The Promise of Stem Cells
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nonprofit UCLA Health organization u.s. postage David Geffen School of Medicine PAID Summer 2013 ucla 405 Hilgard Avenue Box 956923, Wilshire Center, Suite 1850 Los Angeles, CA 90095-6923 U.S.News & World Report’s Best Hospital Survey ranks UCLA the No. 5 hospital in the country and Best in the West. UCLA Medical Group was awarded GOLD LEV E L ACHIEVEMENT Gold Level Achievement for clinical CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT of MANAGED HEALTH CARE quality by the California Department of Managed Health Care. Re se cy a c e l l e P C O W uclahealth.org/getsocial N C TA P IN S 1 0 % the promise of stem cells Stem-cell research is on the cusp of transforming patient care through the development of personalized therapies for a wide range of diseases. Photo: Nicole Maloney The mission of the new UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute is to alleviate suffering and restore the promise of i childhood as quickly and efficiently as possible. Cover_UMagSu13_FINAL.indd 1 6/12/13 10:48 AM summer 2013 NEWS + NOTES VOLUme 33 NUMBer 3 Code Blue at 41,000 Feet epilogue By Lynn Gordon, MD (RES ’88, FEL ’89), PhD, and Jonathan Braun, MD, PhD a publication of uCLa Health and This was going to be a no-hassle work-related trip. David geffen school of Medicine at uCLa We the AED box so we could see the tracings, and implored: “Please land this plane. Quickly.” V icE CHancEllOR, UCLA HEalTH SCIEncES were heading to a meeting in Cleveland on March DEan, David GEffEN SCHOOL OF MEdicinE AT UCLA Inside This Issue 27, 2013, aboard an American Airlines 767 to Dallas- Then we got back to work. We shocked him GERalD S. LEVEY, MD, ENDOWED CHaiR Fort Worth, where we would change planes. It was again with the AED. There was a rhythm A. Eugene Washington, MD, MSc about an hour-and-a-half into the flight, crossing and he took a breath, then he vomited. PRESidEnt, UCLA HEalTH over eastern New Mexico, and we were working on Now the concern was to keep him from CHIEF EXEcutivE OffiCER, UCLA HOSpitalS our laptops, when there was a tremendous thud. aspirating and to maintain his airway. ASSOciatE VICE CHanCEllOR We looked down at the floor next to us and Suddenly, the rhythm David T. Feinberg, MD, MBA into the pale face of a large man in his 60s who had on the AED went wild. DIREctOR OF MARKEting collapsed in the aisle. He regained consciousness He needed another Pattie Cuen Photo: Ann Johansson Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Juan Carlos Alejos Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Salma Shabaik after a moment, and we asked if he had any illnesses shock. His rhythm MANAGER, MARKEting COmmunicatiONS or was taking medication; he told us he was diabetic, returned briefly but Judi Goodfriend quickly deteriorated to Departments Features News + Notes took insulin and had high blood pressure. EdiTOR And then, he had a seizure. His breathing V-fib. We performed David Greenwald 01 Leadership 14 The Promise of 36 Faculty stopped and his pulse ceased. One moment he was another defibrillation- From the Dean: Stem Cells Notables, honors and talking to us, and the next he was blue. It was shock cycle. The DESIGN DIRECTOR Embracing big data. achievements: Shutterbug. Landesmann Design Stem-cell research is on the hard for us to believe this was happening, but in a plane was diverted to BY DR. A. EUGENE Washington cusp of transforming patient situation like this, you just switch onto autopilot. Lubbock, Texas, and COntRIBUTING WRITERS care through the development 38 Alumni of personalized therapies for a Neither of us had coded a patient since our earliest began its descent, as Jonathan Braun, MD, PhD 02 The Cutting Edge What’s happening wide range of diseases. Dan Gordon News and research: from the MAA: years of clinical training, but now we had no choice. the pilot and flight Lynn Gordon, MD, PhD Too much noise. BY kathY SVITIL Postcard from Turkey. A flight attendant brought oxygen and the plane’s attendants reassured Kim Kowsky Healing the automated external defibrillator (AED) unit, which the passengers. We continued to work on him, as the Drs. Lynn Gordon and Shari Roan 10 Conversation 20 40 Friends Jonathan Braun (top) Lyndon Stambler also shows an EKG tracing. The pilot called over the plane headed for its landing, kneeling around him in Dr. Tom Rosenthal: Youngest Brains Donor roundup: were assisted by UCLA Ginny King Supple Safety is Priority One. With today’s technology, A kaleidoscopic evening. loudspeaker, “Is there a doctor on the plane?” Two the narrow aisle. Several more shocks were required neurosugery resident Dr. Kathy Svitil physicians can intervene Brandon Evans (left) and Valerie Walker young men stepped forward: UCLA neurosurgery as we descended. Amazingly, he stabilized as we to limit lifelong harm when Epilogue Texas Tech University