President’s Scholars Awards honor three outstanding faculty

Drs. Cheves Smythe, Herbert DuPont, and Frank Arnett have devoted a combined two centuries’ worth of instruction to UT Health Science Center at Houston schools. The three were honored on May 20 at the President’s Scholars Awards for excellence in teaching and research.

The first President’s Scholar Award for Excellence was given in 1993. Each award carries with it the honorary title of President’s Scholar and includes a $5,000 cash prize. Awards are customarily presented each year to two faculty members: one for excellence in research and one for excellence in teaching.

Excellence in Research

Selection criteria for the research honorees are research quality and importance, productivity, and peer recognition. This year two research awards were presented. The research scholars are Dr. Frank Arnett, Jr., and Dr. Herbert DuPont.

Arnett is professor of internal medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine, who holds the Elizabeth Bidgood Chair in Rheumatology. He received his rheumatology training at Johns Hopkins University and came to UT Health Science Center at Houston in 1984 to become professor of medicine and director of the Division of Rheumatology — a position he held until he became chair of the Department of Internal Medicine from 2001-04. He is internationally known as a clinician, teacher, and clinical investigator.

In 2006, he led the effort to successfully compete for one of the first 12 Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) funded by the NIH/NCRR — and served as the first principal investigator and executive director of this comprehensive program.

“I am very appreciative of The University of Texas. I think this is a wonderful university with many opportunities to really ‘do your thing.’ They gave me the opportunity, and I will forever be grateful,” Arnett said, upon receiving the award presented by UT Health Science Center at Houston President Dr. Larry Kaiser.

This is the second time Arnett has received the President’s Scholars Award. The first was for Excellence in Teaching.

DuPont is director for the Center for Infectious Diseases, professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health, and clinical professor of medicine, holding the Mary W. Kelsey Chair of Medical Sciences and the Irving Schweppe, Jr., M.D., Chair in Internal Medicine. DuPont also serves as chief of Internal Medicine Service for St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and vice chairman of the Department of Medicine for The Baylor College of Medicine.

DuPont and his colleagues are currently investigating the pathogenesis and epidemiology of diarrhea caused by definable enteric pathogens and studying the host genetics and susceptibility to travelers’ diarrhea and post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) with a focus on inflammatory cytokine polymorphisms. He is conducting clinical trials with novel compounds to prevent and treat travelers’ diarrhea and working with new vaccines to prevent bacterial and viral diarrhea.

DuPont thanked fellow award winner Smythe for helping to recruit him to the health science center 36 years ago.

“In accepting this award, I want to indicate how pleased I am to receive recognition with colleagues Cheves Smythe and Frank Arnett. I respect and admire both of these academic colleagues very much,” DuPont said.

Excellence in Teaching

Selection criteria for the teaching honoree are published works in teaching, enthusiasm, innovation, teaching-related mentoring activities, peer and student recognition.

Dr. Cheves McCord Smythe received the President’s Scholar Award for excellence in teaching. Smythe is professor of general internal medicine for the Medical School and founding dean of the Medical School. He has a long-standing commitment to the fields of geriatrics and education and exemplary standards of leadership. Smythe was educated at Yale and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1947. He trained in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and at Bellevue and Presbyterian Hospitals in New York.

Asked to organize the Medical School in 1970, he has served on that faculty ever since, with three leaves of absence.

He has been recognized as a devoted and appreciated teacher of clinical medicine. His current efforts are to participate in and strengthen the medical teaching at LBJ Hospital and to assist in the development of a program in geriatric medicine.

To recognize Smythe as the first dean of the Medical School from 1970–75, “The Cheves Smythe Distinguished Lecture” was endowed in his honor.

In accepting his award for teaching, Smythe credited his students with keeping him intellectually stimulated and challenged over his 40 years of teaching at the Medical School.

“With every group of new medical students that comes in, I begin by saying to them, ‘You are not just third-year medical students. You are the most important people here because if you weren’t here, none of the rest of us would be here. And the school exists with the fundamental purpose of your education and training.’ I think that’s important to get across,” Smythe said. "It’s been an extraordinary privilege over the years to have been exposed to a whole array of very bright and gifted young people, and I’m indebted to all of them.”

Research: Single gene defect leads to aortic, coronary artery disease

For the first time, scientists have discovered a single gene defect that causes thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections as well as early onset coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, and Moyamoya disease. The research is led by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

The study, “Mutations in Smooth Muscle Alpha-Actin (ACTA2) Cause Early Onset Coronary Artery Disease, Stroke and Moyamoya Disease, Along with Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms and Dissections,” was published online in the April 30 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

“If someone is found to have an alteration or mutation in this gene, we can do screening for vascular diseases, and if diagnosed with disease, they can take medications and undergo surgical approaches to prevent premature death or disability,” said senior author and principal investigator Dr. Dianna Milewicz, professor and director of the Division of Medical Genetics.

The discovery of the causal relationship between the mutated gene ACTA2 and artery diseases has opened the door to a new way of thinking about the vascular system, Milewicz said.

Milewicz and her team studied 127 members of 20 families from around the world who had ACTA2 mutations. They were phenotyped for premature vascular diseases, defined as an age of onset less than 55 years in men and less than 60 years in women.

Premature thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections were the main vascular disease for 76 mutation carriers, while 26 had premature coronary artery disease, 15 had ischemic stroke, including Moyamoya disease, and 15 had more than one vascular disease.

In thoracic aortic disease, the wall of the aorta, the main blood vessel leading out of the heart, weakens and forms an aneurysm that can ultimately lead to an aortic dissection and death. Coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease, is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the country.

