Our School of Medicine 2017 Festival of Science will have the theme of “Mobility and Disability in Aging: Causes, Consequences and Strategies for Restoration.” Now in our Third Century, the School is a burgeoning enterprise of nearly 1,300 students and 3,000 faculty. Soon we will occupy our 15th building, and the largest one on Campus, the new UMSOM Research Building, Health Sciences Facility III. Over the years, the School has evolved into one that has a tripartite mission of biomedical research, medical education, and clinical care.
As we have reflected back on our extraordinary 210- year history over this last year, and how adeptly the School has evolved to meet the challenges of each passing decade, we also recognize that not everything can move so nimbly with age, including ourselves. A June 2017 report from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that Americans aged 65 years and older account for over 15 percent of our nation’s population, and estimates that the older population will continue to grow.
This trend is seen throughout the world — humans are living longer than ever before due, in large part, to the incredible advances in biomedicine.
For example:
- The five-year survival rate of people with cancer has increased to over 70 percent due to advances in cancer research and treatment.
- The number of deaths due to cardiovascular disease has declined dramatically because patients receive medical therapies based on results from research studies.
- Academic research is responsible for more than 150 FDA-approved drugs to treat an array of diseases and conditions, including heart disease, metabolic disease, and infectious diseases.
This list of advances could easily be 10 or 100 times longer, but the important thing to keep in mind is that discovery-based medicine, which is what our School of Medicine is known for conducting, has added many years to the lives of the world’s population. However, dramatically improving the quality of life for older adults remains a considerable challenge. As we age, the flexibility of the physical body and the mind can begin to decrease, leading to concerns about mobility, independence, and cognitive awareness.
We are tremendously fortunate to have a dedicated cadre of UMSOM faculty who have devoted their careers to unraveling the causes and consequences of diseases and conditions often associated with aging, as well as developing innovative approaches to preventing, managing and treating patients. Many of these distinguished faculty will present their research during the Festival of Science, and are highlighted in this month’s issue.
However, we all can play a role in research on aging. Indeed, we are all aging and may face the challenges of limited mobility, possible recovery from bone fractures, memory loss, or even the consequences of long-term chronic diseases. Even if we are not personally affected by these conditions, we will have loved ones — parents, spouses, friends — whose quality of life may be deeply changed as they get older.
The advances that our School has made over the last three centuries, and that medical science has made over the same period, prove to us that a high quality of life throughout the entirety of our lives is an attainable goal, but requires a continual commitment to the further advancement of biomedical research and science. I am confident that, given our current strengths in research on aging, we can become international leaders in this ever-growing and increasingly important field, but that this will require additional collaborations across our entire community to attain this achievable goal.
The annual Festival of Science is an opportunity for us to learn more about our colleagues’ work, but it is also a chance to develop new ideas, change current perspectives, and develop unique research partnerships. As one of the key goals of both our ambitious Strategic Plan and Vision 2020 set forth, we want to be known for conducting collaborative research, working across disciplines to answer the “big science” questions that biomedicine faces today, and will need to confront in the future.
I strongly encourage you not just to attend this year’s Festival but to be an active participant, and to identify ways in which you might form new research teams with the faculty presenters, not only providing a novel direction for your own research, but further strengthening our portfolio in research on aging. Only by working together, perhaps with colleagues you never envisioned, can we truly make a dramatic impact in the health and wellbeing of all.
In the relentless pursuit of excellence, I am
Sincerely yours,
E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA
Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and
Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Congratulations to our very productive faculty on their recent grants and contracts!
Alan Cross, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, was awarded a grant in the amount of $1,178,647 from USA MED RESEARCH to study Broad Spectrum Host-Oriented Therapy for Wound Infection.
Anthony Harris, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, received a three-year, $363,691 subaward agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the project, “Creation of a Healthcare Associated Infectious Disease Modeling Network to Improve Prevention Research and Healthcare Delivery.”
Kirsten Lyke, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, was awarded a grant up to $1,197,475 from the Geneva Foundation to evaluate the safety and reactogenicity of the Hantaan Virus (HTNV), Puumala Virus (PUUV), and combination HTNV/PUUV DNA vaccine candidates delivered to healthy adults either intramuscular electroporation (IM-EP) or intradermal electroporation (ID-EP).
Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Wilbur Chen, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Chief of Adult Clinical Studies, Center for Vaccine Development, were awarded $4.68 million VTEU grant from the National Institutes of Health to test an H7N9 influenza vaccine. Separately, Dr. Neuzil was awarded two other grants: $796,429 by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation as a supplement for the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium and $2,862,677 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to conduct clinical trials and research on a pertussis vaccine.
Cindy Schaeffer, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, and Sharon Hoover, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, received a four-year, $2,977,876 award from the National Institute of Justice as part of their Comprehensive School Safety Initiative. The award, “Evaluating Promising School Staff and Resource-Officer Approaches for Reducing Harsh Discipline, Suspensions and Arrests,” is a partnership between UMB and Cecil County Public Schools to study the impact of a comprehensive approach to improving school safety.
Junfang Wu, BM, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Center for Shock, Trauma and Anesthesiology Research (STAR), along with Alan Faden, MD, the David S. Brown Professor in Trauma, Professor, Departments of Anesthesiology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, and Neurology, and Director, Center for Shock, Trauma & Anesthesiology Research (STAR ORC) and Susan Dorsey, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, received a five-year, $2,818,594 R01 grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) for “Spinal Mechanisms Underlying SCI-induced Pain: Implications for Targeted Therapy.”
Hats off to those who have been published!
Rong Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, was among the co-authors of “Predictive Models of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy for Cirrhotic Patients Based on Large-scale Brain Intrinsic Connectivity Networks,” in Scientific Reports, 2017 Sep 14;7(1):11512.
Wengen Chen, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Joint SNMMI-ASNC Expert Consensus Document on the Role of 18F-Fdg Pet/Ct in Cardiac Sarcoid Detection and Therapy Monitoring” in Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, 2017 Aug 2, and “Joint SNMMI-ASNC Expert Consensus Document on the Role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Cardiac Sarcoid Detection and Therapy Monitoring” in Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 2017 Aug;58(8):1341-1353.
Randi Cohen, MD, MS, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, was among the co-authors on “NRG Oncology-Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Study 1014: 1-year Toxicity Report From a Phase 2 Study of Repeat Breast-Preserving Surgery and 3-Dimensional Conformal Partial-Breast Irradiation for In-Breast Recurrence” in International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, 2017 Aug 1;98:1028–1035.
Antoine Dara, PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Malaria Research; Mark Travassos, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics; Matthew Adams, Research Laboratory Supervisor, the Institute for Global Health; Sara Schaffer De Roo; Elliott Drabek, PhD, Senior Bioinformatics Software Engineer; Sonia Agrawal; Miriam Laufer, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Epidemiology & Public Health, Director of the Division of Malaria Research, and Associate Director of the Institute of Global Health; Christopher Plowe, MD, MPH, FASTMH, the Frank M. Calia, MD Professor of Medicine and Founding Director, Institute for Global Health; and Joana Silva, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, were among the authors on “A New Method for Sequencing the Hypervariable Plasmodium Falciparum Gene Var2csa From Clinical Samples” in Malaria Journal, 2017 Aug. 17.
Aletta Frazier, MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, authored “Distinctive Features of Testicular Neoplasms: Seminoma Versus Mixed Germ Cell Tumor” in Radiographics, 2017 Jul-Aug;37(4):1084. Separately, Dr. Frazier authored “Renal Medullary Carcinoma Associated with Sickle Cell Trait” in Radiographics, 2017 Sep-Oct;37(5):1537.
Fabien Fuche, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow; Ousmane Sow, Research Technician; Raphael Simon, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; and Sharon Tennant, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Institute for Global Health, were among the authors on “Salmonella Serogroup C: Current Status of Vaccines and Why They Are Needed” in Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, 2017 Sep.
Sarah Jackson, MPH, PhD Candidate (first author); Surbhi Leekha, MBBS, MPH, Associate Professor; Laurence Magder, PhD, Professor; Lisa Pineles, MA, Program Director; Kristen Stafford, PhD, Assistant Professor; Kerri Thom, MD, Associate Professor; and Anthony Harris, MD, MPH, Professor (last author), all from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, were among the co-authors on “The Effect of Adding Comorbidities to Current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Central-Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection Risk-Adjustment Methodology” in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 2017 Sep;38(9):1019-1024.
