2015-01 Phys Newsletter (1)
Content
Issue no. 1
In this issue
Chair’s welcome
Jian-Xing Ma, M.D., Ph.D.
Research highlights
A new cause of chronic pain and
anxiety at molecular level
Guidelines for neuromodulation
Safe and efficient vector for gene
therapy
Novel mechanism to intervene
angiogenesis under pathological
conditions
Research funding
New drugs for body weight
control
Biomarkers for relapsed
alcoholism
Epigenetic studies in endocrine
disruption and oral cancers
Insulin signaling in the eye
Caner stem cell research
Awards to faculty
Siribhinya Benyajati, Ph.D.
Kennon Garrett, Ph.D.
Beverley Greenwood-Van
Meerveld, Ph.D.
Graduate students awards
Anja Bastian
Qian Chen
Mei Du
Xuemin He
Dustin Masser
Stefano Tarantini
Milestones
Beverley Greenwood-Van
Meerveld, Ph.D.
Raju Rajala, Ph.D.
Spring 2015
Greetings from the department chair
It is my pleasure to introduce the first
issue of the Newsletter of Department of
Physiology. Thanks to the hard work of all
members, the Department of Physiology
has been growing rapidly in all aspects. To
keep all members of the department
updated with the progress, enhance
communication and promote collaborations
internally, the department decides to
launch this Newsletter. Managed by the
department members and serves the
department members, the Newsletter will
provide an overview of the Department’s
recent and upcoming activities as well as
announcements
about
the
Dr. Jian-Xing Ma, M.D., Ph.D.
accomplishments of our faculty, students,
Laureate Professor and Chairman,
and staff members. It also serves as a
Department of Physiology
window for our colleagues outside the
department and faculty candidates to know the department and follow our
progress. This Newsletter would provide a forum for everybody to share
scientific discoveries, new ideas, teaching skills, research funding news and
teaching opportunities. We also welcome suggestions, comments and
opinions regarding the departmental policies, activities and future
direction.
As we know, scientific research is facing many challenges including tight
funding. It is important to form collaborations for team-based researches. I
hope that all members of the department use this Newsletter to share
interesting news, congratulate each other for achievements, to discuss
controversial scientific topics, to solicit collaborations and seek suggestions
and advice for new research projects. Through everybody’s effort, I believe
that this Newsletter will benefit our department and enhance the mission
of the department.
New faces
Becky J. Mosley
1
Research highlights
A new cause of chronic pain and anxiety at molecular level
In a recent paper published in Molecular Psychiatry, which has an Impact
Factor 15.147, Dr. Beverley Greenwood-Van Meerveld, Professor of
Physiology, tested the hypothesis that histone deacetylation contributes to the
maintenance of chronic anxiety and visceral pain following prolonged exposure
of the central amygdala (CeA) to cortisol or corticosterone (CORT) in rats. Her
research team found that bilateral infusions of a histone deacetylase inhibitor
into the CeA attenuated anxiety-like behavior as well as somatic and visceral
hypersensitivity resulting from elevated CORT exposure. Moreover, they
delineated a novel pathway through which histone deacetylation could
contribute to CORT regulation of GR and subsequent CRF expression in the CeA.
Specifically, deacetylation of histone 3 at lysine 9 (H3K9), through the
coordinated action of the NAD+-dependent protein deacetylase sirtuin-6 (SIRT6)
and nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), sequesters GR expression leading to
disinhibition of CRF. These results indicate that epigenetic programming in the
amygdala, specifically histone modifications, is important in the maintenance of
chronic anxiety and pain (Tran L., Schulkin J., Ligon C.O. & Greenwood-Van
Meerveld B. Epigenetic Modulation of Chronic Anxiety and Pain by Histone
Deacetylation Mol Psychiatry 2014 doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.122).
