University of Louisville cardiologist and researcher Roberto Bolli, M.D., has been awarded the 2018 Honorable Maestro Award by the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, the chapter’s highest honor.

Bolli is director of UofL’s Institute of Molecular Cardiology and serves as scientific director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute at UofL. He is also a professor and chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the School of Medicine.

The Maestro Award recognizes achievements in the field of cardiology and medicine, leadership in the regional and national cardiology community, charity work, mentorship and vigilant care of the sick.

In the past year, Bolli received one the largest grants ever for medical research at the University of Louisville, saw the impact factor jump on a major medical journal he edits, and led the Stem Cell Summit at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Anaheim, Calif.

The $13.8 million grant Bolli and his UofL team received from the National Institutes of Health is to study a promising new type of adult cardiac stem cell that has the potential to treat heart failure.

Bolli’s research focus has been on how to repair the heart and cure heart failure using a patient’s own stem cells. It is an approach that could revolutionize the treatment of heart disease.

He also serves as editor of the journal Circulation Research, which achieved its highest-ever “impact factor,” a measure of its importance in the medical field, last year. Circulation Research is an official journal of the American Heart Association and is considered the world’s leading journal on basic and translational research in cardiovascular medicine.

Bolli will be recognized and presented with the Maestro Award on stage at the Kentucky chapter’s annual meeting at the Lexington Center in Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 13, 2018.

A national talk the following year will be named in his honor.

While CPR instruction in high school is required by law in a growing number of states, there is no standard method of implementation, according to a study by a University of Louisville doctor published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The study by Lorrel Brown, M.D., an assistant professor at the UofL School of Medicine and physician director for resuscitation at UofL Hospital, is titled “CPR instruction in U.S. high schools: What is the state in the nation?”

In the U.S., 350,000 people suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital each year. Only 30 percent get bystander CPR, which affects survival, Brown said. Only 11 percent of those 350,000 survive.

“If we improve survival by just 1 percent, that’s 3,500 more people who will live,” Brown said.

The American Heart Association wants to double the percentage of cardiac arrest victims who receive bystander CPR by 2020, and CPR training in high schools has been endorsed by a variety of organizations. Thirty-nine states have passed laws requiring the training before graduation, including Kentucky, which passed a law last year. Similar laws in the remaining 11 states are being considered.

For the study, Brown examined the state laws and characterized them based on stringency of training. 

“We know high school students can learn CPR. However, we have found CPR skill retention in high schoolers is poor, with only 30 percent performing adequate CPR six months after training,” she said. “We wanted to know, is there a better way to do it? How can we make the best use of this opportunity?”

The study had two parts: 1) what the law in each state requires and 2) how the laws are being implemented in schools.

To find out, Brown sent a survey to schools in the 39 states. She asked how CPR was being taught, who was doing the teaching and at what grade level.

“We found a wide degree of variability from state to state, and even school to school,” she said. “While the laws all have some similar features, such as teaching the hands-only method, they still leave a lot to the individual schools to decide.”

Most laws don’t recommend a specific program. Some require the training take place in a specific grade, while others don’t.  Most training was being taught as part of a physical education class, but it varied widely who taught it, from a firefighter, a nurse, to the American Red Cross. Most laws don’t require the instructor to be certified to teach, an important distinction, Brown said, since not everyone who is certified in CPR will necessarily be a good instructor.

She said a major barrier for schools is the cost of CPR training.  Certified instructors are not always readily available, and most states don’t provide funding for CPR training, leaving it to individual schools and districts.  And high-quality mannequins, which are important for a more realistic experience and muscle memory, are expensive, Brown said. Thirty-six percent of schools surveyed were using a low-quality, inexpensive inflatable one.

She said the study “hopefully will help standardize the process to provide high-quality training.” Brown was assisted in the study by two UofL medical students, third-year Carlos Lynes, and fourth-year Travis Carroll, with Henry Halperin, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, advising on the study.

She said it’s too early to tell whether the training in U.S. high schools has been effective in saving lives, but in some places such as Denmark, similar laws lead to increased rates of bystander CPR and survival.

“We’re still about 10 years out in the U.S.,” she said. With about 4 million students per year now graduating with CPR training, “by then we’ll have an army of people trained in CPR.”

Expanding CPR training has been especially important to Brown, who has worked for several years on unique approaches such as halftime demonstrations at UofL men’s basketball games.  She founded and directs a program called “Alive in 5” (alivein5.org), a five-minute method of teaching CPR she developed that could become a standard for training. She studied the method at the Kentucky State Fair and found adults could learn high-quality CPR in just 5 minutes.

“We are still investigating the best method that is effective and efficient,” she said.  

When she was eight years old, Meliha Hrustanovic-Kadic and her family fled war-torn Bosnia as refugees. They settled in Bowling Green, Ky., adapting as quickly as they could to the new language and culture.

Soon afterward, her grandfather arrived in the United States as well, but his health quickly deteriorated.

“I was the oldest of my siblings and the oldest of the grandchildren. I found myself riding in an ambulance with my grandfather on a frequent basis. I became his interpreter for every emergency room visit and hospital stay. As his condition unfortunately worsened, my curiosity and passion for medicine grew.”

