University News
Penn Leads $98 Million Translational Medicine Collaboration
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine $68 million over the next five years, along with The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Institutional commitments of $30 million bring the Philadelphia consortium's total to nearly $100 million.
In addition to the Philadelphia collaboration, 11 other academic health centers throughout the nation are receiving these awards. An additional 52 institutions are receiving planning grants to help them prepare applications to join the consortium. When fully implemented in 2012, about 60 institutions will be linked together to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science.
NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, announced the launch of this national consortium that will transform how translational biomedical research is conducted. This new consortium is funded through NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs).
One example of how the grant will streamline research is by development of a sophisticated approach to improving the effective use of medications for pediatric patients. Computerized programs can combine data from laboratory studies, results and findings from related drugs, and using highly sophisticated mathematical modeling and simulation techniques, help researchers predict the most effective dosages and delivery methods for particular drugs.
The CTSA grant will enable Children's Hospital to reach a new level of informatics technology with the creation of a "E-Port," a cross-institutional website that will guide researchers through the regulatory and approval process and create a central location for all documentation, thus making the business of conducting research streamlined and more efficient.
The Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT ) at Penn anticipated many aspects of this new initiative, among them, inclusion of the NIH-funded Penn and Children's Hospital General Clinical Research Centers, dedicated "dry" and "wet" bench space for translational research, and a robust educational program, based on an MS degree in Translational Research, within the institute.
ITMAT, designated as the "academic home" for clinical and translational research, has been broadened to serve a transinstitutional role. Its structure has been transformed to foster interdisciplinary science from discovery of new molecules through to the study of drug action in large populations. This change has been accomplished by developing interdisciplinary centers, related cores, innovative interdisciplinary programs of research, and strategies to engage and inform communities and their physicians. A particular emphasis has been placed on interdisciplinary training and on broadening the reach of the educational initiatives to span from undergraduate students to mature clinicians and scientists.
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Macular Degeneration Immune Studies at Emory Eye Center Receive $1 Million Grant
Emory Eye Center has been awarded $1 million from the R. Howard Dobbs, Jr. Foundation, to study macular degeneration. The grant will support the research of Santa Jeremy Ono, PhD, and the establishment of a new laboratory to investigate the role of immunity in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (the leading cause of blindness in aged individuals).
Rufus Howard Dobbs, Jr., an alumnus of Emory University who had macular degeneration, held a particular interest in helping to underwrite vision research. In 2003, funding from his estate awarded Emory Eye Center a $6.6 million gift, specifically designated for macular degeneration research.
At Emory Eye Center, Dr. Ono will work with Eye Center physicians Thomas M. Aaberg, Sr. and Daniel F. Martin, both retinal specialists. Ono's vision research team investigates three major healthcare problems: ocular cancer (melanoma and retinoblastoma), ocular inflammation, and the immune component of age-related macular degeneration
Ono also holds a university appointment as Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives and Deputy to the Provost at Emory University. In that capacity he has oversight of student enrollment activities across the university and helps facilitate implementation of the university's strategic plan.
Ono previously was the Cumberlege Professor of Biomedical Science and later the GlaxoSmithKline Professor of Ocular Immunology at the University College, London, from 2001-2006. He has published more than 125 articles and scholarly abstracts and has been continuously funded as a scientist-researcher since 1985. He has served on the Medical Research Council's Medical Advisory Board and College of Experts, and the Hypersensitivity, Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Diseases Study Section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Emory Eye Center's involvement in fighting age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in past years has involved many clinical trials and innovative treatments. Its involvement in the National Eye Institute's Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) helped scientists determine that a regimen of supplements slowed the progression of AMD in those at high risk for the disease. Emory will also be involved in the second phase of this important study to be launched this fall.
Additional clinical trials have included the collaborative work of Drs. Daniel Martin and Doyle Stulting in treating patients who have both cataract and severe vision loss with a new intraocular telescope. Retinal physicians are also involved in trials evaluating anti-VEGF compounds, which are showing potential in slowing the progression of wet AMD. Henry Edelhauser, PhD, is studying new ways of delivering drugs to the retina through the white part (sclera) of the eye for the treatment of AMD. He has been awarded a $7 million NIH grant to study drug delivery to the retina over the next five years. Emory is also one of only three centers in the United States studying the effectiveness of surgically implanted retinal chips in patients with damaged retinas.
