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TulaneMed 16 Dr. Ageless 18 universitytulane school In Sync of medicine magazine | magazine medicine Fall HEART 2017 of Gold Dr. Peter Gold, changing the landscape for kids tulane med | fall 2017 New graduates celebrate their MD degrees on May 20, 2017, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON WHITE tulane med | fall 2017 In this issue Heart of Gold Dr. Peter Gold is helping build a ‘Strong City’ to stop 8the violence. 16 Dr. Ageless 18 In Sync 21 Rounds 22 Class Notes TulaneMed VOLUME 44, ISSUE 1, FALL 2017 Senior Vice President and Dean L. Lee Hamm III, MD Editor Mary Ann Travis Contributors Nick Adams, Keith Brannon, Leslie Cardé, Mary Cross, Faith Dawson, Cynthia Hayes, Kirby Messinger, Carolyn Scofield Photography Paula Burch-Celentano, Daymon Gardner, Mary Mouton, John Richie, Jason White Design Zehno President of the University Michael A. Fitts Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Institutional Effectiveness Richard Matasar Vice President for University Communications and Marketing Deborah L. Grant TulaneMed is published semiannually for Tulane University School of Medicine alumni, faculty, residents, students, staff and friends. Send letters and comments to: TulaneMed, c/o Tulane University Communications and Marketing 6823 St. Charles Ave. New Orleans, LA 70118 Phone: 504-865-5210 Fax: 504-862-8777 [email protected] tulane.edu/som Tulane University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. Contents ©2017 by Tulane University. All rights reserved. 1 tulane med | fall 2017 Breakthrough Moment $25 million gift will name John W. Deming Department of Medicine PHOTO: PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO PAULA PHOTO: BY MIKE STRECKER For seven decades, internal medicine “Tulane and the School of Medicine physician Dr. John Winton Deming would not be where it is today without (M ’44) and his family have been making a the exceptional commitment and profound impact on Tulane University and remarkable foresight of the Deming Tulane University School of Medicine. family. No family has been as significant Now, his family’s tremendous generosity is to the success of the school over the reaching new heights with a $25 million years,” said Tulane President Mike Fitts. gift that will transform and strengthen the “This is a gift that will build our research Dr. John W. Deming, Bertie Department of Medicine’s research enterprise and encourage breakthroughs Deming Smith enterprise. that we can only imagine today. This is a The gift is the largest in the School of gift with an importance that will radiate Medicine’s history. well beyond our current boundaries.” “By making this gift, Bertie Deming Smith, John Deming’s NEXT GENERATION RESEARCH I wanted to pay tribute wife of 50 years chose to honor her to John’s deep love for husband in a way truly befitting the doctor The gift will support research within the and scholar that he was. “By making this Department of Medicine, the largest Tulane and his belief gift, I wanted to pay tribute to John’s deep translational research department in the in the importance love for Tulane and his belief in the School of Medicine, said Dr. Lee Hamm, of education.” importance of education,” Deming Smith dean and senior vice president of the — Bertie Deming Smith said. The gift, naming the John W. Deming School of Medicine. The gift will provide Department of Medicine, honors an critical support to launch the careers of extraordinary physician and civic leader junior investigators while also rewarding who believed strongly in education and in established faculty members, Hamm said. giving back to his community and to “This gift will give us the crucial Tulane. John Deming passed away in 1996 funding to support the next generation of at the age of 76. physician-scientists, working on 2 tulane med | fall 2017 PHOTO: SALLY ASHER SALLY PHOTO: Weiwei Xu, PhD student in biomedical sciences, and Dr. Franck Mauvais-Jarvis, Price-Goldsmith professor in the Department of Medicine, are co-authors of a study that shows that testosterone is an anti-diabetic hormone in men. tomorrow’s healthcare breakthroughs,” After he graduated from medical the first members from outside New said Hamm. “As federal funding for school, John Deming completed an Orleans), an associate professor of research diminishes, the support of internship at Charity Hospital in New clinical medicine, a charter member of philanthropic visionaries like the Orleans, then served as a captain in the the medical center’s board of governors Demings is of greater importance than Army Medical Corps. He practiced and a recipient of the university’s ever before. Their help is crucial in internal medicine in Alexandria, distinguished alumnus award. supporting ongoing research, the most Louisiana, from 1950 to 1985 becoming The continued philanthropy of important enterprise of the future.” known far and wide as a talented John and Bertie