Sept. 6, 2011

“Why can’t I get a decent night’s sleep anymore?” “Why are my grandchildren driving me crazy?” “Is there a pill I can take?” In six sessions this fall, Tallahassee-area seniors can get fascinating answers to these and other questions in a course taught by College of Medicine faculty members.

The course, “In Sickness and in Health: The Marriage of Cell Biology and Medicine,” is part of the fall schedule offered by OLLI (the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at Florida State University. OLLI classes take place at various times and venues. This course is scheduled for 1:30-3:30 p.m. on six consecutive Wednesdays, Oct. 12-Nov.16, in the Maguire Center at Westminster Oaks.

What’s unique about the course, said Yanchang Wang, one of the organizers, is that each session will provide the viewpoints of both a researcher and a physician/clinician. One works with cells, the other with patients, and they don’t often interact. “Getting both perspectives at the same time should be informative and entertaining,” said Wang, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

The idea for the course came from Wang and Kerry Maddox, grants liaison in Biomedical Sciences. As Wang prepared a grant for the National Science Foundation and Maddox worked with various grant proposals, they both noticed that the NSF and other organizations are pressing researchers nationwide to do a better job of explaining to nonscientists the significance of their work and its public health benefits.

So they approached the chair of Biomedical Sciences, Richard Nowakowski, and the chair of Clinical Sciences, Ricardo Gonzalez-Rothi, who were both enthusiastic. The four worked together to fashion an interesting course and hit upon the idea of having topics presented by a pair of faculty members, one basic scientist and one clinician. “Director Cory Livingston and the other people at OLLI were thrilled with the idea,” Maddox said.

With one exception, the presenters are all College of Medicine faculty members. Here is the schedule of classes:

•    Oct. 12 – Introductory overview by Richard Nowakowski, chair of Biomedical Sciences, and Ricardo Gonzalez-Rothi, chair of Clinical Sciences.
•    Oct. 19 – “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (and Other Neurological Conditions)” – discussion with researcher Charles Ouimet and neurologist Ed Valenstein.
•    Oct. 26 – “Help! My Grandchildren Are Driving Me Crazy!” – hyperactivity, drug addiction and the mental health of our youth, with researcher Pradeep Bhide and clinical psychologist Elena Reyes.
•    Nov. 2 – “The Obesity Epidemic: How We Got Fat and What That Means for Our Bodies” – conversation with researcher Mike Overton and family physician J. Fogarty, dean of the College of Medicine.
•    Nov. 9 – “Why Can’t I Get a Decent Night’s Sleep Anymore?” – the nitty-gritty of circadian rhythms, with researcher James Olcese and neurologist George Slade.
•    Nov. 16 – “Is There a Pill I Can Take for This?” – how drugs are developed, with researcher Yanchang Wang and pathologist John Blackmon.

To register, visit http://olli.fsu.edu/Courses; fill out the forms and send them in with your check ($60 for fall membership plus $50 for tuition). For more information, call 850-644-7947.