$18m Grant to Link Gene Variations and Disease

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was awarded $18 million by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to discover the genetic variations that underlie common human diseases. The Broad will use the grant to build a data resource for the entire biomedical community that systematically combines genetic analyses of heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders with detailed information about disease characteristics in a range of patient groups.

Known as the candidate gene association resource, or CARE, this project will survey the DNA of 50,000 individuals, using large-scale genotyping technologies and advanced informatics to highlight the differences in a collection of more than 1,700 genes suspected of being likely sources of the inherited variations most relevant to human disease.

“The research funded by this award should result in new insights into how genetic variation contributes to health and disease,” said Stacey Gabriel, principal investigator of the grant and the director of the Genetic Analysis platform and the National Center for Genotyping and Analysis at the Broad Institute.

Andrews Elected Vice President of ASCI

Nancy Andrews, the Leland Fikes professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and HMS, associate dean for basic sciences and graduate studies at HMS, and Howard Hughes investigator, was elected vice president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) during the society’s meeting in April. After serving as vice president for two years, she will become the organization’s president for another two-year term. The 98-year-old honor society for physician-scientists consists of more than 2,800 members from the upper ranks of academic medicine. Andrews will be the second pediatrician to have served as ASCI’s president.

Grant Establishes Kidney Research Center

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital received a $5.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study polycystic kidney disease. The five-year grant, awarded last fall, has been used to establish the Interdisciplinary Center of Polycystic Kidney Research. The center is based in the renal division of BWH, Children’s Hospital Boston, and HMS, and is led by Jing Zhou, HMS associate professor of medicine at BWH.

Zhou and her associates hope to expand the methods by which PKD, which is currently incurable, can be treated. “Fundamentally, this disease is not understood, and further research is necessary to study its mechanisms,” said Zhou.

Alumni Week Preview

Alumni Week runs from Wednesday, June 7, to Friday, June 9. Selected HMS events appear below.

Thursday, June 8
• HMS faculty symposium, “Stem Cell Research,” moderated by David Scadden, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and featuring panelists Scadden, Leonard Zon, Gary Gilliland, and Jeffrey Macklis.
7:30–9:00 a.m.
TMEC Room 227

• Symposium of the HMS Class of 1981, with a morning session on personal journeys, and an afternoon session on science, society, and medicine.
9:00 a.m. (morning session) and 2:00 p.m. (afternoon session)
TMEC Amphitheater

• Class Day with keynote speaker Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
2:00 p.m.
HMS Quad

Friday, June 9
• Alumni Day Symposium, “Nobel Conversations: Personal Reflections on Life and Career Influences,” with Thomas Weller, David Hubel, Bernard Lown, Joseph Murray, and E. Donnell Thomas.
10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
HMS Quad

To get more information on these and other events and to register, visit www.hms.harvard.edu/alumni/events.html or call 617-432-1560.

Students Display Their Science at 66th Annual Soma Weiss Day

The ovary is a choosy organ, selecting from about 20 immature eggs only one to nurture and release each month. In women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), eggs may start to grow inside their fluid-filled sacs, but none becomes dominant. Instead of leaving the ovary, many stay behind as cysts. Though polycystic ovaries are mostly associated with women who have PCOS—and may help account for symptoms such as infrequent periods and infertility—this is not always the case. “Women with normal cycles can have polycystic ovaries without having PCOS,” said Meagan Murphy (above), speaking at the 66th annual Soma Weiss student research day on April 20. In fact, said Murphy, 16 to 25 percent of reproductive-age women exhibit polycystic ovarian morphology (PCOM). Such women, who may also have slightly elevated levels of various hormones, might worry that they are at greater risk for PCOS. Murphy, a second-year student, had good news for them. After analyzing 23 women with PCOM over an average of 8.6 years, she found that none of them had developed PCOS. In fact, half of them exhibited normal ovaries on follow-up. Murphy’s talk, one of four by HMS students, followed a poster session that included presentations by 140 students. The student talks preceded a keynote speech by Eugene Braunwald, the distinguished Hersey professor of medicine at HMS.

—Misia Landau

Cambridge Applauds HSDM on Children’s Dental Health

The City of Cambridge issued an official proclamation on February 27, recognizing the Harvard School of Dental Medicine’s efforts to improve children’s dental health in the area. The proclamation was inspired by the Cambridge Children’s Dental Program, a project funded by the Cambridge Health Alliance in which third-year dental students provide screenings, referrals, and dental education to students in Cambridge’s preschools and elementary schools. The program screens tens of thousands of children each year. Partly as a result of this program, the percentage of children in critical need of dental care has dropped by 50 percent in the last 10 years.

