News & Events
Whole Foods Market Supports The Miller School's Ear Institute
10/9/2007
Whole Foods Market, a Miller School corporate partner, recently opened a new store in Coral Gables. The grand opening included a bread breaking ceremony where Whole Foods executives, with the help of donors, presented the UM Ear Institute with a check for $20,000 to help deaf and hearing impaired children in Miami. "We thank Whole Foods for their dedication and commitment to the deaf and hard of hearing in our community," said Fred F. Telischi, M.D., F.A.C.S., director of the University of Miami Ear Institute and vice chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, who accepted the check.
Coral Gables Mayor Don Slesnick, Whole Foods Market staff, UM faculty and donors all gathered for the event on Sept. 26.
Sherilyn Adler; donor, Robert Lefkowitz; donor, Thomas J. Balkany M.D. ; Chairman of the department of Otolaryngology, Dr. Fred F. Telischi, Lyle Stern; donor
Department of Pediatrics 'Families First' Program Wins Excellence Award
11/24/2009
The 'Families First Network,' a Department of Pediatrics program that's funded by The Children's Trust and uses extensive community-based partnerships to serve families with young children, was awarded the 2009 Excellence Award for Early Childhood Programming "for providing exemplary culturally competent, interactive and strength-based curriculum and services to a broad and diverse population of children ages birth to 5."
Department of Pediatrics research associate professor Connie E. Morrow, Ph.D., principal investigator of Families First, and Elana Mansoor, Psy.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and program coordinator, collected the award, which was presented by The Children's Trust at its fifth annual Champions for Children ceremony held at Jungle Island on November 13.
"We are so grateful for the opportunity The Children's Trust has given us to serve the children and families of Miami-Dade County," said Dr. Mansoor. "It is truly an honor to receive this award and we thank The Children's Trust, our dedicated staff, committed collaborators, and the amazing children and families of Miami-Dade County for the success of our program."
Families First works with Miami-Dade County families to help them improve their system of care and helps to build resources for parents, strengthen families, and promote optimal child health and development, while ensuring the activities are sensitive and culturally competent. The various programs under the Families First umbrella include community seminars, individualized developmental consultations, and two parenting groups: 'Baby and Me,' focused on mothers with infants, and 'Strengthening Multi-ethnic Families and Communities,' a broadly focused initiative for parents with young children.
"The Families First program is an example of the Department of Pediatrics using high-quality evidence-based research to improve parenting skills and build family bonds with the goal of maximizing child development and family dynamics within our community at many agencies, child care facilities, and health care sites," said Steven E. Lipshultz, M.D., professor and chairman of pediatrics and associate executive dean for child health at the Miller School.
"Families First is a differential screening and triage program that focuses on parents who may be at higher risk for inadequate parenting skills in our community. We appreciate The Children's Trust's recognition of this program, particularly Drs. Morrow and Mansoor and their colleagues, for how this program improves families and child development in our community. This is an outreach program of the Mailman Center for Child Development and has also had leadership from Emmalee Bandstra, M.D., professor of pediatrics."
Under the direction of Daniel Armstrong, Ph.D., the Mailman Center is one of the top and largest programs in the United States for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and chronic illnesses. In 2008 the center's Debbie School was ranked first among all programs in South Florida for children with developmental disabilities by South Florida Parenting magazine.
Founded in 1971, the Mailman Center and its Debbie School are where more than 19,000 children are seen each year for complex, interdisciplinary care. The center provides education to many advanced trainees in pediatrics, psychology, nursing, social work, nutrition, audiology, speech and language pathology, bioethics, early childhood education and special education, genetics, dentistry, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and health administration who then go out and serve our community.
"We are so proud of the tireless efforts of our teams, including the Families First program, that try to improve early childhood development and parenting skills where the needs are greatest in our community," Dr. Lipshultz said.
Second UM Innovation Technology Showcase Wows Investors with Breadth of UM Discoveries
11/20/2009
Standing by the poster that represented research from their team at the Diabetes Research Institute, Miller School researchers Margarita Nieto, M.D., and Samuel Rosero, M.D., proudly repeated the same information to potential investors and visitors at the UM Innovation Technology Showcase.
And for good reason. Led by principal investigator Ricardo Pastori, Ph.D., "Molecular Biology Studies of the Endocrine Pancreas" explores the manipulation of microRNA to improve insulin production – research with enormous potential to help millions of diabetics.
"This research could have such high impact in the lives of so many people in our society," said Nieto, a post-doctoral associate. "Through UM Innovation we are meeting directly with people who understand the importance of this level of research and are looking for ways they can take the best research to the marketplace."
