Category: News

New Center of Excellence Tenant's Research to Help Treat Muscular Dystrophy

by BNMCin Community, Homepage, Life Sciences Companies, Member Institution(s), News, Research4 Comments on New Center of Excellence Tenant's Research to Help Treat Muscular Dystrophy

Inspired by his grandson, JB’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy diagnosis, Jeff Harvey, Tonus Therapeutics co-founder and chief financial officer, along with Frederick Sachs, University at Buffalo (UB) Distinguished Professor, Thomas Suchyna, Research Assistant Professor, and Philip Gottlieb, Research Associate Professor, all from UB’s Department of Physiology and Biophysics, partnered to develop a therapy for muscular dystrophy. Establishing Tonus Therapeutics in 2009, the group began to work together based off of initial research Sachs and his team first came across nearly 10 years ago, studying the effect of venoms on mechanosensitive ion channels.
As one of several forms of muscular dystrophy, Duchenne is the most lethal, rapidly getting worse over time causing respiratory problems in addition to severe and increased limb-muscle weakness. The absence of the dystrophin protein is due to a defective gene commonly found in males. Dystrophin helps muscle cells maintain their shape structure. Without that protein, cell membranes tear apart more easily and cause the muscle to contract abnormally. According to Sachs, when this hwp-contentens, the body “starts digesting muscle from the inside out.”

A UB spin-off company, having made the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences (CoE) its home headquarters, Tonus Therapeutics will continue its quest to develop drugs that help distribute and control the transfer of mineral substances like calcium to cells through the tiny conduits known as mechanosensitive ion channels. These channels, which Sachs co-discovered in 1983, connect the inside of a cell with its outside. Normally, in healthy cells the channels are closed, but when a cell is stretched or contorted, the channels open and let calcium and other substances into the cell.

Using GsMTx4, a peptide that scientists at UB discovered in the venom of the Chilean rose tarantula, Tonus Therapeutics will use the FDA “orphan drug” designation to move forward with the development of a therapy for muscular dystrophy. The designation of GsMTx4 comes with recognition from the government agency that the peptide is a promising method of treatment for a rare disease like muscular dystrophy. Research shows that GsMTx4 is capable of staying in the body for a long time without breaking down. This means it could be possible to deliver low doses infrequently, reducing costs for patients. The company has gathered preliminary data showing that GsMTx4 is nontoxic in mice and did not disturb heart function in mice or ferrets or isolated human heart muscle.

In November, Tonus Therapeutics licensed UB patents relating to GsMTx4 through UB’s Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (UB STOR).

Harvey stated that “Being located in a hub of research activity in Buffalo, close to other entrepreneurs and biotech startups, is important to [Tonus Therapeutics].” He also stated that “The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is extremely important to us because it provides ready contact with experienced entrepreneurs and potential clinical and commercial partners, including those within the [CoE].”

The CoE, a part of the 400,000 sq. ft. Buffalo Life Sciences Complex, houses more than 100 scientists with biological, physical and computational expertise. The CoE’s efforts aims to leverage its research resources, helping to create new technological advantages for health care and life sciences industry sectors, partnering with and supporting biomedical, research and development companies like Tonus Therapeutics. Marnie LaVigne, UB associate vice president for economic development stated that “Tonus benefits from the technological and business resources available here, and their continued growth will be an asset to Western New York’s economy.”

Prior to their move into the CoE, the Tonus team benefited from other UB resources and partnerships. Harvey is a graduate of the UB School of Management’s High-Tech Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership program, and Tonus received funding through the UB Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology (UB CAT). The Children’s Guild Foundation and the John R. Oishei Foundation have provided additional funding.

Learn more about Tonus Therapeutics below:

Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Work Begins with ‘Conventus’ – Buffalo News Story

by BNMCin Construction, Homepage, News4 Comments on Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Work Begins with ‘Conventus’ – Buffalo News Story

Published: 12/17/2012, 08:08 PM

Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus work begins with ‘Conventus’

$90 million structure to be finished by 2015

BY: Henry Davis /News Medical Reporter

The transformation of Main Street along the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is about to get started.

Fencing went up Monday, and construction is expected to begin soon on a major medical office building on the block bounded by Main, High, Ellicott and Goodrich streets.

The major tenants will include doctors associated with the University at Buffalo medical group known as UBMD and many services connected to a new Women & Children’s Hospital, which will abut the office building being developed by the Ciminelli Real Estate Corp.

The $90 million building is planned to be just less than 300,000 square feet over six floors, but it could grow to seven floors, depending on interest from additional tenants, said Denise Juron-Borgese, the project manager.

The developer has named the building “Conventus,” which is Latin for coming together and reflects the building’s planned connecting walkways with nearby facilities, including the Research Institute on Addictions and the anticipated new UB Medical School building.

“Our building is the hub that will be connecting the other buildings,” said Timothy Vaeth, vice president of development at Ciminelli.

Vaeth and Juron-Borgese said Ciminelli is moving ahead with work in anticipation of final site plan wp-contentroval in January by the city Planning Board. In addition, the developer in January will seek sales and property tax abatements for the project from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.

Women & Children’s Hospital, a part of Kaleida Health, is moving from its longtime Bryant Street location in the Elmwood Village to the downtown Medical Campus. Groundbreaking for the new facility, which will be renamed the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, is expected in the spring, with completion in early 2016.

UB officials have said they plan to relocate the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the South Campus to the Medical Campus by 2016 in a project estimated to cost $375 million.

The Ciminelli project will begin with remediation of the site through the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which provides tax credits for cleanup and redevelopment of properties with environmental issues.

Ciminelli needs to remove a lot of the soil, which contains elevated levels of petroleum hydrocarbons as a result of the site’s history as a gas station for many decades. Both Kaleida Health, which owns the land, and Ciminelli, the developer that will lease the land, are responsible for the cleanup.

The project marks the first major private investment on the downtown Medical Campus and is the most expensive single building Ciminelli has developed.

Completion of the building, which will include two levels of underground parking for 318 vehicles, is scheduled for spring 2015.

The pediatric outpatient surgery center in the new children’s hospital will use space in the Ciminelli building, with the Ciminelli building acting as the “front door” of the surgery center, Vaeth said. The second and third floors of the Conventus building will connect seamlessly to the pediatric hospital, he said.

Kaleida Health also will use the Ciminelli building for a number of other children’s services, including a pharmacy, a laboratory and clinics, including dialysis, therapy infusion and the Robert Warner Rehabilitation Center.

“Physicians [at Women & Children’s] wanted to leverage the accessibility of the Ciminelli building to Main Street. This is where people can check in, and it keeps congestion away from other facilities,” said Robert Bragg, vice president of campus development at Kaleida Health.

Young patients will enter through the Ciminelli building and receive surgery in the new children’s hospital, which will connect to Buffalo General Medical Center across Ellicott Street through a second-floor walkway and a tunnel for utilities and support services. Work on the tunnel, assuming city wp-contentroval, is scheduled to begin early next year, Bragg said.

The building, which was designed by Kideney Architects of Amherst, also will include limited retail business on the first floor, mainly to serve the tenants, such as, potentially, a bank branch and a food store. Plans for a hotel were abandoned in favor of devoting the space to medical use, Vaeth said. However, he said, it’s likely the Medical Campus will need more hotel rooms in the future as development expands.

hdavis@buffnews.com

Roswell Park Recognizes Staff, Community Supporters at 5th Annual Eva M. Noles Progra

by BNMCin Community, Event, Member Institution(s), News6 Comments on Roswell Park Recognizes Staff, Community Supporters at 5th Annual Eva M. Noles Progra

RPCI LogoFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDecember 12, 2012
Contact: Annie Deck-Miller, Senior Media Relations Manager
716-845-8593; annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org

Roswell Park Recognizes Staff, Community Supporters at 5th Annual Eva M. Noles Program
Scholarship awarded to RPCI employee in tribute to Buffalo’s first African-American nurse

BUFFALO, NY — DeMarco Ogletree, a cashier in the Nutrition & Food Service Department at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), earned the $2,000 Eva M. Noles Scholarship Friday, December 7 at the fifth annual Eva M. Noles Scholarship and Community Recognition Breakfast at RPCI. The annual program honors the legacy of Eva M. Noles, RN, Buffalo’s first African-American registered nurse and a longtime RPCI employee who served in many leadership roles at the Institute, including as Director of Nursing.

