A single breath may be all it takes to identify the return of lung cancer after surgery, according to a study authored by University of Louisville Researchers and posted online today by The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Exhaled breath contains thousands of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that vary in composition and pattern depending on a person’s health status. A subset of four VOCs—called carbonyl compounds because of their carbon base—have been discovered in the exhaled breath of lung cancer patients. Being able to identify this lung cancer “signature” through a simple breath test has emerged as one of the most promising ways to diagnose the disease. Now the test is being used to monitor for disease recurrence.

Erin M. Schumer, M.D., of the Department of Surgery, Victor van Berkel, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and colleagues from the University of Louisville analyzed breath samples collected before and after surgery from 31 lung cancer patients and compared their carbonyl VOCs levels with samples from 187 healthy patients.

The researchers found a significant decrease in overall carbonyl VOC levels following surgery; in fact, three of the four carbonyl VOCs normalized after surgery, matching levels in the control group.

“The rapid normalization of almost all of the four compounds after surgery provides strong evidence that they are directly produced by the tumor environment,” Schumer said. “This study confirms that the technology is accurate.”

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 224,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year, and more than 158,000 lung cancer patients will die—that translates to 433 lung cancer deaths per day in the United States.

Schumer said those grim statistics underscore the need for early detection, “We hope that breath analysis will allow us to diagnose patients with primary or recurrent lung cancer long before they suffer from symptoms, when we have more options for treating them, giving them the best chance for cure.”

Currently, lung cancer patients are followed after surgery with chest computed tomography (CT) scans, which can be inconvenient, expensive, and expose the patient to radiation. “We hope that the breath analysis can serve as the primary screening tool for cancer recurrence and a CT scan ordered only if the breath test suggests that there has been a change,” van Berkel said.

How the breath test works

The process of breath analysis is relatively simple. The patient blows a single breath into a specialized balloon. The balloon is then connected to a pump that pulls the breath over a small microchip that is smaller in size than a quarter, trapping the chemicals. The microchip is sent to the lab, where the chemicals are analyzed within hours. Breath collection can be performed in the doctor’s office.

The pump is reusable; the balloon, microchip and lab test together cost around $20, all supporting the increasing acceptance of breath tests as a cost-effective, easy-to-perform, non-invasive and rapid option for the diagnosis of lung cancer.

“The great potential with breath analysis is detecting lung cancer at any point, both as a primary screening tool and to follow patients after disease has been treated,” van Berkel said. “The technology is pretty robust. Our next step is getting approval from the FDA.”

Susan Galandiuk, M.D., professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Louisville, has been named editor-in-chief of Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, the scientific journal of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS).

Galandiuk, director of the Price Institute of Surgical Research at UofL and program director for the Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery, will replace editor-in-chief Robert Madoff, effective January 1, 2017. She will serve a five-year term with a five-year renewal option.

“It is particularly appropriate that Dr. Galandiuk has been appointed as editor-in-chief of the world’s premier journal in the specialty of colorectal surgery – Diseases of the Colon & Rectum – since her predecessor at the University of Louisville, Dr. Joseph McDowell Mathews, founded this specialty in the United States over a century ago. It is a great honor and we are very proud of Dr. Galandiuk’s achievements,” said Kelly McMasters, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the UofL Department of Surgery.

Diseases of the Colon & Rectum ranks in the top 14 percent of all peer-reviewed surgery journals. It is mailed to the 3,300 members of ASCRS and also is available online. Editors-in-chief must show a record of significant scholarly achievement, editorial skills and an understanding of the international community of scholars and practitioners.

Galandiuk has published 150 peer-reviewed articles, 47 book chapters and three books (two at press). Previously, she was associate editor and section editor of Digestive Surgery and has served on editorial boards of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Annals of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery and others. Galandiuk has served in numerous leadership, review and advisory positions at the local, state, national and international levels, as well as for the United States Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. She is an alumna of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program (ELAM), and is recognized among America’s Top Doctors, America’s Top Cancer Doctors and America’s Most Compassionate Doctors.

In preparation for assuming the duties as editor of Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, Galandiuk is serving as co-editor of the journal. Once she assumes her role as editor, the publication’s editorial office will move from Minnesota to Louisville.

May 31, 2016

A national vice president of AARP, the CEO of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging and a University of Louisville Emeritus Geriatrician have been tapped as keynote speakers for The Optimal Aging Conference. The event, hosted by UofL’s Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging and the Kentucky Association for Gerontology (KAG), will be held June 12-14 at the historic Brown Hotel, 335 W. Broadway.

Speakers and their addresses are:

• Barbara Shipley, Senior Vice President of Brand Integration, AARP
  Disrupt Aging: Unlocking the Age Disruptor in All of Us
• Sandy Markwood, CEO, National Association of Area Agencies on Aging
  Valuing and Supporting People as They Age: The Aging Networks’ Role in Supporting Optimal Aging
• James O’Brien, M.D., Emeritus Geriatrician, University of Louisville
  Caring for Older Adults: Lessons Learned

The conference has a variety of options for people interested in revolutionizing the way aging is constructed in our community, said Anna Faul, Ph.D., executive director of the institute. “The Optimal Aging Conference is an exciting opportunity for all individuals dedicated to the belief that aging is an opportunity,” Faul said. “This conference is unique in that we have a variety of professional and academic perspectives present. It is through this sharing of all our perspectives that we will be moving together towards an aging revolution.”

This is the inaugural conference to be co-hosted by the institute and KAG. “This inaugural year of the Optimal Aging Conference will premiere the power of merging resources to create something even greater than what existed before,” Barbara Gordon, KAG president, said. “Stemming from our long-standing annual conference and the institute’s symposium, the partnership of these two organizations results in an exceptional event that promises to be a coveted learning opportunity for persons in the field of aging the world over.”

The conference will conclude the afternoon of June 14 with the Smock Lecture Series, featuring five 1-hour presentations. This concluding lecture series is free and open to all conference participants as well as the general public.

CEU credits are available for physicians, social workers, nurses and other health care professionals. There also are several pre-conference CEU offerings including Social Work Ethics (social work), Domestic Violence (social work) and Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk, a required CEU for social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and certified alcohol and drug counselors. Information about CEU offerings is found on the conference website.

Cost to attend is $110 person for students, medical residents and senior citizens age 65 and older; $250 for KAG members; and $270 for other academic and other professional staff. To register, go to the conference website.

