Dr. Michael Strong, Dean

Welcome to the new Dean's Newsletter for the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario. I hope to provide regular updates via video above and bring you news and information from the School in the articles below. We've built in a blogging feature - so feel free to share your comments. You can also email me with your ideas and insights. Enjoy.

Welcome to our newest students

Welcome to the 171 new medical students, 56 new dentistry students, 350 new BMSc students, 140 new graduate students, and 29 postdoctoral fellows who have joined the Schulich Medicine & Dentistry family! We hope your time here will be productive, enriching and an exceptional educational experience for you.

We welcomed the Medicine class of 2014 on September 1, 2010 and the Dentistry class of 2014 on September 3, 2010 with our traditional White Coat ceremonies. Photos from the two ceremonies are posted at the links below.

A Schulich Graduate Student Orientation was held on September 10 and a welcome lunch for new postdoctoral fellows was held on September 16. Thank you to all those who participated in these important events for students and their families.

Dentistry

Medicine

Building our research focus

For those who have had the chance to hear my vision for Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, you'll know the focus is strongly on transforming our research enterprise and building the right supports to help our scientists excell on an international stage.

Though we continue to be productive, with higher-than-average success rates on grants, over the past five years we have seen a levelling of research funding across the board. It's time to take a hard look at how to change this.

A Research Review Task Force has been established to set us on the right path . The role of the task force includes:

• review the role of Associate Dean, Research and consider upgrading the role to a Vice-Dean position
• review and make recommendations regarding the organizational scope and priorities of the Research Office
• evaluate the nature of health research across London and the effectiveness of multiple independent research institutions and facilities
• develop a blueprint for the organization of the Research Office and its interactions with Research Western, other faculties and the Lawson Health Research Institute

The task force is expected to complete the first phase of its work by early 2011, at which time we will share the recommendations widely. A complete list of the working groups and members of the task force is available here.

Expanding programmatic research

At the same time as the Task Force undertakes its review, we continue to expand our programmatic research structure by developing interdisciplinary teams with the potential to become national or international leaders. Though there are several examples of high-quality, interdisciplinary research groups already well established, I'd like to highlight three new centres which have been opened within the past year:

The Centre for Education Research & Innovation The Centre for Human Immunology The Biomedical Imaging Research Centre

Please take a moment to get to know our newest research centres of excellence (at the links above) and stay tuned for future announcements about new centres.

Realizing the vision for research will require a significant investment in both time and infrastructure but it will not come at the expense of our exceptional education programs. As a component of the University major fundraising campaign, the School will be looking to expand our teaching and research facilities with an ambitious building plan for new facilities and for extensive renovations of existing buildings. Accompanying this will be the development of new endowed chairs that will reflect our strategic vision.

It will take a tremendous collective effort to achieve our vision, but I'm confident we will get there. Please feel free to provide your feedback and ideas to me, to your Department Chair or to a leaders of the various Task Force groups.

Publications and Awards

Congratulations to a all faculty and students who have received awards and/or published major papers over the past few months. We are indeed a productive research centre with more than 120 papers published by Schulich-associated faculty and trainees since July 1, 2010. All of this helps to build our research profile nationally and internationally.

Highlights are listed below. A full list of publications is available here.

	3-D imaging of the heart may improve outcomes for patients requiring pacemakers, bypass surgery or angioplasties Research led by James White, Department of Medicine/Robarts, has led to a new imaging technique providing a single, 3-D high-resolution image of the heart revealing both its vasculature and the presence of scar tissue within the muscle. The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging. Read Full Article
	Hair provides proof of link between chronic stress and heart attack Gideon Koren, Departments of Medicine and Paediatrics, and Stan Van Uum, Department of Medicine, published a paper in the journal Stress demonstrating the levels of cortisol in hair as the first conclusive biomarker linking stress and heart attack risk. Read Full Article
	Genetic studies on colesterol and triglycerides Work led by Robert Hegele, Departments of Medicine/Robarts, was published in two papers over the summer. He was the lead Canadian author in a worldwide study idenifying the genes that control lipid levels, in particular LDL (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol) and triglycerides. The paper was published in Nature Genetics. He and graduate student Christopher Johansen also discovered a combination of both common and rare variants or 'misprints' in several genes increase risk of developing high triglycerides. Read Full "Worldwide Gene Study" Article Read Full "Genetic Variations.." Article
	Dental student wins international award for research Jia Hao, Dentistry 2011, won global recognition for her research at the largest ever meeting of the International Association for Dental Research in July. Hao's presentation was entitled "Regulation of Osteoclast Motility by Substratum Topography" and was based on her studies carried out during the summers of 2008 and 2009 while enrolled in the undergraduate dental program at Western. Her work revealed that osteoclasts - cells responsible for the resorption of bone and teeth - are regulated by the topographical pattern of the surface to which they adhere. Read Full Article