• ¶Ů°ů.Ěý, professor of medicine and of immunology at the UW, as well as the Rona Jaffe Foundation Endowed Chair at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and head of the Program in Immunology in its Clinical Research Division
• , the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps Endowed Professor in Mathematics at the UW

Greenberg and Uhlmann are among 120 new members and 23 international members elected “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” May 2 by the academy. Chartered in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences provides policy advice and input to governmental, nonprofit and private organizations.

Greenberg’s laboratory is internationally respected for its work on T-cell therapies for cancer and chronic infections. A type of white blood cell, T cells are part of the body’s defenses. His team is identifying tumor antigens — or substances that provoke immune responses — that could be targets for T cells and the basis of anti-cancer therapies. Clinical trials of T-cell therapies are currently underway for patients with small cell lung cancer, malignant melanoma and acute leukemia — along with preclinical research for ovarian and pancreatic cancers. Greenberg’s research also focuses on developing techniques to monitor T-cell infusions for potential obstacles to immune therapy. Other work includes seeking ways to erase immune “memory” in T cells and reprogram them with another immune response. He is also testing strategies to activate natural killer cells — another immune system component — against cancer.

Greenberg earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.D. from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. He was a medical resident, and later a postdoctoral researcher, at the University of California, San Diego, before joining Fred Hutch as a clinical and research fellow in oncology. Greenberg was recently named president of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Uhlmann is a world-renowned expert in inverse problems, which involves calculating the causal factors behind a set of observations. Among other applications, Uhlmann has explored identifying an object by how it scatters light and other electromagnetic waves. As part of these efforts, he has formulated theories for certain types of cloaking technologies, some of which have been realized. He has also worked on partial differential equations, imaging and microlocal analysis.

Uhlmann earned a degree in mathematics from the University of Chile in 1973 and a doctoral degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. Beginning his academic career at MIT, he joined the 91Ě˝»¨faculty in 1984, and held the Walker Family Endowed Professorship in Mathematics from 2006 to 2022. Since 2014, Uhlmann has been the Si Yuan Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has also held chairs and professorships at Cambridge University, the University of Helsinki, the Paris Mathematical Science Foundation and the University of California, Berkeley. Among other honors, elected fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012 and fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2010.

With this year’s additions, the National Academy of Sciences now has 2,565 active members and 526 international members.

Four faculty members at the 91Ě˝»¨ have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The new members from the 91Ě˝»¨are:

• , professor and chair of physiology and biophysics
• , professor of microbiology
• Dr. , professor of genome sciences
• James Truman, professor emeritus of biology

They are among 120 new members and 30 international members to the National Academy of Sciences this year. Election “recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations,” according to an May 3 by the academy.

is noted for her research on the neural mechanisms behind learning and remembering. She studies how a system of structures in the brain, including the hippocampus and its surrounding cortical regions, set up new memories and how this system functions during memory retrieval. These structures are the first to be affected in Alzheimer’s disease. Lesions within these structures are associated with profound memory deficits. Her work may help improve the understanding of what foreshadows the onset Alzheimer’s and other dementias. She has a particular interest in how the brain maps surroundings, because getting lost in familiar locations is a common early symptom of Alzheimer’s. Buffalo earned her doctoral degree at the University of California, San Diego and did postdoctoral training in neuropsychology at the National Institute of Mental Health. She received the 2011 Troland Research Award for her innovative studies from the National Academy of Sciences.

is known for his research on how bacteria interact with each other in the environment and in our bodies. Much of his work focuses on the battles that occur within communities of bacteria. He examines the arsenals they deploy to attack each other and defend themselves. Among his areas of study are antibacterial toxins that disable target cells in a variety of ways, secretion systems that mediate antagonism between bacteria, and the toxins that virulent bacteria secrete to overcome host defense strategies. His laboratory also studies the densely populated mammalian gut microbiome, where conflict rages among microbes as bacteria compete for resources and struggle to survive. His lab is hoping to harness the antimicrobial tactics of bacteria to develop new therapies for infections and other purposes. Mougous earned his doctoral degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a researcher at the 91Ě˝»¨Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. In 2021, he received the National Institute of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology for his pioneering studies in microbiology.

