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Genetics:
Building Proper Brain May Depend On DNA Cutting And Pasting
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Public Health:
HSPH Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of Human Rights
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Anesthesia
Research:
Findings Suggest New Approaches to Easing Chronic Pain |
Research
Briefs:
Filamin1 Gene Needed For Nerve Migration
in Developing Brain
Feature of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome May Be Inherited
MCH Knockout Mice Lose Appetite, Speed
Metabolism
Exercise Can Also Strengthen the Elderly
White Cells Use Their Arms to Slow Down, Make
Turns
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Medical
Library :
Countway Construction Moves to Central Atrium |
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Bulletin:
Appointments to Full And Endowed Professorships
Panel Says Affirmative Action Works
Honors & Advances
News Briefs
Blackburn Named to S. Daniel Abraham Chair
The Dental School Fetes New Faculty
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Forum:
New Course Explores Future of Information Technology in Health
Care |
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January 8, 1999
BULLETIN
Appointments to Full and Endowed
Professorships
This new full professorship was approved in September.
Charles Czeisler
Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Director of the Circadian, Neuroendocrine, and Sleep Disorders
Center at BWH, Czeisler conducts basic and applied research on the
physiology of the human circadian timing system and its relationship
to the sleepwake cycle. Recently, he oversaw the sleep research
experiments on former senator John Glenn during the space shuttle
mission that launched in October.
These HMS faculty members were appointed to an endowed professorship
in November. The HSPH appointment came earlier in the year.
Joseph Bonventre
The Robert H. Ebert Professor of Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Bonventre studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible
for tissue injury and repair. He specializes in the phospholipase
A2 family of enzymes, including their regulatory influences and
effector functions, as well as their roles in renal mesangial cell
activation and kidney and brain postischemic injury. Bonventre also
studies the determinants of recovery of the kidney and designs strategies
to enhance and hasten repair. He is a co-director of the Harvard-MIT
Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Master of the HST Society
at HMS, and a nephrologist at MGH.
Arnold Epstein
The John H. Foster Professor of Health Policy and Management
Harvard School of Public Health
Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at HSPH,
Epstein is also a general internist at Brigham and Women's and a
health services researcher. His investigations focus on access to
care and quality of care, especially for disadvantaged populations.
He is best known for work demonstrating differences in use of medical
services by race and gender. Recently his efforts have involved
public reporting of quality performance data and Medicaid policies.
Timothy Mitchison
The Hasib Sabbagh Professor of Cell Biology
Harvard Medical School
Mitchison's research centers on the cytoskeleton, the molecular
infrastructure that allows cells to move and divide. He is the co-director
(with Stuart Schreiber) of the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology,
a collaborative venture between Harvard University and HMS. The
institute seeks to develop a general method for identifying druglike
molecules to manipulate the function of any protein in the cell.
Michael Rosenblatt
The George Richards Minot Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
The faculty dean and senior vice president for academic programs
at CareGroup, Rosenblatt also serves as executive director of the
Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Mount Auburn Institute
for Education and Research.. His lab is studying the nature of hormonereceptor
interactions for parathyroid hormone and other related proteins.
Other efforts are in bone biology and osteoporosis.
Honors and Advances
Robert Schiestl, associate professor of toxicology in the
Department of Cancer Cell Biology at HSPH, has been chosen to receive
the Novartis Award (formerly the Sandoz Award) for 1998. Since 1970,
the award has recognized outstanding scientific achievement in biology,
medicine, and chemistry. He will give a lecture at the awards ceremony
this month in Vienna, Austria, and receive an $8,500 honorarium.
Schiestl has made fundamental contributions to understanding genetic
recombination in yeast and developed methods to monitor genome rearrangements
induced by environmental chemicals in a variety of in vitro systems
and intact mammalian organisms.
Brigham and Women's Hospital announced in December that Anthony
Whittemore, chief of vascular surgery at the hospital, would
become the chief medical officer on January 1, succeeding George
Thibault, who was recently named vice president of clinical affairs
for Partners HealthCare System. Whittemore will bridge hospital
administration and the medical staff and lead efforts in care improvement
and quality assurance related to the physicians and medical staff.
Hospital president Jeffrey Otten said that Whittemore had "earned
the admiration and respect of his colleagues and the support and
good wishes of the entire BWH community."
For the second straight year, a former participant in the Summer
Honors Undergraduate Research Program (SHURP), sponsored by
the Division of Medical Sciences, has been honored for a presentation
at the annual conference of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos
and Native Americans in Science. Sindy Bottros, SHURP '98
and currently a senior at California State University, was one of
four students selected from 182 presenters to win a citation and
cash prize for best poster presentation at the October conference.
Bottros conducted the research with Ildiko Toth, instructor in medicine
(biochemistry), and Kenneth Bridges, associate professor of medicine,
both at HMS and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The Ranbaxy Science Foundation (RSF) of New Delhi, India, has honored
Krishnarao Appasani, research fellow in surgery at HMS and
BWH, as one of six recipients of its Ranbaxy Research Award for
1997. Appasani was recognized in the category of applied medical
sciences for his studies on gene expression. He works at BWH with
David Sugarbaker, associate professor of surgery, and Raphael
Bueno, instructor in surgery. The RSF, a nonprofit organization,
promotes research by scientists of Indian origin working within
or outside the country.
Constance Marks, '99, has been selected as one of 16 Metropolitan
Life Foundation Scholars for 1998. Each year since 1987, the Metropolitan
Life Foundation of New York City has used these awards to recognize
second- and third-year medical students from underrepresented minority
groups for outstanding academic achievement, leadership, community
involvement, and potential for distinguished contributions to medicine.
Marks will receive a $3,500 stipend to help cover medical school
costs.
