UT Southwestern in the News — October 2009

October 2009

CNN: Lou Dobbs Tonight – Top doctors discuss health care in America (Oct. 30, 2009)
In this special report, CNN presents an in-depth discussion on the real state of health care in this country and what we should be doing to improve accessibility, improving affordability and quality. Some of the nation's most prestigious medical professionals join Lou Dobbs for the discussion, including Dr. Daniel Foster, the John Denis McGarry Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and Metabolic Research and professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern. Watch Video

Reuters – Trying forceps before C-section may not raise risks (Oct. 29, 2009)
Attempting to aid a difficult childbirth with forceps instead of immediately performing a C-section may not raise the risks to the baby in most cases, a new study suggests. When a woman has difficulties in the second, or "pushing," stage of labor, the doctor can use forceps or a vacuum pump to pull the baby through the birth canal. That practice, however, has fallen out of favor in recent years, as cesarean section has become the preferred option. Some have questioned the wisdom of the decline in instrument-assisted delivery, according to the researchers on the new study, led by Dr. James M. Alexander of
UT Southwestern. Read More

KERA, Public Radio, Dallas – New H1N1 deaths: Preparation For First Vaccine Clinics (Oct. 28, 2009)
Two more H1N1 flu-deaths are reported in North Texas as Tarrant and Dallas counties gear up for their first vaccine clinics. Dr. James Luby, infectious disease expert at
UT Southwestern, says the number of emergency room "flu" visits have decreased – indicating a down-tick in H1N1 cases. But he says it won't last. "We could still have more cases occurring with the cold weather. I think everybody is saying that we will have another wave at the beginning of next year," he said. Listen

The Dallas Morning News – Dallas Cowboys assistant coach shows true grit
in comeback (Oct. 25, 2009)
Joe DeCamillis, an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, should be a quadriplegic after the team's practice facility collapsed on him during a spring storm. He's not, because the injury was so severe it cracked open his spinal canal rather than crushing bone and sinew into it. The damage is devastating. Dr. Howard Morgan, professor of neurosurgery at
UT Southwestern, comments. Read More

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial – Tackling disparity in colorectal cancer screening (Oct. 25, 2009)
Colorectal cancer is becoming a disease of poverty. Incidence rates have decreased significantly since 1998, with credit for the improvement largely going to endoscopic screening that detects and removes polyps that could become cancerous. But a published study starkly quantified these disparities in Tarrant County. A research team, led by assistant professor Samir Gupta of UT Southwestern, used data from the JPS Health Network to determine the screening rates in the safety-net system for the uninsured, Medicaid patients and other vulnerable populations. Read More

Reuters – Dallas Regional Chamber honors local companies and organizations
at annual Momentum Dallas Awards (Oct. 23, 2009)
Nine Dallas area companies and organizations were honored at the Dallas Regional Chamber's Momentum Awards held last night at the W Dallas Victory Hotel. Awards were presented to: The BioCenter at Southwestern Medical District was the recipient of the technology catalyst award. The technology catalyst award is presented to a company or organization working to develop and encourage new technology that yields economic growth. The BioCenter will develop UT Southwestern technologies to the point of commercialization and provide commercial space for existing or start-up life-science companies. Read More

Science News – Estrogen helps ward off belly fat (Oct. 23, 2009)
Estrogen converts dangerous fat to healthier fat — even in a man. New research shows that molecules that hold estrogen can help or hinder fat cell growth, which helps them regulate risk of metabolic diseases, Deborah Clegg, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern, reported Oct. 20 at the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing meeting in Austin. “We wanted to ask a very silly question: Is a male fat cell the same thing as a female fat cell?” Clegg said. “No one had ever asked that question.” Read More

The Dallas Morning News – Scientists tackle H1N1 questions of a fearful public (Oct. 23, 2009)
Thursday's top national headline about swine flu continued to be about the lack of vaccine. But behind the news is a daily trickle of new information about the H1N1 virus itself. Here are some answers to H1N1 questions, based on the science of the moment. Dr. James Luby, an expert on infectious diseases, has been studying nasty microbes at
UT Southwestern since 1967. Dr. Jeffrey Kahn is chief of infectious diseases at Children's Medical Center Dallas and professor of pediatrics and microbiology at UT Southwestern. Both answer questions about the flu and the vaccine. Read More

