Jeffrey P. Callen, M.D., chief of the Division of Dermatology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, has been elected to serve on the Accreditation Review Committee (ARC) of the Accreditation Council of Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). His two-year term begins Dec. 1, 2016.

The ACCME is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that is responsible for accrediting institutions throughout the United States that offer continuing medical education (CME). Accreditation decisions are determined through a review by two ACCME committees: first, the Accreditation Review Committee, and second, the Decision Committee of the Board of Directors. All accreditation decisions are then ratified by the ACCME’s Board of Directors.

All physicians are required to earn CME credit in order to maintain their license to practice. In Kentucky, all physicians who maintain an active Kentucky medical or osteopathic license are required to complete 60 hours of CME every three years.

A Chicago native, Callen earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison before earning his medical degree from the University of Michigan, where he also performed residencies in internal medicine and dermatology.

In 1977, Callen joined the faculty at the University of Louisville, attaining the rank of professor in 1988 and being appointed as chief of the Division of Dermatology the same year. He served on the Board of Directors of the Dermatology Foundation from 1983-88; the American Academy of Dermatology from 1994-98 and 2003-04 as vice president; and the Association of Professors of Dermatology Inc. since 2003. He was the chair of the Council on Education of the American Academy of Dermatology 2003-07. He has been a member of the board of the American Board of Dermatology and the American Dermatological Association. He is a past president of the Medical Dermatology Society and was awarded the society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. In 2009 Callen received the Thomas Pearson, Ph.D. Education Award from the American Academy of Dermatology. This September he will assume the Presidency of the Association of Professors of Dermatology.

Callen is the author or co-author of 84 original articles, 181 case reports, 149 review articles, 50 editorials, 15 books, 276 book chapters and 165 abstracts. He has served as editor or deputy editor of the Archives of Dermatology, Journal Watch Dermatology and the Dermatology Section of UpToDate. He is currently the Associate editor of JAMA Dermatology. His book, Dermatologic Signs of Systemic Disease, now in its fifth edition, was just published.

Locally, Callen has served on the boards of the Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family and Vocational Services, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Foundation and the Speed Art Museum.

Twenty-six students from the Shawnee neighborhood who are participating in the 1+1=U Summer Youth Enrichment Program visited the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center Wednesday, July 20, to learn about sports medicine, healthy habits and steps to a career in health care.

Health-care professionals and faculty members from the School of Medicine and College of Education and Human Development talked with the students, from 12 to 17 years old, about the paths they took to careers as an athletic trainer, physical therapist, physician, teacher and exercise physiologist. In addition, they offered tips on recovering from sports injuries and healthy eating and activity. The visit was organized to introduce the students to opportunities for careers in health care.

1+1=U is a year-round mentoring program that targets students who have had academic and behavioral challenges in and out of the classroom. The program assists young men and women get in position to further their education beyond high school by boosting academic and personal achievement, sports achievement and parental and family involvement. The summer program is a two-week-long extension of that effort based at the Shawnee Arts and Cultural Community Center.

Brittney Richardson, M.D., a sports medicine fellow and board certified family physician at UofL and KentuckyOne Health, told the students about her journey to becoming a physician, a path she navigated despite the fact that no one in her family had been a health care professional.

“I want to show them that there are opportunities out there for them to succeed,” Richardson said. “I was connected along my way with the right people, but that doesn’t happen all the time. I can be that person for them to be connected with and I don’t think I have reached my goal until I have helped someone get to where I am.”

One of the students, Daihjae Tandy, said she was interested in the information about nutrition and concussions and definitely is planning to go to college. Although the high school junior is interested in art, she said she would consider a career in health care after hearing the presentation.

“I think it would be great. I even thought about it after hearing everything they do. It’s actually very wonderful for anybody,” Tandy said.

Margaret Dunbar-Demaree, founder and director of 1+1=U, began mentoring troubled students as a teacher at Central High School. Now retired from her teaching position, Demaree mentors and tutors students at the Shawnee Arts & Cultural Community Center and Bethel Baptist Church.

This is the third year the 1+1=U Summer Youth Enrichment Program students have visited the UofL HSC Campus. For more photos from the visit, click here.

Brittney Richardson M.D.

Individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease are invited to participate in the Parkinson’s Disease Buddy Program, which matches them with first-year University of Louisville medical students for a series of one-on-one meetings designed to benefit both students and the patients. Buddies will be paired for one calendar year beginning in September, meeting two to three hours a month and at special group events.

The PD Buddy program, the only one of its kind for Parkinson’s patients, was launched last summer as a partnership between UofL and the Parkinson Support Center of Kentuckiana. Twenty-five buddy pairs participated in the year-long program designed to give the patients social interaction and allow them to share their stories with the students, who in turn gained first-hand knowledge about living with a nervous system disorder. The program also serves to better educate students about Parkinson's, introduce students to research and career opportunities in neurology and movement disorders, and provide people with Parkinson's Disease the opportunity to interact more closely with the medical community.

Kathrin LaFaver, M.D., the Raymond Lee Lebby Chair for Parkinson’s Disease Research in the Department of Neurology at UofL and director of the Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Clinic at UofL Physicians, said the exchanges give the students a deeper understanding of how patients cope with the disease. LaFaver also meets monthly with the students to provide additional medical information and inform the students about research and career opportunities in neurology and movement disorders.

