Immunology: Live T Cell Action in Lymph Nodes: Dating, Mating, Procreating Ophthalmology: Mechanism Found for Rare Vision Defect Health Policy: For-profit Health Plans Appear Not to Restrict High-cost Care Neurology: Faulty Membrane Repair May lead to Muscular Dystrophy Genomics: Center for RNA Interference Probes Fly Genome Imaging: Brain Takes Similar Approach to Bodily, Facial Expressions   Structure Traces Steps in Dengue Virus Infection A Back-end Attack Against Alzheimer's Plaque   Proceedings of the HMS Faculty Council Appointments to Full and Named Professorships HSPH Receives $6 Million Grant to Eliminate Health Disparities Elston Wins HSPH Biostatistics Award Milestone Symposium to Celebrate Civil Rights Honors and Advances   The Family Van: Care and Research on Wheels   Toward Redistributing Health Care Costs   Front Page

BULLETIN Proceedings of the HMS Faculty Council In his report at the Dec. 4, 2003 Faculty Council meeting, HMS dean Joseph Martin said that draft revisions to the current guidelines on conflict of interest are being reviewed for final approval. He announced the appointment of Christopher A. Walsh, the Bullard professor of neurology at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess, to succeed Nancy Andrews as head of the MD-PhD program. Andrews, the Leland Fikes professor of pediatrics at Children's, was recently appointed associate dean for basic sciences and graduate studies. Martin reported that a committee has been formed to assist Marc Kirschner, head of the new Systems Biology Department, in recruiting new faculty. He also briefed the council on ongoing negotiations with Dubai to develop a health center with academic medical training programs under the umbrella of Harvard Medical International. Teacher-Scientist Criteria The council approved a proposal by Malcolm Cox, dean for medical education, to establish new criteria for appointment and promotion for teacher-scientists. The teacher-scientist criteria would create a home for exceptional basic scientists who have redirected their careers from the research laboratory to teaching. Currently, HMS has no criteria to welcome these individuals, and the proposal is intended to correct this. Cox emphasized that this is a means to accommodate those relatively few, but extremely talented, medical and health science educators who do not fall into the existing promotions/appointments criteria. Details of the specific requirements for appointment or promotion by these criteria will appear in the next update of the "Purple Book." Countway's Vision The history of Countway Library is long and colorful, but Paul Russell, the John Homans distinguished professor of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and chair of the library committee, and Judith Messerle, Countway librarian for the Harvard Medical and Boston Medical Libraries, said that the digital age has turned all libraries on their ears. Messerle said that the goal of delivering content and educating users on how to manage information remains critical. She also noted that the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has said that Countway has the richest historical collection in the world, and it is hoped that a synergistic arrangement can be made with the NLM to preserve and enrich this archive. In the future, the library will continue to move from the print medium to the electronic, significantly affecting the physical use of library facilities. Many of its technical functions are being automated. The library also has been a major force in bringing research computing to the community, with a client base currently estimated at 100,000. Russell said that the library must become more a part of the faculty and that this interaction needs to be encouraged. He concluded by asking the council to help keep the library central to the School's mission. The Designation of CIMIT The council approved a proposal by John Parrish, head of the Department of Dermatology and director of the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT), to designate CIMIT as an HMS center. CIMIT's institutional participants are split into two categories: those with biomedical problems to solve and those with computer science and engineering solutions to offer. Examples of those currently in the former category are HMS, MGH, Brigham and Women's, Partners HealthCare System, BID, and Children's. Parrish announced that the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is considering joining CIMIT. In the latter category are the Draper Laboratory, an MIT spin-off involved with the defense department, and MIT itself. CIMIT's mission is to improve patient care by facilitating the collaboration of scientists, engineers, and clinicians to catalyze development of innovative technologies. CIMIT's goal is to overcome the barriers between clinicians and the world of high-tech by blending the cultures, recruiting experts who know how to overcome these barriers, and facilitating the interaction needed for innovation. Parrish described CIMIT as a process in which a combination of highly organized communications such as workshops, newsletters, and clinical conferences; site mining by experts who recognize opportunities that await technological development and marketing; and brainstorming sessions with small groups of experts ultimately results in innovations, or "CIMIT moments." Proposals that are generated are peer reviewed. Nine areas of research are under the CIMIT umbrella: biodefense, image-guided therapy, minimally invasive surgery, networked sensor systems, simulation, tissue engineering, trauma and critical care, vulnerable plaque, and untethered monitoring. To date, CIMIT has awarded 242 grants to 140 investigators, and this has resulted in 240 publications, 140 invention disclosures, 70 patent applications, 20 options and licenses, and the establishment of seven companies facilitated by or resulting from CIMIT supported research.   