third- babies suffer a brain injury 43 resident Dr. Brandon Evans and Brian Fisher, a circled to land. He opened his eyes and looked at us. EditORial ADVISORY CO-CHAIRS Code blue at 41,000 feet. year medical student Brian at birth. third-year medical student at Texas Tech University. “I’m sorry,” he said. BY drs. LYNN GORDON Fisher (right) when they aided John C. Mazziotta, MD, PhD BY shari ROAN AND JONATHAN BRAUN J. Thomas Rosenthal, MD How lucky for us – and for the man we were It was the gentlest landing we’d ever experienced, fellow passenger Charles Making a World attending – that they were among the 183 passengers like glass. We pulled right up to the gate, and “Chip” Collison (center). EditORiaL AdvISORY COmmittEE 24 of Difference on our flight. The four of us performed CPR. While paramedics were on the plane as soon as the door Photos: Courtesy of Drs. Lynn Gordon and Benjamin J. Ansell, MD Jonathan Braun, Dr. Brandon Evans, American physicians on we began attaching the AED and preparing the opened. Brian, the medical student, also got off the Brian Fisher and Charles “Chip” Collison. Sherin U. Devaskar, MD Illustration: (American Airlines 767-300 surgical missions must Dear reader: Patrick T. Dowling, MD contents of the emergency kit so we could begin plane; Lubbock was his final destination, so instead seatmap): Courtesy of SeatGuru.com. cultivate relationships with Steven M. Dubinett, MD Share your thoughts with us. their counterparts abroad and ventilating and start an IV, Dr. Evans took control of of having to change planes in Dallas, he had an Dieter R. Enzmann, MD Submit letters to: learn the cultural mores of the Judith C. Gasson, PhD [email protected] the patient’s head to manage his airway, and Brian unexpected direct flight. The passengers applauded patients they will treat. Patricia A. Kapur, MD him as he disembarked. BY LYNDON STAMBLER began chest compressions. Here we were, strangers Shannon O’Kelley As the paramedics took our patient – Charles John C. Mazziotta, MD, PhD on a plane thrown together as a single-minded Dr. Lynn Gordon is profes- Bartly J. Mondino, MD 30 Navigating the medical team with one goal – to save this man’s life. “Chip” Collison is his name – off the plane, alive, sor of ophthalmology and Janet P. Pregler, MD Ethics Maze The trace on the AED showed just electrical we felt an overwhelming sense of humility and Alan G. Robinson, MD associate dean for academic Deciding whether or not to use noise, confirming our worst fear; he was in V-fib. gratitude that we and our young colleagues, Brian Thomas B. Strouse, MD today’s lifesaving technology diversity in the David Geffen LuAnn A. Wilkerson, EdD can raise a thicket of troubling The instruction from the machine was “Shock and Dr. Evans, had an opportunity to make a School of Medicine at UCLA, issues. Advised.” It was a grim moment, and the first shock difference. The next day, we received a text that Chip BY DAN GORDON and Dr. Jonathan Braun is didn’t work. We went back to chest compressions. was alive; surgeons had placed a stent in his heart, chair of pathology and labo- We looked at each other and locked eyes, and a and he was expected to recover. Later, a note from ratory medicine. Drs. Gordon To read U Magazine online, go to: silent thought passed between us: “This man is not Chip arrived. It said, “Thank you, from the bottom and Braun have shared many © Copyright 2013 by The Regents of the magazine.uclahealth.org University of California. Permission to reprint going to survive.” We looked at the flight attendant of my still-beating heart.” less-eventful flights in their may be granted by contacting the editor, sitting on the arm of the seat across the aisle holding 34 years of marriage. U Magazine, 10920 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1850, Los Angeles, CA 90024. E-mail: [email protected] Printed on recycled paper. COVER: Yi Sun/Eli & Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Research at UCLA U Magazine 43 Cover_UMagSu13_FINAL.indd 2 6/12/13 3:11 PM LEADERSHIP Big Data Is a Big Deal The ability to mine nearly limitless quantities of information will dramatically change research and the clinical practice of medicine. Photo: Stephanie Diani Big data. You probably have heard this term, but what globe – will benefit because big data will enable us to collect does it mean, and why should it matter to us in academic and analyze information about large populations to provide medicine? This omnipresent buzz phrase stands not only more robust and sophisticated knowledge about persistent and for the explosion of data generated by today’s computer- knotty issues such as healthcare disparities, early detection driven innovations like electronic health records, but also of epidemics like avian flu, and more effective prevention and the potential for using this wealth of information to push treatment of widespread conditions like asthma.