Mary Stenzel-Poore, PhD, appointed Chair of MMI
Dean Richardson has named Mary Stenzel-Poore, PhD, as Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Stenzel-Poore has served as interim Chair of the department since 
June 2007. Dr. Stenzel-Poore is also the Associate Dean for Basic Science in the School of Medicine.
"In the past two years in the role of interim Chair, Mary has
demonstrated exceptional leadership talents and strategic thinking," said Dean Mark Richardson.
"She brings a depth of knowledge to her roles at OHSU that is enhanced
not only by her national renown as a scientist, but also by her many
years at this institution."
Dr. Stenzel-Poore's scientific career began at OHSU more than 20 years ago as a graduate student.
After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute in San Diego, she
returned to OHSU as an Assistant Professor. She trained both in
immunology and neuroscience, and has been consistently funded by NIH
for her work on neuroimmunology, specifically, the role of inflammation
in injury and protection of the central nervous system. Dr.
Stenzel-Poore is on the scientific advisory board for the Oregon
Translational Research and Drug Discovery Institute, a member of
the Medical Research Foundation Council, permanent chair of the
NIH Special Neuroscience Research Program for Under-represented
Minorities and serves on several scientific peer-review
panels.
The Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology has
consistently ranked among the top ten in the nation for NIH
awards. With ten primary faculty members, the department
also works in collaboration with Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute
researchers. The faculty annually train approximately 50 graduate
students and postdoctoral fellows, and have been awarded two
Institutional Training grants from the NIH that focus on host-pathogen
interactions and immune function.
"This department is an extraordinary group of scientists who
are unusually talented and creative, and very focused scientifically," said Dr. Stenzel-Poore.
MMI faculty members are committed to excellence in research and
training of the best PhD and MD/PhD students. Scientifically, we are
tackling some of the most relevant public health challenges faced
by our society today through our studies that
explore the basis of infectious diseases and the intricacies of
the immune response. I am proud and humbled to serve as Chair."
Building on existing research strength: ARRA awards support new neuroscience faculty
Over the past six months, OHSU scientists have worked hard to
complete 137 applications for supplemental funding available through
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This dedication
resulted in $68 million in additional funds for OHSU for a two-year
period. The funds support existing research projects, new
investigations, technology purchases and space renovations.
As part of this, OHSU also received four ARRA awards
totaling $2.2 million to recruit postdoctoral fellows into junior
faculty positions. These new faculty recruitment awards all
fall within the neuroscience and are a national recognition of the
strength of neuroscience faculty and programs at OHSU. Among the
largest of any investigative group focused on neuroscience research in
the nation, nearly 220 OHSU principal investigators with more than $80
million in NIH funding (2009) are engaged in neuroscience research at
OHSU.
"We have built a world class program in neuroscience at OHSU, but
now also need to focus on recruiting young scientists to it, this is
very important. Some of us who have worked hard to build this
neuroscience strength at OHSU are now nearing retirement," said Bob Hitzemann, PhD,
Professor and Chair, Department of Behavioral Neuroscience. "These
awards help us in the goal of investing in young talent at OHSU."
"Attracting young investigators with cutting edge knowledge and
innovative thinking is essential for maintaining the quality of our
programs," said Richard Goodman, MD, PhD,
Vollum Institute director. "Our neuroscience programs are among the
best in the nation, and these types of recruits will help maintain that
intellectual vigor."
The new faculty recruitment awards went to the departments of Behavioral Neuroscience, Neurology, and Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery in the OHSU School of Medicine and to the Vollum Institute.
Each has strong collaborative interdisciplinary relationships with,
among others, the Oregon National Primate Research Center, the
Department of Molecular & Medical Genetics, the Department of
Science & Engineering and the Department of Medical Informatics
& Clinical Epidemiology.
One of the awards will support the recruitment of Haining Zhong, PhD, and Tianyi Mao, PhD, a
husband and wife scientific team from the prestigious Howard Hughes
Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research Campus in Virginia.
