Exploring the Unknown: A Times special report on research at Shreveport's LSU Medical Center

              The Times Living INSIDE
4E Ann Landers
4E Percy Ross
10E James Dulley
Sunday,
July 17, 1988
Exploring
The Unknown
A Times special report on research at Shreveport's LSU Medical Center.
Researchers
make name
for our city
By DAVID WESTERFIELD
The Times
Physiologist Neil Granger has given
Shreveport worldwide recognition, five
new medical scientists and the benefits
of the $1.3 million he has received in fed-eral
grants.
And he's just the top of the test tube at
LSU Medical Center.
"You have to have a good imagination.
That's what distinguishes good science
from bad science," says Granger. "We
call it innovation, but it's imagination."
But even with the addition of men like
Granger, few would have imagined the
research revival recorded at LSUMC
over the past four years.
Microbiologist James Cardelli says,
"It's like being a modern explorer. If
you're on the cutting edge of research,
you're literally going where no man has
ever gone before."
And now a new wave of young scien-tists
are taking Shreveport to places it's
never been before in the world of medi-cal
research.
Quietly and persistently, LSUMC's ag-gressive
researchers are attracting
honors from the science world and atten-tion
from the corporate world. The
potential result: vaccines and cures for
diseases like cancer and arthritis, im-proved
medical care, an economic boost
for the city and prestige from new scien-tists.
The newest face looking in the lab
belongs to Kenneth Peterson, 30, who
spent the past two years on a fellowship
at Harvard Medical School.
He joined the research team Thursday
after refusing offers from the University
of Virginia and University of Arkansas
medical centers. His research could one
day save millions of children who are dy-ing
in Third-World countries from viral
infections.
"I've heard of Shreveport several
times. I talked to several people who are
well-known scientists and they spoke
highly of Shreveport. It's getting on the
map as far as medical institutions go," he
says.
Peterson says he's not hesitant to leave
the aura of Harvard. "Not at all. Harvard
has been a nice place to learn, but I don't
feel at all like it's a step down.
"The attraction for me is Dennis
O'Callaghan (head of microbiology and
immunology) is making a first-rate de-partment
of investigators like myself
who are excited about research," he says.
The enthusiasm Peterson likes is easy
to find.
"I love what I do. It's a job that's fun,"
says biochemist Michael Hampsey. "The starting from scratch, in the group of
nature of research - part of what makes schools who started in the past 10 to 15
it so exciting - is you don't know exactly years," says Dr. Darryl Williams, dean of
where it might go." the medical school.
Sometimes the researchers them- "We're as happy as we can be. I don't
selves don't know exactly where they think we could grow any faster, corn-might
go either. fortably. Can we do better? Sure, we can
Dennis O'Callaghan thought he was on do better. But I think we've made some
his way to Wake Forest University from significant gains,
the University of Mississippi four years "Research is so important in a medical
ago when he was instead lured to center, especially if you have aspirations
Shreveport. to be excellent. We have those aspira-
O'Callaghan was the first of the new tions'," h e says.
wave of recognized researchers, started Making Williams proud:
by the retirements of several previous • Department chairmen like
department chairmen. His department Granger, who has $1.3 million in grants,
now has more than $3 million in grants invitations to lecture around the world
and seven new researchers. and a t h e o r y a b o u t t h e treatment of or-
"I really don't know of anybody who Sa n s d u r i nS t r a n sPl a n t s that some say
has been more successful than we in • See MED, Page 3E
LSUMC research grants
Grants received by LSU Medical
Center have increased by 170 1/2
percent over the last five years
Inside:
RESEARCHERS: Who are they? DOLLARS AND CENTS: It takes
What are they Iike? They're very money to continue research. How
dedicated to their work, spending are those funds raised? Who gets
extra long hours asking questions, what and how is it used. LSU
seeking answers. But away from Medical Center has garnered
the lab they're I ike anybody else— more than $3 million in the last
theylikegardening,fishingand year. It has gone to various
listening to Pink Floyd. Page2E departments. Page 3E
Profiles: Department chairmen
Dennis O'Call-aghan,
Chairman
of Microbiology
and Immunology.
Born: July 26,
1940, in New Or-leans.
Came to LSUMC:
1984.
Publications: 60
articles, 3 books, 16
chapters, 92 ab-stracts.
Area of research: herpes virusesand
gene programming.
Possible benefit: new vaccines.
Funding from grants: $1,282,792.
Dennis O'Callaghan was sailing into a
new position at Wake Forest University
four years ago when a visit to Shreveport
changed his course — and turned the tide
in scientific research at LSU Medical
Center.
O'Callaghan, chairman of micro-biology
and immunology, was the first in
a new wave of research scientists to
harbor their talents at LSUMC. He re-cruited
seven researchers for his depart-ment;
his appointment was followed by
those of department heads Richard
Courtney, Neil Granger and others.