U.S. News & World Report – Red-Grape Compound May Improve Diabetes (Oct. 23, 2009)
New research provides further insight into how a health-boosting compound found in red grapes may help the body fend off type 2 diabetes. But scientists have only seen the effect in mice who received injections in the brain, and no evidence has emerged that consuming red wine or other products made with grapes will alleviate the blood sugar disease. The findings do tell scientists about how the compound known as resveratrol works on the brain, said senior study author Roberto Coppari. If scientists know that the brain is a "major player," then drug companies working on related research "will focus on a drug that will penetrate the brain," said Dr. Coppari, an assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern. Read More

The Dallas Morning News – Barefoot running offers a new challenge, may strengthen feet (Oct. 20, 2009)
If you spend time at the Katy Trail or any other fitness hot spot, chances are you've seen someone padding along barefoot or in funny shoes resembling foot-gloves. Why would runners forgo standard running shoes, engineered over three decades to stabilize, cushion and comfort? Some studies show benefits to barefoot running, but none compares them with the benefits of wearing shoes, says Dr. Michael D. VanPelt, podiatrist and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at UT Southwestern. Read More

Wall Street Journal – Rare 'outliers' drive search for cures to disease (Oct. 20, 2009)
Douglas Robinson often wonders why he is still alive. Mr. Robinson was diagnosed with HIV in November 2003. But he has an extremely low viral count despite never having received antiretroviral therapy. He is a so-called elite controllers, people who fare far better than what doctors typically expect of most people who contract HIV. Looking at the healthiest of healthy outliers also has led to a potential new approach to reducing cholesterol, says Helen H. Hobbs who, along with Jonathan Cohen at UT Southwestern, has been conducting a study aimed at identifying genes contributing to heart disease risk. Read More

Dallas Business Journal – UT Southwestern wins database contract (Oct. 16, 2009)
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $15.7 million contract to UT Southwestern and Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop an open-access national online database and analysis resource center for the study of viruses. About $2.7 million will go to UT Southwestern, which will act as a subcontractor on the project. The database is designed to help scientists combat viruses that cause hepatitis, encephalitis, smallpox, acute respiratory distress and dengue fever, as well as newly emerging pathogenic viruses. Read More

Science News – Science for Science Writers: News from the 47th annual New Horizons in Science meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (Oct. 18, 2009)
Skip Garner began his accidental journey into scientific misconduct investigation after he developed a computer program that could, as he put it, “help a physicist understand medicine.” Typical searches of Medline, a database of medical and other scientific research papers, rely on typed-in keywords, but his program instantly compares blocks of text. “This is a poor man’s hypothesis generator,” says Garner, of UT Southwestern. However, his software revealed hundreds of papers where scientists apparently plagiarized from their colleagues, or themselves. So far, more than 50 articles have been retracted – though the abstracts remain on PubMed, the website portal for searching the Medline database. Read More

KXAS, Ch. 5 NBC – The sun, finally! (Oct. 15, 2009)
You may have needed sunglasses when you went to lunch Wednesday. For the first time in weeks, the sun peeked through the clouds on and off all day. Ponder this: NBC-DFW meteorologists said the only day you saw the sun all day, without a hint of a cloud, was Oct. 2. Are we all suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or are we all just a bunch of complainers? Drs. Timothy Wolf and Shawn McClintock of UT Southwestern comment. Read More

CBS News – Red wine chemical may treat diabetes (Oct. 15, 2009)
The much touted compound resveratrol shows some promise as a future treatment for type 2 diabetes, but drinking wine or taking resveratrol supplements isn't likely to do diabetic people much good, researchers say. Resveratrol, found in red wine, was found to lower blood sugar levels and improve insulin levels when injected directly into the brains of mice fed very high-calorie diets in a study conducted by researchers at UT Southwestern. Lead researcher Roberto Coppari comments. Read More

 KCBS-TV CH 2 (CBS) Los Angeles – Red wine may help Treat type-2 diabetes (Oct. 15, 2009)
A new study by researchers at UT Southwestern says a compound found in red wine may help treat type 2 diabetes. Researchers say resveratrol can lower blood sugar levels and improve insulin levels. Suzanne Rico reports. Watch Video

The Dallas Morning News – President of UT Southwestern elected to national Institute of Medicine (Oct. 14, 2009)
Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, president of UT Southwestern, was elected Monday to the Institute of Medicine. Election to the institute, a component of the National Academies, is one of the country's top honors in the fields of health and medicine. Podolsky, 56, was among 65 national members and five foreign associates inducted this year. Institute members are chosen based on professional achievement and advise the government on medical care, research and education. UT Southwestern now has 19 faculty members in the institute. Read More

