Kudos

• Medical Innovation Center welcomes five fellows to foster medical innovation
• Bixby begins year-long program to pursue clinical hematology research
• Biomedical Science Research Building sculpture and atrium dedicated
• University of Michigan researchers focus of eye grants
• U-M physicians advance laparoscopic surgical skills in Ghana
  

Medical Innovation Center welcomes five fellows to foster medical innovation

From left: Steve White, Ph.D. candidate, Merrell Sami, M.D., Elyse Kemmerer, Ph.D., Alex Kim, MBA, and Adrienne Harris, MSE.

The new Medical Innovation Center is committed to providing services to faculty and staff who need help moving a medical innovation idea forward. 

Additionally, the MIC welcomes its inaugural class of fellows this fall. The class is a diverse group of professionals from the medical, engineering and business disciplines. After their one-year fellowship, fellows will leave U-M with the tools to create and commercialize medical innovations.

“The combination of people from different disciplines enables truly great innovative ideas,” says Brenda Jones, managing director.

The fellows are:
Alex Kim, MBA
Elyse Kemmerer, Ph.D., Neuroscience
Merrell Sami, M.D.
Adrienne Harris, MSE, biomedical engineering
Steve White, Ph.D. candidate, mechanical engineering

The fellows’ curriculum spans a variety of topics including the “art and science” of innovation, legal implications, ethical issues, insurance challenges, as well as the commercialization and regulatory paths for medical device inventions.

The MIC provides services to faculty and staff who want to move a medical innovation forward: 

• project management
• prototype design and creation
• securing funding
• identifying scientific and industry collaborators

MIC staff include:

James Geiger, M.D., executive director
Albert Shih, Ph.D., associate director
Brenda Jones, MBA, managing director
Toby Donajkowski, prototype specialist
Jennifer Stovall, project coordinator

Visit the MIC Web site.

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Bixby begins year-long program to pursue clinical hematology research

Twenty hematology and hematology/oncology fellows and junior faculty began a unique year-long education and mentoring program last summer as part of the American Society of Hematology Clinical Research Training Institute. Dale Bixby, M.D., Ph.D., a third-year fellow in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, attended the program at Dana Point, CA.

“My interest is in clinical translational research for acute and chronic leukemias,” Bixby says. His research has focused on the clinical development of molecularly targeted therapies for leukemias. 

He explains, “The clinical protocol that I designed for the program involves the evaluation of a novel small molecule MDM2 inhibitor in the treatment of patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. This is the most common leukemia in adults and, despite numerous advances in treatments for this disease, there has been little improvement in the overall survival of patients.”
 
The Clinical Research Training Institute affords Bixby the opportunity to meet with the nation’s leaders in clinical trial design and development, and to gain from their experiences in clinical investigation.

Each year, the Clinical Research Training Institute provides aspiring hematologists with the necessary tools to begin careers in clinical research.  The program, now in its sixth year, begins with a week-long summer workshop that focuses on the fundamentals of research. Participants also have the opportunity to work on their own proposed clinical research projects with interaction from expert faculty. Two subsequent sessions, one at the ASH annual meeting in December and one the following spring, provide further mentoring opportunities.

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Biomedical Science Research Building sculpture and atrium dedicated

The Flame of Wisdom sculpture.

The Flame of Wisdom sculpture and the Gilbert S. Omenn Atrium were dedicated in June at a ceremony held at the Biomedical Science Research Building. Robert P. Kelch, M.D., executive vice president for Medical Affairs and CEO, U-M Health System, and James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., dean, U-M Medical School, jointly hosted the event. More than 100 invited guests attended.

“The Flame of Wisdom created by Leonardo Nierman is more than an artistic sculpture,” said Woolliscroft. “As it dazzles in the sunshine and soars to the sky, so it becomes the physical manifestation of the human spirit – of our creativity in all of its forms.”
  