Since this program is unique for Parkinson’s patients, LaFaver, along with Erika Branch, executive director of the Parkinson Support Center, and Denise Cumberland, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UofL College of Education and Human Development, will present findings from the first year of the PD Buddy Program at the World Parkinson Congress in Portland, Ore., in September.

The PD Buddy Program, also sponsored by KentuckyOne Health, is open to anyone diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease who has the time and interest to participate. In addition to one-on-one meetings with the students, several group activities will be planned over the course of the year. Patients must understand that this is an education program and that the medical students will not be able to give medical advice.

Interested individuals may call the UofL Physicians Movement Disorders Clinic at 502-582-7654, the Parkinson Support Center of Kentucky at 502-254-3388, or email a completed application form to outreach@parkinsoncenter.org prior to August 15. Application forms may be downloaded at https://www.uoflphysicians.com/sites/default/files/pdf-files/PD-Buddy-Patient-Sign-up.pdf.

Barry Kerzin, M.D., personal physician to the Dalai Lama and founder of the Altruism in Medicine Institute, addressed the 156 members of the incoming class of the University of Louisville School of Medicine and guests at the school’s White Coat Ceremony on Sunday, July 24. Kerzin, an American trained physician and Buddhist monk, spoke to the students about cultivating and preserving the desire to help others.

“Compassion is the chief reason we all go into medicine,” Kerzin said prior to the event. “Research suggests at the third year of medical school, compassion in medical students decreases significantly. I'll address how to sustain our compassion through our training and out in the world practicing medicine.”

The ceremony welcomeed the class of 2020 to the UofL School of Medicine. The students each received a white coat, a gift from the Greater Louisville Medical Society, and a stethoscope, provided by an alumnus of the school through Stethoscopes for Students. The white coat symbolizes cleanliness, as well as the sense of compassion that inspires students to become physicians. At the ceremony, the students recited the Declaration of Geneva, promising to serve humanity and honor the traditions of the medical profession.

Kerzin, a California native, is a board-certified family medicine physician and an honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong School of Medicine. He is a former assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. After traveling to India in the 1980s to help train Tibetan doctors in modern research methods, he studied Buddhism and meditation and ultimately was ordained as a Buddhist monk. Kerzin now provides medical care to the poor in India and serves as a personal physician to the Dalai Lama in addition to traveling around the world to teach about meditation and compassion. He founded the Altruism in Medicine Institute with the goal to bring more compassion into health care.

UofL School of Medicine White Coat Ceremony

Sunday, July 24, 3-5 p.m.
Louisville Downtown Marriott
280 W. Jefferson St., Louisville, Ky., 40202

Originally published July 20, 2016. Updated August 5, 2016.

University of Louisville School of Medicine faculty, staff, students, residents and alumni are invited to nominate outstanding nurses employed in Kentucky and Southern Indiana for the third-annual University of Louisville Florence Nightingale Awards in Nursing.

The awards honor exceptional nurses who have followed in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

Submit an essay of no more than 200 words about how a registered nurse meets at least one of the following categories:

• Impacted patients through excellent and compassionate nursing care;
• Improved health outcomes in a population or in the community;
• Elevated the nursing profession through teaching, research and/or policy development;
• Inspired others to consider nursing as a career.

People may nominate a nurse online. The nomination deadline is Sept. 8.

Winners will receive a cash prize and commemorative plaque at the Nightingale Awards dinner 5:30 to 8 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Mellwood Arts Center. Register to attend the dinner.

For more information, contact Karen Rose at karen.rose@louisville.edu or 502-852-5825.

Alcohol abuse exacts a major toll on health and health costs in the United States and is the 3rd leading preventable cause of death. Researchers at the University of Louisville have received a nearly $8 million grant from the NIH that designates them as an NIAAA Alcohol Research Center.

The UofL Center is one of only 20 in the nation. It’s funding score for the grant was the best in the nation. It is the only center with a nutrition focus.

“We are going to take a unique focus into organ injury associated with alcohol use,” said Dr. Gregory C. Postel, interim executive vice president for health affairs at UofL. “Our researchers are going to examine the interactive role of nutrition and alcohol in the deleterious, as well as beneficial, effects of alcohol on the human body.”

Through four different projects, the research team led by Dr. Craig McClain, associate vice president for translational research and associate vice president for health affairs/research, has three specific aims:

1. Facilitate interdisciplinary approaches and serve as a regional/national resource for the study of nutrition and alcohol-induced organ injury;
2. Provide a robust pilot project program and comprehensive education and research training in order to develop the next generation of alcohol investigators; and
3. Develop potential therapeutic targets/interventions for alcohol induced organ injury based on the mechanistic research of the center and translate knowledge/interventions to the community.

“This funding will allow us to look at the problems that alcohol abuse causes, as well as the potential benefits of alcohol,” McClain said. “Our focus on dietary nutrition and abuse is unique. For example, only a small proportion of people who abuse alcohol will develop liver disease. We believe that the type of dietary fat intake is critical in the development of alcohol-induced organ injury.”

To find answers, the center will initially focus on four projects.

Project 1 will evaluate the role of dietary unsaturated fat in the development/progression of alcoholic liver disease.

Project 2 will evaluate alcohol-induced alterations in the gut-liver axis. Researchers will examine the role of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in both the intestine and liver in alcohol-induced gut-barrier dysfunction and steatohepatitis and the role of probiotics and dietary HDAC inhibitors in preventing/treating experimental ALD.