The Dallas Morning News – UT Southwestern to oversee medical residents training in Austin hospitals (Oct. 13, 2009)
UT Southwestern will soon train doctors 200 miles away in Austin – and eventually give the University of Texas System an increased medical presence in the state capital. Under an agreement reached Monday, UT Southwestern will gain about 170 medical residents at two Austin hospitals that belong to the Seton Family of Hospitals. The total could rise to 300 or more residents in the next three to five years, a Seton spokesman said. Read More

Austin American-Statesman – Regents approve plan to expand academic medicine in Austin (Oct. 13, 2009)
The governing board of the UT System unanimously approved a plan Monday to expand medical education and research in Austin through a partnership involving the system,
UT Southwestern and the Seton Family of Hospitals. Approval by the Board of Regents had been expected. The plan could advance efforts to establish a medical school here, but there are no guarantees, said Kenneth Shine, the UT System's executive vice chancellor for health affairs. Under the plan, the number of medical school graduates undergoing additional training in Austin could more than double, to more than 300, in the next five to eight years. Read More

Heartwire — Experts debate bariatric surgery as a cure for diabetes (Oct. 9, 2009)
Could gastric bypass or banding operations—known as bariatric surgery—for the treatment of obesity also be a potential cure for diabetes? Diabetologists, surgeons, and other doctors debated the idea during a special session at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2009 Meeting last week and at a number of press conferences there. UT Southwestern's Dr. Darren McGuire, a cardiologist who specializes in treating diabetes, and Dr. Edward Livingston, chief of gastrointestinal and endocrine surgery, comment. Read More

Maclean's (Canada) — Blame your brain (Oct. 9, 2009)
Deborah Clegg, a dietician and internal medicine professor at UT Southwestern, has made a stunning discovery: fat in our favourite foods — including butter and steak — doesn’t just go straight to our hips, it goes first to our brain. That’s problematic because the fat turns off the hormones that are in charge of regulating our food consumption and body weight. “The message,” says Clegg, “would be not to wait for your body to tell you you’re full when you have a meal loaded with fat. Make yourself stop eating. Because the likelihood of your body paying attention to those signals is not very good.” Read More

United Press International – Possible new Alzheimer's therapy studied (Oct. 8, 2009)
U.S. scientists have found the harmful effects of the beta-amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's disease might be mitigated with another brain protein. Dr. Joachim Herz, professor of molecular genetics and neuroscience at UT Southwestern and the study's senior author, said the findings from the animal study suggest a new therapy tactic against Alzheimer's. Read More

Associated Press – 3 Americans share Nobel medicine prize (Oct. 6, 1009)
Three Americans won the Nobel prize in medicine on Monday for discovering how chromosomes protect themselves as cells divide, work that has inspired experimental cancer therapies and may offer insights into aging. The research by Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak revealed the workings of chromosome features called telomeres, which play an important role in the aging of cells. Blackburn and Greider discovered an enzyme, telomerase, that maintains the lengths of the telomeres. Other work showed that telomerase helps cancer cells sustain their uncontrolled growth. Scientists are trying to exploit that to produce new therapies, noted Dr. Jerry Shay of
UT Southwestern. Read More

 KDFW-TV CH 4 (Fox) – Mobile home brings mammograms to you (Oct. 2, 2009)
Getting a mammogram is import in finding breast cancer early. But many women battle fears over the exam, don't have time to go to a doctor or don't have insurance to cover it. That's why UT Southwestern and Susan G. Komen for the Cure are making getting a mammogram easier and more cost effective by bringing the exam to you. Watch Video

The Dallas Morning News – Director of Alzheimer's center at UT Southwestern wins neurology award (Oct. 2, 2009)
Dr. Roger Rosenberg, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at UT Southwestern, has been awarded the first Medal for Scientific Achievement by the World Federation of Neurology. In 1975, Rosenberg and his colleagues published the first in a series of papers on the clinical and genetic basis for an inherited disease that causes degeneration in a brain region essential for balance and coordination. Rosenberg's current research centers on a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease. Read More

The Dallas Morning News – A primer for parents on H1N1 symptoms (Oct. 2, 2009)
Parents, here's what you need to know about H1N1. The virus is no more dangerous than regular flu. But after a couple days, if your child isn't feeling better — if his fever spikes or he's having trouble breathing — don't delay. Take him to a doctor immediately. Jeffrey Kahn, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UT Southwestern and Children's Medical Center Dallas, comments. Read More