 |
Immunobiologist named
to IOM
New chairs named at School of Medicine
NOTES
Notes
Richard Flavell
Jack Elias
Fred Volkmar
James Tsai
Brian Smith
|
|
Immunobiologist named to IOM
Richard A. Flavell, Ph.D., Sterling Professor of Immunobiology,
and chair of immunobiology was named to the Institute of Medicine (IOM)
in October. The IOM was established by the National Academy of Sciences
and is recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically
informed analysis and recommendations on issues related to human health.
Election to the institute recognizes people who have made significant
contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care
and public health and is considered one of the highest honors in the
fields of medicine and health.
Dean Robert J. Alpern, M.D., Ensign Professor of Medicine, said, “Richard’s
research is outstanding, clearly placing him among the best immunologists
in the world. This is combined with a talent for leadership that has
allowed him to cultivate an immunology program that is unsurpassed anywhere.
His wisdom and experience should prove valuable to the Institute of Medicine.”
Flavell’s research primarily concerns the molecular basis of
T cell differentiation in the immune system. His research team has used
genomic approaches to identify the genes that are selectively expressed
in T cell lineages, and has used gene targeting, transgenic mice and
retroviral technology to elucidate the function of these genes and their
target sequences.
Flavell, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, studies
effector mechanisms of programmed cell death using mice lacking caspases
and investigates the molecular and cellular basis for autoimmune disease.
|
|
|
New chairs named at
School of Medicine
Several new appointments at the medical school were announced last summer
and fall, with new leadership in the Department of Internal Medicine,
the Child Study Center, the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science
and the Department of Laboratory Medicine.
Jack A. Elias, M.D., the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine
and chief of the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, was
named chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, effective October
1. Elias, a leading authority on the molecular basis of asthma and other
lung disorders, will lead the school’s largest department, with
351 full-time faculty, $83 million in research funding and $45 million
in clinical activity. Elias, who came to Yale in 1990, is the author
of more than 160 original journal articles and 200 abstracts. He is also
a co-editor of the fourth (2007) edition of the leading textbook in the
field, Fishman’s Pulmonary Diseases and Disorders. His research
focuses on the cellular and molecular biology of the lung and processes
related to both injury and repair of lung tissue. Elias has studied asthma,
emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, respiratory syncytial virus infection
and acute lung injury.
Elias succeeds David L. Coleman, M.D., HS ’80, former interim
chair, who left Yale to become chair of medicine at Boston University.
Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., a leader in the field of autism research,
was named director of the Child Study Center and chief of the Department
of Child Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital for a three-year term,
effective July 1, 2006. The center is a national and international leader
in the field of children’s mental health. Its programs in early
childhood development, childhood trauma, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive
disorder, mental retardation, autism and other pervasive developmental
disorders are national models. Volkmar, the Irving B. Harris Professor
in the Child Study Center and professor of child psychiatry, pediatrics
and psychology, came to Yale as a fellow in 1980 and joined the medical
school faculty two years later.
An editor of the Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental
Disorders (3rd ed., 2005), Volkmar was the primary author of the
autism section of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV), published in 1994. This month he became
editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, the
field’s oldest academic journal. Volkmar has also made major contributions
to the 2001 monograph, Educating Children With Autism, written
for the Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism
of the National Research Council. He succeeds Alan E. Kazdin, Ph.D.,
who had served as director since 2002.
James C. Tsai, M.D., M.B.A., was named chair of the Department of
Ophthalmology and Visual Science, effective October 1. Tsai was associate
professor of ophthalmology and director of the glaucoma division at the
Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute of the Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons. He succeeds M. Bruce Shields, M.D., who had
served as chair since 1996.
Tsai’s goal for the department is to make it an internationally
recognized leader in patient care, vision research and medical education.
He plans to recruit clinicians and basic scientists with a focus on translational
studies.
His investigations have concentrated on three areas related to glaucoma:
the search for molecules with the potential to protect the optic nerve
from damage directly without lowering intraocular pressure, the evaluation
of surgical outcomes in glaucoma patients and the development of advanced
techniques of vision testing.
Tsai is a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American
College of Surgeons and the Royal Society of Medicine in the United Kingdom.
Brian R. Smith, M.D., has been named chair of the Department of Laboratory
Medicine and chief of laboratory medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
His three-year term began on July 1. Smith has served on the Yale faculty
since 1989. His research interests in basic and translational science
center on the biology of the inflammation-coagulation interface. Since
1997, Smith has served as vice chair of the department, which is a major
center for research, patient care and teaching in laboratory medicine.
