Letter from the Chair


Polly Parsons, M.D.As we continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, I find myself even more grateful for the professionalism and dedication of our Department of Medicine team. From our researchers and staff members to our nurses and physicians, you have banded together to address one of the most serious public health challenges in our lifetimes. The state of Vermont is healthier and safer because of your efforts. Although we are not yet on the other side of this crisis, our ability to triage and treat patients in our communities across the UVM Health Network is strong, and I am confident we can see our way through this moment together.

Even amidst the uncertainty, there are reasons to be hopeful. Our own Jason Bates leads a team that has developed the “Vermontilator,” a simple, inexpensive ventilator that holds great promise. Jason Botten and his team are focused on new research that may result in more rapid and widely available testing. Telehealth – which is quickly expanding across the divisions to provide continued access to routine care – shows great promise to boost compliance with preventive visits. Some of the innovations that come from this time may very well prove useful in the long-term.

As we all work so hard to meet the threat of the pandemic head-on, it’s been heartening to see the community respond. I encourage you to visit the Gratitude Gallery from the UVM Health Network. It’s a collection of heartfelt messages from community members – words and artwork that show just how much you’re appreciated. We also have a Department of Medicine faculty support committee ready to help answer your questions, connect you to resources, and offer help in whatever ways you need. As your department chair, I’m here for you as well. I look forward to continuing to see you at virtual Grand Rounds and in individual meetings with divisions. We’re in this together, and for that, I am thankful.

- Polly E. Parsons, M.D. Professor and E.L. Amidon, M.D.’32 Chair of Medicine


COVID-19 News and Updates


Gratitude Gallery
#ThanksHealthHeroes Gratitude Gallery

Submissions have been pouring in to The University of Vermont Health Network’s “Gratitude Project," an initiative to gather and post messages and photos from the community thanking healthcare workers for their tireless and selfless work on the front line of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. View the Gratitude Gallery.


COVID-19 Faculty Support Committee Here to Help

As the response to the COVID-19 pandemic continues, a team of faculty have been charged with organizing support and resources for Department of Medicine members. Led by Jennifer Kelly, D.O., associate professor in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism; Joe Pierson, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Dermatology; and Marie Sandoval, M.D., associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, the Faculty Support Committee serves as a clearinghouse for issues related to the COVID-19 crisis. Read more.

Telemedicine Update: Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Divisions across the Department of Medicine have ramped up efforts to offer telemedicine visits to promote patient safety and ensure continued access to care through the COVID-19 pandemic. For the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, their timeline to launch a telemedicine program accelerated when Vermont Governor Phil Scott instituted the “stay home, stay safe” order to encourage social distancing and slow the spread of COVID-19. Read more

COVID-19 Research

Jason Bates, Ph.D.
Bates and Vermont Team Invent Emergency Ventilator

With leadership from Jason Bates, Ph.D., D.Sc., professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, a team of scientists, engineers and doctors have rapidly developed a new design and built a working model for a simple, inexpensive ventilator.

“We think these could be rolled out very quickly and be effective on an emergency basis,” says Bates, who is spearheading the new effort in response to the burgeoning global coronavirus epidemic—and the huge shortage of ventilators that may be needed to treat people.Affectionately called the “Vermontilator," preliminary calculations suggest the UVM Ventilator “can be produced quickly and in large numbers for a few hundred dollars per unit in parts and materials,” Bates says. Read more.

Jason Botten, Ph.D.Botten Spearheads Effort to Find COVID-19 Test Alternatives

At a time when COVID-19 test kits are in alarmingly short supply, a team of Larner College of Medicine virus and infectious disease experts have been testing whether a single-step version of the test could yield the same result as the prescribed two-step test. Their preliminary findings from this small sample, posted on bioRxiv, show a potential alternative that could lead to greater and faster availability of testing for COVID-19. The team, led by senior study author Jason Botten, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Immunobiology, and first author Emily Bruce, Ph.D., a faculty scientist in the division, is testing whether kits used for isolating RNA from cells, rather than viruses, could work. They also tried a more unconventional approach, removing the RNA extraction step altogether. Botten and colleagues underscore the fact that these are very preliminary findings; they’re continuing the research and collecting results. “What this could mean is that labs that can no longer access the prescribed kit may have two new options: either buy these two other kits that can still be purchased, or skip the RNA extraction altogether,” Botten says.

