@ MedicineAdvancing Biomedical Science, Education and Health Care YaleVolume 4, Issue 2 May/June 2008 It’s only rock ’n’ roll, but it supports cancer research at Yale A recent gift to support cancer University of Pennsylvania). And un- Medicine Jeffrey L. “When you know somebody be- research at Yale seems, at first blush, like many philanthropists, his fortune Sklar, m.d., ph.d., fore there is any pretense,” Burnstein to follow a familiar pattern: It came wasn’t made in paneled boardrooms which began in says, “in some ways you really know from a man who, having parlayed his but in concert halls and recording middle school in them the best. Jeff was the premier in- Ivy League education into a successful studios. Highland Park, Ill. tellect of our class, and that was saying career, wanted to make a donation be- Burnstein is the co-owner of The link between a lot.” Highland Park High School’s cause of academic loyalties he forged QPrime, a talent agency that repre- Burnstein and Class of 1966 produced a bumper crop long ago. sents Grammy-winning, multi- Sklar was one of of achievers, including abc investiga- What sets the donation apart is platinum musical acts like Shania Jeffrey Sklar association rather tive journalist Brian Ross; Penn State that, in this case, Yale is the benefi- Twain, Metallica, and the Red Hot than abiding friendship—they were University President Graham Spanier, ciary of a windfall. Chili Peppers. His $1.5 million gift in the same classes but never bosom ph.d.; producers/screenwriters Mark The donor, Cliff Burnstein, has no stems from a connection with Profes- buddies—but Burnstein’s eye for tal- Victor and Michael Grais, co-authors ties to the university (he went to the sor of Pathology and Laboratory ent was keen even then. Rock, page 6 Cartoonist’s work Smoothing on wartime trauma the road garners an award In April, cartoonist Garry Trudeau, To advance orthopaedics, of “Doonesbury” fame, received the annual Mental Health Research Ad- couple bequeaths estate vocacy Award from the Department to the School of Medicine of Psychiatry for his portrayal of the physical and psychological challenges For someone who spent a lifetime in faced by soldiers returning from the orthopaedics, mending hands, knees wars in Iraq and and hips damaged by age or trauma, Afghanistan. Michael J. Cummings, m.d., a 1965 Trudeau, who graduate of the School of Medicine, holds undergrad- has adopted a rather bone-jarring uate and master’s hobby in retirement. He and his wife, Dean Robert Alpern (left) joined Susan and Michael Cummings on a recent visit to the degrees from Yale, Susan, a retired practitioner, educa- School of Medicine, where the Cummingses met on a blind date in the 1960s. was honored at tor and consultant in acute-care “great camaraderie and very difficult Connecticut. Michael says his interest B.D. the department’s nursing, are enthusiastic participants driving.” The couple have braved in orthopaedics was fueled by the late Neuroscience 2008 symposium, in extreme off-road driving events snowstorms at high elevation in the John Hartley Moore, m.d., a gifted “Stress, Resilience and Recovery.” arranged by AM General, the Indi- Rockies in Utah and Colorado, and clinical instructor with a practice in In a prolific series of strips, ana company that manufactures the once drove four and a half hours to Stratford, Conn., whose teaching skills Trudeau has chronicled the wartime military and civilian versions of the traverse a mere quarter-mile of a earned him the School of Medicine’s experiences of B.D., a venerable Hummer truck/suv. boulder-strewn Virginia riverbed. Francis Gilman Blake Award in 1964. “Doonesbury” character who was Cummings was smitten by the Now, to help ensure that the paths Although Susan Cummings never modeled on Trudeau’s classmate Hummer in 1993, when he saw televi- taken by the physicians and scientists officially attended the medical school, Brian Dowling, a legendary Yale quar- sion coverage of Arnold Schwarzeneg- of Yale’s Department of Orthopaedics she still considers Yale to be an alma terback in the late 1960s. The char- ger (who owned the first Hummer and Rehabilitation are a bit less haz- mater of sorts. “Quality faculty, clini- acter made his debut in 1968 in the built for civilian use, and now drives ardous than those the Cummingses cal practice, research and education, opening installment of “Bull Tales,” a hydrogen-powered model) and wife have surveyed through many a mud- are all necessary to positively impact Trudeau’s first published strip, which Maria Shriver elegantly emerging in spattered windshield, the couple have health care,” she explains. “Even appeared in the Yale Daily News in the tuxedo and gown from a jet-black bequeathed their entire estate to the though I’m a graduate of the Univer- late 1960s. The strip’s name changed Hummer at the Academy Awards. School of Medicine. sity of Connecticut, with a master’s to “Doonesbury” in 1970, when it was “That was impressive,” he says. The Cummingses met on a blind from the University of Washington, also syndicated in about two dozen In 1997, Cummings became a date at a church coffeehouse when Yale is where I really learned about other newspapers. proud Hummer owner himself, and Michael was in medical school and nursing and medicine, where the In an April 2004 strip, B.D. lost the following year he and Susan took Susan was receiving clinical train- opportunities to engage in clinical part of one leg—and his trademark the first of their annual off-road ing at Yale-New Haven Hospital as a practice were provided to me.” football helmet—in an explosion; adventures, which Michael says offer nursing student at the University of Road, page 6 Doonesbury, page 6

Non-Profit Org. Inside this issue Medicine@Yale U. S. Postage 300 George St., Suite 773 PAID Lifelines Memorial to a modest mentor David Leffell’s devotion Travel award helps surgery New Haven, CT 06511 New Haven, CT Permit No. 526 to putting patients first, p. 2 students treat the world’s poor, p. 5 www.medicineatyale.org Healing broken brains Genetic endowment Yale’s united front against Scientist wins the Wiley Prize degenerative diseases, p. 3 for gene research, p. 8 That others may live Also Couple overcomes tragedy Advances, pp. 3, 5; Out & About, p. 4; with generosity, p. 4 Grants and Contracts, pp. 7–8

Want to find out more about medicine at Yale? E-mail us at [email protected] or phone (203) 785-5824. Expert on myeloma, cancer vaccines to

Although David Leffell has head hematology a full plate of administra- tive duties, he is most at Madhav V. Dhodapkar, m.d., an home in his dermatologic expert on multiple myeloma and surgery office, where he monoclonal gammopathy of un- performs Mohs surgery for skin cancer. Leffell known significance (mgus), the pre- is working to raise the malignant state from which myeloma profile of clinical medicine often develops, has at the School of Medicine been named chief to be on par with Yale’s world-class research and of the Section of educational reputation. Hematology in the Department of Internal Medicine. Dhodapkar comes to Yale from Rock- Madhav efeller University, Dhodapkar where he headed the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy since 2001. Dhodapkar studies the effects of Leffell collaborates with several tumors on the immune systems of Making practice perfect investigators across the medical patients with multiple myeloma, and school and was a member of the how the immune system permits the resident attracted by the excitement Head of Yale’s practices team that discovered the skin cancer transition from mgus to myeloma. developing around understanding makes it his mission gene ptch in 1996. His laboratory explores the use of den- the immunology of the skin. He As ceo of ymg, Leffell manages dritic cell vaccines and immunomodu- to serve patients’ needs spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow a practice with more than 800 latory drugs to bolster the immune David J. Leffell, m.d., deputy dean on a National Institutes of Health physicians in over 100 specialties. system against tumor formation. As for clinical affairs, ceo of the Yale Training Grant, where he developed “There’s no one-size-fits-all at Yale,” professor of medicine at Yale, he in- Medical Group (ymg) and professor a patented laser device for mea- he says. “We have a very diverse tends to expand his clinical research. of dermatology, describes himself suring sun-induced skin aging. In faculty with many different interests Jack A. Elias, m.d., chair and as “physician, academic, and admin- 1987, he moved to the University of and skill sets; there are many, many Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor istrator,” in that order. “If the dean Michigan Medical School for train- moving parts. Out of that soup we of Medicine, says that Dhodapkar needs to speak with me, but I have ing in Mohs surgery, need to create an experience for “is a world-renowned expert on the an appointment with a patient,” Lifelines a technique in which our patients that’s seamless.” His immunobiology of cancers, mgus Leffell says, “he understands that the skin cancers are David J. own dermatologic surgery practice and multiple myeloma. He will add patient comes first.” removed layer by fares well on that front, scoring in vibrant and visionary leadership A surprising statement for an Leffell layer and studied the 99th percentile in nationwide to the Section of Hematology, the academic official, perhaps, but