Community (2/6/09)

Proceedings of the HMS Faculty Council

At the Dec. 17 Faculty Council meeting, HMS dean Jeffrey Flier gave updates on the status of open access publishing. It was determined that there will be further discussion at a future meeting, to include the view from commercial and society publishers. He also updated members on the status of the conflict-of-interest policy, noting that a School-wide committee, chaired by Flier, will include representation from the Faculty Council. Finally, he spoke on the strategic plan in the current economy, saying that Harvard is still the strongest of all the academic institutions, but the challenge of the economy means the plan will be implemented more slowly than originally anticipated.

Flier then introduced Daniel Ennis, executive dean for administration, to speak on the financial state of HMS in the current economy.

Ennis noted that historically the School has funded growth by building and then leasing out space and that the endowment has been the source of seed capital for these and other projects. He said that the projection on the endowment is a negative 30 percent return. He also said that the Medical School is looking to identify $40 million in savings over the next 18 months by asking departments to cut their budgets by 10 percent. Faculty and staff salaries (with the exception of union members) will be flat, and employment searches have been slowed. HMS is talking to sister institutions about paying rent for HMS space. Ennis said that a group will be set up to advise the dean on academic policy questions that arise as a result of the budget cuts.

Flier then introduced Gina Vild, associate dean for public affairs, who gave a brief demonstration of the Financial Forum website.

Flier next introduced Isaac Kohane, director of the Countway Library and the Lawrence J. Henderson professor of pediatrics at HMS and Children’s Hospital Boston, to give a demonstration of the Harvard Catalyst website. Kohane said that the Catalyst focuses on two challenges: unifying the research community and facilitating the sharing of patient data. He noted that the website lists all Harvard University sites and core facilities; gives real-time access to reports, such as flu data; gives patients access to enroll in clinical trials; and allows faculty to find out what trials are happening. Kohane described the role of the research navigators, which is to help faculty with questions and to direct them to areas of interest.

Flier said that the Catalyst received 605 grant applications from more than 400 faculty members, which has been narrowed down to about 100. The final applicants will all have personal interviews, and there will be approximately 50 awards. He said it is noteworthy that many people who had never worked together before got together to submit grant applications.

Clarification: In the Jan. 9 Focus, the Nov. 12 Faculty Council minutes included a section about complaints made to the Omsbud Office under the new discrimination and harassment policy in cases when an incident happens in an HMS-affiliated hospital. The section should have read: “Anyone who uses the Omsbud’s Office, including hospital-based faculty, is protected under the procedures outlined in the policy. [Ellen Berkman, Office of General Counsel,] said that the new policy includes language to encourage people to come forward, and HMS will work with the hospitals to ensure that complaints are appropriately investigated.”

Linde Professorship Offers Vision for Cancer Therapeutics

In his introduction to the celebration for the Linde Family Clinical Professorship, at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and HMS, Dean Jeffrey Flier said the chair supports multidisciplinary research in cancer therapeutics “with the goal of delivering better, targeted drugs to those in need.” DFCI president and CEO Edward Benz called attention to the Lindes’ endowment, which is part of a larger, “magnificent” gift. He added that their generosity will help establish a “stable foundation for chemical biology” at DFCI. Benz described the chair’s first incumbent, Barrett Rollins, who is the institute’s chief scientific officer, as a “faculty leader who pulls together all of our research activities.”

In his remarks at the program, Rollins said that this integrative approach is the kind of effort needed to combat cancer. Devising therapies based on molecular abnormalities that cause disease is an incredibly complex undertaking, which demands the tools of chemical biology and a scientific organization enabling investigators to come together around a problem. “We need a new model for how we do research and discovery,” he said. He described the Linde gift as important and visionary in this endeavor.

Edward Linde also took the microphone. He praised Rollins directly, saying, “You being the first incumbent gives us great comfort and confidence that the chair will be occupied with distinction.” He spoke personally, too, describing his own family’s battles with cancer. He said he was thrilled that the gift would support the work of DFCI clinicians Stephen Sallan and Kenneth Anderson, both HMS professors, whose care the Linde family has treasured.

Immune Disease Institute and Children’s Reach Affiliation Agreement

The Immune Disease Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston have announced an affiliation agreement, which is expected to be completed in early 2009. IDI will become Children’s sixth multidisciplinary research program and will be called the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. IDI will receive benefits from being part of a larger research enterprise, including funding for the recruitment of additional researchers, enhanced management of its endowment, additional support for fund-raising, and the ability to more closely collaborate with Children’s researchers. Children’s will benefit from the addition of 19 exceptional researchers.

