Contents
Colombo assumes KIDDRC directorship; Smith appointed founding director for the Institute for Neurological Disorders, KIDDRC co-director KIDDRC user committees add new members and recommend core changes KIDDRC cores shift to director/co-director model; McCarson, Winter and Svojanovsky assume new
roles KIDDRC offers reduced rates on brain imaging and transgenics services New Core tracking and evaluations system KIDDRC progress report and renewal: new guidelines require drastic page reduction New KIDDRC projects Investigator highlights: Rice, Butler, Guftason, Barlow Zamarripa retires after 40 years of service
Colombo assumes KIDDRC directorship
John Colombo, KIDDRC Co-director since July 2008, became the KIDDRC Director on July 1. Colombo, LSI director since July 2008, is a long-time KIDDRC investigator and Professor of Psychology. Colombo is also a Co-Investigator and Director of the Participant Recruitment Core of the KU Center for Biobehavioral Neuroscience in Communicative Disorders and the Faculty Chair of the Human Subjects Committee on the Lawrence Campus. His research interests are in the developmental cognitive neuroscience of attention and learning, with a special focus on early individual differences in these areas and how they relate to the typical and atypical development of cognitive and intellectual function.
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Smith appointed founding director for the Institute for Neurological Disorders, KIDDRC co-director
In March 2009, Peter Smith became the founding Director of the Institute for Neurological Disorders (IND) on the KUMC campus. The IND (www.indkc.org), a regional initiative including more than 120 basic scientists and clinicians, is designed to advance translational research in the neurosciences. In July 2009, Smith reassumed the KIDDRC co-directorship after replacing former Life Span Institute and KIDDRC director, Steven Warren, in July 2008, when Warren was named Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies. Smith, Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, joined the KU School of Medicine in 1987. He has directed the R.L. Smith Mental Retardation Research Center since 2002 and also directs of the Communications Core and KUMC Bioinformatics Core of the Kansas IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE). Smith’s research examines the interplay between nerve and target and factors that govern neuronal growth and degeneration.
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Core User Committees add new members, critique core services
This summer the KIDDRC Core User Committees were reanimated and bolstered by the addition of new KIDDRC investigators who offered useful critiques of core services. Current user committee members are:
Communications and Administration (Core A): Holly Storkel, Dale Walker, Peggy Petroff
Biobehavioral Measurement (Core B): John Stanford, Dean Williams, Mike Johnson
Research and Design and Analysis (Core C): Susan Kemper, Mabel Rice, T. Rajendra Kumar
Intergrative Imaging (Core D): Steve Barlow, Lane Christenson, Hiroshi Nishimune
Input from these committees has led to implementation of several new initiatives. These include KIDDRC website updates, establishing the Director/Co-director model in all cores, instituting clear lines of authority across campuses, and expanding core support services.
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Cores to follow KIDDRC director/co-director model; McCarson, Winter and Svojanovsky assume new roles
The successful KIDDRC director-co-director organization model has been extended to all KIDDRC cores. The Biobehavioral Measurement Core (Core B), will be led by Steve Fowler (Lawrence). Charles Greenwood (Life Span Institute and Juniper Gardens) and Ken McCarson (KUMC Director of the Sensory-Motor Testing Facility) will serve as Codirectors. Michelle Winter serves as Core B Manager. Todd Little (Director) and Janet Marquis (Co-Director) will continue to lead the Research Design and Analysis Core (Core C) and Kandace Fleming on the Lawrence campus continues as Core C Manager. Stan Svojanovsky will now serve as Core Co-Manager at KUMC. The Integrative Imaging Core (Core D) will be led by Dianne Durham as Director and Eli Michaelis as Co-Director, and Don Warn continues as Core Manager.
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KIDDRC offers reduced rates on brain imaging and transgenics services
Beginning immediately, all KIDDRC investigators are eligible for reduced rates for services at the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center and the Gene Targeting and Transgenics Facility. For 43 years, the Kansas IDDRC has taken a lead role in providing critical technologies to its members. The KIDDRC is proud to announce that it is now helping investigators incorporate these additional technologies into their research programs on intellectual and developmental disabilities. If you have a project that you think would be appropriate and eligible, please contact John Colombo or Peter Smith, Bill Brooks at the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center or Melissa Larson in the Transgenics Facility.
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New core tracking and evaluations system
The purpose of the KIDDRC is to provide our investigators with the best possible services. This means we need to keep track of ongoing and completed projects. To do this the KIDDRC has developed and implemented a request management system we call ReqMan. ReqMan tracks progress on your requests from beginning to end. You can request services through a ReqMan interface through KIDDRC online or a ticket will be opened for you when you request services from any of our cores.
