The Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging at the University of Louisville continues its Optimal Aging Lecture Series with “Understanding the Person with Alzheimer’s Disease: Person-Centered Perspectives on Dementia Care,” Wednesday, Oct. 14. The lecture will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the University Club, 200 E. Brandeis Ave.

Benjamin Mast, Ph.D., associate professor in the UofL Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, will debunk stereotypical thinking about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and discuss ways in which “person-centered care” can help improve the quality of life of people with these conditions.

Person-centered care aims to see the person with dementia as an individual, rather than focusing on the illness or abilities lost due to disease. This lecture explores the principles of person-centered assessment and care and how these apply to the individual and their unique experiences of living with dementia.

Admission is $17 per person and includes lunch. Reservations are required online. For information, call 502-852-8953 or email ann.burke@louisville.edu.

A national expert known for “disruptive aging” will challenge perceptions about getting older in an Aging Reconsidered Workshop addressing “Louisville’s Aging Revolution: Becoming an Age-Friendly City.” The one-day event will be held at the Brown & Williamson Club of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, Thursday, Oct. 8 from 2:30 to 4 p.m.

The event is free to the public and hosted by the University of Louisville Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging. Reservations are requested at ann.burke@louisville.edu.

This event is part of Bill Thomas’ national Age of Disruption2015 Tour. A medical doctor, Thomas is traveling to multiple states throughout the southeastern United States to spread what he terms his highly disruptive understanding of aging with the mission to inspire positive change for the communities he reaches. In Louisville, Thomas will be featured in four events throughout the day of Oct. 8; another event in Louisville includes a “non-fiction” theatrical performance at the Kentucky Center for the Preforming Arts at 7 p.m.

At the afternoon workshop, participants will learn how to challenge community leaders and members to have a voice and to take charge in making changes to better support livable aging. The afternoon forum will feature a dialogue about age-friendly cities, with participants sharing expectations of what an age-friendly city looks like. The community will be invited to engage with Thomas to develop an action plan in the development of an age-friendly city map for Louisville and surrounding communities.

Thomas’ presentation will be followed by a panel discussion of area aging leaders who have been identified by the institute as community change agents. Panelists include:

• Keith Knapp, President/CEO, Christian Care Communities
• Keisha Deonarine, Economic Development Manager, Louisville Forward: Lifelong Wellness & Aging Care
• Barbara Gordon, Executive Director, KIPDA
• Hannah Ruggles, Western Kentucky University student

“Thomas’ message is invigoratingly simple – the transition into our elder years should not be spent in frenzied disharmony,” said Anna Faul, D.Litt., director of the institute. “To successfully ‘play life’s most dangerous game’ – aging – we need to reimagine and create a clear and satisfying purpose to how we spend the rest of our lives.”

“Everything we think we know about getting older is wrong,” said Thomas, a Harvard-educated physician and author of the book Second Wind: Navigating the Passage to a Slower, Deeper, and More Connected Life. “It’s time we shake ourselves out of the misery of aging and repurpose and restore the wonders and integrity of the second half of life.”

For more information about the Aging Reconsidered Workshop and the Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging, call 502-852-5629.

The University of Louisville Health Sciences Center will show appreciation to supporters who have provided donations to the institution in the inaugural “Thank A Donor Day” event on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The celebration will be held 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the HSC Quad, located on South Preston Street between Kornhauser Library and the HSC Instructional Building.

Students, faculty and staff will sign a large sign at the event expressing thanks to donors. They also will create video and photo messages of gratitude, said Eileen Chapoton, UofL director of donor relations. These messages will be shared with donors throughout the coming year. They and the public also can share messages of thanks and follow news of the day’s events on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #UofLThanks.

The messages will show appreciation for all types of support provided to the HSC: endowed chairs and professorships, scholarships, funding for research and facilities, sponsorships and other donations to student, faculty and staff groups, and more.

“Thank a Donor Day gives the University of Louisville community an opportunity to publicly thank our many benefactors,” Chapoton said.  “As funding from public sources has decreased over the past decade, private donations now and in the future are critical for UofL if we are to be competitive in attracting the finest students, faculty and staff.”

An identical “Thanks A Donor Day” event will be held in the Humanities Quad on UofL’s Belknap Campus on Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. For details on both events, contact 502-852-5064 or visit the Thank A Donor Day website.

Oct. 1, 2015

People with a debilitating and painful disease have a new treatment option available to them thanks to the collaborative efforts of Jewish Hospital, the University of Louisville and University of Louisville Physicians.

Jewish Hospital, a part of KentuckyOne Health, and faculty members from the UofL School of Medicine are providing total pancreatectomy with islet cell auto-transplantation for some patients with chronic pancreatitis. Since the start of the year, six patients have undergone the procedure and all have functioning islet cells. The program is funded by an $800,000 grant from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence.

