The Evolution of Excellence 2010 - Graduate Studies

Transcription

the evolution of
university of pittsburgh school of medicine
University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine
School of Medicine
1
1
Putting ExcellencePutting
into Action
Excellence into Action
4
4
New Faces & Fresh
New
Ideas
Faces & Fresh Ideas
10
10
Part I: In the Beginning
Part I: In the Beginning
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24
News & Achievements
News & Achievements
36
36
Part II: At the Confluence
Part II: At the Confluence
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44
News & Achievements
News & Achievements
68
68
Part III: The Visionaries
Part III: The Visionaries
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78
Investing in a Winner
100
Departments
100
Departments
How
do we put excellence into action?
At the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, excellence is an everyday
pursuit (and a goal that is often attained), but that doesn’t make it easy to
explain. While we can all agree that it is the goal, we still have to get out of bed
in the morning with a vision, some particular habits of mind, and a strategy.
What are they? When it comes to the care of patients, biomedical research,
and education, I believe the key elements of turning excellence into action
include an innovative and collaborative culture and a commitment to multi
disciplinary, imaginative work.
We begin with a promising substrate. In terms of one of our primary
missions, which is to educate and train the finest clinicians and scientific
investigators, this means selecting medical and graduate school applicants
who, in addition to being exceptionally bright and accomplished, show creativity
and leadership. These qualities are vital because important discoveries and
difficult diagnoses do not typically announce themselves or fall into one’s lap.
Creativity and leadership are required to make and advance the discoveries
that come to define cutting-edge science and medicine.
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In our faculty and investigators, we especially seek out and
support those who recognize that crossing the frontiers of biomedical
science requires teamwork. This is why the researchers in our new Center
for Vaccine Research, for example, represent two health sciences schools
(medicine and public health) and eight different academic departments,
from pediatrics to pathology to microbiology and molecular genetics.
The spirit of collaboration drives everything we do, from the
scientists we recruit to the way we design the laboratories in which they
conduct research. Investigators who come to Pittsburgh understand that
they are expected to reach far beyond the confines of their departments
and areas of expertise. This is why their laboratories have no walls. It’s why
we build state-of-the art facilities where, for example, experts in geriatric
medicine rub elbows with structural and computational biologists — because
solutions to problems like Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases
may be found by illuminating the structure of protein molecules in the
brain or by combining brain imaging studies with the quotidian details of
environmental exposure.
Over the past 11 years, since my arrival in Pittsburgh from the
National Institutes of Health, I have watched the culture of excellence
become ingrained and blossom here. I have watched it draw talented
scientists and physicians from all over the world. I have seen independent
evidence of it in the peer-reviewed publications and the external support
garnered by our research programs. I invite you to read this progress report
and see for yourself how this institution is putting excellence into action.
Arthur S. Levine, MD
Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences
and Dean, School of Medicine
Summer 2010
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The Merits of Mutuality
L
ike a vast battery, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) together harness their distinct yet interdependent
polarities to power what has arguably become the region’s most potent scientific and
economic engine.
“There’s no way that either of us can operate without total symbiosis,” says
Arthur S. Levine, MD, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean, School of
Medicine, explaining that clinical revenue supports academics, and biomedical research
gravitas distinguishes UPMC from other community hospital networks.
A long-term affiliation agreement formalizes the relationship, outlining UPMC’s
financial support of the medical school and ensuring that faculty, students, and residents
have access to the hospitals for instruction, research, and clinical work. Clinical practices of
medical school faculty members are codified into a UPMC subsidiary known as University
of Pittsburgh Physicians. The agreement gives the University sole control over academic
matters and administration of federally funded research and entitles Pitt to appoint a
portion of UPMC’s Board of Trustees and Executive Committee. A member of the UPMC
board also sits on the University Board of Trustees.
While the legal distinctions are important, Pitt and UPMC share a much more important
focus. Catalyzing the translation of research into pioneering clinical practice advances the
missions of both and enhances science and patient care beyond the region, resulting in
what UPMC President Jeffrey A. Romoff calls “really quite a success story.”
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New Faces. Fresh Ideas.
Top L / R: Davidson, Gladwin
Bottom L / R: Sadovsky, Van Houten
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Nancy E. Davidson, MD
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
Director, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
and UPMC Cancer Centers; Associate Vice Chancellor
for Cancer Research; Hillman Professor of Oncology
Professor of Medicine; Chief, Division of Pulmonary,
Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine; Director, Vascular
Medicine Institute
Clinical / research interests: Role of hormones
and receptors, particularly estrogen, in gene expression
and cell growth in breast cancer
Clinical / research interests: Nitrite in vasodilation,
nitric oxide bioactivity, hemolysis-associated pulmonary
hypertension in sickle cell disease
Former president of the American Society of
Clinical Oncology; former director of the Johns Hopkins
University Kimmel Cancer Center Breast Cancer Program;
honors include the Brinker International Award for Breast
Cancer Research, the American Association for Cancer
Research Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend
Memorial Lectureship, and the National Cancer Institute
Rosalind E. Franklin Award.
Notable:
Notable:
“Although we call it one disease,
breast cancer is in fact a whole bunch of different
diseases. A lot of things have to go awry in a cancer
cell, and they may be very different depending on
the cell of origin. Increasingly, research is going to
be very focused on specific biological subsets
of breast cancer.”
Quotable:
Elected in 2010 to the council of the American
Society for Clinical Investigation; discovered that nitrite
is a stable, circulating storage pool for nitric oxide in the
blood and that it is bioactivated under hypoxic conditions
via a previously unknown interaction with hemoglobin,
regulating both vasodilation and cellular resistance to
low oxygen and ischemia
Quotable: “What we’re doing is thinking of any
disease where oxygen is low and nitric oxide might
be useful — heart attacks, high blood pressure of the
newborn — and in all these preclinical models, the
nitrite is working. So coming to Pittsburgh is very
exciting for me because now I have the opportunity
to move this discovery into clinical practice. …Also,
one of the ideal targets for nitrite is going to be solid
organ transplantation, and Pittsburgh is obviously
the center of the universe for that.”
Yoel Sadovsky, MD
Elsie Hilliard Hillman Professor of Women’s and Infants’
Health Research; Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology,
and Reproductive Sciences; Scientific Director,
Magee-Womens Research Institute
Clinical / research interests: Reproductive
development and function, including mechanisms that
determine placental development and differentiation;
molecular mechanisms underlying gonadal function
Notable: Excellence in Teaching Award, Association
of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics; Society for
Gynecologic Investigation President’s Achievement Award
“Deciphering the underpinnings of
reproductive sciences and embryonic development
is critical to understanding the origins of human
diseases. Conditions that shape our lives may
originate in genetic and epigenetic intra-uterine
influences. In fulfilling our goal to improve repro
ductive health, we are pursuing a greater mission
to improve the health of both women and men.”
Quotable:
Bennett Van Houten, PhD
Richard M. Cyert Professor of Molecular Oncology;
Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology;
Head, Molecular and Cellular Cancer Biology Program,
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
Clinical / research interests: Structure-function
studies of nucleotide excision repair proteins and
mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegenerative
diseases and cancer
Five-time National Institutes of Health Award
of Merit recipient; NIH Director’s Award; Burroughs
Wellcome Fund Scholar Award in Toxicology; former
chief of extramural research and training, National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Notable:
“It’s very exciting to be able to become
part of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute,
which has a strong research group interested in
genome stability. Cancer is a consequence of
an accumulation of mutations in critical cellular
genes that control cell growth and differentiation.
Our long-term goal is to translate findings in basic
research into the clinic. A major area of research
that has huge potential is the understanding
of which DNA repair pathways have been altered
in tumor cells so that specific therapeutic
approaches can be tailored to specific tumors.”
