Five alumni who have distinguished themselves through a variety of careers were inducted into the inaugural class of the Vanderbilt Student Media Hall of Fame on Oct. 16. They are (left to right) U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, BA’62; Roy Blount Jr., BA’63, author, humorist and NPR game show panelist; Mary Elson, BA’74, managing editor, Tribune media services; Skip Bayless, BA’74, ESPN sports commentator; and Sam Feist, BA’91, vice president of Washington-based programming for CNN.

Sharon Weiss, assistant professor of electrical engineering, has been recognized as one of the nation’s top young scientists with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Weiss was one of 100 beginning researchers named for the award July 9 by President Obama.

Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and John M. Braxton, professor of education

Braxton Brings Home the Cup

John M. Braxton, professor of education in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations at Peabody College, was presented the Chancellor’s Cup in October. His research centers on the college student experience, the sociology of the academic profession, and academic course-level processes. The Chancellor’s Cup recognizes one faculty member annually for the greatest recent contribution outside the classroom to undergraduate student-faculty relationships. Presented since 1963, the award includes $2,500 contributed by the Nashville Vanderbilt Chapter.

Molto Bene!

Ashley Esser, BA’08, has received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English as a foreign language in Italy for the 2009–10 academic year. Esser studied elementary education and art history at Vanderbilt and received a master of arts degree in literacy education from Columbia University. At Vanderbilt she volunteered at the Susan Gray School and took part in Fashion for a Cause, Alternative Spring Break and Reading Is Fundamental.

Vanderbilt has weathered the downturn relatively well when measured against many schools. Prior to a huge stock market sell-off, Vanderbilt repositioned substantial assets, according to Matthew Wright, vice chancellor for investments at Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt’s losses averaged about half that of Wall Street during the same period. “This afforded Vanderbilt the opportunity to reallocate as the equity market recovered in the spring.”

The 16.3 percent decline does not represent the entire endowment, which has assets in addition to its investment portfolio and also continues to receive donations. The preliminary, unaudited value of the endowment as of June 30 was $2.8 billion, down from $3.5 billion on June 30, 2008.

Cost-cutting measures were adopted as a cautionary measure during the financial crisis, with most departments reducing budgets by 5 percent or more. New construction continues to be on hold.

Vanderbilt continues with initiatives to reduce student debt by replacing loans with grant money.

Among best national universities, tied with Emory and Rice

Vanderbilt University had its best-ever overall ranking in the history of the U.S. News & World Report survey in rankings released in August. Vanderbilt is ranked No. 17 in the list of best national universities, tied with Emory and Rice universities. It was an improvement from a tie for the No. 18 spot last year.

Vanderbilt was ranked No. 16 among national universities in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category, marking it as a good value for its tuition. The magazine noted that 12 percent of Vanderbilt students receive Pell Grants for low-income students, ranking it among the top 25 universities for economic diversity. Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering ranked No. 40, tied with four other schools, among engineering schools whose highest degree is a doctorate.

Vanderbilt has been ranked No. 18 five previous times: 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 1994.

“The database will accelerate research for adults, and I think children should have that same benefit of scientific discovery that the adult population has,” says Dr. Louis Muglia, vice chair for research affairs at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Dr. Kyle Brothers, third from left, talks with Georgina Mancilla and Eucebio Ramirez about the BioVU DNA databank, which has been expanded to include pediatric patients like their son, Daniel Ramirez, right.

The BioVU DNA databank takes the small amount of leftover blood from regular laboratory test samples, pulls out the DNA, and stores it in a genetic library. A patient’s records are de-identified, or “scrubbed” clean of identifying information, but the description of medical events is retained and linked with the DNA by an anonymous code.

When BioVU launched in 2007, there were still concerns about including young patients, who often could not speak for themselves, so patients under age 18 were excluded.

“We needed to see how it worked with adults first, to make sure we did it right. This has never been done before with children, so we needed to talk to people about it,” says Dr. Daniel Masys, professor of medicine and chair of biomedical informatics. Masys helped lead the design of the BioVU program, along with Dr. Dan M. Roden, assistant vice chancellor for personalized medicine and professor of medicine and pharmacology.

Parents of pediatric patients, like adult patients, will be given the opportunity to decline their child’s participation, or opt out. Dr. Kyle Brothers, instructor in both pediatrics and at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, has interviewed 60 parents in clinics at Children’s Hospital to find out what they think about allowing their children to be part of BioVU.

“The BioVU concept was posed as a project that wouldn’t help their child, but wouldn’t hurt their child either,” Brothers says. “Nearly 90 percent said they did not have concerns, while 10 percent said they were not interested in their child’s participation.”

About 15,000 pediatric samples will be added to the databank each year. There are some 70,000 adult samples now. The goal is to have approximately 300,000 samples on file to help understand the links between illness and disease and an individual’s genetic code.

The Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, launched this fall, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through the Academy for Educational Development. It sends highly accomplished primary and secondary teachers from the United States abroad and brings international teachers to the U.S. for a semester-long program. Participating countries are Argentina, Finland, India, Israel, Singapore and South Africa. Peabody College was selected as the program’s first host institution.

During their year at Peabody, teachers will enroll in graduate-level classes, conduct research, lead classes and seminars for U.S. teachers and students, design and complete a capstone project, and may team-teach or guest-lecture at local secondary schools or at the graduate level. Upon returning home they will be expected to share what they learned with teachers and students in their home schools and communities.

The second new Peabody international program is the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. Peabody is hosting seven educational leaders from developing and emerging countries during the course of the 2009–10 academic year. The fellows, who are leaders in fields such as higher education, secondary education and program evaluation, hail this year from Colombia, Jordan, Malawi, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and Swaziland.

Humphrey fellows will design and plan their activities and interests for the fellowship year and plan to implement in their home countries what they’ve learned; participate in a weekly class about the U.S. education system; audit up to two classes per semester; and participate in a variety of training and professional and cultural development activities.

“Peabody has a strong tradition and excellent reputation in delivering professional development programs for practitioners,” says Xiu Cravens, assistant dean for international affairs. “With 20 experienced educators from 13 countries here with us, these two programs bring global dialogues and mutual learning to our campus.”

Of those, 165 grants were awarded by the National Institutes of Health, 14 were awarded by the National Science Foundation, and one came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

About one-third of the grants support new projects while two-thirds provide supplemental funding for existing grants. Most are supporting medically related projects in areas ranging from pharmacology to pediatrics to neuroscience and cancer biology, but a significant number of grants are going to projects in other fields, including chemistry, physics, astronomy, biological sciences and computer science. The research being funded runs the gamut from probing the origins of volcanic super-eruptions to electrical abnormalities that may cause life-threatening cardiac rhythm disturbances.

The Recovery Act committed $787 billion in federal funds to help stimulate the national economy. From this, 2.5 percent was earmarked for support of scientific and medical research.

Marylyn Ritchie, third from left, directs the Computational Genomics Core at Vanderbilt Medical Center. Thanks to Recovery Act funding, she will be able to accelerate her research and increase her lab staff. Her goal is to develop a way to integrate genetic data with other types of knowledge and with public databases. Members of her lab shown are, from left, Stephen Turner, Eric Torstenson, Scott Dudek, Ben Grady and Emily Holzinger.

To be eligible, veterans must have served three years on active duty or at least 30 continuous days before being discharged for service-related injuries since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“As we work to provide the best possible learning environment for our students, we also appreciate that veterans bring leadership skills, maturity, and a broad world perspective to the educational exchange in our classrooms,” says Richard McCarty, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

More than 500 colleges and universities have reached agreements with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Under the program’s guidelines, Veterans Affairs and a participating institution agree to match each other’s contributions if tuition at that school exceeds the Post-9/11 GI Bill cap for the state. That figure would be the cost for the most expensive four-year public college or university for undergraduate tuition at the in-state rate.

At Vanderbilt eligible veterans who enroll either as undergraduates or graduate students (master’s and doctoral level) can receive a $6,000 tuition discount from the university that will be matched by another $6,000 from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Our profound belief in the tremendous value that these students bring to campus led us to the decision not to limit the number of veterans who could use the discount,” says Douglas Christiansen, associate provost for enrollment and dean of admissions. “The university will review this plan each year to be sure adequate funds are available to continue the commitment.”

A $10,000 discount from both Vanderbilt and the government will be available for veterans who enroll in the Owen Graduate School of Management. All of Vanderbilt’s contribution will come from institutional funds.

Find out more: www.gibill.va.gov

Nurse Patti McCarver weighs Clayton Aaron Jenkins during an open house for Metro Nashville Public Schools’ new Employee and Family Health Centers, which are run by nurse practitioners from Vanderbilt School of Nursing.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) has opened five new Employee and Family Health Centers to provide prompt, quality care for everything from acute illness to chronic disease management.

The clinics, which opened in May, are the result of a new partnership with Insurance Trust and University Community Health Services (UCHS). Each site is run by board-certified family nurse practitioners from the Vanderbilt School of Nursing. The clinics provide convenient, quality health care for about 16,000 teachers, retired teachers, employees and their families.

“Our teachers and Metro employees provide great services to our city, and it is a privilege to manage these clinics for them,” says Patti McCarver, registered nurse and clinics manager for MNPS. The clinics are distinct yellow and gray portables, each equipped with four exam rooms to help patients with illnesses, injuries, women’s health care, annual physicals, sports physicals, immunizations, management of chronic illness, and health-risk assessments. Same-day appointments are available for acute illnesses.

