july/august 2011 volume 7, issue 3 Advancing Biomedical Science, Education, and Health Care Couple’s passion for the arts inspires unique scholarship fund Having majored in philosophy and Association and a Jungian psychoana- to contributions from others, includ- history as an undergraduate at Trinity lyst and psychiatrist in private practice ing a matching gift from the School of College, in Hartford, Conn., David in San Francisco. Medicine to mark the school’s Bicen- Leof, m.d., a member of the School But Leof’s terror quickly evapo- tennial year. of Medicine’s Class of 1964, initially rated, and “as things unfolded, I was Another major influence on Leof found life at the medical school to be just like a little kid at Christmas,” he was Lippard’s successor as dean, “quite terrifying.” On his very first says. “I had an absolutely joyful time Frederick C. Redlich, m.d., a leg- day, then-Dean Vernon W. Lip- in medical school.” endary chair of the Department of pard, m.d., issued a sobering call to In gratitude, Leof and his wife, Psychiatry from 1950 to 1967 who responsibility, reminding the new Colleen, have made a bequest to the built the department into one of the students that medical school is only a School of Medicine of several million nation’s finest. It was Redlich, Leof brief chapter in the life of a physician. dollars, which will support medi- says, who encouraged him to go into Though the day would come when cal students who have distinguished psychiatry himself. After graduating, each student would receive a medical themselves in the arts or humani- Leof interned at Dartmouth College’s degree, “you have the rest of your life ties. To enable students in this year’s Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital to earn it,” said Lippard. entering class to be eligible for the new and then served two years on a U.S. elisabeth fall elisabeth “I’ve never forgotten that,” says scholarships, the couple has made an Public Health commission working for David and Colleen Leof’s new bequest will Leof, now a Distinguished Life additional gift of $150,000, an amount the Food and Drug Administration in support medical students who have attained Fellow of the American Psychiatric that has already been doubled thanks Washington, D.C. // Leof (page 7) distinction in the arts and humanities. Innate immunity A young scientist scores another first pioneer receives Following up on groundbreaking work of 2006, The work in question is Ha’s research team’s recent determination of the atomic structure (known in the trade international prize Yale structural biologist’s team strikes again, as “solving” the structure) of FlaK, an enzyme found in Ruslan M. cracking enzyme akin to an Alzheimer’s culprit an evolutionarily ancient microorganism native to the salt Medzhitov, marshes of the southeastern U.S. It may seem improb- ph.d., the David “This is the material that’s not in the biochemistry text- able that knowing a tiny piece of this tiny creature in such W. Wallace Pro- books yet,” says Ya Ha, ph.d. “This is preliminary work, intimate detail could be a biomedical breakthrough. But fessor of Immu- but it’s still a breakthrough.” the research, three years in the making, marks the first nobiology, is one time that anyone has cracked of three scien- the structure of an aspartyl tists awarded the Ruslan Medzhitov membrane protease, a family 2011 Shaw Prize of enzymes of which FlaK is in Life Science and Medicine. a member. A member of Yale Cancer Center Moreover, FlaK has an and a Howard Hughes Medical In- infamous cousin—preseni- stitute investigator, Medzhitov has lin, an enzyme that plays a made groundbreaking contributions major role in // FlaK (page 6) to the understanding of Toll-like receptors (tlrs), an evolutionarily ancient component of the innate A team led by Ya Ha (left) has deter- immune system that provides rapid, mined the structure of the enzyme first-line defense against infections. FlaK, a member of a family of proteins Medzhitov’s work has elucidated linked to early-onset Alzheimer’s dis- ease. Ha’s colleagues and co-authors how tlrs sense microbial infec- on the study, Sangwon Lee (center), tions, tlr signaling, and tlr Yi Xue (seated, right), and Jian Hu activation of inflammatory and (standing, right). The team’s work, adaptive immune responses. a technical tour de force, represents In 1997, Medzhitov and the late the second time that the Ha lab has solved an important structure that Yale immunobiologist Charles A. terry dagradi had eluded other scientists. Janeway Jr., m.d., // Medzhitov (page 7) Non-Profit Org. inside this issue 1 Church St., Suite 300, New Haven, CT 06510-3330 U. S. Postage www.medicineatyale.org 2 Lifelines paid For department chair and researcher Tamas New Haven, CT Horvath, neuroscience extends far beyond Permit No. 526 the brain. 