Dr. Zhong has expertise in advanced imaging techniques that allow
visualization of chemical signaling pathways in the brain. This will be
valuable for current OHSU researchers by providing new and advanced
methods to image neurons. Dr. Mao uses other imaging tools, along with
molecular and physiology approaches, to map brain circuitry involved in
movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, and reward-related
behaviors.
"We were set to bring this scientific couple to OHSU and then the
bottom fell out of our recruitment package due to the global economic
crisis – we simply no longer had the funding," said Dr. Goodman. "There is widespread excitement among our current faculty that with the ARRA funding it can now go forward."
Specifically, the funding will be used to offset the purchase of
sophisticated microscopes. "We also expect to add as many as 10 new
staff members to support Drs. Zhong and Mao's programs and, indirectly,
there are all types of jobs created or supported by the equipment being
manufactured for their labs."
Another new recruit will help bridge the gap between neuro-otologic
basic science research, bioengineering and the clinical applications of
cochlear implants. Unlike a hearing aid which amplifies sound,
cochlear implants are small electronic devices implanted in the ear to directly stimulate auditory nerves.
"These devices are increasingly important, in particular to
returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, who have experienced
injury-related hearing loss," said Paul Flint, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery.
The expertise of Lina Reiss, PhD, a post-doctoral
fellow recruited from the University of Iowa, will enhance existing and
catalyze new interdisciplinary collaboration because of her dual
training in both the clinical and engineering aspects of cochlear
implant technology, along with a neurological expertise on processing
within auditory brainstem circuits.
"When we think about recruits, we think about the science we already do and how new knowledge can build on that potential – Dr.
Reiss fits right in the middle of the neurological aspects of the
cochlear implant puzzle, bridging our existing areas of expertise,"
said Dr. Flint. "And as a hearing-impaired individual, she brings a
unique personal perspective to the scientific and clinical
issues."
At least four new staff members will be hired to support Dr. Reiss's
research and additional jobs will be indirectly associated with the
build out of lab space. Two other ARRA-funded junior faculty
recruitments are now underway. One will have interdisciplinary
expertise in both neuroscience and genetics, and the other will bring
expertise in neuroscience, genetics and informatics.
Pictured above: Dr. Tianyi Mao (left) and Dr. Reiss (right).
The envelope please! Report from Match Day at OHSU
On March 18, the OHSU MD Class of 2010 learned where they would be
heading for the next chapter of their educational journey. Decisions
spit out of a computer in Washington, DC, were made known – at exactly
the same moment across the country – to every graduating fourth-year
medical student seeking an internship.
"Match Day this year carried a special import coming as it occurred
in the same week as the national health care debate reached its
climactic moments," said Dean Mark Richardson. "Our graduating students will witness the beginning of a change in the health care system in which they will be practicing."
"It's been a very emotional, exciting, scary experience for us," said Sharl S. Azar, president of the 2010 class.
"The process messes with your head. The programs will send you 'love'
letters and you'll send them love letters. I've heard my classmates
comparing it to dating." A Portland native and Lewis & Clark
College graduate, he matched in internal medicine at OHSU, his top
choice, after interviewing at nine other medical centers.
Forty-eight percent – a total of 60 grads – matched to residencies
in internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics. Family medicine
residencies, in particular, were a destination for 20 percent, or 25 of
the students – a 56 percent increase over last year when only 16 chose
that specialty. Other destinations include 15 who will do residencies
in emergency medicine, nine in OB/GYN, seven in radiology, five in
surgery and three in anesthesiology.
Thirty percent of the graduating class – or 34 of OHSU's medical
school seniors – will stay in Oregon, including 28 graduates who will
train at OHSU. All told, 74 percent of the OHSU seniors, or 93,
will remain in the West, including Oregon.
Check out five MD student profiles and their perspectives on Match Day here.
For more photos of Match Day at OHSU, visit the School of Medicine facebook page.
Match Day flip side: A flood of applicants vied for OHSU's 153 open residency slots
The competition for the 153 open slots in OHSU Graduate Medical
Education (GME) programs was the stiffest in our history. OHSU's
primary care residencies – those in internal medicine, family medicine
and pediatrics – drew the most applicants overall. More than 3,900
applications for 63 primary care residency slots came in from
graduating medical students across the country.
