Research Enterprise Newsletter - December 2007: Faculty News
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Pinson and colleagues publish study on liver allocation policy
Vanderbilt Transplant Center Director Wright Pinson, MD, and colleagues have found that an objective-only method of allocating donated livers has lowered the number of deaths among patients waiting for a liver. Results of their study were released last week in the Archives of Surgery. In 2002, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) adopted the Model for End-state Liver Disease (MELD) score system, which uses laboratory values to determine a patient's need for liver transplantation. Previously, patients who spent the longest time waiting for a liver were given priority. The Vanderbilt study looked at UNOS data from three years prior to the policy change through two years after the acceptance of the MELD score system. The study showed that after an initial increase in the number of deaths, an overall decrease was associated with the MELD policy change. Time to transplantation also declined. The MELD scoring system had no significant impact on post-transplant survival.
Guengerich inducted into Japanese xenobiotics society
Fred Guengerich, PhD, professor of Biochemistry, has been inducted as one of two foreign honorary members of the Japanese Society for the Study of Xenobiotics-Japan's leading society in drug metabolism and toxicity. The ceremony took place in Sendai, Japan, on October 8.
Wikswo receives top technology advancement award
John P. Wikswo, PhD, University Professor of Physics & Astronomy, Biomedical Engineering, and Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, has been named a Fellow of the IEEE, the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology. Elevation to Fellow is the Institute's most prestigious honor. Wikswo was selected for contributions to understanding electromagnetic effects on materials and biological tissues.
Clinical Pharmacology faculty honored
Dan Roden, MD, professor of Medicine & Pharmacology, director of the Oates Institute for Experimental Therapeutics, and assistant vice chancellor for Personalized Medicine, will receive the highest award given internationally in clinical pharmacology for 2008-the Rawls Palmer Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Roden will be honored for his work on the genetic basis of inter-individual variability in responses to various drugs.
Bjorn Knollmann, MD, PhD, associate professor of Clinical Pharmacology, will receive an Established Investigator Award from the AHA for his work on calcium signaling in the heart.
