Drug Discovery
Computer Screening Uncovers Compounds Against ALS
Neuroscience
Optic Nerve Regrown in Mice
Public Health
Stats Tool Puts
Health Disparities on the Map
Statistical Method Detects Disease Outbreaks
Without Background Population Data
Molecular Modulator of Synaptic Plasticity Revealed
Hot Spots for Genetic Recombination Different in Chimps and Humans
Proceedings of the HMS
Faculty Council
New Appointments to Full Professor
Nominations Invited for Biostatistics Alum Award
Grants Offered in Women’s Health
Honors and Advances
Madras Receives Public Service Award
Students Bag Pharma in Second Year Show
Proceedings of the HMS Faculty Council
Diversity at HMS: A Snapshot
At the Jan. 26 Faculty Council meeting, David Hackney, assistant dean for
faculty development, provided an “HMS Snapshot” of the findings
of the Committee on Faculty Diversity. In reviewing medical school faculty
diversity around the country, the committee found that the faculties of
medical schools are less diverse than their classes; faculties of highly
research-oriented schools are less diverse than those of faculties as a
whole; the HMS faculty is less diverse than those of other highly research-oriented
schools; and the HMS faculty is much less diverse than the HMS student
body.
Recent data on HMS show that underrepresented minorities (URMs) make up 20 percent of the medical student population, but that the percentage is lower in the trainee (6.4 percent) and faculty ranks (5.4 percent).
Hackney noted that the proportion of URM faculty appointments has increased overall, but still represents a small percentage of faculty (3 percent in 1981–1983 to 6 percent in 1996–1998).
Hackney then summarized
the interim recommendations of the committee, including:
• improve communication within HMS and the affiliated hospitals
about URM recruitment, retention, and promotion;
• invite high-profile visiting professors to present at multiple institutions,
and provide financial support to underwrite their expenses;
• conduct exit interviews of URMs who choose to leave HMS;
• raise funds and include diversity as an option for potential donors;
• search more widely for new hires at all levels.
Faculty Council recommendations
included:
• when conducting faculty searches, find out specifically why each candidate
was not a finalist;
• consider advertising in more minority-focused publications and recruiting
at schools and meetings that have a high representation of URMs;
• ask URM students what it would take to get them to develop their careers
here, start grooming them early on, and do not wait for exit interviews;
• address the lack of support and mentoring of younger people;
• hold department chairs accountable for mentoring;
• include demonstrated efforts in mentoring and career advising as
criteria
for promotion;
• find a special supplement to match the packages other institutions
offer;
• look at areas in addition to research when determining promotions.
Changes
in Professionalism in Medical Education
George Thibault, HMS professor of medicine, identified what has changed
in terms of professionalism in medical education:
• it no longer deals solely with the doctor–patient dyad;
• an implicit approach is no longer sufficient;
• new threats to professionalism have emerged, including the “corporatization” of
medicine, the commercialism/conflict of interest in medicine, the
cost of health care, consumerism, the changing status of doctors, the explosion
of
knowledge and technology, and the complexity of the health care system.
Thibault cited new opportunities due to the current medical education reform initiative, specifically noting new courses such as Introduction to the Profession, Fundamentals of Medicine, the Principal Clinical Experience, Advanced Experiences in Clinical Medicine and Science, and In-depth Educational Experiences.
In concluding, Thibault outlined the questions HMS faces:
• do we know how to teach professionalism?
• how do we create a culture of professionalism?
• what is the responsibility of the faculty?
• what are the responsibilities of the School?
• how do we promote and fund professionalism as a scholarly activity?
Council members’ comments included:
• HMS needs to add professionalism to the courses that students study;
• students should be trained to recognize ethical issues;
• the School needs to nurture students;
• the faculty must meet a high standard of professionalism and be evaluated;
• hospital leadership must be engaged;
• cultural competency should go hand in hand with professionalism;
• a new program in professional standards for all physicians is being
conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Martin thanked the members for sharing their views and reinforced the commitment of the School to ensure that humane values are instilled in all students.
New Appointments to Full Professor
The following faculty member was appointed in October.
Jane Weeks
Professor of Medicine
Dana–Farber Cancer Institute
Weeks’s research lab, the Center for Outcomes and Policy Research
at DFCI, focuses on critical evaluation of the quality, outcomes, and
costs of cancer care. In particular, her group works to identify the
determinants
of the quality of care provided to patients with cancer, characterize
barriers to optimal care of all patients, and develop approaches to eliminate
these
barriers.