Guidelines for neuromodulation in chronic
pain treatment
Spinal cord or peripheral nerve stimulation
(collectively called
neurostimulation) is
a clinically effective
and cost efficient
method to relief
intractable pain, but
it's not being used
appropriately
in
many patients. As a
member of the
Neuromodulation
Appropriateness
Consensus
Committee (NACC, a
committee included
Neuromodulation
Dr. Robert D. Forman reviews and
neurosurgeons,
provides
guidance
for
the interventional pain
appropriate use of neurostimulation
management
in chronic pain, as published in the
journal Neuromodulation.
specialists,
and
Dr. Beverley Greenwood-Van
Meerveld, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology, Director
of Oklahoma Center for
Neuroscience, Presbyterian
Health Foundation Professor of
Neuroscience, and VA Career
Scientist
experts in the fields of both central and peripheral
neurostimulation, which was charged with the
responsibility of reviewing and critiquing the
literature to provide evidence-based or consensus
opinion on the use of neuromodulation) of the
International Neuromodulation Society (INS), Dr.
Robert D. Foreman,
George Lynn Cross
Research Professor of Physiology, together with
other experts in the field, published three articles
in a recent issue of Neuromodulation (Deer T.R. et
al., Appropriate use of neurostimulation of the
spinal cord and peripheral nervous system for the
treatment of chronic pain and ischemic disease.
Neuromodulation 2014 17:515-550; Deer T.R. et al.,
The appropriate use of neurostimulation: avoidance
and treatment of complications of neurostimulation
therapies for the treatment of chronic pain.
Neuromodulation 2014 17:571-597; and Deer T.R.
et al., The appropriate use of neurostimulation:
new and evolving neurostimulation therapies and
applicable treatment for chronic pain and selected
disease states. Neuromodulation 2014 17:599-615).
2
These articles included discussions of the safety,
efficacy, mechanisms, economic impact, and
appropriateness of spinal cord, peripheral nerve,
and
peripheral
nerve
field
stimulation;
complications of neurostimulation and their
management;
and
new
and
evolving
neurostimulation therapies. They are a part of four
companion articles that analyze the world
literature and the practice of neuromodulation for
chronic pain, which provides recommendations to
improve safety, selection of implant candidates,
efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of clinical
neuromodulation practice.
vision of blind mice in vivo 2014 Nano Letters 14:
5257-5263). Using retinal pigment epithelium
protein 65 (Rpe65), the key enzyme in regulating
the availability of photochemical, as their testing
gene, Dr. Rajala’s team demonstrated that LPD
promoted efficient delivery and long term
expression of Rpe65 in the retina of Rpe65deficient mice, thus restoring the vision of these
knockout animals. These data suggest that LPD
system could be an efficient nonviral gene carrier
for future eye-based therapies.
Safe and efficient vector for gene therapy
Angiogenesis is fundamentally important for the
pathogenesis and/or progression of various
diseases, including cardiovascular diseases,
macular degeneration, chronic inflammation and
Gene
therapy is
a
technique
that
introduces exogenous genes to treat or prevent
disease. This therapeutic method, however, is
obstructed by undesirable immune responses
towards the exogenous genes, toxicity of vectors
that carry the gene and lack of sustained gene
expression. Dr. Raju V. S. Rajala, Professor of
Physiology, developed a new nanoparticle
[liposome-protamine-DNA complex (LPD)] that
process promising gene delivery capacity (Rajala et
al., Nanoparticle-assisted targeted delivery of eyespecific genes to eyes significantly improves the
LPD-mediated Rpe65 gene delivery in retina rescues cone cell
death
Retinal sections from uninjected (a), Rpe65-injected Rpe65
knockout (b) and wild-type (c) mice were subjected to lectin
cytochemical analysis using peanut agglutinin (PNA). RPE, retinal
pigment epithelium; ROS, rod outer segments; ONL, outer nuclear
layer, OPL, outer plexiform layer, INL, inner nuclear layer, IPL, inner
plexiform layer, GCL, ganglion cell layer. Scale bar: 100 μm.
Adapted from “Rajala et al. 2014 Nano Lett 14: 5257-5263”.