About Barbara Shipley

Barbara Shipley brings more than 25 years of experience in branding, marketing and strategic communications to her role as senior vice president of brand integration for AARP.  She joined AARP in 2006 to help build and develop the revitalized AARP brand platform and now leads the brand integration efforts for AARP, from the Foundation and AARP Services to the association and its 53 state offices. Prior to joining AARP, she managed the Washington office of public relations firm Ruder Finn and spent more than a decade in various leadership roles with Fleishman Hillard Inc, one of the world’s largest strategic communications firms.  A native New Yorker, Shipley is a graduate of American University and lives in McLean, Va., with her husband and two children.

About Sandy Markwood

Chief Executive Officer Sandy Markwood of the National Association for Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) has more than 30 years’ experience in developing aging, health, human services, housing and transportation programs in counties and cities across the nation. Prior to coming to n4A in January 2002, Sandy served as the deputy director of county services at the National Association of Counties. As CEO, Sandy is responsible for n4a’s overall management, setting strategic direction and overseeing the implementation of all policy, grassroots advocacy, membership and program initiatives. She also leads n4a’s fundraising efforts and engages corporate sponsors to support initiatives, including an aging awards/best practices program and the Leadership Institute for Area Agency on Aging. Sandy holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Virginia.

About James O’Brien, M.D.

James O’Brien received his medical degrees at University College, Dublin, and completed a residency in family medicine at Saginaw Cooperative Hospitals in affiliation with Michigan State University and a fellowship in geriatrics at Duke University Medical Center. He spent 19 years on the faculty at MSU where he initiated the first geriatric fellowship. He assumed the Margaret Dorward Smock Endowed Chair in Geriatrics at UofL in 1996.  He became acting chair of Family Medicine in 2002 and chair of the renamed Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine in 2003, a position he held until 2015 when he was named Emeritus Geriatrician. He has been named a “Best Doctor in Louisville” by Louisville Magazine and is a past recipient of ElderServe’s Champion of Aging Award.

Two current University of Louisville faculty members, the daughter of a faculty member and a former faculty member are among the 2016 recipients of an annual award that honors the contributions made by immigrants to the Louisville community.

The MOSAIC Awards, presented by Jewish Family & Cultural Services, will be presented Thursday, May 26, at the Marriott Louisville Downtown Hotel, 280 W. Jefferson St. The event kicks off at 5 p.m. with a reception showcasing local entrepreneurial talent followed by dinner and presentation of the awards.

The “MOSAIC” name represents “Multicultural Opportunities for Success & Achievement In our Community,” and the annual awards dinner is a fundraising event to benefit JFCS. Every year since 2006, JFCS has honored new or first-generation immigrants and refugees who are making a significant contribution in their professions and in the community.

This year’s honorees are Dr. Emma Birks and Dr. Riaan van Zyl, both current University of Louisville faculty; Oksana Masters, the daughter of UofL faculty member Dr. Gay Masters; former faculty member Thangam “Sam” Rangaswamy;  and Dr. Manuel Grimaldi,

“JFCS was founded to assist newcomers to Louisville, and this event honors its original mission,” Judy Freundlich Tiell, JFCS executive director, said. “To date, the event has recognized 52 international Americans who make our community a richer and more interesting city, creating a mosaic of many colors and perspectives.”

Tickets to the event are $125 per person, and table sponsorships begin at $1,500. For reservations, contact Beverly Bromley, JFCS director of development, at 502-452-6341, ext. 223, or bbromley@jfcslouisville.org.

About the honorees
Emma Birks, M.D., Ph.D., is from Great Britain and is a professor of medicine and director of the Heart Failure, Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support program in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Louisville. She practices with University of Louisville Physicians-Cardiovascular Medicine and is affiliated with Jewish Hospital, a part of Kentucky OneHealth.

Birks developed a myocardial recovery program and the burgeoning Ventricular Assist Devices and Transplant programs in Louisville. She currently teaches cardiology fellows and residents and started a heart failure fellowship program.

Birks works closely with cardiothoracic surgery and biomedical engineering and is involved in translational research studies. Her research focuses on inducing myocardial recovery and on the underling molecular mechanisms in recovery with the goal of reversing heart failure.

Originally from South Africa, Riaan van Zyl, Ph.D., is professor and associate dean for research in the Kent School of Social Work at UofL. His leadership and involvement in progressive social matters led to solutions that work, such as the first alcohol safety program in South Africa’s criminal justice system and programs for those with epilepsy.

He founded the South African Association of Mediators, facilitated the national aging policy for the National Department of Welfare and united all of South Africa’s schools of social work in a transformation process that developed high educational standards, and helped to reform the prison systems.

Van Zyl continues work in the area of prevention of HIV/AIDS in Africa. After joining the UofL faculty in 2000, he set about creating a new environment for research, building relationships with the community and creating a collaborative environment where faculty work with each other to solve community problems. He also has positioned the school to be one of the fastest growing in the country in terms of federal research dollars.

Oksana Masters from Ukraine was born with several radiation-induced birth defects. She was abandoned and lived in orphanages until she was seven. She endured surgeries, amputations, hunger and physical abuse, something no child should have to endure; yet she survived. She was adopted by M. Gay Masters, Ph.D., who is an assistant professor in the UofL Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery and Communicative Disorders and practices with UofL Physicians-Speech-Language Pathology

Oksana Masters and her partner, Rob Jones, earned a bronze medal in trunk & arms rowing at the 2012 Paralympics. This was the first medal for the USA in this category. She was then named US Rowing Female Athlete of the Year in 2012, first time ever for a para-rower.

In 2014, after one full season on sit-skis, Oksana earned silver and bronze medals in Nordic Cross Country at the 2014 Paralympics. In 2015, during her next season on snow, she earned cross country World Championship medals and was World Cup Leader. She also earned a bronze medal at the Paracycling World Championships in 2015 as well as numerous medals in World Cup competitions in cross country, biathlon and handcycling. She is currently working to qualify for her third Paralympic.

Thangam “Sam” Rangaswamy, Ph.D., is from India and is the president and principal engineer of Rangaswany & Associates Inc., which he founded. He has taught concrete courses at the UofL Speed School of Engineering.

He is the founder of the Structural Engineering Association of Kentucky and served as its president, director and secretary. He has also served as Kentucky Minority Business Development Council treasurer, secretary and board member.

Rangaswany was given the U.S. Small Business Administration Person of the Year Award in 1985. He is a registered engineer in nine states and has received many national structural engineering and concrete masonry design awards.

He is currently serving on the Parking Authority of River City Board (PARC) and the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure. Rangaswamy was a founding trustee involved in the building and opening of the Hindu Temple of Kentucky and organized the India Community Foundation of Louisville.

