Research Spotlight
Mary Anne Reynolds, Ph.D.
Mary Anne Reynolds, Ph.D., is conducting a one-year descriptive study on palliative care. She will be finding evidence to verify what nurses already know from their everyday experience. It is funded by the American Nurses Foundation for $5,000. Palliative care is the specialized medical treatment for people with limiting and potentially life-ending illnesses.
"Palliative Care Needs of Young and Middle Age Adults (20-59) with a Potentially Life Limiting Cancer Diagnosis: A Pilot Study," is the title of Reynolds' grant. She said nurses see recurring patterns in palliative care for this population, but there is a lack of evidence-based research that describes those needs. Her study of 25 oncology patients in Pocatello and Idaho Falls is intended to provide that evidence.
Reynolds said resources and literature about cancer are abundant for children and the elderly. Young and middle-aged people with life-limiting cancers have specific needs, Reynolds said, but "there is nothing to validate what those are."
For a young or middle-aged person "at the peak of their physical and cognitive abilities," the diagnosis of cancer and demanding physical treatments can bring about a sense of isolation, can interrupt family and work commitments and can challenge available resources. During six months of data collection, Reynolds intends to describe these observations to the nursing world, which she described as an "evidence-based practice." By publishing her results in nursing journals, Reynolds could pave the way for new care models to be put into place for young and middle-aged cancer patients.
Reynolds' hopes to expand her research to 75 patients soon by submitting a grant to the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation. This would allow her to include patients from Boise, Meridian and Twin Falls.
The American Nursing Foundation grant provides funding for a research assistant but Reynolds said she plans to do most of the work herself as the primary investigator. The small size of the study lends itself well to her plans. Institute of Rural Health researcher Cyndy Kelchner aided Reynolds in her grant proposal.
For more information about the palliative care grant, contact Mary Anne Reynolds at reynmary@isu.edu.
Nicole Frank
Idaho State University-Meridian graduate assistant, Nicole Frank, is conducting research to understand the relationship between chemotherapy drugs and the toxicity they cause. Frank, a microbiologist working on her Ph.D. in pharmacology, is helping Gem Pharmaceuticals, LLC of Birmingham, Ala., determine why a potential cancer drug currently in clinical trials appears to be less toxic than the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin, which is widely used to treat a variety of cancers but can lead to heart failure after long-term use.
Frank presented initial results of her research in a poster titled "Effect of Non-Cardiotoxic Doxorubicin Analog on Decatenation of DNA by Topoisomerase II" at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C., in April. More than 18,000 researchers from around the world attended.
She and her team have found that Gem's experimental drug, 5-imino, 3-deoxydoxorubicin, appears to fight cancer tumors as effectively as doxorubicin, but without targeting the subclass of enzymes that protect the heart muscle. "Our original question that led to our project was: What is the molecular reason why 5-imino,13-deoxydoxorubicin is less toxic?" said Frank. For 50 years, doctors have used doxorubicin to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, acute leukemia, and breast, lung and ovarian tumors. However, scientists note in some patients, doxorubicin can bind to enzymes in heart muscle cells, unraveling their DNA and leading to congestive heart failure.
Frank's research involves using these drugs to poison a class of enzymes found in tumor and heart cells to determine if there is a difference. She conducts her research at the Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the L.S. Skaggs Pharmacy Complex at ISU-Meridian.
Frank is collaborating with Todd Talley, Ph.D., and Dong "Danny" Xu, Ph.D., assistant professors of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences in ISU's College of Pharmacy, and Barry Cusack, M.D., who is based at the Boise V.A.
Talley and Frank say their research has the potential to unlock new avenues in drug development, noting the possibility of applying the same science to the discovery of new antibiotics.
For more information, contact Nicole Frank at frannic2@pharmacy.isu.edu or Todd Talley at talley@pharmacy.isu.edu.
Dong "Danny" Xu, Ph.D.
Niki Peters peers at the intricate web of ribbon-shaped lines and chains rotating across her computer screen in a pharmacy research laboratory at the Idaho State University-Meridian Health Science Center.
Thanks to a sophisticated molecular visualization program called VMD, Peters is able to construct a movie, simulating in 3D how nicotine binds with protein receptors in the human brain.
It's a pretty heady subject for an advanced college student, let alone a high school junior. Yet Peters, who attends Boise's Timberline High School and the Treasure Valley Math and Science Center, doesn't miss a beat.
"It's fun," she said. "I like the fact I can start research here [at ISU] and not wait until I get into college."
