Texas University News
University of Texas System and Texas Heart Institute Announce Affiliation Agreement
Representatives of The University of Texas System and the Board of Trustees of the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital today announced a special affiliation to further research and education in cardiovascular disease.
“The Texas Heart Institute has enjoyed a worldwide reputation in cardiovascular research, education and patient care for many years. Collaborations such as this agreement with The University of Texas System will help ensure that we maintain our leadership role and position us for even greater accomplishments in the coming years,” said Denton A. Cooley, M.D., president and surgeon-in-chief of the Texas Heart Institute (THI).
The UT System operates six health institutions with a focus on education, research and patient care. Within the System's six health institutions, there are four medical schools, two dental schools, and three nursing schools, as well as schools of allied health science, biomedical sciences, health information sciences, and public health.
To advance research and education in cardiovascular disease, THI and UT System, with the assistance of the UT Health Science Center at Houston, agree to cooperate in recruitment of scientists, including physicians, to joint appointments at both Houston institutions. At THI's request, U T System and the Houston health science center also will assist in recruiting scientists to THI who have medical or faculty appointments at other Texas Medical Center (TMC) institutions.
THI and UT System also agree to cooperate in mutually beneficial fund-raising for research and education programs, which will include seeking support at the local, state, federal and international levels from both public and private resources.
In January, a $5 million gift from a private donor was equally divided between the UT Health Science Center at Houston and THI to fund stem cell research endowments at the two TMC institutions.
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Prothro Foundation Pledges $500,000 To UTD’s Center for BrainHealth
The Caren and Vin Prothro Foundation has pledged $500,000 to The University of Texas at Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth to be used exclusively for collaborative brain research projects with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
The joint projects will be led by the UTD center and will include studies about brain plasticity as well as research into how the brain works and rewires itself after treatment.
One important aspect of the collaborative effort will be the use of a new federally funded, state-of-the-art functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) instrumentation located on the UT Southwestern campus. The machines, which detect changes in blood flow to particular areas of the brain and provide both anatomical and functional views of the brain, are expected to provide opportunities for answering some of the most important questions concerning the human brain.
UTD and UT Southwestern have a rich history of research collaboration in such areas as sickle cell disease, audiology, molecular imaging and brain and neurological disorders.
In the past, the two institutions have co-sponsored a symposium on reprogramming the human brain, featuring Nobel laureates and world-renowned scientists. Together, they also have received several National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants: one, for more than $1 million, concentrates on the neurobehavioral outcomes of children with head injuries; the other, for $1.1 million, is focused on genetic factors in outcomes of traumatic brain injury.
Civic leader and philanthropist Charles Vincent (Vin) Prothro, who was one of the founders of both Mostek Corporation and Dallas Semiconductor Corporation, died in November 2000. Prothro and his wife, Caren, made numerous personal gifts to UT Southwestern over the years. Mrs. Prothro serves on the Southern Methodist University Board of Trustees and the Dallas Museum of Art Board of Trustees.
TCU Celebrates Naming of TCU Schieffer School of Journalism
Texas Christian University (TCU) celebrated the naming of the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism, after 1959 TCU graduate and chief Washington correspondent for CBS News Bob Schieffer, with a naming ceremony and a special symposium focused on the state of journalism in America. Schieffer's wife, Pat, his brother, Tom Schieffer, current U.S. Ambassador to Japan, and other family and friends joined the veteran newsman at the celebration.
During the naming ceremony Tom Brokaw, former NBC Nightly News anchor, and Kate Lehrer, author, 1959 TCU graduate and wife of Jim Lehrer, commended Schieffer on the naming. TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr., Vice Chancellor and Provost for Academic Affairs Dr. R. Nowell Donovan, and TCU Board of Trustees Chairman John Roach, also congratulated Schieffer during the ceremony.
Schieffer also received an honorary title during the ceremony, TCU distinguished professor of broadcast journalism.
TCU also hosted a State of American Journalism symposium to celebrate the naming. Well-known journalists who participated in the symposium included Jim Lehrer, host of PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,Tom Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, Bob Woodward, assistant managing editor of The Washington Post and Brokaw. Schieffer concluded the symposium by taking questions from the floor.
