Sian Cotton, PhD, founding director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at UC and the Turner Farm Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, has been chosen as one of eight presidents of the Second World Congress of Integrative Medicine and Health taking place in Rome, Italy from Sept. 20-23. Cotton currently serves as vice chair of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health and will be one of only two people representing North America at the World Congress.

The World Congress is focused on whole-person, patient-centered health, uniting the community and bringing together health care professionals from across the globe. Topics include integrative oncology and cancer care; integrative treatments, including massage therapy; mind-body therapies; nutrition and lifestyle; pediatrics; basic and translational research in integrative medicine; arts and medicine; and COVID-19.

Cotton is a licensed clinical psychologist with an active research lab with ongoing clinical studies focusing primarily on mindfulness-based interventions and integrative medicine practice-based research.

Susan Waltz, PhD, has been named associate director for cancer research training and education coordination for the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. Waltz is a professor in the Department of Cancer Biology and director of the Graduate Program in Cancer and Cell Biology. Her research focuses on breast and prostate cancer, where the Ron receptor is believed to play a prominent role.

Waltz is the co-director of a National Institutes of Health-sponsored (T-32) Training Program in Cancer Therapeutics. With a focus on new cancer treatments, she helps young researchers understand the mechanisms of cancer cell biology and exposes trainees to both basic research involving cancer therapeutic agents and the clinical utilization of therapeutics. A particular emphasis is placed on the mechanisms through which basic scientific discovery is brought into the clinic through clinical trials.

Treatment of the first patient in a clinical trial of FLASH proton therapy for cancers in the bones of the chest has been completed at the Cincinnati Children’s/University of Cincinnati Medical Center Proton Therapy Center. 

FLASH is a new mode of radiation therapy that can be delivered to a patient in less than one second. Research in the laboratory suggests that FLASH may be safer than standard forms of radiation, and the clinical trial is testing if that is true for patients with cancer. 

The new study, called FAST-02, marks a significant achievement for the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, which continues to lead the way in global research in the field of FLASH proton therapy. It follows a breakthrough last year in the world’s first clinical trial of FLASH proton therapy in people, the FAST-01 study (FeAsibility Study of FLASH Radiotherapy for the Treatment of Symptomatic Bone Metastases). That focused on people with bone metastases in the extremities. Now, Cancer Center researchers from Cincinnati Children’s and the College of Medicine are collaborating to establish the efficacy of ultra-high dose rate proton therapy in treating chest bone cancers. The FAST-02 study is sponsored by equipment manufacturer Varian Medical Systems. 

>> Read more about the FLASH proton therapy trial

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported that using dexamethasone, a common steroid, prevented deaths in patients who had severe COVID-19 and were on ventilators in the intensive care unit, but it was not known why it helped. In the summer of 2020, a team of College of Medicine researchers led by Ameet Chimote, PhD (pictured), began studying the mechanisms of how dexamethasone works to treat COVID-19.

The research found that dexamethasone specifically inhibited many inflammatory pathways and several critically important genes contributing to the cytokine storm, inflammatory signaling and antiviral responses in immune cells. This could prevent the immune cells from attacking and destroying the patient’s lungs, thus avoiding deaths due to cytokine storm.

“All of the genes that trigger cytokine storm in severe COVID-19 were inhibited by dexamethasone. We also saw that dexamethasone inhibited the expression and function of ion channels that regulate immune responses, especially cytokine production,” says Chimote, from the laboratory of Laura Conforti, PhD, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension.  

The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

>> Read more about this research

The 12th Annual Department of Internal Medicine Research Symposium on March 29 and 30 included trainees and their mentors presenting research posters displayed in the CARE/Crawley Atrium. The winning presentations in the basic research, clinical research and clinical case report categories for trainee and staff posters, their mentors and presentation titles are: 

Trainee Basic Research Poster Awards

• First Place: Alex Huber, Division of Infectious Diseases; Rajat Madan, MD, PhD, associate professor, Division of Infectious Diseases; “Transcriptional Landscape of Clostridioides Difficile Infection Induced Neutrophilia”
• Second Place: Priyanka Singh, PhD, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine; Satish Madala, PhD, professor, Department of Pediatrics; “Dysregulated SOX9 Overexpression in Multiple Lung Cells Contributes to Severe Fibrotic Lung Disease”
• Honorable Mention: Lisa Green, PhD, Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease; Sakthivel Sadayappan, PhD, Dr. James F. Heady Chair in Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease; “Compound Mutations in HRC and MYBPC3 Synergistically Increase Cardiac Pathogenicity”

