyroid hormone called teriparatide, which is used to combat severe osteoporosis.

But the real excitement of the discovery is the potential impact on a large class of peptide drugs, Gellman says. "A substantial group of receptors, including some involved in diabetes, respond to peptide signals, but peptides are quickly degraded in the body. Our approach seems to suggest a general strategy to retain the ability to target a specific receptor while diminishing the action of degrading enzymes. The key is that the receptor is looking for one shape while the destructive enzyme seeks a different shape."

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Chemical strategy hints at better drugs for osteoporosis, diabetes

Most of state's 'best doctors' are UH med school-affiliates

A majority of doctors identified as Best Doctors trained at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) at UH Mnoa.

The 2014 "Best Doctors" list was comprised of 410 Hawaii physicians. Of that 410, 333 are alumni and/or faculty of the UH medical school.

JABSOM Dean Jerris Hedges said the significance for the state is that the school is the most important contributor to the physician workforce in the islands.

The annual list is determined by the doctors who fill out a survey that asks, "If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, to whom would you refer them?

Source: UH News

One dead in Seattle university shooting

A 26-year-old man shot and killed one in a shooting at Seattle Pacific University yesterday, wounding numerous others.

He was subdued when a student confronted him and others joined in and held him down.

The suspect is not a student of the Christian campus with approximately 4,000 students, police said.

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News at Nine, June 6

Newlistings

Cheney High School Reunion Class of 1974 - July 19. All alumni picnic at Salnave Park, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., followed by meet-up at 6 p.m. at Fairways Golf Course. For more information, contact Dianne Stradling Denenny at (509) 953-6817 or email at diannesden@yahoo.com. $20/per person by July13.

South Hill Ernst Home Center Former Employees - A potluck will be held at the gazebo in Manito Park on Aug. 2, 1-5 p.m. Call Rita at (509) 599-6635 for moreinformation.

Medical Lake High School Class of 1964 - June 20. Information

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Cheney High School Reunion Class of 1974 - July 19. All alumni picnic at Salnave Park, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., followed by meet-up at 6 p.m. at Fairways Golf Course. For more information, contact Dianne Stradling Denenny at (509) 953-6817 or email at diannesden@yahoo.com. $20/per person by July13.

South Hill Ernst Home Center Former Employees - A potluck will be held at the gazebo in Manito Park on Aug. 2, 1-5 p.m. Call Rita at (509) 599-6635 for moreinformation.

Medical Lake High School Class of 1964 - June 20. Information on classmates is requested. Contact Ilse Box Long at omalong1900@gmail.com.

Valley School Reunion - July 12. A potluck will be held at noon, Valley School, 3034 Huffman Road, Valley, Washington. All former Valley School classmates are invited to attend. For more information, contact Jackie at (509) 937-2054 or Betty at (509)937-2145.

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Reunions - Thu, 12 Jun 2014 PST

Barr, Zimmerman

Posted: Saturday, June 21, 2014 7:00 am

Bradford High Alumni Association awards scholarships

The Bradford Area High School Alumni Association has presented its annual scholarship awards of $500 each to two 2014 Bradford High graduates during a luncheon held at the Pennhills Club.

Codi J. Zimmerman and Shelby Barr were named this years award recipients.

Zimmerman is the daughter of Kelly Compton of Bradford and will enroll in Carlow University in Pittsburgh this fall. She is majoring in biology to prepare for a career as a medical examiner.

Barr is the daughter of Susan Barr and the late Christopher Barr. She will enroll at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford this fall, majoring in biology to prepare for pre-medical studies at the University of Pittsburgh main campus.

Both young women, in addition to involvement in school activities, maintaining honor roll status and carrying college-level courses as seniors, have worked at part-time jobs during their school years. They are currently employed as certified nursing assistants and plan to continue doing so while attending college.

The association awards scholarships each year, and membership is open to any person who graduated from, attended or taught at Bradford High, regardless of year. There is a nominal annual fee, which supports the grant program.

Posted in Lifestyles on Saturday, June 21, 2014 7:00 am.

