Faculty Commons, June 15 - 21, 2017
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Happy Father's Day: Dr. Ted Rosen, professor of dermatology, and his daughter Allison Rosen, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center project coordinator, Dr. Albert Hergenroeder, professor of pediatrics, and his daughter Dr. Georgene Hergenroeder, pediatrics resident, Dr. James Versalovic, professor of pathology & immunology, and his daughter Erika Versalovic, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy research assistant, Dr. Daniel Musher, distinguished service professor of medicine, and his son Dr. Ben Musher, associate professor of medicine, and Dr. Richard Sifers, professor of pathology & immunology, and his son Nathan Sifers, HR specialist, are among the Baylor families featured in our special Father’s Day video.

Faculty Senate At Large Elections: Today, June 15, is the final day for all faculty members to vote for at-large representatives to the Faculty Senate. Twenty-six candidates are running for a dozen open seats. Information about them and a link to the ballot are online (BCM login is required to vote).

Academic Council:

• General Counsel Bob Corrigan discussed guidelines for faculty, staff and trainees who are participating in advocacy activities. The guidelines will be distributed throughout the College this month to ensure that Baylor remains in compliance with federal requirements for tax-exempt organizations.
• Faculty Senate Chair-Elect Oluyinka Olutoye reported that 11 new Senators and 11 returning Senators were elected to represent their departments, centers, schools or affiliates in May. Elections for 12 at-large Senate seats are open for faculty voting through June 15.
• Assistant Vice President of Marketing Terry Krailo announced that Staples will be the preferred vendor for BCM-branded merchandise for the College in FY18. The company will rebate 25 percent of net sales to Baylor, which will help fund marketing efforts. The College and CHI St. Luke's Health will coordinate on marketing and share an advertising agency team in the new fiscal year.
• Chief Compliance and Audit Officer Randy Langenderfer reminded the Council that under HIPAA privacy rules, patients have the right to opt out of receiving fundraising solicitations. The Office of Philanthropy and Alumni Relations maintains the College's opt-out list and must review fundraising solicitations and mailing lists prior to sending.

Anti-Malware Protection: The College is implementing Malwarebytes for Business this month to provide advanced protection against ransomware, malware, spyware, adware and malicious websites. Malwarebytes works with the current antivirus system, Symantec Endpoint Protection, to protect Baylor's information systems, data and personnel. IT's enterprise desktop management system will install it seamlessly on PCs that are on the Baylor wired network; contact the IT Help Desk for PCs not managed centrally. Information regarding the installation process for Malwarebytes for the Mac will be available later in the summer.

Faculty Kudos

Dr. Michael Fordis, senior associate dean for continuing medical education and director of the Center for Collaborative and Interactive Technologies, was recognized by the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education for his outstanding contributions to the field of continuing professional development and for induction into the Academy of Fellows of the Society for Academic CME.

Dr. Aimee Gardner, assistant dean of evaluation and research in the School of Allied Health Sciences, was one of more than 20 professionals from Baylor and Houston-area companies to participate in a hands-on Career Day hosted by the Center for Educational Outreach for the graduating 8th grade class at Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan. Photo courtesy of Travis Kelleher.

Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center, and colleagues including Dr. Fan Xia, associate professor of genetics, Dr. James Lupski, professor of genetics, and Dr. Amy McGuire, director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, recently described their research in a symposium for 15 families affected by the Xia-Gibbs Syndrome, a rare genetic condition first identified in Gibbs' grand-niece. Read about his experience in this month's BCM Family.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, was the keynote speaker at the annual Children's Hospital Foundation Harris D. Riley Jr., M.D. Visiting Professorship Lecture last week in Oklahoma City. He discussed vaccine development to combat the world's neglected diseases and the threat to global public health from a growing and well organized American anti-vaccine movement. The lecture honors the legacy of Dr. Riley, first full-time chair of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.

Dr. Alan Swann, professor of psychiatry and behavioral science and a staff psychiatrist at the DeBakey VA Medical Center, has been awarded nearly $1 million by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for his study on the "Behavioral Mechanisms, Prediction, and Treatment of Short Term Suicide Risk." The grant is one of 27 studies this year to be funded primarily by donors who attend the foundation's Out of the Darkness walks.

Dr. Xander Wehrens, professor and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, received the 2017 Outstanding Investigator Award from the International Society for Heart Research and delivered a keynote lecture titled "Calcium Release Unit Defects: Source of Many Cardiac Evils?" at the society's annual meeting.

