Medicine@Yale Advancing Biomedical Science, Education and Health Care Volume 2, Issue 4 July/August 2006 A faster pipeline speeds new treatments from lab to patient fi ce of Cooperative Research (ocr), catalyzing the creation of brand-new to obtain Food and Drug Administra- Small biotechs which takes the lead in licensing the companies tailored to the needs of tion (fda) approval to test one of with big ambitions fruits of faculty labors to biotechnol- particular therapies. Crews’s cancer drugs in people. ogy and pharmaceutical companies, The result has been a signifi cant Likewise, Achillion Pharmaceu- hasten drug testing currently lists a dozen additional contraction of the time it takes to ticals, a start-up company whose potential therapies under license and move new treatments from licensing fi rst compound was discovered by The fl ow of discoveries from the medi- poised to start early stage clinical trials to fi rst trials in humans. For example, Yung-Chi “Tommy” Cheng, ph.d., cal school’s labs to patients in need (see graphic, p. 6). Proteolix, founded in 2003 to com- the Henry Bronson Professor of is proceeding at a blistering pace—in This unprecedented success in mercialize compounds discovered by Pharmacology, began a Phase I trial the last four years, no fewer than fi ve pushing investigators’ fi nds out of Craig M. Crews, ph.d., associate pro- of the drug to treat hiv⁄aids only new therapies invented by School of the lab comes from ocr’s strategy fessor of molecular, cellular and devel- a year and half after the company’s Medicine researchers have advanced of partnering with up-and-coming opmental biology and pharmacology, inception. into human clinical trials. Yale’s Of- biotech companies, and in some cases took just 18 months from its founding Pipeline, page 6 “Teacher’s teacher” to A love of Yale, oversee curriculum a vision for as education dean In June, Associate Professor of Psy- chiatry Richard Belitsky, m.d., was its future named deputy dean for education at the medical school. Unprecedented gifts Belitsky, a popular and respected professor as well as a skilled clinician provide funds for and administrator, is “a teacher’s fi ve professorships teacher and a doctor’s doctor,” Having had a remarkably wide- Dean and Ensign ranging career during which he Professor of headed companies involved in Medicine Robert J. everything from small aircraft to Alpern, m.d., said shipbuilding to cement, Greenwich, David and Jean McLean Wallace at their Greenwich, Conn., home with Dean Robert Alpern. in announcing the Conn., businessman and philanthro- appointment. pist David W. Wallace has some dif- Reproductive Sciences; and the tional in magnitude and places Richard Belitsky “He is an out- fi culty arriving at a term that neatly Robert R. Young Professorship, the Wallaces in a small and select standing educator sums up his profession. But when which is currently unfi lled but has group of supporters of Yale School who has received many of the top pressed, he fi nally settles on “lucky.” been designated for a faculty mem- of Medicine,” says Dean and Ensign teaching awards from Yale—one of In a stroke of good fortune for ber involved in research in ophthal- Professor Robert J. Alpern, m.d. them twice—and from his colleagues the School of Medicine, Wallace and mology and visual science. “Their gifts have allowed us to at- in psychiatry nationally,” Alpern his wife, Jean McLean Wallace, have Largely unrestricted bequests tract key faculty to Yale and will be said. “He is also a highly effective donated $6 million to endow two to Yale from John William Sterling instrumental in those faculty mem- administrator, adept at framing issues new professorships, adding to three in 1920 and Eugene Higgins in 1975 bers’ success.” and working through them with col- professorships they have previously have endowed 10 Sterling Profes- Wallace has also been an im- leagues in many departments, at con- funded since 2000: the Jean McLean sorships and four Higgins Profes- portant donor to his alma mater. ceiving and launching new programs, Wallace Professorship, held by sorships at the medical school. But Just prior to his 50th reunion, he and at sorting and extracting the data Margaret K. Hostetter, m.d., profes- the Wallaces’ combined gifts, $13.5 and Jean gave a $9 million gift for needed for good decision making.” sor and chair of the Department of million specifi cally earmarked to the renovation of Branford College, A native of Philadelphia, Belitsky Pediatrics; the Anita O’Keefe Young support fi ve professorships, are whose Gothic-style York Street wing received his bachelor’s and medical Professorship of Women’s Health, unprecedented at the School of is now called Wallace Hall. In all, degrees from the University of Florida. held by Charles