“We are delighted at this opportunity to join forces with such a high-caliber team of researchers who share our interest in finding answers to some of the most vexing diseases, from lupus to diabetes to various cancers,” said James Mandell, CEO of Children’s.

“The IDI scientists are extremely excited about this tremendous opportunity to increase their collaborations with the outstanding scientists and clinicians at Children’s Hospital,” said Frederick Alt, IDI’s scientific director and the Charles A. Janeway professor of pediatrics and a professor of genetics at HMS and Children’s. “This alliance should significantly enhance our efforts to push forward with groundbreaking research in immunology and inflammation and, in particular, it should enhance our ability to translate basic discoveries into the clinical setting.”

Applications Requested for Rabkin Fellowships in Medical Education

The Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is requesting applications for the AY 2009–2010 Rabkin Fellowships. The Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education was established in 1998 to provide faculty with the opportunity to develop the expertise and skills needed to launch or advance academic careers in medical education and academic administration. The Rabkin Fellowships are open to faculty with primary appointments at HMS and who currently teach at a Harvard-affiliated institution. The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday, Feb. 27, at 5 p.m. Application materials may be downloaded from the Shapiro Institute for Education and Research website at www.bidmc.org/rabkinfellowship. Inquiries may be directed to Jacqueline Almeida, Education Specialist, Shapiro Institute for Education and Research, at 617-667-0908 or via e-mail at jmalmeid@bidmc.harvard.edu.

AAAS Names New Members

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced the names of 584 new fellows, including 10 from HMS. The new fellows, who were selected for their efforts in advancing scientifically or socially distinguished science applications, will be presented with certificates at the AAAS annual meeting in Chicago later this month. A list of new AAAS members from HMS and their area of recognition is below.

Michael Brenner, the Theodore Bevier Bayles professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for defining insights into innate and adaptive immunity, including discovery of gamma delta T cells and the CD1 system of lipid antigen presentation in host defense;

David Clapham, the Aldo R. Castaneda professor of cardiovascular research at Children’s Hospital Boston, for outstanding contributions to the field of ion channels and calcium signaling in cell physiology;

Barbara Furie, professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, for contributions to understanding hemostasis and thrombosis, particularly the role of gamma-carboxyglutamic acid, the discovery and characterization of P-selectin, and insights into thrombus formation in vivo;

Thomas Kupper, the Thomas B. Fitzpatrick professor of dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for establishing the keratinocyte as a significant component of the innate immune response in the skin and characterizing trafficking patterns of skin-homing T cells;

Norbert Perrimon, professor of genetics, for distinguished contributions to the field of developmental biology, particularly for studies of signaling pathways in Drosophila;

Anjana Rao, professor of pathology at the Immune Disease Institute, for distinguished contributions to the field of immunology, particularly for advances concerning signaling pathways and transcriptional control;

Joan Ruderman, the Marion V. Nelson professor of cell biology, for seminal studies of the molecular mechanisms that regulate progression through the cell division cycle in vertebrate cells;

Joseph Sodroski, professor of pathology at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, for contributions to the understanding of the molecular biology of the interactions of the human immunodeficiency virus-1 with the host;

Megan Sykes, the Harold and Ellen Danser professor of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, for outstanding contributions to transplantation immunology, including approaches to bone marrow transplantation that resulted in clinical improvements and demonstrated organ allograft tolerance induction in humans;

Johannes Walter, associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, for elucidating molecular events underlying eukaryotic replication initiation and identifying mechanisms that limit DNA replication to a single round per cell cycle.

Honors and Advances

• Christopher Evans, the Maurice Edmond Mueller professor of orthopedic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has received the Marshall R. Urist Award for Excellence in Tissue Regeneration Research, which recognizes investigators who have demonstrated major achievements in the area of tissue regeneration. Evans was honored for his work in the areas of bone and mineral metabolism and growth factors.
• Alfred Goldberg, HMS professor of cell biology, was awarded the 2008 Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award for Biotechnology and Medicine by Brandeis University. This annual award involves a cash prize of $15,000 and includes a lecture and award dinner. Goldberg was honored for his fundamental discoveries about protein degradation, including the systems for protein turnover in bacteria and mammalian cells, and for his contributions to the study of proteasome inhibitors, now widely used as research tools and in the treatment of multiple myeloma and other types of hematological cancers.
• Barbara Gottlieb, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was nominated for the 2008 Humanism in Medicine Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges and Pfizer, Inc. Nominees are selected by members of the AAMC’s Organization of Student Representatives for their positive mentoring skills, compassion and sensitivity, collaboration, community service activity, and observance of professional ethics. Gottlieb was one of 45 nominees.

