Ready to have a blast? “Rocket to the Moon, Stars and Beyond” for The University of Toledo’s Homecoming.

A week of events, which includes shows in the Ritter Planetarium, a wine country tour and bonfire, lead up to the Homecoming game 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, when the Rockets take on Western Michigan in the Glass Bowl.

Students will enjoy Festival Day 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, on Centennial Mall with free food, games, music and fun, and they’ll find out the top 10 Homecoming candidates. Also planned is “An Out-of-This-World Rocket Experience” show at Ritter Planetarium 7 and 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, and a bonfire 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, in the Flatlands.

The Homecoming Alumni Gala and Awards Ceremony will take place 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, in the Student Union Auditorium when the Alumni Association will present this year’s Blue T, Gold T and Edward H. Schmidt Young Alum Award, and college and affiliate award winners will be honored. Click here for a full list of award recipients.

The Edward C. Schmakel Homecoming Parade will begin 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at West Bancroft Street and go to Middlesex Drive to Hughes Drive to Cheltenham Road and back on West Bancroft Street.

Click here for a list of events or visit utoledo.edu/homecoming for more information.

Media Coverage
The Independent Collegian (Oct. 2, 2013)
13 ABC (Oct. 7, 2013)

Walter White introduced millions of Breaking Bad viewers to the underground world of meth. As the nation says goodbye to the popular show, the lasting impact on pop culture could bring more attention to the work of researchers like University of Toledo neuroscientist Dr. Bryan Yamamoto.

“Meth abuse continues to grow worldwide and Breaking Bad, I think, has opened a lot of people’s eyes to what is going on by depicting its damaging effects,” said Yamamoto, professor and chair of the UToledo Department of Neurosciences, who has been studying the impact of drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy on the brain for more than 20 years. “I would hope the show does not glamorize methamphetamine and therefore would not increase the popularity of the drug.”

Yamamoto

Yamamoto’s newest discovery is that the combination of meth addiction and chronic stress, a common combination for most drug addicts, causes the capillaries in the brain to leak, which could make the brain susceptible to dangerous viruses and bacteria.

A natural barrier comprised of tightly formed capillaries and other cells exists that separates the brain from large molecules such as bacteria present in a person’s blood, but the abuse of methamphetamine combined with chronic stress causes that barrier to be more permeable. It’s a specific concern for the gingivitis bacteria that many meth abusers suffer from, also known as “meth mouth,” that could enter the brain and wreak havoc, Yamamoto said.

A new $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will allow Yamamoto and his team to study this process using animal models and investigate what causes the opening in the “blood-brain barrier” and how long it persists. He proposes to use animals, which are trained to self-administer meth and are exposed to unpredictable stressors in a manner that reflects how humans are exposed to common life stressors, as a means to examine whether anti-inflammatory drugs help reduce the effects of the opening of the blood-brain barrier.

“The implications of this research go beyond individuals who are addicted to methamphetamine to understand how chronic stress impacts the brain and renders our brain more vulnerable,” Yamamoto said. “In contrast, the basic mechanisms revealed by our studies may provide insight for other scientists who are researching ways to temporarily and safely bypass the blood-brain barrier so drugs used to treat brain cancer that ordinarily do not cross the barrier can have greater access to the brain and be more effective.”

Meth abuse and manufacturing is increasing not only in the United States, but across the world. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1.2 million Americans age 12 and older in 2009 had abused methamphetamine at least once the past year.

Methamphetamine’s popularity is increasing because of how easily and inexpensively it can be “cooked,” despite efforts to control the drugs and chemicals used to manufacture the drug, Yamamoto said. The drug is most commonly smoked or injected and causes a euphoric feeling when the brain releases the chemical dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that controls pleasure.

Yamamoto also continues to research how meth use affects the liver in a way that contributes to brain damage. Read more at http://utole.do/meth.

For more information contact Meghan Cunningham at 419.530.2410 or meghan.cunningham@utoledo.edu.

Patients, staff, physicians and community members will gather on Monday, Sept. 30 to celebrate the grand opening of a new UT Cardiovascular Physicians office in Bellevue.

