Dear Colleague: 

What a way to ring in December!

Last Monday, we welcomed top federal and university leaders to campus to announce that the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, is providing up to $46 million in funding to support a project aiming to cure total blindness through human eye transplantation. Leading our team is Kia Washington, MD, Professor of Surgery, and Christene A. Huang, PhD, Professor of Surgery.

Speaking at a news conference, Dr. Washington described the work as a moonshot – an enormous undertaking that is daunting and inspiring and requires innovation and collaboration. “This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,” Dr. Washington said. “And in fact, I’ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.”

The CU team will begin with animal models to study optic nerve regenerative strategies, immunosuppression, and post-operative care, with the goal of advancing to human trials. Dr. Washington (pictured on the right) will lead the overall scientific team and the surgical team and Dr. Huang (pictured on the left) and her team will study how the immune system reacts to the new eye. 

We were joined at the announcement by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, Renee Wegrzyn, PhD, Director of ARPH-H, University of Colorado President Todd Saliman, and Chancellor Don Elliman. This campus newsroom article provides additional detail. Make sure to watch the video.

Many thanks to Laura Buccini, DrPH, MPH, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Development and Strategy, for her work building strong relationships with the ARPA-H leadership. Kudos also to Vice Chancellor for Communications Kathy Green and her team for garnering exceptional attention to this announcement. Her team tallied some 638 articles, reaching a potential audience of 213.8 million readers and viewers and a potential audience of 877 million on digital and mobile outlets, along with 101,000 impressions on campus-related social media channels.

Recent Publications
Evalina Burger, MD, Professor and Chair of Orthopedics, and Christopher Kleck, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopedics, are the editors the Comprehensive Guide to Adult Spinal Deformity, a textbook covering the basics to complex pathologies, and providing a thorough perspective on spinal deformity management. The book has been in the works for four years and includes 84 renowned authors.

P. Michael Ho, MD, PhD, Professor Adjoint of Medicine, Senior Clinician Investigator at the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente, and cardiologist at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, is corresponding author of an original investigation published December 2 by JAMA that explores text messaging strategies to improve medication adherence for patients prescribed cardiovascular medications. Seventeen co-authors are from our campus. An article in the campus newsroom provides additional detail.

Ernest E. Moore, MD, Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Director of Surgical Research at the Ernest E. Moore Shock Trauma Center at Denver Health, is lead author of an original investigation published November 20 by JAMA Surgery. The article describes a multicenter trial demonstrating the first clinical success of an acellular tissue engineered vessel used for the reconstruction of peripheral vascular trauma.

Sean T. O’Leary, MD, MPH, Professor of Pediatrics, is corresponding author of a commentary published November 25 by Pediatrics that addresses two studies evaluating the health and economic impacts of products for RSV prevention in infants.

Cole Haskins, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and psychiatrist with the Department of Behavioral Health Services at Denver Health, is corresponding author of an original investigation published November 22 by JAMA Network Open that examines the associations between coping behaviors, social support, and emotional health among American Indian and Alaska Native peoples during the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-authors from the Colorado School of Public Health are Ann Collier, PhD, Associate Professor of Community and Behavioral Health, and Spero M. Manson, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Community and Behavioral Health and Director of the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health.

Amanda L. Piquet, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology, is corresponding author of a research article published December 2 by Neurology that describes a population-based study of the epidemiology of stiff person syndrome disorder. Eleven co-authors are from our campus.

Leigh Anne Bakel, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, is corresponding author and Sonja I. Ziniel, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, is a co-author of an article published in the December issue of Pediatrics assessing the use of clinical pathway programs in the 111 hospitals of the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings network. They found that nearly half of surveyed programs were unfunded, and many are unable to measure their pathway outcomes or demonstrate improvement in care.

David B. Arciniegas, MD, Professor of Neurology, is corresponding author of a special article published December 4 by The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences that describes a randomized control trial of donepezil for treating patients with traumatic brain injury. Twelve co-authors are from our campus.

Awards and Honors
Fabrice Dabertrand, PhD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, and Anastacia Garcia, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, have been awarded a multi-year funded research project grant, “Brain capillary endothelial cell energetics and neurovascular uncoupling in dementia,” to advance fundamental understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying the vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia. The NIH RF1 grant is a $6 million award over five years that will support a multidisciplinary project using human-based and model-based studies.

David Kao, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, has been named the inaugural chair holder of the Jacqueline Marie Schauble Leaffer Endowed Chair in Women’s Heart Disease at the Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research. The endowed chair was created with a commitment of more than $2 million from Karen Schauble in memory of her daughter. We thank Ms. Schauble for her incredible generosity.

Benjamin Stocker, MD, and Benjamin Borg, MD, residents in general surgery, received the 2024 Michael Patrick Chapman Award, which honors their dedication to merging clinical care and research endeavors. The award’s namesake was a CU radiology resident who died of leukemia in October 2021. These Chapman awards are made possible by the generosity of Michael’s father, Richard Chapman, to support others who carry on in the spirit Michael brought to the profession, with devotion to helping others and making an impact in the practice of medicine.

This year’s scholars in our school’s Stimulating Access to Research in Residency Program, known as StARR, are Jason Breithaupt, MD, MPH, resident in surgery, Sarah Meller, MD, resident in pediatrics, Ioannis A. Ziogas, MD, MPH, resident in surgery. StARR supports mentored research experiences in heart, lung, and blood disorders for outstanding housestaff in Medicine, Pediatrics, and Surgery. The scholars and their projects and mentors are posted on this website.

Legacy of Leadership
Our colleagues at the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System recently reminded us that our school has a legacy of leadership in organ transplantation.

A story posted last month on the VA’s website describes how Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD, made medical history at the VA hospital on May 5, 1963, when he performed the first liver transplantation on a patient who survived the operation. Dr. Starzl was the chief of surgery at the Denver VA hospital and held a concurrent appointment at the CU School of Medicine. Dr. Starzl recalled in his 1992 biography that he was recruited to the School of Medicine Department of Surgery for one purpose: “to bring liver transplantation to clinical use.”

A complicated surgery that was considered impossible when Dr. Starzl started has now become standard care across the country.  As the VA article explains: “In an article published in 1982, Dr. Starzl reflected on the long and twisting path that brought his pioneering work on liver transplantation to this point: ‘The history of medicine is that what was inconceivable yesterday and barely achievable today often becomes routine tomorrow.’”

By the time Dr. Starzl retired from clinical practice in 1991, liver transplantation had indeed become routine, with transplant centers opening in all parts of the country. More than 100 hospitals in the United States now offer this service, including six at VA, and about 75 percent of transplant recipients live for five years or longer.

Have a good week,

John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA
Richard D. Krugman Endowed Chair
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and
Dean, University of Colorado School of Medicine