Quotable:
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Cecilia W. Lo, PhD
Rocky S. Tuan, PhD
Dr. F. Sargent Cheever Professor and
Chair of Developmental Biology
Arthur J. Rooney Sr. Professor of Sports Medicine;
Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Executive
Vice Chairman for Orthopaedic Research; Director,
Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering
Clinical / research interests: Discerning mechanisms
underlying human congenital heart disease using
large-scale genomic approaches, genetic screens, and
chemical mutagenesis; translational research with
genetic analysis using high-throughput sequencing
and disease modeling with patient-derived induced
pluripotent stem cells
Secretary, Society of Developmental
Biology; former director, Developmental Biology
and Genetics Center, National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute; editor-in-chief, Cell Communication
and Adhesion; Associate Editor, Embryo Today;
editorial board, Anatomical Record
Notable:
Quotable: “You never know where the discoveries
will come from that will benefit a patient, whether
it’s developing diagnostics, medication, or some
other therapeutic tool. When basic science impinges
on clinical medicine, it behooves us to really pursue
it and bring that science to benefit the clinical
population. I’m excited that we are at that boundary.”
Thomas W. Kensler, PhD
Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology,
School of Medicine; Professor of Environmental and
Occupational Health, Graduate School of Public Health
Clinical/research interests: Biochemical and
molecular mechanisms of chemical carcinogenesis
to identify prevention and treatment strategies, with
particular emphasis on targeting the Keap1-Nrf2
adaptive response pathway; clinical trials of novel
chemopreventive agents in populations at high risk
for aflatoxin-induced hepatocarcinogenesis
Society of Toxicology Translational Impact
Award, 2009; AACR-American Cancer Society Award
for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and
Prevention, 2007
Notable:
Quotable: “Prevention offers the best prospects
for reducing morbidity and mortality from chronic
diseases, including cancer. As succinctly noted by
Mao Zedong, ‘Prevention is best. Health first.’ ”
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Clinical / research interests: Musculoskeletal system
development, growth, and function; regulation of adult
stem cell biology; developing methods to engineer or
regenerate musculoskeletal tissues
Marshall R. Urist Award, Orthopaedic Research
Society; Coventry Award, American Academy of Orthopaedic
Surgeons; College of Fellows, American Institute of
Medical and Biological Engineering; former chief, Cartilage
Biology and Orthopaedics Branch, National Institute of
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; founding
co-editor, Stem Cell Research and Therapy
Notable:
Quotable: “My research interests are focused
on real-world biomedical challenges, with analysis
done at the cellular and molecular levels, and
solutions delivered using engineering approaches.
Our research addresses the urgent need to develop
novel therapies for degenerative musculoskeletal
diseases, which represent the primary cause of
disability. We are excited about promising adult stem
cell and nanomaterial-based approaches we have
developed to engineer and regenerate skeletal tissues
that are being tested in animal models for future
clinical applications.”
Abhinav Humar, MD
Professor of Surgery; Chief, Division of
Transplantation Surgery; Clinical Director,
Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute
Clinical / research interests: Examining clinical
outcomes for adult and pediatric transplant patients;
studying predictors of complications in transplant
patients; conducting partial liver transplants and
examining liver regeneration
Helped to develop a liver transplant program
at Jaslok Hospital and Research Center, a large teaching
hospital in Mumbai, India; editorial board, Liver
Transplantation; associate editor, Clinical Transplantation
Notable:
“We are working to provide what is
one of the most comprehensive transplant programs
to patients. I’m speaking of the clinical and research
aspects of transplant, covering all of the different
types of transplant — whether that’s adult, pediatric,
liver, lung, heart, kidney, small bowel, pancreas, islet
cells. Transplant is a big field, and I want to see that
all aspects of it are available here for the patient — and available at a very high level.”
Quotable:
Top L / R: Lo, Tuan
Bottom L / R: Kensler, Humar
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Top L / R: Friedlander, Fox
Bottom L / R: Sorkin, Celedón
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Robert M. Friedlander, MD
Ira J. Fox, MD
Professor and Chair of Neurological Surgery
Professor of Surgery; Director, Center for Innovative
Pediatric Regenerative Therapies
Clinical / research interests: Mechanisms of
apoptosis, especially as mediated by the caspase apoptotic
family, in neurologic diseases, stroke, and traumatic
brain and spinal cord injuries; pathogenesis of neuro
degenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington’s disease; discovering
novel approaches to reduce the effects of cell death
in a variety of neurologic disorders
Bayer Cerebrovascular Award, Joint Section
of Cerebrovascular Surgery, 2002; Charcot Young
Investigator Prize for research into ALS and related
disorders, Motor Neurone Disease Association and
Aventis Pharmaceutical, 2002; advisory council,
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Notable:
Quotable: “My goal is to elevate our already
eminent department to be a leader in neurosurgery,
combining the very best clinical care with innovative
translational neuroscience. I look forward to
collaborating with so many gifted colleagues
to develop future neurosurgical therapies.”
Clinical / research interests: Treatments for liver cell
dysfunction-based diseases; development of alternative
ways to regenerate damaged liver cells; overcoming
barriers to using liver cell transplants for treating hepatic
diseases; gene therapy and stem cell research
Former senior associate dean for research,
University of Nebraska College of Medicine; Outstanding
Investigator Award, University of Nebraska, 1999;
sponsor of two investigator-initiated U.S. investigational
new drug applications
Notable:
“Our goal is to have hepatocyte
transplantation effectively replace organ
transplantation for some patients with liver failure
and life-threatening liver-based metabolic diseases.
Through the collaborative atmosphere at the
University of Pittsburgh, I am confident that
we can accomplish this by developing multiple
sources of donor liver cells, making hepatocyte
transplantation available and effective for
Quotable:
patients with liver disorders.”
Alexander Sorkin, PhD
Richard Beatty Mellon Professor of Physiology and
Chair of Cell Biology and Physiology
Clinical/research interests: Mechanisms by which
endocytosis and post-endocytic trafficking regulate the
functions of transmembrane proteins such as receptors
and transporters, with a specific focus on using the
epidermal growth factor receptor and dopamine
transporter as models
Former professor of pharmacology, University
of Colorado Health Sciences Center; founding member
of the international consortium Receptor Tyrosine Kinase
Signaling Network; named departmental teacher of the
year in 2000 and cited for annual research award, 2002;
editorial board, Molecular Biology of the Cell and Traffic
Notable:
“Understanding the basic molecular
mechanisms controlling core cellular functions is
imperative to the development of new approaches
to and strategies for translational research. I came to
Pittsburgh for a unique opportunity to pursue basic
science research focusing on fundamental questions of
cell biology. We can build on the department’s superb
expertise in cell imaging, membrane trafficking,
signaling, cell polarity, and physiology of channels,
transporters, and receptors and enhance this research
by integrating advanced systems-biology tech
nologies such as proteomics, high-throughput RNA
interference, and computational modeling.”
Quotable:
Juan Carlos Celedón, MD, DrPH
Professor of Pediatrics and Chief, Pediatric Division
of Pulmonary Medicine, Allergy, and Immunology,
School of Medicine; Professor of Human Genetics,
Graduate School of Public Health
Clinical/research interests: Epidemiology of
lung disease; genetic and environmental factors that
influence asthma, allergic disease, and chronic obstruc
tive pulmonary disease, generally and among Hispanics
in particular; the relationships between intestinal flora
early in life and susceptibility to allergic disease
Former director, Human Genetics Research
Unit, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; 2010 recipient of
the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award
from Harvard Medical School
Notable:
“Asthma is the most common chronic
disease among children in the United States. Most
cases of asthma are diagnosed in early childhood,
and current evidence suggests that early-life
environmental exposures influence the development
of asthma. By increasing our understanding of the
interplay between early-life exposures and the
genetics of asthma development, we should be
able to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and
treatment of this common disease.”
Quotable:
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Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
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Part I:
In the Beginning
Choosing a Medical
School, Choosing
This Medical School
Some go to medical school almost in their own
back yards. Others converge on Pitt Med from every
imaginable compass point. Many have a breadth of
experiences that belie their relative youth. And all
have aspirations. Meet a sampling of students at
the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
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I did my undergraduate work here at the University of Pittsburgh. I was a member of the medical
school guarantee program, and I dual majored in biological sciences and physics and astronomy,
with a minor in chemistry, so there’s an obvious love for science there. . .. In the last two years I
started to do research in computational biology. I study BH3-only proteins and their role in the
apoptotic pathway, which can play a role in cancer therapeutics and also in how sensitive cells
are to radiotherapies. I started to fall in love with that work and decided that, ultimately, I would
like to pursue an MD/PhD and do work in academic medicine.