In addition to at least one nurse practitioner at each site, the project includes a population health manager who works closely with program administrators, the school system and community health groups to help prevent secondary health issues. Clinics are located at MNPS headquarters and at four other locations around the city.

The clinics are expected to help cut down on the number of health care-related absences for employees and their dependents. No public monies are involved in the clinics, which are funded by the Teachers Health Plan.

Imagine a time when the entire universe froze. That is essentially what happened about 11.5 billion years ago, when the universe was a quarter of the size it is today, according to a model published online May 6 in the journal Physical Review D. The model was developed by Research Associate Sourish Dutta and Professor of Physics Robert Scherrer at Vanderbilt, working with colleagues at the University of Oregon.

Cosmologists now think dark energy makes up more than 70 percent of energy and matter in the universe and is pushing the universe apart at an ever-faster rate. “One thing that is unsatisfying about many of the existing explanations for dark energy is that they are difficult to test,” says Scherrer. “Our model can interact with normal matter and so has observable consequences.”

Find out more »

Licorice Compound Offers Anti-Cancer Potential

A chemical component of licorice may offer a new approach to preventing colorectal cancer without the adverse side effects of other preventive therapies, Vanderbilt Medical Center researchers report. In the study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Dr. Raymond Harris, Dr. Ming-Zhi Zhang and colleagues show that inhibiting the enzyme 11b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11ßHSD2)—either by treatment with a natural compound found in licorice or by silencing the 11ßHSD2 gene—prevents colorectal cancer progression in mice predisposed to the disease.

Licorice has been used for thousands of years for ailments ranging from coughs to constipation, but long-term consumption can lead to low blood potassium and increases in blood pressure.

Find out more »

Writing Instruction Gets a Failing Grade

A national survey of high school writing instruction finds 50 percent of teachers say they are not prepared to teach students how to write well and rarely assign complex writing tasks. The study by Steve Graham, Currey Ingram Chair in Special Education, was published recently in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

“Students need to be engaged in writing longer compositions that involve analysis and interpretation, teachers should apply evidence-based writing practices and adaptations for struggling writers, and teacher-education programs and school districts need to better prepare teachers for writing instruction at the high school level,” Graham says.

Find out more »

Moreadith

Whiting

Keegan Fellows Embark on Year of Travel

New graduates Kathryn Moreadith and Rob Whiting are spending a year traveling the world as recipients of the university’s Michael B. Keegan Traveling Fellowship.

Moreadith graduated in May from the Blair School of Music with majors in composition/theory and East Asian studies and minors in piano performance and Chinese. She will spend her year studying how music is incorporated into cultural practices of disparate regions of the world.

Whiting, who graduated in May from the College of Arts and Science with majors in economics and East Asian studies, plans to study how poverty differs across nations, and what approaches are being applied to combat it.

Galloway Leads National Engineering Body

Kenneth Galloway, dean of Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering, has been elected by his national peers to a two-year term as chair of the Engineering Deans Council Executive Board. The council includes more than 300 engineering deans across the United States and is one of the leadership organizations of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Brown

It’s Good to Be Queen

Vanderbilt junior Amelie Munro Brown was selected as the 2009 Mardi Gras Queen of Carnival in New Orleans. The Louisiana native is an art history major who also enjoys white-water canoeing, rock climbing, hiking, soccer and horseback riding.

“Vanderbilt is one among a small percentage of schools that has undertaken the completion of a GHG [greenhouse gas] inventory and made it publicly available,” says Judson Newbern, deputy vice chancellor for facilities and environmental affairs. “Subsequent annual calculations of emissions will be conducted in the future to measure progress, which also will be made publicly available.”

Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and are emitted through both natural processes and human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, decay in landfills and the carbon cycle. Vanderbilt emits greenhouse gases through many of its daily operations such as the combustion of coal, use of electricity, commuting and waste disposal.

During the baseline period of 2005–2007, average annual greenhouse-gas emissions produced by academic, research and patient care areas on the university’s 330-acre campus amounted to an estimated 487,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E). Academic and research areas accounted for approximately 302,000 MTCO2E, or 62 percent of average yearly greenhouse-gas emissions; the remaining 38 percent are attributable to patient care areas.

Emissions sources at Vanderbilt include purchased electricity (45 percent); coal use (24 percent) and natural gas use (8 percent) at the on-campus co-generation power plant; and commuter travel (19 percent).

“These major sources present the most significant opportunities for improvements in Vanderbilt’s current carbon footprint,” says Andrea George, director of the Sustainability and Environmental Management Office (SEMO).

Environmental initiatives implemented to reduce emissions for the next GHG inventory report include:

• A commitment to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building practices. Seven buildings at The Commons have received gold or silver LEED certification, and green building principles also were used during the recent renovation of the One Hundred Oaks medical facilities.
• ThinkOne, a campus-wide energy conservation campaign focused on energy-saving behaviors to reduce Vanderbilt’s energy consumption.
• Water and lighting retrofits, including a recent retrofit of the lighting system at Memorial Gym that resulted in an 18 percent reduction in lighting energy consumption.
• Improvements to commuter programs, including a ride-match Web site, the launch of several van pools, and the arrival of Zipcars on campus.
• A program to drastically adjust thermostats during the hours a building is not in use.

Vanderbilt’s Environmental Commitment Statement was endorsed by a number of key stakeholder groups on campus, including the Vanderbilt Student Government and the Faculty Senate. The university also will promote lifelong learning about sustainability practices for the benefit of the Vanderbilt community.

Find out more »

“My father was a visionary,” says Stokes, who grew up in Clarksville, Tenn., northwest of Nashville. “He knew that if African Americans were going to get ahead, they needed to have a presence at schools like Vanderbilt—and not just on the football field.”

But times were different then, and Stokes says he endured frequent racial slights around campus and on the field, even after making seven extra-point kicks in one game against Ole Miss during his second season—a Vanderbilt record that stood more than two decades.

When Stokes’ father died in 1971, he withdrew from Vanderbilt to run the family painting and contracting business, and ultimately became a successful businessman. Life went on, but always with something missing.

Bitter about his Vanderbilt experience, for 35 years he avoided even driving near the campus. Then a few years ago, his wife, Chandra, and some former friends and teammates encouraged him to return to campus and finish what he had started. One of those friends was prominent Nashvillian Walter Overton, BA’74, who had followed Stokes to Vanderbilt and became the first African American scholarship football player to graduate. Overton is now general manager of LP Field, home stadium for Nashville’s NFL Tennessee Titans.

Receptive Vanderbilt administrators put together a plan of action for Stokes, and in 2007 he started his journey back at Vanderbilt—even beating a bout with cancer along the way. Head Football Coach Bobby Johnson saw to it that Stokes received the varsity letter jacket he’d never picked up in 1971.

On May 8, 2009, after a 40-year detour, Taylor Stokes finally crossed the Commencement stage and received his diploma, a bachelor of arts degree for an interdisciplinary major focusing on race, culture and religion. Stokes had majored in sociology his first time at Vanderbilt.

A devout Christian, Stokes next plans to pursue a master’s degree in Christian counseling. He also has taught in the Clarksville school system.

“I could feel the bitterness from the past being chipped away because of the generosity and love I’d experienced,” says Stokes of his return to Vanderbilt.

“How often do you get to return to the scene of your greatest tragedy, and it becomes your greatest triumph?

“I want people to see that there can be life after death, a resurrection so to speak. You can rise out of the ashes. You can return to the scene of the crime, and there can be a different outcome—an outcome of survival that allows the victim ultimately to become the victor.”

Find out more »

Jacobson

Dr. Harry R. Jacobson retired June 1 as vice chancellor for health affairs at Vanderbilt University. He is succeeded by Dr. Jeffrey Balser, MD’90, PhD’90, who last year was named dean of the School of Medicine.

Since Jacobson assumed leadership in 1997 of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, VUMC’s performance has exceeded expectations by nearly every measure: annual net revenue, the number of faculty and staff, space for research and patient care, and national rankings. Annual research funding quadrupled to more than $400 million.

“Harry has been one of the most visionary leaders in Vanderbilt’s history,” says Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “His instincts and ability to execute bold plans have forged a remarkable path of growth and success for our world-class medical center.”

“Vanderbilt is now viewed nationally as the academic center that is moving the fastest in terms of steps toward more effective science, toward more effective health care,” adds Vanderbilt’s informatics guru, Dr. Bill Stead, who chairs the Center for Better Health.

Jacobson’s view of the world was forged in the rough-and-tumble neighborhood in Chicago where he grew up. Born outside of Munich, Germany, he emigrated with his parents and three siblings when he was 4. His father, who had survived a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp, challenged his children to do well academically.

Harry Jacobson earned his M.D. degree from the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1972 and was recruited to Vanderbilt in 1985. Within a decade he had moved up to the executive suite as deputy vice chancellor for health affairs.

Along the way he held more than $1.5 million in active grant support, published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and a textbook on kidney disease, served on and chaired national advisory committees, and explored the corporate side of medicine through such companies as Nashville’s Renal Care Group, which he co-founded.

