CenterNet | Rounds

Oklahoma State University
Center for Health Sciences

What's New

July 2004
Table of Contents

David and Rebecca John create wildlife habitat on the prairie

Round of Applause

Students get academic enrichment

Osteopathic Founders Foundation gives scholarships

OSU Medicine on the monitor

New research lab opens

Jail or bail?

Dr. Pete says “howdy” to new team members

David and Rebecca John create wildlife habitat on the prairie

David and Rebecca John tour
their 20-acre wildlife retreat.

On a sultry August day last year, David and Rebecca John were enjoying the view of the prairie that lies
just outside their front yard in rural north Tulsa County
when a white streak shot past them, with several blackbirds in hot pursuit.

The streak was a tiny, lost parakeet that landed
near Rebecca. She held out her hand and he hopped aboard. “He was exhausted and dirty,” Rebecca
recalls. He was also lucky. Today, he rules the roost from his perch in the John’s home, and has learned
to say “Get the kitty,” and “Shake a tail feather.”

Spooky the parakeet is among the newest residents
in a magical habitat created by this environmentally
savvy and dedicated couple that like nothing better
than spending time on their 20-acre spread. It also is
home to nine rescued cats, Taffy the Welsh corgi,
dozens of species of birds, as well as skunks, bats,
turtles, fish, snakes, ducks, mice, raccoons, even
the occasional mink and armadillo. David is quick to
point out, however, that he has never seen a
venomous snake on the place.

David John checks a bluebird nesting box.

Five years ago, David says, there was a house, a pond and little else. The prairie came right up to the front sidewalk, and the acreage was unkempt. The Johns pitched in to create what today is an officially sanctioned National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat. It also has Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation ranking. David says to get such a rating an area must have food, water, shelter and breeding areas for wildlife.
“When we filled out the application for wildlife habitat certification with the National Wildlife Foundation, we included lists of all the different kinds of plants and animals we had on our place,” David explains. When they counted them all up, they had identified more than 260 plants and animals.

David and Rebecca John stroll
one of the trails on their acreage.

David, associate dean for basic sciences and graduate
studies at the OSU Center for Health Sciences, is the son
of missionary parents, and grew up in Nigeria without
electricity or plumbing. “We played with the animals. We
had monkeys, antelope and even cranes for pets,” he
recalls. So, having a menagerie just seems normal.

More than 50 bird boxes and feeders dot the property,
meeting food or nesting needs for purple martins, bluebirds,
kestrels, wood ducks, hummingbirds, swallows and more.
The 50-year-old, one-acre pond is laced with huge willows,
one holding an old-fashioned swing. David has lined the
pond’s shore with rocks and stocked it with fish.
Well-trimmed trails lead to areas with names like Shady
Grove, a quiet spot where their daughter was wed, Piney
Woods, where evergreens cluster, Cat’s Meow, where David
constructed a safe, warm shelter for the well-loved cats,
and Hidey Hole, a plain, simple spot where two chairs sit
under a huge Hawthorne tree.

Mowed trails criss-cross the habitat. Along the way,
markers commemorate faithful, departed pets, and various
small plaques honor David’s mother, the co-author of his
book, “Medical Parasitology”, and the spot where his
daughter was married. A plaque of a Druid’s stern face
keeps watch over the Shady Grove and a hex sign from
Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County brightens a shed.

Rebecca shows a Bell's vireo nest to David.

When the couple moved to the gently rolling prairie north of Tulsa, Rebecca traded her carefully tended English garden for acres of wildflowers like Queen Anne’s lace, black-eyed Susan, cone flower, prairie rose, mallow, gaillardia, and clover. Ticks and chiggers are a natural part of the package, and even Taffy knows to avoid the tall grass. The new garden boasts lavender, poppies, tomatoes, cucumbers (the cucumber beetle is Rebecca’s current “bug of the month”), corn, cilantro, lettuce, carrots, and cardoon.
With all those beaks to feed, the Johns buy 200 pounds of milo each month, along with 100 pounds of birdseed and sunflower seeds every two months when the birds are in residence. There’s also fish food, dog food, cat food, suet, even cuttle bone for Spooky. All told, David estimates they buy 2,000 pounds of various critter chow a year. Rebecca also grows mealworms as a treat for the bluebirds. Does Spooky get mealworms, too? He isn’t talking.

Round of Applause

OSU-CHS in the news – OSU-CHS had a total
of 91 media mentions, excluding the OSU
Medicine campaign, for the latest reporting
period.

Emily King has been accepted to the doctoral program in higher education through OSU Tulsa, and will begin classes this fall.

An article by Scott Hendrickson, D.O., is featured as one of the top 10 articles of the month on the Medscape website. The journal article “ Legionella Pneumonia and HIV
Infection: A Case Report : A rare
same-admission diagnosis of HIV/AIDS and legionella pneumonia,” also was published
recently in the AIDS Reader.