The only honoree not associated with UofL, Manuel Grimaldi, M.D., came from Spain to the United States in order to be certified in internal medicine (1976) and medical oncology (1977). He joined the practice of Drs. Beard, Fuller and Dobbs currently known as CBC in 1977.

He has won numerous accolades, including the American Cancer Society Physician of the Year Award in 2010 and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Award. Upon retirement, he became a volunteer through the Greater Louisville Medical Society, donating his time, knowledge and service in medical missionary trips to Nicaragua and Belize.

Grimaldi has traveled to Nicaragua numerous times with Hand to Hand Ministries, visiting hospitals and clinics where he provided families, women and children with routine health care that would otherwise be unavailable to them. He raised funds to build homes in Belize and also served as a medical missionary for homebound families living with HIV.

Jessica Eaton and Mackenzie Flynn, students in the University of Louisville School of Medicine, will delay their fourth year of medical school to spend nine months conducting medical research in Malawi and Kenya. Thanks to Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowships in Public Health for 2016-2017, Eaton plans to research the causes and assess the outcomes of brain and spinal cord injuries in Lilongwe, Malawi, and Flynn will work with pregnant HIV-positive women in Nairobi, Kenya to determine whether text messaging can increase compliance with treatments to prevent HIV transmission to their infants.

Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowships are offered for students enrolled in medical school or a graduate program in public health through a partnership between the U.S. government’s Fulbright international study program and the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health. This is the first time two students in the same medical school have received Fulbright-Fogarty fellowships in a single year.

Eaton and Flynn have cultivated their interest in global health through participation in the Distinction in Global Health track (DIGH) at UofL, a supplemental curriculum for students in the school of medicine that introduces students to aspects of global health through clinical, social, political and epidemiological study.

“The Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship is a great opportunity to participate in real-world experience in global health research,” said Bethany Hodge, M.D., M.P.H., director of the DIGH track and the UofL School of Medicine’s Global Education Office. “These experiences will take their academic skills to a higher level and prepare them for careers in global health.”

As part of her research, Eaton will conduct a retrospective review of trauma records to determine the causes of traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries (TBI/SCI) as well as their treatment outcomes. In addition, she will conduct research to identify the best predictors of surgical outcomes in TBI/SCI patients using the patient’s signs and symptoms to determine a surgical plan since the hospital lacks advanced imaging facilities such as CT or MRI. Eaton will conduct her research at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe, Malawi under the guidance of Anthony Charles, M.D., M.P.H., and other faculty with the UNC Malawi Surgical Initiative. She will use the surgical initiative’s trauma and surgical registry, one of the largest such registries in sub-Saharan Africa.

“As a medical student planning to pursue neurosurgery and dreaming of practicing overseas in the places where I am most needed, I couldn't have crafted a better learning opportunity for myself,” Eaton said.

As an undergraduate at UofL, Eaton was one of the inaugural James Graham Brown Fellows. That fellowship provided her with opportunities to travel, which sparked her interest in global health. She plans to enter neurosurgery and incorporate global health into her practice. [Hear Jessica Eaton's interview on UofL Today with Mark Hebert]

Flynn’s research will focus on preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission. Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) helps increase lifespan and delay progression to AIDS in patients with HIV and is considered key to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Flynn’s project will investigate whether text messages sent to pregnant HIV-positive women will increase ART adherence and prenatal health care visits. She will conduct her research under primary investigator Alison Drake, Ph.D., M.P.H., in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Nairobi and the Kenya Research Program at the University of Washington.

“This is an excellent opportunity to really understand how medical research can differ from benchwork,” Flynn said. “Epidemiology, clinical trials conducted in an international setting, IRB approval and ethical considerations are all things I want to incorporate into my career in academia and in global health.”

This year’s fellowship will be the second Fulbright experience for Flynn. After receiving her bachelor’s degree at UofL in 2012, Flynn received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Sivas, Turkey, where she taught university-level English-speaking courses to college freshmen at Cumhuriet University. Flynn’s work in Kenya will build on experience she had during a medical service trip to Tanzania where she worked in an area with a high prevalence of HIV infections. She hopes to pursue a career in academic medicine and work in international health and research as an ob/gyn. [Hear Mackenzie Flynn's interview on UofL Today with Mark Hebert]

Hodge said the experience and research training Eaton and Flynn will receive will benefit not only their academic careers, but the other students in the DIGH track once they return to UofL to complete their M.D. program in August of 2017.

“We talk about global health as an academic discipline and think critically about the gaps in knowledge in this field. We spend a lot of time looking at the literature and thinking about the roles of physicians as researchers, policy-makers and social advocates in global health, in addition to being clinicians,” Hodge said. “I look forward to these students returning after their fellowships because their boots-on-the-ground experience will enrich the discussions we have as a group. Hopefully they will inspire other students to pursue academic work in global health.”

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About the Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship in Public Health

The Fulbright Program, the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government, has partnered with Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health to offer Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowships in Public Health. These fellowships grant medical students and graduate students interested in global health the opportunity to conduct research in public health and clinical research in resource-limited settings. Fellows spend nine months in one of nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia or South America. The Fulbright-Fogarty program began in 2011.

Spirits were buoyant despite gloomy skies at the Cancer Awareness Show, held May 21 at Hillview Community Center to benefit the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center. Volunteer Richard Luce Jr. organized the event that featured a car and truck show, a model car show, a model train show and an arts and crafts show along with a silent auction, music, food, games and more. Proceeds are still being compiled and will be formally presented at an upcoming meeting of the Hillview City Council. To see all the fun from the event, visit our photo gallery.

University of Louisville associate dean for medical education and associate professor of medicine and pediatrics Amy Holthouser, M.D., has been selected as a member of the 2016-2017 class of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program (ELAM). Holthouser is one of only 54 women in the nation selected for the program, and is the 18th UofL faculty member to participate.

ELAM is a year-long fellowship for women faculty in schools of medicine, dentistry and public health in which they develop professional and personal skills required for leadership and management in health care. More than 900 ELAM alumnae hold leadership positions in institutions around the world.

Holthouser oversees the design and implementation of the MD program curriculum. She also leads the steering committee for the eQuality Project at UofL, a national pilot initiative to integrate competencies published by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) related to provision of care for LGBT and DSD individuals into the school of medicine curriculum. Holthouser was a primary investigator on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to develop a required palliative care educational experience for medical students, and co-investigator on iCOPE, a five-year NIH grant funding the development of an interdisciplinary palliative care curriculum to improve the care of cancer patients.

