UPDATE (Aug. 2, 2024): A previous version of this story misstated Paul Kinahan’s name.

Fifteen faculty members at the 91±¬ÁĎ have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. They are among 36 scientists and educators from across the state . Selection recognizes the new members’ “outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”

Twelve 91±¬ÁĎ faculty members were selected by current WSAS members. They are:

• , associate professor of epidemiology, of health systems and population health, and of child, family and population health nursing, who “possesses the rare combination of scientific rigor and courageous commitment to local community health. Identifying original ways to examine questions, and seeking out appropriate scientific methods to study those questions, allow her to translate research to collaborative community interventions with a direct impact on the health of communities.”
• , the Shauna C. Larson endowed chair in learning sciences, for “his work in the cultural basis of scientific research and learning, bringing rigor and light to multiculturalism in science and STEM education through STEM Teaching Tools and other programs.”
• , professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, “for her sustained commitment to community-engaged, science-driven practice and policy change related to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of mental health, with a focus on providing effective, sustainable and culturally appropriate care to people with serious mental illness.”
• , the David and Nancy Auth endowed professor in bioengineering, who has “charted new paths for 30-plus years. Her quest to deeply understand protein folding/unfolding and the link to amyloid diseases has propelled her to pioneer unique computational and experimental methods leading to the discovery and characterization of a new protein structure linked to toxicity early in amyloidogenesis.”
• , professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, of global health, and of emergency medicine, who is “a global and national leader at the intersection of climate change and health whose work has advanced our understanding of climate change health effects and has informed the design of preparedness and disaster response planning in Washington state, nationally and globally.”
• , professor of bioengineering and of radiology, who is “recognized for his contributions to the science and engineering of medical imaging systems and for leadership in national programs and professional and scientific societies advancing the capabilities of medical imaging.”
• , the Donald W. and Ruth Mary Close professor of electrical and computer engineering and faculty member in the 91±¬ÁĎ Clean Energy Institute, who is “recognized for his distinguished research contributions to the design and operation of economical, reliable and environmentally sustainable power systems, and the development of influential educational materials used to train the next generation of power engineers.”
• , senior vice president and director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the Joel D. Meyers endowed chair of clinical research and of vaccine and infectious disease at Fred Hutch, and 91±¬ÁĎ professor of medicine, who is “is recognized for her seminal contributions to developing validated laboratory methods for interrogating cellular and humoral immune responses to HIV, TB and COVID-19 vaccines, which has led to the analysis of more than 100 vaccine and monoclonal antibody trials for nearly three decades, including evidence of T-cell immune responses as a correlate of vaccine protection.”
• , professor of political science and the Walker family professor for the arts and sciences, who is a specialist “in environmental politics, international political economy, and the politics of nonprofit organizations. He is widely recognized as a leader in the field of environmental politics, best known for his path-breaking research on the role firms and nongovernmental organizations can play in promoting more stringent regulatory standards.”
• , the Ballmer endowed dean of social work, for investigations of “how inequality, in its many forms, affects health, illness and quality of life. He has developed unique conceptual frameworks to investigate how race, ethnicity and immigration are associated with health and social outcomes.”
• , professor of chemistry, who is elected “for distinguished scientific and community contributions to advancing the field of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, which have transformed how researchers worldwide analyze data.”
• , professor of bioengineering and of ophthalmology, whose “pioneering work in biomedical optics, including the invention of optical microangiography and development of novel imaging technologies, has transformed clinical practice, significantly improving patient outcomes. Through his numerous publications, patents and clinical translations, his research has helped shape the field of biomedical optics.”

Three new 91±¬ÁĎ members of the academy were selected by virtue of their previous election to one of the National Academies. They are:

• , professor of atmospheric and climate science, who had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences “for contributions to research and expertise in atmospheric radiation and cloud processes, remote sensing, cloud/aerosol/radiation/climate interactions, stratospheric circulation and stratosphere-troposphere exchanges and coupling, and climate change.”
• , the Bartley Dobb professor for the study and prevention of violence in the Department of Epidemiology and a 91±¬ÁĎ professor of pediatrics, who had been elected to the National Academy of Medicine “for being a national public health leader whose innovative and multidisciplinary research to integrate data across the health care system and criminal legal system has deepened our understanding of the risk and consequences of firearm-related harm and informed policies and programs to reduce its burden, especially among underserved communities and populations.”
• , division chief of general pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a 91±¬ÁĎ professor of pediatrics, who had been elected to the National Academy of Medicine “for her leadership in advancing child health equity through scholarship in community-partnered design of innovative care models in pediatric primary care. Her work has transformed our understanding of how to deliver child preventive health care during the critical early childhood period to achieve equitable health outcomes and reduce disparities.”