Novel mechanism to intervene angiogenesis
under pathological conditions
cancer. Dr. Xin A. Zhang, Professor of
Physiology, reveals an unappreciated regulatory
mechanism of angiogenesis by which membrane
glycosphingolipids and their derived lipid rafts in
endothelial cells modulate angiogenic potential. In
their recent study “CD82 restrains pathological
angiogenesis by altering lipid raft clustering and
CD44 tracking in endothelial cells (Wei Q. et al.,
Circulation 2014 130: 1493-1504)”, Dr. Zhang’s
research group has identified that teraspanin CD82,
a membrane glycoprotein, is critical to pathological
angiogenesis
such
as
hypoxia-induced
neovascularization in the retina and myocardial
infarction-induced
angiogenesis
through
controlling cell migration and invasion of
endothelial cells. They also present the CD82ganglioside-CD44 signaling as a potential
therapeutic target against angiogenesis. Together
with their earlier observations of another
teraspanin member CD151 (Zhang F. et al.
Tetraspanin CD151 maintains vascular stability by
balancing the forces of cell adhesion and
cytoskeletal tension Blood 2011 118:4274-4284),
Dr. Zhang’s work propose an emerging notion that
tetraspanins could be clinically beneficial though
up- or down-regulation of vascular functions such
as endothelial cell movement and angiogenesis.
3
Research funding
New drugs for body weight control
About 35% adults in US were defined as obese
in 2012, a number which has been trebled since
1960. This increasing prevalence of obesity puts a
great pressure to our healthcare and economic
systems. Therefore, developing new and effective
methods to control body weight gain is highly
warranted. To address this issue, Dr.
Chi Bun
Chan, Assistant Professor of Physiology, initiated
a project to identify new anti-obesity compounds,
which has received the Health Research Award
from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of
Science & Technology (OCAST). His project aims at
determining whether small molecular weight
neurotrophin receptor agonists can be applied to
reduce the obesity-induced body weight gain and
diabetes.
Biomarkers for relapsed alcoholism
Dr. Willard Freeman, Associate
Professor of Physiology, collaborating with his
former colleague, Dr. Kent E. Vrana of
Pennsylvania State University, received a NIH
(R01AA021661) funding to identify new
biomarkers for alcoholism. The project is a
human trial of plasma proteomic biomarker
panel of alcohol consumption. This diagnostic
is intended to identify subjects with excessive
alcohol intake or those in treatment programs
who have relapsed to drinking. The human trial
has a longitudinal population in the US and a
cross sectional study in Finland.
Epigenetic studies in endocrine disruption
and oral cancers
Dr. Willard Freeman also has a pair of new
epigenetic studies. The first is examining life-long
changes in brain DNA methylation with early life
endocrine disruption, and the other, with his
former colleague Dr. Craig Meyer of Pennsylvania
State University, is examining viral and host
epigenomic changes in HPV16-associated oral
cancers. These projects are funded by OCAST
(OCAST-HR14-174) and NIH (1R01DE024964),
respectively.
Insulin signaling in the eye
Dr. Raju V. S. Rajala has received a Bridge
Grant from Presbyterian Health Foundation for the
project “Light activation of retinal insulin receptor
signaling”. His project aims at understanding the
role of insulin receptors (IR) in the retina and
elucidating the intracellular signaling pathways
they generate.
Stem cell research
Dr. Xin A. Zhang has received a one-year
award (starting from Jan 2015) from Oklahoma
Center for Adult Stem Cell Research (OCASCR) to
support his research on cancer stem cells activity.
OCASCR is a regional program to promote adult
stem cell research and applications for various
medical treatments in Oklahoma.
4
Awards to faculty
Dr. Siribhinya Benyajati, Associate
Professor of Physiology, has received the 2014
Regents’ Award for Superior Teaching. This
award was established on June 6, 1963.
Originally, the award was given to three
individuals each year. In 1965, the policy was
amended to provide a maximum of five and a
minimum of three awards each year. In 1978,
the awards were expanded to include superior
accomplishment in any of the following:
Teaching, Research and Creative Activity,
Professional and University Service, with a
maximum of nine awards in one year with the
understanding the majority of the awards will be
given for superior teaching. This honor has also
been awarded to Dr. Kennon Garrett in 2012.
Dr. Kennon Garrett, Associate Professor of
Physiology, has received the 2014 Stanton L. Young
Master Teacher award of the College of Medicine,
one of the largest awards in the nation for
medical teaching excellence. This award is given
serve as an inspiring teacher. The award was
established in 1983 by Stanton L. Young, an
Oklahoma City businessman. Nominations for the
award are made by medical students, with the
dean of the College of Medicine making the final
decision. In addition to Dr. Garrett, Drs. Robert
Blair, Professor of Physiology, and Siribhinya
Benyajati have also received the same award in
2005 and 2007, respectively.