Ogletree joined the Roswell Park staff in the spring of 2012. He is presently pursuing degrees in both nursing and theology at Erie Community College and plans to continue his work in healthcare, helping to fight health disparities in the Buffalo area. “From his first days with us, DeMarco has committed himself wholeheartedly to the Roswell Park mission,” said David Scott, RPCI Director of Diversity and Inclusion. “He has contributed greatly as an employee, and now we have a great opportunity to reward that commitment — which embodies the work, spirit and legacy of Ms. Noles — and help him achieve his career goals by providing a scholarship toward his studies.”

Darius G. Pridgen, Pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo and Ellicott District Councilmember for the City of Buffalo, gave the keynote address at the program, during which several RPCI staff members and volunteers were recognized for their role in providing cancer education and preventive outreach to underserved communities throughout Western New York. Among those recognized were Georganne Alexander, a volunteer with the Buffalo/Niagara Witness Project; Ramon Luciano Jr., a volunteer with  Minorities Allied for the Need to Understand Prostate Cancer (MAN UP); Carmen Sepulvedad, a volunteer with the Esperanza y Vida Project; and Gloria Quarles, a volunteer who serves on Roswell Park’s Community Advisory Steering Committee.

Staff and volunteers were also recognized for their contributions to Cruisin’ for a Cure, a prostate cancer education and screening event held at RPCI in September, and to the African American Roswell Employee Network, whose activities include year-round community outreach on behalf of RPCI.

The mission of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. RPCI, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or email askrpci@roswellpark.org.

Research from UB and Immco Diagnostics Leads to Early Detection of Sjogren’s Syndrome

by BNMCin Homepage, Member Institution(s), News, Research5 Comments on Research from UB and Immco Diagnostics Leads to Early Detection of Sjogren’s Syndrome

Patients suffering from the painful autoimmune disease, Sjogren’s Syndrome, will soon be able to be properly diagnosed much earlier, thanks to the discovery of novel antibodies by researchers at the University at Buffalo (UB) and Immco Diagnostics, Inc. The breakthrough, described in a paper in the December issue of Clinical Immunology, will allow patients to be treated sooner when they are much more likely to benefit. The new diagnostic test will be available to physicians in early 2013.Ambrus-Shen
“Sjogren’s patients get diagnosed too late,” says Julian L. Ambrus Jr., MD, professor in the Department of Medicine in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, an immunologist at Buffalo General Medical Center and senior author on the paper.  “They go to the doctor because their eyes are dry or they can’t swallow, but by that time, their salivary or tear glands are already dead. They’re way past the point where they can generally benefit from any treatment.”

The new antibodies were seen in 45 percent of patients who met most of the clinical criteria for Sjogren’s except for the antibodies currently required for diagnosis, called Ro and La. At least one of the novel antibodies is present in 76 percent of patients who have had symptoms for less than two years and who also lacked the two antibodies required for definitive diagnosis, which wp-contentear late in the disease.

“The vast majority of patients we tested who have early symptoms of severe dry mouth and dry eyes also have these antibodies,” says Ambrus.

The journal highlighted the research paper with an editorial by Robert I. Fox, MD, PhD, of Scripps/Ximed, considered one of the world’s top Sjogren’s Syndrome scientists.

Considered one of the three most common autoimmune diseases, Sjogren’s Syndrome affects more than 4 million Americans, 90 percent of them women; last year, Venus Williams, the tennis champion, announced that she had the disease. Symptoms are dry eyes and dry mouth so severe that they are painful. Despite its high incidence, Sjogren’s is not well-known and can take years to diagnose; once diagnosed, it is often too late to effectively treat it.

Beyond the chronic pain associated with not being able to produce tears or saliva, the disease is associated with additional, systemic consequences, such as mild kidney and lung disease. Five to 10 percent of Sjogren’s patients also will develop lymphoma, cancer of the lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that is continually produced in Sjogren’s Syndrome.

The discovery of novel antibodies grew out of a strong collaboration between UB and Immco, which in 2006 resulted in a new, far superior animal model for Sjogren’s Syndrome.

“Our animal model has completely changed how people think about this disease,” says Ambrus. “Sjogren’s disease in our animal model marches along in exactly the same way that the human disease does, reproducing every stage of the disease.”

Labs studying Sjogren’s around the world have now adopted the new model developed at UB and Immco, which is based in Amherst.

Once the new antibodies were detected in mice, the scientists started testing human patients at Buffalo General Medical Center. The researchers found the same antibodies in humans even at early stages of the disease.

UB has filed a patent on the biomarker-based method and licensed the technology to Immco, which has developed a new diagnostic tool based on the research.

“We believe this is one of the most undiagnosed autoimmune diseases,” says William Maggio, Immco’s chief executive officer.

The new diagnostic tool his company developed for Sjogren’s Syndrome has significant proprietary value. “We will be the only company in the world to offer and market this test across any platform,” he says.

And because Sjogren’s Syndrome presents with various symptoms, unlike other autoimmune diseases, this diagnostic test will be marketed to several different types of physicians, including dentists, oral surgeons, ophthalmologists and rheumatologists.

The assay will undergo validation by the New York State Department of Health. Once complete early next year, physicians will be able to start using the test. Patient samples from around the nation will be sent to Immco for testing. Immco also is developing a diagnostic kit for customers to be marketed internationally.

“If the market is as successful as we anticipate, then it will lead to more employment opportunities locally,” says Maggio.

Already, the UB and Immco scientists have begun collaborating with several international groups working on Sjogren’s Syndrome, giving them access to many more patients.

“Sjogren’s patients are miserable,” says Lakshmanan Suresh, DDS, vice president, research and development at Immco and clinical associate professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences in the UB School of Dental Medicine. “They cannot taste anything, they often have serious tooth decay, and they feel as though they have sandpaper or grit in their eyes all the time. If we can find the antibodies early, then we can start to develop therapies to target them. The first step though, is to make the diagnosis.”

“This is a very good example of how research and industry collaborate to produce something that will bring a lot of good to the health-care industry and it’s hwp-contentening here in Buffalo,” says Maggio.

The UB researchers recently received a $450,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how the immune system becomes dysfunctional in Sjogren’s disease.

Last summer, the project also received funding from UB’s Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology, one of 15 centers across New York State funded by the Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation to support university-industry collaboration in research, education and technology transfer.

Along with Ambrus, Shen and Suresh, co-authors on the Clinical Immunology paper are Jingxiu Xuan, PhD, research assistant professor in the UB Department of Medicine and Matthew Lindemann, PhD, director of assay development, Przemek Kowal, PhD, director of biopolymers, and Kishore Malyavantham, PhD, director of scientific initiatives, all from Immco.

Ellen Goldbaum (UB); goldbaum@buffalo.edu; 716.645.4605

RPCI Receives Leapfrog Top Hospital Recognition for 3rd Straight Year

by BNMCin Homepage, Member Institution(s), News6 Comments on RPCI Receives Leapfrog Top Hospital Recognition for 3rd Straight Year

Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) has been named to The Leapfrog Group’s annual Top Hospitals list for a third consecutive year. One of only three National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in New York state, RPCI is the only New York facility to be named a Leapfrog Top Hospital for 2012.
The Leapfrog Top Hospital designation puts RPCI in a class representing less than 8% of eligible hospitals. In all, 67 urban facilities, 13 rural institutions and 12 children’s hospitals earned the designation this year. The Leapfrog Group, a coalition of public and private employers, selects hospitals for the designation based on an annual national survey measuring performance in areas such as error prevention, Intensive Care Unit staffing and complex, high-risk procedures.

“The Leapfrog Top Hospital distinction is by far the most competitive award a hospital can receive. Leapfrog holds hospitals to the highest standards on behalf of our purchaser members and their employees,” said Leah Binder, President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “By achieving the Top Hospital accolade, Roswell Park Cancer Institute has demonstrated exemplary performance across all areas of quality and patient safety that are analyzed on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey. This hospital stands out as one consistently providing safe, high quality care, and I would be comfortable sending my family to Roswell Park for care.”

