(This year’s Witmer and Meliora award recipients include University staff members who provide critical ‘behind the scenes’ support for researchers. Today: Janet Cushing.)

Janet Cushing is described by colleagues as the “go-to person” in the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and the Center for Musculoskeletal Research (CMR).

Cushing, an administrator, started her career at the University in 1974 as a laboratory technician in medical/radiation and biology and biophysics, before joining the Department of Orthopaedics in 1979.

She played a key support role in the growth of the research enterprise that culminated in the formation of the CMR in 2001. Over the past 15 years, her responsibilities increased as the center continued to expand.

In 2008, Cushing was promoted to administrator II, managing the day-to-day operations of the center, which occupies more than 30,000 square feet of contiguous laboratory space and supports nearly 70 full-time faculty from Orthopaedics, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medicine (Nephrology, Rheumatology and Endocrinology), and Biomedical Engineering.

“It is not an exaggeration to state that Janet was a steady force and a key factor in the success that we collectively enjoyed,” writes Hani Awad, professor of biomedical engineering and of orthopaedics and rehabilitation, who nominated Cushing for the Witmer Award she recently received.

She is responsible for the post-award management of a CMR research portfolio that, as of fiscal year 2016, exceeded $7 million annually. She provides administrative support and fiscal oversight to these awards, which include several R01, R21, and K awards as well as three large programmatic grants.

She attends all of the administrative committee meetings for the programmatic grants, and is responsible for administration and reporting of budgetary activities.

In addition, Cushing:

• Oversees the activities of all laboratory personnel, including technical staff, students, and post-doctoral fellows.
• Is responsible for all post-award processing, including ordering of supplies, materials, and equipment required for individual projects and the core facilities, as well as all personnel hiring and evaluations.
• Is in charge of space and equipment management in the CMSR.

Despite a large workload, Cushing has consistently responded quickly to requests, found ways to assist others, and has organized events to build comradery.

“Simply put, Janet’s contribution to the enterprise is woven into the fabric of what the Center for Musculoskeletal Research is today,” writes Mike Zuscik, associate professor of orthopaedics, of pathology, and of biomedical engineering, in a letter supporting Cushing’s nomination.

Read about the University’s other Witmer and Meliora award winners here.

 Nancy Ares, associate professor of education at the Warner School, is the lead editor of a new book on the changing landscape of educational reform and land-use policies, revealing how social, political, and historical dimensions of space — especially racial/ethnic and other markers of difference — shape schooling, communities, people, and culture.

Deterritorializing/Reterritorializing: Critical Geography of Educational Reform (Sense Publishers, 2017) is co-edited with Edward Buendía, dean of the School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington–Bothell, and Robert Helfenbein, associate dean of the School of Education at Loyola University of Maryland.

 Ares and the book contributors use a critical geography framework—a multidisciplinary structure that analyzes how space changes over time—to closely examine how constructions of social spaces shape and are shaped by school reforms.

They situate their work in contemporary neoliberal polices in public education that are pushing responsibility for economic and social welfare, as well as education policy and practice, out of federal and into more local entities.

For example, states, cities, and school boards are being given more responsibility and power in determining curriculum content and standards, accompanied by increasing privatization of public education through the rise of charter schools and organizations running schools as profit-making ventures.

Read more here.

In a Q and A with Susanne Pallo, Carla Beckham,  assistant professor of urology, describes how a 2014 Faculty Pilot award from the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute enabled her to work with Edward Messing, professor of urology, on finding markers of tumor progression in the urine of bladder cancer patients. This could help advance new chemotherapy research.

The team sequenced RNA from exosomes (small membrane bound vesicles, which facilitate tumor progression), tumors, and healthy tissue of eight patients with bladder cancer, as well as RNA from exosomes of eight healthy age-matched donors.

“In exosomes from bladder cancer patients, we found long non coding RNA and mRNA that are enriched in the cancer patients but not in the healthy volunteers,” Beckham said. “We have also identified single nucleotide polymorphisms in some mRNA that are enriched in patient exosomes, but not in healthy volunteers. Right now, we’re trying to see if the genetic variations we are seeing are in the DNA from the patients’ tumors or if the variations are happening in the RNA after transcription.”

The pilot award, she says, gave the team a “huge launch” into the field of exosome research, and also helped to “launch our research in an exciting new direction.”

Eastman Institute for Oral Health, recent recipient of a coveted William J. Gies Award for Achievement, is celebrating its 100^th year as a key safety-net provider for the Greater Rochester area, while delivering world-class graduate education and performing valuable oral health research.

The institute traces its origins to the opening of the Rochester Dental Dispensary in 1917 and is routinely among the top 10 recipients of grant funding from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, writes Karen McCally in a Rochester Review article about the institute and its history.

Research takes place throughout the institute, including the Center for Oral Biology—a direct descendant of the Dental Research Fellowship Program that the Medical Center established in 1929.

Housed in the Arthur Kornberg Medical Research Building, the center underscores the way in which dentistry and other areas of medicine are interrelated.

For example, Wei Hsu, Dean’s Professor at the Center for Oral Biology, discovered early in his career that a gene implicated in cancer also played a prominent role in craniofacial development and disease. Recruited to the institute in 2002, he’s conducting path-breaking research on stem cells and skull deformities.

Catherine Ovitt, an associate professor at the center, has achieved national recognition for her research on the repair and regeneration of the salivary glands, which are critical for oral health, yet are often seriously damaged during treatment of head and neck cancers.

Along with principal investigator Dorota Kopycka-Kedzierawski, an associate professor of dentistry, several more institute researchers are exploring the effects of stress and parenting behaviors on early childhood caries—a significant public health problem that disproportionately affects children in poverty.

