Dental School Wins Preventive Care Award

Project Bridge, a program in which HSDM students provide dental care to homeless, runaway, and at-risk youths, was honored with the American Dental Association’s 2005 Community Preventive Dentistry Award. The six-year-old project is a collaboration between HSDM and Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Inc., a local organization that provides assistance to needy youth. Under Project Bridge, the dental students and volunteer faculty members give preventive, periodontal, and operative treatment to 400 patients a year. Students also conduct workshops to teach patients and the program’s GED students about general health, oral health, nutrition, and careers in health and dentistry.

HMS Faculty Council

Associate Dean for Clinical Programs Named at HMS

Photo by Richard Chase

Daniel Singer, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and chief of the MGH Clinical Epidemiology Unit, has been appointed associate dean for clinical programs. As associate dean, Singer will lead HMS-wide initiatives in clinical research and training, and will work closely with hospital leaders to support graduate medical education. “Dr. Singer brings a distinguished background of clinical research and educational activities to his new position,” said Ray Dolin, HMS dean for academic and clinical programs. Dolin cited Singer’s direction of the HMS/HSPH clinical epidemiology course, his landmark studies of atrial fibrillation, and the MGH General Medicine Research Fellowship as examples of his rich experience in the field.

Cancer Nanotechnology Gains Center of Excellence

The National Cancer Institute has awarded HMS and MIT researchers one of seven grants, each providing approximately $21 million over five years, to create a Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, a hub for research on integrating nanotechnology into basic and applied cancer research and providing new solutions for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Ralph Weissleder, HMS professor of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Robert Langer, senior lecturer on surgery at MIT and HMS, are the co–principal investigators. The MIT–HMS center will focus on diversified nanoplatforms for targeted therapy, diagnostics, noninvasive imaging, and molecular sensing.

Science Meets Art

Photo courtesy Brian Knep

A bystander ponders a piece in Brian Knep’s Drift/Grid installment. Knep, an artist whose work is interactive and based in visual imagination and technology, will be the first artist resident to be co-sponsored by the University’s Office for the Arts and an HMS department, in this case the Department of Systems Biology. As resident, Knep will create a new temporary public artwork for display in April 2006 and will meet with undergraduates, faculty, and staff throughout the year. He will also host a public slide lecture and a series of roundtable discussions on the intersection of art and science.

Center for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases Created at MGH

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has awarded Massachusetts General Hospital one of the first three grants to create Specialized Centers for Cell-based Therapy for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases. The grant will provide MGH with $11.4 million over the next five years for a study on the specialized microenvironments in which stem cells live. “We hope to provide proof of principle that we can influence stem cell activity by manipulating these microenvironments with medications,” said David Scadden, HMS professor of medicine at MGH and the project’s principal investigator. Baylor College of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University will also house specialized centers.

Nominations Requested for Mentoring Award Candidates

The HMS Office for Diversity and Community Partnership is requesting nominations for three mentoring awards for HMS/HSDM faculty who have provided sponsorship, encouragement, and support for the career or personal development of faculty, fellows, house officers, and students. The 2005 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award is available to any faculty member who has provided excellent mentorship; the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award is available to faculty with at least 20 years of service; and the Young Mentor Award is available to faculty with 10 or fewer years of service. The deadline for nominations is Oct. 28, 2005. Guidelines and the nomination form may be found at www.mfdp.med.harvard.edu/mentoringawards/.

Immunology Center Groundbreaking

Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services

HMS held a September groundbreaking ceremony for the Jeffrey Modell Immunology Center on the Quad, which will provide a base for faculty and students across HMS who are working in the field. The total project cost is $4.7 million, being raised through gifts from faculty, friends, family, several corporations, and a matching grant from the Jeffrey Modell Foundation. The new center recognizes the legacy of clinician-researchers Fred Rosen, former president of the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, and Robert Good, considered by many the founder of modern immunology. Shown at the event are (from left) Vicki Modell, HMS dean Joseph Martin, and Fred Modell. The Modells established the foundation in memory of their son.

Honors and Advances

• Robert Moellering Jr., the Shields Warren–Mallinckrodt professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will receive the 2006 Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases early next year. The award recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the understanding of infectious diseases or public health and is based on excellence in clinical and research activities, participation in the training of future leaders in the field, and positive impact on the health of humankind.

• The American Association for Clinical Chemistry presented its AACC Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry in a Selected Area of Research award to David Sacks, HMS associate professor of pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The $5,000 prize recognizes an individual for his or her research in clinical chemistry.

• Harold Dvorak, the Mallinckrodt professor of pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received the Grand Prix Lefoulon-Delalande-Institut de France 2005 for his discovery of the VEGF protein. He was given the award in conjunction with Judah Folkman, the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric surgery, in Paris on June 15.

• Harvard University awarded Mary Ellen Avery, the Thomas Morgan Rotch distinguished professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, an honorary doctor of science degree on June 9. Avery is best known for her discovery, in 1959, that respiratory distress syndrome in newborns is caused by a lack of surfactant, the foamy coating that helps lungs expand. In addition to her research, she established the Joint Program in Neonatology at Children’s, Beth Israel Deaconess, and Peter Bent Brigham hospitals.

• Steven Schachter, HMS professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has been awarded the 2005 Annual Faculty Teaching Award from the HMS Scholars in Clinical Science program. He was honored by the students in the two-year postgraduate training program for teaching its Longitudinal Seminar.

In Memoriam

Photo courtesy MEEI

Charles Davis Belcher III, HMS clinical assistant in ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, died on Sept. 14 after a lengthy illness. He was 58.

Belcher had been a clinical assistant in ophthalmology at MEEI since 1980. In 1990, while practicing with Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston, he was a leader in building two surgery centers, one in Boston and one on Cape Cod. His specialties were glaucoma, cataracts, and diseases and surgery of the anterior segment.

Belcher was a recognized expert in the field of glaucoma and laser treatment. In addition to writing multiple medical articles and editing journals and books, he educated residents and fellows and was a major influence for ophthalmic education through his professional affiliations.

During his tenure as president of the New England Ophthalmological Society, his agenda included increased roles for women members and subspecialty meetings. Belcher was recently awarded the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award by the NEOS.

Belcher is survived by his wife, Valerie; his son, Jeremy; and his daughter, Jennifer.

top