Project 3 will determine mechanisms by which maternal alcohol consumption causes mental retardation in the offspring. Researchers will evaluate epigenetic mechanisms by which alcohol induces apoptosis and teratogenesis, and by which the nutraceutical, sulforaphane, provides epigenetic protection.

Project 4 will evaluate mechanisms by which alcohol causes increased susceptibility to acute lung injury. They postulate that chronic alcohol intake triggers extracellular matrix remodeling resulting in “repavement” of lung tissue with a proinflammatory extracelluar matrix and that this process can be modulated by dietary intervention.

“Our studies are designed to look at a number of organ systems, not just the liver,” McClain said. Additionally, we are very interested in gaining a better understanding of the role alcohol may play during fetal development and the mechanisms associated with fetal alcohol syndrome.”

The research team spans 13 departments at UofL in six schools/colleges.

“One of the keys to developing the breadth of information we hope to achieve is bringing together people with expertise in areas that often are not combined,” McClain said. “It is important that we look at these issues from a broad perspective if we are to examine the overall impacts of alcohol.”

Scientists have made some amazing discoveries by accident, including penicillin, the microwave oven and Viagra. Of course, the scientists needed to have specific knowledge in order to recognize their discoveries.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Paula Bates, Ph.D., will talk about the role serendipity has played in many scientific discoveries as well as her own career as a scientist. Bates, associate professor at the University of Louisville Department of Medicine and researcher at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, “accidentally” discovered a new cancer therapeutic that has been since used in patient clinical trials.

In her research, Bates focuses on identifying and characterizing novel cancer therapeutics. Her work has led to the clinical trials of a ‘first in humans’ therapeutic called AS1411, a DNA aptamer, which was, in fact, a serendipitous discovery. AS1411 folds into a G-quadruplex structure that binds to nucleolin (a protein present at high levels on the surface of cancer cells) and can kill cancer cells without harming non-malignant cells. She and her colleagues are now also using AS1411 to guide various nanoparticles to cancer cells, which could lead to better methods for cancer detection and therapy.

Bates also is principal investigator for University of Louisville ExCITE, an NIH Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub, created to facilitate the translation of biomedical innovations into commercial products that improve patient care and enhance health.

The program begins at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20 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.

COMING NEXT MONTH: On August 17, Kristofer Rau, Ph.D., researcher in the UofL Department of Anesthesiology, will discuss the neurobiology of why we hurt. He’ll explain why the “funny bone” hurts so often, the placebo effect, why amputees feel pain in a lost limb and other painful topics.

Researchers in the University of Louisville Department of Neurological Surgery will share their recent developments in therapies for children and adults with neurological conditions at IV STEP, an international conference intended to foster, guide and affect neurologic physical therapy practice over the next decade. Andrea Behrman, Ph.D., P.T., and Susan Harkema, Ph.D., professors at UofL, along with Elizabeth Ardolino, Ph.D., P.T., assistant professor at the University of St. Augustine, will present “Activity-dependent Plasticity for Neuromuscular Recovery:  Use of Classifications to Drive Therapies and Outcomes,” on Friday, July 15, at the IV STEP Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

In their presentation, the researchers will discuss how therapies aimed at recovery and improved function after neurological injury or disease can be designed based on key scientific evidence of the ability of the central nervous system to change through physical activity, a process known as activity-dependent plasticity. They will discuss how evidence for this process can be used in the treatment of children with chronic spinal cord injury. The sensorimotor experience of typical childhood development, current rehabilitation after pediatric SCI, and activity-based therapies will be explored as a basis for different outcomes and expectations.

To assist in the development of these novel therapies, the team will introduce the Neuromuscular Recovery Scale and the Pediatric Neuromuscular Recovery Scale, tools for assessing the neuromuscular capacity of adults and children to perform functional tasks without compensation from behavioral strategies, equipment or physical assistance. The scale can be used to classify capacity and track recovery in individuals with neurologic injury or disorders.

“One aim of this assessment is to capture incremental gains in motor function. Assessing ‘how’ the movement is performed also addresses the quality of the movement, which distinguishes this measure from many other pediatric instruments typically in use,” Behrman said.

With funding from the Department of Defense and the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the group has established the validity, reliability, responsiveness and other properties of the scale, which will pave the way for it to be incorporated into clinical practice and research. Other aspects of the research are supported by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and Kosair Charities.

The IV STEP conference, sponsored by the Pediatric and Neurology Sections of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), is designed to explore new theory and research evidence related to movement science and to translate this theory and evidence into physical therapy practice. The six-day program will include 33 invited speakers, 13 video case presentations and 100 peer reviewed poster presentations for approximately 700 clinicians, educators, and researchers from around the United States and abroad.

It is only the fourth such conference to be held in 50 years. The first, NUSTEP, was held in 1966 and the second, II STEP, in 1990. At III STEP, held at the University of Utah in June 2005, Behrman presented information on her research in using locomotor therapy, “Locomotor recovery after SCI: From basic science to clinical practice.”

In addition to the invited plenary presentation by Behrman and Harkema, five research teams from Frazier Rehabilitation Center, a part of Kentucky One Health, and the University of Louisville will be presenting posters.

Behrman is a professor in the UofL Department of Neurological Surgery and director of the Kosair Charities Center for Pediatric NeuroRecovery. Her research focus is to develop and test therapeutic interventions promoting recovery after spinal cord injury in children and adults capitalizing on activity-dependent neuroplasticity and an understanding of the neurobiology of walking and motor control. Her research has demonstrated improvements in trunk control in children in particular.