Dr. ’s research group has pioneered a variety of genome sequencing and analysis methods, including exome sequencing and its earliest applications to gene discovery for Mendelian disorders and autism; cell-free DNA diagnostics for cancer and reproductive medicine; massively parallel reporter assays; saturation genome editing; whole organism lineage tracing; and massively parallel molecular profiling of single cells. He has received numerous awards, including the 2012 Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics, a 2013 National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award and the 2019 Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Shendure has been an advisor to the NIH Director, the U.S. Precision Medicine Initiative, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and the Allen Institutes for Cell Science and Immunology. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in 2007 from Harvard Medical School, where he trained with geneticist and molecular biologist George Church on advancing DNA sequencing techniques. He is currently an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, director of the Allen Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing and scientific director of the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine.

Truman’s studies have focused on the genes, hormones and neural architecture underlying insect development and evolution. Early in his career, he identified the key hormone in moths that induces molting, as well as the brain-based circadian rhythms that exert overall control over this process. He later studied regulation of molting in the fruit fly and genes that control metamorphosis in moths. Truman earned a doctoral degree from Harvard University in 1970, where he continued as a Harvard Junior Fellow until joining the 91Ě˝»¨faculty in 1973. He became a full professor in 1978. He retired from the 91Ě˝»¨in 2007 and became a Group Leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus, where he studied nervous system metamorphosis in fruit flies. In 2016, Truman returned to the 91Ě˝»¨as a professor emeritus, and today continues to study the evolution and development of insects and crustaceans at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories. In 1970, he received the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Newcomb Cleveland Research Prize and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1986. Truman was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.

With this year’s addition, the National Academy of Sciences now has 2,512 active members and 517 nonvoting international members, who hold citizenship outside of the U.S.

Five faculty members and one affiliate professor at the 91Ě˝»¨ are among 120 new members and 30 international members elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The new members include 59 women, the most chosen in a single year, according to an April 26 by the academy.

• , professor of computer science and engineering
• , professor of biochemistry
• , professor emeritus of applied mathematics
• , professor of biology
• , professor of biological structure

In addition, , a professor of human biology and of public health sciences at the , was elected to the academy. Overbaugh is an affiliate 91Ě˝»¨professor of microbiology.

, who holds the Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, works in theoretical computer science. She earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and a doctoral degree in computer science at Stanford University. Before joining the 91Ě˝»¨faculty in 1994, she worked for five years at what was then the Digital Equipment Corporation’s Systems Research Center. At the UW, Karlin is a member of the  group in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Her research centers on designing and analyzing certain types of algorithms — such as probabilistic algorithms, which incorporate a degree of chance or randomness, and online algorithms, which can handle input delivered in a step-by-step manner. Karlin also works in algorithmic game theory, a field that merges algorithm design with considerations of strategic behavior. Her studies have also intersected other disciplines, including economics and data mining. In 2016, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

, who holds the Edmond H. Fischer-Washington Research Foundation Endowed Chair in Biochemistry, studies molecular recognition, particularly how proteins interact in human diseases. One of her laboratory’s efforts is to study the large, multifunctional protein produced by the BRCA1 gene, which when carrying certain mutations can predispose people to inherited forms of breast and other cancers. Klevit’s group also studies small heat shock proteins, which are implicated in certain muscle wasting diseases and some cancers. Cells manufacture these under stress due to heat, lack of oxygen and changes in acidity or alkalinity. Klevit’s team uses different nuclear magnetic resonance approaches to understand the structure and functions of these proteins, which have been difficult to solve. Klevit and her team also use NMR to study a sensor enzyme critical to bacterial virulence. This enzyme responds to environmental signals, such as the presence of antimicrobials, by turning on or off genes involved in infection. Klevit won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1978 — a year after the program was open to women — to study at Oxford University, where she earned a doctoral degree in chemistry in 1981.

