Medical Bulletin

On a chilly Minnesota evening last December, 16-year-old Tiffany Cowan sat uncomplainingly in Room 242 of the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Memorial Building as two graduate students from the University’s Brain Plasticity Laboratory carefully attached a series of wires to her scalp and right arm.

Brian Park, a third-year medical student at the time, had seen the patient, a morbidly obese woman with CoPd and recurrent pneumonia, for three months. But he didn’t have the context he needed to understand her health struggles — until he saw her home, a very small house where she lived with at least three generations of her family, as well as several friends who tended to come and go.

At the University of Minnesota’s new AeroCore Center, researchers are thinking big by exploring the potential of particles one-billionth of a meter in size. The center has brought together researchers from the College of Pharmacy, Masonic Cancer Center, College of Science and Engineering, and Medical School to develop a new way to eradicate lung cancer cells: inhalation of nanoparticles.

Sociologist Melissa Walls, Ph.D., wants to make something clear: She’s not the story behind the $2.8 million National Institutes of Health research grant that she, a Medical School, Duluth colleague, and two other researchers were awarded last fall.

The story, as she sees it, is about adults her team will be working with to examine the ties between stress and type 2 diabetes among Native Americans — the population with the highest diabetes rate in the world.

Twenty years ago, while studying classical guitar at the University of Minnesota, Dean Harrington lost the fine motor control in the “plucking” fingers of his right hand. Soon he also found that he could no longer type efficiently on a computer and that his right forefinger would spontaneously click the mouse at inappropriate times.

At the University of Minnesota, a select group of students is swapping textbooks for English-Kannada dictionaries and boning up on Udupi cuisine for a premed course called the Global future Physician (GfP), which plays out not in the classroom but amid the cacophony of Mysore, India, and across the tribal lands of the Indian state of Karnataka.

Family physician Christopher Wenner, M.D., is also his own nurse, receptionist, accountant, and janitor. And that’s how he likes it.

Three years ago, the 1999 Medical School alumnus got fed up with the constant hurry he faced in his job with a large practice group and decided to become a solo practitioner in Cold Spring, Minn., his hometown.

Andrea Stember knows how to seize an opportunity. When an ankle injury curtailed her budding career as a teenage gymnast, the Bemidji resident decided to take up pole-vaulting. Astonishingly, she managed to break the school record on her first try.

The hopeful student wishing to join the first medical school class at the University of Minnesota in 1888 needed little more than a high school diploma to apply. There were no national standards for medical education at the time, and the requirements for admission and subsequent graduation were regularly debated and varied between institutions.

His life has been bookmarked by the Minnesota Twins.

When Jon Hallberg, M.D., was born in 1965, the Twins made their first World series appearance. He was a senior in college and a fourth-year medical student, respectively, when they won the World series in 1987 and 1991.

The Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota lost two of its most prominent and influential physician-scientists, John H. Kersey, M.D., and John R. Ohlfest, Ph.D.

Fourth-year medical student Sarah Ristvedt is from a rural community in western Minnesota, but from a young age, she knew she wouldn’t follow the family tradition of hog farming. Instead, she wanted to become a doctor and return home to practice.

Margaret Hustad-Perrin, M.D., is concerned about the increasingly specialized future of medicine.

“Fewer and fewer people are choosing to go into primary care,” says the recently retired pediatrician and 1976 Medical School alumna.

Parkinson’s. Alzheimer’s. Schizophrenia. Stroke. Depression. These and a host of other debilitating neurological diseases afflict one in five Americans, at a staggering economic and social cost. But University of Minnesota neuroscientists expect to reduce that burden with advances in neuromodulation — treatments, such as deep brain stimulation, that change the activity of brain circuits.

Minnesota hospitals and clinics may be forced to scale back their training programs because of 2011 state legislation that severely reduces funding to Medical education and research Costs (MERC). The cuts adversely affect University of Minnesota Medical School students and residents, partner hospitals, and, ultimately, access to health care in Minnesota.

A sense of anticipation filled the McNamara Alumni Center March 15 as 225 fourth-year medical students waited to receive the envelopes containing a glimpse of their futures: the results of their residency matches.

Reunite and celebrate with your fellow alumni this fall. All Medical School alumni, including the reunion classes of 1948, 1953, 1958, 1963, 1973, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 2003, are invited back to campus for the 2013 Alumni Celebration, September 19-21.

Construction crews have been hard at work this spring as they put the finishing touches on the newest building in the university of Minnesota’s burgeoning Biomedical Discovery District.

A Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota research team has uncovered a human enzyme responsible for causing DNA mutations found in most breast cancers. The discovery of this enzyme — called APOBEC3B — may change the way breast cancer is diagnosed and treated.

University of Minnesota researchers have developed a "calcium sponge" that could one day be used to combat diastolic heart failure, a common killer of men and women nationwide.

Aaron Friedman, M.D., announced in February that he will step down as dean of the Medical School and vice president for health sciences at the end of the calendar year, concluding his current, three-year appointment.

A drug created by researchers at the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota may hold the answer to defeating pancreatic cancer.

A University of Minnesota research team is responsible for one of 2012's "breakthroughs of the year," according to the journal Science.

