UW Neurosurgery News:

June 2008:

• Congratulations to Richard S. Morrison, Ph.D., Professor, Neurological Surgery, who has just received a prestigious NIH P30 Center grant to establish a Neuro-Proteomics Research Core facility at the University of Washington. This facility will provide essential proteomics and bioinformatics infrastructure support for a large contingent of NIH funded scientists interested in mapping protein-protein interactions in the nervous system. Many of these investigators conduct research involving disease genes, and a defined analysis of their binding partners will help investigators to understand how alterations in these genes modulate neuronal and glial structure and function during the course of nervous system disease and injury. Significant matching funding was received from the UW School of Medicine, UW Graduate School and the UW Department of Neurological Surgery in order to make this successful application possible. Investigators from 14 departments are involved in the project. more information on Dr. Morrison's research >>>


• Seattle Children’s Hospital was ranked 8th in the nation in the May 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report, who ranked the 50 best children's hospitals in the USA. In addition, in the subspecialty areas, the Pediatric Neurosurgery and Neurology divisions were ranked 8th in the nation, and pediatric cancer was ranked 5th which includes brain and spine tumors. Our pediatric neurosurgeons include Anthony Avellino, MD , Jeffrey Ojemann, MD , Sam Browd, MD, and Richard Ellenbogen, MD; we recognize not only our top-notch neurosurgeons, but our entire neurosurgical team – its nurses, support staff, ancillary staff, and everyone who enables us to give the best care possible to our patients and their families.


• The UW Department of Neurosurgery is proud of all of its world-class nurses, and is pleased to announce that one of them, Jim Mackenzie RN II, is the 2008 Seattle recipient of our local News Station, KIRO 7's "Salute to Nurses" award. This contest is held annually during National Nurses Week in May and strives to recognize the role of registered nurses in saving lives and maintaining the health of countless individuals; the nurses are honored for their outstanding service by patients or colleagues. A grateful patient nominated Jim Mackenzie for this award, and the Department is honored that he will be recognized for his contributions to the field of nursing and the mission of UW Neurological Surgery.


• Our congratulations to Jenny Dworzak, a UW undergraduate student from the Department of Biology mentored in the laboratory of Richard S. Morrison, Ph.D. Her paper entitled, “Drp-1-Mediated Suppression of Mitochondrial Fusion Prevents Apoptosis in Cortical Neurons” was chosen as the “best undergraduate research paper in the biological sciences”, for which she received the 2008 UW Franco Award ($1000 prize). She is also one of five recipients of this year’s NIH Cambridge-Oxford Scholarships (from an applicant pool of more than 2000); this prestigious 8-year award will enable her to obtain an MD/PhD at Mt. Sinai Medical College in New York in the fall with her research being split between the NIH and either Cambridge or Oxford. We wish her well as she heads off to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for a summer internship program.


• Harborview Medical Center, considered to be one of the few high-volume centers in the United States, treats about 200 brain aneurysms yearly. UW neurosurgical faculty there studied treatment outcomes of patients with ruptured brain aneurysms in the period from January 2005 to June 2006, showing a treatment success rate better than any other center. Even in the subgroup of patients with poor grades of brain injury due to bleeding, 30% of patients had a good functional outcome (while the consensus of the literature suggests dismal outcome). The authors believe that their multidisciplinary approach and expertise contributes to their success rate, and emphasize that patients with ruptured aneurysms are likely to have better outcomes when treated at high-volume centers, such as Harborview Medical Center. link to the abstract of this published article >>>

UW Neurosurgery News Archive >>>

In addition to this website, please visit these two new websites:
UW Medicine Neurological Surgery website which contains up-to-date information for patients about conditions, treatments and resources available for a wide range of conditions, including diseases of the spine, brain and the neurological system.

UW Medicine "Treat You Well" website has been developed to help patients learn more about the care that is available in our HMC/UW Medicine health care system at Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center and the UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics.