Summer Undergraduate Program in Eye Research: 15th Annual Symposium. July 31, 2015

The Summer Undergraduate Program in Eye Research: 15th Annual Symposium is coming up on July 31, 2015. Another seven OU undergraduate bioscience students will be presenting talks on their summer research experiences here in the Eye Research Institute of Oakland University. While this is year 15 for the formal SUPER program, OU and other Michigan college and high school students have been training in the ERI ever since our institute was founded by Dr Kinsey over 40 years ago. SUPER program alumni achieve an extremely high participation rate in entering professional and graduate schools.

Recent SUPER students from past years continue to move along in their training and careers in graduate school, medical school, dental school and optometry school. For example, SUPER alum Mary Cha (US Army active reserve) has served as a medic in Afganistan and is starting medical school at MSU this fall. Trung Tran has obtained a Masters degree in public health from Washington University and is starting medical school at Wayne State this fall.

SUPER scholars work on real research projects in ERI laboratories and most will obtain co-authorships at some point on research publications from our labs. Scholars have applied for the program in the past winter term, maintain a minimum GPA, write an application essay, and go through interview with ERI faculty. The seven SUPER students this summer also had a $3,500 paid scholarship for the 12 week program. Students also received a basic science or clinical ophthalmology lecture from ERI and Beaumont Ophthalmology faculty each week.

We thank all those who support the program with funding, including the ERI itself, OU’s Provost Office (Dr Lentini), OU’s Center for Biomedical Research (Dr Brad Roth), the Vision Research ROPARD Foundation and Richard Skipper, President and CEO of SKIHI Enterprises in Fort Worth, Texas. Together we are all training future leaders, scientists, engineers and medical professionals.

IThis year’s program in, 302 Pawley Hall:

9:15 a.m. – Welcome and Introduction
Dr. Frank J. Giblin, Director ERI

9:30 a.m. – Caroline Cencer (Dr. Giblin)
UVB induced cataractogenesis: the story of DNA repair in the human lens

9:45 a.m. – Jonathan Cheon (Dr. Giblin)
Understanding cataracts: a biochemical exploration of crystallin protein aggregation in the lens

10:00 a.m. – Natalie Wardia (Dr. Drenser)
Maintaining and restoring adherens and tight junction connections between retinal vascular endothelial cells

10:15 a.m. – Nicole Roussey (Dr. Goldberg)
Does Peripherin-2/rds (P/rds) shape membranes using disulfide bonds?

10:30 a.m. – Quentin Thompkins (Dr.Mitton)
Mechanisms of retina stress: the effects of exercise in type-1 diabetic rats

10:45 a.m. – Naveena Daram (Dr. Chintala)
Tissue and urokinase plasminogen activators instigate the Degeneration of Retinal Ganglion Cells in a Mouse Model of Glaucoma

11:00 a.m. – Joshua Hohlbein (Dr. Zhang)
Cholinergic Amacrine Cell Survival Contrasts the Loss of AII Amacrine Cells in a Mouse Model of Oxygen-induced Retinopathy

11:15 a.m. – Presentation of Certificates
Dr. Kenneth P. Mitton, S.U.P.E.R. Coordinator

Lunch at Noon, 316 Pawley Hall

1 p.m. Guests’ tour of the ERI (Dodge Hall)

Student Photos with Mentors (403 DHE)

(KPM)

(also posted in Dr Mitton's professional blog at 

https://kenmitton.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/summer-undergraduate-program-in-eye-research-15th-annual-symposium-july-31-2015/ ) 

Michigan Cuts State's Share of University Student's Education Costs, then some Politicians Blame Universities for Tuition Increases.