In addition, Dr. , president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and of the Cancer Consortium — a partnership between the 91±¬ÁĎ, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Fred Hutch — was elected to the academy for being “part of a research effort that found mutations in the cell-surface protein epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which plays an important role in helping lung cancer cells survive. Today, drugs that target EGFR can dramatically change outcomes for lung cancer patients by slowing the progression of the cancer.”

the Boeing-Egtvedt endowed professor and chair in aeronautics and astronautics, will join the board effective Sept. 30. Morgansen was elected to WSAS in 2021 “for significant advances in nonlinear methods for integrated sensing and control in engineered, bioinspired and biological flight systems,” and “for leadership in cross-disciplinary aerospace workforce development.” She is currently director of the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, co-director of the 91±¬ÁĎ Space Policy and Research Center and chair of the AIAA Aerospace Department Chairs Association. She is also a member of the WSAS education committee.

“I am excited to serve on the WSAS board and work with WSAS members to leverage and grow WSAS’s impact by identifying new opportunities for WSAS to collaborate and partner with the state in addressing the state’s needs,” said Morgansen.

The new members to the Washington State Academy of Sciences will be formally inducted in September.

November 13, 3:00 – 4:30pm | Online

In this Diversity Lecture Series, Denova Collaborative Health’s executive director, Angela Roumain, will explore the maternal rate of illness and rate of death in the United States, including health complications and harmful outcomes that can occur during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum. Poor maternal health outcomes affects Black and Indigenous women and women of color significantly more, and Roumain will highlight this stark and deeply rooted problem in the United States’ healthcare system.

Free |

November 13, 3:30 – 5:00pm | Communications Building

The Simpson Center for the Humanities presents the AI, Creativity, and the Humanities Workshop. The workshop offers a hands-on, technical introduction to large language models (LLMs) for humanities researchers, led by Melanie Walsh, an Assistant Professor in the Information School and co-Principal Investigator of the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded AI for Humanists project, and Maria Antoniak, a Young Investigator at the Allen Institute for AI. Walsh and Antoniak will focus on building practical knowledge of (1) how these models work and how they are trained and (2) how practitioners can apply particularly for these models to humanistic texts.

Free |

November 14, 5:30 – 7:00pm | ĚýJacob Lawrence Gallery

Join the School of Art + Art History + Design to celebrate the official reopening of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery. Dedicated to Professor Jacob Lawrence, the gallery is a space for education, social justice, and experimentation, honoring the memory of one of the School’s most beloved faculty. The newly transformed gallery, now equipped with climate control, modern lighting, and new exhibition infrastructure, was made possible by the generous supporters of the 91±¬ÁĎ Art + Music Capital Campaign.

Free |

November 14, 6:30 – 8:00pm | Washington State Labor CouncilĚý

Free |

November 15, 3:00 – 5:00pm | Communications Building

The Department of American Ethnic Studies is proud to sponsor a book talk at the Simpson Center with author Elmer Dixon. Rick Bonus, chair of the Department of American Ethnic studies and professor, will be speaking to Dixon about his new book: “Die Standing: From Black Panther Revolutionary to Global Diversity Consultant.”ĚýStudents and faculty in the Department of Ethnic Studies are encouraged to attend this event.

Free |

November 16, 5:00 – 8:00pm | wǝɫǝbĘ”altxĘ· Intellectual HouseĚý

The Department of American Indian Studies hosts an annual literary and storytelling series, Sacred Breath, which features Indigenous writers and storytellers sharing their craft at the beautiful wǝɫǝbĘ”altxĘ· Intellectual House on the 91±¬ÁĎ campus. This year, Christopher B. Teuton (Cherokee Nation), professor and chair of the Department of American Indian Studies, and Tami Hohn (Puyallup), assistant teaching professor of the Department of Indian Studies, will be leading the event. Both storytelling and reading aloud can impact audiences through the power of presence, allowing for the experience of the transfer of sacred breath, as audiences are immersed in the experience of being inside stories and works of literature.

Free |

November 16, 6:00 – 7:00pm | Jacob Lawrence Gallery

The Jacob Lawrence Gallery presents What Do You Make of This? featuring the work of Kristine Matthews, Associate Professor of Design and Chair of the Visual Communication Design program at the 91±¬ÁĎ School of Art + Art History + Design.

