TCU’s Patricia Newcomb graduates from Summer Genetics Institute

Fort Worth, TX

8/17/2006

TCU’S Patricia Newcomb, assistant nursing professor in the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences, has graduated from the 2006 Summer Genetics Institute (SGI) at the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), National Institutes of Health (NIH). The SGI is a competitive two-month summer research training program held on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The program is designed to provide a foundation in molecular genetics for clinical practice and the research laboratory. Dr. Newcomb’s area of research is gene-gene and gene-environment interaction in childhood asthma.

Dr. Newcomb was one of 19 NIH Fellows who graduated from 2006 SGI. The class was comprised of students from 12 different states and included 6 faculty members in schools of nursing, 10 doctoral students, 2 post-doctoral fellows and 4 advanced practice nurses.

“Spending the summer learning about genetics at the NIH was a priceless opportunity to learn from some of my health research ‘heroes’,” said Dr. Newcomb. “Their passion for their work and the cause of better health has energized my own program of teaching and research. The GIS is one of the treasures of the NIHR, and I hope other nurses in our area will seriously think about participating in future sessions.”
Over 35 genetics experts from NIH and surrounding universities in the Washington, DC area served as course faculty for SGI. The course included lecture, seminar and laboratory components. The lecture component focused on the molecular aspect of genetics. The seminar component addressed ethical, legal and clinical practice issues and perspectives, and the role of the nurse in the area of genetics. The laboratory component integrated the concepts and principles of genetics with laboratory experiments designed to provide an understanding of genetic testing, the detection of genetic disease, how to understand the strengths and limitations of genetic approaches and how to use the information clinically to counsel individuals and families. Students received 12 hours of doctoral level university credit from Georgetown University, Washington, DC for the course.

“The advances in genetics are redesigning the future of health care,” says Dr. Patricia A. Grady, director, NINR. “The SGI draws upon the unique resources available here at NIH to provide nurses with cutting-edge training in research and clinical practice to prepare them to meet the challenges of the future.

NINR is the lead Federal agency for nursing research and nursing research training. For more information on NINR, call (301) 496-0207 or visit www.nih.gov/ninr. For more information on TCU Nursing, visit www.nursing.tcu.edu.