J. Lockwood, m.d., Medicine. the Wallaces have donated over He came to Yale as a resident in 1979 professor and chair of the Depart- “The funding of fi ve professor- $30 million to Yale. and continued on as a fellow in foren- ment of Obstetrics, Gynecology and ships by a single donor is excep- Gifts, page 8 sic psychiatry until 1983. Belitsky, p a g e 8 Non-Profit Org. Inside this issue Medicine@Yale U. S. Postage Lifelines An Eye for Science 300 George St., Suite 775 PAID Science-minded surgeon Science imitates art in New Haven, CT 06511 New Haven, CT Larry Moss, p. 2 new gallery, p. 7 www.medicineatyale.org Permit No. 526 Protecting preemies The highest prize A powerful new protein Drug innovator wins the probe for preterm labor, p. 3 Parker Medal, p. 8 Patients are a virtue Also Injecting medicine Advances, pp. 3, 5; Out & About, p. 4; into biology, p. 5 Grants, p. 7; Awards & Honors, p. 8 Want to fi nd out more about medicine at Yale? E-mail us at [email protected] or phone (203) 785-5824. M@Y_July_Aug06_BG_gr1.indd 1 8/14/06 12:33:16 PM Process CyanProcess MagentaProcess YellowProcess BlackPANTONE 7496 CgVarnish Superb teaching is rewarded at graduation Students weren’t the only ones cel- ebrating when the School of Medicine held its Commencement ceremonies on Harkness Lawn last May. Many of their mentors were also given recogni- tion as great educators. Professor of Medicine Herbert S. Chase Jr., m.d., who left the School of Medicine at the end of June after shaping the medical school’s cur- riculum for six years as deputy dean for education, received an especially When weighing fi tting tribute when he was awarded treatment options, the Bohmfalk Prize for basic sci- surgeons should look to trials, not tradition, ence education. Andre N. Sofair, says Yale’s Larry Moss. m.d., m.p.h., assistant professor of medicine, won the Bohmfalk Prize for clinical teaching. Rebel with a cause Mark D. Siegel, m.d., associ- To Moss’s dismay, “real science” 15-center study comparing the two ate professor of medicine, won the Pediatric surgeon backs Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine science over subjectivity is scarce in his field. When he and options. The May 25 issue of the colleagues reviewed over 80,000 New England Journal of Medicine Award. in the operating room studies in pediatric surgery pub- reported the results: the two proce- Two people won the Leah M. Low- lished from 1966 to 1999, they dures have virtually the same sur- enstein Award for promoting humane m.d., and egalitarian medical education: Larry Moss, professor of surgery found only 134 randomized con- vival rate, about 65 percent. m.p.h., m.d. and chief of surgery at Yale-New trolled trials. As The research shows that invest- Nancy R. Angoff, , as- Haven Children’s Hospital, is a mav- reported in 2001 in Lifelines ing time and resources to develop sociate dean for student affairs, and, nec for the second year, Catherine Chiles, erick among mavericks. Surgeons the Journal of Pediat- Larry better operations for perforated m.d. prize decisiveness and independence ric Surgery, only 16 of is probably not worthwhile, says , associate clinical professor of of mind, but Moss is out to trans- these trials compared Moss Moss. “Once the illness has reached psychiatry. form the way his colleagues choose two procedures, and most were perforation, the die is cast. We need The Francis Gilman Blake Award the procedures they use to treat sick poorly designed. to redirect our energies into identi- for outstanding teaching of the medi- children. Instead of relying largely Moss’s campaign for evidence- fying which infants will develop cal sciences went to Interim Chair of Internal Medicine David L. Cole- on personal experience or custom, based surgery arose from his own perforation and target this group m.d. Moss wants pediatric surgeons to uncertainty about treating perforat- with new therapies.” With a $1 million man, , and the Betsy Winters nec House Staff Award went to Robert W. base clinical decisions on sound sci- ing necrotizing enterocolitis ( ), grant from the Glaser Pediatric m.d. entific studies of what works best. an inflammation of the gastroin- Research Network funded by the Chang, , chief surgical resident. Professor of Internal Medicine Fred This seems like common sense testinal tract that affects roughly Gerber Foundation, Moss has begun m.d. in an age when medical journals one in 20 premature babies. If the a six-center study to do just that. S. Gorelick, , received the Alvan routinely publish clinical guidelines disease progresses to the point that But as the first randomized and R. Feinstein Award for an outstanding derived from large, rigorous drug intestinal tissue dies and perforates, controlled multi-center trial compar- teacher of clinical skills.