Free |Ěý

November 16 – 18, 8:00 pm | ĚýMeany Hall

Inspired by the drawings and paintings of Francisco de Goya, Noche Flamenca’s new work references the artist’s response to the political turmoil and injustices of 18th and 19th century Spain, echoing conflict prevalent in contemporary time. Choreographed by artistic director Martin Santangelo and award-winning principal dancer Soledad Barrio, Searching for Goya features a company of dancers, singers, and musicians whose mastery of flamenco stretches the boundaries of the art form to a journey through Goya’s imagination.

Buy Tickets |

November 16, 7:00 – 8:30pm | Thomson Hall

The Stroum Center celebrates its 50th anniversary with a discussion on how putting mothers at the center of Jewish history can provide unexpected insights and startlingly unfamiliar perspectives. From ancient biblical narratives to cutting-edge genomic research, author Cynthia Baker will point out how this is especially true in relation to issues of race/ethnicity and its entanglements with gender, religion, and nationality.

Free |Ěý

October – November | “Ways of Knowing” Podcast: Episode 5

“Ways of Knowing” is an eight-episode podcast connecting humanities research with current events and issues. This week’s episode is with JosĂ© Alaniz, professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, analyzes the physical depictions of superheroes and villains through the decades.

This season features faculty from the 91±¬ÁĎ College of Arts & Sciences as they explore race, immigration, history, the natural world—even comic books. Each episode analyzes a work, or an idea, and provides additional resources for learning more.

More info

Have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu)

• Dr.Ěý, professor of medicine and of immunology at the 91±¬ÁĎ, as well as the Rona Jaffe Foundation Endowed Chair at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and head of the Program in Immunology in its Clinical Research Division
• , the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps Endowed Professor in Mathematics at the 91±¬ÁĎ

Greenberg and Uhlmann are among 120 new members and 23 international members elected “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” May 2 by the academy. Chartered in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences provides policy advice and input to governmental, nonprofit and private organizations.

Greenberg’s laboratory is internationally respected for its work on T-cell therapies for cancer and chronic infections. A type of white blood cell, T cells are part of the body’s defenses. His team is identifying tumor antigens — or substances that provoke immune responses — that could be targets for T cells and the basis of anti-cancer therapies. Clinical trials of T-cell therapies are currently underway for patients with small cell lung cancer, malignant melanoma and acute leukemia — along with preclinical research for ovarian and pancreatic cancers. Greenberg’s research also focuses on developing techniques to monitor T-cell infusions for potential obstacles to immune therapy. Other work includes seeking ways to erase immune “memory” in T cells and reprogram them with another immune response. He is also testing strategies to activate natural killer cells — another immune system component — against cancer.

Greenberg earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.D. from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. He was a medical resident, and later a postdoctoral researcher, at the University of California, San Diego, before joining Fred Hutch as a clinical and research fellow in oncology. Greenberg was recently named president of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Uhlmann is a world-renowned expert in inverse problems, which involves calculating the causal factors behind a set of observations. Among other applications, Uhlmann has explored identifying an object by how it scatters light and other electromagnetic waves. As part of these efforts, he has formulated theories for certain types of cloaking technologies, some of which have been realized. He has also worked on partial differential equations, imaging and microlocal analysis.

Uhlmann earned a degree in mathematics from the University of Chile in 1973 and a doctoral degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. Beginning his academic career at MIT, he joined the 91±¬ÁĎ faculty in 1984, and held the Walker Family Endowed Professorship in Mathematics from 2006 to 2022. Since 2014, Uhlmann has been the Si Yuan Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has also held chairs and professorships at Cambridge University, the University of Helsinki, the Paris Mathematical Science Foundation and the University of California, Berkeley. Among other honors, elected fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012 and fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2010.

With this year’s additions, the National Academy of Sciences now has 2,565 active members and 526 international members.

Twenty scientists and engineers at the 91±¬ÁĎ are among the 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021, according to a July 15 . New members were chosen for “their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”

Current academy members selected 29 of the new members. An additional nine were elected by virtue of joining one of the National Academies.

