Medicine: New Therapy Strengthens Fight Against Osteoporosis Neurology: Studies Find Caffeine May Counter Parkinson's Pathology: Programmed Death by Mitochondria Health Care Policy 1: Medicare May Restrict Good Care for Dying Patients Health Care Policy 2: In First Seidman Lecture, Keynote Predicts No Drug Benefit as Part of Medicare Workplace Exposure May Be Similar for Smokers, Nonsmokers Breast-feeding May Limit Teenage Obesity Some Medical Errors More Common With Children Than Adults Rod Cells Pay for Light Sensitivity With Reaction Time Faculty Council Proceedings Two from HMS Added to the National Academy of Sciences Roster A Preview of Alumni Week Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair Invites Applications for Grants, Fellowships NAS and AAAS Address Nationwide Postdoc Issues Call for Writers Front Page

BULLETIN Faculty Council Proceedings At its April 11 meeting, the Faculty Council approved two requests for the use of the Harvard Medical School name: the University of Melbourne–Harvard Medical School Leadership Program in International Mental Health and the Harvard Medical School Division of AIDS. The University of Melbourne– Harvard Medical School Leadership Program in International Mental Health is a collaboration between the HMS Department of Social Medicine, other HMS departments, and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Its aim is to provide a leadership program to train Asian psychiatrists in the area of mental health and mental health services in Asian societies. The Lilly Foundation has committed nearly $2 million over a three-year period to the joint program. New AIDS Division After several meetings at the urging of HMS dean Joseph Martin, faculty in AIDS research concluded that the creation of an HMS Division of AIDS was needed to facilitate communication, collaborative efforts, and education in AIDS research. Raphael Dolin, the Maxwell Finland professor of medicine (microbiology and molecular genetics) and dean for clinical affairs, noted that part of the effort would be to generate translational research that would benefit from collaboration. The division will have a complementary relationship to the Harvard AIDS Institute, which is based at HSPH and focuses largely on overseas programs. Digital Library Funding The council also heard a presentation by Paul Levy, executive dean for administration; Judy Messerle, Countway librarian; and Paul Russell, the John Homans distinguished professor of surgery, on the continued funding of the Digital Library. Martin noted that if the technical problems and the economic needs can be met, this will be a major opportunity to connect the Harvard medical community and provide remarkable information access. However, if these problems cannot be surmounted, the fate of the Digital Library is uncertain. Martin asked the council to help think through this situation and requested that a subcommittee be formed with representatives from each of the major affiliates. Brian Seed, HMS professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital, agreed to chair the subcommittee. Patricia Donahoe, the Marshall K. Bartlett professor of surgery at MGH; Julie Ingelfinger, HMS professor of pediatrics at MGH; and Linda Heffner, HMS associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women's Hospital; as well as a representative from HSDM, agreed to serve. Women's Initiatives The council then heard a presentation on new initiatives of the Joint Committee on the Status of Women (JCSW) by Ilene Gipson, professor of ophthalmology at Schepens Eye Research Institute and cochair of the faculty task force of the JCSW. New initiatives and programs of the JCSW staff task force include career management seminars, a Web-based resource guide, a leadership seminar, and sponsorship of the dean's award for mentoring staff. The faculty task force is gathering information on grant funding parity among male and female faculty; it sponsors the dean's award for mentoring women faculty. Two common projects undertaken by the two task forces are publication of Changing the Face of Medicine, which documents the history of women at HMS and celebrates their current role, and development of the Archives for Women in Medicine at Countway Library. The archive will serve as a center for the documentation of women in medicine and make their achievements more prominent. It will also provide information on role models for medical and dental students, about 50 percent of whom are women. Specific recommendations of the JCSW include making the record of achievement by women at HMS and HSDM more visible, promoting equal representation of women faculty in leadership and teaching positions, and addressing the issue of balancing professional and family responsibilities, including supporting the effort to broaden the Partners Career Satisfaction Survey to encompass the entire HMS/HSDM community. The meeting was the first at which members located at MGH were able to use video conferencing to attend. In the past, getting across the city has presented problems to members whose primary work location is not in the Longwood area. The video connection, ar-ranged by both HMS telecommunications and media services and their MGH counterparts, permitted easy exchange between the two sites.   