Summer Sees Change in School Leadership

Photo by Steve Gilbert Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services

Eric Buehrens (top), formerly HMS executive dean for administration, begins work this month as deputy provost for administration at Harvard University, a new university role. Buehrens will provide administrative leadership and oversight for cross-institutional/faculty initiatives, including the science planning and administrative components of building new scientific research facilities and programs for the Allston campus. Joseph Martin, HMS dean of the Faculty of Medicine, praised Buehrens for helping to “transform the School’s landscape and ensuring the successful growth and development of HMS’s teaching and research enterprise.” Cynthia Walker (center), HMS dean for finance, is replacing Buehrens as the executive dean for administration. Martin praised Walker, saying, “Cynthia’s expert management of the School’s resources has allowed HMS to expand programs and take advantage of new opportunities.”

In another administrative change, Jane Neill (bottom), formerly HMS associate dean for academic programs, has been appointed associate dean for medical education planning and administration. She will work closely with Jules Dienstag, HMS dean for medical education, and will provide administrative leadership for the Program in Medical Education (PME) and the Medical Education Reform Initiative. “We are very fortunate to have Jane in this new role,” said Dienstag. “Her extensive experience at HMS and her deep understanding of our curriculum make her an outstanding choice for this new leadership position.”

New Chairs of Medicine Begin at Two Hospitals

On July 1, both Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center gained a new chairman of medicine. Joseph Loscalzo, the Hersey professor of the theory and practice of physic at BWH, became chairman of the Brigham Department of Medicine, and Mark Zeidel became chairman at BID. Before coming to BWH, Loscalzo was the Wade professor of medicine and chairman of the Department of Medicine at Boston University Medical Center and director of the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute at Boston University School of Medicine. Zeidel, the Herrman Ludwig Blumgart professor of medicine at BID, was formerly the Jack D. Myers professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he had worked for 12 years.

Madras Nominated for National Drug Policy Post

Photo by Jeff Cleary

The White House has announced that it will nominate Bertha Madras, HMS professor of psychobiology at the New England Primate Research Center, to be the new deputy director for demand reduction in the Office of National Drug Control Policy. If confirmed, Madras would help oversee the implementation of the president’s prevention and treatment policy, including programs such as Access to Recovery, student drug testing, and Screening Brief Intervention Referral and Treatment. “I am eager for Dr. Madras to join the administration’s antidrug efforts, where we can make use of her expertise to enhance and aid the work of prevention and treatment efforts throughout the country,” said John Walters, director of national drug control policy.

Three Researchers Win Bristol–Myers Awards

Three of this year’s Bristol–Myers Squibb Freedom to Discover awards will be presented to HMS and HSPH professors. The awards, along with $50,000 and a silver medallion, are given each year in six fields. Stephen Harrison (top), Howard Hughes investigator and HMS professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, will be presented with the award for distinguished achievement in infectious diseases for his X-ray crystallography work, which has elucidated the atomic structure of important viruses and viral proteins. His research has led to critical insights on how drugs interact with their target proteins and interfere with viral replication, particularly in HIV/AIDS. Mark T. Keating (center), Howard Hughes investigator and HMS professor of cell biology at Children’s Hospital Boston, is being honored for his distinguished achievement in cardiovascular research for his discovery of the first arrhythmia genes and for demonstrating that those genes encode the ion channels that regulate the excitation and contraction of the heart. Walter Willett (bottom), the Fredrick Stare professor of epidemiology and nutrition at HSPH and HMS professor of medicine, won the Bristol–Myers Squibb/Mead Johnson Freedom to Discover Award for Distinguished Achievement in Nutrition Research. He was recognized for his work on nutritional epidemiology, specifically his development of large-scale cohort studies and methods to assess dietary intake in large populations. These studies uncovered relationships between nutrition and chronic diseases, including major cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.

Center Targets Mental Health Disparities

Grant Supports Development of Nanotech Therapies

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a group of Boston-based researchers a five-year, $15.6 million grant to develop novel nanotechnologies to diagnose and treat heart, lung, and blood diseases. The consortium will be led by Ralph Weissleder, HMS professor of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and will include six other researchers from Harvard and two from MIT.

With the grant, the team will establish a multidisciplinary program involving chemists, biologists, engineers, and physicians to develop and rapidly translate new nanotechnologies to diagnose and treat heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders. The researchers aim to better control and manipulate emerging new materials by precisely configuring molecular structures, adding biological functionalities, decreasing or eliminating toxicities, and creating supramolecular devices with unique biological function.

The team will participate in seven research projects, among them harnessing smart scaffolds capable of growth factor release to promote cardiovascular tissue regeneration, developing multidimensional cell screens to rapidly and sensitively test biosafety of novel materials, and utilizing novel protease sensors for early in vivo sensing of cigarette smoke–induced lung injury.

Honors and Advances

• Catherine Gordon and Kenneth Mandl were among the 58 researchers who received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers this year. The award is given to scientists and engineers “whose work shows exceptional promise at the frontiers of scientific knowledge” and is accompanied by up to five years of funding. Gordon, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, was recognized for her work on anorexia nervosa and bone loss in young women. Mandl, HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s, received the award for heading the hospital’s center for biopreparedness and for his ongoing work on a system to provide real-time surveillance for bioterrorism and disease outbreaks.