New 91±¬ÁĎ members who were elected by current academy members are:

• , professor and Port of Tacoma Chair in Environmental Science at 91±¬ÁĎ Tacoma, director of the and science director of the , “for foundational work on the environmental fate, behavior and toxicity of PCBs.”
• , professor of psychology, “for contributions in research on racial and gender inequality that has influenced practices in education, government, and business” and “for shifting the explanation for inequality away from individual deficiencies and examining how societal stereotypes and structures cause inequalities.”
• , professor of chemistry and member faculty at the , “for leadership in the innovative synthesis and chemical modification of nanoscale materials for application in light emission and catalysis.”
• , professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences, and founding director of the , “for work on the health impacts of climate change, on climate impact forecasting, on adaptation to climate change and on climate policy to protect health.”
• , professor of environmental and forest sciences and dean emeritus of the College of the Environment, “for foundational studies of regional paleoenvironmental history and sustained excellence in academic leadership to catalyze and sustain transformative research and educational initiatives.” Graumlich is also president-elect of the American Geophysical Union.
• Dr. , the Joseph W. Eschbach Endowed Chair in Kidney Research and co-director of the , “for pioneering contributions and outstanding achievements in the development of the novel wearable artificial kidney, as well as numerous investigator-initiated clinical trials and multi-center collaborative studies.”
• , professor of environmental chemistry and chair of the Physical Sciences Division at 91±¬ÁĎ Bothell, “for leadership in monitoring and understanding the global transport of atmospheric pollutants from energy production, wildfire, and other sources, as well as science communication and service that has informed citizens and enhanced public policy.”
• , professor and chair of psychology, “for contributions demonstrating how psychological science can inform long-standing issues about racial and gender discrimination” and “for research that has deep and penetrating implications for the law and societal efforts to remedy social inequities with evidence-based programs and actions.”
• , the Leon C. Johnson Professor of Chemistry, member faculty at the and chair of the Department of Chemistry, “for developing new spectroscopy tools for measuring energy flow in molecules and materials with high spatial and temporal resolution.”
• , professor of astronomy, “for founding the and leading the decades-long development of the interdisciplinary modeling framework and community needed to establish the science of exoplanet astrobiology” and “for training the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists who will search for life beyond Earth.”
• , professor and chair of aeronautics and astronautics, “for leadership and significant advances in nonlinear methods for integrated sensing and control in engineered, bioinspired and biological flight systems” and “for leadership in cross-disciplinary aerospace workforce development.”
• , associate professor of chemistry and member faculty with the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute, “for exceptional contributions to the development of synthetic polymers and nanomaterials for self-assembly and advanced manufacturing with application in sustainability, medicine and microelectronics.”
• Dr. , Associate Dean of Medical Technology Innovation in the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, the Graham and Brenda Siddall Endowed Chair in Cornea Research, and medical director of the 91±¬ÁĎ Eye Institute, “for developing and providing first class clinical treatment of severe corneal blindness to hundreds of people, for establishing the world premier artificial cornea program in Washington, and for leading collaborative research to translate innovative engineering technologies into creative clinical solution.”
• Dr. , professor of medicine and director of the , “for global recognition as an authority on drug and vaccine development for viral and parasitic diseases through work as an infectious disease physician and immunologist.”
• Dr. , professor of pediatrics and of anesthesiology and pain medicine, and director of the , “for outstanding leadership in pediatric anesthesiology and in the care of children with traumatic brain injury” and “for internationally recognized expertise in traumatic brain injury and direction of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center for the last decade as an exceptional mentor and visionary leader.”

91±¬ÁĎ members who will join the Washington State Academy of Sciences by virtue of their election to one of the National Academies are:

• , professor of biostatistics, “for the development of novel statistical models for longitudinal data to better diagnose disease, track its trajectory, and predict its outcomes” and “for revolutionizing how dynamic predictors are judged by their discrimination and calibration and has significantly advanced methods for randomized controlled trials.” Heagerty was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.
• , the Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science and Engineering, “for foundational contributions to the mathematics of computer systems and of the internet, as well as to the design and probabilistic analysis of algorithms, especially on-line algorithms, and algorithmic mechanism design and game theory.” Karlin was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , professor emeritus of applied mathematics and data science fellow at the , “for inventing key algorithms for hyperbolic conservation laws and transforming them into powerful numerical technologies” and “for creating the Clawpack package, which underpins a wide range of application codes in everyday use, such as for hazard assessment due to tsunamis and other geophysical phenomena.” LeVeque was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , the Benjamin D. Hall Endowed Chair in Basic Life Sciences and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, “for advancing our physical understanding of cell motility and growth in animals and bacteria” and “for discovering how the pathogen Listeria uses actin polymerization to move inside human cells, how crawling animal cells coordinate actomyosin dynamics and the mechanical basis of size control and daughter cell separation in bacteria.” Theriot was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , professor and chair of biological structure, “for elucidating cellular transformations through which neurons pattern their dendrites, and the interplay of activity-dependent and -independent mechanisms leading to assembly of stereotyped circuits” and “for revelations regarding the fundamental principles of neuronal development through the application of an elegant combination of in vivo imaging, physiology, ultrastructure and genetics to the vertebrate retina.” Wong was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.