Chronic pancreatitis, inflammation of the pancreas, can only be cured with complete removal of the pancreas (total pancreatectomy). However, removing the entire pancreas creates diabetes that is extremely difficult to control, with alternating very high and dangerous, life-threatening low blood sugars. Therefore, only a portion of the pancreas typically is removed in an attempt to prevent post-operative diabetes. This treatment does not very effectively treat the episodes of pain that lead to recurrent hospital admissions for patients with chronic pancreatitis.

The total pancreatectomy with auto-transplantation of islet cells from the pancreas is an alternative treatment being performed by a handful of facilities around the world, including Jewish Hospital. This procedure involves complete removal of the pancreas. The patient’s islet cells are isolated in a “cleanroom” facility at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (a partnership between UofL and the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence) and then re-implanted into the patient to prevent diabetes.

“Chronic pancreatitis is a disabling disease that results in constant, unremitting pain” said Michael Hughes Jr., M.D., transplant surgeon, Jewish Hospital, and assistant professor of surgery at UofL, and a surgeon with University of Louisville Physicians. “Until now, we have been unable to safely perform these procedures. Islet cell auto-transplant immediately following total pancreatectomy allows us to do this.”

“Complete removal of the pancreas leads to diabetes due to loss of insulin-producing islet cells,” said Balamurugan Appakalai, Ph.D., known as “Dr. Bala,” an associate professor of surgery, director, Clinical Islet Cell Laboratory at UofL and an investigator with the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute. “Islet cell auto-transplantation is a clinical procedure that is performed to prevent diabetes or reduce the severity of diabetes after removal of the pancreas. After pancreatic tissue is removed during surgery, insulin-producing islet cells are immediately separated from the pancreas in a special cleanroom facility. These islet cells are then infused into the patient's liver and the islet cells continue to produce insulin to control blood sugar levels in the body.”

Most patients who have had total pancreatectomy with islet auto-transplantation find a dramatic lessening of abdominal pain, reduction in the use of narcotic pain medicine and improved blood sugar control. Since the process involves the re-implantation of the patient’s own cells, the patient does not have to take immunosuppressive medication to ensure the viability of the treatment.

According to Hughes, in addition to helping patients with chronic pancreatitis, the auto-transplantation of pancreas islet cells has the potential to impact people with type 1 diabetes. The techniques and skills acquired in auto-transplantation may be applied to patients with diabetes in the future.

The Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence grant has funded the creation of the islet cell auto-transplant program at Jewish Hospital. The Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence provides financial assistance to not-for-profit organizations offering programs focused on Jewish culture/identity, health, human services and education.

“We are grateful to the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence for its support of Jewish Hospital’s islet cell auto-transplantation program,” said Joe Gilene, president, Jewish Hospital and downtown market leader. “We are among a select group of medical centers in the world undertaking this work that will benefit our patients and help us to become a regional leader in the treatment of pancreatitis.”

“Pioneering the latest treatments in diseases and conditions is one of the primary goals of the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center,” said David L. Dunn, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Louisville. “We know that chronic pancreatitis results in more than 122,000 outpatient visits and more than 56,000 hospitalizations per year nationwide. As the only health care provider in the Commonwealth offering islet auto-transplantation, we can drastically reduce the pain and suffering experienced by Kentuckians with chronic pancreatitis.”

Referring physicians or patients with chronic pancreatitis can learn more about the procedure by calling 502-407-3220.

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 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 the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center

The University of Louisville Health Sciences Center is the city’s only academic health center. Approximately 1,000 faculty members are involved in education, research and clinical care. The UofL HSC is home to more than 650 medical and dental residents, 3,000 students pursuing degrees in health-related fields within the Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and Public Health and Information Sciences, as well as 14 interdisciplinary centers and institutes. Approximately $140 million in extramural funding enables researchers to uncover the causes of disease and better ways to prevent, treat and cure those diseases. Patients are seen at the Ambulatory Care Building, The James Graham Brown Cancer Center, the UofL Physicians Outpatient Center, Norton Children’s Hospital and University of Louisville Hospital.

About University of Louisville Physicians

University of Louisville Physiciansisthe largest multispecialty physician practice in the Louisville region, with nearly 600 primary care and specialty physicians in more than 78 specialties and subspecialties. Our doctors are the professors and researchers of the University of Louisville School of Medicine, teaching tomorrow’s physicians and leading research into medical advancements. For more information, visit www.uoflphysicians.com

Sept. 30, 2015

Robert Harrington, M.D., chair and Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, will deliver the 22^nd Annual Leonard Leight Lecture at the University of Louisville. The address will be held at noon, Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the Jewish Hospital Rudd Heart and Lung Center Conference Center, 16^th Floor, 201 Abraham Flexner Way.

Harrington will present “Cardiovascular Clinical Research in the U.S.: Realities, Challenges and Opportunities.” Admission is free and continuing medical and nursing education credit is available. For details, contact 852-1162.

The Leonard Leight Lecture is presented annually by the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. For 30 years until 1996, Leight was a practicing cardiologist in Louisville and played a major role in developing cardiology services and bringing innovative treatment modalities in heart disease to Louisville. The Leonard Leight Lecture series was established in 1994 and is made possible by gifts from Dr. and Mrs. Kurt Ackermann and Medical Center Cardiologists to the Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Foundation.