The grand opening celebration from 10 a.m. to noon will include blood pressure screenings and a chance to meet the physicians. The event also will feature a ribbon cutting ceremony, refreshments and a raffle.

UT Cardiovascular Physicians has been in the Bellevue community for a number of years offering high level cardiac care. The new location in a private office setting allows those who live in the Bellevue area to continue to access university-quality cardiac care from physicians with the area’s only academic medical center.

The event will be held at the new office at 1355 W. Main Street in Bellevue. The public is welcome to attend.

For additional information, contact Felicia Guerrero at 419.340.2950 or Felicia.Guerrero@utoledo.edu.

Ball State isn’t the only opponent Rocky the Rocket (link to picture) will be cheering against this weekend. In addition to the Rockets’ on-the-field schedule, UT mascot Rocky the Rocket also is competing each week in the Capital One Mascot Challenge for a $20,000 scholarship toward its mascot program.

Each week, Rocky is pitted against one of the top 15 other mascots in the nation. To win he counts on Rocket fans voting for him at http://utole.do/voterocky . This year Rocky has already defeated The Duck of the University of Oregon, Big Jay of the University of Kansas and Cam the Ram of Colorado State University.

This week Rocky is battling Monte of the University of Montana and needs the help of Rocket fans everywhere to stay undefeated. Fans can vote as many times as they want and the voting page shows how you can use social media to get Rocky even more points.

In upcoming weeks, Rocky will face:

•  Week 5 (Sept. 30) – Rocky v. Smokey of University of Tennessee
•  Week 6 (Oct. 7) — Rocky v. Raider Red of Texas Tech University
•  Week 7 (Oct. 14) — Rocky v. Baldwin the Eagle of Boston College
•  Week 8 (Oct. 21) — Rocky v. Bucky Badger of University of Wisconsin
•  Week 9 (Oct. 28) – Rocky v. Sparty of Michigan State University
•  Week 10 (Nov. 3) — Rocky v. Big Red of Western Kentucky University
•  Week 11 (Nov. 10) — Rocky v. Mike the Tiger of Louisiana State University
•  Week 12 (Nov. 17) — Rocky v. Peedee the Pirate of East Carolina University

Ernest Health, Inc. (EHI) and The University of Toledo plan to break ground this fall on a 40-bed, 49,000 square-foot inpatient rehabilitation hospital, which will be constructed and operated by Ernest Health and located on the Health Science Campus of The University of Toledo.

Expected to create about 120 health care jobs, the new inpatient rehabilitation center will provide intensive physical rehabilitation services to patients recovering from strokes, brain and spinal cord injuries and other impairments as a result of injury or illness.

The hospital will provide training opportunities in affiliation with UTMC physicians through a physical medicine and rehabilitation residency program for students through clinical rotations for physical, occupational, and speech therapy, as well as nursing.

“Affiliating with The University of Toledo Medical Center lends us immediate credibility as they have the highest of quality standards and recognize that our patient outcomes will enhance the services that they offer. The community wins as a result,” said David Fuller, senior vice president of development.

Ernest Health currently operates 19 post-acute care hospitals, including 12 rehabilitation hospitals that have consistently been recognized as being in the top 10 percent of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals nationwide for care that is patient-centered, effective, efficient and timely.

“As an academic medical center, UTMC physicians and therapists treat patients with the most complex rehabilitation needs in our region and partnering with an organization with the expertise and resources of Ernest Health is the best way to expand that care and provide additional learning opportunities for UT’s nationally recognized therapy educational programs,” said Dr. Jeffrey Gold, chancellor and executive vice president of biosciences and health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine and Life Sciences.

As part of the agreement between the two organizations, University Rehabilitation Hospital will manage operations of rehabilitative services currently offered through the medical center. Patients can expect continued university quality, top-tier medical care and a seamless and uninterrupted transition in a remarkable new facility.

Toledo Mayor Michael P. Bell praised the collaboration, saying “We look forward to welcoming Ernest Health to Toledo. Their addition to the health and science corridor near The University of Toledo Health Science Campus will continue to strengthen the medical education opportunities offered to UT students and will help our city diversify our economy by providing jobs in the health care industry.”