as an immediately under a microscope surveys. Department of Internal Medicine and unflagging champion of first-rate using a frozen section method. The Leffell finds refuge from his Yale Cancer Center.” patient care at the School of Medi- Mohs surgeon creates a map of the many duties at his weekend house Dhodapkar received his medical cine, an institution that has largely specimen to allow removal of the in Norfolk, Conn.; at the sugges- degree in 1987 from All India Institute built its reputation on research and entire tumor, providing the highest tion of his son, Alex, and daughter, of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and educational prowess, Leffell feels cure rate and minimizing scarring. Dahlia, he brought some country to completed his residency in internal duty-bound to practice what he He soon was recruited back the city in the form of eight chickens medicine at St. Louis University Hos- preaches—and he preaches about to Yale to develop a skin cancer that the family keeps for fresh eggs. pitals in Missouri. practice. “I am an advocate,” he says, program in the Department of Der- He is an avid sculptor, photographer “for the elevation of clinical practice matology. Colleagues were skepti- and painter, and his photographs, @ to the same level of recognition as cal that Leffell would find enough Medicine Yale many of Norfolk landscapes, adorn Peter Farley, Managing Editor teaching and research.” patients to make his Mohs training the walls of his offices. A much Contributors: John Curtis, Mark D’Antonio, After graduating from Yale worthwhile. “‘There’s no skin cancer sought-after speaker and consultant, John Dillon, Charles Gershman, Jennifer Kaylin, College in 1977, the Montréal-born in Connecticut, you’re crazy. Go to Leffell is the author of Total Skin, a Pat McCaffrey, Jacqueline Weaver Leffell returned to his hometown Arizona, go to Florida,’” Leffell recalls layperson’s guide to dermatology Photographs: Julie Brown, John Curtis, Terry Dagradi, to attend medical school at McGill hearing in those days. However, the and skin health. AnnaMaria DiSanto, DK Images, Carl Lindskog, University, but never imagined he population of coastal Connecticut Along with his wife, Cindy, Leffell Michael Marsland, David Ottenstein, Judy Sirota Rosenthal, Harold Shapiro, Christopher Spock, Garry would specialize in dermatology. spends a lot of time outdoors, a recently made a $100,000 gift to the Trudeau, ChiChi Ubiña, Agnès Vignery, The Wiley Then, during his residency in internal prime risk factor for skin cancer. medical school to endow an annual Foundation

medicine at Memorial Sloan-Ketter- “Now our program is one of the prize for clinical excellence. “It’s a Design: Peter W. Johnson, Maura Gianakos ing Cancer Center in New York in the busiest in the country,” Leffell, who complex environment at Yale; it Medicine@Yale is published six times each year by the early 1980s, patients began arriving heads ymg’s dermatologic surgery can be challenging and frustrating. Office of Institutional Planning and Communications, with purple skin lesions, the first practice, says. “We treat about 4,000 But at the end of the day when you Yale School of Medicine, 300 George St., Suite 773, wave of the aids epidemic. Leffell cases per year, and also do signifi- stand back, you can see signs that New Haven, CT 06511. Telephone: (203) 785-5824 returned to Yale as a dermatology cant clinical research.” you’ve made a difference.” Fax: (203) 785-4327 E-mail: [email protected] Website: medicineatyale.org A match made in medical school: students find residencies Copyright ©2008 by Yale School of Medicine. Each spring, fourth-year students at “This is the third year out of All rights reserved. medical schools across the country the last four where we’ve had a 100 If you have a change of address or do not wish eagerly anticipate Match Day, when percent match,” says Associate Dean to receive future issues of Medicine@Yale, please write to us at the above address students receive word of acceptance in of Student Affairs Nancy R. Angoff, or via e-mail at [email protected]. residency training programs. m.d., m.p.h. Postal permit held by Yale University, On the afternoon of March 20, Four students will specialize in 155 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520 word spread across the medical school ophthalmology, four in dermatol- Yale School of Medicine campus that, for the second year in a ogy and seven in anesthesiology. An Robert J. Alpern, m.d., Dean row, the entire class had “matched,” unusually high number of students— Ensign Professor of Medicine meaning that every fourth-year nine—will begin residencies in Jancy L. Houck Associate Vice President for Development student had been accepted as a resi- psychiatry. and Director of Medical Development dent at one of their chosen institu- Ten students will head to the Uni- (203) 436-8560 Lindsay McGuire (back to camera) congratu- tions, and no student would have to versity of California–San Francisco, lates fellow student Sarah Frasure. Mary Hu scramble to find an unfilled slot. and 17 to the Boston area. Director of Institutional Planning and Communications Michael Fitzsousa, Director of Communications

 www.medicineatyale.org Advances A scientific assault on brain diseases Health and science news from Yale Program to unravel Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s gears up for a tough battle The School of Medicine is home to outstanding research programs in cell A two-pronged tactic biology and neurobiology, and mem- to grow new bone bers of its faculty have made major contributions to our understand- School of Medicine researchers ing of how nerve cells are organized have devised a novel technique— and function in the brain. However, removing bone marrow and inject- despite strong clinical programs in ing a hormone—that promotes Alzheimer’s disease and other age- rapid formation of new bone. “This could radically change the related disorders, up until a few years way patients are currently treated ago there was surprisingly little basic for weakened or fractured hips, research at the medical school on the vertebrae and acute traumatic growing problem of neurodegenera- long-bone fractures,” says senior tive disease, and little effort to trans- author Agnès M. Vignery, d.d.s., late new insights into badly needed Primary and affiliated faculty in the medical school’s Program in Cellular Neuroscience, ph.d., associate professor of ortho- Neurodegeneration and Repair include (back row, from left) Anthony Koleske, Thomas therapies. Biederer, (middle row, from left) David McCormick, Sreeganga Chandra, Co-Director Stephen paedics and rehabilitation. Existing To remedy that deficiency, the Strittmatter, (front row, from left) Susumu Tomita, Marina Picciotto, Co-Director Pietro De therapy, which involves surgery medical school called on two mem- Camilli and David Zenisek. and artificial materials, often leads bers of Yale’s Kavli Institute for to unsatisfactory outcomes. how chemical neurotransmitters, who studies how vesicles transport Neuroscience, Stephen M. Strittmat- As reported in the February which are packaged into spherical and release neurotransmitters ter, m.d., ph.d., the Vincent Coates issue of Tissue Engineering: Part A, packets known as synaptic vesicles, into the synapse, as well as how Professor of Neurology, and Pietro Vignery’s team removed mar- are released into the synapse. Using neurotransmitters are “recycled” De Camilli, m.d., the Higgins Trust row from thigh bones in rats and biochemical and genetic techniques by being gathered up from the Professor of Cell Biology and Howard then gave them daily injections of combined with light and electron synapse in newly formed vesicles; parathyroid hormone (pth), which Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, microscopy, De Camilli is elucidating • Genetics: Arthur Horwich, m.d., stimulates bone growth (see right to create and direct a new Program mechanisms underlying the forma- ph.d., a widely recognized panel of photo). The procedure in Cellular Neuroscience, Neurode- tion and traffic of synaptic vesicles authority on protein folding who created new bone tissue that ap- generation and Repair (cnnr). The within axon terminals and unveil- has recently turned his attention peared structurally and biologically cnnr program, launched in 2006, ing how these mechanisms might be to the misfolded proteins that are normal, and endowed the bone has expanded the reach of cellular with improved biomechanical compromised in neurodegenerative characteristics of amyotrophic neuroscience at the School of Medi- properties at a rate that can’t be diseases. The cnnr program’s first lateral sclerosis (als, or Lou Geh- cine from learning how healthy nerve achieved by injecting hormones recruit, Assistant Professor of Neurol- rig’s disease); cells work to understanding what goes alone, Vignery says. ogy Sreeganga S. Chandra, ph.d., is • Molecular Biophysics and Bio- wrong in disease. New research will determine also a specialist on the synapse. Chan- chemistry: Thomas Biederer, During brain development, whether the newly formed bone dra is studying the synuclein family ph.d., who studies the develop- can be preserved and whether nerve cells send out long extensions, of synaptic proteins, one of which ment of synapses and how deficits the technique is effective in other known as axons, that seek out and malfunctions in Parkinson’s disease. in synapse formation may cause