RPCI has frequently been recognized for high-quality care and overall excellence. The Institute was again recognized in U.S. News & World Report’s 2012-13 Best Hospitals list for Cancer Care and also this year was re-certified for a three-year period by the Joint Commission, an independent accrediting body.

“We are extremely proud to receive the Leapfrog award for the third consecutive year. Roswell Park participates in a number of quality assessment programs every year — many of them, like the annual Leapfrog survey, on a voluntary basis,” said Roswell Park Medical Director Judy Smith, MD. “Through this process we can evaluate the work we do and look for opportunities for further improvement; it is an invaluable opportunity for a thorough, unbiased review by an informed outside organization.”

Annie Deck-Miller; annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org; 716-845-8593

State and Private Sector Investment on BNMC to Create 250 Jobs for Region

by BNMCin Campus-wide, Investment Opportunities, Life Sciences Companies, Member Institution(s), News5 Comments on State and Private Sector Investment on BNMC to Create 250 Jobs for Region

Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York will invest $50 million in state of the art biomedical research equipment and facilities, and has secured an agreement from a private company, Albany Molecular Research Inc. (AMRI), to locate on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus a new drug discovery research and development center. This investment, $35 million of which will go towards new equipment and $15 million of which will go towards improving existing lab space, will leverage $200 million in private investments and create 250 jobs. More details on this development as well as the Buffalo Billion Investment Development Plan can be found here.  http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/12042012-buffalo-billion-investment-plan.
Wondering how this investment model really works? Fahreed Zakaria from CNN’s “Global Lessons: Putting America to Work” recently highlighted how this model was successful in Albany, where New York State invested in core infrastructure and equipment as an incentive to attract private sector companies. Watch the video here – http://www.cnse.albany.edu/Files/Downloads/Video%20Clips/CNNGlobalCrisp6.mov.

Read coverage about the  announcement below:

Announcements show Cuomo’s commitment to WNY

Cuomo, $50 million bring Albany firm, 250 jobs to Medical Campus

Cuomo Touts Drug Company’s 250 Jobs for Medical Campus

$50M biomedical facility planned for Buffalo

BHSC's Therapeutic Playground Opens for Children with the Support of Donors

by BNMCin Homepage, Member Institution(s), News5 Comments on BHSC's Therapeutic Playground Opens for Children with the Support of Donors

 

Left to right: Joe Cozzo, President & CEO, Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center; Alexandra Wehr, Sr. Relationship Manager, KeyBank,  Marie Hare, Vice President of Community Affairs, KeyBank, and Gary Quenneville, President (Western New York District), KeyBank.

Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center (BHSC) installed a new therapeutic playground after 2 years of planning and months of construction. The playground project received a supportive boost by the KeyBank Foundation. Additional support came from the Buffalo Sabres Foundation, the Rotary Club of Buffalo, the DreamCatcher Foundation, the Buffalo Bills Youth Foundation and nearly 100 other individual donors from the Western New York community.

Located at 50 East North Street on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the playground will help to stimulate the senses of the more than 200 children who attend the school. BHSC provides innovative programs and cutting edge capabilities aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders, literacy, autism, and learning challenges.

The playground was designed by a team of physical and occupational therapists with the goal of having each piece on the playground help to meet the diverse needs of the students at BHSC in need of speech, hearing or educational services. The therapeutic playground structure consists of a large multicolored play system built on a safe rubberized surface that can accommodate the different needs of students.  The new playground offers a cohesive, natural environment where children are content and comfortable while they develop social skills at a level wp-contentropriate for them. The playground offers multiple varieties of sensory play experience so that children of all abilities are able to play and learn. By supporting the sensory needs of all children, the playground enhances individual development in ways that cannot be achieved by standard methods.

Every day, students at the BHSC learn, grow, and have fun while on the campus grounds. “Play is a very important part of the childhood experience. Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center recognizes that that act of playing is where children are able to explore, discover, create and imagine, while learning about the world around them firsthand,” said Jospeh Cozzo, President and CEO of the BHSC.

BHSC offers audiology, early childhood, speech language, and pathology services, in addition to a number of specialized programs for children and adults. Learn more about BHSC:

UB Purchases First Properties for School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

by BNMCin Homepage, Member Institution(s), News1 Comment on UB Purchases First Properties for School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

UB Takes Historic First Step to Acquire Downtown Buffalo Properties on which New Medical School will be Built

The University at Buffalo today announced the purchase of land at 960 Washington St., the first of several parcels it is assembling to make way for construction of the new $375 million University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The lot is one of three properties, located in the Main/High streets area, which UB hopes to acquire by the end of the year for its historic project to relocate the medical school from the UB South Campus to the downtown Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

“In moving our medical school downtown, where it will be ideally aligned with local hospitals and other key life sciences partners, UB is staying true to our roots in more ways than one,” said UB President Satish K. Tripathi.

“Building healthier communities has always been a vital focus of our academic mission — from our early days as a small private medical school serving the City of Buffalo in the 19th century, to our 21st century role as a major public research university that enriches the quality of life both locally and globally.  The acquisition of this land is a timely and important next step as we move forward with this critical next phase of UB 2020.”

UB planners have selected HOK to design the state-of-the-art medical school and biomedical sciences center. Ground will be broken for the new UB facility in September 2013. One of the world’s leading architectural firms, HOK has a global portfolio of health sciences facilities and academic buildings and an international reputation for sustainable design.

The $375 million project, funded in part by NYSUNY 2020 legislation signed into law last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, is a key component of the UB 2020 plan for academic excellence, which is intended to benefit students, faculty, staff and the Western New York community. The new medical school will sit at the corner of High and Main streets, in the center of the region’s emerging biosciences corridor, a short walk from hospitals, research centers and incubators that nurture new bioscience start-up companies.

The acquisition was executed by UB Foundation Services Inc. (UBFS).

“This is an exciting step in an effort to create a world-class medical school on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.  We are proud to facilitate this purchase on behalf of the university and its medical school,” said Robert Denning, chairman of the UBFS board.

UBFS paid $1.2 million to acquire the parcel from Evergreen Real Estate, whose partners are developer Michael Joseph and businessman Kevin Brinkworth, which has owned the property since 2005. Real estate firm CBRE Buffalo worked with the UBFS to broker the property transaction.

The University at Buffalo Foundation noted that Joseph served on its board from 2002 through 2008, prior to when UB began contemplating relocation of its medical school to the downtown site.

FNUB Inc, an affiliate of the University at Buffalo Foundation, is continuing negotiations on other properties to accommodate the first phase of the medical school project.  Separate discussions continue between UB and the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority regarding the Main-Allen Transit station, which the university would like to incorporate into the medical school building.

John DellaContrada; dellacon@buffalo.edu; 716-645-4601

GO Bike Buffalo Receives National $50,000 Grant from Play Streets®

by BNMCin Community, Environment, Healthy Communities, Homepage, News, Wellness7 Comments on GO Bike Buffalo Receives National $50,000 Grant from Play Streets®

GO Bike Buffalo has announced that they have received a $50,000 grant from Play Streets®, an initiative created to help prevent and combat childhood obesity by the Partnership for a Healthier America and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
As 1 out of 10 cities chosen to receive the award, Buffalo will continue on its journey to create a city where alternative modes of transportation, healthy communities, and the education of the future generations are a top priority.

In addition to GO Bike Buffalo, collaborators include BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, the City of Buffalo and the Common Council. The award will help to make the City of Buffalo a place where children can play in the streets safely as they are provided with more options the stay active and healthy.

The President and CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, Alphonso O’Neil-White, stated that “BlueCross BlueShield sees Play Streets® as a transformative program that will improve the health of our region and inspire people to make healthy choices.”

For one year, Buffalo, including the other 9-city award recipients (Minneapolis, MN, Savannah, GA, Durham, NC, New Orleans, LA, Omaha, NE, York, PA, San Francisco, CA, Chicago, IL, and Caguas, PR) will host Play Streets® events that will result in closing designated streets to traffic making the play-friendly road open to the community. In addition to the funds, each awardee will receive technical assistance, and communications and marketing support from the Partnership for a Healthier America, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and local Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to help promote the events that will take place in each community.