Early in her college career, she made it official.

“I declared pre-medicine as my major during my sophomore year at Western Kentucky University. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.”

Hrustanovic-Kadic considered other medical schools, but knew she wanted to be at UofL.

“I felt a welcoming atmosphere from the start and loved how diverse it was. I wanted to attend a medical school that excelled in patient care, research, teaching and was involved in the community. UofL has surpassed all of my expectations.”

Hrustanovic-Kadic appreciates the school’s commitment to students’ well-being, with wellness initiatives, mental health counseling, an active LGBT program and diversity events. As a medical student at UofL, she has served as a representative on the diversity committee and volunteers for Kentucky Refugee Ministries.

“So many individuals, from instructors and attendings to fellow medical students to the medical student affairs staff, have become like family over the years.”

Wartime displacement prevented her parents from completing higher education, which, combined with learning a new language, put the best jobs out of reach. Ultimately, they reached for the American Dream, opening their own transportation company.

“I was 15 at the time and have helped them manage it ever since,” Hrustanovic-Kadic said. She has continued to support the family business even during medical school.

“We function as a team and everyone tries to pitch in to help when they can. Don’t ask me how I’ve balanced everything because I don’t even know – perhaps a mix of good time management and organization, along with a ‘when there’s a will, there’s a way’ attitude!”

Her family has supported her during her medical education as well, with frequent visits to Louisville and even preparing her favorite Bosnian foods – krofne, pita, hurmasice and others – during exam weeks.

“You name a way and I can assure you they’ve done it – emotionally, spiritually, physically, financially,” Hrustanovic-Kadic said. “I cannot even begin to describe just how important a supportive family is, especially through medical school.”

She will receive her diploma at the UofL School of Medicine Convocation on Saturday, but her days at UofL are not over. Hrustanovic-Kadic will remain at UofL to pursue residency in internal medicine.

“I enjoy taking care of patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings and there are so many interesting routes one can take with a career in internal medicine. I am looking forward to the experiences I will gain during residency.”

The University of Louisville has expanded its oncology research strength through the addition of approximately 33,000 human tissue samples and specimens. The samples were transferred by Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) to further the shared commitment and collaboration in advancing research and action in the fight against cancer.

Researchers from the University of Louisville and James Graham Brown Cancer Center are partners with CHI through national oncological research between the two organizations, as well as locally as part of KentuckyOne Health. This close collaboration has delivered significant impact in the understanding of a variety of cancers and is supporting physicians and patients in Kentucky and across the country.

“These specimens provide our researchers with opportunities to build on existing research initiatives and open the door for new areas of study in fighting cancer,” said Dr. James Ramsey, president of the University of Louisville. “We now will be able to extend our efforts to build upon our advances and we continue to work to reduce the human costs of cancer.”

Research teams in Louisville now have access to triple the number of medical specimens to guide cancer research. The more than 47,000 samples in the University of Louisville biorepository cover 111 unique primary tumor sites and include cancer types that are particularly prevalent in Kentucky, including breast, lung, colon and kidney cancers.

“Cancer is one of the most prevalent health issues facing the people of the Commonwealth,” said Ruth Brinkley, CEO of KentuckyOne Health. “The gifting of these specimens reinforces our shared commitment to bring wellness, health and hope to patients in Kentucky and across the country. The innovative treatments, diagnostic tests and other insights our local researchers are developing are critical to helping us reduce the rate and impact of cancer.”

The specimens will arrive at the University of Louisville on May 24, 2016, enabling immediate access for research teams.

About KentuckyOne Health

KentuckyOne Health, the largest and most comprehensive health system in the Commonwealth, has more than 200 locations including, hospitals, physician groups, clinics, primary care centers, specialty institutes and home health agencies in Kentucky and southern Indiana. KentuckyOne Health is dedicated to bringing wellness, healing and hope to all, including the underserved. The system is made up of the former Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare and Saint Joseph Health System, along with the University of Louisville Hospital and James Graham Brown Cancer Center. KentuckyOne Health is proud of and strengthened by its Catholic, Jewish and academic heritages.

About University of Louisville/James Graham Brown Cancer Center

The James Graham Brown Cancer Center is a key component of the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center. As part of the region's leading academic, research and teaching health center, the cancer center provides the latest medical advances to patients, often long before they become available in non-teaching settings. The JGBCC is a part of KentuckyOne Health and is affiliated with the Kentucky Cancer Program. It is the only cancer center in the region to use a unified approach to cancer care, with multidisciplinary teams of physicians working together to guide patients through diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

Individuals in the early stages of Huntington’s Disease (HD) or who are at risk of developing it may be able to play a part in efforts to conquer the disease. Patients are invited to apply for participation in SIGNAL, a Phase 2 research trial that will assess the safety, tolerability and effectiveness of VX15, a novel monoclonal antibody that may delay onset or slow the progression of HD.

Kathrin LaFaver, M.D., Raymond Lee Lebby Chair for Parkinson’s Disease Research in the Department of Neurology at the University of Louisville, will lead the study in Louisville, one of 23 sites around the United States participating in SIGNAL. LaFaver also is the director of the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Clinic at UofL Physicians.

