“Research to Innovation: New Pathways for Faculty Members” is an interactive program on technology commercialization facilitated by a panel of WSU researchers who have “been there and done that.”

Topics include “Why should I care about commercialization?,” “What can I commercialize?,” “What do you mean there's a difference between science, technology and innovation?,” “What’s my role?,” “What is the university’s role?” and “How can I work with industry?”

The session will take place at the School of Medicine in the Margherio Family Conference Center, located in the Mazurek Education Commons, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Please register in advance by logging into Pipeline, going to the Employee or Student tab and clicking on the Trainings, Seminars and Workshops button on the far right side of the screen. Scroll down to the Research category, click on the Professional and Academic Development Seminars link and select your session of interest.

In addition, mark your calendar for the next PAD seminar, “Research Education: Teaching and Learning through Research in the Laboratory,” set for Dec. 4.

Since 2007, Wayne State's offices of the Vice President for Research, Graduate School and Provost have sponsored these career development sessions twice monthly from September through June. This year, the School of Medicine’s Office of Faculty Affairs, Human Resources and Professional Development and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs are partnering with those offices to deliver the series.

To view the videos of past seminars, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu/seminars-training/seminar-series.php.

For more information about program, contact Sarah James at sjames@wayne.edu or (313) 577-8997.

Deepak Prabhakar, M.D., M.P.H., presented “Metro Detroit: Is There a Need to Bail Out the Mentally Ill?” at the conference, held recently in Honolulu, Hawaii. He noted that the correlation between socioeconomic status and the prevalence of mental illness is recognized in existing medical literature. The lower a person's socioeconomic status, the greater his or her chances are of developing mental illness. He examined the rates of mental illness in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

“There is evidence of great socioeconomic disparity among the three counties. It is interesting to see how this disparity correlates with mental illness prevalence in our local community,” Dr. Prabhakar explained. “Wayne County has a higher overall mental illness prevalence as compared to Oakland and Macomb. Wayne County adolescents have a higher mental illness prevalence compared to Oakland and Macomb. Among Wayne County adolescents, minority groups have higher mental illness prevalence as compared to caucasians.

“There is a great disparity in the prevalence of mental illnesses across metropolitan Detroit and it correlates with the existing socioeconomic disparity,” he said. “Adolescents and minorities in particular have worse outcomes.”

Dr. Prabhakar recommended the use of age-appropriate and culturally congruent programs to alleviate disparities, adding that consideration should be given to using economic stimulus funds to address the situation.

“This has the potential of bringing much-needed relief to the adolescent patients of the metropolitan Detroit area and will also help in creating jobs that would eventually become self-sustaining with time.”

Dr. Prabhakar also recently submitted a chapter for a new book, “Community Quality-of-Life Indicators: Best Cases IV,” published by the Society for Quality-of-Life Studies. His chapter is titled “Mental Health Indicator Parity: Integrating National, State, and Local Data.”

The writing grew out of his 2007-2008 stint as project director of the needs assessment component of Project Transform: A North Texas Mental Health Transformation Initiative. That work resulted in the publication of “Epidemiologic Profile: Assessment of Mental Health in Dallas County,” which led the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies to invite him to contribute the chapter.

“Health is a function of the interaction of an individual’s social, genetic and physical environment,” said Dr. Prabhakar, whose area of interest is health care disparities, in particular those among minorities and children and adolescents. “Disparities exist as a consequence of the inequitable distribution of commodities, resources and political capital in American society.”

Angelika Burger, Ph.D., director of the Translational Research Laboratory at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and professor of the Department of Pharmacology at the School of Medicine, received the award at the Oct. 28 ceremony. The award recognizes demonstrated leadership in breast cancer research.

“I am honored and deeply touched by receiving the 2009 Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute Heroes of Breast Cancer Scientific Distinction Award,” Dr. Burger said. “This honor motivates me and my team to work even harder on finding and developing new treatments for breast cancer patients.”