GO Bike Buffalo’s efforts to create healthy, environmentally sustainable, community-friendly transportation options in the City of Buffalo have not gone unnoticed. The non-profit organization’s dedication to local initiatives like the Complete Streets, GO Buffalo, Buffalo Green Code, Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities, and more has made a substantial impact in the community.

Justin Booth, Executive Director of GO Bike Buffalo stated that “GO Bike Buffalo is proud to introduce Play Streets® to the City of Buffalo in partnership with the Health Kids, Healthy Communities initiative to create safe, accessible and healthier communities by opening our streets so individuals and families can come together to participate in fun, healthy activities.”

A major contributor of childhood obesity is inactivity. It is recommended that children take part in physical activities for at least 1 hour per day. According to the Project HOPE. Child Obesity Policy Brief: The Pervasive Effects Of Environments On Childhood Obesity, 1 out of every 5 children (15 million) in America do not have access to a playground. In that same policy brief, more than a third of the children in this country are said to have no access to recreation centers in their immediate communities. Play Streets® is an effective solution that offers a high-impact way to encourage more physical activity in neighborhoods that often lack open space.

 The grant will help to promote walking and cycling this summer and will hopefully pave the way for continued and more frequent Play Streets® support in the future.

Visit gobikebuffa.org to stay up-to-date on the progress and events that emerge from the award.

 

 

RPCI Completes Phase 1 for Development of Clinical Sciences Center with New Era Donation

by BNMCin Fundraiser, Homepage, Member Institution(s), News3 Comments on RPCI Completes Phase 1 for Development of Clinical Sciences Center with New Era Donation

With the help of a recent $1.5 million donation from New Era, Roswell Park Cancer Institute‘s (RPCI) Clinical Sciences Center (CSC) has reached its Phase 1 development goal.
The Making Room to Save Lives: The Campaign to Build a Greater Roswell Park is a result of RPCI’s growing patient population. Since the campaign began back in June 2011, it received a $10 million donation from Circle of 10 – a collaborative  gift from 10 well known business and philanthropic leaders in Western New York. RPCI patients even gave a $1 million gift that was included in the initial gift of $10 million. A total of 435 donors contributed to Phase I of the Making Room to Save Lives campaign.

The 11-story, 142,000 sq. ft. CSC to be built on Michigan Avenue and Carlton Street will literally make room for the increasing need for cancer services offered at one of the nation’s leading cancer centers.

RPCI’s President and CEO, Donald L. Trump, MD, FACP, stated that “Over the past five years, we have seen a nearly 40% increase in patients and we have seen an almost 60% rise in outpatient wp-contentointments over the past decade.” New Era’s gift has made the process involved with meeting the needs of patients more tangible.

Connected to the main RPCI entrance, the CSC will serve as the location for patients to be screened for cancer and manage outpatient treatments. Its administrative offices will also operate out of the builing. Within the CSC will be a new Chemo-Infusion Clinic that will be twice as large as the present clinic; a Breast Center that will offer community mammography services; a new Mammography Center; an Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic; and a Patient Education/Survivorship Center for RPCI’s patients and their families. The CSC will have additional state-of-the-art office facilities and space for clinician-scientists to analyze data from clinical studies.

A supporter of cancer research, prevention and education as one of its four key platforms, New Era’s gift to Roswell Park continues a long tradition of philanthropy.

“At New Era, we strongly believe in giving back to the communities that we work and live in. One important way we do this is by engaging in partnerships and signature programs that focus on finding a cure for cancer,” said Christopher Koch, CEO of New Era.

The Roswell Park Alliance Foundation raised $40 million for Phase 1 to begin the process of building the CSC. Construction for Phase I is scheduled to begin in Spring 2013.  An additional $10 million will be raised in Phase II for the Center’s “build out” and shell space requirements.

Rendering by FxFOWLE Architects

 

November = Lung Cancer Awareness Month

by BNMCin Campus-wide, Community, Environment, Homepage, Member Institution(s), News, Wellness6 Comments on November = Lung Cancer Awareness Month

It is natural to think of family, food and the things one is most thankful for when November rolls around. Raising awareness for lung cancer during the month of November is important to think about as well. While only 1 out of every 10 smokers will get lung cancer, it is still the number 1 cancer killer of men and women in the country, killing nearly 150,000 people per year. It is the second-most diagnosed cancer in men and women as well.
Its cause: smoke inhalation. Smoking tobacco or any kind of drug is the highest risk factor for lung cancer. Secondhand smoke causes nearly 50,000 deaths of nonsmokers every year according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Lung cancer has increasingly become a disease that is not just associated with smokers. Other risk factors include exposure to radon, asbestos, polluted air, and an existing lung disease.

According to Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Associate Professor of Oncology and Director of Collaborative Research in the Department of Medicine, Mary Reid, PhD, between 60% and 70% of patients with lung cancer are diagnosed too late, making surgery a non-option. As efforts increase to create more early screening options, the probability of prolonging life increases dramatically.

RPCI Lung Cancer Screening

Through its High-Risk Lung Cancer Program, RPCI offers lung cancer screening for those who meet the criteria below:

  • Previously treated lung, oral, throat and/or esophageal cancer
  • Smoking more than a pack of cigarettes a day for at least 20 years or the equivalent
  • Chronic lung disease, such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis or chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD)
  • Occupational-related asbestos disease
  • A family history of lung cancer in a first-degree relative
  • History of substantial secondhand smoke exposure

Tests used to detect lung cancer in its early stages are Bronchoscopy and Low-Dose Chest CT Scan (LDCT).

RPCI Lung Cancer Treatment

The Thoracic Lung Cancer Center at RPCI offers specialized comprehensive care for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Lung cancer patients treated at the Thoracic Center receive the the latest and most efficient treatment and surgical procedures, including Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS). VATS is a minimally invasive surgery that enables the surgeon to remove tumors in openings no bigger than 1-inch in diameter using a small video camera.

Cessation Programs

The New York State Smokers’ Quitline is free and confidential. Services include telephone counseling, a starter kit of free nicotine replacement, medications for eligible smokers, access and referrals to local smoking cessation programs and more.

RPCI offers a smoking cessation program, Just Breathe, helping smokers to quit using customized plans, in addition to providing behavioral counseling,  and pharmacotherapy.

Learn more about lung cancer on RPCI’s website.

RPCI’s Mary Reid, PhD

The Jobs of Buffalo's Future Growing – WKBW News Story

by BNMCin Campus-wide, Homepage, Life Sciences Companies, News2 Comments on The Jobs of Buffalo's Future Growing – WKBW News Story

Story by Kendra Eaglin, WKBW

November 4, 2012 Updated Nov 4, 2012 at 11:42 PM EST(WKBW)

Transcript

Gone are the days of 12 hour shifts milling flour in what was once the world’s largest flour mill or sweating in the Queen City’s massive iron and steel factories. Buffalo’s coveted labor jobs of the forties and fifties have now been at least partly replaced by hi-tech and high paying jobs in the medical sciences and research fields. And unlike the old manufacturing jobs experts say these jobs are immune to being phased out. It’s the wave of the future. “If you look at medical research overall those jobs are not going to go away,” said Dr. Timothy Murphy, Director of the University at Buffalo Clinical Translational Research Center. Why? Because the U.S. has an aging population now and healthcare is something everyone needs.

Dr. Murphy leads the Clinical Translational Research Center in the new Gates Vascular Institute building that opened just two months ago.

“Translational research refers to research whose goal is translate basic science observations and basic science knowledge into real new drugs, new treatments, new preventions, new vaccines and so forth to improve healthcare,” stated Dr. Murphy.

Sixty percent of the building at the Clinical Translational Research Center is already occupied with about 150 jobs and they’re expected to fill the remaining 40 percent of the building in the next two years.

“These kinds of jobs will be research technicians, there’ll be graduate students, so called post doctoral fellows, research coordinators, study nurses, administrative people, bio statisticians,” said Dr. Murphy.