Animal models have shown that monoclonal antibodies bind to and block a molecule that may cause inflammation in the brain of individuals who develop HD. In addition, VX15 may protect against the inflammation that has been shown to affect the thinking, movement and behaviors that affect HD patients.

Huntington’s Disease is a genetic disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. It is characterized by personality changes, mood swings, depression, forgetfulness and impaired judgment. Patients experience unsteady gait and involuntary movements (chorea), slurred speech, difficulty in thinking and mood disturbances. HD affects approximately 30,000 Americans and more than 200,000 have the gene that causes the disease. HD is autosomal dominant, meaning that a parent with Huntington’s Disease has a 50/50 chance of passing the gene trait that causes the disease on to his or her children.

The SIGNAL trial is the first time a monoclonal antibody will be investigated for potential treatment of HD. Participants in the trial will receive monthly intravenous infusion of the drug and be monitored with advanced brain scan techniques and analyses utilizing MRI and PET.

“This is a great opportunity for patients in early stages of Huntington’s to be involved in a study that may slow the progression of the disease,” LaFaver said. “The drug was already tested for safety in patients with multiple sclerosis and was well tolerated.”

Trial participants should be individuals who:

• Are at risk for developing HD
• Have undergone genetic testing
• Are thought to be in the early stage of HD
• Are able to undergo brain scans (MRI and PET)
• Are at least 21 years of age

SIGNAL will enroll study participants through the second part of 2016. Participants in the study will receive monthly infusions for 12 months and follow up for an additional three months. Participants will receive study related medical care, tests and drugs used in the study, along with reimbursement for time spent during in-person visits and reasonable travel and lodging costs.

For information on participating in SIGNAL, contact Annette Robinson, RN, BSN, CCRC at 502-540-3585, annette.robinson@louisville.edu.

Individuals also may contact the Huntington Study Group at 1-800-487-7671, email info@hsglimited.org or http://www.huntington-study-group.org.

_{September 21, 2015}

Michael Lovelace, a third-year student at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, has been selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Family Medicine Leads (FML) Emerging Leader Institute, sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Foundation. The FML Emerging Leader Institute was created to identify family medicine residents and medical students who display leadership potential and to provide those individuals with training to help equip them for leadership roles in medicine. From 115 applicants, 15 medical students and 15 family medicine residents (30 total participants) were selected for participation in the year-long leadership development program.

“Michael's achievement in being named to the inaugural class of the Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute is an outstanding tribute to Michael and to the University of Louisville's commitment to primary care at the national level,” said Diane Harper, M.D., M.P.H., chair of the UofL Family and Geriatric Medicine department.

After obtaining his degree in finance and MBA, Lovelace spent 10 years in business, serving as a project manager and operations manager. Since enrolling in medical school at UofL, Lovelace led the student-run Family Medicine Interest Group and is a student member of the Admissions Committee.

“The FML Emerging Leader Institute intrigued me because it of the opportunity to gain leadership experience in a health-care setting that will complement my business background,” Lovelace said.

Lovelace will work with a mentor to complete an individual project over the next year designed to build his leadership skills. Projects are assigned in one of three tracks:  policy and public health leadership, personal and practice leadership, and philanthropy and mission-driven leadership. Lovelace plans to complete a project in personal and practice leadership based on an idea he proposed to assist medical students, residents and young physicians with personal financial planning.

“Michael is the rare visionary who is at home working on the front lines. He presents and supports family medicine with facts, dedication, humor and a knowledgeable realization of its rightful place in the health-care system,” said Stephen F. Wheeler, M.D., senior faculty member in the UofL Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine.

Selection to the FML Emerging Leader Institute comes with a $1,000 scholarship for attendance at the 2015 AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students in August and the Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute at the AAFP headquarters in Leawood, Kan. Each of the 30 projects completed by the FML Emerging Leader Institute Scholars will be evaluated by a special AAFP Foundation committee. Creators of the top two student and top two resident projects in each of the three tracks will earn additional $1,000 scholarships and will present their projects at the 2016 AAFP National Conference. The top project in each track will earn a $3,000 scholarship to participate in a designated major event related to their track.

About the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation

The AAFP Foundation serves as the philanthropic arm of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Its mission is to advance the values of family medicine by promoting humanitarian, educational and scientific initiatives that improve the health of all people.

The University of Louisville School of Medicine recently was ranked third in the nation for career support for its students. The poll, produced by graduateprograms.com, defines career support as the quality of career planning, resources and support received during and after graduate studies.

“This is a very meaningful ranking for us because it says that our students believe we are preparing them for their futures,” said Toni Ganzel, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the UofL School of Medicine. “This is a reflection of the quality work of our Student Affairs leadership and staff and all our faculty as we prepare the next generation of physicians.”

UofL is ranked ahead of schools such as Vanderbilt, Duke, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Ohio State topped the rankings, followed by the University of Southern California.

Graduateprograms.com assigns 15 ranking categories to each graduate program at each graduate school. Rankings cover a variety of student topics, such as academic competitiveness, career support, financial aid, and quality of network. For a given graduate program, rankings are determined by calculating the average score for each program based on the 15 ranking categories. These scores are then compared across all ranked schools for that program and are translated into a final ranking for that graduate program, i.e., business and management. A given graduate program is not ranked until a minimum threshold of graduate student surveys is completed for that graduate program.

