Professional Notes: October 2022
10/26/2022
Professional Notes is a round-up of awards, presentations, papers, and the other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff members, and students.
Faculty and Staff
Jason Eberl, Ph.D., (Health Care Ethics), attended the "Eleventh International Thomistic Congress" in September. Eberl presented a paper entitled “Thomism and Transhumanism: Can Biotechnology Enhance Human Flourishing?” The participants of this congress had the opportunity to celebrate Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica with Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, followed by an audience in the Apostolic Palace with Pope Francis.
The Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University has had three faculty members meet Pope Francis —Jeffrey Bishop, M.D., Ph.D., in 2016; Tobias Winright, Ph.D., in 2018, and now Eberl.
Farzana Hoque, M.D. (Internal Medicine) was invited as a speaker at the American College of Physicians (ACP) Missouri Chapter 2022 Scientific Meeting to talk about "ACP Fellowship - Leverage Your Career Growth."
Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D., (Doisy College of Health Sciences) presented at “ASAHP Regional Summit - Engaging Academia With Healthcare Industry Partners To Enhance Health Professions Education And Improve Health Outcomes” with colleagues from the University of Cincinnati, University of South Dakota, Nova Southeastern University and Seton Hall University at the 2022 Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) Annual Conference in Long Beach, California on Oct. 19, 2022.
Breitbach and Jessica Barreca (Center for Interprofessional Education and Research) presented “Transforming Interprofessional Education Through Inclusion in University Core Curriculum” on behalf of co-authors David Pole, Ph.D., (Center for Interprofessional Education and Research), Kathy Kienstra (Doisy College of Health Sciences) and Ellen Crowell, Ph.D. (University Core/English) at the 2022 Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) Annual Conference in Long Beach, California on Oct. 20, 2022.
Craig A. Boyd, Ph.D. (General Studies) was a keynote speaker at Houston Christian University's Conference on "Tolkien Among the Theologians." Boyd's address was titled "Saruman's Folly and Gandalf's Wisdom: Augustinian Rhetoric in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings."
Grant Kaplan, Ph.D. (Theology) presented at the Vatican II and Catholic Higher Education: Leading Forward conference. The keynote was mentioned by National Catholic Reporter in a wrap-story about the event.
Gina Yosten, Ph.D. (Pharmacological and Physiological Science) was awarded a $1,982,000 grant by the Helmsley Charitable Trust as part of a type 1 diabetes program initiative to prevent hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia can lead to fainting, coma, or death, and is the major obstacle to optimal glucose control for patients with type 1 diabetes. In previous studies funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust and others, Yosten and colleagues determined that in rodents and isolated human tissue that delta cells in the pancreas produce neuronostatin, a hormone previously discovered by Yosten and her colleague, Willis Samson, Ph.D.
Neuronostatin acts locally within the pancreas to stimulate alpha cells to secrete glucagon. This suggests that neuronostatin could be a useful therapeutic target for the prevention of hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes. Yosten will continue these efforts by determining how type 1 diabetes, and the insulin analogs used to treat type 1 diabetes, affect the production and function of neuronostatin both in isolated human islets and in human subjects. Yosten expects that this new project will confirm neuronostatin’s therapeutic value for preventing hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes.
Sofia Origanti, Ph.D. (Biology) received a grant from the National Institutes of Health totaling more than $1.5 million to understand how cells synthesize proteins through ribosomes. The grant will allow Origanti to examine ribosomal factors that are overexpressed in cancers and manipulating those factors to decrease protein production and limit the spread of cancer cells.
Origanti's research will also look at a rare disease called Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome. This disease is caused by dysfunctional ribosomes and there are limited treatment options. This grant will fund research that could provide vital information to better understand the mechanism of protein synthesis and for the development of new therapeutic strategies for cancers and Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome.