animals. make contact with other nerve cells The cnnr program has drawn neurodegenerative diseases, and at specialized sites called synapses. In in prominent scientists from other Anthony Koleske, ph.d., who is the normal adult brain, these con- departments as affiliated faculty: seeking ways to prevent dendrite Age no barrier for nections form a network in which • Cellular & Molecular Physiology: regression, an early hallmark of heart bypass surgery electrical signals are sent along axons Susumu Tomita, ph.d., whose Alzheimer’s disease; to synapses, where they are converted Over the last 40 years, coronary studies on the role of the excit- • Neurobiology: David A. McCor- to a chemical signal that passes the artery bypass graft (cabg, pro- atory neurotransmitter glutamate mick, ph.d., an expert on neural neural “message” on to other cells. nounced “cabbage”) surgery has may produce new insights into electrophysiological function from Neurodegenerative diseases, stroke become commonplace; the Na- Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s dis- the cellular to the network level; and spinal cord injuries cause damage tional Center for Health Statistics eases, and David Zenisek, ph.d., Battle, page 5 estimates that 469,000 bypass to axons, synapses or both, and the procedures were performed on complementary research interests of 261,000 patients in 2005. the cnnr program’s codirectors— According to a Yale study Strittmatter is an expert on axon published in the December issue of growth; De Camilli is a pioneering The American Journal of Cardiology, researcher in synapse formation and The role of creativity in research even individuals in their 90s with function—drive the center’s compre- heart disease may benefit from Solving the mysteries of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative hensive approach to nervous system cabg surgery. diseases will require creative, innovative ideas from the best minds in medi- diseases. A research team led by Judith cal research. Creativity can’t be programmed to occur on a tight schedule or H. Lichtman, ph.d., m.p.h., associate Strittmatter’s research group has within a specific budget, yet that is precisely how most research grants are professor of epidemiology at Yale discovered that nogo, a protein in School of Public Health, studied the fatty myelin sheaths that insulate administered. Today’s tight budgets and risk-averse grant committees favor outcomes of the procedure in nerve cell axons prevents axons from research awards that provide funds to build on what is already known—not 4,224 Medicare patients in their seeking further connections in the what is novel or unexpected. 90s who underwent the surgery adult brain. This helps to solidify Private support for endowed professorships, like the Vincent Coates Pro- from 1993 through 1999. The group neural circuits, but nogo also blocks fessorship held by Stephen Strittmatter and the Higgins Trust Professorship found that age did not significantly axon growth after spinal cord injury held by Pietro De Camilli, provide researchers with secure, flexible funding to lessen the procedure’s success. and stroke, keeping the brain from Lichtman and senior author pursue new ideas ... to think creatively ... to discover new treatments. Harlan M. Krumholz, the Harold repairing itself. Strittmatter and his This is the hope, and the promise, of the best biomedical research. H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine, colleagues are exploring ways to block The Campaign for Yale School of Medicine seeks donors who are not nogo’s action to encourage the note that women, while more likely satisfied with a conservative approach to research, who wish to participate in to be discharged to nursing homes sprouting of axons and reconnection pushing the boundaries of knowledge. A commitment of $3 million or more after the surgery, had better post- of nerve tracts before injury or disease surgical survival rates than men. cause permanent damage. can create a named, endowed research professorship in neurodegeneration They also caution that additional In many neurodegenerative and neural repair or in any other area of donor interest. research is needed to fully assess diseases, a loss of synaptic connec- For more information, visit yaletomorrow.yale.edu/medicine or contact the suitability of cabg surgery for tions between cells appears as one of Jancy Houck, associate vice president for development and director of medical this elderly population. the first signs of trouble. De Camilli development at (203) 436-8560. has increased our understanding of

Medicine@Yale May/June 2008  After heartbreak, a commitment to make a difference To honor a daughter, of the time young parents aren’t in a Steven and Carolyn Wortman, founders position to give significant amounts of the Abby Lauren Wortman Fund for New Jersey couple builds of money, and it’s also a disease where research on necrotizing enterocolitis, with son Ryan at their New Jersey home. a new fund for research in many cases, parents have another child—not that they get over their Few events are more tragic than the loss, but they do try to ‘move on’ man Fund. With an insider’s eye, death of a child. When Steven and mentally.” Carolyn D. Wortman, an Steven says that his admiration for the Carolyn Wortman of Livingston, N.J., accountant for Olympus Capital, a “unparalleled” record of Yale’s chief lost their first child, Abby, in 2006 to private equity firm in New York City, investment officer, David F. Swensen, necrotizing enterocolitis (nec), an agrees. “People tend to become reclu- ph.d., was added incentive to estab- inflammatory disease of the gastroin- sive about it,” she says. lish the endowment at the School of testinal tract that affects roughly one One bright spot in a mostly Medicine, which they hope will grow in 20 premature babies, they grieved bleak landscape of fruitless Internet into an official endowment that will deeply, but they also resolved that searches was the work of the School of generate significant annual income to they would keep Abby’s memory alive Medicine’s R. Lawrence “Larry” Moss, support nec research at Yale. by doing whatever they could to see m.d., the Robert Pritzker Profes- “What our relationship with the that someday nec would be under- sor of Pediatric Surgery and chief of Wortmans illustrates is that Yale has stood and defeated. pediatric surgery at Yale-New Haven the opportunity, and one could argue, Given how common nec is in Children’s Hospital. “The outcome for the responsibility to impact patients premature births, the Wortmans were this disease has improved almost zero improvement.” The Wortmans have who will never come to this medi- surprised to find very little informa- in 30 years, but we’re beginning to no personal affiliation with Yale, and cal center,” Moss says of the couple’s tion on nec research or advocacy make some very positive baby steps in Abby—who was born at 27 weeks, gift. “What we’re trying to do here groups devoted to the disorder. Steven the right direction,” says Moss. contracted nec at three weeks old is change the field—change the way Wortman, a small-cap mutual fund In 2006, Moss and colleagues and died two weeks later—was never we treat certain diseases, change the analyst who oversees small-cap mu- published the results of a six-year treated in New Haven. But after read- outcomes, change the way we look at tual funds for Lord Abbett, a Jersey study comparing the effectiveness of ing about Moss’s work they contacted premature babies, and develop new City, N.J.-based firm, surmises that surgical options for nec in The New Yale and decided to raise funds to treatments that can be offered to af- the apparent lack of support for stud- England Journal of Medicine—the first support his research. fected patients.” ies of nec partly stems from parents’ randomized, controlled, multi-center “When we told our friends and As the Wortmans adjust their rou- understandable desire for psychologi- clinical trial in pediatric surgery ever family about our idea, they really tines to care for their 10-month-old cal closure when a child dies from the conducted. responded to it,” remembers Steven son, Ryan, born in June, 2007, Steven disease, and partly from the fact that “That study sent us in a new and Wortman. “We had a lot of support, says that their fundraising efforts these same parents are usually young, more sophisticated direction in our and it just kept growing. It definitely help to keep Abby on their minds. lacking the sort of financial resources research, looking at biologic markers helped us heal, and gave us some- “We want to make some difference in to give the disease a high philanthrop- that may allow us to predict which thing to look forward to while we studies,” Steven says. “That obviously ic profile. babies are most at risk of the disease were in our grieving process, and it takes a lot of money, and this will take “When you say that your daughter and at risk for a bad outcome,” Moss was a way to give our daughter’s life a long period of time. But we don’t passed away from necrotizing entero- says. “We’re beginning to get a handle some meaning.” want this to be a flash in the pan. We colitis, most people have no idea what on this disease, and I think in our So far, the Wortmans have raised want this to be sustained. It allows us you’re talking about,” he says. “Most lifetime we’re going to see significant $46,000 for the Abby Lauren Wort- to keep her memory fresh.”