The department has one of the few National Institutes of Health research
training grants in transfusion medicine and hematopathology. The department
performs nearly 5 million clinical tests each year.
Smith succeeds Peter I. Jatlow, M.D., HS ’65, who had headed
the department since 1984.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Notes |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Yale School of Medicine
researchers investigating schizophrenia, depression and Tourette syndrome
recently received Distinguished Investigator Awards from the National
Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. The one-year grants
are intended to encourage study of areas of neuropsychiatric research
that present special opportunities for discovery.
Angus C. Nairn, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and pharmacology,
is studying brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which has been implicated
in several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and depression.
Paul J. Lombroso, M.D., the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor
of Child Psychiatry in the Child Study Center, will use an animal model
to investigate the molecular events associated with Tourette syndrome,
a childhood disorder characterized by repetitive movements and vocalizations.
John H. Krystal, M.D., the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor of Clinical
Pharmacology and professor of psychiatry, will use functional magnetic
resonance imaging to collect pilot data on 20 healthy human subjects
to determine whether certain brain receptors are related to the cognitive
deficits in schizophrenia.
Two assistant professors have received Wallace H. Coulter Foundation
Early Career Translational Research Awards in Biomedical Engineering. Erin
Lavik, Sc.D., was granted the award for developing, in collaboration
with scientists at the University of Iowa, a long-term delivery system
for medications to lower intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients. Tarek
Fahmy, Ph.D., in collaboration with Joseph Craft, M.D., professor
of medicine and immunobiology, developed a platform technology that promises
to detect, through magnetic resonance imaging, cells that cause autoimmune
disease, and to deliver drugs to those cells.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tarek Fahmy and Erin Lavik |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelle Bell
Sven-Eric Jordt |
|
Two Yale environmental scientists were among
eight who will share $3.6 million in grants from the National Institute
of Environmental Health Sciences. The Outstanding New Environmental Scientist
Award supports early-career scientists who make long-term commitments to
environmental health research.
Michelle L. Bell, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental health and
of epidemiology and public health, will study the relationship between outdoor
concentrations of ozone and the incidence of respiratory disease and death in
exposed populations. Sven-Eric Jordt, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology,
will study the ways in which airborne pollutants interact with sensory nerve
cells to cause eye, nose and throat irritation. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jonathan S. Bogan, M.D., assistant
professor of medicine (endocrinology), has been named one of five Distinguished
Young Scholars in Medical Research for 2006 by the W. M. Keck Foundation.
Bogan studies the way in which insulin triggers cells to take up glucose
from the blood.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Myron Genel
| |
Myron Genel, M.D., professor emeritus
of pediatrics and past chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges’
Council of Academic Societies, was appointed in July to the Health and
Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research
Protections. The 11-member committee meets three times a year to provide
recommendations to the secretary on the responsible conduct of research
involving human subjects.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andres Martin |
|
Andres S. Martin, M.D., M.P.H. ’02,
has been named editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry, effective January 2008. Martin, an associate
professor of child psychiatry and psychiatry in the Yale Child Study
Center, is also the medical director of the Children’s Psychiatric
Inpatient Service at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Annette M. Molinaro |
|
Annette M. Molinaro, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health
(biostatistics), was awarded a three-year, $500,000 grant by the National
Cancer Institute in July to develop statistical methods for searching
large sets of genomic, epidemiologic and pathological data for variables
that predict cancer outcomes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marvin Moser, M.D., clinical professor
of medicine, was honored for “Outstanding Contributions to the
Advancement and Promotion of Scientific Research and Clinical Investigations
Into Blood Pressure Related to Cardiovascular Health” at the annual
meeting in May of the American Society of Hypertension in New York.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Barry L. Zaret, M.D., the Robert W.
Berliner Professor of Medicine, received the Distinguished Service Award
of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology at its annual meeting in
Montreal in September. The award was based on Zaret’s contributions
to the field of nuclear cardiology and his 10-year term as the founding
editor in chief of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Heping Zhang, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics
in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, was named a fellow
of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics at their annual meeting in
Rio de Janeiro in August.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hongyu Zhao, Ph.D., the Ira V. Hiscock Associate
Professor of Public Health, has been elected a fellow of the American
Statistical Association, a scientific and educational society established
to promote excellence in the application of statistics.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