"These results once again demonstrate that OHSU programs are among
the very best in the country and attract the most competitive students
from around the nation," said Donald E. Girard, MD, OHSU associate dean for graduate medical education and continuing medical education.
OHSU's graduate medical education ranks 10 in the nation for
in-state retention of residents and more than half of the new
physicians completing their residencies at OHSU remain in Oregon to
practice. One-third of all Oregon licensed physicians, in fact, completed all or part of their education at OHSU.
All the residency programs that attracted large numbers of
applicants, including for example, the general surgery program which
drew 917 applications for 18 slots, emergency medicine 854 for 10
slots, psychiatry 840 for eight slots, anesthesiology 805 for 12 slots.
Read the full media release here.
Paper of the Month: Stem cell therapy for retinal degeneration
This month's featured paper, published in PLoS One is: "Non-Invasive Stem Cell Therapy in a Rat Model for Retinal Degeneration and Vascular Pathology,"
by a group of ten investigators from the OHSU Casey Eye Institute and
the Oregon Stem Cell Center. The authors are: Shaomei Wang, Bin Lu,
Sergei Girman, Jie Duan, Trevor McFarland, Qing-shuo Zhang, Markus
Grompe, Grazyna Adamus, Binoy Appukuttan and Raymond Lund. This research highlights the collaborative work of two important research groups at OHSU.
Retinal degeneration is largely untreatable and affects millions of
people in the U.S. This research focuses on using adult stem cells to
develop a novel treatment for retinal degeneration. Led by Dr. Wang,
the study explores the potential of systemic administration of
pluripotent bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to treat
retinal degeneration and associated vascular pathology in the Royal
College of Surgeons (RCS) rat, a well-established animal model for
retinitis pigmentosa. The animals received syngeneic MSCs by tail vein
at an age before major photoreceptor loss.
The results showed that both rod and cone photoreceptors were
preserved (5 - 6 cell layers) at the time when only a single layer of
photoreceptors remained in the control animals, and visual function was
significantly preserved compared with the controls. The number of
pathological vascular complexes (abnormal vessels associated with
migrating pigment epithelium cells) and areas of vascular leakage that
would ordinarily develop were dramatically reduced. RT-PCR analysis and
immunohistochemistry revealed that there was upregulation of growth
factors and neurotrophic factors in the eyes of animals that received
MSCs.
Pluripotent MSCs have been widely used in both autologous and
allogeneic settings for clinical trials for degenerative and
regenerative medicine because they are relatively easy to isolate, they
secrete large quantities of bioactive factors that are both
immunomodulatory and trophic, and they raise fewer ethical concerns
than other stem cell choices. The fact that MSCs can be administered
systemically is a huge advantage, as repeat injections could be
performed without damaging the eye, making long-term treatment
possible.
Dr. Wang has recently submitted an RO1 application for NIH support
to continue this line of research. If positive results are obtained in
animal models, this treatment has a realistic likelihood of translation to clinical applications.
The School of Medicine News spotlights a recently published
faculty research paper in each issue. The goals are to highlight the
great research happening at OHSU and to share this information across
departments, institutes and disciplines. The paper is selected by
Associate Dean for Basic Science Mary Stenzel-Poore. This monthly paper
summary is reviewed prior to publication by Dean Mark Richardson and
Vice President/Senior Associate Dean for Research Dan Dorsa.
A list of all papers published by OHSU authors during the prior month as compiled by the OHSU Library is provided here.
Pictured: Dr. Shaomei Wang.
Breaking the cycle of violence: Dr. Ntaba, Class of 2001, reflects on service at a Burundi clinic 
The Burundi clinic where OHSU MD alum Dr. Dziwe Ntaba served as
medical director has attracted worldwide attention, thanks to
bestselling author Tracy Kidder's 2009 book "Strength in What Remains."
The School of Medicine recently contacted Dr. Ntaba while he worked in
Burundi to learn more about his work. This is his story.