Out & about February 4: Former First Lady, March 27: During a visit by francis senator from New York and s. collins, m.d., ph.d., director of the presidential candidate Hillary National Human Genome Research Insti- Clinton made a campaign tute, Collins attended the Department of stop at the medical school’s Internal Medicine’s grand rounds, speak- Child Study Center (csc), ing on “Medical Implications of High- taking questions from the Throughput Genomics,” and later gave audience on children’s issues a lecture in the medical school’s Anlyan and health care policy. Clinton, Center on “Genomics, Medicine and who graduated from Yale Law Society.” After the latter talk, Collins (left), School in 1973, volunteered who directed the Human Genome Project, exchanged ideas with at the csc during her second Fred S. Kantor, m.d., the Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine. year as a law student. April 4: The Department March 14: At a celebration of professorships endowed by of Psychiatry presented david w. and jean mclean wallace of Greenwich, Conn., four School its annual mental of Medicine faculty members holding chairs endowed by the Wallaces joined health research the couple at the home of Yale President Richard C. Levin. Standing, from advocacy award to left: Levin; Jean McLean Wallace; Ruslan M. Medzhitov, ph.d., the David W. Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer Wallace Professor Prize-winning creator of of Immunobiol- the “Doonesbury” comic ogy; Margaret K. strip, for his strips high- Hostetter, m.d., lighting post-traumatic chair and Jean stress disorder among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (see related McLean Wallace Pro- story, p. 1). At the department’s 2008 Neuroscience Symposium, “Stress, fessor of Pediatrics; Resilience and Recovery” were (from left) William H. Sledge, m.d., interim James C. Tsai, m.d., chair and George D. and Esther S. Gross Professor of Psychiatry; Al Atherton, m.b.a., chair and president of the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Robert R. Young Pro- Ill; Thomas A. Kirk Jr., ph.d., commissioner of the Connecticut Department fessor of Ophthal- of Mental Health and Addiction Services; Trudeau; John H. Krystal, m.d., mology and Visual the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, deputy chair Science; Charles for research in the Department of Psychiatry and symposium co-director; J. Lockwood, m.d., chair and Anita O’Keefe Young Professor of Obstetrics, and Joan Kaufman, ph.d., associate professor of psychiatry and director of Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences; Robert J. Alpern, m.d., dean and the Child and Adolescent Research and Education (care) program in the Ensign Professor of Medicine. Seated: David W. Wallace. Department of Psychiatry.

 www.medicineatyale.org Advances A ‘reluctant honoree’ receives his due at last Health and science news from Yale Endowment in honor of surgeon enables students to treat disadvantaged The late Gustaf E. Lindskog, m.d., who chaired the medical school’s Department of Surgery from 1948 to 1966, deflected recognition at what Taking a bite seemed like every turning point in his out of stroke career. A pioneer in thoracic surgery and a participant in the develop- It may seem hard to believe that the rather menacing creature ment of several important medical above, the Malayan pit viper, could procedures that arose in the twentieth be good for your health, but a century, including chemotherapy and Phase III research study of a com- the clinical application of penicillin, (Left) Fourth-year medical student Matthew McRae holds a patient at Sappasithiprasong pound found in the snake’s venom Lindskog nonetheless remained an Hospital, in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. A winner of this year’s Lindskog International could provide new hope for stroke ever-reluctant honoree. Travel Award, named in honor of Gustaf Lindskog (right), McRae traveled to Thailand in victims. According to Andrew J. Graham, February to provide surgical care to members of a needy community. Doctors at Yale-New Haven m.d., associate clinical professor This year, the two winners of dards, McRae says. But the amount Hospital (ynhh) are administering of surgery, and John E. Fenn, m.d., the prize were fourth-year medi- of unmet need there was palpable. ancrod (trade name Viprinex), a clinical professor of surgery—both cal students Matthew MacRae “Children would be in bed, three rows drug derived from pit viper venom, Lindskog trainees—when the idea of and Yuen-Jong Liu. Both traveled of beds lined up, with their parents to eligible patients who enter the abroad in February, McRae to Ubon staying right next to the beds,” he says. hospital with symptoms of acute commissioning a portrait of Lindskog ischemic stroke. was tossed around, Lindskog not only Ratchathani, Thailand, and Liu to San “It was an absolute jam of people, In such cases doctors typically issued a resounding no, but by way Pedro Sula, Honduras. For nine days some of them there for over a week.” administer a clot-breaking agent of explanation, trudged to a certain MacRae and a team that included The flight of many of the hospi- known as tissue plasminogen closet where portraits of esteemed School of Medicine faculty members tal’s surgeons from Ubon Ratchathani activator, or tPA, but it must be medical school professors lay stashed Deepak Narayan, m.d., m.b.b.s., as- to Bangkok means that the hospital given no more than three hours away, hidden and unappreciated. sociate professor of surgery, and Mark is severely understaffed, says McRae. after stroke symptoms appear to Superficial honors were not his cup H. Weinstein, m.d., assistant clinical Sappasithiprasong serves a popula- be effective. Ancrod, which has a of tea. “We had to find something professor of surgery, treated cleft lips tion of 5 million, but only two plastic potent anticoagulant effect, may appropriate to keep his memory and palates, repaired congenital hand surgeons were on staff when McRae be effective up to six hours after alive,” says Graham, president of the deformities, and managed the care of arrived in February. symptoms begin. “If ancrod is proven safe and effective,” says Yale Surgical Society (yss), a fellow- burns. Jong, part of a team led by As- “There was a huge number of Joseph Schindler, m.d., clinical ship of graduates and faculty of Yale sociate Professor of Surgery J. Grant trauma cases and they’d never be director of the ynhh Stroke Center, School of Medicine’s surgical training Thomson, m.d., performed a wide able to get to these kids,” he says. “By “it will double the time frame dur- program founded in 1994. variety of procedures, including car- operating on these kids and by mak- ing which stroke patients can be Fenn, in his roles as yss treasurer pal tunnel releases, skin grafts, bone ing them look more normal, it allows treated.” and faculty advisor to first- and settings, bone fusions, and conjoined them to integrate in society in a way ynhh is the only Connecticut second-year students in the Yale finger releases. that they just wouldn’t be able to do hospital participating in the trial, Surgical Interest Group, conceived Jong realized on arriving in San without these operations. You’d bring which is expected to last for one to the idea of support to students at the Pedro Sula that outdated hospital these kids out and their parents would two years. School of Medicine to travel abroad equipment and otherwise limited be there in tears, incredibly grateful. to developing countries to perform resources would require some creative It was an amazing, heartwarming Sloppy gene repairs: much-needed surgery. Graham thinking. “There was an intellectual experience.” a cause of lymphoma? believed the initiative was some- challenge in trying to see what was Although the award endowment thing that would have appealed to the most you could get out of your is in its infancy, Fenn and Graham The blood and lymphatic systems Lindskog’s sense of propriety and his limited supplies. We were a little bit are optimistic about the Lindskog transport the immune system’s longstanding interest in helping the less comfortable when sitting at the Award’s future. It is a significant part infection-fighting B cells through- disadvantaged. Lindskog’s son, Carl operating tables, but