Buffalo’s medical corridor resembles the culture of the internet start-up companies crowded in California’s Silicon Valley but instead of competing to create the next best website researchers here are competing to discover the next big medical breakthrough.

And that’s exactly what hwp-contentened at Empire Genomics. This week the cancer research lab announced a new test in the treatment of blood cell cancer bringing 50 new jobs to its Michigan Avenue facility.

“We look forward to playing a role in this age of genomic based medicine and growing our company in western New York,” said Dr. Norma Jean Nowak, Founder of Empire Genomics.

As the Queen City is now on the cutting edge of science UB is moving forward with plans to relocate its school of medicine and biomedical sciences downtown. Its dental, nursing, pharmacy and public health schools will soon follow.

All this growth has generated new business and housing development.

Local real estate agent Rob Maloney says College Street, a small west side street, long forgotten is now experiencing a rebirth.

“This is a great example of a property in this neighborhood. The last time it turned over was in the 90’s it turned over at $65,000 and now it’s listed at $189,000,” said Maloney.

And there’s no shortage of people who want to live here now.

“We’re getting multiple offers on these properties three and four offers at a time and often times they’re selling either at or most times above the asking price,” explained Maloney.

The experts say medical technology will lead the Buffalo economy for a long time to come. Really, it’s been in the background here for longer than most people realize.

“Buffalo and western New York gave the nation and the world cancer research. Chemotherapy was developed here in 1904. Roswell Park Cancer Institute is the first comprehensive cancer center in the entire nation,” said Congressman Brian Higgins, D- Buffalo 27th District.

UB’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will move to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in 2016. UB is also spending $26 million dollars to build a center for remedial and vocational programs downtown, that project should be completed in 2013.

Glick Receives National Editorial Award for Third Consecutive Year

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For release: November 5, 2012Sara R. Saldi; saldi@buffalo.edu
University at Buffalo
716-645-4593

Glick Receives National Editorial Award for Third Consecutive Year

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Michael Glick, DMD, professor and dean of the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, has been awarded the American Dental Education Association’s (AADE) William J. Gies Foundation First Place Editorial award for the third year in a row. The presentation of the award was made during the annual meeting of the American Association of Dental Editors (AADE) Oct. 17 in San Francisco.

A photo of Glick is available at: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13782.

Since 1958 the William J. Gies Editorial Award has been presented yearly to the author of the most valuable editorial published in a dental journal or periodical. The AADE and the William J. Gies Foundation for the Advancement of Dentistry of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA Gies Foundation) collaborate each year to identify and recognize award recipients.

Glick received the 2012 award for his editorial in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA): “Clinical Judgment: A Requirement for Professional Identity.” He won the same award in 2011 for his JADA editorial, “Education and Training: Two Different Proficiencies Necessary to Provide Oral Health Care” and in 2010 for a JADA editorial, “Expanding the Dentist’s Role in Health Care Delivery: Is it time to discard the Procrustean bed?”

The award is named for William J. Gies, a biochemistry professor from Columbia University who, in 1926, published a landmark report on dental education in the U.S. and Canada. Each year, dental editors from across the country submit their best editorials to be considered for the award. The editorials are reviewed by the William J. Gies Foundation Editorial Award Judging Committee, which makes the selection.

Glick, who became UB dean in December 2009, is editor of JADA, the premier, peer-reviewed journal in dentistry. Glick is known for his innovative, medicine-oriented wp-contentroach to dental care; he is an advocate for having dental students think of themselves as health care professionals first, and dentists second.

This is the fourth year in a row that a faculty member from UB’s School of Dental Medicine has won the award. In addition to Glick’s awards in 2010 and 2011, Chester J. Gary, DDS, JD, clinical assistant professor in restorative dentistry, was the recipient in 2009.

Glick has published more than 200 articles, book chapters and monographs on topics related to oral medicine. He has also led the way in the area of clinical dental care for medically complex patients, including those with HIV. He is a proponent for dentists to become involved in the overall health and well-being of their patients, which may include chair-side screening of dental patients for cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses.

WCHOB and RPCI Partner to Create New Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center

by BNMCin Health care, Member Institution(s), News8 Comments on WCHOB and RPCI Partner to Create New Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center

Continuing efforts to create a multifaceted children’s hospital, Kaleida Health‘s Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB) and Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) have partnered to build a pediatric hematology oncology center in the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital.
Signing a memorandum of understanding to plan the new center today, the WCHOB and RPCI have begun the planning process for this physician-led initiative to combine their services, creating a single center of excellence for pediatric inpatient/outpatient care. The proposed Center will incorporate inpatient beds, an outpatient clinic, isolation beds for blood and bone marrow transplant/high-dose therapy patients, and infusion facilities for chemotherapy and blood products, all in a protected environment on the top floor of the new hospital.

Both institutions are two of the most prominent healthcare institutions in WNY, providing pediatric hematology-oncology services for more than forty years. Currently, WCHOB provides specialty pediatric services essential to the care of these children including surgery, anesthesia, intensive care, and diagnostic imaging. RPCI provides oncology clinical leadership and services including radiation therapy, certain highly-specialized diagnostic services, blood and marrow transplants and clinical trials. RPCI is expected hold a long-term lease for the Center and will be responsible for its medical direction. The planned Center will continue to capitalize on the unique expertise of both institutions.

“This partnership between the two organizations is an excellent example of the many opportunities the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is granting,” said Teresa Quattrin, MD, Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Professor of Pediatrics, SUNY at Buffalo, and Pediatrician-in-Chief, Chief, Division of Endocrinology-Diabetes, Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. “We look forward to continuing to create this integrated Hematology & Oncology Unit to further enhance the care provided to patients and their families throughout Western New York and beyond.”

WCHOB is submitting its Certificate of Need wp-contentlication for the new hospital to the New York State Department of Health on November 2nd. RPCI anticipates to submit the Certificate of Need for the Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center by the end of the year.

“Each institution contributes unique expertise and services to children and young adults with cancer and blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, hemophilia and anemia. The new hospital presents a great opportunity to develop a true pediatric Center of Excellence,” said Martin L. Brecher, MD, Chair of Pediatrics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Chief of Hematology Oncology at Women & Children’s Hospital and Chief of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics at the University at Buffalo.

James R. Kaskie, President and CEO of Kaleida Health stated that “Together, and in conjunction with the University at Buffalo academic programs, we will jointly operate a center of excellence for children with cancer and blood diseases where expert clinical services are provided, innovative and pioneering research is advanced to find a cure and improve treatment options, and current and future health care professionals are trained and educated.”

“Management of cancer is best provided in facilities where hospital inpatient beds and outpatient facilities are in close proximity. The relocation of the children’s hospital to the medical campus provides the opportunity to pull together what have been two physically separate outpatient and inpatient units into a single, expanded service comprehensive facility to serve the needs of children of all ages with blood diseases and cancer,” said Donald L. Trump, MD, President and CEO of RPCI.

Each institution’s respective Board of Directors recognizes that the relocation of the WCHOB to the BNMC presents a unique opportunity to take an excellent pediatric hematology oncology program and make it extraordinary by bringing all the services together in a new state-of-the-art hospital. Philanthropic support for the hospital and for the pediatric hematology oncology center will be required to make the program consolidation a reality.

The 12-story, 430,000 sq. ft. John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital is scheduled to open in 2016.

BNMC Partners and Fruit Belt Residents Embark on Leadership Empowerment Program

by BNMCin Community, Fruit Belt, Healthy Communities, Member Institution(s), News, Outreach7 Comments on BNMC Partners and Fruit Belt Residents Embark on Leadership Empowerment Program

Members of the Fruit Belt neighborhood will begin leadership training that will ignite change within their community. These leaders will participate in an eight week course in which they will identify and create change in pursuit of increasing their quality of life. Led by a coalition of BNMC Partners, such as the University at Buffalo (UB), with other BNMC member institutions; Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Kaleida Health, the training provided by the UB School of Management and Leadership Buffalo will teach the group how to identify the most prevalent issues, build a plan to address each issue, and measure their success.
A kick-off event for the training will occur Wednesday, November 7th (rescheduled from Tuesday, October 30th) starting at 5:00 p.m. at Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Gaylord Cary Meeting Room in the Research Studies Center on Carlton Street. Group participants will convene with Council member Darius Pridgen to meet the mentors, the leadership trainer, institution representatives and become acquainted with one another as they prepare to embark on the four-month long journey to impact their community.

