Harvard Surgeon Receives MacArthur Prize

An HMS faculty member is among 25 scientists, artists, musicians, and engineers to be awarded a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship. Atul Gawande, assistant professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is one of three Harvard University researchers selected to receive one of the grants this year.

Gawande (pictured) is a surgeon who has also written extensively about the culture, protocols, and technology of medical practice. He specifically looks at the reality of failure in a profession in which mistakes can cost lives. He has devised a number of solutions to improve practice, such as implementing the use of bar codes to track surgical equipment so it is not left in patients. Gawande is also an HSPH assistant professor of health policy and management, a staff writer for The New Yorker, a columnist for The New England Journal of Medicine, and author of the book Complications.

Also representing Harvard among the MacArthur Fellows are Kevin Eggan and Matias Zaldarriaga. Eggan, an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology and member of the Stem Cell Institute, is a leader in the use of nuclear transfer and stem cell technology to explore mammalian development. Zaldarriaga, a professor of astronomy and physics, helped develop a software program that has become a standard tool for astronomers.

The MacArthur Fellowship consists of a $500,000 stipulation-free grant over five years.

Daland Prize Honors HMS Researcher

George Daley, HMS associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Children’s Hospital Boston, will be presented with the American Philosophical Society’s 2006 Judson Daland Prize in a ceremony in San Francisco on Nov. 10. Daley’s work focuses on disease processes and the improvement of therapeutics using stem cell biology. Specifically, he investigates hematopoietic tissue, germ cell specification and genomic imprint maintenance, and the mechanisms that lead to therapy-resistant leukemia. The Daland Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in patient-oriented clinical research and includes a $20,000 award.

Invitational Fellowship Opportunities (“Red Book”) Announced Online

Each fall and spring, foundations invite a limited number of HMS junior faculty and postdocs to apply for fellowships. Potential candidates must first apply through the HMS Faculty Fellowship Program, and the HMS Fellowship Committee selects the applicants who can apply to the foundations.

Updated information on the fellowships is available online at http://medapps.med.harvard.edu/fellowships.

Internal applications must be received in the Office of the Dean for Academic and Clinical Programs, Gordon Hall, Rm. 101, by Monday, Oct. 23 at 5 p.m.

Please direct inquiries to Stacy McGrath (617-432-3667, stacy_mcgrath@hms.harvard.edu) or Erin Cromack (617-432-3633, erin_cromack@hms.harvard.edu).

Structural Bio Lab Takes Connors Name

Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services

At a ceremony on Sept. 13, the laboratory of Stephen Harrison, professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, was named the Jack and Eileen Connors Structural Biology Laboratory. This designation honors the significant support given to the lab by philanthropist Jack Connors Jr., chair of the HMS Board of Fellows, and his wife, Eileen. The lab investigates the ways that protein interactions determine the structures of the cell, with the specific aims of illuminating properties of virus particles, the basis of molecular signaling, and aspects of cell division and molecular transport. The lab’s research has advanced the understanding of disorders such as avian flu, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s disease. At the ceremony, Connors said that he recognizes the deep dedication and enthusiasm the researchers bring to the laboratory and that it is a privilege to be associated with the scientific progress made at the School. HMS dean Joseph Martin joined Harrison and Edward Harlow, head of the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, in expressing profound thanks to the Connors family. “Structural biology builds a foundation for molecular understanding and for applications in drug discovery and biotechnology that in the future will alleviate human suffering,” Martin said. “It is truly inspiring when donors appreciate and personally support this important work.” Above (from left) are Harlow, Jack Connors, Harrison, Eileen Connors, and Martin.

Sanders Chair to Support Translational Medicine

Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services

Among the dignitaries to speak at the celebration of the Charles Addison and Elizabeth Ann Sanders Professorship was Dennis Ausiello, head of the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. After thanking Charles and Ann Sanders for establishing the chair—“Charlie was my mentor,” he said—Ausiello praised the first incumbent, Kenneth Chien, for his pioneering work in the prevention and treatment of heart failure. Many physicians aspire to work in translational medicine, Ausiello said, but “the recipient of the chair today is one of the individuals who has achieved that.” HMS Board of Fellows member Charles Sanders struck the same chord in his remarks, calling Chien “a gifted investigator” who is committed to taking basic science to the bedside. At the lectern, Chien expressed his appreciation to the donors for putting their faith in science and commented on the remarkably promising environment at HMS. “I have never seen the critical mass of human talent in one place that I have seen here,” he said. Pictured at the ceremony are (from left) Ann and Charles Sanders, Kenneth Chien and his father Luther Chien.