Researchers from the School of Medicine, Karmanos Cancer Institute, Cardiff University in Great Britain and the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto collaborated to design a series of compounds based on Disulfiram, typically used to treat alcoholism, and found that one of the compounds was more potent than DSF itself in inhibiting an enzyme that spurs the growth of breast cancers. More than 50 percent of invasive breast cancers have the presence of the enzyme that could be treated by the DSF-derived compound.

Dr. Burger was one of the scientists to present the findings at the 2009 American Association for Cancer Research’s 100th Annual Meeting, highlighting research advancements in the treatment of aggressive forms of breast cancer. Researchers gave an oral presentation about the compounds derived from Disulfiram that could provide viable treatment options for breast cancer patients. Dr. Burger served as principal investigator of the study and doctoral candidate Daniela Buac presented the research.

“DSF is a very safe drug,” said Dr. Burger. “It could be given to cancer patients alone or in combination with standard therapies used to treat breast cancers."

By the end of this year, the American Cancer Society estimates, 1,479,350 new cases of cancer will be reported in this country. Karmanos Interim President and CEO Ann G. Schwartz, Ph.D., M.P.H., said approximately 70 percent of all cancers are linked to occupational and environmental causes, including tobacco use and diet, based on information from the National Institutes of Health.

“A medical evidence-based approach will be presented to doctors participating in BCBSM’s Physician Group Incentive Program in early December,” Dr. Schwartz said. “The initiative is being designed to detect cancers and other serious illness resulting from exposure to arsenic and asbestos, two of the state’s most frequently encountered carcinogens.”

The director and author of the initiative, Michael Harbut, M.D., M.P.H., F.C.C.P., chief of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, said that by utilizing existing data that has identified workplace and environmental arsenic and asbestos, “we can determine who is at risk, what preventive care may be recommended and more accurately diagnose and treat those at risk because of the water they drink or air they breathe.” 

Dr. Harbut said Karmanos “will offer this program to physicians to accurately identify who is at risk for disease before symptoms become apparent. It is not unusual for people to be unaware that they have even been exposed to these toxins.”

Asbestos and arsenic have been singled out because their impact continues to take a serious health toll on Michigan residents. Michigan has the nation’s largest arsenic-contaminated water table, located primarily in the southeastern part of the state, and an estimated 300,000 homes with asbestos-contaminated attic insulation.

Even low levels of exposure to asbestos can cause asbestosis – a potentially fatal disease of the lungs – as well as lung cancer and mesothelioma, an extremely aggressive cancer of the covering of the lungs and intestines. Smokers are 50 times more likely to develop lung cancer if they also are exposed to asbestos. In addition, colon cancer has been associated with asbestos exposure. There is a latency period from time of first exposure to clinical identification of disease of 15 to 40 years.

Awareness and treatment of chronic diseases, including diabetes and hypertension, improved among Mexican-Americans who had a usual source of care, such as a regular primary care physician. However, Latino groups in the United States are the least likely to live in patient-centered medical homes.

“Diabetes Awareness and Knowledge Among Latinos: Does a Usual Source of Healthcare Matter?,” conducted by Hector Gonzalez, Ph.D., a clinical neuropsychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, found that the knowledge gained through access to a primary care physician lessened the effects of diabetes among Latino groups.

The study reported that Mexican-Americans with a usual source of health care – generally considered consistent access to a primary care physician -- were 20 percent more likely to have knowledge about diabetes and the use of important preventive services than those who reported that they did not have such access.

Latinos of Central and South American descent also had lower rates of having a usual source of health care, lower rates of health insurance coverage and lower annual household incomes.

“Our findings indicate that a usual source of health care may be a valuable tool for reducing risks and burden of diabetes, a major health problem,” said Dr. Gonzalez, also a member of the WSU Institute of Gerontology. “With dismay, our research also indicates that no progress has been made over the past decade in achieving the Healthy People 2010 objective of improving the proportion of Latinos with a usual source of health care.

While Latinos are the largest ethnic minority, they are also the least likely to have health care coverage, Dr. Gonzalez said. “Among Latinos, Mexicans, who make up over two-thirds of the Latino population in the United States, have the lowest rate of health care insurance. The bottom line is lack of health care insurance is a barrier to care.”

When the Latino population does gain access to health care, he noted, cultural barriers – primarily language – can arise.

