Faculty Academic Activities
March - April 2004

Steven Abrams, M.D. presented the workshop “Getting Started: Tools and issues for the NICU Dietitian” at the Annual Neonatal Nutrition Conference held in Houston TX on March 9. On March 23, Dr. Abrams presented “Nutrición Neonatal” at Neonatal Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) conference entitled “Attention integrada a las enfermedades prevalentes de la infancia componente neonatal” sponsored by Pan American Health Organization and Texas Children’s Hospital held in Houston, TX.

Cheryl Anderson, Ph.D. gave an invited talk, "Turning professional: Making the most of your postdoctoral experience" at University of Houston Department of Psychology, Houston, TX, March 9. On April 12, Dr. Anderson gave an Invited talk at University of South Carolina, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Columbia, SC entitled "The role of athletic identity in physical activity behavior." Dr. Anderson was also interviewed by Family Circle magazine on the topic of athletic identity and children's physical activity on March 15.

Janice Baranowski, MPH, RD presented "Family Grocery Shopping, Food Availability and Food Choices: How to Get Kids to Eat Fruit and Vegetables" at two sessions of the 2004 Annual Texas WIC Nutrition and Breastfeeding Conference held in Austin, TX on April 21.

Tom Baranowsk, Ph.D. served on an obesity grant application review study section for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Ottawa, Canada, March 4. On March 24, Dr. Baranowski chaired a symposium on Measurement of Psychosocial Variables for the 21st Century at the annual meeting of The Society of Behavioral Medicine, Baltimore, MD. On April 16, Dr Baranowski testified on Chronic Disease Prevention before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations convened by Senator Tom Harkin in Des Moines, IA. He also presented “Interactive Multimedia for Children's Diet and Physical Activity Change to the Kids” at the Nutrition 2004 Conference in Chicago, IL on April 28 and the Childhood Obesity Conference at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH

Dennis M. Bier, M.D. gave a talk entitled "Effects of Dietary Fat and Carbohydrate Content on Energy Balance, Glucose Metabolism, Insulin Secretion and Sensitivity in Children and Adolescents," at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre Meeting held in Dunedin, New Zealand, March 17. On April 5, Dr. Bier chaired a session entitled, "Physiology of Metabolism" at the Symposium on Arginine held in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Joan Carter, M.B.A., R.D. gave the invited talk, “Nutritional Issues of Children in Poverty,” the Casey Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD on March 15. On April 8, Ms. Carter was interviewed for the newsletter “Cardiology” (American College of Cardiology) on the topic “AHA Guidelines and Children’s Diets” and on April 15, she was interviewed on “Stealth Nutrition: Surprising Ways to Get Kids to Eat Their Veggies” by TV-13 Houston (ABC affiliate). Ms. Carter was also interviewed on the topic “Omega 3 vs. Omega 6 fatty acids” by Shape magazine on March 25, on “The CNRC’s BMI calculator for children” by News 24 Houston (TV) on March 29 and on “Weight Loss Myths” by O magazine on March 26.

Orla Conneely, Ph.D. gave an invited talk entitled: “Essential and Redundant Roles of Nor-1 and Nur77 in Regulation of Myelopoiesis” at the Neuroendocrine Regulators Session of the Keystone Symposia Joint Meeting Nuclear Receptors: Orphan Brothers/Nuclear Receptors: Steroid Sisters, Keystone, CO, February 28 -March 4. Dr. Conneely gave an invited talk at the Santa Barbara Think Tank, which was sponsored by the Susan Love, MD Breast Cancer Research Foundation on March 11-13. She also gave an invited talk at the EPRM Congress 2004 - Sex Steroids: An Update on Estrogen and Progesterone Actions, in Montpellier, France, April 1-2 and spoke at the Ernst Schering Research Foundation Workshop on “Mechanisms for Tissue Selective, Estrogen Free Contraception,” Berlin, Germany, March 31-April 2.

Austin Cooney, Ph.D. served on the NIH Study Section, Postdoctoral Fellowship Special Emphasis Panel on March 10-11. Dr. Cooney gave an invited talk entitled “Regulation of Pluripotence by the Orphan Receptors LRH1 and GCNF” at Imperial College London on March 29, at the Imperial College Hammarsmith Hospital on April 1 at the Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, KS on April 26. Dr. Cooney also served on the American Heart Association (AHA) Western Review Consortium Peer Review panel held in Las Vegas, NV, April 20-21.

