St. Jude Finds Molecule That Could Improve Cancer Vaccine and Therapy for Other Diseases

MEMPHIS — Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered a new signaling molecule that prevents immune responses from running amok and damaging the body. The finding could lead to the development of new treatments for cancer, using vaccines; for autoimmune diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes; and for inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease and asthma.

The St. Jude team discovered that specialized immune lymphocytes called regulatory T cells release a protein complex composed of two proteins called Ebi3 and Il12a. This complex acts like a brake on the activity of the aggressive immune cells called effector T lymphocytes. The discovery is important because the manipulation of regulatory T cells is a key goal of immunotherapy. A report on this discovery appears in the journal “Nature” Nov. 22, 2007.

The newly recognized protein complex is one of a large group of signaling molecules called cytokines that cells use to communicate with each other. Since the immune system cytokines are called interleukins, the St. Jude team named this protein interleukin-35 (IL-35). Most cytokines stimulate immune system cells; however, IL-35 is one of the few signaling molecules known to inhibit immune system activity.

“The maximal suppressive function of regulatory T cells depends on IL-35, so blocking IL-35 activity might reduce the ability of T cells to block anti-tumor immune responses,” said Dario Vignali, Ph.D., associate member in the St. Jude Department of Immunology, and the paper’s senior author. “Treatments that block IL-35 activity may make anti-cancer vaccines more effective and provide new therapeutic opportunities for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”

“Our findings suggest that controlling levels of IL-35 in patients might one day allow clinicians to dial the immune response up or down depending on the needs of the patient,” said Lauren Collison, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Vignali’s laboratory who contributed significantly to the project. Collison is the paper’s first author.

Other authors of the paper include Creg Workman, Kelli Boyd, Yao Wang, Kate Vignali and Richard Cross (St. Jude); Timothy Kuo and Richard Blumberg (Harvard Medical School; Boston); and David Sehy (eBioscience, San Diego).

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (to D.V. and R.B.), a Cancer Center Support Grant and ALSAC (to D.V.), a St. Jude Gephardt Postdoctoral Fellowship and an NIH Individual National Research Service Award (to L.C.), and the American Liver Foundation (to T.K.).

Germantown Resident Supports Methodist Plans to Build Hospice Residence

GERMANTOWN – Mrs. Floy Bright enjoys the view of fall leaves and birds from her bedroom window. She has been a patient with Methodist Hospice since July. Her daughter Emily Fox-Hill has seen the wonderful care Methodist Hospice has given her mother.

“One of the most important things Methodist Hospice provides my mother is coordination of care,” said Fox-Hill. “My mother’s nurse Teresa works closely with her physicians to make sure my mother receives the right medicines at the appropriate dosages.”

Since 1979, Methodist Hospice has provided compassionate care and support to individuals and their families who are facing life’s final journey. Now, Methodist Hospice plans to take the next step in providing outstanding care for patients, both adults and children, who are facing their final days and their families. That plan involves building a hospice residence.

The residence will be a $9 million dollar, 30-bed free-standing facility located on close to six acres on Quince Road between Messick and Kirby. The Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare board approved $2 million towards the project’s capital campaign.

The Methodist Hospice Residence will provide acute care for those who require symptom management and short-term residential beds for those who cannot be cared for in their homes. The residence will also contain office space to accommodate interdisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, home health aides, chaplains, social workers, volunteers and support staff. The hospice residence will serve as a community asset, offering educational rooms, a library and a bereavement center open to all adults and children throughout the region.

Methodist Hospice will use a combination of funds from Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and private donations to build the residence.

Congressman Cohen’s Support Helps UT Health Science Center Fund Fight Against Infectious Diseases

MEMPHIS — Today President George W. Bush signed H.R. 3222, the Department of Defense Appropriations conference report for FY2008, which includes funding for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). The $4 million earmark will be used to purchase high technology pathogen detection equipment.

The equipment will support research at the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL), currently under construction on the UT-Baptist Research Park site. The funding underwrites basic research of emerging infectious diseases such as streptococcus, multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, and francisella.

The UTHSC RBL is one of only 13 regional biocontainment labs in the nation where basic biodefense research is conducted. Scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2008, the RBL is especially designed and constructed to protect the community and researchers from contamination. The state-of-the-art facility will serve as a regional resource for researchers from the public and private sector.

West Tennessee Healthcare Welcomes New Laboratory Director

JACKSON — West Tennessee Healthcare’s Medical Center Laboratory proudly announces the addition of Edward Hughes, BS, MA, DLM as its new Director.

Hughes brings more than 20 years of lab management experience and is a board-certified Diplomat of Laboratory Management. He comes to West Tennessee from Collinsville, Illinois where he served as Executive Director of Tri-Lab.

Tennessee Bones Society Organized

The Tennessee Bones Society was organized in November of this year by approximately 15 Orthopedic Executive Directors, Managers and Administrators meeting in Nashville. Partnering with the Tennessee Orthopedic Society, this Society will compliment the National Bones Society. They are discussing and addressing topics pertinent to Orthopedic Managers in the State of Tennessee.

This organization will be dedicated to providing education, resources and networking among orthopaedic practice executives and their staff members. If you would like more information, please contact Donna W. Klutts at dwklutts@wtbjc.com.

Medconnect Event Provides Physicians with Up-to-Date Info on HIT

For physicians to sustain their practice in today’s information driven world, they have to continually move forward with technology. In October the MedConnect Symposium gathered policy advisors and industry experts to showcase some of the latest innovations in healthcare information technology, and discuss important opportunities and concerns for the future.

MedConnect 2007 provided both physicians and practice administrators with critical insight into the future of healthcare as it relates to their overall scope-of-practice.

