Genetics: RNA Interference Cuts Hepatitis Down to Size Immunology: New Mouse Gives Glimpse into Complications of Diabetes Oncology: Zebrafish Lights Path of Leukemia   Researchers Report Quick, Inexpensive HIV Test Lawsuits for Medical Monitoring May Aid Public Health Pilot HIV Screening Finds Infection 43 Percent Higher than for Self-referrals   HSPH Names New Head of Population and International Health Spaulding Names New President New Appointments to Full and Named Professorships Farmer and Spengler Win Heinz Award MyCourses Training for Faculty Nominations Sought for Invitational Awards Nominations Sought for Dean's Award Recognizing Support of Women Staff Joslin Receives Funding to Train Pediatric Endocrinologists Honors and Advances News Brief In Memoriam: Donald O'Hara   Resident Mocks Gay Physician   How a Doctor Builds a Family   Front Page

BULLETIN HSPH Names New Head of Population And International Health David Bloom Photo courtesy of HSPH Office of Communications David Bloom, the Clarence James Gamble professor at the School of Public Health, has been appointed chair of the Department of Population and International Health. He has served as acting chair of the department since July 2001. "David has made significant contributions to our understanding of the critical links among population, health, education, and economic growth and development," said HSPH dean Barry Bloom. "He has also done extensive research on the impact of HIV/AIDS on economic development." Bloom previously served as chair of the Department of Economics at Columbia University and deputy director of the Harvard Institute for International Development.   Spaulding Names New President Judith Waterston Photo courtesy of Spaulding Rehabilitation The Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Network, a member of Partners HealthCare System, announced that Judith Waterston has been named its new president. Waterston, an accomplished health care professional with more than 30 years of rehabilitation and acute care experience, will be the first woman to lead the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Network. She will assume her new position on March 17. Currently, Waterston is the president and CEO of the Mt. Sinai Hospital Medical Center and Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital and Care Network in Chicago, where she has served for the past four years. Prior to this, she was the executive director of the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation, a position she held for seven years. Waterston has a Bachelor and Master of Science in nursing and spent the first 10 years of her career in teaching and clinical practice. "Judy is an engaging, genuine, and passionate health care executive who is very committed to the field of rehabilitation medicine. She brings strong leadership experience that has bridged both acute and nonacute providers in community hospitals, and in academic medical center settings located in very different markets," said Diana Barrett, chair of the board of trustees for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Network.   New Appointments to Full and Named Professorships These HMS faculty members were appointed to a full professorship in January. Philip Costello Professor of Radiology Brigham and Women's Hospital Costello is head of the Division of Thoracic Imaging at Brigham and Women's Hospital. His research interests in spiral computed tomography relate to the clinical use of CT for vascular imaging, especially in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, and in developing computer-aided tools to analyze CT data sets. Julie Glowacki Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery Brigham and Women's Hospital Glowacki's research concerns the differentiation of bone and cartilage cells, the mechanisms of skeletal diseases and aging, and the development of biological approaches to bone and joint reconstruction. She is co-editor of The Aging Skeleton and was recently presented with the George W. Hyatt Memorial Award by the American Association of Tissue Banks. Beverly Philip Professor of Anesthesia Brigham and Women's Hospital Philip is the founder and director of the Day Surgery Unit at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Her clinical and research focus is in ambulatory anesthesia, particularly the pharmacology of inhaled and intravenous anesthetic agents and the specialized administrative approaches to ambulatory surgery including patient-focused, cost-effective care and facilitated "fast-track" recovery. She is a founding member and past president of the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia and has worked with accrediting agencies and national and international groups to help develop guidelines for ambulatory surgery and anesthesia care. Bruce Yankner Professor of Neurology Children's Hospital Yankner is the director of the training program in neurodegeneration at HMS and the Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Disease at Children's Hospital. His major research interests concern the mechanisms of neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Down's syndrome, and therapeutic approaches centered on the prevention of protein misfolding and neuronal apoptosis. His laboratory is also interested in genomic approaches to understanding the aging brain and age-related risk factors for neurodegenerative disease. This HMS faculty member was appointed to a named professorship in January. JoAnn Manson Elizabeth F. Brigham Professor of Women's Health Brigham and Women's Hospital Manson is an endocrinologist and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She also heads the Women's Health Initiative and is codirector of the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology at BWH. Her major research interests involve women's health, particularly the role of hormone replacement therapy, micronutrient supplementation, and physical activity (moderate vs. vigorous exercise) in relation to risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases in women. She is lead investigator of several large-scale randomized clinical trials and cohort studies.   Farmer and Spengler Win Heinz Awards Two Harvard faculty members were among the six recipients of this year's Heinz Award. Named for the late U.S. Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, the awards recognize extraordinary accomplishment and embody the ideals and values that Heinz sought to advance. Paul Farmer, the Maude and Lillian Presley professor of social medicine at HMS, received the award in the human condition category for his dedication to bringing quality health care to some of the world's poorest regions. His founding of Partners in Health, to which he is donating his $250,000 award, and its model health care programs in treating multidrug resistant tuberculosis and HIV in Haiti and Peru were noted. The award in the environment category is shared by Mario Molina of MIT and John Spengler, the Akira Yamaguchi professor of environmental health and human habitation at HSPH, for their contributions to understanding and mitigating the effects of air contamination. Spengler was recognized for his role in raising public awareness of the health issues of indoor air quality. His study of the exposure of commuters in Boston to air pollution led to the groundbreaking Six Cities Studies, which explored the environmental risks associated with sulfur dioxide emissions. He also was vice-chair of the National Research Council committee that ultimately recommended the 1986 airliner smoking ban.   MyCourses Training for Faculty A basic training session will be held for HMS faculty wishing to learn more about MyCourses and how to build an educational website for their course or clerkship. The workshop will teach the basic elements of creating a course website including how to add faculty and other guest accounts, post announcements, events, and handouts, and create digital content that supports the learning goals of the course. Topics covered will also include an overview of MyCourses portable technology and information on resources available to faculty interested in developing electronic learning materials. The workshop will be held March 7, April 4, May 2, and June 6 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the Countway Library Computer Classroom and is offered by the Center for Educational Technology. RSVP with the date you would like to attend to david_bozzi@hms.harvard.edu. Please note that you should bring your eCommons password to the workshop.   Nominations Sought For Invitational Awards Each year more than 50 postdoctoral and faculty fellowships and grants are available to the Harvard Medical community by invitation only. The private foundations that fund these grants permit Harvard to nominate a limited number of individuals for each award. In order to choose candidates who will represent Harvard in the national competitions, an internal selection process is conducted by the HMS Faculty Fellowship Committee. A summary of the next cycle of invitational fellowships and grants (the Red Book) is now available, both electronically and in hard copy. Hard copies may be reviewed in all departmental offices and appropriate administrative offices. Updated information is online. Nominations are due in the Office of Faculty Affairs on April 9.   Nominations Sought For Dean's Award Recognizing Support Of Women Staff The Joint Committee on the Status of Women, on behalf of HMS dean Joseph Martin, is seeking nominations for the Dean's Award for the Support and Advancement of Women Staff. The award was established to recognize individuals in the HMS community who consistently demonstrate excellence in the support of the career development, professional advancement, mentoring, and career/life balance of women staff. All staff are invited to nominate any member of the HMS community who demonstrates these qualities. The nomination deadline is March 6 and can be made by e-mailing nancy_meyer@hms.harvard.edu or completing the online form.   Joslin Receives Funding to Train Pediatric Endocrinologists Joslin Diabetes Center is one of seven medical institutions that have been awarded research training and career development grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Joslin was chosen for the grant because of its strong research program in childhood diabetes. The grants are designed to enlarge the pool of pediatric endocrinologists conducting diabetes research. To be eligible for pediatric endocrinology training, one must first have completed a pediatric residency. A fellowship in pediatric endocrinology typically takes three years. The new funding provides for two to three years of fellowship training and two to three additional years of support as a junior clinical investigator in diabetes. The funding supports up to five positions at each institution. For more information, contact Lori Laffel at 617-732-2603 or e-mail lori.laffel@joslin.harvard.edu.   Honors and Advances Brigham and Women's Hospital has recruited Robert Burakoff as its new clinical chief of gastroenterology. Burakoff is an internationally known specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and the editor in chief of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has named Kristine Laping as its senior vice president of development. Laping will be responsible for all fundraising and donor relations. She comes to BID from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston.   News Brief The Harvard Skin Disease Research Center is accepting grant proposals from HMS faculty and advanced postdocs for innovative studies in areas related to mechanisms of disease in skin or epithelial tissues comparable to skin. The one-year grants are for $25,000, and preference goes to investigators who have not previously studied subjects directly related to skin but have model systems that could be relevant. Applications are due March 1. For more information, contact Alex Gionfriddo at 617-525-5570 or e-mail agionfriddo@partners.org.   In Memoriam Donald O'Hara, HMS lecturer on biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, died Feb. 2. He was 67. O'Hara was an accomplished biochemist and cell biologist who played an important role in establishing modern laboratory science in the Cardiovascular Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He later directed the division's Protein Chemistry Core. For many years he had been the leading organizer and associate director of the Chemistry and Biology of the Cell course taken by all first-year New Pathway students and for which he received a faculty teaching award last year. In recent years, he had also served as codirector of the required HST course Human Biochemistry and Metabolic Diseases. O'Hara was a soft-spoken, gentle, and considerate man who was always friendly and approachable. More than any other teacher, he could be seen almost daily in the atrium of the Tosteson Medical Education Center working one-on-one with students to aid in their understanding of biochemistry. "There is no one comparable," said Ronald Arky, master of the Peabody Society. Donations in his memory may be made to the Harvard Medical School Scholarship Fund, c/o the F.W. Peabody Society, TMEC 257, 260 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115.