The National Institutes of Health has recognized the institute not only by the grants it has awarded, but also by selecting it in 2012 for a leadership role in a $67 million national research initiative to improve clinical care.

• Ehsan Hoque, assistant professor of computer science, who has been inducted into the inaugural class of the Future of Computing Academy. The academy is an initiative of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) to “enable the next generation of researchers, practitioners, educators, and entrepreneurs to develop a coherent and influential voice to address challenging issues facing the field and society in general.” The 46 inductees represent 19 different countries.
• William Jones, the Charles F. Houghton Professor of Chemistry, who is recipient of the 2017 Organometallic Chemistry Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for finding new methods for converting hydrocarbons into chemicals found in useful, everyday products. An example of Jones’ research is a series of reactions that results in the  selective conversion of ethanol to butanol, without producing unwanted byproducts. “Butanol is much better than ethanol as an alternative to gasoline,” Jones says. “It yields more energy, is less volatile, and doesn’t cause damage to engines.”  Read more here.
• Ronald Epstein, professor of family medicine, psychiatry, and oncology, who is recipient of the 2017 Gold Humanism Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) . The award recognizes an STFM member each spring for attributes of humanism in medicine, defined by respectful and compassionate relationships with other physicians and the health care team, and with patients. Epstein recently published Attending: Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity (Scribner, January 2017), which offers an inside look at how doctors think and work. It is believed to be the first book for the general public about mindfulness in medical practice. Read more here.

How is science shaped by the culture that surrounds it? How do technological innovations change society? A new group would like to bring together people from all parts of the University community to reflect on these questions through shared reading and group discussion.

The group’s first selection is When Breath Becomes Air, the memoir of Paul Kalanithi — a neurosurgeon whose diagnosis with terminal lung cancer at the end of his residency drives him to examine the brain, the mind, and what makes us human.

The group will meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 14 in the new Humanities Center (located in Rush Rhees Library) for snacks, conversation, and to choose the next read.

(If you are unable to attend, but are interested or would like to participate in future meetings, email Emma_Grygotis@urmc.rochester.edu)

• Student Talk by Matt Cavanaugh, PhD candidate.
• Post-doc Talk by Jennetta Hammond of Center for Neural Development and Disease.
• Faculty Talk by Krishnan Padmanabhan, assistant professor.

Swetha George, Electrical Engineering, “Sub-wavelength Imaging Methodology for Medical Ultrasound Applications.” 10 a.m. May 23, 2017. Computer Studies Building 426. Advisor: Zeljko Ignjatovic.

Claire Ellen McCarthy, Toxicology, “Dung Biomass Smoke Exposure Suppresses Immune Responses to Respiratory Virus Infections and Heightens Inflammation.” 1 p.m. June 13, 2017. K-207 (2-6408 URMC). Advisor: Patricia Sime.

Today: Technology & Rare Neurological Diseases Symposium, 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Helen Wood Hall Auditorium. Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics. Patients, patient advocates, clinical research policy and regulatory experts, and researchers from academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries will brainstorm ways to apply novel mobile health technologies to rare neurological diseases. Register here; learn more on the TRNDS website.

Today: Deadline for submitting applications for population health pilot projects supported by the Department of Public Health Sciences. Learn more…

May 16: The Graduate Student Society’s annual poster session, 2 to 5 p.m. Flaum Atrium, Medical Center.

May 19: Discussion: “What is modern society wrong about that will be ridiculed by our descendants?” Led by Randall Curren of the Department of Philosophy. Pangaea Discussion Group. 4:30-5:30 p.m. Natapow Conference Room, 1-9545 (Medical Center). Hosted by Graduate Student Society (SMD) and the AS&E Graduate Student Association. Snacks, coffee, and tea provided.

May 22: Deadline to apply for pilot awards from the Center for AIDS Research, including awards of up to $50,000 each focusing on: HIV-associated cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease; stress, trauma, and vulnerable populations; and HIV cure (click here for RFA). Also awards of up to $25,000 focusing on the National Institutes of Health HIV/AIDS High Priority Research Topics (click here for RFA).

May 22: Deadline to apply for research awards from the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences to collaborate with New York state companies on projects in ophthalmic and vision science, fiber optic communications, biomedical imaging, geospatial imaging, precision optics, consumer imaging and displays. Click here to learn more.

May 23: Deadline to submit preproposals for University Technology Development Fund awards. Submissions should be sent to omar.bakht@rochester.edu. Click here for more details.

May 26: Neuroscience Retreat, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Memorial Art Gallery. Register here.

May 26: “Biomimetic and Anti-Fouling Interfaces,” a Frontiers in Materials Science for the 21st Century Symposium, sponsored by the Rochester Advanced Materials Science Program. 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sloan Auditorium, Goergen Hall. More information at the program website. Contact gina.eagan@rochester.edu for further details.

May 30: Deadline to apply for awards of up to $10,000 from the Center for AIDS Research for collaborative clinical and translational pharmacology proposals involving University of Rochester and University at Buffalo faculty. Click here for RFA.

June 1: “Excellence Through Equity: Creating Schools that Serve All Children Well,” presented by Pedro Noguera, professor of education at UCLA. Followed by panel discussion. Hosted by Warner School’s Center for Urban Education Success. 6 p.m., Edward J. Cavalier Auditorium at East High School. Free and open to the public. Read more here.

June 14: Science, Technology, and Culture multidisciplinary reading group, discussing When Breath Becomes Air, the memoir of Paul Kalanithi — a neurosurgeon whose diagnosis with terminal lung cancer at the end of his residency drives him to examine the brain, the mind, and what makes us human.  5 p.m., Humanities Center at Rush Rhees Library. To learn more, email Emma_Grygotis@urmc.rochester.edu