Broad Shares $100m for Genomic Approaches to Cancer

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is one of five biomedical institutions to share a $100 million grant from the Starr Foundation for cancer research. The goal of the new Starr Cancer Consortium is to expand the understanding of cancer and develop treatments using genomic technology. The other four institutions to share the grant are Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Memorial Sloan–­Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, and Weill Medical College of Cornell University, all in New York. The consortium will fund collaborative projects among the institutions for five years.

“Transforming the understanding and treatment of cancer will require enormous collaboration and teamwork,” said Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute and HMS professor of systems biology. “That’s why the Starr Foundation’s gift is so remarkable. It will bring together extraordinary institutions with diverse strengths around a common goal.”

Biomedical Student Gala

Photo by Catherine Sheridan

On Sept. 18, the Second Annual Gala Welcome Dinner was held at the Harvard Club for all first-year medical, dental, and life sciences graduate students at Harvard. Organized by second- through sixth-year students, the dinner drew an estimated 400 attendees across 15 different educational programs and welcomed HMS dean Joseph Martin and other Harvard deans and faculty members. The dinner is a unique opportunity for students in the various programs to meet and interact. “Our goal in creating this event,” said organizing committee member Vinod Nambudiri, “is to foster communication and possibly collaborations between students in the various programs in the life sciences.”

The focal point of the evening was a keynote address by stem cell scientist George Daley, HMS associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Children’s Hospital Boston (see Daland Prize above). The organizing committee for the gala included representatives from the HMS Student Council and the Biomedical Graduate Student Organization. It was sponsored by HMS, HSDM, and the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences Program.

Director Named for BID Pathology Center

Director Named for BID Pathology Center Stuart Schnitt, HMS professor of pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was named director of the Division of Anatomic Pathology at BID, where he has been a member of the staff for 20 years.

Schnitt is an expert in breast cancer and benign breast disease pathology, specifically in identifying factors that influence disease risk and recurrence, the development of subsequent cancer in women with benign breast disease, and breast tumor progression. His work has influenced breast disease care and management around the world.

Prior to being named director, Schnitt was the division’s co-director and is also the director of the Tissue and Pathology Core in the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Breast SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence).

Three Honored by YWCA

The YWCA Boston honored three members of the HMS and HSPH community at its 12th annual Women’s Leadership Event in June. Edwin Furshpan, the Robert Henry Pfeiffer professor emeritus of neurobiology at HMS, and David Potter, HMS research professor of neurobiology, received the 2006 Racial Justice Award. Furshpan and Potter were honored for their efforts, begun in the early ’60s, to increase the representation of minorities at Harvard, which included advocating for recruitment goals, leading efforts to reach out to minority students, and instituting mentoring programs.

In addition, Linda Clayton, associate medical director of the Office of Medicaid/MassHealth and HSPH instructor in public health practice, was one of the 2006 inductees into the YWCA Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers. Established in 1995, the academy celebrates women who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and achievement in their professional and civic lives, and has more than 100 members.

State of the School Address for HMS

Save the date:

Joseph Martin, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, will give the annual HMS State of the School Address in the TMEC amphitheater at 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 18.

Sixth Annual Albright Symposium

Please join us for the Sixth Annual
Hollis L. Albright, MD ’31 Symposium
Moderated by Daniel D. Federman, MD ’53
Highlighting
What’s New at Harvard Medical School
Presented by Joseph B. Martin, MD, PhD
And exploring
Advances: Cancer and Nanotechnology
With Judah Folkman, MD ’57 and Robert Langer, PhD
Thursday, October 5
5:00 to 7:00 p.m. (Doors open at 4:30 p.m.)
Harvard Medical School
NRB Amphitheater
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur
Space is limited; reservations are required.
To RSVP or for more information,
please call 617-384-8469
or e-mail caitlin_brennan@hms.harvard.edu.
CME credit available