Your satisfaction with Core services is also very important! In the past, all KIDDRC investigators were asked to complete generic evaluations every spring in preparation for the renewal of the P30 grant that supports KIDDRC activities. This year we will be using the tracking data present in ReqMan to provide members with reminders of all the services KIDDRC has provided. The ReqMan Development Team of Don Warn and Byunggil Yoo are working hard to have this in place in time for spring evaluations.
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KIDDRC progress report and renewal deadlines are approaching fast!
A P30 grant from the Eunice K Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development provides funding for KIDDRC activities. This year we will be preparing not only a progress report due in May, but also the Competing Renewal due at the end of the year. The competing renewal is bound to be highly competitive (recently about 8 applications for 3 funded centers is typical) so we need to really shine to make the grade.
This spring, we’ll be asking KIDDRC members to once again provide important information on their accomplishments for our renewal. As always, we greatly appreciate your efforts.
We also ask that you remember to cite our grant number – HD002528 – on any papers where core services have helped. This is the proof that NIH likes to see that the KIDDRC is making a difference!
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New KIDDRC projects
Twenty-six new projects were voted into the KIDDRC at the January 28 and September 30 meetings of the Internal Scientific Advisory Committee, eight from each campus.
Four new investigators also joined KIDDRC: Merlin Butler, Nancy Hamilton, Jean Ann Summers and Greg Vanden Heuvel. Their names are starred and linked to their profiles below.
Theme 1: Language, Communication Disorders and Cognition
Mark Chertoff, Clinical Measures of Auditory Nerve Survival. Royal National Institute for Deaf People, 10/01/09 to 09/30/12. (KUMC)
Susan Kemper, DHB: Measuring Spoken Language Variability in Elderly Individuals, NSF-Oregon Health & Science University, 0826654, 11-01-08 to 10-31-11. (Lawrence)
Muriel Saunders, Impact of Vision and Hearing Correction on Measurement of Sport and Non-Sport Performance of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities Special Olympics, 10-31-08 to 02-01-10. (Lawrence)
Dale Walker/Steven Warren, Center for Promoting Language & Literacy Readiness in Early Childhood. DE-OSEP. 01/01/08 to 12/31/11. (Lawrence)
Theme 2: Risk, Prevention and Intervention in Mental Retardation
Kathleen Baggett, Translating Effective Maltreatment Intervention in the Community. CDC (contract), 09/01/09 to 08/31/12. (Lawrence)
Stephen Barlow, Sensorimotor Control of the Human Orofacial System, NIDCD, R01 DC003311 (renewal of T3-1), 07-01-08 to 06-30-13. (Lawrence)
*Merlin Butler/Dan Driscoll/Marshall Summar/Virginia Kimonis/Alan Percy, Prader Willi Syndrome and Early-Onset Morbid Obesity Natural History Clinical Protocol-Rare Disease Clinical Research Network, NICHD, 08/01/03 to 08/01/14. (KUMC)
Judith Carta, Development of a Three-tiered Model in Early Intervention to Address Language and Literacy Needs of Children at Risk, USDE-IES-University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 06-01-09 to 02-28-12. (Lawrence)
*Navneet Dhillon/Corey Berkland, Oral Delivery of Nanoparticles encapsulated with HIVDNA Vaccine. NIAID, 12/18/2008 to 11/30/2010. (KUMC)
Stephen Fawcett, Implementing the Health for All Model with the Latino Community, NCMHD, R24 MD002780, 06-0-08 to 04-31-13. (Lawrence)
*Nancy Hamilton, Fibromyalgia and Sleep Treatments, NIAMS, R03 AR053266, 07-01-08 to 06-30-11. (Lawrence)
Debra Kamps, Center for Secondary Intervention (AKA Center on Serious Behavior Disorders at the Secondary Level), USDE-IES-Lehigh University, 07-01-08 to 06-30-13. (Lawrence)
Debra Kamps, Peer Networks Intervention: Improving Social-Communication, Literacy and Adaptive Behaviors for Young Children with ASD, USDE-IES, R324A090091, 03-01-09 to 02-28-13. (Lawrence)
Yo Jackson/Todd Little, Testing Determinants of Resilience: Mental Health and Child Maltreatment. NIMH, 07/01/09 to 06/30/11 (Lawrence)
Randy Nudo/Theresa Jones, Cortical Stimulation to Enhance Experience-Dependent Plasticity After Stroke. NIH, R21 NS063332, 05/15/09 to 04/30/11. (KUMC)
Randy Nudo/Pedram Mohseni, Implantable Microsystems for Anatomical Rewiring of Cortical Circuitry After Stroke, American Heart Association, 07/01/09 to 06/30/11. (KUMC)
Richard and Muriel Saunders, Weight Loss by Individuals with Physical Disabilities, DENIDRR, H133G090230, 0/01/09 to 09/30/12. (Lawrence)
Richard and Muriel Saunders, M., Closing the Loop: Exploring Best Practices in Healthy Athletes, Special Olympics, 09/01/09 to 08/31/10. (Lawrence)
*Jean Ann Summers/Susan Palmer, Building Foundations for Self-Determination in Young Children with Disabilities, DE-IES, 07/01/09 to 06/30/12. (Lawrence)