Harrington is an interventional cardiologist and experienced clinical investigator in the area of heart disease. At Stanford, he leads a department of 220 faculty members in 14 divisions.

Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Harrington spent five years as the director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, regarded as the world’s largest academic clinical research organization. The institute has conducted studies in 65 countries while building diverse research programs in clinical trials and health services research. He joined the faculty at Duke in 1993.

As a clinical investigator, he has worked primarily in the area of acute ischemic heart disease, or heart disease resulting from restricted blood flow to the heart muscle. He has established clinical research collaborations that involve investigators from around the world.

A scholar who works on decoding civilization’s earliest forms of writing will speak Thursday, Sept. 24 at the University of Louisville about new clues into ancient life.

University of Chicago Professor of Assyriology Emeritus Walter Farber, Ph.D., will discuss “Diseases and Epidemics in Ancient Mesopotamia: Medical Conceptualization and Responses.”

Farber’s free, public lecture will begin at 4 p.m. in Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium on UofL's Beknap campus. The College of Arts and Sciences’ Liberal Studies Project is the event sponsor.

Farber is curator of the tablet collection at UChicago's Oriental Institute. He continues his academic writing since his 2013 retirement from UChicago’s Near Eastern languages and civilizations department, where he had worked since 1980.

He has published texts of cuneiform, or inscriptions made by using reed tools to press marks into damp clay tablets. Scholars continue to scour such artifacts to decipher signs from ancient languages for glimpses into Mesopotamian life.

For more information, contact John Hale at 502-852-2248 or john.hale@louisville.edu

The University of Louisville Geriatrics Symposium, sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging, is a regional resource for up-to-date training and information regarding the care of older adults. The annual event is part of Optimal Aging Month during September and will be held Friday, Sept. 18, from 7:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. at the Founders Building on UofL’s Shelbyhurst campus, 312 N. Whittington Parkway.

This year’s event is titled “Maximizing Independence for Optimal Aging.” Cost to attend is $150 for physicians; $125 for all other health care professionals; and $35 for medical residents and students. Continuing education credit is available. Registration is available on the conference website.

The world’s population, including in the United States, is aging at an exponential rate. Currently there are only 7,162 allopathic and osteopathic certified geriatricians in the United States. This translates to one geriatrician for every 2,620 Americans over 75 years old.

The projected increase in the number of older Americans is expected to change this ratio to one geriatrician for every 3,798 older Americans in 2030. Due to the projected shortfall of experts in geriatrics to provide for the rapidly aging U.S. population, it is necessary for all providers to have some exposure and ideally expert training in geriatrics principles in order to fulfill the increasing need to provide care for older adults.

The University of Louisville Annual Geriatrics Symposium is a daylong event that  offers an interdisciplinary audience immersion in geriatric training skills. The symposium presents the most updated skills training and theories on varied topics related to the care of the geriatric patient. It is designed for a broad multidisciplinary audience including physicians, nurses, dentists, nurse practitioners, social workers, long-term care professionals, in-home care providers to elders and anyone involved in the care of elder Americans.

Speakers include:

• David Morris, Ph.D., Interim Chair and Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Belinda Setters, M.D. , Director, Mobile Acceptable Clinical Evidence Unit  and Transitional Care, Robley Rex VA Medical Center, Louisville
• Kathy Shireman, R.N., Director of Clinical Services, Episcopal Church Home, Louisville
• Demetra Antimisiaris, Pharm.D., Associate Professor, UofL Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Christian Furman, M.D., Vice Chair, Geriatric Medicine and Professor, Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, UofL Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, and Interim Medical Director, UofL Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging
• Amelia R. Kiser, M.D., Assistant Professor, UofL Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, Glasgow, Ky.
• Mike Mansfield, D.M.D., Assistant Professor, UofL Department of General Dentistry and Oral Medicine
• Benjamin Mast, Ph.D., Vice Chair and Associate Professor, UofL Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
• Laura Morton, M.D., Assistant Professor, UofL Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine
• Daniela Neamtu, M.D., Assistant Professor, UofL Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine
• Gustavo Oliveira, D.D.S., Assistant Professor, UofL Department of Dentistry and Oral Health
• Mary Romelfanger, R.N., Associate Director, UofL Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging

Romelfanger is course director of the conference. For more information, visit the conference website.

_{Posted 09-16-15}

Political strategist Donna Brazile will be a featured speaker at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the National Association of Medical Minority Educators Inc. (NAMME), hosted by the University of Louisville Sept. 16-20. The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Louisville, 311 S. 4th St.

Brazile will address the group at the Friday, Sept. 18, breakfast session beginning at 8 a.m. She will speak on “Health Care Reform and the Future Health Care Provider or Why Diversity Matters.”

For conference attendees, the cost to attend Brazile’s address also is included in the conference registration fee. Participants may register as either single-day or full-conference attendees, and both members and non-members of NAMME may attend the annual meeting. The 2015 Annual Meeting registration fee schedule is available on the NAMME website.

