Tag: Dedman College

Evolution expert honored by Texas Freedom Network

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 14, 2009

Evolutionary theory expert Ron Wetherington, an SMU professor of anthropology and director of the University’s Center for Teaching Excellence, has received the 2009 Grassroots Hero Award from the Texas Freedom Network (TFN). Wetherington will accept the award April 16 at a ceremony in Dallas.

TFN presents the award each year to “a dedicated individual who exemplifies our work to stand up for science.”

Wetherington’s research interests include population genetics, human paleontology, science pedagogy and the historical archaeology of the U.S. Southwest.

Within SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in human evolution and forensic anthropology, as well as a noncredit required course for departmental graduate students, “Learning to Teach – Teaching to Learn.”

Wetherington is the author of “Understanding Human Evolution” (West Publishing, 1992) and four other books on anthropology and archaeology.

The TFN award citation points to Wetherington’s service during 2008-09 as an expert reviewer appointed by the Texas State Board of Education to evaluate new science curriculum standards.

“Whether working behind the scenes to patiently educate board members or in front of the cameras making a vocal case for science standards free from creationist ideology, Dr. Wetherington has worked tirelessly to ensure Texas students have a rigorous science curriculum that will prepare them for the 21st century,” TFN states.

Tags Dedman College, Ron Wetherington, SMU Department of Anthropology

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain

Chemical exposure now linked to Gulf War syndrome

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 20, 2009

The following story published March 20, 2009 on www.sciencedaily.com

A new study by researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center and Southern Methodist University is the first to pinpoint damage inside the brains of veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome. The finding links the illness to chemical exposures and may lead to diagnostic tests and treatments.

Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study, said the research uncovers and locates areas of the brain that function abnormally. Recent studies had shown evidence of chemical abnormalities and shrinkage of white matter in the brains of veterans exposed to certain toxic chemicals, such as sarin gas during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The research, was published in the March issue of the journal “Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.” Imaging enables investigators to visualize exact brain structures affected by these chemical exposures, Haley said.

Richard Gunst, Wayne Woodward and William Schucany, professors in SMU’s Statistical Science Department in Dedman College, are collaborating with the imaging specialists at UT Southwestern Medical Center to compare brain scans of veterans with the syndrome against a healthy control group.

“Before this study, we didn’t know exactly what parts of the brain were damaged and causing the symptoms,” Haley said.

Richard Gunst

“We designed an experiment to test areas of the brain that would have been damaged if the illness was caused by sarin or pesticides, and the results were positive,” he said.

In designing the study, Haley and his colleagues reasoned that if low-level sarin or pesticides had damaged Gulf War veterans’ brains, a likely target of the damage would be cholinergic receptors on cells in certain brain structures. If that was so, administering safe levels of medicines that stimulate cholinergic receptors would elicit an abnormal response in ill veterans.

In the study, 21 chronically ill Gulf War veterans and 17 well veterans were given small doses of physostigmine, a substance which briefly stimulates cholinergic receptors. Researchers then measured the study participants’ brain cell response with brain scans.

Pictured right: Wayne Woodward

“What we found was that some of the brain areas we previously suspected responded abnormally to the cholinergic challenge,” Haley said. “Those areas were in the basal ganglia, hippocampus, thalamus and amygdala, and the thalamus. Changes in functioning of these brain structures can certainly cause problems with concentration and memory, body pain, fatigue, abnormal emotional responses and personality changes that we commonly see in ill Gulf War veterans.”

A previous study funded by the U.S. Army found that repetitive exposure to low-level sarin nerve gas caused changes in cholinergic receptors in lab rats.

“An added bonus is a statistical formula combining the brain responses in 17 brain areas that separated the ill from the well veterans, and three different Gulf War syndrome variants from each other with a high degree of accuracy,” Haley said. “If this finding can be repeated in a larger group, we might have an objective test for Gulf War syndrome and its variants.”

An objective diagnostic test, he said, sets the stage for ongoing genetic studies to see why some people are affected by chemical exposures, and why others are not.

New studies would also allow the selection of homogenous groups of ill veterans in which to run efficient clinical trials for treatments. Haley first described Gulf War syndrome in a series of papers published in January 1997 in the “Journal of the American Medical Association.”

William Schucany

In previous studies, research from Haley showed that veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome had lower levels of a protective blood enzyme called paraoxonase, which usually fights off the toxins found in sarin.

Veterans who served in the same geographical area and did not get sick had higher levels of this enzyme.

Haley and his colleagues have closely followed the same group of tests subjects since 1995. In 2006, UT Southwestern and the Department of Veterans Affairs established a dedicated, collaborative Gulf War illness research enterprise in Dallas, managed by UT Southwestern.

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a longtime supporter of Gulf War research, facilitated that agreement and secured a $75 million appropriation over five years for Gulf War illness research.

The study was funded, in part, by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.

Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the study included Jeffrey Spence and Patrick Carmack, assistant professors of clinical sciences; Michael Devous and Frederick Bonte, professors of radiology; and Madhukar Trivedi, professor of psychiatry.

Tags Dedman College, Richard Gunst, Robert Haley, SMU Department of Statistical Science, Wayne Woodward, William Schucany

Researcher news

LED inventor named SMU Distinguished Alumnus

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 10, 2009

Gary E. Pittman received the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest award SMU can bestow upon its former students. Pittman and other recipients were honored at the November DAA celebration.