New members to the Washington State Academy of Sciences are scheduled to be inducted at a meeting in September.

Karin Bornfeldt receives Outstanding Investigator Award from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

, a professor of medicine and pathology, has received an from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The award will total more than $7.2 million for up to seven years, with about $1 million in the first year.

The award is under the institute’s R35 Program, which promotes scientific productivity by giving principal investigators with multiple projects the freedom to conduct research that breaks new ground or extend previous discoveries in heart, lung, blood and sleep research.

Bornfeldt’s research project is titled “Identifying New Strategies for Prevention of Cardiovascular Complications of Diabetes.”

Bornfeldt is director of the , deputy director of the and associate director for research of the . She serves as associate editor of the journals Circulation Research, Diabetes, and the Journal of Lipid Research.

Read more at the Department of Medicine .

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Guntis Ĺ midchens of Scandinavian studies honored by Republic of Lithuania

, 91±¬ÁĎ associate professor of Scandinavian studies and Baltic studies, has received a state decoration from the Republic of Lithuania.

Lithuanian President Gitanas NausÄ—da presented Ĺ midchens the in a celebration on Feb. 16, which since 1918 has been Lithuanian Independence Day. The award notes Ĺ midchens’ “active promotion of Lithuanian language, history and culture in the United States.”

Ĺ midchens is the 91±¬ÁĎ’s Kazickas Family Endowed Professor of Baltic Studies. He is the author of the 2014 book “The Power of Song: Nonviolent National Culture in the Baltic Singing Revolution,” about a nonviolent resistance movement in the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Order for Merits to Lithuania is one of four types of orders bestowed, and the Cross of the Knight one of five of Insignia of the Orders.

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10 91±¬ÁĎ engineering professors receive Google Faculty Research Awards

Ten 91±¬ÁĎ College of Engineering faculty have been named recipients of . The grants, among Google recently , support world-class technical research in computer science, engineering and related fields. Each award provides funding to support one graduate student for a year.

The recipients are , , , , and of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering; and of the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering; of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; and of both the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Department of Bioengineering.

The is “to identify and strengthen long-term collaborative relationships with faculty working on problems that will impact how future generations use technology,” according to Google.

91±¬ÁĎ Notebook is a section of the 91±¬ÁĎ News site dedicated to telling stories of the good work done by faculty and staff at the 91±¬ÁĎ. Read all posts here.

As the World Health Organization steps up its efforts to eradicate a once-rampant tropical disease, a 91±¬ÁĎ study suggests that monitoring, and potentially treating, the monkeys that co-exist with humans in affected parts of the world may be part of the global strategy.

Yaws, an infectious disease that causes disfiguring skin lesions and bone destruction — stems from a bacterium, Treponema pallidum, that also has been found in certain primates in Africa and Asia. The disease, treatable with a one-time dose of penicillin or, as part of the renewed eradication effort, the antibiotic azithromycin, has experienced a significant resurgence in the past two decades.

91±¬ÁĎ researchers and colleagues examined in South and Southeast Asia, where the monkeys live in the wild, temples and villages, or are kept as pets.

While researchers could not identify how a particular animal became infected, treponemal infections are known to be transmitted by contact with the skin lesion of an infected individual, so a pet macaque could potentially pick up the bacteria, said , a 91±¬ÁĎ research assistant professor of anthropology who led the study.

The study was published online April 12 in , a journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prone to spread in areas that are overcrowded, under-resourced, or have inadequate sanitation, yaws afflicts mostly children. At one time, the disease had a massive reach, affecting more people than malaria in some parts of the world: From 1952 to 1964, the WHO and UNICEF treated 50 million cases and contacts in 46 countries. But officials scaled back efforts when it appeared the disease had been contained, only to see it gradually re-emerge at the end of the 1970s. Today, the WHO estimates tens of thousands of cases in a dozen countries in Africa and Asia, aiming for global eradication by 2020.

While monkeys may be infected with the bacterium, it’s not yet clear whether the infection can pass from human to animal and vice versa, said , a 91±¬ÁĎ professor of medicine and global health who co-authored the study. The prevalence of the animals in daily life in many countries makes them an important factor in how to approach eradication efforts, she said.

