A prominent member of the Harvard Medical School faculty has been recognized with the nation’s highest honor for achievement and leadership in advancing science.
Rakesh Jain, the A. Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology (Tumor Biology) at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital, has been named as one of the recipients of the National Medal of Science.
Jain’s distinguished career includes being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering.
“Science and technology are fundamental to solving some of our nation’s biggest challenges,” President Obama said in a statement released Dec. 22 announcing the awards. “The knowledge produced by these Americans today will carry our country’s legacy of innovation forward and continue to help countless others around the world. Their work is a testament to American ingenuity.”
The National Medal of Science was created by statute in 1959 and is administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation. Awarded annually, the medal recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering. The president receives nominations from a committee of presidential appointees based on their extraordinary knowledge in and contributions to chemistry, engineering, computing, mathematics and the biological, behavioral/social and physical sciences.
Jain is a chemical engineer who has applied his training to the service of cancer research. His laboratory at Mass General focuses on normalizing tumor vessels and their microenvironment.
“The overarching goal of our research is to dissect the pathophysiology of the vascular and extra-vascular components of tumors, to determine the role of tumor-host interactions in tumor biology and ultimately to translate this knowledge into improved cancer detection, prevention and treatment in humans,” Jain’s lab page states.
Using mathematical models, animal models and advanced imaging techniques, Jain has mapped blood vessel growth in tumors, pointing colleagues to new therapies for cancer. In 2001, Jain advanced a hypothesis on the normalization of blood vessels in tumors, suggesting that re-engineering—rather than repressing—blood vessel growth deterred tumor metastasis. This insight has been confirmed in mouse models and is being tested in human clinical trials.
Jain is one of nine recipients of the National Medial of Science who, along with eight winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, will receive their medals at a White House ceremony in early 2016.
Anders Näär, professor of cell biology at HMS and assistant cell biologist in the Center for Cancer Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the Research to Prevent Blindness Stein Innovation Award.
The Stein Innovation Awards provide funds to researchers in the ophthalmology department and to basic science or other relevant vision researchers outside of the ophthalmology department (but within the institution) with a common goal of understanding the visual system and the diseases that compromise its function. These awards are intended to provide seed money to proposed high-risk/high-gain vision science research that is innovative.
Terence Keane, HMS lecturer on psychiatry and director of the Behavioral Science Division of the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston Healthcare System, received the 2015 John Blair Barnwell Award from VA Clinical Science Research and Development for his work in the area of traumatic stress.
The award recognizes Keane's exemplary record of service to the VA and of landmark contributions to the field of traumatic stress studies, specifically, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Keane helped lay the foundation for the understanding of PTSD as a serious mental health condition that can stem from both military and civilian traumas. He led efforts to create and validate measures of exposure to traumatic experience and PTSD symptoms. He also helped build the evidence that PTSD could be treated successfully with exposure therapy, which is now used widely by the VA.
Keane will receive $50,000 per year for three years in research support, a cash award of $5,000 and an inscribed plaque commemorating his scientific achievements. The VA Boston Healthcare System will also receive a plaque honoring him.
Three Harvard Medical School researchers were honored by the American Epilepsy Society (AES) at its 69th annual meeting in December.
Donald Schomer, HMS professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, received the AES J. Kiffin Penry Award for Excellence in Epilepsy Care.
Schomer was recognized for his pioneering work in establishing the comprehensive epilepsy program at Beth Israel Deaconess. In addition to developing treatments for epilepsy, Schomer was honored for his legacy of patient care, teaching and mentoring.
The $3,000 J. Kiffin Penry Award recognizes individuals whose work has had a major impact on patient care and on quality of life for people with epilepsy.
Page Pennell, HMS professor of neurology and director of research for the Edward B. Bromfield Epilepsy Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital, was recognized with the AES Distinguished Service Award.
Pennell was recognized for her many contributions to the American Epilepsy Society, having served as a board member and chair of several society committees. She has also shared her passion for academic medicine by serving in the society’s mentoring and training programs and as clinical associate editor for Epilepsy Currents.
The $1,000 Distinguished Service Award recognizes outstanding service by an AES member in the field of epilepsy, with emphasis on exemplary contributions to the society’s mission.
Kevin Staley, the HMS Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation and chief of pediatric neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, was honored with the AES Research Recognition Award for Basic Science.