UofL also ranked in the top 25 of the graduateprograms.com rankings for Financial Aid.

Faul and Shiels will serve terms on the council expiring in May 2019. The council’s 15 representatives help the Kentucky Department for Aging and Independent Living identify ways to help Kentuckians with memory loss and their families. Council members include representatives from state government, local health departments and Alzheimer’s associations, as well as consumers, health-care providers and medical researchers.

Faul is the executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Health and Optimal Aging (ISHOA) at the University of Louisville and the associate dean for academic affairs at UofL’s Kent School of Social Work. She also is a Hartford Faculty Scholar of the Gerontological Social Work Initiative, a national effort of the John A. Hartford Foundation to address gaps in social work education and research around the health and well-being of older adults.

“Only one-third of people with Alzheimer’s are properly diagnosed and that has a lot to do with awareness,” Faul said. “There needs to be a better way of delivering the diagnosis in a supportive environment. Once we have the diagnosis, the key is to create Alzheimer’s-friendly communities where these individuals and their families are supported and included.”

Shiels is the director of the Kentucky Person-Centered Care Program for Long-Term Care and the director of the Kentucky Emergency Preparedness for Aging and Long-Term Care Program, both administered through UofL’s Kent School of Social Work. She is the institutional director of the UofL Geriatric Education Center and manages the interprofessional training program in Alzheimer’s in collaboration with the UofL Department for Family and Geriatric Medicine, UofL School of Nursing, UofL’s Kent School of Social Work and Spalding University.

“My work focuses on improving quality of care and quality of life for those living in Kentucky's nursing homes, of which 60 to 70 percent have Alzheimer's or related dementia,” Shiels said. “It is impossible to separate nursing home care and Alzheimer's disease.”

As members of the Governor’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Advisory Council, Faul said she and Shiels can work synergistically to promote the understanding, management and prevention of the disease.

May 28, 2015

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s a new weapon in the arsenal of cancer fighting treatments: utilizing genetically modified viruses to invade cancer cells and destroy them from the inside.

University of Louisville researcher Jason Chesney, M.D., Ph.D., deputy director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center (JGBCC), and a team of international scientists found that stage IIIb to IV melanoma patients treated with a modified cold sore (herpes) virus had improved survival. The results of the findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

UofL was one of the major sites for the phase III clinical trial involving 436 patients who received the viral immunotherapy, Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC). Scientists genetically engineered the herpes simplex I virus to be non-pathogenic, cancer-killing and immune-stimulating. The modified herpes virus does not harm healthy cells, but replicates when injected into lesions or tumors, and then stimulates the body’s immune system to fight the cancer.

“The results from this study are amazing,” Chesney said. “Patients given T-VEC at an early stage survived about 20 months longer than patients given a different type of treatment. For some, the therapy has lengthened their survival by years. ”

Shari Wells from Ashland, Kentucky is one of those patients. She entered the trial in 2010 with stage IV, or metastatic, melanoma. Before entering the T-VEC trial, she had been through numerous procedures and major surgeries. According to Wells, nothing worked and she was facing a death sentence.

“When you hear that you may only have three to six months to live, it is very scary,” Wells said. “I would not be alive today if I had not been accepted into the T-VEC trial. Dr. Chesney and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center saved my life.”

Wells drove to Louisville every two weeks for about two and a half years to receive injections in each of the more than 60 lesions on her leg. The lesions eventually began to fade and finally disappeared. She has been in remission for almost eight years.

“I want everyone to know they should never give up hope. With research there will always be something new tomorrow that wasn’t here today,” she said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are considering findings from the trial to make the treatments available to more patients with advanced melanoma.

More Research

The Journal of Clinical Oncology report comes on the heels of Chesney’s findings from another study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article describes an immunotherapy for melanoma utilizing the checkpoint inhibitors, ipilimumab and nivolumab. In cell biology, their role is to reduce the effectiveness of two immune checkpoint proteins responsible for telling the immune system to turn off and not kill the cancer cells.

The study found that injection of the two inhibitors shrunk tumors in the majority of patients with advanced melanoma. The JGBCC was one of the top centers worldwide to enroll patients and find that ipilimumab combined with nivolumab resulted in the highest anti-cancer efficacy ever observed after treatment with a cancer immunotherapy.

Chesney and his team, working with the pharmaceutical company Amgen, are taking the success of their trials a step further – combining T-VEC with the immune checkpoint inhibitor ipilimumab into a treatment regimen. The clinical trial is underway at the JGBCC and other sites in hopes of accelerating cancer immunity and curing patients.

“We finally understand how to activate the human immune system to clear cancer cells, having developed new classes of immunotherapies that dramatically improve the survival of cancer patients,” Chesney said. “I believe T-VEC combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors will not only reduce cancer-related mortality in melanoma but in all cancer types, and we are moving quickly to develop these methods.”