Beverley
Greenwood-Van
Meerveld was elected as a Member of the
Dr.
OUHSC Academy of Teaching Scholars in 2014. It is
a prestigious honor to those educators with
recognition of excellence in teaching and
educational scholarship. In addition to Dr.
Greenwood-Van
Meerveld,
Drs.
Siribhinya
Benyajati, Robert Blair and Kennon Garrett are also
members of the Academy.
annually to the exceptional teachers with
professional and personal excellence and ability to
Graduate student awards
Anja Bastian
(Mentor: Dr.
Michael
Ihnat,
Associate
Professor of Pharmaceutical
Sciences and Adjunct faculty of
Physiology) was awarded a
Grant-in-Aid of Research from
Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research
Society.
Dustin Masser (Mentor: Dr.
Willard Freeman) won the
Reynolds Oklahoma Center on
Aging Travel Award and the OU
Graduate Student Association
Research Grant.
Xuemin He
(Mentor: Dr.
Jian-Xing Ma) received the
Travel
Award
from
the
American Society of Nephrology
(ASN) Kidneys STARS Program
at ASN Kidney Week.
5
Qian Chen (Mentor: Dr. JianXing Ma) won the best
presentation award at the 11th
annual Harold Hamm Diabetes
Research Center Symposium
held on October 14, 2014. Qian
also received the American
Heart
Association-Southwest
Affiliate Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
on her study “Roles of VLDLR
Splice Variants in canonical Wnt
signaling regulation”.
Mei Du
(Mentor: Dr. Krysten
Farjo, Assistant Professor of
Physiology), won the “Gold
Award” in the research poster
presentation competition at the
11th annual Harold Hamm
Diabetes
Research
Center
Symposium. She received very
high praise form the judges,
who said she was by far the
clear winner.
Congratulations to all winners!
Stefano Tarantini
(Mentor: Dr. Zoltan Ungvari,
Associate Professor of Geriatric
Medicine and Adjunct faculty of
Physiology) won the 1st prize at
the 2014 OUHSC GREAT
symposium. He also received
several awards from the
American Aging Association
(Travel award), the Reynolds
Oklahoma Center on Aging
(Travel awards and Predoctoral
Fellowship), and the American
Heart
Association-Southwest
Affiliate
(Pre-Doctoral
Fellowship).
Milestones
We are proud to announce that Dr. Beverley
Greenwood-Van Meerveld
has been
appointed as the President Elect of the
Neuropharmacology Division of the American
Society for Pharmacology and Experimental
Therapeutics (ASPET) in 2014. ASPET is a scientific
society with more than 4,000 members in basic and
clinical pharmacological research. ASPET supports
nine divisions, each of which is governed by
independent executive committee.
We also congratulate Dr. Raju V.S. Rajala
for his recently awarded M.G. McCool Endowed
Chair in Ophthalmology. Dr. Rajala is a wellrecognized scholar on eye research, who is an
expert in cell survival signaling of the retina. He
also provides valuable service and leadership to the
department and the university.
6
New faces
Our new Business Manager, Becky J. Mosley, started her new job in Nov
2014. Before she joined our department, Becky was the Senior Administrative
Manager and Business Manager of the Graduate College and Endocrinology
Department respectively. Working at OUHSC for more than 22 years in different
departments and offices, from clinical to contract works, Becky has extensive
experiences in administration and is familiar with the general settings of the
university, which is definitely a beneficial asset to her current job duties. Because of
the excellent performance in her job, Becky was recognized as the “Employee of the
Month” by the Staff Senate in Jan 2014. In our department, Becky is in charge of
payroll services, accounting, budget, grant accounting administration, and supervising
the clerical staff personnel.
About the newsletter
Thank you for reading the OUHSC Physiology Newsletter. This Newsletter is bought to you by the Research
Committee and edited by Dr. Chi Bun Chan. It is a publication to share information on the events within our
department. We welcome articles and suggestions for future newsletters. Feel free to e-mail us ([email protected]) your thoughts so we can keep improving the newsletter.
