UVA SOM Faculty News Weekly Round-Up: May 25, 2018

The Comprehensive Stroke Center at University of Virginia Health System recently performed its 1,000th telestroke consultation, enabling patients across Virginia to get treatment sooner and help prevent death or permanent disabilities.

“Our goal is to provide the exact same care via telestroke as you would receive walking through our doors at UVA,” said Nina Solenski, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of UVA’s telestroke program, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Read more: https://newsroom.uvahealth.com/…/uva-provides-1000th-teles…/

• A New Guide for Explorers of the Submicroscopic World Inside Us

Researchers from the University of Virginia have established new guidelines for scientists mapping out the body molecule by molecule to help us better understand how our cells use metals such as iron and magnesium to maintain good health. The guidelines ultimately will benefit the battle against diseases such as cancer, assist in the development of new drugs, and ensure scientific results are accurate and can be reproduced.

The new protocols aim to help scientists in the field of X-ray crystallography avoid potential pitfalls that could inadvertently compromise their work. X-ray crystallography reveals things far smaller than a scientist using a traditional light microscope could ever hope to see. It works a bit like sonar – scientists bombard molecules with X-rays, then measure the angles as the X-rays bounce off, or “diffract.” They can then use that information to calculate the shape of their target.

It’s a tremendously complex undertaking, of course, and there are many ways for it to go wrong. The new technical guidelines, from a team led by Wladek Minor, PhD, Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, aim to prevent that.

“The compilation of the best practices and potential pitfalls for the accurate characterization of a metal binding site in any protein or virus is no easy task, and requires years of combined experience and efforts from many researchers from different areas of expertise,” Minor said. “We hope that our research will improve the quality and reliability of research that involves handling metal-containing samples and eventually contribute to promoting research reproducibility in both academic and commercial settings.”

Read more: https://newsroom.uvahealth.com/2018/05/22/19135/

• UVA House Call: Dr. Keith Bachmann on Youth Sports Injuries

Keith Bachmann, MD, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Pediatric Orthopaedic Division, discusses how to respond to different youth sports injuries.

http://www.nbc29.com/…/uva-house-call-dr-keith-bachmann-on-…
—
Did we miss something? If you have UVA SOM faculty news to share, please email christa@virginia.edu.