Learn more about all melanoma and sarcoma related clinical trials at : http://browncancercenter.louisville.edu/pcare-and-clintrials/mel-sarc/melanoma-and-sarcoma or by contacting the Clinical Trials Office, CTOInfo@louisville.edu, 502-562-3429.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – DentaQuest has selected David L. Dunn, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for health affairs (EVPHA), University of Louisville, as one of its 2015 Health Equity Heroes, recognizing his distinguished work in making oral health care accessible to underserved populations. The inaugural Oral Health Equity Hero Awards were given to only seven people nationwide, each hero making significant contributions toward removing barriers to oral health.

“Dunn is a health leader who is committed to providing critical care in the Louisville community and beyond,” said Steve Pollock, CEO of DentaQuest. “He is connecting historically underserved populations with this care by employing the skills and traits that continue to mark his career - innovation: strategic outreach and compassion for the people he serves every day. The people of Kentucky are lucky to have him as a health advocate and ally.”

Tooth decay affects 20 percent of Kentucky’s preschoolers, 50 percent of second-graders, and nearly 75 percent of 15 year olds-- statistics that Pollock cites as being part of a national oral health crisis. More than 83 million people in the United States are facing barriers to dental care, barriers related to such factors as race, age, income level, language, health literacy, and geographic isolation.

A highly-recognized and respected transplant surgeon, Dunn has served as UofL’s EVPHA since 2011. He is an advocate for the importance of coupling dental coverage with medical coverage to promote enhanced overall health, noting that this “one-stop-shopping” approach helps eliminate barriers and connects more people with consistent preventive care. Under his leadership, UofL has made it a priority to establish medical-dental homes for children, ensuring access to health care is convenient and collaborative. Additionally, UofL medical and dental staff have partnered with the area’s public schools to advance health information and education programs.

“The University has a very robust community engagement initiative, particularly in Louisville’s West End, where there is unique opportunity to reach some of the most vulnerable populations in the state,” Dunn said. “Oral health is critical to overall health and our outreach programs emphasize that connection.”

Researchers at the University of Louisville have detailed a critical connection associated with a major environmental cause of silicosis and a form of lung cancer. Their study is reported in today’s Nature Communications.

Haribabu Bodduluri, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology and a researcher in the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, and his team made the crucial connection between exposure to inhaled silica and rapid progression of lung cancers. This study also outlines the critical role of the inflammatory mediator LTB₄ and its receptor BLT1 in promoting silica mediated lung tumor growth.

“We believe this is a significant step in our understanding of how environmental exposure alters the way lung cancer progresses,” Bodduluri said. “It is our hope that this new information will allow for the more rapid development of treatments for this currently incurable disease.”

Exposure to crystalline silica (CS) is common to a variety of industrial operations including mining, quarrying, sandblasting, rock drilling, road construction, pottery making, stone masonry, and tunneling operations. Chronic silica exposure causes severe health complications eventually leading to the irreversible, debilitating disease silicosis.

Approximately 2 million U.S. workers potentially are exposed to breathable crystalline silica. Silicosis in the developing part of the world is of an even higher concern as it is spreading like an epidemic with more than 10 million people affected around the world as a result of rapid industrialization, massive expansion of construction industry and possibly less regulated working environments.

“Silicosis continues to be a growing worldwide health issue. Being from Kentucky, where overall lung cancer is a major health issue, it is exciting that we may be able to develop treatments that impact people in our backyards, in addition to around the world,” Bodduluri said.

Silicosis keeps progressing post-exposure because people are unable to cough up the tiny particles, and macrophages that ingest silica particles end up dying, resulting in persistent sterile inflammation and may eventually lead to lung cancer. Though CS has been designated as a human carcinogen it also has been difficult to discern silicosis associated lung cancer because of a number of confounding factors including the fact that cigarette smoking is a common factor with workers likely to be exposed to silica.

Bodduluri and his colleagues report that in mice that develop spontaneous lung tumors, CS exposure accelerates lung tumor progression. Moreover, this result also was replicated in an implantable lung cancer model.

Their results highlight the importance of silica induced leukotriene B4 mediated inflammation in lung tumor promotion. Leukotrienes are involved in regulating inflammation, especially in the lungs. Mice deficient in leukotriene B4 receptor BLT1 are significantly protected from silica induced tumor promotion, suggesting the possibility for novel treatment strategies for both silicosis and associated lung cancers.

Donald Miller, M.D., Ph.D., director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center said, “This work reflects the strong commitment of the Brown Cancer Center to better understand the important role of environmental factors in causing lung cancer.  Dr. Bodduluri and his team are world leaders in this field and this work may lead to novel therapies for lung cancer.”

Last year, the first year it was offered, the University of Louisville LGBT Center awarded 26 certificates in LGBT Health and Wellness Competency. This year, that number nearly quadrupled to 102 certificates awarded April 13 to students, faculty and staff members at the UofL Health Sciences Center campus. The year-long program educates health-care workers about treating individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

“It really speaks to the interest and the passion of all of those who have attended sessions for making sure they are doing their utmost in caring for a broad swathe of the population,” said Stacie Steinbock, director of the LGBT Center Satellite Office on the Health Sciences Center Campus, who organized the program.

