The UTMB Stark Diabetes Clinic hosts a diabetes support group that addresses a wide range of topics.
The group meets from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on the second Monday of each month in Suite 9 of the UTMB Multispecialty Center, 2660 Gulf Freeway South, in League City.
Monday’s meeting topic is “Diabetes in the Internet age.” October’s meeting looks at diabetes management during the holidays.
To reserve a place, call 832-505-2300.
New School Of Nursing faculty
The School of Nursing welcomes the following new faculty to campus: Kimberly Abraham, Tiffany Boysen, Dinez Esmail, Ruth Ann Marr, Sarah McBride, Dwayne More and Gina Wofford will teach in the baccalaureate program. Gloria Brandburg and Bonnie Williams are new to the master’s program.
National scholarship
School of Nursing student Sarah Collins was selected as a 2012 Janssen Student Scholar by the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.
Collins is one of 15 undergraduate and 15 graduate nursing students across the country to receive the award, established to recognize graduate and undergraduate nursing students who have demonstrated a passion for psychiatric mental health nursing and help foster their professional growth and development.
Pasteur papers go digital
The Moody Medical Library has received a $15,000 grant to create a digital repository of selected materials from the private library of Louis Pasteur housed in the Truman G. Blocker Jr. History of Medicine Collections.
The project will increase access to the collection, considered one of the most significant in the world. The library also has received a $15,000 Resource Library Outreach Award to help introduce area school nurses and their students’ families to consumer health information available from the National Library of Medicine.
National grant
The American Cancer Society has awarded more than $700,000 to Yong Sun Lee, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, to continue his work in studies aimed at improving outcomes for cancer patients by understanding the function of small, non-coding RNAs, which play important roles in a variety of complex cellular functions.
Onassis award
Maria Chondronikola, a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, has received an Onassis Foundation grant for her ongoing dissertation work on “The effect of brown adipose tissue activation on insulin sensitivity in obese and elderly individuals.”
Student service
Students Together for Service held an orientation meeting for newcomers to campus with information on different ways to give back, including the St. Vincent’s Student Clinic and Frontera de Salud.
The creative side
UTMB held its first “Artistic expressions: Mind, body and spirit” event to showcase how faculty and students have included creative expression and the arts into their lives and their professional identities.
GI cancer support group
To help other patients who have colorectal, GI and similar cancers, cancer survivors and the UTMB Cancer Center are spearheading a new support group for men and women and their spouses and caregivers.
The meeting is from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Suite 3.618 of the UTMB Health Clinics, 1005 Harborside Drive in Galveston. If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with colorectal or gastrointestinal cancer and would like more information, call the UTMB Cancer Center at 409-747-4087.
World Sepsis Day
Thursday is the first World Sepsis Day and UTMB is joining with others around the world to bring awareness to the issue.
Often misunderstood as “blood poisoning,” sepsis arises when the body’s response to an infection damages its own tissues and organs. It remains the primary cause of death from infection, despite advances in modern medicine such as vaccines, antibiotics and intensive care. UTMB is having events focused on raising awareness, including display tables with information and a poster contest that will be on display in the cafeteria of John Sealy Hospital all week.
Texas Medical Center institutions will host information booths from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. At noon, sepsis survivors will tell their stories and speakers from member institutions will discuss warning signs and ways to prevent sepsis.
Caregiver seminar
Designed for caregivers of people who have memory loss, a three-hour seminar is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 19 in Suite 100 at the UTMB Primary Care Pavilion, 400 Harborside Drive in Galveston. Seminar participants do not have to be affiliated with UTMB. The seminar is free, but preregistration is required. For more information or to register, contact Adele Herzfeld at asherzfe@utmb.edu or 832-505-2002.
National service award
Mary Wainwright, deputy director of Texas Area Health Education Center East and clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing, is the 2012 recipient of the Red Koelling Award for Service to AHEC. The award, presented at the biennial conference of the National AHEC Organization, honors more than 25 years of service as a master’s degree-prepared nurse with experience in rural and urban settings, including critical care nursing practice and administration.
Keck seminar
“From cellphones to cell biology: High-tech, low-cost solutions to global health” was the topic of guest lecturer Rebecca Richards-Kortum, professor of electrical and computer engineering and chairwoman of bioengineering at Rice University. The Keck Seminar series at UTMB is sponsored by the Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics.
Pepper Investigator’s lecture
“The UTMB Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center,” was the topic for Dr. Elena Volpi, director of the center and a distinguished professor of geriatrics as well as associate director of the Institute for Translational Sciences.