Theodore White, PhD
Researchers at the UMKC School of Biological Sciences, working with investigators at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., have sequenced the complete genomes for five separate fungi in the dermatophyte group, which cause a variety of fungal infections, including athlete’s foot.
The work at UMKC was performed in the lab of Theodore White, Ph.D., Interim Dean and Marion Merrell Dow Professor of Biological Sciences. Dr. White worked closely with Diego Martinez, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, and Christina Cuomo, Ph.D., Group Leader of the Fungal Genome Sequencing and Analysis Group in the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program at the Broad Institute. The work is published in the Sept. 4 issue of mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Click here for the article.
Aug 12
30
Diane Harper, MD
Diane Harper, M.D., joined representatives from the World Health Organization in a presentation August 29 in Montreal for the World Cancer Congress – Union for International Cancer Control, which represents the largest network dedicated to global cancer control.
Dr. Harper, Professor of Medicine in the UMKC Departments of Community and Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Biomedical and Health Informatics, spoke on the issue of global cervical cancer control with Andreas Ullrich, Medical Officer for Cancer Control at the WHO department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Cervical cancer is the greatest cancer killer of women globally,” Dr. Harper said. “Specifically, 80 percent of cervical cancer deaths are in the developing countries where the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization are instrumental in documenting and sponsoring guidelines for improvement of women’s health.”
Nelson Sabates, MD
Researchers in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine have received a four-year challenge grant of $220,000 from Research to Prevent Blindness, the leading voluntary health organization supporting eye research directed at the prevention, treatment or eradication of all diseases that threaten vision. The research will be directed by Nelson Sabates, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and Director of the Vision Research Center at UMKC.
The research being conducted by Dr. Sabates and his colleagues is focused on two goals: 1) understanding the vision process at a cellular level and what happens when components at that level do not work correctly (such as in a disease process); and 2) making strides in treatments at the clinical level to save or improve patients’ vision.
Mark Brodwin
UMKC astrophysicist Mark Brodwin, Ph.D., is part of a team of astronomers that have found an extraordinary galaxy cluster, one of the largest objects in the universe, that is breaking several important cosmic records. Observations of the Phoenix cluster with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the National Science Foundation’s South Pole Telescope, and eight other world-class observatories may force astronomers to rethink how these colossal structures and the galaxies that inhabit them evolve. The research team’s observations appear in the Aug. 16 issue of Nature.
Stars are forming in the Phoenix cluster at the highest rate ever observed for the middle of a galaxy cluster. The object also is the most powerful producer of X-rays of any known cluster and among the most massive. The data also suggest the rate of hot gas cooling in the central regions of the cluster is the largest ever observed.
The Phoenix cluster is located about 5.7 billion light years from Earth. It is named not only for the constellation in which it is located, but also for its remarkable properties. Click here to read the full NASA news release.
Jeffrey Gorski
Working with colleagues in Switzerland, University of Missouri-Kansas City Professor Jeffrey Gorski, PhD., has developed a “high-pressure freezing” method for preserving calcium and phosphorus in biological specimens. As a result, researchers will get a clearer picture of how bone tissue processes these vital elements and incorporates them into bone structure.
Traditional methods for preparing bone tissue samples for electron microscopy and electron spectroscopic imaging use water, which results in the loss of much of these minerals in the samples. The new method will enhance investigators’ ability to visualize the elements using non-aqueous (without water) electron microscopy and electron spectroscopic imaging methods. The results of the research were recently published in the Leica research magazine reSolution, as well as the research journal Cells Tissues Organs.
Jul 12
17
Lynda Bonewald
The University of Missouri-Kansas City has received a five-year, $8.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the relationship between osteoporosis (loss of bone density) and sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) as people age. The research will be led by Lynda Bonewald, Ph.D., Curators’ Professor and director of the Bone Biology research program at the School of Dentistry, and conducted by a multidisciplinary team of investigators from UMKC’s Bone Biology and Muscle Biology research groups, part of the university’s Center of Excellence in Dental and Musculoskeletal Tissues.
“Osteoporosis and sarcopenia are major clinical problems in the nation’s aging population,” said Dr. Bonewald. “In many patients, these two conditions occur concurrently, posing serious health threats for the elderly — physical instability, susceptibility to falls and consequently to fracture, morbidity, and premature death.”
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