Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

Jaidev Bapat , one of  the recipients of the Mirandon Foundation Scholarships is focused on a form of cancer--ovarian.  Jaidev's work in the lab will focus on ovarian tumor metastasis and on understanding how it acquires drug resistance, as well as alternate approaches for treatment. Jaidev's project, "Exploring the Effects of Heterozygous Deletion of BECN1 and MAPILC3B Genes in Ovarian Cancer Cells," centers around understanding how either initiation of autophagy or inhibition of autophagy alters growth dynamics of ovarian cancer cells. Jaidev is a second year student at John Muir College majoring in molecular biology.  Jaidev is specifically interested in cancer because many of his family members have suffered from various forms of cancer. The Howell Scholarship has enabled him to center his research in the area of ovarian cancer.  He finds oncology a fascinating field of research; he believes the experience that he will gain from this research project will h...

Tiffany Lee  received one of three scholarships awarded by the Mirandon Foundation for Hope, indicating an interest in cancer, especially of the breast. Tiffany Lee's project title is "Dissecting the Molecular Basis of Breast Cancer Metastasis Dormancy." Since most cancer-related deaths are due to metastasis--when, after primary tumor removal, disseminated tumor cells enter a dormant state and then reactivate cell proliferation to form metastatic outgrowth.  Dr. Jing Yang's laboratory has established a breast cancer metastatic dormancy mouse model to monitor the disseminated tumor cells and characterize dormant tumor cells at distant organs.  Tiffany's project aims to perform histological and molecular characterization of this novel tumor dormancy mouse model. In her personal statement, Tiffany describes this particular story of her childhood, told by her mother, which defines her today.  "When I came home, I found her chewing on a whole apple with her...

Jonathan Pham's  topic of research is the "Role of Sirt1 during Mouse Trophoblast Injury." Jonathan, the second Mirandon Foundation for Hope scholar,  will focus on the roll of the protein deacetylase and the stem cells that give rise to the placenta. He notes that defects in placental development contribute to pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia which affects 3-10% of the pregnancies worldwide. Jonathan's interest in curing pregnancy-related diseases led him to the Parast lab min the Department of Pathology at UCSD. Dr.Parast's laboratory is part of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. In the future, Jonathon plans to continue his research on pre-eclampsia and trophoblast stem cells in an effort to fight maternal diseases that result in fetal growth restriction and stillbirth. Mana M Parast, MD, Ph.D., in her letter of recommendation, notes that Jonathan has grown immensely as a researcher.  Jonathan now assists both graduate student...

Dr. Dorothy Sears will be presenting "Simple Lifestyle Changes for Improving Women's Health"  on May 20th.  This interview provides an insight of our speaker.  Thank you Dr. Sears for joining us! ### About the Doris A. Howell Foundation: The Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research is committed to keeping the women we love healthy, advancing women’s health through research and educating women to be catalysts for improving family health in the community. The organization does so by funding scholarships to students researching issues affecting women’s health; providing a forum for medical experts, scientists, doctors, and researchers to convey timely information on topics relevant to women’s health and the health of their families through its Lecture and Evening Series, and by funding research initiatives that improve the health of under-served women and increase awareness and advocacy in the community. To learn more about the Foundatio...

Every year in May, the Office on Women's Health celebrates Women's Health Week. Let's face it: when we are in our 20's we think we are invincible! But the foundation of a healthy life starts as early as we can build it.  The 'musts' of women's health are divided into age group categories, from the 20's up to the 90's -- talk about simple lifestyle changes to improve our health! The top 5 actions we need to take for our health on a regular basis include eating healthy to maintain a healthy weight, getting active for at least 30 minutes most days of the week, checking our blood pressure, limiting alcohol use and making sure our vaccinations are up to date. Oh, and if you are a smoker, don't. Obviously, as our bodies age, our road to wellbeing changes. Being healthy is being happy! In your 20's and 30's, it's imperative that you talk to your doctor about choosing the right birth control and whether you are planning to ...

The Howell Foundation will be hosting Dr. Sears on May 20th with the presentation "Simple Lifestyle Changes for Improving Women's Health"; where she will be talking about the latest research on the effects sedentary behavior has on chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. We believe that exercising IS a simple lifestyle change that can help your overall health.  Even though tons of research strongly suggests that exercise benefits practically every single part of your body, the statistics continue to be staggering: only 3 of 10 Americans do enough exercise to keep healthy; 4 of 10 confess they do not exercise at all! Here are some of the most important benefits of exercise. So let's get moving already!  ### About the Doris A. Howell Foundation: The Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research is committed to keeping the women we love healthy, advancing women’s health through researc...

National Nurse's week is celebrated May 6th to May 12th.  This incredibly noble profession isn't always recognized as it should.  Aside from treating patients that can be very sick or injured, nurses provide advice and sometimes much needed emotional support to patients and their families as well.  Being a nurse goes beyond helping doctors in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. In recognition to the amazing work nurses do to help our health in the research field, and to honor the help of one of our own, the Howell Foundation established the Cheryl A. Wilson Nursing Scholarship 6 years ago. Current CEO of St. Senior Homes & Services in San Diego, Ms. Wilson holds a Master’s degree from the University of Redlands, MA and an RN from Prince Henry's Nursing School.  Ms. Wilson has earlier experience as a Critical Care/Operating nurse and consultant to long-term care programs/new programs & facilities development. Prior to her current position, she als...

Come and meet her at the Howell Foundation Lecture "Small Lifestyle Changes for Improving Women's Health" on May 20th.  The Howell Foundation announced that Emily Judd was awarded the Cher Conner Scholarship in April, 2016.  She was one of the highest rated applicants.  Barbara Parry, M.D., in her letter of recommendation notes that Emily is "probably the best undergraduate we have had working in our laboratory in the last 20 years." You noted in your prerequisites in requesting a Scholar that depression was a topic of interest.    Emily's  research topic "Chronobiological Interventions for the Treatment of Major Depression in Pregnant and Postpartum Women" addresses that interest area. Emily proposes the pregnant and postpartum period are accompanied by an increased risk of major depression.  Pharmacological interventions could pose risk to both fetus and infant; making treatment during peripartum very challenging.  She proposes tha...