Yale Medicine Magazine

winter 2003 Frankenstein A first-year Medicine revealed grandmother of the future 14 16 30 The big move Relocating 91 laboratories, a magnetic resonance center and the medical school’s teaching facilities across Congress Avenue is like putting together the biggest 3D puzzle ever. 20 winter 2003 yale medicine CONTENTS 2 Letters 4 Chronicle 8 Rounds 10 Findings 12 Books 13 On Campus 14 Capsule on the cover 16 Long road to Cedar Street The magnet for a 600 MHz spec- The first grandmother to enter medical school at Yale, trometer that will be used to 40-year-old Karen Morris is where she’s always wanted to be: analyze liquid protein structures awaited unpacking as the on her way to becoming a physician. staff of the Magnetic Resonance By Cathy Shufro Research Center prepared to move into new quarters in the 20 The big move Congress Avenue Building. Over the course of 48 consecu- Relocating 91 laboratories, a magnetic resonance center tive days this winter, movers and the medical school’s teaching facilities across Congress will transport more than 200,000 Avenue is like putting together the biggest 3D puzzle ever. items from 38 separate loca- By Marc Wortman tions around the medical center into the new building. Photograph by Frank Poole 30 A futurist’s view With smart dust, surgical robots, transgenic replacement background organs and a 150-year life span now conceivable, Richard Satava As contractors worked on the final says now is the time to face the ethical challenges that phase of interior construction technology will bring to medicine. in November, a set of plans showed details of the building’s laboratory A Yale Medicine interview. component. In all, the building contains 136,600 feet of wet-bench lab and lab-support space, as 35 Faculty well as facilities for teaching and 38 Students the care of laboratory mice. 40 Alumni Photograph by Daphne Geismar 46 In Memoriam 48 Follow-Up 48 Archives On the Web info.med.yale.edu/ymm On our website, readers can submit class notes or a change of address, check the alumni events calendar, arrange for a lifelong Yale e-mail alias through the virtual Yale Station and search our electronic archive. 2 letters The Yale System, In praise of Remembering in black and white Milton Winternitz Gustaf Lindskog Congratulations on the autumn I read the article adapted from On page 62 of your last issue, issue of Yale Medicine. The hand- Dr. Gerard Burrow’s A History a good one, I read of the passing written letters on the front and of Yale’s School of Medicine: Pass- of G.E. Lindskog. As house staff, back covers convey the human ing Torches to Others with I scrubbed many times with quality and the personal and interest. While I haven’t read his Dr. Lindskog, who was chairman professional benefits of the Yale entire book or account of Dean of surgery with a specialty in System like nothing else could. Winternitz’s career at Yale, I take thoracic surgery. He taught me George S. Goldman, m.d. ’29 it from this portion [“A Steam a lot and I learned to respect McLean, Va. Engine in Pants,” Autumn 2002] his demands for excellence. Dur- that he is acknowledging the ing the more than six years Thank you so much for the unique and significant contribu- that I worked with him, he was issue on the unique Yale System. tion Dean Winternitz made to very good to me and we I learned much about its ori- the school. became friends. gins, development and problems While I am greatly relieved Frank J. Lepreau, hs ’45 that I never knew before. to see this, I also wish to add Westport, Mass. For me, the Yale System was a footnote that I suspect he has also crucial and affected me omitted in his history. Sadly, the autumn issue stirs even before I entered medical During my tenure at the memories of my mother’s school. I suppose as an exten- School of Medicine from 1984 terminal bout with lung cancer sion of the system’s philosophy, to 1993, I became aware of in 1952. With Dr. Lindskog’s I was accepted after three the fact that, in spite of Dean passing, I am reminded of the years at the University of Michi- Winternitz’s enormously impor- connections between them gan, with no degree and no tant work on behalf of the and with her willingness to be major. I wonder if others were school, nothing at Yale is named his experimental patient in how to reach us chosen with that background, for him. So, when it was decided radioactive colloidal gold treat- or if I was a one-time experi- to create a special medal to be Yale Medicine welcomes news ments. It did help her through given to individuals in honor of and commentary. Please send ment! If there are others like me the last few months of her life— their contributions to the School letters to the editor and news among our readership, please for that I was grateful. let me know. of Medicine, I suggested that items to Yale Medicine, P.O. Box George M. Isbell we create a Winternitz medal. 