In the study, none of the family members without the ACTA2 defect had any vascular disease, helping to rule out other genetic or environmental causes. In four families, members younger than age 20 suffered a stroke and five strokes resulted from Moyamoya disease, a rare stroke disease in which the internal carotid arteries become occluded.

The main function of smooth muscle cells is to contract in response to the stretching from pulsing blood flow. Vascular pathology from mutant aortas and analysis of smooth muscle cells removed from patients and grown in the laboratory suggest that persons with ACTA2 have increased multiplication of smooth muscle cells that contribute to blocked or enlarged arteries, according to the study.

Milewicz and her team previously discovered the role of the mutated ACTA2; mutations in ACTA2 account for 14 percent of the inherited form of thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections, making it the major gene identified for the condition.

During the research, Milewicz identified a large family with persistent livedo reticularis, a purplish mesh-like skin discoloration caused by the occlusion of arteries in the skin. This family also had a history of premature onset coronary artery disease and premature stroke without the risk factors know to cause these diseases (smoking, high cholesterol).

“Family members asked if it all could be related, and I told them at the time that they just had really bad luck with several mutated genes,” Milewicz said. “It didn’t occur to me until later that it might be from the same genetic defect.”

The study results from collaborative efforts of physicians and scientists in the Texas Medical Center including surgeons Dr. Hazim Safi, professor and chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery; Dr. Dong Kim, chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center; and Dr. Anthony Estrera, associate professor of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery.

Genetic statistics for the study were completed by Dr. Sanjay Shete, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and sequencing of the gene was done in part through collaboration with Dr. Steve Scherer, at the Human Genome Center at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. C.S. Raman, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, provided assessment of the effect of the mutations on alpha-actin protein structure and fiber formation. Samples were collected, de-identified, and banked as part of TexGen Research.

Co-authors of the study from the UT Health Science Center at Houston include: Dr. Dong-Chuan Guo, assistant professor of medical genetics; Christina Papke, graduate research assistant, UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston; Dr. Hariyadarshi Pannu, assistant professor of medical genetics; Dr. Nili Avidan, instructor of medical genetics; Ellen Regalado, instructor of medical genetics; Dr. Ralph Johnson, assistant professor of medical genetics; Dr. James Grotta, professor and chair of the Department of Neurology; Dr. Eric Boerwinkle, director of the Division of Epidemiology and Kozmetsky Family Chair in Human Genetics at the UT School of Public Health and The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM); Dr. Ali Marian, professor and director, Center for Cardiovascular Genetic Research at the IMM; Dr. Sudha Veeraraghavan, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology; Dr. Maximilian Buja, executive vice president of academic affairs; Dr. Lorraine Frazier, professor of nursing at UT; and Dr. James Willerson, professor of internal medicine and president of the Texas Heart Institute.

Other co-authors are researchers from: The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center; The Texas Heart Institute; The Ohio University, Columbus; Genetic Health Services Victoria at Royal Children’s Hospital, Australia; Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia; Ireland Regional Genetics Services, Belfast, Northern Ireland; Queens University Belfast; Rhode Island Hospital, Providence; The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City; Baylor College of Medicine; and Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Funding for the research comes from a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, including an $11.6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which created the multi-institutional Specialized Center for Clinically Oriented Research in Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms and Dissections.

— Deborah Mann Lake, Office of Institutional Advancement, Division of Public Affairs

West named radiology fellow

Dr. O. Clark West, associate professor of diagnostic and interventional imaging, has been inducted as a fellow in the American College of Radiology (ACR). The induction took place at a formal convocation ceremony during the recent 86th ACR Annual Meeting and Chapter Leadership conference in Washington, D.C.

West also is a staff radiologist at Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center and staff radiologist at LBJ General Hospital. He is a member of the ACR, Radiological Society of North America, American Roentgen Ray Society, and is immediate past president and a fellow of the American Society for Emergency Radiology.

West received his medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He specializes in the imaging of multiple trauma patients at Memorial Hermann - TMC, where he is chief of the Emergency and Trauma Imaging section.

Summer Medical and Dental Education Program under way

Beginning Monday May 25 and continuing through July 2, 80 new faces will be seen around the UT Dental Branch and the Medical School, thanks to the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP). The program is funded by a grant from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.

The academic enhancement program is for undergraduate college students from minority groups, rural areas, and economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are interested in medicine, dentistry, or other health professions. Sixty pre-med and 20 pre-dental students are participating this year, said Dr. Paula O'Neill, associate dean for academic research and professional development at the Dental Branch and principal investigator for the project.

For six weeks, the SMDEP students will live in dormitories at Rice University, eat with a Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center meal ticket, and travel by foot or train to classes in the Texas Medical Center. They will attend programs on a variety of science topics, as well as classes on financial management, study skills, and the art of communication. Field trips to NASA, several Houston museums, and an Astros game are planned, along with a variety of on-campus social activities.

Dr. Philip Pierpont, associate dean for student and alumni affairs, directs the dental portion of the program, and Dr. Andrew Harper, associate professor of psychiatry, directs the medical portion.

Except for travel costs, the program is free to the students, who will receive stipends every other week during their stay. The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation funded the program for four years with a $1.2 million grant, currently in its fourth year.

The students applied for the program online and were able choose from 12 possible SMDEP sites across the country. To qualify, applicants had to meet specific criteria, including academic excellence. Even so, they will have mentors/tutors during the SMDEP experience, teaming up with UT student volunteers.

— Rhonda Moran, Office Of The Dean, The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston

Summer studies