The Intrepid Dr. Mike Lawlor reports on job opportunities discussed at recent AANP meeting

Here's a report from Michael Lawlor, MD, PhD summarizing the job opening updates that came out of last weekend's AANP annual meeting in Chicago. I have updated the job listings on this site to reflect Dr. Lawlor's up-to-date information: 

Hi Everyone,

Dr. Mike Lawlor

As a component of the AANP Trainee Luncheon, we attempted to contact all of the institutions with job postings on the Neuropathology Blog site, and invited them to talk about their positions at the luncheon.  There have been an exceptional number of jobs filled over the past 6 months, so our roster of potential presenters changed considerably over time.  Based on my conversations with people, here is an update on several of the jobs currently posted on the site.

1.       Brigham and Women’s Hospital: Their search for applicants is currently closed.

2.       Case Western Reserve University:  Mark Cohen spoke about this position for a few minutes, which sounds like an excellent opportunity for a research-oriented neuropathologist that wants to spend a minority of their time on clinical work.  I would highly recommend contacting Mark to discuss this position, if you’re in the market for a job.

3.       Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, and UCSF:  These positions remain open, but these institutions are each looking for an experienced neuropathologist who would immediately be able to take on a considerable clinical load.

6.      University of Chicago:  This position remains open, and I think that the link fell off the blog site for a short time (or I missed it).  It looks like it’s back up now, and Peter Pytel confirmed that they’re still looking for people.

7.       University of Manitoba: This position remains open, and Marc del Bigio was able to provide me with some information on it.  This information can all be found on the link to this position, so I won’t repeat it.

8.       University of Wisconsin - Madison:  There had previously been two postings on the blog site, which turned out to be two different “flavors” of descriptions for the same job.  There is one job open at UW-Madison and they have interviewed several promising candidates, but the job currently remains open.

9.       University of Calgary- This job had previously been posted here on the website, but it looks like it has disappeared over the past few months.  The job actually remains open, though, and Jim Wright and Jeff Joseph sent me a lot of information on it.  It looks like the job could involve a combination of clinical, teaching, and research opportunities.  Researchers could either develop their own program or fit into their collaborative neuroscience community, and preference will be given to applicants with interests in neurodegenerative diseases, neuromuscular diseases, inflammatory diseases, or developmental brain disorders.  Jeff Joseph also sent a beautiful picture taken from his backyard to show off some of the scenery of Calgary, and it definitely looks like a breathtaking area.  For more information, feel free to contact Jeff Joseph (jtjoseph@ucalgary.ca) or Jim Wright (jim.wright@cls.ab.ca).

Two additional notes that might be useful to people:

1.        One speaker from the pharmaceutical community mentioned that a lot of biotech/pharmaceutical industry jobs for pathologists are actually posted on veterinary pathology websites.  If you’re interested in pursuing such a position, you may want  to widen your search to these sites.

2.       I talked briefly about the NIH Loan Repayment Program, which provides student loan repayment for projects on which the investigator spends >50% effort on the project.  These are one or two year grants, and the submission process is very reasonable.  For anyone that has student loans, I’d encourage you to check these awards out at their website and contact them for more details.  This is a wonderful program and the people involved in it are extremely supportive and responsive.

Good luck to everyone!

-Mike Lawlor

Thank you, Mike. And if anyone in the neuropathology community has further updates on the job listings (additions, deletions, etc.), please let me know and I'll make the necessary changes.

AANP 2012: Dr. Michael Norenberg talks about the multifunctionality of astrocytes



Dr. Norenberg on "Why the Brain Fails when the Astrocyte Ails"

The University of Miami's Michael Norenberg is currently talking about the functions and physiology of astrocytes. The forgotten function of astrocytes is that they are involved in the synaptic communication between neurons and are an active participant in modulating the neuron-neuron interaction. Dr. S. Ramon y Cajal speculated on this active participation of the astrocyte in the synapse with regard to sleep many decades ago. So, although not a new concept, the concept of expanded functionality of astrocytes has gained scientific support in recent years.

Neuropathologists party hard at this evening's AANP annual reception

L to R: Drs. Heather Sumner and T. David Bourne

Drs. Mark Cohen, T. David Bourne, and Mahtab Tehrani

L to R: Drs. Edward Stopa, William Taylor, and Qian Wu

AANP's "Special Course" is Underway

I am currently in attendance at the American Association of Neuropathologists Annual Meeting special course entitled Acquired Neuropathology in a Changing World. A crowd of more than 300 attendees are present. Dr. Leroy Sharer recently finished his presentation, entitled "AIDS Neuropathology - A 30 Year Perspective", which provided a unique insight into the evolution of our understanding of HIV in the CNS.

Dr. Sharer sharing his persepctive on AIDS neuropathology this morning

Meanwhile, the accomodations at The Palmer House Hotel here in Chicago are magnificent.

Detail from ceiling of the lobby at Chicago's landmark Palmer House Hotel

Yasser Lopez: A Modern-Day Phineas Gage

Above is an x-ray released yesterday by Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida depicting a spear entering the head, traveling through the brain, and piercing the opposite skull surface of 16-year-old Yasser Lopez. The boy is on the road to recovery after being accidentally shot in the head while loading a speargun with a friend earlier this month

"It was about one inch above his right eye straight through," said trauma surgeon Dr. George Garcia. "You could feel the tip under the skin on the posterior part of the skull."

"The most important thing is to resist that temptation to pull the thing out," neurosurgeon Dr. Ross Bullock said. Bullock and his trauma neurosurgeon team determined the tip of the spear inside Lopez's head was actually a screw tip. "It was possible for us to figure out a strategy during the operation to be able to unscrew the tip of the spear, instead of having to get this whole spear dragged out through his brain," Bullock said.