So far, Wayne State University, Eastern Michigan University and now Oakland University are the first of Michigan's public universities to dare to increase tuition above the Michigan State Government's tuition cap. Breaking this cap results in a penalty through the loss of a portion of the State's funding support. However, these universities gain more funding through the tuition increases. Of course, sure enough, I hear sound-bites on the radio from State appropriation committee members suggesting that they add more teeth to penalize these universities further for raising tuition far more than the rate of inflation. Universities, in this State and around the country are accused of gouging students and wasting money. However, what these same politicians fail to mention is that they have also spent the last 20 years dramatically decreasing the State's percentage contribution to our student's education costs. As a matter of fact, in 2015, Michigan contributes a tiny 16% of an Oakland University student's education cost, compared to the early 1980s when Michigan contributed around 70% of a student's education cost. Your kid's and my kid's college tuition has increased more than the US inflation rate since 1980, but that is not a correct comparison. The education costs of a student at Oakland University has only increased the same as inflation since 1980. So why has the tuition component grown faster than inflation? Because, our State has dramatically decreased its contribution the education costs pie. If you want to see the numbers, and you like facts more than ideology, read on.

Zipline Science versus Zipline Law: sign the waiver and you're screwed.

Zip-lines. They are being installed in private recreation parks and even public parks all over the world. The physics is pretty simple. The cable is essentially a ramp on an decline. Gravity down force helps to translate your potential energy into kinetic energy. Frictional resistance on the cable and some air resistance on your body will limit your speed. Down you go. Fun huh? What happens if the zip-line goes down too, while you are on the line? What happens if the zip-line operator's equipment fails? If they are found to have failed to test and repair then you can sue for your medical bills, right? Wrong! You're screwed. Here is why.

Update: Grapefruit Juice Dangers if you take Lipitor or many other medicines.

Twenty years ago, around the time I was a graduate student in London Ontario at Western University (formerly called the University of Western Ontario), a clinical pharmacologist (David Bailey) at the Lawson Research Institute in London discovered that chemicals in grapefruit can cause normal doses of several drugs to become overdoses. This results from grapefruit causing the drug to become adsorbed much more efficiently than it would normally.

Nanjing to Japan via Sun Power: Solar Impulse Gives Japan a Surprise Visit

Solar Impulse, a solar powered electric driven aircraft, is on its way to Oahu Hawaii from Nanjing China. This is its 7th leg of an around-the-world flight and the longest leg. Over 5000 kilometers and 5 days of flight time. 

During the day, its 17,000 wing-mounted solar cells must charge up the lithium batteries to continue operation of the aircrafts electric engines over night until sunrise.

The flight passes just east of Japan and then over the Pacific, just south of Midway island, all the way to the island of Oahu in the Hawaii chain. 

A cold front developed that was too dangerous to cross, and the flight team decided to make a stop in Japan to await the next weather window to attempt the rest of the run to Hawaii. 

Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology Meeting. Denver May 2015

View some images from the ARVO 2015 meeting in a Google+ photo storyboard. See link below. You can learn more about ARVO at their ARVO.org website.

About 10,000 "eye" scientists and clinicians (professors, PhDs, graduate students, undergraduate students, post-docs, MDs) attend this five-day meeting each year.

Traditionally for many years held in Sarasota FL, then for over ten years in Ft. Lauderdale, the meeting outgrew those centers and requires conference centers with accommodations close to the actual meeting. Seattle has been the best so far, Orlando was good, and Denver was up their with Seattle in my opinion. This month May (3-7) we met and talked and presented in Denver CO, one of the nicest pedestrian and bike friendly cities in North America. 

Vision scientists, while studying eyes, have tended to discover many things that are applied now in all areas of medicine and biology. The development of the "candidate gene approach" to guide the discovery of specific genetic mutations that cause inherited diseases, and most recently the first successful treatments of specific blinding retinal disease with gene therapy. Replacement of damaged retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE cells) in elderly AMD patients using RPE cells made from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs, from skin) are in their first human clinical demonstration trials in the US and Japan. 

Frankly, its fun doing eye science, even though its a little work every day to hold down a professor/scientist job. If you like to explore the unknown and think and write and read alot, and repeat experiments until they work well, then its a good place to be. International meetings like ARVO are a way to recharge and become inspired to do on yet another year, sharing information with other researchers from all over the globe. 

Much Starbuck's was drunk in the downtown Denver area in early May, to keep brains alert.

Cheers.

Ken Mitton (ARVO Fellow, Silver)

https://plus.google.com/113766226042993428559/stories/73b392c0-c1a3-3e3e-b51d-e7ddecab95b214d3282350c?authkey=