As Employee, What Do You Think of Duke?
If you've ever wished that someone would ask you the
question in the headUne above, your day is about to
come.
And if you have any ideas about how to improve
things, you'll get the chance to express those, too.
The opportunity will come by way of an Employee
Survey that will be conducted here in early March.
Richard Peck, administrative director of Duke
Hospital, said: "We are genuinely interested in knowing
what employees think about working here. The only way
we can find out about our strengths and weaknesses —
and subsequently do something about correcting our
deficiencies — is to ask."
But Duke will not be doing the questioning. Peck
emphasized.
"We are asking an outside firm, the National Survey
Research Center (NSRC) of Cleveland, Ohio, to do this
for us," Peck said. "They have 25 years' experience in
surveying and they have conducted surveys in other
large medical centers like Duke."
Employees will be asked to participate in the survey, a
series of about 60 questions that takes about one hour to
complete, during their normal work schedule.
"We are hoping that a large percentage of our
employees will want to participate," Peck said.
He stressed that no individual employee who takes
part can or will be identified, and he said that NSRC
ground rules also include the following:
* The survey is done by secret questionnaire and is
conducted entirely by personnel from the National
Survey Research Center.
* Employees do not identify themselves in any way on
the questionnaire.
* None of the completed questionnaires comes into the
hands of anyone at Duke. After the results are tabulated
and a report is written by NSRC, the questionnaires are
burned.
A representative from the National Survey Research
Center spent a full day here between Christmas and New
Years talking with various employees and supervisors to
try to get a feel for Duke and to help the organization
develop the questions to be used in the survey, Peck
said.
Intercom
Duke University Medical Center
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 2
JANUARY 14,1977
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Helps Explain Milk Digestion in Newborn
New Protein Found In Anatomy Research
By David Williamson
A young researcher here has
identified a r^ew protein in the
intestines of baby research rats that
helps to explain how mammals
digest milk during the suckling
period after birth.
Dr. Emma R. Jakoi, a post-doctoral
fellow in the Department of
Anatomy, hopes the finding may one
day prove useful to scientists seeking
an effective treatment for Tay-Sachs
disease, a hereditary disorder that
causes brain damage and death,
chiefly among babies of Jewish
ancestry.
Dr. Jakoi said the protein, which
she has named "ligatin," binds one
form of a digestive enzyme known as
"n-acetylglucosaminidase" (NAG) to
a speci^ized membrane in cells that
line the intestines of newborn rats.
Essential Enzyme
"This enzyme is essential for the
breakdown of large milk proteins
into smaller molecules before the
stomach and pancreas begin
functioning several weeks after
birth," she said.
When NAG doesn't function
properly, cells lining the intestines
are unable to absorb milk and
nourish the body with its
components.
Dr. Jakoi said the protein ligatin
may be absent in infants who are
unable to digest milk. If this proves
to be the case, she explained, then
the cells have no way to hold on to
the enzyme they have produced for
nutrient digestion.
All Newborn Mammals
Electron microscope studies have
shown the specialized membranes
observed in the baby rats are
common to all newborn mamihals.
Dr. Jakoi and her associates also
were able to determine that among
normal rats, ligatin binds only one of
two forms of the en^me NAG
outside the cell walls, while the other
form remains in tiny cavities called
vacuoles in the liquid interior of the
cells.
Explaining the bearing her
findings may have on Tay-Sachs
disease. Dr. Jakoi said certain kinds
of cells from patientb with the
disorder are unable to metabolize
some complex sugar molecules.
As the disease progresses,
substances known as sphingolipids
which are related to the sugars
accumulate in cells causing them to
degenerate. When this happens in
the brain as it does in Tay-Sachs,
blindness, paralysis and death are
the result.
Inability To Bind NAG
"The problem with some of these
cells seems to be their inability to
bind one form of NAG," she said.
"Ligatin might be the protein that is
normally the receptor for the
digestive enzyme in other parts of
the body as it is in the intestines of
the newborn research animals, and it
could be that a genetic abnormality
that affects ligatin is the primary
deficiency here."
Dr. Jakoi said that if the theory
holds up after more research, the
work could open some new
approaches to understanding
Tay-Sachs and other diseases that
may be related to it.
Dr. Jakoi published a report of her
work in a recent issue of the journal
of Cell Biology. Co-authors of the
paper were Dr. Guido Zampighi, a
dentist who is working on a Ph.D. in
anatomy, and Dr. J. D. Robertson,
James B. Duke Professor and
chairman of the Department of
Anatomy.
EVEN IN THE SNOW—While others were buttoning up their overcoats or staying
indoors during the recent snow. Dr. William C. Hall, associate professor of anatomy,
was on his early morning training run. For the story about this "marathon man" see
page 3. (Photo bylna Fried)