@ MedicineAdvancing Biomedical Science, Education and Health Care YaleVolume 3, Issue 5 September/October 2007 $23 million grant enables fresh look at stress and addiction People are much more likely to stick fully elucidated. Now, an interdisci- experts working on 14 projects aimed their hand in a cookie jar, smoke plinary team of 16 Yale researchers and at finding new ways to combat the a cigarette, or gulp cocktails when collaborators, led by Sinha, has won a powerful cravings that make treating they’re overworked, ensnared in fam- $23.4 million grant from the National food and drug addictions so difficult. ily conflict, or having trouble balanc- Institutes of Health to study how and The Yale team is one of only nine ing the inordinate number of respon- why stress fuels addictions. nationwide to receive the grants, from sibilities thrown at them. According to The research group—known as a pool of more than 100 applicants. Rajita Sinha, ph.d., professor of psy- the Interdisciplinary Research Con- “Stress is the kind of topic that chiatry, stress has been clearly linked sortium on Stress, Self-Control and really begs for being studied in an in- Rajita Sinha will direct a consortium of 16 to disease outcomes, but the complex Addiction—includes psychiatrists, terdisciplinary way, because it affects scientists to better understand the links effects of stress on self-control and neuroscientists, social psychologists every organ system in some way or between stress, self-control and addiction. addictive behaviors have not been and communications and policy another,” says Sinha. Stress, page 6 Lightening the load Giving back for the physicians Top-notch surgery at Yale of the future inspires a major gift “I don’t believe in giving for con- crete,” declares Sanfurd G. Bluestein, to the School of Medicine m.d., in as pithy a summation of his Karen Pritzker and Michael Vlock pragmatic approach to philanthropy of Branford, Conn., say the primary as one could imagine. While recogniz- R. Lawrence “Larry” ing the necessity of bricks and mortar motivation behind their recent $3 Moss (left) is the first million gift to endow a School of for the School of Medicine, Bluestein, Robert Pritzker Profes- a 1946 alumnus, has unabashedly Medicine professorship in pediatric sor of Pediatric Surgery, surgery is gratitude. Two of their named in honor of the thrown his weight behind the school’s children have been treated over the Chicago industrialist flesh and blood—the people, both and philanthropist faculty and students, who imbue the years by surgeons at Yale-New Haven (above). Children’s Hospital (ynhch), and in classrooms and labs with life and each instance, Pritzker and Vlock say, meaning. they received excellent medical advice “In general, my goal is to continue and first-rate care. to give at a regular rate to scholar- ships for young people,” says Blues- The new professorship is named atric Surgery,” says Moss. “We ensure the medical school at the University tein, and his latest gift to the medical in honor of Karen Pritzker’s father, that children receive the care they of Chicago, which was renamed the school—$500,000 that will add to a Robert A. Pritzker, a Chicago-based need regardless of their family’s abil- Pritzker School of Medicine in 1968. scholarship fund he established in executive and philanthropist who ity to pay, so there are fewer resources Pritzker is now ceo of Colson Associ- 1996 on the occasion of his 50th re- founded the Marmon Group, an to support innovation and discovery. ates Inc. and of six other companies union—is a case in point. “I’ve given international association of more This gift establishes a permanent that manufacture medical devices. to this scholarship fund regularly over than 100 manufacturing and service source of funds to ensure that Yale He is past chairman of the board the years,” he says. “I intend as long as firms that is the 19th largest private Pediatric Surgery will always be able of trustees of The Field Museum of I live to keep doing that.” company in the U.S. “My father has to invest in research that will result in Natural History in Chicago, and a In all, Bluestein’s steady contribu- demonstrated an unwavering com- continuing improvement in the surgi- fellow of the American Institute for tions to the School of Medicine over mitment to make the world a better cal care of children.” Medical and Biological Engineering. more than 25 years exceed $1 million, place throughout his long business Robert Pritzker, a 1946 graduate in The new Pritzker Professorship including support for the Department and philanthropic career,” Karen industrial engineering of the Illinois provides support for the clinical of Diagnostic Radiology, which also Pritzker says. In May, R. Lawrence Institute of Technology (iit) in Chi- expertise that Pritzker and Vlock and received support from his latest gift. “Larry” Moss, m.d., professor of sur- cago, served as the chair of iit’s board thousands of other families rely on, In 1980 he endowed a fund in that gery and chief of surgery at ynhch, of directors and gave a significant gift but it will also advance Yale research department to support the Bluestein was named the first Robert Pritzker to establish the Pritzker Institute of on pediatric surgery that will im- lecture, an annual presentation on Professor of Pediatric Surgery. Biomedical Science and Engineering prove children’s health at ynhch biomedical imaging by a distin- “This generous donation repre- at iit. He also joined his father and and beyond for years to come. Moss, guished invited speaker. sents a quantum leap for Yale Pedi- his brothers to make a major gift to Pritzker, page 7 Bluestein, page 4
Non-Profit Org. Inside this issue Medicine@Yale U. S. Postage 300 George St., Suite 773 PAID Lifelines Science in a new vein For James Duncan, every picture Building blood vessels for New Haven, CT 06511 New Haven, CT Permit No. 526 tells a story, p. 2 babies with heart problems, p.5 www.medicineatyale.org A pair of aces A transatlantic bridge Lyme disease expert named Scientists join an international section chief, Hughes investigator, p. 2 fight against hypertension, p. 8 Thought for food Also Yale scientists explore obesity Advances, pp. 3, 5; Out & About, p. 4; from many angles, p. 3 Grants and Contracts, p. 7; Awards & Honors, p. 8
Want to find out more about medicine at Yale? E-mail us at [email protected] or phone (203) 785-5824. Dean for education is appointed Jockers Professor Richard Belitsky, m.d., deputy dean for education and associate profes- sor of psychiatry, has been named the James Duncan and colleagues Harold W. Jockers Associate Professor are devising of Medical Education. ways to ex- Since he joined the medical tract the most clinically useful school faculty, Belitsky has focused images from the on curriculum mountains of development at the data produced by biomedical imag- School of Medicine, ing techniques particularly with such as mri and respect to training echocardiography. medical students in the biopsychosocial model of medicine, that automatically locate the heart such as those performed to treat Richard Belitsky teaching tech- wall in echocardiographic images epilepsy. Though the brain doesn’t niques for patient-centered medical Moving despite the myriad shapes this move as dramatically as the heart, its interviewing, and teaching how to tissue assumes over time as the shape does markedly change during counsel patients to change unhealthy pictures heart beats. With image-based surgery, which alters the location of behaviors. He is also interested in the models of heart-wall thickness and important anatomical landmarks. development of professional identity Expert on image analysis elasticity such as those Duncan Christine DeLorenzo, ph.d., who just in medical education, with emphasis finds guideposts for doctors and colleagues are building at the earned her graduate degree working on the impact of power and authority bedside, cardiologists could precisely with Duncan, found that by training in the ever-changing body on the developing identity of medical determine what structures have two cameras on the surface of the students. Though James S. Duncan, ph.d., been damaged by a heart attack and brain during surgery and feeding the Belitsky received his m.d. from has ready access to the School of how well patients are healing. resulting stereo image into comput- the University of Florida School of Medicine’s state-of-the-art imaging Duncan may inherit his technical ers it is possible to create a math- Medicine in Gainesville. He came to technology, he still grapples with a bent from his father, who served in ematical model that provides an Yale in 1979 as a resident in psychia- problem faced by the tintype pho- the Canadian Air Force and went