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This Week@WesternU, Sept. 19-23, 2016

by Rodney Tanaka

September 19, 2016

Read 6 mins

Pumerantz Lecture
Western University of Health Sciences’ eighth annual Dr. Philip Pumerantz Distinguished Lectureship will feature geriatrician and oncologist Arti Hurria, MD, who leads national and international efforts to improve care for older adults with cancer.

The lectureship is open to the public and will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016 in WesternU’s Health Education Center, Lecture Hall I, 701 E. Second St., Pomona, Calif. 91766. Please RSVP to Special Events Coordinator Rocki Crisostomo at rcrisostomo@westernu.edu or by phone at 909-469-5439.

Click here to read the full story. Click here to view a flier.

 

From the College of Optometry:

WesternU Eye Care Institute to celebrate grand opening, Fraternal Order of Eagles donation
Western University of Health Sciences’ new Eye Care Institute will hold a grand opening and celebrate a generous donation from the Fraternal Order of Eagles at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 20, 2016.

Invited guests, city dignitaries, elected officials and the Pomona and Claremont Chambers of Commerce will help WesternU celebrate this event. Also on hand will be Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE) members, who are donating special assistive technology for visually impaired children, enabling them to function more independently. Many of the technology recipients do not otherwise have the means to pay for it. This is FOE’s second donation of assistive devices to WesternU.

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From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:

COMP student will reunite and perform with at-risk students he once taught magic to in Colombia
Four years ago, third-year College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) student Ryan Bart taught magic to at-risk youth in the dangerous and impoverished slums of Bogotá, Colombia.

On September 25, 2016, Bart will reunite with his former students from Colombia and perform magic in New York at Performing the World, and later that night will perform at The People’s Improv Theater (The Pit) with support from NYC magicians Eli Bosnick and Joshua Jay.

“Our students have overcome major hurdles in their lives, and we are walking with them to overcome the poverty cycle,” Bart said. “There is no better way to reunite with our magic students than on the big stage in NYC this September.”

Click here to read the full story.

 

Student Technology and Research Symposium
The COMP-Northwest Research Club will hold its second annual Student Technology and Research Symposium from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016 in Lecture Hall 1. In addition to WesternU faculty, staff and students, members from the community are also invited to attend. During the symposium, students will share their summer research fellowship projects. Lunch will be provided thanks to the Office of the Vice President for Research and Biotechnology. For more information on the event, email researchclublebanon@westernu.edu.

 

From the College of Graduate Nursing:

Kudos on accomplishments
Dawn Stone, PhD(c), RN, ANP-BC, COHN-S, was an invited speaker at a recent meeting of the Orange County Chapter of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses. She presented “Successful Leadership Strategies in Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing” to an audience of RNs who practice at industries and organizations throughout Orange County.

 

From the College of Pharmacy:

Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Jaejin An published the following: An J, Cheetham TC, Reynolds K, Alemao E, Kawabata H, Liao KP, Solomon DH. Traditional Cardiovascular Risk Factor Management in Rheumatoid Arthritis Compared to Matched Non-Rheumatoid Arthritis in a US Managed Care Setting. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2016;68(5):629-37.

An J, Alemao E, Reynolds KR, Kawabata H, Solomon DH, Liao KP, Niu F, Cheetham TC. Cardiovascular Outcomes Associated with Lowering Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Matched Non-Rheumatoid Arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2016 Sep 1. pii: jrheum.160110. [Epub ahead of print] (PMID: 27585690)

Reynolds K, An J, Wu J, Harrison TN, Wei R, Stuart B, Martin JP, Wlodarczyk CS, Rajpathak SN, Treatment Discontinuation of Oral Hypoglycemic Agents and Healthcare Utilization among Patients with Diabetes. J Diabetes Complications. 2016 Jul 26. pii: S1056-8727(16)30300-2. (PMID: 27506310)

Peter Oelschlaeger, PhD, and his colleagues at Northwest University in Xi’an, China published: Liu X-L, Yang K-W, Zhang Y-J, Ge Y, Xiang Y, Chang Y-N, Oelschlaeger P. Optimization of amino acid thioesters as inhibitors of metallo-β-lactamase L1. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 2016;26(19):4698-701. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2016.08.048.

Lyna Luo, PhD, received an NSF Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) Award valued at $77,282 in computational resources. She will study Dynamics-Functions of Bone Morphogenetic Protein Receptors and Design of Highly Selective Inhibitors.

