Department Chair, Assistant Dean Named at HSPH

Photo by Richard Chase Photo by Christina Roache

HSPH has named new leaders in environmental health and educational programs. Douglas Dockery (top), HSPH professor of environmental epidemiology and HMS associate professor of medicine (epidemiology), was named chair of HSPH’s Department of Environmental Health, effective Sept. 1. Dockery is internationally known for his innovative work in environmental epidemiology, most recently in pursuing the biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between air pollution and acute cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. He was one of the principal investigators of the renowned Six Cities Study of Air Pollution and Health, which had a major impact on air quality standards for particulate air pollution. “This is an exciting and challenging time for environmental health, and we are confident that Doug will provide outstanding leadership of the department,” said HSPH dean Barry Bloom. Dockery succeeded Joseph Brain, who had been chair since 1990.

Nancy Turnbull (bottom), HSPH senior lecturer on health policy, was named assistant dean for educational programs, a new position at the School. In this role, Turnbull aims to better integrate public health practice into the classroom, improve case-based learning, and introduce new approaches for student advising and mentoring. She will also develop alternative scheduling to minimize course conflicts for students and different educational formats, including online learning. “HSPH already offers top-notch curricula, but we want to ensure that the School is always a leading, international educator in public health,” said Turnbull.

School Welcomes Incoming Students

Photos by Liza Green

Melody Russell (left) and Kara Wong (foreground, right) were among the 165 incoming MD and HSDM students who received their white coats on Sept. 1 at the Schools’ welcoming ceremony for first-years. Women make up 52 percent of the incoming class, and 22 percent of the first-years are underrepresented minorities. At the Division of Medical Sciences’ incoming student gathering on Sept. 9, program heads discussed the value of basic and fundamental research with the 90 new students. Thirty-eight of DMS’s first-years are male and 52 are female.

New Full and Endowed Professorships

The following faculty members were appointed to a full or named professorship in August.

G. William Dec
Roman W. DeSanctis Professor of Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Dec’s research interests focus on inflammatory diseases of the myocardium, particularly viral-mediated myocarditis and cardiac allograft rejection. His clinical and histopathological studies have helped to define the relationship between myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy and to better characterize the natural history and treatment of these disorders. At MGH, he remains active in the conduct of clinical trials of novel pharmacological and device-based heart failure therapies, disease management strategies, and genetic determinants of recovery from acute onset cardiomyopathy, and he serves as chief of the hospital’s Cardiology Division.

Craig Gerard
Leila and Irving Perlmutter Professor
Children’s Hospital Boston
Gerard’s research has focused on G protein chemo-attractant receptors, particularly those for complement anaphylatoxins C3a and C5a and the chemokines. His work has led to translational research on the pathogenesis of several diseases, including cystic fibrosis, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and HIV/AIDS. At Children’s, he is director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center and chief of the Division of Respiratory Diseases.

David Beier
Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Beier’s work has focused on the study of mouse mutations as models of human disease and development. This has encompassed all aspects of mouse genetics, including gene mapping, positional cloning, complex trait genetics, and genomics. His work currently focuses on the use of mutagenesis to generate models of human birth defects.

Robert Moellering
Shields Warren–Mallinckrodt
Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center
Moellering’s research focuses on the mechanisms of action, particularly mechanisms or resistance to antimicrobial agents. In addition, he and his colleagues are involved in a number of studies of the relationship between antimicrobial resistance and virulence in bacteria, including methicillin--resistant Staphylococcus aureus. He is head of the Department of Medicine at BID.

Kenneth Bloch
William Thomas Green Morton
Associate Professor of Anesthesia
Associate Professor
of Anesthesiology and Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Bloch’s research focuses on the roles of nitric oxide in the pathogeneses of cardiopulmonary diseases, especially those associated with left ventricular dysfunction and acute pulmonary injury. His group also studies the mechanisms by which mutations in the gene encoding the type II bone morphogenetic protein receptor cause pulmonary arterial hypertension.

The following faculty members were appointed to a full or named professorship in July.

William Gregory Stevenson
Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Stevenson’s research centers on the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. He has developed methods for characterizing areas of abnormal electrical activity in the heart and eliminating these with catheter ablation techniques. He is also interested in the prevention of sudden death and strategies to reduce sudden death in heart failure patients.

Abram Recht
Professor of Radiation Oncology
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Recht’s research focuses on investigating and improving the results of local and regional therapy for patients with early-stage breast cancer, particularly when combined with systemic therapy. He has written, edited, or co-authored more than 200 publications on the topic. He has also studied combined-modality approaches for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers.