Under Jacobson’s leadership, Vanderbilt formed strategic partnerships with physician groups south of Nashville in Williamson County, established the multi-specialty Vanderbilt Medical Group, expanded key service lines like cancer and heart disease, raised the bar on philanthropy (a move that made possible the establishment of a free-standing Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt), improved the system’s financial performance and its focus on customer service, and launched effective branding and advertising campaigns.

Jacobson realized that a thriving clinical operation was essential to growing the medical center’s research enterprise and attracting top-notch fac-ulty and students. “We owe a lot of our ability to grow as a research enterprise … to the growth of the hospital and the clinics,” says Lawrence Marnett, director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology. “It has been the engine that has driven it.”

Another strategy advanced by Jacobson was the use of venture capital to encourage development and commercialization of intellectual property. In 1999 he helped establish the $10 million “Chancellor’s Fund” which, in conjunction with the university’s technology transfer office, helped launch 18 companies. A later version, the Academic Venture Capital Fund, nurtured cross-institutional projects including institutes of chemical biology and imaging science.

Now, says Jacobson, he will find other ways to contribute. “I love health care. I love science. I love the business world. And I think the blend of science, health care and business to really improve the lives of people is a lot of fun.”

For more about Jeff Balser, see the Spring 2009 issue of Vanderbilt Magazine.

Guthrie

Chris Guthrie, a seven-year veteran of Vanderbilt Law School and former associate dean for academic affairs, was named dean of the law school effective July 1. An expert on dispute resolution, negotiation, judicial decision making, and behavioral law and economics, Guthrie has agreed to a five-year appointment, subject to approval by the Vanderbilt Board of Trust.

He replaces Edward L. Rubin, who will continue as a faculty member at the law school.

“We have an outstanding faculty, a gifted student body, a superb staff, an accomplished alumni base and supportive university leadership,” says Guthrie. “With all these pieces in place, I am confident that the law school’s best days are ahead.”

Guthrie, 42, graduated with distinction and honors in 1989 from Stanford University before earning his master’s in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and then a law degree from Stanford Law School. He practiced with Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, Calif., before joining the University of Missouri Law School faculty in 1996. Guthrie also has taught as a visiting professor at Northwestern University Law School and the Washington University School of Law.

“We were fortunate to have already on our faculty a candidate who could be dean at any leading law school,” says Lisa Bressman, professor of law, FedEx Research Professor, and chair of the search committee. “Chris Guthrie is extraordinary.”

He is one of the authors of the influential textbook Dispute Resolution & Lawyers and has published more than 40 scholarly articles in leading law journals, including the University of Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He has received multiple prizes for his scholarly research.

Guthrie also is an award-winning teacher who has taught Torts, Negotiation, Dispute Resolution and Family Law. “He will build upon the school’s successes while preserving those qualities of the law school that are distinctly Vanderbilt,” says Genet Berhane, a law student, editor-in-chief of the Transnational Law Journal, and member of the search committee.

“The six professors receiving these chairs are high-impact individuals who make important contributions to the practice of education or psychology,” says Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development, who adds that the chairs are “our way of recognizing their accomplishments and of signifying to the world that Peabody is a place where great intellects gather and interact.”

The new chair holders are:

Len Bickman, Betts Chair. Bickman is professor of psychology and psychiatry, associate dean for research, director of the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement, and an investigator in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. He is an expert in program evaluation and research on mental health services for children and adolescents.

David Cole, Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair. Cole is chair of the Department of Psychology and Human Development, professor of psychology, and an investigator in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Cole’s interests encompass developmental psychopathology and childhood depression.

Goldring

Ellen Goldring, Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair. Goldring is professor of educational policy and leadership and incoming chair of the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations. Her research focuses on school reform efforts and the changing roles of school leaders.

James Guthrie, Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair of Educational Leadership and Policy. Guthrie is professor of public policy and education, director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy, executive director of the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt, and has served as chair of the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations for the past 10 years.

Lehrer

Rich Lehrer, Frank W. Mayborn Chair. An internationally recognized scholar in the field of mathematics and science education, Lehrer is a professor of science education.

Murphy

Joseph F. Murphy, Frank W. Mayborn Chair. Murphy is professor of education and associate dean of Peabody College, a scholar in the field of school administration, and a leading advocate for school leadership reforms.

News of the chairs coincides with Peabody’s recent ranking as the No. 1 graduate school of education in the nation by U.S. News & World Report magazine. Peabody is the first Vanderbilt graduate or professional school to receive the No. 1 distinction in the history of U.S. News rankings.

Vanderbilt’s schools of medicine, law, business and engineering also are ranked in the graduate school listings in the April 28 issue of the magazine, along with Vanderbilt programs in history, English and psychology.

At any moment during the eight-hour surgery, 14 or more personnel were working around the babies.

Three-month-old conjoined twins Keylee Ann and Zoey Marie Miller were separated April 7 during a complex eight-hour operation at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The surgery, carried out by a team of 30 medical, surgical and nursing personnel, was the first of its kind at Vanderbilt and is believed to be the first successful separation of conjoined twins in Tennessee.

“It was pretty exciting to finally get them separated,” says Dr. Wallace (Skip) Neblett, lead surgeon. “We talked about this and planned it for months as the babies matured.”

In the United States the incidence for conjoined twins—identical twins who develop from the same fertilized egg—is one per 200,000 live births. The girls were “omphalopagus” twins, fused from the lower breastbone to the navel. They shared a liver and part of a diaphragm, and were born with one umbilical cord.

An X-ray image verifies the girls’ digestive systems are not conjoined.

Born Jan. 4 in Johnson City, Tenn., the girls were immediately transferred via LifeFlight to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Vanderbilt’s Children’s Hospital. Together they weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces. Their parents, Victoria Ford and her husband, Brian Miller, knew early in the pregnancy that the twins were conjoined. In January, when Zoey and Keylee were in fetal distress, the girls were born by Caesarean section 10 weeks early.

The twins were cared for in Vanderbilt’s NICU until they grew strong enough for the separation surgery. On March 24, Zoey required surgery for a heart defect. That operation required that Keylee go under general anesthesia as well. Staff and faculty in the NICU devised systems to administer medications Zoey needed to recover from her heart surgery without causing harm to Keylee. The twins shared a common circulatory system.

In the weeks leading up to the separation, Dr. James O’Neill, professor of surgery, emeritus, who has participated in the surgical separations of 23 sets of conjoined twins—more than any other physician in the country—planned and led three drills. “We wanted this to go smoothly, so we practiced to make sure we had all the essentials ready for potential complications,” O’Neill says. “We were absolutely prepared.”

Because there were two patients, two full surgical teams had to be present in the operating room. Both girls possessed all the essential blood vessels and connectors, so each had her own completely functional liver without the need for complex repair. Their recovery has been uncomplicated, although Zoey must return at a later date for another heart surgery.

View a slide show of the separation surgery at http://snipurl.com/vutwins.

Conjoined twins Keylee Ann and Zoey Marie Miller were separated during an eight-hour operation at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt on April 7. The surgery, the first of its kind at Vanderbilt, involved a team of 30 medical, surgical and nursing personnel.

]]> http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-magazine/2009/08/conjoined-twins-separated-in-first-ever-surgery-at-vanderbilt/feed/ 0 http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-magazine/2009/08/university-mourns-loss-of-chancellor-heard/ http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-magazine/2009/08/university-mourns-loss-of-chancellor-heard/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:49:25 +0000 admin http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-magazine/?p=2307 As Vanderbilt Magazine was going to press, we received word of the death of Vanderbilt’s beloved fifth chancellor, Alexander Heard, who led Vanderbilt from 1963 until 1982. Much admired by students and faculty alike, he was adviser to three U.S. presidents and chancellor at Vanderbilt during a time of enormous growth. He guided the university smoothly through the stormy period of the 1960s and 1970s without the unrest and violence that afflicted many college campuses. Heard, who was 92, died July 24 at his home after a long illness. Look for more about his vast legacy in the fall issue of Vanderbilt Magazine.

Watch video of Chancellor Alexander Heard’s July 29 memorial service at Benton Chapel.

Fortune Magazine

The rankings are determined through an extensive survey process. More than 81,000 employees from 353 companies responded to the survey nationwide. To be eligible, companies must have more than 1,000 U.S. employees and be at least seven years old. The rankings are based on levels of credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie in the workforce.

Vanderbilt also made a couple of other prestigious lists last fall. In November, Vanderbilt University ranked among the top 10 best places to work in academia by The Scientist. And a month earlier, the university was ranked 20th in the nation in the total value of federal science and engineering research grants awarded to campus researchers, according to an annual report compiled by the National Science Foundation. 

And Kiplinger’s Personal Finance recently ranked Vanderbilt 15th for “best value” among American universities.

“The new 10-gigabit-per-second circuit connects to Southern Crossing in Atlanta,” says Matthew Hall, assistant vice chancellor for information technology services and associate chief information architect for enterprise architecture. “This is a telecommunication hub similar to a large regional airport. Our traffic routes there and, in turn, can attach to various national labs, Internet 2, and other research-related networks.”

A particle detector in the Large Hadron Collider at the world’s largest particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland

For researchers like Charles Maguire, professor of physics, more bandwidth is a huge plus. Maguire is involved in an international research project seeking to replicate the matter created at the time of the Big Bang. Vanderbilt is the proposed primary U.S. data repository and analysis site for the project, which is being conducted using the Large Hadron Collider at the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

“The new bandwidth ensures that this data can be transferred rapidly to Vanderbilt, and is the primary reason Vanderbilt was chosen as the best place in the United States to analyze it,” Maguire says.