Pointing to a growing Latino population in Detroit and southeast Michigan, Dr. Gonzalez said, “There are very dedicated people committed to Latino health in Michigan and Detroit who are struggling with shrinking budgets. I am delighted that student groups at Wayne, like Amigos Medicos, are looking ahead to the health needs of Michigan and the country. I believe the School of Medicine at Wayne State is well poised to help build the needed infrastructure for the future health needs of the region and the nation in serving diverse populations.”

The Amigos Medicos student group seeks to improve the health and well-being of underserved members of the local Hispanic population by providing free health education in the community as well as Spanish language instruction for future physicians. Graduating medical students who can speak Spanish will be in high demand as the state and nation’s Latino population continues to expand, Dr. Gonzalez said.

The study by Dr. Gonzalez was accompanied by two others examining disparities among Latinos in the United States. “Latino Access to the Patient Centered Medical Home” found that health care disparities were eliminated or reduced for Latinos who have a patient-centered medical home. But, only 35 percent of Mexican-Americans and 34.2 percent of Central and South Americans have such homes. A patient-centered medical home was defined as a personal physician who patients see regularly, who engages them in their own health and provides continuous comprehensive that includes preventive care and coordination of care.

“Predictors of Hypertension Awareness, Treatment and Control Among Mexican American Women and Men” showed that in Mexican-American adults with high blood pressure, 65 percent were unaware they had hypertension and 71 percent were not receiving treatment for the condition.

Dr. Watson comes to WSU from the Henry Ford Health System, where she served in a variety of positions, including residency program director. She brings extensive knowledge in general dermatology, with a special focus in pigmented lesions, skin cancer treatments and connective tissue disease.

She joined the department Oct. 1, and is open for new patient referrals at the Sterling Heights office and the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

She can be contacted at (586) 939-6400 in Sterling Heights, (313) 576-8477 in Detroit, or by e-mail at awatson@med.wayne.edu.

This year’s topic, “21st Century Trauma Care,” includes presentations on advances in medicine and surgery given by four distinguished visiting professors.

The program begins at 7:30 a.m. with registration and continental breakfast and concludes with a luncheon and a discussion with speakers at 12:30 p.m.

Speakers at this year’s Clinic Day and their topics are:

James. Tyburski, M.D., professor of Surgery, Wayne State University; chief, Department of Surgery, Detroit Receiving Hospital; program director, General Surgery Residency, Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center, “What’s New in Trauma?”

Charles E. Lucas, M.D., professor of Surgery, Wayne State University, “Controversies in Fluid Management of the Severely Injured Patient”

Thomas M. Scalea, M.D., physician-in-chief, R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center; Francis X. Kelly professor of Trauma Surgery; director, Program in Trauma, University of Maryland, “Trauma Management in the Elderly”

Mark D. Pearlman, M.D., S. Jan Behrman professor in Reproductive Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School; professor, Departments of Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan Health System; service chief, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, “Obstetric Aspects of Trauma Management.”

“Clinic Day has always been the flagship program of the academic year at SJMO,” said Allen Silbergleit, M.D., Ph.D., program director emeritus of the Department of General Surgery and chair of the Division of General Surgery. He also is the Cancer Liaison Physician for the Commission on Cancer.

In 2005, SJMO renamed the annual Clinic Day program in honor of Dr. Silbergleit, the long-serving chair of the Clinic Day committee and 40-year director of the surgery residency program. For his accomplishments in graduate medical education, Dr. Silbergleit was awarded the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

For more information, call Debra Reid at (248) 858-3234.

The Nov. 2 conference will take place in the Margherio Family Conference Center, located within the Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Medical Education Commons. The conference is open to all faculty and physicians.

The goals of the conference, said Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D., vice chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine, include learning to design instruction for distance and on-site education, utilizing multimedia for instruction, designing interactive presentations for on-site education and designing interactive educational Web sites based on sound learning theory.