, who earned a doctoral degree in computer science at Stanford University, came to the 91Ě˝»¨in 1985 after postdoctoral positions at New York University and the University of California, Los Angeles. While at UW, he was also briefly a faculty member at ETH ZĂĽrich. LeVeque’s mathematical research has spanned a variety of topics related to numerical algorithms for solving the partial differential equations that model wave propagation phenomena. He has also developed extensive open source software based on this research. LeVeque’s mathematical and computational studies have impacted fields ranging from biophysics to astrophysics. Much of his recent work has focused on modeling geological hazards, particularly tsunamis, and he is part of an interdisciplinary team performing hazard assessments for the coast of the Pacific Northwest. LeVeque has also taught extensively and authored several textbooks. He is a data science fellow at the , and was previously elected a fellow of both the American Mathematical Society and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

, who holds the Benjamin D. Hall Endowed Chair in Basic Life Sciences and is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, came to the 91Ě˝»¨in 2018 after 21 years as a faculty member at Stanford University. She earned a doctoral degree in cell biology from the University of California, San Francisco, and was a fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research before heading to Stanford. Theriot’s research centers on the dynamic world within cells. Her work explores how cells self-organize to perform tasks — like change shape, move, respond to stimuli, and shuttle items through their interiors. Theriot has investigated these questions in a variety of biological settings, such as how white blood cells crawl through our bodies and engulf invading microbes, how fish skin heals wounds, and how the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes rearranges the proteins of the human cell’s “skeleton.” She employs many types of experimental approaches, from mathematical modeling to video-based analyses of cellular movements. Theriot has received fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

, who is chair of the Department of Biological Structure, studies how the circuitries of nerve cells develop, break and reassemble. Her research model is the vertebrate retina, the part of the eye that receives light and converts it into signals sent to the brain. Her team applies a diversity of methods to investigate the structure and connectivity of nerve cells in normal and altered retinas, such as tracking changes in zebrafish retinal neurons from the time they first appear until they form circuits and investigating how retinal neurons rewire during cellular regeneration. In addition, Wong’s team constructs detailed connectivity maps of neurons in the inner and outer retina, and researches how the transmission of nerve signals helps establish and maintain connectivity between retinal neurons. She is collaborating to study how the eyes encode a visual scene. Wong earned her doctoral degree from the Australian National University, and serves on the steering committee for the National Eye Institute’s , which seeks to restore vision lost from damage to the retina and optic nerve.

With these new members, the National Academy of Sciences now has 2,461 active members, as well as 511 international members, who are nonvoting and hold citizenship outside of the U.S.

In a deep and dark December, an eagerly awaited event brightened the early morning in a 91Ě˝»¨Medicine loading zone. The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccinations had arrived.

The 3,900 doses had been marked priority boarding for their FexEx flight to Seattle, after being trucked in insulated, dry ice containers out of a Pfizer BioNTech facility in the upper Midwest.

91Ě˝»¨Medicine prepared for weeks to receive and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, which are now shipped on a staggered schedule and which also includes the Moderna vaccine. 91Ě˝»¨Medicine collaborated with state and local public health offices to follow national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in determining the line-up for getting vaccinated.

The first scheduled to receive vaccinations were frontline personnel working with COVID-19 patients. In addition to patient-care staff in intensive care units, COVID acute care floors and emergency departments, the immediate list also included environmental services staff, as well as emergency medical responders in the community. Next in line are nursing home residents and their caregivers.

Dr. Shireeshy Dhanireddy, an infectious-disease specialist at Harborview Medical Center, was among those at 91Ě˝»¨Medicine who led the overall planning for the 91Ě˝»¨Medicine vaccination program.

Early vaccination of healthcare staff keeps a workforce vital for saving lives from contracting COVID-19, even a mild case, that could put them out of commission for a couple of weeks, when hospitals are already short staffed due to the pandemic surge. Dhanireddy explained that immunizing frontline healthcare workers helps safeguard the lives of vulnerable populations.

“This is a way to protect not just ourselves, but our community,” she said.

91Ě˝»¨Medicine pharmacies, operations and many other hospital departments are part of managing and protecting the vaccines before they head up to the vaccine clinics and into the shoulders of employees.  For example, ultra cold deep freezers were leased by 91Ě˝»¨Medicine for keeping the highly perishable vaccines. The vaccines stay at minus 70 degrees Celsius until they are thawed shortly before administration.

