The Washington Advisory Group, a consulting firm that specializes in research and development issues, will be selected to conduct a study of how best to develop new research universities within the University of Texas System.

The U.T. System Board of Regents on Monday authorized Chancellor Mark G. Yudof to hire the firm to make recommendations on strategies for developing four institutions - U.T. Arlington, U.T. Dallas, U.T. El Paso, and U.T. San Antonio - into nationally prominent "top tier" research universities.

The firm also will make recommendations for strengthening the research capabilities of four other institutions - U.T. Brownsville, U.T. Pan American, U.T. Permian Basin, and U.T. Tyler.

Expanded collaboration between the U.T. System's nine general academic institutions and six health science institutions is also expected to be a focus of the enhanced research activities.

The study is expected to be completed by early in 2004.

Among the nine general academic universities in the U.T. System, U.T. Austin is the only one that currently ranks among the nation's top 100 universities in research awards, although several of the others have been increasing their research activities significantly in recent years. The six health science institutions conduct extensive medical research.

The Washington Advisory Group, LLC, provides consulting services to universities, governments, companies, and non-profit organizations. Principals of the firm include members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

Mary Untersee Irwin, vice president for university advancement at The University of Texas at Tyler, has announced plans to retire effective August 31, 2003.

Irwin has headed the university's development activities since 1999 and has successfully raised more than $24 million to support UT Tyler.

Under her leadership, the university has secured private funds to support several major building projects, including the Riter Millennium Carillon Tower and Plaza, the Louise Herrington Patriot Center, the David G. and Jacqueline M. Braithwaite Building and the Braithwaite Gardens.

While leading successful efforts to support the university's scholarship program and its faculty endowment, she also was instrumental in the establishment of the Sam and Celia Roosth Chair and the Gary Wright Diagnostic Reading Endowment.

In addition, under her direction, discretionary excellence funds increased dramatically and fundraising events were more than successful. These excellence funds have been used to support emergency student needs, special faculty and student travel, a summer research program for faculty and students and a number of important special projects ranging from the support of recruitment in Longview and Palestine to supporting graduate student research, Mabry added.

Alumni involvement also increased during Irwin's tenure. Alumni membership increased 21 percent during membership drives this year.

Irwin joined the university in 1994 as a development officer. In that early role, she enlisted support for the President's Associates, Distinguished Lecture Series, Friends of the Arts, construction of the R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center and the Patriot Classic, as well as the development of the President's Circle membership program.

She also served as managing director of the Cowan Center in 1999, putting it on a sounder financial footing and establishing the Circle of Friends program, before being tapped by the president to lead the development office.

Dr. David Shrader, vice president for development at the University of North Texas will retire from full time duties at the university on July 31; he will continue to work half time for UNT in fundraising and teaching.

Shrader took over the operations of the Office of Development on an interim basis in Spring, 2001 to oversee the end of the university's capital campaign. When the campaign, which launched publicly in March 2000, met its $150 million goal two years early, he agreed to continue as the full time vice president.

In the fall, Shrader will begin work for the university on modified service, continuing to work in donor development and performing many of his current duties until a new vice president is named. In addition, he will resume teaching the Arts, Media and Entertainment Management class offered through the Murphy Enterprise Center in the College of Business Administration.

During his tenure as vice president, the Office of Development has continued the capital campaign quietly and expects it to come to a close in May 2004 with $200 million raised. The Office of Development also experienced its two most-successful fundraising years under his leadership. However, Shrader said he is most proud of the work he has done to strengthen the ties throughout the university family.

Shrader first joined UNT in 1992 to take the helm of the university's internationally renowned College of Music. Under his leadership, the college realized a 40-year-old institutional objective by opening the Murchison Performing Arts Center in February 1999. He resigned his position as dean in August 1999 to return to teaching and to serve as special assistant to the chancellor.

A percussionist, Shrader holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Iowa, and a doctorate from the University of Oregon.

The Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program has chosen Naomi Halas of Rice University to receive the prestigious Innovator Award for ongoing research into novel ways to use nanotechnology to diagnose and treat breast cancer. The award includes a four-year, $3 million grant, which Halas will use to develop new noninvasive methods of detecting and eradicating tumors.

Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, is the inventor of metal nanoshells, a novel type of nanoparticle with "tunable" optical properties.

The Innovator Award is administered by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. First presented in 2001, the award provides accomplished and visionary scholars with the funding and freedom to pursue creative, potentially breakthrough research that could ultimately accelerate the eradication of breast cancer. The award is explicitly designed to encourage the most creative individuals in all areas of research to pursue innovative and novel approaches that may significantly contribute to the conquest of breast cancer.