COVID-19 Public Outreach

Several members of the Department of Medicine have been at the frontlines of public outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic, including UVM Associate Dean for Public Health and Health Policy Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, and UVM Medical Center Director of Clinical Ethics Tim Lahey, M.D., MMSC, professor in the Division of Infectious Disease.

 

Division Highlight: Geriatric Medicine


Michael LaMantiaWith the number of older adults in Vermont on the rise, the state requires physicians well-versed in the needs of this diverse population. Michael LaMantia, M.D., chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine, says his rapidly growing team is prepared to take on the challenge.

“Vermont will soon be the oldest state in the nation by percentage of older adults in the population,” he says. “That means that we're going to need to increase the number of providers who are geriatricians, as well as the number of other providers who are geriatric savvy.”

Read more about the Division of Geriatric Medicine.


Awards and Recognition


Charles Irvin, Ph.D., professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, has been selected by the EPSCoR/IDeA Coalition and Foundation Boards as the inaugural recipient of the W. Fred Taylor Ph.D. Award for Outstanding Contributions to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program. He received the award February 24.

Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, received the Frederick C. Morin Educational Leadership Award at the Larner College of Medicine Teaching Academy Snow Season Education Retreat.

Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, received the Gender Equity Outstanding Achievement in Medicine and Science Award at the inaugural Larner College of Medicine Celebration of Gender Equity on March 4th.

Garth Garrison, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, received the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Larner College of Medicine Teaching Academy Snow Season Education Retreat.

Sherrie Khadanga, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, was recognized with the Young Investigator of the Year award at the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation’s annual meeting for her study, titled “Optimizing the Exercise Training Response in Women in Cardiac Rehabilitation.” She was also selected as one of only 20 early-career cardiologists in the U.S. for the American College of Cardiology Leadership Academy.

Chi Chi Lau, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, was nominated by the UVM Larner College of Medicine Class of 2022 for a Silver Stethoscope Award, which recognizes a faculty member who had few lecture hours but made a substantial contribution to students’ education.

New National Service and Leadership Roles
  • Jason Botten, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Immunobiology, has been named an ad hoc reviewer for the NIH/NIAID Topics in Drug Discovery, Clinical, and Field Research, ZRG1 IDM-U (02) Special Emphasis Panel. He was also invited to serve as a reviewer on the NIH Transformative Research Award (TRA) Initiative Grant Program.
  • Ralph Budd, M.D., professor in the Division of Immunobiology, has been named to NIH Study Section - T32 Grant Reviews AITC NIAID.
  • Peter Kaufman, M.D., professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Board of Directors. This organization represents the National Cancer Institute-based national clinical trials network.
  • Steven Lidofsky, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, was appointed to the editorial board for World Journal of Hepatology.
  • Julian Sprague, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, was named to the myeloma subcommittee for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.

 

Faculty and Staff News


Jason Botten, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Immunobiology, former UVM postdoctoral associate Chris Ziegler, Ph.D., and Emily Bruce, Ph.D., faculty scientist in the Division of Immunobiology, will have one of their images featured on the cover of their upcoming publication in Trends in Microbiology.

Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Neil Zakai, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, were recently named co-medical directors of a new UVM Medical Center Thrombosis and Anticoagulation Program.

Education News


Match Day 2020Celebrating Match Day Virtually

The phrase “keep your distance” has taken on a whole new and deeply important meaning in the era of COVID-19 and even Match Day, the annual senior medical student rite of passage, was not “immune” to honoring this behavior. On March 20th, members of the Larner College of Medicine's Class of 2020 went virtual to ensure social distancing while celebrating the news of where they will be spending the next three to seven years training as residents. The theme for the event was "Space Mission 2020," with Dean Richard Page, M.D., professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine; Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education Christa Zehle, M.D., and Interim Assistant Dean for Students Shaden Eldakar-Hein, M.D., associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine (both pictured at left), staffing "mission control." Several students will be residents in the Department of Medicine, including:

  • Daniel De Los Santos: Preliminary Medicine
  • Gregory Johnston: Preliminary Medicine
  • Eleanor Stedman: Primary Medicine
  • Danielle Wall: Internal Medicine


Vitor Mori, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate working with Jason Bates, Ph.D., and Matt Kinsey, M.D., has been awarded a three-year Daymon Runyon Quantitative Biology Fellowship to work on computational models of cisplatin injection and distribution in lung tumors.

Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate working with Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., presented a poster of her research, titled “D-dimer and the Risk of Hypertension in Black and White Americans,” during the pre-conference of the International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles. She was competitively selected for a travel award.

Cardiovascular disease fellow Lakshmi Nambiar, M.D., presented her study, titled “Decade Long Temporal Trends in Hypertension‐Related Deaths, 2007‐2017,” during a press briefing ahead of this year’s virtual American College of Cardiology 2020 Scientific Sessions meeting. The paper was also published online in a special supplement to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. An article about the study findings was featured on MedPage Today.

Madaline Schmidt, a UVM undergraduate, was awarded a summer research grant from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics to work in the lab of Jason Botten, Ph.D., under the supervision of Emily Bruce, Ph.D.


Research and Grants


Steven Ades, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, is principal investigator for a Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society grant titled “VTE Risk Assessment and Prevention in Cancer Patients in the Community Oncology Setting.” Co-investigators are Chris Holmes, M.D., Ph.D.; Yonatan Resnick, PharmD; Christian Thomas, M.D.; Jacob Barker, PharmD; Emily Parenteau, P.A.; and Karen Libby, R.N.

Jason Botten, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Immunobiology, and Emily Bruce, Ph.D., faculty scientist, have formed a new collaboration with Andrew Routh, Ph.D., at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to deep sequence viral genomes using Next Gen RNA sequencing platforms.

Jason Botten, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Immunobiology, received a fundable score on his NIH R21 award to define the molecular signatures of defective interfering particles for arenaviruses ($445K).

Ralph Budd, M.D., professor in the Division of Immunobiology, has received a $396,449 R21 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for "Ligands for Gamma/Delta T cells.”

Amanda G. Kennedy, PharmD, BCPS, associate professor in the Division of Hospital Medicine, was awarded a $75,000 Project Expansion grant from the Vermont Department of Health, Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs (ADAP) and CDC Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention VT (VT VPMS RXOD) for the Vermont Academic Detailing Program to expand the pilot project for community pharmacists to address potential training needs around opioids, and the new rules for Vermont pharmacists.

Steven Lidofsky, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, is site principal investigator for a phase 3 randomized controlled trial from Gilead for the FXR agonist cilofexor for noncirrhotic primary sclerosing cholangitis (2020-2022).

In the Media


UVM Associate Dean for Public Health and Health Policy Jan Carney, M.D., M.P.H., professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, was featured in an interview in VT Digger on April 1st, on the benefits of social distancing to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the story.

Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, was quoted in a March 22nd Healthline article, titled "Does Your Blood Type Increase Your Risk for Coronavirus?" Read the story.

Joshua Farkas, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, was quoted in a New York Times article published March 26th, titled "‘The Other Option Is Death’: New York Starts Sharing of Ventilators." Read the story. He was also quoted in a New York Times article from April 14th, titled “What Doctors on the Front Lines Wished They’d Known a Month Ago.” Read the story.

UVM Medical Center Director of Clinical Ethics Tim Lahey, M.D., MMSC, professor in the Division of Infectious Disease, was quoted in a New York Times article published March 27th, titled “No Longer Just a Walk in the Park.” Read the story. He was also interviewed for an article published on Medium March 30th, titled “How to Grocery Shop Without Stress Spiraling,” by writer and editor Sara Austin. Read the story. He wrote an op-ed published in the New York Times on April 16th, titled "An Unproven Vaccine is Too Risky." Read the opinion piece.

 

Publications and Presentations

Publications

Division of General Internal Medicine

van Eeghen C, Kennedy AG, Pasanen ME, MacLean CD. A new quality improvement toolkit to improve opioid prescribing in primary care. J Am Board Fam Med. 2020 Jan;33(1):17-26. PMID: 31907242 doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2019.01.190238

Division of Hematology/Oncology

Ng HK, Rogala BG, Ades S, Schwartz JR, Ashikaga T, Holmes CE. Prospective evaluation of drug-drug interactions in ambulatory cancer patients initiated on prophylactic anticoagulation. J Oncol Pharm Pract. 2020 Feb 11:1078155220901569. doi: 10.1177/1078155220901569. PMID: 32046579

