George and Cynthia Mitchell Center for brain research opens at Medical School

George and Cynthia Mitchell and their children have committed more than $2.5 million for a new center at the Medical School devoted to eradicating Alzheimer’s disease and related brain disorders.

The George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Center for Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Brain Disorders will mark its opening with a Sept. 15 symposium, “Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy: In Quest of Hope,” featuring five of the country’s top Alzheimer’s experts. The center is supported by The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.

“These researchers are on the front line of testing treatments on patients,” said Dr. Claudio Soto, professor of neurology and director of the Mitchell Center. “They have all the inside information on what is happening. Some of the medications they are testing could be the next drug of choice for Alzheimer’s treatment.”

Presenters are Soto, who organized the event; Dr. Rachelle Doody, Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Paul Aisen, University of California, San Diego; Dr. Norman Relkin, Weill Medical College, Cornell University; and Dr. Sam Gandy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The event is hosted by Dan Wolterman, president and chief executive officer of Memorial Hermann, and Dr. Larry Kaiser, president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Just as the symposium brings together clinicians and scientists from across the country, the new center will seek collaborations with leading experts in the field of neurodegenerative disease, Soto said.

“By having the Mitchell Center in the Texas Medical Center, we can bring together people who are now working in the clinical area, diagnostics, basic science, and imaging,” said Soto, whose research involving brain disorders and protein misfolding is funded with several grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling nearly $3 million annually. “We will put all our minds together to understand the disease mechanisms and develop novel treatments, faster means to diagnosis these diseases, and eventually eliminate Alzheimer’s and other related brain disorders.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, fatal brain disorder that destroys brain cells and leads to problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, as many as 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease today, a number that is expected to increase substantially in years to come.

Oilman, developer, and Galveston historic preservationist, George Mitchell and the foundation also have supported Alzheimer’s disease research at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Baylor College of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins University.

“I became interested in Alzheimer’s because Cynthia has it now. In the beginning, we hoped we would find something for her. Alzheimer’s is such a terrible disease. We don’t have enough treatment help,” Mitchell said. “The most critical issue is to stop the dementia. Dying is not the bad thing; the loss of memory is. If we could get a test for it and get enough drugs in the pipeline to stop the dementia, it would be a huge breakthrough.”

Soto also emphasizes the need to find a faster way to diagnosis the disease before symptoms occur.

“We’re trying to find it before the brain damage, so that with good treatment, we could prevent or delay the disease process,” Soto said. “I really believe that’s reachable in 10 years. We need to understand the basic disease process and translate that into novel approaches for treatment and diagnostics.”

From 2001 through 2010 pledges, The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation has donated $18 million for Alzheimer’s disease research and treatment, said Meredith Mitchell Dreiss, president and treasurer of The Woodlands-based foundation and a research fellow at the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin.

“My parents didn’t use the word ‘philanthropy’ ever, but they were always helping people. We children were taught to help. We grew up feeling that’s the way you were, and we have communicated that to our children,” said Dreiss of her family’s strong heritage of giving. “I hope developing this center will lead to better collaborations in the future with other institutions, including Baylor and UTMB. Let’s solve Alzheimer’s disease.”

Sheridan Mitchell Lorenz also is passionate about finding ways to diagnosis the disease in its early stages and prevent, or significantly delay, its onset.

“We became very interested in Alzheimer’s disease research from our personal experience. As a family we have seen the impact on my mother, and we have felt the loss of the mother we knew, a brilliant and vibrant woman who should have had many wonderful memories of a full and productive life,” said Lorenz, president of G-1 Corporation, an affiliate of Mitchell Historic Properties. “Clearly, more research in Alzheimer’s disease is needed, not only because of the emotional and financial toll it takes on families, but also because of the enormous burden the disease will have on society as the current population ages. More research is needed to investigate causes, prevention, early diagnosis, and clinical care.”

George Mitchell is hopeful. “I think in 10 years we will find ways to stop the dementia and diagnose people 10 years in advance of the disease,” he said.

At the symposium, scheduled Sept. 15, presenters will address drug development, immunotherapy, natural human antibody treatment, novel therapeutics, clinical trial status, and innovative therapies.