they all still of the total yss endowment, and “as out the body. During an immune W. Lindskog, of Woodbridge, Conn., functioned well,” he explains. “We the endowment grows, we will be able response, random mutations are heartily agreed, and the Lindskog had to approach some of the cases to do more,” says Graham. introduced in B cell genes by a pro- International Travel Award was born. differently. For Fenn and Graham, the Lind- cess known as somatic hypermuta- For example, we didn’t have C- skog Award not only offers Yale medi- tion (shm), which makes the cells The award affords medical stu- more effective at fighting a variety dents at Yale with an opportunity un- arms, which we use for live radiologi- cal students an unparalleled oppor- of foreign invaders. like any currently offered by any other cal imaging. So we had to do more tunity, but also honors a man whose To keep harmful mutations medical school in the United States. anatomical exploration or use more memory had lived on in the minds at bay, B cells contain dna repair Through the endowment, students hands-on, more old-fashioned tradi- of his trainees but had gone publicly enzymes that repair faulty genes receive stipends that make it possible tional techniques.” unrecognized. created by shm, but little is known for them to travel to other countries In contrast, the operating room “This is gratifying for me, person- about how effective these repair to provide medical services under the facilities at Sappasithiprasong Hos- ally, to see these students rewarded mechanisms are, or whether they tutelage of their Yale professors and pital, where McRae and his team this way. It’s also gratifying that we might be related to the develop- instructors. worked, were up to modern stan- can honor Dr. Lindskog,” says Fenn. ment of the cancerous B cells seen in lymphoma. Battle from page 3 In the February 14 issue of Na- ture, a team led by David G. Schatz, • Pharmacology: Ya Ha, ph.d., who By linking with each other and erous donors, core facilities for ph.d., professor of immunobiol- is solving the molecular structure with primary members of the cnnr cell imaging, genomics and electro- ogy and Howard Hughes Medical of the enzymes that produce the program, these investigators will gain physiology are in the works. With a Institute investigator, found that neurotoxic amyloid beta peptide, practical help from one another as plan to hire at least five more new almost 25 percent of B cell genes a known culprit in Alzheimer’s well as a broader context for their faculty members, the program is accumulated mutations, including disease; work on neurodegenerative diseases. ready to take off, according to genes that are strongly associated “While the main goal of the cnnr Strittmatter. with human lymphomas. • Psychiatry: Angus Nairn, ph.d., “The implications of these find- studies the neurotransmitter program is to advance knowledge “A few years ago, research on ings are considerable,” Schatz says. dopamine, which is disrupted about diseases,” De Camilli points neurodegenerative disease at Yale was “It now seems likely that anything in Huntington’s and Parkinson’s out, “studies of diseases will also help hit or miss, confined to corners of that compromises the function of diseases. Marina Picciotto, ph.d., improve our understanding of normal scattered departments, with no or- these dna repair processes could works on nicotinic acetylcholine nervous system function.” ganization and fairly minor activity,” lead to widespread mutations and receptors, proteins involved in The medical school’s Boyer Center Strittmatter says. “We have already an increased risk of cancer.” memory, which may reveal new for Molecular Medicine is the cnnr changed that, and over the next few drug targets for Alzheimer’s. program’s new home. Thanks to gen- years, we plan to change it more.” Medicine@Yale May/June 2008  Road from page 1 “Susan and I decided that we’d research,” Alpern says. “Michael and make the world a safer place, both in says, “but the time will come when we like to leave some sort of legacy by Susan’s gift will provide much-needed how we can best take care of patients regenerate joints rather than replace funding a chair in medicine,” says support for such an individual, and with spinal injuries and protect their them.” To do that, he explains, “we Michael Cummings. “Even though I we are grateful for their generos- neurologic function, and in terms of need to learn how to regenerate car- didn’t do my orthopaedic residency ity and commitment to the medical how we can redesign our environ- tilage so you wind up with a ‘genuine at Yale, I was fascinated by the idea of school.” ment to help prevent some of these GM part’ rather than a metal-and- funding clinical people to do part- Gary E. Friedlaender, m.d., chair injuries, whether by designing a new plastic replacement. That’s going to time research—doctors who would and Wayne O. Southwick Professor of seat or headrest for a car, or a new involve tissue engineering: under- spend part of the week in the lab and Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, says piece of athletic equipment for the standing how pluripotential stem the rest of their time in the operat- that the Cummingses’ gift is thought- playing field.” cells recreate themselves into popula- ing room and seeing patients—as ful in both senses of the word. “What During the past 20 years, the bio- tions of cells that make up tissue-like opposed to just having straight bench makes great donors is a combination mechanics faculty has been comple- cartilage and then maintain it for a scientists. This really struck home for of generosity and vision. Without mented by a first-rate group of biolo- lifetime.” both of us, because orthopaedics is both of those, a gift doesn’t reach gists who seek to understand how Friedlaender sees the clinical and an area of medicine that needs people its full potential. Michael and Susan musculoskeletal tissues are assembled research missions of his department who can translate basic science into Cummings are generous and vision- at the cellular and molecular levels, as tightly intertwined and mutually clinical applications for real patient ary,” Friedlaender says. “Gifts like this as well as how bones grow and repair reinforcing, and gifts like the Cum- scenarios.” allow us to pursue our missions—in themselves in health and disease. “The mingses’ as crucial to continuing the Robert J. Alpern, m.d., dean and the clinical arena, as well as in educa- synergy between these two groups, department’s tradition of excellence. Ensign Professor of Medicine, says tional and research—with increased the form and the function, the way “Sometimes we turn to basic sci- that the Cummingses’ intentions align vigor.” things are put together at the cellular ence and at other times we turn to squarely with the School of Medicine’s The department’s longstanding and molecular level and the way they clinical process, product or procedure goals. “Physician-scientists are crucial strength in biomechanics research has function at the macro level” will di- development—a new operation, a new to the future of medicine, medical led to advances in the treatment and rectly improve well-being of patients, implant, an improved way of treating research and medical education. It is prevention of injuries. In the case of such as the large number of people patients,” he says. “There’s not a single becoming more and more difficult, the spine, Friedlaender says, “our basic over age 60 who have some degree of subspecialty of orthopaedics that’s not especially in procedure-intensive understanding of the mechanics has osteoporosis, says Friedlaender. important, or that can’t be improved specialties such as orthopaedics, to provided a basis for us and for others Joint replacement surgery is in terms of our ability to treat and be a master in both medical care and to expand on those observations and extremely well developed, Friedlaender prevent disorders and diseases.” Rock from page 1

Music promoter Cliff Burnstein (center), co-owner of the QPrime agency, with (from left) QPrime partner Peter Mensch; singer-songwriter Nina Gordon; Lars Ulrich, drummer for the multi-platinum-selling rock band Metallica (both Gordon and Ulrich are QPrime clients); and Rick Rubin, celebrated producer and co-chair of Columbia Records.

