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University of Washington School of Medicine
Online News
Vol. 10, No. 30
July 28, 2006
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To view an archived version of Online News on the UW
Medicine Web site, visit:
http://www.uwmedicine.org/Global/NewsAndEvents/somnews/index.htm
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MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN: UW Medicine stands with researchers and patients in supporting broader federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research
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This week’s news:
* UW researcher Albert La Spada and colleagues uncover mechanism behind spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy
* Two School of Medicine students excel in Miss Seattle and Miss Washington contests
* Higher-volume hospitals have better outcomes for ICU patients needing mechanical ventilation, Harborview researchers find
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MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN:
Dear colleagues,
'The fight isn’t over yet.' That was the message Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell sent this past week during a press conference at the UW just days after President Bush vetoed legislation that would have allowed federal funding for stem-cell research using new lines of embryonic stem cells.
President Emmert and I joined the senators as they made a public commitment to stand by patients and continue working toward federal funding for stem-cell research. Randy Moon, Chuck Murry, and Tony Blau, co-directors of the UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, described their work and how the veto impedes the development of new treatments for diseases such as heart failure and diabetes. The UW is a major center for stem-cell research. Approximately 70 faculty are currently involved in this important work, and they span departments and divisions throughout UW Medicine, as well as the UW College of Arts and Sciences and College of Engineering.
UW faculty use a number of the federally approved embryonic stem cell lines, but our researchers described some of the major limitations, including age and degradation of these cell lines. Blau compared the limitations of the approved stem cell lines to using a five-year-old computer. It is imperative that scientists have access to new lines of stem cells.
Public research institutions are struggling to acquire funding that will support improved access to reliable stem-cell lines. A few states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey, have committed public funds for stem-cell research, and private donors have supported this promising research at other institutions. Both public and private financial support are needed for the UW to be a world leader in this field.
Two patients joined Senators Murray and Cantwell at the press conference, and they spoke in support of empowering broader stem-cell research. A young man with heart disease described the role that stem-cell research can play in treating heart failure, and a woman with Parkinson’s spoke of the great potential of stem-cell research for neurological diseases. The research community and UW Medicine stand with these patients and their families.
Paul G. Ramsey, M.D.
Dean of the School of Medicine and
Vice President for Medical Affairs
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UW RESEARCHERS UNCOVER MECHANISM OF SPINAL-BULBAR MUSCULAR ATROPHY
New research at the UW suggests that spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), an inherited disorder causing physical weakness and sensory deficits, is caused by a combination of interference in nerve cells and the loss of the ability to process a particular hormone. The research, led by Albert La Spada, associate professor of laboratory medicine, was published in the July 15 issue of Human Molecular Genetics.
SBMA, an X-chromosome-linked disorder, affects mostly males and causes nerve cell dysfunction and an insensitivity to androgens, which are male hormones. La Spada, who also directs the UW Center for Neurogenetics and Neurotherapeutics, helped discover in 1991 that SBMA comes about due to a sequence of genetic code that gets repeated too many times in the androgen receptor gene. The repeated sequences, called CAG repeats, each code for the amino acid glutamine, and disorders caused by the CAG repeats are called polyglutamine diseases. People with SBMA may have dozens of CAG repeats in their androgen receptor gene.
Researchers had not yet known how the many CAG repeats, and the many glutamine molecules those repeats produce in a patient's androgen receptor, caused the effects of SBMA. To learn more about the condition, La Spada and Patrick Thomas, Jr., a graduate student in La Spada's lab, and their colleagues studied the nerve cells in mice with three times the normal number of CAG repeats in their androgen receptor genes.
The researchers found that the mice, despite having no normal androgen receptor proteins, had the receptor proteins in the nuclei of their nerve cells, where the proteins could interfere with normal cell functions. They concluded that SBMA is likely caused by both the malfunction of the androgen receptor gene -- which leads to a lack of normal androgen receptors -- and the toxic effects of androgen receptor proteins in nerve cell nuclei, where the proteins cause problems in the functioning of the cell.
La Spada may be reached at 206-598-2138, laspada@u.washington.edu
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MEDICAL SCHOOL STUDENTS EXCEL IN MISS SEATTLE CONTEST
Two UW School of Medicine students have been able to use the Miss Seattle contest to help fund their education. Allison Porter was crowned Miss Seattle and Miss Washington in 2004, and Weiya Zhang won the Miss Seattle competition this February, and was later a semi-finalist in the Miss Washington competition.
The competitions are not just beauty contests -- entrants are scored on their academic successes, artistic talents, and community service. Winners can receive hundreds or thousands of dollars in scholarship money from the events. Last year, the local and state contests in Washington awarded more than $326,000 in scholarships to contestants.
Zhang, who was born in China, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with undergraduate degrees in biology and in the history and sociology of science. She received a $750 scholarship and a $500 wardrobe allowance after winning the Miss Seattle competition. Her community service is focused on pediatric lung health, especially tobacco-use prevention and asthma education. Zhang volunteers with the American Lung Association of Washington and the Sunday Health Clinic for the homeless at Seattle's Aloha Inn, and is doing a preceptorship with a cardiac surgeon in Seattle. She is also a violin player and a dancer.
Porter graduated from Harvard with an undergraduate degree in astronomy and astrophysics. She has worked as a medical volunteer in India and Ecuador, and has worked in immunogenetics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Porter's community service is focused on cancer and substance-abuse prevention. She is a competitive runner who has qualified for the Boston Marathon, and a winner of the Tacoma Golden Gloves boxing competition.
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HIGHER-VOLUME HOSPITALS HAVE LOWER MORTALITY RATES FOR PATIENTS ON VENTILATION
Patients needing mechanical ventilation in the hospital or the intensive-care unit (ICU) have a lower adjusted risk of mortality when in higher-volume hospitals, according to a study by UW and Harborview researchers. The study was published in the July 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Gordon Rubenfeld, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and physician at Harborview Medical Center, and his colleagues conducted the study. They examined data from more than 20,000 patients receiving care at 37 acute-care hospitals in 2002 and 2003.
They found that hospitals in the highest quarter of patient volume -- more than 400 patients receiving ventilation per year -- had a lower adjusted odds of death for those patients than did low-volume hospitals. Patients admitted into high-volume hospitals had a 37 percent reduction in odds of death in the ICU compared to the lowest-volume hospitals, which had less than 150 patients receiving ventilation per year.
The authors suggest further research on this issue to determine the mechanism linking hospital volume and mortality in critical-care patients receiving ventilation.
Rubenfeld's co-authors include researchers in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, the UW Department of Biostatistics, and the Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, Mo. Rubenfeld may be reached at nodrog@u.washington.edu
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Online News is published by Health Sciences/UW Medicine News and
Community Relations.
Justin Reedy, editor:
206-685-0382, jreedy@u.washington.edu
Online News is copyright 2006. All rights, including electronic
redistribution, are reserved.
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