Concert Tomorrow (December 2)

The Longwood Symphony Orchestra, which is made up of musicians from the Boston medical community, will hold a concert Saturday, Dec. 2, to benefit New England SERVE Consortium for Children with Special Health Care Needs. Judith Palfrey, the T. Berry Brazelton professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and HMS, will be honored for her work to improve health care systems. The concert begins at 8 p.m. at Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street. Tickets are $15–$28; to purchase, call 617-667-1527 or visit www.longwoodsymphony.org.

HMS Faculty Council Proceedings

HMS dean Joseph Martin began the Oct. 4 Faculty Council meeting, the first of the academic year, by announcing that Lisa Iezzoni, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, was elected as vice chair for the coming academic year. He then introduced the new members of the Faculty Council.

Nancy Andrews, dean for basic sciences and graduate studies, updated the council on the various programs she oversees. She noted that the MD–PhD program now has two tracks, one in basic science and the second in social science, and the Medical Scientist Training Program was renewed last year with an excellent score. She said that the program is thriving, and more slots are needed. The Health Sciences and Technology program was reviewed in the spring of 2005, and Andrews said the focus on education will be sharpened.

 Andrews noted that there are eight PhD programs based at HMS and HSDM, with an almost equal number of PhD students as medical students. Most of the programs have installed new leadership in the past two or three years. She pointed out that with the state of NIH funding, support for graduate education is becoming increasingly difficult. The Systems Biology Department has continued to grow and a new chair of Social Medicine has been named. She also noted that University-wide science planning continues, and a preliminary report of the Planning Committee was made available to the community.

Dan Singer, associate dean for academic and clinical programs, updated the council on the clinical translational science project. He explained that it is part of the NIH Roadmap Initiative and is intended to create academic environments that develop clinical and translational science and train the next generation of scientists. Ultimately, it will replace the individual General Clinical Research Centers when funding for them ends in 2010. In preparation, the School received a planning grant earlier this year, with a full grant application target of November 2007. Consultants were hired and an executive committee formed to assist in the effort.

Cynthia Walker, executive dean for administration, presented a brief financial and administrative update. She highlighted the academic year’s educational, research, and administrative priorities, which include finalizing plans to compensate faculty for teaching, addressing the financial aid needs of students, replacing lost training grants, space planning, prioritizing recruiting investments, and budget management.

Ellice Lieberman, dean for faculty affairs, reported on the Task Force on Promotion Criteria for Clinician-teachers and Clinical Investigators, which was appointed by the dean to evaluate the appropriateness of the current promotion criteria and to make recommendations for change. The task force has been meeting since April and has evaluated theoretical cases that present particular challenges and discussed faculty activities that might be used to support promotion. The dean, Faculty Council, and provost review any changes proposed by the task force.

Lieberman provided promotion statistics indicating that 40 percent of full-time faculty at assistant professor or above were promoted on the clinician-teacher criteria. She also gave the median number of years to promotion for each set of criteria and academic rank. The council briefly discussed these numbers and possible new criteria.

Martin outlined the major efforts in the coming months, including clinical translational science, financial support for teaching, science planning, departmental searches, and the future of HSPH.

Before adjourning, Martin announced his intention to step down as dean in July, ending a 10-year tenure. He indicated that interim president Derek Bok will form an advisory committee to identify candidates, with the new president making the final selection.

Federal Grant Fuels DNA Sequencing at the Broad

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard recently received a nearly $200 million grant to support large-scale DNA sequencing. The Broad’s four-year competitive renewal grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is the largest of three awarded to institutions across the U.S.

The grant will help fund several Broad Institute projects. One is The Cancer Genome Atlas pilot project (TCGA), which is working to identify mutations associated with certain cancers. TCGA is jointly funded by the NHGRI award and a grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The Broad is also sequencing the genomes of mammals such as the mouse, dog, horse, and elephant. When the work is completed, scientists will be able to  compare the results to the human genome and identify DNA sequences that have been conserved over time and across species, which may shed light on human biological functions.

The grant will also support genomic studies of microscopic organisms such as bacteria and viruses and the development of large-scale DNA sequencing that is faster and less expensive than current methods.

Washington University School of Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine also received grants from the NHGRI.

Honors and Advances

• Frederick Alt, a Howard Hughes investigator and the Charles A. Janeway professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and HMS, was awarded the Alfred G. Knudson Award for Excellence in Cancer Genetics from the National Cancer Institute. The honor recognizes scientists making outstanding contributions to the cancer genetics field. Alt, who is also the scientific director of the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, will be presented with the award at an NCI retreat in January, where he will also give the award lecture.