cal school’s Molecular Diagnostics cogenic genes, Sklar’s lab found that Program. “The lab made what I think they function more as mimics of a is an important discovery, and I could little-studied normal process—or as not get funding to pursue it.” Hui Li, ph.d., an associate research Sklar says Burnstein “called me up scientist who did the work with out of the blue” last fall to get details Sklar, puts it, “It’s a variation on the on his research and what it would theme of cancers plagiarizing normal take to fund it. “I understood about 1 mechanisms in the cell, but in an percent of it,” Burnstein says, but “he’s exaggerated fashion. You could say somebody that I trust. I knew him that cancers are smart but they’re not then. I reconnected with him in a way original.” that made me feel that he was very Of his gift, which will support vital and had tremendous amounts to Sklar’s lab over five years, Burnstein of the “They’re heeeere!” catch- Keeping tabs on each other contribute.” says that he’s been fortunate and felt phrase from the 1982 film Poltergeist; through a mutual classmate who had Sklar says his research “challenges it was time to give back. “Jeff’s one of and many others accomplished in become a psychoanalyst, Burnstein a fundamental tenet of cancer biol- the highest-quality people I ever met academia, business, and the profes- learned that Sklar was doing poten- ogy” because it describes how chro- in my life,” he says, “and I’m backing sions. “Everybody in the class said [of tially groundbreaking research at Yale, mosomal abnormalities contribute him.” And Sklar, though not a regular Sklar], ‘This is a guy who is going to but that research money was tight. to the development of the disease. concertgoer, is urging everyone to see make his mark,’” says Burnstein. “I “This is a very bad time for research,” Whereas the prevailing view holds one of Burnstein’s bands. “They’ll be don’t think anybody said that of me.” says Sklar, also director of the medi- that these abnormalities create on- supporting medical research,” he says. Doonesbury from page 1 his physical rehabilitation, which by Garry Trudeau included being fitted for a prosthetic Doonesbury leg, is collected in a book entitled The Long Road Home. In 2006, B.D. was revealed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), and his struggles with the disorder are depicted with Trudeau’s inimitable mix of humor, poignancy and indignation in a sec- ond book, The War Within. Proceeds from sales of the books, which feature forewords by Republi- can presidential candidate John Mc- Cain and General Richard B. Myers, former chairman of the joint chiefs of zer Prize for editorial cartooning. He research designed to improve the lives as the real opportunities for obtaining staff, benefit Fisher House, a “home was elected to the American Academy of people with mental illness,” says help with the readjustment process. away from home” that provides tem- of Arts and Sciences in 1993. Yale ptsd researcher John H. Krystal, In so doing, he is helping to raise porary lodging in 38 facilities across “The Mental Health Research m.d., Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor awareness about the importance of the country to more than 10,000 Advocacy Award is given annually of Psychiatry. “Mr. Trudeau provides ptsd as a national challenge, where military families in need. by the Department of Psychiatry to millions of Americans with a gut-level investment in treatment and research In 1975, Trudeau was the first someone who has made an important appreciation of the impact of ptsd could have an important and lasting comic-strip artist to receive the Pulit- contribution to the effort to advance on soldiers and their families as well impact.”

 www.medicineatyale.org Grants and contracts awarded to Yale School of Medicine July/August 2007

Perry Miller, nih, Biomedical Informatics $397,440; American Diabetes Association, Inc., Federal Research Training at Yale, 5 years, $5,726,858 Mechanisms of Protection of Autoimmune Dia- Andrew Miranker, nih, Predoctoral Program betes, 4 years, $180,000 • Jason Fletcher, The Hervé Agaisse, nih, jak/stat Signaling in in Biophysics, 5 years, $1,042,899 • Gil Mor, Board of Regents of the University of Wiscon- Drosophila Acute Phase Response, 5 years, nih, Apoptosis Regulators in Ovarian Cancer, 5 sin System, Assessing the Effect of Increasing $1,654,083 • Morris Bell, nih, Research Train- years, $1,571,380 • Jon Morrow, nih, Experi- Housing Costs on Food Insecurity, 18 months, ing in Functional Disability Interventions, 5 mental and Human Pathobiology, 5 years, $40,000 • Carlos Fragoso, American College of years, $1,188,507 • Anton Bennett, nih, Mecha- $1,313,645; nih, Membrane Skeletal Control in Chest Physicians, Establishing Chronic Obstruc- nisms of Metabolic Control by mkp-1, 5 years, Hemolytic Disorders, 5 years, $1,860,750 • Xeno- tive Pulmonary Disease in Older Persons, 2 $1,685,126 • Clifford Bogue, nih, The Develop- phon Papademetris, nih, Image-Guided Deep- years, $100,000 • David Geller, Amgen Neph- ment of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Func- Brain Microscopy for Neurosurgical Intervention, rology Institute, Molecular Mechanisms of tion, 5 years, $1,700,395 • Elizabeth Bradley, 3 years, $1,088,103 • Rebecca Papas, nih, Hypertension in the Metabolic Syndrome, 1 year, nih, For-Profit Hospice Ownership and End-of- Alcohol and hiv in Kenya: Stage 1 Trial of a $60,000 • Thomas Gill, The Patrick and Cathe- Life Care, 3 years, $1,357,132 • Richard Bucala, Peer-Led Alcohol Behavior Intervention, 2 years, rine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research nih, Mechanisms of Rheumatoid Synovial $329,085 • Anna Marie Pyle, nih, Structure Foundation, Enhancing Independent Bathing in Fibroblast Activation, 5 years, $2,185,095 • Susan and Function of Group II Intron Ribozyme, 4 Community-Living Elders, 3 years, $240,000 Busch, nih, Antidepressant Use and Suicide, 3 years, $1,147,885 • Peter Rabinowitz, niosh, Walter Gilliam, State of CT Dept. of Children years, $845,277 • David Calderwood, nih, Daily Exposure Monitoring Intervention to and Family Services, Early Childhood Consulta- Identification of Beta1 Integrin, 2 years, $454,375 Prevent Hearing Loss, 4 years, $1,653,750 • Karin tion Partnership Evaluation, 3 years, $419,988 Richard Carson, nih, Quantitative High-Reso- Reinisch, nih, Assembly and Architecture of the A National Institutes of Health grant to Elaine Gilmore, Dermatology Foundation, lution Human Brain pet Imaging, 4 years, Exocyst, a Membrane Tethering Complex, 4 Richard Carson funds research at the Yale Electrophysiologic Characterization of Voltage- $1,323,273 • Steven Coca, nih, Urinary Bio- years, $1,256,930 • Harvey Risch, nih, Case- PET Center. Here, the PET (positron emission Gated Sodium Channels in Keratinocytes, 1 year, markers for Acute Kidney Injury in Critical Control Study of Pancreas Cancer in Shanghai, tomography) technique reveals the average $30,000 • Jonathan Goldstein, Allergan Sales, Illness, 1 year, $66,782 • Robert Constable, nih, China, 5 years, $2,757,617 • David Rothstein, binding potential of serotonin 1B receptors Inc., Neuromuscular/emg Fellowship Program, 1 Influence of Baseline Brain State on fmri, 5 nih, Induction of Renal Allograft Tolerance in in a transverse view of the brain in human year, $35,000 • Baiba Grube, Breast Cancer years, $1,755,279 • Joseph Craft, nih, Yale Monkeys with Anti-CD45RB-Based Therapy, 5 control subjects. Highest binding is visible in Alliance, Inc., Interdisciplinary Breast Fellow- Rheumatic