The certificate program consists of monthly lunchtime sessions covering issues facing LGBT patients and their health-care providers. In all, more than 650 people attended this year’s sessions. Individuals who attended at least four of the sessions and completed a post-test were eligible to receive the certificate and lapel pin recognizing their completion of the LGBT Health and Wellness Competency program. Recipients included students in the schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry and public health, as well as faculty and staff members from all parts of the Health Sciences Center campus.

“The speakers were dynamic and I couldn’t ask for a better certificate series,” said Ron Welch, of the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, who received a certificate.

“It was really about diversifying and providing a more inclusive environment for our students, for our faculty, for our staff. Beyond that, it was also about improving the health and the care of our LGBT patients,” Toni Ganzel, M.D., dean of the UofL School of Medicine, said of the program.

"This certificate training further fosters diversity and inclusivity as we work together in the future as interprofessional teams," said Marcia Hern, Ed.D., C.N.S., R.N., dean of the UofL School of Nursing.

The certificate program coincides with the UofL School of Medicine’s incorporation of LGBT training competencies identified by the Association of American Medical Colleges into the formal curriculum beginning with the 2015-2016 academic year. UofL is the national pilot site for this program.

“Having additional training in the equitable, just and affirmative care of LGBT patients is critical. We as a medical school are going to be one of the first in the country to systematically build it into our curriculum and the certificate program was really something that preceded our ability to change the medical curriculum,” said Amy Holthauser, M.D., a member of the UofL School of Medicine faculty and certificate recipient.

To increase the relevance of the program to students and staff in the individual schools, next year’s program will offer four general sessions, with two sessions designed to be specifically relevant to each of the medical, dental, nursing and public health programs.

Some animals have developed the ability to survive in extreme conditions such being frozen, drying or with a complete lack of oxygen.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Michael Menze, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Louisville, will discuss how the mechanisms behind these animals’ survival in impossible conditions can be used to transform human medicine.

“I am fascinated with how these animals can survive the limits of life, so my research focuses on decoding the molecular mechanisms that protect animals exposed to harsh environmental factors,” Menze said. “Understanding how life can survive these intense insults allows us to solve medical challenges ranging from long-duration space travel to securing the human blood supply.”

Menze’s talk begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Holsopple Brewing, 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged. Organizers encourage Beer with a Scientist patrons to drink responsibly.

UofL cancer researcher Levi Beverly, Ph.D., created the Beer with a Scientist program in 2014 as a way to bring science to the public in an informal setting. At these events, the public is invited to enjoy exactly what the title promises:  beer and science.

To comply with recent CMS changes, UofL Physicians has modified current attending attestation statements and have added some resident attestations.
 
For billing purposes, CMS wants a summarization of the teaching physician role in the care of the patient. For the most part, current attending attestations are fine, but providers must briefly summarize key portions of the visit. Depending on the workflow, these changes may make it easier for attending physicians by essentially allowing the resident to document for them. 

For questions regarding documentation, please contact Laura Gilbert, director, Compliance & Audit Services with ULP, at laura.gilbert@ulp.org or 502-588-6462.

For six years, Tommy Gift Jr. and his brother, Alex Gift, have been helping cancer patients at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center through the Mary Jane Gift Quality of Life Fund. Later this month, the Gift brothers will raise the bar by hosting the inaugural Drive Out Cancer golf scramble to increase support for the fund.

Established in honor of the Gifts’ mother, who passed away from breast cancer in 2010, the Gift Fund helps patients and their families enjoy life while facing a cancer diagnosis. Over the years, the Gift Fund has provided more than 600 Thanksgiving turkeys for patients undergoing treatment at the UofL Brown Cancer Center.

Now, the fund also will support a year-round apartment for patients receiving bone marrow transplants. To raise additional funds to support this patient resource, they established Drive Out Cancer, a golf scramble to be held later this month.

“We have raised money for the fund only from the Spike It To Cancer Volleyball Tournament for years. Recently, when we learned the fund also will be supporting an apartment for bone marrow transplant recipients, we decided to host the golf scramble to raise even more money. This is a huge deal,” Tommy Gift said.

Bone marrow transplant procedures require patients to stay in or near the hospital for lengthy periods. Those who travel long distances to UofL Brown Cancer Center for this lifesaving treatment must be away from home for an extended period of time. This can create a substantial financial burden for the patients and their families. Having lodging available will ease this burden for many patients.

“The Fund was established to help keep spirits up for cancer fighters at James Graham Brown Cancer Center and let them know there are complete strangers in our community who are pulling for them, willing to help make their lives a little easier during this hard time,” Tommy Gift said.

Drive Out Cancer will be held at South Park Country Club, 915 S. Park Road in Fairdale., on Monday, Oct. 14 beginning at 10 a.m. Registration for the event is $400 for a three-person golf team. To register or sponsor the event, follow the link here.

University of Louisville heart transplant surgeon Mark Slaughter, M.D., has implanted two patients with an investigational device, the intravascular ventricular assist system (iVAS), at Jewish Hospital to improve heart function. The iVAS is a minimally invasive alternative to ventricular assist devices for use in patients with severe heart failure, allowing more mobility and implant without open-heart surgery. The iVAS supports heart function and can be used temporarily while patients await a heart transplant or as a more permanent treatment. UofL is the only site in Kentucky participating in the iVAS trial.