91Ě˝»¨Medicine staff and the institution’s community partners will qualify for the vaccine in waves as the campaign fans out beyond the frontline healthcare workers essential to the care of COVID patients.

Despite months of getting ready, the vaccine didn’t seem real to Steve Fijalka, 91Ě˝»¨Medicine’s chief pharmacy officer, until he held one of the boxes to be transferred from 91Ě˝»¨Medical Center-Montlake to our other 91Ě˝»¨Medicine hospitals.  He was greeted with quizzical looks from his colleagues when he sped by them on his way to the loading dock and said, “Happy vaccine day!”

The next morning, 91Ě˝»¨Medicine held a event during which the vaccine was given to 13 frontline healthcare workers. They represented the four 91Ě˝»¨Medicine hospitals and various frontline pandemic healthcare workers at 91Ě˝»¨Medicine and among emergency responders, including Medic One and Airlift Northwest.

One of the frontline healthcare staff participating in the event was Amy Fry, a critical care nurse at Harborview’s COVID-19 ICU. She received the inaugural shot of vaccine from 91Ě˝»¨Medical Center-Montlake cancer unit nurse Allison Miller. Fry told news reporters she felt honored to be chosen for the vaccination program launch and afterward felt hope, something she had not felt in a while. Miller was grateful that vaccines were becoming available, bringing closer the horizon when her baby, born earlier in the pandemic, would be able to meet their relatives in person.

Myo Thant, a patient care technician at 91Ě˝»¨Medical Center-Montlake was excited at the prospect of vaccination. “We have seen so many struggle. This is what we’ve been waiting for a long, long time and now it’s a dream come to reality.”

Jules Mack, a respiratory therapist at Harborview, said she was excited to receive the vaccine, “I was thinking, yes! We’re going to get these doses in, we’re finally going to get that extra measure of protection.” As a person of color, she said she understands that it can be challenging to go into a hospital and not see staff members who look like you.

“But I’m one person saying that this vaccine will prevent you from getting the serious type of COVID and passing away from this,” she said.

Emily Agudo, an emergency department nurse at 91Ě˝»¨Medical Center-Northwest, said, “I think it’s important to be one of the first people who gets it just to show that yes, it’s new and it might be scary but it’s my job. Even if there’s 24 hours where I don’t feel great, I’d rather have that than COVID.”

Several others receiving the first shots said that, by doing so, they, too, wanted to be role models for the public. From their frontline vantage point, they can vouch to the importance of getting the vaccine when your turn is offered.

Vaccine clinics for frontline 91Ě˝»¨Medicine staff members are underway at 91Ě˝»¨Medical Center’s Montlake and Northwest campuses, Harborview Medical Center and Valley Medical Center in Renton.

Joining the faculty and staff who have volunteered to work at the vaccine clinics are students from the schools of medicine, pharmacy and nursing.  Dental students are also learning vaccine protocols so they, too, can participate.

“Honestly I felt lucky to be a part of the vaccination effort. It felt like the first time all year that we as a community were able to actively combat this pandemic, and have hope for what follows,” said Ryan Breske, a nursing student who worked at UWMC on Dec. 21 administering COVID-19 vaccines.

Breske was among dozens of faculty and students from the School of Nursing who have been activated to provide vaccinations at hospitals, clinics and public health agencies across the region.

“Holding my first vial of the Pzfizer COVID vaccine felt like I was holding liquid gold,” said Kendra Nguyen, a 91Ě˝»¨School of Pharmacy student and director of Pharmacy’s Operation Immunization. “Ten years from now, I can look back and say I did something meaningful during this world-wide pandemic.”

Nguyen participated in a vaccination effort set up by Public Health—Seattle & King County.

“We’re proud our students are a part of this important public health effort, and we’re excited to see them utilize their training and preparation as immunizers. They are ready and qualified to meet this momentous challenge,” said Peggy Odegard, professor and associate dean at the School of Pharmacy.

Many medical students and physician assistant students at the 91Ě˝»¨School of Medicine have also signed up to help with the 91Ě˝»¨Medicine vaccination program and the vaccination of emergency responders. Others will also be volunteering with Public Health—Seattle & King County for future COVID-19 vaccination events. The students are participants in the medical school’s Service Learning Program.