Karen Cullen, Ph.D. presented “Evaluation of Quality Control Procedures for 24-Hour Dietary Recalls” at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine held in Baltimore, MD on March 25. Dr. Cullen was interviewed on “The impact of school snack bars on children’s consumption” by Health Day News on March 2, by the San Antonio Express on April 13, and by Nutrition Week on March 11. She was also interviewed on the new Texas school meal regulations by Channel 24 News on March 8. During this period, Dr. Cullen also reviewed manuscripts for Ethnicity and Disease, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and Public Health Nutrition, and grants for the USDA NRI program and the World Cancer Foundation.

Teresa A. Davis, Ph.D. presented an invited lecture on “Developmental Regulation of Hormone and Nutrient Signaling Impacts Muscle Protein Synthesis” at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC on March 30.

Jeffery Escobar, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Teresa A. Davis, Ph.D., won the Postdoctoral Fellow Award from the Energy and Macronutrient Metabolism Research Interest Section of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences at Experimental Biology meeting on April 17. Dr. Escobar also received a Poster of Distinction Award at Fellow’s Day from the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine on April 23. The laboratory of Teresa A. Davis, Ph.D. presented 3 oral presentations and 2 posters at Experimental Biology meeting held in Washington D.C. on April 17-20. The oral presentations were by Renan Orellana, M.D., Jason Frank, Ph.D., and Jeffery Escobar, Ph.D. Dr. Orellana presented “Insulin stimulates muscle protein synthesis in neonates during endotoxemia despite suppression of insulin-stimulated mTOR-dependent translation initiation.” Dr. Frank presented “Effects of dietary protein on protein synthesis in neonatal pigs.” Dr. Escobar presented “A physiological rise in plasma leucine stimulates muscle protein synthesis in neonatal pigs by increasing 48S ribosomal complex formation.” The posters presentations were by Agus Suryawan, Ph.D. They were “Protein kinase B activation decreases with development in skeletal muscle of neonatal pigs” and “Tissue specificity of the protein synthetic response to insulin and amino acids in neonatal pigs.”

Debby Demory-Luce, Ph.D. was interviewed on the topic "A bedtime snack may help children sleep better" for Bottom Line/Personal, Boulder CO on March 25; and on "Energy bars and kids’ sports" for MedStar Television, Inc. in Allendale, PA on March 26.

Kenneth Ellis, Ph.D. chaired the Body Composition sessions at the Experimental Biology meeting held April 17-21 in Washington, DC, where he also presented a poster co-authored with Roman Shypailo entitled "Long-term precision of whole-body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurements."

Michael A. Grusak, Ph.D. presented the invited seminar "Shoot-Root Communication: How Are Whole-Plant Processes Integrated?" at the 12th International Symposium on Iron Nutrition and Interactions in Plants in Tokyo, Japan on April 13, 2004. Dr. Grusak also presented two presentations, titled "What is OSQR and Why Is It Important?" and "Outside Funding: Sources and Issues" at the USDA/ARS Southern Plains Area New Scientist Workshop in College Station, TX on April 27, 2004.

Peter Haney, M.D., Ph.D. presented a lecture entitled "Hypoglycemia and Hyperglycemia" at the Annual Neonatal Nutrition Conference held in Houston, TX on March 8.

Morey Haymond, M.D. presented two invited lectures at the University of Washington, St. Louis, MO: "From Whence Comes the Milk of Life - Maternal Metabolic Adaptations to Lactation" at the Metabolism Research Seminar on March 11 and the Julio Santiago Memorial Lecture "Glucose Homeostasis in Infants and Children - New Insight into an Old Problem" on March 12. Dr. Haymond also presented “Protein Metabolism in Lacation” at the Amino-Acid/Protein Metabolism in Health and Disease (AA/PM) International Congress held in Milano, Italy, March 25-27. On April 20, Dr. Haymond presented “Metabolic Adaptation To and Control of Lactation in Humans" at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA and on April 21 he presented "Regulation of Glucose Metabolism in Children" at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. He also made a GCRC Site Visit as a reviewer to the Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C., April 26-28.

William Heird, M.D. was elected a Fellow of The American Society for Nutritional Sciences.

Carlos Lifshitz, M.D. spoke on "Feeding disorders in infants" at a combined meeting sponsored by the American and Mexican Academy of Pediatrics, Mexico City, March 19.

David Moore, Ph.D. participated in The US-Japan Workshop on “The Role of Nuclear Receptors in Carcinogenesis” held in Hawaii on Mach. 22-23.

Theresa Nicklas, Ph.D. gave two invited presentations during this period: "The Impact of Fat on Health" at the Canola Conference in Puerto Villerta, Mexico and "Getting a Handle on Childhood Obesity" at the Denver Dietetic Association in Denver, CO.

Buford Nichols, M.D. presented the poster “Developmental Regulation of Membrane And Soluble Mouse Maltase-Glucoamylases At Weaning” at the American Society for Nutritional Sciences (ASNS) meeting held in Washington DC, April 18.