The DRI research was among nearly 100 posters on display November 18 and 19 at the second annual Technology Showcase at the Four Seasons Miami. The brainchild of Bart Chernow, M.D., MACP, vice provost of technology advancement and professor of medicine, the showcase is designed to match researchers with investors, accelerating the process of moving groundbreaking discoveries from University labs to the marketplace. University-wide, the technologies range from aerodynamics and power generation to allergies and immunology and have more than doubled since Chernow's arrival in 2007.
"I am thrilled with the quality of the science and the enthusiasm of the investor community," Dr. Chernow said.
Day One of this year's event kicked off with a welcome reception and the first viewing of the posters. Among the attendees was Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., who spoke with researchers about their progress and the remarkable potential their discoveries hold.
The second day featured oral presentations by a number of the University's and the Miller School's most prolific inventors as well as a keynote address by Bert Sakmann, M.D., Ph.D., the 1991 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and the new scientific director of the Max Planck Florida Institute. Sakmann's luncheon talk centered on "3D imaging of cortical circuits."
This year's wide assortment of posters reflected the ingenuity and collaboration that UM Innovation has championed across the University. UM's own Nobel laureate, Andrew Schally, Ph.D., M.D.h.c., D.Sc.h.c., presented "Novel Antagonistic Analogs of GH-RH for Cancer Treatment." Schally, the Distinguished Leonard Miller Professor of Pathology who was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology in 1977 for his work in endocrinology, spoke about the extraordinary work on inhibitors of key peptides that reduce cancers in a multitude of models.
The breadth of research was also reflected in "U-Coach: New Generation e-Sports Simulation," an online game featuring complex sports simulation based on real data on real sports teams. In the version of the game available in Germany, players are expected to make use of their knowledge of a real-life team, said Ubbo Visser, Ph.D., visiting associate professor in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Visser and his student collaborators said there seemed to be high interest from investors with whom they discussed the potential for U.S. editions based on football and baseball.
Mostly, however, the posters and oral presentations centered on research that could make life better for chronically ill patients or improve the human environment. Among the presentations: Eduardo de Marchena, M.D., "A Heart Rate Acquisition Analysis and Database Device;" Glen Barber, Ph.D., "Innate Immunity and the Treatment of Viral and Malignant Disease;" Jochen Reiser, M.D., Ph.D., "Towards the Development of Novel Kidney Protective Drugs;" GeCheng Zha, Ph.D., "Toward Zero Sonic-Boom and High Efficiency Supersonic Flight: A Novel Concept of Supersonic Bi-Directional Flying Wing;" Joshua Hare, M.D., "Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy for Ischemic Heart Disease;" Joseph Rosenblatt, M.D., "Antibody-Fusion Proteins for Solid Tumor Therapy,'' and many others.
Steven T. Downey, president and CEO of ApoImmune, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky-based biotechnology company developing novel immunotherapies, said he was impressed by the high quality of research on display and, because the technology showcase is University-based, the potential for investor discussions at such an early stage of development.
"The early time allows for a better matching of interests," Downey said, adding that UM Innovation was the first technology development and investment event he attended that is sponsored by an academic institution, rather than the technology industry.
According to Reiser, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, the weight of a prominent academic institution, coupled with industry and investment community buy-in, is a unique mix that makes UM Innovation attractive.
"We're aligning knowledge and resources under one roof and patients are the potential beneficiaries," Reiser said. "The Innovation Showcase is a great event where all these important segments come together."
HIV-Infected Children on Multiple Antiretroviral Drugs Could Suffer Heart Damage
11/20/2009
One of the big questions surrounding the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for patients, especially children, with HIV has been the risk of long-term complications. New findings from research headed by Steven E. Lipshultz, M.D., professor and chairman of pediatrics and associate executive dean for child health at the Miller School, show the hearts of HIV-positive children treated with this multi-drug antiretroviral therapy had less muscle and smaller heart chambers but had increased heart function, which may be a compensation for their smaller hearts. However, there was progressive deterioration in heart function such that the HAART-associated effect was lost by 10 years of therapy.
Some of the abnormalities were sustained, and researchers found a decrease in heart muscle from normal to inadequate during the first 10 years of exposure to antiretroviral therapy.
The findings from the NIH multicenter study were presented at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association on November 18 in Orlando.In the prospective study, researchers examined periodic heart ultrasounds and compared left ventricular structure and function in HIV-positive children receiving multi-drug antiretroviral HIV therapy to HIV-positive children who were not receiving multi-drug therapy.