Appointments to Full and Named Professorships These faculty members were appointed to a full professorship or an endowed chair from June through November 2003. Alan D'Andrea Alvan T. and Viola D. Fuller- American Cancer Society Professor of Radiation Oncology Harvard Medical School This is D'Andrea's second appointment; he is also a professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital and is the chief of the Division of Radiation and Cancer Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His laboratory examines the molecular basis of chromosome instability and cancer susceptibility. His particular interest is the signal transduction events that regulate the cellular response to radiation and other genotoxic stresses. Stephen Elledge Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics Harvard Medical School Elledge is also in the Department of Medicine, Division of Genetics, at Brigham and Women's and a member of the Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. His lab is interested in mammalian genetics, yeast genetics, and technology development, focusing on understanding the cellular response to DNA damage and DNA replication stress and on cell cycle control. David Hackney Professor of Radiology Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Hackney is also assistant dean for faculty development at HMS and chief of neuroradiology at BID. His research focuses on the development and application of novel MR techniques for evaluating spinal cord trauma. Wade Harper Bert and Natalie Vallee Professor of Molecular Pathology Harvard Medical School Work in Harper's lab focuses on how the cell division cycle is controlled. He is particularly interested in ubiquitin protein ligases and regulation of protein turnover as a mechanism for controlling cell cycle transitions. Current efforts seek to use proteomic and genomic approaches to uncover novel regulatory pathways in cell division. Perry Renshaw Professor of Psychiatry McLean Hospital Renshaw is director of the McLean Hospital Brain Imaging Center. His research focuses on the use of in vivo magnetic resonance methods to characterize changes in brain chemistry and activity associated with psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. He is especially interested in the possibility that these studies could lead to more effective treatment interventions. Carl Rosow Professor of Anesthesia Massachusetts General Hospital A member of the Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Rosow conducts research that concentrates on the clinical pharmacology of opiates and sedative/hypnotic drugs. His studies in volunteers and patients have played an important role in the development of three new analgesics, an anti-emetic, and an EEG-based monitor for measurement of unconsciousness in anesthetized patients. For the last decade, Rosow has been the course director for HST-150, Principles of Pharmacology. David Scadden Professor of Medicine Massachusetts General Hospital Scadden's research focuses on stem cell biology, emphasizing blood stem cells and the mechanisms by which they are governed. He has defined molecules affecting stem cell proliferation and specific components of the complex niche in which they reside. His research is linked to developing new therapies for immunocompromised patients with AIDS or cancer, and he has led international consortia for related clinical trials. He also directs the Center for Regenerative Medicine at MGH. Stuart Schnitt Professor of Pathology Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Schnitt's research focuses on breast pathology, particularly, the identification of risk factors for local recurrence in patients with invasive and in situ breast cancer, the association between various types of benign breast disease and breast cancer risk, and the identification of markers of breast tumor progression. He is also codirector of anatomic pathology at BID, a consultant in pathology at Brigham and Women's and Dana-Farber, and director of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center Human Pathology Core Facility for Breast Cancer. Terry Strom Professor of Surgery Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center This is Strom's second appointment; he is also a professor of medicine at BID. He has clinical and scientific interests in organ transplantation and focuses his current work on immune tolerance. He is most interested in understanding the fundamental basis of immune tolerance and creating therapeutic agents and regimens to achieve tolerance and develop a molecular diagnostic technique that will aid application of tolerizing regimens in the clinic. Alan Zaslavsky Professor of Health Care Policy (Statistics) Harvard Medical School Zaslavsky's research in health care policy centers on measurement of the quality of care provided by health plans and health care providers, especially as reported by health care consumers through surveys. Other research areas include health care disparities, quality of care for cancer, and psychiatric epidemiology. His statistical research interests include surveys, census methodology, small area estimation, official statistics, missing data, hierarchical modeling, and Bayesian methodology.   