3 A summer spent in science More than a hundred high school students joined School of Medicine labs this summer for hands-on, real-world science internships 5 Healing hands International health group calls on a Yale neurosurgeon’s unique qualifications to de- liver much-needed care to a Haitian patient. also Advances, pp. 3, 5 Out & About, p. 4 Grants and Contracts, pp. 6–7 lifelines Radiology chair is elected president of national society In addition to his role as chair of the medical school’s James A. Brink, Section of Comparative m.d., professor Medicine, Tamas Horvath is and chair of the founding director of the Yale Program in Integrative Cell Department of Signaling and Neurobiology Diagnostic Radi- of Metabolism. The new ology and chief of program will explore the diagnostic radiol- complex interrelationships ogy at Yale-New between brain function and a variety of metabolic pro- James Brink Haven Hospital, cesses throughout the body, has been elected which have implications president of the American Roentgen for understanding obesity, Ray Society (arrs). diabetes, neurodegenerative The arrs, which publishes diseases, and the life span. the American Journal of Roentgenol- ogy, is the oldest radiology society in America. Formed in 1900, soon Tamas Horvath after the discovery of the X-ray by terry dagradi German physicist and Nobel laure- ate Wilhelm Roentgen, ph.d., the society is dedicated to the advance- ment of medicine through radiol- Peripheral vision ogy and allied sciences. To fully fathom the brain bases of reproductive physiology and ghrelin performed significantly better Brink received a b.s. at Purdue behavior. He joined the Yale faculty in on learning and memory tasks, and that University and an m.d. at Indiana we can’t forget the body, 1996, and, in 2000, was awarded a ph.d. the hormone stimulated the formation University. He completed his resi- says neuroendocrinologist in neurobiology from Attila József Uni- of significantly more synapses in the dency and fellowship at Massachu- versity in Hungary. hippocampus, a brain structure crucial setts General Hospital in Boston, When it came time to choose a career Horvath is now in his seventh to memory. These findings could lead to and came to Yale in 1997 from the as a young man in his native Hungary, year as chair of the medical school’s ghrelin-based therapies for neurodegen- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiol- family history was a strong influence for Section of Comparative Medicine, a erative illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease. ogy at Washington University Tamas L. Horvath, d.v.m., ph.d. His father’s discipline that dates back to the 1960s, Findings like these have given School of Medicine in St. Louis. side of the family is lined with veterinar- when veterinarians in academic medi- Horvath a new and paradoxical perspec- Brink has pioneered technolo- ians, his mother’s with physicians. His cine and the pharmaceutical industry tive on neurobiology: by studying how gies for maximizing resolution in older brother was already planning to began applying insights from their the mammalian brain interacts with CT scanning while minimiz- be a doctor, so although Horvath was research to the human condition. The basic bodily systems, like the diges- ing radiation dosage and risk to both allergic to and afraid of animals, he field was a natural fit for Horvath, tive system, to regulate metabolism, patients. His work evaluating the thought his destiny must lay in veteri- who also holds an appointment in he believes we can better understand general underpinnings of image nary medicine. the Department of Neurobiology, and why humans have evolved with such a reconstruction has helped manu- But Horvath had a deep interest who earlier this year was named the complex central nervous system. facturers to develop and implement in basic biomedical research, and after inaugural Jean and David W. Wallace “The mechanisms that set the image-processing algorithms that receiving a degree from the University Professor of Biomedical Research. brain’s ability to function are really have brought advanced applications of Veterinary Sciences in Budapest he In the mid-1990s Horvath real- driven by the peripheral tissues,” such as CT colonography and CT changed course, coming to the School ized that the brain circuitry governing explains Horvath. “I’m not saying what angiography into clinical use. of Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow in reproduction also plays a major role in makes us human is our liver or muscles, Among his numerous awards, 1990. “The flexibility of the American hunger, eating, and obesity. He shifted but these periphery systems are part of honors, and leadership positions, system was what brought me here,” his research focus, showing that ghrelin, what shapes us to make decisions at the Brink is a member of the Board Horvath says.