"The study group representing nine different institutions strongly supports the use of multi-drug antiretroviral therapy for HIV-positive children, but the group feels such patients should have regular cardiac evaluations to identify potential problems and that they should be followed for life to identify any long-term cardiac risk," said Lipshultz, principal investigator of the study. "The clinical significance of the reduced amount of heart muscle as well as the reduced ability of the heart to pump properly over time in the HAART-exposed children is unclear and requires long-term follow-up and ongoing evaluation."
The study, "Anti-Retroviral Therapy Cardiac Effects in HIV-Infected Children: The Multicenter NHLBI Cardiac Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (CHAART-II) Study," was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Lipshultz made a second presentation at the conference from the NIH Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study, which had similar findings of significantly more dilated hearts that had lower heart function in children receiving HAART long-term. They study also showed that the aortic valve in these children was dilated, and that this problem related to children who had more HIV virus and worse HIV disease.
"Sadly, before the HAART era, HIV-infected children were commonly ill or died from heart disease," Lipshultz said. "HAART has dramatically improved survival and quality of life for these children. It does so in ways that interfere with the ability of HIV to replicate and that is beneficial to HIV-infected children because HAART reduces the HIV viral load in their bodies.
"Many HIV care providers have felt that in the HAART era, heart problems like congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy would no longer remain concerns since there was much less virus within these children," Lipshultz said. "However, before we did these studies we were concerned that if these same beneficial effects that reduced HIV in children occurred within heart muscle, there could be less growth of heart muscle and less healthy remaining heart muscle. In fact, before conducting these studies, components of HAART were known to affect the mitochondria and other elements of heart muscle cells in animals. The results of these two studies indicate that HAART use during childhood may be affecting the heart muscle cells’ ability to grow and function normally."
UHealth and Jackson Announce Plans to be Smoke Free Campus in 2010
11/19/2009
The Miller School of Medicine, UHealth – University of Miami Health System and Jackson Health System came together to take a bold step during the 34th annual Great American Smokeout. During this year's event marking the national program, Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., senior vice president for medical affairs and dean, stood side-by-side with Eneida Roldan, M.D., president and CEO of Jackson Health System, to announce that the University of Miami/Jackson medical campus will become smoke free March 1, 2010.
The Smokeout, started by the American Cancer Society, is aimed at encouraging people to stop smoking for one day with the hope that they will kick the habit for good. Dean Goldschmidt, a renowned cardiologist and CEO of UHealth, told the scores of people gathered Thursday morning in Alamo Park that he has seen the damage smoking can cause. Tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. While he acknowledged that quitting smoking can be difficult, the Dean declared that the goal is "to promote health and to promote wellness for everyone."
That goal was echoed by Dr. Roldan, who said that going smoke free was a "great vision to make this a true wellness campus." The Jackson chief pointed out the various booths set up with information about cessation programs, the dangers of smoking, nutrition, stress reduction and exercise. Pamphlets, flyers and banners contained facts about the physical benefits of quitting smoking. Twenty minutes after cessation, a person’s blood pressure drops to normal. Eight hours later the oxygen level in the blood increases, and 48 hours later nerve endings start to regrow and the sense of smell and taste are enhanced.
The smoking ban will apply to all property owned or leased by the Miller School and Jackson Health System on the medical campus. In addition to the smoke free buildings, smoking will also be prohibited in any outdoor areas on campus, including parking garages or in vehicles parked on campus. The Jackson North and South facilities will also fall under the smoke free banner. The campus effort, which is sponsored by the University of Miami Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program, is focused on education and encouragement. The goal, explained Dean Goldschmidt, is to make people understand the health benefits of quitting and steer them toward the wide variety of programs available to help them achieve that goal. University of Miami/Jackson residents Damien Hansra, M.D., and Deepika Aneja, M.D., organized the Smokeout event themed "Healthy Living."
A Ph.D. student in the pharmacology program, Yousuf Ali took the opportunity to speak with a smoking cessation counselor at the Smokeout. He’s had a tough time giving up those last few cigarettes he smokes each day. He said it was a matter of self-control but embraced the idea and said he was hopeful that the ban will be strictly enforced. The initiative will employ ambassadors to inform people about the policy and about the variety of cessation programs.
A dedicated Web page with information on cessation programs, health benefits and other resources has already been launched under a "Be Smoke Free" button. Richard Thurer, M.D., professor of surgery and chairman of the Smoke Free Campus Initiative, has been working on this project for several months and said going smoke free is "another program that demonstrates to all of South Florida that UHealth and the Jackson Health System are the leaders in health care."