HSPH Receives $6 Million Grant to Eliminate Health Disparities HSPH, in partnership with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, has received a $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help eliminate health disparities in rural and urban communities. The four-year grant will establish the Center for Healthy Options and Innovative Community Empowerment (CHOICE). Through CHOICE, individuals in rural communities of Gadsden County, Fla., and in the urban neighborhood of Roxbury, Mass., will participate in research addressing causes of excess mortality in minority communities. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, HSPH professor of public health, will lead the effort at Harvard.   Elston Wins HSPH Biostatistics Award Robert Elston, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University, has been named the recipient of the 2004 Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science from the Department of Biostatistics at HSPH. Elston will deliver a lecture in June 2004 at Harvard University. His research interests include developing statistical measures for analyzing family and pedigree data for the identification of genes that cause disease, implementing them in computer programs, and applying them in collaborative research. The Zelen award recognizes an individual who has contributed to the creation of an environment in which statistical science and its applications have flourished.   Next Milestone Symposium to Celebrate Civil Rights The Office for Diversity and Community Partnership sponsors a day-long Milestone event titled "Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities" to be held Wednesday, Feb. 4. Highlights of the event include a keynote presentation by Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, followed by two faculty panels, "How Far We Have Come: Changing the Face of Health Care" and "How Far We Have to Go: Achieving Further Change." All events will be held at the New Research Building, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur. Online registration is required; to register or for more information, visit www.hms.harvard.edu/milestone. CME credits available.   Honors and Advances Michael Farzan, HMS assistant professor of medicine (microbiology and molecular genetics), has been awarded a 2003 GlaxoSmithKline Drug Discovery and Development Research grant to advance treatments for HIV/AIDS. Farzan is one of five researchers selected to receive a $125,000 grant and will use it to fund his research into tyrosine-sulfated peptides and their potential to inhibit HIV entry into human cells. The Smith Family Foundation and the American Diabetes Association Research Foundation gave the Pinnacle Project Award to principal investigator Joel Hirschhorn of Children's Hospital, David Altshuler of Massachusetts General Hospital, Mark Daly of the Whitehead Institute, Todd Golub of Dana-Farber, and Gary Ruvkun of MGH for their study of the contributing genetic causes of obesity and diabetes in humans. The Pinnacle Project Award provides grant support to stimulate new collaborations between investigators working on independent but complementary research projects in genetics. Steven Weinberger, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess and faculty associate dean for medical education at HMS, is departing HMS to join the American College of Physicians (ACP) as senior vice president of the medical knowledge and education division in March 2004. This division is responsible for much of the educational and programmatic content generated by the ACP, Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment programs, clinical practice guidelines, electronic product development, electronic publishing, and the publishing of Annals of Internal Medicine. David Louis, associate chief of pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of pathology at HMS, received the 2003 Farber Award for Meritorious Achievements in Brain Tumor Research. The award is presented annually by the Anne and Jason Farber Foundation, the Society for Neuro-Oncology, and the Joint Section on Tumors of the American Association of Neurosurgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Louis's research focuses on understanding the molecular genetic basis of human gliomas and on developing a molecular classification of these tumors. He has demonstrated that genotyping can provide powerful prognostic information for patients with malignant gliomas. Robert Shamberger, HMS professor of surgery, has been appointed chief of surgery and general surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital. He also becomes the Robert E. Gross professor of surgery in his new position. A member of the Children's Department of Surgery for the past 20 years, most recently as the interim chief of surgery, Shamberger specializes in oncology, irritable bowel disease, and chest wall deformities.