David Cardozo, HMS assistant professor of neurobiology, joined the Division of Medical Sciences leadership in July. Cardozo is serving as assistant dean for graduate studies while he makes the transition from teaching and research into a new position. On Nov. 1, he will become associate dean, succeeding Tom Fox, currently the associate dean for graduate education. Fox, HMS associate professor of neuroscience in the Department of Neurology at Children’s Hospital Boston, will continue to play a role in DMS, specifically to work on the international development projects he has led for the division.
Multimillion Dollar Grant Targets Avian FluThe National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded a $7.46 million grant to Wayne Marasco, HMS associate professor of medicine at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues to develop a treatment for avian influenza. The award, titled “Human Mab Cocktails to Prevent and Treat H5N1 Avian Influenza,” will be distributed over five years to Marasco’s lab and labs at the Burnham Institute and the Centers for Disease Control. The goal of the project is to investigate and develop a novel antiviral strategy called convergent combination immunotherapy for the prevention and early treatment of H5N1, with the ultimate goal of producing a cocktail of three antibodies ready for use in human clinical trials.
Center of Excellence in Genomics Established at Dana–Farber
Dana–Farber Cancer Institute has received a $16 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, to establish a new Center of Excellence in Genomic Science. The NHGRI program funds multi-institution, interdisciplinary teams working toward advances in genomic research.
The DFCI center, led by Marc Vidal, HMS associate professor of genetics at DFCI, will test the hypothesis that both human genetic variations and pathogens, such as viruses, can influence cellular networks to cause disease.
Using viral infections as a model, Vidal and colleagues will investigate how genetic and environmental disruptions in complex cellular networks interact to cause disease. Specifically, the team will analyze network-level disruption and protein–protein interactions in cells caused by particular viruses and apply what is learned to genomewide variation datasets for related human diseases. The ultimate goal is to develop better models for interpreting genomewide genetic variations involved in disease. The DFCI team will collaborate with colleagues from HMS, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the University of Notre Dame.
HMS students Yi Li, Zurui Song, Venis Wilder, Sarah Zaman, and Nicolas Gonzalez Castro, and HSPH student Tuyen Trinh have been awarded Schweitzer Fellowships for the 2007–2008 year. The fellowships allow graduate students in health and human services-related fields to participate in a community service project of their choice over the course of a year. The fellows must devote at least 200 hours to their projects and participate in public outreach programs and attend regular meetings. Li will build upon her work with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center’s Asthma Swim program, which provides swimming lessons and asthma education for asthmatic children. Song is developing a youth sports program with the Brookside Community Health Center in Jamaica Plain as part of a program to encourage the center’s pediatric patients to adopt healthier lifestyles. Wilder is collaborating with the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston to create ByUs! Media, through which minority youth will create public awareness campaigns to inspire a positive self-image among their peers. Zaman is organizing health workshops for homeless women in Boston, based on topics of the participants’ choosing. Through the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program, Castro will serve as a medical interpreter for Hispanic patients and translate brochures and other literature into Spanish. Through the “Fun with Fruits and Veggies” program, Trinh provides nutrition education and cooking classes for students at the Manville School, a therapeutic day school. Each fellow gets a $2,000 stipend.
Biostats Professor Receives MERIT AwardXihong Lin, HSPH professor of biostatistics, has received a MERIT award from the National Cancer Institute. The award is given to fewer than five percent of NIH-funded investigators. Lin develops statistical methods for biomedical data in cancer research, particularly for analyzing longitudinal and familial data and genomic and proteomic data in epidemiological studies and population science. One aim of her work is to identify genetic pathways from large pools of genes that are related to disease outcomes. The award totals $190,925 per year for four years, with a renewal for another four years after a review.
Cell Biologist Honored By European Academy of SciencesHoward Green, the George Higginson professor of cell biology at HMS, has been awarded the 2007 Blaise Pascal Medal in Biology and Life Sciences by the European Academy of Sciences. The award was established in 2003 and recognizes outstanding contributions to science and technology, research, and education. Green was honored for his development of cultured skin cells for use in large-scale skin transplants for patients whose burns are too severe for conventional skin grafting. Green’s lab is currently investigating differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into somatic cell types, focusing on the keratinocyte, a predominate cell in the epidermis and related tissues. Green receives the award in Brussels this month.
Honors and Advances
The American Academy of Pediatrics will present the Arnold J. Capute Award to Allen Crocker, HMS associate professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, at the Academy’s National Conference and Exhibition in October. The award is presented annually for notable contributions to the field of pediatric disabilities and is named for Capute, who is considered the father of developmental pediatrics.
Marcelo Di Carli, HMS associate professor of radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was named the winner of the 2007 Hermann Blumgart Award by the Society of Nuclear Medicine. The award recognizes Di Carli’s efforts to integrate all noninvasive cardiovascular imaging services across the radiology and cardiology departments at BWH and to expand the hospital’s nuclear medicine program.
The American College of Surgeons has named Gerald Healy, HMS professor of otology and laryngology at Children’s Hospital Boston, as president-elect. The college is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve care for surgical patients. Healy has held several leadership positions while a member of the organization, most recently serving as vice chair of the board of regents.
Ali Khademhosseini, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, was named a 2007 Young Innovator by Technology Review magazine. Each year the magazine recognizes individuals under the age of 35 who are leading novel or innovative projects in science and technology. Khademhosseini, using techniques in biology, engineering, medicine, and materials science, aims to understand and control cellular microenvironments to advance the field of tissue engineering.