Edward Herskovits, MD, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine was among the co-authors on “Multicenter Research Studies in Radiology,” in Academic Radiology, 2017 Sep 15.
Jean Jeudy, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Location, Variations and Predictors of Epicardial Fat Mapping Using Multi-detector Computed Tomography to Assist Epicardial Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation” in Pacing Clinical Electrophysiology, 2017 Jul 19. Dr. Jeudy was also among the co-authors on “Validation of a Novel CARTOSEG™ Segmentation Module Software for Contrast-enhanced Computed Tomography-guided Radiofrequency Ablation in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation” in Pacing Clinical Electrophysiology, 2017 Sep 13.
Gaurav Jindal, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, was among the co-authors on “Interhospital Transfer Prior to Thrombectomy is Associated with Delayed Treatment and Worse Outcome in the STRATIS Registry” in Circulation, 2017 Sep 24.
Several faculty members had articles in the August 2017 issue of Pediatric Clinics of North America, which focused on global infections and child health. Karen Kotloff, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Head of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, authored “The Burden and Etiology of Diarrheal Illness in Developing Countries.” Lauren Cohee, MD, Instructor, Department of Pediatrics, and Miriam Laufer, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Epidemiology & Public Health, Director of the Division of Malaria Research, and Associate Director of the Institute of Global Health co-authored “Malaria in Children.” Elizabeth Rotrosen, Clinical Research Assistant, Center for Vaccine Development, and Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development, were co-authors on “Influenza: A Global Perspective.”
Myron Levine, MD, DTPH, the Simon and Bessie Grollman Distinguished Professor, and Associate Dean for Global Health, Institute for Global Health, Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development, and Karen Kotloff, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, and Head of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, were among the co-authors on “The Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC): Vaccine Effectiveness Study Designs: Accelerating the Introduction of Typhoid Conjugate Vaccines and Reducing the Global Burden of Enteric Fever” in Vaccine 2017 August 9. Additionally, Drs. Levine and Kotloff along with Marcelo Sztein, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, were among the co-authors on “Identification of Immune Correlates of Protection in Shigella Infection by Application of Machine Learning” in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 2017 August 9. Separately, Dr. Levine was a co-author on “Typhoid Vaccine Development with a Human Challenge Model” in The Lancet, 2017 Sep 28.
Michael Lipsky, PhD, Professor, Department of Pathology; Sunil Sen, Research Specialist, Courtney Matson, Graduate Research Assistant, and Jasnehta Permala-Booth, Laboratory Manager, all from the Center for Vaccine Development, Institute for Global Health; Louis DeTolla, VMD, MS, PhD, DACLAM, Professor, Department of Pathology; and Sharon Tennant, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, were among the co-authors on “Virulence of Invasive Salmonella Typhimurium ST313 in Animal Models of Infection” in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2017 August 4.
Robert Morales, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine was among the co-authors of “Intrabronchial Catheter Resuscitation for Respiratory and Cardiorespiratory Arrest” in Shock, 2017 Sep 14.
Amed Ouattara, PhD, PharmD, Research Associate, Department of Medicine; Matt Adams, Laboratory Supervisor; Mark Travassos, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics; Matt Laurens, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics; and Christopher Plowe, MD, MPH, FASTMH, the Frank M. Calia, MD Professor of Medicine and Founding Director, Institute for Global Health, were among the co-authors on “Plasmodium vivax Infections Over 3 Years in Duffy Blood Group Negative Malians in Bandiagara, Mali” in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2017 Jul 24.
Elizabeth Rotrosen, Clinical Research Assistant, Center for Vaccine Development, and Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Medicine, and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development, co-authored “Influenza Among Young Children in Bangladesh: Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes from a Randomized Clinical Trial” in Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2017 Oct 6.
Eliot Siegel, MD, Professor, and Michael Toland, PACS Team Manager, both from the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, were among the co-authors of “Use of Radiology Procedure Codes in Health Care: The Need for Standardization and Structure” in Radiographics 2017 Jul-Aug. Dr. Siegel was also a co-author on “RSNA Diagnosis Live: A Novel Web-based Audience Response Tool to Promote Evidence-based Learning” in Radiographics. 2017 Jul-Aug.