{
{
Sarah Sullivan / third year
Nicki Zevola / second year
}
}
I was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, which is about four hours down I-79. I stayed in
West Virginia for my undergraduate degree and went to Marshall University. . ..When I was young,
I lived during the summers with my grandparents in rural West Virginia, and a lot of my time was
spent taking them to and from various medical appointments. So I got to see a lot of the barriers
to care in the rural population. And I also got to observe a really unique relationship they had with
their primary care physician. He was great . .. explaining problems in plain English, was great about
preventive care and a whole number of things. ...When I was looking for schools to apply to, I initially
chose Pitt because it was within the four- or five-hour radius, because family is very important to
me. But, once I was here, I was really thrilled because not only did I find that people here are very
warm and welcoming but I also found this Area of Concentration in Geriatric Medicine, which started
my interest in medicine, and I’ve followed through with that.
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Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
Part I: I n t he Beg in n in g
I grew up in Chico, California, north of Sacramento. I went to school at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, where I studied engineering and did a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, with
a mechanical focus. ... I loved the interaction of physical sciences and biological sciences, but
I really felt that something was lacking in my everyday work. What was lacking was my interaction
with people. That’s what led me to apply to medical school and want to become a physician. ... Pittsburgh was not especially on my radar when I was applying to medical schools, but it was
the first place to give me an interview. . .. As soon as I got here, even though I was here
for less than 24 hours, I just fell in love with the
people who were here, the administration,
the students I met. ... I just felt that they actually
cared about my education.
{ Ben Sprague / second year }
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{
Bhumy Davé / Fourth year
}
I grew up just north of Chicago in a town called Skokie, Illinois. It is a place that is both socioeconomically very diverse as well as culturally very diverse. I went to undergrad at Washington
University in St. Louis, where I majored in biology and minored in business. My outside interests ... included a lot of diversity work with our resident advisory committee. In addition, I was part of groups
such as black women and Jewish women and a discussion group that explored issues of social
justice. My passion for medicine started as a need to take care of some of the underserved populations in St. Louis. After my undergraduate career, I ... contemplated whether I wanted to do an MPH
or go to medical school and then do an MPH as I gathered more experience. I chose the University
of Pittsburgh partly because it has an Area of Concentration in Underserved Populations. ... After my first year of medical school, I got a chance
to go to Zambia and worked at an antenatal clinic
studying vertical transmission of HIV from a pregnant
woman to her fetus. In my fourth year, I went to
Swaziland and helped perform operations such as
cesarean sections and hysterectomies.
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Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
I’m from Pittsburgh. I grew up in the North Hills and went to Notre Dame for undergrad. After
that, I needed some time to sort myself out so I went to NIH [ National Institutes of Health ] and
did basic cancer research for two years. During that time, I think, is when I discovered that I really
wanted to do medicine. I knew that I didn’t want to spend all of my time in a lab, and that I needed
to connect with people. I interviewed at a lot of medical schools. I came to Pittsburgh because
I have roots here and because I think Pittsburgh is a special place. . ..When I came to medical
school, I didn’t really know what kind of doctor I wanted to be, but I think I’m gradually figuring
that out. I’m going into internal medicine, which will allow me to further explore what it means to
be a doctor. The progression keeps going. {
Sean Tackett / fourth year
}
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I thought I would go into journalism. But that ended
up not being the case for me. What I did instead was
research in medical ethics and social medicine, looking
at disparities in health behaviors such as tobacco
smoking and alcohol use.
It was sort of through this circuitous path that I decided to go to medical school after undergrad
at Wellesley College. …The reason I liked Pittsburgh was the Underserved Populations Area of
Concentration. ... My interview day was the first time that I had ever been to this city. I didn’t know
what to expect, but what I found is that it’s a beautiful city filled with really friendly people, and
it’s been a wonderful place to live. I’m very happy with my choice.
{
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Wynne Lundblad / second year
}
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
I’m originally from Long Island, New York, both Amityville and Centereach. Each had very different
demographics — Amityville was a very West Indian-heavy community, and Centereach was a
very Caucasian, cosmopolitan sort of makeup. I went to Villanova University, where I studied
biochemistry, and I also was very involved in the community in North Philadelphia while I was
there. I did a lot of work with high school students, as well as middle school students, working
to create cleaner and safer neighborhoods ... to bring about a different image for a lot of the
single parent homes that the children were products of.
The reason I chose medicine at a young age, actually
around middle and high school, was that I had a lot of
family members who succumbed to preventable diseases.
At the heart of that was also a distrust of the medical field.
I find tearing down the misconceptions and restoring
that trust profoundly rewarding.
{
Bradley Stephens / fourth year
}
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The interdisciplinary nature of the program
here helped me to experience different things
before I needed to make a decision.
I did three really good rotations.
{ Shanshan Cui / cell biology and physiology }
The graduate program has numerous
fantastic faculty to choose from to do
world-class biomedical research.
{ J ared Knickelbein / MD/PhD student, immunology }
If there’s one thing I can say about my mentor, it’s
“collaboration.” He has a great open door policy. . . .
Anybody can walk in. There’s always music on,
and he’s very approachable.
{ Gina Coudriet / pathology }
What I like most about my thesis project is
that it is very translational in nature.
It’s taking basic research discoveries and
moving them into the clinic.
{ Angela Pardee / immunology }
There’s a huge family atmosphere that runs
through the whole city . . . and it extends down
into my lab, which is the real reason I chose
the University of Pittsburgh.
{ Austin
Dulak / pharmacology and chemical biology }
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Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
… And Choosing a
Graduate School
Not all Pitt Med students are preparing to be
physicians. Many — About 300 at any given time — are working toward PhD degrees in a basic or
translational science field such as cell biology,
immunology, or molecular virology, for example,
through Pitt’s Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate
Program. Others are in specialized graduate
programs in emerging disciplines like biomedical
informatics or computational biology.
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Postdocs are a vital, productive segment of the
University community. In Pitt’s med school alone,
they number more than 500.
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Learning to Fly
E
veryone knows that medical students earn
their MDs, then move into a period of residency
training — a highly structured and mentored
transition between med school and an independent career. But what about the scads of PhDs graduating
from medical schools, including Pitt’s, these days?
They require a mentored transition, too, so that they can
learn the ropes of academic medicine and blossom into
independent investigators. Welcome to the world of
the postdoctoral professional.
Postdocs are a vital, productive segment of the
University community. In Pitt’s med school alone, they
number more than 500. Typically, they arrive after earning
their PhDs at other top-tier institutions. (Exposure to
new environments, new colleagues, and new mentors is
considered key to professional development.) One of the
side benefits of bringing scientific superstars to Pitt’s
campus for the Senior Vice Chancellor’s Laureate Lectures
and other events is that great scientists from outside
institutions get an inside look at ongoing research here —
an insight that sometimes leads to their PhD students
being steered to Pittsburgh for a postdoc.
Once in Pittsburgh, postdocs find a supportive
community. The University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral
Association is a peer group that runs programs such as
lunch meetings where postdocs develop research
presentation skills. Another event, dubbed Data & Dine,
is a scientific poster session and networking event that
ends with 10 postdocs receiving travel grants to attend
major conferences so they might present their research
to wider audiences.
Overarching support for postdocs in the health sciences
comes from the Office of Academic Career Development,
which provides a wide variety of professional development
programs and services to coach postdocs in issues outside
of laboratory research that go a long way in ensuring
their success as scientists. The office also assists postdocs
in securing their own funding as they transition to inde
pendent researchers. The gold standard in this area is the
National Institutes of Health Pathway to Independence
Award, which was conceived as a way to bridge the gap
between training and independent research. This unique
award begins as a career development award lasting
one to two years. Then, as a young scientist achieves a
junior faculty position, the award evolves, supporting the
establishment of a research program and transitioning
to an award designated R01, the standard NIH award for
individual scientists. Introduced in 2005, a Pathway to
Independence Award provides an enormous boost to a
young scientist’s career. As of summer 2009, postdocs
in Pitt’s School of Medicine had won eight of these highly
sought after awards. They support research in pharmacology,
neurology, psychiatry, and pediatrics, among other areas.
21
What do former Secretary of State Colin Powell,
former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, CNN chief
medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD, and
Pitt School of Medicine alum J. Nadine Gracia, MD,
MSCE, have in common?
