Cell Biology: Genes or Environment: What Shapes the Sensory Homunculus? Pathology: First Fly Model of Parkinson's Reported Immunology: Gene May Control Cell-mediated Immunity Administration: Letter from Medical Dean on Research Compliance Women's Health: Year 2000 Is Milestone for Women's Health New Function Discovered for Heat Shock Protein Study Elucidates How Protein Complex Controls Transcription Stress Response Pathway Identified in Plants Protein Pair Positions Mitotic Spindle Mentoring and Mentors Honored at Barger Ceremony Faculty Examiners Needed for OSCE Former NIH Director to Speak at Soma Weiss Day Program In Memoriam: Charles Davidson New Full and Endowed Professorships HMS Stays on Top of U.S. News Rankings Precision Does Matter, But for How Long? Front Page

WOMEN'S HEALTH Year 2000 Is Milestone for Women's Health The evolution and success of the women's health movement over the last quarter century is illustrated this year at HMS. Women's health has been selected as the 10th curricular theme for the HMS New Pathway curriculum, and 25 years ago this week, a landmark conference on women and health was organized on the HMS campus. The 1975 Conference on Women and Health brought together nearly 2,500 women from all across the U.S. and Canada, making it one of the largest coalitions of women ever organized around women's health issues. Held from April 4 to 7, the symposium was organized and sponsored by women students across many local schools, including HMS, HSPH, Tufts Medical School, and Boston University Medical School in coordination with local women's groups. All participants volunteered their services. "The main purpose of the conference was to discuss women's health and the role of women in medicine," says Norma Swenson, current HSPH lecturer who helped organize the conference as a member of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective. Keynote speakers addressed varied topics, like the use of medicine as social control and the role of women professionals in the women's health movement. Physician–legislator Dorothy Brown gave a presentation on the history and current state of U.S. abortion laws in the wake of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision. Workshops were held to provide information on the birth experience, lesbian health care, menstruation, and other women's health concerns. "The conference was totally exhilarating," recalls author Judith Herman, a 1968 HMS graduate who helped organize the event during her residency training in psychiatry at Boston University. Herman attended medical school at a time when women composed only 11 percent of her class. "To see all of those women together in one place, not apologizing for anything, saying all these outrageous things that no one had said before but everyone was thinking was wonderful!" Herman says. Two and a half decades have seen tidal shifts at HMS. Today, women make up 45 percent of the first-year medical class and women's health issues are being actively integrated into the medical curriculum. In 1998, HMS received an award from the Department of Health and Human Services to create a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health. The center has been instrumental in implementing the decision to mark women's health as the HMS curricular theme for 1999–2000. "We are now going through the syllabi in the various courses in the New Pathway program to see what is included on women's health, what works well and what does not work, and what more can be incorporated," explains Phyllis Carr, HMS assistant professor of medicine at MGH and coleader of the education core at the center of excellence. With her as coleader is Hope Ricciotti, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Beth Israel Deaconess. A 1977 HMS alumna, Carr recalls, "I don't think I was very much aware of women's health 25 years ago when I was in medical school. There have definitely been a lot of strides since then." —Catherine Chu