2007 Dermatology National Student Research Forum (NSRF) Awardees Announced

On Friday night, April 27, two dermatology awardees were announced at the NSRF Banquet held at the San Luis Hotel in Galveston:

Dermatology Poster Award: Justin G. Madson, Creighton University School of Medicine, "Erbb2 Promotes

S-Phase progression in Keratinocytes Following UV Irradiation by Maintaining Cdc25a Levels"

Dermatology Oral Presentation Award: Saurabh Lodah, New York University School of Medicine, "Emerging Melanoma Genetics: The Role of Gab2"

Congratulations to both winners, and thanks to all Dermatology NSRF participants this year! We hope you all enjoyed your visit to Galveston!

UTMB Dermatology Resident Selected for Presentation at 2007 National Medical Association Scientific Assembly

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Ramirez, a second year dermatology at UTMB for having his abstract entitled, "Topical Imiquimod as an Adjuvant to Laser Removal of Mature Tattoos in an Animal Model" selected for presentation at the annual John A. Kenney, Jr., Resident Symposium, National Medical Association Scientific Assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 5, 2007. According to the meeting announcement received, "The The Resident's Research Symposium was developed by the Dermatology Section of the National Medical Association (NMA) to provide residents and fellows in training an opportunity to present original papers of clinical or basic science research. Minority residents/fellows in training in dermatology, dermatopathology, dermatologic surgery, etc. are eligible to participate." Presenters are awarded a travel and lodging stipend. The abstract deadline for this year's meeting was 12/30/06.

Last DIG Meeting, April 30 at 5pm

Hi Everyone,

The last DIG meeting of the year will be held this coming Monday, April 30 at 5 pm in the Dermatology Conference Room (4th floor McCollough Building). We will be holding officer elections for next year and go over some last minute planning for our volunteer events that will be held next week. On Tuesday, May 1 we will be giving a Sunburn and Skin Cancer Awareness Presentation to the 4th grade class at Rosenberg Elementary School. The following Saturday, May 5 will be the Miles for Melanoma walk held at the Fieldhouse track at 8:30 am. We encourage everyone who can to come participate! The registration deadline is April 27, so go to www.TheSchlip.com and register today! Finally, following the walk, we will be volunteering at the Annual Skin Cancer Screening from 10:00-1:00 pm put on by the UTMB Dermatology Department.

We will be looking for people to help out at all of these events, so please come to the meeting to find out more information.

Thanks!

Good News for Visiting Medical Students

The new "Skin Diseases Depicted in Film" course is now available for visiting medical students who wish to take this four week dermatology career development elective. The course number is DERU-4007 and elective students will be combined with senior UTMB medical students who are taking the same class to meet their BSHS selective graduation requirement (DERU-4051). For each of the 13 periods the course is given throughout the year, there are 10 spots allocated to UTMB Selective seniors and 5 spots for visiting elective students. The course requirements (for Selective and Elective students) are attending two 2 hr classes twice weekly, presenting an assigned 30 minute PowerPoint Presentation to the class about a skin disease depicted in the required films, and the submission of a 5 page original essay about skin disease (see course description for additional information). It is anticipated that many students will elect to write an original movie critique using techniques learned in class to review a supplementary film with skin disease/dermatology content that may be borrowed from the UTMB Dermatology Department Film Library. Interested visiting students should contact the UTMB Registrar at http://www.utmb.edu/enrollmentservices/prospect/visitingmedical/index.html for additional information about registration for this class.

48th Annual NSRF Dermatology Poster Presentations Tomorrow, Thursday, April 26, 2007

The UTMB Dermatology Interest Group (DIG) welcomes the dermatology research poster participants to this year's National Student Research Forum. Student researchers will present their studies from 1-3 p.m. in Levin Hall. The 3 dermatology posters this year are:

Poster 26 A NOVEL FUNCTION OF IKKα IN CENTROSOME DUPLICATION. Xiaojun Xia, J Shen, B Liu, Y Hu. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Poster 27 PRESSURE ULCER PREVENTIVE DEVICE USE AMONG ELDERLY PATIENTS EARLY IN THE HOSPITAL STAY. Shayna Rich, M Shardell, D Margolis, M Baumgarten. University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Poster 28 Erbb2 PROMOTES S-PHASE PROGRESSION IN KERATINOCYTES FOLLOWING UV IRRADIATION BY MAINTAINING Cdc25a levels. Justin Madson, David T. Lynch, Laura A. Hansen. Creighton University.

Dr. Richard Wagner Receives Honor

Our Dermatology Program Director, Dr. Richard Wagner, has accepted an invitation to edit a special 2008 issue (January/March) of the quarterly peer-reviewed dermatology journal, Skin Cancer (Lisbon). He is busy preparing original articles that he hopes will highlight the research contributions in skin cancer made by the Dermatology Department at The University of Texas Medical Branch. He anticipates that many of the first authors of these manuscripts will be current and former UTMB students and dermatology residents. He last had the honor of being a guest editor for Skin Cancer in 1993, when he served as their first international editor, an tradition that has continued at the Journal. Congrats to Dr. Wagner!

Kudos to Dr. Mark Ramirez

Dr. Ramirez has published an original research study entitled, "Topical Imiquimod as an Adjuvant to Laser Removal of Mature Tattoos in an Animal Model," in the March 2007 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Dermatologic Surgery (Dermatol Surg 2007;33:319-325). He performed the research during his participation in the UTMB Honors Research Program in Dermatology, that earned him Summa Cum Laude graduation honors in 2004. That year he also received the annual departmental Thomas W. Freese Award for the best overall senior medical student in dermatology at graduation. Dr. Ramirez is currently a 2nd year dermatology resident at UTMB. His co-authors on the study were Norma Magee, Dayna Diven, Maria Colome-Grimmer, Massoud Motamedi, Gisele Oliveira, Jesus Zamora, Tatsuo Uchida and Richard Wagner.