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Bradford High Alumni Association awards scholarships

Charles Twiggs Myers, who was a longtime faculty member at Berkshire School, died June 14. He was 83. (Berkshire School website)

SHEFFIELD -- Charles Twiggs Myers, considered by many the institutional heart and soul of Berkshire School, died June 14 at Berkshire Medical Center from injuries he sustained from fall at his home, the school announced on its website. He was 83.

Myers taught history at Berkshire School from 1953 to 1995. He was also a longtime track and skiing coach at the school and the founder of its cross country team.

Following his retirement as a teacher, he worked as the school's historian and archivist for more than 60 years, almost until his death.

He was uniquely qualified for the latter positions. When Myers joined the school staff, several of the professors who served on the school's original 1909 staff were still working there.

"I knew a lot of the old alumni, also," he said in a 2007 interview. "As I often said, I remember everything about Berkshire [School], whether it happened or not."

In addition to being "the best storyteller I've ever known," reported longtime Berkshire School teacher and coach Peter Kinne several years ago, "[Myers] bleeds Berkshire blue. He's a very humble man who never understood, I don't think, the impact he's had on this school."

Myers was called "the conscience of Berkshire School" by former Berkshire School communications director James Harris.

"Like a lot of old schoolmasters, he never married," Myers said. "His children were the ones who went to school here."

Myers was born Charles Twiggs Myers on Aug. 2, 1930. Twiggs isn't a nickname. His great-great grandfather was Confederate Gen. David E. Twiggs.

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Charles Twiggs Myers, longtime Berkshire School teacher and historian, dies at 83

Hanover Dean Wiley Chip Souba of Dartmouth Colleges Geisel School of Medicine plans to step down at the end of this month, bringing an unexpected end to a four-year tenure in which breakthroughs in research funding and progress in curriculum reform were offset by financial pressures that have left the school searching for an additional $10 million in revenue over the next 24 months.

The news that Souba would not seek reappointment to a second four-year term as dean came in a news release posted on the Dartmouth Now website.

Souba, who could not be reached for comment, had been dean of the medical school at Ohio State University until September 2010, when he was brought to Dartmouth by former President Jim Yong Kim. In an email to Dartmouth students, faculty and staff on Wednesday, Kims successor, Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon, said that in the next few days, we will inform the community about the interim leadership of the medical school with whom (Souba) will work to ensure a smooth transition through the end of June.

Justin Anderson, a Dartmouth spokesman, said that the medical school was expected to end its fiscal year with a $5.5 million deficit, down from the $13 million deficit that had been looming. Medical school budget makers will also need to find $10 million in additional revenue over the course of the next two fiscal years, he added. The medical schools fiscal year ends June 30. Geisel had a $244 million operating budget in fiscal 2011.

Some on the faculty traced Soubas departure to financial pressures that made it difficult to make changes and progress at the medical school. The deans job, which requires balancing an emphasis on education with an emphasis on research, is naturally controversial, said Tim Lahey, an associate professor of medicine. When you add a worsening financial situation to the mix, the controversy intensifies.

Controversy boiled over in February, after Souba suspended new enrollments in the medical schools MD-Ph.D program, which, according to its website, trains physician-scientists to provide excellent patient care, lead discovery in biomedical disease-oriented research, advocate for basic and translational biomedical research and take leadership roles in biomedical research and the delivery of health care. After a wave of protests from faculty, students and alumni from the program, Souba reopened admissions to the program but continued to evaluate its future.

According to sources familiar with the situation, the financial crunch at Geisel reflects flat funding from the National Institutes of Health and budget woes at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the Lebanon-based medical complex that is a primary teaching hospital affiliate of Geisel.

Thats accurate and not inconsistent with medical centers and medical schools across the country, said Anderson.

Total spending by the NIH, which funds medical research at 2,500 universities, medical schools and other research institutions, peaked at $31 billion in fiscal 2010, sagged to $29.1 billion in fiscal 2013 and is expected to edge over $30 billion this year.

Standard & Poors, a rating service used by bond buyers, has awarded an A+ rating to Dartmouth-Hitchcocks debt but noted that despite a very strong enterprise profile the hospital and clinic network has a slightly weaker financial profile than some of its peers.

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Geisel School Dean Plans to Step Down

POSTED: Tuesday, June 17, 2014 - 5:14pm

UPDATED: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 - 12:34pm

EL PASO (KTSM) The El Paso Independent School District will consider leasing or selling land at Jefferson High School to the Medical Center of Americas (MCA) for construction of a new private biomedical engineering facility.