The iVAS is a counterpulsation heart device, assisting the heart by pumping between beats while the heart is resting to increase the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. Manufactured by NuPulseCV, Inc., the device consists of a balloon-type pump placed in the descending aorta. This pump is inflated and deflated to help move blood through the body. The intra-aortic pump is connected through the skin to an external drive unit. The new technology is an improvement over other heart assist devices such as the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) most significantly in that the iVAS is implanted with a minimally invasive procedure, not requiring open heart surgery.

“The iVAS is put in through a peripheral artery so it does not require opening the chest or placing the patient on a heart-lung machine,” said Slaughter, chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery in the UofL School of Medicine and surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical assist devices for UofL and Jewish Hospital. “Through this clinical trial, we may find additional advantages such as the opportunity for patients to disconnect from the device intermittently. With the VAD, you are always tethered to the device. With the iVAS, you may be able to be untethered or turn it off for short periods,” Slaughter said.

Another benefit, Slaughter said, is patients are not required to be on long-term blood thinners, which can have serious side effects.

Robert Hughes, one of the patients who received the iVAS implanted by Slaughter in Louisville, had a heart attack in May and subsequently learned he had heart failure.

“I finished chemo for leukemia in January. I had gone from 200 pounds to 145 pounds and I was pretty weak,” Hughes said. “Then I had the heart attack on May 17. Afterward I was getting dizzy just standing. I felt like I would faint. It was very unnerving. I didn’t want to get out and do a nosedive at Pic Pac,” Hughes said.

Hughes’s diagnosis was advanced heart failure, but he did not qualify for either a heart transplant or open-heart surgery, so when he was presented with the iVAS as a long-term option, he was ready to participate in the trial. His iVAS was implanted on Aug. 13. Within a few weeks, he was able to go home.

“Since the surgery, I feel stronger and haven’t had dizzy spells. I am gaining my weight back,” Hughes said. “I am very pleased with the outcome. As far as I’m concerned, everything is a plus.”

Hughes said he has been able to get out for trips to the drug store or grocery store without fear of passing out. The external drive unit for iVAS weighs only 8 pounds, permitting patients to be discharged from the hospital to await transplant or continue their lives at home and free to go out in the community.

The goal of the clinical trial is to determine whether iVAS is as effective as the LVAD. Including the two patients at Jewish Hospital, 70 patients have been implanted with the iVAS device in 12 centers across the United States. 

Learn more about clinical trials at UofL here.

Sept. 30, 2019

The search for effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease continues, as new cases are diagnosed at an ever-increasing rate. Unfortunately, every drug tested to treat the disease so far has been proven ineffective. The focus now is on prevention with healthy habits and mitigating other health risks.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Sam Cotton, Ph.D., program manager of Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) at the University of Louisville Trager Institute and director of the Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias program, will share the latest updates on what we all can do to prevent development of Alzheimer’s disease. Plus, for those who have developed Alzheimer’s and their caregivers, Cotton’s talk also will include how to care compassionately for people who have the disease.

This month’s Beer with a Scientist event is part of Research!Louisville, a citywide event going on Sept. 10-13 highlighting health research for physicians, nurses, researchers and other health care providers and students. In addition, September is Optimal Aging month, with a focus on aging well.

Cotton’s talk begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at Holsopple Brewing, 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged. Organizers encourage Beer with a Scientist patrons to drink responsibly.

UofL cancer researcher Levi Beverly, Ph.D., created the Beer with a Scientist program in 2014 as a way to bring science to the public in an informal setting. At these events, the public is invited to enjoy exactly what the title promises:  beer and science.

The University of Louisville has enrolled the first patient in AngioDynamics’ NanoKnife^® Irreversible Electroporation (IRE) “Data IRE Cancer Treatment” clinical study (DIRECT). The DIRECT Study supports a proposed expanded use of the NanoKnife System in the treatment of stage III pancreatic cancer.

“We are pleased to be the first enrolling site. The DIRECT Study represents an important milestone in the standardization of care for patients with stage III pancreatic cancer,” said Robert C.G. Martin, MD, co-principal investigator of the DIRECT Study; director, Division of Surgical Oncology; professor of surgery, University of Louisville and surgical oncologist with UofL Physicians – Surgical Oncology.

“Our goal is to generate important data that should standardize and optimize the use of IRE in the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer, significantly improving outcomes for patients with this late-stage diagnosis,” Martin said.

Annually, there are approximately 57,000 new cases and 46,000 estimated deaths from pancreatic cancer in the United States. Deaths from pancreatic cancer are projected to increase dramatically in the coming years, with a trajectory of becoming the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths before 2030.

The mortality rate is high due to the aggressive nature of the disease and lack of early warning signs. Less than 20 percent of patients are candidates for surgical resection at time of diagnosis.

Approximately 35 to 40 percent of patients will initially present with stage III and 45 to 55 percent with metastatic disease. Regardless of the stage of pancreatic cancer, it is one of the least survivable cancers, and survival rates have not improved substantially for more than 40 years. For all stages combined, the five-year relative survival rate is 8 percent and, for those with advanced disease at the time of diagnosis, the five-year survival rate remains at 3 percent.

