A genotyping facility will be established at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard with a $3.8 million grant from the new Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative at the National Institutes of Health, which fosters collaborations between geneticists and environmental scientists. Researchers will use genomewide association studies along with new tools designed to measure environmental factors to determine if genetic variants that increase the risk of developing common diseases like tooth decay, cancer, and diabetes have a different effect in the presence of environmental exposures. The Broad facility is one of two genotyping centers that will assist with the project’s association studies, and each may receive additional funding as new priorities are identified while the work progresses. Stacey Gabriel, director of the Broad’s genetic analysis platform, will be the principal investigator.
HMS, HSPH Scientists Take NIH Director’s AwardsEight HMS and HSPH investigators are among the 41 selected to receive National Institutes of Health Director’s Awards, supporting innovative research that may not be eligible for traditional funding because it is too risky, too unconventional, or too early in development.
Three HMS faculty members have received Pioneer Awards, which support scientists at any stage who are taking an innovative approach to challenges in biomedical research. Each recipient receives $2.5 million over five years.
Emery Brown, the Massachusetts General Hospital professor of anesthesia at HMS and MGH, will use the award to develop a systems neuroscience approach to studying how drugs for general anesthesia act in the brain; Takao Hensch, HMS professor of neurology at Children’s Hospital Boston, will examine the role of noncoding RNAs in brain development and in potential treatment for brain disorders; Frances Jensen, HMS professor of neurology at CHB, will use her award to study how seizures in infancy affect the developing brain and lead to cognitive disorders.
Five additional members of the HMS and HSPH community are among the first to receive the newly created NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, which supports early-career investigators who have not previously received an NIH regular research or similar grant. Each award totals $1.5 million, paid out over five years. Sarah Fortune, HSPH assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, will investigate the mechanisms by which tuberculosis escapes the immune response; Levi Garraway, HMS instructor in medicine at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, seeks to apply a novel genetic and chemical screening approach to identify changes in malignant melanoma tumor cells that could be targets for treatment; Nir Hacohen, HMS assistant professor of medicine at MGH, will use a new genetic approach to dissect immune system pathways that sense disease-causing agents; Konrad Hochedlinger, HMS instructor in medicine at MGH, will study the reprogramming of adult mouse and human cells into embryonic cells by defined factors; Mark Johnson, HMS assistant professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will examine the role of decreased synthesis of microRNA in the development and aggressiveness of human cancer.
The Pioneer and New Innovator awards are part of the NIH’s Roadmap for Medical Research, an initiative designed to test different funding approaches and decrease the time it takes for new discoveries to go from the bench to the bedside. The two programs awarded about $105 million dollars in grants among the 41 recipients.
The New England Journal of Medicine has introduced a new online forum that will allow readers to interact with the authors of the journal’s weekly Perspective column. For a two-week period after the publication of a column, readers can submit questions and comments about the article, which will be posted online along with the author’s responses. The first Perspective Forum is based on a column written by Katharine Treadway, HMS assistant professor of medicine, which appears in the Sept. 27 issue. The accompanying online discussion on www.nejm.org is open through Oct. 10.
New Appointments to Full ProfessorThe following faculty members were appointed to a full professorship in May, June, and July.
Elizabeth Armstrong
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital Boston
Armstrong’s research and practice focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of outcomes in educational programs that disseminate new knowledge and significantly influence the behaviors of practicing health care professionals. Her work includes curriculum design initiatives across the continuum—undergraduate, graduate, and CME—both nationally and internationally. She played a leadership role in the design and implementation of the New Pathway curriculum and the Harvard–Macy Institute.
Jeffrey Cooper
Clinical Professor of Anesthesia
Massachusetts General Hospital
Cooper is a biomedical engineer with a history of research and development of solutions for patient safety. His early studies of errors in anesthesia in the 1970s were among the first in the field. He is director of biomedical engineering for the Partners HealthCare System and executive director of the Center for Medical Simulation, which he founded in 1994 as a means for education and research in preventing and managing critical events. His current research interests continue to focus on patient safety, especially in applications of simulation for crisis management, teamwork, and the study and assessment of human performance.
Frances Jensen
Professor of Neurology
Children’s Hospital Boston
Jensen studies the mechanisms of epileptogenesis and cortical injury in the developing brain, with specific emphasis on neonates. Her work has yielded new candidate therapies for treatments currently under development for clinical trials. In addition, her work explores how seizures alter neuronal networks to result in learning deficits, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and autism. She also is a practicing physician in neurology at both Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is chair of the Program Committee at the Society for Neuroscience, past chair of the Council on Education and current chair of the Advocacy Committee of the American Epilepsy Society.
Jeffrey Macklis
Professor of Surgery and Professor of Neurology
Massachusetts General Hospital
Macklis’s research is directed toward understanding molecular controls over neuron subtype specification, development, and circuit formation in the cerebral cortex and applying developmental controls toward brain and spinal cord repair. His lab focuses on neocortical projection neuron development and subtype specification, neural precursor/stem cell biology, induction of adult neurogenesis, and directed neuronal differentiation and development of connectivity via molecular manipulation of neural precursors within the murine neocortex. This research contributes to understanding and prevention of dysgenesis and to development of cellular repair strategies employing neural transplantation or manipulation of endogenous neural precursors/stem cells in situ.
