EINSTEINSUMMER/FALL 2010 The Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University

Lighting Up Cells, Curing Diseases On the cover: Research Fellow Timothée Lionnet, Ph.D., works on a microscope that he helped to develop in Einstein’s Gruss-Lipper Biophotonics Center Innovation Laboratory. The image on the screen shows living cells in which molecules were “lit up” by photoactivatable fl uorescent proteins. Fluorescent proteins have opened up a new world, allowing scientists to tag and observe molecules as they carry out their functions in living cells. Since glitches in molecular activity underlie all diseases, insights gained through use of these glowing proteins may lead to better treatments or even cures. contents

FEATURES

2 A Message from the Dean

24 Lighting Up the Cell With help from a glowing Pacifi c jellyfish, Einstein researchers can now see biology in action

32 Einstein, AIDS and Africa Faculty members build research expertise in Africa, one student at a time

38 Einstein’s Dynamic Duo of the Decade Curiosity plus collaboration equals success for this research team

DEPARTMENTS

3 Letters to the Editor

4 Upfront: Collegial Life

12 Upfront: Lab Dish

22 Upfront: Einstein Editions

46 Passionate Pursuits

48 Our DNA: Alumni News & Class Notes

62 Making a Difference

68 A Look Back gg

EINSTEIN Summer/Fall 2010

The magazine for alumni, faculty, students, friends and supporters of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University

Published by A Message from the Dean The Philip and Rita Rosen Department of Communications and Public Affairs Gordon Earle, Associate Dean he theme that unites the Department of Institutional Advancement diverse stories in this issue Glenn Miller, Associate Dean of Einstein is collabora- Ira Lipson, Director

tion—literally, “working Science and Publications Editor together.”T The cover article, “Lighting Larry Katzenstein Up the Cell,” describes the collaborative Managing Editor work of protein chemist Vlad Verkhusha Joan Lippert and structural biologist Steve Almo. By Institutional Advancement Writer manipulating the structure of natu- Lora Friedman rally fluorescent proteins, they are able Contributors John Fleischman to craft novel and powerful tools that Karen Gardner enable their cell biologist colleagues to Gary Goldenberg probe fundamental cellular processes in Joan Raymond ways never before possible. Creative Director Peter Dama Another article, “Einstein’s Dynamic Duo of the Decade,” describes the Art Director Lorene Tapellini 10-year partnership between Arturo Casadevall, chair of microbiology & Designer Jeneffer Gonçalves immunology, and Kate Dadachova of with Montefiore Medical Center, the Illustration the department of nuclear medicine. University Hospital and Academic Tatyana Starikova Harris This article reveals the key to successful Medical Center for Einstein. Digital Imaging collaboration: complementary talents let Finally, some of our greatest collabo- Donna Bruno team members achieve much more than rators don’t wear a white coat or work in Photography would be possible if each worked alone. a laboratory, but their support is crucial Jason Torres Photography Collaboration also prevails in to our work. I’m referring to the thou- Victor Vanzo, East Coast Productions, Inc. “Einstein, AIDS and Africa.” This sands of donors who make philanthropic article describes two Einstein teams investments in Einstein each year. You’ll Consultants working to enhance their Rwandan and read about some of them in this issue. As Creative Direction Movement, Inc. South African colleagues’ understanding always, we are extremely grateful for their www.brandmovement.com of the HIV/AIDS epidemic so they can (and your) generosity and interest. Editorial Oversight use that knowledge to help HIV-positive The College of Medicine has always Hayes Strategies men, women and children. distinguished itself by encouraging and www.hayesstrategies.com Collaboration is also key to our nurturing collaboration. This issue of recently updated strategic research plan, Einstein magazine shows that even as we Address correspondence to: Editor, Einstein Magazine described in the news item “Tweaking continue to evolve as a medical school, Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus Einstein’s Research Future.” If we are some things on campus never change. 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Belfer 905 Bronx, NY 10461 to solve the most intractable problems in disease treatment and prevention, E-mail: [email protected] basic scientists must work closely with Website: http://www.einstein.yu.edu clinicians. For this reason, the updated Copyright © 2010 ALLEN M. SPIEGEL, M.D. Albert Einstein College of Medicine research plan emphasizes examining of Yeshiva University ways to enhance collaborative research The Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean All rights reserved

2 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 EinsteinMag9_28_10—October 19, 2010 11:17 AM

LETTERs | from our readers

Letters to the Editor

Winter/Spring 2010 my Einstein colleagues in improving to the funding of our program project diabetes care in that African country grant, for which Dr. Sonnenblick was EinstThe Magazine for Alumni and Friends of Albert Einstein CollegeE of Medicine ofin Yeshiva University through training and education. the PI. The subsequent alliance with Thanks for a great issue, and keep Dr. Leslie Leinwand gave birth to one up the good work. of the first programs in molecular car- Kathryn Anastos, M.D. diology in the country. The combina- Professor of Medicine and of tion of the Sonnenblick, Scheuer and Epidemiology & Population Health Leinwand labs produced a collaborative Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine research and training environment that Growing Bronx, NY may not have been equaled here up to Up Healthy How Einstein Is Helping City Kids the present time. A Look Back at James Scheuer, M.D. Cardiovascular Research Professor Emeritus Winter/Spring 2010 The Winter/Spring 2010 edition of University Chairman Emeritus Department of Medicine Einstein magazine is a terrific publica- Support from the Start tion. Congratulations. The piece about Wanted: Your Opinion! “Growing Up Healthy: How Einstein Is the new Wilf Cardiovascular Institute Einstein magazine was redesigned Helping City Kids,” the lead story of the and its director, Richard Kitsis, M.D., recently with an eye to readability and Winter/Spring issue of Einstein maga- refers to Ed Sonnenblick. In my view, attractiveness. To help us continue to zine, provides a very nice description of Ed was one of the most important car- improve Einstein, we’d like to solicit our Healthy Steps program for first-time diovascular investigators of the 20th your opinion of the new magazine. mothers and their infants. Our little century. We sorely miss him and We’ve posted a questionnaire online at patient looks just perfect on the cover— his insights. www.einstein.yu.edu/survey2010 pointing toward the future, but a little The history of cardiovascular research that should not take long to complete. nervous about the whole thing, too! at Einstein might also mention that I We’d appreciate your assistance. Rahil D. Briggs, Psy.D. brought my University of Pittsburgh You can also e-mail us comments Director, Healthy Steps at Montefiore Cardiac Metabolism Lab to Montefiore Albert Einstein College of Medicine at [email protected]. We look in 1972—one of the first in the nation Department of Pediatrics forward to hearing from you. Bronx, NY to integrate cardiac biochemistry, metabolism and physiology in the Larry Katzenstein Science and Publications Editor Einstein’s Global Reach same models. I am writing to tell you how much I The NIH Cardiovascular Research Connect with Einstein at:

enjoyed the Winter/Spring 2010 issue Fellowship grant funded in 1975, for www.youtube.com/user/ of Einstein magazine. Everything about which I was principal investigator, was EinsteinCollegeofMed it was spectacular: the content, the way an important addition. This Einstein- http://www.einstein.yu.edu/ home/mu_itunes.asp it was presented and the photos. In spite based grant exemplified my strategy

of my busy day, I sat down and read it for nearly 40 years in the Bronx of www.linkedin.com/companies/556031

cover to cover, and found it all relevant promoting seamless communication www.einstein.yu.edu/home/ and interesting. Having worked for in academic issues between Montefiore rssnews.xml the last decade in Rwanda, I especially and Einstein. http://twitter.com/EinsteinMed liked reading “Uganda Diary,” which The collaboration of our laboratory

describes the very important efforts of with the Sonnenblick group was key www.einstein.yu.edu

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UPFRONT | COLLEGIAL LIFE

A New Page in the Gottesman Library’s History The recent face-lift of the D. Samuel Gottesman Library has attracted a crowd. “Our gate numbers were up even before the renovation was complete,” says Judie Malamud, director of the library. Good reviews from the initial improvements may have generated the increased traffi c. The Reading Room furniture is new and comfortable, with upholstered chairs in the wider spaces between some of the shelves and Aeron chairs in the group study rooms, she notes. Also, Einstein’s engineering department has outfitted 12 tables with new lamps and four electrical outlets each, for plug- ging in laptops. Freshly painted walls, revamped lighting and new carpeting have all made the library more open and inviting. The final enhancement combined the circulation and reference desks into what Judie Malamud calls “a single user- friendly information point.” The reno- vation spared the Beren Room, which received its makeover several years ago thanks to support from the Beren family and Einstein’s Board of Overseers. Look for the library to change even

more radically in coming years. Beneath EE&K Architects its main floor are two floors of stacks that—in this age of online access to journals—are largely superfl uous. The campus master plan calls for gutting both stack floors and creating a wide- open space (see illustration at right).

Upper three photos: Scenes from the newly renovated library. Bottom: Artist’s render- ing of a campus improvement of the future in which the stacks are eliminated to create a common area.

4 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Welcome! Thank You, Dr. Lazar! Research at Einstein. Dr. Frenette will build on Einstein’s stem cell expertise to create a premier research institute in this field. He’ll be exploring new research directions, encouraging collaboration among researchers and recruiting new investigators. Dr. Frenette was recruited from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he was professor of medicine, hematology and medical oncology and hortly after receiving his doctorate Mario J. Garcia, M.D., became chief of gene and cell medicine. In recent from Syracuse University in 1967, of the Einstein/Montefiore division of research on sickle-cell disease, he has Stephen H. Lazar, Ed.D., arrived cardiology on April 1. He also holds uncovered key cellular and molecular S at Einstein—and he has been here ever the Pauline A. Levitt Endowed Chair events involved in the painful and dan- since. As assistant dean for student af- in Medicine at Einstein and is pro- gerous blockage of blood vessels. fairs, he oversaw non-academic aspects fessor of radiology and codirector ON THE WEB of student life such as student fi nance, (with Robert Michler, M.D.) of the Interview with Dr. Frenette at housing and recreational activities. Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center. Born www.einstein.yu.edu/frenette2010 But his most visible activity was his in Argentina, Dr. Garcia moved with celebrated role as grand marshal at his family to the Dominican Republic Commencement. “The vision of Dr. when he was four years old. He comes to Lazar in his robe and cap, holding his Einstein via Dartmouth, the Cleveland scepter, is likely in the mind’s eye of ev- Clinic and, most recently, New York’s ery alumni member from the classes of 1969 through 2010, as well as of Board Mount Sinai, where he was professor of members,” says Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., medicine and radiology in the School the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean. of Medicine and director of cardiovas- After 43 years of dedicated service cular imaging at the medical center’s to Einstein, Dr. Lazar is leaving our com- Cardiovascular Institute. munity to become the executive dean of the Sackler School of Medicine for Rubina A. Heptulla, M.D., comes the New York State/American Program to Einstein from Baylor College of of Tel Aviv University. His offi ce will be Medicine, where she was associate in Manhattan. “He will be missed,” says professor of pediatrics in the section of Dean Spiegel. endocrinology & metabolism. She will We encourage friends and alumni direct the division of pediatric endocri- who would like to honor Dr. Lazar to nology and be a member of Einstein’s contribute to the scholarship fund origi- Diabetes Research Center. Dr. Heptulla nally established in his honor by Einstein is an expert on type 1 diabetes. Among Overseer Arnold Penner and his wife, her research projects, she is studying Madaleine Berley. Gifts may be sent Stem cell and vascular biology researcher whether exenatide (a drug approved in to: Dr. Lazar Scholarship Fund, Albert Paul S. Frenette, M.D., has been 2005 for treating type 2 diabetes) can Einstein College of Medicine, Offi ce of Alumni Relations, Mazer 747, 1300 named the first director of the Ruth L. preserve the function of pancreatic beta Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 and David S. Gottesman Institute for cells in patients newly diagnosed with or give online at www.einstein.yu.edu/ type 1 diabetes. Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine lazar-scholarship-fund.

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Tweaking Einstein’s Research Future gynecology and women’s health; Imaging: John S. Condeelis, Ph.D., the Judith and Burton P. Resnick Chair in Translational Research; Computational biology/bioinformat- ics: Thomas E. Rohan, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair in the department of epidemiology & population health; Einstein-Montefi ore interface: Victor S. Schuster, M.D., the Ted and Florence Baumritter Chair in Medicine. “The revised strategic research plan will have major implications for Einstein,” Dean Spiegel noted. “For Even the best-laid plans need some Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative example, it will influence which new updating. Medicine; researchers we recruit and affect our hos- Einstein’s first Strategic Research Genetics and epigenetics: Jan Vijg, pital affiliations and campus master plan Plan, released in April 2007, has led Ph.D., the Lola and Saul Kramer Chair as well as our fundraising efforts, because to numerous advances—in stem cell in Molecular Genetics; gifts can create research programs.” research, genetics, epigenomics and Behavioral/social and comparative Members of Einstein’s Board of many other research areas. Last fall, eff ectiveness: Betsy Herold, M.D., Overseers added their comments to Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., Einstein’s professor in the departments of the revised research plan at their May Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean, pediatrics, of microbiology & board meeting. initiated a process for updating the immunology and of obstetrics & plan, culminating in an April 26, 2010, retreat held in the Ethel and Samuel J. Five Einstein Professors Receive Tenure LeFrak Auditorium that was attended by On June 15, Dean Allen M. Spiegel announced that five faculty members have been more than 100 Einstein scientists. approved for tenure, recognizing their exemplary careers as researchers and educators. Seven faculty committees had earlier been assigned a research theme and Julia H. Arnsten, M.D., M.P.H. Paul S. Frenette, M.D. asked to formulate their visions for Chief, Division of General Director, Ruth L. and David S. Einstein’s future and how the College Internal Medicine Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell of Medicine should get there. At the Professor of Medicine and Regenerative Medicine Research retreat, the leaders of the seven groups Professor of Epidemiology & Professor of Medicine presented their recommendations. The Population Health Professor of Cell Biology groups and their leaders were: Professor of Psychiatry and Basic biology: Vern L. Schramm, Behavioral Sciences Meredith Hawkins, M.D. Ph.D., the Ruth Merns Chair in Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology) Biochemistry (Steven C. Almo, Ph.D., Ales Cvekl, Ph.D. Director, Global Diabetes Initiative presented); Professor of Ophthalmology Stem cells and regenerative medicine: and Visual Sciences Charles Query, M.D., Ph.D. Eric Bouhassira, Ph.D., the Ingeborg Professor of Genetics Professor of Cell Biology and Ira Leon Rennert Professor of

6 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Davidoff Education Day A Meeting of the Boards Soon after the start of his presenta- tion, keynote speaker Paul Haidet, M.D., M.P.H., director of medi- cal education research at Penn State University College of Medicine, had the crowd in the LeFrak Auditorium on its feet—participating in an early- morning, hands-on demonstration of his talk, “Getting Started with Team-Based Learning: A Strategy for Transforming the Quality of Teaching and Learning.” The occasion was the Above left: Einstein Overseer Jay Goldberg and his wife, Mary Goldberg. Above right: From left, Steven Safyer, M.D. ’82, president and CEO, Montefi ore Medical seventh annual Davidoff Education Center; David A. Tanner, chair, Board of Trustees, Montefi ore Medical Center; Ruth L. Day, an event intended to improve Gottesman, Ed.D., chair, Einstein Board of Overseers; Dean Allen M. Spiegel, M.D. faculty teaching and increase the effectiveness of the curriculum. Dr. n April 27, the Boards of welcome and thanks. Haidet’s presentation was followed Einstein and of Montefi ore The spirit of collaboration between by lunch, workshops and a clos- OMedical Center got together the two institutions is strong. Dean ing speech, “Active Learning in the for a reception at the Harmonie Club in Spiegel, Dr. Safyer, David Tanner Lecture Hall,” given by Michael S. New York City. The occasion celebrated and Dr. Gottesman regularly attend Risley, Ph.D., associate professor of the 10-year partnership agreement that each other’s Board meetings; Einstein anatomy and structural biology at Dean Spiegel and Steven Safyer, M.D. Overseer Jay Goldberg serves as a repre- Einstein. ’82, the president and chief executive sentative to the Montefiore Board; and Leo M. Davidoff, M.D., was a dis- officer of Montefiore, shook hands on Montefiore Trustee Peter Neufeld rep- tinguished neurosurgeon, a founding in 2009. Dean Spiegel, Dr. Safyer, resents the medical center at Einstein faculty member of Einstein and the David Tanner, chair of the Montefi ore Board meetings. first chair of general surgery. Faculty Board of Trustees, and Ruth L. The Einstein community is grate- members who are excellent teachers Gottesman, Ed.D., chair of the Einstein ful to all Board members for their and take an interest in their students Board of Overseers, offered words of leadership. are selected for the Davidoff Society, which was established in 1976 with 12 charter members; today, the mem- bership numbers more than 240. Davidoff Education Day is sponsored by the Education & Faculty Support Committee and the office of faculty development.

Keynote speaker Paul Haidet, M.D., M.P.H., of Penn State University College of Medicine, onstage, got his audience actively involved in a team-based learning exercise.

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These Hallowed Walls: Art at Einstein ext time the elevator opens on the second floor of the Arthur B. and Diane Belfer Educational Center for Health Sciences, check out the wall in front of you. It contains a splendid collection of Louise Nevelson prints. Fine art N is on display all over the Einstein campus. But too often, we pass it by without fully appreciating it. Some prime examples are featured below.

Artist: Helmuth Nathan (1901–1979) Medium: Stained glass Location: Max L. and Sadie Friedman Student Faculty Lounge, upstairs Title: The Ages of Man

Helmuth Nathan, M.D., was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1901 and educated at the Universities of Freiburg and Hamburg. On arriving at Einstein as a professor of surgery and founding faculty member in 1955, he was already a widely published researcher—and also a painter, sculptor and graphic artist whose work was displayed in art exhibits, museums, institutions and private collections. In 1973, Dr. Nathan was appointed professor and chair of the newly created department of the history of medicine. “Helmuth Nathan is perhaps best known among early Einstein students for bringing nude art models into the lecture hall and attempting to teach us medical students how to sketch the human fi gure,” says Irwin Dannis, M.D. ’60, who has cochaired the Einstein admissions committee for 25 years and occasionally leads art tours of the campus. Dr. Nathan’s stained-glass window on the Max and Sadie balcony is one of Dr. Dannis’ favorite Einstein art objects. “It is so touching, yet no one knows it’s there,” he says. Dr. Nathan also created the bust of Albert Einstein in the lobby of the Siegfried and Irma Ullmann Research Center for Health Sciences.

Artist: Natalie Handelman (1930–) Medium: Acrylic Location: Siegfried and Irma Ullmann Research Center for Health Sciences, seventh fl oor Title: Betty’s Garden

Natalie Handelman painted Betty’s Garden to honor the memory of her beloved sister-in-law, Betty Meltzer. Betty created a volun- tary organization to plant 1,000 trees along the median barrier of El Camino Real, the main road in Palo Alto, CA. After Betty died in 2008, the California legislature passed a resolution that renamed a portion of the highway “The Betty Meltzer Memorial Highway.” Betty’s Garden is dedicated to Betty Meltzer’s dream and remark- able legacy. Natalie Handelman is a resident of Purchase, NY. The generosity of Philip and Rita Rosen and Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz inspired her to donate the painting to Einstein earlier this year. ON THE WEB www.nataliehandelman.com

8 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Artist: Reuven Rubin (1893–1974) Medium: Oil on canvas Location: Max L. and Sadie Friedman Student Faculty Lounge, downstairs Title: Musician of Neron

Israeli artist Reuven Rubin was born in Rumania and received his art education there and in Paris. He was the fi rst artist to have a solo exhibition at the Tower of David in Jerusalem, in 1924, and his 1932 one-man show launched the Tel Aviv Art Museum. From the 1930s onward, Rubin designed backdrops for Habima Theater, Israel’s national theater, and was one of the fi rst Israeli artists to achieve international recognition. Rubin had a distinctive artistic style—call it Henri Rousseau with Eastern nuances—and signed his fi rst name in Hebrew and his Artist: Louise Nevelson (1899–1988) surname in Roman letters. He served as Artist: Frank H. Netter (1906–1991) Medium: Mixed media Israel’s fi rst ambassador to Rumania, from Medium: Oil on canvas Location: Arthur B. and Diane Belfer 1948 to 1950. Rubin’s autobiography, My Location: Max L. and Sadie Friedman Educational Center for Health Life—My Art, was published in 1969, and Student Faculty Lounge, downstairs Sciences, second-fl oor lobby he received the Israel Prize in 1973 for his Title: Portrait of Max L. Friedman Title: Untitled artistic achievement. This painting was Although former Einstein instructor Frank donated by Max and Sadie Friedman. Louise Nevelson was one of America’s most Netter grew up loving art, his family disap- innovative sculptors. Her best-known works proved and diverted him into medicine. were assembled from cast-off pieces of During the Depression, however, he used wood sprayed with dark paint. Many of her his talent to make some extra cash—and other works, including the prints at Einstein, soon his drawings were in great demand. are equally somber. Born Leah Berliawsky, Eventually, Frank Netter, M.D., was hailed Nevelson came with her family to America by the New York Times as “the Medical in 1905 from Kiev in the Ukraine, settling Michelangelo.” His beautiful illustrations— in Rockland, ME. Aware of her status as a some 4,000 in all—enlightened generations foreigner, Nevelson used that feeling of of medical students. During the late 1950s “otherness” to advance her work. In 1920, and early 1960s, Einstein was fortunate to she married Charles Nevelson, a cargo have Dr. Netter on campus as an anatomy ship owner; they moved to New York and instructor. He created many drawings on Nevelson pursued her art. the green “blackboards” in the sixth-fl oor lecture hall in the Leo Forchheimer Medical Science Building. Dr. Netter’s talent also extended to portraiture, as shown by this painting of Max Friedman.

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Match Day = Anxiety + Exhilaration CERC Video Wins Award Match Day is a wedding day of sorts, The Association for Women in when fourth-year medical students are Communications has awarded Einstein paired with the hospitals and commu- Overseer and Benefactor Rita Rosen a nities where they’ll be residents for the prestigious Clarion Award for Hope for next few years. At noon on March 18 in the Future, a video she produced about the Evelyn & Joseph I. Lubin Student Einstein’s Children’s Evaluation and Activities Center, Nadine Katz, M.D., Rehabilitation Center (CERC). The associate dean for students, and Stephen Clarion Awards honor excellence in clear, Baum, M.D., senior associate dean for concise communications. The 2010 students, sounded the gong allowing the competition attracted entries from all 180 Einstein students gathered there to over the world. pick up envelopes bearing the names of Nicole Johnson and Bert Prosser CERC provides a broad spectrum of their matches. The smiles, happy faces, dozen Einstein graduates matched at clinical services for infants, children, ado- hugs and high-fives showed that most Montefiore Medical Center. lescents and adults with serious develop- were pleased to meet their futures. Two married couples were relieved: mental disabilities. Mrs. Rosen and her “Our match results this year are Patrick Colley was placed at New husband, Einstein Overseer Philip Rosen, among the best ever and include York Eye and Ear in the ear, nose and donated the video to Einstein in 2009. placements at some of the most pres- throat program, and Alaleh Akhavan “In a brief 10-minute video, Rita tigious hospitals around the coun- was assigned to pediatrics at New York managed to capture the spirit and soul of try,” says Dean Spiegel. Einstein’s University, to be followed by dermatol- CERC, the dedication of our staff for our newest M.D.s will be stepping into ogy at Einstein/Montefi ore. patients and the sense of gratitude that residencies across the nation: Chicago A little less ideally, Bert Prosser our patients and their families feel for the (Northwestern Memorial Hospital), will be in emergency medicine at the care they receive,” says Robert W. Marion, Houston (University of Texas Health University of Arizona in Tucson, while M.D., director of CERC and the Ruth Science Center), Boston (Massachusetts Nicole Johnson will be more than L. Gottesman Chair in Developmental General Hospital), Los Angeles (the 100 miles away, in family medicine at Pediatrics. “We congratulate her and hope University of California Los Angeles Scottsdale Health Care Osborn Medical that she continues her important work in Medical Center), Baltimore (Johns Center. They’ll meet in the middle, as the future.” Hopkins Hospital) and New Haven married couples often do. The video was screened for the fi rst (Yale–New Haven Hospital), to name In keeping with Einstein’s emphasis time at the Einstein National Women’s just a few. Closer to home, nearly two on primary care, internal medicine was Division’s 2009 Spirit of Achievement the leading residency choice, followed Luncheon and helped attract support for by pediatrics, emergency medicine and the division’s successful $3 million fund- diagnostic radiology. raising initiative for a new clinical research Match Day is sponsored by the program at CERC. National Residency Matching Program, Mrs. Rosen is a past president of the which weighs applicants’ achievements National Women’s Division; she has pro- and geographic preferences against the duced 18 videos for Einstein. Mr. Rosen, needs of participating hospitals. who holds the title of Life Overseer, has served on the Einstein Board for 33 years.

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB For more, visit Video available at Alaleh Akhavan and Patrick Colley www.einstein.yu.edu/matchday2010 www.einstein.yu.edu/CERC

10 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 In Memoriam Several notable researchers and teachers Emile M. Scarpelli, M.D., Ph.D., Morton I. Cohen, Ph.D., died on passed away recently. All are fondly died on April 13, 2010, at the age of June 1, 2010. Dr. Cohen joined the fac- remembered. 79. The Bronx native spent the early ulty soon after Einstein opened in 1957, part of his career in the U.S. Air Force. and remained active as professor emeri- Joseph Maio, Ph.D., professor He wrote the Air Force’s fi rst textbook tus of physiology & biophysics and of emeritus of cell biology, died on on aviation physiology before joining the Dominick P. Purpura Department of February 13, 2010. A member of the Einstein’s faculty as professor of pediat- Neuroscience right up to the day of his Einstein faculty for more than 30 years, rics and of physiology & biophysics. A passing. A member of several scientifi c Dr. Maio was known among colleagues prolific author, Dr. Scarpelli was a pio- societies and a recipient of numerous and students as a wonderful mentor neer in the study of pulmonary surfac- honors, prizes and other notable distinc- and a “scientist’s scientist,” who was tant, the lipid-rich material produced by tions, Dr. Cohen showed a unique dedi- unassuming and selfless in the contribu- the lung’s alveolar cells that prevents the cation to research, publishing a paper tions he made in the laboratory. These lungs from collapsing on exhalation. In or two a year and presenting his work at contributions included the discovery of premature babies, insuffi cient surfactant the National Neuroscience Conference what he called component alpha DNA, can cause potentially fatal infant respira- every year until the present. later called alpha satellite or alphoid tory distress syndrome. Dr. Scarpelli DNA. This DNA is a key component served for nearly 30 years as chief of Everett P. Dulit, M.D., Ph.D., died of human centromeres and forms the pediatric pulmonology at Einstein, on June 2, 2010, shortly after celebrat- basis for minichromosomes that can dedicating his life to the well-being ing his 81st birthday. Dr. Dulit joined be established in human cells. He also of children. the Einstein faculty in 1962, serving as a discovered nucleosome phasing and research fellow. He went on to become a will be remembered as a pioneer in long Louis R. Orkin, M.D., a member noted psychiatrist with a special inter- interspersed repetitive sequences. of Einstein’s founding faculty, died on est in adolescents; later in his career, he April 16, 2010, at the age of 94. From directed Einstein’s division of child and Helen M. Ranney, M.D., died on 1942 to 1945, he served as a captain adolescent psychiatry. Dr. Dulit was April 5, 2010, one week shy of her 90th in the U. S. Army Medical Corps and also director of adolescent psychiatry at birthday. During her distinguished was awarded the Bronze Star. He was New York Hospital, Cornell University career, she made groundbreaking con- professor and chair of anesthesiology at Medical Center–Westchester Division. tributions to the study of sickle-cell dis- Einstein from 1955 to 1982 and was He was a remarkable educator and ease and achieved many historic “fi rsts” named distinguished university profes- mentor to generations of psychiatrists, as a pioneering woman in medicine. sor emeritus of anesthesiology in 1986. psychologists and social workers. At the An inspirational physician-scientist, Dr. Known to his colleagues, students and time of his death, he was associate clini- Ranney was a member of the Einstein friends as a kind and gentle man, he was cal professor emeritus of psychiatry and faculty early in her career, before being dedicated to the practice of medicine behavioral sciences and associate clinical recruited to the University of California, and medical education. professor of pediatrics at Einstein. San Diego, in 1973 as the fi rst woman to chair a department of medicine.

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FDNY Rescue Workers Show Lasting Lung Damage Study Finds Genetic Links from 9/11 World Trade Center Dust among Jewish People persisted with little or no meaning- Using sophisticated genetic analysis, ful recovery of lung function among scientists at Einstein and New York FDNY rescue workers (fi refi ghters University School of Medicine have

© Reuters/Corbis and emergency medical service work- published a study indicating that Jews ers) over the next six and a half years,” are a widely dispersed people with a says David Prezant, M.D., professor common ancestry. Jews from differ- of medicine at Einstein and senior ent regions of the world were found author of the study. to share many genetic traits that are The goal now: identify the individ- distinct from those of other groups and uals most affected and provide them that date back to ancient times. The with treatment to improve their qual- study also provides the fi rst detailed ity of life and prevent further declines genetic maps of the major Jewish A study of nearly 13,000 rescue work- in lung function. subpopulations, a resource that can be ers from the Fire Department of the “Previous studies have indicated used to study the genetic origins of dis- City of New York (FDNY) shows that that the effects of fi refighting on lung ease. The findings appear in the June 3 the significant proportion who suf- function are mild and reversible,” says online issue of the American Journal of fered acute lung damage after expo- lead author Thomas Aldrich, M.D., Human Genetics. sure to World Trade Center dust have professor of medicine at Einstein. Some 237 participants were not recovered normal lung function “The difference seems to be that these recruited from Jewish communities since the September 11, 2001, terror- workers experienced repeated daily in the metropolitan New York region, ist attacks. The seven-year study, led by exposures to much higher concentra- Seattle, Athens, Rome and Israel. researchers at Einstein and Montefi ore tions of airborne particulates (solid Subjects were included only if all four Medical Center, in collaboration with particles suspended in the air) and grandparents came from the same the FDNY, appeared in April in the New gaseous chemicals.” Jewish community. The results were England Journal of Medicine. Other Einstein researchers who compared with a genetic analysis of “We demonstrated dramatic declines contributed to the study are Charles 418 people from non-Jewish groups in lung function, mostly in the fi rst six Hall, Ph.D., Hillel Cohen, Dr.P.H., around the world. months after 9/11, and these declines and Mayris Webber, Dr.P.H. “This study provides new genomic information that can benefit not only those of Jewish ancestry, but the popu- lation at large,” says coauthor Edward Burns, M.D., executive dean and professor of pathology and of medicine at Einstein. “By providing a compre- hensive genetic fingerprint of various Jewish subpopulations, it can help us understand genetic links to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other common diseases.” The study’s lead author is Gil Atzmon, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and of genetics Victor Schuster, M.D., left, professor and chair of medicine at Einstein, moderated the media briefing where David Prezant, M.D., center, and Thomas Aldrich, M.D., at Einstein. described 9/11 study findings.

12 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Migraine May Double Risk of Heart Attack Migraine sufferers are twice as likely The main message of the study, says to have heart attacks as people with- Dr. Lipton, is that migraine patients out migraine, according to a study by and their doctors should pay particular Einstein researchers. The study, pub- attention to identifying and managing lished in Neurology, found that migraine cardiovascular risk factors, such as high sufferers also face an increased risk blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity for stroke and are more likely to have and diabetes. diabetes, high blood pressure and high Other Einstein researchers who were cholesterol—key risk factors for cardio- involved in the study are Dawn Buse, vascular disease. Ph.D., Marcelo E. Bigal, M.D., Ph.D., More than 29 million Americans but not as a threat to people’s overall and Matthew S. Robbins, M.D. suffer from migraine, according to the health,” says lead investigator Richard Dr. Lipton is also the Lotti and National Headache Foundation. In the B. Lipton, M.D., senior author of Bernard Benson Faculty Scholar in study, the researchers analyzed data on the study and professor and vice chair Alzheimer’s Disease and professor of 6,102 people with migraine and 5,243 in the Saul R. Korey Department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and people without migraine. Neurology at Einstein. He also directs of epidemiology & population health “Migraine has been viewed as a pain- the Headache Center at Montefi ore at Einstein. ful condition that affects quality of life, Medical Center.

Faulty Cleanup Process May Be Key Event in Huntington’s Disease

Einstein scientists have shown for the lysosome One mechanism for cleaning up cells first time that the accumulation of a involves forming a membrane around mutated protein may explain the cell the protein or other cellular structure damage that occurs in Huntington’s requiring removal. These “garbage bags” disease. Their research—a step toward (known as autophagosomes) then travel a possible treatment for the disease— to enzyme-filled sacs known as lyso- was published in April in Nature somes that fuse with the bags and digest Neuroscience. autophagosome their cargo. But the cleanup efforts go Huntington’s disease, which affl icted awry in Huntington’s disease. the folksinger Woody Guthrie, is a fatal, In a normal cell, left, autophagosomes Dr. Cuervo and her team found that carry proteins to lysosomes for digestion. inherited neurodegenerative disorder. It In Huntington’s disease, right, defective the defective huntingtin proteins stick results from a gene mutation that leads huntingtin sticks to inner layer of autopha- to the inner layer of autophagosomes, to a defective form of the huntingtin gosomes and prevents protein collection; preventing them from gathering gar- protein. The mutation is dominant, proteins accumulate and poison cells. bage. The result: Autophagosomes arrive meaning that a child of an affected par- molecular biology, of anatomy and empty at the lysosomes, and cellular ent has a 50 percent chance of inheriting structural biology and of medicine at components that should be recycled Huntington’s. Einstein and senior author of the study. instead accumulate, causing toxicity that “Studies have shown that All cells rely on several different probably contributes to cell death. Huntington’s disease occurs in part mechanisms to break down “old” pro- “By enhancing the clearance of cel- because the mutated huntingtin protein teins and other components and recycle lular debris, we may be able to keep accumulates within cells and is toxic to them. Collectively known as autophagy Huntington’s patients free of symptoms them,” says Ana Maria Cuervo, M.D., (literally, “self-eating”), these processes for a longer time,” Dr. Cuervo says. Ph.D., professor of developmental and keep cells clean.

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NNewew MMajorajor GGrantsrants aatt EEinsteininstein Research at the College of Medicine is being fueled by an impressive number of recent grants.

TB research was lead author of the 2006 Radiation Lancet study describing the deadly countermeasures Tuberculosis (TB) outbreak of XDR-TB in Tugela is the world’s most Ferry, a rural part of South Africa’s Einstein has received deadly bacterial infection, killing two KwaZulu-Natal province. The star- a five-year, $10.8 million grant to million people each year. Multidrug- tling findings—52 of 53 XDR-TB develop stem cell–based therapies resistant (MDR) and extensively drug- patients died within weeks of that could help treat military person- resistant (XDR) strains of Mycobacterium arriving at a hospital—brought the nel, first responders and the general tuberculosis—the bacterium that causes crisis of HIV/TB coinfection to the public exposed to radiation from a TB—are becoming increasingly com- world’s attention. nuclear accident or terrorist attack. mon. In addition, the deadly combina- • William R. Jacobs Jr., Ph.D., pro- The therapy will be aimed at radiation- tion of TB and AIDS is magnifying the fessor of medicine, of microbiology induced gastrointestinal syndrome, effects of both epidemics, particularly & immunology and of genet- which can occur as part of the poten- in Africa. Several large grants have put ics, a Howard Hughes Medical tially fatal acute radiation syndrome Einstein at the forefront of the effort to Institute investigator and a pri- (ARS). “Currently, post-event strategies control TB and develop better therapies. mary researcher at KwaZulu-Natal for responding to ARS must be carried • Sarita Shah, M.D., assistant profes- Research Institute for Tuberculosis out within the first several hours of an sor of medicine and of epidemiology and HIV, will systematically knock event, and those strategies have shown & population health at Einstein, has out every Mycobacterium tubercu- only marginal protection,” said lead studied global TB for six years and losis gene to find those genes on investigator Chandan Guha, M.B.B.S., coined the term XDR-TB in a 2006 which the bacterium depends for Ph.D., professor and vice chair of paper. Dr. Shah has been awarded resisting drugs and causing disease. radiation oncology. a five-year, $3.9 million grant from His three-year, multimillion-dollar Dr. Guha has found that animals the NIH to study how XDR-TB is NIH grant will support the work. receiving lethal doses of abdominal transmitted in rural South Africa. • James Brust, M.D., assistant profes- radiation can be rescued by intravenous Her findings could alter public health sor of medicine, received a fi ve- transplants of bone marrow–derived approaches in the developing world. year, $665,000 National Institute stromal cells administered 24 hours • Neel Gandhi, M.D., assistant profes- of Allergy and Infectious Diseases after radiation exposure. With the sor of medicine and of epidemiology (NIAID) Career Development new grant, he will adapt his trans- & population health, has received Award to evaluate a novel, home- plant technique to human use. The a five-year, $4 million grant for based treatment program he devel- research, funded by the federal Centers the first-ever prospective study of oped for patients coinfected with for Medical Countermeasures against antiretroviral therapy for people in HIV and MDR-TB in rural Radiation, is part of a program coordi- South Africa who are coinfected with South Africa. nated by the NIAID. MDR-TB and HIV. Dr. Gandhi

14 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 The genomics Kim and her team will use epigenomics, Identifying of immunity proteomics and computational biology enzymes in studying newly discovered T. gondii Aberrant immune genes that appear to regulate genes that A research team that responses cause a wide range of auto- govern the parasite’s development. The includes Einstein scientists has received immune diseases, including type 1 research may lead to better drugs that a prestigious NIH “glue grant” to diabetes and multiple sclerosis. In a work by targeting the T. gondii genes. identify the structure and function project he calls “Atoms to Animals: of enzymes discovered in genome- Structural Genomics of Immunity,” sequencing projects. So-called glue Stanley G. Nathenson, M.D., dis- Einstein Aging grants are aimed at complex problems tinguished professor of microbiology Study of central importance to biomedical & immunology and of cell biology science but beyond the means of any and the Samuel H. Golding Chair in The NIH has one research group. Microbiology, is studying the mol- awarded a grant to Richard B. Lipton, Over the next five years, the team will ecules that control adaptive and innate M.D., professor in the Saul R. Korey receive $33.9 million, of which Einstein immunity, the two main types of Department of Neurology and the Lotti will receive approximately $11 million. immune response. Dr. Nathenson has and Bernard Benson Faculty Scholar The research project may result in new received an NIH grant of nearly in Alzheimer’s Disease, to continue drug targets for treatments. It may also $6 million to support his work. the Einstein Aging Study. The study lead to new enzymes that could prove has been supported by grants from the useful for catalyzing industrial reactions. National Institute on Aging since 1980. In recent years, scientists have Targeting a The study focuses on the aging brain, sequenced the genomes of thousands parasite examining both normal aging and the of organisms, from bacteria to humans, special challenges of Alzheimer’s disease encompassing more than 10 million Kami Kim, M.D., and similar disorders. Dr. Lipton is also genes. But it’s not clear what many of professor in the departments of medi- professor of psychiatry and behavioral these genes do or which proteins they cine (infectious disease) and of micro- sciences and of epidemiology & popula- make. biology & immunology, has received tion health at Einstein. “The specific functions of perhaps an NIH grant of more than $3 million half of these genes and the proteins over five years to support her research they make are unknown or have been on Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic mistakenly characterized,” says coinves- pathogen that causes severe disease tigator Steven C. Almo, Ph.D., professor in immunocompromised individu- of biochemistry and of physiology & als, including people with AIDS. Dr. biophysics at Einstein. “The consortium will be working to close this gap.” (continued on next page)

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NNewew MMajorajor GGrantsrants aatt EEinsteininstein ((continued)continued)

This glue grant focuses on $10 million NIH NIH. The DRTC was also awarded enzymes—proteins that catalyze the grant for stem $632,000 in federal stimulus money, chemical reactions required for life and cell labs totaling more than $10 million in enable organisms to live in complex federal support. Einstein’s DRTC is environments and to adapt to a variety The NIH funds the the only comprehensive center in New of conditions. “The knowledge gained stem cell research of nearly two dozen York and one of only seven DRTCs will give us a better sense of the breadth Einstein researchers. In April, the NIH nationwide. of enzymatic and metabolic activities awarded Einstein $10 million to create “These grants come at a criti- that exist in nature,” says Dr. Almo. “It stem cell laboratories for several new cal time,” says Jeffrey Pessin, Ph.D., will also further our understanding of senior investigators—a grant that will principal investigator and director of disease and help us identify new targets significantly expand Einstein’s capabili- Einstein’s DRTC, who holds the Judy for drug development.” ties in stem cell research. R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Professorial Once other team members have “A key aspect of our plan is to embed Chair in Diabetes Research and is also identified enzymes of interest, Dr. stem cell laboratories within easy reach professor of medicine and of molecular Almo and his Einstein colleagues will of Einstein’s centers in diabetes, cancer, pharmacology at Einstein. “Diabetes is be responsible for purifying those HIV/AIDS, liver disease and women’s already a major threat to public health enzymes and then using X-ray crystal- health to encourage the free fl ow of and its prevalence is quickly rising—not lography to determine their molecular science,” says Harry Shamoon, M.D., only here in the Bronx, but also nation- structure. (X-ray crystallography is a associate dean for clinical and transla- ally and internationally.” method that reveals the arrangement tional research. The laboratory renova- of atoms within a protein by striking a tions, slated for the next two years, will Einstein protein crystal with a beam of X-rays.) improve Einstein’s capabilities in four designated Dr. Almo’s team includes Ronald D. broad areas: 1) stem cell biology, 2) stem a center Seidel, Ph.D., associate in biochemis- cell genetics, 3) cancer stem cells and 4) of excellence try and associate director of the Albert translational stem cell research. in aging Einstein Macromolecular Therapeutics Development Facility. In recognition of its leadership in aging In addition to Einstein, members of Diabetes research, Einstein has been named by the consortium include the University center wins the NIH as one of five Nathan Shock of Illinois, the University of Virginia, NIH support Centers of Excellence in the Basic Texas A&M University, the University Biology of Aging. The College of of Utah, Vanderbilt University School Einstein’s Diabetes Research and Medicine’s selection comes with a of Medicine, Boston University and the Training Center (DRTC) has received $3.1 million, five-year grant that funds University of New Mexico. a five-year, $9.5 million grant from three core areas of research unique the National Institute of Diabetes and to Einstein. Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the

16 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Leaders of the new center will include Other faculty members in the center Gates three members of Einstein’s Institute for include Yousin Suh, Ph.D., associate Foundation Aging Research, founded in 2002: professor of medicine and of genet- grant goes • Nir Barzilai, M.D., professor of ics, and Radhika Muzumdar, M.D., to Einstein medicine and of genetics and the M.B.B.S. researcher Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert The Nathan Shock Centers are Professor of Aging Research, who named in honor of Nathan Wetherell Simon Spivack, M.D., M.P.H., received will direct Einstein’s Nathan Shock Shock, Ph.D., who began his gerontol- a $100,000 Gates Foundation Grand center. “The role of age in disease ogy career in 1941. Dr. Shock took a Challenges Exploration grant for his is underestimated,” explains Dr. two-man aging unit and built it into proposal to develop a sensitive, nonin- Barzilai. “Aging is a major factor for the NIH’s internationally respected vasive test for TB. The strategy involves the development of most adult-onset Gerontology Research Center. He sampling the exhaled breath of indi- diseases. If we are able to determine helped to catalyze aging research in the viduals with and without TB and test- the biology of aging, then we can United States for nearly half a century. ing for the presence of RNA from TB look for ways to protect against it “Einstein’s three research cores will bacteria. These results will be compared and increase health span, or live carry on Shock’s mission and add to our to conventional tests on samples from disease-free even into advanced old understanding of the cellular, genetic sputum (phlegm) cleared from indi- age.” Dr. Barzilai will run the center’s and physiological factors that infl uence viduals’ lungs. The Grand Challenges Healthy Aging Physiology Core. health and longevity,” says Felipe Sierra, Exploration grants were established by • Ana Maria Cuervo, M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institute the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to professor of developmental and of Aging’s Division of Aging Biology. support bold and unorthodox research molecular biology, of anatomy and The other Nathan Shock aging that will lead to innovative solutions structural biology and of medicine, centers are in Maine (the Jackson for global health issues such as TB. Dr. who will direct the Cellular and Laboratories), Michigan (University Spivack is associate professor of medi- Tissue Aging Core. Dr. Cuervo is an of Michigan), Texas (University of cine, of epidemiology & population expert on cellular and organ aging. Texas Health Sciences Center in San health and of genetics, as well as chief • Jan Vijg, Ph.D., professor and chair Antonio), and Washington (University of pulmonary medicine at Montefi ore of genetics and the Lola and Saul of Washington). Medical Center. Kramer Chair in Molecular Genetics, who will lead the Genomics and Epigenomics of Aging Core. Dr. Vijg has gained international recognition for his use of genetically engineered mice to investigate how DNA dam- age influences human disease and aging.

