Faculty honors

Masters receives research award

Bettie Sue Siler Masters, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, has been awarded the 2000 Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism from the American Society for Pharmacology  and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET).

Dr. Masters received the award for the significant impact her research has made on the field of drug metabolism. The Brodie Award, established by SmithKline Beecham Corporation and given every other year by ASPET, honors the fundamental contributions of Bernard B. Brodie in the field of drug metabolism and disposition.

The award will be given during the Joint Annual Meeting of ASPET, the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Pharmacological Society of Canada and the French Pharmacological Society, held in Boston on June 4-8.

Dr. Masters, who holds the Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry in the Department of Biochemistry, heads a laboratory team studying nitric oxide synthases, which are enzymes in the body that control production of nitric oxide.

In its various forms, nitric oxide, a gaseous molecule, is critical to dilation of blood vessels, to infection-fighting responses and to brain-signal transmission.

Dean Allan elected to Governing Council

Janet Allan, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the School of Nursing, has been elected to serve on the Governing Council of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN).

The national academy, based in Washington, D.C., was founded in 1973 to provide visionary leadership for the nursing profession. Its mission is to influence policy at all levels and shape health care practices for the benefit of the public.

“As a newly elected member of the Governing Council of the academy, I hope to bring my knowledge of critical clinical, educational and policy issues related to nurse practitioners and other advanced practice nurses to the academy,” Dr. Allan said.

Dr. Allan has served as dean of the School of Nursing since September 1997. She earned a master’s degree in community health nursing from the University of California at San Francisco and a doctorate in medical anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

In 1998, U.S. News & World Report ranked the School of Nursing among the “Best Graduate Schools” in the country.

Guest appointed as AADS Fellow

Gary Guest, D.D.S., associate professor in the Department of Dental Diagnostic Science, was named a fellow of the 1999-2000 Leadership Institute of the American Association of Dental Schools (AADS). He was one of only 15 dental school faculty selected from all the dental schools in the AADS to serve in the institute's inaugural class.

The fellows attended a series of seminars to enhance their leadership skills and develop networks among other fellows and AADS membership. Each participant also pursued a project with national ramifications.

As chairman of the Information Systems Committee at the Dental School, Dr. Guest headed the development of a strategic plan for implementation of information systems in the school.

Dr. Guest also has worked on developing outcome measures of providing course materials electronically. Starting with the entering freshman class this fall, dental students at the Health Science Center will be required to purchase a laptop computer, which will contain all the course material they will need for the year.

Dr. Guest is a native San Antonian and a graduate of the Dental School. He joined the faculty part time in the early '80s and became a full-time member in 1993.

He credits the vision of Dental School Dean Kenneth Kalkwarf, D.D.S., who was mentioned in a recent New York Times article on digital education in dental schools, and cooperative faculty with making possible the integration of information technology in supporting the school's missions.

Prostate expert leads early detection policy

Ian Thompson, M.D., head of the Division of Urology in the Department of Surgery at the Health Science Center, led a nationwide panel that developed new guidelines to encourage early detection of prostate cancer.

Dr. Thompson oversaw development of a Best Practice Policy on prostate cancer diagnosis for the American Urology Association (AUA).

The policy report was developed by a multidisciplinary panel of physicians and was released as an article in the February issue of the journal Oncology. Dr. Thompson chaired the panel that included physicians from medical disciplines such as urology, internal medicine, family practice, gerontology and radiation oncology. 

According to the report, a combination of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing and digital rectal examinations is the best method for early detection of prostate cancer. Physicians are advised to consider a biopsy when a PSA test reading falls within a certain range, when the PSA level significantly increases from one test to another or when results from a digital examination are abnormal.

“PSA not only has been extremely helpful in identifying those at risk for prostate cancer early enough to successfully treat the disease, but it also has dramatically improved our ability to stage and follow the disease,” said Dr. Thompson. “Because PSA is such an excellent indicator of the extent of the disease, this simple blood test has dramatically reduced the number of additional tests that are required -reducing the time and expense of the evaluation of patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer.”