Upcoming Events 

Aug 3, 2017
White Coats 4 Care
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Aug 4, 2017 
White Coat Ceremony
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White Coat

FAU Receives $1 Million Grant
for Dementia Prevention

Catherine Robson, FNP, NP-C., James Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., and Kadesha Stewart
The Charles E. Schmidt College  of Medicine received a $1 million grant from The Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation for a Dementia Prevention Initiative.

The grant will launch the Comprehensive Center for Brain Health (CCBH) at FAU to deliver a personalized prevention plan, tailored to individual risk profiles based on genetic traits. 

Developed by James E. Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., the CCBH is one of only a few centers in the world focused on dementia prevention, and the only one utilizing Galvin's protocol.

"It is time to abandon generalized approaches to how we address Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia and to usher in a paradigm shift in which we begin to consider neurodegenerative disorders as diseases of a lifetime with opportunities for individualized strategies to build a better brain as we age," said Dean Phillip Boiselle, M.D. "We are extremely grateful to The Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation for supporting Dr. Galvin's highly innovative work, which we believe will alter the cascade of pathologic events occurring in at-risk individuals, thereby reducing the risk or even preventing dementia from developing."
Education Highlight 

The 7th annual White Coats-4-Care reception provides internal and external stakeholders in the community an opportunity to engage with and fulfill a stewardship role in the College of Medicine by making a gift of the medical students' first doctors' white coat, by supporting the White Coat Ceremony, and through charitable donations toward medical student scholarships. Additional levels of giving include naming a scholarship fund, naming a seat in an auditorium, supporting the Dean's Fund for Excellence, and supporting the late Dr. Michael Friedland Fund. Attendees have the opportunity to meet FAU and Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine leadership along with representative medical students from the incoming class and the rising second-year medical students.

Pictured from left to right, bottom row followed by top row are:
Lynn Ouslander, June Gelb, Dean Phillip Boiselle, Dr. Michael T.B. Dennis, Bonnie Halperin, Constance Scott, Debbie Leising, Elizabeth Markowitz, Dr. Sarah Wood, Bryan Drowos, Mary Katherine Morales, Jon Kaye, Bonnie Kaye, Doreen Alrod, Robert Alrod, JoAnne Williams, and Dr. Stuart Markowitz

This year's reception will be held on Thursday, August 3 from
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at FAU's Stadium in the Delray Acura Club on FAU Boulevard. Please join us in welcoming the next generation of physicians by sponsoring an incoming student's first white coat. To register, visit fauf.fau.edu/whitecoats. Administrative staff are eligible for a discount and are encouraged to contact Yael Matan at 561-297-4452 or
  ymatan@health.fau.edu for special registration details.  
Serotonin's Contributions
to Cocaine's Lure 

Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D.
A team of neuroscientists led by  Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D. , have capitalized on a unique strain of genetically engineered mice to unpack key features of the complex actions of cocaine. Their findings, published in the current issue of the British Journal of Pharmacology, reinforce suspicions that serotonin makes a direct contribution to the actions of cocaine.   

"Scientists can now clearly see details of how the brain uses serotonin not just to regulate mood, but also to drive both rapid and long-lasting changes in the brain. We suspect that these changes may contribute to the brain modifications that ultimately trap users in an addicted state," said Blakely. "The development of effective treatment strategies requires a holistic understanding of drug actions, and now we can see much more clearly the serotonin-side of cocaine action. We hope that our findings will stimulate research into serotonin-based therapies to treat addiction as new treatments are desperately needed."
Research Highlight:
Janet D. Robishaw, Ph.D.

Janet D. Robishaw, Ph.D.
T his month, FAU's College of Medicine interviewed Janet Robishaw, Ph.D., interim senior associate dean for research and chair of the department of biomedical science. With four National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, her research focuses on using patient populations to identify and investigate genetic factors contributing to common diseases, including Parkinson's disease, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and opioid addiction. These projects are an outgrowth of NIH's "precision medicine initiative."

"One size does not fit all in terms of health care. It's about the genetic variation in the population," said Dr. Robishaw. "We use a team approach combining computational, experimental, cell and animal model approaches to address this issue." Although new discoveries represent the culmination of a grant, the real story revolves around the dissemination and implementation of this information into clinical practice. Dr. Robishaw further notes, "This is why I came to FAU's College of Medicine - to understand how a person's genetic background can be translated into improved diagnosis and treatment of complex diseases." She stresses the importance of integrating the latest scientific discoveries into the medical education curriculum, so the next generation of physicians is equipped with the information needed to advocate on behalf of their patients.

Another important piece of precision medicine research is community engagement.  Prior to joining FAU, Dr. Robishaw spearheaded summer DNA camps for middle school students who are naturally curious, receptive to studying genetics, and open to discussing their experiences with parents. "Ultimately, I'd like to do this type of outreach at FAU," said Dr. Robishaw. "We need to take our science into the community to underscore the importance of genomics education in making informed decisions regarding their own health care."

Dr. Robishaw's grant, the Novel Aspects of G-olf Signaling, examines signaling pathways in the brain that control locomotion, motivation, and reward, but when dysfunctional, contribute to Parkinson's, Huntington's, and addictive disorders. Identification of the components of this unique signaling pathway will provide new targets for the development of more selective treatment of these diseases. Her second grant, An Integrated Approach to Study GPCR Variants Associated with Complex Diseases, combines a computational strategy with a functional testing platform to rapidly identify G protein-coupled receptor variants that produce functional defects, contributing to disease pathology, or treatment response. Dr. Robishaw has investigated G-proteins throughout her career, having trained with the one of the recipients of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, the late Alfred Gilman, MD, Ph.D.

  Dr. Robishaw's third grant, Approaches to Genetic Heterogeneity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea, leverages a large sampling of patients from multiple institutions in the United States. While the heritability of obstructive sleep apnea is well established, the contributing genetic variants have not been identified. Her fourth grant, Clinical and Genetic Study of Prescription Opioid Addiction, focuses on opioid abuse by chronic pain patients . This project aims to identify genetic variants that predispose individuals to opioid addition, providing physicians with a new set of tools for personalized prevention and treatment of chronic pain. "The epidemic of prescription opioid addiction has created an urgent need to develop clinical, genetic, and neurological characteristics of patients at risk for addiction," said Dr. Robishaw.

Dr. Robishaw points out that building the research component for FAU's College of Medicine ultimately requires a balance between discovery and dissemination. "Great research informs teaching, and great teaching informs research," said Dr. Robishaw. Through the continued recruitment of top-tier researchers/educators, along with the establishment of new Genomics, Bioinformatics, and Functional Disease Modeling Cores, Dr. Robishaw hopes to propel FAU to the forefront of translation research and precision medicine.  She said, "For FAU to become a research intensive institution, we need to continue strategic investments in infrastructure, core facilities, and recruitment of world class faculty. These qualities are what will attract future funding for important research initiatives within the college."
Healthcare News Highlight

Patients at major teaching hospitals experience better 30-day mortality rates for common conditions than those at non-teaching hospitals, according to a new study. The research, published in JAMA, surveyed Medicare data of 21.4 million hospitalizations of patients aged 65 and older from 4,483 hospitals. Mortality rates at the 250 major teaching hospitals included in the study were over a percentage point better than those at other hospitals.

The differences in adjusted mortality rates were higher among large hospitals than smaller ones, but teaching hospitals still maintain a statistically relevant advantage even after stratifying them by size. A similar result held when the researchers looked at seven-day and 90-day mortality rates.

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