7
In this issue
Chair’s welcome
Jian-Xing Ma, M.D., Ph.D.
Research highlights
A new cause of chronic pain and
anxiety at molecular level
Guidelines for neuromodulation
Safe and efficient vector for gene
therapy
Novel mechanism to intervene
angiogenesis under pathological
conditions
Research funding
New drugs for body weight
control
Biomarkers for relapsed
alcoholism
Epigenetic studies in endocrine
disruption and oral cancers
Insulin signaling in the eye
Caner stem cell research
Awards to faculty
Siribhinya Benyajati, Ph.D.
Kennon Garrett, Ph.D.
Beverley Greenwood-Van
Meerveld, Ph.D.
Graduate students awards
Anja Bastian
Qian Chen
Mei Du
Xuemin He
Dustin Masser
Stefano Tarantini
Milestones
Beverley Greenwood-Van
Meerveld, Ph.D.
Raju Rajala, Ph.D.
Spring 2015
Greetings from the department chair
It is my pleasure to introduce the first
issue of the Newsletter of Department of
Physiology. Thanks to the hard work of all
members, the Department of Physiology
has been growing rapidly in all aspects. To
keep all members of the department
updated with the progress, enhance
communication and promote collaborations
internally, the department decides to
launch this Newsletter. Managed by the
department members and serves the
department members, the Newsletter will
provide an overview of the Department’s
recent and upcoming activities as well as
announcements
about
the
Dr. Jian-Xing Ma, M.D., Ph.D.
accomplishments of our faculty, students,
Laureate Professor and Chairman,
and staff members. It also serves as a
Department of Physiology
window for our colleagues outside the
department and faculty candidates to know the department and follow our
progress. This Newsletter would provide a forum for everybody to share
scientific discoveries, new ideas, teaching skills, research funding news and
teaching opportunities. We also welcome suggestions, comments and
opinions regarding the departmental policies, activities and future
direction.
As we know, scientific research is facing many challenges including tight
funding. It is important to form collaborations for team-based researches. I
hope that all members of the department use this Newsletter to share
interesting news, congratulate each other for achievements, to discuss
controversial scientific topics, to solicit collaborations and seek suggestions
and advice for new research projects. Through everybody’s effort, I believe
that this Newsletter will benefit our department and enhance the mission
of the department.
New faces
Becky J. Mosley
1
Research highlights
A new cause of chronic pain and anxiety at molecular level
In a recent paper published in Molecular Psychiatry, which has an Impact
Factor 15.147, Dr. Beverley Greenwood-Van Meerveld, Professor of
Physiology, tested the hypothesis that histone deacetylation contributes to the
maintenance of chronic anxiety and visceral pain following prolonged exposure
of the central amygdala (CeA) to cortisol or corticosterone (CORT) in rats. Her
research team found that bilateral infusions of a histone deacetylase inhibitor
into the CeA attenuated anxiety-like behavior as well as somatic and visceral
hypersensitivity resulting from elevated CORT exposure. Moreover, they
delineated a novel pathway through which histone deacetylation could
contribute to CORT regulation of GR and subsequent CRF expression in the CeA.
Specifically, deacetylation of histone 3 at lysine 9 (H3K9), through the
coordinated action of the NAD+-dependent protein deacetylase sirtuin-6 (SIRT6)
and nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), sequesters GR expression leading to
disinhibition of CRF. These results indicate that epigenetic programming in the
amygdala, specifically histone modifications, is important in the maintenance of
chronic anxiety and pain (Tran L., Schulkin J., Ligon C.O. & Greenwood-Van
Meerveld B. Epigenetic Modulation of Chronic Anxiety and Pain by Histone
Deacetylation Mol Psychiatry 2014 doi: 10.1038/mp.2014.122).