on up-to-the-second, three-dimensional try and continued on as a fellow in tographers of old—his preferred to work in the telephone industry rendering of the brain as it shifts in forensic psychiatry and chief resident/ subjects just won’t sit still. in New York City. Duncan, born in the operative field. instructor in the Department of Psy- No organ is more restless than the Bronx and still a diehard New By adding magnetic resonance chiatry. He joined the faculty as an as- the heart, and the constant move- York Yankees fan, was the first in spectroscopy, which detects bio- sistant professor in 1983, when he also ment of the muscle that forms his family to gradu- chemical changes in small regions of became unit chief of the Inpatient its chambers only adds to the dif- Lifelines ate from college. He tissue, to the mix, Duncan foresees Services Division of the Connecticut ficulty of interpreting the speckled, James earned a master’s a day when neurosurgeons treating Mental Health Center. shadowy images produced by echo- degree in electrical epilepsy will use “multimodality” Belitsky has served as the direc- cardiography. For more than 15 years, Duncan engineering at the imaging—anatomical, functional tor of graduate education in the Duncan, vice-chair and Ebenezer K. University of Califor- and biochemical—to accurately Department of Psychiatry and as the Hunt Professor of Biomedical Engi- nia, Los Angeles, and a ph.d. at the place tiny probes in patients’ brains department’s director of education neering and professor of diagnostic University of Southern California, that detect the onset of a seizure from 1997 to 2006, when he became radiology, has worked with cardiolo- both with the help of fellowships and quickly deliver drugs to inter- the deputy dean for education for the gist Albert J. Sinusas, m.d., professor from the Hughes Aircraft Company. rupt it. medical school. of medicine and diagnostic radiol- Duncan worked at Hughes for 10 Having once observed surgeries ogy, to find better ways to extract years during his schooling, but guided by images stuck to the oper- @ information about the heart’s health found that he needed a change. ating room wall with masking tape Medicine Yale Peter Farley, Managing Editor from these images. In 2006, their “I enjoyed the aerospace indus- and highlighted in colored pencil, Contributors: Janet Emanuel, Johannes Hirn, Jill Max, efforts received a major boost in try, but military-oriented projects Duncan says that today’s technol- Karen Peart, Colleen Shaddox, Jacqueline Weaver, the form of a five-year, $7.2 million weren’t what I wanted to do as a ogy presents an embarrassment of Sarah C.P. Williams. Bioengineering Research Partnership career,” Duncan says. “I even consid- scientific riches. Photographs and Illustrations: Pamela Bhalla, (brp) grant from the National Heart, ered switching careers to medicine, “The whole idea of how you rep- ©Dmitriy Bryndin/iStockphoto, John Chalcraft, Lung and Blood Institute, the second but I decided that if I could take resent information as images, how Terry Dagradi, Robert Lisak, Michael Marsland, Mary Meehan, Frank Poole, Becky Spooner, brp grant Duncan has received to all that I had learned and turn it in you look across scales and modali- ChiChi Ubiña, ©Marcelo Wain/iStockphoto. support his research. a new direction, that would be a ties and problems, that’s exploding,” Design: Peter W. Johnson, Maura Gianakos Along with ultrasound expert better course.” says Duncan. “It’s a neat thing for Matthew O’Donnell, ph.d., the Frank Duncan also collaborates with those of us who do the analysis, but Medicine@Yale is published six times each year by the Office of Institutional Planning and Communications, and Julie Jungers Dean of the Uni- Dennis D. Spencer, m.d., the Harvey there’s a lot out there. You need to Yale School of Medicine, 300 George St., Suite 773, versity of Washington’s College of and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuro- grab on to certain pieces of it so you New Haven, CT 06511. Engineering, Duncan and Sinusas surgery, finding ways to guide sur- can get your arms around some- Telephone: (203) 785-5824 Fax: (203) 785-4327 are devising computer algorithms geons through brain operations thing you can really dig into.” E-mail: [email protected] Website: medicineatyale.org
Copyright ©2007 by Yale School of Medicine. Lyme disease expert is new section chief and Hughes investigator All rights reserved. If you have a change of address or do not wish In June, Erol Fikrig, Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine, since lic health, as chief Fikrig is expected to receive future issues of Medicine@Yale, please write to us at the above address m.d., an expert in he became leader of the department to place a new emphasis on emerging or via e-mail at [email protected].
vector-borne dis- in October, 2006. infectious diseases, an effort that will Postal permit held by Yale University, eases and a pioneer On October 12, Fikrig was named add at least four new basic science, 155 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520 in the develop- one of 15 new “patient-oriented” translational and clinical investiga- Yale School of Medicine ment of a Lyme investigators in the Howard Hughes tors to the 15-member section. As Robert J. Alpern, m.d., Dean disease vaccine, was Medical Institute; investigators are a Hughes investigator, he will con- Ensign Professor of Medicine named chief of the chosen through rigorous national duct research in which information Jancy L. Houck Erol Fikrig Associate Vice President for Development Section of Infec- competitions. gathered at the bedside will be used to and Director of Medical Development tious Diseases in the Department of Elias says that Fikrig is “one of develop laboratory models to test new (203) 436-8560 Internal Medicine. Fikrig’s new post is the world’s experts” on Lyme disease therapies, including vaccines against Mary Hu Director of Institutional Planning and Communications the first such appointment by Jack A. and West Nile virus. A professor of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes Elias, m.d., chair and Waldemar Von medicine and epidemiology and pub- and ticks. Michael Fitzsousa, Director of Communications
www.medicineatyale.org A joint effort to tackle obesity and diabetes Advances Health and science news from Yale Campus-wide projects address cultural, biological roots of public-health crisis Kelly Brownell, director of According to the Centers for Disease the Rudd Center for Food Control and Prevention (cdc), ap- Policy and Obesity, is one proximately 65 percent of adults in of many Yale scientists trying to tackle the the United States are either obese or Breaking away world’s obesity epidemic overweight, and therefore run the by studying its cultural from child abuse? risk of suffering from chronic health and biological roots. conditions such as type 2 diabetes, When an infant breaks a bone, it’s often not an accident. In fact, doc- cardiovascular disease and high blood tors cite abuse in more than a third pressure. This expanding epidemic for legislators regarding a bill that was cose into muscles and other tissues, of bone fractures in babies under appears to involve cultural, genetic enacted last July banning the sale of and insulin resistance can lead to type a year old. But according to a new and physiological factors that range all beverages in schools except milk, 2 diabetes. Approximately 16 percent Yale study, that number may be on from an overabundance of super- water and pure fruit and vegetable of children and adolescents are now the decline. portioned junk food to how the brain juices. overweight according to the cdc, John M. Leventhal, m.d., profes- regulates appetite. Researchers across But while the environment putting them at risk for type 2 dia- sor of pediatrics, and colleagues the Yale campus are covering all the undoubtedly plays a major role in betes. Excess weight can also lead to analyzed 24 years of data on frac- bases to uncover what causes obesity obesity, there are physiological factors impaired glucose tolerance (elevated tures in children under 3 years old and how to counter its devastating that influence it as well. Research blood glucose levels two hours after at Yale-New Haven Hospital. As re- effects. ported in the March issue of Child on adolescents led by Sonia Caprio, ingesting glucose), which can rapidly Abuse & Neglect: The International A look at the culture surrounding m.d., professor of pediatrics, has progress to diabetes in adolescents, so Journal, the likelihood of a fracture food may go a long way toward ex- shown that the distribution of ab- Caprio is also looking at how to treat being rated by the hospital as plaining the rise of obesity, according