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Cell Biologist Awarded Top Science Prize

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Cell Biologist Awarded Top Science Prize july/august 2010 volume 6, issue 3 Advancing Biomedical Science, Education, and Health Care Gift will support troops still troubled after the battle ends Described in Homer’s Iliad and called with deep psychological scars left by research on ptsd, concluded that many had been misdi- by a succession of names ever since— those conflicts. For Greenberg’s wife, he “was not ap- agnosed with maladies ranging from from mere “exhaustion” to “shell shock” Linda Vester, who had worked for years preciative of the alcoholism to schizophrenia. In 1973, and “battle fatigue”—the distinctive as a war-zone correspondent for nbc long history of really Blank, now a psychiatrist in Bethesda, condition that often afflicts soldiers News, the cluster of symptoms that original work,” he Md., invited those men to a therapy after stressful wartime experiences, make up ptsd were all too familiar. says, and he soon group at the veterans hospital in West now known as post-traumatic stress “She also came back with stress decided to help con- Haven, Conn. (now the vachs), disorder (ptsd), still carries a strong disorder,” Greenberg says, “and she told tinue that work with which helped to lay the groundwork Glenn Greenberg social stigma. And scientists still have me how debilitating it was, such that a major gift that for ptsd’s eventual acceptance as an much to learn about its psychological when there was a thunderstorm she’d establishes the Greenberg Professorship official psychiatric diagnosis in 1980. and physiological underpinnings. dive under the dining room table—lit- in Psychiatry, Post-Traumatic Stress Soon after, Yale recruited Walter Reed Though the investment firm erally, with her family there.” Disorder, and Resilience. Army Medical Center endocrinologist headed by Yale College alumnus The School of Medicine, in partner- In the mid-1960s, after complet- John W. Mason, m.d., who led the first Glenn H. Greenberg, m.a., m.b.a., ship with the VA Connecticut Health- ing a residency in psychiatry at Yale, studies of disturbances in stress-related is known as Brave Warrior Advisors, care System (vachs), has been in the Arthur S. Blank Jr., m.d., saw the hormones in soldiers with ptsd. In Greenberg knew little about ptsd vanguard of ptsd research and treat- Vietnam War first hand, working in 1989, Yale became home to the Clinical until he began hearing that increasing ment for decades. When Greenberg, a hospitals in Long Binh and Saigon. Neurosciences Division and the Health numbers of veterans of the wars in Iraq member of the Class of 1968, contacted Soon after the war ended, Blank Services Division of the VA National and Afghanistan had returned home his alma mater to find out about Yale reviewed the charts of 60 veterans and Center for ptsd, // Greenberg (page 8) Innate immunity Cell biologist awarded top science prize innovator joins 2010 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience honors National Academy researcher’s deciphering of membranes’ role In April, Yale in shuttling proteins within and between cells immunobiologist Ruslan Med- On June 3, James E. Rothman, ph.d., the Fergus F. Wal- zhitov, ph.d., lace Professor of Biomedical Sciences and chair of the received one medical school’s Department of Cell Biology, was named of the highest a recipient of the 2010 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. The honors bestowed biennial $1 million award, which has become one of the on American Ruslan Medzhitov most prestigious in science, was established in 2008 by a scientists when partnership of the Norwegian Association of Science and he was elected to the National Letters, the U.S.-based Kavli Foundation, and the Norwe- Academy of Sciences (nas), the elite gian Ministry of Education and Research. corps of researchers from the na- Rothman is one of the world’s foremost experts on tion’s top scientific institutions. membrane trafficking, the means by which proteins and courtesy of columbia university The David W. Wallace Professor other materials are transported within and between cells. James Rothman, winner of this year’s Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. of Immunobiology and a Howard The Kavli Prize highlights his contributions to the un- Hughes Medical Institute investiga- derstanding of exocytosis, a form of trafficking in which cell biology experiments that have revealed the molecular tor, Medzhitov has done pioneering spherical sacs called vesicles fuse with cell membranes to machinery of membrane trafficking in fine detail. Much of research on the innate immune deliver their contents outside the cell. this work was done using a “cell-free” approach, in which system, an evolutionarily ancient This process is ubiquitous in biology—it is essential to Rothman sidestepped the complexities of working with physiological system that launches cell division and insulin secretion, for