Background: Central Michigan University’s student chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Me... more Background: Central Michigan University’s student chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) organized a conference on global and local health disparities in April 2011. Out of this conference came a student-driven initiative to develop: 1) interdisciplinary courses on health-related topics, and 2) an organized series of courses centered on global health and social justice.
Methods: This conference led to the development of a coordinated faculty learning community/student learning community (FLC/SLC), which focused on developing both of these initiatives. In this learning community we discussed the best practices of interdisciplinary teaching and assessment, as well as prepared an interdisciplinary course about water.
Results: The resulting course was co-taught by anthropology, biology, and chemistry faculty to 28 undergraduate students with anthropology, biology, chemistry, and other majors. The course combined water-borne diseases with cultural and power-related barriers to clean water, as well as water treatment in developed and third world countries. The course also included a student-mentored seminar stressing activism on water-related issues with an activism group project as the final project. The course was developed and implemented as an introductory, interdisciplinary course in order to provide exposure of global health and social disparities and activism towards solutions to these disparities. The theme running through the course is examining the effect of cholera, a water-borne disease, in a global context. Our major objective was to develop interdisciplinary thinking through the emphasis of group work requiring the development of a solution to a complex problem. Analysis of pre- and post-class questions about student attitudes via a written questionnaire demonstrated an increase in social awareness and desire to continue to act in a positive manner towards solutions of global problems. For example, of 28 respondents, every of 29 questions concerning civic engagement issues showed an increase in agreement, with 11 showing statistically significant increases. Assessment of interdisciplinary thinking of students within the class showed trends towards an increased ability to solve complex issues utilizing interdisciplinary logic for seven out of 8 groups of students (the eighth group kept its high level). Additionally, an interdisciplinary certificate about global health and social justice was developed. It includes courses from several colleges at Central Michigan University. The focus of studies to earn the certificate is multidisciplinary coursework connecting social justice issues with inequalities in global health.
Conclusions: The student initiative led first to the development of an interdisciplinary course that included activism. This is expanded to an interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate in global health disparities and might lead to an interdisciplinary major or minor in the future.
Yersinia encodes a protein kinase, YpkA, which disrupts the actin cytoskeleton. Using an approach... more Yersinia encodes a protein kinase, YpkA, which disrupts the actin cytoskeleton. Using an approach termed chemical genetics, we identified a 36-kDa substrate for YpkA in both J774 lysates and bovine brain cytosol. Mass spectrometry analysis identified this substrate as FLJ20113, an open reading frame that corresponds to otubain 1, a deubiquitinating enzyme implicated in immune cell clonal anergy. We demonstrate that otubain 1 is phosphorylated by YpkA in vitro and interacts with YpkA and actin in vivo. Identification of otubain 1 as a YpkA substrate suggests that regulation of immune cell anergy may be a survival mechanism for Yersinia.
Background: Central Michigan University’s student chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Me... more Background: Central Michigan University’s student chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) organized a conference on global and local health disparities in April 2011. Out of this conference came a student-driven initiative to develop: 1) interdisciplinary courses on health-related topics, and 2) an organized series of courses centered on global health and social justice.
Methods: This conference led to the development of a coordinated faculty learning community/student learning community (FLC/SLC), which focused on developing both of these initiatives. In this learning community we discussed the best practices of interdisciplinary teaching and assessment, as well as prepared an interdisciplinary course about water.
Results: The resulting course was co-taught by anthropology, biology, and chemistry faculty to 28 undergraduate students with anthropology, biology, chemistry, and other majors. The course combined water-borne diseases with cultural and power-related barriers to clean water, as well as water treatment in developed and third world countries. The course also included a student-mentored seminar stressing activism on water-related issues with an activism group project as the final project. The course was developed and implemented as an introductory, interdisciplinary course in order to provide exposure of global health and social disparities and activism towards solutions to these disparities. The theme running through the course is examining the effect of cholera, a water-borne disease, in a global context. Our major objective was to develop interdisciplinary thinking through the emphasis of group work requiring the development of a solution to a complex problem. Analysis of pre- and post-class questions about student attitudes via a written questionnaire demonstrated an increase in social awareness and desire to continue to act in a positive manner towards solutions of global problems. For example, of 28 respondents, every of 29 questions concerning civic engagement issues showed an increase in agreement, with 11 showing statistically significant increases. Assessment of interdisciplinary thinking of students within the class showed trends towards an increased ability to solve complex issues utilizing interdisciplinary logic for seven out of 8 groups of students (the eighth group kept its high level). Additionally, an interdisciplinary certificate about global health and social justice was developed. It includes courses from several colleges at Central Michigan University. The focus of studies to earn the certificate is multidisciplinary coursework connecting social justice issues with inequalities in global health.