Among her 24 teaching awards at the university and school of medicine level, Holthouser has received the American College of Physicians Outstanding Faculty Award and twice won the American Medical Women’s Association Gender Equity Award. The Louisville native is an alumna of the UofL School of Medicine where she also completed her residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics. In addition to her academic duties, Holthouser practices as a pediatric hospitalist at Kosair Children’s Hospital.

In ELAM’s 21-year history, 17 faculty members from UofL have completed the fellowship. Toni Ganzel, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the UofL School of Medicine, is among UofL’s ELAM alumnae, and Diane Harper, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., chair of the Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, was part of the 2015-2016 class. A complete list of UofL’s ELAM alumnae is included below.

Some of North America’s most respected physician researchers in neuro-oncology will share their expertise with physicians and the public at the second annual James Graham Brown Cancer Center Neuro-oncology Symposium on July 8 at the University of Louisville.

“Management of Primary Glioma in Adults,” co-hosted by the UofL Department of Neurology and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health, will be Friday, July 8 from 7:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Kosair Charities Clinical and Translational Research Building, 505 South Hancock Street on the University of Louisville Health Sciences Campus.

Conference director Eric Burton, M.D., assistant professor in the UofL Department of Neurology and director of neuro-oncology at JGBCC, will provide an overview of adult glioma, a tumor that develops in the supportive tissue of the brain. Presenters from MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco, Toronto General Hospital and the University of Louisville will then address best current practices and future treatment directions for patients with primary gliomas using surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, as well as a discussion of molecular markers in adult glioma.

“These are some of the most influential and highly respected physician researchers in neuro-oncology and neuropathology,” Burton said. “This is an excellent opportunity for physicians across the region, as well as patients and their families, to learn about the latest developments in the pathology and treatment of brain tumors.”

In addition to Burton, presenters include:

Kenneth Aldape, M.D., senior scientist and director of MacFeeters-Hamilton Brain Tumor Centre at Toronto General Hospital and professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. Aldape is a neuropathologist with a research interest in primary brain tumors. His work includes the identification of biomarkers in gliomas, characterizing glioma subtypes and identifying clinically relevant molecular alterations in these tumors. In 2014, Aldape received the Guha Award for Excellence in Neuro-Oncology Research from the Society for Neuro-Oncology.

Michael Prados, M.D., Charles B Wilson Chair in Neurosurgery and professor emeritus at the University of California San Francisco. Prados led the North America Brain Tumor Consortium for 15 years and was co-project leader of the Adult Brain Tumor Consortium until 2014. He formed and is co-project leader of the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium, a consortium of 15 major academic centers across the United States, and is co-project leader of a pediatric brain tumor SPORE project at UCSF. Prados has been NIH/NCI funded continuously since 1994 and is a member of the NCI/CTEP Brain Malignancies Steering Committee. In 2014, he was awarded the Victor Levin Award for lifetime clinical research excellence from the Society of Neuro-Oncology.

Raymond Sawaya, M.D., chair and professor of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is director of the Brain Tumor Center at MD Anderson and served as professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine from 2005-2014. His awards include the Joseph P. Evans Award in Neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati and the Charles Wilson Award from the National Brain Tumor Society. He is past chairman of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Tumors. Sawaya has particular expertise in primary and metastatic brain tumors and is renowned for his strides in enhancing the accessibility and safety of brain tumor surgery.

Shiao Woo, M.D., chair and professor in the UofL Department of Radiation Oncology, professor in the UofL Department of Pediatrics and the Kosair Children’s Hospital/Norton Healthcare Chair in Pediatric Oncology. His clinical focus and research is on brain and spine tumors, pediatric cancer and lung cancer. Woo has received Clinical Fellowship Awards from the American Cancer Society, Teacher of the Year Award from the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology and the Patient Golden Apple Award from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He also served as president of the MD Anderson Radiation Oncology Gilbert H. Fletcher Society.

“We have invited speakers with varied areas of expertise with the intention of creating a collaborative environment that will improve the regional standard of care,” Burton said.

Continuing education credit is available for health care providers. The event is free for UofL-affiliated providers, $15 for nurses and $20 for all others. For additional information, visit the conference website or contact Emily Rollins at emily.rollins@louisvilleneuroscience.com.

May 19, 2016

A local school has joined a landmark health research project headed by the University of Louisville designed to use nature to tackle the health impact of busy city streets.

St. Margaret Mary School, 7813 Shelbyville Road, is the new site of an experiment designed to use trees and shrubs to create a living filter for roadway air pollution. The project will be a model for metro-wide "greening" projects that use our environment to improve health.

The Louisville Green for Good project is a collaboration among the Diabetes and Obesity Center at the University of Louisville, The Institute for Healthy Air Water and Soil and the City of Louisville’s Office of Sustainability.

The current levels of air pollution at the school will be measured and then half of the school’s front yard will be filled with a green buffer of shrubs, deciduous trees and pines. Then the team will measure air pollution levels a second time. The goal is to test the idea that a greener neighborhood is a healthier neighborhood.

“This project has the potential to improve the health of nearby students and residents for years to come by improving local air quality," said Aruni Bhatnagar, Ph.D., the Smith and Lucille Gibson Chair in Medicine and director of the University of Louisville Diabetes and Obesity Center. “St. Margaret Mary was chosen due to its location which is close to a high traffic roadway. The school also includes a spacious lawn that allows for the addition of foliage, which will act as an air-cleansing barrier between the school and the street.”

Mayor Greg Fischer said, “I am committed to helping Louisville become a greener and healthier place to live – and, I’m a data guy. So I’m excited that this project will provide the data we need to move forward on our sustainability goals for the city.”

St. Margaret Mary Principal Wendy Sims said she isexcited about this project for the parish, school and community.

“In his encyclical letter ‘Laudato Si’,’ Our Holy Father Pope Francis reminds us that ‘we must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and for the world, and that being good and decent are worth it...social love moves us to devise larger strategies to halt environmental degradation and to encourage a “culture of care” which permeates all of society’,” Sims said. “This project is a wonderful lesson for our students, faculty, and parents about how to foster such a culture of care, now and for future generations.”

Air monitoring will start this summer. The trees and shrubs will arrive in October with a second round of air monitoring taking place later this year. Students will participate in the monitoring work.

In addition to tracking certain pollutants, the project team will collect data on traffic and weather.

The project includes ecology experts from around the country with deep understanding of air pollution and the power of plants.

Funding comes from the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.

The research effort is a project of the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. The grant was matched with $50,000 from the Owsley Brown Charitable Foundation and $25,000 from an anonymous donor in Louisville. The Institute for Healthy Air, Water, and Soil received the funds and will be managing the project.