News Briefs

• Three HSPH faculty members were honored at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings in August.
    Marvin Zelen, HSPH professor of statistical science, received the 2006 Samuel S. Wilks Award, recognizing those who have made outstanding contributions to statistics. Zelen is a leader in the field of biostatistics, particularly in cancer research. As chair of the HSPH Department of Biostatistics, he helped investigate the association between leukemia cases in Woburn, Mass., and contaminated water wells. Zelen is currently conducting research at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, where he is developing statistical models for the early detection of disease.
     Xihong Lin, HSPH professor of biostatistics, received the 2006 Presidents’ Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies. The award recognizes a statistician under the age of 41 who has made outstanding contributions to the field. Lin’s work focuses on statistical methodology and theory for longitudinal data and clustered survival data.
     Louise Ryan, the Henry Pickering Walcott professor of biostatistics at HSPH and chair of the Biostatistics Department, received the 2006 Elizabeth L. Scott Award from the Committee of Presidents. Ryan was honored for encouraging minority and female students to pursue graduate degrees in biostatistics and for mentoring and supervising numerous female PhD and postdoctoral students.

• The first HMS–Partners HealthCare Center for Genetics and Genomics Award in Medical Genetics was presented to Ronald Cohn, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School and the McKusick-Nathans Institute. Cohn received the award at a dinner on June 21.
     The award was established in 2005 to recognize an emerging medical geneticist who has brought genetic knowledge into clinical care. It consists of a certificate and a $20,000 cash award.
     At the end of the dinner, Raju Kucherlapati, the Paul C. Cabot professor of genetics at HMS and the center’s scientific director, announced that the award from then on will be known as the William K. Bowes Jr. Award in Medical Genetics, honoring Bowes, a venture capitalist, for his financial support of the prize and of the biomedical field in general.

Honors and Advances

• Arthur Day, HMS professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was named vice president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons at the association’s annual meeting in San Francisco in April. He will serve a one-year-long term. Prior to becoming its president, Day had served as the association’s treasurer and as a member of five of its committees.

• Judah Folkman, the Julia Dyckman Andrus professor of pediatric surgery at HMS and Children’s Hospital Boston, received the 2006 Jacobson Innovation Award from the American College of Surgeons. Folkman was recognized for his pioneering work in angiogenesis. The award was presented to him at a dinner on June 9. Folkman also received the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research from the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education. The award also was given for his studies in angiogenesis, which is believed to have the potential to treat some diseases of the eye.

• The American College of Rheumatology has named Laurie Glimcher, the Irene Heinz Given professor of immunology at HSPH, the winner of the Distinguished Basic Investigator Award. The award, which will be presented to Glimcher in a ceremony in November, is given to a basic scientist making outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology. Glimcher is also an HMS professor of medicine and a senior rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

• Robert Graham is the new medical director of the Walk-In Center at Mount Auburn Hospital. Graham has been a staff physician at the Walk-In Center since completing his HMS fellowship in 2005. He is also a member of the Culturally Competent Care Education Committee at HMS, a member of the Latino advisory board at Joslin Diabetes Center, and a member of the Educational Steering Committee at the Osher Institute.

• In May, Norton Greenberger, HMS clinical professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was given the 2006 Julius Friedenwald Medal for Distinguished Service at the American Gastroenterological Association’s plenary session. The award is the association’s highest honor for a member and recognizes a career of exemplary service to the field of gastroenterology.

• Jerome Groopman, the Dina and Raphael Recanati professor of medicine at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has won the 2006 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. Groopman, a staff writer for The New Yorker and the chief of experimental medicine at BID, will receive the $3,000 award in a ceremony on Oct. 29. Groopman’s stories for the magazine have included a critique of the war on cancer, a call for government funding of stem cell research, and an examination of the ethical concerns that arise when studying pregnancy complications.

• The Massachusetts Podiatric Medical Society elected HMS instructor in orthopedic surgery James Ioli as its new president. Ioli, also the chief of podiatry at Brigham and Women’s, has served on the society’s board since 1996.

• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has appointed Raghu Kalluri, HMS associate professor of medicine, as chief of the new Division of Matrix Biology at the hospital. Kalluri has been involved in the development of BID’s matrix biology program for the past nine years. His interests include cell–matrix interactions; angiogenesis; cancer progression; renal, liver, and cardiac fibrosis; and stem cell biology. Joining him in the new division is the husband and wife team of Elisabeth and Michael Zeisberg, both HMS instructors in medicine.

