This Week@WesternU, Feb. 3-7, 2025

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Feb. 3-7, 2025

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WesternU celebrates Lunar New Year

The WesternU Office of Humanism, Equity, & Anti-Racism in collaboration with the Office for International Students & Scholars held a Lunar New Year celebration on the WesternU California campus Jan. 31, 2025, featuring snacks and a dragon dance performance by the Eastvale Chinese American Association (ECAA).

The dragon dance is rooted in a centuries-old tradition of making loud noises with drums and firecrackers to ward off the nian, or wild animals, said ECAA founder Woody Hwang. The dragon dance was also a way to welcome the coming of spring, he said.

"We try to introduce Chinese traditions to this area," Hwang said.

College of Pharmacy news

In December 2024, Dr. Jason Wong gave an interdisciplinary presentation to optometrists at our own WesternU College of Optometry’s Dry Eye Symposium as a Continuing Education session for optometrists. There were learners on-campus and on Zoom. The recording will be active on the school’s website for two years as an on-demand CE program.

The topic was “Managing Dry Eye Disease with Novel Medications," an area of special interest to Dr. Wong.

Dr. Anandi Law had two recent publications, a paper related to curricular assessment and a book chapter on pharmacy research on health literacy.

Aleda Chen, Krisy Thornby, Anandi V. Law. Curricular Assessment Blueprint and Needs Analysis for the Social, Administrative, and Behavioral Foundational Sciences. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. Volume 89, Issue 1101346, January 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpe.2024.101346

Aleda M.H. Chen, Kyrie Eleyson R. Baden and Anandi V. Law. Advancing pharmacy research on health literacy. Chapter 16 In Health Literacy in Medicines Use and Pharmacy, 2024. 978-0-12-824407-4 Elsevier Publishing.

COMP and COMP-Northwest news

A team of COMP-Northwest faculty and students, led by Dr. Janice Blumer, published the following in the February 2025 issue of the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine:

"Comparing Cranial Suture Interdigitation in Humans and Non-Human Primates: Unearthing Links to Osteopathic Cranial Concept," by Janice Blumer, DO; Irisa Arney, PhD; Anna Hardin, PhD; Morgan Nichols, BA; Luke Arsenault, BA; and John Petrucci, BS

Link to article: Comparing cranial suture interdigitation in humans and non-human primates: unearthing links to osteopathic cranial concept

Artists rendering of two versions of the sauropod Haplocanthosaurus, one showing a skeleton and one fully rendered, with a person for scale

Matt Wedel, PhD, of COMP and CPM, and his colleagues published a paper:

Boisvert, Colin, Bivens, Gunnar, Curtice, Brian, Wilhite, Ray, and Wedel, Mathew. 2025. Census of currently known specimens of the Late Jurassic sauropod Haplocanthosaurus from the Morrison Formation, USA. Geology of the Intermountain West 12:1-23. doi: 10.31711/giw.v12.pp1-23.

The open access paper is freely available at this link:

https://giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.php/GIW/article/view/150

COMP students Nejma Wais and Fihr Chaudhary collaborated with Dr. Devendra K. Agrawal, contributed to science, and recently published the following peer-reviewed Pubmed indexed research articles. Many other articles by our COMP students are currently pending review and PubMed indexing. It is indeed encouraging to see the dedication, motivation, and strong interest in our COMP students in scholarly activities to advance medical knowledge.

Wais N, Agrawal DK. Systemic Lupus Erythematous: Gene Polymorphisms, Epigenetics, Environmental, Hormonal and Nutritional Factors in the Consideration of Personalized Therapy.

Arch Intern Med Res. 2024;7(4):331-340. doi: 10.26502/aimr.0188. Epub 2024 Dec 24.PMID: 39866364 Free PMC article.

Chaudhary F, Agrawal DK. Strategies to Minimize Virus Transmission During Anesthesia Procedures in COVID-19 Patients. Anesth Crit Care. 2024;6(4):48-59. doi: 10.26502/acc.071. Epub 2024 Oct 23.PMID: 39811573 Free PMC article.

Chaudhary F, Agrawal DK. Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Administration of General Anesthesia. Anesth Crit Care. 2024;6(4):68-76. doi: 10.26502/acc.073. Epub 2024 Oct 28.PMID: 39811572 Free PMC article.

Dr. Agrawal in collaboration with his postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Resmi Rajalekshmi, contributed to science with the recent publication of the following research article: Rajalekshmi R, Agrawal DK. Therapeutic Efficacy of Medicinal Plants with Allopathic Medicine in Musculoskeletal Diseases.

Int J Plant Anim Environ Sci. 2024;14(4):104-129. doi: 10.26502/ijpaes.4490170. Epub 2024 Dec 23.PMID: 39866300 Free PMC article.

Assistant Professor Austin Lawrence, PhD, of COMP's Department of Medical Anatomical Sciences, and his colleagues published a new paper on the evolution of the human hip joint. The study found that the orientation of the acetabulum, the pelvic component of the hip joint, in extinct human relatives such as Australopithecus was essentially modern human-like, and unlike that of other primates, by at least 3.6 million years ago, suggesting that the orientation of the hip joint was a key anatomical feature related to the adoption of habitual bipedal walking in the human lineage.

The article citation is: Lawrence, A. B., Hammond, A. S., & Ward, C. V. (2025). Acetabular orientation, pelvic shape, and the evolution of hominin bipedality. Journal of Human Evolution, 200, 103633. Link to article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103633

Nurse Unseen movie screening

5:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26 in HEC Lecture Hall 2.

You’re invited to a special screening of "Nurse Unseen," a feature documentary that explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses risking their lives on the front lines of a pandemic, thousands of miles from home.

Hosted by the College of Graduate Nursing. This event is open to students, faculty, staff, clinical partners, hospitals, and community organizations.

Click here for more information and to buy tickets: Nurse Unseen Movie Screening - Western University of Health Sciences