Steven Mentzer
Professor of Surgery
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Mentzer’s research focuses on structural adaptations of the microcirculation in the context of cellular inflammation. Of particular interest is the influence of these structural changes on intravascular flow fields and the subsequent migration of leukocytes into extravascular tissues. His other area of research is lymphatic adaptations to inflammation; particularly, the inflammation-induced changes in lymphocyte traffic through lymph nodes. These basic research programs reflect his clinical interests in both thoracic malignancies and lung transplantation.
Saumil Merchant
Gudrun Larsen Eliasen and Nels Kristian Eliasen Professor of Otology and Laryngology
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
Merchant’s work centers on the pathology of ear and middle-ear mechanics. His research in otopathology involves the study of temporal bones obtained from subjects with well-documented ear disease, providing insight into the causes and pathogenesis of otologic disease. The middle-ear mechanics research is aimed at understanding sound transmission through normal, diseased, and reconstructed middle ears, so that better diagnostic tests and therapeutic procedures can be offered to patients with middle-ear disease. He collaborates with a wide range of colleagues in both the basic science and clinical fields.
Andrew Nierenberg
Professor of Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital
Nierenberg’s research focuses on practical, complex, hybrid clinical trials in bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, with an emphasis on evaluating existing and new pharmacological treatments for mood disorders. His other areas of research examine care of difficult-to-treat depression, residual depressive symptoms after response to antidepressants, longitudinal course of mood disorders, and psychopathology of offspring of bipolar parents. He collaborates with epidemiologists, psychologists, neuroimagers, and cognitive neuroscientists.
Mark Pollack
Professor of Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital
Pollack’s areas of clinical and research interest include the acute and long-term course, pathophysiology, and treatment of patients with anxiety disorders and associated comorbidities, development of novel pharmacologic agents for mood and anxiety disorders, uses of combined cognitive–behavioral and pharmacologic therapies for treatment refractory patients, presentation and treatment of anxiety in the medical setting, and the pathophysiology and treatment of substance abuse. He serves as director of the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders at MGH.
Nancy Rigotti
Professor of Medicine and of Ambulatory Care and Prevention
Massachusetts General Hospital
Rigotti’s research focuses on reducing the prevalence of tobacco use, the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. Her approach is multidisciplinary, combining efforts to change individuals’ behavior with community and policy alterations to influence individuals’ decisions about starting or continuing to smoke. Rigotti’s clinical research focuses on developing and disseminating interventions for smokers in the health care setting, including hospitalization, primary care practice, and prenatal care. Her public health research has addressed smoking patterns in young adults and the effect of tobacco control public policies, including clean indoor air and youth access laws. She directs Massachusetts General Hospital’s Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, which combines state-of-the-art clinical care with clinical and translational research, and she has been a leader in teaching preventive medicine at HMS.
Michael Ronthal
Professor of Neurology
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Ronthal teaches clinical neurology to students and residents. During his teaching career at HMS and BID, he has served as clerkship director and residency director. He has published books on gait disorders and cervical spine problems and has contributed book chapters to many other texts. In his most recent work, he has concentrated on spinal problems.
Richard Schwartzstein
Professor of Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Schwartzstein’s research has linked basic physiology on the control of breathing and respiratory sensations with clinical dyspnea. This work has resulted in a greater understanding of the distinct qualitative aspects of dyspnea, the links between the verbal phrases used by patients to describe their breathing discomfort and the underlying pathophysiologic disorders causing dyspnea, and the origins of chest tightness in asthma. He is now co–principal investigator on an NIH grant examining the relationship between affective and physiological contributions to the sensation of shortness of breath.
Michaela Gack, a graduate student in the lab of Jae Jung, recently received the Young Cell Signaler Award at the Millipore Cell Signaling Symposium in the UK for a presentation based on her discovery of a molecule involved in activating a pathway critical to the immune response to particular infections (see Focus, May 18, 2007). Gack, whose presentation was chosen out of five finalists by a panel of judges and the symposium audience, received £10,000 (approximately $20,000) in reagents, £5,000 (approximately $10,000) in cash, and a trophy.
In MemoriamTucker Collins, the S. Burt Wolbach professor of pathology and chief of pathology at HMS and Children’s Hospital Boston, died June 8 after being diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor in January. He was 54.
Collins received his BA from Amherst College in 1975 and completed his MD and PhD at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1981. He joined the HMS community in 1981, completing his residency training in pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1986. Collins was appointed an instructor in pathology at HMS in 1985 and was promoted to assistant professor in 1986, to associate professor in 1992, and to professor in 1998. In 2001, he was named the S. Burt Wolbach professor of pathology and the chief of pathology at Children’s Hospital Boston. Under his leadership, the Department of Pathology underwent a period of unmatched growth in its clinical services.