NAMME is a national organization dedicated to developing and sustaining productive relationships as well as action-oriented programs among national, state and community stakeholders working to ensure racial and ethnic diversity in all of the health professions. NAMME also seeks to provide critical guidance and professional development opportunities for individuals dedicated to these efforts and the students they serve.

The five-day conference includes panel discussions, lectures and workshops on a variety of topics related to increasing diversity among the nation’s health professions. The event also features a College Student Development and Recruitment Fair where students can learn about health professions education at colleges and universities from throughout the United States.

About Donna Brazile:

Veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile is an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator, Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee and former interim National Chair of the Democratic National Committee, the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute and the first African-American woman to manage a presidential campaign.

Aside from working for the full recovery of her beloved New Orleans, Brazile’s passion is encouraging young people to vote, to work within the system to strengthen it, and to run for public office. Since 2000, Brazile has lectured at over 150 colleges and universities across the country on such topics as “Inspiring Civility in American Politics,” “Race Relations in the Age of Obama,” “Why Diversity Matters,” and “Women in American Politics: Are We There Yet?”

She first got involved at the age of nine when she worked to elect a City Council candidate who had promised to build a playground in her New Orleans neighborhood; the candidate won, the swing set was installed, and a lifelong passion for political progress was ignited. Brazile worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she became the first African-American to manage a presidential campaign.

Author of the best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, Brazile is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a syndicated columnist for Universal Uclick, a columnist for Ms. Magazine and O, the Oprah Magazine, and an on-air contributor to CNN and ABC, where she regularly appears on ABC’s This Week.

In August 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine chose Brazile as one of its 20 “remarkable visionaries” for the magazine’s first-ever O Power List. In addition, she was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement.

She is currently on the board of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, the National Democratic Institute, the Professional Diversity Network, the National Institute for Civil Discourse, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the BlackAmericaWeb.com Relief Fund Inc.  She also serves as Co-Chair for Democrats for Public Education.

Brazile is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy and training firm based in Washington.

In patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, antidepressants can increase incidents of depression and mood cycling. Rif S. El-Mallakh, M.D., director of the Mood Disorders Clinical and Research Program at the University of Louisville, along with Nassir Ghaemi, M.D., of Tufts University and other researchers, conducted the first randomized clinical trial that analyzes how modern antidepressants affect patients with rapid-cycling (RC) bipolar disorder (BD). The results are published in this month’s issue of Journal of Affective Disorders.

In the trial, the authors tracked patients with BD following an acute depressive episode. They found that rapid-cycling patients who continued antidepressants following initial treatment for the episode experienced three times the number of depressive episodes the following year as those who discontinued use of antidepressants. RC patients who continued antidepressants were episode-free 52 percent of the time, while RC patients who discontinued antidepressants were episode-free 64 percent of the time.

Patients are considered rapid cycling in bipolar disorder if they experience at least four episodes within a 12-month period. In the United States, approximately 25 percent of bipolar patients are considered rapid cycling.

The research was conducted within the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) study, in which patients were classified as either rapid cycling or non-rapid cycling. Patients in both groups received standard mood stabilizers.

“Whether or not antidepressants cause rapid cycling in BD is a controversial issue,” the authors said in the article. “Antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed class of medication in BD. If they cause or worsen rapid cycling, found in about 25 percent of patients with BD, this presents a major public health problem. Safely and effectively treating rather than exacerbating mood episodes in the most severely ill among this patient population is a priority.”

Physicians and researchers have debated for years about whether antidepressants should be used over long periods of time for patients with bipolar disorder.

El-Mallakh, professor of psychiatry in the UofL School of Medicine, has published articles on several situations in which continued use of antidepressant medications potentially was detrimental.

In a 2008 article in Journal of Affective Disorders, El-Mallakh described a condition he attributed to long-term antidepressant use which he called “antidepressant-associated chronic irritable dysphoria” (ACID). In the article, El-Mallakh cited a number of patients who took antidepressants for long periods of time and subsequently developed a consistent state of low mood, irritability and sleep disturbance. These symptoms were relieved when the patients discontinued antidepressants.

In a 2011 article in Medical Hypothesis, El-Mallakh analyzed data on patients whose depression initially improved with antidepressants, but later worsened. He hypothesized that some patients experienced a condition he called “tardive dysphoria,” in which antidepressants lose their effectiveness and may actually induce depression with long-term use.

“Antidepressants are useful medications, and you don’t know if someone will be rapid cycling when you begin treating them. However, if someone has rapid cycling, you want to avoid using these drugs because the medication will probably increase mania, cycling and depression,” El-Mallakh said.

The University of Louisville Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging’s Optimal Aging Month continues this week with a healthy cooking demo and participation in community walks.

The institute will host a healthy eating demonstration at Aposento Alto Food Pantry, 2093 Midland Trail in Simpsonville, at 4:45 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11. The program will feature information, recipes and demonstrations on ways to make healthy eating fun and flavorful for the entire family.