All were selected for the White House Fellows
program, one of America’s most prestigious leader
ship and public service training grounds for future
policymakers. Only about a dozen fellows are chosen
annually from among more than 1,000 applicants to
spend a year getting an inside look at the workings
of the federal government in Washington, D.C.
From the outset of her 2008–2009 experience,
Gracia juggled leadership seminars, state arrival
ceremonies, domestic and international policy study
trips, and community service. As a pediatrician and
public health professional, she was placed at the
Department of Health and Human Services, where
she worked on several projects in the Office of the
Secretary and the Office of Public Health and Science,
including climate change and global health. In the
last two months of her fellowship, she was assigned
to the Office of the First Lady as a policy advisor,
assisting with the development of the childhood
obesity initiative.
Gracia’s experience as a violence prevention
researcher and associate of the Philadelphia
Collaborative Violence Prevention Center also aided
her service on the White House Council on Women
and Girls.
In addition to their full-time assignments, Gracia
and the other White House fellows gathered several
times a week for informal, off-the-record meetings
with cabinet secretaries, public and private sector
executives, and members of Congress. “It’s an incredible
privilege and honor to have access to and meet with
such extraordinary leaders,” she said of the experience.
Gracia Goes to the
White House
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As a group, the fellows occasionally traveled
to such places as Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, and
New York City to meet with mayors, school super
intendents, and CEOs to discuss public education,
the economy, business technology, and national
security. Their final trip was to Brazil and Argentina
to discuss environmental issues and alternative
energy sources with officials there.
Gracia said her relationships with the other
fellows were invaluable. “I’ve had the opportunity
to meet people of diverse upbringings and pro
fessions and, with them, to mature professionally
and personally. I consider the fellows as family.”
Upon completion of her White House fellowship
in August 2009, Gracia was appointed and now
serves as chief medical officer in the Office of
Public Health and Science at the U.S Department
of Health and Human Services. As a member of the
Assistant Secretary for Health’s senior leadership
team, she provides strategic program and policy
guidance on a broad range of medical and public
health issues, including environmental health, global
health, adolescent health, and childhood obesity. Born in Northern California, she is a firstgeneration Haitian-American fluent in French and
Haitian Creole. She recently returned from Haiti
after working on earthquake relief and rebuilding
efforts there.
Paula Davis, assistant vice chancellor for
diversity-health sciences at Pitt and former assistant
dean of admissions in the School of Medicine, recalls
Gracia’s passion for advocacy during her medical
school years. “Nadine’s appointment as a White House
fellow was, I think, a natural step in the progression
of her career. In her medical school interview, she
mentioned that she wanted eventually to play a role
in policy. Her engagement as a student leader while
here at Pitt was a fantastic base on which to build.”
Prior to Pitt, Gracia graduated with honors in
French from Stanford University. As a med student,
she served as national president of the Student
National Medical Association. After finishing medical
school in 2002, she completed her pediatrics
residency and served as chief resident at Children’s
Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC before moving to
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2006 to
complete a general pediatrics research fellowship
and earn a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology
at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Choosing to go to Pitt for medical school and
to stay in Pittsburgh for residency was — and is — one of the best decisions I ever made,” Gracia said.
“Pitt has a great commitment to students, teaching
clinical excellence as well as fostering outside personal
interests. I had great mentors who enabled and
empowered me to pursue extracurricular activities.
They enabled me to be a national leader and a
medical student at the same time.”
23
NE WS. ACH I E VEMENTS.
Pitt “Levels Up” in NIH Funding
Amid fierce recession-fueled competition for research funding, the University of
Pittsburgh has improved its ranking to fifth in the nation among academic institutions
and their affiliates in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — a universally
recognized benchmark of research excellence. Data for fiscal year 2008 show that Pitt
received $432 million in NIH research support, with more than 90 percent of this funding
coming to the University’s six Schools of the Health Sciences (Medicine, Public Health,
Dental Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Health and Rehabilitation Sciences). Of this total,
nearly 79 percent was awarded to the School of Medicine. In addition, Pitt ranks fifth out
of more than 3,400 institutions nationwide in the number of individual grants awarded.
As of April 2010, Pitt has received 330 awards through the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act totaling more than $173 million.
“NIH ranking is the only objective metric that we have in a nationally competitive,
peer-reviewed context,” said Arthur S. Levine, MD, senior vice chancellor for the health
sciences and dean, School of Medicine. “While it is very difficult to measure the quality of
education or patient care, such a research ranking means that we are well positioned to attract
high quality students and residents, excellent faculty, and to offer superb patient care.”
Pitt moved into the top 10 tier of institutions in 1997 and has steadily climbed the ranks
within this elite group since then. Such notable shifts in ranking are rare, especially in an
era of shrinking national biomedical research budgets combined with what has been
characterized as the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Nevertheless,
the University and the School of Medicine have more than doubled their NIH support since
1998. Pitt’s ranking for 2008 encompasses 990 individual grants to faculty members.
990
individual grants to faculty members
$432 million
Received in NIH research support
ranked #5
out of more than 3,400 institutions
24
Physicians Selected
for Elite Society
A
Hackam
Monga
Ferris
Geller
Niedernhofer
Nikiforov
Six New “Young Turks”
They’re known as the Young Turks — members of the American
Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), a prestigious organization of more than 2,800 physician-scientists who have achieved
notable success relatively early in their careers. Among the
School of Medicine’s most recent inductees, and their respective departments, are David J. Hackam, MD, PhD (Surgery), and
Satdarshan (Paul) Monga, MBBS (Pathology), in 2009; Robert L.
Ferris, MD, PhD (Otolaryngology), David A. Geller, MD (Surgery),
and Laura J. Niedernhofer, MD, PhD (Microbiology and Molecular
Genetics), in 2008; and Yuri E. Nikiforov, MD, PhD (Pathology), in
2007. Founded in 1908, ASCI is a well-established medical honor
society with a clear preference for celebrating up-and-coming
scholarly achievement in biomedical research. New members
must be 45 or younger at the time of their election.
mong the newest members of
the Association of American
Physicians (AAP) are Michael J.
Fine, MD, MSc; Mark T. Gladwin,
MD; David M. Rothstein, MD;
Gary A. Silverman, MD, PhD;
and Merrill J. Egorin, MD. Fine is
professor of medicine and director,
VA Center for Health Equity and
Research. Gladwin is chief of the
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and
Critical Care Medicine and director
of the Vascular Medicine Institute.
Rothstein is professor of surgery,
medicine, and immunology.
Silverman is professor of pediatrics
and chief of the UPMC Newborn
Medicine Program. Also a
2009 recipient of a prestigious
Cancer Foundation Translational
Research Professorship from
the American Society of Clinical
Oncology, Egorin is professor of
medicine and of pharmacology
and chemical biology.
Founded in 1885, AAP is
dedicated to the pursuit of medical
knowledge, experimentation and
discovery in basic and clinical
science, and the application of
new findings to clinical medicine.
Each year, 60 people are nominated
for membership in recognition
of excellence in their fields. Today,
the association represents the
best medical minds and provides
a forum to promote friendship,
create and disseminate knowledge,
and provide role models for
generations of upcoming physicians
and scientists.
Inductees for 2008 included
Fadi G. Lakkis, MD, professor
of surgery and immunology,
Frank and Athena Sarris Professor
of Transplantation Biology, and
scientific director of the Thomas E.
Starzl Transplantation Institute.
25
NE WS. AC H IE V E M ENTS.
O’Toole Assumes
Homeland Security Post
T
ara O’Toole, MD, MPH,
founding director and,
until recently, chief executive
officer of the UPMC Center
for Biosecurity and a professor
of medicine and of public
health at Pitt, is bringing her
expertise in environmental
protection and biosecurity to
the Department of Homeland
Security as under secretary
for science and technology — a post with broad responsi
bilities to conduct basic and
applied research and tech
nology development, testing,
and evaluation to serve the
department’s mission.
“She is extraordinarily
suited for the position,”
said center deputy director
and chief operating officer
Thomas V. Inglesby, MD, who
has now succeeded O’Toole
as director of the Center for
Biosecurity, which works to
strengthen national security by
reducing the risks of biological
attacks, epidemics, and other
destabilizing events. “She is
unusually smart and articulate,
she has a spine of steel, she has
extraordinary management
abilities, she can see around
corners to anticipate problems,
and she is very action- and
change-oriented.”
