UW News

January 27, 2005

Health Sciences News Briefs

Still time for Mini-Med
UW Medicine’s 2005 Mini-Medical School, a six-part series of exciting lectures and demonstrations designed to teach about medical science, patient care and cutting-edge research, is open to the UW community and the public. Sessions begin Feb. 8. To register, please see the Web site at http://courses.washington.edu/minimed/ call the information line at 206-685-9420 or e-mail minimed@u.washington.edu.


Safeway donation
Safeway Inc. Seattle Division recently presented UW Medicine with a $200,000 gift to benefit breast cancer research. Funds for the gift were raised from Safeway customer donations, employee contributions and fundraisers within the stores. Accepting the gift on behalf of UW Medicine were Dr. Julie Gralow, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology, and Dr. Constance Lehman, associate professor of radiology and director of breast imaging at UW Medical Center. UW Medicine’s breast imaging and medical oncology researchers will use the Safeway gift to help identify improved methods of treatment that maximize the benefits and minimize the negative effects of cancer treatment, and also to determine in individual patients how imaging can predict at a much earlier time when patients will and won’t respond. Gralow and Lehman’s clinical research in breast cancer focuses on using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine whether chemotherapy treatment is working. They have also treated patients who have had their cancers first detected by MRI. “Our preliminary research suggests that MRI may predict a patient’s response to chemotherapy better than conventional methods,” Lehman said. “We are delighted with Safeway’s support of our multidisciplinary breast cancer research program.”


UWEB Symposium
UWEB, the Engineered Biomaterials program, along with the Department of Bioengineering and UW Tech Transfer, are sponsoring a two-day Industry Symposium Feb. 10 and 11 at the Best Western University Tower Hotel in the University District. The featured keynote speakers are Drs. Gerald Loeb and Peter Staudhammer from the Alfred Mann Institute at the University of Southern California, and several other visiting experts from academia and industry will be speaking. The main topics are medical devices, healing with biomaterials, biosensors, device infection, and tissue engineering. The cost is $500 for both days, with discounted fees for UW faculty. Wayne Quinton, founder of the Quinton Instrument Company, will receive an award as a pioneer of biomaterials at a reception the evening of Feb. 9. To attend the award event, call 206-616-9716 or send e-mail to info@uweb.engr.washington.edu For a full schedule and access to registration for the Industry Symposium, see the Web site at http://www.uweb.engr.washington.edu/about/news/indsymposium/  


Award for mentoring
Dr. Edward Boyko, professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, has won the UW Medicine/Center of Excellence in Women’s Health Award for Outstanding Mentorship. The award honors a faculty member who has mentored junior faculty or trainees. Boyko is chief of general internal medicine at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and adjunct professor of epidemiology. He directs the Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (ERIC). His primary research focus is the epidemiology of Type 2 diabetes and its complications.

Boyko earned his medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh, and was a resident at the University of Chicago. He earned his master’s in public health and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the UW.