Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the award-winning book about the origin of the HeLa cell line, will provide a special lecture to students and faculty on Wednesday, November 14 at 11 a.m.  The program will be held in the Ballroom at the Student Center on Rowan University's Glassboro campus.  

 

This event is being co-sponsored by Rowan, CMSRU and Coriell Institute.  CMSRU students will be attending the program as part of the curriculum.  Faculty members are encouraged to attend as well. The event is free and open to the public; no pre-registration is necessary. 

 

For those who cannot make the trip to Glassboro, please join us in the CMSRU auditorium at 11 a.m. on November 14th to watch the presentation live-streamed from the main campus.  

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  was selected as a best book of 2010 by more than 60 media outlets, has been translated into more than 25 languages, and is being made into an HBO film by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball.  Click HERE to read the New York Times book review of this important piece of literature. 

 

In the coming weeks, CMSRU's long-awaited servery, located adjacent to the Learning Commons, will be open for business! Here, students, faculty and visitors will be able to purchase coffee and other beverages, prepared breakfast and lunch food, and healthy snacks.    

 

Now, we are offering students and faculty the opportunity to leave their mark on our new school by naming the servery!  If your submission is selected by our panel of judges, not only will you see your creative vision permanently and professionally displayed, you will also win a gift certificate for a free lunch!   

Send your name ideas to

coopermednews@rowan.edu by Friday, October 19 with "Servery" in the subject line.  The winner will be notified by email and announced in the next issue of Making the Rounds.

CMSRU Grand Rounds Series Announced

Cooper Medical School faculty are invited to attend a special series of Medical Education Grand Rounds this academic year. The Grand Round series, which includes four, one-hour long sessions between November and May, will cover topics in health policy, public health, diversity and cultural competence, and medical education. All Grand Rounds will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in the CMSRU auditorium. 

 

The inaugural lecture on November 20, 2012 is "The Impact of Health Disparities and the Role CMSRU Can Play in Their Elimination."  The speaker will be George C. Hill, Ph.D., Levi Watkins Jr. Professor and Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM).  Formerly Associate Dean for Diversity in Medical Education at VUSM, he became Assistant Vice Chancellor for Multicultural Affairs and Special Assistant to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs last fall.  Dr. Hill was born and raised in Camden and is a member of the Cooper Medical School Board.   

 

Additional sessions will be held January 8, March 12, and May 14.

 

The 50 members of CMSRU's charter class donned their crisp white coats for the very first time at a special "White Coat Ceremony" last month.  The event, a symbolic welcome into the profession of medicine, was held in the presence of family, friends and faculty. 

 

"The white coat identifies the medical student as a health professional, a part of the vast and complex healthcare system in our country," noted Paul Katz, MD, Dean of CMSRU.  "While they have much to learn on their journeys to truly becoming healers in the true academic sense of the word, donning the white coat marks the first steps on that journey." 

 

Darrell G. Kirch, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), was the keynote speaker.  He warned students not to be surprised if their white coats didn't feel like they fit well. "It's not a problem of tailoring; it's a problem of experience," he said.  "What will happen over the next four years is that you'll have experiences.  Again, they'll be different, just like our pathways to medicine, but they will make this coat finally feel comfortable on you." 

 

Click HERE to read full coverage of the White Coat Ceremony. 

Andrea Bottaro, PhD, has joined the CMSRU faculty as Professor of Biomedical Sciences.He was previously on the faculty of the Department of Medicine of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. 

 

Dr. Bottaro earned his PhD in Human Genetics from the University of Torino in Italy, after which he carried out postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and at Harvard Medical School in Boston. 

 

Dr. Bottaro is an immunologist, and his teaching at CMSRU will focus on immunology and microbiology.  His primary research interests are on the function of antibody-producing B lymphocytes in normal immune responses and autoimmunity, in both human patients and animal models of disease.  He has published extensively in these fields, is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, and a standing member of the NIH Cellular and Molecular Immunology B Study Section. 

 

Welcome Dr. Bottaro!