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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) named Maria Freire, PhD, of New York, New York; Beatriz Luna, PhD, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and James Thrall, MD, of Boston, Massachusetts to the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD). The committee serves to advise the NIH Director on policy and planning issues related to biomedical and behavioral research, research training, and translating research results for the public.
Dr. Freire currently serves as the president of The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, and has been active on a number of national and international boards and committees. Before her appointment at the Lasker Foundation, Dr. Freire served as the chief executive officer and president of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. An expert in technology commercialization, she established and headed the Office of Technology Development at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and was director for the Office of Technology Transfer at the NIH from 1995 until 2001. Dr. Freire trained at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. She earned a PhD in Biophysics from the University of Virginia and completed postgraduate work in immunology and virology at the University of Virginia and then at the University of Tennessee. In addition to being a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, she received 2 US Congressional Science fellowships and has earned numerous awards and distinctions. She was awarded the Health and Human Services Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service, the 1999 Arthur S. Flemming Award and the 2002 Bayh-Dole Award.
Dr. Luna is an associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and training faculty in the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She is the founder and director of the Laboratory for Neurocognitive Development of the Department of Psychiatry at the UPMC. She has focused on using brain imagining technologies to characterize the way in which the brain mechanisms responsible for cognitive skills mature during adolescence. Dr. Luna completed undergraduate training at the American University in Washington, DC, and doctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh. She also earned a clinical degree from Duquesne University. She received the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering for her work investigating the neural basis of developmental changes in behavior through adolescence.
Dr. Thrall is the Juan M. Taveras Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and radiologist-in-chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is internationally recognized for his work in nuclear medicine and for his development of research programs in radiology. Prior to joining HMS, Dr. Thrall served as professor of internal medicine and radiology at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, where he earned both his BA and MD degrees. He is currently chairman of the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology and secretary of the Academy of Radiology Research. He has served on the boards of several national organizations devoted to radiology and is a past president of the American Roentgen Ray Society.
Weill Cornell Medical College Receives $170 Million
Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) received $170 million from Sanford I. and Joan Weill. The Weills and the Weill Family Foundation are major benefactors of Cornell University, having have contributed over $500 million to the school. In response to a request by Cornell's leadership, the Weills made their recent donation as an acceleration of a previously pledged bequest to the university. The cash gift, paid to the school in December 2008 and January 2009, is thought to be the single largest gift given to a medical college in the United States. It will benefit the school's $4 billion capital campaign, including WCMC's $1.3 billion “Discoveries That Make a Difference” fundraising drive. $15 million of the gift will be applied to research collaborations between the campuses in Ithaca and New York City, and to the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology at Cornell.
Upon payment of their gift, the Weills also created the Weill Challenge, which is anticipated to raise up to $203 million in additional gifts. Funds obtained through the Weill Challenge will be used exclusively to support construction of WCMS's new research building. The $650 million facility, which will increase existing laboratory space by more than twofold, is scheduled to break ground this year and will be situated in New York City on East 69th Street between York and First Avenues. The location is close to WCMC's new ambulatory care facility and is well situated to facilitate translational research aimed at improving patient care.
Sanford Weill is a class of 1955 alumnus of Cornell University and serves as chairman of the WCMC Board of Overseers. WCMC was renamed for Mr. Weill and his wife, Joan, after their initial $100 million gift in 1998.
University of Florida Receives $21 Million Gift to Establish Cancer Endowment
The University of Florida Shands Cancer Center (UFSCC) has received a $21 million gift from Jerry and Judy Davis. $20 million will go to the College of Medicine to create the Jerry W. and Judith S. Davis Cancer Endowment and the other $1 million will be allocated for Shands HealthCare's Raising Hope Campaign to support construction of the $388 million Shands at the University of Florida (UF) Cancer Hospital in Gainesville.
Mr. and Mrs. Davis have previously contributed to UF, having donated $5 million to help jumpstart its cancer program in 1998. That gift was matched by the state of Florida to create a $10 million endowment to recruit leading scientists and expand research programs. In recognition of their support, the outpatient care component of the UFSCC was named the Jerry W. and Judith S. Davis Cancer Pavilion. The couple also previously donated $5.4 million for computer upgrades to the Jerry Davis Technology fund. Their recent gift is the largest in the medical school's history. The funds will be given in $2 million installments over the next 10 years and may be used for various projects, such as research and treatment related to bone marrow transplants, lymphoma and breast cancer.
Mr. Davis, a private investor, is a 1968 graduate of UF's College of Journalism and Communications. He has served on the Shands HealthCare board of directors since 2001, and he and his wife serve as co-chairs of the Shands cancer hospital fundraising effort. Jacksonville, FL, residents, both Mr. and Mrs. Davis have personally battled cancer. Mr. Davis was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1990 and had recurrences in 1998 and 2006. Mrs. Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998.
University of Cincinnati Receives $23 Million Award
The University of Cincinnati's Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST) has received a $23 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The 5-year grant makes the University of Cincinnati the 39th member of the NIH's CTSA consortium. The consortium, a national network of medical research institutions led by the NIH's National Center for Research Resources, was launched in 2006 in an effort to accelerate the transition of research discoveries into treatments for patients. The consortium also works to foster community involvement in clinical research and to train the upcoming generation of clinical and translational researchers.