7612, New Haven, CT 06519- That confidence in me, and Mount Dora, Fla. Burrow was dean then. In 0612, or via electronic mail my idiosyncratic way of approach- vain I argued on behalf of the to [email protected], and include ing requirements, helped me to “Winternitz medal,” because in The health of nations, a daytime telephone number. later petition out of redundant the end Burrow vetoed this idea, the art of medicine Submissions may be edited for residency requirements, subjec- saying that Winternitz was too The article “A World of Differ- length, style and content. tive board certification, and to enter the managed care beast “controversial.” As a result, the ence” [Autumn 2001] caught visit us on the web from an academic laboratory medal now contains the portrait my attention, though I’ve been and name of Dr. Peter Parker, an slow responding. I have prac- info.med.yale.edu/ymm perspective. The latter has won me some recognition and re- interesting person (and Burrow’s ticed “bush medicine” in Alaska, spect as an objective assessor of suggestion) but, in my opinion in rural California, in Lima, Peru, managed care. Without the Yale and that of a number of alumni in 1960, etc., and had to rely System, I’m sure I would never who actually knew Winternitz, on eye, ear, nose and palpation, have taken these risks. not so worthy a person as auscultation, etc. The old (Osler) H. Steven Moffic, m.d. ’71 Winternitz for this recognition. simpler techniques of physical Milwaukee, Wis. I have always regretted diagnosis should not be forgot- this oversight, and I continue to ten or neglected. hope that one day the Yale School How I would have enjoyed of Medicine will repay the debt Yale’s International Program! it owes Dean Winternitz by Keep it going! naming something of proper Elizabeth F. Elsner, m.d. ’48 stature after him—perhaps, in Assonet, Mass. part, because he dared to be controversial. 2003 Ann Pecora Diamond New Haven, Conn. winter edicine m ale y from the editor 3 yale medicine Alumni Bulletin of the Yale University School of Medicine Winter 2003, Volume 37, No. 2 Editor-in-Chief Michael Kashgarian, m.d. Professor of Pathology and Biology Publisher Jane E. Reynolds Associate Dean Editor Michael Fitzsousa On the move on moving day Director of Publications Associate Editor When cardiovascular researcher Jeffrey Bender and hundreds of his colleagues unpack John Curtis their labs and offices in the Congress Avenue Building later this winter and spring [“The Big Contributing Editors Move,” p. 20], a new chapter in the School of Medicine’s history will begin in earnest. For Sharon McManus Karen Peart the first time in a decade, the medical school’s legendary space crunch will ease, at least for Cathy Shufro a time, and the occasion will mark the completion of a process that began in the late 1980s. Jacqueline Weaver The design of the new building has a special purpose behind it, that of knitting together Marc Wortman, ph.d. basic biology, physics, chemistry and human health, of making clinical observations relevant Contributors Celeste Biever at the molecular level (and vice versa) and, ultimately, of alleviating human suffering. Rachel Engers “We have the opportunity now to make an enormous difference in people’s lives,” Susan Froetschel Dean David Kessler says of the new building. “We have the world’s best scientists and the Jennifer Kaylin Nancy Ross-Flanigan world’s best labs. This building will move medicine forward.” Anne Thompson A faculty-led committee initially recommended a version of the Congress Avenue Copy Editing Building in the early 1990s. A dozen years, 560,000 bricks and $176 million later, it is a real- Anne Sommer ity. In addition to the 363 laboratory rooms shared by 91 research teams, it also contains Office Manager / Editorial Assistant state-of-the-art teaching space, an advanced facility for breeding and caring for transgenic mice Claire M. Bessinger (a research model invented at Yale in 1980) and a major new center for research employing Senior Administrative Assistant Cheryl R. Violante magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, another field pioneered significantly at Yale. Design If you’re curious about the new space and want to see architect Robert Venturi’s Daphne Geismar sketches or recent photos of the construction, the school has a website full of wonderful Production Consultant detail.

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