— Deborah Mann Lake, Office of Institutional Advancement, Media Relations

TMA helmet giveaway promotes bike safety

Protecting kids’ heads was the goal of a recent service project of the Medical School’s chapter of the Texas Medical Association (TMA).

As part of the TMA’s Hard Hats for Little Heads program, Medical School students gave away 120 bicycle helmets to pediatric patients and their siblings at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital Aug. 20.

“The helmet giveaway was a great success,” said Joseph Tayar, fourth-year medical student. “We felt this was an important week to hold the helmet giveaway as school is starting, and for many this means a daily bike ride to and from school.”

In addition to the helmets, TMA members gave youngsters a bicycle safety lesson, answered questions from the children, and provided a safety demonstration. All of the children received a new helmet and a coloring book about bicycle safety.

Up to 88 percent of bicycle-related injuries can be prevented with a helmet, according to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.

The TMA established its Hard Hats program in 1994 and has given away more than 50,000 helmets in Texas since then. For the Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital giveaway, the TMA matched the donations Medical School student members secured from private citizens as well as from the McGovern Center for Health, Humanities and the Human Spirit.

— Darla Brown, Office of Communications, Medical School

Library, children’s hospital address Faculty Senate

The best of times; the worst of times — these were the disparate tales told at Faculty Senate Aug. 20 by representatives from two neighboring institutions of the Texas Medical Center.

Dean James, associate director, Collections Management for the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library, told the Senate about how the library was dealing with a difficult financial situation. The library has had to make deep cuts to electronic journals and databases because the collections budget had to be cut by about 25 percent.

The resources have been cut in consultation with a committee that includes representatives from the Medical School, along with other governing institutions. A detailed list of cancelled subscriptions is here.

James said that now with all users accessing the library’s resources through remote access, the library can gather more accurate statistics to determine which institutions are using what percentage of resources. This may help the library negotiate better rates from the publishers for its subscribed resources and aid with restructuring the assessments paid by the library’s member institutions.

Currently, Baylor and the UT Health Science Center each pay 40 percent of the library’s operating funds, which the library board is reviewing to curtail expenses.

Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital is projecting a much more positive financial outlook.

Craig Cordola, chief executive officer, gave an overview and update of the hospital, reporting that 25 pediatric subspecialists had been recruited to the hospital over the past year. In addition, the average daily patient census grew 11 percent since last year.

Cordola said that the hospital is much different than when he joined it six years ago. He outlined challenges and benefits of being a children’s hospital within an adult hospital and stressed new physician recruitment and the hospital’s success is heavily dependent upon the good partnership with the Medical School.

Aug. 20 also marked the last Faculty Senate with Dr. James McCarthy as chair. Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo thanked McCarthy for his service.

“He is very involved, is a great liaison, and brings value on many levels,” Dean Colasurdo said.

Dean Colasurdo reported that the Medical School was ranked as seventh in the nation in terms of size of active enrollment, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“And we expect to be in the black with the group practice plan this year, despite the recruitment of a large number of clinical and research faculty. We are extremely grateful to our faculty and staff for another positive year. We are also appreciative of the continued support we receive from our partners: Memorial Hermann and the Harris County Hospital District,” he added.

The next meeting of the Faculty Senate will be Sept. 17, with Dr. Donald Molony, professor of internal medicine, as the incoming chair.

— Darla Brown, Office of Communications, Medical School

Summer research scholars program debuts

Aiming to increase the pool of talented graduate applicants, five undergraduate students comprised the Graduate Student Education Committee’s first summer research scholars program — the Giuseppe Colasurdo Summer Research Scholars.

The five students, who showed a strong interest in pursuing a career in biomedical research/teaching and had positive faculty recommendations, were selected from the nearly 500 applicants to the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the Medical School’s Summer Research Programs.

The new program is funded by the Dean’s Office, and the Graduate Student Education Committee voted on the program’s name.

Making up the first class of the Giuseppe Colasurdo Summer Research Scholars was Sun Ji Ahn, Tyia Clark, Sherille Bradley, Daniella Gomez, and Robert Newberry.

Over 10 weeks during the summer, students participated and were mentored in Graduate Student Education Committee sponsored academic programs in Neurobiology and Anatomy, Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The students’ summer experience included weekly lectures and activities to promote and encourage their interest in pursuing a graduate research curriculum leading to a Ph.D.

Health care takes center stage