The expert training will also prepare the group with strategies on how to take advantage of collaboration opportunities with BNMC member institutions. The group will work collaboratively with churches, businesses, and other organizations interested in building partnerships that address the social, cultural, and economic issues they wish to improve.

Following the training, the group will develop a project that will be implemented to have a positive effect on the neighborhood.

The BNMC and its partners are committed to serving as a catalyst for groups in the neighboring communities that want to identify and change issues facing their community. To learn more about the training and how to participate, contact Ekua Mends-Aidoo at 716.218.7806 for more information.

Training Schedule:

Class 1: Wednesday, Nov. 7th 5-7 p.m.

Class 2: Saturday, Nov. 17th 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Class 3: Thursday, Dec. 6th 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Class 4: Monday, Dec. 17th 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Class 5: Wednesday, Jan. 9th 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Class 6: Wednesday, Jan 23rd 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Class 7: Wednesday, Feb 6th 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Class 8: Wednesday, Feb 20th 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Thereafter, project implementation.

Buffalo-Area Pharmacists Say No to Tobacco Sales in Pharmacies

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2012
Contact: Annie Deck-Miller, Senior Media Relations Manager
716-845-8593; annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org

Buffalo-Area Pharmacists Say No to Tobacco Sales in Pharmacies

BUFFALO — More than 75 percent of Western New York pharmacists say tobacco sales in pharmacies should be legally banned, according to research conducted by Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and the University at Buffalo (UB), published in BMC Research Notes. The study found that more than 86% of pharmacists surveyed would prefer to work in a pharmacy that does not sell tobacco products.

The research, led by James Marshall, PhD, Senior Vice President for Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at RPCI, evaluated the opinions of Western New York pharmacists about the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies and about their role in helping their patients to stop smoking.

“The sale of tobacco products in pharmacies in any locality sends conflicting messages to consumers who visit pharmacies for medication or health products,” said Dr. Marshall. “Pharmacists, dedicated to protecting the health of their customers, recognize tobacco sales as contrary to their professional ethics. They would, in overwhelming numbers, prefer not to be selling cigarettes. This research will inform policymakers and elected officials as they consider regulations of tobacco sales in pharmacies.”

The 2010 survey evaluated opinions of 148 pharmacy mentors from the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (UBSoPPS) and 345 local supervising pharmacists. Participants were contacted by mail and email. The combined response rate for both surveys was 31%.

The pharmacist’s role in assisting patients to stop smoking also was evaluated. The survey found that more than 75% of pharmacists say they “sometimes” or “rarely/never” ask about tobacco use. The majority of pharmacists also indicate that they are not required to document tobacco use among patients or to enter such information into patient records.

“A striking finding is that pharmacy mentors were more likely than supervising pharmacists to be familiar with patients’ tobacco use and take steps to offer advice and information about how to quit smoking,” said Peter Brody Jr., PharmD, Director of Experiential Education at UBSoPPS. “It was also surprising that area pharmacists seemed not to take full advantage of the opportunity to educate and counsel patients regarding tobacco use. We need to better understand why and do what we can to help correct this issue.”

“This research presents several interesting findings, including that the overwhelming majority of pharmacists would support legislation banning the sale of tobacco in pharmacies,” added Edward Bednarczyk, PharmD, Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at UB. “Importantly, this study also shows a considerable gap between theory and practice, with a substantial majority of pharmacists finding the sale of tobacco in pharmacies inwp-contentropriate, but doing little to prevent the sale or engage patients regarding tobacco use and smoking cessation.”

The study, Tobacco sales in pharmacies: a survey of attitudes, knowledge and beliefs of pharmacists employed in student experiential and other worksites in Western New York,” can be accessed at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/5/413/abstract.

The mission of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. RPCI, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or email askrpci@roswellpark.org.

BMG is the 1st Physician's Group Outside of Northeast Ohio to Join Quality Alliance

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As one of the oldest and largest multi-specialty physician groups in the state of New York, Buffalo Medical Group, P.C. is the first organization to join the Cleveland Clinic Community Physician Partnership’s Quality Alliance that is outside of northeast Ohio.
Improving the quality of care, the Quality Alliance program couples independent physicians with Cleveland Clinic physicians, aiming to implement thorough and reviewed best practices and evidence-based clinical protocols in order that the best possible care can be given to patients. Cleveland Clinic is an academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education.

The Cleveland Clinic Community Physician Partnership designed the network to bring about the improvement of the quality and consistency of clinical care; reduce costs and increase efficiency; and provide access to expertise, data and experience. The alliance meets these goals through physician-led review of patient care, physician-developed clinical protocols, mechanisms assuring adherence to those protocols, and common data collection and reports. With over 900 independent physician members, the Alliance is one of the third largest networks in the nation of its kind striving to standardize and improve the quality of care.

“Partnering with the Cleveland Clinic Community Physician Partnership and Quality Alliance is a logical extension of BMG’s commitment to providing exemplary care for our patients” said Irene S. Snow. M.D., Medical Director of the BMG.

Chief Medical Officer of Cleveland Clinic’s Community Physician Partnership & Quality Alliance, Tarek Elsawy, M.D., stated that “The Buffalo Medical Group is the right type of partner, as it has demonstrated through its highly engaged culture of quality and commitment to process improvement.”

BMG is committed to providing the best comprehensive care for patients, having achieved the highest level of recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance for Patient Centered Medical Home – the first health care provider in WNY to do so. BMG has also been recognized for its care for diabetes patients by the same committee. BMG adds more than 100 primary care, specialty care and sub-specialty physicians to the program.

Cuomo Seeks to Boost Organ and Tissue Donations in NYS with Lauren's Law

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With the help of Unyts, one the leading  procurement organizations in the nation, Western New York has one of the highest organ and tissue consent rates in the country. New York State, though, is the 3rd state with the lowest consent rates for organ and tissue donations in the U.S. With 113,000 people on the national waiting list for organ and tissue donations, 9,700 of them are residents of New York State, yet, the Empire State only has 18% of its adults registered as donors. The national average is 43%.
Beginning in October 2013, the number of New York State residents who become organ and tissue donors is expected to increase based on new language on the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles driver’s license wp-contentlication. A new bill signed into legislation by Governor Andrew Cuomo, called “Lauren’s Law,” requires wp-contentlicants to check one of the two options for organ donor registration. Applicants can either check “yes” or “skip this question” under the organ registration section.

Back in June, Lauren’s Law was passed by unanimous vote by the New York State Assembly and Senate. Governor Cuomo stated that “By adding this new language to DMV wp-contentlication forms, it is our hope that many more New Yorkers sign up to be on the list of those willing to donate an organ or tissue.” Cuomo recognized Senator David Carlucci (D-Rockland/Orange) and Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) for their efforts to support the passing of the bill into law along with advocate Lauren Shields.

The President and CEO of Unyts, Mark Simon said that “[The bill] will result in increased donations and more opportunities for life safe and life enhancing transplants.”

Lauren Shields, who is now a 12 year old girl, received a heart transplant back in 2009. Officials named the law Lauren’s Law as a result of Shields’ advocacy efforts to help save lives by organ and tissue donations. Shields is a resident of Stony Point in Rockland County. She began her battle with heart failure when she was 9 years old, diagnosed with viral myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), an illness preventing her heart from being able to pump blood through her body because it was so swollen. Today, as a recipient of a successful transplant and a healthy child, Shields aspires to become a cardiologist to help save lives.

For more about Shields’ story, watch the video below:

“I never want anyone to have to wait for a transplant like I did.” -Lauren Shields

To learn how to register and become a donor and help save a life, please visit www.unyts.org/get-involved/donor-registry/.

 

UB Ranked One of the World’s Best Universities by Times Higher Education

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UB Ranked One of the World’s Best Universities by Times Higher Education

Times Higher Education has named the University at Buffalo as one of the world’s top 200 universities.