For more information contact Angie Anderson at Ernest Health Inc. at 843.388.0375 or Jon Strunk at The University of Toledo at 419.530.7832.

About 400 University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation (COBI) students will participate in the college’s annual autumn job fair this Friday, Sept. 27, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the UT Student Union. More than 100 companies — including the Cleveland Indians, O-I, Owens-Corning, 3M, Ernst & Young, Sherwin-Williams and Kroger — will participate.

“The fact that so many well-known companies are coming to UT COBI to find the talent they need reflects very positively on the quality of both our programs and our students,” said Terribeth Gordon-Moore, senior associate dean. “It also demonstrates the extremely dynamic and mutually beneficial relationship enjoyed by COBI and major national recruiting companies such as Marathon, Fed-Ex, Lowes and HCR ManorCare.”

Employers are looking for undergraduate students to participate in business internships and their leadership development programs, as well as for seniors and graduates seeking full-time employment, Gordon-Moore said. The college also encourages freshmen students to attend the job fair to engage these company representatives and begin a relationship.

“This semi-annual job fair is part of what we do to prepare our students for their futures,” Gordon-Moore explained, adding that the college’s Business Career Programs office works year-round to assist students in acquiring internships and jobs upon graduation. “We strive to provide the necessary resources so our students can conduct their own tailored job searches.”

More than 85 percent of College of Business and Innovation students participate in internships, and the job placement rate for graduates is greater than 80 percent, even in recent economic times.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Sept. 28, 2013)

In 18th-century Europe, body snatching was a crime punishable by death, but that didn’t stop Dr. John Hunter from collecting bodies for teaching anatomy and conducting medical research.

Although his methods were illegal, Hunter’s work paved the way for experimental medicine and the adoption of surgery as a respectable craft.

Author Wendy Moore wrote a biography on his life and work titled The Knife Man, which she will travel from London to the Glass City to discuss at the fifth annual S. Amjad Hussain Visiting Lecture in the History of Medicine and Surgery at The University of Toledo.

The free, public lecture, “The Knife Man: Life and Times of John Hunter (1728-1793),” will be Thursday, Sept. 26, at 5 p.m. in Health Education Room 100 on UT’s Health Science Campus.

“In John Hunter, we have a cumulative legacy of a great man whose work paved the way for future advances and, 250 years later, we are still benefiting from his concepts,” said Dr. S. Amjad Hussain, UT professor emeritus of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery and member of the University Board of Trustees. “His impact is limited not only to surgery or medicine but also in natural sciences. And to top it off, he was the patron saint of the body snatchers.”

Moore started her writing career as a journalist specializing in crime and later health care — a background that fueled her interests in Hunter.

“John Hunter was a remarkable man: an inspired surgeon, a brilliant anatomist and an unparalleled naturalist,” Moore said. “He managed to fit into one life of 65 years more than most people could manage in several lifetimes.”

Moore was selected for this year’s lecture by a committee that included Hussain, Dr. Gerald B. Zelenock, professor and chair of surgery, and Dr. Steven H. Selman, professor and chair of urology, who teaches the History of Medicine elective.

“It does not matter what operation we do — it has a beginning somewhere in the past,” Hussain said. “Somebody thought of it and performed it and others followed and refined it. When we perform a surgical procedure or treat a patient with medications, we are always connected to the pioneers who had led the way before us.”

Click here to download a photo of Moore.

Mixing chemicals together causes reactions that form new substances and molecules; basic science 101.

Developing specific groups of very stable, very consistent, and very valuable molecules — called nanoparticles — well, it takes quite a bit more expertise.?

A group of researchers led by The University of Toledo and Dr. Terry Bigioni, UT associate professor of chemistry, have created ultra-stable nanoparticles using silver atoms, making them far less expensive to create — most stable nanoparticles use gold atoms — and far more abundant.

The discovery was published recently in the scientific journal Nature.

Nanoparticles, Bigioni explained, are used in the medical world for the targeted drug delivery that makes up an increasing component of individualized medicine tailored to the needs of each patient. Silver has long been used for its antibacterial properties in medical applications and recently applied to fighting cancer.

