Graduate Studies Newsletter
OFFICE OF THE VICE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES
Volume 1, Issue 1
January, 2013
Program Updates Happy New Year and best wishes for 2013 from the Graduate Office! We are delighted
Inside this issue:
to announce that Amanda Watkins-Borths started December 12th as our new Graduate Program Coordinator. Amanda is a TAMU graduate and also has a M.A. in Teaching and Education from George Fox University. She was formerly in our medical admissions office and has been with the college since 2008, so she is quite familiar with our organization and our general operations. Amanda brings a wealth of knowledge, skills, and leadership to our office along with a very student-oriented perspective. Her duties will include coordination of the graduate programs (Biomedical Science and Neuroscience), the combined programs (MD/PhD and MD Plus), and the Summer Research Program. We’ve tried to update all our links and materials with her name and contact information, but if you find something we’ve missed please let us know. Also, if you haven’t yet met Amanda please feel free to stop by MREB 1002 and get to know her.
Program Updates Announcements
2
Policy Corner
3
Events
3
New Grad Faculty 4 Student Achievements
4
Awards
5
Publications and Presentations
5
The merger with TAMU continues to move forward slowly and with a great many issues still unresolved. The current plan tentatively eliminates the HSC School of Graduate Studies and would place all of the HSC graduate degree programs under the TAMU Office of Graduate Studies (this was the arrangement that existed prior to the creation of the HSC and its separation from TAMU). The one immediate implication of this institutional merger for graduate students is that August of 2013 will be the last semester when you can receive your degree from the HSC. If the merger is finalized in the summer as scheduled, then all degrees awarded in the fall semester and beyond will come from TAMU. One complication of the merger is that both the HSC and TAMU have MS/PhD programs titled Biomedical Science. An institution can’t have two separate degree programs with the same name and state code number (CIP code) so a decision was made to submit a prospectus to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board indicating that the HSC Biomedical Science graduate program would be joined with the identically named program in the TAMU College of Veterinary Medicine. No further action has been taken so at this point we don’t know how such a merger of these two graduate degree programs will be operationally implemented. While we have no details yet about how the combined program will be organized and administered, let me assure you that all of us involved are working hard to ensure that there is no disruption in the educational program for our current students.
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Graduate Studies Newsletter
Program Updates We are optimistic that a joint program with the Vet School could have some exciting possibilities for graduate education and training, but are also exploring other options for our students. For example, even before the merger was proposed we were developing a new MS/PhD degree in Clinical and Translational Science. This new degree proposal is still moving forward with a very tentative start date of fall of 2014 and should provide a new mechanism for training students within the College of Medicine. We have also had discussions at the HSC Graduate Program Council and the COM Graduate Committee about other entirely new degree programs that could be developed, and I think this is an ideal time to creatively explore how best to train and educate graduate students for the diverse career choices that now exist. While change can be difficult, I am hopeful that we can use this merger as the catalyst to re-examine and reinvigorate our graduate program. One of the last tasks completed by Rachel Levins before her departure was a complete overhaul of our Graduate Office website (http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/graduate-studies/index.html). Rachel updated and reorganized the entire site to make it easier to navigate and hopefully more user friendly. If you haven’t visited our site recently please check it out and send us any suggestions or corrections.
Announcements
In December we received the notification that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges reaffirmed the HSC accreditation, which includes the School of Graduate Studies. We are accredited for ten years which reflects the strong, across the board excellence in all of the HSC colleges. Congratulations to all who worked so hard to prepare for this review and to ensure our success, particularly Emily Wilson and Amanda Allen for the SGS.
Congratulations to the following students who completed their training and graduated in December of 2012. We hope you enjoyed your time in our program, received the training and mentoring you hoped for, and gained the skills to be productive in your future careers. Best wishes and we look forward to following all your future successes! NAME
DEGREE
PI
TITLE of THESIS or DISSERTATION Ethanol Mediated Disregulation of MIR-9 Contributes to Ethanol Teratology in the Zebrafish Embryo
Dana Papalardo Carter
Doctor of Philosophy Neuroscience
Dr. Wei-Jung Chen
Joanne C. Damborsky
Doctor of Philosophy Neuroscience
Dr. Ursula H. WinzerSerhan
Sex-Specific Effects of Chronic Neonatal Nicotine Exposure on Hippocampal Development and Long-Term Repercussions for Hippocampal Function
Paola Cecilia Rosas Delgado
Doctor of Philosophy Medical Sciences
Dr. Alekzander Asea
The Role of HSP72 in Preventing Human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide Aggregation: A New Approach Towards Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Arran Huckstep
Masters of Science
Non-Thesis Masters
Daniel Jiro Kota
Doctor of Philosophy Medical Sciences
Dr. Karen NewellRogers Dr. Darwin Prockop
Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the Prevention of Type 1 Diabetes
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Announcements
Here is the link to the FY12-13 Academic Calendar: http://www.tamhsc.edu/calendar/academic/ay-201213-academic-calendars/sgs-srph-2012-13.pdf. Please consult this calendar for all the official deadlines for spring semester.