Avichai Kremer, an assistant director at the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair and a recent Harvard Business School graduate, has received the Lawrence A. Rand Prize from the ALS Association, one of the organization’s highest honors. Kremer, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2004, is being recognized for his work to promote the search for a cure through the nonprofit Prize4Life, which he launched with an HBS classmate in 2006. Prize4Life offers cash prizes for novel ALS breakthroughs and has awarded $75,000 so far. Kremer also founded the for-profit biotech company AviTx, which is developing commercial ALS drugs.
The Endocrine Society has selected P. Reed Larsen, HMS professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as the winner of the 2008 Fred Conrad Koch Award. Larsen was selected for his contributions in both clinical and basic research and thyroidolgy, including the discovery and characterization of the thyroxine deiodinase that produces the active thyroid hormone T3 in the brain and pituitary. He will receive the award at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in June 2008.
George Thibault, the Daniel D. Federman Professor of Medicine and Medical Education, will leave HMS at the end of the year to become the president of the Macy Foundation, a New York City–based privately endowed philanthropy that supports programs to improve the education of health professionals and enhance the representation of minorities in health professions. Thibault has also served as the director of the HMS Academy since its inception in 2001.
The Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center has appointed Kasisomayajula Viswanath, HSPH associate professor of society, human development, and health, as director of the center’s Health Communications Core, which assists investigators in successfully communicating their research to a variety of audiences. Viswanath studies mass communication, social change, and health communication, and has most recently focused on the relationship between communication inequalities and health disparities.
The American Orthopedic Association (AOA) has honored Augustus White, the Ellen and Melvin Gordon professor of medical education at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, with the AOA–Smith & Nephew Endoscopy Distinguished Clinician Educator Award. The award, which includes a $25,000 honorarium, was presented to him for his leadership roles in education, including serving as master of the Holmes Society, and for his dedication as a clinician.
Marvin Zelen, HSPH professor of statistical science, presented the annual Fisher Lecture at the 2007 Joint Statistical Meetings in Salt Lake City in August. The Fisher Lectureship is awarded by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies to a statistician who has made significant contributions to scientific investigation through the development and promotion of statistical methods.
Elizabeth Dexter Hay, embryologist and educator, died Aug. 20. She was 80 years old.
Hay attended Smith College and received her MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1952, one of only four women in the class. A pioneer in the use of the electron microscope—a new tool in cell biology research—she became a renowned expert in the developing field of cell biology.
Beginning first at Johns Hopkins, then at Cornell Medical School, and finally at HMS, Hay concentrated on cell proliferation and migration. This work led to her greatest scientific contribution: understanding the extracellular matrix (ECM), a complex structure that surrounds and supports the cell and is often referred to as connective tissue. Hay was the first to show that the ECM plays a vital role in determining cell behaviors, including cell shape, cell-to-cell signaling, wound repair, cell adhesion, and tissue function. Most recently, she elucidated many of the mechanisms involved in the transformation of cells from more primitive to advanced forms, coining the term “epithelial-to-mesenchymal transformation” (see “Change of Heart…”).
Hay was named the Louise Foote Pfeiffer professor of embryology at HMS in 1969. As chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, she was the first woman to head a preclinical department at HMS. She was also the first woman elected president of the American Society of Cell Biology and the Society for Developmental Biology, the first woman to receive the Conklin Medal in Developmental Biology, and the second woman president of the American Association of Anatomists.
Hay is survived by her sister Katherine Fletcher, nephews John Hay and James Fletcher, and nieces Jennifer Hay and Carol Tankard, as well as five grand-nieces and -nephews.
HMS and Hay’s family will host a memorial service in her honor on Nov. 17. In lieu of flowers, please send donations marked “In memory of Elizabeth D. Hay” to March of Dimes, Attention: Kyra Minihane, 114 Turnpike Road, Suite 202, Westboro, MA 01581, for research in craniofacial development and birth defects.
Jack Mendelson, director of McLean Hospital’s Clinical Research Program on Substance Abuse, co-director of its Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center (ADARC), and professor of psychiatry (neuroscience) at HMS, passed away on Aug. 15 after a brief illness. He was 77.
Mendelson earned his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1951 and his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1955. Following medical school, he completed his internship at Boston City Hospital and his psychiatry residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1966, he became the first chief of the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Alcoholism, a division of the National Institutes of Health. In 1970, he was named chief of the Boston City Hospital Psychiatry Department. Three years later, McLean Hospital recruited him to head its alcohol and drug abuse research program where, with his wife Nancy Mello, HMS professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry (neuroscience) at McLean, he founded the ADARC.
“Jack was a pioneer in the investigation of the biological and behavioral aspects of substance abuse and was among the first to bring multidisciplinary collaboration of modern technology and organized research administration to this field of study,” said Scott Rauch, McLean president.
A widely recognized authority and contributor to the science of addiction, Mendelson was often sought by policymakers in Washington, D.C. He served as a consultant to the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention, overseen by the Executive Office of the President; the President’s Biomedical Research Panel; and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He had been a member of the nominating committee for the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine since 1982.
He leaves his wife; two sons, John and Adam; a daughter, Ellen; and four grandchildren. To contribute to the establishment of a research award in memory of Mendelson, send donations to the Jack H. Mendelson Memorial Fund, McLean Hospital, Development Office, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478.