• Alejandro Casillas and Anh Lan Bui were named two of the 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society scholars at the society’s annual meeting on May 12. The $10,000 awards are presented annually by the state’s medical society to two students from each of the four Massachusetts medical schools in recognition of their academic records, community involvement, and financial needs. The students’ achievements include Casillas’s work with Brigham and Women’s Hospital to develop a Spanish pregnancy guidebook for pregnant teenage Latinas, and Bui’s efforts to develop a series of bilingual cable access television programs to promote health literacy.

• The Thomson Leadership Award was presented to Nawal Nour, HMS assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in late March. Nour is the founder and director of BWH’s African Women’s Health Practice, the only center in the nation that focuses on the emotional and physical needs of female circumcision victims.

• Lloyd Paul Aiello, HMS associate professor of ophthalmology at Joslin Diabetes Center, was named as the new director of Joslin’s Beetham Eye Institute in May. Aiello has been the associate director of the institute for two years and heads Joslin’s Section on Eye Research. The former director (and father of the new director), Lloyd M. Aiello, will continue to provide patient and staff education as well as his work as a principal investigator in Joslin’s Section on Eye Research.

• Four HMS physicians were elected to the Association of American Physicians (AAP) this April. A. Thomas Look, HMS professor of pediatrics at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; JoAnn Manson, the Elizabeth F. Brigham professor of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Mohammed Sayegh, HMS professor of medicine at BWH; and Margaret Shipp, HMS associate professor of medicine at DFCI, were among the 57 new members of the AAP, an organization dedicated to advancing and disseminating medical
scientific knowledge.

• Walter Guralnick, HMS professor emeritus of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, was one of three people to receive the Harvard Medal at Commencement on June 9. The medal recognizes extraordinary service to Harvard University. Guralnick’s accomplishments include helping to develop Delta Dental Insurance, developing teaching missions in China, and initiating the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery-MD–General Surgery Program.

• Judah Folkman, the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital Boston, received three awards this summer for his work on angiogenesis and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Early in the summer he was honored with the Paul Kayser International Award in retinal research. This honor was accompanied by a $5,000 personal honorarium and a $20,000 research grant. Folkman went to Paris on June 15 to accept the $250,000 Grand Prix Lefoulon-Delalande–Institut de France 2005. He was given the prize for his “seminal contribution” to the discovery and development of VEGF. On Aug. 8 Folkman was presented with the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Pharmaceutical Achievement Awards organization.

• Charles Carpenter, HMS professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has received two awards for his contributions to the refinement of renal transplantation. In May, the National Kidney Foundation honored him with the David M. Hume Memorial Award, the highest honor the society gives to a distinguished scientist or clinician in the field of kidney and urologic diseases. In addition, the American Society of Nephrology has given Carpenter the John P. Peters Award, which recognizes “individuals who have made substantial research contributions to the discipline of nephrology.”

• Danica Galonic, an HMS postdoctoral fellow, was one of 10 people to win a postdoctoral fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The three-year fellowships are given annually to young scientists conducting promising theoretical
and experimental cancer research. Galonic will be supervised by Christopher T. Walsh, the Hamilton Kuhn professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS.

• Bradford Lowell, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was presented with the Smith Family Award for Excellence in Medical Research on May 24. The $65,000 prize from the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation was created in 2002 to recognize unique, outstanding contributions among particular scientific disciplines. Lowell received the award for his research on diabetes and obesity.

• Carol Nadelson, HMS clinical professor of psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received the Dr. Henry P. and M. Page Lauglin Distinguished A.C.Psa. Editorial Award for authorship and editorial service to the American College of Psychoanalysts. She was presented with the award on May 21 at the annual meeting of the American College of Psychoanalysts in Atlanta.

• Joan Reede, dean for diversity and community partnership at HMS, received the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Herbert W. Nickens, MD, award at their annual meeting in May. The award honors an individual who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to cultural diversity in medicine or to improvement of minority health.

U.S. News Honors Harvard Hospitals

Seven HMS-affiliated hospitals were recognized in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of the nation’s hundred best hospitals. McLean Hospital was ranked as the best psychiatric hospital for the 16th consecutive year and as the fourth best U.S. hospital with a psychiatric specialty, a standing that it has held for three years. Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary was listed as having the second best ear, nose, and throat practice and the fourth best ophthalmology practice in the country. The pediatrics care at Children’s Hospital Boston was rated second best, and Beth Israel Deaconess was ranked as having the twelfth best hormonal disorder practice. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was rated fourth best cancer center. In addition, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital were on the magazine’s honor roll (see Focus, July 15). To develop the rankings, the magazine surveyed health care practitioners nationwide and asked them to list five hospitals they considered best in their specialty for difficult cases, without considering cost or location.

In Memoriam

Ullian graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and HMS in 1958. He joined the faculty at Mount Auburn as a teaching fellow in medicine in 1961 and served there for more than 40 years.
Ullian practiced medicine in Cambridge and considered himself a simple country doctor. He described his practice as a “mix of academic, elderly, young, poor, rich, and Cambridge eccentrics.” He was quoted as saying, “If you want to know what’s wrong with your patient, you have to hear what they have to say.”

Ullian leaves his wife, Annette; daughter, Alissa Walls; sons Erik of San Mateo, Calif., and Peter; a sister, Marcia Jackson of Newton; a brother, Stephen of Brookline; and
four grandchildren.

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