Personal Information I am a physician who practiced pathology in a medium sized general hospital for almost twenty years. In 1994 I returned to the university and have been primarily responsible for teaching the sophomore pathology course to second year medical students here in Bloomington since that time. I have been happily married to the same woman for over thirty years, we have two grown children. In January of 2000 I became a grandparent. I am an amateur woodworker, and have recently become interested in the use of non-motorized hand tools such as were used in woodworking shops in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I am overly interested in Native American history, especially the time of French colonization and the fur trade era of the St. Lawrence river valley. My "magnum opus" for the summer of 1994 was the construction of a full sized birch bark canoe using only hand tools and native materials. Upon completion of the canoe, I set out on a short trip following a segment of the water route taken by the French fur traders of the 1700's. Research InterestsMy research interests are varied and diverge from the more traditional medical lines. I am studying the impact of infectious diseases that were introduced by Europeans and Africans into the New World during the time of European colonization. I use historical documents and even study native American artistic motifs, looking for references to disease. My area of focus is the late fifteenth century, with specific interest in Indian tribes of the Great Lakes Basin and St. Lawrence River Valley. I am concentrating my efforts on documentary materials detailing diseases such as small pox, measles and tuberculosis. In the fall of 2005 I began teaching a new course, M470, dealing with the biological and social consequences for Native Americans following the European colonization of the New World.Although I am no longer involved in laboratory research, several years ago I had the opportunity to use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to diagnosis tuberculosis in the skeletal remains of two Native Americans of the pre European period. At that time I was able to isolate and sequenced diagnostic DNA of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from bones recovered from an Oneota and an Iroquois burial. In addition to a traditional publication, I used this discovery as part of an online teaching exercise. I took a few liberties with story, among other things moving one of the burial specimens to the time of the Jesuits in North America. I believe it makes for an effective teaching tool. Take a look . In addition to my interests in paleopathology, I am very intrigued by the application of computer technology to education. I have developed an electronic histopathology atlas, with virtual microscope links, using the medical student's own pathology slide set. This web site allows our students to preview the laboratory assignments and see pictures of their slides. Many of the photographs have been modified so as to highlight the salient pathological features. The virtual microscope technology allows the student to view the entire microscopic slide as if they were using a regular optical microscope. Recent additions to this site include a series of interactive, case-based clinical exercises. If you are interested, you can visit the site by clicking on the following address: http://medsci.indiana.edu/c602web/602/start.htm For a more or less traditional looking curriculum vitae
Degrees
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braunm@indiana.edu |