• JoAnn Manson, the Elizabeth Fay Brigham Professor of Women’s Health at HMS and chief of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was the recipient of the 2008 International Menopause Society’s Henry Burger Prize for the most significant contributions to the field of menopause medicine and women’s health in the preceding two years. Manson was honored for her research on cardiovascular disease in women and clarifying the benefits and risks of estrogen therapy. She received the award at the World Congress on Menopause in Madrid, Spain.
• The American Medical Association has named Nancy Oriol, dean of students, a winner of the Pride in the Profession Award, which honors physicians who aid underserved populations in the United States. Oriol was recognized for founding the Family Van, a mobile clinic in underserved communities in Boston.

New Professorship Appointments

The following HMS faculty members were appointed to full professorships in November.

Kenneth Bloch
Professor of Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Bloch’s research centers on the role of nitric oxide signaling in the heart and the pulmonary vasculature, with a particular emphasis on the therapeutic applications of inhaled nitric oxide. His other areas of interest include studies of the role of bone morphogenetic proteins in the cardiovasculature and in the pathogenesis of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Bloch also has an HMS appointment as the William Thomas Green Morton professor of anesthesia at MGH.

Augustine Choi
Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Choi’s research interest is focused on the regulation and function of stress response genes and antioxidant enzymes in response to oxidative stress and inflammation. Specifically, he has extensively examined the molecular regulation and function of antioxidant enzymes, in particular heme oxygenase-1 and gaseous molecule carbon monoxide, in a variety of preclinical models of lung diseases. His laboratory also applies functional genomics to better understand the pathogenesis of acute and chronic lung diseases.

David Korn
Professor of Pathology
Harvard Medical School
Korn was appointed the Harvard University vice provost for research in November, along with his appointment at HMS. A trained pathologist, Korn served as dean of Stanford Medical School, where he became increasingly engaged in academic research policy generally and in biomedical research policy more specifically. At the Association of American Medical Colleges, he built and led the research policy program that focused on facilitating clinical and translational research, the training and nurturing of physician clinical investigators, research ethics, scientific integrity, financial conflicts of interest, and the scientific foundations of medical education in the 21st century. In all of these areas, he convened and directed advisory committees and task forces that generated widely disseminated and influential reports, and he conducted studies that led to peer reviewed publications in the major journals. As vice provost, he has broad responsibility for the review, development, and implementation of policies related to the conduct of academic research and relations with industry, especially in the sciences, and to aspects of the University’s relations with industry.

David Pellman
Professor of Pediatrics and of Cell Biology
Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and HMS
Pellman’s lab works on cell biology topics in two interrelated areas: cytoskeletal regulation and the control of genome stability. The researchers take a range of approaches including genetics, functional genomics, biochemistry, and live-cell imaging. Pellman’s work on cytoskeletal dynamics is focused on the mechanism of chromosome segregation in normal cells and cancer cells and on how the microtubule and actin cytoskeletons interact. The lab is also interested in how aneuploidy (abnormal chomosome number) and polyoidy (increased sets of chromosomes) affect tumor biology.

David Williams
Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital Boston
Research in the Williams laboratory focuses on the biology of hematopoietic stem cells, including development of gene transfer methods for treating severe genetic diseases of the blood system by gene therapy. Currently, the laboratory is focused on analyzing the function of members of the Rho GTPase family, specifically Rac, Cdc42, and Rho in blood cell development and function. Rho GTPases are members of the Ras superfamily and act as molecular switches to control multiple cell processes. Increasing attention has been devoted to the dysregulated function of these molecular switches in leukemia. Much of the basic information derived from these studies is also being applied to improve the methods of gene transfer into hematopoietic stem cells using retrovirus, foamy virus, and lentivirus vectors.

The following HMS faculty members were previously appointed to full or named professorships.

Mark Bauer
Professor of Psychiatry
VA Boston Medical Center
Bauer’s research focus has been developing person-centered care models for individuals with major mental illnesses, particularly bipolar disorder. His specific focus is in controlled clinical trials with an effectiveness-oriented design and in conducting implementation studies to ensure maximal public impact of efficacious treatments. He is also director of the Harvard South Shore Psychiatry Residency Training Program.

Thomas Bortfeld
Professor of Radiation Oncology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Bortfeld’s main research interest is the optimization of radiation therapy. He is one of the key developers of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), which has become a highly successful treatment modality that is now available in most hospitals in this country as well as many worldwide. He continues to work on the refinement of IMRT. More recently, another focus of Bortfeld’s research has been proton therapy. Here, his objective is to fully exploit the physical advantage of proton beams to maximize the benefit for the patient by precise shaping and localization of the proton in the patient.

