From the Labs
Houston, Texas
Volume 11, Issue 1
February 2012

Briefs

Global grants awarded to improve health outcomes

The Center for Globalization at Baylor College of Medicine has announced awardees of its first Globalization Demonstration Project grant program.

Members of the BCM junior faculty (instructors or assistant professors) were asked to submit project proposals, and five were chosen from more than 40 submissions. Each awardee received a one-year, $50,000 award.

"The grants were created to support faculty who have concepts for global projects and need initial funding," said Dr. Bobby Kapur, director of the Center for Globalization, assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at BCM and associate chief of emergency medicine at Ben Taub General Hospital. "We also encouraged project leaders to collaborate with researchers in other BCM departments in hopes of furthering multi-disciplinary research and the BCM mission."

A committee chose the awardees based on which projects would have the most innovative global reach and could be sustained through outside funding after the one-year grant was completed.

The awardees include:

Dr. Maame Aba Coleman, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology – One Woman Screened, One Life Saved: Towards Cervical Cancer Prevention in Malawi.

Dr. John Kelly, instructor of medicine – Using cell phone-based case management tools to enhance the impact of integrating community-based HIV care into primary care in Koidu Town, Sierra Leone.

Dr. Hoonmo Koo, assistant professor of medicine - infectious disease – Host genetic and immune determinants of norovirus infection in children in developing Latin American countries.

Dr. Alina Saldarriaga, assistant professor of pediatrics - neonatology – Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) in Botswana, Malawi, and Swaziland - Basic Neonatal Resuscitation with Obstetrics, Neonatology, Retrovirology and Global Health, and BIPAI.

Dr. Hardeep Singh, assistant professor of medicine – Using Electronic Health Records Safely and Effectively to Facilitate Health Care Reform in India.

Angelaki receives National Academy of Sciences award

Dr. Dora Angelaki, professor and chair of the department of neuroscience at BCM, has been awarded the inaugural Pradel Research Award in Neuroscience by the National Academy of Sciences.

The $50,000 award is being given to Angelaki in recognition of her discoveries on mechanisms of representation of vestibular sensory stimuli within the mammalian brain. Her work has clarified how vestibular and visual signals combine to mediate perception and to direct appropriate motor behaviors, which have important implications in the design of more effective therapies to treat disorders of balance and movement.

Angelaki is one of 17 other researchers, each receiving separate awards honoring their scientific achievements, who will be honored April 30 during the National Academy of Sciences' 149th annual meeting.

Scholars program named for BCM physician

The American Society of Nephrology has launched a new scholars program this year named after Dr. William E. Mitch, director, division of nephrology and professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

The ASN-William E. Mitch, III, M.D., FASN, International Scholars Program is directed at developing educational programs for the next generation of nephrologists. The plan is to bring together nephrology fellows from Central and South America, plus fellows in the United States and Canada who are members of underrepresented minority groups.

Cervical cancer screening program for under-, uninsured focus of grant

Baylor College of Medicine has received a $1.6 million award from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to develop a comprehensive cervical cancer screening program for high-risk, uninsured and underinsured women in Harris County.

Dr. Matthew Anderson, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of pathology & immunology at BCM and a member of the NCI-designated Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at BCM, will serve as principal investigator of the award.

Anderson will partner with the Harris County Hospital District to pilot a medical home model for providing cervical cancer screenings and investigate why some women do not participate.

A second key goal for this project will be to figure out how best to get women with abnormal pap test results in for follow up and make sure that any precancerous changes do not become a more serious problem.

Foundation gives consortium $998,132 grant for childhood cancer research

The Childhood and Adolescent Lymphoma Cell Therapy Consortium, of which Baylor College of Medicine is a primary site, received a $998,132 grant from the St. Baldrick's Foundation.

The consortium brings together eight multidisciplinary academic centers from around the United States to facilitate targeted, cell-based translational research in poor-risk and rare lymphomas. Lymphoma is the most common cancer in adolescents and young adults between 15 and 30 years old and the third most common cancer in children under the age of 15.

"One of the major problems that we face as pediatric lymphoma doctors is the unacceptable late effects (second cancers, heart disease) from chemotherapy and radiotherapy," said Dr. Catherine Bollard, associate professor of pediatrics – hematology/oncology at BCM. "Therefore, it is important to develop novel therapies that target only the cancer cells and not bystander organs. T-cell therapies offer such a promise, and this generous award from St. Baldrick's will help move T-cell therapies into the multicenter setting and beyond phase I studies for the treatment of pediatric lymphoma."

The Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine will lead the research on behalf of all participating institutions, along with New York Medical College and Maria Fareri Children's Hospital. Bollard, who is also director of the Pediatric Lymphoma Program at the Texas Children's Cancer Center and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, will direct the research and trial efforts for BCM.