Harkema is a professor in the UofL Department of Neurological Surgery and associate scientific director of the UofL Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center. Harkema’s research in epidural stimulation in adults shows promise in helping individuals recover function following complete spinal cord injury.

The University of Louisville is an academic sponsor of the IV STEP Conference.

A free, open access medical education website launched by the University of Louisville Department of Medicine last year has added Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit for some video lectures it offers. Annual CME is required for physicians to maintain their licensure.

LouisvilleLectures.org has launched 17 lectures that provide CME credit, said chief resident Michael Burk, M.D., founder and managing director of the site. The Office of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development at the UofL School of Medicine certifies the lectures so that they meet national and state requirements.

“We’ve worked with faculty from throughout the UofL School of Medicine to bring a variety of CME-accredited lectures online,” Burk said. “We will continue to add more CME-accredited lectures as time goes on.”

The 17 CME-accredited lectures are:

The lectures are available in four formats: online at LouisvilleLectures.org; on YouTube; via iTunes podcast; and via Android podcast.

As with the 100 lectures currently available from LouisvilleLectures.org, the 17 CME-accredited lectures are provided to the general public free of charge. After viewing a CME-accredited lecture, physicians can click the “claim your CME credit” link to register their completion and obtain the credit. Each CME-accredited lecture hour is $9.99, payable online.

While never intended to replace traditional residency education, LouisvilleLectures.org augments the availability and accessibility of medical education, Burk said.

“We want to give providers a reliable source of online CME-accredited programs that they can view at their convenience,” Burk said. “The online format also enables us to update content more rapidly than in a traditional didactic lecture presentation, helping providers stay abreast of the latest advances in medical care.”

A pivotal point for young physicians comes just after medical school as they begin residency. They are earning a paycheck for perhaps the first time, yet also may face significant educational debt and a host of decisions that have the potential to derail their financial situation for years to come. Michael Lovelace, M.B.A., a fourth-year student at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, has developed an award-winning digital tool to help these young physicians make sound financial decisions.

Lovelace, who studied finance and business prior to entering medical school, developed the tool as part of the Family Medicine Leads (FML) Emerging Leader Institute, sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Foundation. Lovelace, one of 30 participants selected for the first cohort of the year-long program, participated in the group’s leadership workshop last summer, then worked with a physician mentor to create a project in Personal and Practice Leadership, one of three leadership tracks available to the scholars. The other tracks were Policy and Public Health Leadership and Philanthropic and Mission-Driven Leadership. Judges selected Lovelace’s project as the best project in the Personal and Practice Leadership track.

Lovelace tapped into hisbusiness experience to create the detailed financial planning and budgeting tool. He explained that although physicians beginning residency may qualify to purchase expensive cars and higher priced homes based on future income potential, it’s dangerous to make these purchase decisions without careful analysis of the whole financial picture – including medical education debt that may exceed $175,000.

“Often people will buy a car and sign an apartment lease as independent decisions and not consider how much of their monthly income they are committing to those two items. Those are binding agreements, so you can make two relatively straightforward decisions and put yourself in a bind throughout residency,” Lovelace said.

Lovelace’s budget program uses answers to 35 questions related to the user’s financial obligations to calculate their financial trajectory, including a detailed analysis for multiple student loan repayment options and a retirement savings projection. It then generates a report revealing areas of budget concern (too high or too low) and whether the user is projected to reach a retirement goal. It even provides suggestions of how to correct an underfunded retirement plan.

As part of the project submission, Lovelace created a video description of the budgeting tool and a poster describing the problem and how the analysis can help individuals avoid common pitfalls.He said his project mentor, Marc Matthews, M.D., a family practitioner with the Mayo Clinic, encouraged him to increase the functionality of each module, adding value for the user, while keeping the project within the original scope.

Jason Marker, M.D., M.P.A., past president of the AAFP Foundation who chairs the foundation workgroup that launched the FML Emerging Leader Institute, said Lovelace’s project exemplifies the leadership potential of the students and residents participating in the institute.

“One of our hopes with the FML Emerging Leader Institute was that we would take a group of scholars, many of whom had little formal family medicine leadership training, and accelerate their capacity and motivation toward being physicians with the understanding to practice medicine in the context of social determinants of health, elimination of health disparities and avoiding future physician burnout,” Marker said. “In that latter category, Michael's project is a standout. As Michael is lecturing on this topic, I know he will help a lot of young physicians be successful.”

Stephen Wheeler, M.D., associate dean for admissions at the UofL School of Medicine and a senior faculty member in the Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, has mentored Lovelace in family medicine and leadership at UofL.

“I first met Michael during his path toward medicine as a non-traditional applicant. Then, I worked with him during the two-year introduction to clinical cases small group experience. I am ecstatic that he feels called in this direction. He will be an exceptional family doctor,” Wheeler said.

At last summer’s leadership workshop, Marker led a session on Personal and Practice Leadership with Lovelace and the other FML Emerging Leader Institute participants.

”We talked about financial realities of practice and how ill-prepared many medical students and residents are for life beyond residency. The way Michael addressed this topic is excellent. He has made the information accessible for the broadest possible audience,” Marker said, adding that he hopes the project will ultimately be adapted for use by medical schools and residency programs to help physicians avoid financial missteps.

As the creator of the top project in his track, Lovelace will give an oral presentation of the project at the American Academy of Family Physicians National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students on July 28 in Kansas City and attend Family Medicine Experience, the annual educational meeting of the AAFP to be held in Orlando in September.

About theAmerican 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.