Leaders assume new roles in the Medical School and across the University of Minnesota.

The boards of the University of Minnesota Foundation and the Minnesota Medical Foundation voted on Jan. 23 to merge into a single entity. The merger is designed to better serve University donors by providing one voice for private giving at the U and ensuring greater operational excellence in gift administration.

We remember Medical School alumni who have recently passed away and honor their contributions to improving health and advancing medicine.

In the mid-1990s, Paul Iaizzo, Ph.D., was studying muscle loss in intensive care unit patients when he received an intriguing phone call.

“How would you like to study a population of individuals who do not get weak even though they’re immobilized for four to six months?” the caller asked.

Two friends, raised in the same place, both survive to 93 in good physical health, but one lives alone and thrives while the other needs full-time care. Why?

When a bunch of 20-somethings move into an apartment for senior citizens, someone is inevitably going to worry about disruption and noise.

That’s why 95-year-old Augustana Apartments resident Miriam Manfred is careful about when she plays her piano. “I’m very sensitive that my piano playing won’t disturb the students,” says Manfred, referring to her neighbors in the apartment below hers. “But they say they enjoy it; they’re very affirming. It’s no fun playing the piano if you can’t increase the volume.”

Paul Iaizzo, Ph.D., Director of the University of Minnesota’s Visible Heart Laboratory, has given the medical world a unique, never-before-seen view inside the beating heart. Part of the Medical School’s Experimental Surgical Services, the lab has reanimated hundreds of hearts, including about 50 human hearts, using a clear, artificial blood that lets tiny camera-equipped catheters record every movement from the inside.

When Tim Meade, M.D. (Class of 1986), chose internal medicine as his specialty, he had no way of knowing that it would lead him, nearly 20 years later, to establish a charity in Zambia dedicated to combatting the spread of HIV/AIDS in children. But it turned out to be the perfect choice.

Richard Stennes, M.D., M.B.A., isn’t sure just how many passports he has gone through in his life. When you’ve visited 176 countries as well as the North Pole and Antarctica, that can happen.

Starting in 2015, would-be medical students will take a substantially different, longer, and more wide-ranging Medical College Admission Test that’s aimed at identifying aspiring physicians who understand people as well as science.

In the summer of 2007, before he applied to medical school, Elliot Twiggs spent two months as a volunteer in Nairobi, Kenya. He taught biology to high school freshmen and tutored many young boys in the orphanage where he was staying. But it wasn’t all about academics: Twiggs also wowed his pupils with magic tricks—leaving them surprised, delighted, and clamoring for more.

University of Minnesota McKnight Land- Grant professor Dominique Tobbell, Ph.D., studies the social, political, and economic history of the American health care industry. Her current project examines the relationship of academic health centers in the United States with the communities they serve and their impact on health care policy.

William Johnson thought he’d serve in the Marines his entire life. Then, while he was on duty in Iraq, one of his troops was critically wounded. “I watched the medical team save his life and save his limbs,” says Johnson. “It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen."

U medical students and alumni tell their stories in this updated compilation.

The annual White Coat Ceremony marked the start of an exciting new year — and builds on good news. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the accreditation body for U.S. Medical Schools, reaccredited the Medical School through 2019-2020.

During her lifetime, University of Minnesota, Duluth alumna Lillian Repesh, Ph.D., contributed immensely to the University and community where she got her start. The beloved associate dean for student affairs and admissions at the Medical School, Duluth campus died of pancreatic cancer on August 20.

Peter Agre, M.D., winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry, will join the University of Minnesota as a biomedical research adviser to President Eric Kaler, Ph.D., while retaining his full-time appointment as head of the Johns Hopkins University Malaria Research Institute.

The University of Minnesota’s Academic Health Center has launched a blog called Health Talk to share health-related news and stories tied to the center’s schools and colleges. The blog features timely stories, videos, and other multimedia elements highlighting medical advances, research breakthroughs, and news tips.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in August awarded three University of Minnesota scientists national grants for their innovative research on new treatments to combat muscular dystrophy.

Volunteers who want to participate in medical research studies at the University will have a better chance of matching up with a study, thanks to a national research registry.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in late June upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, University of Minnesota health policy experts weighed in on the issue.

The College of Science and Engineering received a $1.08 million grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to convert 8,000 square feet of unfinished space into a larger, new facility for the Medical Devices Center.

The University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the Minnesota Department of Health have been selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a Food Safety Center of Excellence that will help prevent and respond to foodborne illnesses. The center will provide resources for state and local officials to improve food safety through better detection and investigation of foodborne illness outbreaks.

University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview is the highest-ranking hospital in the Twin Cities metro area, according to this year’s U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” list. It ranked nationally in 11 adult specialties.

Eight University of Minnesota Medical School alumni were honored for their work in the service of the medical profession at the Medical School Alumni Awards Banquet on Thursday, October 4, at the University Hotel Minneapolis.

A $1.5 million gift to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) from the Bentson Foundation will advance the center’s efforts as a globally recognized leader in the dissemination of timely information about infectious disease threats.

The University’s Academic Health Center (AHC) has been awarded $12.6 million to find the best ways to prepare health professional students to work in the nation’s fast-changing health care environment.