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Molecular Medicine Symposium
Highlights Texas Health Research
More than 200 scientists from The University of Texas System's health institutions shared research information Feb. 21-22 during a molecular medicine symposium sponsored in Houston by the UT System.
Elizabeth Nabel, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, was keynote speaker at the UT System Molecular Medicine Symposium in Houston. With her are, from left, Peter J. A. Davies, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for research at the UT Health Science Center at Houston; C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., adjunct professor at the health science center's Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases; and Kenneth Shine, M.D., executive vice chancellor for health affairs at UT System. Photo by Bill Olive
The symposium was organized by the office of UT System Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Kenneth Shine, M.D. The first event of its kind, the meeting at the Hilton-Americas downtown was designed to encourage collaboration among the system's six health institutions and to highlight research success.
Shine noted that the health institutions combined for $1.046 billion in research expenditures last year that advanced knowledge in medical and scientific fields. "Please join us in telling your story," Shine said to the researchers. "Translate it into something people can understand."
The event drew favorable reviews from participants.
"It was a very successful inaugural event in both bringing together and stimulating discussion among scientists from UT health institutions," said Peter J. A. Davies, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for research at the UT Health Science Center at Houston. "In a time when the National Institutes of Health is emphasizing interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research initiatives, the symposium emphasized the potential of scientists in the UT System to work together and advance the field of molecular medicine."
The powerful tools of molecular medicine allow scientists to look at how thousands of genes or proteins change in response to disease or disease treatment - providing insights into the genetic or molecular basis of disease.
"Molecular medicine is a common theme that cuts across all areas," said Davies, who was a member of the symposium planning committee and moderator of a data blitz session. "Molecular medicine is related in part to the NIH roadmap initiative - bench to bedside - and an enormous opportunity to increase our understanding of human disease."
Four health science center faculty members were speakers:
- Frank Arnett, M.D., holder of the Elizabeth Bidgood Chair in Rheumatology in the UT Medical School at Houston, reviewed his team's innovative attack on scleroderma.
- Craig Hanis, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in the Human Genetics Center at the UT School of Public Health at Houston, reviewed his research in the genetics and epidemiology of adult-onset diabetes.
- Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Medical School's Division of Medical Genetics and holder of the President George H. W. Bush Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine, presented an update on her research in the genetics of thoracic aortic aneurysm.
- Edward Yeh, M.D., director of the Research Center for Cardiovascular Diseases at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, discussed research into the development of prostate cancer.
Hanis, Milewicz and Yeh also hold faculty appointments in the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.
The event was planned by a steering committee from all the UT campuses. Chairing the committee was Allan Brasier, M.D., the Leon Bromberg, M.D., Professor in Internal Medicine at the UT Medical Branch at Galveston. For more information see http://www.utsystem.edu/hea/molecular/homepage.htm.