dominal fat varies by ethnicity. this condition. She is heading research abuse fell substantially from 1979 to Kelly D. Brownell, ph.d., profes- African-Americans have less fat in funded by the National Institutes to 2002, to just over 10 percent. sor of psychology and epidemiology. and between internal organs than of Health on the effectiveness of “We’re encouraged by this,” The fact that obesity has skyrocketed do Caucasians and Latinos, and they the drug rosiglitazone in correcting says Leventhal, even though his over the last 30 years in the U.S. and rarely develop fatty liver disease. Lati- pre-diabetes. “Diabetes is coming team’s results seem to be at odds elsewhere in the developed world “just nos, who have more visceral fat, tend on board at least two decades earlier with an increased number of calls screams out environmental causes,” to deposit fat in the liver, which can than what we saw in the past,” says to child protective services seen Brownell says. Unhealthy foods not lead to inflammation and cirrhosis. Caprio, who stresses the importance over the past decades, both in Con- only come in larger portions than ever necticut and nationally. Leventhal Caprio recently conducted a study of addressing obesity in adolescents in proposes that these calls may before, but these foods are aggres- that showed that the deposition of fat order to prevent the disease. bring lower-risk families and mild sively marketed and far cheaper and in muscle is also different among eth- While Caprio is working on abusive injuries to the attention of easier to obtain than healthier foods. nic groups, and that it may relate to the relation of muscle fat to insulin authorities, leading to early inter- “You put those factors together,” says insulin resistance, in which the body’s resistance, Gerald I. Shulman, m.d., vention and a decrease in serious Brownell, “and it’s hard to believe that cells become resistant to the effects of ph.d., professor of medicine and injuries like fractures and burns. we could have anything other than a insulin. Insulin helps transport glu- Obesity, page 6 bad diet.” For cardiac surgery, Named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People last year, and co- your brain on ice founder and director of Yale’s Rudd We need blood to live, but blood Center for Food Policy and Obesity, makes life difficult for heart sur- Brownell is well poised to help change geons by obscuring the operating this picture. The Rudd Center deals Campaign update field. At a certain point in surgery in what he calls “strategic science,” in Campaign goal: $750 million on the aorta, the body’s largest ar- which research results are intended to Results through 6/30/07: $250,947,949 &ACILITIES tery, surgeons must shut down the help guide public policy. Brownell has cardiopulmonary bypass machine, helped build visibility of the center in Results through 6/30/07 by gift designation stopping blood flow entirely and the media, the food industry and the cutting the oxygen supply to the government by providing expertise 0ERMANENT fuel-hungry brain. ENDOWMENT for such initiatives as the recent move To prevent brain damage, the by New York City to ban trans fats patient’s head is carefully packed 'IFTS USE 'IFTS USE in ice and the body cooled until its and require calorie-labeling in restau- UNRESTRICTED BY RESTRICTED BY DONORS DONORS core temperature reaches about rants. The range of topics covered by 19°C (66°F), which slows metabo- researchers at the center ranges from lism to a standstill. For added brain the social stigma of being overweight protection, some surgeons use or obese to the possibility that food perfusion, pumping blood into the may be addictive in some people; Results through 6/30/07 by source cerebral arteries, but this clutters in July, a Rudd Center conference the workspace and creates possible brought together basic and clinical complications. scientists with public policy experts In the September issue of and government officials to explore Annals of Thoracic Surgery, a Yale team led by John A. Elefteriades, the idea of food addiction. m.d., chief and William W.L. Glenn At the Rudd Center, established Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, with a $7.5 million gift from Cali- shows that perfusion is unneces- fornia food and wine magnate Leslie sary. The researchers studied the Rudd, scientists are also targeting outcomes of 394 aortic arch opera- childhood obesity by focusing on tions performed at Yale without food served in schools. In March, perfusion and found a stroke rate Brownell testified before Congress of only 4.8 percent, on par with the 9ALE 3CHOOL OF /THER 9ALE &RIENDS AND 0RIVATE #ORPORATIONS /RGANIZATIONS that schools provide an unsafe nutri- -EDICINE !LUMNI 'RATEFUL &OUNDATIONS best results seen with perfusion. tion environment for children, citing !LUMNI 0ATIENTS But speed is key. Strokes occur the array of high-fat, high-calorie more often during aortic opera- Obesity and diabetes research are top priorities of The Campaign tions lasting over 40 minutes, and foods and beverages sold in schools. for Yale School of Medicine. For information about gift opportuni- the average patient at Yale spent In Connecticut, research led by Mar- ties, visit yaletomorrow.yale.edu/medicine or contact Jancy Houck, only 31 minutes in suspended ani- lene B. Schwartz, ph.d., director of associate vice president for development and director, medical mation. research and school programs at the development, at (203) 436-8560. Rudd Center, was a valuable resource
Medicine@Yale September/October 2007 Out & about
June 1, 2: 1. At the medical school’s reunion weekend, the Class of 1957 gathered on the steps of Sterling Hall of Medicine, just as they did 50 years ago as stu- 1 dents. 2. the 150th anniversary of the gradu- ation of cortlandt van rensselaer creed, m.d. 1857, the first African-American student to graduate from Yale, was marked by 50 of Creed’s descendants from across the nation. (Back row, left to right) Troy D. Lawson; Forrester A. 2 Lee, m.d., professor of medicine and assistant dean of multicultural affairs; Dean Robert J. Alpern, m.d.; Leon V. Creed III, great-great-great grandson June 28, 29: Members of the newly formed dean’s council met at Ster- of Cortlandt Creed; Taryn M. Archer, ling Hall of Medicine to discuss the future direction of the medical school. great-great granddaughter; Leon V. Back row, from left: Richard N. Foster, b.e. ’63, m.s. ’65, ph.d. ’66, manag- Creed II, great-great grandson; Regi- ing partner, Millbrook Management Group; William R. Handelman, b.a. ’53, ’ nald W. Creed, great grandson. (Front partner, Meyer Handelman Company; John D. Baxter, m.d. 66, professor 3 row, left to right) Andrea Rematore, of medicine in the Diabetes Center of the University of California, San
great-great granddaughter; Richard P. Francisco; Howard A. Minners, m.d. ’57, m.p.h. (see story at left); Edward E. Langella, great-great grandson; Tracey Madden, b.a. ’62, vice chairman, Fidelity Management Trust Company and N. Lawson, great-great granddaughter; Pyramis Global Advisors; Franklin H. Top Jr., b.s. ’57, m.d. ’61, senior vice Miranda Lawson, great-great-great president, MedImmune Ventures; Jeffrey A. Rosen, b.a. ’69, deputy chair- granddaughter; Myra Lawson, great- man, Lazard Freres & Co. (Front row, from left) Daniel D. Adams, president great-great granddaughter. Not pic- and ceo, Protein Sciences Corporation; Peggy Brim Bewkes, u.grd. ’73, tured, but also in attendance, were 4 former producer of abc News’ “20/20” program; Dean and Ensign Professor Georgette N. Mitchell, great grand- of Medicine Robert J. Alpern, m.d.; Thomas C. Israel, b.a. ’66, chairman and daughter; and Gwendolyn M. Washington, great granddaughter. 3. In a time- ceo of Ingleside Investors; Charles E. Bradley III, b.s. ’51, president, Stanwich honored ritual, cardiologist Lawrence S. Cohen, m.d., Ebenezer K. Hunt Pro- Consulting Corp. Not pictured: James M. Allwin, b.a. ’74, president, Aetos fessor Emeritus, joins the Clamdiggers Dixieland Band for a special command Capital; Harvey J. Berger, m.d. ’77, chairman and ceo, ariad Pharmaceuti- performance during the annual New England Clambake. 4. Francis M. Lobo, cal; David A. Messer, b.a. ’83, president, Sempra Commodities; Richard S. m.d. ’91, president of the Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine (ayam; left) Sackler, m.d., co-chairman, Purdue Pharma; and David W. Wallace, b.s. ’48, and Dean Robert J. Alpern, m.d. (right), present Distinguished Alumni Service chairman, Joint Corporation Committee on Cuban Claims. Awards to Howard A. Minners, m.d. ’57, m.p.h., (second from left), and Peter N. Herbert, m.d. ’67, professor of medicine and chief of staff at Yale-New Haven Hospital, at the ayam’s annual meeting.