R. Tom Glass, D.D.S., Ph.D., was featured in
the June 8 Healthy Living section of the Dallas Morning News. The article, titled “Mind your
filthy mouth,” takes a look at how often toothbrushes should be replaced.

“Neural Hierarchy for Cardiovascular Control,” awarded by National Institutes of Health. Total cost is $1,398,505 for four years. Ken Miller, Ph.D., co-investigator.

“Optimization of Antioxidant Production by Dunaliella Salina and Tetraselmis Suecica,” awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant (pilot grant program), $7500, June 1, 2004-May 30, 2005. Joseph
Price, Ph.D.,co-investigator.

Co-author of poster presented by Christopher Thurman, D.O.: “The MED360: A
Comprehensive Competency Evaluation
System”. AACOM Meeting. Baltimore, M.D.,
June 24-26. Frances Wen, Ph.D.,
Christopher Thurman, D.O., Charles
Henley, D.O., M.P.H., JooHee Kim, M.P.H., Robert Tett, Ph.D.

“The Gomphothere Stegomastodon (Mammalia: Probosciedea) in the early Pleistocene of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey Notes 63:104-111. Kent Smith, Ph.D.

Doris Patneau, Ph.D., reviewed textbook “Concise Text of Neuroscience,” by R. E.
Kingsley.

David Wallace, Ph.D. , review of grant from
U.S. Army Medical Research & Material
Command through the Scientific Advisory and
Peer Review Services of the American Institute
of Biology Sciences. Reviewed manuscripts for Synapse, Journal of Trace Elements and Experimental Medicine. Al Rouch, Ph.D.,
reviewed a manuscript for American Journal of Veterinary Research. Also, organized the
annual meeting of the Oklahoma Society of Physiologists at Tulsa Community College.

Craig Stevens, Ph.D. , reviewed manuscripts
for Journal of Pain, Journal of Pharmacology
and Experimental Therapeutics, Brain
Research and Pharmacology, Biochemistry
and Behavior.

Jail or bail?

Gary Mendenhall, Lisa McCutcheon, Karen Wicker

VIP Limousine chauffeur Gary Mendenhall, assisted by OSU’s Lisa McCutcheon (left),
serves an “arrest warrant” and picks up Karen Wicker, director of external affairs, for an
Eastern Oklahoma Division of the Muscular Dystrophy Association fund raising event.
Wicker was incarcerated at Drillers Stadium
until friends and associates made contributions
of “bail money” to gain her release, and raised
$850 for the MDA.

Students get academic enrichment

Thom Garrison explains the human brain to students

High school students interested in health careers attend a six-week on-campus summer academic enrichment program at OSU CHS through the Health Careers Opportunity Program’s High School Summer Academic Enrichment. Curriculum includes chemistry, math, creative writing, job shadowing, anatomy, forensics, decision-making and CPR certification. Here, Thom Garrison, anatomy lab technician, explains the human brain to (from left) Anthony Bowie, Rocio Torres, Emily Green, John Wheelan, Alexandria Cole and Mohammed Sheikh.

Osteopathic Founders Foundation gives scholarships

Everhart, Greer, Hoffart

Osteopathic Founders Foundation (OFF) supports osteopathic medical education and recently awarded its 2004 Tribute scholarships to (from left) OSU medicine fourth-year student recipients Rebecca Everhart, Marta Greer, and Cara Hoffart. Not pictured is recipient Natasha Ahmed.

Hoffart received the Outstanding Scholar Award given in honor of 2004 Outstanding Physician, Dr. Dean Fullingim. Everhart, Greer and Ahmed received Tribute scholarships.

OSU Medicine on the monitor

You can view OSU medicine’s new television commercials on the newly-installed monitor in the lobby above the front desk. The six commercials, featuring College of Osteopathic Medicine alumni, will run on television through 2004.

New research lab opens

Graduate and medical students now have a new research lab to call their own.

The former teaching laboratory on the first floor now is a newly remodeled research lab, according to R. Tom Glass, D.D.S., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Forensic Sciences and director of the forensic sciences graduate program.

“More and more, the old ‘wet’ teaching labs are becoming passé, and are being replaced by computers,” Glass says. He added that the teaching labs also are being replaced by case studies.

The new research lab houses forensic toxicology/toxicology, molecular biology, microbiology, and forensic sciences. The toxicology and molecular research areas are new additions. The molecular area houses a human identification lab that includes genetics research and identification of specimens by DNA technology.

“The new microbiology/forensic sciences facilities have the capacity to culture aerobic organisms that grow in the presence of oxygen, and anaerobic organisms that neither live nor reproduce in the presence of oxygen, Glass said. In addition, an area for viral research on topics like herpes, influenza and rhino (cold) viruses now is available. A darkroom allows for autoradiographic techniques to be employed in multiple areas of research.

Glass says Gary Watson, Ph.D., associate dean for research and sponsored programs, was instrumental in championing the need for the new lab. “We are very appreciative of having this new facility in which to teach graduate and medical students,” Glass said.

Rounds

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