VU Brief - Oct. 23, 2009

VU Brief Archive

 

In the News:

  • A message from Provost Richard McCarty MORE
  • Vanderbilt scientists receive federal funding for two unconventional research projects MORE
  • VUMC joins global consortium to fight tuberculosis MORE
  • National school choice conference set for Oct. 25-27 at Vanderbilt MORE
  • FIPSE-CAPES: Developing Cross-Cultural, Interdisciplinary Curricula MORE
  • Vanderbilt University receives $100, 000 Grand Challenges Exploration Grant for Innovative Global Health Research MORE
  • Ebb, flow of physicians workforce studied MORE
  • Gene mingling boosts risk of sudden death MORE
  • A day in the life of the new Critical Care Tower MORE
  • Interactive program tackles myths surrounding cancer clinical trials MORE

A message from Provost Richard McCarty
Over the past year, we have come together as a university community in response to the global economic downturn.  Vanderbilt is fortunate to have entered this period of uncertainty in a relatively strong financial position.  Our endowment has grown significantly in recent years, but like all university endowments, it has been impacted recently by the market's steep decline. Thanks in large measure to the consistent efforts of our faculty and staff across the campus, Vanderbilt significantly reduced non-core academic and patient care expenses and as a result, we exceeded our budget surplus projections for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.  However, we will need to maintain that same fiscal discipline over the next several years if we are to continue to preserve our financial health. MORE

Vanderbilt scientists receive federal funding for two unconventional research projects
Figuring out how biological clocks evolved and extracting clues to environmental factors that cause cancer from electronic medical records: These are the goals of two projects that have been funded by a National Institutes of Health program which supports speculative research that may have a profound impact on our understanding of biology and human disease. Professor of Biological Sciences Carl Johnson has decided to address this question in a particularly direct fashion by seeing if he can force biological clocks to evolve in single-celled organisms that don’t have them. At the same time, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics Hua Xu is applying “natural language processing technologies” to extract detailed information from electronic medical records that can aid studies of cancer in large populations. MORE

VUMC joins global consortium to fight tuberculosis
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is participating in an international consortium to improve treatment of, and hopefully eliminate the scourge of, tuberculosis. The Tuberculosis Trials Consortium recently received renewal funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its goal is to shorten the duration of treatment of tuberculosis among people with active disease who can spread it to others and among those with “latent” infection, to prevent them from developing TB disease. “Both could have a huge impact on decreasing the global TB burden,” said Timothy Sterling, M.D., professor of Medicine and principal investigator at the Vanderbilt site, which will receive $7 million from CDC over the next 10 years -- $510,000 in the coming year. The grant enables Vanderbilt to expand collaborations with the Metro Public Health Department, Meharry Medical College, Metro General Hospital and the Tennessee Department of Health. MORE

National school choice conference set for Oct. 25-27 at Vanderbilt
School choice experts from across the nation will convene at Vanderbilt University Oct. 25-27 to discuss the latest research surrounding high-profile education issues such as charter schools, magnet schools, vouchers, student achievement, teacher qualifications, funding and more. The conference, “School Choice and School Improvement: Research in State, District and Community Contexts,” is being hosted by the National Center on School Choice at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development. MORE

FIPSE-CAPES: Developing Cross-Cultural, Interdisciplinary Curricula
For Brazilian exchange students Rita Lewkowicz and Rodrigo Dornelles, it wasn’t the campus scenery or college sports that got them most excited about Vanderbilt, but instead the campus library system. Lewkowicz and Dornelles were part of Vanderbilt’s FIPSE-CAPES program, an exchange program funded by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the Brazilian Ministry of Education (CAPES). The FIPSE-CAPES grant is awarded to a consortium of universities in the U.S. and Brazil, united under a specific course of study, and includes graduate student exchanges to encourage theoretical and practical knowledge of the other countries. The interdisciplinary program, called “Multicultural Diversity, Social Inequalities, and the Pursuit of Health in Brazil and the United States,” included courses and certificate programs developed by faculty at all four consortium institutions. MORE (page 3)

Vanderbilt University receives $100, 000 Grand Challenges Exploration Grant for Innovative Global Health Research
Vanderbilt University announced Oct. 21 that it has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Associate Professor of Chemistry David Wright and Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rick Haselton, titled “Coffee Ring Stain Diagnostics for Malaria.” To receive funding Wright and Haselton showed in a two-page application how their idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and might lead to significant advances in global health. Wright and Haselton’s innovative idea is to develop a simple, low-cost diagnostic test for malaria infection suitable for locations that lack electricity, refrigeration and highly trained technicians. MORE

Ebb, flow of physicians workforce studied
Amid concerns about a national physician shortage, a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that more young physicians are entering the workforce and fewer older physicians are remaining active, resulting in estimates for a smaller and younger physician workforce now and in the future. The study was led by health care economists Douglas Staiger, Ph.D., of Dartmouth College, David Auerbach, Ph.D., of the Congressional Budget Office, and Peter Buerhaus, Ph.D., R.N., of Vanderbilt's Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies and Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Although debate over potential shortages has focused largely on the number and type of physicians needed in the future, the study shows that concerns have also been raised about data used in physician supply estimates and projections. MORE

Gene mingling boosts risk of sudden death
A multi-national research team has discovered that two genetic factors converge to increase the risk of sudden cardiac death. The investigators -- from the United States, Italy and South Africa -- report in the journal Circulation that variations in the gene NOS1AP increase the risk of cardiac symptoms and sudden death in patients who have an inherited cardiac disease called congenital long-QT syndrome. The findings will help in assessing the risk of sudden death -- and assigning therapy -- in patients with this syndrome, said senior author Alfred George Jr., M.D., director of the Division of Genetic Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The National Institutes of Health and Telethon-Italy supported the research. MORE

A day in the life of the new Critical Care Tower
Does the nurse call system work? Can we operate the bariatric lifts? What is the route to Radiology? Where are supplies located? Those questions and more were answered in a special Critical Care Tower training exercise called “Day in the Life.” Held Oct. 15, the exercise took 250 staff and volunteers through 10 scripted scenarios to test the new addition to Vanderbilt University Hospital. The scenarios were designed to mimic the typical processes that staff and faculty use to care for patients in the Medical, Neurological and Surgical Intensive Care Units and to help them get comfortable in their new space before real patients are moved into the new facility on Nov. 14. MORE

Interactive program tackles myths surrounding cancer clinical trials
“Saturday Night Live” comedians frequently borrow the “Jeopardy!” game show format to take a humorous poke at other actors or politicians. Now a group of Vanderbilt cancer survivors and researchers is using that same quiz show formula to skewer myths about cancer clinical trials. An interactive live program, “Mythbusters: Cancer Research in Jeopardy,” was recently presented by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Research Advocates and members of the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association. Patient Research Advocate Lee presented 10 common myths about cancer research and clinical trials and encouraged nearly 50 audience participants to vote on possible answers electronically. Videotaped answers from Vanderbilt cancer experts were used to debunk the myths and provide factual information about cancer clinical trials available to patients today. MORE