Immunologist Casali to occupy Zachry Distinguished Chair

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 24, 2013) — Paolo Casali, M.D., an immunologist known for pioneering studies of processes that underpin the body’s response to viruses, bacteria, cancer cells and tissue/organ damage in autoimmune diseases, in January will join the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Francisco González-Scarano, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at the UT Health Science Center, announced the recruitment today.

Dr. Casali will be appointed as chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine and will occupy the Zachry Foundation Distinguished Chair in Microbiology and Immunology. “I am delighted that Dr. Casali has accepted our offer to join the School of Medicine in San Antonio,” Dr. González said. “He was the top candidate revealed by an extensive national search, and our students will greatly benefit from his training and research program in the field of immunology.”

Dr. Casali is the Donald Bren Professor of Medicine, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. Born in Italy, Dr. Casali received his degree in medicine and surgery (magna cum laude) from the University of Milan, where he then became a resident in internal medicine and obtained a specialty in clinical immunology and allergy as well as microbiology and virology. Dr. Casali pursued postgraduate work in immunology at the Medical School of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, along with assignments as a field officer in Ethiopia by the World Health Organization.

At the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Casali is credited with building the renowned Institute for Immunology and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded immunology training graduate program. Prior to joining the University of California, Dr. Casali was a tenured professor at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York.

For the past 25 years, Dr. Casali has conducted pioneering research on the molecular mechanisms used by immune cells called B-lymphocytes (B cells) to produce antibodies. “His groundbreaking work in human B cells and antibodies in the 1980s and ’90s was instrumental in the development of the first human monoclonal antibodies that neutralize rabies virus as well as the creation of a human monoclonal antibody to TNF-α, which is commercially available and used to cure important autoimmune diseases,” Dr. González said. TNF-α is short for tumor necrosis factor-alpha.

Throughout his career Dr. Casali has served as a member of many NIH review panels and study sections, and received many formal acknowledgments of his scientific accomplishments. In 2009, Dr. Casali was elected a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in recognition of his achievements in the field of molecular immunology.

Since 2002 Dr. Casali has served as editor-in-chief of Autoimmunity, an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes clinical and basic science articles on immunology, genetics, and the molecular biology of immunity and autoimmunity. Dr. Casali’s research has been funded without interruption by the NIH for almost three decades as well as by private foundations. His work has been published in high-profile journals such as Science, Nature Immunology, Immunity, Cell and The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Dr. Casali succeeds Joel Baseman, Ph.D., who is stepping down as chair of the department after more than three decades of distinguished work. Dr. Baseman will remain in his valued role as researcher, teacher and mentor, and as head of the Center for Airway Inflammation Research, Dr. González said.

 

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health funding. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 29,000 graduates. The $736 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.

Border health educator to be panelist on national webinar

HARLINGEN (Sept. 16, 2013) — Beatriz Tapia, M.D., a lecturer from the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio who teaches medical students in Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley, will be a panelist on a national webinar Tuesday, Sept. 17, about careers in Hispanic and minority health.

Dr. Tapia is based at the Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen, where she is a senior lecturer. She also is a coordinator for the South Texas Environmental Educational Research (STEER) program, which hosts hands-on instruction in environmental and border health for medical students.

The webinar, “Careers in Improving Hispanic Health,” will be hosted by the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia and the Hispanic Serving Health Professions Schools in Washington, D.C., as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. The goal is promote student interest in careers related to Hispanic health and health disparities.

Free and open to the public, the webinar is scheduled from 3-4 p.m. CDT. Interested persons may register here.

Dr. Tapia received her medical degree from the Autonomous University of Puebla in Mexico and her master’s degree in public health at Johns Hopkins University. She also completed a fellowship in 2011 sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control’s Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute.

She enrolled in the STEER program in 2005 as an intern with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and STEER leaders invited her to join the program as a faculty associate in 2006. STEER operates monthlong instructional courses for medical students and others in Laredo and Harlingen, which serves as the base for instruction in the Rio Grande Valley.

Dr. Tapia has taught students from the high-school level to master’s and doctoral degree candidates. She also has played a major role in training promotoras, or community health advisers, in the border region. Dr. Tapia’s research has focused on autism, asthma, pesticides and hazardous exposures. She has published several medical papers.

In 2011, the Texas Public Health Journal published her study about the danger indoor air poses to pregnant women. The study measured indoor-air quality in homes of pregnant Hispanic women who live along the Texas-Mexico border. It found the presence of multiple pesticides in a majority of the homes. The study involved women in their third trimester of pregnancy, when the fetal brain undergoes a growth spurt.

 

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health funding. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 29,000 graduates. The $736 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute awards $1.6 million

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 19, 2013) — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) this month funded two research awards totaling $1.6 million to faculty investigators in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.

Barbara J. Turner, M.D., M.S.Ed., M.A., MACP, professor in the Department of Medicine, was awarded $715,539 over 30 months. Dr. Turner will lead a multi-institutional team studying different approaches to involve communities in health research. One approach will be tested in Frio County and a separate one in Karnes County. The South Central Area Health Education Center and the UT School of Public Health are key collaborators in the project. Dr. Turner is director of the Research to Advance Community Health (ReACH) Center, a collaboration of the UT Health Science Center, University Health System and the UT School of Public Health.