Guidelines for neuromodulation in chronic
pain treatment
Spinal cord or peripheral nerve stimulation
(collectively called
neurostimulation) is
a clinically effective
and cost efficient
method to relief
intractable pain, but
it's not being used
appropriately
in
many patients. As a
member of the
Neuromodulation
Appropriateness
Consensus
Committee (NACC, a
committee included
Neuromodulation
Dr. Robert D. Forman reviews and
neurosurgeons,
provides
guidance
for
the interventional pain
appropriate use of neurostimulation
management
in chronic pain, as published in the
journal Neuromodulation.
specialists,
and
Dr. Beverley Greenwood-Van
Meerveld, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology, Director
of Oklahoma Center for
Neuroscience, Presbyterian
Health Foundation Professor of
Neuroscience, and VA Career
Scientist
experts in the fields of both central and peripheral
neurostimulation, which was charged with the
responsibility of reviewing and critiquing the
literature to provide evidence-based or consensus
opinion on the use of neuromodulation) of the
International Neuromodulation Society (INS), Dr.
Robert D. Foreman,
George Lynn Cross
Research Professor of Physiology, together with
other experts in the field, published three articles
in a recent issue of Neuromodulation (Deer T.R. et
al., Appropriate use of neurostimulation of the
spinal cord and peripheral nervous system for the
treatment of chronic pain and ischemic disease.
Neuromodulation 2014 17:515-550; Deer T.R. et al.,
The appropriate use of neurostimulation: avoidance
and treatment of complications of neurostimulation
therapies for the treatment of chronic pain.
Neuromodulation 2014 17:571-597; and Deer T.R.
et al., The appropriate use of neurostimulation:
new and evolving neurostimulation therapies and
applicable treatment for chronic pain and selected
disease states. Neuromodulation 2014 17:599-615).
2
These articles included discussions of the safety,
efficacy, mechanisms, economic impact, and
appropriateness of spinal cord, peripheral nerve,
and
peripheral
nerve
field
stimulation;
complications of neurostimulation and their
management;
and
new
and
evolving
neurostimulation therapies. They are a part of four
companion articles that analyze the world
literature and the practice of neuromodulation for
chronic pain, which provides recommendations to
improve safety, selection of implant candidates,
efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of clinical
neuromodulation practice.
vision of blind mice in vivo 2014 Nano Letters 14:
5257-5263). Using retinal pigment epithelium
protein 65 (Rpe65), the key enzyme in regulating
the availability of photochemical, as their testing
gene, Dr. Rajala’s team demonstrated that LPD
promoted efficient delivery and long term
expression of Rpe65 in the retina of Rpe65deficient mice, thus restoring the vision of these
knockout animals. These data suggest that LPD
system could be an efficient nonviral gene carrier
for future eye-based therapies.
Safe and efficient vector for gene therapy
Angiogenesis is fundamentally important for the
pathogenesis and/or progression of various
diseases, including cardiovascular diseases,
macular degeneration, chronic inflammation and
Gene
therapy is
a
technique
that
introduces exogenous genes to treat or prevent
disease. This therapeutic method, however, is
obstructed by undesirable immune responses
towards the exogenous genes, toxicity of vectors
that carry the gene and lack of sustained gene
expression. Dr. Raju V. S. Rajala, Professor of
Physiology, developed a new nanoparticle
[liposome-protamine-DNA complex (LPD)] that
process promising gene delivery capacity (Rajala et
al., Nanoparticle-assisted targeted delivery of eyespecific genes to eyes significantly improves the
LPD-mediated Rpe65 gene delivery in retina rescues cone cell
death
Retinal sections from uninjected (a), Rpe65-injected Rpe65
knockout (b) and wild-type (c) mice were subjected to lectin
cytochemical analysis using peanut agglutinin (PNA). RPE, retinal
pigment epithelium; ROS, rod outer segments; ONL, outer nuclear
layer, OPL, outer plexiform layer, INL, inner nuclear layer, IPL, inner
plexiform layer, GCL, ganglion cell layer. Scale bar: 100 μm.
Adapted from “Rajala et al. 2014 Nano Lett 14: 5257-5263”.