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public health agencies should intervene to lower everyone’s salt consumption to prevent deaths from heart disease. According to the IOM, our salt (sodium) consumption has risen sig- nificantly since the early 1970s, with the average American now consuming more than 3,400 mg (about 1 teaspoon) of sodium per day—about 50 percent more than current dietary guidelines call for. This consumption level, claims the IOM, threatens the health of every- one—not just those with hypertension or at risk for developing it. Since most salt we consume is found in processed or prepared foods, the IOM recommends that the FDA set “manda- tory national standards for the sodium content in foods” and “begin the process of reducing excess sodium in processed uppose researchers proposed a establishment: a hypertension expert foods and menu items to a safer level.” drastic change in the American (editor-in-chief of the American Journal The health benefits would be huge, Sdiet, with no clinical trials to sup- of Hypertension) with hundreds of peer- claims the IOM report, citing studies port its safety or effi cacy. They’d prob- reviewed articles to his name. suggesting that salt restriction could pre- ably be labeled irresponsible. Why, then, Moreover, his views are supported vent more than 100,000 deaths and save are so few scientists upset about the by the Cochrane Collaboration and the billions in healthcare costs each year. recent call by the Institute of Medicine U.S. Task Force on Preventive Services, Many in the medical community (IOM) for mandatory restrictions on two well-respected groups that assess the cheered the IOM report. “After tobacco the amount of salt allowed in foods? evidence for health interventions. Both control, the most cost-effective interven- That’s what Michael Alderman, have concluded that there is not enough tion to control chronic diseases might M.D., professor of epidemiology & evidence to support a general recom- be reduction of sodium intake,” com- population health and of medicine at mendation to reduce sodium intake. ments Thomas Frieden, M.D., director Einstein, is asking. “In effect, the IOM of the Centers for Disease Control and is saying, ‘We believe that lowering Less Salt, Fewer Deaths? Prevention, in the Annals of Internal salt intake will do some good in terms The IOM’s salt recommendations were Medicine. But there was some dissent. of cardiovascular health—and to test published in an April 2010 report, that, we are going to change the food “Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in A Bad Rap for Salt? given to 300 million people,’” says Dr. the United States.” The rationale: The Salt Institute, a nonprofi t trade Alderman. “It’s an experiment—with a Americans consume too much salt; industry association, called the IOM’s poor research design. It wouldn’t pass elevated salt intake contributes to hyper- report “reckless and fl awed.” While the any IRB [institutional review board].” tension (high blood pressure); Salt Institute’s stance should be taken It would be convenient to dismiss hypertension causes stroke as well as with, well, a grain of salt, it may have Dr. Alderman as a gadfly who delights heart disease, the nation’s leading killer; science on its side, says Dr. Alderman. in tweaking the scientifi c establish- clinical trials show that reducing salt (Full disclosure: Dr. Alderman has ment. But Dr. Alderman is a part of that intake lowers blood pressure; ergo, been a member of the Salt Institute’s

18 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Diet and Cardiovascular Risk Advisory salt. But in a June 10 letter in the New intake and renin activity are inversely Committee since 1996 and received an England Journal of Medicine, members related—and we know that increased honorarium for participating in a 1996 of the American Thyroid Association renin activity damages the heart and consultants’ meeting.) caution against reducing salt intake, blood vessels,” he says. “In addition, “I certainly hope salt reduction noting that “iodine levels in the reducing salt increases insulin resistance, would help,” he says. “If you could save United States have decreased by 50 which leads to diabetes, the leading risk all those lives by taking a half a teaspoon percent in the past three decades.” factor for cardiovascular disease in this of sodium out of the daily American The IOM’s main contention is that country. These and other adverse effects diet, what’s not to like?” Most likely to reducing dietary salt will lower the risk have been demonstrated in the same gain, he says, would be the minority of of heart disease. Its report cites several clinical trials cited in the IOM report people whose hypertension results from studies in which improved heart health in which reducing sodium intake was a high-salt diet. But he is convinced that was observed in large groups of people found to lower blood pressure. lowering salt will have no benefi t for whose salt intake was reduced. “The bottom line,” says Dr. most people and could prove harmful But observational studies “have Alderman, is that the overall impact to some. inherent limitations,” says Dr. of reducing sodium in the diet is the Dr. Alderman takes issue, fi rst, with Alderman. “Those salt studies show only net result of all its effects—benefi cial a key IOM justification for cutting salt: (lowered blood pressure) as well as a significant increase in per capita salt “Lowering salt will have no harmful (increased insulin resistance consumption since the 1970s. He offers benefi t for most people and increased renin activity). For that three reasons for skepticism: and could prove harmful reason, he says, “the positive effect of • A close look at the per capita salt- to some.” reduced blood pressure for some people consumption chart in the IOM’s own must be weighed against the adverse report reveals that salt intake did rise what happens to people on a particular effects that will also result.” in the 1970s and 1980s but has lev- diet that they’ve chosen—and nothing eled off since 1988. about the effect of arbitrarily reducing Needed: Clinical Studies • Rather than having an ever-increasing salt intake.” Moreover, he says, obser- The best way to settle the salt contro- taste for salt, human physiology sug- vational studies on salt have produced versy, says Dr. Alderman, “is to carry out gests that our appetite for salt may conflicting results. He cites an obser- the population-based, randomized trials be set at a fixed level. Writing last vational study of his own, published in that can show how reducing salt in the November in the Clinical Journal of 1995 in Hypertension, as evidence that diet affects important health outcomes, the American Society of Nephrology, reducing salt can be risky. such as stroke, heart attack and death.” nephrologist David McCarron, M.D., Dr. Alderman acknowledges that of the University of California, Davis, Cut the Salt, Harm the Public? such trials would be costly. “But it cautions that a set point would mean In the Hypertension study, Dr. Alderman seems to me,” he says, “that it would be that “attempt[ing] to use public policy and his colleagues measured the sodium safer to do a careful study of, say, 5,000 to abrogate human physiology would intake of nearly 3,000 people with mild people than an uncontrolled study of be futile and possibly harmful to to moderate hypertension and then 300 million. human health.” monitored their health for an average “I’d even volunteer,” he adds with a • If our salt intake is rising, our intake of 3.8 years. Over that span, men in the sly smile, “as long as I’m not in the low- of iodine should show a similar rise. lowest quartile for sodium intake were salt group.” This trace element is essential for more than twice as likely to suffer heart normal brain development in fetuses, attacks as men in the highest quartile for ON THE WEB prevents thyroid conditions such sodium intake. (No such association was Visit www.einstein.yu.edu/salt2010 to as goiter—and is obtained solely hear Dr. Alderman discuss salt with found for women.) Gordon Earle, Einstein’s associate dean through the diet, mostly from iodized “Studies have shown that sodium for communications and public affairs.

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New Gout Treatment Shows Promise in Clinical Trials A novel treatment for gout that was coinvented by Vern Schramm, Ph.D., Ruth Merns Chair in Biochemistry, has performed well in a recent clinical trial. Gout is a type of arthritis that occurs when excess amounts of uric acid in Bergman/CORBIS © Lester V. the blood trigger the formation of needlelike urate crystals. These crys- tals typically accumulate in one of the joints—most commonly in the big toe but sometimes the knee—where they can cause excruciating pain. Gout was once called “the disease of kings” because it seemed to follow overindul- Left, urate crystals removed from a patient with gout. Right, X-ray in which repeated attacks gence in food and drink. of gout involving the big toe’s metatarsal-phalangeal joint (the one classically and most The promising gout drug stemmed commonly involved in gout) have caused osteoarthritis in that joint. from Dr. Schramm’s work in devising transition-state analogs as inhibitors After figuring out PNP’s transition achieved impressive results in a Phase 2 of purine nucleoside phosphorylase state by a combination of isotope labels clinical trial. (PNP), an enzyme implicated in T-cell and computer modeling techniques, Dr. In this randomized double-blind cancers, autoimmune diseases and gout. Schramm worked with his coinventors study, gout patients took either BCX- Transition states last just one billionth at Industrial Research Ltd. in New 4208 or a placebo once a day for 21 of a millionth of a second and form Zealand to synthesize a family of days. At the end of that time, three in every chemical reaction, including transition-state analogs targeting the different doses of the drug had each whenever PNP converts one chemi- enzyme. The analogs mimic PNP’s achieved a statistically signifi cant cal (the substrate) into another (the transition state and powerfully inhibit reduction in uric acid blood levels product). the enzyme by binding to it much more compared with the placebo. BioCryst tightly than its normal substrate does. began additional Phase 2 studies of Einstein’s office of biotechnology BCX-4208 alone and in combination licensed the underlying technology to with allopurinol, a standard drug for BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in June treating gout. 2000. Dr. Schramm’s fi rst-generation Interestingly, the action of PNP PNP inhibitor, forodesine, binds to inhibitors in gout differs from their PNP more than 700,000 times tighter effect on the rapidly dividing T cells of than its normal substrate. It also was T-cell cancers. “PNP is essential for con- licensed to BioCryst Pharmaceuticals verting nucleic acid fragments into uric and has shown promising results in a acid—a reaction that occurs primarily in pivotal Phase 2B clinical trial for treat- the liver,” says Dr. Schramm. “Our PNP ing T-cell cancers. inhibitor for gout is preventing uric acid The gout drug—a second-generation formation in that organ.” PNP inhibitor also licensed to BioCryst —binds to PNP even more powerfully

A drug developed by Vern Schramm, Ph.D., than does forodesine. This drug, which above, shows promise against gout. BioCryst calls BCX-4208, recently

20 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Four Grad Students Recognized for Outstanding Research Einstein Student Wins Four Ph.D. students were honored for cancer cells to proliferate. After receiv- ASCP Award research excellence at the 14th Annual ing his Ph.D. at Einstein in June Sophie Rodriguez, Class of 2010, was Julius Marmur Symposium in March. 2009, Dr. Wang joined the lab of the winner of the American Society for The all-day event featured presenta- Marc Montminy, M.D., Ph.D., at the Clinical Pathology’s Award for Academic tions by the awardees in the morning, Salk Institute as a postdoctoral fellow. Excellence and Achievement. Dr. poster presentations after lunch and a Kurt C. Rodriguez was nominated by Michael well-deserved celebration in the Lubin Marsden, a Prystowsky, M.D., Ph.D., professor and Dining Hall in the late afternoon. Their graduate stu- chair of pathology. She will be doing work was considered likely to have a dent in the lab her residency at Montefiore Hospital in high impact on their fields of study. of Reed Carroll, the pathology department and wants to The symposium is held in memory of Ph.D., in the continue working with the people of Julius Marmur, Ph.D., a professor in the Dominick the Bronx. departments of biochemistry and genet- P. Purpura ics at Einstein and an enthusiastic and Department Honoring Faculty Mentors dedicated educator. The “grad student of Neuroscience, for discoveries At a May ceremony in the Lubin Dining researchers of the year” for 2010 are: involving neurotransmitters and Melissa E. their role in memory formation. Hall, Anne Etgen, Ph.D., and Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D., received the Smith, a gradu- He has been invited to present 2010 Faculty Mentoring Awards. The ate student in his work at the Brain and Spinal awards are presented annually to senior the laboratory Injury Center of the University faculty members who have merited of Ganjam V. of California, San Francisco, and distinction in mentoring Einstein junior Kalpana, Ph.D., Northwestern University’s department faculty in their career development. Dr. in the depart- of neurobiology. Etgen, who received the award for basic ments of genetics George Han, sciences, is professor of neuroscience, of and of microbiol- a graduate psychiatry and behavioral sciences and ogy & immunology, for her research on student in the of pediatrics. Dr. Wassertheil-Smoller, targeted therapies for rhabdoid tumors, lab of Joel M. who received the award for clinical aggressive and incurable malignancies in Friedman, sciences, is the Dorothy and William children. She has been invited to pres- M.D., Ph.D., Manealoff Foundation & Molly Rosen ent her work during the 2010 National department Chair in Social Medicine and professor Graduate Student Symposium at St. of physiology of epidemiology & population health. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. & biophysics, Hongbo Wang, for his work in developing nano- Before Dean Allen Spiegel presented the awards, Matthew Scharff, M.D., distin- Ph.D., a gradu- particles that release nitric oxide gas guished professor in the departments ate student in the and in studying their many potential of cell biology and medicine and Harry lab of Liang Zhu, uses, ranging from clearing up skin Eagle Professor of Cancer Research/ M.D., Ph.D., in abscesses caused by antibiotic-resistant National Women’s Division, and Ruth the department bacteria to treating erectile dysfunc- Stein, M.D., professor of pediatrics, of developmental tion. He has presented his work at delivered brief remarks on the value of and molecular numerous conferences and received mentoring. Both were recipients of the biology, for his a science and travel award to an Faculty Mentoring Award at its incep- work in cell-cycle and cancer research. international meeting in Stockholm, tion in 2007. He identified the molecular pathway Sweden. that causes androgen-sensitive prostate

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Superheroes and Superegos: Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks

by Sharon Packer, M.D. Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

uperman, Batman, Wonder Woman: Why do we love Sour superheroes and worship the ground they walk on (or the air they fl y through)? Extraordinary physical assets—faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive—are one reason. But as Dr. Packer, a practicing psychiatrist, posits in her book, our favorite superheroes are really more about superegos than about superhuman bodies and brawn. superhero stories”—exemplifies the Jungian concept of the In Freudian theory, the superego is the moral part of the “shadow self.” personality from which our sense of right and wrong arises. The author also explores the interplay between female It provides a force that guides our superheroes’ behavior. superheroes and women’s roles and women’s rights, noting Consider Superman, who first appeared in print in 1938. that Wonder Woman and Sheena were forerunners of the “It’s hardly a coincidence that the superhero with a superego feminist movement. Psyches move society, society moves the emerged at the same time that a superpower without a super- psyche and the media mediates, says Dr. Packer. ego emerged and extended his reach across Europe,” writes The supernatural has long imbued the human psyche, Dr. Dr. Packer. Some early superheroes actually took on Hitler in Packer notes. And our modern superheroes are but the lat- the pages of comic books. est manifestations of gods and myths that for millennia have Iron Man and Wolverine fit into Dr. Packer’s “wounded comforted people and influenced their lives. warrior” class of superheroes. They’ve sustained earlier physi- Whatever our various superheroes are telling us—that we cal or psychological injuries but are unbowed. Who wouldn’t can be strong or self-reliant, or even reinvent ourselves—their be inspired by an attempt to right a wrong, by self-confi dence messages may resonate with our inner yearning: that we can in spite of an absent father, by the courage to confront fears be more than we thought we could be. head-on? Dr. Packer calls it “post-traumatic strength syn- PUBLISHED BY: Praeger, 2009 drome.” The rectitude of the superhero provides a perfect foil for the most villainous villains. Some of our superheroes, says Dr. Packer, refl ect the tenets of Jungian psychology. Superman—the appealing hero with a secret identity, Clark Kent, “the great schlemiel of

22 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 meticulously give credit where due. Now, all the entries from Pulse’s fi rst The book’s take-home message: year have been collected and published People fail at weight control because in traditional book form. Subjects range their eating plans don’t account for the widely, from a physician’s exasperation biological and psychological variables to a nurse’s inspiration, from physical that influence weight. The Karasus cite exams to terminal illness. one study in which “weight cyclers” or The following poem is from patient “yo-yo dieters” were more likely to suc- Kathleen Grieger, who has written hun- ceed if they were committed to mak- dreds of poems about her brain surgeries ing behavioral changes. Motivation can and her interactions with physicians and make all the difference between losing other healthcare professionals. and gaining, say the authors, both of Mistaken Identity whose fathers were obese. The book is by Kathleen Grieger The Gravity of Weight: dedicated to them. A Clinical Guide to Weight Loss Surgery fi nished, and Maintenance PUBLISHED BY: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2010 I fi nally sleep by Sylvia R. Karasu, M.D. ’76, and Pushing my shoulders, T. Byram Karasu, M.D. the technician wakes me Silverman Professor and the University Chair, Department of Psychiatry and “Come now, Behavioral Sciences we need a chest x-ray” Perhaps belying its title, The Gravity of Smiling, she pulls me Weight: A Clinical Guide to Weight Loss into position and Maintenance doesn’t offer a compre- The x-ray machine hensive weight-control plan. The Drs. tight against me Karasu, both psychiatrists, devote most Finally getting a chance, of their book’s 400 pages to examining I ask what she is doing the complex psychological and physi- ological aspects of the mind, brain and “Oh,” she says “I have body that make weight loss such a chal- the wrong one lenge. The book is geared to physicians, Pulse—voices from the heart You are not a 64 psychologists and other clinicians who of medicine: The First Year year old male” specialize in obesity. Lying me down, The hefty volume covers what by Paul Gross, M.D. she walks away must be every factor ever implicated Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Social Medicine in overweight: psychological outlook, As I fall back to sleep, and Diane Guernsey psychiatric disorders (such as depres- I wonder, now bald sion), metabolic complexities, medical In 2008, the weekly online magazine what I must conditions, exercise, circadian rhythms Pulse—voices from the heart of medicine look like and diet. Genetics plays a role too, was created by Dr. Gross, in collabora- PUBLISHED BY: with the authors noting that identi- tion with colleagues around the country. cChange in Healthcare Publishing, 2010 cal twins raised apart resemble each Pulse offers a forum for patients, doc- other in weight more than do siblings tors, nurses, social workers and anyone raised together. The book references else to contribute first-person stories or ON THE WEB some 900 publications, and the writers poems about medicine. More at www.pulsemagazine.org

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 23 LIGHTING UP THE CELL by Gary Goldenberg

Above: Aequorea victoria, the Pacifi c jellyfi sh that gave green fl uorescent protein to the scientifi c world. At right: Image from a movie in which fl uorescent proteins reveal breast tumor cells (green) migrating toward blood vessels (red) during metastasis. Image courtesy of Evanthia Roussos and John Condeelis, Ph.D., of Einstein’s Gruss-

© GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Imagess Lipper Biophotonics Center.

24 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 With help from a glowing jellyfi sh, Einstein researchers can now see biology in action

or proof that all species are worth saving, consider the humble jellyfi sh Aequorea victoria, which floats in waters off the U.S. Pacific coast. It was largely ignored until the latter half of the 20th century, when a scientist became curious Fabout its beautiful bioluminescent properties and found it possessed an amazing molecule: green fluorescent protein (GFP), which exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue or violet light. Scientists now had a tool for tagging molecules that would revo- lutionize optical (light) microscopy—an advance that has been com- pared to Van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of the microscope itself. In recognition of GFP’s importance, the three scientists chiefl y involved in its discovery and development were awarded Nobel Prizes in Chemistry in 2008.

Illuminating the invisible Living organisms possess tens of thousands of different proteins. In every cell at any one time, dozens of teams of proteins are directing the processes vital to life—DNA replication, cell division, respiration and many others, depending on the type of cell. Diseases such as cancer occur when this protein machinery malfunctions—which is why uncovering the roles of different proteins in the body is so important. Until GFP came along, cells typically had to be killed and preserved so that proteins could be detected. GFP has allowed scientists to tag and view a single protein as it migrates through a living cell or inter- acts with other proteins.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 25 FPs Against Disease

erious diseases affect the entire body. But they arise at the cellular level, due to proteins or other molecules that behave abnormally. FPs allow scientists to observe, in real time and in living cells, the molecular glitches that underlie S diseases—knowledge vital for developing therapies against health problems that so far resist effective treatment. In this table, we list several of the faulty molecular and cellular processes that FPs have illuminated and diseases associated with those aberrations.

AAbnorbnormmalityality DDetectedetected DDiseaseisease

Proteins travel to wrong cellular compartment cystic fi brosis

Protein clumping creates “traffi c jams” in nerve cells Parkinson’s disease

Impaired intracellular “garbage removal” Huntington’s disease

Movement of cancer cells into blood vessels metastatic cancer Image courtesy of Nobel Foundation

Altered intracellular structures Parkinson’s, progeria

Right, structure of green fl uorescent protein, containing 238 amino acids. White region is the chromophore, the group of three amino acids that absorbs blue or violet light and fl uoresces green.