Bluestein from page 1
Bluestein, a retired radiologist “We had a small gymnasium at cury to diagnose tumors. “I started known to friends as “Sandy,” received the medical school, and I knew we scanning before scanning was a word,” some unrequested help paying his could put together a good team, be- he says, “and I did chemotherapy own medical school tuition—from cause many of the students had played before there were oncologists.” the United States Army. He enrolled college basketball, as I had. I agreed to Bluestein retired from practice at the School of Medicine during give him a team if he’d give us special in 1996 at age 75, and he now divides the war years, just as the Army “took dispensation. I extracted a bargain his time between Montclair, N.J., over” his class, enlisting Bluestein from him, but I also told him that our New York City, and Boca Raton, Fla. and about 40 other students in the team would be good enough that if he “I adored practicing, and I never Army Specialized Training Program, bet on us he’d make a lot of money, looked on it as anything other than a or astp. which he did,” Bluestein recalls. “So I privilege,” he says. “I thought it was “We were paid for, and they told us became a favorite of his, and we got to an honor to be a doctor, something what to do, which led to some pretty live a little better than the other guys. special.” weird circumstances,” he says. “We had For one thing, we didn’t have get up But the financial strains that ac- to stand in formation every morning and stand in formation at 7:00 in the company medical education pres- at 7 a.m. We had to attend things we morning anymore.” ent hardships for many who wish didn’t want to attend; when Tommy Despite this minor wartime tri- to follow Bluestein’s footsteps into Dorsey appeared on campus we had to umph, tennis is Bluestein’s real game. clinical practice. According to the go whether we liked it or not, because Though he hasn’t played competi- Sanfurd Bluestein, who has been a top- medical school’s Office of Education, ranked tennis player in the New York area, it was ‘good for the Army.’” tively in 2007—he decided to take “an continues to replenish a scholarship fund for the average debt of the 2007 School Thanks to the basketball skills aging year,” he says—as recently as Yale medical students. of Medicine students who graduated Bluestein had honed as a point guard last year he was the top-ranked player with financial obligations is more at Lafayette College, in Easton, Pa., in his age group in the metropolitan many aspiring singers establish their than $115,000. some of these burdens were eventu- New York City area, and he plays for careers. For Bluestein, scholarships are the ally lifted. A lieutenant in charge of recreation several times a week. As a practicing radiologist in New solution. “That’s what it’s all about, the medical school’s soldiers knew of Bluestein’s other great love is the Jersey for nearly 50 years, Bluestein as far as I’m concerned,” he says. “We Bluestein’s hoops prowess and asked New York City Opera, where he has was something of a pioneer, perform- should be giving gifts, not loans, him to assemble a basketball team been on the board of directors since ing some of the first cancer treatments because these students are never going to join a league formed by the Army 1978. He is the oldest member of the with radioactive cobalt in the 1950s. to be able to pay this back. I feel very from some of the thousands of astp executive committee, and his con- He also performed some of the earli- strongly about scholarships, and every students then at Yale College. tributions to the opera have helped est brain scans, using radioactive mer- little bit helps.”
www.medicineatyale.org Growing spare parts for sick childrens’ hearts Advances Health and science news from Yale Engineered blood vessels Toshiharu Shinoka (left) and Christopher Breuer nearing clinical trials in in the medical school’s newly opened research congenital heart disease building on Amistad Street, where they are Creating a living, growing organ building living blood from scratch sounds like the stuff vessels to treat children with congenital heart of science fiction. But a pair of Yale disorders. Mom was right: physician-scientists are making it eat your vegetables! happen, coaxing cells to form artificial blood vessels that can be used to Kids aren’t the only ones who repair or replace faulty blood vessels should be nagged to pile more in the body. Christopher K. Breuer, vegetables on their dinner plate. m.d., assistant professor of surgery Over the past six years, Shinoka A new study shows that men who use synthetic Gore-Tex grafts, which regularly ate broccoli, cauliflower, and pediatrics, and Toshiharu Shi- often have biocompatibility problems, has used the process successfully in 47 cabbage, Brussels sprouts and tur- noka, m.d., ph.d., associate profes- leading to infections and blood clot- children in Japan. No complications nips were 40 percent less likely to sor and director of pediatric cardio- ting, or biological grafts from animals, have arisen, he said, and no patients develop aggressive prostate cancer vascular surgery at Yale-New Haven which tend to calcify and need re- have needed replacement grafts. that spread outside the prostate Children’s Hospital, have spearheaded placement as often as every few years. “They’re fine,” he said, “and they’ve than those who consumed few of this project, and they think their work To tackle these problems, Breuer avoided many medications that pa- these veggies. can one day lead to the building of and his colleagues designed a three- tients with traditional grafts need to Lead author Victoria Kirsh, more complex organs. dimensional scaffolding in the tubular take to prevent stenosis.” ph.d., a former doctoral student “We figure if you start with blood shape of a vein. The researchers coat Shinoka and Breuer expect to hear under the advisorship of Susan T. vessels, that’s going to be the first this matrix with stem cells from bone soon about a U.S. Food and Drug Ad- Mayne, ph.d., professor of epide- step in making just about anything,” ministration application they’ve filed miology, says that chemicals found marrow and sew it where needed, in in these and other “cruciferous” says Breuer. “Plus, there’s an immedi- place of a damaged or missing vessel. to conduct clinical trials of their grafts plants (named for their cross- ate need for vessels in vascular and As blood begins to flow through the at Yale, but they continue to pursue shaped flowers) help prevent can- cardiovascular surgery.” tube, the stem cells send out a signal improvements in their techniques. cer. “All these vegetables have com- The blood vessels Breuer and that recruits all the right types of cells Breuer says that his next goal is pounds called glucosinolates that Shinoka have created rely on stem from elsewhere in the body to form to figure out what chemical from have been shown to protect cells cells harvested from a patient’s own a blood vessel around the scaffold- bone marrow is attracting cells to the from dna damage in the lab, and bone marrow, though the team hopes ing. As the vessel forms, the original scaffolding. He hopes to isolate that thus may be anti-carcinogenic” that by understanding how ves- matrix dissolves. chemical and build it into the matrix explains Kirsh, now at Cancer Care sels form, they can soon create an “The stuff we make the scaffold- so that the step of drawing bone Ontario in Toronto, Canada. “off-the-shelf” version that will not ing out of is also what they make marrow from each patient becomes Kirsh says she would like to require harvesting cells. Either way, unnecessary. “That would make this see the findings, published in the absorbable sutures out of,” explains August 1 issue of JNCI: Journal of the engineered vessels are not prone Breuer. “So we already know how the even simpler and increase the utility,” the National Cancer Institute, rep- to the immunological problems that body reacts to this material, and that he said. “We would have immedi- licated in additional studies. In the affect transplanted tissue, such as in- it’s safe.” ate off-the-shelf availability when a meantime, though, it can’t hurt to flammation or rejection. And they are The resulting vessel, which can patient needed a graft.” eat your broccoli. living organs, an especially important also be used to treat ischemic heart And if he succeeds in that, Breuer characteristic in pediatric surgery disease, or stroke, is almost indistin- and Shinoka plan to build a tissue- “Touch-me-not” tubes because the vessels can grow as a child guishable from any other vessel in engineered heart valve. Over 80,000 grows and can last a lifetime. the body. It can grow over time and it heart valves are surgically replaced kill bacteria Typically, if a child is born with constricts when treated with certain each year in the United States because certain defects, such as a heart with they leak or don’t open fully. And Carbon nanotubes, infinitesimally drugs. Additionally, the research- tiny “pipes” thousands of times two chambers instead of four, doctors ers showed that the elasticity of the within 10 years of valve replacement, smaller that a human hair, show first try to mold the child’s own tissue engineered vessels matches that of most patients need a second surgery. great promise for medical applica- into new vessels that can be used as the body’s own vessels. “That is really Breuer and Shinoka hope their valves tions. However, there has been grafts. “Whenever you use the child’s important,” says Breuer. “If you have would reduce post-operative prob- concern that the tubes might dam- own tissue, you get very good results,” blood flowing and it goes from this lems. “It’s significantly harder than age human cells. says Breuer. “But the problem is these really stretchy tube to this really stiff making a blood vessel from a biome- A Yale research group led by children usually require multiple tube, you tend to have problems; the chanical standpoint,” Breuer says, “but Menachem Elimelech, ph.d., chair grafts and you never have enough grafts tend to narrow and cause blood we’ve done the basic feasibility studies and Roberto C. Goizueta Profes- tissue.” The alternative has been to clotting.” to show that you can do it.” sor of Environmental and Chemi- cal Engineering, wanted to find out how nanotubes affect E. coli bacteria. Because metallic impuri- Student-run free clinic wins Ivy Award for community service ties might lie behind the tubes’ Working at haven Free Clinic has lege alumnus, and his wife Phyllis, supposed toxicity to human cells, given medical student Emma Bar- who established an endowment at the the team thoroughly purified their ber, who serves as associate director, Community Foundation for Greater nanotubes in the laboratory of the chance to meet patients who are New Haven. Elm Awards are given to Lisa D. Pfefferle, ph.d., professor of “some of the most grateful, humble, members of the New Haven commu- chemical engineering. nity, and Ivy Awards are given to Yale In the August 28 issue of Lang- amazing people,” she says. Open muir, the scientists report that just each Saturday, haven (Health Care, staff, faculty