Eddie Adcock demonstrates the improvement in his essential tremor after deep brain stimulation surgery.

It was a Nashville moment if there ever was one—a patient playing banjo while undergoing brain surgery at Vanderbilt.

Legendary bluegrass performer Eddie Adcock had been shaving left-handed, writing like a doctor, and hitting some sour notes for 15 years. He has what is known as an essential tremor.

“If you consciously intend to use your hand, that’s the only time it tremors,” Adcock explains. “So, if I go to write my name, it will tremor.”

Adcock made his name for more than five decades playing professionally with bands including The Country Gentlemen and Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys.

Vanderbilt neurosurgeon Dr. Joseph Neimat and neurologist Dr. Peter Hedera performed deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery on the 70-year-old Adcock recently to block the tremor and restore his playing.

The three-part surgery requires implantation of electrodes into the brain as well as insertion of a palm-sized battery-powered generator within the chest wall, plus lead wires to connect the two.

Adcock had to be awake and playing his banjo during the brain-implantation stage of the surgery to assist his surgeons in their precise placement of electrodes inthe brain.

“I advise my patients that surgery should be considered as an option only when the tremor is sufficiently severe that it is not allowing them to live their lives the way they would wish,” Neimat says. 

“In Eddie’s case, not playing banjo at his previous level of skill represented a significant life disruption.”

With essential tremors affecting an estimated 10 million persons in the United States, Adcock’s story could have an impact far beyond the bluegrass world. “The fact that Mr. Adcock, a famous musician, has accepted the role of a famous patient by agreeing to publicize his successful surgery is very important for many patients suffering from essential tremor,” says Hedera.

For Adcock, the surgery means returning to his career on the road. The speed and precision of his right hand has helped pay the bills for most of his life.

“I noticed the difference in the hospital, laying on the operating table,” Adcock says. “I knew immediately that it was the magic dingus button I had needed. It is definitely a miracle.”

“You can do anything with fishing line, a needle, a knife and ketamine.”

~ Dr. Bill Frist during a talk titled “Health Care as a Currency for Peace,” delivered as part of the Nursing Centennial Lecture Series last October. The former U.S. Senate majority leader has created a class at the Owen Graduate School of Management, open to business students and fourth-year medical students.

Dr. James Berry and Dr. Leland Lancaster have developed a recycling system that collects and reuses anesthesiology gases.

 More than 500,000 gallons of anesthetic are released into the atmosphere in the United States each year at a huge cost both financially and environmentally. What if you could collect the air that contains exhaled anesthetic and condense it, allowing it to be captured and recycled?

That was the idea behind an invention by Dr. James Berry, professor of anesthesiology, along with Dr. Leland Lancaster, assistant in anesthesiology, and Dr. Steve Morris of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Their new technology, called the Dynamic Gas Scavenging System (DGSS), could have an impact on the environment and on health-care economics.

“Vanderbilt spends $1 million a year on anesthetic,” says Berry. “It is given to patients, then discarded, but it costs $2,000 per gallon. My idea was that we can do better.”

The DGSS can recover 99 percent of anesthetics without chemically altering them in the process. Berry’s company, Anesthetic Gas Reclamation LLC, created the technology, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been instrumental in its development by providing a testing site in four operating rooms. VUMC is the first in the country to do pilot testing with the DGSS system, and the first in the world to recycle anesthetics via condensation, says Berry.

He formulated his idea for a recycling system in the 1980s when he first began studying anesthesia and noticed the pipe on the roof of the hospital where anesthetic was released. 

“I thought, ‘What a waste. There’s got to be a better way.’”

With the new technology, the exhaust system is activated only when the patient exhales and used anesthetic appears. “Now there is a lot less air, which is richer in anesthetic, and it’s energy-saving because the exhaust pump can be much smaller,” says Berry.

The system is designed to work with any anesthesia machine. One system costs $20,000 and can serve up to eight operating rooms. Energy savings also result because the vacuum pump only runs 10 percent of the time, as opposed to 90 percent with the old system. 

The next step involves investigating how to manufacture and commercialize the system. Berry hopes to get FDA approval for a generic recycled anesthetic that could be sold for a significantly lower price.

“There are 6,000 hospitals in the U.S. I’d like to see at least half implement this technology,” Berry says. “We envision giving the machines away for free, just to get CO2 credits and the anesthetic. It’s highly efficient, it’s not emitting greenhouse gas into the environment, and it’s inexpensive. It’s not only good, but it’s practical.”

Find out more »

Find out more »

Natalie Gossum, R.N., attends to Silas Roberson, 24 days old, in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

A study published in Pediatrics suggests that early Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) might be a better option for some babies born with respiratory distress than a mechanical ventilator. Adults with sleep apnea use it to prevent airway collapse during sleep. In premature infants the effect is similar.

Dr. Mario Rojas, associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology, says his findings could help babies in developing countries.

“From a cost-benefit ratio, you can get a CPAP machine for less than $1,000 versus a ventilator for many times that amount.”

 Find out more »

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) is launching the first such postsecondary program in the state of Tennessee, aided by a three-year grant from the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities.

“The council made a commitment … to develop a pilot project on the campus of a Tennessee college or university for postsecondary students who have an intellectual disability and did not receive a high school diploma,” says Wanda Willis, the council’s executive director. “Continuing education programs like this are increasingly available on college campuses across the country.”

After an initial planning year, Vanderbilt will accept its first students in January 2010 for the two-year day program. Each year eight young adults will take a mixture of undergraduate, life-skills and technical courses, as well as participate in campus extra-curricular activities with Vanderbilt undergraduates. Regular Vanderbilt undergraduate courses will be offered, life-skills courses with internships will be provided, and technical courses will be available through the Tennessee Technology Centers.

“Key components of the Vanderbilt program will foster the development of independent living and employment skills,” says UCEDD Co-Director Elise McMillan. “As with nearly all of our programs at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, the postsecondary education program we develop will include research, training and service.”

McMillan, who is a senior associate in psychiatry, and Robert Hodapp, professor of special education and UCEDD director of research, are lead faculty members on the grant. The UCEDD also is a part of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities’ National Training Initiative on Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. The initiative is led by the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts. Other participating universities are the University of Minnesota, UCLA, the University of Hawaii, Ohio State University, and the University of South Carolina.

Now in its seventh year, the Vanderbilt Dance Marathon is the biggest student-run philanthropy on campus. This year’s 14-hour event, held Feb. 13–14, raised more than $146,000 for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital.

Honor your family, a classmate or a favorite athlete with a personalized brick in the new walkway at Vanderbilt Stadium.

The area will be completed by the beginning of the 2009 football season, and the price of each brick ($200 until June 1; $250 thereafter) is tax-deductible.

All funds will go toward Vanderbilt Athletics facilities improvements.

New Deans for Arts and Science, Medicine

Carolyn Dever

In the College of Arts and Science, Carolyn Dever was appointed dean last December. Dever was offered the position after a national search to replace Richard McCarty, who was named provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Vanderbilt in May. Dever had served as interim dean since June.

An expert on Victorian literature and gender studies, Dever joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1999 as professor of English. She served two years as the first associate dean for graduate education in the College of Arts and Science, then returned after a yearlong research sabbatical as executive dean with responsibilities for faculty and research.

Her books include Skeptical Feminism: Activist Theory, Activist Practice (2003) and Death and the Mother from Dickens to Freud: Victorian Fiction and the Anxiety of Origins (1998), and she edited with Margaret Cohen The Literary Channel: The Inter-National Invention of the Novel (2001).

Dr. Jeff Balser’s research has helped us understand how the chambers of the heart contract and relax.

In October, Dr. Jeff Balser became the 11th dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine since its founding in 1875. Balser, who had served as interim dean of the school since last July, will continue to serve as associate vice chancellor for research.

“I recall sitting in Light Hall as a student in 1984, listening to Dean [John] Chapman give a talk about the contemporary challenges in academic medicine,” says Balser, who received his M.D. and Ph.D. in pharmacology from Vanderbilt in 1990. “I remember thinking at that time how exciting it must be to be dean of the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt. I still feel exactly the same way, and I am extraordinarily grateful for this opportunity.”

Balser trained as a resident and fellow in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the faculty in 1995. He returned to Vanderbilt in 1998 as associate dean for physician scientists. In 2001 he was appointed the James Tayloe Gwathmey Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology. Three years later he became associate vice chancellor for research, heading a period of significant expansion that moved Vanderbilt into 10th place among U.S. medical schools in funding from the National Institutes of Health. 

Beth Fortune

New Leadership for Public Affairs, Development and Alumni Relations

Beth Fortune was named Vanderbilt’s vice chancellor for public affairs in December after serving in the position on an interim basis for the previous six months.

The former political reporter and press secretary to former Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist joined Vanderbilt in September 2000 as associate vice chancellor for public affairs.

As vice chancellor for public affairs, Fortune leads the university’s comprehensive communications, government and community initiatives and serves as the university’s chief spokesperson.

Susie Stalcup

In January, Susie S. Stalcup, formerly the chief fundraising officer for Columbia University Medical Center, became Vanderbilt’s new vice chancellor for development and alumni relations.