The research team includes Jennifer West, associate professor in bioengineering and chemical engineering; Rebekah Drezek, assistant professor in bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering; and Renata Pasqualini, associate professor of genitourinary medical oncology and cancer biology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Only slightly larger than molecules, nanoshells are layered colloids that consist of a nonconducting core covered by a thin metal shell. By changing the thickness of the shell, Halas' team can precisely tune a nanoshell's electric and optical properties.

Halas and West have successfully attached proteins to the surface of nanoshells -- including proteins that bind only with tumor cells. Since the shells can be "tuned" to react to near-infrared light, which passes harmlessly through the body, they can be used as tumor-seeking nanoparticles. After they are injected into the patient, a doctor would shine a low-power light at the patient. The nanoshells would give off a signal in response, and anyplace there was a tumor, the doctor would "see" a cluster of nanoshells. By increasing the power of the laser, the doctor could heat the nanoshells just enough to destroy the tumor without harming any healthy tissue nearby.

Using nanoshells to detect and treat breast cancer offers the following specific advantages over current standards of care:
- earlier detection -- nanoshells could increase imaging resolution enough to provide a diagnosis six to seven years earlier than current methods.
- more detailed imaging -- nanoshells can provide increased biochemical information about tumors, allowing doctors to perform noninvasive biopsies.
- fast, noninvasive imaging -- nanoshell imaging won't require breast compression or ionizing radiation, so it will be safe and comfortable for patients.
- integrated detection and treatment -- in a single visit, nanoshell technology could be used to locate a tumor, provide real-time information about the type of cells in the tumor, and non-surgically destroy the tumor without harming healthy tissue.

The University of Texas-Pan American Department of Mechanical Engineering will receive a $163,000 grant from the United States Department of Defense for a state-of-the art Laser Diagnostics Laboratory for combustion research and education.

The total cost for the project is $200,000. The remaining funds will be provided by AT&T Corporation.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to award grants totaling $6.3 million to 25 institutions. The grants will enhance programs and capabilities at these institutions in scientific disciplines critical to national security.

The laser system will help students assess essential information of the combustion process such as velocity fields, flow visualization, pollution formation, fuel mixing, radical distribution and flame visualization.

According to Dr. Ala Qubbaj, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, the system will outline the interaction between the flow field and the chemical formation of pollutants. This will help attain a design to maximize the performance and minimize the formation of pollutants from combustion systems such as diesel engines, utility boiler furnaces, residential gas appliances, gas turbines and aircraft jet engines.

The grant was awarded to the University as a result of merit competition conducted for the Office of Defense Research and Engineering by the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered a gene critical to the development of the human heart and that mutations in the gene lead to congenital heart defects - the leading noninfectious cause of death in newborns.

GATA4 is only the second gene to have been identified as a cause of isolated congenital heart disease not associated with medically identified syndromes.

The findings will be published in a future edition of the journal Nature and appear online today.

The researchers identified mutations in the gene GATA4 as a cause of human cardiac septal defects, which occur when the walls separating the heart's four chambers do not form properly.

This discovery could one day help doctors prevent congenital heart defects - the most common developmental anomaly - by fixing the problem before a baby is born, said Dr. Deepak Srivastava, associate professor of pediatrics and molecular biology and the study's senior author.

In the Nature study, researchers from UT Southwestern and three Japanese medical institutions examined two large families: one in Dallas that spanned five generations and included 16 members suffering from congenital heart defects, and a family from Tokyo spanning four generations and with eight members with congenital heart defects.

UT Southwestern researchers and Dr. Rumiko Matsuoka, a pediatric cardiologist from Japan, gathered data from the families' medical history. Researchers also conducted physical examinations, electrocardiograms and cardiac ultrasounds. Genomic DNA from white blood cells was used for analysis, and researchers studied medical records of family members who had died.

Researchers performed a genetic linkage analysis. The analysis helps researchers find the responsible genes by comparing the genetic codes of patients suffering from heart defects with the codes of those who did not.

GATA4 mutations showed up in all family members with heart disease but not in the family members without heart disease or in 3,000 unrelated individuals.

The gene may be responsible for the defects through its interaction with TBX5, a protein that causes a subset of syndromic cardiac septal defects. Irfan Kathiriya, a student in UT Southwestern's Medical Scientist Training Program and co-lead author, found that when a single amino of GATA4 was altered in the Dallas family, it prevented GATA4 from associating with TBX5, suggesting that the two work together to divide the heart into four chambers.