Researchers can also follow cells as they scientists studying coral isolated the red and one blue. That crucial knowl- move through living tissues. So thanks first red FP. The next year Vladislav edge has enabled him to design new and to GFP and other fl uorescent proteins Verkhusha, Ph.D., working in Kyoto, differently colored FPs in a rational way. (FPs), scientists can observe both normal Japan, published a paper describing the “Creating novel FPs had been a and pathological biological processes biochemical and photochemical proper- hit-or-miss affair,” says Dr. Verkhusha. that had previously been invisible ties of this new FP. Dr. Verkhusha is “Scientists had to fuse the genes of to them. already-discovered FPs to the genomes Fluorescent microscopy is fl ourish- By creating FPs in of bacteria and then expose millions of ing at Einstein, where scientists are different hues, that those bacteria to radiation, in the hope devising new types of FPs and using that random genetic mutations would them in novel ways. Einstein research- switch from one color lead to new FPs. Now that we know ers are employing FPs to learn how to another and even those two crystal structures, we have a cancer spreads, how cells carry out their road map for designing new and differ- internal housekeeping, how misfolded change color over time, ently colored FPs.” proteins trigger neurological diseases Dr. Verkhusha has helped By greatly expanding the FP palette and more. in recent years—creating FPs in differ- revolutionize optical ent hues of red, blue and orange, FPs From jellyfi sh to coral microscopy. that switch from one color to another Until about a decade ago, there were and even FPs that change color over fewer than a dozen FPs—most of them now associate professor of anatomy and time—Dr. Verkhusha has helped revolu- variations on green, yellow and blue. So structural biology at Einstein, where he tionize optical microscopy. as a practical matter, researchers study- remains in the vanguard of FP research. “The numerous functions going on ing living cells could follow just two or In a paper published earlier this year in living cells occur mainly through three different molecules at a time. In in Chemistry & Biology, Dr. Verkhusha molecular interactions—especially pro- 1999 came the next great advance in reported discovering the crystal structure teins interacting with other proteins,” fluorescent microscopy, when Russian of two key fl uorescent proteins—one says Steven C. Almo, Ph.D., professor of

26 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 biochemistry and of physiology & bio- occurring deep within tissues, organs or Photoactivatable FPs: More physics at Einstein and Dr. Verkhusha’s even entire animals. In addition, far-red versatile than ordinary FPs, photoac- coauthor on the Chemistry & Biology FPs can reveal tumors—an important tivatable FPs can be turned on or off paper. “To understand what is happen- medical advance. with a pulse of light. Dr. Verkhusha ing, you ideally want to follow a number Recently, in collaboration with the has created several novel photoactivat- of different protein-protein interactions laboratory of John Condeelis, Ph.D., able FPs, including PAmCherry, which simultaneously—which means the more Dr. Verkhusha developed three popu- goes from dark to red when exposed colors you have for tagging those pro- lations of mouse breast cancer cells, to a particular wavelength of light. teins, the better. That’s why the FPs that each of which expressed a different Photoactivatable FPs are used mainly Vlad is developing are so exciting—they FP: CyanFP (blue), GFP (green) and to mark a select population of protein allow you to actually see the machinery TagRFP657 (far red). A mixture of the molecules within a cell or to highlight of life as it comes together.” three cell populations was injected into whole cells of interest. Once their FPs a mouse. Two weeks later, the mouse are activated, these tagged proteins or An FP primer had developed a mammary-gland tumor cells can be followed in real time. For Dr. Verkhusha’s colorful creations that was composed of cells expressing proteins in particular, photoactivatable belong to several categories of FPs, the three FPs. FPs provide unsurpassed resolution for including the following: The images below show what hap- revealing their fate in single cells over pened when the researchers tried to both time and space. (See image on Far-red FPs: Until recently, FPs visualize the tumor by stimulating each page 30, upper left.) couldn’t be used to peer inside a live of its three FPs to fluoresce. As expected, animal. The reason: hemoglobin in efforts to cause fluorescence of tumor Photoswitchable FPs: These FPs an animal’s blood effectively absorbs cells expressing the blue and green FPs change from one color to another after the blue, green, red and other wave- failed to reveal the tumor. By con- activation by a particular wavelength lengths used to stimulate standard FPs trast, tumor cells expressing the far-red of light. There are two classes: revers- and that are emitted by FPs when they TagRFP657 fluoresced brightly, clearly ible photoswitchable FPs, which can fluoresce. Now, in an exciting devel- revealing—noninvasively—the tumor repeatedly be turned off (dark) and on opment described earlier this year in deep within the mouse. (e.g., green) with pulses of light, and Biophysical Journal, Dr. Verkhusha has created an FP that can be stimulated by wavelengths that pass right through hemoglobin—wavelengths at the far-red end (611 nm) of the visible spectrum. This far-red FP, called TagRFP657, fl uo- resces at the far-red end as well, and this emitted light (657 nm) can be seen with the use of special emission fi lters. (See images at right.) Far-red FPs will allow scientists non- invasively to track molecules and cells that participate in biological processes

Inside a living mouse, a breast tumor containing three types of FPs has been stimulated to emit blue, green and far-red light. The tumor is clearly visible in the lower left image due to fl uorescence from the far-red TagRFP657 (see arrow). In the colored images, the animal appears tinted due to autofl uorescence of its hair. The black-and-white image shows the animal in ordinary light.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 27 irreversible photoswitchable FPs, which change color only once. In practice, FRET, PALM and Intracellular Intimacy researchers use photoswitchable and photoactivatable FPs for similar pur- or today’s optical microscopists, apoptosis—the orderly (genetically pro- poses. Dr. Verkhusha developed the observing the proximity of dif- grammed) cell death that can occur in first irreversible photoswitchable FP, F ferent molecules within a cell response to viruses, toxins or other stres- called PSCFP, which changes from blue can provide crucially important infor- sors. The enzyme caspase-3, activated to green. More recently he developed mation. Proteins that bind together, during apoptosis, carries out the death Dendra, an irreversible photoswitchable for example, may be involved in an sentence by degrading cellular proteins. FP that changes from green to red. (See enzymatic reaction, while proteins In this experiment, human cancer cells image on page 30, upper right.) that migrate to the same organelle have been manipulated into expressing may be participating in the same bio- a “sensor” protein consisting of a blue Fluorescent timer FPs: These are chemical pathway. Dr. Verkhusha’s FPs FP on one end, a green FP on the other FPs that change color over time. Until are used in two techniques that allow and a peptide sequence in the middle recently, fluorescent timer molecules researchers to visualize two different that caspase-3 targets when it degrades were so big that they were useful only molecules that are much less than a proteins. At the start of the experiment, for tagging entire cells. In a major hair’s breadth from each other. the four cells shown in the images below advance, Dr. Verkhusha’s lab has devel- were exposed to a drug that triggers oped a new class of fl uorescent timers, FRET (fl uorescence resonance apoptosis. The cells were then followed called monomeric fl uorescent timers, energy transfer) imaging can for 150 minutes. which are small enough to tag indi- resolve two molecules that are The upper panels consist of over- vidual proteins and which change color bound together in a cell or otherwise laid images of the blue and green FPs (blue to red) at different speeds: “Slow” extremely close together—from zero at different times in the four cells. The fluorescent timers take nearly a day to to five nanometers (five billionths of transition in color indicates apoptosis change color, “medium” timers change a meter) apart. The “ET” in FRET in action: as increasing numbers of sen- color in about 12 hours and “fast” tim- refers to the maximal “energy transfer” sor proteins are cleaved, their blue and ers change from blue to red in a few that occurs when molecules con- green FPs drift apart, causing the color hours. The ratio of blue to red timers taining blue and green FPs are close to shift from green to blue. can indicate, for example, whether most together: The blue FP transfers its In the lower panels, the four cells of the molecules of a tagged cellular energy to the green FP—dimming the have been analyzed to detect the FRET protein are old or newly synthesized blue, brightening the green and con- signaling produced by the proximity of or whether new and old proteins have firming a close encounter. Conversely, the green and blue FPs. In these pseudo- localized to the same or different regions as shown in the image below, FRET colored images, red indicates maximal of a cell. (See images on page 31.) signaling disappears—and the color FRET signaling (i.e., the green and blue shifts from green to blue—when two FPs are practically touching), while blue The FP clearinghouse once-close entities separate. indicates minimal signaling (i.e., the FPs To help researchers who want to use In 2008, Dr. Verkhusha and have drifted apart). The change from these imaging tools, Dr. Verkhusha and colleagues published a paper in red to blue over the 150-minute period Erik Snapp, Ph.D., assistant profes- Chemistry & Biology showing that depicts the destruction wrought by sor of anatomy and structural biology, FRET imaging can be used to detect caspase-3 during apoptosis. have established the Fluorescent Protein Resource Center at Einstein. The center serves as an information clearinghouse 4 2 for FPs and assists researchers in choos- 3 ing the best FPs for their experiments. 1 The advice is crucial, since FPs can be tricky to use—failing to fl uoresce in some cellular environments and creat- ing unwanted artifacts in others.

28 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 “FPs are large compared to the pro- teins to which they are attached, which means that an FP can sometimes block PALM (photoactivated localization then the green photoactivatable fl uo- a protein from binding to its intended microscopy) uses photoactivatable FPs rescent protein PAGFP was used to target,” says Dr. Snapp. “You still see the to resolve images 10 to 200 nanome- mark a small protein called VSVG— protein fluoresce, so you assume every- ters apart. This makes PALM ideal for a short sequence of amino acids that thing is fine, but the FP that the protein distinguishing molecules that “colocal- is thought to attach uniformly to the is lugging around has actually rendered ize” in a living cell, meaning they gather cell membrane everywhere throughout the protein inactive. That is why it’s within the same organelle, for example, its surface. If EGFR colocalized with essential, whenever we fuse an FP to a or in a large protein complex. VSVG, it would indicate that EGFR protein, to have assays that can tell us At Einstein, PALM allows research- molecules, as is the case with VSVG whether the FP is interfering with the ers to study the clustering of proteins, molecules, arrive randomly at their protein’s known function.” including one that plays a crucially positions on the cell membrane. Two of Dr. Snapp’s graduate students important role in cancer: epidermal The PALM image, below left, is are working on strategies for surmount- growth factor receptor (EGFR). an overlay of EGFR (red) and VSVG ing the limitations of FPs. They recently After being synthesized in the cyto- (green) in a living human cell. It shows discovered a technique for ensuring plasm, EGFR migrates to the cell mem- the relative distribution of molecules that FPs assume their characteristic brane. It sends a signal to the cell when of the two proteins following their barrel shape (required for fl uorescence a protein called epidermal growth factor synthesis and arrival at the cell mem- to occur) when they’re deployed to binds to it. “Normal” EGFR signaling brane. The arrows indicate some of the periplasm of bacteria. This space may tell the cell to divide. However, the few places where the two types of between the inside and outside mem- aberrant EGFR signaling is associated protein molecules have colocalized. branes of gram-negative bacteria is often with many types of solid tumors: abnor- The middle image is a graph in hostile to FPs, preventing them from mally high levels of EGFR can often which “tracks” (movements) made by fl uorescing. be found on the surface of tumor cells. EGFR and VSVG molecules lasting A focus of cancer chemotherapy is to longer than a second have been plot- Everything is illuminated develop drugs that muffle EGFR signal- ted according to distance and direction Today, Dr. Verkhusha’s FPs are glow- ing and prevent the uncontrolled cell traveled. EGFR molecules are repre- ing in laboratories all over the Einstein division associated with cancer. sented in red and VSVG molecules are campus. Dr. Snapp uses them in his In a paper published earlier this year in green. own research to study the endoplasmic in the Journal of the American Chemical The right-hand image is a close-up reticulum (ER), a membranous cytoplas- Society, Dr. Verkhusha and colleagues of the region indicated by the square mic network where secretory proteins used PALM to answer this question: in the middle image. In this particular (e.g., hormones and signaling molecules) Do EGFR proteins insert themselves region of the cell membrane, EGFR are folded into their proper shape—an randomly into the cell membrane or and VSVG appear to be localizing dif- essential task carried out by molecules instead localize to particular regions? To ferently. Results indicate that EGFR known as chaperone proteins. follow EGFR in its travels, the research- does not insert randomly in the cell Protein folding appears to go awry in ers tagged it with a photoactivatable red membrane but instead chooses specifi c Huntington’s disease, the fatal inherited fluorescent protein called PATagRFP; membrane regions. neurological disorder caused by a gene mutation that creates a defective form 30 20 of the huntingtin protein. In the cyto- plasm, defective huntingtin protein and m) m)

ȝ ȝ other misfolded proteins destined for degradation are nudged into large pro-

y axis ( y axis ( tein complexes called proteasomes. But

10 15 huntingtin appears to cripple the func- 1030 15 20 x axis (ȝm) x axis (ȝm) tion of proteasomes, with potentially serious consequences for the cell.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 29 Photoactivatable FPof 420 nm wavelength. The photoacti- Irreversible Photoswitchable FP vatable FP PAmCherry, which can be attached to a toxic protein such as hun- tingtin, was readily activated, changing from dark to bright fluorescent red and becoming visible throughout the cells’ nuclei (large red areas) as well as the cytoplasm. These studies have revealed that synthesis of defective huntingtin protein increases the misfolded-protein burden in the ER. In the Gruss-Lipper Biophotonics Center, Dr. Condeelis uses a custom- built microscope in combination with FPs to study metastasis—the migration By impairing proteasome activity of malignant cells into the bloodstream The irreversible photoswitch- in the cytoplasm, could defective and then to the lungs, liver or other able FP image above shows the posi- huntingtin cause proteins that need vital organs. Cancer patients don’t usu- tion of breast-tumor cells 24 hours after degrading to back up inside the ER and ally die from their original (primary) parts of the tumor were photoswitched. damage cells? Efforts to address that tumors but rather from tumors “seeded” Nonphotoswitched tumor cells have question could lead to new treatments by metastatic cells. Dr. Condeelis has remained green. (Blood vessels are stained for Huntington’s disease by identifying done pioneering research in breast blue [outlined by white dotted lines] and new therapeutic targets. the extracellular matrix is stained purple.) The photoactivatable FP images Using FPs that switch The photoswitched (red) cells can clearly above are from a study in which postdoc be seen to have invaded the surrounding Patrick Lajoie of Dr. Snapp’s lab used from green to red, microenvironment—including nearby two FPs to see if he could simultane- Einstein researchers blood vessels—during that 24-hour ously monitor, in real time, two possibly period. related cellular activities: the turnover tracked the movement “Without FPs, you wouldn’t have this of a toxic cytoplasmic protein such as of single tumor cells level of resolution,” says Dr. Condeelis, huntingtin and the buildup of mis- cochair and professor of anatomy and folded proteins in the ER. The red FP over several days. structural biology, codirector of the is PAmCherry, the photoactivatable FP Biophotonics Center and holder of the developed by Dr. Verkhusha’s lab; the cancer metastasis, deciphering signaling Judith and Burton P. Resnick Chair in green FP is GFP. (These images also pathways within the tumor microenvi- Translational Research. “All of the other appear on the front cover and contents ronment that guide cancer cells on their clinical imaging methods—MRI, PET, page of the magazine.) deadly journey. CT, ultrasound—provide information In the top image above, exposing two In a paper published in Nature only about gross anatomy, not about the live human cells to blue light has caused Methods in 2008, Dr. Condeelis and cellular microenvironment. With our GFP to fluoresce bright green. GFP is colleagues observed the movement of setup, it’s crystal clear.” tagged to BiP, an important chaperone breast-tumor cells in living mice. Tumors Another Einstein scientist, Ana protein that binds to misfolded proteins were tagged with Dendra, an irrevers- Maria Cuervo, M.D., Ph.D., professor and is used here to detect misfolded- ible photoswitchable FP developed by of developmental and molecular biol- protein buildup in the ER. Since BiP Dr. Verkhusha that changes from green ogy, of anatomy and structural biology resides in the ER, its fl uorescence reveals to red following exposure to blue light. and of medicine, is a leading author- the cells’ extensive ER network. The Then, when the researchers photo- ity on autophagy—the cellular “house- lower image, taken later, shows the switched certain regions of the tumor, keeping” process in which worn-out same two cells after illumination for they were able to track single tumor cells or defective proteins are digested in one minute with near-ultraviolet light over the course of several days. sac-like, enzyme-filled structures called

30 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 lysosomes; the proteins’ amino acids Fluorescent timer FP are then recycled. Evidence increas- ingly suggests that glitches in autophagy underlie the degenerative changes associ- ated with aging as well as diseases such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. Dr. 1 hr 6 hrs 12 hrs Cuervo is researching strategies for rev- ving up autophagy when its effi ciency declines. In one type of autophagy, molecules bearing proteins that are destined for recycling dock with LAMP-2A, 21 hrs 36.5 hrs 63 hrs a protein receptor on the lysosomal membrane. This crucial step allows the protein to pass into the lysosome for digestion. In a Nature Chemical Biology paper published in 2009, Dr. Cuervo and other Einstein researchers used a fluorescent timer FP to address a long- standing mystery: the sequence of events between LAMP-2A’s synthesis and its arrival at lysosomes. The gene for LAMP-2A was fused with the gene for Dr. Verkhusha’s medium-speed blue-to-red fl uorescent timer FP, and the fused gene was inserted into human cancer cells. This gene was allowed to synthesize fusion protein (consisting of LAMP-2A and the fluorescent timer FP) for seven hours. The fl uorescent timer FP images, above right, show how LAMP-2A local- ized in the cell at various times (from one to 63 hours) after protein synthe- sis was halted. The newly synthesized To attach an FP to the protein they want fusion protein changed gradually from to internal parts of the cell), late endo- to follow, researchers must fuse the blue to red over time. Based on the red- somes and, finally, lysosomes. The blue FP’s gene to the gene for that protein. to-blue ratios observed for fusion pro- and red forms of LAMP-2A/fl uorescent Expression of this fused gene forms the protein of interest along with its attached FP tein at different times in different parts timer FP are shown here as green and tag. Vladislav Verkhusha, Ph.D., left, and of the cell, the researchers concluded red pseudocolors, respectively. Erik Snapp, Ph.D., center, have established that LAMP-2A prefers a roundabout the Fluorescent Protein Research Center to help Einstein scientists choose the route to lysosomes. Thankfully, A. victoria, the glowing optimal FPs for their research and create Following LAMP-2A’s synthesis, Pacifi c jellyfish that sparked the GFP successful fusion proteins. its traffic pattern takes it to the Golgi revolution, was in ample supply when it (organelles that add carbohydrates to was studied 50 years ago. Unfortunately, proteins), the plasma membrane (the thousands of other species have become cell’s outer membrane), early endosomes extinct since then. Who knows how (membranous structures that funnel those losses will hamper efforts to molecules from the plasma membrane cure disease?

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 31 © 2010 Jonathan Wallen www jonathanwallen com

Einstein, AIDS and Africa Faculty members build reesearsearch experttiseise iinn Africa, one student at a time

WRITTEN BY eset by dire health needs, many The two Einstein teams were John Fleischman underdeveloped countries engaged in “capacity building”—an PHOTOS BY confront daunting challenges unglamorous term for educating and Jonathan Wallen B in providing adequate medical care training local healthcare profession- to their citizens. So it’s hard to picture als and scientists so they’ll become such countries with their own scientists skilled researchers. In both cases, the conducting laboratory and fi eld stud- teaching efforts were motivated by ies that address local health problems. the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has dev- Nevertheless, Einstein scientists trav- astated so much of Africa—and by eled recently to Africa to help two Einstein’s mission to improve human such countries—Rwanda and South health locally and nationally as well Africa—achieve that vision. as globally.

