UNMC for the record

Chris Kratochvil, M.D.

Chris Kratochvil, M.D., professor of psychiatry, assistant vice chancellor for clinical research and chief medical officer of UNeHealth Corporation, put in the high bid at the silent auction at the UNMC Skate-a-thon for Parkinson’s on Jan. 10-11. For his high bid, Dr. Kratochvil won a football helmet signed by Nebraska’s three Heisman Trophy winners — Johnny Rodgers (1972), Mike Rozier (1983) and Eric Crouch (2001) — as well as Billy Cannon of LSU (1959). Dr. Kratochvil was one of nearly 500 ice skaters who participated in this year’s skate-a-thon.

Registration is now open for the 2014 Lymphoma Study Group & Hematology Highlights Conference, which will be held Feb. 7 and 8 at the Hilton Omaha Hotel. The registration deadline is Jan. 31. For more information on the conference, including a registration form, click here.

Yuri Lyubchenko, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical science in the College of Pharmacy, was asked by its editors to submit a commentary to the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. Titled “Centromere chromatin: a loose grip on the nucleosome?” Dr. Lyubchenko’s article outlines the progress in the study of centromeres, specialized segments of chromosomes that aid in chromosomal segregation after DNA replication, and proposes a model explaining the structural differences between centromeres and the rest of chromosomes.

The Nebraska Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation raised nearly $1.14 million in 2013 thanks in large part to combined events, new donors and increased momentum for the organization. Shannon Gubbels, the Nebraska Chapter’s executive director, said the chapter has set a goal of raising $1.3 million in 2014. The chapter provided $240,000 to UNMC and The Nebraska Medical Center in 2013 to help fund research studies and other activities involving CF patients. Funds raised by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation have spurred dramatic progress in the lives of those who have cystic fibrosis. Fifty years ago, most children with CF did not live long enough to attend elementary school. Today, cystic fibrosis patients are living into their 30s, 40s and beyond. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the world’s leader in the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis. The foundation funds more CF research than any other organization, and nearly every CF drug available today was made possible because of foundation support.