In her new role she will work to complete the current $1.75 billion Shape the Future campaign, which is scheduled to conclude in 2010. She oversees development and alumni activities throughout Vanderbilt, including the medical center and all schools and programs within the university.

As vice president for development since 2004 at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, Stalcup had led all aspects of CUMC’s $1 billion capital campaign, which met its goal two and a half years before its scheduled December 2011 conclusion.

Chris Toft

Christopher P. Toft has been named associate vice chancellor for university development. Toft oversees development programs for the College of Arts and Science, Blair School of Music, Divinity School, School of Engineering, Peabody College, Law School, and the Owen Graduate School of Management, as well as regional major gifts, the Parents and Grandparents Campaign and the Vanderbilt Fund.  

Toft most recently headed all fundraising initiatives at the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine and the University of Illinois Medical Center, where he served as chief development officer for medicine and associate dean, and was a member of the senior management team for the University of Illinois Foundation.

James Stofan

James E. Stofan has been named associate vice chancellor for alumni relations. Stofan, who most recently directed alumni relations for the University of California system, oversees Vanderbilt’s alumni relations program and outreach to the university’s 121,000 alumni as well as the Reunion program.

As assistant vice president for alumni affairs in the University of California Office of the President, Stofan coordinated more than 10 campus alumni programs representing more than 1.5 million alumni worldwide. Under his leadership UC reduced its “lost alumni” percentage from 24 percent to 8.9 percent and developed system-wide international chapters in London, Paris, Beijing, Mexico City, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Stockholm. He also directed the first-ever UC system-wide strategic planning effort for alumni relations.

Hart joined the Vanderbilt Board of Trust upon the merger of Peabody and Vanderbilt in 1979 and has served in numerous capacities, including chairing Peabody College’s fundraising efforts in the Shape the Future campaign. Last year he became an emeritus trustee.

“Chairing the balance of the Shape the Future campaign for Vanderbilt is a humbling privilege, a great opportunity and a serious challenge,” says Hart, noting that the goal for the campaign has significantly increased from an original goal of $1.25 billion. “It will be accomplished as a result of the resolute committee so successfully chaired by Monroe Carell Jr. since the campaign’s inception and as the result of the many, many contributors who have exceeded the original goal well ahead of schedule.”

During a 51-year business career, Hart was chief executive officer of Franklin Industries, a Tennessee-based company involved in brick distribution and chemical limestone mining, processing and marketing. In 2006 he sold Franklin Industries to a Belgian conglomerate and retired from active business to pursue various interests, including his support of Vanderbilt.

He received his secondary school education at Phillips Exeter Academy and completed the advanced management program at Harvard Business School. Hart and his wife of 50 years, Patricia Ingram Hart, BA’57, have three grown children and nine grandchildren.

Moral distress—negative feelings that arise when one knows the morally correct thing to do but cannot take action because of system constraints or hierarchies—had been highly studied in the nursing profession but never among medical students, until Vanderbilt University School of Medicine researchers tackled the subject. Dr. Bonnie Miller, associate dean for undergraduate medical education, leads the study, which has shown that episodes of moral distress are frequently experienced by VUSM students. Vanderbilt researchers have been awarded a $199,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation to further their work.
  

Sanctions Impact Iraqi Children with Leukemia

Iraqi children with leukemia paid a steep price for economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations against the Iraqi government, reveals a study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers. The sanctions were imposed in 1990 after the invasion of Kuwait and remained in effect until 2003. During that time a shortage of medications was widespread.

‘Dr. Haydar Frangoul, director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram, and colleagues from the Baghdad Medical College studied medical records of 651 children with acute lymphocytic leukemia. The proportion of patients receiving less than 50 percent of their prescribed chemotherapy because of medication shortages increased from 20.1 percent to 54.3 percent.
The findings were published in the July 24, 2008, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
  

Starbucks, Not Seagram’s

Not all recovering alcoholics smoke cigarettes, but almost all drink coffee, according to a study suggesting coffee could help addicts kick their habit. The results, by Dr. Peter Martin, director of the Vanderbilt Division of Addiction Medicine, and study co-author Michael Reich, a Vanderbilt medical student, were released online in July and featured in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

The study found that 88 percent of the Alcoholics Anonymous participants surveyed drink coffee and 56.9 percent smoke cigarettes.

The study’s authors are now examining whether changes in coffee and cigarette use are predictive of recovery from alcoholism. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Mark Cohen, the Justin Potter Distinguished Professor of American Competitive Business and professor of law at Vanderbilt, is taking on a new role as vice president of research for Research for Resources for the Future (RFF). RFF is an independent, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving environmental, energy and natural-resource policymaking worldwide through social-science research of the highest caliber. Cohen has been granted a sabbatical from the Owen Graduate School of Management to lead a team of 40 researchers in Washington, D.C.

A leading expert on the enforcement of environmental regulations and on corporate crime and punishment, Cohen is co-director of the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies and part of a team of researchers investigating greenhouse gases and individual behavior through Vanderbilt’s Climate Change Research Network.

Peabody Alumna to Oversee Library System

Connie Vinita Dowell, a Vanderbilt graduate with three decades of experience working in academic libraries, has been named dean of the Jean and Alexander Heard Library. Dowell earned her master’s degree in library science from Peabody College in 1979. “Being asked to return to Vanderbilt in this capacity is truly a dream come true,” Dowell says. “Vanderbilt’s generosity to me as a student paved the way for my entire career.”
For the past nine years, Dowell has served as dean of the library and information access at San Diego State University. She previously was employed at Connecticut College for six years, starting as college librarian and then dean, later becoming vice president for information services and librarian of the college.

Biologist Awarded Searle Scholar Grant

A Vanderbilt biologist who studies the genetics of animal development is one of 15 up-and-coming professors to be named a 2008 Searle Scholar, a distinction accompanied by a $300,000 research grant. Antonis Rokas, assistant professor of biological sciences, will use the grant money over three years to study the origins and assembly of the genetic toolkit for animal development. In the long term he hopes to map the evolution of animals from their single-cell-organism predecessors.

In selecting Searle Scholars, the board looks for scientists who have demonstrated innovative research with the potential for making significant contributions to biological research over an extended period of time. The funds that support the awards come from trusts established by the wills of John G. and Frances C. Searle. John Searle was president of G.D. & Searle Co., a research-based pharmaceutical company.

For more than a month last year, Shawn Coltharp kept vigil while her 26-year-old daughter lay critically injured in Vanderbilt’s Trauma Center after a car accident. Coltharp wasn’t sure what to do or where to turn. Now patients and family members in Coltharp’s shoes can learn from the Vanderbilt Trauma Survivor’s Network (TSN), an Internet-based system for communication among current and former patients’ families. Through blogs and chat rooms, families share experiences and learn from others. 

The site contains loads of practical information, from explanations of different types of injuries to information about medical rounds.

“We’re going to help those families who were just like mine—frustrated, angry and scared,” says Coltharp, who is acting as a consultant to the TSN.

If anyone has the right stuff to handle the new wave of federal export control regulations that is crashing down on Vanderbilt and the nation’s other research universities, it’s Marcia E. Williams. An attorney, former airline pilot, business owner and classroom instructor, Williams, who has served as an assistant director of sponsored research at Vanderbilt since 2006, recently took on the newly created position of assistant director, export compliance. Her job: to develop and implement a system that allows the university and medical center to comply with complex U.S. export control laws and regulations.

Since the days of the Cold War, the United States has regulated export of sensitive technology to other countries. In the past this primarily centered on physical export of high-tech computer chips, advanced weapons systems, and other technology that could be used against the country. Activities of research universities generally were not subject to such regulation under a “fundamental research exemption.”

Since 9/11, however, you don’t even have to leave the country to get into trouble. Regulations apply increasingly to information as well as hardware—and not just to devices and data that researchers take abroad with them, but also to the access that researchers provide to foreign nationals, both students and visitors, in their labs at home. Regulations have grown more complicated, with different technologies restricted to different groups of countries.

“I’ve been in university administration nearly 27 years and have been involved in implementation of a variety of federal regulations,” says John Childress, director of Vanderbilt’s Division of Sponsored Research, “and this is, by far, the most difficult set of federal regulations to implement I’ve seen. Violations can involve significant fines and even jail time.”

Williams came to Vanderbilt with a 15-year career as an airline pilot, a law degree, and considerable expertise in areas such as pensions, medical malpractice, executive compensation, training and software development. While a pilot for United Airlines, she assisted in developing training courses and safety videos for pilots, flight attendants and dispatchers. She left her pilot position in 2004 and set up her own aviation law and consulting company.

In her new role, Williams says her goal is to set up a management system that is “as unburdensome and unobtrusive as possible. I find it an interesting, challenging and very relevant task.”

The article, written in a time-stamp format, is prefaced with the headline “America’s Best Hospitals: Vanderbilt’s special mix of skill, passion and Southern comfort hits all the right notes in Nashville,” and opens with a two-page photo of LifeFlight offloading a patient.

The article is an account of events that happened during a six-day visit to Vanderbilt in June by U.S. News staff writers Sarah Baldauf and Lindsay Lyon and photographer Jim Lo Scalzo.

Find out more: http://health.usnews.com/sections/health/best-hospitals

Project scientists Joshua Pepper, Keivan Stassun and David James with the KELT telescope

Vanderbilt astronomers have constructed a special-purpose telescope that will allow them to participate in one of the hottest areas in astronomy: the hunt for earthlike planets circling other stars.

