The Department of Internal Medicine will hold a June 4 open house to formally introduce the Translational Research and Clinical Epidemiology (TRaCE) division to the university.

TRaCE was created in 2006 to support the research efforts of the Department of Internal Medicine and other university-wide collaborators. The division assists in the areas of study design, data collection, clinical trial management and manuscript/grant preparation. TRaCE has been an integral resource utilized by researchers within the Department of Internal Medicine as well as other university and community-based investigators since its inception.

The open house will take place from 3 to 6 p.m. in the second-floor lobby of the University Health Center.  Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with Department of Internal Medicine Chair and TRaCE Division Chief John Flack, M.D., as well as other members of the division.

Wayne State University School of Medicine is proud to acknowledge the following faculty members who have been recommended for promotion and/or granting of tenure by the president and provost of the University. These recommendations will be presented to the Wayne State University Board of Governors for approval this summer. Each member was chosen for outstanding academic achievements and continued commitment to the SOM.

Tenure Granted

Deborah Ellis - Pediatrics

Csaba Juhasz - Pediatrics

Melody Neely - Immunology & Microbiology

T.R. Reddy - Immunology & Microbiology

Promotion to Associate Professor

Nahed Abdel-Haq - Pediatrics

Nelia Afonso - Internal Medicine (General Medicine)

Nedim Cakan - Pediatrics

Deborah Ellis - Pediatrics

Sonia Hassan - Obstetrics & Gynecology (Perinatology Research Branch)

Csaba Juhasz - Pediatrics

Melody Neely - Immunology & Microbiology

Rajaprabhakaran Rajarethinam - Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences

T.R. Reddy - Immunology & Microbiology

Gabriel Sosne - Ophthalmology

Joel Steinberg - Internal Medicine (Geriatrics)

Youming Xie - Cancer Institute

Promotion to Professor

Cynthia Aaron - Emergency Medicine

George Alangaden - Internal Medicine (Infectious Disease)

Murali Guthikonda - Neurosurgery

Sabrina Heidemann - Pediatrics

Mark Juzych - Ophthalmology

Jason Mateika - Physiology

Bharati Mitra - Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Robert Morris - Obstetrics & Gynecology

Otto Muzik - Radiology

George Yoo - Otolaryngology

 

Renee R. Jenkins, M.D., F.A.A.P., will give the Margaret Couzens Slattery Memorial Lecture at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Alumni Dinner & Awards Presentation on May 15.

Dr. Jenkins, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is a 1971 graduate of the Wayne State University School of Medicine. She is the first African-American president of the nation’s largest pediatric organization.

Dr. Jenkins is professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Howard University and adjunct professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University. After completing a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Montefiore Hospital in New York, she began an adolescent medicine program at Howard. In 1994, she was appointed department chair, and during her tenure directed the departmental training program and practice plan.

The dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Detroit Yacht Club. Dr. Jenkins will speak at 6:30 p.m.

The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Scholars will hold a Postdoc Networking Luncheon for all Wayne State University postdoctoral scholars May 14, from 1 to 2 p.m., at 2268 Scott Hall.

The office is in the process of creating a new Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, which will include a postdoctoral association. The primary goal of the association is to offer networking opportunities and to explore ways the office can provide assistance for a productive postdoctoral experience.

The lunch includes free pizza, soft drinks and cookies. RSVP to ddona@med.wayne.edu by May 12. To learn more about the office, call (313) 577-1455.

Wayne State University recently honored five faculty members of the School of Medicine for their outstanding contributions to teaching.

“These faculty members are indicative of the quality educators training the future generations of physicians at the School of Medicine,” said Robert M. Mentzer Jr., dean of the School of Medicine and senior advisor to the President for Medical Affairs. “The students who entrust their medical education to Wayne StateUniversity know they are trained by the best.”

William Crossland, Ph.D., received the prestigious Wayne State University President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Crossland, an associate professor in the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, was recognized for his outstanding contributions to teaching at the School of Medicine with a $2,500 award and a citation from President Irvin D. Reid.

Dr. Crossland joined the department in 1975 and has served as an associate professor since 1980. His research interests focus on the formation and maintenance of neuronal connections in the visual system. Dr. Crossland, who also received the Lamp Award from medical students in 2007, was one of the first faculty members to develop computer-based content for students. School of Medicine administration selected Dr. Crossland to attend the Stanford Program for Basic Science Educators in 2007 in recognition of his excellence in education.

A Board of Governors Distinguished Faculty Fellowship was awarded to Judith Whittum-Hudson, Ph.D., a professor in the Departments of Immunology and Microbiology, Internal Medicine, and Ophthalmology.

Dr. Whittum-Hudson has devoted her career to chlamydial infections and the development of vaccine candidates to counter the infections.

Dr. Whittum-Hudson said she will use the fellowship to support preclinical studies to characterize new protective peptide or DNA vaccine candidates recently derived in her laboratory.

Jack Sobel, M.D., chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, who also was recently named a Distinguished Professor by the university, was honored with the Charles H. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship.

Dr. Sobel, who became professor of Medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in 1985, has earned international renown for creating an academic field in the study and treatment of vaginal infections. Each of the six scientifically-oriented vaginitis clinics in the world is led or staffed by at least one doctor trained by Dr. Sobel.

Dr. Sobel said he will use the fellowship to help conduct the first major study directed at a new form of infection, which he has named Desquamative Inflammatory Vaginitis.

Rodney Braun, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, received a Career Development Chair Award. The award is presented to seven recently tenured faculty members to support the teaching and research of faculty in the developmental stages of their careers.

Braun’s research focuses on the development of novel treatments for tumors, including breast cancer and ocular melanoma. He was awarded a Department of Defense high-risk IDEA Award and has secured funding from the National Eye Institute that supported published groundwork research for studies to evaluate new treatments for choroidal melanoma.

Braun said he will use the award to further his research to determine whether two anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat ocular pain can inhibit new vessel growth in choroidal explants.

Jeffrey Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, received the Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award. The award goes to graduate faculty recognized by their departments and graduate students as excellent mentors.

Loeb has supervised five completed doctoral dissertations over a nine-year period, something he refers to as one of his greatest accomplishments. He played a significant role in designing the M.D./Ph.D. program, and in fostering translational research.

The Human Investigation Committee (HIC) and the Animal Investigation Committee (AIC) at the School of Medicine have adopted new training programs for investigators.

The two groups have discontinued using the WSU On-Line Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) Training Program and now require that all investigators and study staff take online training modules developed by the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). This commercially available program is widely used at research institutions nationwide and is updated automatically to provide the latest regulatory information and guidance.

Completely replacing the former RCR program, CITI will be required by all investigators and personnel. Training is required even if the RCR modules were taken in the past, and must be completed before obtaining approval for new protocol submissions and for continuation approval of ongoing protocols as of June 1, 2008. Training must also be completed by all HIC and AIC members and staff, including new personnel added by amendment. It is the expectation of the committees that all WSU research personnel will complete the CITI training within one year if a new protocol is not submitted before that time.

Please visit the HIC and AIC websites (www.hic.wayne.edu or www.aic.wayne.edu) for more information about completing CITI training.