32 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 HIV/TB: An Unprecedented Challenge in South Africa With more people infected with HIV than any other country, South Africa qualifies as ground zero of the AIDS epidemic. Adding to their woes, many HIV-infected South Africans (particu- DURBAN, ON THE WEB SOUTH AFRICA larly those in rural areas) are coin- To view Dr. Goldstein’s fected with new strains of extensively K-RITH lecture series, visit © 2010 Jonathan Wallen www.jonathanwallen.com © 2010 Jonathan Wallen www.einstein.yu.edu/goldstein2010/video drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) bacteria—a viral/bacterial combination that often proves lethal. So it’s understandable that Harris Goldstein, M.D., professor of immunol- ogy & microbiology and director of the Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center’s Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), traveled to South Africa earlier this year. “The intersection of HIV with these new resistant strains of TB poses an unprecedented health challenge,” he notes. More surprising was the rea- son for his visit: to teach a course in basic immunology to graduate students and faculty at the Nelson R. Mandela Medical School in Durban. The trip stemmed from a con- Harris Goldstein, M.D., professor of immunology & microbiology at Einstein, took his course on the road: 14 lectures in basic immunology in just four days. The sessions were versation he had had several months videotaped (see web link above), and DVDs were sent to those who could not attend. earlier with Bruce Walker, M.D., Dr. Goldstein’s CFAR counterpart at controlling the HIV/TB coepidemic understanding of basic immunology Harvard. They discussed Dr. Walker’s and to train a new generation of scien- as well as mentoring in how to con- efforts to attract graduate students and tists in Africa. duct research,” Dr. Goldstein recalls. “I faculty at Mandela Medical School to “Bruce told me that the students responded by asking, ‘How can I help?’ participate in clinical research at the and faculty at Mandela needed a better Since I direct and teach the majority of KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for the lectures in the basic immunology Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH), unit for Einstein’s medical students, I which opened recently on the medical “Bruce told me that the suggested that I could teach a similar school’s Durban campus—in the heart students and faculty course in South Africa. Bruce enthusias- of the HIV and TB pandemics. tically accepted my offer.” Still under construction, K-RITH at Mandela needed a Last January, Dr. Goldstein embarked houses an international research col- better understanding on a whirlwind seven-day trip to laboration involving scientists from Durban: a day each way in the air, one Einstein, Harvard, Mandela Medical of basic immunology as day to relax and four days giving 14 School and the University of KwaZulu- well as mentoring in how lectures on basic immunology. The Natal. It is supported by a $60 million, majority of the people he addressed were 10-year grant from the Howard Hughes to conduct research...I not directly involved in treating HIV/ Medical Institute (HHMI) and is being responded by asking, AIDS patients. Rather, most of the 60 built with two goals in mind: to make participants were postdoctoral fellows, major scientific contributions toward ’How can I help?‘” graduate students and faculty scientists

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 33 The Autoimmune Connection

arris Goldstein, M.D., director of “HIV-induced autoimmunity is particularly the Center for AIDS Research at common among AIDS patients started Hthe Einstein/Montefi ore Medical on highly active antiretroviral therapy, Center, was recently named the fi rst the standard treatment for virtually all holder of the Charles Michael Chair in Americans diagnosed with HIV/AIDS,” Autoimmune Diseases. Dr. Goldstein’s he says. Richard Morgenstein © 2010 Morgenstein Richard new chair was made possible by a gener- According to the American ous gift from Charles Michael, a private Autoimmune Related Diseases investor who lives in San Francisco. Association, there are 155 autoimmune Dr. Goldstein notes that the immune and autoimmune-related diseases, system is inextricably linked to HIV/AIDS. including diabetes, Graves’ disease, “HIV infects, multiplies inside of and lupus, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, CCharlesharles MMichaelichael destroys immune-system cells—the T Addison’s disease and scleroderma. cells—that help ward off infections,” Mr. Michael noted that medical papers, and was impressed with what he he explains. “That’s why HIV-infected research remains underfunded. “It has heard and read. people are so susceptible to develop- come to my attention several times in “Another signifi cant factor in my deci- ing TB: Their loss of T cells leaves them recent years,” he says, “that autoimmu- sion to fund the chair at Einstein is its unable to protect against infecting TB nity is a fi eld where lack of improvement excellent reputation in the fi eld of medi- bacteria.” in patient outcomes continues.” Before cal research,” says Mr. Michael. Moreover, he notes that HIV infection endowing the autoimmune diseases He follows in the footsteps of his late is a well-known cause of autoimmune chair, Mr. Michael had received “many parents, Erna and Jakob Michael, who disease—a result of HIV dysregulating high commendations” about the work were generous supporters of Einstein. the immune system and causing it to of Harris Goldstein. He also spoke to attack an infected person’s own tissues. Dr. Goldstein and perused some of his who either were doing HIV research or Cultivating AIDS Investigators for emergencies and have to miss classes. were planning to. in Rwanda The course curriculum was a con- “It was a huge amount of material At almost the same time Dr. Goldstein densed version of the six-week summer for people to absorb in a very short was teaching basic immunology in session of Einstein’s Clinical Research time, but we got fantastic feedback,” South Africa, five other Einstein faculty Training Program (CRTP), a two-year says Dr. Goldstein. “People came up members were 900 miles to the north, program leading to a master’s degree in to me and said, ‘I’ve been doing this in rural Rwanda. They were spending clinical research methods. Classes were research project, and before hearing a month teaching the basics of clinical held five days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 the lectures I just didn’t understand research to 13 Rwandan physicians and p.m., with a lunch break and two tea the context of it. This really helped scientists. breaks daily. Four faculty members— me.’ Others said they’d come up with The course was supported by a plus one Einstein student—took turns new ideas after gaining a more detailed five-year AIDS International Training at the lectern and shared their expertise: understanding of how the immune sys- and Research Program (AITRP) grant Hillel Cohen, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., associate tem works. It really generated momen- awarded by the NIH to Vinayaka professor of epidemiology & population tum, empowering people to become Prasad, Ph.D., professor of microbiology health, taught biostatistics. investigators and getting them excited & immunology at Einstein. The goal: to Ethan Cowen, M.D., assistant professor about research.” help the Rwandan health professionals of emergency medicine and of epidemi- Downplaying his own role, Dr. develop into skilled AIDS investigators ology & population health, taught bio- Goldstein cites several other Einstein who will become research leaders in this ethics. (Dr. Cowen graduated from the researchers associated with K-RITH small African country. Einstein CRTP several years ago.) who are directing clinical and labora- The course’s location—a small hotel tory programs: William R. Jacobs Jr., nearly 40 miles outside Kigali, the Aileen McGinn, Ph.D., assistant pro- Ph.D., professor of microbiology & Rwandan capital—was chosen for a fessor of epidemiology & population immunology and of genetics and an reason: its out-of-the-way setting made health, taught data analysis. HHMI investigator; Sarita Shah, it less likely that the physicians attending Michael Mulvihill, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., M.D., assistant professor of medicine the course would be called back to Kigali professor emeritus in the departments and of epidemiology & population health; and Neel Gandhi, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and of epidemiology & population health. All three have received major NIH grants in the last year to support their work (see page 14).

ON THE WEB Interview with Dr. Goldstein at www.einstein.yu.edu/goldstein2010/ interview www.jonathanwallen.com © 2010 Jonathan Wallen

Left, some 60 trainees attended Dr. Goldstein’s sessions in Durban, South Africa. Einstein r esearchers ar e playing an important role in building research capacity in the developing world.

Right, a Rwandan healthcare worker draws blood at a public health center. The Einstein team spent a month teaching the basics of clinical r esearch to 13 Rwandan physicians and scientists. RWANDA

SCIENCE ATTTH THEE HEART OF MEDICINE 35 In some cases, AIDS fi eldwork was literally done in a fi eld.

the Rwandan clinical training program was the wealth of data from one of her recently completed studies—the Rwanda Women’s Interassociation Study and Assessment (RWISA). RWISA had enrolled women who © 2010 Jonathan Wallen www.jonathanwallen.com © 2010 Jonathan Wallen were starting treatment for HIV infec- tion, many of them drawn from the WE-ACTx treatment programs. At the outset of the study, nurses recorded the women’s histories and vital statistics and also took blood samples for analysis. Follow-up exams occurred at six-month intervals for the next three years. of family and social medicine and of epi- a uniquely Rwandan enterprise, relying “The data were solid, but no one demiology & population health, taught on local nurses to provide high-volume, had had the time or the expertise to epidemiology. high-quality care for HIV-positive analyze them,” says Dr. Anastos. “So people. we organized our 13 trainees into four Jean-Claude Dusingize, M.D., a More than six years after that fi rst research groups and gave them data sets Rwandan native and currently a CRTP trip to Rwanda, Dr. Anastos clearly from RWISA—the histories, the physi- candidate at Einstein, helped explain remembers what one rape victim told cal exams and the results of the base- material to students in their local lan- her just before she left: “You know, a line blood work. They then applied the guage (Kinyarwanda) and also taught lot of people come to visit, and nobody research skills they were mastering in them Stata, a diffi cult-to-master statisti- comes back.” Dr. Anastos has since the classroom to analyze, organize and cal software package. returned to Rwanda more than two generally make sense of the data.” The Einstein team was led by Kathy dozen times, continuing her work with One group, for example, decided Anastos, M.D., a professor of medi- WE-ACTx and organizing cohort stud- to compare how the different ini- cine and of epidemiology with exten- ies of HIV-positive women undergoing tial antiretroviral therapies taken by sive experience in Rwanda. Dr. Anastos therapy. In fact, a prime resource for RWISA participants affected kidney and first visited the country in 2004, at the invitation of a women’s group in urgent need of treatment for its HIV-positive members. A decade earlier, these women had survived the rape and sexual violence of the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people were killed. So Dr. Anastos set up a program, the Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (WE-ACTx), to help women obtain www.jonathanwallen.com © 2010 Jonathan Wallen testing and treatment for HIV infec- tion. WE-ACTx has since evolved into

A mobile unit brings voluntary HIV counseling and testing to rural Rwandan communities.

36 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Many women who survived the rape and genocide in Rwanda a decade ago are now HIV positive. A public health center outside Kigali offers comprehensive prenatal care.

analyses of the RWISA data and publish those results in peer-reviewed journals. “As our trainees’ research skills improve and data on the follow-up © 2010 Jonathan Wallen www.jonathanwallen.com © 2010 Jonathan Wallen blood samples become available,” says Dr. Anastos, “we’d like them to prog- ress from those fairly simple research questions to more urgent matters. For example, are there changes in blood counts over time that predict who will do well on antiretroviral therapy—or, conversely, predict who is likely to die “Once we’re able to see By all accounts, the four-week pro- despite treatment? “We know the answers to some how the patients’ lab gram was a great success. “All the trainees were extremely dedicated, studying not of these questions for patients in the results changed over only when we were there to support United States and Europe but we don’t time, we’ll be better able them but also well into the evenings,” have a lot of good data coming out of says Dr. Anastos. Africa,” says Dr. Anastos. “So these stu- to make predictions, The Einstein faculty is staying in dents could make a real contribution to such as how patients on touch with its students via e-mail and their country.” will offer follow-up training through particular drug regimens teleconferences and additional in-country ON THE WEB workshops. In the near term, they’ll More about Einstein in Rwanda at are likely to fare.” www.einstein.yu.edu/rwanda2010 be helping the trainees write up their liver function. Another group studied whether the incidence of shingles—the painful flare-up of dormant Herpes zoster The Rwandan research training program has already virus that can signal immune-system created positive ripple effects: dysfunction—was higher among the HIV-positive women in RWISA than • One of the Rwandan trainees—Jean D’Amour Sinayobye, M.D.—was recently accepted into Einstein’s two-year Clinical Research Training among HIV-negative women. Program. “Finding Dr. Sinayobye and recruiting him to Einstein’s CRTP is Blood samples drawn on the patients’ exactly the sort of outcome we envisioned when we initiated this in-country follow-up visits have not yet been training program,” says Dr. Prasad, whose AITRP grant paid for analyzed but soon will be, thanks to the program. recently acquired funding. “The team is • Einstein physicians Lisa Nathan, Marla Keller and Johanna Daily have eagerly awaiting the results on those fro- received pilot grants from Einstein’s Global Health Center to work with Dr. zen blood samples,” says Dr. Mulvihill, Anastos in Rwanda. Also working with Dr. Anastos will be Einstein research- the epidemiologist in the group. “Once er Elizabeth Kiefer, M.D., who has received a pilot grant from the Einstein/ we’re able to see how the patients’ lab Montefi ore CFAR to examine how nutrition and antiretroviral therapy affect results changed over time, we’ll be better infl ammation among Rwandan women. able to make predictions, such as how • Richard Sezibera, M.D., the Rwandan minister of health, has suggested patients on particular drug regimens are that Einstein pursue more extensive collaborations with Rwandan likely to fare.” healthcare professionals.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 37 Arturo Ekaterina Casadevall + Dadachova

38 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 DynamicEinstein’s Duo of the Decade Curiosity plus collaboration equals success for this research team

he partnership between Einstein’s Arturo Casadevall and Ekaterina T (Kate) Dadachova—10 years old and going strong—is one of the most fruitful in the College of Medicine’s history. The 50 papers they’ve published are impressive by any standard. But in this age of research specialization, what really stands out is the sheer variety of their ventures, among them a potential weapon in the fight against HIV/ AIDS, deploying melanin to shield against ionizing radiation, and a promising treat- ment now in clinical trials for metastatic melanoma.

The researchers arrived at Einstein by very different routes.

written by Larry Katzenstein photos by Jason Torres illustrations by Tatyana Starikova Harris

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 39 Arturo Arturo spent nine years at NYU, the ArArturo o Casadevall was born in the city ooff last three as a resident in internal medi- SanctiS Spiritus piritus in central Cuba. He and cine at Bellevue. “During my third year his family emigrated to the United SStates of residency, I realized I’d been away as popoliticallitical exiexilesles wwhenhen hhee was 11. FromF from the laboratory for a long time,” age 16 to age 20, he worked at a QQueens says Arturo. “In those days we had a lot McDonald’s four nights a week. “It was of elective time that we could convert a major formative experience,” he recalls. into laboratory time. So I told Dr. Saul “Everything in McDonald’s is a team ef- Farber, NYU’s chairman of medicine, fort, from the person who chops the let- that I wanted to do research and had tuce to the ones who clean up the trash. been accepted to the infectious disease I learned a lot about life there.” program at Einstein and Montefi ore. “He didn’t want me to leave, not- ing that I still had clinical and on-call my parents told me to be serious—to responsibilities at Bellevue as part of get an education and a profession. I my residency. But I kept insisting, and eventually enrolled in the chemistry he finally asked, ‘Who would you work department at Moscow State University. with over there?’ When I said I wanted It’s probably just as well. Otherwise I to work with Matty Scharf, his eyes could have ended up as a chorus girl.” opened wide and he said, ‘Oh—he’s one Kate stayed on at Moscow State for of our own,’ meaning Matty had gradu- four more years—1988 through 1992— ated from NYU and had maintained his to pursue a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. contacts there. To Dr. Farber, that meant The Soviet Union was dissolving, and that I wasn’t really leaving—which is the Russian economy was in chaos. how I ended up here.” “It was an exciting time, but it was Spain,1968: Arturo, middle, with brother Since arriving at Einstein in 1989 as also very harsh,” says Kate. “Although and father awaiting admission to the a postdoctoral fellow, Arturo Casadevall, we didn’t realize it at the time, we were United States. M.D., Ph.D., has distinguished him- very close to confronting hunger—real After enrolling at Queens College self as an infectious-disease researcher, hunger. Every day the food lines were (“the only place I could afford—it was lecturer and mentor. His lab carries out miles long for basic necessities such free at the time”), Arturo got what he research on how fungi cause disease, as milk, bread and cooking oil. Food calls his “lucky break”: acceptance into focusing on Cryptococcus neoformans, a lines, of course, were nothing new in the M.D./Ph.D. program at New York pathogen that can cause fatal infections the former Soviet Union. But it was one University (NYU) School of Medicine, in AIDS patients and other people with thing to stand in line for 30 minutes with a scholarship that provided tuition. weakened immune systems. He is now and another to have to do it for three “I had taken a summer elective in professor and Leo and Julia Forchheimer hours a day, as was common then. I was research at Queens College and realized Chair in Microbiology & Immunology working on my Ph.D., but I stood in I really liked it—the open-endedness and chair of the department. line too. I had to eat.” of the work,” says Arturo. “But I didn’t After earning her Ph.D., Kate left know you could have a career in re- Russia for Australia and looked for a search. In the milieu in which I grew up, Kate postdoc program. “But when I arrived, people either taught or worked for the Ekaterina (Kate) Dadachova was born Australia was in the midst of an eco- city or owned a bodega. Here was this and raised in Moscow. As a child, she as- nomic recession,” says Kate. “There whole new line of work I’d never heard pired to a show-business career. “I liked were very few jobs in science, and of, allowing me to combine medicine to sing and dance and wanted to go into nothing in physical chemistry.” Then with an investigative career.” the Moscow music hall,” says Kate. “But she spotted an ad for a postdoc position

40 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), a An interview with government research center in Sydney. A course she had taken as an under- graduate would now come in handy. Arturo and Kate “They were looking for someone with some background in radiochem- istry,” says Kate. “And in Russia, when you get your bachelor’s in chemistry, How did your collaboration animal model for the infection, radiochemistry is a compulsory course begin? two things Kate needed for radio- that includes lab work. I guess they Kate: I approached Arturo toward the immunotherapy. noticed that in my C.V., because I was end of 2000—very soon after I arrived Kate: In our first paper, in the chosen for the postdoc position.” at Einstein—and told him of my inter- Proceedings of the National Academy Kate’s postdoc at ANSTO led to est. I had absolutely no knowledge of of Sciences in 2003, Arturo and I a research position there. During her infectious diseases, but it seemed to me reported that radioimmunotherapy time at ANSTO, she helped develop that radioimmunotherapy could help helped against infections caused by novel methods for producing the radio- in treating them. After all, no effective Cryptococcus. Then, working with isotopes used in radioimmunotherapy, antibiotics exist for many infections. Liise-anne Pirofski, we achieved good a technology in which radioactive Arturo could easily have brushed me results using radioimmunotherapy isotopes (also known as radionuclides) off—many such conversations lead against Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria. are piggybacked onto antibodies. When nowhere. But he was willing to work the antibodies bind to antigens that with me. How is that work involving are unique to the cells being targeted, Arturo: I was intrigued—no one had fungal and bacterial infections the radionuclide emits radiation that tried radioimmunotherapy against progressing? selectively kills the cells. At that time, infections before. I didn’t know whether Arturo: Actually, that’s been put on the radioimmunotherapy was being investi- it would work, but it sounded worth back burner, because our later research gated solely as a cancer therapy. investigating. My lab had already made endeavors—using radioimmunotherapy In 1998, Kate came to the United antibodies to an antigen found in against incurable metastatic melanoma, States to work at the National Cancer Cryptococcus neoformans and we had an for example—became more important. Institute as a visiting associate in the lab of Martin Brechbiel, Ph.D. There she continued her radioimmunotherapy research—this time for treating colo- rectal cancer. She joined Einstein in 2000 as an assistant professor of nu- clear medicine at the invitation of M. Donald Blaufox, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the nuclear medicine department. “I moved to Einstein with the idea of expanding the use of radioimmuno- therapy into the field of infectious dis- eases,” says Kate, who is now the Sylvia © 2010 Tatyana Starikova Harris Albert Einstein College of Medicine © 2010 Tatyana & Robert S. Olnick Faculty Scholar in

Cancer Research and associate professor Radioactive isotopes are piggybacked onto antibodies targeting an antigen on the sur- of nuclear medicine and microbiology face of Cryptococcus neoformans. The antibody-isotope molecules are injected into the & immunology. bloodstream, latch onto fungal cells and emit radiation that kills those cells. In addition, crossfi re radiation kills nearby fungal cells and macrophages in which fungi are multiplying.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 41 What’s the best part of your partnership? Arturo: To me, the real gem of our collaboration is that we’ve found ways to continually expand into other areas. For example, my lab also does research © Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc. © Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, in biodefense, which involves using antibodies for defense against biological warfare agents such as anthrax. With her expertise in connecting antibodies to other molecules, which is required in radioimmunotherapy, Kate has helped us determine binding affinities of anti- bodies to microbes and their toxins. And Colorized scanning electron microscope image of anthrax spores superimposed on she has helped us out on a lot of other human lung tissue. Magnifi cation: X1,020 (anthrax spores), X15 (lung). things on that project that we would not otherwise have been able to do. You mentioned the importance in Israel—one for 6 weeks, the other for of your melanoma work. What 14. Phase 1 studies are meant only to Does personality play a role in a does it involve? establish safety, but they found good evi- successful partnership? Kate: We take monoclonal antibod- dence that the therapy was not only safe Arturo: Absolutely. In human deal- ies against melanin pigment and attach but also killed melanoma tumor cells. ings, almost everything ultimately comes them to the radioactive isotope rhe- Combining the data from the two down to the personal, and people have nium-188. The idea is for the antibod- phase 1 studies showed that the 19 to get along. I think one reason we’ve ies to seek out and selectively bind to treated patients had a median survival been able to maintain a productive col- melanoma tumors inside the body and time of 13 months compared with the laboration for so many years is that we’re for the isotope to then deliver a power- typical 9 months—nearly a 50 per- both inherently very generous people: ful dose of radiation to the tumor sites. cent improvement. Plus, for almost all I don’t care which of us gets the credit, patients, tumors either shrank or didn’t and Kate feels the same way. What mat- What’s the status of the research? grow. There is no satisfactory treatment ters is that the work gets done. We’re on Kate: Our radioimmunotherapy tech- for metastatic melanoma, so we’re very this earth for only a short time, and I nology for melanoma was licensed to a encouraged by these early clinical results. think we both feel that we should try to California biotech company, which has leave it a little better than we found it. been testing it on patients with the most Would this be the fi rst success- severe type of metastatic melanoma. ful use of radioimmunotherapy This past March the company, Pain against cancer? Therapeutics, Inc., announced results Kate: For solid tumors, yes. Compared of two phase 1 clinical trials conducted with “liquid” tumors such as leukemia and lymphomas, solid tumors have Minimizing melanoma: At left, PET/CT proven much more resistant to radioim- scan of patient with actively growing munotherapy, basically because their metastatic melanoma tumor 10 days tumor cells are not as accessible to the before treatment. At right, same patient one week after radioimmunotherapy. antibodies. Everybody had thought it Patient was infused with 188-Rhenium probably wasn’t worth trying against (a radioactive isotope) attached to an solid tumors—particularly melanoma, antibody made against melanin. Tumor is much paler posttreatment, indicating which was notoriously resistant to other death of tumor tissue. types of radiation.

42 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 So what led you to try it? radioimmunotherapy to target. Once black, melanin-rich fungi growing on Arturo: That’s a story that illustrates the antibody penetrates the tumor and the reactor’s walls. I found that very the value of basic science, and how latches onto the released melanin, the interesting. Melanin is well known for research in one area can really impact radiation emitted by the isotope should shielding against ultraviolet radiation— a totally unrelated field. Around 1997 kill nearby tumor cells. the protective role it performs for our my lab was studying fungi that pro- skin. The fact that melanized fungi duce melanin during infection, and we Wasn’t there a danger that the could survive and even thrive in the made an antibody to fungal melanin antibodies might target melanin produced by Cryptococcus neoformans. in skin cells or eye cells? Dr. Josh Nosanchuk was an important Arturo: One of the nice things about The fact that melanized collaborator on those early studies with the therapy is that only free melanin is fungi could survive and fungal melanin. That work had noth- targeted, not melanin inside cells. In even thrive in the highly ing to do with melanoma. We were in- healthy human cells, melanin pigment vestigating whether Cryptococcus makes is encased in structures called melano- radioactive Chernobyl melanin when it infects tissue. And somes that provide excellent protection. reactor suggested that since melanin is a very hard compound to identify, we thought that making Fungal melanin seems to have melanin might also block antibodies would help us fi nd melanin launched you into several differ- ionizing radiation. and label it. Then we tested whether ent research areas. How did your our antibody would react with other most recent collaboration—using highly radioactive Chernobyl reac- melanins, including human melanin, melanin to protect against ion- tor suggested that melanin might also and it did. That’s where things stood izing radiation—come about? block ionizing radiation—which could when Kate arrived here in 2000 with Arturo: Back in 2002 I saw a story on serve many useful purposes, from her radioimmunotherapy expertise. We the Web about the damaged Chernobyl shielding patients undergoing radiation later began discussing the possibility of nuclear reactor that was still too “hot” therapy to protecting astronauts against targeting melanin in melanoma. Since for humans to enter. A robot sent into radiation exposure in space. we already had this antibody to mela- the reactor returned with samples of nin, it seemed obvious to match the © antibody up with a radioactive isotope and give it a shot against melanoma.