After 36 hours of stalled labor and fetal distress, a young
expectant mother was brought from the dirt floor of her mud-hut to a
remote clinic in Burundi where Dziwe Ntaba, MD, a 2001 graduate of the
OHSU School of Medicine, presided as medical director.
The child was delivered, Dr. Ntaba remembers, with "a frightening blue coloration" and was neither moving or breathing.
Lacking any advanced life support equipment, he suctioned out the
baby's airway with a syringe and IV catheter, started CPR and
improvised a rapid sequential application of bed-sheets, pre-warmed by
a coal heated iron. "The baby slowly started to breathe, and then
turned a healthy pinkish color. And, finally, she let out a faint but
miraculous cry." Her mother was also resuscitated. Mother and child
were put on a course of antibiotics. And today the miracle at Dr.
Ntaba's hands is that both survived and are doing well in a country
where one in 12 women die due to pregnancy-related complications, and
one in five children are dead before they reach age five, almost all
from easily preventable causes.
The clinic where this life-giving miracle took place is in a village
called Kigutu on a lush plateau overlooking Lake Tanganyika, in
Burundi, Central Africa. Run by Village Health Works,
it treats the ills of a poverty-stricken population ravaged by the
scourges of AIDS, TB, malaria, and malnutrition, all of which have been
exacerbated by years of a brutal, ethnically driven civil war which
ended only recently.
A policy in Burundi of incarcerating those who can't pay
their medical bills compounds the problem by deterring people from
getting the care they need even when they are deathly ill.
"Oftentimes patients who need interventions beyond our capacity at our
clinic adamantly refuse to be transferred," said Dr. Ntaba. "I will
never forget the time a patient vomiting blood told me she would rather
die in my hands than take her chances at the regional hospital," he
said.
Read more here.
From the Archives: Dr. Livingston I presume?
William K. Livingston, Chair of Surgery at the University of Oregon
Medical School, looks on respectfully as Alan Gregg of the Rockefeller
Foundation explains just how indebted the school is to him – or perhaps
the paper is merely a prop. Gregg, one of the most influential
men in medical research and education, was visiting Portland in
February 1954 when this photograph was taken.
The two men sit in Dr. Livingston's lab in Mackenzie Hall. Beginning
in 1946, Dr. Livingston conducted pioneering research on pain
mechanisms in what he called the "Pain Project," with Tuesday pain
clinics and Wednesday pain seminars open to all faculty as well as
downtown practitioners. While Dr. Livingston's work was too far ahead
of his time to receive much attention, it was in these clinics and
seminars that Ronald Melzack first began to formulate his revolutionary
gate control theory of pain.
Dr. Livingston (1892-1966) was educated at the University of Oregon
and obtained his medical degree from Harvard (1920). He completed his
surgical residency at the Mass General before returning to Oregon in
1922. He joined the faculty of the University of Oregon Medical School
– the precursor to OHSU School of Medicine – in 1925 and became chair
of the Department of Surgery in 1947. He was named Emeritus Professor
of Surgery in 1961. He was the author of The Clinical Aspects of
Visceral Neurology (1935); Pain Mechanisms (1943); and posthumously,
Pain and Suffering (1998).
Contributed by Sara Piasecki, Head, OHSU Historical Collections & Archives.
Why I Teach: Jeffrey W. Karpen, PhD
Jeffrey
W. Karpen, PhD, has been pushing at the frontiers of knowledge in
chemical biology for a quarter century, the last eight years at OHSU.
His current goal is to decode the secrets of cyclic nucleotides, a
group of intracellular messengers that play a role in an array of
neurological and metabolic disorders, including Parkinson's disease and
schizophrenia. Ultimately, that research could lead to the development
of lead compounds for drugs that might alleviate the suffering from
these disorders.
Dedicated as he is to his research, Dr. Karpen, Professor,
Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, is equally committed to
teaching. In fact, as head of a curriculum committee overseeing
interdepartmental courses, he believes teaching graduate students
should be mandatory for faculty. "As a university, we have to
maintain graduate teaching as a core mission so that we don't sacrifice
the training of the next generation of scientists as we all struggle to
bring in grant money and keep our current research programs going."