Perry Rigby, dean of the medical
school at the time, "was a very per-suasive
person," says the New Orleans
native.
"I saw a medical center willing to
commit to research and it was a
challenge to come here and fill several
positions. We're young and our faculty is
young, but we're competitive."
O'Callaghan describes his researchers
this way: "Impatient, aggressive and
hard-working. They've been in good
places. They know how it should be done
and they're trying to do it here. They
want to establish their names."
He says the time when he came to the
medical center, a time when several
professors were retiring, was a window
of opportunity.
"Dr. Rigby saw that and he got people
interested in establishing research pro-grams,"
he says.
Richard Court-ney,
Chairman of
Biochemistry and
Molecular Bio-ogy.
Born: July 2,
1941, in Greenville,
Pa.
Came to LSUMC:
1985.
Publications: 65
a r t i c l e s , 3
chapters, 53 abstracts.
Area of research: molecular studies
of herpes virus proteins.
Possible benefit: new vaccines.
Funding from grants: $967,171.
Richard Courtney thought he would
never leave Knoxville, Tenn. After seven
years at the University of Tennessee he
was sufficiently challenged, satisfied
and settled.
Then he was tempted.
"This opportunity presented itself and
I was impressed with the commitment
here to build a research program that
could reach national excellence," says
Courtney, head of biochemistry and
molecular biology at LSUMC.
He came to Shreveport three years ago
and has since enlisted the talents of six
other scientists, most of whom brought
research associates and graduate stu-dents
with them. The most recent recruit
did his post-doctoral work at Harvard
Medical School.
"My goal is to build a program of ex-cellence.
And I wouldn't be here if I didn't
think we could," says the 47-year-old
Syracuse University alumnus.
"What you want to do in science is
bring in new ideas and new approaches.
We're bringing in faculty members from
all over the country.
"We have found if we can get them to
visit the medical center and feel the
enthusiasm here, then we're competitive
with other schools.
Courtney has been quite successful. In
addition to the six new researchers, the
department has grown to include 20
graduate students. There were three
when he came.
Neil Granger,
C h a i r m a n of
Physiology and
Biophysics.
Born: June 27,
1951, in Erath, La.
Came to LSUMC:
1986.
Publications: 201
articles, 4 books, 42
chapters, 178 ab-stracts.
Area of research:
microcirculation.
Possible benefit: safer organ trans-plants.
Funding from grants: $1,362,025.
Neil Granger, fifth of 13 children born
to a Cajun salt-miner and his wife, calls
himself an average person with average
intelligence.
But the LSUMC physiology and
biophysics chairman, who brought five
young researchers with him when he
joined LSUMC in 1986, is one of the most
honored and respected scientists at the
medical center. Last year the American
Physiological Socisty gave him its high-est
honor by asking him to give the
Bowditch Award Lecture at their meet-ing
in San Diego.
Recognized around the world, he has
been invited to speak to professional
groups throughout the United States, as
well as in cities such as Budapest, Tor-onto,
Hong Kong, Sydney, Oxford, Tokyo
and Helsinki.
He is known for experiments showing
that infusing blood into an organ used in
a transplant, which has been a common
practice, could actually damage the or-gan.
Schools such as Johns Hopkins and
Stanford are testing his theory.
Granger shrugs off the acclaim.
"My goal is to completely define how a
certain organ functions. It's not winning
the Nobel Prize.
If he does ever get to thinking too high-ly
of himself, all he has to do is go home
to Erath, where his parents still speak to
each other in French.
"I'll make a remark in English and get
a response back in French. I embarrass
myself," he says.
A look at research:
what it involves
The process of research is an
excruciatingly slow one which
often focuses on a microscopic
aspect of a single organism or
disease development. A dis-covery
in the unknown can be ex-citing,
but the means of getting
there can be tedious.
"You can only solve one part of
the puzzle and let others finish
it," says researcher James
Cardelli.
Below is a simplified list on the
research process.
Step 1: Choose basic a rea of re-search
interest white earning
collegiate and advanced
degrees.
Step 2: Focus on research
interest while in postdoctoral fel-lowship.
Step 3: Establish own lab in
specific area of research at a
medical center.
Step 4: Pose questions; for ex-ample,
about the reasons why a
healthy ceil would become a
cancer cell.
Step 5: Apply for grants; re-cruit
assistants and students.
Step 6: Conduct experiments to
test the hypothesis.
Step 7: If the hypothesis is
proved, conduct new experi-ments
to learn more.
Step 8 If the hypothesis is dis-proved,
ask new questions to
conduct experiments which ap-proach
the hypothesis from a
new angle.
Step 9: Release findings
through publication in scientific
journals.
Step 10: Achieve practical ap-plications:
a better under-standing
of disease mechanisms,
which will help physicians treat
patients, and perhaps new vac-cines
from a pharmaceutical
firm which uses the new knowl-edge.