The Schieffer School offers undergraduate degrees in news-editorial and broadcast journalism, photojournalism, publication design, advertising and public relations and international communication. It offers Master of Science degrees in journalism and advertising and public relations. Student-managed media include the 103-year old award-winning newspaper The Daily Skiff, Image Magazine, SkiffTV and a broadcast news show called TCU News Now.
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Yale Dean Named SMU Provost
Yale University dean Robert Blocker has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs at Southern Methodist University. Blocker brings a broad background of academic leadership as an administrator and as an expert in management. He will assume his new position at SMU July 15, 2005.
Blocker has served as the Lucy and Henry Moses Dean of the School of Music at Yale since 1995. Along with a tenured professorship in music, he holds an adjunct appointment as professor in the Yale School of Management. Before joining Yale, Blocker was the founding dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture at the University of California-Los Angeles from 1991 to 1995. He also served as adjunct professor of management at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
As SMU’s chief academic officer, Blocker will be responsible for the administration of the university’s seven degree-granting schools, with a total full-time faculty of more than 500 and student enrollment of nearly 11,000. He will supervise the university’s libraries housing more than two million volumes, the Office of Enrollment Services, International Programs, Research Administration, Center for Media and Instructional Technology, Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center, SMU Press, and SMU-in-Taos. Blocker also will hold faculty rank as a professor of music in Meadows School of the Arts and adjunct professor of management in the Cox School of Business.
Developing partnerships and attracting external support have been major elements of Blocker’s academic career. Under his leadership at Yale, the endowment of the School of Music increased from $29 million to $151 million, and more than $100 million was acquired to renovate music facilities. While he was dean at UCLA, the university acquired the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center. Also at UCLA, Blocker was instrumental in establishing the Department of World Arts and Cultures and the Center for Digital Arts. More recently, he has been planning a collaborative venture with the president of the Juilliard School and international business leaders to establish an Institute for Cultural Leadership.
Blocker succeeds Ross C Murfin, who has served as SMU provost since 1996. An active scholar, Murfin last year announced that the 2004-2005 academic year would be his last as provost. After a year’s leave of absence, he will fulfill his wish to become a full-time faculty member in the English Department of SMU’s Dedman College, pursuing his interests in teaching, research, and writing.
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Palmarozzi Named Chair of Family Medicine
The University of North Texas Health Science Center has named Elizabeth Palmarozzi, DO, Chair of the Department of Family Medicine. She has been serving as acting chair for the department since 2003.
Palmarozzi has been a faculty member at UNTHSC since 1993. Her roles have included program director for the family practice residency program, medical director and staff physician for the Seminary Drive Medical Center and the Lake Granbury Medical Center Primary Care Clinic. She currently serves as medical director of the Central Clinic and associate professor of family medicine. Her duties include mentoring students and residents, earning her the Residency Faculty of the Year Award in 2002.
Palmarozzi is involved in multiple local, state and national organizations, including the American Osteopathic Association, American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, American College of Physician Executives, Texas Osteopathic Medical Association and Texas Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.
Dr. Palmarozzi earned her bachelor of science degree in biology from Lamar University and her Doctor of Osteopathy degree from the Texas of College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is board certified in family practice.
Naval Grant Funds Development of Wafer-Scale, Single-Electron Memory Devices
The Office of Naval Research has awarded a three-year, $320,000 grant to Drs. Seong Jin Koh and Choong-Un Kim of The University of Texas at Arlington’s Materials Science & Engineering Program and the Nanotechnology Research & Teaching Facility to develop a technology for wafer-scale fabrication of single-electron memory devices.
Most memory chips currently in use require millions of electrons to store each bit of information, but single-electron memory devices use only a few tens of electrons to store a single bit, resulting in ultra-low power consumption and ultra-high density memories.
Although the potential benefit of single electron devices is clear, their fabrication technology, i.e., reliable production of addressable devices, is in its infancy. Combining wet chemistry, nanotechnology and CMOS fabrication technology,
Koh and Kim will address several of critical fabrication issues that have hindered single electron device implementation.
Their new fabrication technology will provide a foundation for building reliable and practical single-electron devices that have two important merits: ultra-low power consumption and ultra-high sensitivity. These attributes are crucial to devices for the U.S. Navy, such as long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles, communication devices and remote biological and chemical sensing units. Ultra-sensitive, molecular-level sensors could play a critical role in detecting battlefield hazards and combating bio/chemical terrorism.