Staley and his trainees study "neuronal plumbing"—the factors that influence the way neurons in the brain send chemical messages to other parts of the brain through neurotransmitters. Their focus is on GABA, a neurotransmitter that carries implications for the treatment of epilepsy. Most recently, their lab has discovered possible connections between the functions of GABA receptors and conditions that may result in early seizures and cytotoxic edema, a type of swelling in the brain.
The $10,000 Research Recognition Awards are given annually to active scientists and clinicians working in all aspects of epilepsy research.
Two Harvard Medical School faculty members have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Members of the 2015 class of 168 fellows are recognized by NAI for having demonstrated “a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.”
HMS faculty in the new class include:
- Donald Ingber, Founding Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology in the HMS Department of Surgery
- Guillermo Tearney, professor of pathology at HMS, as well as a Mike and Sue Hazard Research Scholar, pathologist in the Department of Pathology and faculty member of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital
Jennifer Lewis, the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Wyss Institute core faculty member, was also named one of this year’s fellows.
All new fellows will be inducted on April 15, 2016, at the Fellows Induction Ceremony at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va.
Following their induction, the fellows will be honored at a private reception inside the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum.
The NAI Fellows Program currently has 582 fellows worldwide, representing more than 190 universities and governmental and non-profit research institutions. The NAI fellows collectively have issued more than 20,000 U.S. patents.
George Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at HMS, has been named one of Foreign Policy’s Leading Global Thinkers of 2015 for his investigation into adapting genetics to sustain species in the face of extreme environmental and climate changes.
Church was appointed as a Global Thinker within the Healers category for his work that takes a step towards resurrecting the woolly mammoth species, which has been extinct for around 4,000 years. Church and his team have spliced mammoth genes into elephant DNA using the gene-editing technique called CRISPR to create a possible hybrid animal.
Church’s work is predominantly focused on genetic sequencing and genome engineering. In 2011, Church received the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science. He has also been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the American Society for Microbiology. Church also serves as the director of Harvard Personal Genome Project, which is an open-access information site on human genomic, environmental and human trait data.
Through the annual Leading Global Thinkers list, Foreign Policy recognizes individuals across the globe whose contributions have changed lives and shaped the world.
John Hedley-Whyte, David S. Sheridan Professor of Anesthesia and Respiratory Therapy at HMS, has received the International Electrotechnical Commission 1906 award. The award recognizes medical professionals who have made an exceptional recent technical contribution to the advancement of the work of the International Electrotechnical Commission.
Hedley-Whyte was granted the 1906 award for his work that has furthered the standardization and related activities in the field of electrotechnology. Hedley-Whyte has published 35 International Standards by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission. His technically sensitive work focuses on creating medical equipment intended for use in the home that exceeds safety and performance standards.
The International Electrotechnical Commission prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies, collectively known as electrotechnology.
Clyde Lanford “Lanny” Smith, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is one of three recipients of the 2015 Beth Israel Deaconess Latino Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to advancing exceptional care for the Latino community.
Smith volunteered and worked in Central America with Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua prior to medical school and with Médecins du Monde (Physicians of the World) in El Salvador after medical school. While in El Salvador, he founded Doctors for Global Health, an organization that 20 years later still actively promotes health, education and human rights around the world. Smith currently serves as Global Community Health Advisor at Beth Israel Deaconess.
Also recognized was Miguel Enrique Perez-Viloria, HMS research fellow in orthopedic surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess. Perez-Viloria worked as a primary care physician in a small, remote community on the Venezuelan coast and was selected from hundreds of young doctors to participate in the Latin American Initiative at HMS. He is now applying to general surgery residency programs.
Rudolph Tanzi, HMS Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation, and Doo Yeon Kim, HMS assistant professor of neurology, both at Massachusetts General Hospital, have been named recipients of the 2015 Smithsonian magazine American Ingenuity Award in the natural sciences for their creation of a new technique in Alzheimer’s research that enables the course of the disease to be studied in unparalleled genetic and biochemical detail.
Tanzi and Yeon’s research is centered on genetically manipulated human brain cells that grow three dimensionally in a unique cell culture. Over time, the cells morph into plaques and tangles, which are the characteristic neurological bundles that indicate the presence of Alzheimer’s. These generated plaques and tangles allow researchers to test many treatment options efficiently and inexpensively.
The Ingenuity Awards, which showcase revolutionary breakthroughs in the arts and sciences, education and social progress, were first established by artist Jeff Koons.