Much of the AMD research on the most basic level looks at this disease as an immunopathological disease. The loss of vision caused by AMD involves an immune component. Dr. Ono's work will carry on the work of past researcher Judy Kapp, who established a retinal cell transplant program at Emory, and her colleague, Dr. Kyle McKenna. Also, Dr. Ono will work along with Hans Grossniklaus, MD, an ocular pathologist at the Eye Center who is studying the host immune response associated with neovascularization (formation of new blood vessels), occurring in the wet form of AMD.
Ono, vice provost for academic initiatives and deputy provost at Emory University, also serves as professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University School of Medicine. As vice provost, Dr. Ono has oversight of student enrollment activities at Emory, including the Office of Admissions, Office of Financial Aid and the Registrar's Office. Dr. Ono also leads specific academic initiatives within the university's strategic plan. As deputy to the Provost, Dr. Ono works closely with Provost Earl Lewis on various initiatives and will deputize for him where appropriate. Dr. Ono is the highest-ranking Asian American administrator in university history.
Ono received his education at the University of Chicago, McGill and Harvard. His training in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard was supported by a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship. Ono's first academic appointment was as assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. While at Hopkins, he won the American Diabetes Association Career Development Award and the Investigator Award from the National Arthritis Foundation. In 1996, Ono was recruited to the Harvard Medical School, where he was an associate professor and on staff at the Schepens Eye Research Institute. He was a member of the executive committee of the Harvard Program in immunology, principal investigator of the Harvard Program in Ocular Immunology and on the executive committee of the NIH Training Program in Molecular Bases of Eye Diseases.
In 2001 Ono was appointed Cumberlege Professor and then GlaxoSmithKline Chair of Biomedical Sciences at University College London and Moorfields Eye Hospital. He was head of the Department of Immunology at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and on the executive committee of the UCL Division of Infection & Immunity. At UCL, Ono also served as associate dean of students, a member of the UCL Council (the university's governing body) and its finance committee.
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Thomas Rosenbaum To Be Next Provost of University of Chicago
University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer has chosen Thomas Rosenbaum as the next provost of the University. Rosenbaum has served as the University's Vice President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory since July 2002. He will become the University's second-ranking officer effective Jan. 1, 2007.
Rosenbaum succeeds Richard Saller, the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor, who will return to the faculty after completing his current five-year term as provost in December.
Rosenbaum is the John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor in Physics at the University. He is an expert on the quantum mechanical nature of materials — the physics of electronic, magnetic and optical properties at the atomic level — that are best observed at temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero.
He conducted research at Bell Laboratories and at IBM Watson Research Center before he joined the Chicago faculty in 1983. He directed the University's Materials Research Laboratory from 1991 to 1994, and the University's James Franck Institute from 1995 to 2001. Rosenbaum currently chairs the multi-institutional Science Policy Council of Argonne.
As provost, Rosenbaum will be responsible for academic appointments, programs and budgetary priorities at the University, which has a faculty of 2,160 faculty members and a student enrollment of 12,500. A search will soon begin for a new Vice President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory.
Rosenbaum's honors include an Alfred Sloan Research Fellowship, a Presidential Young Investigator Award and the William McMillan Award for Outstanding Contributions to Condensed Matter Physics. He is an elected fellow and Centennial Lecturer of the American Physical Society, and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Rosenbaum received his bachelor's degree in physics with honors from Harvard University. He then attended Princeton University, where he earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in physics.
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Marketing Strategist Susan Rogers Joins UT Dallas as VP for Communications
Susan Rogers, a marketing strategist and communication specialist, joins The University of Texas at Dallas as vice president for communications. In the new senior-level position, she takes responsibility for enhancing the university's visibility among key audiences.
Rogers, who reports to UT Dallas President Dr. David E. Daniel, assumes her duties Oct. 16.
Daniel called Rogers "a strategic thinker and outstanding communicator well-suited for this new role."
Rogers comes to UT Dallas from the University of Arkansas, where she served as associate vice chancellor for university relations, with responsibility for raising the national profile of that institution through news media campaigns and strategic issues management. She has also served as director of marketing and communications in the Office of Development at Stanford University and as associate vice president for marketing and communications at the University of North Texas.
