Research UpDATE: February 2009
Reprinted with permission of
Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services
Andrew Vanderwerf displays samples of DNA used in the research he and fellow student Eric Monson are conducting.
Note: The following four articles appeared in Research UpDATE, which featured CPD programs.
From the Associate Dean:
The Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) is a primary research and service unit of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. For nearly 40 years the CPD has focused on the needs of Utah and its rural, culturally diverse, and underserved populations.
This issue of Research UpDATE presents a vision for the future from Bryce Fifield, CPD's new director. We also look at the exemplary research efforts of USU students working with Anthony Ron Torres of the CPD, and we announce the receipt of two significant grants for children with autism spectrum disorder. It is interesting to note that the CPD receives just over $11 million in external funding from local, state, and federal agencies.
CPD Head Keeps 'Disability Agenda' Before Community
For Bryce Fifield, becoming head of Utah State University's Center for Persons with Disabilities was a kind of homecoming. The USU alum, who took the post in July, is the son of Marvin Fifield, the CPD's first director.
In 1968, a then-teenaged Fifield visited the CPD's building shortly after it was constructed. The empty facility was on the fringes of campus.
A lot has changed in 40 years.
Today, the center includes five buildings and employs 200 people. The $15 million budget goes to fund 70 to 80 projects, including studies of immune function genes in Cerebral Palsy and storytelling to promote literacy.
In an interview with The Herald Journal, Fifield discussed more about his future plans for the CPD.
Q: What are some of your hopes in this position?
A: Sustaining a tradition of excellence is my focus here. CPD has a long history of working with people in the community, with disability advocacy groups, being a campus partner. We want to sustain that. We want to reinforce the focus on good science and using the best of our research capabilities to answer some of the difficult questions facing the disability community.
The economic crisis that we're in affects everybody--the campus, the community, our programs. These will be defining years for us in the coming little while as we decide and establish priorities in this crisis. People with disabilities have often been marginalized when there is a crisis. Our challenge is to use the most creative talent that we've got to keep that disability agenda as a human rights issue before the community. These are our families, our neighbors, our friends.
Q: Could you describe more about how people with disabilities are marginalized? Do you mean that they are laid off first?
A: Yes, often. They are often viewed as less productive and more costly. Incidentally, data don't support that at all. They will be the first to be let go and the last to be rehired. They'll take the brunt of downsizing. This has historically been the case. Not to say that it's going to be easy for anybody. But if we are successful of achieving our goals, people with disabilities are fully enfranchised and fully part of the community, with the same opportunities as anybody, so the disability is a non-issue.
(Disabled people) have health benefits and sustainabilty of independence issues. It's hard on anyone (to get laid off), but it's doubly hard on folks who have disabilities and their families. We have to get away from a charity mindset. That's one of the dangers of the economic downturn, that it will come back to charity--providing for folks rather than giving them opportunities.
Q: Are there any other future plans you want to highlight for the CPD?
A: We are a few years out from our 40th anniversary. We hope to connect with people the CPD has touched and involve them in helping us shape our future. CPD has a long history and has touched literally tens of thousands of people over the years. There is not a family in Utah that has a child with a disability that has not been touched by one of our programs. We want to hear their stories. We're interested in did we make a difference. We'll use that information to shape our future plans.
--Excerpted from The Herald Journal, January 13, 2009, by Kim Burgess
Students Receive Grant for Research on DNA Testing
Eric Monson and Andrew Vanderwerf, bioengineering majors at Utah State University, were recent recipients of an Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities (URCO) grant.
This grant will fund research designed to help DNA testing become more affordable for schools that do copy number variation genetic testing. This specialized testing is used in several applications, including disease research.
With the URCO grant Monson and Vanderwerf want to design a way to more equally reproduce human DNA for experiments on human genes that will lead to a better understanding of genetic diseases in humans. Andrew Vanderwerf, 22, from Tracy, California and Eric Monson, 26, from Hyrum, Utah, work on several different projects at the biomedical lab in the CPD under Dr. Anthony Ron Tores. If their research is positive, Monson and Vanderwerf hope to apply their own research in USU's biomedical labs. Right now it is expensive for research on copy number variation because it requires pure genomic DNA. Monson and Vanderwerf want to design less expensive DNA testing kits for smaller labs, such as those at Utah State, and they plan to share the research on DNA with other labs.
Grants like the one Eric and Andrew are working on are given by USU's department of undergraduate research. These grants are given to all departments across campus and they match funds received by other funding sources. URCO grants are designed to help undergraduate students do research. They typically last for a year or until the research is completed.
--Skylor Pond
Center for Persons with Disabilities a Parter in $1.5 million Autism Grants
Two grants totaling $1.5 million will provide better services to Utah's children with autism spectrum disorders. Over the next three years, the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University will partner with two other organizations to train professionals and future leaders in the autism field.
The two grants from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration will go to a program that trains professionals across many disciplines. The Utah Regional Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (URLEND) program is administered by the University of Utah's Department of Pediatrics and the CPD, under the direction of Dr. Judith Holt. Its goal is to take a family-friendly, integrated and culturally sensitive approach to serving children with disabilities.
The federal administration's support will allow URLEND to add new trainees with experience or interest in serving the families of children with autism. In addition, the program will work with the Utah State Department of Health to implement activities identified in the statewide strategic plan for autism.
Dr. Thomas Higbee, who heads up the center's Autism Support Services: Education, Research and Training (ASSERT) program, will be on the faculty and work with the new trainees. ASSERT prepares children with autism to enter the school system, conducts research on the best early education methods for the children and serves as a model classroom for professionals.
The two HSRA grants add to the Center for Persons with Disabilities' authority in the autism field. In addition to housing the ASSERT program, the center's biomedical lab has worked to identify genes associated with the condition.
Autism spectrum disorder is the fastest-growing developmental disability in Utah. It usually manifests itself by age three, and is characterized by significant problems in getting along with others and communicating. Children with the disorder may have unusual behaviors and learning patterns. The reported prevalence of ASD in Utah has risen twentyfold in twenty years, according to a 2007 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Contact Judith Holt at 797-7157 for more information.
--JoLynne Lyon