example—but exocy- complete cells by isolating the intracellular components rapid first-line defenses against tosis plays a particularly crucial role in the nervous system. crucial to membrane trafficking. This strategy allowed bacteria and viruses. In neurons, vesicles carrying neurotransmitters fuse with him to propose that complexes of membrane-associated “We are all delighted by Rus- cell membranes at synapses, emptying their cargo to pass proteins known as snares are required for vesicles to fuse lan’s election to the nas, which on the chemical messages that govern movement, percep- with membranes. honors his seminal research on tion, cognition, memory, and mood. For three decades, Rothman shares the Kavli Prize with Thomas Süd- innate immunity,” says Carolyn W. Rothman has performed elegant, focused biochemical and hof, ph.d., of the Stanford School of // Rothman (page 8) Slayman, ph.d., // Medzhitov (page 8) Non-Profit Org. inside this issue 300 George St., Suite 773, New Haven, CT 06511 U. S. Postage www.medicineatyale.org 2 Lifelines paid Ophthalmologist James Tsai brings New Haven, CT unbridled energy to his work. Permit No. 526 4 An actor’s voice Yale alumnus David Hyde Pierce is a passionate backer of Alzheimer’s research 5 Beat deer ticks with your phone New Lyme disease application for iPhone helps users avoid ticks, deal with bites. also Advances, pp. 3, 5 Out & About, p. 4 Grants and Contracts, pp. 6–7 lifelines VA hospital with Yale affiliation gets top marks for care In addition to leading the The U.S. Depart- medical school’s ophthal- ment of Veterans mology department and Affairs (VA) caring for his many patients, has ranked the James Tsai is an active re- searcher on topics including VA Connecti- patient adherence to glau- cut Healthcare coma medication regimens, System (vachs) the development of new in West Haven, diagnostic technology, and Gary Desir Conn., first in the the application of molecu- lar biology to regenerate country among the system’s tertiary damaged retinal nerve cells facilities for its clinical care. in glaucoma and other eye “We’re not one of the largest or diseases. most well-funded facilities, but we tend to be very efficient and provide outstanding care,” says Gary Desir, m.d., professor of medicine and chief of medical services at the James Tsai vachs. “The challenge is going to terry dagradi be that our patient population is increasing yet our funding is not, so we have to maintain the same level of care but with fewer resources.” Leading with vision The vachs, one of 153 VA Yale glaucoma specialist Characterized by elevated pressure eldest daughter underwent chemo- hospitals nationwide, achieved a of fluid inside the eye, glaucoma can therapy and surgery for liver cancer. perfect score in performance mea- is also helping to bring damage the optic nerve and cause irre- (She is now a healthy and athletic sures in three of nine categories: eye cancers into the light versible vision loss. But in as many as 12-year-old.) acute myocardial infarction, to- one-third of cases, low to normal pres- This history inspired Tsai to raise bacco screening, and heart failure. Patients go out of their way to see Yale sure measurements (a thin cornea can the profile of ocular oncology at Yale. For behavioral health screening, ophthalmologist James C. Tsai, m.d., skew test results) can leave glaucoma Though little-known, eye cancer can community-acquired pneumo- m.b.a. One traveled four-and-a-half undiagnosed until there is significant cause blindness and can even be fatal. nia, and surgical complications it hours from Long Island. Another takes visual damage. Whall’s undiagnosed Metastasizing breast cancers often achieved a rating of “exceptional.” a car service each week from Garden glaucoma was affecting her ability to reach the eye, and the most common For diabetes, ischemic heart City, N.Y., for post-operative care. For his do basic tasks as a mother and interior cancer that originates in the eye, disease, and heart-disease pre- weekly follow-ups, a Wall Street trader designer. After a proper diagnosis, a choroidal melanoma, can spread to vention, the vachs, which has a journeys to New Haven each Wednesday New York surgeon performed pressure- the liver, lungs, and brain. The recent long-standing affiliation with the on the Metro-North Railroad. reducing surgery on her left eye, but it opening of Smilow Cancer Hospital at School of Medicine, also had very Tsai, an expert in glaucoma research yielded only short-term results. Medi- ynhh helped Tsai to recruit “the first high ratings. and treatment, came to Yale in 2006 cation to lower pressure in her right fully trained ophthalmic oncologist in There are more than 200,000 from Columbia University College of eye had severe side effects. the state of Connecticut,” Miguel A. visits to vachs clinics each year. Physicians and Surgeons, where he was Whall consulted Tsai, who sug- Materin, m.d., assistant professor of The hospital offers a full range of director of the Edward S.
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