At her nomination
hearing before the U.S. Senate
Committee on Homeland
Security and Government
Affairs, O’Toole related that
26
the Soviet Union’s surprise
launch of the Sputnik satellite
in 1957 prompted the sub
sequent investments by the
United States in science
education that sparked her
career interests. “I believe
it is possible to use science,
technology, and American
ingenuity to better understand,
prevent, and if necessary,
respond to terrorist attacks and
natural disasters,” she said.
Hat Tricks All Around
H
ockey fever is particularly
acute in Pittsburgh since
the Penguins’ Stanley Cup
victory in 2009. So, please
forgive us if we celebrate like
a winger who just slapped three
pucks past the goalie, but the
University also scored a few
hat tricks recently.
The American Cancer
Society (ACS) recognized three
individuals from the School
of Medicine with prestigious
research professorships.
Each receives a five-year,
$400,000 grant.
Jennifer Rubin
Grandis, MD, the UPMC Head
and Neck Surgical Research
Professor in Otolaryngology,
received a clinical research
professorship. Grandis
studies genetic abnormalities
associated with head and neck
squamous-cell carcinoma.
She was recently elected to
the board of directors of the
American Association for
Cancer Research; and she
co-chairs the head and neck
cancer working group of
the Cancer Genome Atlas, a
multidisciplinary effort of the
National Cancer Institute and
the National Human Genome
Research Institute.
Patrick Moore, MD, MPH,
and Yuan Chang, MD, each
received research professor
ships to support their work
on viruses linked to human
cancers. (Read more on these
collaborators on page 50.)
“The research funds are
not restricted,” says Moore.
“This allows us to explore more
cutting-edge areas of cancer
research that we can’t fund
through traditional grants.”
In addition, chalk up
three more Pitt faculty
members among the ranks
of the Institute of Medicine,
an elite organization composed
of today’s leaders in medical
science, health care, and public
health. Donald S. Burke, MD;
David A. Lewis, MD; and
David H. Perlmutter, MD,
are prominent, long-standing
researchers whose professional
achievements have garnered
them this recognition — one of
the highest honors in the
field. Burke, an expert in the
prevention, diagnosis, and
control of epidemic infectious
diseases, is director of Pitt’s
Center for Vaccine Research,
associate vice chancellor for
global health, UPMC Jonas
Salk Professor of Global Health,
and dean of the Graduate
School of Public Health. Lewis,
UPMC Professor of Translational
Neuroscience, chair of the
Department of Psychiatry, and
director of the Translational
Neuroscience Program and
Conte Center for the Neurosci
ence of Mental Disorders, has
devoted more than 20 years to
understanding brain circuitry
disruptions in schizophrenia.
Perlmutter, Vira I. Heinz
Professor and chair of pediatrics,
as well as physician-in-chief and
scientific director of Children’s
Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC,
is well known for his basic
research on alpha-1-antitrypsin
deficiency, the most common
genetic cause of childhood liver
disease. Membership in the
Institute of Medicine, determined
through a highly selective
process, is a distinction this
trio now shares with 17 other
University faculty members and
only 1,775 others worldwide.
First Person: Eradicating Smallpox
S
mallpox has played a pivotal role in every era of
human history. No disease has been so greatly feared
or worshipped — no disease has killed so many hundreds of
millions of people nor so frequently altered the course of
history itself. As I was growing up, however, I knew smallpox
only as a name, a disease against which all children had
to be vaccinated. That abruptly changed in 1947.
So begins the account of D.A. Henderson, MD, MPH,
in his book, Smallpox: The Death of a Disease, which is
a personal account of leading a massive World Health
Organization campaign from 1966 to 1977 that led to
the eradication of smallpox, a disease that, as recently
as 1967, had claimed 10 million victims and 2 million lives.
Henderson, who holds the title 21st Century Professor of
Medicine and Public Health in the Department of Medicine
and is a distinguished scholar at the Center for Biosecurity
of UPMC, says he wrote the book “to document the
drama and challenge of public health and the potential
of a cooperative international effort that even involved the
U.S. and Soviet Union working together during some of
the darkest days of the Cold War.” The book was published
in June 2009 by Prometheus Press; to mark the occasion,
Henderson was honored at a book launch on campus.
27
One-on-One with One Top Educator
As a medical educator, Paul L. Rogers, MD, isn’t in a class by himself, but as Pitt’s first
recipient of the Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the Alpha Omega Alpha
medical honor society, which selected him for this national award in 2008, he clearly stands
apart. Rogers here reflects on that which he does so well.
You weren’t originally hired to be an educator;
where did your path in medical school education begin?
I had no idea that education would end up being such a large part of my job. When I started here
in 1987, the chair of our department asked if I would develop a fourth-year elective in critical care
medicine — one didn’t exist at that time. I had no idea how to go about teaching. I learned from
several of my mentors here how to create a curriculum so that it fit adult learners and wasn’t a typical
didactic session. I sort of lucked into this role because, back in the early ’90s, the anesthesia department got the first human simulator, and I thought it would be a great tool to use with teaching.
We could create rare, life-threatening situations that students could go perhaps their whole career in
medical school and never see until they’re expected to manage such situations as interns. There’s a
difference between sitting in a classroom, taking notes, and watching a PowerPoint presentation and
actually being in a simulated crisis situation where the mannequin can reproduce physiology so that,
if you’re doing the right management, it will respond appropriately. When I first started, I was teaching
maybe 20 to 25 students a year, and now I teach 120 or more per year. We cover things from patients
with critical illnesses to more common ones, and the students learn communication skills and motor
skills with various pieces of equipment. It’s very lifelike. The more they practice, the more confident
they are in any situation, and that’s what medical education should be about — training in a manner
that’s safe for our patients and that doesn’t allow students to get into trouble. I just wish we’d had it
when I was in my training.
What do you think makes you
successful as an educator?
I just remember how I wanted to be
treated as a student, and I try to hang on
to those values of respecting the students,
respecting their time, wanting to see them
succeed, and not wanting them to fail at
all. I can remember some of the things that
happened to me, and I want to make sure
these students don’t end up in the same
kind of situations. Most of the scenarios we
simulate in class happened to me at some
point in my training. No one ends up at this
point in their careers without being smart,
but if you haven’t seen something or didn’t
know to anticipate it, then it’s a surprise.
So, I don’t let them get surprised.
28
What are some of the challenges facing medical education today?
One is finding the time to be able to teach. Actually, the University of Pittsburgh has some
unique opportunities that have allowed me to be a successful teacher. The dean’s educational
credit units reimburse departments for the hours their faculty members teach. So, I get freed up
for an hour a day. Another thing that is a challenge, but that Pitt does well, is recognizing and
promoting people based on teaching effectiveness. When I started here, people told me that I’d
never be promoted if I wanted to teach. Now, with the educational track, if you create curricula
and have a means of evaluating their effectiveness, you can be recognized for that here. They’ve
created the Academy of Master Educators to recognize good teachers. I gave a talk at the Society
of Critical Care Medicine this past year on the importance of valuing the teacher in the academic
setting, and most people who spoke with me did not have the same situation I have. I was hearing
more people speak of teaching out of obligation at the end of their shifts; it’s not woven into
the fabric of their day. Not everyone is so lucky.
Have medical students changed
since you first started teaching?
I don’t think so. They all have a great
fear that suddenly, at the end of their
fourth year, they don’t know all there is
to know. And, I tell them that’s OK; they’ll
be learning the rest of their careers. The
only thing they have to remember is that
there are people around them who know
more than they do, and they should feel
free to go to those people and ask for
guidance. There’s no way you can know
all there is to know to be an intern.
Do any particular teaching
moments stand out for you?
I hear a lot from former students that they’ve
found themselves in real-life situations where
none of the other interns knew what to do and
hadn’t experienced anything like it before, but
they did because we had gone over it in the
simulations. I’m very fortunate because I don’t
have to convince students that they need to
learn these basic management skills. I know
that it works because I get plenty of e-mails
from people saying how they had to deal with
someone who had, say, respiratory distress, and
all the stuff we talked about in class came back
because we had practiced it so many times.
