The Future of Medicine Begins Here
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THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE BEGINS HERE VOL. 14 • NO. 1 • FALL 2005 Contents THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE BEGINS HERE From the Dean . 2 STUDENTS The Road to the Future Begins Here . 3 RESEARCH Clock Wise . 5 Taking a Historical Approach . 6 Allerton Medical Scholars Research Retreat Celebrates 25th Year . 7 ALUMNI From the Lab to the Drug Store Shelf . 9 Prepared for Any Emergency . 11 PREPARING FOR TOMORROW Dr. Goldberg: Class of 1964 and 2005 . 13 EDUCATION AND INNOVATION Readying Students to Work in a Culturally Diverse World . 14 New Microscopes Bring Scientific Skills into Focus . 16 THROUGH THE HELP OF OUR FRIENDS Dean’s Advisory Board . 17 Building Partnerships . 18 Forging Relationships for the Future . 20 Dr. O’Morchoe Gift Ensures Future Physician Leaders . 21 ENGAGING OUR PARTNERS Ambassador Program Promotes Medical Opportunities . 25 A Commitment to Make a Difference . 26 Aid for Ecuador . 29 COLLEGE NEWS Match Day 2005 . 30 Convocation 2005 . 31 White Coat Ceremony . 32 Pioneering Medical Genetics on Campus . 33 Faculty News . 34 Introducing Our New Faculty Members . 37 Alumni News . 44 College of Medicine • Lifeline 1 From the We have a great deal of pride in our educational programs here at the University of Illinois’ College of Medicine in Urbana. In this center for medical education and bioscience excellence, we develop the physician-scientist leaders needed for Dean 21st century health care. Both our traditional four-year medical education and our Medical Scholars M.D./Ph.D. dual-degree programs reflect the depth of knowledge and scholarly opportunity that exists on this campus. Scholarly opportunities for students and faculty alike exist throughout the campus’ integrated interdisciplinary activities at the College. For example, our faculty hold joint appointments in other colleges and disciplines across the campus. In our Medical Scholars program, the third largest in the nation, students can pursue a joint degree in any one of over thirty-five different disciplines. Recent graduates have earned their degrees in fields as diverse as engineering, the humanities, and the arts, as well as the traditional biosciences. After graduation, our students are selected to pursue their Graduate Medical Education at many of the nation’s top-ranked programs such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard. The uniqueness of the interdisciplinary education that takes place on the Urbana campus becomes embedded into the way our graduating physicians approach their medical practice. At the College of Medicine, we consider ourselves very fortunate to be a part of this world-class institution where the superb education and collaboration with colleagues creates a special atmosphere for inquiry and commitment to excellence. Sincerely, Bradford S. Schwartz Regional Dean 2 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE BEGINS HERE STUDENTS The Road to the Future The University of Illinois is where the future of medicine begins, and there’s no more visible sign of that beginning than the M-1 class. It’s the starting point for students Begins Here who are embarking on a clinical career as well as for those pursuing the scientific path. Two students from this year’s entering M-1 class are doing just that. Ray Morales, a student in the Medical Scholars Program, is focusing on a career as a physician-scientist, while Matt Plunk is looking to a future in clinical medicine. They may be pursuing different career interests and come from different parts of the country, but at the College of Medicine their paths are converging. And they’re off to a promising start. Future Scientist Gets to the Heart of the Matter Ever since Ray Morales (left photo) can remember, he’s been fascinated by science and engineering. It’s been a passion that has fueled his pursuits both in and out of school and one that led him to set his sights on going to MIT as an undergraduate. The environment at MIT was much different from the Bronx neighborhood where Ray grew up, but it was a place where he thrived. After graduating in 2002 with a major in electrical engineering and a minor in biomedical engineering, Ray applied to participate in the Minority Medical Education Program, now called the Summer Medical Education Program (SMEP). This academic enrichment program, which is administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, helps promising, highly motivated minority students gain admission to medical school. Knowing that he wanted to pursue research and medicine as well, Ray attended Yale University for six weeks in the summer of 2003 as part of the program. “The MMEP was a turning point for me,” he said. “It showed me the type of