Early in his career, Dr. Karpen admits, teaching was not as high a
priority as research for him. "At times, I thought of it as kind of an
interruption. The transition from working on a research project can be
wrenching. But I've embraced teaching more and more as the years have
gone by. There comes a point when you realize that you have a lot to
offer outside the context of your work on some small corner of biology
or biomedical research. You've acquired vast knowledge and experience
in how science is done and it's important to pass that along to the
next generation."
He has gained great professional and personal satisfaction from
teaching. "Students bring a fresh unfettered perspective. Their
questions can sometimes force you to go back to the fundamentals.
They're not caught up in the weeds, which can happen if you're in the
thick of your own research and are trying to think of the next thing
your lab should be doing." Opening the minds of his students to the
uses of physical science and math in biology has been particularly
rewarding, he says.
Notes on Eastern Oregon Rural Medicine
The Oregon Rural Scholars Program combines family medicine,
rural medicine, and elective rotations to spend three months in rural
Oregon. Third-year med student Rachel Seltzer wrote about her 
experiences during a recent rural rotation in John Day, Oregon. This is an excerpt. The full essay is posted here.
I am at Blue Mountain Hospital and the associated Strawberry
Wilderness Community Clinic in John Day, Ore., serving Grant County
with 6,916 people. We are midway between Bend and Ontario, and between
Pendleton and Burns.
The
biggest lesson I have learned so far in John Day took two weeks. It is
true that OHSU, and other hospitals in the Portland area, tend to see
patients with more complicated conditions from across the state; that
is the nature of having lots of specialists. But rural folk are made of
the same stuff as city folk: they have the same medical problems. I
have already seen a child who has had two kidney transplants, a
gentleman with Wegener's granulomatosis and two women who likely have
CREST syndrome.
The physicians here attend at the nursing home. They sit on the
school board. They do, on occasion, make house calls. And even when
they can no longer take new patients, they share the new obstetrical
patient load. They keep up with CMEs, they teach medical students and
family medicine residents. They speak to students about options after
high school, and to teachers about recognizing teenage depression. And
a group of nurses goes to Ecuador for several weeks every year to
provide healthcare services. The sense of community here is
overwhelming, inclusive and encouraging.
Although the people of Grant County have similar medical issues to
the general population, the socioeconomic situation is different here
than in Portland. John Day used to be a middle class town, with a lot
of residents who worked for the timber industry and the national
forestry service. As lawsuits between conservationists and the timber
industry tie up the courts, even local, sustainable timber companies
are out of work on temporary suspension. And as the national government
has scaled back spending, forest services have contracted, and many of
the ranger families in the area have moved or been laid off. Two of the
three mills have shut down...
Read more here.
Pictured: Rachel Seltzer
Honors, Appointments and Announcements
AMSA recognizes student project on uninsured
A poster titled "Voices and Concerns of the Uninsured &
Underinsured Millions," received first place (Community Service
division) at the 2010 American Medical Student Association (AMSA)
national conference, held in Anaheim, Cal., in March. The project
emerged as an extension of an audio recording project by OHSU medical
students during the 2009 "Cover the Uninsured Week." Headed by
OHSU medical student Jim Stier, the project recorded the experiences of
people with no medical insurance or who were under-insured, and
compiled them into an audio archive.
Student co-authors on the poster were: Richard Bruno, Allen Andrews,
Brian Garvey, David Sanders, Ilana Weinbaum, Maliheh Nakhai, Jaleh
Olson and Rajarshi Mazumder. Paul Gorman, MD, Associate Professor,
Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology, was
faculty advisor.
Read more here.
Dr. Grandy elected a Fellow of American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
David Grandy, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology &
Pharmacology, was recently promoted to Fellow of the American College
of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) in recognition of his many
contributions to the study of basic mechanisms underlying the action of
drugs of abuse, and his service to the ACNP. According to the ACNP,
promotion is based on an expanding scientific reputation and
contributions to the ACNP.