Victorya Piehl, a third-year medical student, was another recent volunteer.

She said, “I am thankful to have been a part of this historic event. It was an honor to provide vaccinations to some of our incredible first responders.”

Liam Malpass, a graduate nursing student who administered COVID-19 vaccines at a Public Health—Seattle & King County site, added: “So many of us who work in health care have been waiting nine exhausting months for this moment and our hope has been reignited as we start to turn the corner on this pandemic.”

The program funds exceptionally creative scientists proposing to use highly innovative approaches to tackle major challenges in biomedical research. The program supports high-risk ideas with high-impact potential, and applicants are encouraged to think outside the box and to pursue exciting, trailblazing ideas in any area of research relevant to the NIH mission.

The 2017 91Ě˝»¨recipients:

, assistant professor of chemistry, and , professor of chemistry and bioengineering, are co-recipients of a “Transformative Research Award.”

Chiu and Vaughan are developing radical new technologies for high-resolution mapping of brain tissue, including circuit-level spatial information down to a resolution of 50 nanometers and comprehensive analysis of the types of proteins present across large regions of the brain. These techniques are needed because it is technically difficult to directly detect large numbers of proteins in brain tissue.

Instead of trying to measure proteins directly, most approaches measure RNA molecules — a precursor to proteins. But RNA detection in spatially complex brain tissue has its flaws. Current approaches struggle with dim signals that are difficult to detect over background noise in complex, thick tissues. Chiu and Vaughan will develop new fluorescent probes to light up RNA molecules in tissues and will use a novel, large-area light sheet microscope — together with sample processing techniques — to rapidly probe large volumes of brain tissue at high spatial resolution.

joined the faculty of the 91Ě˝»¨School of Medicine last year as an assistant professor of immunology. He is interested in the early warning system that mammals use to detect invasion by parasitic worms and allergens. Both trigger the same defensive reactions. discovered that tuft cells, found in the intestinal lining, are essential to these immune responses. These cells’ intriguing capacity to “taste” intestinal contents suggests they are the sentinels that first spot worms. With the funds provided by the “New Innovator Award,” his lab aims to find the specific worm-alert receptor on tuft cells and the molecule that activates this receptor. The researchers hope that this work will point out new therapeutic targets for preventing and treating worm infestations and allergic disease.  Last year, von Moltke received the Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists. This award recognizes the potential of his immune-response research to transform the understanding of cancer progression.

91Ě˝»¨ is examining its readiness plans and advising employees and students on Ebola. Experts believe the threat of Ebola to the general U.S. public is very slim, but also that agencies should take well-informed precautions and be prepared to initiate a response if needed. The 91Ě˝»¨is working closely with Public Health-Seattle & King County and the Washington State Department of Health on preparedness planning.

As long as the Ebola epidemic remains uncontained in West Africa, untold lives will be lost in that region. Other parts of the world will remain on alert for new cases cropping up in their countries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, leads U.S. efforts in this matter, in conjunction with many organizations ranging from port authorities to state and county public health services.

“Universities and colleges across the country also are among those being called upon to be part of Ebola preparedness,” said Lynn Sorensen, nurse manager for Hall Health Center, the 91Ě˝»¨campus health service. “This is largely due to the global programs and multinational population of faculty, staff and students at many universities.”

Additionally, some major universities, as is true of the 91Ě˝»¨, also run teaching hospitals and other medical services to care for patients in conjunction with education and research missions. Like health institutions everywhere, 91Ě˝»¨Medicine has to prepare for the possibility of an Ebola diagnosis in a patient coming to them for treatment.

The 91Ě˝»¨campus as a whole, and 91Ě˝»¨Medicine as a health-care system, have done extensive work on readiness plans that align with national guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and with localized advisories from city, county and state health departments.

“Plans are constantly updated to stay abreast of the latest information and guidelines on Ebola, and to incorporate lessons learned from institutions and individuals who have managed cases,” said hospital infection control expert Dr. John Lynch, who is working with Dr. Timothy Dellit on overseeing 91Ě˝»¨Medicine Ebola preparedness. Both physicians are associate professors in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 91Ě˝»¨Department of Medicine.