Adrianzen Herrera D, Pradham K, Snyder R, Karanth S, Janakiram M, Mantzaris I, Braunschweig A, Shah UA, Verma AK, Murthy SB, Shastri A. Myelodysplastic Syndromes and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Older Adults: A SEER-medicare Analysis. Leukemia 2019 Dec 16. doi: 10.1038/s41375-019-0673-8. PMID: 31844145

Chaudhary NS, Bridges SL Jr, Saag KG, Rahn EJ, Curtis JR, Gaffo A, Limdi NA, Levitan EB, Singh JA, Colantonio LD, Howard G, Cushman M, Flaherty ML, Judd S, Irvin MR, Reynolds RJ. Severity of hypertension mediates the association of hyperuricemia with stroke in the REGARDS case cohort study. Hypertension 2020 Jan;75:246-56. PMID: 31786980

Fanola C, Norby FL, Shah AM, Chang PP, Lutsey PL, Rosamond WD, Cushman M, Folsom AR. Incident heart failure and long-term risk of venous thromboembolism: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. J Am Coll Cardiol 2020 Jan;75:148-58. PMID: 31948643

Tang W, Stimson MR, Basu S, Heckbert SR, Cushman M, Pankow JS, Folsom AR, Pankratz N. Burden of rare exome sequence variants in PROC gene is associated with venous thromboembolism: a population-based study. J Thromb Haemost 2020 Feb;18:445-53. PMID: 31680443

Folsom AR, Lutsey PL, Pope ZC, Fashanu OE, Misialek JR, Cushman M, Michos ED, for the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study Investigators. Resting heart rate and incidence of venous thromboembolism. Res Pract Thromb Haemost 2019 Dec 4(2),238-46. PMID: 32110754

Kowalski MH, Qian H, Hou Z, Rosen JD, Tapia AL, Shan Y, Jain D, Argos M, Arnett DK, Avery C, Barnes KC, Becker LC, Bien SA, Bis JC, Blangero J, Boerwinkle E, Bowden DW, Buyske S, Cai J, Cho MH, Choi SH, Choquet H, Cupples LA, Cushman M, Daya M, de Vries PS, Ellinor PT, Faraday N, Fornage M, Gabriel S, Ganesh SK, Graff M, Gupta N, He J, Heckbert SR, Hidalgo B, Hodonsky CJ, Irvin MR, Johnson AD, Jorgenson E, Kaplan R, Kardia SLR, Kelly TN, Kooperberg C, Lasky-Su JA, Loos RJF, Lubitz SA, Mathias RA, McHugh CP, Montgomery C, Moon JY, Morrison AC, Palmer ND, Pankratz N, Papanicolaou GJ, Peralta JM, Peyser PA, Rich SS, Rotter JI, Silverman EK, Smith JA, Smith NL, Taylor KD, Thornton TA, Tiwari HK, Tracy RP, Wang T, Weiss ST, Weng LC, Wiggins KL, Wilson JG, Yanek LR, Zöllner S, North KE, Auer PL, Raffield LM, Reiner AP, Li Y, for the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium; TOPMed Hematology & Hemostasis Working Group. Use of >100,000 NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium whole genome sequences improves imputation quality and detection of rare variant associations in admixed African and Hispanic/Latino populations. PLOS Genet 2019 Dec 23. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008500. PMID: 31869403

Dittus K, Toth M, Priest J, O’Brien P, Kokinda N, Ades P. Effects of an exercise-based oncology rehabilitation program and age on strength and physical function in cancer survivors. Support Care Cancer. 2019 Dec 11. doi: 10.1007/s00520-019-05163-8. PMID: 31828490

Brnich SE, Abou Tayoun AN, Couch FJ, Cutting GR, Greenblatt MS, Heinen CD, Kanavy DM, Luo X, McNulty SM, Starita LM, Tavtigian SV, Wright MW, Harrison SM, Biesecker LG, Berg JS, Clinical Genome Resource Sequence Variant Interpretation Working Group. Recommendations for application of the functional evidence PS3/BS3 criterion using the ACMG/AMP sequence variant interpretation framework. Genome Med. 2019 Dec 31;12(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s13073-019-0690-2. PMID: 31892348