Jones-Engel pointed to the vast geographic range of the study, as well as the range of environments in which the macaques lived — both in captivity and in the wild. “Although yaws is endemic in a number of regions that we tested, infected monkeys were seen only in a region that had experienced a recent upsurge in reported yaws cases. So if you go through and treat only the villagers, then your eradication effort may be compromised,” she said.

The study, which also involved researchers from universities in Asia, Europe and Canada, examined blood samples of more than 700 macaques. Fewer than 2 percent tested positive for the bacteria — mostly on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, where a yaws outbreak was active at the time samples were collected.

These circumstances represent an opportunity to take a approach to controlling yaws, 91±¬ÁĎ researchers say. A holistic strategy, One Health calls on professionals at all levels and disciplines to acknowledge the links among human, animal and environmental health, and to collaborate to improve all three.

Treating animals for a disease that can spread to humans is not unprecedented: The rabies vaccine routinely administered to pets in the developed world, for example, prevents the infection in animals, which in turn protects people.

“If you go into a village where you know yaws is prevalent in the human population, and animals are part of that population, then those animals may need to be targeted for treatment,” Jones-Engel said. “We tend not to think of animals in these kinds of disease-treatment programs, which is such a human-centric approach. That has to change.”

The study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Center for Research Resources (divisions of the National Institutes of Health), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, among others.

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For more information, contact Jones-Engel atĚýljengel@uw.edu.

Modalities for dialysis include hemodialysis (in a kidney center or medical center, or at home) and peritoneal dialysis (at home). In-center treatments for hemodialysis are typically required three times per week. Peritoneal dialysis is an alternative way to remove waste products from blood through the blood vessels in the abdominal lining known as the periteneum. This procedure may be performed by the patient at home or while traveling.

Dr. Rajnish Mehrotra, professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology and nephrology section head at Harborview Medical Center, compares outcomes in patients using center or home dialysis. His findings show a similar survival of patients with either of the two types of dialysis.

Outcomes research has led to recent changes in the Medicare reimbursement structure. These changes provide a strong financial incentive for promoting the use of dialysis at home. Currently less than 1 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are on dialysis but it accounts for 8 percent to 9 percent of the Medicare budget. Home dialysis costs $20,000 less than in-center treatment, which runs an average of $90,000 per year, per patient.

Working as a single practice group led by Dr. Fionnuala Cormack, a clinical assistant professor of medicine specializing in chronic kidney disease,Ěý the nephrologists at the 91±¬ÁĎ have changed the model of care for their dialysis patients.

In addition to the consolidated, in-center care they provide hemodialysis patients, once a week, physicians, nurses, and support staff meet peritoneal dialysis patients at one of the kidney centers in the community to deliver multi-disciplinary care.

“We have built an infrastructure to seamlessly provide home dialysis to our patients in the community that we serve,” said Mehrotra.

Partnering with the 91±¬ÁĎ Department of Surgery has also provided outstanding results, according to Mehrotra. A team of surgeons headed by Dr. Zoe Parr, assistant professor of surgery, received special training on laparoscopic placement of peritoneal dialysis catheters to provide better care for patients.

The Northwest Kidney Centers has helped expand the peritoneal dialysis patient population by offering a class called Choices for patients with kidney disease. Patients who attend the class are more than twice as likely to choose home care. Recently they made the class available at Harborview Medical Center, so it is even more convenient for patients.

Dr. Stuart J. Shankland, professor of medicine and Ěýhead of the Division of Nephrology, said that the model that Mehrotra and his colleagues have developed for patients at 91±¬ÁĎ Medicine “is at the forefront of how patient care should be delivered to this population with a chronic illness.”

Currently, a large, international and multi-centered clinical study called Peritoneal Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns, or PDOPPS, is underway to identify how differences in practice patterns affect the ability of patients to continue to do home dialysis.

Mehrotra and Dr. Gail P. Jarvik, professor of medicine and Ěýhead of the Division of Medical Genetics, are working on an ancillary study – the first and largest of its kind – to look at the genetic determinants of how peritoneal dialysis works.

“What we do in peritoneal dialysis is use naturally occurring membrane that lines our abdomen as a dialysis membrane,” said Mehrotra. “But there is huge variability from person to person in how efficient that membrane is in getting rid of the toxins that accumulate in people with kidney disease. We want to test the hypothesis that this variability is determined genetically.”

