Retreat to Advance in Research Collaboration

Medical School scientists compare notes, and sometimes it’s really fast

David Marshak, Ph.D., left, professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the UT Medical School and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston, talks with keynote speaker Daniel Weinberger, M.D., director of the Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program of the National Institute of Mental Health, at a reception during the Medical School's annual Research Retreat.

Photo by Scott Merville

The challenge is simple and the deadline merciless: Explain your research in five minutes. Make that in FIVE MINUTES!

Welcome to the Data Blitz, a rapid-fire tour of research at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. The blitz was hosted by Andrew Bean, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy, during the fifth annual Medical School Research Retreat in February.

“There are FIVE MINUTES for each presentation,” Bean repeated, one final time. “There will be no time for questions, unless the person miraculously finishes early.”

There were few miracles during the nearly two hours that followed, but there was a broad and densely packed blizzard of biomedical science.

The session started, appropriately, with five minutes on perception of time by David Eagleman, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy.

Scientists covered such topics as: vision, memory, drugs and schizophrenia, alcohol and impulsive behavior, ecstasy (the drug), spinal cord injury, tuberculosis, chronic lung disease, influenza and atherosclerosis, anthrax, proteins, neurotransmitters, cell biology, quality control in gene expression, and, finally, a look at TORCH, a combined training program in craniofacial-oral biology research with the UT Dental Branch at Houston.

The Data Blitz, while only one session of the retreat, well represents the essence of the event. “The retreat allows our faculty to learn about each other’s work and encourages collaboration,” said John H. Byrne, Ph.D., the June and Virgil Waggoner Distinguished Professor, head of neurobiology and anatomy, and chairman of the Medical School’s Research Committee. “We’ve had some excellent research collaborations result from these retreats.”

Other items on the agenda at The Woodlands Conference Center focused on either outstanding research programs or resources available for scientists and physicians. The first set of presentations centered on the school’s major upgrades in imaging capabilities and its related research in multiple sclerosis and mental illness.

“This will be the year of the MRI at UT-Houston,” said Ponnada Narayana, Ph.D., professor of radiology and director of the Magnetic Resonance Research Group. A powerful new magnetic resonance imaging scanner for animal research is in place, replacing a similar piece of equipment lost to Tropical Storm Allison. A state-of-the-art MRI scanner for human use will be installed in the Medical School’s ground floor imaging center in June.

Pablo Okhuysen, M.D., director of the University Clinical Research Center based in Memorial Hermann Hospital, and colleagues reviewed the support for clinical research available at the UCRC. More than 80 clinical research protocols are under way through the center.

C. S. Raman, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of the Structural Biology Center, and other center scientists reviewed their progress in understanding function and mechanisms of molecules and viruses by determining their molecular structure. Using advanced application of x-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and 3- dimensional cryoelectron microscopy, center scientists are pushing structural knowledge down toward the atomic level.

Kathleen Kennedy, M.D., professor of pediatrics and director of the school’s master’s degree program in clinical research, described the program’s focused, flexible and affordable approach to teaching physicians how to conduct good clinical research.

The retreat keynote speaker emphasized how genetic research is illuminating the basic nature of mental illness. Genetic variation is not directly connected to the outward manifestations of mental illness – there are no genes for hallucination, for example, explained Daniel Weinberger, M.D., director of the Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Rather, recent discoveries show genetic variations that affect cognition and emotion. Weinberger reviewed three specific genetic variations that affect information processing, memory and the processing of negative emotions.

“No field of medicine will have been as profoundly altered by the Human Genome Project as psychiatry,” Weinberger said. “Genes are falling like fruit flies, genes that will tell us – are telling us – what mental disorders truly are.”

Bean, Eagleman, Byrne, Narayana and Raman also hold faculty appointments in the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

— Scott Merville, Public Affairs