American Federation for
Medical Research

NEWS

WESTERN REGION Edition

I am pleased to begin my term as Chair of the Western Region, AFMR and would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I am an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the University of Colorado and Eastern Colorado Veterans Health Care System. My research interest includes studying the pathophysiology of insulin resistance in obesity. I joined AFMR because I believe in training and successful development of medical investigators. This is one of the goals of AFMR.

Regional AFMR meetings provide a multidisciplinary environment in which to discuss research and interact with colleagues. The Western Region AFMR held its annual meeting this past January in Carmel. The scientific meeting; which is held in conjunction with the Western Association of Physicians, the Western Society for Clinical Investigation, the Western Society for Pediatric Research, the Western Student and Resident Medical Research Forum, and the California Thoracic Society; was high quality and well attended with 368 registrants and an additional 300 students and residents registered. The Western AFMR awarded 19 junior faculty and fellows in the Scholar Program. Carmel Scholars are selected on the basis of the excellence of their scientific abstracts across all scientific disciplines. "Global Health" was the subject of the joint plenary sessions in 2011 and we are excited to announce that "Regenerative Medicine" would be the theme for the next year plenary sessions. There will be some changes in the Western Regional Meeting program in order to involve medical students more closely. Stay tuned!

Our current focus of the Western AFMR is to involve more trainee and faculty to expand our professional network. We have several openings on the Western council. Anyone who is interested in serving on the council or would like to nominate someone, please contact me at neda.rassouli@ucdenver.edu. I would be happy to talk to you about how to become involved in Western AFMR!

Neda Rasouli, MD
Chair, WAFMR

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The AFMR has taken recent steps toward advancing its public policy agenda by partnering with FASEB and with Research!America. Here are a few:

   FASEB provided comments to the Department of Health and Human Services on proposed changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
   The AFMR identified priorities for future investment in biomedical research that were forwarded to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy by FASEB.
   Congress has recessed without passing the FY2011 funding bills for NIH and other agencies. The Continuing Resolution is based on FY2010 levels and does not include the $1 billion NIH increase that President Obama proposed. When lawmakers return in November, FASEB will mobilize the community to press Congress to pass legislation that includes the higher NIH and NSF funding levels.

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The Journal of Investigative Medicine publishes work of broad interest to academic physicians and research scientists in areas pertaining to clinical and biomedical research.

Publications Upcoming in Issue #5:

EB symposium manuscripts
A collection of manuscripts summarizing the topics of the presentations at the AFMR EB symposium entitled "Translating Your Ideas: Drug Development, Intellectual Property and the State of Academic-University Relations". The manuscripts from this symposium detail pathways and problems that surround the process of translating scientific ideas and discoveries into beneficial treatments for patients. The papers provide an overview of the drug development process, beginning with approaches to innovation and the selection of promising ideas for development, through to the steps in drug assessment and clinical trials. They also examine issues of technology transfer for individual researchers, academic institutions, government funding sources and commercial entities, and issues of public trust and conflicts of interest in the current changing landscape of Academic-Industry collaborations.

Mason W. Freeman, Andrew P. Dervan, "The Path from Bench to Bedside: Considerations Before Starting the Journey".
Charles D. Smith, "Your Idea and Your University: Issues in Academic Technology Transfer".
Indrani Mukharji, "Patent & License Pearls and Pitfalls for Taking an Idea to the Marketplace".
Deborah Zucker, "Ethics and Technology Transfer: Patients, Patents and Public Trust".

Highlighted Original Contribution:
Susan Matulevicius, Laura C Huff, Lidia S Szczepaniak, Colby R Ayers, Matthew Budoff, Roderick McColl, Amit Khera, Ronald M Peshock, "The Potential of Electron Beam Computed Tomography for Coronary Artery Calcium Screening to Evaluate Fatty Liver: Comparison with 1H-MR Spectrocopy in the Dallas Heart Study".

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Data Mining: Functional Statistical Genetics & Bioinformatics - Laura Kelly Vaughan, PhD
Design and Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies - Tasha E. Fingerlin, PhD
Introduction to Epigenetics/Epigenomics - Xiangqin Cui, PhD
Pathway Analysis Hypothesis - David B. Allison, PhD

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Outstanding Investigator Vance G. Fowler, Jr., MD, MHS Associate Professor with Tenure Duke University Medical Center Durham, North Carolina

Junior Physician Investigator Carmella Evans-Molina, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Medicine Indiana University School of Medicine Indianapolis, Indiana

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1. Submit an abstract to your AFMR Regional Meeting.
2. Learn about and influence important public policy issues.
3. Apply for a Research Day Award to be presented at your institution’s college or departmental research day.
4. Obtain information regarding career development, research and training opportunities, funding sources, and grant development at AFMR Career Connections.
5. Submit a proposal for a symposium at the 2012 Experimental Biology meeting.
6. Listen to the opinions of diverse thought leaders expressed in the AFMR sponsored The Current Crisis in Clinical Research: Where Do We Go? held in 2009 in Washington, D.C.
7. Contact the chair of your section and join the council.
8. View presentation videos from the AFMR Career Development Workshops held in Chicago in 2009 and 2010.
9. Access the Journal of Investigative Medicine.
10. Renew your membership and recruit a colleague to join AFMR

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