On Saturday, Sept. 12, the institute will participate in two community walks: the Alzheimer’s Association’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s and the Kentuckian Rural Diabetes Coalition Community Walks.

The Walk to End Alzheimer’s begins with registration and check-in at 8:30 a.m. at the Great Lawn at Waterfront Park in Downtown Louisville, 231 Witherspoon St. For information and to register, visit the Walk to End Alzheimer’s website.

The Kentuckian Rural Diabetes Coalition Walks will take place at several venues: Clear Creek Park in Shelby County; Shepherdsville City Park in Bullitt County; and Henry County Recreational Park. Registration and check-in will be at 9:30 a.m. with the walks getting underway at 10 a.m. For information, visit the coalition’s Community Walks website.

For information about Optimal Aging Month and the Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging, contact the institute at 502-852-5629.

As concerns over the availability and side-effects of fossil fuels increase, scientists look for renewable energy sources to satisfy the modern world’s insatiable appetite for power. But are renewable energy sources up to the task?

Mahendra Sunkara, Ph.D., director of the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research at the University of Louisville’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering, will discuss the need for renewable energies and challenges associated with them at the next “Beer with a Scientist” event. Those in attendance will learn what renewable energies are, how they are used and, most importantly, how they will save our planet for future generations.

Sunkara’s research interests include discovery of new materials, solar cells, Li Ion batteries, production of hydrogen from water and growing large crystals of diamond, gallium nitride and bulk quantities of nanowires.

The program begins at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 16 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.

It is never too early for medical researchers to begin obtaining funding for their work.

Heather Clair, a student in the M.D./Ph.D. program at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, has secured a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help fund her research and education. The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, an F30 fellowship from the NIH, is designed to support highly promising predoctoral students in a dual-doctoral degree training program such as the M.D./Ph.D. to increase the pool of highly trained clinician-scientists in biomedical research.

Clair won the grant in consultation with her mentor, Matt Cave, M.D., associate professor of medicine at UofL with expertise in liver disease and transplantation. Clair and Cave have designed a research plan to study of the effects of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the liver. Clair will be investigating how synthetic organic chemicals change the programming of the body’s cells.

“We believe that PCBs are one of the factors leading to liver disease and other types of metabolic dysfunction – maybe diabetes, cardiovascular disease or obesity,” Clair said.

Clair earned a master’s degree in biotechnology and worked in laboratories and other settings for a number of years, including lab work at UofL. After talking with medical students who shared their enthusiasm for working with patients, Clair decided to add clinical work to her professional palette and applied to the School of Medicine.

“I wasn’t ready to leave research, however, so I applied to the M.D./Ph.D. program. When I got in, it was like winning the lottery – I get to do two things I love at the same time,” Clair said.

Earning a grant from the NIH is a precocious accomplishment for a student, preparing her to obtain grants as a professional researcher.

“Just writing the grant was a tremendous learning experience,” Clair said. “When I go back to write a K award or an RO1 as an independent investigator, I will have already done it once. It also gives me the opportunity to show the NIEHS and the NIH that I can do what I said I was going to do.”

Students in the M.D./Ph.D. program study medicine for two years, followed by three to four years of doctorate-level biomedical research, finishing off with the final two years of medical school. Upon completing the program, the physician-scientists have fulfilled the requirements for both an M.D. and a Ph.D. degree and are ready to care for patients and conduct biomedical research at the doctorate level. The UofL program has 13 students, with enrollment having been as high as 22. The school receives between 80 and 100 applications each year for the two to three positions available.

“These are the best medical students and the best graduate students. Having a group of students this bright at UofL helps in every possible way with the educational process,” said Donald Miller, M.D., Ph.D., director of the M.D./Ph.D. program at UofL and director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

In the past 12 years, 10 students at UofL have been awarded F30 grants, including nine In the M.D./Ph.D. program and one in the D.M.D./Ph.D. program at the School of Dentistry.

“These grants raise the visibility of the university,” said Brian “Binks” Wattenberg, Ph.D., assistant director of the M.D./Ph.D. program. “When study sections – expert scientists in a specific area who review the grant applications – see the quality of the applications that are coming from UofL, they start to recognize this is a substantial, high quality institution.”

Funding from an F30 grant typically adds more than $100,000 to the institution over a period of three to five years. This allows existing funds to support additional research activities in the mentor’s lab or to assist other students at the School of Medicine.

“These grants release funds from the principal investigator whose lab they are in to support other activities,” Wattenberg said. “And if the grant pays for part of the medical school tuition, that money can be used for other students. Every dollar we get in from the outside helps everyone.”

One of the previous grant-winning students, Janelle Fassbender, M.D., Ph.D., was mentored by Scott Whittemore, Ph.D., in neurobiology and presented a dissertation on "Improving Functional Recovery Following Spinal Cord Injury by Therapeutically Targeting the Vasculature.” After receiving her degrees in 2012, Fassbender completed a preliminary year of residency in general surgery and is back at UofL serving as a medical resident in ophthalmology.

