Faculty and Staff News

<

Wells Center Summer Intern Darryl Finkton was chosen as Rhodes Scholar.  He worked in Edward Srour's lab summer of 2006.

Indianapolis Star, 11/23/2009

Oxford, England - An Indianapolis native received a high academic honor Sunday.

Darryl W. Finkton, a North Central High School graduate studying at Harvard, was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a scholarship for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Finkton was one of 32 scholarship winners named out of 805 students endorsed by more than 300 colleges and universities. A senior neurobiology major, Finkton has a secondary concentration in African American studies and directed and co-founded a sustainable water delivery system for a community in Ghana. The senior has also done research in France in infant cognition. He is planning to work toward a Masters degree in global health science at Oxford. His studies in England will begin in October.

According to a release from the Rhodes Trust, the criteria for the award were laid down in the will of Cecil Rhodes, a British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer. "These criteria are high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor," the release read. Finkton played varsity basketball for two years at Harvard before suffering a knee injury. The scholarships were created in 1902, with the first students entering Oxford two years later. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) was also a Rhodes Scholar.

The Wells Center Diabetes Team Participated in Walk for the Cure, Oct. 10

Scooby Doo and a few other canines joined the Wells Center diabetes team for Walk for the Cure 2009.  Starting and ending at Military Park in Downtown Indianapolis, the group raised funds to help support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Lindsey D. Mayo, PhD, Invited Speaker at Two International Workshops

Recently Lindsey D. Mayo, PhD, presented at two international workshops, bringing Wells research on Mdm2 and p53 to the attention of the international community. In August, 2009 Lindsey spoke on his recent work TGFbeta1-SMAD3/4 signaling induces mdm2 expression and correlates with late stage metastatic breast cancer at the International Mdm2 Workshop V held at Ghent University and attended by 130 international researchers.  Ghent University is one of the three large Flemish universities located in the historic town of Ghent in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium.  It has 32,000 students and 7,100 staff members.  The conference was co-sponsored by The Leiden University Medical Center and VIB Research Institute and focused on the emerging topics in Mdm2 and Mdmx-regulation of the p19ART-Mdm2-p53 signaling pathway during cell growth, embryonic and cancer development.  Mdm2 and key modifiers of p53 are considered promising targets for cancer treatment.

In October 2008 Lindsey was an invited speaker to the 14th International p53 Workshop held at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Fudan University in Shanghai, China.  The conference, partially sponsored by Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, attracted 350 international researchers.  Lindsey's presentation on PTEN/p53/MASPIN Network to Suppress Angiogenesis, was part of the forum for unpublished basic, translational and clinical research findings by internationally recognized scientists.  The p53 workshops have been held biennially, in different cities around the world, for the past 26 years.

Riley Heart Center participated in 2009 AHA Start! Walk, Sept. 19

The Riley Heart Center (RHC, surgery, cardiology, research) quadrupled and more their participation from last year in the 2009 AHA Start! Walk on Saturday, Sept. 19, with more than 100 walkers participating.  This included clinicians, nurses, staff, patients, researchers, technicians and family members.  They raised $3,000 with more funds coming in and the hope that a $4,000 goal will be reached.  The Wells Center research component alone had 40 walkers and raised $2,000, quite an increase from 15 walkers last year.  The American Heart Association holds the walk to raise funds to support groundbreaking medical research and to spread lifesaving knowledge and achieve stronger, longer lives for people in Indianapolis.  In 2008 walkers and corporate sponsors raised more then $700,000, which was used to help fund life-saving research.  

University of Ulster students arrive from Ireland

Four new research interns arrived August 17 from the University of Ulster in Ireland to spend a year working at the Wells Center developmental cardiology research group.  They are shown here with their supervisors left to right:  David McConville; Tony Firulli, PhD; Avita Ramroop; Simon Conway, PhD; Rachel Young; Claire Wilson; and Mark Payne, MD.  The students are juniors at the University of Ulster, Coleraine campus in Northern Ireland, and honor students in the School of Biomedical Sciences.  Only one other university in the United States participates in such an agreement with Ulster, and that is the University of Texas Health Science Centre in San Antonio, Texas.