September 3, 1998

Researchers find way to grow new kidneys in rats

Hammerman: Kidney
researcher

School of Medicine researchers have found a novel way to grow new kidneys that might one day lessen the need for human donor organs. When they placed a developing rat kidney inside the abdominal cavity of an adult rat, it became a smaller version of an adult kidney.

"The organs look just like normal rat kidneys," said lead scientist Marc R. Hammerman, M.D., the Chromalloy Professor of Renal Diseases in Medicine and director of the Renal Division. Hammerman notes that their function needs to be improved before they can be of use, but he hopes the work could be used to develop transplantable kidneys that would be less likely to be rejected. More than 39,000 kidney patients currently are on the national waiting list of the United Network for Organ Sharing. In 1997, 2,000 people died waiting for kidneys.

Hammerman's results were published in a recent issue of Kidney International. His wife, Nancy Hammerman, is a co-author.

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Penelope Shackelford named director of new Division of Pediatric Ambulatory Medicine

Penelope G. Shackelford, M.D., professor of pediatrics and associate professor of molecular microbiology, has been named director of the new Division of Pediatric Ambulatory Medicine.

The appointment was announced by Alan L. Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., the Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor and head of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine and pediatrician-in-chief at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

"Penny Shackelford brings clinical excellence, administrative savvy and vision to our growing programs in pediatric ambulatory medicine," Schwartz said. "Her leadership in development of the integrated pediatric subspecialties at Missouri Baptist Hospital is just the beginning of the programs of clinical excellence that Penny will foster."

The pediatric ambulatory medicine division, which started July 1, includes services at St. Louis Children's Hospital and Missouri Baptist Hospital.

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Shackelford: New division director

First-year student Margaret
Mann climbs the Alpine Tower
at Greensfelder Park as part of
the second annual ROPES
fitness and team-building
course. The ROPES course,
held Aug. 29 in conjunction
with the annual Diversity
Workshop, was sponsored by
Student Support Services and
the Office of Diversity Programs.

Longest running grant at University

Scientists use PET to study biochemical processes

A School of Medicine research team has received a five-year $9.2 million renewal of a program project grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The investigators will study biochemical processes in the brain, heart and lungs using images produced by positron emission tomography (PET).

The grant has been funded continuously for 36 years, making it the longest-running program project grant at the University.

"We're developing sophisticated molecular probes so we can better understand processes that play a role in normal biology and disease," said principal investigator Michael J. Welch, Ph.D. Welch is co-director of the Division of Radiological Sciences at the medical school's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and a professor of radiology and of molecular biology and pharmacology.

Welch and Arnold Strauss, M.D., professor of pediatrics and of molecular biology and pharmacology, will collaborate on the first project of the program. They will evaluate a PET method for identifying people who cannot break down fatty acids to generate energy for heart muscle. Such individuals develop erratic heart beats.

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