february/march 2019 volume 15, issue 1 Advancing Biomedical Science, Education, and Health Care Alpern will not seek a fourth term as School of Medicine dean Will continue to serve until colleagues I have worked with so First, there is a deanship to com- successor is installed, and closely over these years.” But, he says, plete. Alpern looks back with satis- he is looking forward to what will faction at achievements that include then remain on the faculty come next. “I’m really excited about recruiting outstanding research- going back to my pre-dean years and ers—scientists at the top of their Robert J. Alpern, MD, dean and En- being able to focus on the latest ad- fields—along with young investigators sign Professor of Medicine, informed vances in medicine and the biomedi- whose accomplishments and personal the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) cal sciences. Right now, my time is development have been a source of community in December that he will entirely consumed with responsibili- particular pride; a much-enhanced not seek to serve a fourth five-year term ties associated with the dean’s job.” relationship with Yale New Haven as dean when his current term expires After he steps down, Alpern ex- Health System (YNHHS) and a later this year. Alpern said he will re- pects to devote more time addressing clinical practice that he says has been main as dean until his successor is ap- his varied academic interests, some of transformed; a curriculum revision pointed, and then plans to continue on which are related to renal physiology in 2015 (for which he credits Richard the Yale faculty and pursue a number and kidney disease. He wants to focus Belitsky, MD, Harold W. Jockers As- of academic interests. more on the development of a drug sociate Professor of Medical Education Alpern, who arrived in 2004 that has the potential to transform the and associate professor of psychiatry, after serving since 1998 as dean of care of kidney patients. He also hopes and deputy dean for education) as well robert a. lisak the University of Texas Southwest- to pursue other areas of interest related as the YSM Teaching and Learning Robert Alpern, who arrived in 2004 as dean of Yale ern Medical School, calls the change to biomedical science, clinical medicine, Center; enhanced financial aid for School of Medicine, has announced that he will not seek to serve a fourth five-year term. He will “bittersweet” after 21 years as a dean. teaching, and issues of national and students; and huge strides by a cancer remain as dean until a successor takes office, and “I will especially miss the many international importance in medicine. center that was in // Dean (page 8) then continue on the medical school faculty. Endowment to support student research Foundation endows directorship of the Medical students receive a MD-PhD program summertime opportunity to A new gift from the Gustavus and do research at Woods Hole Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation will create an endowed directorship Roughly 170 miles up the highway for Yale School of Medicine’s MD-PhD from New Haven, at the southwest tip Program. The foundation has a long- of Cape Cod, lies Woods Hole, Mass. standing relationship with Yale, having Nestled in this seaside village, be- generously supported the Yale Com- tween Eel Pond and the Atlantic coast, bined Program in the Biological and is the Marine Biological Laboratory Biomedical Sciences and made grants (MBL), founded in 1888. to bolster research ranging from cancer A dozen or so Yale scientists head to prosthetics to psychiatry. to the MBL every summer, joining The new gift builds on a $1 million some 500 other researchers and train- endowed gift made by the founda- ees from institutions around the world tion in 2015 that provides long-term who also spend their summers making support to current students in the use of the MBL’s unique resources and program, especially those with an collegial environment. Discoveries sullivan dee interest in neurological and psychiatric by investigators at or affiliated with him in research on platelets—the cells Shobana Subramanian (center) became the medical diseases. the MBL have produced more than school’s first Levin Fellow when she joined faculty in blood that contribute to blood members Elizabeth Jonas (left) and Leonard The inaugural Gustavus and 50 Nobel prizes since 1920. coagulation—Levin spent a summer at Kaczmarek at Woods Hole’s Marine Biological Louise Pfeiffer Research Founda- Hematologist Jack Levin, MD ’57, the MBL. Hopkins professor Frederik Laboratory during the summer of 2018. tion MD-PhD Program Director is took full advantage of what Woods Bang, MD, was there working on blood coagulation in Limulus, and Barbara Kazmierczak, MD, PhD, Hole offers. During a research fellow- Limulus polyphemus, the Atlantic also to the use of Limulus as a model professor of medicine (infectious ship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in horseshoe crab. Their collaboration led organism to provide new insights into diseases) and of microbial pathogen- the early 1960s, which had immersed to a major scientific discovery about the non-hemostatic // MBL (page 4) esis, a School of // MD-PhD (page 8) Non-Profit Org. INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1 Church St., Suite 300, New Haven, CT 06510-3330 U. S. Postage www.medicineatyale.org 2 Lifelines PAID Valentina Greco has developed previously New Haven, CT unknown insights about functions of the Permit No. 526 epithelium related to cancer and stem cells. 