Cortes J, Perez-Garcia JM, Llombart-Cussac A, Curigliano G, El Saghir NS, Cardos F, Barriios CH, Wagle S, Roman J, Harbeck N, Eniu A, Kaufman PA, Tabernero J, Garcia-Estevez L, Schmid P, Arribas J. Enhancing global access to cancer medicines. CA Cancer J Clin. 2020 Feb 18. doi: 10.3322/caac.21597. PMID: 32068901

Tripathy D, Brufsky A, Cobleigh M, Jahanzeb M, Kaufman PA, Mason G, O’Shaughnessy J, Rugo HS, Swain SM, Yardley DA, Chu L, Li H, Antao V, Hurvitz SA. De Novo Versus Recurrent HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer: Patient Characteristics, Treatment, and Survival from the SystHERs Registry. Oncologist. 2020 Feb;25(2):e214-e222. doi: 10.1634/theoncologist.2019-0446. PMID: 32043771

Kaufman PA, Toi M, Neven P, Sohn J, Grischke EM, Andre V, Stoffregen C, Shekarriz S, Price GL, Carter GC, Sledge GW Jr. Health-Related Quality of Life in MONARCH 2: Abemaciclib plus Fulvestrant in Hormone Receptor-Positive, HER2-Negative Advanced Breast Cancer after Endocrine Therapy. Oncologist. 2020 Fe;25(2):e243-e251. doi: 10.1634/theoncologist.2019-0551. PMID: 32043763

Waheed W, Taicher C, Dulaney E, Eckenstein F, Hehir M, Sprague J, Tandan R. Intraepidermal Nerve Fiber Density in Postmortem Skin: A Novel Approach. J Clin Neuromuscul Dis. 2019 Dec;21(2): 69-76. doi: 10.1097/CND.0000000000000264. PMID: 31743249

Krok-Schoen JL, Naughton MJ, Young GS, Moon J, Poi M, Melin SA, Wood ME, Hopkins JO, Paskett Ed, Post DM. Cancer Control. 2019 Jan-Dec;26(1):1073274819883287. doi: 10.1177/1073274819883287. PMID: 31736324

Yang X, Leslie G, Doroszuk A, Schneider S, Allen J, Decker B, Dunning AM, Redman J, Scarth J, Plaskocinska I, Luccarini C, Shah M, Pooley K, Dorling L, Lee A, Adank MA, Adlard J, Aittomaki K, Andrulis IL, Ang P, Barwell J, Bernstein JL, Bobolis K, Borg A, Blomqvist C, Claes KBM, Concannon P, Cuggia A, Culver JO, Damiola F, de Pauw A, Diez O, Dolinsky JS, Domchek SM, Engel C, Evans DG, Fostira F, Garber J, Godde EL, Gruber SB, Hahnen F, Hake C, Heikkinen T, Hurley JE, Janavicius R, Kleibl Z, Kleiblova P, Konstantopoulou I, Kyst A, Laduca H, Lee ASG, Lesuer F, Maher ER, Mannermaa A, Manoukian S, McFarlandd R, McKinnon W, Meindl A, Metcalfe K, Mohd Taib NA, Moilanen J, Nathanson KL, Nehausen S, Nq PS, Nguyen-Dumont T, Nielsen SM, Obrmair F, Offit K, Olopade OI, Ottini L, Penkert J. Pylkas K, Radice P, Ramus SJ, Rudaitis V, Side L, Silva-Smith R, Silvestri V, Skytte AB, Slavin T, Soukupova J, Tondini C, Trainer AH, Unzeitig G, Usha L, van Overeem Hansen T, Whitmore J, Wood M, Yip CH, Yoon SY, Yussuf A, Zoqopoulos G, Goldgar D, Hopper JL, Chenevix-Trench G, Pharoah P, George SHL, Balmana J, Houdayer C, James P, El-Haffaf Z, Ehrencrona H, Janatova M, Peterlongo P, Nevanlinna H, Schmutzler R, Tea SH, Robson M, Pal T, Couch F, Weitzel JN, Elliott A, Southey M, Wingvist R, Easton DF, Foulkes WD, Antoniou AC, Tischkowitz M. Cancer Risks Associated with Germline PALB2 Pathogenic Variants: An International Study of 524 Families. J Clin Oncol. 2019 Dec 16: JCO1901907. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.01907. PMID: 31841383