Dean Williams/Kate Saunders, Translational Analysis of CAB Across the Life Span Projects 1 and 3, KKI (NICHD), 07/01/09 to 06/30/14. (Lawrence)
Theme 3: The Neurobiology of Mental Retardation
Nancy Berman/Sang-Pil Lee, Inflammation And Traumatic Brain Injury In The Aging Brain, NIH, R01 AG ARRA, 08/15/2009 to 8/14/2011. (KUMC)
Andrei Belousov/Joseph Fontes, Regulation of Gap Junction Coupling During Development, NIH, R01 NINDS, 07/16/2009 to 06/30/2011. (KUMC)
John Colombo, Pupil Size and Circadian Salivary Variations in Autism Spectrum Disorder, NIMH, 04/07/09 to 02/28/11. (Lawrence)
Beth Levant, Fatty Acids and Outcomes in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, NICHD, R03 HD059939, N-3, 12/01/08 to 11/30/10. (KUMC)
Hinrich Staecker, Thomas Imig, Dianne Durham, Hair Cell Regeneration in a Rat Tinnitus Mode, USAMRAA, Department of the Army, PR081241, 06-01-09 to 05-31-12. (KUMC)
Theme 4: The Cellular and Molecular Biology of Early Development
*Greg Vanden Heuvel/Paul Trainor, Cux1 and cell cycle regulation in kidney development, NIDDK, 09/01/06 to 08/31/10. (KUMC)
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Investigator highlights: Rice, Butler, Guftason, Barlow
Rice team reports new gene associated with language, speech and reading disorders
A new candidate gene for Specific Language Impairment has been identified by a research team directed by Mabel Rice, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Theme 1 Scientific Leader, and her colleagues, Shelley Smith, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Javier Gayán of Neocodex, Seville, Spain.
Reported in the current issue of the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, the gene was discovered by examining genes previously identified as candidate genes for reading impairments or speech sound disorders. The results point toward the likelihood of multiple genes
contributing to language impairment, some of which also contribute to reading or speech impairment.
A gene on Chromosome 6 – KIAA0319 – was associated with variability in language abilities in a study of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and their family members, as well as with variability in speech and reading abilities. Children with SLI who were selected for the study had no hearing loss, general intellectual deficit or autism. The finding that a candidate gene could influence all three abilities suggests a common pathway that could contribute to overlapping strengths or deficiencies across speech, language and reading.
Although the biological mechanisms are not yet understood, the gene is the first one identified that could be involved across these three different dimensions of development, according to Rice.
Previous research has established that Chromosome 6 is among those that are linked to Speech Sounds Disorder (SSD) and Reading Disability/Dyslexia (RD). Rice said the findings are consistent with numerous reports documenting that language impairments and reading disability often co-exist.
The study involved 322 individuals, including children with SLI, their parents, siblings, and other family members and is part of a 20-year research program conducted by Rice, who is the Fred and Virginia Merrill Distinguished Professor of Advanced Studies and director of the Center for Biobehavioral Neurosciences in Communication Disorders at KU's Life Span Institute. Co-investigators on the genetics project were Shelley Smith, professor of pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics and the Munroe Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Javier Gayán, Head of the Analysis Group at Neocodex, in Seville, Spain. Neocodex is a research company that specializes in genomics analysis.
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Butler receives major grant to study rare diseases in children
Merlin Butler, M.D., Ph.D., joined the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2008 as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics. His clinical genetics practice is focused on children and adults presenting for genetics services, particularly those with developmental disabilities, congenital anomalies, cytogenetic syndromes, Prader-Willi syndrome, early onset of morbid obesity and autism. His research interests include the genetics of obesity with emphasis on Prader-Willi syndrome and autism, psychiatric and behavioral genetics and the delineation of rare and uncommon clinical genetics syndromes.
Butler and colleagues are conducting a study to understand the difference between the complex and neurobehavioral syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and Early Onset Morbid Obesity. PWS is rare but is the most commonly recognized genetic cause of childhood obesity effecting about 1 in 14,000 people in the United States. PWS is characterized by increased appetite, low muscle tone, cognitive impairment, distinct behavioral features, hypogonadism, and neonatal failure-to-thrive. However, many obese children do not have PWS, but are diagnosed with EMO, which shares many characteristics.