ties the Deming name The Demings’ generosity will fund both diagnostician with a gentle but effective with greatness at Tulane and at the clinical and translational research, which bedside manner. “If you were sick and School of Medicine. Among the allows scientists to transform discoveries wanted to truly understand what was highlights of their philanthropy are made in the laboratory into effective wrong, you wanted to go to John Bertie and her siblings’ founding of the treatments, ultimately improving the Deming,” said his daughter Catherine Murphy Institute for Political Economy, health of patients. Deming Pierson (G ’78, SW ’89), an in honor of their father, Charles Murphy. emeritus member of the Board of Tulane. Through their association with the A DEEP HISTORY “He practiced medicine in the days Murphy Oil Corporation, the Murphy John Deming enjoyed a deep connection before advanced testing, which meant that Building was donated to the School of to Tulane. An only child from the small he had to use his gift of listening to and Medicine. The Bertie and John Deming town of Evergreen, Alabama, Deming connecting with his patients to make a Pavilion at the Tulane University attended Auburn University before he diagnosis.” Medical Center, numerous excellence enrolled in Tulane School of Medicine. He Almost immediately when John funds for research and three endowed was smart and driven, graduating first in Deming graduated from Tulane, he joined chairs held by some of the most his class from Tulane. “He always thought the ranks of the university’s top prominent faculty members in the his time at Tulane was an important part of supporters, generous with his resources School of Medicine were also part of the person he became,” said his son, and time. He became a member of the their legacy of support to Tulane. Þ Claiborne P. Deming (A&S ’76, L ’79). Tulane board of administrators (one of 3 tulane med | fall 2017 Advances: Innovation TWO FOR TULANE and outreach BY KEITH BRANNON It’s rare to make the cover of one top medical journal, but virologist Robert Garry, PhD, scored a two-fer, with his research landing on the covers of the two most prominent—Science and Nature. Garry, professor of microbi- ology and immunology, was a co-author of a Nature study that traced the genetic lineage of last year’s Zika outbreak in Florida. Scientists sequenced the genome of the virus from blood samples and discovered four distinct introductions of the virus related to strains in the Caribbean. Garry and Dr. James Robinson, professor of pedi- PHOTO: SEAN AIRHART, COURTESY NBBJ COURTESY SEAN AIRHART, PHOTO: atrics, were part of a research team led by scientists at Partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs Scripps Research Institute whose discovery about the New Orleans VA Hospital Opens Lassa virus made the cover of Science. The team was the first BY FAITH DAWSON to map the molecular struc- ture of a surface protein on Opening in stages, beginning partnership with the New destroyed the old New the virus that allows the with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Orleans VA hospital. And Orleans VA hospital in 2005. pathogen to infect human in November 2016, the South- Tulane faculty, physicians, There’s more demand for cells. The research identified east Louisiana Veterans Health residents and students geriatric care, palliative care a key antibody target that Care System Veterans Medical continue to play an integral and outpatient surgery. could serve as a blueprint for Center—a $1 billion facility— role at the new site. Schapira is working with developing a vaccine or anti- welcomed its first in-patients Providing high-quality Tulane senior vice president body-based drug against this summer. health care for veterans is and medical school dean deadly Lassa fever. The 1.7 million-square-foot the VA’s main mission, said Dr. Lee Hamm and Dr. For those keeping track, Veterans hospital at 2400 Canal Dr. Ralph M. Schapira, Jeffrey G. Wiese, associate this is Robinson’s second St., adjacent to University chief of staff of the New dean for graduate medical Science cover. The last time? Medical Center, is expected to Orleans VA Hospital since education, to create an envi- In 1998 when he was part of serve 70,000 veterans yearly. It June 2015. ronment where students and the team formed to solve the took 10 years to complete. Veterans’ healthcare needs, residents have excellent structure of a surface protein Tulane University School of like health care in general, learning opportunities at the of the HIV virus. Medicine has a long-standing have changed since Katrina New Orleans VA. 4 tulane med | fall 2017 Tulane School of Medicine dean Dr. Lee Hamm, Tulane Women’s health President Mike Fitts, former Saints defensive back Jabari Greer and Tulane Institute of Sports Medicine director Dr. Greg Stewart cut the ceremonial million dollars ribbon at the opening of the Professional Athlete for hormone Care Team clinic.