Stella Kourembanas
Clement A. Smith Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital Boston
Kourembanas is chief of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston and the academic chair of Harvard Neonatology at Longwood. Her area of research is the vascular biology of the newborn lung and investigating the pathogenetic basis of pulmonary hypertension at the molecular, cellular, and in vivo level. Her research uses genetically modified animals to investigate mechanisms of lung inflammation, hypoxic gene regulation, and pulmonary hypertension. She also studies stem cell biology in models of vascular and developmental lung injury targeting preventive and therapeutic approaches for pulmonary hypertension and chronic lung disease of infancy.

Peter Laussen
Professor of Anesthesia
Children’s Hospital Boston
In addition to co-authoring over 100 original papers, chapters, editorials, and commentaries on pediatric anesthesia and cardiac critical care, Laussen has conducted research on neurological function during and after cardiac surgery, the depth of anesthesia, the stress response to surgery, and evaluation of clotting function in children with certain forms of cardiac disease. He joined Children’s Hospital Boston in 1993, and, in 2002, he became the first incumbent of the Dolly D. Hansen Chair of Pediatric Anesthesia at the hospital. At HMS, he serves on one of the Medical School admissions committees.

Wayne Lencer
Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital Boston
The Lencer laboratory studies the cell and molecular biology of vesicular transport in polarized epithelial cells and regulation of ion transport in the intestine. These studies relate to how intestinal epithelial cells interact with the luminal and sub-epithelial micro-environment and to the biology of bacterial pathogenesis and host defense at mucosal surfaces. In another project, the lab studies the cell and molecular biology of the MHC Class I–like IgG receptor FcRn. In a third area of interest, the lab aims to understand the mechanisms and regulation of intestinal Cl-secretion, the initial ion transport event in secretory diarrhea. Lencer and his colleagues are also conducting research on oral and pulmonary delivery of protein therapeutics and on clotrimazole for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

Jeremy Schmahmann
Professor of Neurology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Schmahmann’s research focuses on anatomical substrates of cognition and emotion. He pioneered the field of cognitive neuroscience of the cerebellum, recognizing that the cerebellum modulates intellect and emotion as well as motor control. His anatomical investigations and clinical and imaging studies are changing the way we understand and treat patients with cerebellar disorders and neuropsychiatric illness. His work has also advanced the understanding of structure–function correlations of the human thalamus, pons, and cerebral white matter. His research in medical education has shaped the way we evaluate students on clinical clerkships. Schmahmann has over 110 publications in peer-reviewed journals and academic texts and has written several major reference works in the fields of neuropsychology, behavioral neurology, and primate neuroanatomy.

HMS Red Book: Funding Opportunities for Junior Faculty and Postdocs

Each year, several foundations invite HMS junior faculty and postdocs to apply for their fellowships and grants, which serve as critical funding at the early stages of a research career. Interested investigators must first apply through the HMS Red Book Program, and a committee then selects the final candidates to submit applications to the foundations.

An updated listing of awards will be available online beginning Feb. 18, at http://medapps.med.harvard.edu/fellowships. An informational town meeting will be held on March 3, from 12 to 1 p.m. in the TMEC amphitheater. Another informational forum will be held at Massachusetts General Hospital on March 24, from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Simches third floor conference room.

The internal application deadline is April 15. Please direct questions to Erin Cromack, Office of Academic and Clinical Affairs, at 617-432-7463.

News Brief

Kenneth Freedberg, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Andrea Ciaranello, HMS instructor in medicine at MGH, have received a grant from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation to conduct AIDS research in Zimbabwe. The Glaser Foundation gave a total of $1.25 million to five researchers around the world, including the MGH team, to study the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Freedberg, who is also director of the Program in Epidemiology and Outcomes Research in the HMS Division of AIDS and director of the HIV Research Program in the Division of General Medicine at MGH, and Ciaranello will use the funds to model the cost effectiveness of programs to prevent such transmissions.

In Memoriam

Franklin Harold Epstein, the ­William Applebaum professor of medicine at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, died on Nov. 5. He was 84 years old and actively engaged in biomedical research, teaching, and clinical care until a few weeks before his death.

Epstein went to Yale Medical School after receiving his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Brooklyn College and graduated from Yale in 1947. He completed his internship and residency at Yale–New Haven Hospital, where he came under the influence of John Peters, a leading American physician-scientist who investigated the pathophysiology of water and electrolytes in human disease.