The development of new advances and strategies for treating PWS and EMO requires a thorough understanding of the conditions at both the clinical and molecular levels. One goal of this study is to collect long-term data on individuals with PWS and EMO in order to gain a better understanding of the natural progression of the conditions, from the neonatal period well into adulthood. Specific to PWS, this study will establish a genotype-phenotype correlation among the different sub-types and will evaluate the effects of growth hormone treatment on disease progression. Lastly, the study will compare PWS with EMO in terms of clinical features and genetic basis.
The clinical trial is part of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Center within the NIH-funded Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, an inter-institutional group of investigators with long-standing interests in PW, Angelman syndrome and Rett syndrome. The Center is focusing on these three disorders, with Butler directing the PW study.
Butler was formerly the Section Chief of Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine at Children’s Mercy Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine from 1998 to 2008. Previous to that, he was a tenured Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology and Director of the Regional Genetics Program at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee from 1984 to 1998.
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Gustafson research on pregnancy and exercise promising
Research by KIDDRC-affiliated researcher Kathleen Gustafson, Ph.D., is featured in a podcast on pregnancy, exercise and fetal health hosted by the American Physiological Society (Episode 24). Gustafson, a neuroscientist at the KU Medical Center, is studying the cardiovascular functioning of a fetus when the mother exercises. She and colleague Linda May, a researcher in the anatomy department at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, are finding that exercise is good for the expectant mother and improves breathing and overall heart health in the developing fetus. The research also
appears on a health site sponsored by CBS News and in the Washington Post.
Gustafson was awarded a patent for her involvement in a multi-center trial that showed the nutritional content of a new premature infant formula was essential for optimal infant visual development. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, co-authored two book chapters, and is currently funded to study visual and stereo acuity development in full-term infants fed different diets, the effects of maternal smoking on fetal cardiac and brain neurophysiology and cortical mapping in human ON-pathway disorders.
Gustafson holds a Ph.D. in Visual Electrophysiology and is the Associate Director of the fetal MEG program at the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center. She is responsible for research in vision and collaborates with other KIDDRC investigators, including John Colombo and Steven Barlow in work on fetal and infant development.
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Barlow honored with Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Award
Steven Barlow, like fellow KIDDRC investigator Charles Greenwood in 2008, was distinguished by a prestigious Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Award. Barlow received the Dolph Simons Award in Biomedical Sciences in a ceremony on November 2.
The awards, now in their 27th year, honor outstanding accomplishments in research by faculty members at KU and other Kansas Board of Regents institutions. The recognition program was established by Takeru Higuchi, the legendary "father of physical pharmacy" who was a distinguished professor at KU from 1967 to 1983, and his late widow, Aya.
Four individual awards are given annually. They are named for former leaders of KU Endowment who played key roles in recruiting Higuchi to KU. Their longtime financial support of KU helped enhance university research throughout the state of Kansas. Each award includes a plaque and a $10,000 grant for ongoing research efforts. The award money can be used for research materials, summer salaries, fellowship matching funds, research assistants or other support related to research.
Barlow is an internationally recognized scholar in orofacial and laryngeal neurophysiology, and biomedical aspects of speech sensorimotor processing across the lifespan. His work with at-risk premature newborns led to inventions designed to assess the emergence of oromotor patterning and a new treatment to promote the development of a normal pattern of sucking behavior. This enables the fragile population to feed naturally before discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit. His NTrainer System technology has been developed for commercialization by KC BioMedix of Shawnee.
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Zamarripa retires after 40 years of service; receives first Jay Turnbull Fellowship
Edward Zamarripa, Ed.D., KIDDRC Core A Manager and Director of Finance and Administration for the Life Span Institute, was honored for his 40 years of service by all four LSI directors, Richard Schiefelbusch, Stephen Schroeder, Steve Warren and John Colombo, and awarded the first Jay Turnbull Fellowship by Rud Turnbull at a November 30 reception at the Adams Alumni Center.
Zamarripa was described as the “dean of center administrators,” “the ultimate general counsel” “our knight in shining armor” and “a man of
vision driven by deep-seated values” by his former bosses and Turnbull.
His current boss, John Colombo, summed it up this way:
"In many ways, Ed helped craft and build the organization into what the LSI represents today for the university, for the state, and for the world. Ed was recently honored by both KU and the state of Kansas for his 40 years of service; he has served all four directors of the Institute and I dare say that none of them (myself included) could have directed as well as they did without him. "