May 18, 2016

The University of Louisville car-share program is expanding to the Health Sciences Center to serve the downtown area with a new fuel-efficient vehicle available to the public for hourly, overnight and daily rentals.

Reservations have increased 30 percent since 2014 when UofL’s Enterprise CarShare program, which has been operating on the main Belknap campus since 2012, was opened to the public.

“UofL and the city of Louisville are committed to reducing pollution and the number of cars on the road,” said Justin Mog, UofL’s assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives. “Having cars available to share allows people to commute via bus, carpool, bike or foot, knowing that a vehicle is accessible if needed for an appointment or errand. It also allows residents on or near campus to avoid the expense and hassle of owning a car. Millennials are totally into that.”

The new UofL CarShare vehicle will be parked outside UofL’s Kornhauser Library at 500 S. Preston St. Four other CarShare vehicles are located on Belknap Campus. All cars are cleaned, maintained, insured and fueled by Enterprise CarShare as part of the hourly rental charge.

Anyone over 18 with a valid driver’s license can use the cars, which are available year-round, 24 hours a day. Once users purchase a low-cost annual membership, they can access the vehicles whenever needed for $8 per hour or $56 per day. Details can be found at enterprisecarshare.com.

For more information, email Mog or call 502-852-8575.

As health care providers seek to better meet the needs of their patients, interdisciplinary practice has become increasingly crucial.

This summer, health professionals from several disciplines can expand their skillset with new courses offered through the University of Louisville School of Dentistry’s Office of Continuing Education.

The first course, “Local Anesthesia for Advanced Nursing: Acute Dental Pain Management in a Primary Care Setting,” set for June 18 from 8a.m. – 3:30p.m., will teach nurses how to address acute dental pain when patients can’t immediately visit a dentist. The course, which costs $150, will focus on how to administer block and infiltration oral anesthesia.

“If a patient shows up in a primary care office with tooth pain late on a Friday afternoon or in a hospital emergency room over the weekend, a trained health professional could inject a long-acting local anesthetic to help manage the pain until the patient could get to a dentist the following week,” said Dedra Hayden, M.S.N., A.P.R.N.-B.C., School of Nursing assistant professor.

The School of Dentistry also will offer the course, “Integrating Oral Health into the Primary Care Setting Through Allowable Reimbursement Techniques” on July 9 from 8a.m. – 12:30p.m. The course, geared toward physicians, physicians’ assistants, registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses and dental hygienists, informs these health care providers about their allowed role in conducting state required oral health screenings for Kentucky children entering Kindergarten, and understand that it is a billable service. The screening involves looking into a child’s mouth for signs of decay and reporting it on a required form.

The course will focus on optimizing oral health for evidence-based, patient-centered care and will include recent federal recommendations on prevention of tooth decay in children ages 5 and younger in the primary care setting. The class is $75 through advance online registration and $110 for on-site registration.

Both continuing education courses are part of the interdisciplinary collaboration between the UofL schools of dentistry and nursing, established through a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration to integrate nursing and dental students in practice.

Since 2013, the schools’ collaboration has focused on the connection between oral and systemic health.

“Over the past several decades, there has been a tremendous amount of research directed at discovering the links between oral health and overall body health,” Hayden said. “The primary care provider can perform an oral exam and identify lesions in the mouth to indicate a systemic disease and the dental provider can identify when to consult primary care, therefore developing a reciprocal referral process.”

UofL nursing and dental students have engaged in joint seminars, standardized patient learning and clinical experiences to better identify and manage systemic diseases sometimes linked to oral health, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

“Our interprofessional collaboration has focused on the continued improvement of oral health across the lifespan and has contributed to the development of cutting edge providers in our community,” said Daniel Fadel, D.M.D., director of the School of Dentistry Office of Continuing Education.

For more information on the courses and to register, click here.

May 11, 2016

The University of Louisville Department of Neurology will host the 8th annual Advances in Neurology course in conjunction with the annual spring meeting of the Commonwealth Neurological Society. This year’s focus will be on Movement Disorders and Multiple Sclerosis, two of the more challenging therapeutic areas in neurology. The conference will present the latest update in the evaluation and management of multiple sclerosis, including the newer options in disease-modifying therapy. Neuroophthalmologic evaluation of the patient with movement disorders or multiple sclerosis will be discussed. The latest available treatment options, both medical and surgical, for the patient with movement disorders will be discussed.

Visiting faculty include David Charles, M.D., professor of neurology in the Division of Movement Disorders at Vanderbilt University and Aaron Miller, M.D., professor of neurology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and medical director of The Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis.

The event begins at 7:00 a.m., May 21, 2016, in the Derby and Oaks rooms at Churchill Downs, 700 Central Avenue. Program concludes at 2:30 p.m.

The seminar is free for UofL faculty, staff, residents and students, UofL Physicians nurses, and members of the Commonwealth Neurological Society.  Cost is $40 for all others. For a copy of the full agenda, CME credit information and a registration link, go to:  http://louisville.edu/medicine/cme/events/neurology16/#Brochure

Lee Dugatkin, Ph.D., professor of biology at the University of Louisville, will regale guests at the next Beer with a Scientist with the story of how a Revolutionary War-era dispute over natural history took on important political overtones in European-American relations.

The story involves three individuals:  Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence; George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, a French count and world-renowned naturalist who claimed that all life in America was "degenerate," weak and feeble; and a very large, dead moose. Jefferson believed the moose could help quash early French arrogance toward the fledgling United States and demonstrate that America was every bit the equal of a well-established Europe.

Despite Jefferson's passionate refutation, the theory of degeneracy far outlived both him and Buffon and continued to have scientific, economic and political implications for 100 years.

Dugatkin has written a book, Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose, on the impact of the disputeand has spoken on the topic at the Smithsonian Institution and Jefferson’s Monticello estate.

The program begins at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11 at Against the Grain Brewery, 401 E. Main St. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

The Beer with a Scientist program began in 2014 and is the brainchild of UofL cancer researcher Levi Beverly, Ph.D. Once a month, the public is invited to enjoy exactly what the title promises:  beer and science.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer, other beverages or menu items is not required but is encouraged.

Organizers add that they also encourage Beer with a Scientist patrons to drink responsibly.

For more information and to suggest future Beer with a Scientist topics, follow Louisville Underground Science on Facebook.

May 4, 2016

A pregnant woman’s body undergoes a complex set of interconnected, mutually beneficial phases that prepare her and her baby for childbirth. The hormonal actions occurring in one phase anticipate and usher in subsequent phases.

These phases are known collectively as the hormonal cascade of childbirth, and a Certified Nurse Midwife at the University of Louisville Center for Women & Infants will present a continuing education session on the topic for nurses, midwives, lactation consultants and other professionals involved in childbirth.