Pittman is a multifaceted researcher, whose discovery has transformed the electronics world and our daily lives. While working at Texas Instruments in the 1960s, he and a colleague co-invented the light emitting diode. More commonly known now as the LED, the invention led to formation of the multi-billion-dollar optical communications industry.

Other applications of LEDs include traffic lights, railroad crossing signals, exit signs and digital clocks. Their major contribution is for illumination, leading to a great reduction in energy needs.

In 1953, Pittman earned his B.S. degree in chemistry with honors from SMU, where he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He later took graduate courses in electronics. He has lectured and conducted seminars throughout the United States and in Mexico and London.

After leaving Texas Instruments, Pittman served as vice president for manufacturing at Spectronics Inc., director of military business at Honeywell Optoelectronics and president of SPC, Inc.
Gary E. Pittman

He currently is a consultant in statistical thinking, engaged in research including novel methods of energy reduction for homes and improved use of statistics for medical purposes. The Galton Institute in London published Pittman’s book on Sir Francis Galton, the developer of modern statistical methods. SMU’s DeGolyer Library now houses Pittman’s collection of Galton materials, the finest in the U.S.

Pittman received the Lazenby Outstanding Alumnus Award from the SMU Chemistry Department in 2008.

Tags Dedman College, Gary E. Pittman, SMU Department of Chemistry

Culture, Society & Family Student researchers

Chimú pottery: Peru’s conquering Inca left mark

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date March 6, 2009

Amanda Aland, an SMU archaeology graduate student in Dedman College, and a team of students working under her direction in Peru, in 2008 unearthed evidence that the Incas left their mark after conquering the Chimú empire in the 15th century.

Now Aland has received a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student fellowship to conduct further archaeological fieldwork and research in Peru.

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In March 2009, Aland will return to a site on Peru’s northern coast, called Santa Rita B, where she spent several months last year excavating with the support of a National Science Foundation grant.

Slideshow: Aland’s Peru field work

“We found Chimú pottery and architecture that show Inca influences,” she says, in addition to centuries-old animal matter and human remains.

During her 10-month Fulbright fellowship, Aland hopes to learn the extent of the Incas’ influence on the Chimú people through further excavation and laboratory analysis of her findings.

“We want to piece together how the two empires interacted,” she says. “Did they go to war, or make peace living under new rules? We always can learn from the past.”

Aland, a Dallas native, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of Southern California in 2004. At SMU, where she earned a Master’s degree in anthropology in 2006, she has studied archaeological theory, methods and grant writing while directing summer field research in Peru.

“Amanda is developing important new perspectives on the expansion of the Inca empire,” says Alan Covey, assistant professor of anthropology and Aland’s dissertation adviser. “Peru’s north coast was an important provincial region, but one that is still not well understood by archaeologists. Her research stands to make a valuable contribution.”

Aland is one of 1,450 U.S. citizens selected to study abroad this year through the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and one of 40 SMU students who have been awarded the fellowship in the last 35 years. — Sarah Hanan

Tags Alan Covey, Amanda Aland, Dedman College, SMU Department of Anthropology

Health & Medicine

Diabetics could get relief from daily injections

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 8, 2008

Chemist Brent Sumerlin, assistant professor in the Dedman College Department of Chemistry at Southern Methodist University, is assessing the potential uses for nano-scale polymer particles. One of those could be controlled drug delivery.

In one scenario, polymers could detect high glucose levels in a diabetic’s blood stream and automatically release insulin, freeing diabetics from a daily injection schedule.

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Sumerlin’s research has earned him a $475,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award. NSF gives the award to junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars in American colleges and universities.

Sumerlin will receive the grant over five years for two related nanotechnology research projects. One of those projects has potential biomedical applications, and the other has a promising advanced materials application.

The prestigious award also includes support for education outreach. Sumerlin’s grant will fund a program for K-12 school districts and community colleges to help prepare and attract minority students for SMU chemistry internship positions.

“As a teacher, as a scientist, and through his community outreach and service, Professor Sumerlin exemplifies the finest scholarly tradition,” said Cordelia Candelaria, dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. “His work is dedicated to expanding minds through exposure to basic science, including a generous willingness to share his lessons and labs off campus with teachers and students in elementary, middle and high school classrooms. Dedman College is thrilled by NSF’s recognition of Brent’s achievements.”

Sumerlin, 32, works with an SMU team of postdoctoral research associates, graduate and undergraduate students who fuse the fields of polymer, organic and biochemistries to develop novel materials with composite properties.

“This award enhances what I do at the university level and what I can do through SMU for the rest of the community,” Sumerlin said.

The first part of Sumerlin’s NSF-funded research will investigate how nano-scale polymer particles can be triggered to come apart in response to a chemical stimulus. One of the potential applications of the technology is an automatic treatment solution for diabetics by releasing insulin from tiny polymer spheres when they encounter dangerous levels of glucose in the bloodstream.

“Researchers worldwide are looking toward methods of insulin delivery that will relieve diabetics of frequent blood-sugar monitoring and injections,” Sumerlin said.

The second aspect of the project involves making polymers with the ability to come apart and put themselves back together again – a technique that Sumerlin believes can be used to construct materials that are self-repairing.

“We could potentially think about coatings for airplane wings that are damaged by debris during flight,” Sumerlin said. “After landing, we could quickly treat the coating, causing it to re-form itself.”

Sumerlin received his doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2003, accepted a position as visiting assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University for the next two years, then joined SMU in 2005.

Tags Brent Sumerlin, Dedman College, SMU Department of Chemistry