opportunities that were out there for me and gave me the tools to make it happen.” College of Medicine • Lifeline 3 After the program, he returned to New York, where he worked in a lab at Columbia University, exploring the field of molecular cardiology. His interest in this field solidified his decision to pursue a career as a physician-scientist, and he began the application process to dual-degree programs across the country. “When I came to visit at Illinois, I got a good vibe,” he said. “The people, the facilities, the research being done—all of that made me feel like this would be a place I could be comfortable and successful.” As he begins his first year in the M.D./Ph.D. program, Ray still sees molecular cardiology as a future research path. “I enjoy the challenge of real-life problem solving,” he said. “And the heart is the ultimate engineering problem.” Future Clinician Explores Possibilities Matt Plunk (right photo) is an Illinois boy born and bred. That doesn’t mean that Matt has made up his mind yet as Raised on a farm outside of Mansfield, just twenty-five to what type of medicine he will be practicing or where, but miles west of campus, Matt grew up aspiring to become a he’s leaning toward a large multi-specialty type practice over physician. “My mom was a nurse, so medicine was thought solo work. “I really like the collaborative nature of the larger of very highly in my family. I also had a real interest in environment,” he says. “I’m interested in specialties ranging science from junior high on. My high school anatomy class from oncology to surgery, but I’ll obviously need to get more and a visit to a cadaver lab during my senior year convinced hands-on experience before I can make any real decision on me that I should pursue medicine.” a specialty.” With a world-class institution right down the highway, In the meantime, Matt knows his first year of medical school it wasn’t a difficult decision for Matt to choose an will be a year of challenges and opportunities. “This will be undergraduate program. And after completing the honors a commitment unlike anything else I’ve done, and I know it biology curriculum at Illinois and graduating with a double will be a lot to balance time-wise, but I’m looking forward major in chemistry and biology in the spring of 2005, Matt to the challenge.” knew he wanted to stay put. “The program, the reputation, and the faculty all make the College of Medicine at Illinois a great choice,” Matt says. “I had also worked at Carle Hospital over the last three years as a nursing assistant, so I saw how the physicians there interacted with the medical students. The Carle physicians are a very impressive group of people and watching them work helped me see that the hospital environment is for me.” 4 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE BEGINS HERE RESEARCH Clock Dr. Martha Gillette brings new meaning to the term “clock watcher.” For more Wise than two decades, she has been researching chronobiology—that is, the biology of time. It’s a science that helps us to answer questions like: Why do birds sing in the morning, while frogs call at night? Why are heart attacks likely to strike before Understanding dawn, while asthmatic attacks generally occur after sunset? Why do we most often the Biological feel lethargic and depressed during the short, dark days of winter, while on long, Clock sunny summer days, we feel energetic and alert? Answers are found in the study of the biological clock in the brain. According to Dr. Gillette, Alumni Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology, and Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, “Biological clocks play a central role in organizing the internal environment of an organism around the major variable in the external world, namely the daily cycle of darkness and light. These clocks, whose cellular processes mark the passage of time in near 24-hour cycles, are fundamental organismic components.” Light is a key factor in the how the biological clock functions and is at the center of Dr. Gillette’s research. “We examine how the signal of light comes into the brain and how it gets decoded into molecular signals within the brain,” she says. Two of her three major studies focus on how light signals from the retina alter clock time, keeping us “in synch” with the world. Her third study extends the examination of clock regulators to signals from brain sleep- wake centers. Discoveries and Collaboration “Our early work contributed to establishing that the brain has a central clock,” Dr. Gillette says. “It’s in a set of neurons at the base of the brain, and these neurons keep time spontaneously. We’ve recently discovered a key ‘gear’ in the clock, a protein called ‘timeless.’” Timeless, critical for timekeeping in the brain, also regulates cell division and kidney formation.