DACP Wins Grant to Prevent Hospital-based Infections

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded a $2 million, five-year Prevention Epicenter grant to a group of researchers in the HMS Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention. The award was one of five supporting research on infections that spread in health care settings. According to the CDC, transmission in health care centers causes about 90,000 deaths and $4.5 billion in excess health care costs each year.

“The major goals of our work will be to develop more meaningful and less resource-intensive methods for monitoring the risks of infections and selected other complications of surgery,” said principal investigator Richard Platt, HMS professor of ambulatory care and prevention and head of that department.

Honors and Advances

• The 2006 Harvard College Women’s Professional Achievement Award was presented to JoAnn Manson, the Elizabeth F. Brigham professor of women’s health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, on April 26. The award honors Manson’s leadership and her position as a role model.

• The Society for Cardiovascular Pathology honored Frederick Schoen, HMS professor of pathology and health sciences and technology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, by presenting him with its Distinguished Achievement Award. The society chose Schoen for his career-long contributions to cardiovascular pathology, particularly his work on biomaterials science and biomedical engineering.

• Robert McCarley, HMS professor of psychiatry and head of the department of psychiatry at Boston VA Medical Center, will be presented with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s William Dement Award at the Academy’s annual meeting in June. The award recognizes individuals who have displayed exceptional initiative and progress in the areas of sleep education and academic research.

• Michelle Mello, HSPH associate professor of health policy and law, has been named the 2006 winner of the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award from AcademyHealth, a national professional organization for health services and policy research. The award is given annually to the person designated as the most outstanding scholar still in the early part of her or his career. -Mello’s work will be featured in a special session at the annual research meeting of AcademyHealth on June 25.

• Marie McCormick, the Sumner and Esther Feldberg professor of maternal and child health at HSPH and an HMS professor of pediatrics, received the Douglas K. Richardson Award for Perinatal and Pediatric Healthcare Research, on April 30. The award is presented annually by the Society for Pediatric Research and recognizes McCormick for her research of children’s health issues, particularly her investigations into low–birth weight infants and their health outcomes.

In Memoriam

David Calkins, HMS associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, died on April 7 after a lengthy illness. He was 57.

Calkins received his BA from Princeton University in 1970. In 1975, he received both an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Throughout his career he worked to combine his passion for public policy with his devotion to patient care.

Calkins became a clinical fellow in 1976 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and went on, from 1978 to 1981, to serve as White House fellow and then special assistant and deputy executive secretary in the Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Calkins then returned to BID, where he worked from 1981 to 1996, first as an instructor, then as an assistant professor of medicine in 1986. He served as chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and also as medical director of Ambulatory Care Services at New England Deaconess Hospital from 1991 to 1996. He was also an assistant professor of health policy and management at HSPH during this time.

In 1996, Calkins moved to the University of Kansas School of Medicine, where he served as associate dean for primary care and later as senior associate dean for education. When he returned to Boston, he was appointed associate dean for clinical programs at HMS and a lecturer in medicine at MGH from 1999 to 2002. In 2002, he became an associate professor of medicine at MGH. In 2003, he became a George W. Merck fellow with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and assisted in developing the institute’s “100,000 Lives Campaign,” a nationwide hospital initiative to improve patient care and prevent avoidable deaths.

As associate dean for clinical programs at HMS, Calkins worked with Raphael Dolin, dean for academic and clinical programs, for three years. “David Calkins carried out his duties with distinction and dedication and was widely admired for his devotion to the ideals of Harvard Medical School,” Dolin said. “He had a particular interest in graduate medical education, and students, faculty, and staff found him to be a warm and caring listener. He made important contributions to our community through his skills as a physician, an educator, and an administrator.”

Calkins is survived by his wife, Susan; his family; and many colleagues and friends.

Dolores Brown Staff Award Presented at HMS

The 2006 Dolores J. Brown Staff Award was presented to Nancy Soule, executive assistant for Harvard Medical International. The award, established in 2002 to honor former Dean Daniel Tosteson’s beloved assistant, recognizes a staff member who has a record of outstanding service, has demonstrated respect for HMS, and has helped to create a welcoming and inclusive work environment.

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