Case Western Reserve School of Medicine Scientist Wins Prestigious NIH New Innovators Award

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Newswise — Derek Taylor, PhD, a member of the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, has been awarded the prestigious New Innovator Award by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH awards this grant to scientists proposing highly innovative approaches to major contemporary challenges in biomedical research, under the agency’s High Risk-High Reward program.

“Only the absolute top notch scientists compete for this award, which undergoes intense review by leaders at the NIH,” stated Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa and Patricia Shiverick- Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology, director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the Seidman Cancer Center at UH Case Medical Center. “Derek continues to excel as a cancer scientist at Case Western Reserve. I have been impressed with his continuous innovative approaches to fundamental questions in cancer. Telomere research is critical since this process is central to how cancer continues to grow and outlive normal cells.”

Taylor is an assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology, at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received the New Innovator Award to support his research on the induction of cancer cell death by selective DNA misincorporation.

Taylor’s laboratory studies chromosome stability. His lab is particularly interested in telomeres, the specialized structures that cap and protect the ends of chromosomes. Dr. Taylor’s research also focuses on a special enzyme, telomerase, which interacts with telomeres to contribute to chromosome stability. As telomerase is upregulated in the majority of human cancers, the Taylor lab is investigating how to use its unique mechanism to deliver toxic compounds to cancer cells selectively.

Taylor’s research will use telomerase as a “Trojan horse” to deliver toxic drugs exclusively to cancer cells. The results obtained from the proposed experiments could lead to an entirely new, and more successful, method for treating a diverse set of human cancers.

The New Innovator Award initiative, established in 2007, supports investigators who are within 10 years of their terminal degree or clinical residency, but who have not yet received a Research Project Grant (R01) or equivalent NIH grant, to conduct exceptionally innovative research.

Taylor is the only scientist in Ohio to receive a 2013 New Innovator’s Award.

About Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Founded in 1843, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is the largest medical research institution in Ohio and is among the nation’s top medical schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine is recognized throughout the international medical community for outstanding achievements in teaching. The School’s innovative and pioneering Western Reserve2 curriculum interweaves four themes--research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership,
and civic professionalism--to prepare students for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century. Nine Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with the School of Medicine.

Annually, the School of Medicine trains more than 800 MD and MD/PhD students and ranks in the top 25 among U.S. research-oriented medical schools as designated by U.S. News & World Report’s “Guide to Graduate Education.”

The School of Medicine’s primary affiliate is University Hospitals Case Medical Center and is additionally affiliated with MetroHealth Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, with which it established the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2002. http://casemed.case.edu.

About Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center is an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center located at Case Western Reserve University. The center, now in its 25th year of funding, integrates the cancer research activities of the largest biomedical research and health care institutions in Ohio – Case Western Reserve, University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. NCI-designated cancer centers are characterized by scientific excellence and the capability to integrate a diversity of research approaches to focus on the problem of cancer. It is led by Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa and Patricia Shiverick- Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology, director of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, Case Western Reserve, and director of the Seidman Cancer Center at UH Case Medical Center.

Investigador recibe donación de $681K para examinar el impacto de huracán Sandy en personas mayores

Newswise - STRATFORD - Rachel Pruchno, PhD, director of research at the Institute of New Jersey for the aging successful at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, has received a two-year scholarship $681.000 from the United States Department of health and human services to examine the effects of the hurricane Sandy in a large representative sample of more than 3,200 seniors living in nine New Jersey counties most affected by the storm. The study will identify aspects of social capital that promote resilience of older adults exposed to the disaster. Because the participants were also evaluated twice (in 2006 and 2011) before Hurricane Sandy, the study offers a unique opportunity to understand the resilience in the elderly.

"Natural disasters tend to have an impact disproportionate in older people interrupting the resources they need to function independently," said Pruchno, "older people accounted for 65 percent of the deaths related to Hurricane Sandy. Understand how affects the social capital of neighborhood resilience primarily to expand the scope of the investigation of the disaster and identify ways that help to protect the health and safety of seniors in emergency situations.

Pruchno estimated that nearly two-thirds of the eligible participants will have had any exposure personal disaster. The results of this study will provide information critical to informing individual and community-based interventions that can help to minimize the vulnerability of older persons, both before and after a disaster strikes.

"The resistance of an individual is not only a function of that individual's characteristics, resources, and exposure to the disaster," said Pruchno. "Resilience is also affected by the districts where they lived before, during and after the hurricane. Growing evidence suggests that the characteristics of the environment are considerable variations in resistance, and that these effects are stronger in later life".

In addition to interviewing the participants of the study in the nine counties of New Jersey, the researchers gather to be data from a variety of sources, including Medicare and Medicaid claims data, the 2010 Census and providers of community focus groups.

This project is being funded by a grant from the office of the Assistant Secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of health and human services of the United States.

Journalists interested in speaking with Rachel Pruchno, PhD, should contact Jerry Carey, Rowan University media communication and public relations, at careyge@rowan.edu or 856-566-6171.

About Rowan University
Rowan University is an institution of State public inquiry appointed with campuses in Glassboro, Camden and Stratford, N.j., offered through doctoral degree programmes to 14,000 students. In the past two years, Rowan created a school of Biomedical Sciences; He opened the University Cooper medical school of Rowan based in Camden; and the school of medicine Osteopathic, which formed part of the University of medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, making Rowan only the second University in the nation to grant medical degrees both M.D. and D.O. built-in. Rowan is also scheduled to collaborate with Rutgers-Camden to create a new University of Health Sciences in Camden, with degree programs related to the growth of necessary medical services in the future. Recently appointed by the State only the second institution of comprehensive public research in New Jersey, Rowan plans to increase sponsored research to $100 million a year. These new initiatives will be added to Rowan Rohrer College of Business and powers of communication and creative arts, education, engineering, graduate and continuing education, humanities and social sciences, performing arts and science and mathematics.

Los Angeles residents vote Cedars-Sinai No. 1 for the quality of care and staff

 

Newswise - LOS Angeles (October 22, 2013) - for 18 years in a row, Cedars-Sinai has won a national award from consumption to provide the medical care of high quality and staff in the Los Angeles region based on a survey of households in the area.

Cedars-Sinai has received an award of the 2013-14 National Research Corporation consumer choice. It is only medical center in the Los Angeles area to win the prize to the best professional quality of health in general, image, reputation, doctors and nurses.

"Cedars-Sinai is gratified by this important recognition of our community," said Thomas M. Priselac, President and Chief Executive Officer. "It reflects our commitment to providing compassionate, high quality care for residents in the region."

More than 270,000 households were contacted across the country for the study of knowledge about market research Corporation. Consumers in local markets were asked to which hospitals preferred based on service and quality of care.
Cedars-Sinai is one of only 37 hospitals throughout the country which won, or shared, in their local markets every year since its inception in 1996.

The award is the latest recognition of the commitment of Cedars-Sinai's quality of care.

Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released data showing that Cedars-Sinai is the only hospital in California (and one of only five in the nation) that have a mortality rate 30 days best that the national rate for five consecutive years in the following major categories of disease: heart failurepneumonia and the acute myocardial infarction (heart attack).

The distinction is significant for Cedars-Sinai treats many patients with advanced heart disease requiring complex interventions, including heart transplants. The programme has made adult heart transplant more than any other medical center in the nation for three consecutive years.

"We are proud of our history of quality," said Michael Langberg, MD, senior Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer. "It is the result of our personnel, paying special attention to even the smallest detail when it comes to patient care".

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