If the need arises, the integrated response system that scores of people have been refining and testing for the past several months will be activated at short notice.

The precautions include, but are not limited to, helping those with exposure risks check for symptoms during a 21-day watch period, screening for and managing potential cases of Ebola Virus Disease, safeguarding health workers and others who care for any possible Ebola patients, and preventing the spread of infection to others.

The 91Ě˝»¨is also reviewing its policies to advise employees or students who might be affected by other public health measures to avert or control outbreaks, such as contact monitoring or household quarantines.

“Practicing good infection control practices at a university is always important even outside of the present concerns about Ebola,” Sorensen said. Ebola adds another dimension of prudence, according to Sorensen, but should not be a cause for alarm.

While the chance of Ebola exposure within the United States is extremely low, people who have very recently lived in or traveled to West Africa, however, could have been exposed, depending on their activities while there. The disease is spread when virus-infected body fluids of the sick or dead enter through a break in the skin or through a mucus membrane, such as those lining the eyes, mouth, nose and anal/genital area. Body fluids refer to blood, saliva, semen, urine, vomit, sweat, nasal discharge, diarrhea, breast milk and the like.

People with symptoms can pass the infection to others. Reactions to the virus vary: some resist it completely, some suffer and recover, but some succumb to the disease. Early symptoms resemble many other sicknesses going around: fever, muscle aches, diarrhea, vomiting and cough. If the disease progresses, bleeding, organ failure and shock can occur.

91Ě˝»¨travelers to Africa should realize that butchering or eating bush meat can transmit the disease. In Africa fruit bats and some monkeys and apes may carry the virus, according to the 91Ě˝»¨School of Public Health’s Peter Rabinowitz, who studies zoonotic diseases – illnesses that are transmissible between animals and humans.

On Sept. 17 the 91Ě˝»¨community received an e-mail notice that the 91Ě˝»¨was restricting any non-essential travel to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Guinea. Mali is now under review, 91Ě˝»¨Global Emergency manager Pascal Schuback noted. For details on 91Ě˝»¨travel restrictions, contact Schuback at 206-616-7927.

91Ě˝»¨travelers abroad to any part of the world are encouraged to register with the 91Ě˝»¨Travel Registry. Members of the 91Ě˝»¨community who have been in one of the affected African countries within the past 21 days being asked to notify Hall Health (206-221-2517) or the Employee Health Clinic (206-685-1026), said a representative from 91Ě˝»¨Environmental Health and Safety.

Anyone at the 91Ě˝»¨with a risk of exposure who does become ill with symptoms resembling Ebola should phone for medical assistance before going to Hall Health or a hospital, Sorensen advised.

She explained that, “Voluntary quarantine of anyone who has symptoms of Ebola and a recent travel history to an affected region will help protect others. It is very important for a person with these risk factors to call the clinic for advice to allow time for a plan to be set in place by the clinic or hospital response team.”

Hall Health, like other of the nation’s walk-in clinics, is preparing for unexpected cases. Designated response teams are being formed. Staff members are checking patients travel history, other risk factors, and symptoms, Sorensen said. Suspected Ebola cases will be taken to an isolated, closed-off area for evaluation and first line of care. Other treatment and infection control guidelines, including the use of personal protective gear, health department notification, and decontamination procedures, will be followed.

“Ambulatory clinics have guidelines for Ebola detection and initial management tailored to being a walk-in source of medical care,” Sorensen said. Clinics are expected to arrange with their local health department concerning the transport of suspected cases to hospitals ready to receive them.

“Communication among the various agencies that are part of the Ebola response is essential,” Sorensen said. “There are so many pieces, and we’re just one of the pieces.”

“At 91Ě˝»¨Medicine’s hospitals and clinics, physicians and staff from a wide range of units are receiving training and are actively involved in Ebola preparedness,” said Johnese Spisso, chief health system officer, 91Ě˝»¨Medicine, and 91Ě˝»¨vice president for medical affairs. Daily huddles by leadership team members are being completed. Information is cascaded to staff daily through information lines and intranet sites.