Novel mechanism to intervene angiogenesis
under pathological conditions
cancer. Dr. Xin A. Zhang, Professor of
Physiology, reveals an unappreciated regulatory
mechanism of angiogenesis by which membrane
glycosphingolipids and their derived lipid rafts in
endothelial cells modulate angiogenic potential. In
their recent study “CD82 restrains pathological
angiogenesis by altering lipid raft clustering and
CD44 tracking in endothelial cells (Wei Q. et al.,
Circulation 2014 130: 1493-1504)”, Dr. Zhang’s
research group has identified that teraspanin CD82,
a membrane glycoprotein, is critical to pathological
angiogenesis
such
as
hypoxia-induced
neovascularization in the retina and myocardial
infarction-induced
angiogenesis
through
controlling cell migration and invasion of
endothelial cells. They also present the CD82ganglioside-CD44 signaling as a potential
therapeutic target against angiogenesis. Together
with their earlier observations of another
teraspanin member CD151 (Zhang F. et al.
Tetraspanin CD151 maintains vascular stability by
balancing the forces of cell adhesion and
cytoskeletal tension Blood 2011 118:4274-4284),
Dr. Zhang’s work propose an emerging notion that
tetraspanins could be clinically beneficial though
up- or down-regulation of vascular functions such
as endothelial cell movement and angiogenesis.
3
Research funding
New drugs for body weight control
About 35% adults in US were defined as obese
in 2012, a number which has been trebled since
1960. This increasing prevalence of obesity puts a
great pressure to our healthcare and economic
systems. Therefore, developing new and effective
methods to control body weight gain is highly
warranted. To address this issue, Dr.
Chi Bun
Chan, Assistant Professor of Physiology, initiated
a project to identify new anti-obesity compounds,
which has received the Health Research Award
from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of
Science & Technology (OCAST). His project aims at
determining whether small molecular weight
neurotrophin receptor agonists can be applied to
reduce the obesity-induced body weight gain and
diabetes.
Biomarkers for relapsed alcoholism
Dr. Willard Freeman, Associate
Professor of Physiology, collaborating with his
former colleague, Dr. Kent E. Vrana of
Pennsylvania State University, received a NIH
(R01AA021661) funding to identify new
biomarkers for alcoholism. The project is a
human trial of plasma proteomic biomarker
panel of alcohol consumption. This diagnostic
is intended to identify subjects with excessive
alcohol intake or those in treatment programs
who have relapsed to drinking. The human trial
has a longitudinal population in the US and a
cross sectional study in Finland.
Epigenetic studies in endocrine disruption
and oral cancers
Dr. Willard Freeman also has a pair of new
epigenetic studies. The first is examining life-long
changes in brain DNA methylation with early life
endocrine disruption, and the other, with his
former colleague Dr. Craig Meyer of Pennsylvania
State University, is examining viral and host
epigenomic changes in HPV16-associated oral
cancers. These projects are funded by OCAST
(OCAST-HR14-174) and NIH (1R01DE024964),
respectively.
Insulin signaling in the eye
Dr. Raju V. S. Rajala has received a Bridge
Grant from Presbyterian Health Foundation for the
project “Light activation of retinal insulin receptor
signaling”. His project aims at understanding the
role of insulin receptors (IR) in the retina and
elucidating the intracellular signaling pathways
they generate.
Stem cell research
Dr. Xin A. Zhang has received a one-year
award (starting from Jan 2015) from Oklahoma
Center for Adult Stem Cell Research (OCASCR) to
support his research on cancer stem cells activity.
OCASCR is a regional program to promote adult
stem cell research and applications for various
medical treatments in Oklahoma.
4
Awards to faculty
Dr. Siribhinya Benyajati, Associate
Professor of Physiology, has received the 2014
Regents’ Award for Superior Teaching. This
award was established on June 6, 1963.
Originally, the award was given to three
individuals each year. In 1965, the policy was
amended to provide a maximum of five and a
minimum of three awards each year. In 1978,
the awards were expanded to include superior
accomplishment in any of the following:
Teaching, Research and Creative Activity,
Professional and University Service, with a
maximum of nine awards in one year with the
understanding the majority of the awards will be
given for superior teaching. This honor has also
been awarded to Dr. Kennon Garrett in 2012.
Dr. Kennon Garrett, Associate Professor of
Physiology, has received the 2014 Stanton L. Young
Master Teacher award of the College of Medicine,
one of the largest awards in the nation for
medical teaching excellence. This award is given
serve as an inspiring teacher. The award was
established in 1983 by Stanton L. Young, an
Oklahoma City businessman. Nominations for the
award are made by medical students, with the
dean of the College of Medicine making the final
decision. In addition to Dr. Garrett, Drs. Robert
Blair, Professor of Physiology, and Siribhinya
Benyajati have also received the same award in
2005 and 2007, respectively.