Collins served HMS in many capacities. He was active on a promotion review committee and had recently concluded participation on a search appointment committee as well. He was noted as a popular teacher and mentor of medical students, interns, and residents. He also served as associate master of the Peabody Society for 10 years.
“His enthusiasm for scientific medicine and scholarship, his dedication to medical students, and the vigor with which he encouraged students to become physician-scientists are memorable,” said Ron Arky, the Charles S. Davidson distinguished professor of medicine and master of the Francis Weld Peabody Society.
“Dr. Collins was a valuable member and contributor to the HMS community,” said Joseph B. Martin, former dean of the HMS Faculty of Medicine. “I greatly admired his leadership and respected his commitments to HMS.”
Collins is survived by his wife, Mary Whitley, and their daughter, Caroline.
Contributions in Collins’s memory may be made to Children’s Hospital Boston Trust, 1 Autumn St., #731, Boston, MA, 02215-5301 or to the Cohasset Education Foundation, P.O. Box 309, Cohasset, MA 02025.
A memorial service will be held Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. in the NRB amphitheater.
Harold Greenberg, HMS clinical instructor in surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, died Aug. 17 at the age of 83.
Greenberg, born in Dorchester to Russian immigrant parents, attended the University of Massachusetts as an undergraduate. He served in the Army in Germany during World War II, receiving a Bronze Star for his service in combat, which included the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. He was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1946.
Greenberg went on to earn a dental degree from HSDM in 1953 and a medical degree from HMS in 1955, completing his residency and surgical internship at Beth Israel. He would spend the entirety of his career at BID, where as senior surgeon he taught and mentored medical students and was an early practitioner of colonoscopic and laser colorectal procedures.
“Dr. Greenberg was a true stalwart of the department,” said Josef Fischer, the William V. McDermott professor of surgery at HMS and chair of the Department of Surgery at BID. “Both his clinical and educational contributions have been extraordinary, and he will be sorely missed by all.”
Greenberg leaves his wife, Barbara; two sons, David of Winchester, and Russell of Watertown; a sister, Esta Star of Illinois; and a grandson and granddaughter.
Alexander Nussbaum, retired associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, passed away on June 22. He was 81.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, Nussbaum immigrated to the United States during World War II. After receiving his BS at City College of New York in 1948 and MS at Purdue University in 1950, he conducted his doctoral work in chemistry at Wayne State University, where he was the first graduate student of Carl Djerassi. He later joined Djerassi and George Rosenkranz in Mexico, where work was being carried out to develop a progestin analog that eventually led to the oral contraceptive. While on sabbatical in the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford Medical School in 1961, he mastered and further developed methods for the synthesis of oligonucleotides that were valuable in the new field of nucleic acid research. He then joined Hoffman–La Roche in Nutley, N.J., where he established one of the first pharmaceutical laboratories devoted to the synthesis of genes and chemically synthesized the gene encoding the S-peptide of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease.
During a second sabbatical in 1975, Nussbaum joined the HMS community as a visiting professor of biological chemistry. During this time he constructed and propagated a recombinant SV40 virus that harbored foreign DNA. In 1977 he returned to HMS as associate professor of biological chemistry, then joined the Boston Biomedical Research Institute in 1982, where he established a research program on the synthesis of oligonucleotides. That same year he moved to the Quad, where he served as director of laboratories of the Department of Biological Chemistry until 1987. As director, he established one of the first facilities for the synthesis of oligonucleotides at HMS. He retired from HMS in 2006.
Nussbaum is survived by his wife Ruth; his children, Michael, Daniel, and Beth and their spouses; five grandchildren; and his sister Inge and her daughters. Memorial donations may be made to Joslin Diabetes Center, 1 Joslin Place, Boston, MA 02215 or the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, 305 Seventh Ave., 19th Fl., New York, NY 10001-6008.
Peter Yurchak, HMS associate clinical professor of medicine and a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, died July 30. He was 74.
Yurchak received his AB from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953 and his MD from HMS in 1957. After serving in the United States Air Force in England from 1959 to 1961, he returned to the HMS community and completed his training in cardiac medicine at MGH. He served as an instructor in medicine until 1969, when he was promoted to assistant professor. In 1974 he became an associate clinical professor.
Yurchak was the recipient of three HMS prizes for teaching excellence. He served as the MGH training program director for cardiology from 1994 to 2006 and was the supervisor of the Cardiac Fellows Clinic from 1970 to 2007. He was also the author of a widely used guide for medical students, Essentials of Patient Care.
Yurchak is survived by his wife Nancy Woods Downs; his children, Kathleen Yurchak of Chicago, Patricia Rexford of Chicago, and Michael Yurchak of Los Angeles; stepchildren Christopher Downs of Trout Creek, Montana, and Matthew and Stephen Downs of Boston; three grandchildren; and his brother, Anthony Yurchak of Buffalo. Memorial donations may be made to the Cardiac Education Fund c/o Massachusetts General Hospital Development Office, 165 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA 02114.