Town-hall meetings have also been occurring to present general information, while educational sessions are held to teach 91Ě˝»¨Medicine staff about specific Ebola response measures. Importantly, the information is put into practice in training sessions and drills. A staged drill might begin with the unannounced presence of an actor in the role of a patient with a fever and raging gut. If the intake reveals a travel history and other risk factors for Ebola, the plan is set in motion.

While all the details are too numerous to mention here, they would include: reassuring the patient, donning the proper protective care, isolating the patient in a specialized room, assigning a care team, reporting to public health agencies, providing supportive treatment and nursing care, ordering an Ebola test, handling lab specimens safely, removing gear in a manner that eliminates exposure, having observers confirm that nothing is amiss, performing decontamination procedures, and following many other guidelines recently established.

In addition, similar dress-rehearsals in infection control have been held for health sciences students, along with education on Ebola and its treatment. Lectures are also being offered by experts in various aspects of the epidemic, not the least of which is how to teach about it as the situation quickly changes.

This past Saturday, for example, veterinarians and physicians in the region learned about Ebola preparedness in relation to household pets at a breaking news session of a local medical conference. In a country where many consider dogs and cats family, Rabinowitz said, public health officials are concerned about the need for evidence on how best to manage an exposed pet.

“Developing effective guidelines for how exposed domestic animals will be handled during the epidemic is part of public health preparedness,” Rabinowitz.

The Ebola readiness underway strengthens the overall ability of 91Ě˝»¨health services to recognize and manage new disease agents.

“We may never have a case of Ebola, but other types of emerging infectious diseases could find their way here,” said Sorensen. “We need to be just plain prepared. This takes away the fear factor. Groups like Doctors Without Borders have been dealing with Ebola in austere conditions in countries that have sparse resources. They use simple measures – tents, cots, buckets, protective gear and bleach spray – with very few instances of provider infections. We can learn from their skill and their courage.”

“We should be able to do this.”

Read the 91Ě˝»¨Medicine on Ebola.

Wearable Artificial Kidney safety testing receives go-ahead

Medical researchers have received approval to begin safety and performance testing of the Wearable Artificial Kidney, a small dialysis machine that can be worn on the body. The Food and Drug Administration and the 91Ě˝»¨ Institutional Review Board accepted the protocol for the clinical trial. Expected to start this autumn in Seattle, it will be the first human study in the United States to be conducted on the device.

See the announcement:

FAQ on the Wearable Artificial Kidney:

Many low-wage workers would welcome wellness initiatives

A “strong disconnect” exists between employers in low-wage industries and their employees about the value of workplace wellness programs, 91Ě˝»¨researchers report in a new study. While employers voiced that such programs might be perceived as an intrusion into workers’ personal lives, the employees said wellness initiatives would not only be appropriate but also indicate that the employer cared about them and their health, said Peggy Hannon, associate professor of health services in the 91Ě˝»¨School of Public Health.

Read more: 

Reproductive cell division avoids errors via simple mechanics

Reproductive cell division has evolved a simple, mechanical solution to avoid chromosome sorting errors, researchers reported in the Sept. 11 Science Express. This natural safeguard prevents incorrect chromosome counts and misalignments that lead to infertility, miscarriage or congenital conditions.

Details at:

Although modern roundworms, fruit flies and humans are separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolution, all three species use many similar molecular strategies to control cell growth, development and function, according to research conducted by a collaboration of scientists from around the world, including several from the UW.

“If features of the genomes of these disparate organisms are the same, it is likely those features are important and fundamental to cell function,” said , 91Ě˝»¨professor and chair of genome sciences, and a co-author on several papers on this research in the Aug. 28 Nature. The work is part of a federally funded effort to understand the genomes of two organisms common in biomedical research, Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly, and Caenorhabditis elegans, a 1 millimeter-long, soil-dwelling roundworm, and to correlate findings with those of the human genome.

Read about the research at:

91Ě˝»¨Medicine outpatients will be able to see doctor’s notes in their medical records

Patients become more involved in their medical care when they can read their doctors’ full clinical notes in their online medical record. So says research accumulated over the past several years at three U.S. clinical sites, one of them Harborview Medical Center.

