Sophie J. Womack, M.D., M.B.A., was installed as the 124th president of the Wayne County Medical Society of Southeast Michigan during the society's annual meeting held recently at the Hyatt Regency, in Dearborn. Dr. Womack, a WSU assistant professor of pediatrics, is only the third woman and the first African-American woman to be elected president of the 157 year-old organization.

Dr. Womack pledged to build coalitions to discuss the critical issues that affect physicians and patients in Wayne County, including high costs that keep many eligible students from attending medical school. Womack said she also plans to lead the society into discussions with key stakeholders about universal healthcare. Dr. Womack is vice president of medical affairs for Harper University Hospital and Hutzel Women's Hospital

Dr. Albert E. Henn didn’t want to hear about retiring. The Wayne State University Medical School graduate had devoted his life to improving the quality of health care for the poor and underserved in Africa and he wasn’t about to stop just because he’d reached the age of 70 earlier this year. But his work was cut short May 5, when he died in the crash of a Ken-yan airliner in Cameroon. At the time, he was director of Liverpool VCT Care and Treatment, an organization that provides diagnostic, counseling and support services to people who wish to test their HIV status.

Dr. Henn began his medical care in the Army as a surgical nurse and x-ray technician in Korea before attending medical school at Wayne State. After completing his internship at Detroit hospitals, he joined the Peace Corps and served in the West African countries of Togo and Benin before be-coming regional medical officer for the organization in Washington, D.C.

After completing a pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital, he entered the Harvard School of Public Health, where he made a career shift from clinical medicine to public health in the 1980s. He directed the former Harvard Institute for International Development. His career included a stint with the U.S. Agency for International De-velopment and with a variety of health organizations in Africa, including the African Medical and Research Foundation, based in Nairobi.

“My father was an amazing person,” Henn’s daughter Julia told The Boston Globe in a telephone interview from her home in Uganda. “He just loved his work so much . . . and he touched many people in his life.”

Media reports talk of Dr. Henn's working tirelessly to develop public health systems for combating HIV/AIDS and training Africans from many countries to operate their own programs. To find out more about Dr. Henn's expansive work, follow this link.
http://www.twinningagainstaids.org/pr-050907-twinning.html

Celebration was the order of the day at the School of Medicine’s 2007 Commencement at the Fox Theatre. The keynote speaker was Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, a world-renowned physician in the field of public health and president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Philanthropist Nick Labedz and former Board of Governors member Elizabeth Hardy also were honored for their dedication to the school.

Dr. Fangyu Peng, Assistant Professor in the departments of Pediatrics and Radiology at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine, has been awarded $369,180 by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Biomaterials to continue his efforts in improving human gene therapy.

Dr. Peng, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., along with fellow investigators Dr. Otto Muzik, departments of Pediatrics and Radiology, and Dr. James Janisse, a Biostatistician in the Center for Healthcare Effectiveness Research, has been researching ways to utilize a copper importing protein called human copper transporter 1 (hCTr1) as a reporter gene for non-invasive imaging of gene delivery. Essentially, Dr. Peng’s new technology offers a safer and more efficient way of tracking therapeutic genes.

Dr. Peng’s research involves the simultaneous delivery of the reporter gene encoded to produce hCTr1, along with the genes used for gene therapy, to a specific location in the body, such as a tumor. Through transduction, the cells in the targeted area will create more hCTr1 proteins and allow more copper to enter the cells. Having the hCTr1 protein in the targeted location, Dr. Peng can use copper isotopes to see if, in fact, the hCTrl proteins are working in the right place. Injected radioactive copper isotopes emit positrons, which can be discovered by using positron emitting tomography (PET).

Using the PET allows Dr. Peng to see the exact location the hCTr1 went to, thus the location of the gene therapy. In other words, along with radioactive copper isotopes as a probe, Dr. Peng will be able to accurately and safely track delivery and expression of a therapeutic gene in targeted location over a long period of time.

The safety of Dr. Peng’s new technology comes from the nature of the hCTr1 protein: its human origin. Unlike another popular PET reporter gene imaging technique that uses viral-based genes, the hCTrl protein will not invoke anti-body defenses from the immune system of the human. This means fewer obstacles for treatment of human disease.

“There’s no question Dr. Peng’s research will pay off in the field of gene therapy,” said Dr. Gloria Heppner, WSU interim vice president for research. “His project will allow clinical physicians to locate and evaluate gene therapy treatments quickly and accurately. Dr. Peng’s discovery will save time and, ultimately, save lives.”

In general, PET reporter gene imaging offers several advantages over other techniques, such as biopsy, when analyzing gene expression in gene therapy. One advantage is long term analysis, where several biopsies over time may be out of the question, PET reporter gene imaging's noninvasive nature allows clinical physicians to study gene therapy from afar safely and longitudinally.