Dr. Guy Reed: New Face of the Biomedical Campus

The UA College of Medicine – Phoenix is continuing its growth with a new dean on campus and full accreditation. Dr. Guy Reed is the new face of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

Reed is a Yale- Harvard- and Stanford-educated physician and research scientist whose lab has developed an innovative, clot-dissolving therapy to treat patients with strokes and heart attacks. He represents today’s transformation in academic medicine, which brings together exceptional education, scientific and exemplary patient care.

“One of the important missions of a medical school is to engage in clinical care, and to have that clinical care allow discovery that leads to products and innovations that improve the public’s health,” Reed said. “I have always believed that critical care drives discovery.”

“We have enormous potential because of the advanced level of care and excellent physicians and researchers already in the Phoenix metro area,” he said. “Developing these areas of expertise and training will be paramount for the college as we move to the next stage of our growth.”

Cybersecurity is a threat to identity, and now health. Fortunately, patients can rest a little easier as two UA alumni doctors develop a system to better protect their medical data.

Graduates of the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix are trained to be innovative leaders, who push the boundaries of their profession to improve patient care.

For two, computer savvy UA alumni — Dr. Jeff Tully and Dr. Christian Dameff — that desire to help secure the future of medicine began in medical school. Since then, they have continued putting their training and technological interests to good use.

While working toward their MDs, they won a grant to develop clinical uses of Google Glass and researched vulnerabilities in the 911 emergency call system. Now, they are tackling solutions to the emerging threat against medical device cybersecurity.

In June, along with the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council, they prepared a two-day CyberMed Summit to showcase simulated emergency situations where patient insulin pumps, pacemakers and bedside medication systems had been hacked.

“We had first-of-their-kind cybersecurity simulations,” Tully said. “We brought together people all across the world. We offered an event free of charge to the public, and we had the chance to show the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix as an innovative center that will lead the world in this issue.”

Dameff said that he and Tully want to become a voice for patients in trying to prevent cyberattacks on medical devices.

“It’s an opportunity, but it’s also a responsibility,” Dameff said. “When you see the waterfall coming and you’re on the raft, it’s your job to warn everyone to get to the side.”

The first-ever organ on a chip tests hundreds of drugs on your gut before you ingest them.

Imagine testing hundreds of drugs on your gut without ever ingesting them. That is exactly what UA scientist and innovator Frederic Zenhausern has developed: the first-ever human organ on a microchip. The technology comes from groundbreaking research in partnership with the University of Luxemburg, and it can determine something simple (why a person’s stomach is hurting) or complex (whether diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s are connected to microbes in the digestive tract).

The discovery came to life in Zenhausern’s lab in the state-of-the-art facilities of the new Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building in Phoenix, part of the UA College of Medicine. Zenhausern and his team of 12 researchers at the Center for Applied NanoBioscience & Medicine create platforms to analyze molecules that carry genetic instructions to the body.

The analysis translates into medical uses, as well as better diagnoses and treatments for diseases. The scientists build devices on a micro and nano scale for academic, clinical and industrial users throughout the world.

The center's worldwide partnerships include:

• Developing new materials for medical devices and other sensing technology through a partnership with the Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. in Japan.

• Exploring wearable technology for health applications and “smart” hospital rooms that enhance the patient experience with scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

• Using particle-beam technology with the Italian Centre of Oncological Hadrontherapy to personalize radiotherapy.

As a scientist with an MBA, Zenhausern seeks opportunities to capitalize on his center’s innovations, which ensures his lab is involved in more than simply building platforms and technologies for diagnostic tests. Zenhausern investigates prospects for potential business solutions - for example, how a specimen is transported from a doctor’s office or hospital to a lab. His researchers have pioneered packaging that begins processing a specimen, such as blood, saliva or urine, prior to its shipment for analysis. Thus, when the specimen arrives at its destination, the processing is already complete.

UA’s Researchers Curing Arizona and the Globe

The Phoenix Biomedical Campus, home to the University’s new, $136 million Biomedical Science Partnership Building, is downtown’s incubator of scientists and researchers who are discovering innovative solutions to today’s leading health concerns. Across our campus, over six labs and dozens of researchers are:

• Developing new cancer drugs, molecular medicine, pediatric vaccines and clot-busting drugs.

• Researching how certain cell proteins are involved in cocaine addiction and how developmental disorders, such as autism, arise.

• Creating a design for a bio-inspired, soft-armed, autonomous robot.

• Solving how traumatic brain injury might lead to long-term consequences, such as dementia.