“We’ve created stable silver nanoparticles in massive quantities and in a very pure form, using a less expensive substance than some of the traditional methods using gold,” Bigioni said. “Their purity is a huge advantage for biomedical applications.”

Bigioni said the substance, M4Ag44(p-MBA)30, consists of a cage or shell of protective molecules around a central core of silver atoms, which prevents the silver from oxidizing.

“Anyone familiar with silver utensils or dishes knows they tarnish, they rust. By creating this interlocking framework, we are able to stabilize the silver atoms and create a nanoparticle that we think can be used for a wide variety of purposes,” he said.

Bigioni pointed to his collaborations with photovoltaics experts at UT. M4Ag44(p-MBA)30 can be used as a dye applied to a solar panel substrate and is 10 times more light absorbent than dyes currently available.

“You can take eighty dollars’ worth of silver and turn it into thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of dyes for solar panels,” Bigioni said, noting that he already has commercialization efforts under way.

Dr. Karen Bjorkman, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, praised the work of Bigioni and his team.

“The publication of this work in one of the premier scientific journals in the world speaks volumes about the caliber of people and the quality of the research happening at UT and in the natural sciences,” Bjorkman said.

“Terry is an outstanding chemist and a wonderful teacher for our those students who are helping him advance science in a way that will have tangible and profoundly positive results for people around the world.”

Emily Bazelon, author, senior editor at Slate, and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School, will discuss the culture of bullying on Thursday, Sept. 26, at noon, in The University of Toledo College of Law’s McQuade Law Auditorium.

Bazelon

The free, public lecture, titled “Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy,” is a talk in the College’s Cannon Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the President’s Lecture Series on Diversity.

Bazelon, a leading authority on the shifting landscape of bullying in the cyber age, will guide the audience on a journey through the social and legal ramifications to answer key questions: Which school programs work best to combat bullying? How effective are laws at protecting our children from this trauma? What do recent high-profile cases of bullying tell us about how the issue has changed over the years? How are people using new technologies—mobile phones, social media, texting—to both spread and combat bullying? Importantly, Bazelon also asks if bullying is happening to the degree that media reports suggest.

Her book, “Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy,” has won widespread acclaim since its release earlier this year and is a New York Times Bestseller.

“As events of even the past few days have illustrated, bullying can have the most serious consequences. We are fortunate to have one of the nation’s most thoughtful students of bullying speaking to the law school, the University, and the community about this vexing social and legal issue,” said Daniel J. Steinbock, dean of the College of Law.

Bazelon is a New York Times Magazine contributing writer. She has spoken to audiences from the Aspen Ideas Festival to the Texas Bar Association to TEDxWomen. She is a member of the Slate “Political Gabfest” and is a frequent guest on “The Colbert Report.” She also has appeared on “Today,” “PBS Newshour,” “Morning Joe,” “Fresh Air,” and “All Things Considered.” Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, and Mother Jones.

She is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. Click here to download a photo of Bazelon.

The Cannon Lecture Series
The Cannon Lecture Series was established in 1980 in memory of Toledo attorney Joseph A. Cannon through a generous gift from his family and friends. The lecture series is intended to provide an opportunity for the College of Law, the University, and the greater Toledo community to host individuals of national prominence who, in discussing questions of law and society, will emphasize the humanistic dimension as well as the limitations of our legal system.

The University of Toledo Engineering Career Development Center will host its Fall 2013 Engineering Career Expo Wednesday, Sept. 25.

There are more than 100 companies registered to attend the event with additional companies expected to register. The expo will be an opportunity for students to meet with employers for networking and future employment.

“Many companies from across the United States participate in this event,” said Dr. Vickie Kuntz, director of the Engineering Career Development Center. “Some big name participants include Chrysler, Cooper Tire, DTE Energy, First Energy, General Mills, Honda of America, J.M. Smuckers, Johnson & Johnson, Kiewit, Marathon, NASA and Whirlpool.”

More than 600 engineering students have attended past career expos, according to Kuntz. She said she expects between 600 and 700 students and alumni to participate at this year’s fall event as well. Only UT College of Engineering students and alumni are eligible to attend.

The UT Engineering Fall 2013 Career Expo will be held on the first floor of Nitschke Hall and North Engineering from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.