DISSECTING - UF Health Podcasts

COVER STORYIt all began when Lee Krause started asking hisaudiologist, Alice Holmes, Ph.D., questions.Krause, a computer engineer from Melbourne,Fla., was frustrated with the fine-tuning process after hereceived a cochlear implant at Shands at UF in 2002.“I realized during the tuning process that I was nevergoing to achieve my objective of being able to betterunderstand speech,” Krause says. “I knew there had to bea better way.”After cochlear implant surgery, audiologists “fit” thepatient’s cochlear implant processor by manipulatingimplant settings, a process that often takes multiple clinicvisits and many months to complete. Several millioncombinations of device parameters make it impossible toevaluate a patient’s performance for every possiblecombination.“Lee came in to me one day while we were doingprogramming and said ‘This doesn’t make sense. Why areyou having me listen to beeps when I want to listen tospeech? Why don’t you test me doing speech and we canprogram it that way?’” recalls Holmes, a professor in theCollege of Public Health and Health Professions’department of communicative disorders. “I told himthere were some problems with that and I gave him acouple of chapters to read thinking that that was probablygoing to answer his questions. And he came back the nextweek and said ‘No I really think we can do this.’”Krause and Holmes, along with Rahul Shrivastav,Ph.D., an associate professor in UF’s College of LiberalArts and Sciences, and Purvis Bedenbaugh, a former UFprofessor, set out to develop a better system for cochlearimplant tuning. The resulting software program, known as Clarujust, quickly analyzes the patient’s speech comprehension todetermine the best cochlear implant settings for a particular patient. In a pilot study, the researchers found that the new programresulted in improved performance in all outcome measures, including speech perception and the ability to hear over background noise.The new software program has the potential to improve the quality of life for thousands of cochlear implant recipients, Holmes says.“This is the most exciting research project I’ve been involved with in my career,” she says. — Jill PeaseAfter Linda Bartoshuk, Ph.D., and her students discoveredan unexpected correlation in their research database, shewas delighted, in a sense, when the National Institutes ofHealth gave her only the nominal amount of $50,000 to furtherher research.Although $50,000 was a mere fraction of what she would haveneeded to gather more data for her study, all was not lost. Instead,the NIH pointed her in another, less costly but just as effective direction.The NIH requires researchers to allow access to databases created with NIH grant monies. So theNIH put Bartoshuk in touch with researchers at several U.S. academic institutions that haddatabases with the same types of general health information she was collecting. The other groupsmined their databases, some of which cost millions to create. The results showed the samecorrelation that Bartoshuk’s team had seen in their database — a connection between childhood earinfections and adult obesity.Bartoshuk, a professor in the UF College of Dentistry who studies taste and smell, had discoveredthat ear infections damage taste, which alters eating habits and can lead to obesity.“In a time of budget constraints, it was delightful to create a collaborative effort betweeninstitutions that weren’t vying for control or money, just interested in furthering knowledge,”Bartoshuk says. — Karen RhodenizerNo money,no problemPOST 15POSTPOSTPOSTPOSTVisit us online @ http://news.health.ufl.edu for the latest news and HSC events. 12•08 / 01•09for the latest news and HSC events.The currrole of ALK mutations in both inherited and nonversions of neuroblastoma published Aug. 24 inresearchers from The Children’s Hospital of Phi“This research group looked at neuroblastomadifferent and complementary way to ours and caresults, validating the role of ALK mutations,” soncologist Yael P. Mosse, M.D., of The ChildrenPhiladelphia. “A unique aspect of their work ismodel system that these mutations can indeed bWith samples they had collected from familiyears, as well as additional data from COG, ChPhiladelphia scientists traced the genetic rootsneuroblastomas to ALK mutations — findin sto genetic screenings for the disease as well asUltimately, researchers hope drug treatmento disrupt the cancer cell-signaling process. Tclinical trial that would test small molecules acausing mutations in the gene.“This is the epitome of translational researwho is also the principal investigator of the CData Center at UF. “We will use what we havsensitivity of ALK mutations to an ALK inhtranslate this knowledge to the developmenttreatment of neuroblastoma patients in the clforor theheheh latatatesest nenenewsw andnd HSC eveventnts.vevevev rsrsrsioioionsnsnsn of neneneneneurururururu oboboblalastststststorererer seseseses ararararchchchchchc erererere s frfrfrfrfrfromomom Theheheheheh“T“T“Thihihihihis rerererer sesesesesearara chchchchch grorororoudididid fffffferererenent ananana d cococococompmpmpmpmplelelelel mfrerererereresusususususultltltlts,s,s,s, valala idididi atata ininini g thththththeonononcocococococolololololologigigigig stststst Yaeaeael P.P.P. 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