Trainee Clinical Research Poster Awards:

• First Place: David Warner, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; Prakash Gudsoorkar, MD, assistant professor, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; “Therapeutic Plasma Exchange: Indications and Complications”
• Second Place: Mina Chau, PharmD, Transplant Surgery; Rita Alloway, PharmD; professor, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; “Impact of COVID-19 on Belatacept and Tacrolimus Treated Kidney Transplant Recipients From a Prospective, Randomized, Multicenter Trial”
• Honorable Mention: Omama Siddiqui, MD, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; Shailendra Patel, MD, PhD, Albert W. Vontz Jr. Professorship of Diabetes, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; “Sick Day Rules Management in Patients With Chronic Adrenal Insufficiency”

Trainee Clinical Case Report Poster Awards

• First Place: Michelle Knopp, MD, Internal Medicine IMSTAR Fellow; Christine White, MD, professor, Department of Pediatrics; “Clinical Informatics, Data Visualization, End User, Patient Flow, Mental Health, Usability, Dashboards”; and Sana Syed, MBBS, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; Shailendra Patel, MD, PhD, Albert W. Vontz Jr. Professorship of Diabetes, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; “Androgen Secreting Adrenal Adenoma”
• Honorable Mention: Divya Kompella, MD, Division of General Internal Medicine; Kelly Laipply, MD, assistant professor, Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease; “Anchoring in a PFO or Anchoring Bias? A Case of a Life-Saving Valsalva”

Traffic patterns at the intersection of Eden Avenue and Goodman Drive will be changing for the next two months. Beginning Wednesday, April 5, the center turn lane on eastbound Goodman Drive (turning left onto northbound Eden Avenue) will be closed. This will allow for a vehicle staging area for ongoing construction at the nearby Medical Campus Utility Plant.

Additionally, the left turn lane on northbound Eden Avenue into the southeast entrance to Eden Garage will be closed during this period. A Hamilton County Sheriff Deputy will be on Eden Avenue to assist with traffic in this area from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Vehicles can continue turning left from northbound Eden Avenue into the southeast entrance of Eden Garage, however, people parking in Eden Garage are reminded that there also are three entrances on the west side of the garage in addition to the entrance on Panzeca Way on the northside of the garage.

This new traffic pattern will remain in place until Monday, June 6.

The sidewalk on the east side of Eden Avenue across from Eden Avenue Garage will continue to be closed to pedestrian traffic until approximately May 2024. The portion closed will be from the driveway entrance to the Medical Sciences Building receiving docks to just north of Goodman Avenue.

A few spots are still available to donate blood from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., Tuesday, April 11, when a Hoxworth Blood Center donor bus visits the plaza in front of the CARE/Crawley Building. Anyone donating will receive a UC tumbler.

People also can donate during the UC All-Campus Blood Drive between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 11 to Friday, April 14 at donor buses at the Tangeman University Center Plaza on UC’s Main Campus.

>> Schedule your appointment to donate April 11 on the Medical Campus

 >> Schedule your appointment to donate on Main Campus

The Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati will hold a free session on “Cultivating a Brain-healthy Lifestyle for Health Professionals” from noon until 1 p.m., Wednesday, April 12 in Medical Sciences Building E-351.

Annie Fenn, MD (pictured), a chef and author of “The Brain Health Kitchen: Preventing Alzheimer’s Through Food,” will lead the presentation. Fenn is the founder of the Brain Health Kitchen, the only cooking school of its kind focused exclusively on brain health and helping people prevent cognitive decline through food and lifestyle. A panel discussion including Fenn, Rhonna Shatz, DO, Bob and Sandy Heimann Endowed Chair in Research and Education in Alzheimer’s Disease, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, and Pamela Sharpe, nurse practitioner and chef for the Osher Center for Integrative Health, will follow Fenn’s presentation.

>> Register for “Cultivating a Brain-healthy Lifestyle for Health Professionals”