UB is ranked 198th in the 2012-13 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, up from last year’s ranking among the top 201 to 225 universities worldwide. The assessment uses 13 performance indicators to analyze how well a university is doing in core missions including teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

“This is very good news. Moving into the top-200 will enhance UB’s already-strong reputation overseas and help us attract outstanding students from around the world,” said Stephen C. Dunnett, PhD, UB professor and vice provost for international education.

“International students are particularly conscious of university rankings, and UB’s steady ascent in various international rankings in recent years — a reflection of our strong institutional commitment to excellence — is certainly well recognized and wp-contentreciated by students and their families overseas.”

Times Higher Education is a leading higher education magazine, and the recognition of UB as a top-200 university demonstrates UB’s growing global reputation. The data for the rankings were collected by Thomson Reuters, which considered about 700 institutions in 69 countries.

In recent years, UB has invested in recruiting additional high-quality faculty, attracting researchers from around the world to Western New York. These faculty members conduct research on some of the world’s most pressing problems, and provide students with an excellent education in the classroom.

Under President Satish K. Tripathi, UB has embarked on the next phase of its UB 2020 plan for academic excellence.  With the support of the NYSUNY 2020 legislation, signed into law last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, UB is in the midst of a historic transformation.  The university is hiring 250 new faculty over the next five years, offering new programs to enrich students’ academic experiences and opening new facilities on its three campuses, with the goal of becoming one the world’s leading public research universities and increasing its regional economic impact.

Abroad, the university has cultivated relationships with distinguished educational institutions throughout the world, cooperating with international partners on student exchanges, joint research projects and the delivery of degree programs overseas.

At home, UB consistently places in the top 20 in the United States for international student enrollment, according to annual data published by the Institute of International Education. In 2010-11, for instance, UB had 5,185 foreign students, the 17th largest population in the nation.

John DellaContrada; dellacon@buffalo.edu; 716-645-4601

UB Department of Medicine Names New Chief of Nephrology Division

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Release Date: October 1, 2012Contact: Ellen Goldbaum, goldbaum@buffalo.edu
University at Buffalo
716-645-4605

UB Department of Medicine Names New Chief of Nephrology Division

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Richard J. Quigg Jr., MD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and former chief of its nephrology section, has been named the inaugural Arthur M. Morris Chair in Nephrology and chief of the division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

A photo of Quigg is at http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13714.

The announcement was made by Anne B. Curtis, MD, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine in UB’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The primary focus of Quigg’s research laboratory is to identify pathogenic mechanisms that underlie kidney disease. He is nationally and internationally renowned for his research into diseases of the glomeruli. Glomerular diseases damage the clusters of blood vessels called glomeruli, which filter blood in the kidneys, letting protein and sometimes red blood cells leaks into the urine, ultimately interfering with proper kidney function.

Quigg’s research interests include the role of the complement system, a major factor in the body’s immune response and other defenses, in glomerular disease, lupus nephritis, and diabetic nephropathy. He uses a variety of contemporary techniques to investigate disease pathogenesis and to identify sites of potential therapeutic manipulation. In addition to using animal models, his lab is involved in clinical studies examining the role of the complement system in various kidney diseases and examining gene profiles from renal tissue obtained from patients with these conditions.

Quigg received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Boston University. He completed his medical residency at SUNY Stony Brook and research and clinical fellowships in nephrology at the Boston University Medical Center. He was wp-contentointed to the University of Chicago in 1994 as an associate professor, and was promoted to professor in 2001. He served as chief of the Section of Nephrology at the university and was director of its Functional Genomics Facility. Before joining the University of Chicago, he was an assistant professor at the Medical College of Virginia.

Investigational Brain Cancer Vaccine to Be Tested in Phase I Roswell Park Study

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASESeptember 27, 2012
Contact: Annie Deck-Miller, Senior Media Relations Manager
716-845-8593; annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org

Investigational Brain Cancer Vaccine to Be Tested in Phase I Roswell Park Study
Peptide vaccine targets cancer survival protein, putting tumor cells in a Catch 22

BUFFALO — A new clinical research study at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) will test a first-of-its-kind cancer “vaccine” that may prove effective against many forms of solid-tumor cancers. The vaccine, to be investigated in a trial involving patients with brain cancer, generates an immune response that wp-contentears to put the target molecule, the cancer survival protein survivin, into a bind it can’t escape.

The peptide vaccine, developed at Roswell Park by Robert Fenstermaker, MD, and Michael Ciesielski, PhD, is based upon a specially engineered small protein molecule called a “peptide mimic.” Dr. Fenstermaker is principal investigator of the phase I clinical research study, which will test the safety and immunological effects of the vaccine in patients with two types of brain cancer: glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and anaplastic glioma. Called SurVaxM, the injectable vaccine will initially be given in four doses to nine patients.

Survivin, produced by at least 80% of cancers, is a protein that helps cancer cells to survive under stressful conditions. It is present only in diseased cells, which are caught in an unwinnable situation when exposed to the vaccine.

“SurVaxM puts cancer cells in a Catch 22,” says Dr. Fenstermaker, who is Chair of RPCI’s Department of Neurosurgery and Director of the Institute’s Neuro-Oncology Program. “The vaccine kills tumor cells that express survivin. If the cells turn survivin off to escape the vaccine, they’re essentially committing suicide.”

The engineered peptide used in the vaccine is able to stimulate an immune response because the cancer recognizes it as a foreign molecule.

“We arrived at this peptide through reverse immunology,” notes Dr. Ciesielski. “We knew we wanted to target survivin because it is expressed by so many tumors. We looked at many survivin peptides trying to find the best one to use as our vaccine. Once we identified one that looked promising, we engineered it to be more potent and produce a better response by enlisting multiple arms of the immune system.”

In preclinical studies, the vaccine was effective against several cancers, including gliomas and prostate, ovarian, breast and kidney tumors that produce survivin. Studies in which human glioma, lymphoma and leukemia cells were exposed to the vaccine outside the body also produced a strong response. “In those earlier studies, the response was persistent,” Dr. Ciesielski says. “It wp-contentears that the vaccine continues to provide lasting immunity after the tumor has been eliminated.”

Roughly 15,000 people are newly diagnosed with glioblastomas and anaplastic gliomas in the U.S. every year. These cancers are very difficult to treat, and are often fatal.

“Survival rates for malignant gliomas have improved modestly over the last two decades, but better therapies are desperately needed,” Dr. Fenstermaker says. “We’re anxious to move ahead with this study and, hopefully, go on to larger studies in the years ahead, but we first have to show that this is a safe and well-tolerated drug for a group of terrible diseases.”

Because they enlist the body’s own cells to fight cancer, immune-based therapies generally have few adverse side effects. The trial is the fourth clinical research study launched through RPCI’s Center for Immunotherapy this year.

The study is National Cancer Institute trial no. NCT01250470. For more information about SurVaxM and this new phase I research study, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or email askrpci@roswellpark.org.

Ciesielski and Fenstermaker credit early seed funding from donations with helping to move their research forward and generating additional dollars in new grant funding from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (R21 NS049309-01) and the American Cancer Society. Additional support from The Jayne and Phil Hubbell Family was instrumental in advancing the team’s research.

The mission of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. RPCI, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or email askrpci@roswellpark.org.

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Editor’s note: Photo caption: Robert Fenstermaker, MD, left, and Michael Ciesielski, PhD. Video interview with Drs. Fenstermaker and Ciesielski available at https://vimeo.com/48443468. For additional photos and multimedia, including B-roll video, send request to: annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org.

Landmark Gift From Oishei Foundation for Children's Hospital

by BNMCin Member Institution(s), NewsLeave a Comment on Landmark Gift From Oishei Foundation for Children's Hospital

A $10 million donation to Kaleida Health means the brand new hospital will be named the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, continuing to serve the women and children of Buffalo. The donor, The John R. Oishei Foundation, named the facility after the late industrialist and philanthropist, John R. Oishei, who established the Foundation in 1940.
Jim Wadsworth, Chairman of the Foundation stated that “The primary reason [Oishei] began his philanthropy back in the 1940s was to benefit the children of his employees and of the community.” The mission of the Foundation is “to be a catalyst for change to enhance economic vitality and the quality of life for the Buffalo Niagara region.”

