BULLETIN
McLean Lab to Analyze Child and Adolescent Brain MRIs
The Laboratory for Statistical Neuroimaging at McLean Hospital has been selected as the statistical analysis center for an $18 million, NIH-funded, six-year study of the early childhood and adolescent brain. The laboratory was chosen from more than a dozen nationwide.The lab, lead by Nicholas Lange, HMS associate professor of psychiatry (biostatistics), will analyze the magnetic resonance images (MRIs) and behavioral measures from more than 500 children and adolescents from across the country. The project's aim is to develop a database from these images with the hope that researchers will gain a better understanding of the development of the pediatric brain, especially in children from birth to age 4, for whom MRIs are lacking. "This project is both important and exciting because of its potential to provide detailed summaries of developmental pediatric brain structure sizes and shapes, along with their functional and behavioral correlates," Lange says.
 Second-year student Sarah Engler plays Maria to Carl Elkins's Tony in "Western Blot Story," performed at the BCMP holiday party in December. It's a story of two star-crossed scientists who meet and fall in love in the Jet lab, putting aside Maria's past position in the rival Shark lab. This scientifically inspired musical is the second by the team of Elkin, a research assistant, and Valerie Weiss, a fifth-year PhD student in the Hogle lab.
Satellite Broadcast Opens Up Neighborhood DialogueCreating a health care dialogue that brings together and engages community activists from the socially diverse Longwood area neighborhoods, as well as public health leadership and members of the Harvard Medical Community, is one of the essential missions of the Office of Community Outreach Programs (OCOP). On Jan. 19 from 1:30 to 3:30 an open, interactive satellite broadcast from PBS to the Harvard Institutes of Medicine, titled "Racial Legacies and Learning," will serve to launch a discussion. "Eliminating health care disparities among all social groups is essential, and it starts by working in your own backyard," says Joan Reede, associate dean for the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity and faculty director of the OCOP. "This forum, which addresses issues of race, class, and health disparities, will provide a unique opportunity for us to continue a dialogue with our neighbors on ways that we can work together to close health care gaps in our community." The forum, which will include a discussion following the broadcast, is open to the public but seating is limited. Please RSVP to SueJeanne Koh at suejeanne_koh@hms.harvard.edu or 432-6131.
Faculty Appointments to Full And Endowed ProfessorshipsThese faculty members were appointed to a full or endowed professorship in October. Norman Anderson
Professor of Health and
Social Behavior
Harvard School of Public Health
Anderson is the former associate director of the National Institutes of Health and was the first director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. He was previously associate professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center. His primary research interests are the psychosocial and biobehavioral aspects of African American health; mechanisms linking socioeconomic status and health outcomes; and health communications as a vehicle for reducing health disparities. Howard Bleich
Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Bleich is cochief of the Division of Clinical Computing in the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His research is focused on hospital information systems and the use of computers to assist in patient care. He is the developer of PaperChase, which provides a user-friendly way to search medical literature. Marian DiFiglia
Professor of Neurology
Massachusetts General Hospital
As director of the Laboratory for Cellular Neurobiology, DiFiglia has concentrated on determining the cause of neuronal cell death in Huntington's disease. Her work includes the analysis of human brain, cell models, and transgenic mouse models and the development of functional assays for drug screening and treatment. Bradley Hyman
Professor of Neurology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Hyman is a clinician–scientist with interests in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Lewy body disease. He practices from the Memory Disorder Unit and is chief of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Unit laboratories. His research focuses on the neuropathological and genetic factors that underlie dementia. Phyllis Kanki
Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease
Harvard School of Public Health
Kanki directs the collaborative AIDS research program between scientists at Harvard and Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. Her research interests involve HIV pathogenesis, molecular epidemiology, and intervention studies. Her work has described major biological differences and interactions between HIV-1 and HIV-2 that may be important for AIDS vaccine development. Michael Laposata
Professor of Pathology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Laposata is director of clinical laboratories and head of the Division of Laboratory Medicine in the Department of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research interest focuses on the toxicology of a metabolite of ethanol, fatty acid ethyl ester, and the development of clinical assays for identification and measurement of this compound. His clinical expertise is in hemostasis and thrombosis. Kevin Loughlin
Professor of Surgery
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Loughlin's clinical interests have been urologic oncology, urinary incontinence, and male infertility. He developed an operation, known as the Brigham Sling, which is an endoscopic repair utilizing autologous tissue to correct female incontinence. His basic science research has included work which has led to a better understanding of the paraneoplastic syndromes associated with renal cancer. Diane Mathis
Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Mathis coheads the section on immunology at the Joslin Diabetes Center. She is an immunologist whose research focuses on T cell differentiation and autoimmunity. In particular, she has been studying how autoimmune diseases like Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis are initiated and progress in genetically engineered mouse models. Warner Slack
Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Slack has focused his research on the use of computers to improve communication in medicine and to empower both doctors and patients for better health care. He has established new computer-based approaches to the medical interview, and studied and developed interactive computing programs that help patients with the management of common, important medical and psychological problems. Rudolph Tanzi
Professor of Neurology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Tanzi is the director of the Genetics and Aging Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. His major interests are the etiology and genetics of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. He has been actively involved in the identification and characterization of Alzheimer's disease genes. Stephen Zinner
Charles S. Davidson Professor of Medicine
Mount Auburn Hospital
Zinner is a former professor of medicine and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brown University. His research interests include in vitro pharmacokinetic antibiotic modeling, infections in neutropenic patients with cancer, and the epidemiology of blood pressure in children.
These full professors were appointed to an endowed chair in October.
Jeffrey Flier
George C. Reisman Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Flier is vice chair for research of the Department of Medicine and chief of the Endocrinology Division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His major research interest is in defining the mechanisms for regulation of metabolism and energy balance through communication between peripheral hormones and central neural circuits. In recent years, his research has led to a novel understanding of the physiological role of the hormone leptin and the molecular basis for obesity. Richard Frank
Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Care Policy
Harvard Medical School
Frank is an economist whose research focuses on the economics of mental health and substance abuse care, the economics of the pharmaceutical industry, and the organization and financing of medical practice. He is currently engaged in research to assess the impact of managed care on mental health care delivery and the cost and quality of treatments involving prescription drugs.
Honors and AdvancesThe Brigham and Women's Health Leadership Forum has named JoAnn Manson, HMS professor of medicine, as the first recipient of the Mary Horrigan Connors Award for outstanding leadership in women's health. Manson, who is chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at BWH, was honored for her work in the prevention of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases in women. Michael Weinblatt, professor of medicine and codirector of clinical rheumatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, was elected president-elect of the American College of Rheumatology at its annual meeting in November. Weinblatt will become the president of this 7,000-member organization in 2001.
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