“Community members are not usually partners with researchers in identifying important research questions and evaluating how research can relate to their own real-world care,” Dr. Turner said. “We will evaluate novel ways to engage the community in addressing an important public health problem, chronic low back pain, focusing on gaining input from Latino patients and caregivers. Our predominant Latino population has much to contribute to meaningful research but has not to date collaborated on the development of research initiatives. We aim to correct that.”

The chronic low back pain project will test purposive sampling and respondent-driven sampling. In Frio County, a community advisory board will recruit residents to sign up as stakeholders, who in turn will ask others to join, and so forth. This is respondent-driven sampling. In Karnes County, a community advisory board will help the research team learn about the occupations and other activities of residents of Karnes County to inform recruitment of a diverse group to serve as stakeholders. This is purposive sampling. Ultimately, the evaluation of these two sampling methods will be used by the research team in collaboration with community partners to develop a protocol for involving patients and stakeholders in patient-centered outcomes research.

Dawn Velligan, Ph.D., professor and chief of the Division of Schizophrenia in the Department of Psychiatry, was awarded $928,845 over three years. Dr. Velligan is involved in running a 90-day transitional care clinic for patients with serious mental illness who are leaving the hospital. The goal is to smooth the transition to outpatient treatment and prevent repeated re-hospitalizations or emergency room visits.

The PCORI grant will be used to examine two approaches to transitional treatment to see which is more effective: a more traditional model versus an approach that increases patient engagement and emphasizes shared decision-making between patient and health care provider.

“We created the transitional clinic because the hospital readmission rate for serious mental illness was so high in Bexar County,” Dr. Velligan said. “People end up using the emergency room as their primary care doctor for mental health. Our clinic is intended to take care of people until we can connect them with services in our community.”

$5 million gift from Greehey Family Foundation pushes Campaign for the Future of Health over $500 million goal

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 9, 2013) — At the 2013 President’s Gala on Saturday, Sept. 7, William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, president of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, announced a $5 million gift from the Greehey Family Foundation to the university. This new donation pushes the Health Science Center’s Campaign for the Future of Health over its goal of $500 million.

Dr. Henrich said the campaign momentum was launched through the generosity of NuStar Chairman Bill Greehey. In 2007, the Greehey Family Foundation made a historic $25 million gift to the UT Health Science Center and the Campaign.

The capital campaign fund was created to enhance the university’s research infrastructure by building the South Texas Research Facility and by establishing and sustaining the President’s Excellence Fund, which funds signature research programs and the recruitment and retention of world-class faculty.

“We needed a champion back then, and we found one in Bill Greehey. It’s only fitting that our campaign culminates with a major gift from him,” Dr. Henrich said.

The Greehey Family Foundation’s support has allowed Health Science Center scientists at the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute to dedicate their time to understanding children’s cancer with the goal of creating new and better treatments. The foundation’s gifts also fund student scholarships, community outreach programs, including pediatric patient assistance, and faculty recruitment and retention aimed at advancing the health of children.

The Greehey Family Foundation’s latest gift was announced Sept. 7 during the university’s largest President’s Gala at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio. With more than 1,500 community and academic leaders and students in attendance, this year’s communitywide gala raised almost $600,000 that will be used to establish two funds named for the night’s honoree, Bill Greehey and The Greehey Family Foundation.

The Greehey Family Foundation Endowment for Community Service will support faculty and student programs directly benefitting the health and well-being of the community.

The Greehey Family Foundation Fund for Community Service and Patient Needs also will support the university’s mission of service. It will help address patients’ urgent medical needs.

With the foundation’s emphasis on supporting health and human welfare issues, children’s causes, education and the homeless, Greehey said the foundation’s partnership with the university allows both entities to make more lives better.

“We are proud of our partnership with the UT Health Science Center. By joining forces, the foundation and the university can continue to make a greater difference in the health and well-being of men, women and children — not just in San Antonio, but in communities across the world — thanks to the world-class research that is being done at the Health Science Center,” Greehey said. “And, I am also proud of our collaborative work to provide health and dental care to the working poor and homeless in our community.”

Dr. Henrich said the Health Science Center hosts the communitywide gala to showcase the university’s missions, raise funds to support the work of the faculty and students across the university, and honor exceptional leaders who work to make a difference locally, regionally and nationally.

“At this year’s President’s Gala, we were especially proud to pay tribute to one of our most iconic and admired businessmen and philanthropists, Bill Greehey. Earlier this year, The Harvard Business Review ranked Bill near the top of its listing of The 100 Best-Performing CEOs in the world.

“This recognition of the tremendous success he has achieved as a chief executive officer also reflects Bill’s dedication to his employees, our city and all persons in need. The Health Science Center is thrilled to honor Bill Greehey and The Greehey Family Foundation for their strong commitment to San Antonio and to our university,” Dr. Henrich said.