The unprecedented gift will enable the hospital to continue expanding the specialized health care services offered to its infant and women patients. The 430,000 sq. ft., 12-story facility will house a state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit which received a $2 million gift in August, a connected ambulatory care center, and a family resource center. In the future, plans include a Women’s Pavilion to house labor and delivery, post partum care, the regional perinatal center for high-risk pregnancies, and a women’s health center providing prenatal and gynecological care.

“Similar to how John R. Oishei sought the best technology available in his time to create the first automobile wiper blades and ultimately the Trico Products Corporation, the Foundation that now bears his name and legacy will share its resources to make advanced technologies and care available today to improve the health and lives of families throughout our community,” said James R. Kaskie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kaleida Health.

Set to open in 2016, the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital will sit on the corner of High and Ellicott Streets, across from the Buffalo General Medical Center.

Read more coverage about the gift below:

Oishei Gift Boosts Medical Campus

Oishei Makes $10M Pledge to New Children’s Hospital

Oishei Foundation Gives Hospital $10M

New Oishei Children’s Hospital Receives $10 Million Gift

Oishei Gifts $10 Million Towards New Children’s Hospital

 

 

 

 

 

J. Craig Venter Receives Honorary Doctorate, Extols Virtues of the CTRC, UB's Newest Research Facility

by BNMCin Homepage, Member Institution(s), News, ResearchLeave a Comment on J. Craig Venter Receives Honorary Doctorate, Extols Virtues of the CTRC, UB's Newest Research Facility
[ photograph ]“I’m actually jealous,” said J. Craig Venter, speaking of UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center, after receiving the SUNY Honorary Doctorate in Science.

World-renowned genomic researcher calls UB facility “some of the most beautiful lab space I’ve seen.”

J. Craig Venter, PhD, the pioneering biologist who led the first team to sequence the human genome, received a State University of New York Honorary Doctorate in Science at the University at Buffalo on Sept. 20. The honorary degree was conferred on him at a ceremony that followed the grand opening of UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center in the joint UB-Kaleida Health building in downtown Buffalo.

UB President Satish K. Triapthi called Venter “one of the 21st century’s most influential scientists and widely regarded as the world’s foremost leader in the field of genetic research.” He said he couldn’t think of a more fitting individual to honor on the occasion of the CTRC opening.

The degree was conferred on Venter by Angelo Fatta, UB Foundation board of directors chair, and SUNY Trustee Eunice Lewin.

Venter, a former UB and Roswell Park Cancer Institute scientist, developed a revolutionary strategy for rapid gene discovery while working at the National Institutes of Health. He later founded The Institute for Genomic Research and, in 1995, he and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism. At Celera Genomics, which he founded in 1998, Venter sequenced the human genome using new tools and techniques he and his team developed. The successful completion of this research culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal Science.

Speaking before the audience that gathered in the fifth floor atrium of the CTRC, Venter expressed his honest admiration for UB’s newest research facility.

“I’m actually jealous,” he said, after accepting the SUNY honorary degree. “This is some of the most beautiful lab space I’ve seen and the views are always improving.” Venter then described his newest building, now under construction on the University of California San Diego campus, which, he conceded, will have even better views because it is located right next to the Pacific Ocean.

In addition to the CTRC’s physical assets, Venter praised UB and Buffalo for committing to the creation of a life sciences economy. “I’m a strong believer that the future does rest in a bioeconomy,” he said.

Venter also gave an update on genomics, describing the massive amounts of digital information that the research has produced and the challenge caused by this “digitizing of biology.” While the mammalian genome has largely been completed, he said, there is plenty of genetic diversity on the planet that has yet to be discovered.

“By sequencing the microbiome, we find we are not alone,” he said. “In addition to the 2 million human genes we have, each of us also contains about 10 million additional microbe genes. We live in a microbial world; we are visitors here.”

He and his colleagues are also looking at the vast genetic diversity in the ocean. “Every time we take a sample of seawater, we see between 1 and 3 million genes that haven’t been seen before,” he said.

While noting that the idea that it’s possible to sequence your own genome for about $1,000 may be an overstatement, he said that personalized medicine based on a patient’s genetic information “will be a standard part of medicine within a few years.”

Venter is founder and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit, research and support organization dedicated to human, microbial, plant and environmental genomic research, the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics, and alternative energy solutions through genomics. He and his team continue to blaze new trails in genomics research and have published numerous important papers covering such areas as the first complete diploid human genome, environmental genomics and synthetic genomics.

Venter also is founder and chief executive officer of the company Synthetic Genomics Inc., a privately held company commercializing genomic advances.

 

Ellen Goldbaum; goldbaum@buffalo.edu; 716-645-4605; @egoldbaum

UB Partners with Zimbabwe Universities to Create International Nanotechnology Center

by BNMCin Life Sciences Companies, Member Institution(s), News, ResearchLeave a Comment on UB Partners with Zimbabwe Universities to Create International Nanotechnology Center

For release: September 24, 2012Contact: Sara R. Saldi, saldi@buffalo.edu
University at Buffalo
716-645-4593

UB Partners with Zimbabwe Universities to Create International Nanotechnology Center

BUFFALO, N.Y. — With 14 percent of Zimbabwe’s population living with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis as a co-infection, the need for new drugs and new formulations of available treatments is crucial.

To address these issues, two of the University at Buffalo’s leading research centers, the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics (ILPB), and the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences have signed on to launch the Zimbabwe International Nanotechnology Center (ZINC) — a national nanotechnology research program — with the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and the Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT).

This collaborative program will initially focus on research in nanomedicine and biosensors at UZ and energy at CUT.  ZINC has grown out of the NIH Fogarty International Center, AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) that was awarded to UB and UZ in 2008 to conduct HIV research training and build research capacity in Zimbabwe and neighboring countries in southern Africa.

UB faculty and research directors in the ZINC partnership include Paras N. Prasad, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Physics, Medicine and Electrical Engineering, the Samuel P. Capen Chair, executive director of ILPB; Gene D. Morse, PharmD, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, associate director of the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences and director of the Translational Pharmacy Research Core; Alexander N. Cartwright, PhD, UB vice president for research and economic development and interim executive director of the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences , who will work with Professor Levi Nyagura, UZ vice chancellor; Professor David T. Simbi, CUT vice chancellor, and Dr. Charles Maponga, PharmD, UZ pharmacy school director.

ZINC will establish a long-term international research and training platform in the field of nanotechnology, focused in areas that promote Zimbabwe’s strength, and advance the development of nanotechnology as an avenue for Zimbabwe’s commercial growth.

The UB ILPB and TPRC collaboration recognized that the fields of pharmacology and therapeutics have increasingly developed links with emerging areas within the field of nanosciences in an attempt to develop tissue/organ targeted strategies that will lead to disease treatment and eradication. Research teams will focus on emerging technologies, initially focused in nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine for health care.

“Developing nanoformulations for HIV and tuberculosis diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as new tuberculosis drug development, are just a few of the innovative strategies to address these co-infections that this research collaboration can provide,” said Morse.

“In addition, the development of new nanotechnology-related products will jumpstart the economy and foster new economic initiatives in Zimbabwe that will yield additional private-public partnerships.”

A photo of Morse is available at: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13694.

Morse says that the current plans for a “Center of Excellence” in clinical and translational pharmacology in Harare at UZ will create a central hub in Africa, not just for Zimbabwe but for other countries to gain new training and capacity building in many exciting aspects of nanotechnology as well.

Morse adds that this initiative creates an opportunity for additional involvement from a number of UB centers such as those represented by UB’s Strategic Strengths in areas such as Health and Wellness across the Lifespan, Integrated Nanostructured Systems, Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems and Bioinformatics and Information and Computing Technology.

“With an international program like ZINC, we are hoping to attract pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms who will have similar interests in joining this unique partnership that will enhance the likelihood of economic success through efficient, innovative research.”

“Locally, these efforts will be linked to the growing Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus resulting in a truly global partnership with one anchor in Buffalo–a comprehensive ‘UB matrix’ of innovation and excellence,” says Morse.