What are your goals now as an educator?
Well, I used to say that I’d retire when I was 50 — but 50 got here in a hurry! What I would like
to do, and have had opportunities to do, is mentor junior faculty so that when I do retire, this
method of teaching continues. It’s a style that anybody who wants to put time into being an
educator can do. They just have to be given the resources and opportunity. I have a pact with
students not to embarrass them; my goal is to let them make mistakes in an environment where
it doesn’t hurt anyone. They tell me that they want to see the consequences of their decisionmaking played out, so they can see what happens if they don’t manage patients’ care correctly.
So, I tell them on day one that this is their opportunity to show me what they don’t know, and
they need to feel comfortable getting up and making mistakes because it’s a much better place
to make a mistake than in the real world.
If you think about being able to teach one person to do something better than you did
when you were an intern, it is a rare opportunity. The chance to teach 100 or more people to
do something better is an honor.
Paul L. Rogers, MD, professor and vice chair of education for critical care medicine, is also
director of the School of Medicine’s Multidisciplinary Critical Care Training Program, a founding
member of its Academy of Master Educators, vice president of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare
System, and director of the surgical care unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His critical
care simulation course has the highest enrollment of any elective course in the School of Medicine.
29
Internal Promotions
Enrich Health Sciences
Leadership
A
mong new School of
Medicine department
chairs are seven who were
promoted from within,
providing evidence of the
University of Pittsburgh’s strong
tradition of nurturing faculty
talent for academic career
advancement.
They are Derek C. Angus,
MBChB, MPH, Dr. Mitchell P.
Fink Professor and chair
of Critical Care Medicine;
Kyongtae Bae, MD, PhD,
professor and chair of radiology;
Michael L. Boninger, MD,
professor and chair of physical
medicine and rehabilitation;
David A. Lewis, MD, UPMC
Professor of Translational
Neuroscience and chair of
psychiatry; Thomas E.
Smithgall, PhD, William S.
McEllroy Professor and chair of
microbiology and molecular
genetics; Lawrence R. Wechsler,
MD, professor and chair of
neurology; and Donald M.
Yealy, MD, professor and chair
of emergency medicine.
A graduate of the University
of Glasgow, Scotland, who also
fulfilled his internal medicine
residency there, Angus holds
a dual appointment in health
policy and management at
Pitt’s Graduate School of Public
Health. A four-time recipient of
the Presidential Citation Award
from the Society of Critical
Care Medicine, Angus runs a
large NIH-funded clinical and
translational research group
studying severe infection,
sepsis, and multi-organ
dysfunction and critical care
delivery systems. He is a
fellow of the Royal College of
Physicians and has been named
a 2009 Distinguished Investi
gator by the American College
of Critical Care Medicine.
Bae earned his medical
degree from the University of
Chicago and his doctoral degree
in bioengineering from the
University of Pennsylvania. Also
professor of bioengineering, he
has repeatedly been recognized
for his research achievements
and holds nine patents for novel
methods of lesion detection,
injection of contrast medium,
compression of computed
tomography data, and other
innovations. In addition, Bae is
a recipient of a Clinical Trainees
Research Award from NIH. He
chairs the Electronic Imaging
Committee of the National
Lung Screening Trial and is vice
chairman of a Genital-Urinary
Disease Study Section at NIH.
Boninger received his
medical degree from Ohio
State University and served
as chief resident in physical
medicine and rehabilitation
at the University of Michigan.
In addition to his duties as
professor and chair of physical
medicine and rehabilitation,
he is associate dean for medical
student research and medical
director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories for
the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare
System. Among his honors are a
VA Stars and Stripes Healthcare
(Pictured left to right) Kyongtae Bae, MD, PhD,
Michael L. Boninger, MD, Donald M. Yealy, MD,
Thomas E. Smithgall, PhD, David A. Lewis, MD,
Lawrence R. Wechsler, MD, Derek C. Angus,
MBChB, MPH
30
Network Annual Award for
Research Achievement and a
Young Academician Award from
the Association of Academic
Physiatrists. Boninger’s research
focuses on assistive tech
nologies, neuroprosthetics,
management of spinal cord
injury and dysfunction, and
wheelchair-propulsion
biomechanics.
In addition to his duties
as professor and chair of
psychiatry, Lewis is medical
director of Western Psychiatric
Institute and Clinic and director
of the NIMH-funded Conte
Center for the Neuroscience of
Mental Disorders. He earned his
medical degree from Ohio State
University and previously held
academic appointments at
the University of Iowa and the
Scripps Clinic and Research
Foundation. Lewis’s areas of
research include the structure
and function of cortical
circuitry, prefrontal cortical
inhibition and informationprocessing in schizophrenia,
targeted drug design, and
adolescent brain development.
He is a member of the National
Academy of Sciences’ Institute
of Medicine, and he received
the NARSAD Lieber Prize
for Schizophrenia Research.
Smithgall earned his
doctoral degree in pharma
cology at the University of
Pennsylvania School of
Medicine and completed
postdoctoral training at the
National Cancer Institute. He
studies the structure, regula
tion, and signaling mechanisms
of proteins called Src tyrosine
kinases and their involvement
in the development of cancer
and HIV/AIDS. In particular,
Smithgall’s work has identified
Src signaling proteins as
potential therapeutic targets for
chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Smithgall is author of more
than 200 publications, book
chapters, and abstracts and
holds two patents.
Also director of the UPMC
Stroke Institute, Wechsler
earned his medical degree from
the University of Pennsylvania
and was chief resident and a
fellow in cerebrovascular disease
at Massachusetts General
Hospital. A fellow of the Ameri
can College of Physicians,
Wechsler is former editor-in-chief
of the Journal of Neuroimaging.
He also serves as vice president
for telemedicine in the
physician services division of
UPMC. His research focuses on
the use of telemedicine in the
treatment of stroke, imaging
of acute stroke, clinical trials
using thrombolytic therapy or
devices, and stroke prevention.
Yealy earned his medical
degree from the Medical
College of Pennsylvania and
completed a residency and
clinical research fellowship in
emergency medicine at Pitt.
He formerly served as associate
professor of emergency and
internal medicine at Texas A&M
University Health Sciences
Center. Yealy’s areas of research
include the challenges of
prehospital care, predictive risk
modeling, racial disparities in
congestive heart failure severity,
and inflammatory cytokine
response in pneumonia, sepsis,
and pulmonary embolism.
He is deputy editor of the
Annals of Emergency Medicine
and a former president of
the Society for Academic
Emergency Medicine.
A Living Legacy in
Molecular Endocrinology
W
Improving Health Care with Software
I
n many aboriginal cultures, the baobab tree is viewed in
mystical terms because it provides food, water, shelter, and
medicine. Gerry Douglas, a doctoral student in biomedical
informatics, has been named a Technology, Entertainment,
and Design (TED) fellow for his work as co-founder of Baobab
Health, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health
care in developing nations through medical informatics.
One of 40 people chosen for an inaugural fellowship class
from a pool of international applicants, Douglas presented his
work on Malawi-headquartered Baobab Health during a TED
conference in early 2009. Since 1984, TED conferences devoted
to “ideas worth sharing” have been bringing together some
of the world’s leading thinkers, and fellowship recipients are
recognized as rising talents across multiple scientific and
creative disciplines.
Baobab has established several innovative approaches to
using technology in health care, such as low-power, inexpensive
touch screen, point-of-care-situated work stations designed
to guide clinicians with limited computer experience through
the diagnosis and treatment of patients using evidencebased protocols.
hen it comes to success,
Bert W. O’Malley, MD,
knows whereof he speaks. As
a biomedical researcher, he is
known as the father of molecular
endocrinology for his pioneering
work on steroid hormones and
nuclear receptors. He’s a recipient
of the National Medal of Science,
the nation’s highest scientific
honor. Here at Pitt, where he
earned a BS in 1959 and his MD
in 1963, he is a Legacy Laureate,
an honor reserved for the most
distinguished alumni. Such
credentials made O’Malley an
obvious choice as the University’s
commencement speaker (“Keep
your feet on the ground and your
eyes on the heavens,” he advised
the 2009 graduates) and recipient
of an honorary doctor of science
degree (his fifth honorary
doctorate). O’Malley, who
currently chairs the Department
of Molecular and Cellular Biology
at Baylor College of Medicine
and serves as the Thomas C.