Other graduates from UofL’s M.D./Ph.D. program who received F30 awards have gone on to residency positions at Washington University in St. Louis, Yale University and Icahn School of Medicine at The Mt. Sinai Medical Center.

Success in receiving the grants reflects on the quality of the research being done at UofL and the mentors.

“As funding gets more and more competitive, it’s very important that we turn out people who have good training, good science and can compete for grants, and I think this program does that,” Miller said.

Monica Ann Shaw, M.D., M.A., vice dean for the University of Louisville School of Medicine, has received the Kentucky Medical Association’s Educational Achievement Award for 2015.

The award is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions and achievements in the area of medical education. David Bensema, M.D., immediate past president of the KMA, presented the award to Shaw during the organization’s annual meeting on August 29.

“Throughout her tenure, Dr. Shaw has been committed to changing the way medical students are educated,” Bensema said. “Her passion and dedication to the growth and development of future physicians are keystones of the KMA Educational Achievement Award criteria.”

As principal investigator on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant, Shaw developed and implemented an interdisciplinary palliative care curriculum for medical students that serves as a national model for successful palliative care education. Since 2010, Shaw has served as co-investigator on a five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute for which the team has developed, implemented, and evaluated a mandatory, interprofessional palliative oncology curriculum for medical, nursing, social work and chaplaincy students. Shaw is a 2014 graduate of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine^® (ELAM^®) program. She joined the University of Louisville in 1995.

“Dr. Shaw has devoted her career to medical education. She is an exceptional teacher, physician, and mentor. She remains passionate about medicine and palliative care. She was the first clerkship director to include a reflective writing requirement for students to encourage them to focus on the patient’s story and to foster more humanistic patient care,” said Jesse Roman, M.D., chair of the UofL Department of Medicine, in nominating Shaw for the award.

Established in 1851, the Kentucky Medical Association is a professional organization for physicians throughout the Commonwealth. The KMA works on behalf of physicians and the patients they serve to ensure the delivery of quality, affordable health care.

“Saving the Lives of Adolescents and Adults: New Developments in Understanding Suicidal Behavior” will be presented at the next “Building Hope” lecture sponsored by the University of Louisville Depression Center.

The program will begin at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 8, at Second Presbyterian Church, 3701 Old Brownsboro Rd. Admission is free.

Co-sponsored by the Louisville Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the program will provide participants with information on new developments in understanding suicidal behavior and approaches to treatment and interventions for suicidal individuals.

The speaker will be David Goldston, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, in the Department of Psychiatry’s Division of Child & Family Mental Health & Developmental Neuroscience at the Duke University School of Medicine. He also serves as director of the Duke Center for the Study of Suicide Prevention and Intervention.

The University of Louisville Depression Center is Kentuckiana’s leading resource for depression and bipolar disorder treatment, research and education. It is a charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, a consortium of leading depression centers that develops and fosters connections among members to advance scientific discovery and provide stigma-free, evidence-based care to patients with depressive and bipolar illnesses.

For more information, contact the Depression Center at 502-588-4450.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is the leader in the fight against suicide. It funds research, offers educational programs, advocates for public policy and supports those affected by suicide. Headquartered in New York, AFSP has 75 local chapters, including Louisville, with programs and events nationwide.

Take a walk in the park.

Meet for a cup of coffee.

These simple social interactions can make a world of difference to patients with Parkinson’s Disease and to University of Louisville medical students who will have the opportunity to see what daily life is like for individuals with the disease.

The Parkinson’s Buddy Program, a unique new partnership between the UofL School of Medicine and the Parkinson Support Center, has matched 25 “buddies” from the first-year class of medical students with patients served by the center. In the first program of its kind for Parkinson’s patients, the pairs are participating in a year-long program designed to give the patients social interaction and allow them to share their stories with the medical students, who in turn gain first-hand knowledge about living with a nervous system disorder.

The program kicks off Thursday, September 3 when the buddy pairs will meet for the first time from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, 1640 Lyndon Farm Ct., #100 in Louisville. (Editor’s note:  Members of the media are invited to attend.)

Student-patient pairs then are encouraged to meet on their own about once a month for a board game, lecture or exercise class to share their stories and enjoy time together. Kathrin LaFaver, M.D., Raymond Lee Lebby Chair for Parkinson’s Disease Research in the Department of Neurology at UofL, said the exchanges will give the students a deeper understanding of how patients cope with the disease.

“This program will educate medical students on Parkinson’s and neurological disease and help them understand the day-to-day issues faced by individuals living with Parkinson’s,” LaFaver said.

Allie Hanson, assistant director of the Parkinson Support Center, proposed the idea for the program as a way to improve the wellbeing of patients served by the center.

“The patients will be able to share their stories, plus the meetings will reduce some of the social isolation that people with Parkinson’s can experience,” Hanson said.