• Peter Libby, the Mallinckrodt professor of medicine at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was given the American College of Cardiology’s 2006 Distinguished Scientist Award. The award is given annually to a member of the association who has made major scientific contributions in the field of cardiovascular disease.

• The International Society of Heart Research named Joseph Loscalzo, the Hersey professor of theory and practice of physic at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as this year’s recipient of its Outstanding Investigator Award. The prize honors a scientist who is making major independent contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular science and is likely to further develop his or her research in the future.

• John Meara, HMS instructor in surgery at Children’s Hospital Boston, was named the new chief of plastic surgery at the hospital. Meara specializes in cleft lip and palate surgery, craniofacial surgery, and health care policy and management. He replaces Elof Eriksson, the Joseph E. Murray professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who has been chief of plastic surgery at both Children’s and BWH since 1986. Eriksson will continue to be chief at BWH, collaborating closely with Meara and other plastic surgeons at Children’s.

• The Massachusetts Thoracic Society awarded the 2006 Chadwick Medal to Edward Nardell, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The highest honor awarded by the society, the medal is given to individuals for “meritorious contributions to the study and treatment of tuberculosis and other thoracic diseases.”

• In April, David G. Nathan, the Robert A. Stranahan distinguished professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and HMS, received the Museum of Science’s 2006 Walker Prize for “meritorious published scientific investigation and discovery.” Nathan was honored for his work with patients suffering from thalassemia, a rare blood disease, and for his groundbreaking research on thalassemia and other inherited disorders of red cells and granulocytes.

• Nawal Nour, HMS assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received the Lee F. Jackson Achievement Award from the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts for her work on African women’s health. The league is a nonprofit service provider and advocate for the region’s African Americans.

• The Massachusetts Association of Orthodontists honored Barton Tayer, HSDM assistant clinical professor of oral and developmental biology, with its Dr. Frederick Moynihan Award. The award recognizes clinical excellence and exemplary service to the specialty of orthodontics.

• Shuanhu Zhou, HMS instructor in orthopedic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received the 2006 John Haddad Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in April in Snowmass, Colorado. Zhou was honored for his research on human bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stem cells and on skeletal aging.

In Memoriam

Allan Friedlich, HMS professor emeritus of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, died on July 7 at the age of 89.

Friedlich received his AB from Dartmouth College in 1939. After receiving his MD from HMS in 1943, he completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and went on to serve as a medical officer in the Army Air Force for three years. He returned to MGH in 1947 for residency, then worked in the clinic of pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1949 to 1950. Friedlich returned to MGH for specialty training in cardiac medicine and, in 1953, was appointed as an instructor in medicine. Friedlich’s career at HMS spanned the next five decades. He was promoted to clinical professor of medicine in 1984 and appointed clinical professor emeritus of medicine in 1987.

Friedlich worked under Paul Dudley White, founder of the American Heart Association, performing some of the early research in cardiac catheterization. He later was one of the cardiologists to develop the first cardiac catheterization lab at MGH. Friedlich helped White establish the International Cardiology Foundation.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; his sons Andrew, John Herd, and Robert; his stepsons Paul Muenzinger, Karl Muenzinger, and Eric Muen­zinger; a brother, Bruce; and three grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

James Jandl, the George Richards Minot professor emeritus of medicine at HMS, passed away on July 17. He was 80 years old.

Jandl received his BS from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., in 1945, and his MD from HMS in 1949. He completed his residency at Boston City Hospital in 1950. After service in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, Jandl began working at the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, then a part of BCH. He became an assistant professor in 1959, an associate professor in 1964, and professor of medicine in 1968. He was then appointed the George Richards Minot professor of medicine. In 1998, he was named the George Richards Minot Distinguished professor of medicine and, in 1999, the George Richards Minot professor emeritus.

Jandl was known internationally for his research on the red blood cell, iron metabolism, autoimmunity, and the mechanisms underlying different types of anemia. His award-winning Blood: Textbook of Hematology is regarded as a classic in the field.

Jandl is survived by his wife of 32 years, Nancy; his children, Christine Lavers, Robert Jandl, Beanie Marvel, Susan Queen, and Ted Jandl; their mother, Patricia Jones; and 16 grandchildren.

A memorial service for James Jandl is planned for the fall. Gifts in Jandl’s name may be made to the Concord Free Public Library, 129 Main Street, Concord, MA 01742.

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