The instrument, called the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT), has been assembled and is being tested at Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observa-tory. It will be shipped to South Africa where it will become only the second dedicated planet-finder scanning the stars in the southern sky.

The KELT project is a collaboration between Vanderbilt and the University of Cape Town. The instrument will be set up at the South African Astronomical Observatory about 200 miles northeast of Cape Town. South Africans will maintain the instrument and ship data back to Nashville. Astronomers at both universities can control the telescope by remote operation.

KELT is about the size of some telescopes used by amateur astronomers, and its optics are surprisingly modest: It uses a professional-quality photographic lens. But it has an extremely high-quality imaging system that captures light and converts it to digital data.

“The telescope has been designed to detect planets passing across the face of bright stars,” says Joshua Pepper, the postdoctoral fellow who is managing the project. Unlike large telescopes that focus in on small parts of the sky to produce extremely high-resolution images, KELT looks at large areas of the sky that contain thousands of stars. In order to see variations in brightness, it must revisit each area many times every night. As a result, the small scope will produce prodigious amounts of data—enough to fill a typical laptop computer’s hard drive in a few days.

“Astronomy is entering a period in which the way astronomers do their work is fundamentally changing,” notes Associate Professor of Astronomy Keivan Stassun. “The traditional model has been that of
an individual astronomer, or a small team of astronomers, going to a telescope and pointing it at a star or a galaxy, collecting data, analyzing the data and publishing the results. But with the advent of high-performance computers, robotic telescopes and digital detectors that are able to see large swaths of the sky at once, the quantities of data we can collect are rapidly increasing, so we need new ways of analyzing them in real time.”

The Cape Town agreement is one of five core partnerships established by the Vanderbilt International Office. The other four are with the University of Melbourne (Australia), the University of São Paulo (Brazil), Fudan University (China), and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile).

Dr. Andy Norman meets with a former patient in Nigeria.

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Institute for Global Health has received a one-year, $3 million federal grant to provide AIDS treatment and prevention services in Nigeria. It is the second major treatment grant the institute has received under PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, established by President George Bush in 2003.

The institute received a $1 million pilot grant under PEPFAR in 2006 to provide AIDS treatment and other services in three rural hospitals in Mozambique. That program was expanded to about 10 clinics throughout the country last year with the help of another $4.1 million in PEPFAR funding.

In Nigeria and Mozambique, as of 2005 nearly 5 million people were living with the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and approximately 1.4 million children had been orphaned by the disease, according to the 2006 UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.

Prevention efforts are crucial, says Institute Director Dr. Sten Vermund, who also is principal investigator of the grants. For every person who is put on anti-retroviral treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, Vermund says, four more people are newly infected with HIV. “But treatment is an essential stopgap to stem the devastation. We must offer care and treatment even as we strive to expand prevention approaches.”

Anti-retroviral drugs block HIV, a retrovirus, from infecting—and killing—the white blood cells of its host.

Educational outdoor theater for World AIDS Day in Mozambique

As of March 31, PEPFAR had supported anti-retroviral treatment for more than 1.6 million people in 15 “focus countries” in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, according to the program’s Web site, www.pepfar.gov.

The Vanderbilt-led program in west central Nigeria was developed with the help of two Vanderbilt couples: Dr. John Tarpley, professor of surgery, and his wife, Margaret Tarpley, senior associate in surgery; and Dr. Andy Norman, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and his wife, Judy Norman, a nurse in the Vanderbilt International Travel Medicine Clinic. They have spent many years in Nigeria providing medical and educational services, and John Tarpley continues to train physicians there.

With the help of their contacts, the institute established partnerships with Baptist Medical Center in Ogbomoso, a city of 1.2 million people, and Sobi Specialist Hospital in Ilorin, population 850,000.
Services at five satellite sites will include HIV counseling and testing, treatment to prevent HIV-positive women from infecting their babies, and services for people co-infected with HIV and tuberculosis.

“We will support essential community-based promotion of prevention messages and awareness of all these new services,” Vermund says. “Our program will emphasize close collaboration with national, state and local leadership, including traditional (tribal) rulers.”

“The two most important dates in everyone’s life [are] the day you were born and the day you realized why you were born. When I landed in New Orleans after Katrina, I knew why I was born.”

~Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré in a Sept. 18 address launching the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Centennial Lecture Series

This new procedure for organ recovery and transplantation—called Donation After Cardiac Death (DCD)—offers promising options for families wanting to donate a loved one’s organs, and increases the availability  of donor organs desperately needed for transplantation. 

Vanderbilt’s three DCD donors have helped eight recipients receive a total of six kidney and two liver transplants.

With a growing number of patients on orga­­n-transplant waiting lists—estimates are nearly 100,000 in the U.S.—the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) recently implemented DCD as another donation opportunity for families.

Dr. Beau Kelly

“Currently, 85 percent of organ donation is in the form of organs donated after patients have suffered a brain death,” says Dr. Beau Kelly, surgical director for the pediatric liver transplant program. “But now, donation after cardiac death is being offered as an option for families interested in organ 

donation. With donation after cardiac death, these people are not brain dead; rather, they have suffered an anoxic brain injury and are in a debilitated state … with no chance of recovery.”

Examples of such scenarios include heart attacks with low blood flow to the brain and high spinal-cord injuries from motor vehicle accidents. “In a donation after cardiac death, you are recovering those organs after the heart has stopped and there is no blood circulation. The need for recovery, therefore, is much more urgent.”

In both donation scenarios the families must initiate the request or process—either the patient has documented wishes or the family has decided to withdraw all care and support, Kelly explains.

“Families withdraw care and support from loved ones every day across the country, leaving the hospital only with a memory of the person they knew,” says Kelly. “But organ donation after withdrawal of care can give life to another person.”

Find out more: www.vanderbilthealth.com/transplant

Vanderbilt also ranked No. 14 among national universities in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category, marking it as a good value for its tuition costs. The magazine noted that 12 percent of Vanderbilt students receive Pell Grants for low-income students, ranking the university among the top 25. Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering improved five positions to No. 38.

In the overall rankings Vanderbilt has progressed from No. 24 in 1989 to cracking the top 20 consistently since 2003. 

Harvard University was named the top national university. Rounding out the top five were Princeton University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Highlights of the rankings were published in the Sept. 1 issue of U.S. News & World Report.

Vanderbilt also placed No. 42 in an academic ranking of the top 500 world universities by China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which compiles one of the leading international indexes of major universities. The Chinese university also ranked Vanderbilt No. 34 on a breakdown of the top 100 North and Latin American universities.

“We’re extremely pleased to be recognized as one of the top universities in the world. The ranking reflects the hard work and dedication of our faculty, students and staff members, as well as the distinction of our alumni,” says Richard McCarty, Vanderbilt provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

The universities are ranked by the Chinese university according to several indicators of academic or research performance, including the numbers of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the number of highly cited researchers, the number of articles published in the leading international journals Nature and Science, peer-reviewed articles published by faculty and students, and the overall research productivity of the faculty. 

Find out more: www.usnews.com/sections/rankings

It’s hard to find good smoke patrols. They’re expected to go up to people and explain that they’re violating our rules.

~Ken Browning, director of VUMC Plant Services

Don’t even think about lighting up on the Vanderbilt Medical Center campus. On Sept. 1, VUMC enacted a ban reflecting a strong statement that smoking, linked to the development of cancer, heart disease and stroke, has no place on a hospital campus.

The complete smoking ban is the latest in a series of increased restrictions on campus smoking that began in 1989 with a ban on indoor smoking. Designated outdoor smoking areas were established on campus in the 1990s, and enforcement has been stepped up in recent years.

But those designated spots disappeared Sept. 1. Faculty and staff who want to quit smoking are being offered a series of self-help and support resources to help them do so, and a hotline—615/936-QUIT—has been set up to help employees.

Vanderbilt now employs five “smoke patrollers” to guide faculty, staff, patients and visitors to the closest areas where they can smoke—the sidewalks along 21st Avenue or Blakemore Avenue, says Ken Browning, director of VUMC Plant Services. It’s not a job for everyone.

Smoke-patrol employees Tommy Metty, right, and Joseph Glenn

“It’s one thing to tell people to go to a covered area to smoke; it’s another to tell them to go to a public sidewalk,” Browning says. “It’s hard to find good smoke patrols. They’re expected to go up to people and explain that they’re violating our rules. Not everyone is cut out for that. It will take time to get people to understand that they have to go off campus.”

Browning estimates that about 99 percent of people approached about not smoking in a given area are accepting. “Most people will do what you ask, if they understand what you want them to do.”

But “it’s a complete change of direction” this time, says John Gore, the grant’s principal investigator and director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science. “We want to focus on the challenges of the highest field in human imaging.”

The grant will support development of “high field” magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy using the institute’s 7 Tesla scanner, one of only 13 in the world being used in human studies.

One Tesla is roughly 20,000 times the strength of the magnetic field of the earth. Encased in 400 metric tons of steel, the 7 Tesla scanner can generate brain images down to the molecular level.

The magnet interacts with atoms, such as hydrogen, in body tissues so they will absorb energy from particular frequencies of radio waves, causing them to resonate. By measuring these magnetic effects, scanners can construct detailed images of structures in the body and also determine the levels of key compounds, including molecules that are involved in signaling in the brain.