and students. one hour of contact with purified Advocacy, Volunteerism, Education haven is based at the Fair Haven nanotubes proved deadly to about and Neighborhood) offers primary Community Health Center and is run 80 percent of E. coli. The authors care, social services and free specialty by students in public health, nursing, believe that the tubes killed referrals. Since the student-run center medicine and the Physician Associ- Medical students who launched a free bacteria by piercing cell walls: the opened in November 2005, more than ate Program with assistance from clinic in the Fair Haven neighborhood of cells looked flattened, and genetic 200 patients have received free medi- undergraduates. The students work New Haven received an Ivy Award last material was seen floating freely in cal care. with attending physicians from the spring for their efforts. (From left) Mag- gie Samuels-Kalow, Ryan Hebert, Mallika solution. Thinner nanotubes killed Along with the gratitude of the School of Medicine, the community bacteria more efficiently, much as Mendu, Christopher Janson, Sara Crager and patients, haven received thanks and attending clinicians from the Fair Andrew Simpson received the award from sharper objects pierce balloons Haven Community Health Center. Yale President Richard Levin. more easily. this spring in the form of an Elm-Ivy Even antibiotic-resistant Award, given to people and organiza- Although it was designed to pro- workers with no health insurance— pathogens may succumb to tions that further partnership between vide temporary free care for patients see the clinic as their primary care nanotubes, which may make new New Haven and Yale. The awards were while helping them obtain medical provider. haven offers free medica- antimicrobial surfaces possible. established in 1979 with the support coverage, many patients—a large tions, Saturday hours and a friendly of Fenmore Seton, a 1938 Yale Col- number of whom are undocumented atmosphere, Barber says. Medicine@Yale September/October 2007 Stress from page 1
Some studies will use neuroim- the developing brain and how that Sides of Stress and Addiction,” below), website, the researchers hope their aging to illuminate how the brain shapes a person’s ability to deal with but also because of its collaborative, work will reach many more people. To changes when it’s under stress. Others stress later on, and its relationship to interdisciplinary nature. “Yale already help put their research in the spot- will explore the effectiveness of phar- addictive behaviors. “There’s growing has a wonderful institutional tradition light at Yale, the group will arrange macological agents to ease stress and evidence that early life stress shapes of low barriers across departments,” an ongoing lecture series as well as an improve self-control. Additionally, the our responses to later stress,” says says Slayman. “And this grant is going annual meeting on the topic of stress consortium will organize large sur- Sinha. “So when we think about stress to be supporting a lot of research in and addiction. veys and genetic studies to determine we really have to go back and think a lot of different groups around the “We’re moving into a period of who is most likely to be vulnerable to about childhood maltreatment and university. What one group finds will individualized medicine,” says Sinha. stress. “We know that there are gene/ childhood exposure to stress.” spur on others in the project to think “By providing specific information on environment interactions,” explains Carolyn W. Slayman, ph.d., the in new ways about their own work.” new ways to improve one’s sense of Sinha. “So some people might be vul- medical school’s deputy dean for In all, the researchers expect more control in the face of stress, the hope nerable even before stresses have hit academic and scientific affairs, says than 1,300 patients to be involved in is that people can learn how best to them, based on their genotypes.” the new grant is exciting not only the consortium’s studies. However, address the stress in their lives and One key research project will because of the intriguing research through collaborations with com- make lifestyle choices that promote analyze how events early in life affect projects it will fund (see “The Many munity centers and an interactive health.”
The many sides of stress and addiction
anderson arnsten yeckel baumeister tice blumberg mayes lee mazure tebes mckee neumeister piomelli potenza sindelar taylor dileone
With a new $23.4 million grant from the National examine if increasing self-control via practice and that advance a new interdisciplinary conceptual- Marc N. Potenza, m.d., ph.d. Institutes of Health, 17 researchers will explore training will reduce these maladaptive behaviors ization of stress, self-control and addiction. We will Associate professor of psychiatry the multifacted problems surrounding stress, self- in college students. The findings will extend basic integrate research across the consortium, develop “Obesity and tobacco smoking represent two of the control and addiction. knowledge about self-control processes to identify mentoring programs and institutional review most substantial causes of morbidity and mortal- effective ways to change addictive behaviors in the processes that overcome obstacles to career devel- George M. Anderson, ph.d. ity in the United States. Stress and diminished real-world setting of college life.” opment in team science, and teach strategies for Research scientist in the Child Study Center and self-control are two important factors associated the rapid translation of research to the community laboratory medicine with these conditions. However, no studies have and to policymakers.” Hilary Blumberg, m.d. systematically examined the brain activations re- “The Neuroendocrine, Pharmacology and Genetics Associate professor of psychiatry and diagnostic lated to them. In our project, we will use functional (npg) Core Resource will ensure optimal experimen- radiology Sherry McKee, ph.d. magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain tal design and assay utilization, will perform all Assistant professor of psychiatry activations related to self-control, stress, and food analyses using rigorous quality control procedures, Linda C. Mayes, m.d. and smoking cues.” and will provide interpretive input to optimize use Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Development in “Stress is often the reason why smokers are of genetic, drug level and biochemical measure- the Child Study Center and professor of pediatrics unable to quit smoking. Using a novel human self- ments. In addition to performing assays and and psychology administration paradigm examining how stress Jody L. Sindelar, ph.d. genotyping relevant to stress response system func- “Adolescents, particularly those from stressful en- facilitates relapse behavior, we will test whether Professor of public health noradrenergic medications improve the ability to tioning, self-control and addictive behavior, the npg vironments, are especially likely to engage in risky “This study examines how family, work life, and resist smoking. Noradrenergic agents, known to Core is also mandated to develop new neurochemi- behaviors including drug use. These risky behaviors other stresses affect smoking, misuse of alcohol, improve self-control, may attenuate the effect of cal, pharmacologic and endocrine measurements are due in part to the fact that brain systems and overeating. We focus on the interplay among stress on smoking relapse.” that will help advance this field of research.” involved in inhibiting behavior and understanding these multiple addictions in response to stress. We the consequences of actions are still maturing. This use social science methods and large data sets, and Amy F.T. Arnsten, ph.d. project will use cutting-edge brain scanning tech- Alexander Neumeister, m.d. will develop and disseminate policy implications.” Professor of neurobiology and psychology niques to examine how stress can alter adolescent Associate professor of psychiatry brain development to increase risk for addiction.” Mark F. Yeckel, ph.d. “Addiction is one of the very complex and chal- Jane R. Taylor, ph.d. Assistant professor of neurobiology lenging problems facing Americans today. We will Associate professor of psychiatry Daeyeol Lee, ph.d. “Our project examines how stress affects cells in the be using brain imaging techniques to understand Ralph J. DiLeone, ph.d. Associate professor of neurobiology prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain involved in the the brain mechanisms underlying addictions, such Assistant professor of psychiatry “When people are stressed-out they tend to want as alcoholism and overeating. Specifically, we will regulation of memory, attention and emotion. We “Stress promotes compulsive behavior and ad- immediate rewards for their actions, and this can look at how norepinephrine, a hormone, is involved will explore how waves of calcium released within dictions, like overeating and smoking, because it lead to impulsive behaviors. I think this may be in mediating addiction, with the ultimate goal of these cells, under conditions that mimic stress, can makes people want more immediate rewards for linked to the function of the prefrontal cortex, an preventing and treating addiction.” open potassium channels that shut off cell firing, their behaviors, and also gives them less control area of the brain involved in working memory and and how sustained stress can cause loss of gray over their behaviors in the first place. We will be decision making. My lab will investigate this part matter in this higher brain region.” Daniele Piomelli, ph.d. studying how stress hormones in the brain act at of the brain to determine the effects of stress on Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences, a molecular and neural level to affect compulsive decision-making at the cellular level.” Roy Baumeister, ph.d. professor of pharmacology and biological chemis- behaviors in these ways.” Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar and professor of try at University of California, Irvine psychology, Florida State University Carolyn Mazure, ph.d. “Exposure to stress during childhood and adoles- Professor of psychiatry and psychology Dianne M. Tice, ph.d. cence increases the risk of developing drug abuse Professor of psychology, Florida State University Jacob K. Tebes, ph.d. later in life, but the bases for this association are Associate professor of psychiatry and unclear. Previous work has shown that endocan- “Addictive behaviors, such as smoking, drinking epidemiology nabinoids, marijuana-like substances produced and overeating are highly prevalent among young by the brain, help animals to cope with stress. We “The purpose of our grant is to implement adults in the U.S. Losing self-control in stressful or will ask whether alteration in the activity of these educational initiatives that foster the process of highly arousing contexts plays an important role substances might explain the ability of early-life conducting team science, and to generate outcomes in perpetuating these behaviors. This project will stress to change adult behavior.”
