Dean R. Appling is an American biochemist and associate dean, Lester J. Reed Professor at University of Texas at Austin and a published author. [1] [2] [3] [4] More information on Dean Appling's lab, focused on folic acid research and affectionately called the Folic Acid Research Team ("FART"), can be found at https://sites.cns.utexas.edu/applinglab/home.
Folate, also known as vitamin B9 and folacin, is one of the B vitamins. Manufactured folic acid, which is converted into folate by the body, is used as a dietary supplement and in food fortification as it is more stable during processing and storage. Folate is required for the body to make DNA and RNA and metabolise amino acids necessary for cell division. As humans cannot make folate, it is required in the diet, making it an essential nutrient. It occurs naturally in many foods. The recommended adult daily intake of folate in the U.S. is 400 micrograms from foods or dietary supplements.
Spina bifida /ˌspaɪnə ˈbɪfɪdə/ is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy. There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, meningocele and myelomeningocele. Meningocele and myelomeningocele may be grouped as spina bifida cystica. The most common location is the lower back, but in rare cases it may be in the middle back or neck.
Anencephaly is the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp that occurs during embryonic development. It is a cephalic disorder that results from a neural tube defect that occurs when the rostral (head) end of the neural tube fails to close, usually between the 23rd and 26th day following conception. Strictly speaking, the Greek term translates as "without a brain", but it is accepted that children born with this disorder usually only lack a telencephalon, the largest part of the brain consisting mainly of the cerebral hemispheres, including the neocortex, which is responsible for cognition. The remaining structure is usually covered only by a thin layer of membrane—skin, bone, meninges, etc., are all lacking. With very few exceptions, infants with this disorder do not survive longer than a few hours or days after birth.
Aminopterin, the 4-amino derivative of folic acid, is an antineoplastic drug with immunosuppressive properties often used in chemotherapy. Aminopterin is a synthetic derivative of pterin. Aminopterin works as an enzyme inhibitor by competing for the folate binding site of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase. Its binding affinity for dihydrofolate reductase effectively blocks tetrahydrofolate synthesis. This results in the depletion of nucleotide precursors and inhibition of DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis.
The McCombs School of Business is a business school at The University of Texas at Austin, a public research university in Austin, Texas. In addition to the main campus in Downtown Austin, McCombs offers classes outside Central Texas in Dallas, and Houston. The McCombs School of Business offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs for their average 13,000 students each year, adding to its 98,648 member alumni base from a variety of business fields. In addition to traditional classroom degree programs, McCombs is home to 14 collaborative research centers, the international business plan competition: Venture Labs Investment Competition, and executive education programs.
Neural tube defects (NTDs) are a group of birth defects in which an opening in the spine or cranium remains from early in human development. In the third week of pregnancy called gastrulation, specialized cells on the dorsal side of the embryo begin to change shape and form the neural tube. When the neural tube does not close completely, an NTD develops.
Pyrimethamine, sold under the brand name Daraprim among others, is a medication used with leucovorin to treat the parasitic diseases toxoplasmosis and cystoisosporiasis. It is also used with dapsone as a second-line option to prevent Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia in people with HIV/AIDS. It was previously used for malaria but is no longer recommended due to resistance. Pyrimethamine is taken by mouth.
The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer training in public policy analysis and administration for students that are very interested in pursuing careers in government and public affairs-related areas of the private and nonprofit sectors. Degree programs include a Master of Public Affairs (MPAff), a mid-career MPAff sequence, 16 MPAff dual degree programs, a Master of Global Policy Studies (MGPS), eight MGPS dual degree programs, an Executive Master of Public Leadership, and a Ph.D. in public policy. The LBJ School is currently ranked 7th among public affairs programs in 2022 by U.S. News & World Report, up from 8th in 2021.
The Cockrell School of Engineering is one of the eighteen colleges within the University of Texas at Austin. It has more than 8,000 students enrolled in eleven undergraduate and thirteen graduate programs. The college is ranked 10th in the world according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, 9th nationally for undergraduate programs and 6th nationally for graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report. Nine of the ten undergraduate programs and seven of the eleven graduate programs are ranked in the top ten nationally. Annual research expenditures are over $180 million and the school has the fourth-largest number of faculty in the National Academy of Engineering.
Folate deficiency, also known as vitamin B9 deficiency, is a low level of folate and derivatives in the body. Signs of folate deficiency are often subtle. A low number of red blood cells (anemia) is a late finding in folate deficiency and folate deficiency anemia is the term given for this medical condition. It is characterized by the appearance of large-sized, abnormal red blood cells (megaloblasts), which form when there are inadequate stores of folic acid within the body.
The Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin unites the Department of Geological Sciences with two research units, the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Tetrahydrofolic acid (THFA), or tetrahydrofolate, is a folic acid derivative.
Ben G. Streetman is the former Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a Ph.D in electrical engineering from Texas in 1966, and became a professor there in 1982. He founded the university's Microelectronics Research Center and holds the Dula D. Cockrell Centennial Chair Emeritus in Engineering. Streetman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Electrochemical Society. He was awarded the IEEE Education Medal in 1989.
The Dell Medical School is the graduate medical school of The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. The school opened to the inaugural class of 50 students in the summer of 2016 as the newest of 18 colleges and schools on the UT Austin campus. S. Claiborne "Clay" Johnston, M.D., Ph.D., was named as the medical school's inaugural dean in January 2014. On September 1, 2021 Johnston stepped down from his position and George Macones was named interim dean. Claudia Lucchinetti,M.D. was announced as the new dean and began her term on December 1, 2022.
Sanjay Banerjee is an American engineer at the University of Texas at Austin, director of Microelectronics Research Center, and director of the Southwest Academy of Nanoelectronics (SWAN) — one of three such centers in the United States funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation to develop a replacement for MOSFETs as part of their Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI).
Lester J. Reed was an American biochemist, having been the Ashbel Smith Professor Emeritus at University of Texas at Austin (UTA), and also a National Academy of Sciences member. He received his Bachelor of Science from Tulane University in 1943, where he worked with William Shive, and earned his doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1946 at the age of 21. He then moved to Cornell University Medical School for a two-year postdoctorate in the laboratory of Vincent du Vigneaud from 1946 to 1948. Having worked at UTA since 1948, the Lester J. Reed Professorship was named in his honor in 1997 and the current holder is Dean R. Appling. In 1977, he was given an honorary doctorate from Tulane University.
Richard Worthington Smithells was a British paediatrician and Emeritus professor of paediatrics at the University of Leeds. Smithells was most notable for research into neural tube defects, congenital abnormality registers, genetic counselling, and rubella in pregnancy and for later suggesting direct examination of the foetus by photography using ultrasonography.
Grace Arabell Goldsmith was a U.S. physician best known for her research on nutritional deficiency diseases, B-complex vitamins, and the vitamin enrichment of foods. She identified the cause of the disease pellagra.
Cheryl Ann Marie Anderson is an American epidemiologist. Anderson is a professor at and founding Dean of the University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. Anderson's research focus is on nutrition and chronic disease prevention in under-served human populations.