University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle Children's
Department of Pediatrics Newsletter

DATE : 2009-01-06

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Items to be covered in this edition:

  1. Important Dates
  2. Parents Magazine ranks Pediatric Cancer Program #5 in Nation
  3. Faculty News
  4. Faculty Publications and Presentations

top I. IMPORTANT DATES

January 8, 2009: Grand Rounds sponsored by the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics. 8:00-9:00am in Wright Auditorium, Seattle Children’s Hospital. The Sconyers/Godfrey Ethics Grand Rounds guest speaker will be Jeffrey P. Brosco MD, PhD whose topic is "Parental requests for cosmetic surgery in children with profound developmental disabilities."Additionally, Dr. Brosco will be a guest speaker at the Bioethics Seminar, January 8, Soundgarden Conference Room at the Research Institute (Building 1) from 3:30-5:00pm. Dr. Brosco’s topic for the seminar is “The limits of medical science: exploring the historical epidemiology of intellectual disability.” The seminar is open to employees and affiliates of Seattle Children’s and the University of Washington.

January 21, 2009: Promotion preparation meeting. 7:30-8:30am, Wright Auditorium at Children's. The Department of Pediatrics Promotions Committee requires that faculty members who will be considered in the summer/fall of 2009 for promotion to Associate Professor or Professor attend one of these seminars. If you are being considered in 2009 for promotion (to be effective July 1, 2010), you, your Division Head, and your Division Head's assistant MUST attend one of these meetings even if you attended last year (note, you do not all need to attend on the same date). For more information or to RSVP your attendance at one of these meetings, contact Diane Wade (206-987-1713 or dmw@u.washington.edu).

January 27, 2009: Faculty Development Workshop-Teaching and Learning with Technology: Promoting Active Learning or Distracted by Toys? 8:30am-Noon, Waterfront Activity Center, UW. For registration and information see: www.mebi.washington.edu/facdev.html

February 17, 2009 (NOTE-Date changed from Feb 24): Promotion preparation meeting. 5-6pm, G1026 at Children's. The Department of Pediatrics Promotions Committee requires that faculty members who will be considered in the summer/fall of 2009 for promotion to Associate Professor or Professor attend one of these seminars. If you are being considered in 2009 for promotion (to be effective July 1, 2010), you, your Division Head, and your Division Head's assistant MUST attend one of these meetings even if you attended last year (note, you do not all need to attend on the same date). For more information or to RSVP your attendance at one of these meetings, contact Diane Wade (206-987-1713 or dmw@u.washington.edu).

February 26, 2009: SAVE THE DATE- Next faculty meeting. More information forthcoming. Childcare will be available from 5:00-8:30pm. Please contact Diane Wade (dmw@u.washington.edu) for more information.

April 24, 2009: SAVE THE DATE- Fellows Research Day, Bldg 1, SCRI. More information and call for abstracts forthcoming.

top II. Parents Magazine ranks Pediatric Cancer Program #5 in Nation

We are pleased to announce that in December the Pediatric Cancer Program has received special recognition as one of the top 5 pediatric cancer programs in the country by Parents Magazine. Seattle Children’s was ranked 13th overall among children’s hospitals, up two spots from the previous ranking, and was the only children’s hospital in the Pacific Northwest to make the list.

top III. FACULTY NEWS

Congratulations to David Rawlings MD, Sunny Juul MD, PhD, and Greg Redding MD, for their election to membership in the American Pediatric Society. The Presidential Reception in honor of new members will take place May 2 at the Annual APS meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

David Loren, MD was the Recipient of the Premie Donna Award for "NICU: Our Safe Harbor" video submission to the Vermont Oxford Network 2009 Quality Congress.

Welcome to New Faculty and Changes to Current Faculty:

NameRankDivision
Scott C. Borinstein, MD, PhD Acting Instructor Hematology/Oncology
Monica S. Thakar, MD Acting Instructor Hematology/Oncology
Ildiko H. Koves, MD Assistant Professor Endocrinology
Carol Miao, PhD Associate Professor Immunology

top IV. FACULTY PUBLICATIONS, INVITED LECTURES, PRESENTATIONS

Ryan McAdams, MD, Division of Neonatology: Spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA300 in a neonatal intensive care unit. McAdams RM, Ellis MW, Trevino S, Rajnik M. Pediatr Int 2008;50:810-815.

Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, MD: Validating annotations for uncharacterized proteins in Shewanella oneidesis. Louie B, Tarczy-Hornoch P, Higdon R, Kolker E. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology 2008;12:211-215

Benjamin S. Wilfond, MD, Division of Bioethics:

  1. Patients' Views on Identifiability of Samples and Informed Consent for Genetic Research. Hull, Sara Chandros, Sharp, Richard R., Botkin, Jeffrey R., Brown, Mark, Hughes, Mark, Sugarman, Jeremy, Schwinn, Debra, Sankar, Pamela, Bolcic-Jankovic, Dragana, Clarridge, Brian R. and Wilfond, Benjamin S. 2008. The American Journal of Bioethics,8:10,62-70.
  2. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act: Fear Factor or Fantasy Island? Hastings Center Report. November-December 2008. 3. From Genetics to Genomics: Ethics, Policy, and Parental Decision-making. Benjamin Wilfond, MD, and Lainie Friedman Ross, MD, PHD. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. pp. 1–9, 2008

Christian L. Roth, MD, Associate Professor, Endocrinology/Diabetes:

  1. Fat mass and obesity associated' gene (FTO): no significant association of variant rs9939609 with weight loss in a lifestyle intervention and lipid metabolism markers in German obese children and adolescents. Müller TD, Hinney A, Scherag A, Nguyen TT, Schreiner F, Schäfer H, Hebebrand J, Roth CL, Reinehr T. BMC Med Genet. 2008 Sep 17;9:85.
  2. Fetuin-A and its relation to metabolic syndrome and fatty liver disease in obese children before and after weight loss. Reinehr T, Roth CL. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Nov;93(11):4479-85. Epub 2008 Aug 26.
  3. Lifelong reduction of LDL-cholesterol related to a common variant in the LDL-receptor gene decreases the risk of coronary artery disease--a Mendelian Randomisation study. Linsel-Nitschke P, Götz A, Erdmann J, Braenne I, Braund P, Hengstenberg C, Stark K, Fischer M, Schreiber S, El Mokhtari NE, Schaefer A, Schrezenmeier J, Rubin D, Hinney A, Reinehr T, Roth C, Ortlepp J, Hanrath P, Hall AS, Mangino M, Lieb W, Lamina C, Heid IM, Doering A, Gieger C, Peters A, Meitinger T, Wichmann HE, König IR, Ziegler A, Kronenberg F, Samani NJ, Schunkert H; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC); Cardiogenics Consortium. PLoS ONE. 2008 Aug 20;3(8):e2986.
  4. TCF7L2 polymorphism rs7903146 and predisposition for type 2 diabetes mellitus in obese children. Roth CL, Hinney A, Reinehr T, Schreiner F, Nguyen TT, Müller T, Scholl C, Woelfle J, Karpushova A, Schäfer H, Nöthen MM, Hebebrand J. Horm Metab Res. 2008 Oct;40(10):713-7. Epub 2008 Jun 10.

Dr. Timothy Cox, Research Associate Professor, Division of Craniofacial Medicine, Department of Pediatrics & Adjunct, Department of Oral Biology:

  1. Compensatory growth of healthy cardiac cells in the presence of diseased cells restores tissue homeostasis during heart development. Drenckhahn JD, Schwarz QP, Gray S, Laskowski A, Kiriazis H, Ming Z, Harvey RP, Du XJ, Thorburn DR, & Cox TC. Developmental Cell 2008; 15:521-533.
    The findings in the article were written up in Science and online in The Scientist (see below) as well as being written up in more than 50 online and print media in US, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, France, India, Malaysia.
    - Editor’s Choice commentary: “Healing a broken heart”. Science (7 Nov 2008) 322:283.
    - Newsblog: “The regenerative heart” The Scientist (13 Oct 2008)
  2. A genome-wide screen for modifiers of transgene variegation identifies genes with critical roles in development. Ashe A, Morgan DK, Whitelaw NC, Bruxner TJ, Vickaryous NK, Cox LL, Butterfield NC, Wicking C, Blewitt ME, Wilkins S, Anderson G, Cox TC, & Whitelaw E. Genome Biology 2008; 9(12) doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-12-r182

New grant: Timothy Cox, PI. The role of nectins in fusion of the midface and genesis of cleft lip and palate. (R01). National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research. Grant #1R01DE01845. 12/2008 >11/2012. Total Direct Costs: $1,000,000.

*Please let us know of your latest publications, awards, and honors by emailing Brooke Freed.