July 11, 2016

For the third year in a row, Oksana Masters is one of four nominees for ESPN’s Female Athlete With A Disability Award. The Louisvillian — daughter of UofL Assistant Professor M. Gay Masters, Ph.D., in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Communicative Disorders — is nominated for her prowess in cross-country skiing.

Winners of the annual Espy Awards are selected through online fan balloting conducted from among candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee. The public can vote online now until 5 p.m. EDT, July 13, on the ESPN website.

“I'm thrilled to see Oksana recognized for her talent and incredible hard work as an athlete. The ESPY nomination itself is already a win,” Gay Masters said. “We both appreciate your votes and support.”

Born in the Ukraine in 1989, Oksana Masters was brought to the United States by her adoptive mother when she was seven. She was born with several radiation-induced birth defects,including tibial hemimelia (resulting in different leg lengths), missing weight-bearing shinbones in her calves, webbed fingers with no thumbs, and six toes on each foot.

After moving to the United States in 1997, both of Oksana's legs were eventually amputated above the knee —her left leg at age eight and her right leg at age 13 — as they became increasingly painful and unable to support her weight. Oksana also had surgery to modify her innermost fingers on each hand so they could function as thumbs.

Oksana first made a name for herself as she won a bronze medal in rowing with partner Rob Jones at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the first-ever United States medal in trunk and arms mixed double sculls with a final time of 4:05.56. She then transitioned her talents to the snow and won silver and bronze at the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Winter Games in cross-country skiing.

When issues with her back prevented her return to the water for the 2016 Summer Games, Masters decided to give the sport of cycling a try. She has qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Sept. 7-18, in paracycling, her fourth competitive sport.

Espy winners will be announced in the Espy Awards telecast at 8 p.m. EDT, July 13, on ABC-TV hosted by WWE wrestler John Cena. For more information, go to the Espy Awards website.

A Louisville patient is the first to be enrolled in a national clinical trial to test a new treatment for patients who have suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. The trial, based at the University of Louisville under principal investigator Robert F. James, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at UofL, will include eight other medical centers in the United States.

James, chief of neurosurgery at University of Louisville Hospital, part of KentuckyOne Health, and chief of the Division of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery at UofL, is leading the ASTROH study, a phase II, randomized clinical trial to determine whether a continuous 14-day, low-dose intravenous infusion of heparin is safe and effective in patients with ruptured brain aneurysms.

“We believe this treatment may help prevent the long-term delayed neurological deficits (DNDs) and cognitive dysfunction that often afflict patients who survive the initial aneurysm rupture,” James said.

A brain aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge that forms when a segment of a blood vessel in the brain weakens and swells. If the aneurysm bursts, blood is leaked into the area between the brain and the thin tissues covering the brain known as the subarachnoid space. This condition is known as subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Patients who survive the initial hemorrhage are at high risk for delayed secondary brain injury, resulting in problems with localized neurological functions such as speech, vision, hearing or individual areas of the body, and long-term cognitive and psychosocial deficits. These problems are referred to as SAH-induced delayed neurological deficits (DNDs).

The ASTROH study will examine whether the use of intravenous heparin for 14 days following the repair of the ruptured aneurysm will control neuro-inflammation and improve clinical outcomes. Patients who enter University of Louisville Hospital or one of the other participating medical centers having experienced a ruptured brain aneurysm may be evaluated for participation in the trial.

ASTROH, which stands for “Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Trial RandOmizing Heparin,” will involve up to 88 patients at the nine medical centers over a period of two years. James is working with co-investigators at the University of Maryland, Yale University and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The trial is funded by the UofL Department of Neurosurgery through the UofL Research Foundation, Penumbra, Inc., MicroVention, Inc., and the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

Research involving human subjects at the University of Louisville continues to follow the most stringent ethical and professional guidelines in existence, as evidenced by the UofL Human Subjects Protection Program earning reaccreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs.

The UofL Human Subjects Protection Program Office (HSPPO) was awarded full accreditation for the maximum period allowed, five years. The HSPPO was the first such program in Kentucky accredited by the association when it received its original accreditation in 2005.

“Accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs means that people who volunteer to participate in research studies are assured that the highest standards of professionalism are maintained,” William M. Pierce Jr., Ph.D., executive vice president for research and innovation, said.

“We are proud of our staff in each of our research programs who work diligently to protect participants in research studies and maintain compliance with all regulations that govern research involving human subjects.”

An independent, non-profit accrediting body, the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection programs (AAHRPP) uses a voluntary, peer-driven, educational model to ensure that facilities conducting research with human participants meet rigorous standards for quality and protection. To earn accreditation, organizations must provide tangible evidence—through policies, procedures, and practices—of their commitment to scientifically and ethically sound research and to continuous improvement.

More than 60 percent of U.S. research-intensive universities and 65 percent of U.S. medical schools are either AAHRPP accredited or have begun the accreditation process. Sponsors and other funders recognize that AAHRPP-accredited organizations have more efficient operations, provide more comprehensive protections and produce high-quality data.

At UofL, the Human Subjects Protection Program Office helps to ensure that research involving human participants is conducted in accordance with federal and state regulations and university and sponsoring agency policies and procedures instituted to protect the rights and welfare of human research participants.

HSPPO upholds this commitment to the protection of human participants involved in research regardless of the funding source and regardless of the location of the research. HSPPO supports two established and independent Institutional Review Boards (IRB), which review and approve protocols for all research involving human participants, the Social/Behavioral/Educational IRB on UofL’s Belknap campus and the Biomedical IRB on the Health Sciences Center campus.

