Greetings from Wolverine Country!

    January 12th, 2001

    Hello hello hello and Happy New Year! I hope things are going well for you and that this last year has been a good one. This year I'm trying out using a web page in addition to e-mail, so that I could include pictures and weblinks and nonsuch; hope you enjoy!



    [Most of the little pictures become big pictures when you click on them. Have fun!]

    This last year has been a lot of fun. The first half of the year was spent doing full-time research on sabattical from the medical school. (If you're not interested in the science, click here to skip ahead.)

    Professor Kotoku Kurachi and our lab are studying why people get more heart attacks and strokes with increasing age. Epidemiological studies show that, as people get older, their blood clots more easily. This has been shown to be because of an increase in the levels of blood clotting factors produced with increasing age, even in healthy people. We focused on Human Coagulation Factor IX, because it sits in the middle of the blood clotting pathway (where the extrinsic and intrinsic blood coagulation pathways merge). Last year we found [pdf] two small parts of the gene responsible for the increase --put them into mice, and the mice start dying early from clots and the like. My research this year has been looking into how this works. [review]



    I was also lucky enough to have had the chance to rotate on Pediatric Hematology/Oncology during the year on Friday mornings, and help treat [play :-) ] with lots of kids. The unfortunate side of the service is that, while significant advances have been made over the last ten years in Peds Heme/Onc, we still can't help lots of our kids. In a sense, current chemotherapy is trying to kill the cancer faster than we kill the patient...unfortunately, in many cases, the margin is razor-thin, and to try to improve that leads most Peds Heme/Onc physicans to do research along with clinical care.

    To help prepare me to be a physican-scientst and best help our patients, I entered the CMB Ph.D. program this fall; once I finish the Ph.D., I'll finish the last two years of medical school. I hope that my Ph.D. and MD training will help me help our patients once I finish it all...sometime in 2004+, and hopefully onwards to Pediatric Hematology/Oncology...so I'll be in Ann Arbor a while. :-)

    While I spent most of my time in lab, I had the chance to do several neat things with the medical and graduate schools. I'm in my second year of service on the Board of Directors of the National Resident Matching Program, and we're working on a whole group of big changes to the way the Match is run. (Got questions about the Match? E-mail me!) I'm also beginning a two year term on the Partnership Youth Council, helping the Ford Foundation look at some of it's government advocacy efforts, and helping out on the Biomed Grad Student Council. Finally, and most importantly, since my family lives just in driving distance, I've had the chance to spend a lot of time with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins --a wonderful change from college!

    Lots of other things happened throughout the year: here's some pictures with folks you might know or remember...I'm looking forward to everything ahead; it'll be busy, but fun. If you ever come by Ann Arbor, let me know! Take care and best wishes to you in the new year!


    Sincerely yours, -Jeff

    next Home backFirst went online, January 12th, 2001
    jsh769@lulu.acns.nwu.edu