Eventually, Epstein succeeded Peters as chief of the Division of Metabolism at Yale.
After a fellowship in cardiology at Boston University Medical School and a tour of duty in the United States Army, first at Walter Reed Army Hospital and then at the First General Dispensary at Fort Richardson, Alaska, Epstein returned to the Division of Metabolism and the Department of Medicine at Yale. There he attained the position of full professor before coming to Boston in 1972 to head the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory and the Harvard Medical Unit of Boston City Hospital. One year later, he joined Beth Israel Deaconess as chairman and physician-in-chief of the Department of Medicine. He had remained at Beth Israel ever since.

Epstein received many national and international honors for his accomplishments in nephrology, including the John P. Peters Award of the American Society of Nephrology in 1985, the David Hume Award of the National Kidney Foundation in 2003, the Bywaters Award from the International Society of Nephrology, and honorary degrees from Oxford University and the Medical Academy of Gdansk, Poland. He served for 10 years as president of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Maine, where he studied the comparative physiology of salt and water homeostasis in lower vertebrates. His research encompassed the physiology of the renal medulla; disorders of urinary concentrating ability; mechanisms of acute renal failure; disorders of water, sodium, and potassium; and medical complications of pregnancy including preeclampsia.

He was the author of approximately 400 papers, reviews, and chapters, and he was a longstanding editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine and of The New England Journal of Medicine. Epstein trained a generation of medical students, residents, and fellows in internal medicine and was known as an inspirational orator and teacher and a caring bedside clinician. He wrote and spoke passionately about the physician’s role in caring for the dying patient.

Epstein leaves his wife, Sherrie (Spivack), and his four children, Mark Epstein of New York, Ann Epstein of Brookline, Sara Epstein of Winchester, and Jonathan Epstein of Radnor, Pa.

Donations in Epstein’s honor may be made to the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Old Bar Harbor Rd., Salsbury Cove, ME 04672.

Peter Sifneos, an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of psychotherapy, especially short-term dynamic therapies, and a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, died on Dec. 9. He was 88 years old.

A native of Greece, Sifneos grew up on the island of Lesbos and in Athens. While a student in chemistry at the Sorbonne in Paris, he was forced to escape Nazi-occupied France and fled to the United States. After completing his college years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he enrolled at HMS, graduating in 1946. In 1947 he finished his internship at Boston City Hospital and married Ann Elizabeth Coit. They lived in Frankfurt, Germany, where he served as a psychiatrist in the U.S. Army for two years. After returning to Boston, he trained in psychiatry at McLean Hospital and at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed his psychoanalytic training at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute.

From 1968 to 1994, he served as associate director of the Psychiatry Department of the former Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. In the late 1960s, while he was director of the Inpatient and Outpatient Psychiatry Services at MGH, Sifneos experimented with innovative methods for shortening the length of the longer dynamic psychotherapies in vogue at that time. He named these techniques short-term anxiety-provoking psychotherapy. He was instrumental in the creation of training centers of short-term therapy in Norway, Switzerland, Holland, and Greece. He became a professor of psychiatry at HMS in 1974.

During the 1970s, he pioneered the use of videotapes to demonstrate his interviewing techniques during short-term therapy sessions. He published several books and many articles on this topic in North American and international journals.

Sifneos was also interested in psychosomatic medicine. He introduced the concept of “alexithymia” to describe a condition in which patients are unable to get in touch with or to verbalize emotions. Ascent from Chaos, the first of five books that he wrote, describes the treatment of a psychosomatic patient. He also wrote books about the fundamental techniques of short-term therapy and about his experiences in France during the German occupation. Sifneos said that witnessing the ever-changing patterns and nuances of the “magnificent horizons” of the minds of his patients made his life worth living.

In addition to dedication to his patients, Sifneos demonstrated a passion for teaching, continuing to teach courses until a few years ago.

He is survived by his first wife, Ann Coit ­Sifneos of Belmont; his second wife, Jane Paulson of Greeley, Colo.; his son, Peter Gray Sifneos of Arlington; his daughters and their husbands, Ann and Kevin Callahan of Natick, and Jeannie Sifneos and Daniel Schafer of Corvallis, Ore.; five grandchildren; and many close relatives in Europe. A memorial service will be held on March 27 at the Harvard University Memorial Church. Donations in his memory may be made to the Harvard Medical School Office of Planned Giving, c/o Mary Moran Perry, 401 Park Drive, Suite 22 West, Boston, MA 02215 or to VNA Hospice Care, 100 Sylvan Road, Woburn, MA 01801.