UofL researchers Aparna Ramasubramanian, M.D., and Jill Steinbach-Rankins, Ph.D., have received a grant from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc., to support their work in developing an improved chemotherapy treatment for retinoblastoma. Ramasubramanian, a pediatric ophthalmologist and ocular oncologist, and Steinbach-Rankins, a professor of bioengineering at the UofL J.B. Speed School of Engineering, are developing nanoparticles that will encapsulate the drug melphalan for use in intravitreal injections in the treatment of retinoblastoma.

Retinoblastoma is the most common type of eye cancer in children. Each year, approximately 300 children, usually under the age of 5, are diagnosed with retinoblastoma in the United States. The cancer begins in the retina, the layer of nerve tissue lining the inside of the back of the eye.

Melphalan is the most commonly used chemotherapy drug for intraocular injection in retinoblastoma. It is delivered into the vitreous cavity of the eye with the patient under general anesthesia. Since the drug degrades quickly, four to 12 injections may be required to control the tumor. Injection into an eye with an active tumor poses the risk of allowing the cancer to spread to other areas of the body, and with repeated injections, toxicity in the retina and the rate of complications increases.

Ramasubramanian and Steinbach-Rankins are developing a method for encapsulating melphalan using nanoparticles that will allow the medication to remain viable longer, reducing the number of injections needed and thereby minimizing the side effects and need for anesthesia.

“Typically the treatment requires six to eight injections. If we can reduce that number by even half, it would greatly reduce the risks associated with the treatment,” said Ramasubramanian, who specializes in the treatment of eye cancers.

They hope to have a version of the medication available for clinical trials within two years.

"Blindness from ocular retinoblastoma is a tragic occurrence but new treatments can prevent loss of vision and loss of life. Unfortunately, treatment can sometimes have significant adverse effects throughout the body,” said Henry Kaplan, M.D., chair of the UofL Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. “The ability to deliver effective anti-tumor medications in small particles (nanoparticles) directly into the eye should avoid this problem and allow a much easier treatment course for patients."

The Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc., incorporated in 1956, is a charity sponsored by the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar based in Flower Mound, Texas. Since 2010, the organization’s mission has been to improve vision through research, education, and supporting access to care.

“The Knights Templar Eye Foundation offers grants of $65,000 to researchers who are doing work in the field of eye research,” said Larry Carte, the deputy grand commander of the Knights Templar of Kentucky who presented the check on June 24. “The work Dr. Ramasubramanian is doing here is very important and they are pleased to offer her the grant to support her research.”

Ramasubramanian will have the option to apply for an additional grant next year if the project is not complete. The Knights Templar Eye Foundation has awarded research grants totaling more than $23 million to researchers working in the fields of pediatric ophthalmology and ophthalmic genetics.

A new classification system for tumors of the brain and spinal cord released this year by the World Health Organization will help physicians tailor treatments more precisely to a patient’s tumor. Kenneth Aldape, M.D., who helped develop the new classification system, will discuss its significance July 8 at the University of Louisville’s second annual James Graham Brown Cancer Center Neuro-oncology Symposium in his discussion, “Molecular Markers for Adult Glioma.” Gliomas are tumors that develop in the supportive tissue of the brain.

Aldape was part of an international team of medical researchers contributing to the 2016 World Health Organization Classification of Tumors of the Central Nervous System (2016 WHO CNS), which sets the international standard for describing and classifying tumors of the central nervous system. The 2016 edition provides universal terminology allowing physicians and researchers to define tumors based not only on their morphology (the form and structure of the tumors), but also on their molecular characteristics (genetic mutations or structural variants). These standards ultimately will facilitate more precise and effective treatments for patients.

“These new classifications position us on the path of delivering precision medicine,” said Eyas Hattab, M.D., M.B.A., chair of the UofL Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. “This will allow physicians to tailor treatments more specifically to the individual patient’s tumor.”

For example, prior to the 2016 CNS WHO, a tumor may have been identified as glioblastoma based on its location and cell structure. The revised classification now provides universal terminology to identify the tumor as either IDH-mutant or IDH-wildtype, based on molecular characteristics. This refinement will allow for more accurate prognosis for patients and the potential development of specific treatments for different tumors.

“If we know these are molecularly distinct entities, it gives us the opportunity to study their behaviors. We can come back in a few years and say that based on our studies, these behave better or worse or they can benefit from the following treatments,” Hattab said.

Also at the July 8 UofL symposium, Michael Prados, M.D., co-project leader of the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium, will discuss current research in the area of precision-based therapies for patients with recurrent glioblastomas.

JGBCC Neuro-oncology Symposium – “Management of Primary Glioma in Adults,” July 8, 2016

Introduction and overview of primary glioma – Eric Burton, M.D.,assistant professor in the UofL Department of Neurology and director of neuro-oncology at JGBCC.

Surgical intervention for primary glioma–Raymond Sawaya, M.D., chair and professor of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Sawaya’s presentation will cover the advantages of radical surgery for primary brain tumors and the technological advances that have allowed such surgeries with reduced morbidity.

Radiation oncology for primary glioma–Shiao Woo, M.D., chair and professor in the UofL Department of Radiation Oncology, professor in the UofL Department of Pediatrics and the Kosair Children’s Hospital/Norton Healthcare Chair in Pediatric Oncology.