The longstanding tradition at 91±¬ÁĎ Medicine of improving dialysis care began more than half a century ago under the late Dr. Belding Scribner, the inventor of long-term dialysis. Progress continues through the recruitment of Mehrotra to the Division of Nephrology.

“Dr. Mehrotra’s research is pioneering,” Shankland noted, “and partnering with Dr. Jarvik is almost certain to give insights that would help determine who the best candidates are to receive this therapy and potentially predict those who might develop complications.”

The gene, PAX5, has long been known to be involved in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.Ěý The new study indicates a mutation in the gene alone is sufficient to eventually cause the disease, which affects nearly 3,000 children and teenagers in the United States each year.

The discovery should make it possible to screen for the gene in families with a history of the disease and suggests new strategies for treating the disease, said Dr. Marshall Horwitz, professor of pathology and of medicine at the 91±¬ÁĎ. He is a co-author of the new study.

He was joined in the study by researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee led by Dr. Charles Mullighan; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City led by Dr. Kenneth Offit, and others at the 91±¬ÁĎ. The results were published Sept. 8 in the journal Nature Genetics.

The researchers looked at the genes from two unrelated families that had a high rate ofĚýacute lymphoblastic leukemia and identified the same mutation of the PAX5 gene that ran in both the families.

This variant does not cause leukemia as long as it is paired with a normal version of the PAX5 gene, said Horwitz, but if the normal copy of the gene is lost and only the abnormal variant remains, some blood cells fail to become normally functioning white blood cells and, instead, turn into leukemia cells.

In the case of the families in the study, all the children who developed leukemia had damage to a chromosome in the affected blood cells. The damage, in which part of chromosome 9 was lost, removed the normal copy of the PAX5 gene. This left the abnormal gene unopposed.

PAX5 codes for a kind of protein, called a transcription factor, that plays a key role not only in blood cell maturation, but also in embryonic development.

“It was not a surprise that PAX5 turned out to be involved. It’s Ěýthe most commonly mutated gene found in ALL cells,” said Horwitz. “But it has not been clear whether PAX5 mutations were just mutations that had to happen at some point in the transformation of a normal cell to a leukemic cell or whether PAX5 variants were driving the leukemia.”

He said the findings indicate that PAX5 variants alone are sufficient to eventually cause acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The finding has another important implication, said Horwitz. The fact that PAX5 is sufficient to cause acute lymphoblastic leukemia supports the concept that mutations that affect differentiation of blood cells are the key drivers of leukemia. If that is the case, it may be possible to design treatments that block de-differentiation or induce leukemic cells to re-differentiate so that they would begin to behave like normal cells again.

Such treatments might be more effective and have far fewer side effects than chemotherapy, the current standard treatment for these cancers, said Horwitz.

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Growing evidence has suggested that low blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin are associated with higher risk of developing coronary heart disease among whites. Few of these studies included substantial numbers of people from other races.

Vitamin D levels tend to be lower among people from other racial and ethnic minority groups, and some of these populations have higher rates of heart disease. However, after correcting for other risk factors for heart disease in their large, multi-ethnic study group, the researchers did not find an association between low vitamin D and cardiovascular events in their black and Hispanic study participants.

“Our study suggests that the results of ongoing vitamin D clinical trials conducted in white populations should be applied cautiously to people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds,” said Cassianne Robinson-Cohen, the lead author for the JAMA paper. The senior author is Ian deBoer, 91±¬ÁĎ assistant professor of medicine, Division of Nephrology.

Robinson-Cohen is an affiliate instructor in epidemiology at the 91±¬ÁĎ School of Public Health and a researcher at the Kidney Research Institute, where her team explores the genetic, metabolic and epidemiological factors related to heart and kidney disease.

She noted that the findings in their recent JAMA paper came from an observational study, not a randomized clinical trial, and could not guarantee cause and effect.

“Our future studies will examine the genetics affecting the levels and use of vitamin D in the body to try to figure out why the link between low vitamin D blood levels and heart disease varies by race and ethnicity,” she said.Ěý “We don’t know for sure, but perhaps genes affecting the need for and use of vitamin D could have evolved to adapt to different levels of sun exposure in places where various ethnic subgroups of people originated.”

Her team plans toĚýlook for variations in genes known to mediate vitamin D activation and metabolism. She said these genes have been identified, but at present scientists haven’t determined how gene variation influences susceptibility to the adverse effects of low vitamin D.