Thompson Professor of Cell
Biology, does more than receive
awards, however; he and his wife
sponsor the School of Medicine’s
Bert and Sally O’Malley Awards
for Outstanding Medical Student
Research. These annual awards
recognize excellence in the execu
tion of student scholarly projects,
which have become an integral
component of the medical
school’s curriculum.
Pitt alumni Bert and Sally
O’Malley with the portrait that
hangs in the Starzl BST
32
Medical students and
faculty who want to extend
their reach beyond these
borders find direct support
in the ample resources of
the University’s Center for
Global Health.
Center for Global Health:
Pitt Beyond Borders
A
s the world becomes
more interconnected and
once far-flung places don’t seem
that far away anymore, the
University of Pittsburgh aims to
position itself in the thick of it
all. “The sweet spot in global
health is where science meets
policy,” says Donald S. Burke,
MD, the visionary behind Pitt’s
new Center for Global Health,
which is leading University-wide
efforts to establish international
partnerships in global health
research, education, service,
and policy.
Wearing his three-cornered
hat as associate vice chancellor
for global health; dean, Graduate
School of Public Health; and
UPMC-Jonas Salk Professor of
Global Health, Burke has a
panoramic view of these opportunities. The center, he says,
“builds on Pitt’s track record
of significant discoveries and
interdisciplinary partnerships
and will draw on a range of
expertise to work toward
solutions to our most challenging
global health problems.”
The center’s core goal
is to enable faculty and students
to engage in the growing
abundance of opportunities
for global health research and
education. “We’re here to help
faculty and students navigate
opportunities in other countries
with support services, resources,
and consultation to increase
the number of Pitt people doing
international work,” says center
director Joanne Russell,
and professional students and
medical residents; holds lectures
and “how to” workshops for
researchers planning to work
internationally; and sponsors a
global health film series — all in
an effort to hit that sweet spot.
Jolly Good
MPPM, RN. “We want to make
AAAS Fellows
the process of going beyond our
borders easier and the quality of
the experience better,” she adds.
The center provides
consultation to faculty
members who are developing
new courses, or modifying
existing courses, with a global
health component. It also
supports graduate student
research through the develop
ment of international sites
with a sufficient “Pitt presence”
to enable student field work
and offers grants for this work
through its Student Global
Travel Program. Recent awardees
are conducting research on
prenatal health care in rural
Honduras and HIV/AIDS
prevention in Cameroon, as
well as working with a mobile
health care unit in rural Kenya.
To help develop Pitt’s
global health community across
health professions, the center
offers training programs for
undergraduate, graduate,
F
ellowship in the American
Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS)
is a recognition conferred by
members of the international
organization on their peers,
including these most recent
honorees: Bernie Devlin, PhD,
associate professor of psychiatry
and of human genetics;
George K. Michalopoulos, MD,
PhD, Maud L. Menten Professor
and chair of pathology; Herbert
L. Needleman, MD, professor
of psychiatry and of pediatrics,
and Michael J. Zigmond, PhD,
professor of neurology, of
neurobiology, and of psychiatry.
In addition, Michalopoulos
received the 2009 American
Society for Investigative
Pathology’s Rous-Whipple Award
for his work on the pathways
of growth factors that lead to
liver regeneration.
33
Hillier Honored
with Parran Award
A
Science Rocks:
Russell Makes
Rolling Stone Top 100
T
here was a time when
the only way that a
biomedical researcher would
make it into the pages of a
publication like Rolling Stone
might be in a moment of
fantasy. Reality check: No. 32
among “The 100 People Who
are Changing America” in the
magazine’s March 18, 2009,
issue is Alan J. Russell, PhD,
director of the McGowan
Institute for Regenerative
Medicine and University
Professor in the Department
of Surgery. Identified as
“a medical futurist who is
finding ways for the body to
rebuild itself,” Rolling Stone
says Russell’s signature move
is wowing lecture audiences
with photos of gruesome
wounds healed with the
pioneering techniques of
regenerative medicine. When
initially approached by the
magazine for an interview,
Russell thought it was a joke.
Later, not knowing how the
ranking would come out, he
recalled thinking, “If I turn out
to be No. 100, I’d rather not be
on the list at all.” As it turned
out, he had nothing to fear.
34
s an expert on a subject
that is often cloaked in
secrecy and shame, Sharon
Hillier, PhD, has something to
shout about. Hillier, professor
of obstetrics, gynecology, and
reproductive sciences and of
microbiology and molecular
genetics, is the recipient
of the 2009 Thomas Parran
Award from the American
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Association. “As my daughter
once explained to her fourth
grade teacher, ‘My mom works
on the kinds of infections
nobody wants to get and almost
nobody wants to talk about,’ ”
Hillier quipped.
Her work focuses on the
role that different microorgan
isms play in the female genital
tract and how antibiotics and
probiotics work to promote or
prevent sexually transmitted
infections. As the principal
investigator for the Microbicide
Trials Network, a worldwide
initiative focused on preventing
the sexual transmission of HIV,
Hillier led a groundbreaking
clinical study that demonstrated
a 30 percent reduction in HIV
infection among more than
3,000 at-risk women in the
United States and southern
Africa who used an investiga
tional vaginal microbicide gel.
The results were especially
exciting, Hillier said, because
it’s “the first thing that’s ever
been proven to reduce the risk
of getting HIV in women.”
The Parran Award is named
for Thomas Parran Jr., MD, who
served as U.S. surgeon general
from 1936 to 1948 and as the
first dean of Pitt’s Graduate
School of Public Health from
1948 to 1958.
Goodpaster Conducts
“Extreme Research”
on Diabetes
B
ret H. Goodpaster, PhD,
has literally gone to the
end of the earth for his
research. In 2002, he joined in
the final 120-mile leg of the
680-mile, 62-day NovoLog
Ultimate Walk to Cure Diabetes
through Antarctica to the South
Pole in order to study metabo
lism and muscle function in a
diabetic companion under
extreme physical and environ
mental conditions. At home at
Pitt, where he is an associate
professor of medicine,
Goodpaster is known for his
expertise in the effects of aging
in skeletal muscle mitochon
drial function, metabolism,
insulin resistance, and obesity.
His research has explored how
weight loss and exercise work
together, especially in the
presence of type II diabetes;
whether exercise can prevent
the seemingly inevitable losses
of strength and muscle mass
in older adults; and the use of
positron emission tomography
for insight into insulin
resistance in skeletal muscle.
For significant contributions to
understanding the fundamental
mechanisms of aging,
Goodpaster received the 2008
Nathan W. Shock Award from
the National Institute on Aging.
One More Honor for Transplant Pioneer Starzl
T
he honors keep coming for transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD. This time
it’s the Institute of Medicine’s 2009 Gustav O. Lienhard Award, which is funded by the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to recognize “outstanding achievement in improving
health care services in the United States.” Translation: Starzl created what is now one of the
oldest and strongest transplant programs in the world and changed the lives of countless
patients by advancing organ transplantation as a safe and effective remedy for many
diseases and disorders. In doing so, he helped launch the research and clinical enterprise
for which Pitt and UPMC are known today. To read more about this distinguished service
professor of surgery in the School of Medicine, noted dog-lover, and director emeritus of the
Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, go to http://pittmed.health.pitt.edu/May_2006/
onlystarzldaredto.pdf or page 76 of this report.
35
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
Top to bottom: Luna, Schwartz,
Niedernhofer, London, Robbins
36
Part II:
At t h e Co n fl u e n c e
Choosing a Medical
School, Choosing
This Medical School
They swell the ranks of the School of Medicine
faculty. No longer green and no longer puzzled
about what is expected of them, they are the
lifeblood of the medical school. Their bios run
long with awards, funded biomedical research,
scientific collaborations, and peer-reviewed
publications. They are in the sweet spot of their
careers. Here, at the confluence of vision and
drive, they have achieved a perspective — a sense
of what’s hot, what’s yesterday’s news, what might
lie over the horizon. They believe they can help
shape the future.
37
Take a listen as five accomplished and still-rising
stars of academic medicine take stock of how
they got to Pitt, where their scientific passions lie,
and what’s next.