In addition to meeting with their patient buddies, students will keep a journal reflecting on their experience after each buddy meeting. Students also will attend hour-long mentoring sessions each month with LaFaver, the director of the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Clinic at UofL Physicians. The seminars will provide additional medical information and inform the students about research and career opportunities in neurology and movement disorders.

Parkinson’s Disease is a chronic and progressive brain disorder of the central nervous system. The motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease result from the death of dopamine-generating cells in the substantia nigra, a region of the midbrain. Dopamine is the chemical that sends messages to the part of the brain that controls movement and coordination. The loss of dopamine causes neurons to fire without normal control, leaving patients less able to control their movement. Patients are also frequently suffering from so-called “non-motor” symptoms including loss of smell, constipation, fatigue, anxiety and depression. Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox are notable individuals living with Parkinson’s Disease.

The Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging at the University of Louisville has established September as “Optimal Aging Month” with several events planned. The month’s activities kick off Sept. 9 with the Optimal Aging Lecture Series designed to explore the science of aging.

Robert Friedland, M.D., professor of neurology, will present “Gene Therapy, Diet and the Biology of Neurodegeneration” at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 9, at The University Club, 200 E. Brandeis Ave.

Admission is $17 per person and includes lunch. Reservations are required online. For information, call 502-852-8953 or email ann.burke@louisville.edu.

Holder of the Mason C. and Mary D. Rudd Endowed Chair in Neurology, Friedland is a clinical and research neurologist devoted to the study of brain disorders associated with aging. His work has focused on clinical and biological issues in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

Friedland has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific publications and has current research funding from the National Institute on Aging as well as several foundations, institutes, corporations and families. He has had more than $1 million in research funding to support his work every year since 1985.

Use of irreversible electroporation (IRE) doubles the survival time for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer say researchers at the University of Louisville in a paper in the September edition of the Annals of Surgery (http://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/Abstract/2015/09000/Treatment_of_200_Locally_Advanced__Stage_III_.10.aspx).

“The appropriate and precise use of IRE in appropriately selected patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer can result in a median overall survival close to 24 months, which is nearly double the survival rate with the best new chemotherapy and chemo-radiotherapy,” said Robert Martin, M.D., Ph.D., director of surgical oncology at UofL.

IRE uses ultra-short but strong electrical fields to create holes in cell membranes, ultimately leading to cell death. The main use of IRE lies in tumor removal in regions where precision and conservation of the basic cellular matrix, blood flow and nerves are of importance.

In the study, 200 patients at six sites throughout the United States received IRE following chemotherapy. The patients were followed for up to seven years following their initial diagnosis and initiation of treatment. The average survival time for patients was close to two years.

IRE is commonly performed as an open surgery with an incision of about six to eight centimeters. This allows for better visualization for probe placement, as well as combined tumor removal as dictated for individual patients. This commonly requires a five- to seven-day hospital stay and a two- to three-week recovery for the patient to get back to their baseline quality of life

Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest mortality rates of all cancers and is expected to climb from the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States to the second by 2020. Ninety four percent of pancreatic cancer patients will die within five years of diagnosis, and 74 percent of patients die within the first year of diagnosis.

“This study demonstrates that IRE, in conjunction with standard-of-care, may substantially prolong the survival rates of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer,” Martin said. “While additional research is needed, ablation may represent an addition to the current standard of care for Stage III pancreatic cancer patients whose only treatment options until now have been chemotherapy or a combination of chemo-radiation therapy.”

Patients in the study were seen at UofL James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, the Cleveland Clinic, Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Swedish Medical Center in Denver and Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Atlanta.

Martin initially reported these finding at the American Surgical Association annual meeting in April 2015.

Two golf tournaments in September will benefit the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health.

The 7^th Annual Don Happel Memorial Golf Tournament will be held Saturday, Sept. 12, at Eagle Creek Golf Course in La Grange, Ky., and the 5^th Annual Hammertime Golf Scramble will be Monday, Sept. 14, at Iroquois Golf Course in Louisville.

About the Don Happel Tournament

The Happel Tournament tees off at 8:30 a.m., Sept. 12, with a shotgun start. The tournament is a scramble and has payouts for the 1^st, 2^nd and “Lucky” 13^th” holes. Cost is $300 per team of four and each player can purchase two red tees for $10. Hole sponsorships are available for $50 each.

The Eagle Creek Golf Course is located at 2820 S. Highway 53, La Grange. Since the tournament’s inception, it has raised almost $18,000 for the cancer center, helping to provide education, transportation and other non-clinical services.

Registration deadline is Aug. 29. For details, contact Bret Happel at 502-253-2207 or Cindy Hall at 502-767-3752.

About the Hammertime Golf Scramble

The Hammertime Scramble benefits the Larry Smith Lung Cancer Fund at the cancer center and will start at 1 p.m.  on Aug. 14. The event features a putting contest, long drive contest, silent auction, door prizes and the chance to win a new car. Individual fee is $75 and a team of four is $300. Sponsorships range from $100 to $3,500.