Bullock said Lopez can speak normally. "He can, for example, he says he's not having pain. He's worried about the fact he can't use his left-side properly."

Lopez's story brings to mind that of Phineas P. Gage, whose left frontal lobe was obliterated by a railroad spike that exploded upward when he was tamping it down in 1848.

Phineas P. Gage (1823-1860)

As for the day he got shot, Lopez knows nothing. Doctors expect him to make a near-full recovery.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/18/2856543/doctors-miami-dade-teen-shot.html#storylink=cpy

Best Post of January 2012: The area postrema is not the only area where the BBB is lacking

The next in our "Best of the Month" series comes from January 9, 2012:

I'll paraphrase a question posed by one of my 2nd-year students at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine:

I understand that the Area Postrema was a site where there was increased penetrability of the blood brain barrier. I am not sure, but thought I had come across additional sites of increased penetrability last year in my reading. Are there other sites where there is increased permeability of the BBB?

 

In pondering an answer to this question, I immediately thought of the illustrious Dr. John Donahue, consummate neurologist, neuropathologist, and neuroanatomist.  I posed the question to him and got the following response:

Dr. John Donahue, Brown University, Providence, RI

"Not increased permability of the BBB.  NO BBB!  Area postrema is one of the circumventricular organs, areas in the brain that lack a BBB.  Being the vomiting center, it is imperative that it lacks a BBB so that it can sample the systemic circulation.  Being in the medulla, it is the only circumventricular organ that is adjacent to the fourth ventricle; all of the others are adjacent to the third.  It is the only paired circumventricular organ; all of the others are single and midline.  The other circumventricular organs are subfornical organ, organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis, median eminence, posterior pituitary gland, subcommissural organ, and pineal gland."

 

There you have it!

2,000 players unite in suing NFL over head injuries

CNN reports today that a unified lawsuit on behalf of more than 2,000 National Football League players has been filed against the league in federal court, alleging that the NFL failed to acknowledge and address neurological risks associated with the sport and then deliberately failed to tell players about the risks they faced. The complaint unites the more than 80 pending lawsuits filed against the NFL.

Lawyers representing the players cited "dementia, depression, reduced cognitive ability, sleeplessness, early-onset Alzheimer's, and a debilitating and latent disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy" as some of the specific injuries caused by head trauma in the NFL.

Thanks to Dr. Jeff Bennett for alerting me to this story.

Best Post of December 2011: Naegleria-tainted neti pots possibly killed two people

Naegleria fowleria (photo courtesy of Dr. Mark Cohen)

The next in our Best of the Month series is from December 16, 2011:
Now that it's winter and our noses and sinuses are being dried out by our heating systems, many of us turn to neti pots (also known as 'nose bidets'). The illustrious J. Clay Goodman, MD, neuropathologist at Baylor, just sent me an article from The Houston Chronicle warning people to use distilled, bottled, or boiled water. Officials in Louisiana are investigating whether a 51-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man both contracted the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri after using tap water in their neti pots. The disease, while rare, is most commonly contracted after inhaling water from a lake, pond or river. If investigators confirm the two victims died after using tap water from a neti pot it will be the first time the disease has been contracted from tap water.

Update on May 29, 2012: A comment was left in the original post suggesting that the water used in the two deaths may have resulted from the use of well water, not tap water. I was unable to confirm that contention in an internet search on the topic. All the news sources I consulted state that the water was indeed tap water.

National Baseball Park Tour Raises Awareness of PSP

The Shea's at AT&T Park in San Francisco

CurePSP is an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). A member of the board of CurePSP, Justin Shea, is currently taking his parents on a tour of baseball parks throughout the nation in an effort to raise public awareness and funds for PSP. Justin, whose father was diagnosed with PSP in March of 2009, is documenting the family's journey with a blog. Justin writes: "[S]ince my Dad's diagnosis, we have been able to raise both awareness and considerable funds to help researchers find a cure... Collectively, we have raised over $30,000. We have decided to continue these efforts throughout the country by visiting every MLB park."

A Mild Case of Neurocystircercosis

From Andrew Sullivan via Dr. Doug Shevlin.

New Study Looks at Head Impacts in Youth Football

We neuropathologists, and society as a whole, has spent a lot of time over the last couple of years rethinking the long-term effects brain damage causes by repeated concussive and subconcussive blows to the heads of professional and college football players. But what about the 3.5 million kids in American who play below the high school level? Dr. Peter Cummings today sent me a link to a report regarding groundbreaking research being done at Virginia Tech in which impact-measurement instruments were placed on 7 and 8-year-old football players. Data was collected on more than 750 hits to the head over the course of the season.

Lead researcher, Stefan Duma, a professor of Biomedical Engineering, reports that some head impacts in youth football are equal in force to some of the bigger hits he sees at the college level.  The average kid received 107 head impacts during the course of the season. This is few than seen in high school (which averages about 500 per season) and college (which amounts to about 1000 per season.). But what about the magnitude of these hits? The median impact was 15 g's. In Duma's study, there were 38 impacts that were 40 g or greater (almost all of which occurred during practice.) Six impacts were over 80 g's, which starts to get into the range of risk for concussion. “Nobody expected to see hits of this magnitude,” says Duma, who speculates that once players start seeing hits of 30 g's above, there is a risk for cumulative injury.

Here's the video report from reporter Stone Philips. The interviews with the parents of these youth players perplexed me. All of the parents featured found the results concerning, but none expressed any thoughts about having their child switch to another sport.