Our Graduate Admissions Committee (GAC) has begun the task of reviewing applications and determining admissions offers for the 2013-14 academic year, so if you are looking for new students for your lab please let the committee know your needs. Also, we hope to be bringing some of the applicants for interviews in February and will be contacting both faculty and grad students to participate in the interview process – please try to help if asked! The GAC members this year are:
Dr. Troy Baudino, Internal medicine— Molecular Cardiology
Dr. Robert Alaniz, Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis
Dr. Travis Hein, Surgery
Dr. Jun-yuan Ji, Molecular and Cellular Medicine
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Announcements
Dr. Margarita Martinez—Moczygemba, Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis
Dr. Ian Murray, Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics
Dr. Carl Tong, Systems Biology and Translational Medicine
Dr. Andreea Trache, Systems Biology and Translational Medicine
Dr. Sharon DeMorrow, Internal Medicine
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Announcements
I wanted to remind everyone again about the CSTAR Institute Grand Rounds series. These seminars are at noon on the first Tuesday of each month and are intended to be a unifying and focal event that brings together all faculty, students, and trainees across the HSC. The talks are geared towards a general audience and provide state-of-the-art information about important and topical subjects in biomedical science. The previous talks have been outstanding with content presented at a level that should be accessible to everyone in the audience. I urge everyone to get these events on your 2013 calendar and resolve to be an attendee and an active participant.
I wanted to bring to your attention a relatively new program called StartupAggieland (http:// cnve.tamu.edu/program/accelerator). This is a student run organization that helps students develop and implement new products or startup companies. The organization provides students free or affordable access to entrepreneurial resources including space, collaborators, and mentors to help transform an idea into reality. If any of our grad students have an idea that they would like to commercialize please contact Blake Petty (blakepetty@tamu.edu) to see about how to access this resource.
Policy Corner An issue that reoccurs fairly frequently is the distinction between a thesis and a dissertation. While the terms are often used interchangeably in conversation, at our institution they actually have very specific and different meanings. A thesis is the document that one submits as part of a M.S. degree program while the dissertation is for a Ph.D. degree. We sometimes see Ph.D. students submit their dissertation with the word “thesis” on the title page, and this is incorrect and will cause us to send your dissertation back for revision. One of my new year’s resolutions is to try to use the terms correctly when I speak and only use thesis for M.S. documents and dissertation for Ph.D. documents. On a related issue I also wanted to remind everyone that the SGS Thesis and Dissertation Manual was updated in December of 2011 and can be found at http://sgs.tamhsc.edu/currentstudents/handbooks.html. Please refer only to this version when preparing your thesis or dissertation as some of the older versions had instructions that are no longer correct. Another recurring issue is that all out-of-state students requesting a waiver of the out-of-state tuition must apply for the waiver each semester. Previously the waiver requests were done once a year, but the Registrar’s Office now requires it for each semester. Importantly, the waiver request is done through myHSC and is initiated by the student each semester. Reminders will be sent, but it’s the student’s responsibility each semester to initiate the approval process through myHSC. We continue to receive hardcopy requests, but these paper versions are no longer being accepted and will be returned to the student without processing. If there is a problem with using myHSC just let the Registrar’s Office know (and copy Amanda as well) and they will resolve the issue. Lastly, I also wanted to remind all the first year students to complete the Rotation Signup Sheet (http:// medicine.tamhsc.edu/graduate-studies/current/pdf/signup-form.pdf) and return the completed form to Amanda if you haven’t already done so. Also you should remind the PIs to complete the Rotation Evaluation Form (http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/graduate-studies/current/pdf/evaluation-form.pdf) when you finish your rotation and submit that form to Amanda for you file. Hopefully you are all nearing your final decisions about rotations and are getting closer to choosing a permanent lab.
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Events
The annual GSO Symposium will be held April 26th, from 8-5 at HPEB. The keynote speaker is Dr. Thomas Spencer, a former TAMU faculty member in Animal Sciences, now at Washington State University. His research interests are developmental biology and function of the uterus and placenta, endogenous retroviruses, and physiological genomics. The call for abstracts and the schedule of events will be announced later this semester, and I encourage all the grad students, med students, and post-docs to present and/or attend.