The Iroquois Golf Course is at 1501 Rundill Road, Louisville. The tournament is affiliated with the UofL Alumni Association. The tournament’s goal is $50,000 to help fund a new cancer screening van that will provide cancer screenings to underserved populations across Kentucky.

For details and to register, go to the tournament web page or contact Linda Dame at linda.dame@louisville.edu.

About the 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. For more information, visit our website, http://browncancercenter.louisville.edu.

The chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University will present the 2015 Leonard Leight Lecture at the University of Louisville.

Robert Harrington, M.D., will speak at noon, Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the 16^th Floor Conference Center of the Rudd Heart and Lung Center, 201 Abraham Flexner Way. Admission is free.

The Leonard Leight Lecture is presented annually by the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. For 30 years until 1996, Leight was a practicing cardiologist in Louisville and played a major role in developing cardiology services and bringing innovative treatment modalities in heart disease to Louisville.

The Leonard Leight Lecture series was established in 1994 and is made possible by gifts from Dr. and Mrs. Kurt Ackermann and Medical Center Cardiologists to the Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Foundation.

About Robert Harrington, M.D.

The Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine at Stanford since 2012, Harrington is an interventional cardiologist and experienced clinical investigator in the area of heart disease. At Stanford, he leads a department of 220 faculty members in 14 divisions.

Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Harrington spent five years as the director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, regarded as the world’s largest academic clinical research organization. The institute has conducted studies in 65 countries while building diverse research programs in clinical trials and health services research. He joined the faculty at Duke in 1993.

As a clinical investigator, he has worked primarily in the area of acute ischemic heart disease, or heart disease resulting from restricted blood flow to the heart muscle. He has established clinical research collaborations that involve investigators from around the world.

“My science has progressed from the focused study of thrombosis to using more broadly the tools of clinical science to answer clinical questions while finding new and innovative ways to design clinical trials and use clinical data to improve the care of patients,” Harrington said. “Society needs academic centers to step up and figure out how we are going to deliver health care while also advancing science and educating the next generation of clinical leaders.”

Harrington is a native of Massachusetts. He has an undergraduate degree in English from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. He received his medical degree from Tufts University in 1986 and completed an internship, residency and served as chief resident at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He trained in general and interventional cardiology as a fellow at Duke.

He has served as an associate editor of the American Heart Journal, an editorial board member of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and one of the editors of the 13th edition of Hurst's the Heart, a leading textbook in cardiovascular medicine. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians as well as a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention, the American College of Chest Physicians and the European Society of Cardiology. He is a member of the board of trustees for the American College of Cardiology.

Several units at the University of Louisville will join together with groups from throughout Louisville and the United States to commemorate the end of World War II.

“Keep the Spirit of ’45 Alive! 70^th Anniversary of the End of WWII” will be held Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 15 and 16.

With the surrender of Japan on Aug. 14, 1945, the Second World War came to a close. Activities for the 70^th Anniversary are planned throughout the United States. The website www.spiritof45.org provides more information.

“As time goes on, we lose more and more of the people whose service, both in the theater of war and on the home front, protected our freedoms during the dark days of World War II,” said University of Louisville President James R. Ramsey. “That is why the University of Louisville is honored to take part in commemorations such as Keep the Spirit of ’45 Alive.

“We must never forget what our Greatest Generation sacrificed so that we can all be free.”

In Louisville, Saturday’s commemoration will take place at the Vintage WarBirds Hangar 5 at Bowman Field, 2700 Gast Blvd. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., exhibits, demonstrations and entertainment will evoke memories of Louisville during World War II. Vintage military equipment, vehicles and aircraft will be on display, along with other historical exhibits. Attendees who remember the war will have the opportunity to record their WWII memories for future generations. Entertainment will be provided by the Ladies of Liberty, a three-woman singing troupe that performs 1940s hits in the style of the Andrews Sisters. Admission is free.

From 6 to 10 p.m. in the same location, a “Canteen Dinner and Dance” will be held, also featuring the Ladies of Liberty and the Don Krekel Orchestra performing big-band hits of the period. Admission is $45 per person.

Sunday, Aug. 16, is “Honor Flight Night” at VFW Post #1170, 107 Evergreen Rd. in Middletown. The Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to making it possible for veterans to travel to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II, Korean and Vietnam War memorials.

Kentucky’s Bluegrass Chapter of Honor Flight will honor those World War II veterans who are unable to make the trip. Dinner will feature a video showing the 2015 D-Day Honor Flight on June 6 to the World War II Memorial. Admission for veterans and their guests is free.

Honor Flight Night is sponsored by the Office of the President at the University of Louisville. Participating in Saturday’s events will be UofL’s Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging, School of Dentistry, Kent School of Social Work and Department of History. Other sponsors include the Frazier History Museum, the Kentucky Historical Society, Jean Frazier and a variety of military and veterans organizations.

For information on Saturday’s events, contact the local Spirit of ’45 office, 502-387-4412 or Dell Courtney, dellcourtn@aol.com.