To discover new treatment methods for veterans with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), Cheryl Krause-Parello, Ph.D., a professor and interim associate dean for nursing research and scholarship in FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, is going directly to the source — veterans.
With a $250,000 pilot award from the Eugene Washington Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Engagement Awards program, Krause-Parello is creating a project called Mind Over Matter (MOM) to learn and engage with the veteran population. Through the program she will lead a team of researchers and veterans to answer questions about living with mild TBI. The goal is to find treatment options that are effective, acceptable and meaningful to veterans whose daily tasks and capabilities are limited because of a TBI.
Krause-Parello is also the director of Canines Providing Assistance to Wounded Warriors, an initiative to advance the health and well-being of members of the armed forces.
In addition, a $123,800 gift from the Phil and Susan Smith Family Foundation, Susan A. Smith, and the Phil Smith Automotive Group has helped launch a new program called the FAU Veteran Canine Rescue Mission program, which matches FAU student veterans and alumni veterans with dogs from the Humane Society of Broward County, trained for service, emotional support or companionship. The program, which also includes a research component on the human-canine bond, will serve as a resource for more than 1,300 military and veteran students currently at FAU.
From left, Santiago Garafalo and David NavidadCheryl Krause-Parello, Ph.D.
Illustration by Robert W. Stackman, Jr., Ph.D.
Mice and Memory
In a first-of-its-kind study, FAU researchers determined that mice can distinguish the difference between a 2D image of an object versus the physical object itself.
The ability to recognize a 3D object after viewing an image is primarily found in humans and is known as picture-to-object equivalence. For the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, Robert W. Stackman Jr., Ph.D., dean in FAU’s Graduate College, and professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, allowed laboratory mice to view photographs of a novel object for 30 seconds. The next day the mice were presented with a 3D version of that same object as well as something new. Turns out, the mice wanted to explore the object they previously saw in the photograph. Results from the study reveal that mice use higher-order cognitive processes to correlate a 3D object with the 2D image.
For Stackman, who is also a member of FAU Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention, FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, FAU Jupiter Life Science Initiative, and the FAU Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, the next step is to use the mice as a model to research visual perceptions and recognition.
Death to Cancer Cells
Four researchers recently earned a pilot grant for a project that allows them to use an anti-inflammatory drug to decrease damage to the heart muscles — a side effect of cancer treatment — while increasing death to cancer cells.
The leads on the project include:
Shailaja Allani, Ph.D., associate scientist, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Herbert Weissbach, Ph.D., Emeritus professor, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Claudia Rodrigues, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical science, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Howard Prentice, Ph.D., professor of biomedical science, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Controlling the Risk
Tarsha Jones, Ph.D., an assistant professor of nursing in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, recently earned a $772,525 Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health, which will help fund her efforts to improve health outcomes among young, racially- and ethnically-diverse, breast cancer survivors in South Florida.
Her research titled, “Decision Support for Multigene Panel Testing and Family Risk Communication among Racially/Ethnically Diverse Young Breast Cancer Survivors,” supports Jones’ further development to improve multigene panel testing and cancer risk-reduction among this population and promote family-risk communication among their at-risk family members.
The project goal is to contribute to the findings and testing of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer among diverse young patients.
