Tuesday October 22, 1985 Published by the University ofPennsylvania Volume 32. Number 9 Nobel in Medicine: Michael Brown, C'62,M'66 Brown and Goldstein ... Goldstein and The Tribune estimated 30 to 50 million Ameri- Brown. The paired names have been candi- can adults as potential heart attack victims dates on the biomedical grapevine for years, who will benefit from Brown and Goldstein's and on many branches: A biochemist would breakthrough research. stop at mid-citation and tell the class: At Penn, longtime followers of the Brown "They're going to get the Nobel Prize for and Goldstein research go farther in describing this," an internist predict "It's only a matter the influence ofthe two: In their citation to Dr. of time," an impatient psychiatrist assert, Brown during this June's Alumni Weekend, "They should have had two by now." the School described a series of break- This is the year the Nobel Institute agreed, throughs, adding, "At each step in [their re- and sent the message last Monday from Stock- search] program Drs. Brown and Goldstein holm that Dr. Michael S. Brown, 44, and Dr. have broken new ground in fundamental biol- Joseph L. Goldstein, 45, will share the 1985 ogy and medicine, and their studies have led to Prize in medicine for work that has "revolu- significant advances in our understanding of tionized our knowledge" of cholesterol me- the function and recycling of the cell mem- tabolism and of diseases related to it, athero- brane The picture is of complementary sclerosis and heart attack. genius in collaborators who start with the con- In a Chicago Tribune account the work is viction that where there's a code to break described as having "isolated the cell surface there's a key to find. receptor that recognizes and admits cholesterol Brown and Goldstein are with the Univer- to the cell. Some receptors are specialized to sity of Texas Medical Center at the Southwest- admit but the lack of low-density lipoproteins; ern Medical School in Dallas, where Dr. At Alumni Weekend 1985. the lets in too much, to youngest recipient [such receptors] leading Brown is the Paul J. Thomas Professor of of the Medical School's Distinguished Graduate clogging of the arteries." For about one in 500 Medicine and Genetics and Director of the Award, Dr. Michael S. Brown, with Dean Americans, the defect is genetic; but it may Center for Genetic Disease. He is believed to Stemmler. also be acquired through diet and lifestyle. be the first Penn baccalaureate alumnus to win a Nobel Prize, and the second medical alum- are without Goldstein; they also have a book, nus to do so: Dr. Gerald Edelman, who shared with Stanbury and Wyngaarden, The Meta- IN BRIEF the 1972 Prize in medicine, has the Penn M.D. bolic Basis of Inherited Disease, plus 18 book (and that year Dr. Christian Anfinsen, who chapters.) Speaking of Prizes: Nominations open October 28 for the Lindback Awards for 1985-86. Details earned his master's degree here, won a Prize "I knew Mike Brown as a student, and it's in not to his and criteria are on the inside back page. chemistry). hindsight say strong intellectual and Michael Brown received his B.A. from were Lost Is Found: Dean Russell Palmer ofthe Whar- the personal qualities recognized early on," in 1962 and his M.D. in said Dean Edward Stemmler. "He ton School thanked the FBI Monday for its role in College (see page 2) really stood recovering Rodin's Jean D 'Aire, the bronze stolen 1966 from the School of Medicine, where he out, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to persuade from the School last year. "We would like to won the Frederick L. Packard Prize in Internal him to come back to Penn. And yet," he adds, commend the FBI for the outstandingjob it did in Medicine and was elected to Alpha Omega Al- "it might not have been the same for medi- finding the statue," said Dean Palmer. "In particu- pha in his junior year. Midway through medi- cine. Those two intellects seem to have been lar we want to thank agent Robert Basin and cal school, in June 1964, he married the for- uniquely prepared to work together. And it's members of our force." Palmer campus security mer Alice Lapin and the couple now have two magnificent work." also expressed reliefthat the statue was unharmed. Elizabeth Jane and Sara Ellen. Drs. Brown and Goldstein have "I know I for the School as well as the donor daughters, been shar- speak his 1966-68 and awards for over ten ofthe statue, Jeffrey Loria, in saying we are look- During internship ing prestigious years, ing forward to having it back with us at Wharton." residency at Mass General in Boston, Brown starting with the 1974 Heinrich Wieland prize Details ofits recovery are sketchy but local radio of Penn met