In addition to her work for educational institutions, Rogers has done communications and marketing consulting for a broad array of clients, including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Central Park Conservancy, Long Island University, Lynchburg College, DePauw University and the University of Delaware. She has extensive experience as a writer, reporter and editor at media outlets including The Dallas Morning News, The Miami Herald, The Chicago Sun-Times and D Magazine. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin.
At UT Dallas, Rogers will oversee an integrated communications organization, which will include the university's media relations, advertising and marketing functions and presence on the Internet. In the past, those activities were handled by a variety of university departments.
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New Executive Director Announced for Blum Center for Developing Economies
George T. Scharffenberger is the new executive director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau announced Monday. The center was established at UC Berkeley in March 2006 to create a unique and innovative resource for combating global poverty and hunger.
An integral part of the center's mission is educating UC Berkeley students, through both traditional coursework and student service-learning opportunities, about the nature of poverty, efforts to address it, and the challenges facing national and international development organizations and programs.
Scharffenberger brings to UC Berkeley more than 30 years' experience in the design, management and evaluation of international economic and social development activities. He has held senior executive positions in three international, non-governmental organizations and in an internationally-oriented information technology company. Over the past decade, his interests and work have had a particular focus on technology and the development of and support for information-based communities and networks.
Scharffenberger said he was especially drawn to the center by its ability to impact students in a meaningful way.
Scharffenberger's career in international development began with a transformative experience of his own via the Peace Corps. Following his graduation from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, he served as a Peace Corps community development agent in a small West African village.
In addition to Senegal, Scharffenberger has served in multiple technical assistance roles including long-term work in Madagascar, The Gambia and Morocco with shorter assignments in Haiti, India, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. He is fluent in English, French and Wolof, the most widely-spoken language in Senegal. He has a master's degree from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (UK).
A native of Southern California, Scharffenberger has two brothers who graduated from UC Berkeley - Thomas, who lives in San Francisco, and John, co-founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Inc., headquartered in Berkeley.
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Christiansen Named Sole Finalist for Director of Texas Transportation Institute
Dr. Dennis L. Christiansen, deputy director of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) since 1993, was named the sole finalist for the position of director of TTI in a unanimous vote by the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M University System.
He succeeds Dr. Herbert H. Richardson, who is retiring after 22 years of service to the A&M System, 13 years as director of the Institute and nine years in other leadership positions at the A&M System, including chancellor, and dean and vice chancellor of engineering and director of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station.
Christiansen has spent most of his career at TTI, beginning in 1972 as an assistant research engineer, and working his way up in the organization as associate research engineer and program manager, research engineer and division head, associate director, and most recently agency deputy director. As deputy director, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Institute.
An international expert in high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, Christiansen pioneered the HOV lane concept in Houston and oversaw its development and implementation. His research in HOV lanes has been utilized throughout the country and had made a significant impact on the effectiveness of the transportation system in Texas and elsewhere, saving communities tens of millions of dollars and significantly improving traffic movement.
Christiansen graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. He received his master's and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from Texas A&M University.
A registered Professional Engineer in Texas, Christiansen has received numerous awards in the field of transportation, including the S. S. Steinberg Award from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and a research excellence award from the HOV Systems Committee of that organization. He has also received recognitions from the International Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Texas section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. In 2004, he was selected as a Regents Fellow by the A&M System Board of Regents.
Christiansen has served in leadership positions with the Council of University Transportation Centers, International Institute of Transportation Engineers, and Transportation Research Board, among others. He currently serves on the board of directors of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the College Station Planning and Zoning Commission. He is the author of two books and numerous reports and publications about various facets of transportation and traffic engineering.
The responsibilities of the director of the Institute are to serve as the CEO of this state research agency, providing visionary leadership to the research, service, educational and administrative functions of the agency. The director is also charged with mobilizing and allocating resources effectively; creating synergy between TTI and its academic, public and private sector collaborators and constituencies; and ensuring the recruitment and development of an outstanding cadre of staff and students.
TTI is the largest and most comprehensive transportation research organization affiliated with higher education in the nation. The Institute employs approximately 600 people, including about 200 graduate and undergraduate students, and has an annual budget of more than $46 million. With headquarters in College Station, TTI has six urban offices in the largest Texas cities and divisions at 10 regional Texas universities.