Two from HMS Added to the National Academy of Sciences Roster The following HMS faculty members were elected to the National Academy of Sciences in May. Joan Brugge Professor of Cell Biology Harvard Medical School Brugge's research involves studies of the intracellular pathways involved in regulating cell proliferation, adhesion, and survival in normal cells, and how alterations in these pathways lead to the development of cancer. She has devoted much of her career to studies on the biological functions of a cellular protein called Src, which is the homologue of a prototype oncogene first identified in association with Rous sarcoma virus. Studies of this protein have led her into many unexpected fields of investigation because the cellular Src protein, like many proto-oncogene products, regulates diverse functions in normal cells and, when mutated, can disrupt the regulation of many biological activities. Lewis Cantley Professor of Medicine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Research from Cantley's laboratory resulted in the discovery of a new signal transduction pathway involving an enzyme called phosphoinositide 3-kinase. This pathway mediates insulin-dependent glucose uptake into muscle and fat as well as growth-factor– dependent cell growth and cell survival. Defects in the control of this pathway contribute to the development of a variety of human cancers.   A Preview of Alumni Week This year Alumni Week runs from Wednesday, June 6, to Sunday, June 10. The festivities begin on Wednesday when the Division of Medical Sciences hosts an alumni-sponsored symposium celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Albert J. Ryan Foundation Fellowship from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Special events also include an HMS faculty symposium titled "What You Would Learn Now at HMS" on Thursday, June 7, from 9:00 a.m. to noon and an Alumni Day Symposium on June 8 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. titled "Strategies for Physician Renewal" and moderated by senior dean for alumni relations and clinical teaching Daniel Federman. The Alumni Day Symposium features panelists Charles Hatem, HMS associate professor of medicine; Robert Fletcher, HMS professor of ambulatory care and prevention; Michael LaCombe, director of cardiology at Maine General Medical Center; and Joseph Martin, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, with participation from the audience. On Class Day, Thursday, June 7, the keynote speaker at the 2:00 p.m. degree ceremony will be Ben Carson, director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery and professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and codirector of the craniofacial center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Other Class Day highlights include a Class of 1976 symposium from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with panel discussions on the impact of technology on medicine in the 21st century; the challenges of educating doctors; global health; and from medicine to life through the life cycle. On Friday, June 8, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. there will be a symposium, "Update on HST," moderated by Walter Abelmann, director of HST alumni affairs, and featuring Irving London, first director of HST; Joseph Bonventre, codirector of HST and master of the society; Henry Klapholz, HST faculty member and HMS associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at BID; and Richard Mitchell, HST associate director for student affairs and associate master. Also on Friday, alumni will get a chance to have a guided tour of the newly renovated Countway Library from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. The Alumni Week program and registration are available online at www.hms.harvard.edu/alumni. You may also call the Alumni Office at 617-432-1560 for additional information and registration.   Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair Invites Applications for Grants, Fellowships The Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair (HCNR) invites HMS faculty at its seven participating institutions to apply for research grants in translational neurology and repair. The grants are being offered in order to accelerate the rate of discovery and application of new knowledge to clinical treatment and prevention. The application deadline is Sept. 5. The HCNR also has established a training program for translational research fellows. The purpose of this postdoctoral training program is to enhance the early career development of scientists interested in a career involving the application of advanced biological methods to the elucidation of the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human neurological disorders. The application deadline is Aug. 3. Finally, the HCNR is offering a postdoctoral sabbatical program in robotic drug discovery. It will involve two major centers for the robotic high-throughput screening of libraries of druglike compounds: the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology and the Partners Neurology Robolab. For complete information on any one of these, contact Lorraine Caristo at 432-3907 or e-mail lorraine_caristo@hms.harvard.edu.