Michael Weinblatt, professor of medicine at HMS and BWH,
was named vice president of the American College of Rheumatology
at the college's annual scientific meeting in November. Weinblatt
is the director of clinical rheumatology at Brigham and Women's
Hospital.
David Brewster, clinical professor of surgery at HMS and
MGH, was elected president of the New England Society for Vascular
Surgery.
Augustus White III, professor of orthopedic surgery at HMS
and BID, was elected, on a national nominating ballot, to the 1998
Nominating Committee of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Judah Folkman, the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric
surgery at HMS and Children's, will be admitted in February as an
Honorary Fellow to the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland.
Panel Says Affirmative Action Works
 |
 |
| As one of the events
in the year-long celebration of the 30th anniversary of
affirmative action at HMS, a panel of four speakers presented
"Lessons in Diversity: Actions for the Future"
on December 11. The panelists were Derek Bok, president
emeritus of Harvard University and co-author of the recent
study on the effects of affirmative action, The Shape
of the River; June Osborn, president of the Josiah Macy,
Jr. Foundation; Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth
Fund; and James Gavin III, senior scientific officer at
Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In discussing one benefit
of diversity, Gavin (above right) said there is good data
confirming that minority physicians are more likely to
serve minorities as well as Medicaid recipients, people
with low incomes, and the uninsured. "The more diverse
our culture, the more we need culturally competent physicians--as
a practical matter," he said. Above left listening
to the speakers are Alvin Poussaint (left), clinical professor
of psychiatry at HMS and Judge Baker Children's Center,
who was the program chair, and Joseph Martin, dean of
Harvard Medical School. Both gave remarks at the event. |
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| The Dental School Fetes New Faculty |
 Combining
the Departments of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry, the
Dental School has announced the creation of the Department
of Growth and Development and named its chair, Leslie Will,
HSDM '80, the first woman to head an academic department at
the School. A cele-
bration for Will (shown with Dental School Dean Bruce Donoff)
and eleven other new dental faculty members was held on December
11. Those members are Touradj Ameli, Restorative Dentistry;
Lillian Carpio, Periodontology; Thomas Dodson, Oral and Maxillofacial
Surgery; Gary Griffith, Office of Curriculum Development;
Catherine Hayes, Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology; Mesou
Lai, Growth and Development; Jarshen Lin, Restorative Dentistry;
Juan Loza, Restorative Dentistry ; Dale Potter, Restorative
Dentistry; Morton Sobel, Restorative Dentistry; and Donald
Somerville, Restorative Dentistry.
Photo by Marcia Morris
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News Briefs
The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation has awarded researchers
from HMS and other institutions a grant to study the career development
of women and minority faculty in academic medicine. The research
will examine the effects of mentoring, negotiation skills, and discrimination
on professional advancement with the goal of identifying ways in
which academic health centers can better support the careers of
faculty women and minorities. Phyllis Carr, instructor in
medicine at HMS and MGH, is the principal investigator while Thomas
Inui, chair of ambulatory care and prevention at HMS and Harvard
Pilgrim Health Care, is the senior investigator. The research team
will study faculty who previously indicated problems with discrimination,
lack of mentoring, or poor negotiation skills, which harmed their
career. Other study subjects will be those who have reported similar
problems but no negative impact. The researchers also will study
male majority faculty to determine gender and racial
differences.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) and other federal agencies have awarded HMS a grant of
$900,000 a year for four years to direct a multisite study of primary
care services in mental health and substance abuse for older adults.
HMS will be the coordinating center of this 13-site study comparing
two primary care models: the referral model, in which the client
is referred to an outside mental health/substance abuse specialist,
and the integrated model, in which the client is treated within
the primary care setting. The two models reflect the distinction
in managed care between "carve-out" and "carve-in"
approaches. The study will involve issues of service and financing
such as utilization, outcomes,
prevention, screening, treatment, and staff training. Federal funding
for the 13 study sites will be additional to the HMS grant, according
to Sue Levkoff, associate professor of social medicine, the
HMS principal investigator.
Established in 1978, the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center
at McLean Hospital celebrated its 20th anniversary in December.
It is the oldest federally funded brain bank in the country and
is believed to be the largest facility of its kind in the world.
The center serves as a major resource for the collection and distribution
of human brain tissue for use in psychiatric and neurological research,
involving diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Parkinson's,
schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The brain bank collects about
350 brains each year; however, needs still exist, particularly for
normal brain tissue to provide a benchmark to measure against.
The Schepens Eye Research Institute appointed three new
members to its boards in November. Dean Bok, professor of ophthalmology
and neurobiology at UCLA, was elected to the board of trustees.
Jocelyn Snell, president of Professional Career Solutions of Charlestown,
Mass., and Stephen Weiner, a health care attorney, were elected
as corporators.
The self-facilitated learning disability support group, Students
with Disabilities, is available to affected students who would
like to share learning techniques and emotional support with others
who have similar difficulties. To make a confidential inquiry, call
Carol LaFleur, Harvard School of Public Health coordinator for
the group, at 432-1034 or e-mail clafleur@sph.harvard.edu.
|
Blackburn Named to S. Daniel Abraham Chair
 George
Blackburn (right), an associate professor at HMS and Beth
Israel Deaconess and director of the hospital's Center for
the Study of Nutrition Medicine, was named the first incumbent
of the S. Daniel Abraham Chair in Nutrition Medicine at HMS
at a ceremony on December 7. As holder of the Abraham chair,
Blackburn will continue his research on dietary fat and phytochemicals
and their role in cancer growth.
S. Daniel Abraham (left), founder and chairman of Slim-Fast
Foods Co. and Thompson Medical Co., endowed the chair. This
is the second gift that Abraham has made to support nutrition
studies at the Medical School.
Photo by Steve Gilbert
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