3 Harnessing burgeoning data A new center is devoted to deriving new insights from massive amounts of data obtained from a multitude of sources. 5 Mutual doctor-patient respect A patient felt such a bond with her primary care physician that she supported YSM both while alive and through a bequest. FOLLOW & SHARE twitter.com/YaleMed facebook.com/YaleMed instagram.com/YaleMed lifelines Institute for Global Health names its inaugural director Valentina Greco has made Saad B. Omer, singular contributions to knowledge about long- MBBS, MPH, hidden functions of skin PhD, has been cells. She and members of her lab have explored the named the epithelium’s role in guiding inaugural direc- stem cell regeneration, and in containing cells that might tor of the Yale become cancers. She also Institute for has worked forcefully to advance women in science. Global Health Saad Omer (YIGH). Omer is currently the William H. Foege Professor of Global Health, Epide- miology, and Pediatrics at Emory University’s schools of public health and medicine. He will hold joint appointments at Yale School Valentina Greco of Public Health and Yale School robert a. lisak of Medicine and a secondary ap- pointment at Yale School of Nurs- ing, effective July 1. Scientist finds skin deep is very deep “Some of the most pressing problems of our time are related to Reveals skin properties I saw that science was a world of fun,” says. “We make a special effort to think global health,” says Omer. “Ad- that may limit cancer and Greco says. “It was essentially the dif- carefully about the biases we hold that dressing them will require us to aid stem cell regeneration ference between having resources that affect the way we hear and respond bring our ‘A game.’ Therefore, allow you to really move your ideas to ideas from others.” This philosophy, global health needs and deserves Two images published in a Cell Stem forward, as opposed to having to be in turn, “creates a space where these the involvement of an institution Cell paper in September 2018 summa- creative, but for survival.” people can conceptualize the best idea such as Yale.” rize years of relentless questioning on After studying principles of tissue ever, and shape it in a way that, as they Omer plans to tap Yale’s pre- how skin stem cells regenerate, which growth under Suzanne Eaton, PhD, at approach science within my lab, they has driven much of the research of EMBL, a supportive and “powerful” are independent.” eminence in research, teaching, and Valentina Greco, PhD, Carolyn Walch experience that she cherishes, she She credits her dedication to clinical care. His vision for YIGH is Slayman Professor of Genetics and pro- took a postdoctoral fellowship in the younger colleagues’ success to that to support faculty and trainees in fessor of cell biology and of dermatol- lab of Elaine Fuchs, PhD, at the Rock- of her own mentor at Yale, the late developing transformative initia- ogy, and her lab members. efeller University. That is where she Carolyn W. Slayman, PhD, deputy dean tives that cross disciplines and have The side-by-side images feature first delved into epidermal stem cells for academic and scientific affairs, an impact on people’s lives across individual mouse cells in grayscale and the epithelium itself, which have Sterling Professor of Genetics, and the globe. microscopy and those same cells ren- been her focus since she arrived at professor of cellular and molecular Omer has published widely in dered in a pastel, color-by-numbers Yale in 2009. biology. Greco says Slayman set a stan- peer-reviewed journals, has multi- image that illustrates skin stem cells’ The Greco lab has observed that, dard for developing opportunities for ple awards, and has served on sev- self-renewal process. Greco and her aside from their interplay with stem junior faculty. “The fact that I carry her eral advisory panels including the team shattered dogma, which held that cells, epidermal cells in mice perform endowed professorship is particularly skin stem cells decide when to renew roles usually left to the immune system, touching to me.” National Vaccine Advisory Com- themselves. Instead, they found that such as the clearing of dead cells and Greco says she wants her mentees mittee, the Presidential Advisory neighboring epidermal cells create correction of tissue defects including to feel deep respect, so they can share Council on Combating Antibiotic- a niche environment that drives the tumor-like growths.