Beverley
Greenwood-Van
Meerveld was elected as a Member of the
Dr.
OUHSC Academy of Teaching Scholars in 2014. It is
a prestigious honor to those educators with
recognition of excellence in teaching and
educational scholarship. In addition to Dr.
Greenwood-Van
Meerveld,
Drs.
Siribhinya
Benyajati, Robert Blair and Kennon Garrett are also
members of the Academy.
annually to the exceptional teachers with
professional and personal excellence and ability to
Graduate student awards
Anja Bastian
(Mentor: Dr.
Michael
Ihnat,
Associate
Professor of Pharmaceutical
Sciences and Adjunct faculty of
Physiology) was awarded a
Grant-in-Aid of Research from
Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research
Society.
Dustin Masser (Mentor: Dr.
Willard Freeman) won the
Reynolds Oklahoma Center on
Aging Travel Award and the OU
Graduate Student Association
Research Grant.
Xuemin He
(Mentor: Dr.
Jian-Xing Ma) received the
Travel
Award
from
the
American Society of Nephrology
(ASN) Kidneys STARS Program
at ASN Kidney Week.
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Qian Chen (Mentor: Dr. JianXing Ma) won the best
presentation award at the 11th
annual Harold Hamm Diabetes
Research Center Symposium
held on October 14, 2014. Qian
also received the American
Heart
Association-Southwest
Affiliate Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
on her study “Roles of VLDLR
Splice Variants in canonical Wnt
signaling regulation”.
Mei Du
(Mentor: Dr. Krysten
Farjo, Assistant Professor of
Physiology), won the “Gold
Award” in the research poster
presentation competition at the
11th annual Harold Hamm
Diabetes
Research
Center
Symposium. She received very
high praise form the judges,
who said she was by far the
clear winner.
Congratulations to all winners!
Stefano Tarantini
(Mentor: Dr. Zoltan Ungvari,
Associate Professor of Geriatric
Medicine and Adjunct faculty of
Physiology) won the 1st prize at
the 2014 OUHSC GREAT
symposium. He also received
several awards from the
American Aging Association
(Travel award), the Reynolds
Oklahoma Center on Aging
(Travel awards and Predoctoral
Fellowship), and the American
Heart
Association-Southwest
Affiliate
(Pre-Doctoral
Fellowship).
Milestones
We are proud to announce that Dr. Beverley
Greenwood-Van Meerveld
has been
appointed as the President Elect of the
Neuropharmacology Division of the American
Society for Pharmacology and Experimental
Therapeutics (ASPET) in 2014. ASPET is a scientific
society with more than 4,000 members in basic and
clinical pharmacological research. ASPET supports
nine divisions, each of which is governed by
independent executive committee.
We also congratulate Dr. Raju V.S. Rajala
for his recently awarded M.G. McCool Endowed
Chair in Ophthalmology. Dr. Rajala is a wellrecognized scholar on eye research, who is an
expert in cell survival signaling of the retina. He
also provides valuable service and leadership to the
department and the university.
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New faces
Our new Business Manager, Becky J. Mosley, started her new job in Nov
2014. Before she joined our department, Becky was the Senior Administrative
Manager and Business Manager of the Graduate College and Endocrinology
Department respectively. Working at OUHSC for more than 22 years in different
departments and offices, from clinical to contract works, Becky has extensive
experiences in administration and is familiar with the general settings of the
university, which is definitely a beneficial asset to her current job duties. Because of
the excellent performance in her job, Becky was recognized as the “Employee of the
Month” by the Staff Senate in Jan 2014. In our department, Becky is in charge of
payroll services, accounting, budget, grant accounting administration, and supervising
the clerical staff personnel.
About the newsletter
Thank you for reading the OUHSC Physiology Newsletter. This Newsletter is bought to you by the Research
Committee and edited by Dr. Chi Bun Chan. It is a publication to share information on the events within our
department. We welcome articles and suggestions for future newsletters. Feel free to e-mail us ([email protected]) your thoughts so we can keep improving the newsletter.
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