Did you see some chink in mela- © AFP/Getty Images noma’s armor that radioimmu- notherapy could exploit? Arturo: I remembered hearing that tumors contain a lot of dead cells. In melanoma tumors, the dead cells would be filled with melanin pig- ment. I had a hunch that when those dead cells disintegrated, their melanin would spill out and become accessible to the antibodies and their attached isotopes. Since melanoma tumors grow very aggressively, rapid cell turnover An out-of-control nuclear reaction blew the roof off the steel building housing Chernobyl should mean many dead tumor cells reactor 4 on April 26, 1986. Melanin-rich fungi were later found growing on the reactor’s and a lot of melanin pigment for walls. This 2003 photo shows the concrete sarcophagus that was built over the reactor.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 43 What happened next? would allow patients to receive higher a previously undiscovered talent: the Kate: We found two mechanisms that doses of radiation to their tumors, ability to use radioactivity as an energy may explain how melanin works against making the treatment more effective. source for making food and spurring radiation. Melanin helps prevent the Earlier this year, we reported promising growth, much the same as chlorophyll formation of free radicals, which cause results in a study using a mouse model. in plants makes energy from sunlight. DNA damage, and it scavenges the free Mice that got infusions of the mela- Our 2007 PLoS ONE paper provided radicals that do form. Then we looked good evidence to support that idea. In at melanized fungal cells using electron one experiment, we took three genetical- microscopy and saw that the melanin in Astronauts might be able ly diverse fungi and found that ionizing fungal cells is arrayed on hollow spheres to rely on fungi as an radiation significantly enhanced the that look like nanoparticles. That gave growth of fungi that contain melanin. us the idea of creating “melanin nano- inexhaustible food source particles” as a strategy for protecting on long missions. What are the implications of bone marrow from the harmful effects fungi feasting on radiation? of radiation therapy. We took tiny silica nin particles and were then exposed to Arturo: They’re pretty startling, particles—grains of sand just 20 nano- whole-body radiation experienced much since we’ve long assumed that fungi meters in diameter—and coated them less bone-marrow damage, as measured exist mainly to decompose matter into with several layers of melanin pigment. by the numbers of white blood cells and chemicals that other organisms can use. platelets, than radiation-exposed mice Consider that the fungal kingdom com- Why focus on bone marrow? that weren’t pretreated with nanopar- prises more species than any other plant Kate: That’s where blood is formed. ticles. We’re hopeful that this use of or animal kingdom and that most fungi And the bone-marrow stem cells that melanin will ultimately benefi t patients. contain melanin. If fungi are making produce blood cells are extremely Arturo: That Chernobyl story also food in addition to breaking it down, susceptible to the damaging effects of led Kate and me in another direction. that means Earth’s energy balance— radiation—one of the main reasons How, we wondered, could fungi thrive in particular, the amount of radiation doctors must limit the radiation dose. in that toxic environment? We hypoth- energy being converted into biological A technique for shielding bone marrow esized that melanin in fungi may possess energy—may need to be recalculated. Kate: There are some intriguing practi- cal implications too. For example, since ionizing radiation is prevalent in outer space, astronauts might be able to rely

© Frank Cummings on fungi as an inexhaustible food source on long missions. Maybe that’s why, of all of our papers, this one on radiation- eating fungi has aroused the most interest. Over the three years after its publication, 57,000 people downloaded the paper from the PLoS ONE website. Typically, scientific papers are read by several dozen people.

Getting back to radioimmuno- therapy, can you describe using it on cancers caused by viruses— which may be responsible for up “You want these fungus burgers to stay or to go?” to 20 percent of all cancer cases?

44 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Kate: We’ve focused mainly on cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papilloma virus. Infected cells are trans- formed into cancer cells, which continue expressing, or producing, viral antigens. Our approach here is almost exactly the same as with melanoma: Some of the rapidly dividing tumor cells die and re- lease viral antigens. The radioimmuno- therapy homes in on those antigens and © 2010 Tatyana Starikova Harris Albert Einstein College of Medicine © 2010 Tatyana kills off surrounding tumor cells. We’re T cells infected with HIV display several viral proteins on their surface, including gp41. now trying to expand this approach to In radioimmunotherapy, antibodies are made against gp41, linked to a radioisotope and head and neck cancers caused by the injected into the bloodstream. Here an antibody has latched onto a gp41 molecule on the cell surface. The radioisotope emits radiation that destroys the infected cell. human papilloma virus, which have a particularly grim prognosis. Funding comes from the $100,000 Mary Kay What’s the status of that work? Ash Charitable Foundation Research Kate: The preclinical work—testing Grant I received in 2008 and a pilot in animal models of HIV/AIDS—is grant from the Einstein-Montefi ore complete. Einstein has licensed the Center for AIDS Research. Arturo and technology to a biotech firm, and we are I are collaborating on this project with awaiting its decision on clinical trials. Drs. Mark Einstein and Gary Goldberg, gynecologic oncologists at Einstein. In 10 years, you two have tackled more topics than most scientists Of your many projects, do you touch on in their entire careers. feel that the biggest blockbuster Is there any unifying thread? could be your use of radioimmu- Arturo: All these projects built on our notherapy against HIV/AIDS? first successful collaboration. Once we Arturo: It’s very exciting work, in Kate: With melanoma and viral learned we could work together and which we’ve collaborated with Dr. cancers, our target was material released accomplish things together, the rest Harris Goldstein, the director of the from dead cells. Here the antibody was somewhat like a research chain Einstein/Montefiore Center for AIDS homes in on the viral protein gp41 reaction—zigging and zagging but with Research. Our 2006 paper in PLoS on the surface of HIV-infected cells. a generally forward progression. Medicine showed that radioimmuno- Once the antibody binds to the gp41 therapy could successfully target and on infected cells, radiation emitted by How would you summarize your destroy human immune cells infected its attached isotope destroys the cells. partnership? with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. This could be an advantage over drugs Arturo: It’s been remarkably successful The study was done in mice, but it sup- now used against HIV/AIDS. Those and productive, which is pretty unusual. ports the idea that radioimmunotherapy drugs help keep HIV from multiplying, Many research collaborations don’t last might help in treating people infected but they can’t cure AIDS because they much beyond the first paper—just look with HIV. More broadly, the study can’t do anything about latently infected at Watson and Crick. I think the key to showed that radioimmunotherapy offers cells in which the virus lurks and may our success is that we both bring things potential for treating the many viral later start multiplying. Since even these to the partnership that allow it to be infections, from hepatitis C to Ebola, in latently infected cells display some gp41 “one plus one equals three,” which is which viral proteins are expressed on the on their surfaces, we hope that radioim- probably the way that really successful surface of infected cells. munotherapy can destroy them as well. collaborations are made.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 45 gg

PASSIONATEASSIONATE PURSUITS | EINSTEIN FACULTY,ACULTY, STUDENTS, STAFF

The Eloquent Instruments of Yesteryear

t started with a visit to an antiques (not including books and bottles) was a century of remarkable progress,” shop. “My wife and I bought an illustrates how radically the practice of he says. “The stethoscope and blood I old European pharmacy chest with medicine has evolved in recent centuries. pressure devices were developed, surgical several empty shelves, and soon we A number of common tools have innovations were born in response to found ourselves buying old medicine faded into history. Bleeders were the injuries of Civil War soldiers, and bottles to put on them,” says M. Donald once standard equipment in doctors’ anesthesia and X-rays were discovered, Blaufox, M.D., Ph.D., professor and bags—which themselves became rarities along with asepsis—keeping things chair of the department of nuclear with the decline of the house call. Also sterile,” he says. The new awareness medicine, professor of medicine and of gone, fortunately, are various useless and of infection risk caused physicians to radiology and longtime antiques lover. sometimes dangerous patent medicines. retire their handsome wood and ivory His first instrument acquisition was a Quackery, of course, remains to this day. instruments in favor of coldly functional, 19th-century fleam (bleeder) purchased Although Dr. Blaufox’s collection sterilizable stainless steel tools—a boon in New Orleans. Dr. Blaufox’s collection spans the 16th to the 20th centuries, for human health, certainly, but a loss of about 1,000 instruments and objects his personal favorite is the 19th. “It for aesthetics.

The Actina Eye Restorer, Catarrh and Hay Fever Cure, circa 1886. This quack cure’s maker, the New York and London Electric Association (located, inexplicably, in Kansas City, MO), claimed it would heal an improbable mix of ailments. We still don’t have a cure for hay fever and catarrh—also known as the common cold.

Homemade fl eam (bleeding device), circa 1800. Bloodletting was thought to relieve the redness, heat Physician’s saddlebags, circa 1870. Before gas-powered and swelling of infl ammation by reducing the blood vehicles arrived in the late 19th century, country doctors supply and emptying engorged vessels, a practice now made their house calls on horseback. The strap connecting considered harmful. Some historians believe that bleeding these two bags went over the horse’s back. contributed to the death of George Washington.

46 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Dr. Blaufox amidst items from his collection. At left are a microscope and anatomically accurate papier-mâché model, both circa 1870. In front of Dr. Blaufox is a drawer from a materia medica cabinet, circa 1880, fi lled with natural substances used to formulate medications. Hanging on the wall are early 19th-century binaural stethoscopes.

ON THE WEB More at www.einstein.yu.edu/ blaufox2010

Visit Dr. Blaufox’s virtual Museum of Historical Medical Artifacts at www.mohma.org

Modifi ed Laennec stethoscope, circa 1830. The fi rst stethoscope, invented around 1816 by French physician René Laennec, was a foot-long wooden tube designed to spare the good doctor the impropriety of placing his ear against the chests of female patients. It could be unscrewed into two pieces and carried in a pocket. The one shown here is shorter and one piece. Sphygmometer, circa 1880. In 1834, French physician Jules Hérisson invented the sphygmometer, which measured blood pressure crudely by determining the amount of pressure required to obliterate the pulse. The device shown here is a sophisticated expression of that concept. In 1896, Italian internist Scipione Riva-Rocci invented the fi rst accurate device, the sphygmomanometer, using an arm cuff to measure blood pressure.

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OOURUR DDNANA | ALUMNI NEWS

Commencement 2010 EINSTEIN’S NEWEST GRADUATES CELEBRATE NEW BEGINNINGS

Montefi ore CEO Steven M. Safyer, M.D. ’82: A Tradition of Activism

In elementary school, he stood up for integration. In college, he actively op- posed the Vietnam War. In the next years, “he functioned as a commu- nity organizer before Barack Obama popularized the term,” said Dean Spiegel when introducing Dr. Safyer, this year’s Commencement speaker. To help fi nance his Einstein educa- tion, Dr. Safyer served in Montefi ore’s Rikers Island Health Service. “On any enes are not destiny. They reminded the 2010 graduates of their given day, there were 5,000 patients with HIV,” he said. “The health needs “ tell us where we came from, new ability—and obligation—to make were staggering, and I felt an oppor- Gnot what we can become.” a difference. “You are receiving your tunity to make a difference.” When In addressing the graduates assembled degrees from a unique institution, with drug-resistant tuberculosis appeared for Einstein’s Commencement on June a strong and proud tradition of social in the prison population, he and his 3 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, activism and a commitment to improve colleagues developed a treatment program and fought for a state-of- Yeshiva University President Richard the lives of many,” said Dr. Safyer. “Do the-art TB hospital at Rikers. M. Joel was recalling the words of not hesitate to give voice to your ideas During his 28 years at Montefi ore, Dominick Purpura, M.D., Einstein’s and your ideals. Use your platform to Dr. Safyer has built specialty care dean emeritus and distinguished pro- speak to what is right.” (For more about programs and an extensive primary fessor emeritus of neuroscience. The Dr. Safyer, see the box at left.) care network, developed innovative strategies to manage care and as- message was clear: You have the power Candidates were led to the stage sume risk, and created nationally rec- to shape the world of opportunity that by Grand Marshal Stephen H. Lazar, ognized quality and safety programs. awaits you. “The vibrancy of our democracy Next, Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., and the strength of our social fabric are undermined by a fragmented Einstein’s Marilyn and Stanley M. healthcare system that leaves individ- Katz Dean, introduced Steven Safyer, uals and families poorly served,” he M.D., as the “ideal Commencement said. “You, our graduates, have the speaker.” A member of Einstein’s Class opportunity to shape a future that of 1982, Dr. Safyer is a partner with will benefi t generations to come.” the College of Medicine in his current OONN THETHE WEBWEB role as president and chief executive For more, visit officer of Montefiore Medical Center, wwwwww..einstein.yu.edu/einstein.yu.edu/ the University Hospital and Academic ccommencement2010ommencement2010 Medical Center for Einstein. Dr. Safyer YU President Richard M. Joel

48 EEINSTEININSTEIN : SSUMMER/FUMMER/FALL 10 1 2 3

1 Dean Allen M. Spiegel with Herbert Tanowitz, M.D. ’67. 2 Stephen H. Lazar, Ed.D., with Noreen Kerrigan, M.P.A. 3 Howard M. Steinman, Ph.D., with Alumni Association President Stephen Goldstone, M.D. ’79. 4 Lynne Meryl Mofenson, M.D. ’77, and Sten H. Vermund, M.D. ’77. 5 Dean Spiegel with 4 5 Lucy Shapiro, Ph.D. ’66.

Ed.D., assistant dean of students (with Howard M. Steinman, Ph.D., the M.D., Mervyn Goldstein, M.D., and many cute babies, adorable children Honorary Alumnus Award; Lynne Henry Pritzker, M.D. See page 51.) and supportive “others” accompany- Meryl Mofenson, M.D. ’77, and As is traditional, the Commencement ing the graduates in their journey across Sten H. Vermund, M.D. ’77, Alumni ceremony ended with the prayer of the stage). Dean Spiegel and President Lifetime Achievement Awards; and Maimonides, including these words: Joel presented the diplomas, conferring Noreen Kerrigan, M.P.A., associate dean “Our work is great and the human 180 M.D. degrees, 50 Ph.D. degrees for student admissions, the Lifetime mind presses forward forever. Thou hast and 15 M.S. degrees. Eighteen gradu- Service Award for a Non-Alumna. chosen me in thy grace to watch over ates received both an M.D. and a Ph.D. (Three members of the Class of 1960 the life and death of thy creatures. I am degree. With these new graduates, were given Alumni Lifetime Service about to fulfill my duty.” The Class of Einstein now boasts a grand total of Awards at the Gala Reunion Dinner 1960 alumni stood with the new gradu- 7,729 M.D. and 1,248 Ph.D. alumni. held that evening: Robert Bernstein, ates as Dean Spiegel gave the prayer. Members of the Class of 1960, Einstein’s second graduating class, were there to celebrate their 50th reunion. They were recognized with rousing applause for their pioneering role in Einstein’s history. In addition, sev- eral alumni received awards during Commencement. The honored alumni and their awards included: Herbert Tanowitz, M.D. ’67, the Dominick P. Purpura Distinguished Alumnus

Award; Lucy Shapiro, Ph.D. ’66, the The day that Elan and Juliana Rosenblat received their M.D. degrees, daughter Abby turned 2. Distinguished Ph.D. Alumna Award; The doctors fi rst met in nursery school.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 49 gg

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Reunion 2010 Honors the Class of 1960

Members of the Class of 1960 at the Gala Reunion Dinner.

miles and hugs were the order of Einstein to reconnect, reminisce and cel- class into the ballroom after the other the day as Einstein alumni from ebrate our 50th anniversary reunion.” classes were seated there. The mem- Sclasses ending in 5s and 0s gath- At Commencement exercises the next bers of the Class of 1960 proceeded to ered for Reunion 2010, which featured day, the Class of 1960 was honored by the stage to loud applause as Alumni the milestone 50th anniversary celebra- the Einstein community. Alumni from Association President Stephen Goldstone, tion of the Class of 1960, Einstein’s sec- all reunion classes then headed to New M.D. ’79, read out their names. ond class of graduates. On Wednesday, York’s Grand Hyatt Hotel for a Gala Dr. Goldstone thanked the 50th June 2, a dinner welcoming members of Reunion Dinner. Dean Spiegel and sev- reunion class for being Einstein pio- the Class of 1960 was held at the Yeshiva eral Einstein deans and faculty, including neers. He noted that two of the four University Museum at the Center for two of their former teachers, Milford women from the Class of 1960, Ruth Jewish History in New York City. Fulop, M.D., and Christine Lawrence, Freeman, M.D., and Sandra Weiss According to Ronald Ross, M.D. ’60, M.D., joined them. The Class of 1960 Schwartz, M.D., were present, calling chair of the Class of 1960’s 21-member enjoyed dinner in a private room while them “trailblazers.” Reunion Committee, “After ten months the other classes dined together. Dr. Ross, who spoke on behalf of of planning by the Reunion Committee, The highlight of the evening was the the class at both Commencement and our class was excited to return to dramatic entrance of the 50th reunion the Gala Reunion Dinner, remarked

50 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 that “the Class of 1960 appreciates the recognition given to us at this year’s reunion. We are all grateful to Einstein for providing us with the education that allowed us to succeed in our careers.” Dean Spiegel and Dr. Goldstone presented Alumni Lifetime Service Awards to Robert Bernstein, M.D. ’60, Mervyn Goldstein, M.D. ’60, and Henry Pritzker, M.D. ’60. They then introduced the 2010 Alumni Award From left, Helen Ross, Ronald Ross, M.D. recipients who had been honored ’60, Annette Satloff, Aaron Satloff, M.D. ’60, Barbara Schapiro, Melvin Schapiro, M.D. ’60, at Commencement (see page 49). at the Class of 1960 Gala Reunion Dinner. Representatives of each reunion class stood and gave brief reminiscences. The Day on Campus, Friday, June 4. The class representatives included Stanford morning featured an educational sym- Goldman, M.D. ’65; Herbert Kee, M.D. posium chaired by Dr. Ruth Freeman ’70; Howard Sobel, M.D. ’75; George for continuing medical education credit. Fulop, M.D. ’80; Russell Cohen, M.D. Speakers included Dr. Freeman, Melvin ’85; Neil Gordon, M.D. ’90; Rachel Scheinman, M.D. ’60, Melvin Zelefsky, From left, Einstein Lifetime Service Award recipients Mervyn Goldstein, M.D. ’60, Katz-Sidlow, M.D. ’95; and Snehal M.D. ’60, who received the Lifetime Henry Pritzker, M.D. ’60, and Robert Amin, M.D. ’00. Achievement Award for Excellence in Bernstein, M.D. ’60. Reunion 2010 culminated in Alumni Teaching, and Dean Spiegel.

Alumni Leadership Brunch On May 2, Dean Allen M. Spiegel hosted the annual Einstein Alumni Leadership Brunch at the Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine/Harold and Muriel Block Research Pavilion. The luncheon celebrated alumni whose cumulative lifetime gifts total $25,000 or more (the Dean’s Club giving level); those alumni who have now reached giving levels of $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 were presented with special leadership awards by the dean. Also recognized were alumni who made a gift of $1,000 or more to the College of Medicine this year. Guests toured the laboratories of Irwin Kurland, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Diabetes Center Metabolomics Core; Matthew Levy, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry, and Simon Daniel Spivack, M.D., M.P.H., chief, division of pulmo- nary medicine, department of medicine.

Top: Einstein Century Awardrd recipient Noel Friedland, M.D. ’60, second from left, and his wife, Ruth Friedland, with Dean Spiegel and Alumni Association president-elect Jack Stern, Ph.D. ’73, M.D. ’74. Bottom left: John D’Addario, M.D. ’75, receives the Einstein Century Award. Bottom right: Marvin Kirschner, M.D. ’59, receives the Einstein Circle Award.

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1

2 3

45

“It was an honor to plan and chair an and Translational Medicine/Harold and 1 Dean Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., with educational symposium highlighting the Muriel Block Research Pavilion, where Werner Barth, M.D. ’60, Arnold Sigler, M.D. ’60, Raymond Damadian, M.D. ’60, differences in the medicine of 50 years they heard a presentation by William R. and Robert Bernstein, M.D. ’60. ago and now. It is unbelievable how Jacobs Jr., Ph.D., professor of microbiol- 2 Aaron Satloff, M.D. ’60, Christine much change there has been since I was ogy & immunology, about his tubercu- Lawrence, M.D., Milford Fulop, M.D., an Einstein student 50 years ago,” said losis research in Africa. and Ronald Ross, M.D. ’60. Dr. Freeman. The alumni relations office is already 3 Members of the Class of 1960 (led by Following lunch in Lubin and a hard at work planning for Reunion Ruth Freeman, M.D. ’60, and Sandra presentation by Felise Milan, M.D. ’88, 2011, marking the anniversary reunions Weiss Schwartz, M.D. ’60) marching into the Gala Reunion Dinner. director of the new Ruth L. Gottesman of classes ending in 1s and 6s, includ- 4 James Rand, M.D. ’75, and John Clinical Skills Center, Irwin Dannis, ing the 50th reunion celebration for the D’Addario, M.D. ’75. M.D. ’60, led a campus tour. The group Class of 1961. For more information or 5 Joel Kreitzer, M.D. ’85, Russell Cohen, visited the Clinical Skills Center and to get involved, please contact alumni@ M.D. ’85, Jeremy Nadelman, M.D. ’85, the Michael F. Price Center for Genetic einstein.yu.edu or 718.430.2013. and Jerome Parness, Ph.D. ’82, M.D. ’85.