Nancy Tarbell
C.C. Wang Professor of Radiation Oncology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Tarbell’s clinical research focuses on pediatric cancer treatment with a special interest in decreasing late effects in cancer survivors. Her current collaborative research is directed toward defining the benefit of proton radiation therapy in childhood brain tumors. She currently serves as the director of the Pediatric Radiation Oncology Service as well as the director of the Center for Faculty Development at MGH.

Mark Zeidel
Herrman Ludwig Blumgart Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Zeidel’s research focuses on the control of water and sodium transport across biological membranes. His achievements include defining the renal mechanisms of action of atrial natriuretic peptides, developing a molecular understanding of how barrier membranes block the fluxes of water and other small molecules, and performing the first successful reconstitution of aquaporin water channels, which led to a detailed understanding of how they function to transport water. Zeidel was also named chairman of medicine at BID on July 1.

Joseph Loscalzo
Hersey Professsor of the Theory
and Practice of Physic
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Loscalzo investigates vascular and endothelial biology, with an emphasis on endothelial function, thrombosis, and oxidant stress. He has spent years researching the role of nitric oxide as an essential endothelial homeostatic effector and has examined the key determinants of its elaboration and its oxidative inactivation. Among the molecular and genetic mediators of oxidant stress and vascular disease that his group has identified are glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, glutathione peroxidase-1 and -3 deficiencies, and hyperhomocysteinemia, all of which contribute to the development of vascular nitric oxide insufficiency. He was named to the Hersey professorship along with his appointment as chair of BWH’s Department of Medicine.

Jonathan Borus
Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Borus is the chair of the Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals Department of Psychiatry and the chief of psychiatry at both hospitals. His work involves psychiatric education, health and mental health delivery systems, and physicians’ personal and professional development.

Jules Dienstag
Carl W. Walter Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Dienstag is a hepatologist whose professional career in the Gastrointestinal Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital has been devoted to the study of viral hepatitis. His current research focuses on development of antiviral therapy for chronic viral hepatitis, and he is the principal investigator at MGH of a national, randomized, controlled trial of protracted antiviral therapy for patients refractory to treatment for chronic hepatitis C. Between 1998 and 2004, Dienstag was the faculty associate dean for admissions and chairman of the Committee on Admissions at HMS. In 2004–2005, he was associate dean for academic and clinical programs at HMS, and on May 1, was appointed dean for medical education at HMS and the incumbent of the Walter chair.

Jerrold Rosenbaum
Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital
Rosenbaum is an authority on mood and anxiety disorders and their pharmacotherapy. His research contributions include extensive participation in the design and conduct of clinical trials of new therapies. His work includes the design and implementation of trials to develop innovative treatments for major depression, treatment-resistant depression, and panic disorder; studies of psychopathology including comorbidity and subtypes; and studies of longitudinal course and outcomes of these disorders. He has also been involved in ongoing longitudinal studies of children at risk for anxiety and depression.

AIDS Vaccine Program Gains $19m Grant

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Crucell Holland BV, a Dutch biotechnology company, have been awarded a $19.2 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a novel candidate HIV/AIDS vaccine.

The Integrated Preclinical/Clinical AIDS Vaccine Development program will be headed by Dan Barouch, HMS assistant professor of medicine at BID. Other members of the scientific team include Norman Letvin, HMS professor of medicine at BID, and Raphael Dolin, the dean for academic and clinical programs at HMS and the Maxwell Finland professor of medicine (microbiology and genetics) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with Jaap Goudsmit, chief scientific officer of Crucell Holland BV.

Honors and Advances

• Dennis Kasper, the William Ellery Channing professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been selected to chair the new National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB). The NSABB is a 24-member committee created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to recommend strategies for regulating federally conducted or supported biological research that has the potential to be used for harmful purposes..

• Queen Elizabeth II of England has appointed Donald Berwick, HMS clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at Children’s Hospital Boston, an honorary Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire. Berwick was recognized for his “distinguished service to health care improvement in Britain’s National Health Service,” including his work on the modernization plan for the UK health care system and on the National Patient Safety Agency. “We are deeply grateful for Dr. Berwick’s invaluable contributions to improving Britain’s National Health Service, and with it the health of people throughout the UK,” said British Consul-General John Rankin. The knighthood is honorary because Berwick is not a British citizen.

• Jane M. Murphy, HMS professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and HSPH professor of epidemiology, was presented with the Hoch Award at the March 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Psychopathologic Association. The award is given to an investigator who has made seminal contributions to psychiatric research. At the meeting, Murphy gave a presentation on her long-term epidemiologic study of psychiatric disorders in a general population and provided a history of psychosocial research focused on the etiology of psychiatric disorders.

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