The University of Cincinnati's CCTST was established in 2005 as a collaboration between the University, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University Hospital and the Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). With the CTSA award, the CCTST plans to expand support for pediatric research through the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and to enhance community outreach in collaboration with the Cincinnati VAMC. Additionally, the funds will serve to advance new translational technologies, such as large-scale proteomics studies, imaging, nanomedicine, drug discovery and stem cell biology.
Manton Foundation Awards $5.2 Million to Study Dyslexia
Yale School of Medicine (YSM) scientist, Jeffrey R. Gruen, MD, whose discovery of a gene involved in dyslexia-DCDC2-was named as one of the top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2005, has received a $5.2 million grant from the New York-based Manton Foundation to further his investigation of the genetics of dyslexia. Dr. Gruen serves as associate professor of pediatrics and of genetics at YSM. He will use the award to launch a genome-wide association study to compare the complete genomes of 1,000 dyslexic children with those of 1,000 fluent readers.
Dr. Gruen coined the term “human lexinome” to name the suite of genes underlying the ability to transmit and extract meaning via speech, writing, and reading in humans. Currently, there are 4 genes within the human lexinome that have been identified as having a significant role in dyslexia. In a study sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Dr. Gruen has launched a study of the 4 known genes using DNA taken from 10,000 English children whose educational performance has been tracked from birth through high school. In that study, he is documenting the range of mutations in the four “dyslexia genes” in the children and correlating variants with reading ability and academic achievement. The focus of the newly funded study is to learn more about these genes and to potentially identify new genes that confer a risk of developing dyslexia. The Manton Foundation grant will also support functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research on a subgroup of 200 subjects. Researchers will record brain activation in specific reading centers of awake, alert subjects, and link individual variations in brain activity during specific reading tasks to particular genetic variations. Ultimately, Dr. Gruen aims to create a practical genetic test for dyslexia that will facilitate early identification and intervention.
The Manton Foundation supports education, health care and medical research. The foundation was established in 1991 by Sir Edwin Manton and his wife, Lady Manton, the former Florence V. Brewer. Edwin Manton, known to friends and colleagues as “Jimmy,” was born in England in 1909. He became director, then executive vice president and eventually senior advisor at American International Group. He was knighted in 1994 by Queen Elizabeth II of England for his role as a major benefactor of Tate Gallery in London.
American Heart Association Names National President
Ralph Sacco, MD, MS, has been elected national president of the American Heart Association (AHA). He will serve as president-elect beginning in July of this year until his appointment begins in July 2010. Dr. Sacco is the Olemberg Family Chair in Neurological Disorders and the Miller Professor of Neurology, Epidemiology and Human Genetics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) and neurologist-in-chief at the school's Jackson Memorial Hospital. Internationally renowned as authority on the prevention and treatment of stroke, he will be the first neurologist to serve as an AHA president.
Dr. Sacco has served the AHA in various capacities. From 2005-2008, he was a member of the national AHA board of directors, as well as chair of the stroke advisory committee of the American Stroke Association. He also served as president of the New York City regional board from 2005-2007. Dr. Sacco is a fellow of the Stroke and Epidemiology Councils of the AHA, and he was lead author on the AHA's most recent guidelines on stroke prevention in patients who have already had a stroke or transient ischemic attack. In 2006, he was awarded the AHA's William Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke. In 2007, he was honored for his leadership efforts in the Power to End Stroke campaign, an innovative community-based effort to combat stroke, with the organization's Chairman's Award.
Dr. Sacco earned his MD from Boston University School of Medicine and MS in epidemiology from the Columbia University School of Public health. Prior to joining UMMSM in 2007, he was professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University, where he also served as associate chair of neurology for clinical research and training. He also served as director of the Stroke and Critical Care Division at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, case reports and abstracts, and served on the editorial boards of several journals. He is a principal investigator of the Prevention Regimen For Effectively avoiding Second Strokes (PRoFESS®) study, the world's largest-ever recurrent stroke prevention trial.
Federal Strategic Plan for Autism Research Announced
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) released its first blueprint for autism research earlier this year. The IACC is a federal government advisory panel comprised of both federal and public members. The IACC mission is to “facilitate the efficient and effective exchange of information on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) activities among the member agencies; coordinate ASD-related activities; and to increase public understanding of the member agencies' activities, programs, policies, and research by providing a public forum for discussions related to ASD research, screening, education, and interventions.” As a mandate of the Combating Autism Act of 2006, the IACC was required to develop a Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder and must update the plan annually.
The IACC plan was devised with input from a variety of sources including members of the scientific community as well as the public and advocacy communities and is organized around these 6 questions asked by people and families living with ASD: When should I be concerned?; How can I understand what is happening?; What caused this to happen and can this be prevented?; Which treatments and interventions will help?; Where can I turn for services?; and, What does the future hold?. Each question is followed by a brief discussion of what is currently known and includes a description of ongoing research opportunities and objectives in each area.
Recommendations in the strategic plan include objectives to: develop new diagnostic tools; complete longitudinal and comprehensive studies of the biological, clinical, and developmental profiles of children; identify genetic and environmental risk factors; conduct clinical trials of interventions; and assess the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of evidence-based services for people with ASD of all ages in community settings. Each objective includes a professional judgment budget estimate, provided by programmatic and agency experts. The IACC will monitor the implementation of the strategic plan over the course of the next year, and will update the document for its annual release.