Diseases Research Core Center, 5 years, $3,442,667 • Craig Roy, nih, Genetic the globus pallidus and the occipital cortex ship Grant, 1 year, $75,000 • Handan Gunduz- years, $3,210,030 • Ralph DiLeone, nih, Effects Analysis of Legionella Phagosome Trafficking, 5 (red regions). Bruce, National Alliance for Research on of mch Receptor Signaling in the Nucleus years, $2,092,398 • William Sessa, nih, Institu- Schizophrenia and Depression, Modeling Glial Accumbens, 4 years, $1,042,825 • David Don- tional National Research Service Award, 5 years, Bhagwagar, American Psychiatric Association, Dysfunction in Psychotic and Mood Disorders, 2 nelly, nih, Mechanism of Perinatal-Hyperoxic $1,321,431 • Richard Shiffman, nih, Improving Glutamatergic Modulation of Mood in Bipolar years, $60,000 • Bryan Hains, International Suppression of Chemoreceptor Function, 5 years, Guideline Development and Implementation, 4 Depression, 1 year, $45,000 • Vineet Bhandari, Institute for Research in Paraplegia, Rescuing $1,912,500 • Deepak D’Souza, nih, Cannabi- years, $1,482,799 • Mehmet Sofuoglu, nih, American Heart Association, Angiogenic Agents Motor Function after Spinal Cord Injury, 2 noids, Neural Synchrony and Information Pro- Cocaine Withdrawal and Pharmacotherapy in Alveolar Maturation, 3 years, $198,000 • Clif- years, $93,380 • Tibor Hajszan, National Alli- cessing, 2 years, $356,950 • Richard Edelson, Response, 4 years, $1,497,505 • Joan Steitz, nih, ford Bogue, pkd Foundation for Research in ance for Research on Schizophrenia and nih, Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, 5 years, Small rnp Mediators of Gene Expression, 4 Polycystic Kidney Disease, Mechanisms of Poly- Depression, Hippocampal Synaptic Remodeling $9,355,000 • David Fiellin, nih, Buprenorphine years, $1,079,348 • David Stern, nih, Transfor- cystic Liver Disease in the Hhex Mutant Mice, 1 in Postpartum Depression, 2 years, $60,000 Maintenance vs. Detoxification in Prescription mation by the neu Oncogene Product and egf, year, $75,000 • Elizabeth Bradley, Common- Stephanie Hamill, Jane Coffin Childs Memo- Opioid Dependence, 5 years, $3,000,971 5 years, $2,011,480 • Daniel Stetson, nih, wealth Fund, Diffusion of Hospital Strategies to rial Fund for Medical Research, Structural and Richard Flavell, nih, Pathogenesis and Preven- Mechanisms and Consequences of Innate Improve Care for Heart Attacks: How and Why Functional Studies of the rna Quality-Control tion of Autoimmune Diabetes, 5 years, $1,557,503 Immune Recognition of Nucleic Acids, 1 year, do Organizations Learn? 18 months, $295,793 tramp4 Complex, 3 years, $139,750 • Lyndsay Bernard Forget, nih, Blood Diseases, 5 years, $89,996 • Peter Tattersall, nih, Molecular and Ronald Braithwaite, Robert Wood Johnson Harris, Veridex, llc, Yale Fellowship, 1 year, $2,273,025 • Patrick Gallagher, nih, Molecular Epidemiologic Characterization of a Pathogenic Foundation, Tailoring Clinical Guidelines to $10,000 • Natalie Hayes, Cystic Fibrosis Foun- Biology of Erythrocyte Ankyrin, 4 years, Human Bocavirus, 2 years, $454,500 • Benjamin Comorbidity, 3 years, $390,243 • Christopher dation, Effects of Airway Clearance on Lung $1,355,990 • Antonio Giraldez, nih, The Role of Toll, nih, Promoting Tobacco and Cancer Con- Breuer, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, A Function in Cystic Fibrosis, 1 year, $11,452 Micro rnas in Vertebrate Development, 5 years, trol-Message Framing for Telephone Quitline Clinical Trial Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy Tamas Horvath, Foundation for Prader-Willi $1,554,838 • Peter Glazer, nih, dna Repair in Callers, 2 years, $347,014 • Derek Toomre, nih, of the Use of Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts in Research, Synaptology in Prader-Willi Syn- Cancer Biology and Therapy, 5 years, $8,376,289 Novel Delivery and Targeting of QDots to Track Congenital Heart Surgery, 3 years, $405,000 drome, 1 year, $50,000; Oregon Health Sciences Daniel Goldstein, nih, Mechanisms to Single Molecules Inside Live Cells, 5 years, Shi-Ying Cai, American Liver Foundation, University, Maternal High Fat Diet and the Augment Primary Immunity in Aging, 5 years, $1,033,802; nih, Novel tirf Microscopy for Ursodeoxycholic Acid and Retinoic Acid Combi- Melanocortin System in the Offspring, 4 years, $1,715,262 • Fred Gorelick, nih, Training Analyzing Trafficking and Signaling at the Cell national Treatment for Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, $165,375 • Henry Huang, GlaxoSmithKline Program in Investigative Gastroenterology, 5 Cortex, 5 years, $2,481,250 • Phong Trang, nih, 2 years, $200,000 • Paul Cleary, Robert Wood Research and Development, Ltd., pet years, $851,009 • Michele Goyette-Ewing, Let-7 Microrna Therapy to Enhance Radiosen- Johnson Foundation, Internally Managed Radiotracer Development for Dopamine Recep- Health Resources and Services Administration, sitivity in Lung Cancer Treatment, 3 years, Project to Develop Public Health Systems tor, 1 year, $282,982 • Yingqun Huang, State of Graduate Psychology Education Program, 3 $153,834 • Anthony Van den Pol, nih, Onco- Research, 18 months, $399,965 • Kelly Cosgrove, CT Dept. of Public Health, Development of years, $327,221 • Jiankan Guo, nih, Role of lytic Virus Targets Brain Tumors, 5 years, National Alliance for Research on Schizophre- Novel Tumor-Specific sirna Delivery System for Stem Cells in Renal Repair after Inducible Epi- $1,571,220 • Joshua Van Houten, Dept. of the nia and Depression, A Pilot Study to Assess the Cancer Gene Therapy, 20 months, $177,223 thelial Ablation, 5 years, $718,200 • Robert Army, Does Increased Expression of the Plasma Sensitivity of a Novel 5-HT1B Receptor Ligand to Kashif Jafri, American Heart Assoc. (Heritage Heimer, nih, Environmental Factors in hiv Membrane Calcium-atpase Isoform 2 Confer Endogenous Serotonin, 2 years, $60,000 • Irina Affiliate), The Effect of Neuregulin/ErbB Signal- Transmission among Suburban idus, 5 years, Resistance to Apoptosis on Breast Cancer Cells? 1 Cottrill, National Alliance for Research on ing on Glucose Uptake in the Heart, 1 year, $2,866,995 • Josephine Hoh, nih, cfh-Inde- year, $123,750 • Robert Weiss, nih, Encapsu- Schizophrenia and Depression, Effects of Nico- $22,000 • Sven-Eric Jordt, Sandler Program for pendent Risk Factors in Age-Related Macular lated sirnas for Treatment of Urological Disease, tine Administration on Beta2-nAChR Occupancy Asthma Research, Sensory Chemoreceptors in Degeneration, 2 years, $626,916 • Margaret 2 years, $454,552 • Tian Xu, nih, Utilizing PB in Smoking Patients with Schizophrenia, 2 years, Asthma and Airway Hyperresponsiveness, 3 Hostetter, nih, Pediatric Physician-Scientist Transposon to Generate a Comprehensive Mouse $59,982 • Meredith Crosby, American Cancer years, $450,000 • Manisha Juthani-Mehta, Program Award, 5 years, $11,267,626 • Karl Knockout Resource, 2 years, $1,050,000; nih, Society, Inc., Hypoxia-Induced dna Repair Infectious Disease Society of America, Defining Insogna, nih, Colony Stimulating Factor 1: Reg- Deciphering the Genetic Basis of Tumor Progres- Pathway Regulation, 3 years, $138,000 • Mark uti in Nursing Home Residents, 2 years, ulation and Role in Bone, 4 years, $1,323,000 sion and Metastasis in Flies, 5 years, $1,548,522 Cullen, State of CT Dept. of Labor, Proposal for $75,000 • Leonard Kaczmarek, American Susan Kaech, nih, Control of Terminal Differ- Fang Yi, Dept. of Defense (U.S.), Inhibiting the the Provision of Occupational Health Clinic, 1 Heart Assoc. (Heritage Affiliate), Properties and entiation of Effector and Memory T Cells