Obesity from page 3
cellular and molecular physiology, burn calories,” says Robert S. Sherwin, comparative medicine and obstetrics, Our bodies and brains evolved and colleagues are examining fat m.d., the c.n.h. Long Professor of gynecology and reproductive sciences, over millennia when food was scarce on the cellular level. Their work has Medicine. Insulin influences a sense and have neurobiology, have shown to become highly efficient at obtain- shown that intracellular fat that ac- of fullness, and Sherwin suspects that that estrogen regulates the brain’s ing and absorbing nutrients, but in cumulates in liver and muscles can the brain, like other organs in the energy metabolism in much the same a modern environment in which it trigger insulin resistance. Obesity is body, can become insulin-resistant. way as leptin, another hormone that is increasingly easy and cheap for us one of the ways in which this type He is also studying how the brain has attracted a great deal of atten- to eat more than our fill, and harder of fat builds up, and Shulman’s lab senses glucose and how that process tion because of its role in controlling to work it off in daily activities, it’s is now trying to figure out ways of relates to eating and energy expendi- appetite. Horvath is studying how little wonder that obesity is a growing melting it away. Along with Kitt F. ture. He has shown that hypoglycemia higher brain regions, such as the hip- problem. Petersen m.d., he has shown that causes rats to gain weight, not be- pocampus and cortex, help regulate Fortunately, clinical investigations, even modest weight reductions of cause they eat more, but because they food intake. psychological studies and basic bio- 12 to 14 pounds will dissolve the appear to burn fewer calories. He’s also looking at the other logical research are all in place at Yale intracellular pool of fat in the liver Other researchers at the medi- side of the coin by trying to decipher to attack obesity from every angle. and reverse hyperglycemia. cal school are focusing on the brain’s how obesity may lead to metabolic “On this issue you cannot have “The answers to obesity are role in energy expenditure and the changes that alter cortical function, the typical ivory tower approach,” said going to come from a fundamental behavioral aspects of eating. Stud- which could have implications for Horvath. “You need to combine dif- understanding of the processes that ies in mice led by Tamas L. Horvath, neurodegenerative disorders such as ferent views and see what comes out determine why we eat and how we d.v.m., ph.d., chair and professor of Alzheimer’s disease. of that.” www.medicineatyale.org Grants and contracts awarded to Yale School of Medicine January/February 2007
Federal Therapy Trastuzum, 2 years, $125,000 • Karen In April, Haifan Lin Anderson, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, (left), director of the Roland Baron, nih, From Adhesion to Bone The Role of Viral and Cellular Proteins in Early Yale Stem Cell Center, Resorption: The Role of Dynamin in Osteo- Events of hiv-1 Replication, 5 years, $82,500 accepted a check for clasts, 5 years, $1,777,602 • Alfred Bothwell, Michael Bloch, American Academy of Child $7.7 million from the nih, Revascularization of Islets to Treat Type 1 and Adolescent Psychiatry, Clinical and Volu- Connecticut Stem Cell Diabetes, 2 years, $412,792 • William Bradley, metric mri Predictors of the Adult Outcome in Research fund from nih, Adhesion-Dependent Inhibition of RhoA Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Connecticut Governor through Arg Tyrosine Kinase and p190Rhogap, 1 year, $9,000 • Hal Blumenfeld, The Patrick M. Jodi Rell (center) 3 years, $91,629 • Suzanne Cassel, nih, Role and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical and J. Robert Galvin, of Lung Inflammation in Th2 Priming, 5 years, Research Foundation, Impaired Consciousness commissioner of the $492,480 • Junjie Chen, nih, Analysis of 53BP1 in Epilepsy: Mechanisms and Consequences, Connecticut Depart- Function in dna Damage Signaling Pathway 5 years, $595,791 • Judson Brewer, The Mind ment of Public Health. and Tumorigenesis, 4 years, $1,551,712 • Kevin & Life Institute, Mindful Training as Treatment Collins, nih, Heterotrimeric G-Protein Regula- and Mechanistic Probe for Drug Addiction, tion of Neurotransmission in C. elegans, 3 years, 1 year, $10,000 • Stacy Castner, Pfizer Inc, Dis- $141,318 • Michael Crair, nih, Mechanisms of covery Proposal for Nonhuman Primate Models Visual Map Development, 2.5 years, $779,670 • Relevant to Schizophrenia, 1 year, $374,617 Isabelle Derre, nih, rnai Screen to Identify Katarzyna Chawarska, Autism Speaks, Com- Host Factors Involved in Chlamydia Pathogen- putational Modeling of Visual Attention in esis, 2 years, $412,792 • Tore Eid, nih, Temporal Young Children with asd, 2 years, $54,000 Lobe Epilepsy–Validation of a New Animal Michael Chen, American Society of Maxil- tes Research Foundation Int’l, Islet Growth in Pasko Rakic, Autism Speaks, Effect of Non-Ste- Model, 2 years, $397,259 • Alison Galvani, nsf, lofacial Surgeons, National Outcomes Studies nod Mice Tolerant to Autoimmune Diabetes, roidal Anti-Inflammation Drugs on Neuronal Collaborative Research: Modeling and Behavioral in Craniofacial Surgery, 1 year, $6,680 • Judy 3 years, $495,000; Juvenile Diabetes Research Migration, 2 years, $101,000 • Ann Rasmusson, Evaluation of Social Dynamics in Prevention Cho, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Characteriza- Foundation Int’l, Mechanistic Studies and Iden- National Alliance for Research on Schizophre- Decisions, 3 years, $377,485 • Charles Greer, tion of Expression Patterns in Monocyte-Derived tification of Biomarkers in Patients with T1DM, nia and Depression, Neurobiological Predictors nih, Odorants, Receptors and Glomeruli, Cells in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, 1 year, 4 years, $660,000 • Melinda Irwin, American of Response to Cognitive Processing Therapy 1.5 years, $1,289,556 • Lyndsay Harris, Depart- $75,000 • Dylan Clyne, Robert Leet and Clara Cancer Society, Inc., Yale Exercise and Breast for ptsd in Women with and without Major ment of Defense, Molecular Classifications of Guthrie Patterson Trust, Neuronal Control of Cancer Survivorship Study: An Ancillary Study, Depression, 2 years, $59,891 • Michael Robek, Response to Therapy in her2 Positive, Early- Courtship in Drosophila, 2 years, $104,000 • 2 years, $202,000 • Mustafa Khokha, March Health Research Inc., Inhibition of Virus Repli- Stage Breast Cancer, 2.25 years, $994,847 • James Comer, Nellie Mae Education Founda- of Dimes, The bmp Antagonists, Noggin and cation by Lambda Interferon, 1 year, $122,868 Raimund Herzog, nih, Adaptations of cns tion, Nellie Mae Directors Grant, 1 year, $20,000 Gremlin, are Required for Axial Skeleton For- Rachel Roth, phrma Foundation, Regulation Metabolism to Hypoglycemia in Diabetes, David Cone, The Laerdal Foundation for mation, 2 years, $150,000 • Riku Kiviranta, of Energy Expenditure and Lipid Metabolism 2 years, $116,072 • Hoby Hetherington, nih, Acute Medicine, Virtual Reality for Disaster International Bone & Mineral Society, The by the Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase Phos- mrs Measurements of gaba in Temporal Lobe Triage Research, 1 year, $12,260 • Michael Crair, Roles of Delta FosB and MC-33, A Novel Zinc phatase-1, 2 years, $40,000 • David Rothstein, Epilepsy, 1.25 years, $320,151 • Tamas Horvath, Rett Syndrome Research Foundation, Examin- Finger Containing Protein, in Osteoblast and Roche Organ Transplantation Foundation, nih, Ghrelin in Hypothalmic Regulation of ing the Role of MeCP2 in Regulating the Plastic- Adipocyte Differentiation, 2 years, $40,000 • Mechanisms of Treg Generation by Tolerogenic Energy Balance, 4 years, $1,289,357 • James ity and Development of Synapses and Circuits Anthony Koleske, American Heart Associa- Agents in Transplantation, 