The symposium was hosted by the Memphis Regional Chamber, the Memphis Medical Society and the Mid-South Medical Group Management Association. Event sponsors included Service Assurance, Packrat, MBI, M&F Bank, CISCO, Misys, EMC2, Paetec, SRS Soft and Horne, LLP.

Three New Executives Announced at UT Health Science Center

MEMPHIS — Cheryl R. Scheid, PhD, vice chancellor of Academic, Faculty and Student Affairs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) announced three new executive appointments.

Matthew T. Sanchez will become the assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs, responsible for oversight of admissions, financial aid and registrar functions for UTHSC.

Carol A. Schwab, JD, LLM, has accepted the position as director of Medical Legal Education and will develop a new curriculum, “Legal Issues in Health Care.” Initially the curriculum will be taught in the College of Medicine but ultimately it will be available for all six UTHSC colleges.

Chanchai Singhanayok McDonald, PhD, will assume the position of assistant vice chancellor for Institutional Research and Educational Technology.

She will oversee the design, development and delivery of database systems needed to support institutional programs, facilitate faculty research, and enhance the educational enterprise.

University of Tennessee Health Science Center Graduates 191 Healthcare Professionals

MEMPHIS — On Friday, December 7, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will graduate 191 students.
An honorary Doctor of Science degree will be awarded to Ann Bell, MS, emeritus professor of Clinical Laboratory Sciences in the College of Allied Health Sciences. Bell, a retired UTHSC hematology technologist (SH ASCP) and assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, is an expert on blood cells. She helped develop a 1956 atlas titled, “The Morphology of Human Blood Cells,” which is currently in its seventh edition. The book is still used to teach medical students, interns, residents and medical technologists across the United States and in countries around the world.

The 191 graduates represent four of the UT Health Science Center’s six colleges: 32 from the College of Allied Health Sciences; 27 from the College of Graduate Health Sciences; 127 from the College of Nursing, and five from the College of Pharmacy. The other two UTHSC colleges, Dentistry and Medicine, graduate large classes in the spring.

Tennessee Recognizes 75th Anniversary “Stories Of Character”

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Southeastern Conference. To commemorate this momentous occasion, the SEC is highlighting six former student-athletes from each institution who have earned distinction by positively impacting their community, state, region and nation. The SEC has chosen one Memphian, Jenny McGrath Weaver as one athlete to represent the University of Tennessee.

McGrath Weaver successfully challenged herself at the highest levels, as a swimmer and now as a surgeon. A 15-time All-American, she was the SEC champion in the 200-yard individual medley in 1990 and the 200-yard freestyle champion in 1990 and 1992. Today McGrath Weaver still holds four UT swimming records. In 1997, McGrath Weaver graduated from the University of Tennessee, Memphis College of Medicine and completed her surgical residency in 2002. McGrath Weaver is the Medical Director of the Saint Francis Hospital Surgical Weight Loss Program.

Hospital Wing Recognized For Dedication to Training

MEMPHIS — Larry Sneed, vice president, United States Aviation Underwriters, and David Buchanan, agent, Kemmons Wilsons Insurance Group presented a check for $14,960 to Allen Burnett, program director at the Hospital Wing, as part of the Safety Bucks program designed to encourage additional training for pilots and mechanics.

Hospital Wing, a non-profit air ambulance program, provides inter-hospital transfers and emergency call service within a 150-mile radius of Memphis, including West Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, and Kentucky. It transports patients who are critically ill or critically injured.

Hospital Wing is a consortium between The Regional Medical Center, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and Baptist Memorial Health Care. Crews have completed 28,000 accident-free missions since the company opened its hanger in July 1986. The service is staffed with two critical care registered nurses 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Hospital Wing averages six flights a day, or 2,100 flights a year.

UTHSC Pharmacy Establishes Four-Year Partnership with LMU

MEMPHIS —The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) College of Pharmacy announced today that it has established a new educational partnership with Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM).
Over the next four years, UTHSC College of Pharmacy faculty members across the state of Tennessee will employ the most advanced distance education technology to teach pharmacotherapeutics courses to 150 LMU-DCOM students each year.

Through the pharmacotherapy series, the Health Science Center’s Pharmacy faculty will deliver 46 lectures to first-year students, 54 lectures to second-year students, and weekly pharmacotherapy grand rounds to third and fourth-year students. The grand rounds may be broadcast from various UTHSC College of Pharmacy sites including from its Clinical Education Centers in Kingsport, Chattanooga, Nashville and Jackson, as well as from hospitals in major cities where UTHSC or LMU have affiliations.

Grand rounds, which will be held two hours per week for 45 weeks each year, will be inter-professional in nature and will include both medicine and pharmacy with the potential to include such other disciplines as allied health, social work or nursing.

Methodist University Hospital Neurosurgeon Hopes Research Efforts will Improve Patient Outcomes

MEMPHIS — Madison Michael, MD, a neurosurgeon with Methodist University Hospital Neuroscience Institute and Semmes-Murphey Neurological and Spine Institute and assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, is helping to lead several clinical trials at Methodist University Hospital. The studies involve different experimental protocols for the treatment of gliomas, primary brain tumors, and genomic profiling of brain tumors and lumbar discs.

In collaboration with the University of Tennessee Department of Neurosurgery’s Molecular Neurosurgery research program, Dr. Michael and his research team is now using an approach known as genomic profiling which involves a tissue-based study to identify genes active in a given tumor.

Dr. Michael says the size of the neuroscience program at Methodist University Hospital Neuroscience Institute makes it an ideal facility for research. So far in 2007, there have been over 1400 neuro surgeries performed which provides a large number of candidates for various clinical trials. The Institute, in collaboration with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, provides academic and clinical services that are comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and supported by the latest technology. The institute consists of three basic components: neuroscience clinical programs, centers and services; neuroscience medical education and neurological research.

December 2007