 

From the College of Veterinary Medicine:

Kudos on accomplishments
CVM Associate Professor David Kersey is proud to announce the arrival of a set of panda cub twins born Sept. 3 at Zoo Atlanta. Dr. Kersey timed and assisted the zoo’s animal management and veterinary teams along with Dr. Copper Aitken-Palmer, currently at the Chicago Zoological Society, in the artificial insemination procedure. Lun Lun is 18 years old and this was her fifth pregnancy, all of which involved Dr. Kersey timing and being involved in the artificial insemination. This is also Lun Lun’s second set of twins; the first twins were the first surviving twins in North America.

CVM Assistant Professor Jijun Hao, along with his collaborators Ying Huang (College of Pharmacy), Zhijun Wang (College of Pharmacy) and Joshua Cameron (College of Optometry) have recently published a research paper titled “Triptonide Effectively Inhibits Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling via C-terminal Transactivation Domain of β-catenin” in Scientific Reports. CVM technicians Jessica Chinison and Jose Aguilar, and CVM student Alan Avalos (DVM 2017) are coauthors of the paper.

Loving Hands Animal Hospital, founded by CVM alumna Darlene Sanchez, DVM ’09, was recently voted the Chino/Chino Hills Chino Champion Newspaper Reader’s Choice Winner for the Best Animal Hospital in the area. Loving Hands Animal Hospital will be celebrating its first anniversary in October.

Associate Professor Babak Faramarzi, was invited to present a talk at the 18th International TCVM annual conference in Beijing, China. The talk was titled, “Acupuncture Treatment in Horses with Chronic Laminitis: Comparing the Effect Over Time.” This was a collaborative study and co-authors are Dr. May, a private practitioner and Dr. Lee, Dr. Faramarzi’s Post-Doctoral fellow. This study for the first time evaluated the effect of timing and differences between several acupuncture treatments and was supported by an extramural grant from American Holistic Veterinary Medicine Foundation.

CVM Associate Professor Paul Gordon-Ross, Assistant Professor Suzie Kovacs and Professor Beth Boynton presented and facilitated training sessions at the Regional Teaching Academy’s Pilot Program at Oregon State College of Veterinary Medicine. WesternU was also well represented with attendees.

Dr. Boynton was the lead speaker for Southern California Veterinary Medical Association’s seminar “Communication: The Skills You Need to Stay Out of the HR and VMB Dog/Cat House” in Long Beach.

 

From the Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences:

Kudos on accomplishments
Associate Professor Fanglong Dong (Biostatistician), in collaboration with Dr. Michael Neeki from Arrowhead Regional Medical Center Trauma Department, had a paper accepted for publication at Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. Their study goal was to identify whether paramedics can safely identify the acuity level and physical systems related to patients’ calls. Their findings indicated that paramedics agreed with ED physician’s assessment (serves as the golden standard) on 71 percent of the patients’ cases. Paramedics needed additional trainings in order to correctly assess the acuity level of patients. Neeki MM, Dong F, Avera L, Than T, Borger R, Powell J, Vaezazizi R, Pitts R. Is it Time for Alternative Destination Transport? The Expanding Role of Paramedics in the Optimal Utilization of Emergency Department Services. The Western Journal of Emergency Medicine (In Press).

Dr. Dong, in collaboration with Dr. Maria Fahie (PI, CVM faculty) and other veterinary medical faculty members, had one paper accepted for publication in Veterinary Surgery. Their study aimed to compare three types of material on the Ultimate tensile strength and Elongation at failure. Chang S, Dong F, Lagman M, Schmidt PL, Irizarry KL, Schulz D, Fahie MA. In Vitro Biomechanical Testing of the Tube Knot. Veterinary Surgery (In press).

 

From Faculty for Autism Collaboration & Education (FACE):

FACE-ing Adult Transition
WesternU will host the 15th Annual Trends in Autism Education & Resource Forum: FACE-ing Adult Transition, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016. Featuring the documentary “Autism: Behind the Camera” by Lillian Vasquez from the KVCR Autism Initiative and a panel discussion. Click here to visit WesternU’s Faculty for Autism Collaboration & Education (FACE) website for more information.

Click here to sign up for the forum.

 

From University Advancement:

PHCL support
The Walmart Corporation announced its intention to generously support the very successful Pomona Health Career Ladder (PHCL) program with a grant of $25,000. PHCL serves to bring Pomona Unified School District middle school through high school students and their parents together with WesternU students and faculty to prepare for a career in the sciences and health professions. Bill Burrows in University Advancement and Helen Musharbash in Strategic Alliances took the lead in obtaining the funding. 

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