3 years, $242,266 Howe, nih, Single Channel Properties and in Mouse Somatosensory Barrel Cortex, 3 years, tion, Regulation of Directed Cell Migration by Nancy Ruddle, National Multiple Sclerosis Structure of Glutamate Receptors, 4 years, $100,000 • Daryn David, The International Adhesive Cues, 5 years, $500,000 • John Leven- Society, Characterization of Pathogenic Myelin $1,446,394 • Ruslan Medzhitov, nih, tlrs in Psychoanalytical Association, Investigating the thal, Salomon Family Foundation, Inc., Bridg- Oligodendrocyte Antibodies in Multiple Sclerosis, Host-Commensal Interactions, 4 years, $1,355,648 Internal Working Model Concept, 1 year, $4,000 ing Mental Health Services for Sexually Abused 1 year, $44,000 • Gary Rudnick, Autism Speaks, George Richerson, nih, Developmental Defects Nancy Dunbar, Endocrine Fellows Founda- Children and Their Families, 2 years, $148,162 The N-Terminus of Serotonin Transporter—A in Serotonin Neurons and the Response to O2 tion, Characterization of Cystic Fibrosis Bone Becca Levy, The Patrick and Catherine Role in Regulation, 3 years, $82,000 • Masanori and CO2, 5 years, $1,657,482 • Joseph Santos- Disease Using Three Mouse Genetic Models, Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Founda- Sasaki, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Cortical Sacchi, nih, Structural Correlates of Prestin 1 year, $7,500 • John Forrest, Doris Duke tion, Promoting Positive Age Self-Stereotypes: Neuronal Protection in Spinal Cord Injury Fol- Activity, 3 years, $1,053,470 • Dieter Söll, nsf, Charitable Foundation, International Clini- An Intervention, 5 years, $595,799 • Ming Li, lowing Transplantation of bdnf-hmscs, Expanding the Genetic Code with Phosphoserine, cal Research Fellowships (icrf) in Africa Pilot Arthritis Foundation, tgf-Beta Regulation of 2 years, $149,040 • Srijan Sen, The Patrick and 3 years, $522,375 • Scott Strobel, nsf, Inter- Program, 1.5 years, $130,000 • Gerald Fried- T Cell Responses in Collagen Induced Arthri- Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research national: Undergraduate Rainforest Expedition land, University of Connecticut, Integrating tis, 6 months, $75,000 • Yilun Liu, The Milo Foundation, Investigation into the Interaction and Laboratory, 2 years, $60,000 • Zhaoxia Sun, hiv Prevention into Clinical Care for plwha Gladstein Foundation, Genome Instability and between Genes and Stress in the Etiology of Department of Defense, tsc1 and the Cilium in South Africa, 5 years, $217,999 • Anna-Rachel Tumorigenesis: The Roles of blm and RecQ5 Depression in Interns, 2 years, $88,039 • Nenad in Zebrafish Kidney, 2 years, $221,100 • Fayyaz Gallagher, pkd Foundation for Research Helicases, 1 year, $75,000 • Richard Matthay, Sestan, Autism Speaks, Role of Cell Adhe- Sutterwala, nih, The Role of nalps in Innate in Polycystic Kidney Disease, Pathogenesis of Pfizer Inc, State Chest Conference, 6 months, sion Molecule in Cortical Minicolumn, 2 years, Immunity, 4 years, $504,280 • David Willhite, Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis and Biliary Cyst $5,180 • Qing Miao, American Heart Associa- $99,000 • Gerald Shadel, National Organiza- nih, Transsynaptic Tracing of Olfactory Bulb Formation in arprd, 1 year, $75,000 • Alan tion, Role of Nogo-B Receptor in Regulating tion for Hearing Research Foundation, The Input to the Olfactory Cortex, 3 years, $247,895 Garen, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Targeted Endothelial Cell Functions, 4 years, $259,992 Role of Dual-Function Transcription Factor/ Nanoparticles to Deliver the Icon Gene for Pros- Gil Mor, Wayne State University, Services in rrna Methyltransferase in Modulating Mito- tate Cancer Immunotherapy, 1 year, $100,000 Support of the Perinatology Research Branch, chondrial Translation and Susceptibility, 1 year, Non-Federal Kim Good, Arthritis Foundation of Aus- 1 year, $134,387 • Shin Nagayama, Robert Leet $20,000 • Edward Snyder, Richard D. Frisbee tralia, Role of B7 Family Members in Enhanced and Clara Guthrie Patterson Trust, Individual III Foundation, Richard D. Frisbee III Visiting Ali Abu-Alfa, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Edu- Secondary Immune Responses, 1 year, $38,798 Neuronal Contributions to the Function of a Professorship, 2 years, $6,600 • Zhaoxia Sun, cational Grant for Chronic Kidney Disease Carlos Grilo, The Patrick and Catherine Cortical Network Module, 2 years, $96,000 pkd Foundation for Research in Polycystic Center of Excellence, 1 year, $40,250 • Maysa Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foun- Angus Nairn, Rockefeller University, Role Kidney Disease, Role of Pontin in Cilia Assem- Abu-Khalaf, Breast Cancer Alliance, Inc., An dation, rct for Obesity and Binge Eating in of CK1 in Alzheimer Disease Etiology, 1 year, bly and Cyst Formation in Zebrafish, 2 years, Integrated Approach to Biomarker Validation in Monolingual Hispanic Persons, 3 years, $239,997 $49,171 • Michael Pantalon, National Alliance $150,000 • Yufeng Zhou, American Heart Asso- Patients with her-2 Positive Metastatic Breast Bryan Hains, Mike Utley Foundation, Rescuing for Research on Schizophrenia and Depres- ciation, Determine the Structural Basis of herg Cancer Treated with Rapamycin (Rapamune) Motor Function after Spinal Cord Injury, sion, Efficacy of Motivational Enhancement for Channel Blockade at Atomic Resolution, to Overcome Resistance to the her-2 Targeted 1 year, $47,833 • Kevan Herold, Juvenile Diabe- Bipolar Postpartum Women, 2 years, $60,000 4 months, $65,000
Pritzker from page 1 an expert on surgical problems in and technology to make their child and nurses had been assembled and and Vlock say that McKee and Tal’s premature and newborn infants, is well. “We sent medical records to the were waiting at the hospital when we decision to opt for a relatively non- a forceful advocate for multicenter finest hospitals around the world, and arrived,” Pritzker says. invasive procedure was key to their clinical trials of surgical procedures, they all said you have the best team On this occasion Milissa A. McK- child’s quick recovery. many of which have not been sub- there at Yale, and what that team rec- ee, m.d., m.p.h., assistant professor “My father has taught me by jected to the same level of scientific ommends is the best course of action,” of surgery and pediatrics, decided example: one must give back to the scrutiny as medicines. He is also lead- Pritzker recalls. Since an operation against traditional open surgery; in- people and institutions that have ing his department’s effort to use the by Robert M. Weiss, m.d., now the stead, in a collaboration with Michael served you,” Pritzker says. “We know latest genomic and proteomic tools to Donald Guthrie Professor of Surgery, G. Tal, m.d., associate professor of di- Dr. Moss and those who succeed him predict outcomes in surgery patients. and a week-long hospital stay, their agnostic radiology, a small emboliza- in the chair will serve our commu- In their first experience atynhch child has been healthy. tion catheter was inserted through an nity with distinction. Providing the in 1997, Vlock and Pritzker sought Eight years later, the couple found artery in the child’s leg and brought opportunity for someone of Larry’s medical opinions on their child’s con- themselves at ynhch yet again, this to the injury site in the liver to control skill and stature to build a program at dition from many other hospitals, but time when a second child had a seri- bleeding. Yale is a privilege, and will ensure that ultimately discovered that, in addi- ous accident that resulted in a frac- Though this technique had only there are permanent resources avail- tion to being close to their Branford, tured liver, causing serious internal ever been attempted in adults, the able to our community for children’s Conn., home, ynhch had the people bleeding. “A team of first-rate doctors child healed completely, and Pritzker health.”