Chemotherapy and clinical trials for adult glioma –Michael Prados, M.D., Charles B Wilson Chair in Neurosurgery and professor emeritus at the University of California San Francisco. Prados will discuss research in the area of precision-based therapies for patients with recurrent glioblastomas.

Molecular markers for adult glioma–Kenneth Aldape, M.D., senior scientist and director of MacFeeters-Hamilton Brain Tumor Centre at Toronto General Hospital and professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto.

The symposium is co-hosted by the UofL Department of Neurology and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health. Registration begins at 7:15 a.m. on Friday, July 8, at the Kosair Charities Clinical and Translational Research Building, 505 South Hancock Street on the University of Louisville Health Sciences Campus.

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

Richard Luce Jr. of Hillview presented a check for $1,800 to Dr. Donald Miller, director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville, at the Hillview City Council meeting held June 20. The donation resulted from the proceeds of the Hillview Cancer Awareness Show, organized by Luce and featuring a model train show, a car, truck and model car show and an arts and crafts show, held May 21 at the Hillview Community Center. Luce organized the event in memory of his father, Richard Luce Sr., a model train enthusiast who died from cancer in 2013. “Since my father’s passing, I have striven to improve cancer awareness,” Luce said. “I am motivated to honor the memory of my father and to hopefully prevent others from enduring the pain of losing a loved one to cancer.” Plans are already underway for the 2017 show, he said. Photos from the check presentation can be viewed here.

A group of researchers from the University of Louisville, Japan and Austria is the first to identify a protein, AF1q, associated with multiple myeloma and a condition that occurs in approximately one-fourth of very aggressive multiple myeloma, extramedullary disease or EMD.

The group will present their findings at the European Hematology Association’s 21^st Congress, June 10-12, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their presentation is entitled “High expression of AF1q is an adverse prognostic factor and a prediction marker of extramedullary disease in multiple myeloma.”

William Tse, M.D., the Marion F. Beard Endowed Chair in Hematology and chief of the Division of Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation at UofL, was senior investigator on the project, working with researchers in Tokyo and Vienna.

Multiple myeloma is one of four types of myeloma and the most prevalent. It is a form of blood cancer that develops in the bone marrow. In multiple myeloma, normal plasma cells transform into malignant myeloma cells and produce large quantities of toxic abnormal immunoglobulin called monoclonal protein that can damage multiple organs. The monoclonal protein produced by the myeloma cells interferes with normal blood cell production.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 30,330 new cases of multiple myeloma will occur in the United States in 2016 and about 12,600 people will die from it.

Approximately 25 percent of patients with multiple myeloma also simultaneously develop extramedullary disease. This disease occurs when the myeloma cells form tumors outside of the bone marrow in the soft tissues or organs of the body. The prognosis of myeloma patients with EMD behaves like other metastatic cancers and is extremely poor because its clinical course is veryaggressive, Tse said.

“We know that multiple myeloma with EMD involvement has an extremely poor outcome,” Tse said. “However, not much is known about the mechanism in which EMD progresses.”

The group looked at an oncogene, AF1q discovered in Tse’s lab, which is expressed in hematological cancer cells and is known to be related to multiple myeloma. Its presence indicates a poor prognosis for the patient.

Tse and the team analyzed the degree of expression of AF1q in 117 patients with multiple myeloma. They found that EMD was present in 25 percent of patients with a low AF1q expression and in 44.7 percent of patients with a high AF1q expression.

“We found that the incidence of EMD was significantly higher in patients with high expression of AF1q than those with low expression,” Tse said. “The significance of this finding gives us a tentative approach to target this marker and could lead to new therapies for this subtype of myeloma.”

Tse’s research team included Drs. Shotaro Hagiwara, the lead author and chief of hematology, and Sohtaro Mine of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo, Ana-Iris Schiefer of the Medical University of Vienna and Lukas Kenner of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research and Medical University of Vienna. The study patient cohort was organized by Hagiwara.

Tse practices with University of Louisville Physicians-Medical Oncology/Hematology and with UofL’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health.

In April, John Pierce Wise Sr., Ph.D., spent two weeks on a lab-equipped sailboat in the Sea of Cortez collecting tissue samples from free-ranging whales to be tested for chromium, mercury, silver and other toxic metals. He began this research in 1998, and since that time, has embarked on more than two dozen marine research expeditions. This spring’s trip included an experience Wise had hoped for since before he began his research:  His team encountered a blue whale.

When I started, and back even further, the whale I most wanted to see and study was the blue whale. Yet, try as I might, blue whales always seemed just out of my reach. … each time I went near the sea, be it on boat or land, I hoped I would see one of these magnificent creatures.

Today was finally the day.

-- John Pierce Wise Sr., Blog post, April 6, 2016

A professor in the UofL School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Wise is a leading authority on metal-induced cancer development. He studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cancer and investigates the health impacts of chemicals in the environment, comparing their effects in humans with wildlife such as whales, sea turtles and alligators. Through this research, he hopes to better understand whether these pollutants cause DNA damage and cancer in marine life and in humans.

During this trip, Wise and his team of researchers obtained skin and blubber samples from 29 whales of seven different species in the Sea of Cortez, which lies between the Baja peninsula and the mainland of Mexico, emptying into the Pacific Ocean. On this project, Wise is collaborating with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Jorge Urbán Ramírez, PhD, at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur in Mexico. Wise’s son, John Jr., (Johnny) a graduate student in toxicology at Purdue University, and other team members used a crossbow to shoot a small dart into the whales’ skin from the vessel to obtain thimble-sized tissue biopsies without disrupting the animals’ activity. These crossbow handlers are known as biopsiers.

