This Week@WesternU, Aug. 22-26, 2016
WesternU at the LA County Fair
WesternU students and faculty will provide free health screenings at the LA County Fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. Buy discounted Fair tickets and come out to support our students. Link to Facebook post with flier:
WesternU is partnering with Inter Valley Health Plan, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, and Fairplex to once again bring “Our Body: The Universe Within” to the Los Angeles County Fair September 2-24, 2016.
WesternU, IVHP and PVHMC, which previously partnered on “Our Body” in 2012, have added their own theme to the exhibit, focusing on the question “Our Body Does What?” Interesting factoids about human bodies and biological processes will be sprinkled throughout the exhibit, along with graphic elements and videos created by the partners.
A separate $5 fee (ages 5 and under are free) will be charged to enter the “Our Body” exhibit. Proceeds go toward Fairplex youth education programs.
From Faculty for Autism Collaboration & Education (FACE):
Save the date – Oct. 15, 2016
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.
From the College of Graduate Nursing:
Kudos on accomplishments
CGN Interim Dean Mary Lopez, PhD, MSN, RN, gave a podium presentation on “Mexican-American Breast Cancer Survivors’ Challenges with Health Care Disparities: A Mixed Method Study” at the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Research Conference in Cape Town, South Africa on July 25, 2016.
From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:
Kudos on accomplishments
More than 50 WesternU COMP-Northwest medical students and two clinicians volunteered their time Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, completing health screenings at the Asian Health and Service Center’s (AHSC) 15th Annual Health Fair in Portland.
Students and faculty helped screen approximately 350 participants at the health fair. Medical students checked participants’ body mass index, vitals, lipids and blood glucose levels. Those with minor musculoskeletal dysfunctions were treated with Osteopathic Manipulative Treatments (OMT). After participants labs were completed, WesternU COMP-Northwest medical students worked with clinicians to advise participants on results.
The students’ work was overseen by COMP-Northwest faculty members John T. Pham, DO, and Ed Goering, DO. For the past five years, Dr. Pham has led the charge to inspire volunteers from COMP-Northwest to help with the annual event. He volunteered with the AHSC for several years prior to joining COMP-Northwest.
Dennis Muscato, MS, was the featured speaker at the National Lifestyle Medical Education Consortium (LMEd) webinar on Aug. 16, 2016. The topic “Mentoring Medical Schools in Lifestyle Medicine” provided an overview of the LMEd Consortium and mentoring toolkit, designed by Dennis Muscato, to advance Lifestyle Medicine Education at Medical Schools in the United States and around the globe. The webinar also provided key steps ahead in the LMEd strategies to advance Lifestyle Medicine curriculum in medical schools. This LMEd webinar and others can be found at www.LifestyleMedicineEducation.org/webinar
Medical Anatomy Center news
West Albany High School student Jessica Woodhall and Santiam Christian High School student James Johnson delivered platform presentations and defended posters on their summer research integrating art, imaging and technology to aid understanding of common medical problems. Each received high accolades for their oral presentations and had the top posters from more than 100 high school participants. They and three additional high school students spent more than 400 hours on their summer research projects under the mentorship of Brion Benninger, MD, MS, Professor of Medical Innovation, Technology & Research and Clinical Anatomy in the Medical Anatomy Center. Their research incorporated sculpting, painting, ultrasound and Sectra 3D technology, which will be included in a Medical Education Portal.
From the Graduate College of Biomedical Sciences:
Kudos on accomplishments
GCBS Professor Q. Quinn Li, PhD, with his student and postdoc, recently published a research paper in Scientific Report (2016, 6:28060) titled “A Genome-wide Study of “Non-3UTR” Polyadenylation Sites in Arabidopsis thaliana.” In this article, they studied non-classical RNA processing by addition of poly(A) sites in other part of messenger RNA transcripts than most known at the end of 3’-untranslated regions.
Dr. Li also collaborated with bioinformatics scientists to build a much-needed database for the studies of alternative polyadenylation. The results have been published in Frontiers in Plant Science (2016, 7:889) titled “PlantAPA: a portal for visualization and analysis of alternative polyadenylation in plants.” This is a comprehensive collection of alternative poly(A) sites from different species, as well as some analysis tools and generic outputs of the analyses. This resource is useful for scientists who are studying gene functions and expression regulation to find the alternative RNA processing for their genes of interests.
Dr. Li was chosen as the commencement speaker in June 2016 for about 2,000 graduates of the Faculty of Sciences, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, and Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, Xiamen University (XMU). Located in the beautiful coastal city of Xiamen in the southeast China, XMU is ranked top 20 among Chinese Universities and Colleges. Dr. Li received his BS and MS degrees from XMU.