More powerful magnets require the use of higher frequency radio waves, and generate bigger signals that can be used to increase the resolution — the detail — of the images. The 7 Tesla scanner, for example, can reveal tiny blood vessels in the brain that are beyond the resolving power of conventional scanners, and can bring the focus down to single columns of neurons.

Ultimately, high-field magnetic resonance and spectro-scopy may enable researchers to study the effects of drugs on a wide range of brain disorders, from chronic pain to Alzheimer’s disease, and to help develop new drugs.

Gore is Chancellor’s University Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, and professor of molecular physiology, biophysics and physics.

Photo by Daniel Dubois.

“There were no rules, there was no hierarchy, there was no management. “

–Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, on how his firm rallied after 658 of 970 employees perished in the World Trade Center. Lutnick spoke at Commencement for the Owen Graduate School of Management on May 9.

www.vanderbilthealth.com/clinicaltrials

Asthma? Sleep apnea? A spare tire around your waist? Whatever the malady, chances are Vanderbilt is studying it in a clinical research trial. This new Web site aims to at least triple the number of volunteers for clinical trials of new vaccines, cancer treatments, and a multitude of other areas. The beefed-up recruitment is an initiative of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, established last fall with a $46 million award from the National Institutes of Health–the largest single government grant ever received by Vanderbilt.

Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers Band performs at Rites of Spring, an annual student-produced music festival to celebrate the end of the academic year. Headline acts for the April 18-19 event were Spoon and Lil Jon.

PHOTO BY JENNY MANDEVILLE

Photo by Daniel Dubois.

RNA Interference Heals Growth Deficiency Disorder

Vanderbilt researchers have demonstrated for the first time that a new type of gene therapy called “RNA interference” can heal a genetic disorder in a live animal.

Their study, published last fall by the journal Endocrinology, shows that RNA interference can “rescue” a strain of mouse that has been genetically engineered to express a defective human hormone that interferes with normal growth. When the gene that produces the defective human growth hormone is inserted into the mouse’s genome, it also stunts the mouse’s growth. But when a small snippet of RNA that interferes with the hormone’s production is also added, the mouse is restored to normal.

Find out more: www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/stories/sirna.html

Liver Allocation System Lowers Death Rates

Vanderbilt researchers have found that the United Network for Organ Sharing’s (UNOS) adoption of an objective-only method of allocating donated livers has lowered the number of deaths among patients on the waiting list. In 2002, UNOS adopted a system using laboratory-based values to characterize a patient’s need for liver transplantation.

Previously, patients who spent the longest time on the waiting list for a liver were often given priority. After the change, wait times became less of an issue while severity of condition was prioritized.

The change was the subject of great debate and prompted Vanderbilt researchers to examine the outcomes associated with the new liver allocation policy. Results of the study were released last fall in the Archives of Surgery.

Find out more: www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=6002

Melatonin Study Could Help Children with Autism

Vanderbilt sleep researchers are reporting a relationship between good sleep and how much melatonin the body produces–the first in a series of research studies intended to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) sleep through the night.

“This suggests that children with ASD who have decreased melatonin levels have decreased levels of deep sleep,” says lead author Dr. Beth Malow, director of the Vanderbilt Sleep Disorders Center. “We didn’t actually give the supplement; we measured natural levels of melatonin in the body. One could infer, based on what we found, that a supplement might be good.”

More research is needed before recommending that children begin taking melatonin supplements to benefit their sleep.

Find out more: www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=5973

 

Photo by Steve Green

 

Coach Johnson Honored for Suicide Prevention Work

Head Football Coach Bobby Johnson was recognized during a ceremony in March for his efforts toward youth suicide prevention when The Jason Foundation presented him with its Grant Teaff “Breaking the Silence” Award.

The award is given annually by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and The Jason Foundation to the college coach who has done the most to promote youth suicide prevention. Johnson was first told about the honor in front of nearly 2,000 college coaches at the American Football Coaches Association convention in January.

Since its inception a decade ago, The Jason Foundation has worked with the American Football Coaches Association membership after data surfaced that youth most often turn to an educator–and specifically a coach–in times of crisis.

Checkered Past

“It’s a pretty cute bug,” Lamar Alexander, BA’62, said last November at an event in Gatlinburg, Tenn., announcing the discovery of a new species of insect to be named after the former Tennessee governor, former U.S. secretary of education, former Republican presidential candidate and current U.S. senator.

Like the trademark plaid shirts Alexander has worn in political campaigns, Cosberella lamaralexanderi, or “Lamar Alexander springtail,” sports a checkerboard coloration. The insect was first discovered in the Great Smoky Mountains. Alexander grew up in nearby Maryville, Tenn.

Police Chief to Lead 2,000 Peers

Marlon C. Lynch, Vanderbilt chief of police, is the 2008-2009 president-elect for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators Inc. (IACLEA). Lynch joined Vanderbilt in 2005 as assistant chief of police after serving as chief of police and director of public safety at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He became chief of police at Vanderbilt in January 2007.

Lynch earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree from Boston University, both in criminal justice. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command.

The office will be led by Nora Spencer, who leaves a similar job at the University of Florida. There she oversaw support services, programming, strategic planning, marketing and fundraising for GLBT affairs and served as a resource and advocate regarding GLBT issues.

Nora Spencer

The new office “not only will provide support and encouragement, but also the type of visibility and advocacy needed in the Vanderbilt community,” says Shay Malone, assistant director of the Office of Leadership Development and Intercultural Affairs. “It is my hope that with a fully staffed GLBT office, we can begin to address some of the unique challenges GLBT students face here at Vanderbilt and the need to educate students about awareness and understanding in a way we were not able to do before.”

The university also has established a committee to advise the administration on issues that affect GLBT life on campus. David Boyd, associate professor of medicine, health and society, who led the task force that recommended creation of the GLBT center, has been appointed chair of the committee.

Richard McCarty
Photo by Daniel Dubois.

Richard McCarty, a distinguished psychologist who has led the largest school at Vanderbilt University for the past seven years, has been named provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

“Richard embodies Vanderbilt’s values of excellence and fairness,” said Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos in announcing the appointment in May. “He is a scholar who is committed to every aspect of our education mission.”

McCarty received his bachelor’s degree in biology and master’s degree in zoology from Old Dominion University before earning a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He is an authority on the physiological and behavioral aspects of stress. A native of Portsmouth, Va., he spent two years as a research associate in pharmacology with the National Institute of Mental Health before joining the University of Virginia in 1978 as an assistant professor of psychology. He then rose to department chair before taking a leave of absence to join the American Psychological Association as executive director for science. He has served as editor of American Psychologist and as founding editor-in-chief of Stress.

Under McCarty’s direction Vanderbilt embarked on a significant faculty recruitment initiative; undergraduate student quality, diversity and selectivity were ranked among the highest in the country; and graduate student enrollment and diversity increased dramatically.

As provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, McCarty will have responsibility for academic programs of the Blair School of Music, College of Arts and Science, Divinity School, School of Engineering, Graduate School, Law School, Owen Graduate School of Management and Peabody College, and also will oversee student affairs, housing, admissions and financial aid, and research.

Carolyn Dever, executive dean of the College of Arts and Science and professor of English, is serving as interim dean of the College of Arts and Science until a new dean is named.

Illustration by Normand Cousineau

Although manufacturers are responsible for much of the greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States, individuals largely contribute to the problem of climate change, too. So what can be done about it?

A diverse group of experts at Vanderbilt University has created the Climate Change Research Network, which combines researchers from the areas of earth and environmental sciences, political science, law, engineering, business, management, economics and nursing to investigate one of the most important and most widely overlooked sources of greenhouse gases: individual behavior.

“The Climate Change Research Network is an interdisciplinary team conducting research to understand the magnitude of the contribution from individuals and households,” says Michael Vandenbergh, professor of environmental law. “Our goal is to identify the legal, economic and social responses that can generate effective, low-cost emissions reductions by those individuals and their families in their everyday lives.”

Network participants are examining questions such as: Which individual behaviors release the greatest amounts of greenhouse-gas emissions? How do people perceive and value climate-change risks, particularly when they are remote? What changes in the administration and staffing of government agencies will be required if climate-change laws and policies are adopted?

The Climate Change Research Network is in the early stages of establishing a national and international network of researchers to help answer questions that policymakers and other individuals may have regarding what they can do in their day-to-day lives to shrink their carbon footprint.

Find out more by clicking here.

Monroe Carell Jr. during one of his frequent visits to the hospital that bears his name

Photo by Dana Johnson.

­­­Monroe J. Carell Jr., BE’59, a Nashville executive admired as much for his philanthropy as for his business acumen, died June 20 after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 76.

The former chairman and chief executive officer of Central Parking Corp. provided strong volunteer leadership for Vander-bilt initiatives and numerous other causes.

“I cannot overstate the impact he has had on Vanderbilt’s past, present and future,” said Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “Through his leadership on the Board of Trust and enormous philanthropic generosity, Monroe established one of the finest children’s hospitals in the country and created scholarships that changed the lives of students.

“He led Vanderbilt’s Shape the Future campaign with a vigor and passion that only
he could possess, and he challenged all of us to reach higher in our goals for this great
university.”