Dr. Hayflick inducted into Rare Disease Day Hall of Fame
Susan Hayflick, MD, Professor and interim Chair, Department of
Molecular and Medical Genetics, was inducted into the Rare Disease Day
Hall of Fame this year. World Rare Disease Day is observed on the last
day of February. The goal is to draw attention to rare diseases as an
important public health issue that cannot be ignored. In the U.S., a
rare disease is defined as one that affects fewer than 200,000 people.
Part of Rare Disease Day is honoring members of the Rare Disease Day
Research Hall of Fame. More information is here.
Exercise Rx: OHSU among first in nation to offer MD class to prescribe exercise
OHSU is among the first medical schools in the country to provide a
course where medical students can become skilled in prescribing
exercise as treatment for a wide range of diseases and injuries.
"Exercise for Prevention and Treatment of Disease and Injury" is the
new elective and is taught by Colin Hoobler, PT, MPT, MS. In addition
to his current clinical work, Mr. Hoobler is the creator/host of "The
Fitness Show" shown nationally on PBS, author of an exercise
prescription textbook, clinical exercise instructor for physical
therapists through the American Physical Therapy Association, former
national champion drug-free bodybuilder and serves as a weekly exercise
expert for KGW Channel 8 News.
Specifically, the course exposes medical students to exercise-based
physical therapy (especially resistance training) for patients with
disease and/or injury, as well as exercise prescription for normal
health based on current evidence. This elective includes didactic
instruction on exercise physiology and biomechanics as well as
providing clinic experience. "Exercise is a therapeutic modality that
has been shown to be effective for many of the major diseases affecting
my future patients. The instruction given in the Exercise as Medicine
course helps expand my clinical 'toolbox' and helps me provide the most
complete care," said Morgan O'Connor, MS-1.
Dr. Anderson appointed Portland VA Medical Center Chief of Staff
Thomas A. Anderson, MD, has been named Portland VA Medical Center's
new Chief of Staff. Dr. Anderson received his medical degree from the
OHSU School of Medicine in 1978, and is an Assistant Professor of
Medicine. He completed his internal medicine postgraduate training at
the University of Iowa and at Providence Medical Center in Portland.
Among other positions, he served as Medical Director of Providence
Newberg Internal Medicine, and on the Executive Committee of the
Providence Medical Group. Dr. Anderson returned to the Portland VA
in 1998 as a primary care group practice manager. In 2001, he assumed
the role of Director of Hospital Medicine Program in the Division of
Hospital and Specialty Medicine. Since 2007, Dr. Anderson has served as
the Associate Chief of Staff for Medical Practice.
Mark Kemball receives CASE Distinguished Service Award
Mark Kemball, Manager, Communications & Community Relations,
Office of the Dean, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the
Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), District
VIII, at its February 2010 District Conference. The award, which was
co-presented to Pat Squire, Assistant Vice President for International
Alumni Relations, Portland State University, is given annually by the
CASE VIII District Board to honor distinguished service to the
institutional advancement professions at the district and national
level. Kemball was Chair of the district board from 2001-2003, and also
served on CASE DC's Commission on Communications & Marketing
between 2006-2009. The 24-member Commission serves as a "think-tank"
for CASE, advising on current and anticipated issues in Communications
& Marketing.
"The CASE District VIII Board is very pleased to be able to
recognize the work of Mark Kemball and Pat Squire," said Cheryl
Nations, Creative Director, University of Washington, who headed the
Awards Committee. "Between them, they occupied the three senior
District Board positions for a decade, providing valuable continuity
and consistency of leadership in a district that spans five states and
seven Canadian provinces."
Welcome new faculty!
A warm welcome to new faculty (listed in alphabetical order):
Kate H. Blumner, MD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Maggie Conser, MSN, FNP, Instructor, Surgery
Vazul F. Gabor, MD, Assistant Professor, Diagnostic Radiology
Richard Gicking, MD, Assistant Professor, Medicine
Kevin F. Mallon, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry
Charmika T. Schuster, MPH, NP, Instructor, Medicine
Beth Wilmot, PhD, Instructor, Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology
