Robert J. Del Tufo, Esq., chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, was master of ceremonies on September 18 for the 23rd annual University Day, which celebrates the opening of a new academic year. The event was held at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick.

The Chairman presented the University's 2007 Medal for Distinguished Leadership to Robert E. Campbell, MBA, (retired) vice chairman of Johnson & Johnson. The medal is awarded by the University's Board of Trustees for significant contributions to the advancement of education, healthcare, or biomedical research.

University President Dr. William Owen, in his State of the University address, called upon the University community to help him identify opportunities for collaboration across the institution to better accelerate the University's success. He also recognized the 13 members of the faculty inducted into the Stuart D. Cook, MD, Master Educators' Guild.

Dr. Robert J. Maro Jr. was sworn in on September 18 as a member of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Maro is a member of the volunteer faculty at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, where he is clinical assistant professor of medicine. He was recommended by Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts under legislation signed last year by Governor Jon S. Corzine. A2900 expanded Board membership from 11 to 19 members. Today's action brings the number of board members to 17.

Dr. Maro has a private practice in general internal medicine and geriatrics, and served his internship and residency at Cooper University Medical Center in Camden, where he was chief resident in 1983. He is currently a member of the attending staff at both Cooper and Virtua Health System.

An expert in the metabolic processes of DNA at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has received a prestigious $2.5 million MERIT Award, Method to Extend Research in Time, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant provides long-term funding to Smita Patel, PhD, professor of biochemistry, in support of her research into gene transcription, or how genetic information is transferred from mitochondrial DNA to RNA, the molecules that carry genetic information to protein cells.

Mitochondria are responsible for processing oxygen and converting substances from foods that are consumed into energy for essential cell functions. The inability of the mitochondria to complete the chemical processes creates an energy crisis, causing improper cell function. Mitochondrial defects are seen in neuromuscular and skeletal disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases; the defects also appear in human aging.