McLean Names New President

Jack Gorman was appointed president and psychiatrist-in-chief of McLean Hospital and chair of Partners Psychiatry and Mental Health on Oct. 14.

As head of McLean, Gorman will lead HMS’s largest psychiatric clinical care, research, and teaching institution. As chair of Partners Psychiatry and Mental Health, Gorman will provide strategic leadership to ensure the quality, integration, growth, and financial health of psychiatric programs at McLean and across the entire Partners HealthCare system, including the system’s community-based psychiatric network.

Gorman is currently the Esther and Joseph Klingenstein professor of psychiatry and professor of neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is a noted researcher in anxiety disorders, depression, and schizophrenia, who has authored nearly 300 research articles in peer-reviewed journals.

In his McLean role, Gorman replaces Bruce Cohen, who has served as McLean’s president for the past eight years. Cohen will continue his work at McLean as director of the Shervert Frazier Research Institute, the Stanley Research Center, and the Molecular Pharmacology Laboratory. As chair of Partners Psychiatry and Mental Health, Gorman replaces Gary Gottlieb, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Lefkopoulou Honoree Describes Biostatistics Models in AIDS Research

Photo by Susanne Camarata Mark van der Laan

Mark van der Laan, professor in the Division of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health of the University of California, Berkeley, was this year’s winner of the Myrto Lefkopoulou Distinguished Lecturer award. In his Sept. 15 talk, titled “History Adjusted Marginal Structural Models: Application in AIDS Research,” van der Laan discussed marginal structural models, methods that effectively address confounding in longitudinal data, but do not allow estimation of how treatment effects may change as a result of time-varying covariates. He developed HA-MSM, a generalization of marginal structural models that incorporate time-dependent effect modification.

He illustrated the application of HA-MSM with an example of treating HIV-infected patients experiencing incomplete viral suppression on antiretroviral therapy. Lack of effective and well-tolerated alternative regimens and the desire to protect future treatment options could result in a decision to delay switching for some individuals. HA-MSM allows estimation of how the effect of nonsuppressive therapy may differ depending on time-varying covariates and identifies a decision rule for switching that is expected to optimize patient outcomes.

The lecture was followed by the presentation of a plaque and a reception in van der Laan’s honor. The annual award was initiated in 1993 in memory of Myrto Lefkopoulou, a former faculty member and student in the Department of Biostatistics.

Nominations for next year’s lectureship are currently being solicited and should be sent to the Myrto Lefkopoulou Lecture Committee, Department of Biostatistics, HSPH, 655 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. Nominations should include a letter of nomination and a CV. The deadline is March 31, 2006.

Book Series Opens with Signing by Kirschner

At the first event in Countway Library’s “Notable Books” series, Marc Kirschner, head of the Department of Systems Biology at HMS, will give a presentation on his book, The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin’s Dilemma, followed by a book signing. In the text, Kirschner and his co-author John Gerhart argue that the key to understanding the evolution of complex structures is appreciating that their development is based on the same basic molecular mechanisms. The presentation will be held on Monday, November 14, at 4:30 p.m. in the Minot Room; the signing will be at 5:30 in the Lahey Room.

Humanitarian Prize Brings $1.5 Million to Partners In Health

Children’s Health Award Supports Food Project

HSPH, Children’s Hospital Boston, and the Boston Mayor’s Office presented the 2005 Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Children’s Health to The Food Project on Oct. 20. The $10,000 prize is given annually to a community-oriented program that improves the health and well-being of children and adolescents living in Boston. The Food Project is a nonprofit organization that brings together youth to manage and cultivate farm land in Lincoln and Boston. They grow nearly a quarter of a million pounds of food each season.

Growth Drives Scholars in Medicine Fellowship Program

The 2005 reception for the Eleanor and Miles Shore 50th Anniversary Program for Scholars in Medicine celebrated 55 new fellowships that support junior faculty pursuing academic careers while carrying heavy personal or family responsibilities. Along with HMS dean Joseph Martin, Ellice Lieberman, HMS dean for faculty affairs, opened the program for the first time since becoming faculty dean.

Photo by Steve Gilbert

Fellowship recipient Carole Landisman, husband R. Clay Reid (HMS professor of neurobiology), and children Micah and Nathaniel.

Lieberman said that a mark of the program’s success is that 94 percent of the 196 previous fellows have gone on to publish peer-reviewed papers and 86 percent have received external funding. Former dean for faculty affairs Eleanor Shore closed the award presentations, saying that in the 10 years since the program began, the nine original donors have grown to 32. At that rate, she said with an eye toward the future, there should be more than 100 by the year 2015. The program has awarded approximately $8,750,000 in fellowship grants since its inception.

A list of this year’s awardees can be found here.

Nanotechnology Platform Partnership Established at MGH

A team led by Tayyaba Hasan, HMS professor of dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to form a cancer nanotechnology platform partnership—a project that conducts directed, product-focused research for translating advanced science and technology into diagnostic and therapeutic tools. The MGH partnership will focus on developing multifunctional nanoparticles that can deliver light-activated anticancer compounds specifically to ovarian cancer cells. Once bound to the target cells, the nanoparticles can be activated using a miniature endoscopic laser to illuminate only the tumors, providing a second means of ensuring that healthy tissue is spared damage during therapy.

Professorship for Systems Biology Celebrated

Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services

On Oct. 7, HMS and its Department of Systems Biology celebrated the Novartis Professorship of Systems Biology, announcing that Novartis has made a five-year pledge to establish the chair. When active, it will be held by the head of the Systems Biology Department at HMS. “The reason we’re supporting the department,” said Mark Fishman, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, “is because systems biology will be the new synthesis of medicine.” At the celebration above are (from left) Rebecca Ward, HMS lecturer on systems biology and the department’s director of research affairs; HMS dean Joseph Martin; Fishman; Marc Kirschner, head of the Systems Biology Department; and Brigitta Tadmor, global head of communications for the Novartis institutes.

Honors and Advances

• Harold Dvorak, the Mallinckrodt professor of pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has been awarded the first Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research by the National Foundation for Cancer Research. The $25,000 prize honors outstanding scientific achievement in cancer investigations. Dvorak was honored for his discovery of vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial cell growth factor.

• Prevent Blindness America, volunteer eye health and safety organization, presented Johanna Seddon with its first annual Dr. Maurice F. Rabb, Jr. Award on Oct. 14. Seddon, HMS associate professor of ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, was honored for her research on age-related macular degeneration.

• The American Academy of Periodontology awarded Howard Howell, the A. Lee Loomis professor of periodontology at HSDM; Joe Fiorellini, HSDM associate professor of periodontology; and Myron Nevins, HSDM associate clinical professor of periodontology, the 2005 Tarrson Research Award in Plastic Surgery for their paper “Randomized Study Evaluating Recombinant Human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 for Extraction Socket Augmentation.” The paper was published in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Periodontology.

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