That finding, and the realization among most participating doctors that their initial misgivings about the open notes concept were unfounded, is leading 91Ě˝»¨Medicine to make that same access available in late October to outpatients at all of its clinics and hospitals.

See how open notes work:

Teaching about rapidly changing health topics like Ebola

Dr. Doug Black, an infectious-disease specialist and 91Ě˝»¨associate professor of pharmacy practice, describes how he teaches students about Ebola, a fast-changing health topic, by appealing to their curiosity, sense of discovery, and desire for accurate, up-to-date information.

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Insight into successful depression care for women

In America, about a fourth of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetimes. 91Ě˝»¨research has shown that collaborative care from a primary-care provider and a mental health professional is an effective model for treating women’s depression. The  newest report, Aug. 26 in the online American Journal of Psychiatry, found that women with publicly funded health insurance or without insurance coverage experienced greater improvement in depression symptoms, with collaborative care, than did women with commercial insurance. The method the researchers used, called DAWN for Depression Attention for Women Now, will be offered at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

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While the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has captured the world’s attention, it’s just one of many emerging infections that we must confront in the coming years, said , 91Ě˝»¨professor of microbiology. He leads Ebola research at a high-level biocontainment facility at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana.

“Ebola is not the only emerging virus; it’s just the most famous one,” Katze said. “There’s West Nile, which was never in North America before and now is everywhere. There’s Chikungunya virus, which had never been in the Americas, but now has spread through the Caribbean and has reached the southern United States. There’s SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome), which spread from Asia to Toronto and Vancouver, and there’s MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) that still ongoing in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. That epidemic isn’t over.

To be more agile in responding to emerging pathogens, Katze advocates for accelerated development of new drugs and vaccines.

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Study helps explain why HIV causes lifelong infection

The persistence of HIV infection despite antiretroviral treatment depends partly on which human genes the virus integrates, according to a  by researchers at the 91Ě˝»¨schools of Public Health and Medicine, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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Back-to-school tips to reset kids sleep routines

As the new school year approaches, School of Nursing sleep expert Teresa Ward, professor of parent and child nursing, offers advice on helping your children arrive rested each day and ready to learn and play.

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Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center director talks about burden of dementia

91Ě˝»¨epidemiologist William Kukull has devoted his public health career to the study of Alzheimer’s disease. In a personal profile, he mentions what led him to this field, and the ramifications of the disorder as more Americans live longer.

Blood sugar drives brain’s response to sight of food

Our brain’s response to the sight of food appears driven more by our blood sugar level at the moment than our upbringing or genetics, according to a 91Ě˝»¨study of identical twins.

“The finding suggests our brains have a way to override genetic inheritance, upbringing and habits to respond to our immediate nutritional needs,” said Dr. , 91Ě˝»¨assistant professor of medicine, who led the research.

Harborview trauma director discusses brain-injury study, consent law exemptions

Harborview is one of 10 U.S. and Canadian trauma centers planning a study of a therapeutic drug for patients suspected of having sustained a traumatic brain injury. Harborview’s trauma director explains how the public is being notified about the study before it starts, due to consent law exemptions for trauma patients who are unconscious.

Workshop is first mind-meld of UW, Allen Brain Institute

For the first time, two Seattle brain research powerhouses are collaborating to teach the next generation of neuroscientists. The UW’s Computational Neuroscience program and the Allen Institute for Brain Science will jointly offer a “Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain” Aug. 24 through Sept. 7 at Friday Harbor Laboratories.

Physician offers advice to peers on avoiding burnout

Health professionals devoted to caring for others sometimes neglect their own needs for restorative rest and relaxation. A 91Ě˝»¨physician offers tips for keeping mental and emotional exhaustion at bay in a demanding career.

AIDS-free generation is aim of new guidelines for clinician

Many tools to prevent HIV are available but are not being used like they should. An interdisciplinary panel of experts created a simple framework of best clinical practices to try to achieve an AIDS-free generation. The guidelines, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, integrate biomedical advances and evidence-based behavioral interventions for people with HIV or at high risk for HIV infection.