by Folding and Maturation of ER and egfrs Using year, $93,475 • Linda DiBella, Tuberous Sclero- Regulation of Slack and Slick Channels, 3 years, Blimp-1, 2 years, $454,438 • Young-Shin Kim, Novel Hsp90 Inhibitors, 1 year, $125,126 • Zhong sis Alliance, Investigating a Link Between the $198,000 • Nina Kadan-Lottick, The Patrick nih, Genetic Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Yun, nih, Role of Hypoxia in the Maintenance Cilium and the tsc/mtor Pathway, 3 years, and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Disorder, 5 years, $781,663 • John Krystal, nih, and Homing of Hematopoietic Stem Cells, 2 $150,000 • Ralph DiLeone, The University of Research Foundation, Survivors of Cancer in Symposium on Neuroimaging in Alcoholism, 1 years, $284,319; nih, Role of Hypoxia in the Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Adolescent and Young Adults, 2 years, $240,195 year, $62,667 • Forrester Lee, nih, Yale Bio- Regulation of Cancer Cell Differentiation, 5 Studies of Feeding Peptides in Animal Depression Susan Kaech, Sandler Program for Asthma medical Science Training and Enrichment years, $1,571,220 • Hitten Zaveri, nih, Third Models, 1 year, $69,696 • Ronald Duman, The Research, Identifying the Signals that Keep TH2 Program, 5 years, $1,138,275 • Stephen Mala- International Workshop on Seizure Prediction, 1 University of Texas Southwestern Medical T Cells Alive During Chronic Asthma, 3 years, wista, Resolution of Gouty Inflammation, 2 year, $23,000 • Heping Zhang, nih, Data Coor- Center at Dallas, Studies of camp Signaling and $450,000 • Arie Kaffman, National Alliance for years, $413,825 • Robert Malison, nih, Clinical dination Center for the Reproductive Medicine creb in Nucleus Accumbens in Depression, 1 Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Neuroscience Research Training in Psychiatry, 5 Network, 5 years, $12,373,375 • Yawei Zhang, year, $47,897 • Raymond Eid, The National Vulnerability to Stress Programmed by Postnatal years, $1,202,615; nih, Patient-Oriented nih, Quality of Life of Testicular Cancer Survi- Marfan Foundation Inc., The Role of IL-17A in Care Via Stable Alterations in Neurotrophic Research and Mentoring in the Translational vors, 2 years, $165,270 Marfan Syndrome, 1 year, $50,000 • Damien Factors Expression Levels, 2 years, $60,000 Neurobiology/Genetics of Addiction, 5 years, Ellens, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Insoo Kang, American College of Rheumatol- $827,080 • Mark Mamula, nih, Molecular Functional Neuroimaging, Neuro-Energetics and ogy, acr/ref Rheumatology Fellowship Train- Mechanisms of Lymphocyte Interactions in Auto- Non-Federal Electrophysiology in Spike-Wave Seizures in the ing Award, 1 year, $25,000 • Anil Karihaloo, immunity, 5 years, $1,600,247 • Laura Manue- wag/Rij Rat, A Model of Human Absence Epi- American Society of Nephrology, Role of vegf lidis, nih, Experimental Creutzfeldt-Jakob Lisa Barry, The Brookdale Foundation, The lepsy, 2 years, $36,000 • Andrew Epstein, Uni- During Early Embryonic Kidney Development, 2 Disease, 1 year, $583,558 • Robin Masheb, nih, Effect of Depression and Disability Burden and versity of Pennsylvania, Clinical Outcome-Based years, $200,000 • Maya Kasowski, Howard Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dieting: Subtypes over Time, 2 years, $140,487 • Susan Assessment of Medical Education: Concept and Hughes Medical Institute, High Resolution Effects on Psychopathology and Weight in Binge Baserga, North Carolina State University, Evaluation, 1 year, $43,890 • Erol Fikrig, Health Mapping and Genome-Wide Expression Analysis Eating Disorder, 2 years, $398,527 • Graeme Structural and Functional Analysis of Archaeal Research Inc., Role of Nod-Like Receptors in of a Panel of Partial Trisomy 21 Patients, 3 years, Mason, nih, Neuroimaging Sciences Training srnps, 1 year, $46,212 • Steven Berkowitz, Rickettsial Infections, 8 months, $165,242 $36,000 • Barbara Kazmierczak, Burroughs Program, 5 years, $1,202,772 • Wajahat Mehal, Child Health and Development Institute of Richard Flavell, American College of Rheuma- Wellcome Fund, The Role of Injury in nih, Regulation of Hepatic Repair by Metabo- Connecticut, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behav- tology, Regulation of T Cell Function in lites of the Uric Acid Pathway, 5 years, $1,356,075 ioral Therapy Training, 1 year, $32,670 • Zubin Collagen-Induced Arthritis by IL-10, 2 years, Grants, page 8 Medicine@Yale May/June 2008  Yale geneticist wins Wiley Prize for hypertension research

Scientist is lauded for At an April 4 event marking Richard Lifton’s winning of the 2008 Wiley identifying many genes Prize were (front row, from left) Joan Steitz; Lifton; Deborah Wiley, that control blood pressure senior vice-president of John Wiley & Sons and chair of the Wiley Foun- Richard P. Lifton, m.d., ph.d., chair dation; (back row, from left) Arthur and Sterling Professor of Genetics, an Horwich, Kaye Pace, vice-president and executive publisher at John internationally known expert on the Wiley & Sons; Günter Blobel; Patrick genetic basis of hypertension, has re- Kelly, vice-president and director ceived the seventh annual Wiley Prize of journal publishing at John Wiley in Biomedical Sciences, which honors & Sons; Qais Al-Awqati; Elizabeth Cox, John Wiley & Sons editor; and scientific contributions that dem- Colette Bean, associate publisher at onstrate significant leadership and John Wiley & Sons. innovation. The prize is given by the Wiley Foundation, established in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, a 200-year-old publisher of scientific, technical and medical books and online services. Prize in physiology or medicine in of renal salt handling in the regulation Nobel Prize-winning scientists An- Lifton, a Howard Hughes Medical 1999, cited the clinical relevance of of blood pressure,” says Robert J. drew Z. Fire, ph.d., Craig C. Mello, Institute investigator, was recognized Lifton’s research. “Dr. Lifton’s findings Alpern, m.d., dean and Ensign Profes- ph.d., and H. Robert Horvitz, ph.d. by the foundation for his discovery highlight the importance of dietary sor of Medicine. “While hypertension Last year the School of Medicine’s of genes that cause many forms of salt in the causation of hypertension, can be due to over-constriction of Arthur Horwich, m.d., was a joint high and low blood pressure by af- a major risk factor in cardiovascular blood vessels or abnormal salt han- recipient of the prize for his research fecting how the kidneys regulate the disease, which is the leading cause of dling by the kidney, Rick has found, detailing molecular machinery that body’s salt balance. The award, which death worldwide,” said Blobel, John D. in multiple genetic causes of high and guides proteins into their proper includes a $35,000 cash prize, was pre- Rockefeller, Jr. Professor and Howard low blood pressure, that the etiology functional shape, work that is impor- sented on April 4 at The Rockefeller Hughes Medical Institute investigator resides in the kidney. These findings tant in research on neurodegenerative University in New York City. at Rockefeller University. have settled a controversy that per- disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Günter Blobel, m.d., chair of the “Rick Lifton’s research has demon- sisted for much of the 20th century.” Parkinson’s diseases and amyotrophic awards jury and winner of the Nobel strated unequivocally the importance Past Wiley Prize recipients include lateral sclerosis, or als. 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