52 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 1 2

4 3 1 Robert Sidlow, M.D., Rachel Katz- Sidlow, M.D. ’95, and David Kardon, M.D. ’95. 2 Mo M. Chen, Arnold Chen, M.D. ’85, Virginia Kee, and Herbert Kee, M.D. ’70. 3 Seated: Harriette Mogul, M.D. ’65, M.P.H., Harriet Goldman, Ruth Jaffe, and Dale Sonnenberg; standing: Malcolm Mogul, Stanford Goldman, M.D. ’65, Steven Jaffe, M.D. ’65, and 5 Stephen Sonnenberg, M.D. ’65. 4 Snehal Amin, M.D. ’00, Robin Kashan, and Glenn Kashan, M.D. ’00. 5 Touring the campus on Alumni Day. 6 William R. Jacobs Jr., Ph.D., describes his tuberculosis research to visiting alumni during Alumni Day on Campus.

6

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CLASS NOTES commitment to the hospital’s Planetree Richard L. Myerowitz, M.D. ’68, lives philosophy of patient-focused care and in Monroeville, PA (outside Pittsburgh), 1959 and 1960s has been a role model to other staff and works part-time as a community Louis M. Aledort, members. It is inscribed, “Your exem- hospital pathologist. One of those com- M.D. ’59, the Mary plary skills as a physician, colleague munities—Punxsutawney, PA—is also Weinfeld Professor and friend make us proud to work by home to a famous groundhog named of Clinical Research your side.” Phil. “Unfortunately, I have no infl u- in Hemophilia at ence on the groundhog’s predictions,” Mount Sinai School Larry Bonchek, M.D. ’63, retired in he says. His oldest daughter is “back in of Medicine, received 1999 as founder and director of cardio- the Big Apple” as the CFO of St. John’s the prestigious Lifetime Achievement thoracic surgery at Lancaster General University; his middle daughter is a Award from the Hemophilia and Hospital in Lancaster, PA. Dr. Bonchek pharmacist practicing in Richmond, VA; Thrombosis Research Society last April, has been elected chair of the board and his youngest daughter is director in recognition of his distinguished career of trustees of Franklin and Marshall of a Hillel Center at the University of and contributions to the field of blood College. He serves as editor-in-chief of Sydney, Australia. “It would seem that disorders. the Journal of Lancaster General Hospital the Myerowitz family has gone global! “In addition to being a renowned (www.jlgh.org) and as senior advisor for I am very sorry that I was unable to researcher in blood disorders, Dr. academic affairs at Lancaster General attend our 40th reunion in 2008.” Aledort is a tireless advocate for the Health. He delivered the 2010 com- advancement of his peers, young physi- mencement address at the Lancaster Larry J. Platt, M.D. cians and investigators,” said Cindy General College of Nursing and ’68, writes that this Leissinger, M.D., professor of pediat- Health Sciences. year marks the 40th rics and pathology and chief, section anniversary of the of hematology & medical oncology, Sue Fried, M.D. ’64, “continues National Health Tulane University School of Medicine, to bounce back and forth” between Service Corps, who nominated Dr. Aledort. A pioneer Jerusalem and New York, keeping a “which started as a in the field of coagulation disorders, Dr. hand in psychiatry with occasional proposal I wrote in off-hours so that I Aledort has participated in many proj- locum positions. could feel I was doing something useful ects that have advanced scientifi c stan- while fulfilling my draft obligation as dards in research and patient care. He Sheila Tanenbaum, M.D. ’66, reports a ‘two-year officer’ in the U.S. Public has studied the safety and effectiveness the sad news that her husband, Michael Health Service.” He says he is “even of treatments for bleeding problems; the Bernet, passed away on March 30, 2010. more proud” of his two daughters, who blood disorder idiopathic thrombocy- On a happier note, her daughter, Leora came along later, and adds, “Someday, I topenic purpura (in which the immune Tanenbaum, recently published her lat- hope to be able to afford retirement, but system destroys platelets); and bleeding est book, Bad Shoes and the Women Who for now I am still engaged in one of the related to anticoagulant therapy. Love Them. many forms of public health service.”

Harvey L. Hecht, M.D. ’62, received James Cleeman, M.D. ’68, formerly David H. Abramson, M.D. ’69, has the Physician Recognition Award from with the National Heart, Lung and been granted tenure at Memorial Sloan- Stamford Hospital in Stamford, CT. Blood Institute at the National Institutes Kettering Cancer Center in New York— Dr. Hecht, who specializes in radiology of Health, is now senior medical offi cer the first ophthalmologist ever to receive and breast radiology, was nominated by at the Agency for Healthcare Research tenure there. His appointments are in fellow physicians and hospital personnel and Quality’s Center for Quality the departments of surgery, pediatrics for the honor. The award is given to the Improvement and Patient Safety, in and radiation oncology. physician who has shown an ongoing Rockville, MD.

54 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Robert S. Hoffman, M.D. ’69, is CEO of Brook Plaza Ambulatory Peter Sartell Prentice, M.D. ’72, practices psychiatry in the west San Surgery Center in Brooklyn, NY. In May Capt., M.C., U.S. Navy (ret.), has retired Fernando Valley and in Ventura, CA. 2010, Dr. Ackerman was listed in the to The Villages, in Florida, with Barbara, He is the proud parent of fi ve children New York Times as one of fi fteen “Top his wife of 31 years, after a career in and two stepchildren (a professor of Ophthalmologists in the U.S.A.” the U.S. Navy followed by 10 years in education at University of Southern emergency medicine. The couple has California; a clinical psychologist; a Joel Herskowitz, M.D. ’71, recently three children and six grandchildren psychiatric social worker; an architect published a book with his wife, Roya (and added four step-grandchildren in specializing in renewable design; a ser- Sayadi, Ph.D.: Swallow Safely: How June). Dr. Prentice says he is “done with vice writer for Jaguar; a student at UC Swallowing Problems Threaten the Elderly medicine and now working on my Ph.D. Hastings Law School; and a worker in and Others—A Caregiver’s Guide to in golf! More importantly, I am active in the solar energy industry) and proud Recognition, Treatment, and Prevention. Christian ministry, helping to lead the grandfather of seven. He writes: “My Dr. Herskowitz is on faculty in the local Discipleship Walk and helping to wife, a champion swimmer, is my offi ce division of pediatric neurology at lead young teens in worship ministry.” manager and also designs jewelry. My Boston University Medical School. 90-year-old mother lives close by. I play Dr. Sayadi is a speech-language patholo- Roger A. Rahtz, M.D. ’73, will begin French horn with a semiprofessional gist with the Visiting Nurse Association his second term as president of the wind ensemble and various orchestras.” in Natick, MA. For more information New York Psychoanalytic Society and about their new book, please visit Institute, which will celebrate its 100th 1970s www.swallowsafely.com. anniversary in 2011. Diane Stover, M.D. ’70, continues to serve as head of general medicine Mark Stein, M.D. ’71, FACS, is direc- David Siegel, M.D. ’73, M.P.H., and chief of pulmonary medicine at tor of the division of cataract surgery at has been selected to serve on the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer North Shore/LIJ Health System, associ- Communications Committee of the Center. Dr. Stover has once again been ate clinical professor of ophthalmology Association of Professors of Medicine chosen as one of New York’s top doctors. at the New York University School of (APM). In this capacity, he helps Her daughter, Dana, is at New York Medicine and associate clinical professor select and edit submissions for “APM Medical College in Valhalla, NY, after of ophthalmology at Hofstra School of Perspectives” in the American Journal of receiving an M.P.H. degree with highest Medicine in Hempstead, NY. Dr. Stein Medicine (AJM). Dr. Siegel serves on the honors from Columbia University. and Toby, his wife of 42 years, have four editorial boards of the AJM, Preventive grandchildren. Cardiology and Metabolic Syndrome and Jacob Ackerman, M.D. ’71, recently Related Disorders. In April, he served on welcomed his 21st grandchild, Ezekiel, Andrew Levitas, M.D. ’72, has written the Comparative Effectiveness Special whose parents are Michael and Julie a novel to be published in January 2011 Emphasis Panel for the Agency for Sherry. (Daughter Julie is a Stern by Star Cloud Press, with review copies Healthcare Research and Quality, review- College alumna and a physical thera- planned for September 2010. Dr. Levitas ing proposals submitted as part of the pist.) Another grandson, Benjamin writes: “The book is not self-published Health Care Reform Act of 2009. He Kosowsky, son of Daniel and Karen and not a thriller.… Half of the action is chief of medicine for VA Northern Kosowsky, will be bar mitzvah in takes place during a night on call at the Health Care System and professor and November. (Daughter Karen is a gradu- now-closed Morrisania Hospital in April vice chair of internal medicine at UC ate of Yeshiva University High School 1973, with flashbacks to undergraduate Davis School of Medicine. and of the State University of New York years, and to medical training from 1968 School of Optometry.) Dr. Ackerman to 1972 at a medical school in the Bronx works for his son, Steven Ackerman, named after a famous physicist.” The a Yeshiva University alumnus who novel is titled Alumni Notes.

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Mitchell E. Geffner, M.D. ’75, is Sylvia R. Karasu, and Glendale Memorial Hospital in interim division chief and director of M.D. ’76, clinical Southern California. fellowship training in the division of associate professor of endocrinology, diabetes and metabo- psychiatry at Weill Lynne M. lism at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Cornell Medical Mofenson, M.D. (CHLA), and professor of pediatrics College, and her ’77, is branch chief at the Keck School of Medicine of the husband, T. Byram for pediatric, ado- University of Southern California. Dr. Karasu, M.D., Silverman Professor lescent and mater- Geffner is a principal investigator in of Psychiatry and university chair in nal AIDS at the CHLA’s NIH-sponsored TODAY trial, the department of behavioral sciences Center for Research studying treatments for young people at Einstein, recently published The for Mothers and Children, Eunice with type 2 diabetes. He also serves as Gravity of Weight: A Clinical Approach to Kennedy Shriver National Institute of a national endocrinology consultant to Weight Loss and Maintenance (American Child Health and Human Development the NIH-sponsored PHACS study of Psychiatric Publishing), “a comprehen- (NICHHD) at the National Institutes adolescents with HIV infection and of sive text that integrates a mind, brain, of Health in Rockville, MD. Dr. uninfected children who were exposed body approach to weight.” (See “Einstein Mofenson writes: “It is very gratifying to to antiretroviral therapy in utero. He is Editions,” page 23.) For more informa- see many years of research on prevention a board member of the Lawson Wilkins tion: www.thegravityofweight.com. of mother-to-child HIV transmission Pediatric Endocrine Society, a member culminate in a change in World Health of the American Board of Pediatrics Patrick Lamparello, Organization policy guidelines that have Sub-Board on Pediatric Endocrinology, M.D. ’76, is a vas- the potential to significantly reduce new a medical advisor on childhood pan- cular surgeon at the pediatric HIV infection globally. Based hypopituitarism for the MAGIC New York University on research conducted by many indi- Foundation and the Pituitary Network Langone Medical viduals, including many funded by my Association, and a member of the Center and has his branch at the NICHHD, the WHO is Scientific Advisory Board of the CARES own clinical practice. now recommending use of antiretroviral Foundation. He serves as associate edi- He is currently vice chair of the depart- prophylaxis of either the infant or the tor of Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews ment of surgery and director of the mother during breastfeeding to prevent and was the coeditor of the recently vascular surgery fellowship. postnatal transmission of HIV infection. published text Pediatric Practice: My editorial on this topic was published Endocrinology (McGraw-Hill). Frank Gillingham, M.D. ’77, is the in the New England Journal of Medicine medical director and a cofounder of in June. I am also extremely honored to William Clusin, M.D., Ph.D. ’76, is HTH Worldwide, a leading inter- have received the Lifetime Achievement on the medicine faculty at Stanford national health insurance company Award for my work on pediatric and University School of Medicine, where based in Radnor, PA. Dr. Gillingham maternal HIV infection from Albert he is director of the EKG laboratory and has authored a number of articles on Einstein College of Medicine on June studies ion channels and calcium. He healthcare abroad and has been a fea- 3, 2010, along with my classmate Sten has four children, including a son who tured speaker at several international Vermund, M.D. ’77.” plans to take physiology at college next travel insurance conferences over the year. Dr. Clusin was recently elected an past ten years. He is a retired emer- Harold S. overseas fellow of the Royal Society of gency room physician, having served Koplewicz, M.D. Medicine in London and will be listed as an attending physician at the UCLA ’78, executive direc- in Who’s Who in America in 2011. Medical Center and as the ER medi- tor of the Nathan S. cal director at Westlake Medical Center Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research,

56 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 CCHARLESHARLES PPESKIN,ESKIN, PPH.D.H.D. ’’7272 Silver Professor; Professor of Mathematics Professor of Neural Science; Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences New York University

or four decades, Charles Samuel ogy he developed with colleague David McQueen, Ph.D., has Peskin, Ph.D., has studied the made possible the application of computational fl uid dynamics Fdynamics of the human heart— to cardiology. Although the immersed boundary method was specifi cally, the relationship between developed primarily for cardiac research, scientists are also the blood circulating through its four chambers and the heart’s applying it to other coupled systems, including the dynamics of muscles and valves. His promise was recognized early on: In the human inner ear and the locomotion of microbes. 1983, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a Dr. Peskin views Einstein’s M.D. /Ph.D. program as “an “genius award”—making his alma mater proud. amazing opportunity for me because I learned about so many Dr. Peskin’s work involves a broad range of disciplines, interesting and important biomedical problems that became including mathematics, physics and the focus of my life’s work.” Among his neuroscience. His discoveries, using most infl uential mentors at Einstein was sophisticated computer modeling, HIS PROMISE WAS RECOGNIZED EARLY Edward Yellin, Ph.D., professor emeritus have the potential to benefi t heart pa- ON: IN 1983, HE WAS AWARDED of physiology and biophysics and of car- tients by helping physicians plan treat- A MACARTHUR FELLOWSHIP, ALSO diothoracic surgery, whose research has ment strategies and by aiding in the KNOWN AS A “GENIUS AWARD”— improved understanding of the relaxation design of better replacement valves. MAKING HIS ALMA MATER PROUD. and fi lling of the heart. Not bad for a guy who admits to “He helped me set up experiments not doing his math homework in high and was very encouraging,” says Dr. school. Dr. Peskin went on to study engineering and applied Peskin, who built a fl ow-visualization chamber in Dr. Yellin’s physics at Harvard and then entered Einstein’s combined M.D./ lab. “Edward Yellin is an inspiring teacher. He introduced both Ph.D. program, where he did research in physiology. He didn’t David McQueen and me to cardiac research, and he had an complete the program’s M.D. component, “but I was pretty enormous infl uence on our subsequent work.” good at the Ph.D. portion,” he recalls. After earning his Ph.D., Dr. Peskin remained at Einstein for Dr. Peskin is best known for developing an elegant math- postdoctoral experience in pediatric cardiology and pulmonary ematical model called the immersed boundary method, which medicine. He then joined the faculty of the Courant Institute simulates fl uid fl ows in coupled systems, such as circulating of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, where he blood interacting with the elastic boundary of the heart’s valve remains today. leafl ets and muscle fi bers. The computer simulation methodol-

is president and founder of the Child York City that will offer treatments cardiologist and the administrator of Mind Institute (CMI), a new organiza- tailored to patients’ individual needs. his 19-person cardiology group. He tion dedicated to mental health care In March 2010, Dr. Koplewicz received finds a few hours a week to play golf for children worldwide. Under Dr. the American Society for Adolescent and remains an avid Mets fan. Margie Koplewicz’ leadership, CMI is integrat- Psychiatry’s William A. Schonfeld is in a neonatology practice in a large ing scientific research, evidence-based Award for his outstanding achievement, community hospital. The medical treatments and public education and excellence and dedication in the fi eld of tradition carries on to the next genera- advocacy programs—“an unprec- child and adolescent psychiatry. tion; son Michael is entering his second edented effort to improve how child year as a fellow in ENT at Boston and adolescent psychiatric and learning Marc Cohen, M.D. ’79, and Marjorie Medical Center. Daughter Rachel disorders are identified and treated.” (Curtis) Cohen, M.D. ’79, live and lives and works in Washington, DC, This fall, CMI will open a full-service, work in Abington, PA, a suburb of concentrating on environmental public multispecialty clinical program in New Philadelphia. Marc is an invasive policy issues, and son Daniel is in the

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 57 gg

OUR DNA | ALUMNI NEWS

KKEEPEEP EINSEINSTTEINEIN UPDAUPDATTEDED WIWITH YOOURUR NENEWS!WS! July 1, 2010, and will work in the area Please tell us what you are up to so your classmates can readd about it of postmortem imaging technology. The in Einstein magazine. To be included in the next issue, e-mail your news sabbatical “will not interfere with my to [email protected]. annual efforts to hunt elk with a bow and raise heirloom tomatoes.” engineering school at Cornell. Margie Jerry Eng, M.D. ’81, Ph.D., is a senior Hasan Bazari, M.D. ’83, stayed on writes: “We all love to ski/snowboard partner in Brandywine Pediatrics in in Boston after his internship in 1983 and spend a week each year in Park City, Wilmington, DE. Dr. Eng has practiced in internal medicine and his residency where we once ran into classmate Kenny in Wilmington since finishing his pedi- at Massachusetts General Hospital Grossman, and would love to see any atrics internship at Baylor in Houston, (MGH). He has been on faculty at other ski enthusiasts out on the slopes!” TX, and his residency in Wilmington. MGH since completing a fellowship in He and his wife, Robin Karol, Ph.D., nephrology there in 1989. Since 1994, Robert W. have three children: Jennifer Eng- Dr. Bazari has been program director for Marion, M.D. ’79, Kulawy, M.D. ’10, a resident at the the internal medicine residency, train- received the 2009 U.S. Naval Hospital in San Diego, ing several Einstein alumni in internal Zella Bronfman CA, specializing in pediatrics with the medicine. He is also clinical director Butler Change Agent goal of a fellowship in pediatric rheu- of nephrology. Dr. Bazari and his wife, Award. Sponsored matology; Rabbi Brian Eng, who will Wendy (Levoy) Bazari, M.D., Ph.D. ’83, by the Butler enter law school this fall; and Greg have two children: Anissa, an M.F.A. Foundation and given by the UJA Eng, who will complete his master’s student in creative writing at New York Federation of New York, the award hon- degree in entertainment technology at University, and Adam, who will be ored Dr. Marion’s efforts to improve the Carnegie Mellon University next year. graduating from Columbia College and lives of, and advocate for, people with Robin recently retired as CEO of the will be a Fulbright fellow in Indonesia disabilities. Dr. Marion is the Ruth L. Product Development and Management next year. Dr. Bazari writes: “I have Gottesman Chair in Developmental Association and is now a consultant in very fond memories of my education at Pediatrics and the director of the product development. Einstein and owe a debt of gratitude to Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation the institution and faculty for preparing Center at Einstein. His seventh book, Irene A. Cohen, M.D. ’82, relocated me for my career.” Genetic Rounds: A Doctor’s Encounters in in May to Austin, TX, after a lifetime the Field That Revolutionized Medicine, in New York City. She is working as a Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D. ’83, was published by Kaplan Publishing in psychiatrist in the Posttraumatic Stress published an article in Clinical Advisor October 2009 and will be available in Disorder Clinic at the Central Texas in March 2010, titled “Vitamin D: paperback this fall. Veterans’ Health Care System in Temple, What Lies Behind the Revolution” TX. Her husband, Michael Nill, Ph.D., (www.clinicaladvisor.com). 1980s retired in June from his position as David S. Friedman, M.D. ’80, and his headmaster of the Brooklyn Friends Jo Herzog, M.D. ’84, works in a prac- wife, Anne, have two recent events to School in Brooklyn Heights, NY. tice in Birmingham, AL, where she does celebrate: the birth of their fi rst grand- general, surgical and cosmetic derma- child, Yitzchak Michael, on December Kurt B. Nolte, M.D. ’82, is a professor tology as well as research. Her biggest 5, 2009 (the new parents are Rabbi of pathology and assistant vice president accomplishment has been her family, Joshua and Stephanie Sturm) and for research at the University of New which includes her husband, Bob, and the marriage of their son, BJ, to Sara Mexico School of Medicine. After 20 their five children: Richard plays tennis Ackerman on February 14, 2010. years as a faculty forensic pathologist, in college and hopes to become a neu- he began his first sabbatical year on rosurgeon; Ross is starting premed next