• The International Society for Eye Research awarded the Ludwig von Sallmann Prize in Ophthalmology to Eliot Berson, the William F. Chatlos professor of ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and HMS. Berson was given the award, which honors the former director of the Ophthalmology Branch of the National Institutes of Health, for his research on hereditary retinal diseases. The award was presented at the International Congress of Eye Research in Buenos Aires in October, where Berson also presented a lecture.

• Richard Cash, HSPH senior lecturer on international health, is a recipient of the 2006 Prince Mahidol Award, which honors “exemplary contributions in the field of public health.” Cash, along with his colleagues David Nalin and Dilip Mahalanabis, are being honored for their work in oral rehydration therapy in developing countries. Cash was part of the first clinical trial for the therapy. The winners will be presented with the award at a ceremony in Bangkok in January.

• Lucy Epstein, HMS clinical fellow in psychiatry, was recently named a Laughlin Fellow. The fellowships are awarded by the American College of Psychiatrists to third- or fourth-year residents who show potential to make significant contributions to the field. Epstein, a fourth-year resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, is also the administrative chief resident and the clinic liaison chief resident at the hospital.

• Massachusetts General Hospital has appointed Joren Madsen, associate professor of surgery, the first director of the MGH Transplant Center. Under Madsen’s leadership, the center will foster a multidisciplinary approach to patient care, education, and research and offer more comprehensive services for patients in end-stage organ failure. Jay Fishman, HMS associate professor of medicine, was named the center’s new associate director.

• Richard Scott, HMS professor of orthopedic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, recently received the lifetime achievement award from the Asian Pacific Arthroplasty Society at its annual meeting in Shanghai, China. Scott was honored for his innovations in hip and knee joint replacement surgery, including designing prostheses that are used all over the world. His book Total Knee Arthroplasty was recently translated into Chinese.

• Jay Shendure, a fourth-year medical student, was recently named a 2006 Young Innovator by MIT’s Technology Review magazine. The honor is given to scientists and researchers under the age of 35 who are working on new and innovative projects. Shendure developed a way to sequence the DNA of a bacterial genome at a much quicker rate and much lower cost than traditional DNA sequencing. He is now working on making his method even more efficient with the hope that some day, biologists will be able to sequence a person’s genome for $1,000.

• Bruce Spiegelman, HMS professor of cell biology, was recently elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization. EMBO members are elected on the basis of scientific excellence and provide scientific input for the organization’s programs and activities. Since members must be European, Spiegelman was named an associate member. It is an honor given to only a few scientists outside of Europe that recognizes the importance of their work on a global scale.

In Memoriam

Hermes Grillo, HMS professor of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, died on Oct. 14 in a car accident in Italy. He was 83.

Grillo received his AB summa cum laude from Brown University in 1943 and his MD from HMS in 1947. His training in general and thoracic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital was interrupted by two years as a combat surgeon with the 1st Marine Division during the Korean War. He returned to Boston and MGH, completed his surgical training, and joined the staff of HMS and MGH in 1954. He served as chief of the Division of General Thoracic Surgery from 1969 to 1994. He was appointed professor of surgery in 1973, and in 2002, the Hermes C. Grillo professorship in thoracic surgery was established in his honor.

Grillo’s research focused on the mechanisms of wound healing and the restoration of the trachea following surgery for stenosis and malignant obstructions. Over the years, he developed an entire school of tracheo-bronchial surgery and is widely recognized as the father of modern tracheal surgery. His 2004 textbook, Surgery of the Trachea and Bronchi, was immediately accepted as the authoritative text in the field.

Grillo served the HMS community on many committees over the years. Paul Russell, chairperson of the HMS Memorial Minutes Committee on which he served, said, “Hermes Grillo was a highly cultured person. He loved ‘the finer things of life’ and included a sense of style in everything he did. In his careful and skillful work in the operating room, close attention to detail meant survival of many of his patients who came to him for a final chance for cure.”

Memorial services will be planned at HMS early next year.

Joseph Harrington, HSPH professor of environmental health engineering and the Gordon McKay professor of environmental engineering at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, passed away Oct. 9 at the age of 69. He was the chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Physiology (now the Department of Environmental Health) at HSPH from 1982 to 1986.

Harrington received an AM in 1959 and a PhD in 1963 from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In 1960, he joined the Harvard Water Program, helping to guide the country’s water resource planning, which launched his 42-year career with Harvard.

In addition to chairing the Department of Environmental Science and Physiology, Harrington served in several leadership positions at HSPH. He was the founding director of the Master of Science Program in Health Policy and Management and director of the Physical Sciences and Engineering Program (now the Exposure, Epidemiology, and Risk Program) at HSPH. He also served as the acting or interim head of several other departments and programs.

Harrington also served as a consultant for federal, state, and local governments on matters concerning public health, water supply, and the environment.

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