“Normal Physiologic Birth and Supporting the Hormonal Cascade of Childbirth” will be presented by Damara Jenkins Tuesday, May 3, at Babyology, 3934 Dutchman’s Lane, beginning at 6 p.m. The presentation is sponsored by Kentuckiana Lactation Improvement Coalition, a chapter of the United States Lactation Consultant Association that provides support and education on breastfeeding in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

Jenkins will discuss practices that encourage normal physiologic birth, the role of certified nurse midwifery in supporting normal childbirth and the phases of hormonal childbirth:

• Late pregnancy and early labor: There is an increase of hormones and receptor systems in the woman’s body that prepares her for an efficient labor and birth; efficient lactation that leads to bonding and attachment with the baby; and the well-being of the fetus during labor and the transition to a newborn.

• Active labor: Hormonal processes during active labor prepare the body for effective postpartum contractions and hemorrhage prevention; the health transition of the newborn; and breastfeeding and bonding.

• Birth and the hours that follow: The process of giving birth and skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby immediately after birth promote a hormone release that is thought to further reduce hemorrhage risk, initiate mother-baby bonding and help establish success in breastfeeding.

“The hormonal cascade of childbirth shows us how the body perfectly times the release of hormones in each phase and ensures that labor, birth and breastfeeding all happen according to the body’s design,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins, who also is an Advanced Practice Nurse, is one of three Certified Nurse Midwives who practice with UofL Physicians-Certified Nurse Midwife Program in tandem with the UofL Physicians-OB/GYN & Women’s Health practice. While pregnancy and childbirth care is her primary practice, she provides care to women across the entire lifespan, partnering with them to enable them to live their healthiest life.

Jenkins received her undergraduate degrees from the University of Louisville in 1999 and Bellarmine University in 2000 and received her MSN degree from Frontier Nursing University in 2009. She is president of the Kentucky Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives and received the Frontier Nursing University 75th Anniversary Pioneer Award in 2014. She is on the board of the Friends of the Louisville Birthing Center and a member of the Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwives.

Continuing education credit will be provided for some disciplines, and pre-registration is requested but not required for the presentation. For more information, contact Kentuckiana Lactation Improvement Coalition member Peggy Rinehart at rinehart.peggy@gmail.com.

April 30, 2016

As states relaxed laws related to fireworks sales during the past decade, emergency doctors saw an increase in both the number of fireworks-related injuries among children and the severity of those injuries, according to new research being presented by faculty from the University of Louisville at the Pediatrics Academic Societies 2016 Meeting.

An abstract of the study, “Effect of Fireworks Laws on Pediatric Fireworks Related Burn Injuries," will be presented at the PAS meeting in Baltimore on May 3.

Researchers looked at federal and state data from the National Inpatient Sample, with data on 8 million hospital stays each year, and the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, which annually compiles information on 30 million discharges from emergency medicine facilities.

They determined the number of patients under age 21 treated and released by emergency departments between 2006 and 2012 rose modestly. Significantly larger increases were seen in injuries requiring inpatient hospital admission, which skyrocketed from 29 percent of cases in 2006 to 50 percent in 2012.

“The increase in fireworks-related injuries and the severity of these injuries in children since 2006 are very concerning,” said Charles Woods Jr., M.D., one of the study’s authors and associate chair of pediatrics at the University of Louisville. “Although our findings do not prove a direct link to relaxations in state laws governing fireworks sales, it may be time for lawmakers to reassess this issue. Parents and caregivers of children also should be aware of these increasingly serious injuries and the potential dangers involved in allowing young children to handle and play with fireworks.”

Lead author John Myers, Ph.D., a researcher in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville, will present the abstract, “Effect of Fireworks Laws on Pediatric Fireworks Related Burn Injuries," at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 3 in Exhibit Hall F at the Baltimore Convention Center. To view the abstract, visit http://www.abstracts2view.com/pas/view.php?nu=PAS16L1_4135.266.

“Pediatric fireworks-related burn injuries have increased in incidence, apparent severity of injury, the proportion requiring hospitalization and length-of-stay in the hospital in a time period of relaxed fireworks laws in the United States,” Myers said. “These findings suggest that policy-makers should revisit current fireworks laws for the safety of children.”

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About the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting:

The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Meeting brings together thousands of individuals united by a common mission: to improve child health and wellbeing worldwide. This international gathering includes pediatric researchers, leaders in academic pediatrics, experts in child health, and practitioners. The PAS Meeting is produced through a partnership of four organizations leading the advancement of pediatric research and child advocacy: the Academic Pediatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Pediatric Society, and Society for Pediatric Research. For more information, visit the PAS Meeting online at www.pas-meeting.org, follow us on Twitter @PASMeeting and #PASMeeting, or like us on Facebook.

Charles R. Woods Jr., M.D., has been elected the incoming chair of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) Section on Epidemiology, Public Health and Evidence (SOEPHE). His one-year term begins Nov. 1.

The AAP is a professional membership organization of 64,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical sub-specialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

The SOEPHE supports development high quality practice guidelines for children’s health care and fosters informed use of data to improve the health of children.  It is composed of AAP members who practice or have interests in the fields of public health and epidemiology.

Woods is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. He is Associate Chair of the UofL Department of Pediatrics and director of the department’s Child & Adolescent Health Research Design & Support Unit. He has been at UofL since 2006.

In addition to the AAP, his professional affiliations include the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and HIV Medicine Association. He also has been elected to membership in the American Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Samford University and his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed a pediatric residency followed by a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital. He later earned a master’s degree in epidemiology from Wake Forest University.

Woods practices with University of Louisville Physicians-Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

It stands to reason: If you want to educate large numbers of people, go where large numbers of people go.

In Dr. Lorrel E. Brown’s case, that place was the Kentucky State Fair – and the nation’s premier cardiology association has presented her an award for her innovative thinking.

Brown, assistant professor of medicine in UofL’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, won first place in the category of “Young Investigator Awards in Cardiovascular Health Outcomes and Population Genetics” from the American College of Cardiology earlier this month. The award was presented at the organization’s 65^th Annual Scientific Session in Chicago. It also was published in the April 5 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Brown headed a group of researchers that included Dr. Glenn Hirsch, associate professor of medicine, cardiology fellows Dr. Wendy Bottinor and Dr. Avnish Tripathi, medical student Travis Carroll, Dr. Bill Dillon who founded the organization Start the Heart Foundation and Chris Lokits  of Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services, Office of Medical Direction and Oversight. They tackled the problem of surviving cardiac arrest – the sudden stopping of the heart – by increasing the number of people trained in hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Titled “CPR at the State Fair: A 10-minute Training Session is Effective in Teaching Bystander CPR to Members of At-risk Communities,” the research effort brought CPR training to the Kentucky State Fair’s Health Pavilion in August 2015.