58 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 year and dances with a ballet company; eyedocnews.com. He also started a 1990s and Reid, 14, Rebecca, 12, and Ryan, 6, company, Share Medical Space, LLC. Lawrence S. Rosenthal, M.D. ’90, “are busy keeping me busy. Hope all is ShareMedicalSpace.com is the only Ph.D., is associate professor of medicine well with my classmates.” website dedicated to helping doctors and director of the section of cardiac find one another for the purpose pacing and electrophysiology and of Pesach Lichtenberg, M.D. ’84, works of sharing medical offi ce space— the EP Fellowship Program in the divi- as a psychiatrist in Jerusalem. He will increasingly important because of sion of cardiovascular disease at the be spending the coming fall semester at challenging medical economics. University of Massachusetts Memorial Stanford University, where he will be a Medical Center in Worcester, MA. Dr. visiting professor. Gerard D’Aversa, Rosenthal writes: “I wish I was able to M.D. ’89, is a part- come back for our reunion, but I was Daniel Hyman, M.D. ’86, is the ner in Ophthalmic golfing in Ireland...Poor me.” chief quality officer at the Children’s Consultants of Hospital in Denver, CO. He has served Long Island, a large Wendy Fried, M.D. ’91, is in private there since 2008 and is responsible ophthalmology practice in obstetrics and gynecology in for leading the hospital’s quality- practice based on North Hills, NY, delivering and oper- improvement and patient-safety Long Island, NY, that is involved in ating out of North Shore University initiatives. Dr. Hyman serves on a FDA studies to improve the treatment Hospital. She recently wrote a text- number of national child health quality and diagnosis of ophthalmic diseases. book, Comprehensive Pocket Atlas of leadership committees and was honored In January 2011, Dr. D’Aversa will Hysteroscopy, published in June 2010. with the 2009 Faculty Achievement travel to Accra, Ghana, with Unite for Dr. Fried has four children: Joseph, 18, Award by the National Initiative for Sight, a not-for-profit organization that Shari, 16, Mia, 11, and David, 8. Children’s Healthcare Quality. provides high-quality eye care to people in impoverished nations. He will be David Markenson, M.D. ’94, FAAP, Rory Hachamovitch, M.D. ’87, M.Sc., joined by his daughter, Jaclyn D’Aversa, FACEP, is professor of pediatrics at has joined the section of cardiovascular a sophomore at Barnard College. They the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at imaging, department of cardiovascu- will work with an eye clinic to screen New York Medical College in Valhalla, lar medicine, at the Cleveland Clinic for eye disease, implement educational NY, where he is also associate profes- in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Hachamovitch programs and coordinate sight-restoring sor of public health and director of the also received the Society of Nuclear surgery for children and adults. Center for Disaster Medicine in the Medicine Cardiovascular Council’s School of Health Sciences and Practice 2010 Hermann Blumgart Award for Cindy (Listhaus) Dobrinsky, M.D. ’89, and Institute of Public Health. He outstanding achievement in the fi eld and her husband, Aaron Dobrinsky, was recently promoted to the post of of nuclear cardiology and service to the celebrated the marriage of their vice president for disaster medicine council. He and his wife, Dr. Louise daughter, Elyssa Adina Dobrinsky, to and regional emergency services at Thomson, have four-year-old twins, Andy Feuerstein Rudin on March 14. Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. Rachel and Raphael. Elyssa is a 2010 graduate of Yeshiva He writes: “In this role I oversee our University’s Stern College; her mother is emergency management group, disas- Ari Weitzner, M.D. ’88, teaches a 1985 Stern alumna, and her father is a ter medicine department and regional ophthalmology residents as a physician 1985 alumnus of Yeshiva College. Elyssa resource center, which oversee the specialist at Kings County Hospital is the granddaughter of Dr. Herbert preparedness activities of healthcare Center in Brooklyn, NY, one of C. Dobrinsky, YU’s vice president for institutions in the lower Hudson Valley the largest teaching centers in the university affairs, and his wife, Dina. (3.2 million residents, 32 acute-care Northeast. Dr. Weitzner is the medical hospitals) as well as our regional emer- editor of the ophthalmology blog gency services.” Dr. Markenson was

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 59 gg

OUR DNA | ALUMNI NEWS

also recently appointed to the Federal Lori, his wife of five years, and their in Weston, FL. He and his wife, Rachel, Emergency Management Agency three-year-old son, Noah. have two children: Matthew, age 3 1/2, National Advisory Council, which and Eitan, age 1 1/2. advises the administrator of FEMA on Deborah Mensch, M.D. ’01, and all aspects of emergency management. Robert Marchlewski, M.D. ’01, cel- Matt Dombrow, M.D. ’06, completed ebrated the first birthday of their second his tenure as chief resident of ophthal- Todd Schiffer, M.D. ’94, has a private daughter, Ava Grace, on July 20. mology at the University of Medicine practice in pediatrics with his father, and Dentistry of New Jersey and started Kenneth Schiffer, M.D. ’61, and his AnnMarie (Huysman) Liapakis, a vitreo-retinal fellowship at Yale–New sister, Michelle Schiffer Merer, M.D. ’90, M.D. ’05, and her husband, Michael, Haven Hospital in July. He and his wife, who is married to David Merer, M.D. welcomed a son, Peter Nicholas, on Melissa, celebrated the first birthday of ’90. Todd recently left his post as direc- November 12, 2009. AnnMarie is a their daughter, Leah Paige, on May 11. tor of pediatrics at Lawrence Hospital in gastroenterology fellow at New York Bronxville, NY. He has been a pediatric Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Shahrooz Eshaghian, M.D. ’06, hospitalist for the last 10 years and is recently completed his first year of a about to embark on a master’s degree Anita Mohan Saha, M.D. ’05, and hematology/oncology fellowship at in medical management at Carnegie her husband, Shamit Saha, welcomed a UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Mellon in Pittsburgh. baby boy, Raj Mohan Saha, on July 5. CA. Dr. Eshaghian and his wife, Yael, In September, Dr. Saha and her fam- welcomed their first child, “a beautiful Efrat Meier-Ginsberg, M.D. ’99, is a ily moved to Philadelphia, where she baby girl, Navah,” on February 11. member of an ob-gyn private practice in recently started a new position as a Bergenfield, NJ. She has four children staff gynecologist at Jeanes Hospital, a ranging in age from 3 to 9. community hospital affiliated with the In Memoriam Temple University Health System. She Soleak Sim, M.D. ’99, is a general previously worked as a private prac- We sadly acknowledge the passing of pediatrician with Erie Family Health tice ob-gyn at Northern Obstetrics & the following Einstein alumni. We Center in Chicago. Erie’s mission is to Gynecology on Long Island, with fellow honor their memories and extend our deliver culturally sensitive healthcare to Einstein alumni Wendy Fried, M.D. ’91, deepest condolences to their families the area’s underserved population. and Brian Cooperman, M.D. ’88. and friends. Lois Blatchford Fuller, M.D. ’64 2000s Tejash Shah, M.D. ’05, is a project Harold Goldberger, M.D. ’60 Eric Tatar, M.D. ’00, has been a gastro- manager in the New York offi ce of enterologist in Rockland County, NY, McKinsey & Company, a manage- Lawrence M. Halpern, Ph.D. ’61 for the past four years. Dr. Tatar and his ment consulting firm. He advises large Richard I. Levine, M.D. ’72 wife, Stacey, have two children, Sophie pharmaceutical clients, insurers, hospital Ralph L. McBean, M.D. ’72 and Joshua. chains and the government on matters of Noel Nathanson, M.D. ’62 strategy and risk. Leonard Newton, M.D. ’77 Alon Gitig, M.D. ’01, is a practicing noninvasive cardiologist with Riverside Jeremy White, M.D. ’05, fi nished his David F. Thomashow, M.D. ’70 Medical Group in Yonkers, NY. He is otolaryngology–head and neck surgery on the faculty of Saint John’s Riverside residency at the George Washington Hospital in Yonkers, and also holds an University in June. He is currently doing appointment at Mount Sinai Medical a two-year plastic and reconstructive Center. He lives in New Rochelle with surgery residency at the Cleveland Clinic

60 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 HHelpelp UUss Trransforansform tthehe FFuturuture ooff MMedicine…edicine… Give to the Einstein Alumni Association Annual Fund

A scholarship can empower a gifted Einstein student to become:

a caring and curing physician

a world-class investigator working to unravel the mysteries of human health and disease

A well-designed student life program can enhance that student’s educational experience. “I’m honored to be an The Einstein Alumni Association Annual Fund provides Alumni Scholar and a both scholarships and student life programs. And your member of the Einstein support makes it all possible!

family. This scholarship is Please consider making your gift today. You’ll fi nd a enabling me to pursue my return envelope in the center of this magazine. Or, to make a contribution online, go to www.einstein.yu.edu/ dream: a medical career alumni, click “support Einstein,” then click “online giving.” involving my passion for Designate your gift or pledge to Albert Einstein College molecular genetics.” of Medicine. You don’t have to be an Einstein graduate to contribute.

Jason Matos, Alumni Scholar Class of 2012

For more information, please contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 718.430.2013 or [email protected]. gg

MAKING A DIFFERENCE | WOMEN’S DIVISION

The Einstein Women’s Division: A Thriving Tradition of Philanthropy Spirit Luncheon Shines Spotlight In 1953—two years before the College of Medicine fi rst opened its doors—a on Women’s Cancer Research group of pioneering women founded the National Women’s Division of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. They had a shared passion: helping create a new medical school that would welcome gifted students of all backgrounds without the strict quotas that prevailed at the time. Today, the Women’s Division boasts more than 1,000 members in two chapters: one in New York City, the other encompassing suburban Westchester County, New York, and Fairfi eld County, Connecticut. Over the years, the Women’s Division has been a driving force in philanthropy at Einstein, raising more than $100 million in support of research and educational programs at the College of Medicine. 2010 Spirit Honorees, from left: Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D., Naeem Khan, The Spirit of Achievement Luncheon, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Hoda Kotb, Dennis Basso, Adrien Arpel. the division’s fl agship fundraiser, was conceived in 1954 as part of the cosmetics pioneer, a TV Wolkoff; skin-care entrepreneur Adrien campaign to launch Einstein, and has journalist and a leading Arpel; TV journalist and NBC Today remained a proud Einstein tradition. A Einstein researcher were Show cohost Hoda Kotb; and Sylvia Held every spring in New York City, the among the honorees at the 56th Annual Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D., professor Spirit Luncheon honors outstanding Spirit of Achievement Luncheon held of epidemiology & population health individuals in the arts, business, journal- on April 27 at the Pierre Hotel in New and holder of the Dorothy and William ism and other fi elds. The dazzling list of past honorees includes Margaret Mead, York City. Hosted by the New York Manealoff Foundation & Molly Rosen Eleanor Roosevelt and Meryl Streep. chapter of Einstein’s National Women’s Chair in Social Medicine. The Women’s Division also sponsors Division, the luncheon, which drew Hamptons Family Day, a fun-fi lled “Wild, a crowd of 450 Women’s Division Wild West Carnival” that typically draws members and guests, benefi ted research 1,500 parents and children who summer at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, in the Hamptons. with a particular focus on women’s cancers. Generously donating his time and talent for the second year in a row, ON THE WEB Willie Geist, cohost of MSNBC’s To read more about the Morning Joe, served as master of ceremo- Women’s Division, visit www.einstein.yu.edu/home/donors/ nies. On the dais were fashion designer WomensDivision.asp. Naeem Khan (whose clients include First Lady Michelle Obama); luxury fur designer Dennis Basso; Lincoln Center’s director of fashion, Stephanie Winston From left, Al Roker, Hoda Kotb, Willie Geist.

62 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 To join the Einstein National Women’s Division’s initiative to support research on women’s health and cancers, or to learn more about the Women’s Division, please contact Janis Brooks at 718.430.2818 or [email protected].

2010 Spirit Luncheon Cochairs, from left: Renée Steinberg, Ashley Stark, Andrea Stark, Aileen Murstein, Amie Murstein Hadden, Nicki Harris, Jackie Harris Hochberg.

been an outsider and a refugee until I came to Einstein...where I found a really true home.” The highlight of her profes- sional career, she said, was becoming head of the Women’s Health Initiative at Einstein, a major study of the health problems of older women. Luncheon chairs were Nicki Harris, This year’s Spirit Luncheon was the experiences with breast cancer. Ms. Jackie Harris Hochberg, Aileen centerpiece of the Women’s Division’s Arpel told of helping her sister fi ght Murstein, Amie Murstein Hadden, three-year, $3 million initiative to sup- the disease, while Ms. Kotb, a breast Andrea Stark, Ashley Stark, Renée port research on women’s health and cancer survivor, announced, “I just got Steinberg, Sarah Steinberg Fiszel and cancers. The funds raised will help checked for my third year, and I’m all Jill Steinberg. advance basic and translational studies clear.” Introduced by surprise guest and “Most people have been touched in focusing on breast, uterine, cervical and Today colleague Al Roker, Ms. Kotb some way by some form of cancer that ovarian cancers. The studies are being noted that enduring the diagnosis and a specifically affects women,” said Jackie conducted by scientists at the Albert mastectomy had taught her that “life has Harris Hochberg, president of the New Einstein Cancer Center under the margins, and it’s to be valued and not York chapter. “With our great turn- leadership of center director I. David wasted.” out today, I’m confident our current Goldman, M.D., the Susan Resnick Dr. Wassertheil-Smoller, who is a initiative will help Einstein’s dedicated Fisher Professor. Holocaust survivor, spoke of the support researchers succeed in their efforts to In their acceptance remarks, two of and encouragement she has received at ensure a healthier future for all women the honorees mentioned their personal Einstein over the years. “I had always and girls.”

Women’s Division Installs Westchester/Fairfield Chapter President Family Day 2010: A Success!

Tara Stein was inducted as the new president of the Westchester/ Fairfield chapter of Einstein’s National Women’s Division at an installation ceremony held on © 2010 Christina Sangster June 17, 2010, at Fenway Golf Club in Scarsdale, NY. Ms. Stein also serves as an assistant vice president of the division’s New York chapter and Tara Stein, second from right, with, from left, past Hosted by the National Women’s Division’s as a committee member for 2010 Westchester/Fairfi eld chapter presidents Jody Leavitt New York chapter at the Ross School in Family Day in the Hamptons. and Denise Rothberg, and National Women's Division Bridgehampton, NY, the August 8 event president Kathy Weinberg. raised funds for women’s cancer research.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 63 gg

MAKING A DIFFERENCE | MEN’S DIVISION

Men’s Division Golf Outing Honors Martin Luskin and Supports Medical Research

vercast skies could prevalence in the Bronx. not dampen the fun The five new Men’s and camaraderie Division Research Scholars at the 2010 Einstein Men’s are: Irene Blanco, M.D., Division’s Golf & Tennis Tour- M.S., who is interested nament and Dinner, held June in the biomarkers for 14 at Quaker Ridge Golf Club kidney damage caused by in Scarsdale, NY. This year’s lupus; Sean Lucan, M.D., honoree was Martin Luskin, M.P.H., M.S., who works recipient of the 2010 Albert on reducing childhood Einstein Humanitarian Award. obesity in the Bronx through Mr. Luskin, a partner in the community-based nutrition law firm of Blank Rome LLP, 2010 Einstein Humanitarian A ward Recipient Martin Luskin, center, programs; Deepa Rastogi, is a longtime leading member with Dean Spiegel and executive committee member Neil Clark. M.D., M.S., a pediatric of the Men’s Division and a pulmonologist studying the passionate advocate for medical research Associate Dean Harry Shamoon, M.D., connection between childhood obesity at Einstein. “How many of us can truly director of the Institute for Clinical and and asthma; Sara Rubin, M.D., M.P.H., say we’re working every day to change Translational Research, introduced the who is exploring the use of long-acting, the world?” he asked upon receiving his 2010 Men’s Division Research Scholars. reversible contraceptives to prevent teen award. “Take a tour of the Price Center/ They’re involved in a variety of research pregnancy; and Joshua Steinerman, Block Research Pavilion at Einstein and areas, including childhood asthma and M.D., who is investigating ways to meet the physician-scientists there, as I childhood obesity, both of which are on promote healthy brain aging to prevent have, and you will be in the presence of the rise in the United States, with a high Alzheimer’s disease. brilliant people who are doing just that. As a member of the Men’s Division, I am honored to play even a very small part in that endeavor.” Proceeds from the event benefi ted the Men’s Division Research Scholars Program (MDRSP), the division’s $3 million fundraising initiative. Now in its second year, the MDRSP helps fund the training of Einstein physician-scientists. These talented researchers collaborate with basic scientists at Einstein on stud- ies aimed at speeding laboratory fi ndings into new treatments and prevention strategies for cancer, diabetes and other Front r ow, from left: Drs. Deepa Rastogi, Irene Blanco, Sean Lucan, Susan Rubin. serious illnesses. Back r ow, from left: Dean Allen M. Spiegel, Ray Cohen, Peter Gatof, Dr. Harry Shamoon, During the dinner program, Dr. Joshua Steinerman.

64 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 To learn more about the Einstein Men’s Division or the Men’s Division Research Scholars Program, please contact Patricia Margulies at 718.430.4170 or [email protected].

1 2

Einstein’s Philanthropic Band of Brothers The Men’s Division of Albert Einstein College of Medicine was formed in 1961 by a group of businessmen- philanthropists. They were dedicated to supporting a fl edgling medical school destined to become one of the nation’s premier centers for biomedical research and medical education. Over the years, the Men’s Division—whose membership 3 now numbers over 1,000—has encour- aged the growth and development of Event chairs were Jack Somer, Mitchel 1 Golf foursome, from left: Einstein the College of Medicine, providing an Maidman, Neil Clark, Marc Altheim and Overseers Sam Weinberg, Paul invaluable source of volunteer leadership Konigsberg and Daniel Tishman and continuity. Peter Zinman. with Jonathan Mechanic, past The division carries out its commit- Accepting an engraved gavel presented Men’s Division honoree. ment to Einstein by hosting a variety of to him by Dean Allen M. Spiegel in recog- 2 Einstein Overseer Arnold Penner, fund-raising events and educational pro- nition of his service, outgoing chair Peter left, with his guest, Stuart Cantor. grams throughout the year. Two fl agship Gatof noted, “Everything we’ve accom- 3 Tennis chair Marc Altheim events are held each year: Bronx Night, plished for Einstein these past two years has (front, second from right) spotlighting Einstein’s close relation- been a team effort. We’ve helped Einstein’s with tennis players. ship with the Bronx community, and the brilliant researchers lay the groundwork Men’s Division Annual Golf & Tennis for a healthier world, and we’ll continue to Tournament and Dinner. help advance the mission of this fi ne insti- tution in the years ahead.”

Raymond S. (Ray) Cohen officially began his two-year ON THE WEB term as the new chair of the Einstein Men’ s Division To read more about the Men’s Division: at the division’ s annual dinner , held on June 14, 2010. www.einstein.yu.edu/home/donors/ MensDivision.asp. Mr. Cohen, a 25-year member of the Men’s Division, previously served as a vice chair and is a longtime member of the division’ s executive boar d. He is vice president at the Chicago Title Insurance Company of the Greater NYC Area.

SCIENCE ATAT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 65 gg

MAKING A DIFFERENCE | NOTABLE GIFTS

Linda and Earle Altman Support Translational Cancer Research

instein Overseer Linda Altman and her husband, E Earle Altman, have pledged $1,250,000 to support the work of Steven Libutti, M.D., an internationally recognized leader in cancer research and oncological surgery. The Altmans’ remarkable gift will greatly enhance Dr. Libutti’s efforts to develop innovative cancer therapies that could potentially transform cancer care. Dr. Libutti came to Einstein in 2009 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). His research focuses on the formation of new blood vessels that nourish tumors, as well as the interactions among tumor cells and other cells and components of the tumor microenvironment that influence tumor growth and spread. While at the NCI, Dr. Libutti and his collaborators developed an innovative method for delivering therapeutic genes to the blood vessels of tumors in mice. Dr. Libutti now serves as professor and vice chair of surgery at Einstein and at Montefiore Medical Center; associate director for clinical services at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center; director of the Montefi ore- Einstein Center for Cancer Care; and professor of genetics at Einstein. His multifaceted role will allow him to promote the growth of multidisciplinary translational research collaborations between Einstein Linda and Earle Altman and Montefi ore. Longtime Benefactors and leading Einstein supporters, Linda and Earle Altman previously established the Linda and Earle Altman Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research. Gary L. Goldberg, M.B., Ch.B. was invested as the inaugural holder in 2009. Mrs. Altman has served on Einstein’s Board of Overseers since 2006 and is a member of its executive committee; she is a past president of the Einstein National Women’s Division.

Steven Libutti, M.D.

66 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Beren Family Support Ruth L. Gottesman Clinical Skills Center

n April 1, 2010, Allen M. OSpiegel, Einstein’s Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean, hosted a dedication ceremony and luncheon for Robert M. Beren and members of his family at Einstein’s new Ruth L. Gottesman Clinical Skills Center. Mr. Beren, along with his children, Nancy T. Beren, Amy Beren Bressman, Julie Beren Platt and Adam E. Beren, made a generous pledge of $360,000 to support the Clinical Skills Center. In recognition of their support, the center’s conference room has been named for Harry H. Beren, Mr. Beren’s late uncle. At the dedication and luncheon, Mr. Beren, his wife, Malka, his daughter Julie and three of her children were joined by Einstein’s chairperson (and friend of the Berens), Dr. Ruth Gottesman, The Beren family, from left: Jonah Platt, Henry Platt, Julie Beren Platt, Robert Beren, along with a host of Einstein Malka Beren, Samantha Platt Auerbach. administrators and students. “We’re deeply grateful for the Beren family’s generous and steadfast support of the College of Medicine,” said Dean Spiegel. “This latest commitment has enhanced our capacity to continue providing the highest quality clinical training for our students. We’re pleased that the opportunity to support the Gottesman Clinical Skills Center has provided you with a chance to honor the memory of your beloved uncle.” The Beren family’s previous gifts to Einstein include $1 million to endow the Harry H. Beren Study Center in the D. Samuel Gottesman Library and $500,000 to benefit the study center.

In addition to his support for Einstein, Mr. Beren is chairman The new Harry H. Beren Conference Room in the emeritus and a longtime Benefactor of Yeshiva University. Gottesman Clinical Skills Center.

SCIENCE AT THE HEART OF MEDICINE 67 gg

A LOOK BACK | EINSTEIN IN HISTORY

Much has changed since this photo of the Einstein library was taken in 1959. Today’s hairstyles are longer; that low shelving extending from the left is much taller, nearly touching the ceiling; and laptops abound. But certain features endure when it comes to libraries, and these Einstein students of 51 years ago share a few traits with their studious modern counterparts: immersed in books, taking notes and hoping to ace that upcoming exam. (See page 4, “A New Page in the Gottesman Library’s History.”)

68 EINSTEIN : SUMMER/FALL 10 Help us transform human health. Be part of the Einstein Legacy.

Your bequest will help Einstein continue to provide outstanding medical education and research that holds the key to lifesaving treatments and potential cures for disease.

And you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you helped Einstein build a healthier future for generations to come.

To learn more about making a bequest in your will and the advantages of other tax-favored legacy gifts to Einstein, please contact:

Glenn Miller Science at the heart of medicine Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement 718.430.2411 or [email protected]

Henry Rubin, J.D. Senior Director of Planned Giving 917.326.4959 or [email protected] NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE Science at the heart of medicine

Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus 1300 Morris Park Avenue Bronx, NY 10461 www.einstein.yu.edu

Summer/Fall 2010

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Congratulations! From left, Ronald Ross, M.D. ‘60, Robert Bernstein, M.D. ‘60, and new grads Dara Bier, M.D. and Baruch Berzon, M.D. See pages 48–53 for 2010 Reunion and Commencement coverage.

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