The conference schedule includes:
7:45 - 8:15 a.m. Registration and breakfast
8:15 - 8:30 a.m. Welcome and overview - Suzanne White, M.D., Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D.
8:30 - 9:10 a.m. Technology is Wonderful: Where is the Learner? - Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D.
9:10 - 9:50 a.m. Jazzing the Lecture: Embedding Technology in Your Presentation - LaCesha Clark, M.Ed.
9:50 - 10:30 a.m. Simulation Debriefing: Technology Can Help - Rose Fernandez, M.D., Rick Lammers, M.D.
10:30 -11 a.m. Simulation on a Shoestring - Rick Lammers, M.D.
11 - 11:45 a.m. Lunch
11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Challenging Learners: How Do We Motivate Them - Shirley Lee, M.D.
12:30 - 1:15 p.m. Web 2.0: More than a Cultural Shift: It’s a Revolution - Adam Rosh, M.D.
1:15 - 2 p.m. Creating a Web World: Sharepoint - John Marshall, M.D., Steve Horng, M.D.
2 - 2:15 p.m. Break
2:15 - 2:45 p.m. Low Cost, High Impact Models - Mary Jo Wagner, M.D.
2:45 - 3:30 p.m. Engaging Your Students in Large Lectures - Shari Lynn Robinson, M.A.
3:30 - 3:45 p.m. Wrap Up - Gloria Kuhn, D.O., Ph.D.
4 - 5 p.m. Web 2.0 for You: Hands-on Web Practice - Adam Rouse, M.D., or Tour of the Simulation Center, Rose Fernandez, M.D.

Conference organizers strongly encourage all participants bring a laptop computer.

The cost for physicians and faculty members is $85. There is no charge for residents, fellows or medical students.

For more information, call (313) 745-5492.

Dr. Sethi is the lead author of the study “A Review of ACE-Inhibitor Associated Hepatoxicity.” The study’s other authors include Milton G. Mutchnick, M.D., professor and chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at Wayne State University; Robert G. Fontana, M.D., associate professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan; and Elizabeth J. May, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine at Wayne State University.

The team’s review of previously published literature found that the use of ACE inhibitors may bring with it a risk of hepatotoxicity (toxic damage to the liver), and that toxicity may be more widespread than commonly thought.

In two-thirds of the cases of toxicity studied, the condition was detected within eight weeks of the start of ACE inhibitor therapy. Most of those patients improved within a week of the withdrawal of the drugs.

Reports about the findings were published in Today in Medicine by the American Gastroenterological Association (http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2009102701aga&r=3700225-fa30) and MedPage Today News (http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ACG/16615).

Gilda Hillman, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology for the School of Medicine and the Karmanos Cancer Institute, served as principal investigator for "Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Vascular Changes Induced by Sunitinib in Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma Xenograft Tumors." The article was published as the cover story in the September 2009 issue of the journal Neoplasia.

The goal of the study, Dr. Hillman said, was to investigate the effect on tumor vasculature of lower and potentially less toxic doses of Sunitinib, a drug used in the treatment of renal cancer that acts to stop tumors from making new blood vessels. Tumor angiogenesis involves a proliferation of abnormal vessels that are enlarged, disorganized and leaky. The condition impairs blood and oxygen supply to tumors, which, in turn, compromises the delivery and efficacy of chemotherapy drugs and radiotherapy.

While Sunitinib has proved effective and has helped prolong patients’ lives, long-term control of renal carcinoma has not been achieved. Dr. Hillman wanted to determine what doses of the drug could induce regularization of tumor vessels by reducing the growth of inefficient blood vessels and thereby improving blood flow. Dr. Hillman had previously established a pre-clinical model of metastatic renal cell carcinoma in her laboratory and used it to treat kidney tumors with various doses of Sunitinib. Dr. Hillman’s team then studied the vascular changes in murine kidney tumors associated with each dose. The team used dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI imaging, a technology that can be used in humans.

The study assessed the effect of Sunitinib on both the right cancerous kidney and the left normal kidney in mice. The team then compared the data obtained from DCE-MRI imaging of tumors to the data produced by histological staining of tumor sections and determined a dose of Sunitinib that caused regularization of blood flow and thinning of vessels while producing milder effects on blood vessels in the normal kidney.