Medicine@Yale September/October 2007 Transatlantic team probes kidney’s role in hypertension Yale scientists join peers tion unites leaders in salt metabolism and hypertension from Europe and in Europe, Mexico in North America to understand the role major new research effort of deranged salt handling by the kid- ney in causing and maintaining high Two School of Medicine scientists blood pressure.” will join leading researchers in Hebert is the American coordi- Switzerland, France and Mexico in nator of the project. His European a transatlantic collaboration aimed counterpart, Bernard C. Rossier, m.d., at pinpointing the kidney’s role in of the University of Lausanne in Swit- high blood pressure. The new effort, zerland, will direct pharmacology and known as the Transatlantic Network toxicology researchers at Lausanne on Hypertension-Renal Salt Handling and at Lausanne University Hospital. in the Control of Blood Pressure, is Also part of the network are research- supported by a five-year, $6 million ers from the National Autonomous grant from the Leducq Foundation, University of Mexico, under the direc- a Paris-based organization that sup- tion of Gerardo Gamba, m.d., ph.d., ports international research collabo- and a team led by Xavier Jeunemaître, rations in cardiovascular disease. m.d., of L’Hôpital Européen Georges- Hypertension affects more than Pompidou and the College de France 1 billion people worldwide and is one in Paris. With a grant from the Paris-based Leducq Foundation, Richard Lifton (left) and Steven Hebert of the most important risk factors for The transatlantic team will study of the School of Medicine are part of a new international team studying how the kidney’s cardiovascular diseases such as stroke the metabolism of sodium, potassium management of salt levels in the body can lead to high blood pressure. and heart attack. The exact causes of and calcium and their influence on hypertension remain unknown, but blood pressure. They will focus on the training, videoconferencing and real- ceives a portion of the proceeds from the kidney’s management of salt levels ion channels expressed in the kidney time laboratory discussions using the sales of Ehlers Estate wine. One of in the body plays a major role. and on genetic factors that lead to a Internet; and to create a centralized the foundation’s goals is to promote Leading the team at Yale are sensitivity or resistance to salt-related database that will allow easy access to collaboration between researchers in Steven C. Hebert, m.d., chair and hypertension, with the goal of finding shared tools, instruments, materials, North America and Europe, and in c.n.h. Long Professor of Cellular and new therapeutic targets for the dis- and other resources. 2004 it began to accept applications Molecular Physiology, and Richard ease. In addition, the researchers will Jean and Sylviane Leducq estab- for its Transatlantic Networks of P. Lifton, m.d., ph.d., chair and integrate their expertise in popula- lished the Leducq Foundation in 1996 Excellence in Cardiovascular Research Sterling Professor of Genetics and an tion genetics and animal models of to support cardiovascular disease Program. investigator in the Howard Hughes hypertension, and they will combine research. Jean Leducq’s grandparents “The Leducq program,” Lifton Medical Institute. approaches from molecular biology, owned the famed Le Grand Café says, “uniquely allows us to bring “Breakthroughs in understanding proteomics and physiology. in Paris, and his childhood meals together a ‘dream team’ of investiga- and treating this complex and often The Leducq Foundation funding were served by the family’s cook, tors around the world with diverse devastating disease will come from will enable the group to develop a the legendary Auguste Escoffier. The expertise in physiology, genetics, and collaborations among top scientists network of ph.d. and postdoctoral Leducqs bequeathed Ehlers Estate, a clinical investigation to combine from around the world,” Hebert said. researchers within the participating Napa Valley, Calif., winery they had forces to tackle this important medi- “The grant from the Leducq Founda- institutions; to develop a platform for founded, to the foundation, which re- cal problem.”
Awards & honors Henry J. Binder, Bernard G. Forget, Modis research explores how flavivi- Roy studies the bacterium Legionella m.d., professor of m.d., professor ruses, such as West Nile and dengue pneumophila, the agent responsible for medicine and cel- of medicine and virus, get into cells. Understanding this Legionnaire’s disease, and how it inter- lular and molecu- genetics, was named process could lead to vaccines for these acts with cells it infects. lar physiology, a fellow of the currently untreatable emerging global received the Dis- American Academy health threats. Kim Woodrow, tinguished Mentor of Arts and Sci- ph.d., a post- Award from the ences. Members of Gil Mor, m.d., doctoral fellow American Gastro- the academy, an associate professor in biomedical enterological Association, the premier independent policy research center, are of obstetrics, gyne- engineering, is professional organization in the field. scholars at the top of their disciplines. cology and repro- one of the five The award recognizes his leadership in Forget researches the mechanisms of ductive sciences, American women mentoring young physician-scientists gene expression during red blood cell has received the recently honored and establishing Yale’s Gastrointestinal differentiation, as well as the disorders J. Christian Herr by L’Oréal USA Research Training Program, which has that can result when this process goes Award from the with their 2007 Fellowships for Women flourished for 35 years. Binder studies awry. American Society in Science. These competitive $40,000 electrolyte transport in the large intes- for Reproductive Immunology. This grants are given to encourage women tine and the mechanism and treatment Barbara I. award is given annually to recognize scientists at the beginning of their of diarrheal diseases. Kazmierczak, m.d., a scientist who has made outstanding careers. Woodrow is designing biode- ph.d., m.s., asso- achievements in the field. Mor special- gradable nanoparticles that can direct Christopher K. ciate professor of izes in the immunology of reproduc- themselves to specific targets in cells Breuer, m.d., medicine and micro- tive organs, including implantation and deliver drugs to treat cancer and assistant profes- bial pathogenesis, and tumor immunology. Recently Mor infectious diseases. sor of surgery and and Yorgo E. Modis, created a new diagnostic test for early pediatrics, has ph.d., assistant detection of ovarian cancer, and devel- Hongyu Zhao, been awarded a professor of molecu- oped new drugs to treat it. ph.d., professor Doris Duke Clini- lar biophysics and of public health cal Scientist Devel- biochemistry, have Craig R. Roy, and genetics, was opment Award. received Investiga- ph.d., associ- elected a fellow These awards provide grants to junior tors in Pathogenesis ate professor of of the Institute physician-scientists to help them of Infectious Disease microbial patho- of Mathematical establish their own clinical research awards from the genesis, won the Statistics (ims), labs. Breuer aims to engineer living Burroughs Well- 2007 Eli Lilly an organization blood vessels and heart conduits that come Fund. Each Award from the that fosters the development and dis- can grow along with a patient, which award provides American Society semination of theory and applications would be a boon to pediatric heart $500,000 for multidisciplinary research. for Microbiology of statistics and probability. The ims surgeons. Kazmierczak studies how Pseudomonas (asm). The award is the asm’s oldest honored Zhao for his “fundamental aeruginosa, a bacterium that frequently and most prestigious prize, and the contributions to statistical genomics, causes hospital-acquired infection, is awardee delivers the Eli Lilly Award genetic epidemiology, and computa- recognized by innate immune defenses. Lecture at the society’s annual meeting. tional biology.”
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