Nearly 400,000 people in the United States have out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year, she said, or nearly 40 people every hour. Only one in 10 survives.

“The vast majority of people who suffer cardiac arrest don’t experience it in a well-equipped hospital with highly trained medical staff,” Brown said. “They experience it as they go about their daily lives, and just 30 percent of cardiac arrest victims receive CPR, usually from bystanders. Yet we know that bystander CPR dramatically improves chances for survival.”

The group created a 10-minute training module that uses a short video and hands-on coaching to teach people the basics of hands-only CPR. To further determine their mastery of CPR, participants completed a post-training survey and were asked to return to the training site at the fair one hour after training to re-test their CPR ability.

The state fair location also provided an additional benefit: the ability to reach people from communities and counties throughout Kentucky with low rates of bystander CPR.

“In Jefferson County alone, bystander CPR rates vary dramatically according to zip code, ranging from 0 percent to 100 percent,” Brown said. “We know there is the same variation throughout the state, and 77 percent of the Jefferson County residents we trained at the fair were from zip code areas with bystander CPR rates under the national average of 31 percent.”

Since the 2015 fair, Brown has led efforts to conduct bystander CPR training at other locations. “Through the Take It to the Heart tour with KentuckyOne Health, we provided this training in hospital lobbies throughout the state, at UofL women's and men's basketball games and even at the Capitol in Frankfort with the Kentucky Senate,” she said. “Through these efforts, we have trained more than 1,000 individuals in CPR and educated another 43,000. We hope that these efforts not only raise the rates of bystander CPR and survival from cardiac arrest in our own communities, but also serve as a model for other communities.”

Brown will bring the training back to the Kentucky State Fair again this year. “These results suggest that by providing brief trainings in public venues, such as the state fair, we can effectively train people and potentially improve the rate of bystander CPR in this country,” she said.

Organizations or businesses also can schedule their own bystander CPR training session via the Start The Heart Foundation, for which Brown serves as a board member, by calling 502-852-1837.

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About the Young Investigator Awards

The American College of Cardiology’s Young Investigator Awards encourages and recognizes young scientific investigators of promise. To be considered for a Young Investigator Award, candidates submitted an abstract summarizing any problem relating to cardiovascular disease. Five finalists were selected in each of four award categories and invited to attend the Scientific Session to present their work during the Young Investigator Awards Competition.

About the American College of Cardiology

The American College of Cardiologyis a 52,000-member medical society that is the professional home for cardiovascular care physicians. The mission of the college is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The college operates national registries to measure and improve care, offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions, provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications.

More activities have been added to the lineup of the Cancer Awareness Show, set for Saturday, May 21, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Hillview Community Center, 298 Prairie Drive. Proceeds from the day’s activities will benefit research, community outreach and patient support programs of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville.

The Zoneton Fire Department will have its Fire Safety House for participants to walk through, and the Kentucky Cancer Program at UofL will display the pink Horses and Hope Mustang for breast cancer awareness.

Hobbies Café food truck also will be on hand, joining a variety of other vendors at the show, which has sold out its indoor booth spaces, said organizer Richard Luce Jr. Outdoor booth spaces remain available at $20 each.

The Cancer Awareness Show has something for the entire family with three shows-within-the-show: a model train show including 9X9, 4X16 and 3X6 layouts; an arts and crafts show; and “Cruizin’ for Cancer,” a car, truck and motorcycle show and a model car show.

The Zoneton Fire Department’s Fire Safety House is a walk-through model that helps teach children how to best respond to a house fire situation. The house is designed to provide a realistic environment for teaching basic fire prevention and survival skills. Kids learn about smoke detectors, how to determine escape routes from a fire in advance, and the importance of not hiding during a fire.

Former Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear and the organization she founded, Horses and Hope, commissioned the pink Mustang from Paul Miller Ford for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Kentucky Speedway. Since then, the Mustang tours the state to share life-saving breast cancer information. Horses and Hope works with the state’s equine industry to provide breast cancer education, screening and treatment referral.

Also included are prize and cash raffles. Representatives from Be The Match will be on hand to provide information about bone marrow donation. The James Graham Brown Cancer Center also will disseminate information on cancer prevention and treatment.

Admission is a cash donation to the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

Liberty Tire and Recycling is a sponsor of the Cancer Awareness Show. The car, truck and motorcycle show is sponsored by the South Louisville Antique and Toy Mall and the model car show is sponsored by Dan’s Chips and Toys. Additional sponsorships for the show also are available: Platinum, $1,000; Gold, $500; Silver, $300; and Bronze, $100.

For information on vendors, sponsorships or the show, contact Luce at Bigscoby4@yahoo.com, CancerAwareness15@yahoo.com or 502-802-8308.

University of Louisville researchers have discovered that a protein previously known for its role in kidney function also plays a significant role in the nervous system. In an article featured in the April 13 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, they show that the adaptor protein CD2AP is a key player in a type of neural growth known as collateral sprouting.

In the first research to be published on this protein’s role in the nervous system, Benjamin Harrison, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology and lead author of the article, and his colleagues show that CD2AP, an adaptor protein, orchestrates a complex arrangement of other proteins that controls the branching of nerve axons, the tendrils reaching out from the nerve cell to connect to other nerve cells, skin and organs. This nerve growth occurs in uninjured nerve cells as they extend their reach and create new connections.

“CD2AP brings in all the correct players, forms a multi-protein complex and coordinates that multi-protein complex to achieve growth of the neurons,” Harrison said. “There are a whole bunch of proteins that it could bring together, but it only brings together the correct proteins to create the correct response. In this case, it changes the structure of the axons through sprouting and elongation.”

This axon sprouting may be helpful, but too much of it can be harmful. In normal adult cells, this growth creates new connections and can lead to improved functionality after an injury or stroke. However, if the axons sprout uncontrollably, the result can be exacerbated epilepsy, blood pressure spikes or neuropathic pain. The researchers hope this new understanding of the nerve growth process will lead to therapies that can improve healing and recovery of function following nerve damage while minimizing excessive growth.

“Through targeting this molecule, we could help the body’s natural healing process to coordinate the appropriate growth,” Harrison said.