Peters, 16, an honor student fluent in Mandarin Chinese, wants to pursue a career in biological research or medical practice. Since December, she has interned two afternoons a week in the research lab of Dr. Dong "Danny" Xu, an assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at ISU-Meridian.
Xu, who joined ISU in 2012, created the internship in biomedical research to give high school and college students an opportunity to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math, commonly referred to as STEM disciplines.
In addition to Peters, Houston Miller, a student from the Meridian Medical Arts Charter School, joined the internship program in February.
"I like to take students into the lab to spark their interest in STEM subjects," said Xu, noting he enjoys mentoring high-school students and providing them with hands-on experience and career advice.
The unpaid internship provides Peters with a front-row seat in a lab where Xu and his research associates are pursuing a broad range of computational research projects in chemistry, biology, physics and pharmacology.
Xu, who holds a doctorate in computational science from San Diego State University and receives his biomedical research training at the University of California, San Diego, hopes his research in advanced molecular simulation and protein engineering will lead to the discovery of new drugs to treat chemical addictions and mental illnesses, such as depression or schizophrenia. Xu, who says the student internship is on par with a junior or sophomore level of college biochemistry, is thrilled with the caliber of high school interns from the Treasure Valley. "They are fast learners. They have a genuine interest in research and science. They are the hope of this country in terms of science and technology," he said.
View Peters' video of nicotinic receptors at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbybD6GHohc .
For more information about the Xu Research Group, visit http://www.dxulab.com/.
Heather L. Ramsdell , Ph.D.,
The article, titled Functional Flexibility of Infant Vocalization and the Emergence of Language, is available April 1 in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world.
Researchers have collected data that shows human infants, by three months of age, make sounds that may reveal deep roots of human language, hinting at a very distant break from our primate relatives, according to lead author D. Kimbrough Oller, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Memphis School of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
"By evaluating these very early characteristics of infant vocalizations and their expressions of emotion, we may be able to discern markers of anomalies in development, such as autism," he said.
Ramsdell, an assistant professor in ISU's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, was instrumental in gathering and analyzing infant vocalizations for the study while completing her doctorate at U of M in 2009.
She notes that humans have the ability to produce "flexible" vocalizations. "We can produce them to mean what we want them to mean, with any possible emotional expression, for example happy or sad," she said.
The article claims that the first vocal changes that occurred as humans evolved away from their primate background on the way to language did not involve producing sentences or words, but instead involved primitive sounds expressing flexible functions and intentions. "Key answers about where language came from may be found in the human infant's voice and face, in the first free vocal expressions of joy and pain and in the peaceful vocal expressions of comfort," said Oller.
"By three months of age, the human infant can already attach various states of emotion (as seen through facial expressions) to squealing, growling, and cooing, with each of these sound types connected to different emotions on different occasions," he continued.
The article demonstrates the vast difference in the first months of life between infants' crying and laughter, which have fixed emotional functions similar to those often seen in nonhuman primates, as opposed to the human infant sounds that can be used with flexible functions (squealing, growling and cooing) that appear to be absent in nonhumans.
The authors point out that language could not exist without the sort of freedom of vocal expression found in the very young human infant, because all aspects of language are dependent upon flexibility of the usage of vocalizations.The authors argue that as the evolution of language began, it was necessary for it to start with primitive beginnings, similar to primitive baby talk.
Other researchers are from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Georgia State University and University of California, Merced.
For more information, contact Heather L. Ramsdell at (208) 282-3077 or ramsdell@isu.edu.
Russell Spearman, M.Ed.
As many as 35,000 Idahoans, including soldiers injured in war, may be living with a severe traumatic brain injury, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Idaho's challenge is identifying community resources to assist TBI patients after they leave acute-care facilities and return home to live, said Russell Spearman, a senior research associate in the Institute of Rural Health at the Idaho State University-Meridian Health Science Center.
Thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration or HRSA, Spearman and his research team are a step closer to establishing a trust fund to help ease transition to independent living. "Our intent is to assist people who've experienced a traumatic brain injury over that first hurdle-to provide financial assistance to help them begin living independently," said Spearman, noting many patients need emergency funds to cover housing and transportation. The $250,000 is an extension of a $1 million HRSA grant awarded to Spearman and the IRH in 2009 to develop a statewide support network to assist TBI patients and their families. HRSA has designated ISU the state's lead agency for TBI education and research. Spearman and his research team have used the money to build upon the IRH's Traumatic Brain Injury Virtual Program Center and educational webinars for Idaho military personnel returning from active duty and their families. Traumatic brain injury has become the signature wound of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, said Spearman. For more information about the HRSA grant, contact Russell Spearman at 208-373-1773 or spearuss@isu.edu.