The DIRECT study continues the research of Martin and other health care providers at UofL that has helped lead to results that have tripled the overall survival in stage III pancreatic cancer.

AngioDynamics’ DIRECT clinical study features a comprehensive data collection strategy that will provide meaningful clinical information to health care professionals, support a regulatory indication for the treatment of stage III pancreatic cancer and facilitate reimbursement for hospitals and treating physicians. The next-generation study is classified as a Category B IDE by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which allows participating sites to obtain coverage for procedures performed, in addition to related routine costs.

The DIRECT Study includes a randomized controlled trial at up to 15 sites, as well as a real-world evidence, next generation registry at up to 30 sites, each with a NanoKnife System treatment arm and a control arm. AngioDynamics expects each NanoKnife arm to consist of approximately 250 patients with an equal number of control patients. The primary goal of the study is overall survival.

As part of the DIRECT Study, AngioDynamics launched AngioDIRECT.com to facilitate the enrollment of participants. The online platform provides patients and their families with information about pancreatic cancer and details about the study. It also features a physician locator to help prospective participants and referring health care professionals identify clinical study locations.

An important mission of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville is to encourage citizens to participate in research to understand and improve the health of our community. A new online data resource hosted by the Envirome Institute will allow citizen scientists and researchers to access and contribute to public knowledge about the health of the air, water and soil in Greater Louisville.

Louisville Data Commons is a new online data repository available to anyone interested in the state of our local environment or involved in citizen science or related data-gathering projects.

“For many years, we have been fortunate to have a strong Metro Government open data portal, a resource for sharing data gathered by the city. However, there is not a place to store and review data gathered by citizens that could ultimately help us gain a better understanding of our city,” said Ted Smith, Ph.D., director of the Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil of the UofL Envirome Institute.

“The growth of citizen science and the excitement around low-cost sensors has highlighted the great need to have a place where information gathered by our community, in our community, about our community can be made available to our whole community and governed by our community,” Smith said.

To provide credibility for the data, Louisville Data Commons is hosted by the Envirome Institute and governed by a volunteer board of community members. These community members will ensure the data sets maintained on the site are reliable, objective and useful to researchers. Members of the volunteer board will review data submitted by the public or non-profit organizations prior to making it available within the portal.

An example of the need for objective third-party validation of data is the recently released odor-reporting app, “Smell My City.” Members of the community expressed concern whether the data could be altered and sought assurance that the data was protected. Louisville Data Commons now archives reports from Smell My City that has been validated by a public process and maintained for future research by anyone using the portal.

Other sources of data will include information gathered by Brightside and Internet of Things sensors, as well as local environmental information provided by the federal government. As more residents discover new things to measure and share in the future, additional data can be held and shared on this portal.

"Louisville Data Commons is a great example of educational institutions, community partners and Louisville Metro Government working together to create a new tool to help local innovators change lives for the better,” said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. “That's the type of collaboration and focus on big ideas that we need as we work to become a city where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential."

Data may be uploaded to LouisvilleDataCommons.org by individuals, citizen scientists or non-profit organizations and may include information related to sensor projects, air or water quality, weather, odors, noise or other community health characteristics. Other data related to the city of Louisville also may be approved. The data is reviewed by at least two members of the Louisville Data Commons committee prior to being published to ensure validity and appropriateness.

The current Louisville Data Commons committee includes Smith, Grace Simrall, chief of civic innovation and technology for Louisville Metro Government, Aaron Drake, a technology consultant, and Nur Ozgener, a Brightside board member.

"Louisville Metro Government is proud to be a part of the Louisville Data Commons. We are focused on using innovation to address the challenges residents face each day and on expanding access to the digital tools and skills of the future,” Simrall said. “As we work toward these goals, the community needs access to data and good partners.”

The Louisville Data Commons portal uses open source data portal platform CKAN. 

After a Guatemalan sport diver discovered ancient Maya ruins in the depths of Lake Atitlan, underwater archaeologist John R. Hale, Ph.D., director of the Liberal Studies program at the University of Louisville, was invited to map the site, located in the Sierra Madre mountains of Guatemala. 

“Working with UofL archaeology majors who also were scuba divers, we were able to show that the site was in fact a 2000-year-old ceremonial center that the Maya had constructed on a small circular island in the middle of the large lake,” Hale said. “Using newly developed mapping techniques that linked sonar with satellite data, our UofL team was able to reconstruct the original contours of this Maya ‘Atlantis’ and reveal the extraordinary array of altars, standing stones and processional ways which had played a vital role in early Maya ceremony, cult and myth-making.”

A real-life “Indiana Jones,” Hale received a Ph.D. in archaeology from Cambridge University and has performed field work for more than 40 years. He has published works on ancient Scandinavian, Greek and Maya civilizations and technologies.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Hale will recount the exploration of the ancient, underwater site. His talk begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14, at Holsopple Brewing, 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged. Organizers encourage Beer with a Scientist patrons to drink responsibly.

UofL cancer researcher Levi Beverly, Ph.D., created the Beer with a Scientist program in 2014 as a way to bring science to the public in an informal setting. At these events, the public is invited to enjoy exactly what the title promises:  beer and science.

August 9, 2019