HMS Professor Receives NIH Director’s Pioneer Award

Courtesy Junying Yuan

Junying Yuan, HMS professor of cell biology, received one of the 13 NIH Director’s Pioneer Awards given this year. The $500,000, five-year grant, a part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, supports exceptionally creative scientists who take innovative approaches in biomedical research. Yuan will use the funding to look for ways to enhance the cell’s ability to detect and degrade prionlike proteins involved in human disorders.

Courtesy HSPH

MacArthur Grant Goes to HSPH Investigator

Sue Goldie, HSPH associate professor of health decision science, has been selected to be one of the year’s 25 MacArthur fellows. These fellows, who are selected for creativity, originality, and potential, are awarded $500,000 over five years with no stipulations or requirements. The no-strings-attached policy is designed to allow grantees independence in their projects. Goldie is known for her work “applying rigorous analyses and interventions to transform women’s health care around the world and to reduce female morbidity and mortality in underserved populations.

FUNC Gets Down to Caring for the Community

Students Somi Kim (foreground) and Kiran Gupta (background) gave manicures to Adult Day Care attendees at the Windsor House in Somerville as part of this year’s First-year Urban Neighborhood Campaign (FUNC) program for incoming first-years. FUNC, now in its seventh year, is a student-run program that encourages first-years to become involved in local community-service programs and provides them with an opportunity to interact with Boston’s patient population within the community. This year’s activities were coordinated by second-year HMS students Joshua Schulman and Loretta Li.

Women’s Health Grants Announced

The HMS Center of Excellence in Women’s Health has awarded $30,000 grants to seven new women’s health research projects. Study titles and names of awardees appear below. Abstracts for the projects can be found at www.hms.harvard.edu/coewh/hmsfund-past.html.

Ovarian Cancer in Elderly Women: Protein Expression and a Retrospective Review of Clinical Features
Ursula Matulonis, HMS assistant professor of medicine at DFCI (Principal Investigator), and Michelle Hirsch, HMS instructor in pathology at BWH (Co-principal Investigator)

Function of PDEF Ets Transcription in Mammary Gland Development and Breast Cancer Oncogenesis
Xuesong Gu, HMS instructor in medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Principal Investigator), and Yiping Li, HSDM assistant professor of oral biology and pathophysiology at the Forsyth Institute (Co-principal Investigator)

Mechanisms of Hot Flushes in Women with Breast Cancer: Neuroimaging of the Hormonal Changes Caused by Aromatase Inhibitor
Hadine Joffe, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (Principal Investigator), and Nancy Lin, HMS instructor in medicine at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute (Co-principal Investigator)

Mutation Detection for BRCA1-associated Candidate Genes in Sporadic Basal-like Breast Cancers
Andrea Richardson, HMS instructor in pathology at BWH (Principal Investigator), and Alexander Miron, HMS instructor in surgery at DFCI (Co-principal Investigator)

Pilot Studies of Plasma Proteomic Profiling as a Tool for Studies of Ovarian Cancer Risk
Shelley Tworoger, HMS instructor in medicine at BWH (Principal Investigator), and Dimitrios Spentzos, HMS instructor in medicine at BID (Co-principal Investigator)

Women, Diabetes, and Reproductive Health
Katie Weinger, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at Joslin Diabetes Center (Principal Investigator), and Sara Fazio, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at BID (Co-principal Investigator)

Grants Available for AIDS Research

The HMS Center for AIDS Research and the HMS Division of AIDS will be giving approximately $500,000 in direct-cost funding to projects related to clinical and basic science AIDS research. The funding will go to feasibility projects and Scholar Awards applicable to research in epidemiology and outcomes, international studies, pathogenesis, retroviral therapeutics, or vaccines. Grants for feasibility projects—high-risk/high-impact feasibility studies in AIDS—will be up to $25,000 for single applicant proposals or up to $50,000 for collaborators from separate disciplines or institutions. Scholar Awards will provide salary support of up to $35,000 for promising young investigators. For more information on the grants, please visit www.hms.harvard.edu/aids/programs/cfar.htm and select “Funding Opportunities and Awards.” Applications are due on Nov. 7.

News Brief

MIT’s Technology Review magazine cited three HMS community members in its annual roundup of the world’s top 35 scientific innovators under 35. Martha Bulyk, HMS assistant professor of medicine (and health sciences and technology) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was recognized for adapting gene chip technology to determine the DNA binding preferences of proteins. Shiladitya Sengupta, HMS instructor in medicine at BWH, was recognized for his invention of a nanoscale drug delivery device to treat cancer. Anita Goel, a student of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, was listed for founding the field of nanobiosym and building novel pathogen detectors.

Two Advance in HSPH Administration

HSPH has appointed a new director of faculty development and a new associate dean for human resources.

Carolyn Dueck Clement was named the first director of faculty development at the School. The new position is designed to help diversify the faculty, examine the status of women faculty, and provide opportunities for academic career development. As director, Clement will facilitate the HSPH Faculty Diversity Committee, plan panel discussions on career development, help advance the junior faculty mentoring program, and develop the newly inaugurated faculty diversity lecture series and visiting professor program. Before taking the job, Clement worked for seven years as director of administration in HSPH’s Department of Biostatistics.

The new associate dean for human resources at HSPH is Carolyn Everette, formerly assistant dean for human resources. Along with her new responsibilities, Everette continues to represent HSPH at the university level through her appointments to various committees: she serves on a tripartite benefit appeals committee and recently was appointed to a committee on Allston workforce development initiatives with members of the Offices of the Provost, Planning and Real Estate, and Human Resources.

Honors and Advances

In Memoriam

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