Wood ME, Rehman HT, Bedrosian I. Importance of family history and indications for genetic testing. Breast J. 2019 Dec 22. doi: 10.1111/tbj.13722. PMID: 31865627

George TJ, Manochakian R, Wood M, Polansky M, Baer A, Grupe A, Shyr Y, Wang C, Williams J, Horn L. Quantitative Analysis of Oncology Professional Learning Preferences. JCO Oncol Pract. 2020 Feb:16(2):e155-e165. doi: 10.1200/JOP.18.00731. PMID: 32045553

Gutiérrez OM, Irvin MR, Zakai NA, Naik RP, Chaudhary NS, Estrella MM, Limou S, Judd SE, Cushman M, Kopp JB, Winkler CA. APOL1 nephropathy risk alleles and mortality in African American adults: a cohort study. Am J Kidney Dis 2020 Jan;75:54-60. PMID: 31563468

 

Raffield LM, Lu AT, Szeto MD, Little A, Grinde KE, Shaw J, Auer PL, Cushman M, Horvath S, Irvin MR, Lange EM, Lange LA, Nickerson DA, Thornton TA, Wilson JG, Wheeler MM, NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium, TOPMed Hematology & Hemostasis Working Group, Zakai NA, Reiner AP. Coagulation factor VIII: Relationship to cardiovascular disease risk and whole genome sequence and epigenome-wide analysis African Americans. J Thromb Haemost. 2020 Jan 27. doi: 10.1111/jth.14741. PMID: 31985870

Division of Hospital Medicine

Barlett KJ, Vo AP, Rueckert J, Wojewoda C, Steckel EH, Stinnett-Donnelly J, Repp AB. Promoting appropriate utilisation of laboratory tests for inflammation at an academic medical centre. BMJ Open Quality. 2020 Feb;9(1). pii: e000788. PMID: 32098777 doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2019-000788

Division of Immunobiology

Clement J, Ahlm C, Avšič-Županc T, Botten J, Chandran K, Jonsson CB, Kariwa H, Klingström J, Klempa B, Krüger DH, Leirs H, Li D, Liang M, Markotić A, Papa A, Schmaljohn CS, Tischler ND, Ulrich RG, Vaheri A, Vial C, Yanagihara R, Maes P. Meeting report: Eleventh International Conference on Hantaviruses. Antiviral Res. 2020 Feb 15;176:104733. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2020.104733 PMID: 3206807

Bruce E, King B, Botten J. Single molecule FISH for detection and quantitation of arenavirus RNA species. RNA-FISH: Methods and Protocols, a book by Springer Nature. In Press

Collins C, Lui Y, Santos AM, Ballif BA, Gogerly-Moragoda AM, Brouwer H, Ross R, Balagurunathan K, Sharma S, Wright GJ, Davis S, Budd RC. Detection of Cell Surface Ligands for Human Synovial γδ T Cells. J. Immunol. 203:2369-2376, 2019. PMID 31548331

Graham N, Einsenhauer P, Diehl S, Pierce KK, Whitehead SS, Drubin AP, Kirkpatrick BD, Sette A, Weiskopf D, Boyson J, and Botten J. Rapid Induction and Maintenance of Virus-Specific CD8+ TEMRA and CD4+ TEM Cells Following Protective Vaccination Against Dengue Virus Challenge in Humans. Frontiers in Immunology. In press

Raza A, Xie Z, Chan EC, Chen WS, Scott LM, Robin Eisch A, Krementsov DN, Rosenberg HF, Parikh SM, Blankenhorn EP, Teuscher C, Druey KM. A natural mouse model reveals genetic determinants of systemic capillary leak syndrome (Clarkson disease). Commun Biol. 2019 Oct 31;2:398. doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0647-4. eCollection 2019. Erratum in: Commun Biol. 2019 Nov 25;2:439. PubMed PMID: 31701027; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6823437

Tyler AL, Raza A, Krementsov DN, Case LK, Huang R, Ma RZ, Blankenhorn EP, Teuscher C, Mahoney JM. Network-Based Functional Prediction Augments Genetic Association To Predict Candidate Genes for Histamine Hypersensitivity in Mice. G3 (Bethesda). 2019 Dec 3;9(12):4223-4233. doi: 10.1534/g3.119.400740. PubMed PMID: 31645420; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6893195

