January 13, 2005
Health Sciences News Briefs
Family and friends of Brian Colella, a 17-year-old Seattle-area athlete who has been diagnosed with fascio-scapulo-humeral muscular dystrophy, have organized a new nonprofit organization, the Pacific Northwest Friends of FSH Research, to support research on the condition. The group will have a dinner and auction event on Saturday, Jan. 29, at the Bellevue Hyatt, and plans to donate the funds raised to the UW’s Muscular Dystrophy Research Center. Dr. Thomas Bird, professor of neurology, will lead a panel to distribute the funds for promising pilot studies on the disease. For more on the organization and to order tickets to the dinner and auction, see the group’s Web site at http://www.FSHfriends.com.
A newly formed Puget Sound-area group is sending humanitarian aid to Iraqi citizens and American soldiers in military hospitals in Iraq. Children and Protectors Relief Iraq, or CPR Iraq, was founded by Dr. R. Chris King, assistant professor of surgery. King is the lead cardiac surgeon for UW Medicine’s new Cardiothoracic Surgery Program in Bremerton, a partnership with Harrison Memorial Hospital. King started the organization after corresponding by e-mail with UW clinical faculty member Dennis Nichols, an Army lieutenant colonel serving in Iraq, about a shortage of supplies at hospitals there. The group has been sending medical and hospital supplies, as well as toys and school supplies for children. CPR Iraq recently incorporated as a not-for-profit organization. Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 2212, Bremerton, Wash., 98310, or given in person at Room AA-115 at UW Medical Center. For more information, contact King at rcking@u.washington.edu or visit the Web site at http://www.cpriraq.org/.
Dr. William Morton, professor of comparative medicine, has stepped down as director of the Washington National Primate Research Center, effective Dec. 31. He plans to spend more time on AIDS-related research, as well as the center’s international program. Morton has directed the center for more than 10 years. Dr. David Anderson, associate director for research resources at the primate center, will serve as acting director during the search for Morton’s successor.
