UNMC for the record

Dr. Vennerstrom hailed for ‘high-impact innovation’
A potential single-dose antimalarial drug developed by a team led by Jonathan Vennerstrom, Ph.D., professor in the UNMC College of Pharmacy, was named one of “30 high-impact innovations to save lives” by the inaugural report of the Innovation Countdown 2030 initiative. The report, Reimagining Global Health, is a result of a yearlong effort to identify, evaluate and showcase game-changing health technologies and innovations with great promise to save lives, according to its wensite. Innovation Countdown 2030 is led by PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) and supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Dr. Vennerstrom’s team, including Yuxiang Dong, Ph.D., and Xiaofang Wang, Ph.D., collaborated with researchers from Australia’s Monash University and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute to discover the synthetic drug OZ 439, currently in clinical trials.

Human Genetics Lab personnel recognized
Jennifer Sanmann, Ph.D., associate professor at the Munroe-Meyer Institute and associate director of the Human Genetics Laboratory, was elected as the 2016 annual meeting co-director and the 2017 annual meeting director for the Association of Genetic Technologists. Also at the meeting, Kim Wiechman, cytogenetic technologist, was awarded the AGT Outstanding Technologist Grant Award, and Rachel Utter, cytogenetics technologist, was awarded the Foundation of Genetic Technologists 2015 Genome Award in addition to the 2015 Best Platform Presentation for a talk given at June’s AGT annual meeting.

Allied Health faculty members present on ‘The Fipped Classroom Experience’
Tanya Custer, assistant professor of radiation science technology education, and Tammy Jones, program director of RSTE, presented “The Flipped Classroom Experience: Instructor and Student Perspectives” at the recent Association of Educators in Imaging and Radiologic Sciences annual meeting in San Antonio. They focused on best practices for using the flipped classroom when teaching imaging science students, along with initial results of research conducted on student perceptions of the flipped classroom. The College of Allied Health Professions faculty reported the presentation in San Antonio was well received by the imaging educators and has led to potential collaboration with other institutions for further research and sharing of ideas in regard to the flipped classroom approach within the radiologic technology community.