Cathleen A. Fleck, Ph.D. (Visual and Performing Arts Department) announced her forthcoming book "Reimagining Jerusalem’s Architectural Identities in the Later Middle Ages" with Brill will come out in November 2022. The book examines how and why six medieval artworks reimagined key monuments in Jerusalem: as religious and political instruments to express power over the city; to persuade others to attain the city; to console the devoted for its loss; to provide spiritual guidance; to protect the viewer; or to convey the mythic history of this holy place. These examples help to explain the centrality and sacredness of Jerusalem to the world faiths of Christianity and Islam even today. She will give a talk about the topic at the Research Forum of the SLU Center for Research on Global Catholicism on Nov. 9, 2022, at 4 p.m. in Pere Marquette Gallery of DuBourg Hall.
Morgan Hazelton, J.D., Ph.D. (Political Science) and her co-author Rachael Hinkle (University at Buffalo) have published a new book. Persuading the Supreme Court: The significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision-Making was published in August 2022. Drawing on more than 25,000 party and amicus briefs filed between 1984 and 2015 and the text of the related court opinions, as well as interviews with former Supreme Court clerks and attorneys who have prepared and filed briefs before the Supreme Court, Hazelton and Hinkle have shed light on one of the more mysterious and consequential features of Supreme Court decision-making.
"Persuading the Supreme Court" offers new evidence that the resource advantage enjoyed by some parties likely stems from both the ability of their experienced attorneys to craft excellent briefs and their reputations with the justices. The analyses also reveal that information operates differently in terms of influencing who wins and what policy is announced.
An analysis of recent and current cases based on the findings of this book was featured in the Washington Post's Monkey Cage Blog.
Nancy Weaver, Ph.D. (Behavioral Science and Health Education), recently had an article published in the OESIS Intrepid News titled "More Art Is What We Need Most.'
Christina Garcia, Ph.D. (Spanish)co-edited "Ecuadorian Spanish in the 21st Century: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives." The volume was just published with Cambridge Scholars.
"The Anthem Companion to Alfred Schutz," edited by Michael Barber, S.J. (Philosophy) has been published. Barber's paper "Alfred Schutz and the Second-Person Experience" is one of the papers in the volume. He has also recently published in the journal Religions two papers: “Pragmatic Encroachment, Phenomenology, and Religious Experience” (13/7) and “Nietzsche and Levinas against Innocence” (13/4) (4).
On Oct. 13, 2022, Joyce Savio-Herleth (Law School, retired), Kathleen Richman, Executive Director of LLMC and Richard C. Amelung, Ph.D. (Law Emeritus) gave a presentation at the Council of Library & Information Resources' 2022 Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium held in Baltimore, Md. The presentation dealt with the project to digitize the Law Library's Early State Records microfilm collection of some 1,700 reels of film representing about 12,000 titles. CLIR underwrote a quarter of the $1,000,000 project.
Katie Sniffen (Physical Therapy & Therapy; AHEAD Institute) in collaboration with Olu Owoeye, Ph.D., (Physical Therapy and Athletic Training); Kemba Noel-London; and Melody Schaeffer (CPHSJ Ph.D. student) published a systematic review in Sports Medicine - Open. Dissemination of this work was supported by the Irma Ruebling Endowed Research Fund.
Owoeye also published an editorial as a co-author that highlights how COVID-19 exacerbated global inequities in professional athletes’ physical, mental and fiscal health outcomes, especially in low and middle income countries.
Vasit Sagan, Ph.D. (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) was interviewed by St. Louis Public Radio about the NSF funded TGI Rails project. The story was picked by KCUR in Kansas City.
Angeles Encinar, Ph.D. (SLU-Madrid, Spanish) was mentioned in the Diario de León in relation to the 80th birthday celebration of Spain's famous writer, Luis Mateo Diez.
Students
Second year medical students from the university's branch of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) attended a regional conference at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. A few students presented poster presentations of their research.
Tony Lee's presentation on "Effect of Tourniquet-Related Nerve Ischemia on Response to Handheld Nerve Stimulation in Ulnar Nerve Transposition" won best conference poster, and Brenton Hwee's presentation on "The Impact of Pre-Existing Depression on Functional Outcomes After Endovascular Treatment of Ischemic Stroke" won runner-up.
Firas Bafageeh (Public Health and Social Justice) was published in Science Direct. "The relationship between types of physical activity and mental health among U.S. adults." Travis Loux, Ph.D. (Public Health and Social Justice) is the co-author.