Mr. Greehey is the Chairman of the Board of NuStar Energy, L.P., and NuStar GP Holdings, LLC, which are both based in San Antonio. NuStar is one of the largest petroleum pipeline and terminal operators in America.

Mr. Greehey established the Greehey Family Foundation in 2004, and it has already given well over $100 million in grants to worthy charities. This includes a $25 million grant to the UT Health Science Center San Antonio to fund children’s health and cancer research, treatment and community service projects.

Endowment funds announced at previous galas include: The Charles Butt and H-E-B Excellence Fund for the Future of Health, 2011; The John T. and Debbie Montford Fund for Cancer Research, 2010; The Briscoe Family Legacy Fund in Women’s Health, 2008; and The Jocelyn and Joe Straus Endowed Chair in Trauma Research, 2007.

Women and Cancer topic of Thursday’s CTRC free lecture

SAN ANTONIO (September 10, 2013) – The quest continues for ways to find and treat ovarian cancer early. Meanwhile, screening and treatment have greatly improved the prognosis for many breast cancer patients, but debate continues over how frequently women should get mammograms.

This Thursday night, the Cancer Therapy & Research Center features two experts to discuss and answer questions about these topics at its free lecture on Women & Cancer.

Pamela Otto, M.D., interim chair of the Department of Radiology in the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center, will discuss screening, early detection, and what to expect when getting a breast imaging evaluation. Kevin Hall, M.D., chief of gynecology/oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will provide an update on screening and treatment of gynecologic cancers.

The lecture, which is open to the public and has a question-and-answer session, will be Thursday, Sept. 12 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on the fourth floor of the CTRC’s Grossman Building, 7979 Wurzbach Rd., San Antonio. For more information call (210) 450-1152. It will be streamed live online at www.CTRC.net/LIVE. The lecture is sponsored by H-E-B and the Institute for the Integration of Medicine and Science at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

Team IDs 2 pathways through which chromosomes are rearranged

Discovery provides target to potentially halt the process, prevent cancers

SAN ANTONIO (Sept. 10, 2013) — Biologists reported this week in Nature that they have identified two pathways through which chromosomes are rearranged in mammalian cells. These types of changes are associated with some cancers and inherited disorders in people.

“Our finding provides a target to prevent these rearrangements, so we could conceivably prevent cancer in some high-risk people,” said senior author Edward P. (Paul) Hasty, D.V.M., of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Partial funding came from the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

The two pathways rearrange chromosomes by recombining DNA repeats that are naturally found in the genome, Dr. Hasty said. DNA, the chemical substance of genes, denatures and replicates during cell division and other processes. Repeats are sequences of DNA that are duplicated.

Both pathways are important for the synthesis of DNA. “Therefore, we propose that chromosomal rearrangements occur as DNA is being synthesized,” Dr. Hasty said.

DNA repeats observed in cells affected by genetic mutations

The experiments were conducted with mouse embryonic stem cells grown in tissue culture. The team measured the incidence of DNA repeats recombining in normal cells. This is called “repeat fusion.” The scientists then looked for incidence of repeat fusion in cells affected by several genetic mutations. This analysis identified the two pathways and showed large, complicated rearrangements that involved DNA repeats on multiple chromosomes.

During cell division, DNA is coiled into pairs of threadlike structures called the chromosomes. Each human cell has 22 numbered pairs of chromosomes called autosomes. The sex chromosomes are the 23rd pair in cells and determine a person’s gender. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have an X and a Y chromosome.

“We hope the new findings will help us better understand the mechanisms that cause chromosomal instability, which causes some cancers in people,” Dr. Hasty said.

At the Health Science Center, Dr. Hasty is a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine, has a laboratory at the UT Institute of Biotechnology, and is a faculty member of the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies.

 
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (1 RO1 CA123203-01A1 to Drs. Paul Hasty and Cristina Montagna, 2P01AG017242-12 to Dr. Hasty, P30CA013330 to Dr. Montagna) and with support from the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (P30 CA054174).

Two Replication Fork Maintenance Pathways Fuse Inverted Repeats to Rearrange Chromosomes

DOI: 10.1038/nature12500
Lingchuan Hu1, Tae Moon Kim1, Mi Young Son1, Sung-A Kim1, Cory L. Holland1, Satoshi Tateishi2, Dong Hyun Kim1, P. Renee Yew1, Cristina Montagna3, Lavinia C. Dumitrache1,4, and Paul Hasty1
1Department of Molecular Medicine/Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 15355 Lambda Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78245-3207, USA
2Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics (IMEG), Kumamoto University, Honjo 2-2-1 Kumamoto 860-0811 Japan
3Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, N.Y. 10461
4Current address: Department of Genetics & Tumor Cell Biology, M/S 331, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, Tenn. 38105

 
The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is one of the elite academic cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Designated Cancer Center, and is one of only four in Texas. A leader in developing new drugs to treat cancer, the CTRC Institute for Drug Development (IDD) conducts one of the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug programs in the world, and participates in development of cancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. For more information, visit www.ctrc.net.