The Board of Regents may consider the appointment of Christiansen to the TTI director's position after the 21 days required by state law for public notice of the appointment with the Texas Secretary of State.
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Princeton Establishes Research Computing Facility
Maintaining its place at the forefront of scientific research, Princeton has brought together three high-performance supercomputers to establish one of the nation's leading university-based research computing facilities.
The move comes as research that used to take place almost exclusively in Princeton's laboratories is moving increasingly toward its computing facilities.
Many chemists are setting up virtual "dry" labs; neuroscientists, astrophysicists and geneticists are running experiments dependent on the availability of high-speed computing; and engineers are moving aerospace tests out of wind tunnels and into computing centers.
Cooperation between Princeton's Office of Information Technology (OIT), the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering (PICSciE), the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the provost's office — along with leading computational scientists on campus — has brought together the speed and versatility of high-speed supercomputers nicknamed "Della," "Hecate" and "Orangena" to respond to these evolving needs.
In a process that began last fall, the University worked with research faculty and affiliated departments to design the computing facility. It includes the Dell cluster of computers Della, which has 512 processors capable of very high speeds; the IBM Blue Gene brand supercomputer Orangena, which has 2,048 processors capable of "scaling" to perform large and smaller tasks; and the SGI Altix computer Hecate, which has 64 processors with large memory capabilities.
Campus computing experts spent six months working with faculty to acquire the resources to buy all three machines, another six months installing and configuring them for use, and now are making the computing center widely available to the entire Princeton research community.
The goals are to sustain the groundbreaking research already taking place at Princeton and to encourage future generations of research among current faculty, and also recruited scholars and scientists who may be attracted by the opportunities offered by the new facility.
Eager faculty members are already proposing problems for the most recently acquired computer Della. Emily Carter, the Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Applied and Computational Mathematics, plans to use the super-fast Dell computer for her work on metal alloys.
Scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) use Orangena for its ability to tackle exceptionally large, as well as smaller, problems.
The University computing experts who initiated the partnerships that brought the three supercomputers to campus commonly refer to the three systems as the three legs of a stool, saying Princeton now has a well-balanced set of resources that can support a wide variety of computations.
Faculty members in genomics, for example, are expected to benefit from all three systems.
According to Princeton computing resource managers, among the greatest challenges faced by researchers is finding resources to dedicate to equipment to support their particular research needs. Space and maintenance for the equipment also become factors.
Ostriker estimated that the total number of faculty in research computing is doubling every three years, including biologists and others who traditionally were not engaged in heavy computing in the past.
OIT announced last September that it had entered a unique partnership with Princeton scientists to acquire one part of the newly established computing facility. That part was Orangena, ranked one of the top supercomputers in the world and given a moniker to incorporate one of Princeton's colors into the name IBM gave the system for its work in the field of genetics.
Months earlier, PICSciE had set up a similar partnership to acquire the SGI company's Hecate. OIT recognized that the two supercomputers offered Princeton researchers different opportunities, said Curt Hillegas, manager of computational science and engineering support in OIT's academic affairs department. He has worked closely with PICSciE and the faculty to find a balance between all of the systems.
Orangena is ideal for problems that can be broken up among many processors, such as the complex modeling of the universe, and the SGI computer Hecate — named after the Greek goddess — can run one problem for a long period of time.
The super-fast Dell computer Della has four gigabytes of memory for each of its 512 processors, making it optimal for jobs requiring fast speeds.
Managers of the systems emphasized that the willingness of individuals and departments to contribute, not only to their own research but also to the future of computational research at Princeton, will prove a benefit to the entire University community.
Della's contributors were genomics, PICSciE, OIT and astrophysics, while five individual faculty from a wide range of departments contributed with OIT, PICSciE and the engineering school to bring Orangena to campus. Hecate's contributors were PICSciE, PPPL, astrophysics and faculty from other academic departments.
Resource managers may make researchers aware of another option called Condor, which is software that allows OIT to run jobs on computers across the University that are idle, Goldstein said. OIT can submit jobs that run on machines essentially at night, complementing the high-speed capabilities of the research computing facility as another means of providing support for research.
An application process that includes a one- to two-page research proposal will be used to determine schedules and uses for the various systems that make up the research computing facility. A faculty committee will ensure that research projects require the computational capacity the facility offers.