“These studies have established the feasibility of using DCE-MRI in animal models to assess early vascular changes in tumors induced by anti-angiogenic therapy that could be helpful for scheduling chemotherapy or radiotherapy and increase the efficacy of anti-angiogenic therapy,” said Dr. Hillman, who works with department Chair Andre Konski, M.D., M.B.A., in designing clinical trials of radiotherapy and anti-angiogenic drugs. “This approach using DCE-MRI imaging can be applied to treatment of human cancer.”

The research team included Vinita Singh-Gupta, Ph.D.; Hao Zhang, M.D.; Christopher Yunker and Amit Patel, who was instrumental in data organization and presentation. Mark Haacke, Ph.D., director of the MR Research Facility and a professor of Radiology, collaborated on the study for consulting on imaging parameters conditions and interpretation of MRI data and analysis. He was assisted by Yimin Shen, Ph.D., and several students involved in data analysis. Dr. Haacke’s Ph.D. student, Areen Al Bashir, is participating in imaging data analysis and is using this research as the major topic of her thesis.

Pfizer funded the two-year study with a $264,468 grant.

The study, published in the November issue of The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, set out to determine the diagnostic indications and predictive value of biomarkers measured in maternal blood in the first and second trimester of pregnancy. The goal was to determine whether the biomarkers could predict the subsequent development of preeclampsia. The findings of the study -- the largest of its kind ever undertaken -- will help clinicians assess the risk for preeclampsia, and monitor mothers and their unborn babies at risk for the silent killer.

Estimates indicate that preeclampsia is responsible for 76,000 maternal deaths and more than 500,000 infant deaths every year, according to the Preeclampsia Foundation. Preeclampsia occurs only during pregnancy and sometimes after delivery. It is characterized by high blood pressure and the presence of protein in maternal urine. Preeclampsia can affect the liver, kidney and brain. Sometimes mothers develop seizures (eclampsia) and suffer intracranial hemorrhage, the main cause of death in those who develop the disorder. Some women develop blindness.

“Left untreated, preeclampsia can lead to serious -- or even fatal -- complications for both the mother and baby,” said Juan Pedro Kusanovic, M.D., director of Translational Research of the Perinatology Research Branch, the National Institute of Children’s Health and Development, the National Institutes of Health, and assistant professor of the School of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He served as lead author of the study, “A prospective cohort study of the value of maternal plasma concentrations of angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors in early pregnancy and midtrimester in the identification of patients destined to develop preeclampsia.”

The unborn babies of preeclamptic mothers are affected by the disease and may develop intrauterine growth starvation or die in utero. Many believe preeclampsia results from insufficient blood supply to the uterus and placenta, causing the development of high blood pressure. The increase in maternal blood pressure is a compensatory response to improve the condition of the fetus. Preeclampsia may have evolved to protect the infant, but when the disease is out of control it threatens the health of the mother. The earlier the disease starts in pregnancy, the worse the outcome for baby and mother.

The study received the Frederick P. Zuspan Award for Clinical Research by the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy. The award is given for the most outstanding clinical work relating to the study of hypertension in pregnancy.

“Our study found that maternal plasma concentrations of angiogenic and antiangiogenic factors, together with a combination of other demographic, biochemical and biophysical factors, are useful in assigning risk for the subsequent development of early-onset preeclampsia,” said Roberto Romero, M.D., chief of the Perinatology Research Branch of NICHD, NIH, who is one of the world’s leading experts on this condition and in the study of complications of pregnancy.

“The establishment of an accurate means to assess the risk for preeclampsia would enable health care practitioners to identify women who require more intensive monitoring to safeguard both mother and baby from this devastating condition,” said Dr. Romero, a professor of Molecular Obstetrics and Genetics with the WSU Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics. “This study is the first of its kind in which women were prospectively followed from the beginning of pregnancy to determine if simple blood measurements can predict early onset preeclampsia. The results are very encouraging and suggest that the biomarkers studied can be used to identify women at risk in the second trimester, many weeks before the clinical onset of the disease.”

The results of the study will encourage laboratories and clinicians to use biomarkers to track the health of pregnant women. Several companies are developing rapid methods to measure these biomarkers and make them available for clinical use in hospitals throughout the world.

