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A new collaboration led by a North Carolina State University statistician aims to predict how a changing climate may impact the effect of airborne pollutants on human health.

Dr. Montserrat Fuentes, professor and head of  NC State’s Department of Statistics, will lead the three-year project, which includes research partners from Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The National Institutes of Health recently awarded Fuentes $1.2 million in project funding.

“What we are interested in discovering is how weather variables affect air pollution, specifically the small particulate matter in our air that has the largest impact on human health,” Fuentes says. “And further, how that health impact varies in differently populated environments, such as cities versus rural areas.”

The collaborators will be tasked with creating statistical models that factor in different mixtures of pollutants, weather patterns, and health outcomes within various neighborhoods, and developing frameworks that will characterize the impact of climate change on these factors and on human health.

“The relationship between weather patterns and pollution is important, particularly when it comes to protecting the health of our most vulnerable citizens,” Fuentes adds. “We hope that the predictive capabilities of these models will help us do just that.”

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A North Carolina State University engineering professor has won the U.S. government’s top award for early-career scientists and engineers. Continue Reading »

Dr. D. Paul Lunn, professor of equine medicine and head of the Department of Clinical Sciences at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has been named dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University, effective Feb. 15, 2012. Provost Warwick Arden announced the appointment today.

“I am extremely pleased we have been able to attract Dr. Lunn to lead the College of Veterinary Medicine,” Arden said. “I believe he has the experience, skill and vision to continue to move this outstanding program to a position of international eminence.”

NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine is one of the top colleges of its type in the United States, ranking third in the most recent U.S. News & World Report survey. It includes nearly 400 graduate students and about 140 faculty.

Dr. D. Paul Lunn

“It’s a great privilege and a challenge to have the chance to take up the position of dean at the College of Veterinary Medicine at NC State,” Lunn said. “Above all, I have been hugely impressed by the enthusiasm and positive attitude of the faculty of the college, and I look forward to working with them to accomplish their ambitious goals.”

Lunn is an expert in equine immunology and infectious disease; his lab researches equine influenza and equine herpesvirus (EHV-1), a highly infectious virus that can cause abortion and neurological disease in horses.

Lunn has served at Colorado State since 2003. From 2000 to 2003, he served as associate dean for clinical affairs and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. He also was a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine from 1991 to 2000.

He is a member of several veterinary societies and organizations, including the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians, and the American Veterinary Medical Association of Veterinary Immunologists.

Among his awards and honors. Lunn received the Faculty Achievement Award from the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians earlier this year, and the Sir Frederick Smith Lecture & Medal at the British Equine Veterinary Association annual meeting in 2009.

Lunn serves on a number of boards, committees and review panels in his academic field. He is past president of the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians and has served on a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture review panel titled “Sustaining Animal Health and Well-being: Immunology and Parasitology.” He is currently the chairman of the Research Advisory Committee of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.

A productive scholar and noted speaker, Lunn authored or co-authored more than 90 papers in refereed journals. He has authored or co-authored 16 book chapters, and has delivered numerous presentations in his field. He also serves as a reviewer for a number of academic journals and research-granting agencies.

Lunn, 53, was born in Wales and received his bachelor’s degree in veterinary science with honors at the University of Liverpool in 1982. Before returning to school for his advanced degrees, Lunn worked as a practicing veterinarian from 1983 to 1985. He earned a master’s degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988 and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1991. He became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 1992.

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What: North Carolina State University will be the host for a reading by U.S. Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin. Merwin is also the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award. Continue Reading »

Effects of a particularly devastating human kidney disease may be blunted by making a certain cellular protein receptor much less receptive, according to new research by scientists from North Carolina State University and a number of French universities and hospitals.

The findings take a major step toward suggesting a beneficial treatment for rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN), a rare but debilitating kidney disease that causes renal failure and death in humans.

In a paper published online in Nature Medicine, the researchers show that blocking the ability of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor – an important component in wound healing – to bind with certain molecules in the kidneys of mice can eliminate the harmful effects of a mimic version of RPGN.

EGF receptors act like important keyholes on a cell’s surface, says Dr. David Threadgill, professor and head of NC State’s Department of Genetics and a co-author of the paper. Certain keys, or in this case molecules, can fit with the receptor and “open the door” to a cascade of cellular processes leading to inflammation, which can be good when your body needs to heal a wound or a cut. It’s bad, however, when the inflammation runs amok, as when RPGN takes hold.

How important are EGF receptors in RPGN? When EGF receptors were taken out of the equation – through special mice from Threadgill’s lab that were genetically engineered without EGF receptors – the disease was unable to take hold and degenerate kidney tissues.

The study also showed that certain drugs that inhibit EGF receptors – think of them as pieces of gum in the keyholes – not only prevented mouse kidneys from degrading but also reversed the harmful effects four days after mice were exposed to the RPGN mimic.

“EGF receptors are essential components for life, but are implicated in not only RPGN but also a number of cancers like colon cancer and breast cancer,” Threadgill says. “They must be tightly regulated. If we can inhibit these receptors for short periods of time, we may be able to stop out-of-control cell proliferation and inflammation and thus prevent or treat certain cancers or diseases.”