Ziegler CM, Dang L, Eisenhauer P, Kelly JA, King BR, Klaus JP, Manuelyan I, Mattice EB, Shirley DJ, Weir ME, Bruce EA, Ballif BA, Botten J. (2019) NEDD4 family ubiquitin ligases associate with LCMV Z's PPXY domain and are required for virus budding, but not via direct ubiquitination of Z. PLoS Pathog.;15(11):e1008100. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008100. PubMed PMID: 31710650; PMCID: PMC6874086

Ziegler C and Botten J. Defective interfering particles of RNA viruses. Trends in Microbiology. In press

Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine

King GG, Bates J, Berger KI, Calverley P, de Melo PL, Dellacà RL, Farré R, Hall GL, Ioan I, Irvin CG, Kaczka DW, Kaminsky DA, Kurosawa H, Lombardi E, Maksym GN, Marchal F, Oppenheimer BW, Simpson SJ, Thamrin C, van den Berge M, Oostveen E. Technical Standards for Respiratory Oscillometry. Eur Respir J. 2019 Nov 26. pii: 1900753. doi: 10.1183/13993003.00753-2019. [Epub ahead of print] No abstract available. PMID:31772002

Dransfield MT, Voelker H, Bhatt SP, Brenner K, Casaburi R, Come CE, Cooper JAD, Criner GJ, Curtis JL, Han MK, Hatipoğlu U, Helgeson ES, Jain VV, Kalhan R, Kaminsky D, Kaner R, Kunisaki KM, Lambert AA, Lammi MR, Lindberg S, Make BJ, Martinez FJ, McEvoy C, Panos RJ, Reed RM, Scanlon PD, Sciurba FC, Smith A, Sriram PS, Stringer WW, Weingarten JA, Wells JM, Westfall E, Lazarus SC, Connett JE; BLOCK COPD Trial Group. Metoprolol for the Prevention of Acute Exacerbations of COPD. N Engl J Med. 2019 Dec 12;381(24):2304-2314. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1908142. Epub 2019 Oct 20. PMID:31633896

Kaminsky DA. What Is a Significant Bronchodilator Response? Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2019 Dec;16(12):1495-1497.doi:10.1513/AnnalsATS.201908-604ED. No abstract available. PMID: 31774318

Haynes JM, Kaminsky DA, Stanojevic S, Ruppel GL. Pulmonary function reference equations: A brief history to explain all the confusion. Respir Care 2020:Mar 10.

Presentations
Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

Jennifer J. Kelly, D.O., presented “Boning Up on Bone Health” at the 25th annual Vermont 50+ Expo held February 15 at the University Mall in South Burlington. This community service event presented by Vermont Maturity magazine is the largest event for baby boomers and seniors in northern New England.

Division of Immunobiology

Jason Botten, Ph.D., was the invited keynote speaker at the NIH’s international Back to Basics: Research to Address Bunyavirales Emergence meeting held in Bethesda, Md.

Division of Hematology/Oncology

Herrera D. Adrianzen, M.D., presented “Risk Stratification and Transfusion Dependence Are Independent Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) in Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS)” at the Highlights of American Society of Hematology Meeting in North America, 2019

Sakshi Jasra, M.D., presented “High Burden of Clonal Hematopoiesis in First Responders Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster” at the Highlights of American Society of Hematology Meeting in North America, 2019

Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., hosted several recent presentations, including:

  • "Thrombophilia Testing: the 4Ps Approach," and a Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society Trainee Workshop, “Building a Career in Hemostasis and Thrombosis" in Orlando, Fla.
  • "My Role as RPTH Editor" at the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society Consortium of Early Career Clinical, Translational and Outcomes Researchers (ConECCTOR) Network in Orlando, Fla.
  • "Contraceptives and Thrombosis: What’s the Clinical Relevance?" at the University of Kentucky SAHA Cardiovascular Research Center, and Gill Heart and Vascular Institute 6th Annual Symposium - Healthy Heart for Women in Lexington, Ky.
  • "Open Access Science is Accessible Science" at the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis Webinar, Opening Doors to Open Access Publishing.
  • "Genetic and Biological Determinants of Race-Ethnic Disparities in Stroke" at the International Stroke Conference Pre-Conference Symposium, HEADS UP: Health Equity and Actionable Disparities in Stroke: Understanding and Problem-solving in Los Angeles, Calif.