Goldstein of Texas, who was just for work in lipid metabolism. They hold the reported that it was traced after an attempt to sell a year ahead ofhim. They stayed in touch after ACS's Pfizer, the Albion 0. Bernstein, the it in Florida. joining separate NIH Institutes (Dr. Brown's Passano, the National Academy's Lounsbery, - was Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, fol- the Lita Annenberg Hazen, Roche Institute's -INSIDE lowed by a stint as guest worker at the Heart V.D. Mattia, Columbia's Louisa Gross Institute). In 1970-71 when he set out to Horwitz, the 3M Award of the Federation of " Senate Chair: Salaries, Budgets, p. 2 " Nobel Laureate as Undergraduate, p. 2 choose an academic home, Dr. Brown nar- American Societies for Experimental Biology, " Speaking Out: Sexual Harassment, rowed the choices to San Francisco vs. the and others of the Gairdner Foundation, New SEC/BSL, Core Space, Apartheid, pp. 3-4 Texas unit at Dallas-and Dr. Goldstein's York Academy of Sciences, American Heart " Addendum on S. African holdings, p. 4 alma mater won. A later from Seattle Dr. Association, and Association of American " of Committee, 1984-85, year Report Steering p.5 Goldstein made the same move, and the Medical In 1982 Dr. Brown ac- " NIH Report on Head Lab (full text), p. 6 Colleges. two " Lindback Nominations: How-To, p. 7 uniquely productive collaboration began in cepted honorary degrees-one from the Center Supplement: Year-End Reports of earnest. (Of the 216 papers in a relatively re- University of Chicago and the other from Council and Independent Committees cent c.v. of Dr. Brown's, only ten, all early, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. SENATE -COUNCILS From the Chair Synopsis of Minutes: October 9 The report of the Committee on Harass- More on Salaries and Budgets ment (Almanac . September 24) was discussed, following presentation by the co-chairs. Pro- I note, with that in their column in the Almanac of October 15, the President and Provost hope, fessors deCani and Sagi. Some criticism was state the following concerning the two major points that I tried to stress in my own column in the raised concerning the wording of the questions Almanac of October 8, "We have every intention that the University will continue to provide real in the questionnaire, definitions of harass- growth in faculty salaries in Fiscal Year 1987" and "The column last week by the Faculty Senate ment, and the groupings of harassing behav- ior. Other to Chair emphasized the need to watch carefully non-academic expenses generally and administrative members spoke support the valid- of the results and to the extent salaries particularly. We agree fully with that point," and "We agree with the Faculty Senate Chair ity emphasize and the seriousness of sexual harassment on that this matter bears continual review and we will work with him and his colleagues to that end." the campus. Professor Helen Davies summar- These statements are indeed hopeful and I trust they will be followed in earnest. ized the conversion of the survey results into With to the few included in the column, I am to note some regard specific examples sorry absolute numbers (Almanac, October I) car- and even For instance, column wrote, the inaccuracy, irrelevancy. my "Interestingly enough straight ried out by Professor Robert Davies and her- teaching salary budget for the faculty is so little that it can easily be equated in FY 1986 with simply self and read into the minutes a statement of the research overhead ($39 million), the special student fees ($17 million) and other miscellaneous concern by the Women's Studies Advisory general revenues ($6.8 million)." It does not say that "it might be covered" directly by those funds, Board and other faculty members. Implica- tions of the for and although, in all sincerity, the overhead of research projects compensates the University for so many report University policy will be taken at kinds of general expenses, and the student fees could, ostensibly, be directed toward the faculty implementing procedures up the November 13 salaries, leaving the huge tuition income for all other types ofgeneral expenses of the University and meeting. Discussion of the ways to bring the varying for student activities. I confess that I do not understand the logic of why many previous non-standing views of the University faculty, students, and faculty in A-2 positions have been shifted to the A- I category. Are we having another faculty in staff to the Trustees on issues relating to South disguise? And the clinical practice of the Medical School is not even included in the statistics that I Africa followed. Reference was made to a installation is, a not an cited.