Conclusions: The student initiative led first to the development of an interdisciplinary course that included activism. This is expanded to an interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate in global health disparities and might lead to an interdisciplinary major or minor in the future.
Yersinia encodes a protein kinase, YpkA, which disrupts the actin cytoskeleton. Using an approach... more Yersinia encodes a protein kinase, YpkA, which disrupts the actin cytoskeleton. Using an approach termed chemical genetics, we identified a 36-kDa substrate for YpkA in both J774 lysates and bovine brain cytosol. Mass spectrometry analysis identified this substrate as FLJ20113, an open reading frame that corresponds to otubain 1, a deubiquitinating enzyme implicated in immune cell clonal anergy. We demonstrate that otubain 1 is phosphorylated by YpkA in vitro and interacts with YpkA and actin in vivo. Identification of otubain 1 as a YpkA substrate suggests that regulation of immune cell anergy may be a survival mechanism for Yersinia.
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Conference Presentations
Methods: This conference led to the development of a coordinated faculty learning community/student learning community (FLC/SLC), which focused on developing both of these initiatives. In this learning community we discussed the best practices of interdisciplinary teaching and assessment, as well as prepared an interdisciplinary course about water.
Results: The resulting course was co-taught by anthropology, biology, and chemistry faculty to 28 undergraduate students with anthropology, biology, chemistry, and other majors. The course combined water-borne diseases with cultural and power-related barriers to clean water, as well as water treatment in developed and third world countries. The course also included a student-mentored seminar stressing activism on water-related issues with an activism group project as the final project. The course was developed and implemented as an introductory, interdisciplinary course in order to provide exposure of global health and social disparities and activism towards solutions to these disparities. The theme running through the course is examining the effect of cholera, a water-borne disease, in a global context. Our major objective was to develop interdisciplinary thinking through the emphasis of group work requiring the development of a solution to a complex problem. Analysis of pre- and post-class questions about student attitudes via a written questionnaire demonstrated an increase in social awareness and desire to continue to act in a positive manner towards solutions of global problems. For example, of 28 respondents, every of 29 questions concerning civic engagement issues showed an increase in agreement, with 11 showing statistically significant increases. Assessment of interdisciplinary thinking of students within the class showed trends towards an increased ability to solve complex issues utilizing interdisciplinary logic for seven out of 8 groups of students (the eighth group kept its high level). Additionally, an interdisciplinary certificate about global health and social justice was developed. It includes courses from several colleges at Central Michigan University. The focus of studies to earn the certificate is multidisciplinary coursework connecting social justice issues with inequalities in global health.
Conclusions: The student initiative led first to the development of an interdisciplinary course that included activism. This is expanded to an interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate in global health disparities and might lead to an interdisciplinary major or minor in the future.
Papers
Methods: This conference led to the development of a coordinated faculty learning community/student learning community (FLC/SLC), which focused on developing both of these initiatives. In this learning community we discussed the best practices of interdisciplinary teaching and assessment, as well as prepared an interdisciplinary course about water.
Results: The resulting course was co-taught by anthropology, biology, and chemistry faculty to 28 undergraduate students with anthropology, biology, chemistry, and other majors. The course combined water-borne diseases with cultural and power-related barriers to clean water, as well as water treatment in developed and third world countries. The course also included a student-mentored seminar stressing activism on water-related issues with an activism group project as the final project. The course was developed and implemented as an introductory, interdisciplinary course in order to provide exposure of global health and social disparities and activism towards solutions to these disparities. The theme running through the course is examining the effect of cholera, a water-borne disease, in a global context. Our major objective was to develop interdisciplinary thinking through the emphasis of group work requiring the development of a solution to a complex problem. Analysis of pre- and post-class questions about student attitudes via a written questionnaire demonstrated an increase in social awareness and desire to continue to act in a positive manner towards solutions of global problems. For example, of 28 respondents, every of 29 questions concerning civic engagement issues showed an increase in agreement, with 11 showing statistically significant increases. Assessment of interdisciplinary thinking of students within the class showed trends towards an increased ability to solve complex issues utilizing interdisciplinary logic for seven out of 8 groups of students (the eighth group kept its high level). Additionally, an interdisciplinary certificate about global health and social justice was developed. It includes courses from several colleges at Central Michigan University. The focus of studies to earn the certificate is multidisciplinary coursework connecting social justice issues with inequalities in global health.
Conclusions: The student initiative led first to the development of an interdisciplinary course that included activism. This is expanded to an interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate in global health disparities and might lead to an interdisciplinary major or minor in the future.