Following is Wise’s blog describing the encounter with the blue whale –

Wednesday, April 6, 2016 – Day 5 at Sea

I started developing my whale research in 1998. Hard to believe 18 years have passed as those first days seem like yesterday. I’ve worked on many species from whales to sea lions to sea otters to polar bears. Shoot even humans are considered marine mammals for that matter and we work on them too. But going back to when I started, and then back even further, the whale I most wanted to see and study was the blue whale. Yet, try as I might – blue whales always seemed just out of my reach. We worked on blue whale cells when a colleague gave me a sample. Still, each time I went near the sea, be it on boat or land, I hoped I would see one of these magnificent creatures.

Today was finally the day.

The day started with a couple of pods of short finned pilot whales – very cute whales travelling in a small group. We managed three biopsies of them and it seemed liked it was going to be an exciting day. But as sea research days often go, the day quickly settled into a quiet routine of changing watch shifts and the hum of the engine churning away. There was nothing to see and all was quiet. A bird flew by – it was a masked booby – but not much was going on. The team carried out its duties with focus and efficiency, but a sense of no further sampling for the day started to set in.

Late in the afternoon as the light was fading, several of us were talking in the pilot house. Suddenly, Johnny bolted up and yelled, “whale blow, 9 o’clock.” He ran to the bow and we yelled up to Mark on the mast. Soon Johnny spotted a tail fluke. That left three possibilities – sperm whale, humpback or blue whale. Each has a distinctive shape to their tail. Johnny came into the pilot house and described the fluke. It was not something he had seen before. He has biopsied hundreds of sperm whales and dozens of humpbacks – so I knew then this whale had to be a blue whale. The question was could we get near it and biopsy it?

To be clear, all whales have a tail fluke. It’s just that not all whales lift their tail flukes out of the water when they dive. Thus, with other whales you simply cannot see their tail flukes in the air. But sperm whales, humpback whales and blue whales frequently raise their tail flukes, almost in a gesture of waving ‘goodbye’ as they dive down deep.

The team took a collective breath and renewed efforts to find this whale. Everyone wanted to see this magnificent whale that grows to be the biggest animal alive on earth.

With Oona at the helm, Mark in the crow’s nest, Mike on the rigging and Johnny, Rick, Carlos and me in the foredeck, we pressed on with our search. Closer we crept forward. Closer. Closer. We would have these anxious periods between the whale’s dives, wondering where it might surface. Yet, it stayed just ahead of us. Finally, it was in sight. Carlos pointed out that we should look for the blue water – something about the whale’s coloration creates a bluish glow of a reflection in the water. The glow is why the blue whale is called a “blue” whale.

Watch a video of the encounter.

Mark called in the position from above. We all scanned the water for the blue glow. There it was, quite close!!! But just a tad too far for a biopsy. The whale dove and we all marveled at the sight. We kept search, only now it was harder, for the whale had been right next to us. Before, it was in front in the distance. Where did it go? Where would it surface? We slowed our speed and looked.

Generally, I stay out of the foredeck in the pilot house and let the team work, but this whale was a blue whale and I had waited a long time to see a blue whale. This time, I moved right into the bowsprit with the biopsiers to see the whale up close. Everyone understood. Now, we just had to find the whale.

Suddenly, the whale surfaced right behind the boat! Oona turned us around as the whale dove. We searched for the blue glow. Carlos starting yelling, “It’s right there! Right there!”

When someone yells like that, the whale is so close they cannot express in words exactly where it is. We all looked down and sure enough, there was the whale in all its fantastic blue glow – right under us in the bow. What a breathtaking and awesome sight!

Only problem was the whale was close in and perpendicular to the boat. The biopsiers were at the wrong angle. A sample would be exceptionally difficult. But, there was an odd wrinkle to the biopsiers’ positions. Normally, they are next to each other, but now I was in the bowsprit between them, which created more space. Johnny was the furthest in the bowsprit and he had no angle for a shot. Rick, however, leaned way over the rail and released his arrow!  It hit! He had just enough of an angle to take a perfect biopsy! We recovered the arrow and we had done it! Our first blue whale biopsy. The team was abuzz with excitement.

The light was low as the sun was setting and it was overcast. We called it a day and shared our stories of our individual thrill from this magnificent whale. We are up to 16 whales biopsied. It’s been a success so far.

John

Obtaining and studying tissue samples from hundreds of whales around the world has been a mission and a passion for John Pierce Wise Sr., Ph.D. for the past 18 years.

A professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Louisville, Wise is a leading authority on metal-induced cancer development. He studies the mechanisms of cancer and investigates the health impacts of chemicals and toxic metals in the environment, comparing their effects in humans with whales, sea turtles, alligators and other wildlife. Wise has conducted more than two dozen marine research expeditions, including three in the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil well. In April, his team collected tissue samples from free-ranging whales in the Sea of Cortez. Read more about this trip, including a video of his first encounter with a majestic blue whale, at http://uoflnews.com/section/science-and-tech/encounter-of-a-lifetime-uofl-researcher-finally-meets-a-blue-whale/.

At this month’s Beer with a Scientist, Wise will share his experiences on the water and explain how his research, funded by the U.S. Army, NIH, NASA, NOAA and other sources, is improving our understanding of the effects of environmental pollutants in marine life and in humans.

The program begins at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How the breath test works

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

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

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