The research team, based in the lab of Jeffrey Petruska, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology and the Department of Neurological Surgery and the article’s corresponding author, identified CD2AP as a player in the neurological system via a screen to detect genes associated with neuron growth. Their research examined how CD2AP interacts with various molecules in controlling the neural sprouting process, in particular they studied its relationship with nerve growth factor (NGF).

“People have been studying nerve growth factor and the responses it induces for a while, but this protein (CD2AP) forms a nice link between NGF and the response in the cell,” Harrison said.

Previous research also has associated CD2AP with genetic changes among individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and it may be helpful in understanding the mechanisms involved in Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease and spinal cord injuries.

Petruska says this work relates closely to other research being conducted at UofL’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (KSCIRC). He says that understanding these molecular processes could one day be used to amplify the activity-based therapies such as locomotor training now being done with spinal cord injury patients by UofL faculty at Frazier Rehab Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health. Locomotor training helps spinal cord injury patients achieve functional recovery through standing and stepping activity.

“We are starting to discover that there are different modes of nerve growth and different sets of genes that control different kinds of growth,” Petruska said. “This is particularly important as it relates to locomotor training. When you train, you enhance the growth factor environment of the injured spinal cord, and those growth factors are involved in the axon plasticity. This mode that we study is dependent on the growth factors.”

Harrison, who also is part of the Kentucky Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (KBRIN), plans to pursue research aimed at developing a drug to provide appropriate nerve growth for spinal cord injury patients.

“My dream,” Harrison said, “is to one day do a clinical trial with a drug that targets this protein and can enhance the ability of the patients to respond to the activity-based rehabilitation (locomotor training) that they are doing at Frazier Rehab Center.”

High school student Cassa Drury earned co-authorship on publication of original research

One member of the research team and a co-author on the publication that first described the role of CD2AP in the nervous system is Cassa Drury, a junior at Louisville’s duPont Manual High School. Drury has worked in the lab of Jeffrey Petruska, Ph.D., associate professor in UofL’s Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, since he mentored her during middle school science fair competitions. As a middle schooler, Drury competed in science fairs at the national and international level with her research on the neurological systems of planaria worms under Petruska’s guidance.

In the team’s research into CD2AP, Drury recorded and analyzed changes in the nerve cells for the publication’s primary author, Ben Harrison, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology and the article’s lead author. Drury, a high school sophomore at the time, was working in the lab as part of a self-directed learning program offered by her high school.

Drury recorded the length and number of branches in images of neural cells that had been treated with different amounts of CD2AP and those that were not treated to determine the protein’s effect on nerve growth.

“I put them into a program and I was able to trace them. The tracing allowed us to see whether they were growing more than they would normally,” Drury said.

“Cassie was the one who did measurements in the cultured neurons to determine that the protein was a positive regulator of growth,” Harrison said.

That work earned Drury a listing as fifth author on the publication, released in the April 13 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience. A total of 14 authors are credited on the article.

“It was not a gift,” Petruska said. “She did important work for this research and she understands what the work is about.”

Drury is eager to follow the research to which she has contributed.

“I am really interested to see where this research goes,” Drury said. “This connection is a really strong one and I am excited to see what comes out of it and what Ben ends up doing. I hope he can hand them a drug. That would be wonderful.”

This summer, Drury will be attending a science ethics leadership seminar at the University of Notre Dame on the ethical considerations of scientific research. After high school, she plans to study science in college, perhaps along with communications.

“One of the things that allowed Cassie to have such success in the science fair is that she is very good at communicating her results and her experiment design. She is good at answering questions,” Petruska said.

This work was supported by the CDRF International Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury Research, Kentucky Spinal Cord and Head Injury Research Trust Grant 09-12A, Paralyzed Veterans of America Fellowship, National Institutes of Health Grants P20RR016481, 3P20RR016481-09S1, P20GM103436, P30GM103507, R21NS080091, R21NS071299 and R01NS094741.

Posted April 13, 2016

Two scientists at the University of Louisville, together with German researchers, have discovered a method unknown up to this time by which the biological process of allostery occurs, a finding that has implications for better focused therapeutic treatments with fewer side effects.

Donghan Lee, Ph.D. and David Ban, Ph.D., both with the Department of Medicine and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at UofL, joined with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany, in looking at allostery, the process in which biological macromolecules such as proteins transmit the effect of binding at one site to another, often distant, functional site.

“This important study documents the significance of very basic cancer research and will likely lead to the identification and development of novel targeted treatments which otherwise would not have been discovered,” said Donald M. Miller, M.D., Ph.D., director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health.

At the atomic level, the UofL and German research group found a previously unidentified way for allostery to occur through the collective motion of an entire protein structure.

“Much drug development focuses on targeting a protein,” Lee said. “The thinking is that if you block a certain action of a certain protein, then you can cure or at least, delay progression of a disease.

“However, in order to understand what to block, you must understand the function of the protein structure. That is the direction we took.”

The group used ubiquitin, a small protein that is highly abundant in cells of higher organisms. With newly developed computational algorithms, the research team was able to determine atomic structures representing what was the previously invisible allosteric motion within ubiquitin.

That motion was fast, said the researchers. “There have been limitations in the ability to observe fast protein motions,” Ban said. “However, we developed a technique that overcame the previous experimental limitations. Having a better, more precise and more accurate ability to measure the movement, we can now build an atomic model that enables us to visualize what the motion actually looks like.”

Lee likens the process to stopping a wide receiver on the football field. The wide receiver has to catch the ball with his arms and hands while also running with his legs and feet. The speed of his legs is affected by the action of catching the ball with his arms.

“So if we just block one leg, his ability to run and actually catch the ball will be impaired,” Lee said.  “That’s what we did in the lab: We saw we could block one thing to affect others.”

A single peptide bond was key, Ban said. “In looking at the functional aspect of this protein, it all boiled down to a single peptide bond that flipped in or out. That is amazing: we could affect a distant region by manipulating a single peptide bond.

“We were able to make mutants of this certain protein that would lock it in one state or another.”

The potential therapeutic benefit of the findings could result in more focused treatments with fewer side effects.

“Chemotherapy, for example, attacks multiple, different proteins and there are a lot of side effects,” Lee said. “But conceivably, we need only one protein blocked – just like we only need to block one leg of the wide receiver to stop him. Our study begins to help us target that one correct protein without impairing others.”

“Our findings give us, for the first time, the tools to look at many different systems,” Ban said. “We can apply this to other medically and biologically relevant systems.”

Other members of the research team are Colin A. Smith, Supriya Pratihar, Karin Giller, Maria Paulat, Stefan Becker, Christian Griesinger and Bert L. de Groot. The group’s study, “Allosteric switch regulates protein-protein binding through collective motion,” was published in March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.