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Nursing Student Ansley Stanfill of

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Honored at 2012 Southern Nursing Research Society Conference

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Memphis, Tenn. (May 23, 2012) – Ansley Stanfill, RN, BSN, College of Nursing student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), was awarded a prize for her dissertation research at the 2012 Southern Nursing Research Society Conference, held in New Orleans, La., in February.  Stanfill’s award-winning dissertation titled, “Dopaminergic Genetic Contributions to Obesity in Kidney Transplant Recipients,” deals with genotyping repository blood samples from kidney transplant recipients who gained or did not gain weight after one year post-transplant. Salimetrics, a company that specializes in analyzing saliva research, sponsored the award.  Each award winner receives two days of laboratory-based saliva research training at a Salimetrics Spit Camp, along with $500 for travel expenses.

Spit Camp is a two-day session designed to assist researchers with training in the integration of salivary measures into scientific studies.  Each session combines lecture, discussion, and hands-on laboratory experience to give attendees a basic knowledge of oral fluids as biological specimens, proper saliva collection and handling techniques, and the use of immunoassay techniques to measure salivary analytes.   Camps are held several times per year at the company headquarters in State College, Pa., at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., and at the University of California, Irvine.  Spit Camps are also given periodically by partner labs located in the United States and by Salimetrics Europe in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Being sent to Spit Camp will assist Stanfill in future research endeavors because she will learn to use saliva for the extraction of necessary DNA.  This would make recruitment of subjects for future studies easier, as the collection of the DNA would not involve a needle stick, and also possibly enhance the translational aspects of her research.

            As the flagship statewide academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service.  In 2011, UT Health Science Center celebrated its centennial: 100 years advancing the future of health care.  Since its founding in 1911, UTHSC has educated and trained more than 53,000 health care professionals on campuses and in health care facilities across the state.  For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.

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