College Events

The Global Health Hackathon, sponsored by the Baylor Global Innovation Center and TMC Innovation, began June 12 in the TMCx accelerator. Hacker teams will develop innovations in women's health in procedural care, global health security/refugee health, orthopedics and rehabilitation or space exploration, and pitch their concepts to a panel of judges June 19 and 28.

The Bottom Line: The Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center and CPRIT present a colorectal cancer monologue written and directed by Jean Donatto and performed by Ray Walker at noon Tuesday, June 20, in Cullen Auditorium, main Baylor. A physician will lead a Q&A session and a Harris Health representative will be on hand to assist with eligibility. Light refreshments, "goodie bags" and BeWell Vitality points will be available for attendees.

Reception for Dr. Wah Chiu: You are invited to the farewell reception for Chiu, distinguished service professor and Alvin Romansky Chair in Biochemistry, at 3:30 p.m. Friday, June 23, in Alkek Lobby, next to the DeBakey Library and Museum at main Baylor. It was announced at Academic Council that he is going to Stanford University after 30 years of service at the College.

Faculty Town Hall: Join the executive leadership team and your colleagues for a College update and Q&A session at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, in Cullen Auditorium, main Baylor.

Faculty Opportunities

RIITE Role Model: The deadline for nominations is June 30. As a reminder, winning nominations receive 25,000 points that can be redeemed on the RIITE Rewards site. Visit the site to review past winners and nominations and submit your nominations today. Please email youfirst@bcm.edu for any questions you might have related to the RIITE Rewards Program.

Leading through Influence: The You FIRST program offers a management training class for faculty from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. July 11 on the McGovern (Nabisco) Campus. Topics include hiring, conflict resolution and employee morale. An additional class will be held Oct. 11. Register online.

Faculty Resources

Ombuds Office: It is not uncommon to feel anxious or uncertain about how to have conversations with people whose opinions differ from yours. In these circumstances, remember that the Ombuds Office provides a confidential, off-the-record forum for trainees, students, faculty and staff for discussion and problem solving, including strategies for effective communication. Feel free to stop by Ombuds Laurel Hyle's office in N205 or make an appointment by calling (713) 798-5039 or emailing ombudsoffice@bcm.edu.

Volunteer Time Off: Did you know that Baylor employees are eligible to take one regularly scheduled workday per fiscal year (July 1 - June 30) for participating in community service activities? Find out more about volunteer opportunities online.

Attention Clinicians: See Clinical Calendar

Clinical Event

Space Surgery: The Department of Surgery Incubator-Think Tank focuses on "Outer Space Surgery" with guest speaker Jimmy Wu, chief engineer at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, leading the conversation from 5 to 7 p.m. June 29 in Room N315, main Baylor. Register online. Candidates interested in submitting proposals to the newly established NASA Translation Research Institute should plan to attend.

Attention Researchers: See Research Calendar

Research Event

Reproductive Medicine Meeting: Dr. Dolores Lamb, professor and Lester and Sue Smith Chair in Urologic Research and director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine, and leaders of the translational research group will recap the Center's spring 2017 activities, including notable research strides and emerging research in the lab and in the field, at the CRM quarterly membership meeting at 4 p.m. today, June 15, in Room N317, main Baylor. A networking reception follows at 5 p.m. RSVP to Jyoti Patel.

Research Resources

Drug Discovery Core: This Advanced Technology Core Lab is committed to helping investigators identify the compounds that will further their research and that may lead to new therapeutics. A main focus is discovering what compounds bind to a target and testing them in functional assays. The lab possesses a state-of-the-art facility equipped with medicinal and DNA-encoded chemistry technology to perform screening for a wide range of cell-based phenotypic and target-based biochemical assays in high-throughput or follow-up tests. Secondary validation assays and additional assays using newly synthesized analogs also can be performed in the core, which offers training so that investigators may use the highly sophisticated instrumentation independently, if they choose. For more information about any of the cores, see the ATC website or catalog.

From the Labs: Read about Dr. Dolores Lamb's research into the 22q11.2 region of human chromosome 22, a hot spot for a variety of birth defects including the genitourinary system conditions that have been a focus of her work for many years. You can receive weekly articles on research at Baylor as they are posted in our newsletter by going to https://fromthelabs.bcm.edu/ and entering your email address in the box on the right. Or get a digest at the end of the month with links to the articles posted that month by emailing science writer Ana Rodríguez with "Subscribe me to From the Labs" in the subject line.

Funding Opportunities: See the Office of Research's list of privately funded awards currently accepting applications for June.

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