New Grad Faculty Congratulations to the following individuals who were appointed to the SGS Graduate Faculty in the fall of 2012. Vytas Bankaitis, Ph.D., Professor and Wehner-Welch Chair, Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine; Member Boris Blechacz, M.D./Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (U. of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center); Adjunct Member Ekokobe Fonkem, D.O., Assistant Professor and Director of the Brain Tumor Center, Department of Neurology (Scott & White); Associate Member Mong-Hong Lee, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology (U.
of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center); Adjunct Member
Student Achievements
One of our soon to be graduates, Kelly Soltysiak (MMPA), accepted a position as the Program Coordinator for the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense which is part of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence at TAMU.
The following students complete their prelims and advanced to candidacy:
Ximena Paez; PI: Dr. Mendell Rimer; Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics
Paul Hillman; PI: Dr. Scott Dindot; Department of Veterinary Pathobiology and Molecular and Cellular Medicine
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Student Achievements
Luke Potts; PI: Dr. Lih Kuo; Department of Systems Biology and Translational Medicine
Matthew Quinn; PI: Dr. Sharon DeMorrow; Internal Medicine
Awards
Ximena Paez (NEXT) was awarded a Texas Brain and Spine Institute Fellowship for 2013.
Michael Kahle (NEXT; PI: Dr. Greg Bix) received the Outstanding Poster Award at the 2nd Annual Markesbery Symposium. University of Kentucky. Lexington, KY, 2012, for a poster entitled “Perlecan domain V promotes neuroprotection and neurorepair in multiple animal models of ischemic stroke” by M. Kahle, S. Grupke, J. Roberts, E. Gowing, A. Clarkson, G. Bix. Mr. Kahle also received an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship #12PRE12080026 for his project “Perlecan Domain V as a Novel Regenerator of Stroke Infarcted and Ischemic Areas”.
Li-Chun (Debbie) Tu, a student with Dr. Sig Musser in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, received a travel award to the NIH Graduate Student Research Conference, October 8-10, 2012 in Bethesda, MD. The award covered travel and lodging, and Ms. Tu gave a presentation entitled “Efficient Transport of Large Cargos Requires Multiple Transport Receptors".
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Presentations and Publications
Kendal Jensen published a review article entitled “General mechanisms of nicotine-induced fibrogenesis” in FASEB J. 2012 Dec 26(12):4778-87. The authors were Jensen K, Nizamutdinov D, Guerrier M, Afroze S, Dostal D, and Glaser S.
Ximena Paez presented a poster entitled “Selective restoration of SMN in motoneurons in two severe SMA mouse models” at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in October, 2012.
M. Kahle, J. Roberts, E. Gowing, A. Clarkson, G. Bix. Perlecan domain V promotes neuroprotection and neurorepair in multiple animal models of ischemic stroke. Society for Neuroscience Conference, New Orleans, LA, 2012.
M. Kahle, G. Bix. Successfully climbing the “STAIRs”: Surmounting failed translation of experimental ischemic stroke treatments. STROKE RESEARCH AND TREATMENT, 2012 (In Press)
M. Kahle, G. Bix. Neuronal restoration following ischemic stroke: Influences, barriers, and therapeutic potential. NEUROREHABILITATION AND NEURAL REPAIR, 2012 (In Press)
J. Roberts, M. Kahle, G. Bix. Perlecan and the blood-brain barrier: Beneficial proteolysis?. FRONTIERS IN NEUROPHARMACOLOGY, 2012. 3:155.
D. Clarke, B. Lee, A. Al Ahmad, C. Parham, L. Auckland, A. Fertala, M. Kahle, C. Shaw, J. Roberts, G. Bix. Perlecan domain V induces vascular endothelial growth factor secretion in brain endothelial cells through integrin α5β1 and ERK-dependent signaling pathways. PLoS One, 2012. 7(9):e45257. PMID: 23028886
MP. Kahle, B. Lee, T. Pourmohamad, A. Cunningham, H. Su, H. Kim, Y. Chen, CE. McCulloch, NM. Barbaro, MT. Lawton, WL. Young, GJ. Bix. Perlecan domain V is upregulated in human brain arteriovenous malformation (BAVM) and could mediate VEGF effect in lesional tissue. NEUROREPORT, 2012. 23:627630. PMID: 22643235
Mission OFFICE OF THE VICE DEAN FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES
Primary Business Address MREB Suite 1001 8447 State Highway 47 Bryan, TX 77807-3260 Phone: 979-436-0311
www.tamhsc.edu
The mission of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine Office of Research is to coordinate and provide guidance in research, technology commercialization and related programs within the College of Medicine.