Aerospace Professors Receive Patent for Propulsion System
University of Texas at Arlington Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Professors Don Wilson and Frank Lu have been issued U. S. Patent 6,857,261 for their design of a Multi-mode, Pulsed Detonation Propulsion System. The system can employ various propulsion modes at various times of flight and has potential applications for hypersonic and aerospace planes.
Drs. Wilson and Lu have been working on pulsed detonation propulsion for more than 10 years. The idea for a multi-mode application came to Wilson after a former Ph.D. student informed him in 1999 of the Air Force’s interest in a propulsion system that could take an aircraft from a standard, runway take-off up to an Earth orbit. Existing designs to achieve this incorporated four systems, or flow paths for each segment of the flight: gas turbine jet engines, ramjets, scramjets and rockets.
Wilson and Lu then teamed to design a propulsion system using one flow path based on pulse detonation. Using funds from Small Business Innovative Research and Texas Board of Higher Education Advanced Technology Program grants and their own funds, the two build computational fluid dynamics simulations and functioning engines to test their concepts. Their versatile creation operates in an ejector-augmented pulsed detonation rocket propulsion mode; a pulsed, normal detonation wave engine mode; a steady, oblique detonation wave engine mode; and a pure, pulsed detonation rocket mode.
The first mode, an ejector-augmented pulsed detonation rocket, is currently undergoing testing in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department’s Aerodynamic Research Center. The completed propulsion system will be more efficient, have fewer moving parts and weigh less than a competing four flow path system. The system could power supersonic unmanned aerial vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles in addition to manned aircraft.
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Researchers Receive Artificial Insemination Device Patent
Samuel Prien, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and Dustie Johnson, a graduate student in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University, have developed a device to improve the quality of semen used in fertility treatments.
A patent for the device, licensed with Embryonic Technologies, was issued this week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patented technology encompasses the method of collecting sperm, as well as the container into which the sperm are collected.
In traditional collection methods, sperm cells are often “shocked” by pH or temperature changes. The new collection device features a more stable environment for the sperm with controlled pH levels, temperature and a collection of nutrients, creating an environment for the sperm cells that is similar to a male’s body.
A better quality of sperm cells will be beneficial for both medical and veterinary purposes. Prien noted that one in seven couples worldwide have infertility problems.
Improvements in artificial insemination will also reduce the need for couples to undergo the expensive process of in vitro fertilization, the next step when insemination doesn’t work.
Johnson noted that the technology will bring benefits in animal insemination, as well. “Cattle breeding alone is more than a $1-billion-a-year industry,” she said. The technology also will be beneficial in horse breeding and dog breeding, as well as in other animals of superior genetics.
The new device will be available for use with cattle in mid-March or early April, and will be available for horses and dogs soon thereafter.
Prien said he hopes the technology will be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for human use within three years.
HSC Researchers Map Destructive Gene
Dental researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio are the first in the world to successfully map the gene that causes dentinogenesis imperfecta (DGI) Type III, a disease that affects tooth density and color and over time can cause teeth to wear to the gum line.
Mary MacDougall, Ph.D., professor of pediatric dentistry, associate dean for research and the President’s Council Chair for Excellence in Dental Research, and her research team have identified a rare compound mutation in the dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) gene in a family with DGI-III. Her team includes Juan Dong, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatric dentistry; Ting-Ting Gu, M.D., senior research associate in pediatric dentistry; and Leticia Gutierrez Jeffords, D.D.S., a former fellow in pediatric dentistry at the Health Science Center who is now a local pediatric dentist.
Their findings are in the February 2005 issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
In labs at the Health Science Center, researchers cloned and characterized the DSPP gene, determined its structure and identified the alteration in a DGI-III affected family.
They are currently working on gene therapy that can be administered to patients with the disease.
“Effective gene therapy would allow us to transport the corrected gene into the developing teeth and replace the nonfunctional gene, thus eliminating the problem,” Dr. MacDougall said.
Dr. MacDougall has been contacted by researchers from throughout the country and from Australia and Europe who are treating patients with this disease and diseases that similarly alter tooth structure and number. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health funded the project for nearly $1 million.