The EPISD Board of Managers voted Tuesday to allow Superintendent Juan Cabrera to meet with the MCA about the proposal and report back to the board in August.

The proposed four-story $30 million building would be built on a yet-to-be-determined portion of the Jefferson campus, according to the MCA President Emma Schwartz.

The non-profit group is spearheading much of the medical development in the area surrounding University Medical Center and the Texas Tech Paul Foster School of Medicine in South Central El Paso.

Schwartz, who told NewsChannel 9 her group reached out to EPISD a few weeks ago, said the facility would provide the Silva Health Magnet students with biomedical research and internship opportunities.

"I think something we struggle with as a community, and as a nation, is how do we better align industry with education," Schwartz said.

Schwartz said the project would also mean enhanced landscaping in the area.

A map of the proposed site provided by MCA showed the placement of the new building directly on top of Jefferson High.

Link:
EPISD to consider leasing Jefferson land for research facility

6/19/2014 - West Side Leader

Alumni from celebrating classes of 1964 (50 years), 1969 (45 years), 1994 (20 years) and 2004 (10 years) attended the event.

Awards were presented to two alumni, as well as one of the schools long-time science instructors.

Amy Freitag, Class of 1981, received the Lincoln Gries Distinguished Alumni Award that is presented to an alumnus who has made an important contribution or given extraordinary service to others in some field, as a professional or volunteer.

Freitag was recently appointed executive director of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, a New York-based charitable foundation, after serving as executive director of the New York Restoration Project from 2010 to 2014, where she led a staff of landscape managers, designers and community engagement professionals to improve green spaces in New York Citys highest-need communities. Major projects included the successful execution of the Million Trees NYC program, renovation of seven community gardens and the $6 million campaign to complete the restoration of Sherman Creek Park.

Prior to her work at NYRP, Freitag served as U.S. program director for the World Monuments Fund. Her professional background also includes serving as deputy commissioner for capital projects in the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and several positions in Philadelphias Fairmont Park. She serves on the board of the New York Preservation Archive Project and the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation. She lectures nationally on the history of women in conservation and is researching a book on the founding of the Garden Club of America. She has a bachelors degree from Smith College and masters degrees in landscape architecture and historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Jackie Rohrer, class of 1994, received the Peter G. Wilson Rising Star Award presented to an OTS alumnus who has graduated from OTS within the past 20 years who has shown professional and community leadership and exhibited appreciation for OTS. This award is named in honor of a former OTS headmaster.

A family physician who practices obstetrics, Rohrer delivers babies, treats children from infants to teenagers and manages the care for adults of all ages. According to OTS officials, her passion lies in caring for people through lifes transitions, as well as working with under-served populations.

After attending Walsh Jesuit High School, Boston College and medical school at McGill University in Montreal, she completed her family medicine residency in Lancaster, Pa. She practices at Foothill Family Clinic in Salt Lake City. Her skill set recently expanded to include C-sections after she completed a one-year surgical obstetrics fellowship at the University of Utah.

Prior to attending medical school, Rohrer conducted research at Massachusetts General Hospital and volunteered for six months at a rural hospital in Cameroon. During her time in Boston, she met a Hudson native, Jason Stevenson, and they married at Hale Farm and Village in Bath in 2008. Jason works in health care reform, and they have a 3-year old son, Calvin.

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Old Trail School recognizes alumni at annual event

FALL RIVER Dr. Paul P. Dunn, MD, age 94, of Fall River, died June 8, 2014. He was the husband of Donna S. (Gray) Dunn, RN, CRNO, for the past 42 years.

Born in Fall River, a son of the late John F. Dunn, Sr. DDS and Venesia (Clorite) Dunn, he was a lifelong resident of the city.

Licensed in General Ophthalmology and Surgery, Dr. Dunn began his over 50 year career at the original Truesdale Clinic in 1949 and carried on as a founding member of the present Clinic, retiring in 1996. A Clinical Instructor, Dr. Dunn taught the Lancaster Course and Ophthalmic Study Council in Maine from 1948-1965. His additional teaching experience included being Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology of Charlton Memorial and St. Anne's Hospitals and the Same Day Surgiclinic, and Chairman and former President of the Truesdale Clinic.