The report published this week was from one of the projects within the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. MESA is a major, long-term medical research effort supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. More than 6,800 men and women from six regions across the United States are participating in MESA. The diverse study group that was 38 percent white, 28 percent black, 22 percent Hispanic, and 12 percent Chinese. Robinson-Cohen and her team studied 6,436 MESA participants who enrolled between July 2000 and September 2002.

All participants were free of any known cardiovascular diseases at the time they enrolled, and had their blood levels of V25-hydroxyvitamin D measured. The mean age of participants at the start of the study was 62 (range 45 to 84 years) and slightly more than half were women.

The mean blood concentrations for whites was 30.1 ng/ml, Chinese 26.7, Hispanic 24.6, and blacks 19.2, The researchers tested the association of Vitamin D levels with the first incidence of coronary heart disease events – myocardial infarction, angina, cardiac arrest, or death from coronary heart disease — occurring from the start of the study until May 2012. During the eight-and-a-half year study, 361 participants had such an event. The researchers used several statistical risk analyses to check to see if links between blood vitamin D levels and coronary heart disease differed among white, black, Chinese and Hispanic populations.
“This report underscores the value of conducting studies that include participants from diverse backgrounds,” said Dr. Michael Lauer, director of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’ Division of Cardiovascular Sciences. “The MESA investigators have presented a finding that could serve as a foundation for future research on the possible link between vitamin D blood levels and heart disease.”

“The differences in associations across race-ethnicity groups were consistent for both a broad and restricted definition of coronary heart disease and persisted after adjustment for known risk factors for coronary heart disease,” the researchers noted in their paper.

Robinson-Cohen believes the strengths of the study are its size, duration,Ěý the use of several statistical analyses, the rigorous definition of heart disease events, and the efforts made to control for many confounding risk factors, such as age, gender, smoking, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, physical activity, kidney disease,C-reactive protein concentrations, educational attainment, incomeĚý and so on.Ěý A main weakness of the study, she said, is that it is observational, and therefore can’t be ascertain cause and effect.

“To determine cause and effect, a large, multiethnic, randomized control clinical trial would need to be conducted,” she said.

Robinson-Cohen pointed out, that beyond these specific results, the nature of the findings show the importance of designing medical research that includes a diverse ethnic and racial makeup of participants. Such multi-ethnic studies would help prevent cases where findings from one group are incorrectly applied to other groups.

“We need to make a bigger effort to design and fund medical studies with large enough representation of various racial and ethnic backgrounds that we don’t draw ungrounded conclusions based on one group,” Robinson-Cohen said.

The study, “Racial Differences in the Association of Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D Concentration with Coronary Heart Disease Events” was supported with grants and contracts N01-HC-95159Ěý and N01-HC-95169 from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute andĚý R01DK088762 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

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A clinical trial at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System and the 91±¬ÁĎ will address new approaches to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes or slow its progression. Participants will be treated with medications normally used for people who have had diabetes for at least one year. The study will enroll individuals who have prediabetes or have been recently diagnosed with diabetes, but who are not taking medications to treat the condition.

The will examine the effects of three such medication regimens.Ěý Each will be administered for 12 months. The three regimens are: liraglutide plus metformin for 12 months; insulin for three months followed by metformin for nine months; and metformin alone for 12 months. The expectation is that the use of these medications before diabetes has developed will preserve or enhance the body’s ability to produce insulin, the hormone that is crucial to maintain normal blood sugar levels.

Thestudyis a nationwide program looking at the effects of various treatments to preserve insulin secretion and thereby prevent the development of diabetes or its progression early in the disease. The 91±¬ÁĎ and VA diabetes research group in Seattle is one of three recruiting adult patients for the medication trial, along with the University of Chicago and Indiana University in Indianapolis.

, professor of medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, at the 91±¬ÁĎ,Ěý leads the Seattle clinical trial and is also chairs the national study.

“We hope to identify people who are at high risk of developing diabetes as they have mild elevations in their blood glucose as well as individuals who have had diabetes for less than a year and have not required medications,” Kahn said.

“The purpose of the study,” he explained, “is to determine whether aggressively treating such patients with medications used in diabetes can slow the disease process and prevent the loss of the ability of the pancreas to make and release insulin.”

The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, is currently recruiting patients. To be eligible, patients must be between 20 and 65 years old, have prediabetes or self-reported type 2 diabetes for less than one year, and must not have taken any medications to treat diabetes in the past. Participants also must be considered overweight or obese. The investigators aim to enroll 85 patients who will participate in the trial for 21 months.

More details are available at the National Institute of Health’s clinical trials , identifier: NCT01779362.

To participate in the study, call 206-764-2768.