The Department of Genetics is part of NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

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“The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Promotes Glomerular Injury and Renal Failure in Rapidly Progressive Crescentic Glomerulonephritis; the Identification of Possible Therapy”

Authors: Martin Flamant, Universite Paris-Diderot; Guillaume Bollee, Universite Paris-Descartes; David Threadgill, North Carolina State University, et al

Published: Online Sept. 25, 2011, in Nature Medicine

Abstract: Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) is a clinical syndrome and a morphological expression of severe glomerular injury. Glomerular injury manifests as a proliferative histological pattern, accumulation of T cells and macrophages, proliferation of intrinsic glomerular cells, accumulation of cells in Bowman’s space (“crescents”), and rapid deterioration of renal function. Here we show de novo induction of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF) in intrinsic glomerular epithelial cells (podocytes) from both mice and humans with RPGN. HB-EGF induction increases phosphorylation of the EGFR/ErbB1 receptor in mice with anti-GBM disease. In HB-EGF-deficient mice, EGFR activation in glomeruli is absent and the course of RPGN is markedly improved. Autocrine HB-EGF induces a phenotypic switch in podocytes in vitro. Conditional deletion of the Egfr gene from podocytes of mice alleviates crescentic glomerulonephritis and the clinical features that accompany RPGN. Finally, pharmacological blockade of EGFR also prevents nephrotic syndrome, infiltration of T cells and macrophages, necrotizing crescentic glomerulonephritis, acute renal failure and death in mice. This approach is effective even when started 4 days after the induction of experimental RPGN, suggesting that targeting the HB-EGF/EGFR pathway could also be clinically beneficial for treatment of human RPGN.

Researchers from North Carolina State University are proposing a health-based approach to identifying groups at high risk of genocide, in a first-of-its-kind attempt to target international efforts to stop these mass killings before they start. Continue Reading »

A North Carolina State University statistician has been tapped to create a national network of statisticians with interdisciplinary expertise in atmospheric and oceanic science, in order to better quantify and interpret climactic and environmental data.

Dr. Montserrat Fuentes, professor and head of the Department of Statistics at NC State, will lead the five-year, $5 million project. The National Science Foundation is funding the project, which will provide interdisciplinary training for mathematicians and statisticians who are interested in atmospheric and oceanic science. Students will have the opportunity to receive specialized training at one of 12 participating institutions across the U.S.

The three lead institutions, or hubs, of the project are NC State, the University of Chicago and the University of Washington. The other nine participants, or nodes, are: Duke University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Climatic Data Center, Ohio State University, Purdue University, San Diego State University, UNC-Wilmington, the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and the Statistical and Mathematical Sciences Institute.

“Students will be able to train at NC State or at any one of the other nodes,” says Fuentes. “While there, they can work on research with a local  mentor, but no matter where they train they will all end up with the same interdisciplinary expertise at the end.”

The topics covered by the students will include spatio-temporal modeling, which are statistical models that allow scientists to include all of the variables necessary to describe a changing world and to accurately assess climate projections.

“Statisticians specialize in quantifying uncertainty,” says Fuentes, “and as the complexity of the models we are being asked to create increases, it is becoming necessary for statisticians to have some background in those scientific fields. Interdisciplinary training is the future of statistics.”

The Department of Statistics is part of NC State’s College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

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A five-year study at North Carolina State University could help reverse the nation’s decline in production of scientists, engineers and mathematicians.

NC State will gauge whether its elementary teacher preparation model – which provides more rigorous undergraduate coursework in science and math disciplines than other elementary teacher preparation programs – can be combined with more careful tracking of first- and second-year teachers to positively impact student achievement.

Project ATOMS (Accomplished Elementary Teachers of Mathematics and Science) is fueled by a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The goal is to improve the ability of teachers to provide high-quality science and mathematics education for all students.

Dr. Ellen McIntyre, head of the elementary education department at NC State and the primary investigator for the grant, says the study shines a spotlight on how teacher-education programs prepare teachers for careers in the classroom. Providing elementary-school students with better experiences in science and mathematics could be a way to increase interest in science careers.

“Without a firm foundation in elementary school, we can’t get young people interested in entering science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, the so-called STEM disciplines,” McIntyre says. “But we realize, too, that elementary-school teachers need to have stronger knowledge of science and math subjects and need to be better able to successfully teach this content to young children and get them excited about science and math.”

The multi-part study will examine NC State elementary education majors’ content knowledge, or how well the soon-to-be-teachers understand science and mathematics content; how they use that knowledge most effectively in the classroom; and the performance of these undergraduates as they do their student teaching.

Then, after the NC State students have graduated, the study will follow them into their new workplaces – the classroom – to observe how effective their teaching style and methods are when compared with teachers who haven’t gone through the same teacher preparation. That also means comparing end-of-grade test scores of K-5 students in the experimental groups with test scores of K-5 students in a control group of classes with teachers who didn’t receive the NC State training.

“Elementary-school teachers are generally highly motivated and love children, but they tend to be mediocre or weak in science,” McIntyre says. “NC State requires elementary-education students to take rigorous STEM classes – including calculus – as part of their general education requirements. Thanks to assistance from collaborators across campus, including those from the mathematics and physics departments and our engineering and design colleges, some of these classes were developed especially with elementary-school teachers in mind.”

McIntyre adds that the project, if deemed successful by the study results, should be relatively easily replicated by other elementary teacher preparation programs.

“We want to find out if a program like this prepares teachers better in STEM fields and if it makes a difference in elementary student learning and performance,” McIntyre says. “If it works, it could become a model for training elementary-school teachers.”

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