Monique Rijnkels Ph.D. made a poster presentation entitled: "Understanding the regulation of a conserved mammalian-specific genomic domain encoding secreted proteins" at the Cold Spring Harbor Systems Biology Meeting: "Genomic approaches to Transcription regulation," held March 4-7 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.

Jeffrey Rosen, Ph.D. gave an invited talk entitled “Stem Cells and Cancer” at the National Cancer Institute-sponsored US/Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program Symposium on "Molecular Cancer Therapeutics,” Bethesda, MD, March 1-2. Dr. Rosen co-chaired the “New Concepts in Breast Cancer Research” session at the American Association of Cancer Researchers (AACR) meeting, Orlando, FL on March 27-31. On April 7, Dr. Rosen gave an invited seminar talk in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.

Robert Schwartz, Ph.D. served on the Heart, Lung, and Blood Special Review Committee, Program for Genomic Applications (PGA), March 4-5. Dr. Schwartz gave an invited talk entitled “Serum Response Factor, a Master Cardiogenic Regulatory Platform and a Novel Phosphorylatable Gene Switch Target” at the 2004 Keystone Symposium on “Cardiac Development and Congenital Heart Disease,” Keystone Resort, Keystone, CO, March 9-12. On March 17, Dr. Schwartz gave an invited seminar talk entitled “Regulatory Hierarchies in Cardiac Development” at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT). He also attended and participated in the Joint UK/Texas Symposium on “Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine,” Imperial College London, United Kingdom, March 27-31. Dr. Schwartz served on the American Heart Association (AHA) Western Review Consortium Peer Review panel, Las Vegas, NV, April 20-21. He also gave an invited talk entitled “The Role of SRF in Mesoderm Lineage Specification: Phosphorylation of the MADS Box” at the German Genetics Society (GfG) Spring Academy Meeting on “SRF and Friends: Partnership in Gene Control,” held in Tübingen, Germany, April 24-28.

Janice Stuff, Ph.D. resubmitted a manuscript to the Journal of Nutrition entitled “Household food insecurity is associated with adult health status.” As a secondary author, Dr. Stuff helped prepare a manuscript “Child Health Related Quality of Life and Household Food Security” to the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine a manuscript entitled “Influences on fruit and vegetable consumption in African American Youth” submitted to the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. On April 8, Dr. Stuff participated in the Board of Directors Meeting of End Hunger Network, Houston, TX. Dr. Stuff also consulted with the Executive Director and grant writers of End Hunger as they prepared a grant submitted to USDA/CSREES for a community food security grant. During this period, Dr. Stuff also initialized collaboration with Dr. Mfon Cyrus-David, Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine on a study entitled “Epidemiologic determinants of aggressive prostate cancer in a multiethnic/ multiracial population of men with prostate cancer: a pilot study.” She also worked at the HNRC/ARS booth at the Experimental Biology 2004 Meeting.

Debbe Thompson, Ph.D. was one of two Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, eHealth Technologies grantees to speak at a meeting jointly sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health entitled "eHealth Evaluation Research Opportunities: A Dialogue.”

Ignatia Barbar Van Den Veyver, M.D. attended the ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting held in Kissimmee, FL, March 4-7. Dr. Van Den Veyver made a poster presentation entitled “Investigation of epigenetic changes caused by environmental influences and generation of a methylation-sensitive microarray” at the Joint NIEHS/ACC Developmental Toxicology RFA and Fetal Basis of Adult Disease PAR Grantee Meeting, held in North Carolina on March 8-9. Dr. Van Den Veyver also made two oral presentations at the Society for Gynecologic Investigation held in Houston Texas on March 26: “A CpG island at the PDE8B gene is methylated in placenta and hydatidiform moles, but not in control DNA” and “Analysis of candidate genes for familial recurrent hydatidiform molar pregnancy” .

Pauline Ward, Ph.D. gave an invited talk entitled: “Physiological Role of Lactoferrin in Immunomodulation and Host Defense” at the Mead Johnson Site Visit, The Children’s Nutritional Research Center, Houston, Texas, March 8.

William Wong, Ph.D. was invited to participate at a NIH Center For Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1 BPC-H (40)), A Resource for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry, held at Washington University, St. Louis, MO, March 11 - 13. On April 15, the USDA Agriculture Research Service issued a news release entitled Soy Supplements Lead to Bone Health describing the $4.5 million, multi-institutional project, Osteoporosis Prevention Using Soy (OPUS). Dr. Wong is the project director of the project and the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine is the coordinating center. On April 20, Dr. Wong organized and chaired a mini-symposium entitled “Soy and Potential Health Benefits” at the Experiment Biology 2004 annual meeting held in Washington, DC.