A member of Vanderbilt University’s Board of Trust since 1991, Carell and his wife, Ann, have long supported various segments of the university, including undergraduate education, the children’s hospital that now bears his name, the School of Medicine and athletics. At the time of his death, he was leading the comprehensive, university-wide Shape the Future campaign, which has experienced unprecedented success.

Carell also served on the Vanderbilt Medical Center Board and the board of overseers for the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and was an honorary lifetime member of the board of directors of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital.

The Shape the Future campaign was publicly launched in 2003 with a goal of $1.25 billion. In late 2006 the Board of Trust voted to increase the goal to $1.75 billion in anticipation of reaching the original goal two years ahead of schedule.

A secondary goal of $100 million in bequests was reached in 2007, and the Board of Trust, at Carell’s request, raised the bequest goal to $150 million. The campaign is scheduled to close Dec. 31, 2010.

When the Shape the Future campaign reached its $1 billion milestone in September 2004, an editorial in The Tennessean newspaper stated, “It is Vanderbilt’s spending of the money–not its raising of it–that should most impress this city,” noting that the campaign priorities included need-based scholarships, faculty chairs and residential colleges.

Carell’s gifts to Vanderbilt included the Ann and Monroe Carell Jr. Family Chair in Pediatric Cardiology and the Carell Scholarship Fund. Perhaps his most significant commitment to Vanderbilt was leadership of the campaign to raise $50 million to help establish a new children’s hospital, which previously had been housed within Vanderbilt University Hospital. Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, which opened in 2004, is recognized as one of the nation’s top pediatric teaching, research and treatment institutions.

In all, some $79 million has been committed to the Children’s Hospital as a result of the Carells’ generosity as well as Monroe Carell’s personal fundraising efforts and leadership.

“His legacy will live on in the lives of the countless children he helped to improve through the hospital that bears his name,” said Dr. Harry R. Jacobson, vice chancellor for health affairs.

A 1959 cum laude graduate of the Vanderbilt School of Engineering, Carell received the school’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2001. The native Nashvillian served in the Navy before enrolling at Vanderbilt, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Carell was chief engineer with the Duck River Electrical Membership Cooperative before going to work for his father and a business partner at Central Parking in 1967.

Central Parking, which had 10 parking lots in Nashville and Atlanta when Carell began work there, is now the world’s largest parking services provider with more than 4,000 parking facilities. Carell sold Central Parking to a group of private equity firms in 2007. He resigned as executive chairman and, with his family, formed Carell LLC, a real-estate investment company.

In 1998 Carell established a fund to provide a total of eight full-tuition scholarships to excellent, hard-working students engaged in their community and committed to the broadening experience of working while in college. In 2006 the Carell Scholarship Fund was expanded to include a baseball scholarship. There are now 20 Carell Scholars and two Monroe J. Carell Jr. Baseball Scholars; 14 have graduated, and eight are still students. A new Carell Scholar will enter Vanderbilt this fall.

Carell is survived by his wife, the former Julia Ann Scott, who graduated from Peabody College in 1957, and by three children, six grandchildren and a brother.

Sevin Awarded Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit

Dieter Sevin, professor of Germanic languages and literatures and chair of the department, has been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is the only order awarded by the president of that nation.

“For almost 40 years [Sevin] has taught German language and literature at Vanderbilt,” said Lutz H. Görgens, the Atlanta-based consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany, in presenting the award. “His entire career so far has been dedicated to promoting the knowledge of German language and literature and culture in the United States.”

Sevin, who arrived in the U.S. as a teenager nearly 50 years ago, has published hundreds of articles and books, including one of the most widely used German college texts, Wie geht’s?: An Introductory German Course, co-authored with his wife, Ingrid Sevin.

Cancer Researcher Receives Accolade

Dr. David H. Johnson received the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ annual Clinical Research Award last October. Johnson, a professor of medicine, is director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and deputy director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. He was honored for his research, leadership, and commitment to individuals with lung and breast cancers. Johnson’s clinical research interests focus mainly on management of thoracic malignancies and experimental therapeutics.

Vanderbilt has launched its own channel on YouTube, the wildly popular video-sharing site. The channel features a broad range of offerings, including lectures, concerts and news pieces, and content straight from the classroom. Vanderbilt is one among just a handful of universities nationally with a branded YouTube channel.

Kathryn Edwards works to find a vaccine that would protect everyone from a pandemic flu. Photo by Dana Johnson

Vanderbilt University Medical Center will receive nearly $24 million from the federal government over the next seven years to continue evaluating innovative vaccines for pandemic flu, malaria and other infections. Vanderbilt’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit is one of eight in the country funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“Obtaining funding for this contract is remarkable, especially in light of shrinking federal budgets for research,” says Dr. Jeff Balser, associate vice chancellor for research. “Vaccine development is a powerful tool to fight disease on a broad public scale.”

Over the years Vanderbilt’s unit has morphed from a small vaccine clinic serving children to a testing center of national importance, beginning when swine flu hit in 1976. The VTEU was the basis for establishing Vanderbilt’s HIV Vaccine Testing Unit in 1988. Its long history of responding quickly to the microbial hot topic of the day has made Vanderbilt an international leader in vaccine research.

“The contract will allow us to address growing challenges in this area of research,” says the unit’s principal investigator, Dr. Kathryn Edwards, professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Pediatric Clinical Research. Among the challenges: how to increase the number of participants in these important studies.

“Those folks who have already participated in pandemic flu trials will not be eligible to participate in another round of these trials. We need new volunteers.”

Edwards says the VTEU will also work to increase racial and ethnic diversity “so that if there were a pandemic flu, we would have vaccine that would work for all.”

Some of the funds will support development of substances that can enhance the strength of the vaccines and thus reduce the amount and number of doses needed.

“That might mean, in the case of pandemic flu, that we can protect our population and others in developing countries that do not have the potential to make vaccines,” Edwards says.

Vanderbilt researchers also are working on cytomegalo-virus (CMV) prevention, new types of seasonal influenza vaccines and, in collaboration with colleagues at Stanford University, an innovative malaria vaccine that uses a malaria protein carried in the common cold virus.

“A colleague at another institution told me about a patient who was given a prescription and said to the doctor, ‘Are you prescribing this drug because that’s what’s printed on your pen?’ That says how powerful this issue is,” says Dr. Steven Gabbe,dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Drug representatives may continue to meet with physicians and to supply free samples through the outpatient pharmacy, but they may not attend conferences and continuing medical education classes.

The policy is being phased in over a six-month period, with July 1 as the target date for compliance. It focuses on nonresearch use of industry products and will not affect research relationships or activities.

“This policy is a practical guide for physician interaction with industry,” says Gabbe. “It will give the public great assurance to know that our decisions are based on what’s best for them.”

VUMC’s executive leadership is soliciting feedback on the policy, available by clicking here.

The Saturday Academy at Vanderbilt for the Young raises the bar for top students. Photo by Rusty Russell

Not every child would want to spend Saturdays in school. But these aren’t your average kids, and SAVY isn’t your average school. Beginning in January and continuing through early March, gifted students in kindergarten through eighth grade had the chance to expand their academic horizons in a new program created by Vanderbilt and held at the nearby University School of Nashville.

To qualify for the Saturday Academy at Vanderbilt for the Young–SAVY–students had to test at the 95th percentile and above on either verbal or quantitative reasoning sections of academic achievement tests or IQ tests.

Each class was limited to 12 students, led by teachers trained and experienced in working with the gifted. Classes ranged from “The Deep: The Wonderful, Watery World of the Oceans” for kindergartners to “Going Nuclear: The Solution for Our Energy Needs?” for seventh- and eighth-graders.

Moms and dads also got in on the act. “Parents are among the most important forces in the development of special talents while also fostering balance and healthfulness,” says Elizabeth Schoenfeld, director of the Vanderbilt Programs for Talented Youth. “We are offering classes for SAVY parents while their children are in class.”

To learn more about Vanderbilt Programs for Talented Youth, including SAVY, Weekend Academy at Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt Summer Academy, and the new Med School 101, visit www.pty.vanderbilt.edu or call 615/322-8261.

Teacher Mary Laurens Seely helps Tyler Rowland with his studies at the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital School, where young patients keep up with schoolwork. Photo by Dana Johnson

Like most 4-year-olds, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is growing like a weed. Although the free-standing hospital was just completed in 2004, Vanderbilt in January obtained approval from the Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency to move forward with expansion.

“We have seen tremendous growth in the number of children treated at our hospital,” says Dr. Kevin Churchwell, CEO of Children’s Hospital. “This growth has led to our hospital being at full capacity most of the year.”

Since opening its doors the hospital has seen an increase in discharges of 37 percent, patient days of 31 percent, operative procedures of 53 percent, emergency visits of 31 percent, and clinic visits of 45 percent.

The total cost of the eight-story addition is projected to be approximately $203 million, with groundbreaking in 2009 and construction completed in 2012. The expanded building will connect to the existing hospital to the east, including the adjacent block of Medical Center

Drive and the space currently occupied by the Vanderbilt Dayani Center for Health and Wellness, which is slated to relocate to the developing 100 Oaks campus.

The new building will house 190 new and relocated obstetrical, pediatric and neonatal intensive care beds. Obstetrical and NICU beds currently in the main hospital will be relocated to the new building.

The total number of licensed beds for the Medical Center will increase to 1,051.