He was a graduate and past president of the Alumni Association of Providence College, Class of 1941 and a recipient of it's National Alumni Association Award, and a graduate of Tufts College of Medical School with a Doctor of Medicine, 1944. His post graduate training included a rotating internship at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, CT, residency in Ophthalmology at Boston City Hospital, working for 6 months at the Regional Office of Veterans Administration in General Medicine, serving a 2 year residency in ophthalmology at Boston City Hospital, 1 year Harvard Post Graduate Course and attending Lancaster Course in Maine. He was Board certified with the American Board of Ophthalmology and the American College of Surgeons.

A United States Army Veteran, he served as a medical officer during World War II.

Dr. Dunn was a member of numerous professional organizations including: the American and Massachusetts Medical Associations, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Fellow American College of Surgeons, the Diplomat of American Board of Ophthalmology, the Fall River Medical and Ophthalmologic Societies, the Bristol County Medical Society and the MA Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. He was a member, served on the board and former Chairman of the Nominating Committee of the New England Ophthalmological Society, a member of the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, the Research to Prevent Blindness, the American Intraocular Implant Society, the New England Lens Implant Society and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

In 2000, the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College was named the "Dr. Paul P. and Donna S. Dunn Exhibit Hall" in their honor. He and his wife were active supporters of the BCC Foundation.

An avid golfer, squash and tennis player, he was a member of the Fall River and New Bedford Country Clubs, and the Fetherdick Tennis Club, the Fall River YMCA. He was also a member of the Quequechan Club, the Fall River Historical Society and Bakers Beach Club. An accomplished skier, he and his wife traveled and skied internationally for many years.

Surviving in addition to his wife: 1 son: Paul P. Dunn, Jr. of Falmouth, 2 daughters: Susan M. Dunn and husband Ronald Buss and Joanne C. Dunn all of Denver, CO, 1 brother: Thomas Dunn of Fall River, 3 grandchildren: Haley Dunn, Avianna and Ivan Buss, sister-in-law: Cheryl Donovan and her daughter Kimberly Cronin and many nieces and nephews. He loved his pet Fox Terriers: "Holly" & "Jessie" and Toy Poodle: "Lilly".

He was brother of the late John F. Dunn, Jr., MD.

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Paul P. Dunn, MD, 94

May is the month when many students graduate and look forward to attending college in the fall. In that respect, Victoria Campbell, age 17, daughter of Dale Campbell (who finished high school at Union Grove) and Myong Won Khym, and granddaughter of Gayle and Clovis Campbell of Gilmer, is no different. However, instead of entering college as freshman this fall, Victoria begins post-graduate studies preparing for the MCAT exam and applying to medical school.

On May 21st, Victoria was one of eight students graduating from the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at University of California at Berkeley, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Science. Victorias primary research was isotope thermochronology, a method that applies chemistry, physics, and mineralogy to determine the age of rocks and minerals.

In addition to her classes at Cal, as UC Berkeley is affectionately known by its alumni, Victoria was an active member of Rotoract, the college chapter of Rotary International and was the club photographer. Her volunteer activities included many service projects such as cleaning up local beaches and parks and painting houses for the elderly and disabled. She also volunteered in the marine biology lab where she observed an octopus using a clam shell to cut through netting and escape from its side of the aquarium.

To accomplish this feat, Victoria took an early route to college. Since age eight, she wanted to become a medical missionary doctor. By age ten, she completed all the subjects required to graduate high school, but she spent an extra year studying more advanced subjects such as college-level calculus with analytic geometry. At age eleven, she took the SAT (college entrance exam) and began taking college classes at Norwalk Community College a few days after her 12th birthday. She also attended summer school at UC Berkeley, and studied at the University of Connecticut for one year before transferring to Cal as a full-time student.

Victorias tenacity, as evidenced by ten years of studying piano, and graduating high school and college early, combined with her passion for service and volunteering will serve her well in her journey to achieving her dreams of becoming a missionary doctor.

Related story: 12-year-old goes to college

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Victoria Campbell begins post-graduate studies at early age