Kelch described the atrium in this way: “The design of the Gilbert S. Omenn Atrium is fittingly symbolic. To me, the design is reminiscent of soaring to new heights, accomplishing new objectives and setting ever-greater goals in the biomedical sciences. The Atrium is a wonderful ‘welcome’ to the building that reinforces the University’s position as a leader in biomedical research and its commitment to sustainable design strategies.”

Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., is professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics and Public Health, and director, Center for Computational Medicine and Biology. He previously served as the U-M Health System’s first executive vice president for medical affairs. The atrium was named after him in recognition of the gift by Dr. Omenn and his wife, Martha Darling, that made the atrium possible and in appreciation for his many contributions to the U-M Health System, the University of Michigan and society at large.

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University of Michigan researchers focus of eye grants

By funding vision research, Midwest Eye-Banks, known for transplantation, is taking a long view of ways to address blinding eye conditions. The Eye-Bank’s best year ever in funding disbursement included grants to five U-M researchers through its Eye and Vision Research Program.

Grant recipients include the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center’s Joshua Stein, M.D., who will study side effects of corticosteroids on vision, and Kellogg retinal specialist David N. Zacks, M.D., Ph.D., who will examine ways to prevent retinal nerve cell death. Tom Glaser, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the U-M Medical School, will identify genes responsible for severe hereditary eye malformations.

The Eye-Bank’s Bread and Butter grants are $15,000 each. Student stipend awards of $2,500 will go to ophthalmology residents Irina Koreen, M.D., Ph.D., and Larry Koreen, M.D., Ph.D.

The goal of the Eye and Vision Program is to provide seed money for research into the causes and cures of blinding eye conditions. A committee evaluates proposals and then recommends funding for 12 researchers and seven students or residents.

Joshua Stein, M.D.

Joshua Stein’s research involves the use of large health care databases to study trends in eye care utilization. In his project, he will use databases to gain an appreciation of the numbers of individuals in the U.S. who are chronically receiving corticosteroids for ophthalmological or non-ophthalmological purposes and whether such individuals are undergoing routine eye examinations to monitor for ocular side effects of steroids including glaucoma and cataracts.

Tom Glaser, M.D., Ph.D.

Tom Glaser studies the genes that control formation of the eyes during embryonic development, from primordial neural tissue. His laboratory also investigates genes responsible for the diversity of neuron cell types within the retina. Glaser’s laboratory will identify mutations responsible for anophthalmia, a rare cause of blindness in which the eyes are absent or very small.

Irina Koreen, M.D., Ph.D.

Irina Koreen is focused on sebaceous carcinoma, the second most deadly type of eyelid tumor. Her project aims to determine whether there are specific microscopic features of sebaceous carcinoma that correlate with the patient's prognosis.

Larry Koreen, M.D., Ph.D.

Larry Koreen aims to determine causative mutations responsible for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative disease of the retina that can cause severe vision loss.    

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U-M physicians advance laparoscopic surgical skills in Ghana

Arnie Advincula, M.D., teaches physicians in Ghana.

In July, a group of physicians led by Arnie Advincula, M.D. and Jonathan Finks, M.D., from the University of Michigan, traveled to Ghana, Africa, to teach basic laparoscopic surgical skills to Ghanaian gynecologists and surgeons. During a week-long course, they gave talks on the basic principles and physiology of laparoscopic surgery. They also taught basic skills using simulators and proctored laparoscopic procedures in the operating room.

“West African surgeons and gynecologists are just beginning to incorporate laparoscopic surgical techniques into their practice,” says Finks. “They lack specific training in laparoscopy, however, which is why our basic skills course has helped them to advance their program in minimally invasive surgery.”

This course is part of an ongoing post-graduate training program in Ghana that was started in 1986 by Timothy Johnson, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Advincula and Finks are working closely with physicians in Ghana to help develop a minimally invasive surgery program at the main teaching hospital in Accra, Ghana.

“The most rewarding aspect of the trip was coming to the lab in the morning and finding surgeons and gynecologists hard at work with the surgical simulators,” Finks says. “Their enthusiasm and eagerness to learn these techniques was very energizing.”

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