Dr. Srivastava said the next step is to determine how common GATA4 mutations are in the general population of children with heart defects and use that information to devise clever approaches to prevention. Eventually, broad screenings of individuals with congenital heart defects may help prepare them for the possibility of having a child with congenital heart defects, Dr. Garg said. The risk of that happening if either parent has a GATA4 mutation is 50 percent. In general, the risk of having a child with congenital heart disease is about 1 percent and jumps to 5 percent for parents who already have a baby with congenital heart disease.

Other UT Southwestern researchers who worked on the study were Dr. Jonathan Cohen, associate professor of internal medicine; Robert Barnes, a programmer analyst in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development; Marie Schluterman, a research technician in pediatrics; Dr. Isabelle King, a fellow in pediatrics; Caryn Rothrock, a biochemistry student research assistant; and Dr. Reenu Eapen, assistant professor of pediatrics. Cheryl Butler, a registered nurse at Children's Medical Center of Dallas, also worked on the study.

Researchers from the Tokyo Women's Medical University, the Heart Institute of Japan and Kyusyu Kosei-Nenkin Hospital in Fukuoka also took part in the study.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; Smile Train Inc.; and the Grant for the Promotion of the Advancement of Education and Research in Graduate Schools in Japan.

Texas Christian University (TCU)'s School of Nurse Anesthesia has received accreditation from the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs (COA). The COA, which approved TCU's request earlier this month, is the nation's only accrediting body for nurse anesthesia programs.

Approximately 60 students have already been accepted into the first-year program and will begin classes this fall.

Applicants to the 28-month program, one of only a handful in the Southwest, must have a bachelor of science degree, be a Texas-licensed registered nurse and have at least one year of critical care experience. During the first year of the program, students will study physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology and chemistry on the TCU campus. During the final year, students will complete clinical residencies at one of 13 approved hospitals in Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, under the supervision of certified registered nurse anesthetists or doctors.

Representatives of pSivida have announced that its UK subsidiary, pSiMedica Limited had entered into a revenue sharing agreement with Texas Christian University (TCU), located in Fort Worth, Texas, relating to revenue to the use of a significant joint invention relating to self-assembling BioSilicon and polymer composities scaffolds for tissue engineering and orthopedic applications. The invention is protected under a joint patent application.

The agreement provides for revenue sharing when the intellectual property is commercialized through licensing activities. TCU has assigned all its rights relating to the joint patent to pSiMedica in consideration of 10 percent of the gross pSimedica receipts from the patent.

Initial applications will be in the area of bone replacement material especially in osteoporosis. Tissue engineering, in bone replacement, embodies a new trend in medicine that helps the body regenerate itself. The need for bone replacement can arise from trauma, infection, cancer, osteoporosis or musculoskeletal disease. Every year, surgeons in the United States perform more than 450,000 bone grafts employing a combination of natural and synthetic materials. Engineering new bone tissue is expected to be a substantial commercial opportunity.

Several administrative departments have been reorganized at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, resulting in an elimination of 42 positions. The 40 employees affected were notified on June 27.

A mission-focused organizational review process started several months ago to develop a more efficient, streamlined structure, eliminating unnecessary layers of management and duplication of services in administrative areas that serve the university's six schools of higher education. University officials describe the new structure as one that will foster enhanced collaboration within the consolidated areas and provide improved service for the university. In addition, the new organizational model achieves a significant cost-savings that will aid the university in meeting state-mandated budget reductions.

The departments involved in the reorganization include: Institutional Compliance, Legal Affairs and Risk Management, Equal Opportunity and Diversity, Facility Operations, Facilities Planning and Development, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, and Auditing and Advisory Services.

Sam Prien, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Texas Tech, was named as a recipient of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Teacher Fellow Award. He received the award at the 49th annual conference of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.

Nominated by his undergraduate students, Prien who has a joint appointment with the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University as well as his appointment at the health sciences center, said he enjoys teaching.

Prien is also the director of both the in vitro fertilization lab and resident research at the health sciences center. Recently, Prien and Dustie Johnson, a graduate student in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, developed a technology to improve artificial insemination.

The new technology has both medicinal and agricultural uses. In medicine, the technology can be used to improve the quality of semen used in fertility treatments, possibly reducing the need to seek more costly procedures such as in vitro fertilization. Agriculturally, the technology can be used to improve pregnancy rates and increase the number of those bred from each semen sample collected.

To help commercialize the new technology, Texas Tech University System entered into a licensing agreement with Global Distribution Inc.