Dr. Romero explained that these tests would allow health care practitioners to identify women at risk and to intensify monitoring. An important challenge still lies in finding methods to treat preeclampsia. He noted that defective angiogenesis may be observed in other complications of pregnancy such as premature labor, fetal death and intrauterine growth restriction. The markers are likely to identify not only patients with preeclampsia, but those at risk for other complications of pregnancy.

“This research breaks new ground and will lead to healthier outcomes for mothers and infants,” said Valerie Parisi, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., interim dean of the School of Medicine. “This is a prime example of the bench-to-bedside research being conducted in the heart of Detroit.”

Among the more than 20,000 applications the National Institutes of Health received for the NIH Challenge Grants, Dr. Poojary’s application ranked within the top 1 percent. He received a grant for $999,094. The NIH has allocated $200 million for the challenge grants for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. They are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed in February of this year.

Dr. Poojary’s research, “Role of TIEG1 in Foxp3+Treg development and tumor progression,” explores tumor pathways that cause effector T cells -- those that help maintain a healthy immune system -- to be converted to regulator T cells, which allow the growth of cancerous tumor cells.

Researchers have already created vaccines that are effective in controlling regulator T cells in a lab environment, but so far immunotherapy vaccines have not been successful when used on humans.

“Immunotherapy for cancer has not been successful because tumors exploit the immune system,” Dr. Poojary said. “We must now build on immunotherapy’s great cancer treatment potential by learning how we can make it more effective.”

Dr. Poojary’s research strives to understand on a molecular level how immune suppressor cells can be controlled so that tumor cells do not proliferate. He believes this research will provide him and his colleagues significant new insight to overcome the limitations of current immunotherapy strategies.

“We want to develop inhibitors for regulator T cells to use along with tumor vaccines and our goal is to block the development of tumor-promoting regulator T cells in the tumor microenvironment,” he said. “People have tried to deplete regulator T cells from the body using antibodies, but such an approach is associated with the risk of triggering autoimmunity in patients.”

The nearly $1 million NIH grant will allow Dr. Poojary and his staff to invest the grant monies in what they need to conduct work more quickly and efficiently. As part of the grant, Dr. Poojary will hire four people to assist him.

“If we can understand the pathway of T cells, we will be very close to determining the inhibitors for what converts good cells into tumor-promoting bad cells,” he said. “This is the hard step, but I am very confident that I’ll achieve my goals with the project.”

Dr. Poojary said it will be significant when doctors can control the conversion of normal T cells into abnormal cells that allow tumors to grow. “With this knowledge, we would be very close to having the immunological tools to more effectively treat aggressive cancers, such as locally-advanced and metastatic breast cancer, prostate cancer and brain cancer,” he said.

Dr. Poojary has been studying immunology since 1998 when he began his doctorate studies at the National Center for Cell Science in Pune, India. After receiving his Ph.D., he served as a postdoctoral fellow and later a research scientist in the Division of Cell Biology at LaJolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in San Diego, Calif. He has been with the Karmanos Cancer Institute since March 2009.

Wu, 25, completed her undergraduate studies in biosciences at University of Science and Technology of China. She became interested in ocular immunity during her first research rotation in the laboratory of Linda Hazlett, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.

“Dr. Hazlett displayed great professionalism and patience when I first came to the lab,” Wu said. “She introduced me to an interesting research field and showed me an excellent example as a scientist and as a teacher.”

Under the direction of Dr. Hazlett, Wu is examining the role of beta-defensins in resistance to P. aeruginosa keratitis, one of the most common and destructive ocular diseases associated with contact lens use.

Wu has published a paper as the first author, “Beta-defensin-2 Promotes Resistance against Infection with P. aeruginosa,” in the February 2009 edition of the Journal of Immunology. Her second paper, “Beta-defensins 2 and 3 Together Promote Resistance to P. aeruginosa Keratitis,” was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Immunology. She has two other manuscripts now in revision.

“She is an excellent student and her work may provide a promising target for treatment of ocular diseases, such as P. aeruginosa keratitis,” Dr. Hazlett said.