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Alum Notes

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Fall 1999

At the commencement ceremonies for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, 248 graduating medical students were honored by local radio personality and keynote speaker, Dick Purtan. 

Scribe Fall 1999

Robert Sokol, MD, resigned as dean of the School of Medicine, effective May 27, 1999.

John Crissman, MD, has been named interim dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine and senior vice president of The Detroit Medical Center (DMC).

John Crissman, MD, interim dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has announced the appointment of Thomas W. Uhde, MD, as associate dean for research and graduate programs.

Brains of cocaine abusers may have cellular glitches which actually feed their drug addiction, according to Michael Bannon, PhD, who is investigating the cellular and molecular biology of the cocaine binding dopamine transporter 

The tingling and pain associated with Raynaud's syndrome (the condition that causes interrupted blood supply to the fingers and toes) can be blocked by increasing the concentration of nitric oxide in the blood. This finding is reported by Wayne State University's Dr. Robert Freedman in the August 28 issue of The Lancet.

Rosalie Young, PhD, associate professor of community medicine, is principal investigator on a grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation to improve breast cancer control for African Americans. 

Antonia Abbey, PhD, associate professor of community medicine, is working on two grants to study perspectives of victims and perpetrators in sexual assault. The National Institutes of Health grants, which total nearly $1.5 million, explore alcohol as a confounding variable in cases of sexual assault. 

One of the most dangerous periods for a person who has experienced a stroke or cardiac arrest is the period following the attack, when blood resumes flowing to the brain's neurons. Gary Krause, MD, professor of emergency medicine, just received a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke to conduct research on that interruption and resumption of blood flow, termed reperfusion. 

Dr. Yong Chen, associate professor in pathology and the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, recently received more than $1.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to study the DCC gene (Deleted in Colorectal Cancer) and its molecular signaling mechanisms.

A long-term study on the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure will continue, thanks to a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The association between tobacco smoke and lung cancer is well-known, but why do some non-smokers get the disease? Ann Schwartz, PhD, of the Karmanos Cancer Institute, will be continuing a nine-year study of lung-cancer patients who are non-smokers and/or acquire lung cancer at an early age to try to determine whether and how genetics is involved.

At the commencement ceremonies for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, 248 graduating medical students were honored by local radio personality and keynote speaker, Dick Purtan. 

"The amazing thing about cloning is that you don't even need a sheep to make a sheep," said Keith Campbell, DPhil, who delivered the 1999 Dean's Distinguished Lecture at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Campbell was part of the team that created the Scottish sheep "Dolly," famed as the first mammal cloned from a single adult cell.

During a two-day visit to WSU, Alan Leshner, PhD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), delivered a keynote address, spoke with faculty members and students, and visited labs and facilities related to research and treatment programs for drug abuse and addiction.

People generally know that stroke is an emergency, but few can recognize it quickly, and that defeats the purpose, said Steven Levine, MD, professor of neurology.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine welcomes first-year medical students. 

Alum Notes Fall 1999

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