November appointment:
George F. Murphy
Professor of Pathology
Chief, Dermatopathology Service
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Murphy’s laboratory is interested in the cellular and molecular
pathways responsible for cutaneous inflammation and immune-mediated injury.
Based
on recent findings, a primary area of current exploration involves
identification of mechanisms where-by immune cells selectively target
and destroy normal
skin stem cells and, potentially, tumor stem cells. These studies complement
ongoing clinical diagnostic efforts that encompass inflammatory and
neoplastic disorders of skin, including autoimmune disorders, psoriasis,
and malignant
melanoma.
December appointments:
Mary Jane Ferraro
Professor of Pathology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Ferraro is the director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at
MGH. She is an expert in the evaluation and standardization of
laboratory methods for detection of clinically relevant antimicrobial
resistance.
She has
served as chair of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute
(CLSI,
formerly NCCLS) Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing
and is currently the chair of the CLSI Area Committee on Microbiology.
In her
current roles, she spearheads a major effort to develop international
methods and standardization of susceptibility testing.
Nina Tolkoff-Rubin
Professor of Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Nina Tolkoff-Rubin is director of the Hemodialysis and Peritoneal
Dialysis Units at MGH as well as medical director of renal transplantation.
She has pioneered the use of short-course therapy for the treatment
of uncomplicated
urinary tract infections in young women; demonstrated the efficacy
of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxasole in the prevention of urinary
tract infections
and pneumocystis, listeria,
and nocardia infections in renal transplant recipients; and helped
describe the clinical-pathologic syndrome of acute humoral rejection
in renal
transplant patients while devising an effective therapy that
has improved
allograft
survival with this condition. Currently, Rubin is the transplant
nephrologist working with members of the Transplant Biology Center
at MGH to bring
a tolerance protocol from the bench to the bedside.
January appointment:
David E. Fisher
Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital Boston
Fisher’s research focuses on transcriptional regulation in melanocytes
and melanoma. He has studied a master transcriptional regulator called
MITF, which controls pigment cell development and is oncogenic in certain
human cancers, including various pediatric sarcomas. Fisher’s
lab focuses on understanding the
signaling and transcriptional networks in these cell types,
translating this information into targeted strategies for
cancer prevention
and treatment. Fisher is director of the melanoma program
in medical oncology at the
Dana–Farber
Cancer Institute and is a faculty member in the Biological and Biomedical
Sciences (BBS) graduate program at HMS. He is also a clinical oncologist
at Children’s and DFCI.
Nominations Sought for Biostatistics Alum Award
The HSPH Department of Biostatistics is currently accepting nominations for the Distinguished Alum award. The award and an invitation to lecture at the department will be given to an individual in government, industry, or academia who has influenced the theory and practice of statistical science during his or her overall career. The deadline for submission of nominations is April 15. Nominations should be sent to the Distinguished Award Committee, Dept. of Biostatistics, HSPH, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115.
Grants Offered in Women’s Health
The HMS Center of Excellence in Women’s Health is accepting letters of intent for the 5th Annual HMS Fund for Women’s Health Research Award grants. Up to seven one-year grants worth $30,000 each will be awarded to Harvard faculty. The deadline for the letter of intent is 3 p.m. on April 11. The deadline for the application is 3 p.m. on May 2. For application materials, visit www.hms.harvard.edu/coewh/HMS_Fund/index.html.
Honors
and Advances
Irene Chen, an MD–PhD candidate in the Medical Scientist Training Program and the Biophysics Program in HST, received a 2005 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student award. The award is sponsored by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and is given to 15 students internationally. Chen will participate in a scientific symposium from May 6 to 7 at the research center.
Madras Receives Public Service Award
Bertha Madras, HMS professor of psychobiology at
the New England Primate Research Center and Massachusetts General
Hospital, was presented with
the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Public Service award at
the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse meeting on Feb. 16. Madras
was honored for her pioneering science education programs, including
exhibits she developed for the Boston Museum of Science. “Her
continuing efforts to serve as a spokeswoman for science, and her passion
to bring NIDA-supported research to the people who need it the most,
make her the ideal recipient of this prestigious award,” said
Nora Volkow, director of the NIDA.