This Week@WesternU, Aug. 9-13, 2010
From the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific:
Kudos on accomplishments
Dr. Mathew Wedel of COMP’s Department of Anatomy and the College of Podiatric Medicine attended the 9th International Congress on Vertebrate Morphology in Punta del Este, Uruguay, July 26-31, and gave an invited talk titled, “The evolution of gigantism in whales and sauropod dinosaurs: contrasting solutions to common problems.”
From the College of Allied Health Professions:
Department of Physical Therapy Education News
Chris Kegler, DPT Class of 2011, is now slated for the position of Treasurer for the American Physical Therapy Association’s National Student Assembly, an organization of almost 18,000 student members nationwide.
AB 2382, known as the “California State Universities Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Professional Degree” bill, recently passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee (8-1). AB 2382 creates an exception to the Master Plan for Higher Education to allow California State Universities to confer the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) professional degree. This is needed to comply with a mandate from the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), which now requires that all U.S. physical therapist education programs be approved to offer the DPT degree by December of 2015. Failure to award the DPT will result in non-accreditation of the CSU physical therapist education programs.
From the College of Pharmacy:
Kudos on accomplishments
WesternU student pharmacist Matthew Hyunwoo Rim will receive the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP) 2010 Student Leadership Award at the Opening Session at the CSHP Seminar 2010 meeting at the San Francisco Hilton in October. He is a Past President of the WesternU CSHP Student Chapter.
Welcome
Desiree Hickam has joined the College of Pharmacy as Executive Assistant to Dean Daniel Robinson. She brings a wealth of talent and experience to the College of Pharmacy. Desiree has over 10 years experience as an administrative associate with advanced organizational, computing and budgeting skills. She brings experience in marketing, development of promotional materials, preparing press releases, website maintenance and enhancement and event planning. She also comes with entrepreneurial talents, having previously run her own event planning business. Desiree has a bachelor’s degree in Communications from California State University, San Bernardino.
From the College of Veterinary Medicine:
Kudos on accomplishments
Veterinary virologists Ghida Banat, Yvonne Drechsler, Eric Fish, Peggy Barr, Chris Petro and Ellen Collisson attended the yearly meeting of the American Society of Virology, July 17-21, 2010, in Bozeman Mont. Each of our attendees presented a poster paper and Dr. Collisson was convener and moderator of a session at this national meeting. Five posters were presented, in addition to an oral presentation by third-year DVM student Eric Fish:
“Canine parvovirus 2C is the predominant variant associated with parvovirus enteritis in Southern California dogs.” M. Barr, A. Wournell, K. Mitsouras, K. Irizarry and K. Bridges.
“Impact of chicken MHC on monocytes: An in vitro study.” Y. Drechsler, L. Griggs, E. Collisson, and M. Dawes.
“Development of IBV as viral vectors for HA of avian influenza.” Y. Drechsler & E. Collisson.
“Pathogenecity of avian coronavirus in chickens differing in the MHC B complex.” G. Banat, S. Tkalcic, H.L. Shivaprasad, M. Saggese, M. Jackwood, W.E. Briles and E. Collisson.
“Broad neutralization of type A influenza virus stains by anti-M2 ectodomain antibodies.” H. Kim, J. Romero, C. Petro, W. Ernst, G. Fujii, H. Zeng, T. Tumpey, J. Adler-Moore.
Student Doctor Eric Fish, DVM ’12, spoke in front of an audience of renowned experts in coronavirus molecular epidemiology, and his presentation was exceptional and well received. His presentation was titled, “mRNA detection and genomic analysis of feline coronavirus in moncytes of healthy shelter cats in Southern California.” E Fish, P Diniz, F Bossong, E Collisson and Y Drechsler.
Veterinary Professor and Animal Behaviorist Dr. Victoria Voith attended the combined meeting of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior in Atlanta. In the Scientific Program on July 30, 2010, her poster, titled “Dog Breed Identification,” was awarded First Prize.
The complete citation is: “Dog Breed Identification” by Victoria L Voith, DVM, PhD, Colette Bond Chadik (DVM 2011), Elizabeth Ingram (DVM 2009), Kris Irizarry, PhD, Katherine Mitsouras, PhD, Joseph Marilo, BA.
This work involving faculty from two colleges at WesternU as well as two veterinary students demonstrates the interprofessional research collaboration needed to advance this important work.
Dr. Victoria Voith also presented a well-received paper, “Improving Communications: Inter-rater Reliability of Dog Breed Identification and Comparison to DNA Analysis,” in the Animal Welfare/Public and Corporate Practice Session at the 147th American Veterinary Medical Association Annual Convention, July 31, 2010, in Atlanta. This presentation addressed how often people are in agreement regarding the breeds that comprise a mixed breed dog and how often these opinions are in agreement with DNA breed analysis.
From the College of Optometry:
National Children’s Vision and Learning Month
August is National Children’s Vision and Learning Month. The new PCC Eye Care Center has the professional expertise and understanding to diagnose and treat a variety of vision-related problems that children – and adults – face.