ON THEIR SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS:
Luna: My area of research is characterizing the
changes that occur in the brain as we transition
from adolescence to adulthood. We use functional
magnetic resonance imaging and a suite of different
neuroscience methods to really try to understand
the nature of the behavioral changes that we see
in normative development so we can then apply
this knowledge to different populations, including
clinical populations like ADHD [attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder] and autism, but we also
try to understand things like risk-taking behavior
and we try to inform the judicial system.
I direct the UPMC Cardiovascular Institute,
and I am chief of the Division of Cardiology in the
Department of Medicine. My laboratory studies the
molecular and genetic basis of sudden cardiac death.
London:
Robbins: I was recruited by my then-department
chair, Joe Glorioso, in 1990 and was involved in
starting the gene therapy program, which went from
a fledgling program to being a top-notch program
and being recognized as one of the leaders in
developing gene therapies, both pre-clinical and
clinical. My lab evolved and became involved in
developing biological therapies, in addition to gene
therapy for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
{ Andrew Schwartz, PhD }
in the Department of Neurobiology, in the vanguard
of a new field called neuroengineering
38
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
Part II: At t he Con flu en ce
{ Barry London, MD, PhD }
cardiologist in the Department of Medicine, molded
in the tradition of the classic physician-scientist
My area of research is looking at the
volitional control of movement. We’ve learned
a lot of basic facts of how the brain controls these
kinds of movements, and we’ve now been able to
parlay that into a field called neuroengineering or
brain-controlled interfaces. So for instance, we have
monkeys that can control robot arms, which they
can use to feed themselves. They can reach out,
use these anthropomorphic arms to grasp objects,
turn doorknobs, and to pick things up. We’ve gotten
far enough now that we’re going to be starting
human experiments and implementation very soon
so in the next two years we’ll have spinal cord
injured patients using devices similar to this.
Schwartz:
Niedernhofer: My research interests involve
understanding the health impact of DNA damage.
We study this either by studying human beings
who have rare genetic disorders in which they are
missing repair pathways that remove DNA damage
from our genomes or by making mouse models
of these human diseases.
39
ON PITTSBURGH:
One of the reasons I came here
was to be able to build a new program. In fact,
we’ve actually helped to start the whole field of
neuroengineering; and here in Pittsburgh, it has
really blossomed. This is a highly interdisciplinary
endeavor where we take physical medicine
and rehabilitation, neurosurgery and neurology,
robotics, bioengineering, materials science,
statistics, and a number of other fields and combine
them to actually make these devices work. So,
right here in Pittsburgh, we have all that expertise
not only here at Pitt in the School of Medicine
but also at Carnegie Mellon University, which is
one of the outstanding centers for engineering
anywhere in the world.
Schwartz:
I came here back in 1996 after finishing
my training at Mass General and then becoming
junior faculty there. When I was in training,
I received some very sage advice from a cousin
London:
of mine who is senior faculty there. He said that
Mass General and the other parts of the Harvard
system are wonderful places to train and
wonderful places to be senior tenured professors,
but that you should try not to be anything in
between those two when you‘re there.
One thing that I’ve noticed about
Pitt is the interest that the senior faculty take in
the younger faculty in really ensuring that they
progress well, not only in terms of writing grants
and planning projects, but just in terms of career
path planning in general.
Schwartz:
I was just going to say the same thing.
… When I was hired, I was one of seven people
recruited in a single year. I think six of those seven
faculty members got their first grant. Six of the
seven got tenure, and all seven of us are still at the
University of Pittsburgh. I think that really speaks
very strongly for the environment here.
Robbins:
{ Beatriz (Bea) Luna, PhD }
neuroscientist in the Department of Psychiatry; winner of a
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
40
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
There were seven of us in my fellowship
group and four of us moved to Pittsburgh almost
as a block in the mid-1990s. The environment for
academic cardiology was quite lean, and there
were very few places that were growing and
developing.
London:
It’s an excellent backdrop for
somebody who is interested in having a really
exciting and busy career. The city is sophisticated enough that there are plenty of things
to do but also easy enough to live in that it
doesn’t interfere with your career at all.
Niedernhofer:
ON WHAT’S HOT IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH:
Robbins: Recently, we got into a very exciting
collaboration with Dr. Niedernhofer to study the
biological mechanisms of aging. We’re now in the
process of establishing a new research direction,
which is developing therapies for age-related
pathologies.
Niedernhofer: We found a new link between
DNA damage and the aging process. So we’re now
studying, in a large collaborative program, how
DNA damage promotes aging of multiple tissues.
And because this is a systemic process, we need the
help of collaborators who have expertise in multiple
different tissues, stem cells, and signaling pathways.
I’m often labeled as someone doing
translational work; and, in fact, we are working
toward that, but I also want to stress the impor
tance of basic research because all translational
experience comes from basic science. In my
own case, we’re able to take neural activity and
understand it enough so that we can actually
use it to control devices. If we hadn’t done the
basic science, we wouldn’t have the translational
projects that we are trying to implement.
Schwartz:
Luna: My work is considered basic science — our
primary aims are to really characterize normative
behavior. Gaining this type of knowledge at this level,
however, is essential if we are to really translate and
inform what we know about clinical populations. We
cannot start immediately with the clinical populations.
We have to understand what is occurring in a normative system. As we understand more and more how
the brain works, we can try to understand breakdowns in this normative process that can lead to
conditions like schizophrenia and depression.
Another buzz word you hear in
medicine these days is “personalized medicine.”
So in the case of cancer, what that would mean is
perhaps taking a sample or a biopsy from a tumor
and studying that a little bit in the laboratory so
that you’d have an opportunity to tailor the cancer
therapy for that individual patient. We’re really
excited about some collaborative projects we have
in multiple tumor areas at the Hillman Cancer Center
to identify better biomarkers that would help predict
which patients are going to respond to various
therapeutic interventions. This takes a team of basic
researchers who understand the biology of that
biomarker or protein that you’re trying to measure,
as well as clinical fellows and clinicians who will help
you interface with the patient and collect tumor during
a surgical procedure. So you get multiple disciplines,
and you also get a team with all levels of training.
You see the excitement as the team builds and learns
something new about basic cancer biology.
Niedernhofer:
My laboratory studies sudden death.
We implant cardioverter-defibrillators, which are
basically fancy pacemakers that monitor your rhythm
continuously and shock you if you try to die suddenly.
We put 10 of these devices in for every person who
actually has her life saved by the device. One of the
things my lab is trying to do is to identify tests —
biomarkers or genetic tests — that we can use to
actually figure out who is at the highest risk of sudden
death. Then, we’d potentially tailor the therapies so
that the people who really need the devices understand that they really need them and are offered
them, and the people who don’t need them so much
don’t have them put in.
London:
41
ON PITTSBURGH’S METEORIC RISE
AND THE CHALLENGES OF GROWTH:
The scientific environment and
economic environment have changed dramatically;
yet, the University of Pittsburgh remains nimble,
remains growing, continues to recruit and build new
programs. I think one of the most exciting things
that we have here at the University is that, even
though there is a lot of national negativism about
research funding, Pittsburgh remains optimistic and
definitely a place that continues to grow and build.
Niedernhofer:
Robbins: When I first came here, all of the research
was being done in Scaife Hall, which is a very nice
building, but extremely old with limited resources.
Then, when I was recruited, there was a brand new
42
Biomedical Science Tower that was just opening,
which was followed by Biomedical Science Tower 2
and then Biomedical Science Tower 3. The cancer
center was housed within BST1 on a single floor;
it has now expanded to a stand-alone cancer center
with both a clinical wing and a basic research wing.
There is the McGowan Institute for Regenerative
Medicine, which is in a stand-alone building. There
have been departments built, such as immunology
and developmental biology, programs and developments, including zebrafish and stem cell biology.
Each department has hired five to 10 new faculty
members working in the cutting-edge areas of
their respective fields.
{ Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD }
in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and the University
of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, exploring the fundamentals of DNA repair and
how breakdowns in this cellular machinery contribute to cancer and aging
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
{ Paul Robbins, PhD }
molecular biologist probing the frontiers of gene therapy
in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
However, an issue that has come up is that,
as this campus has grown, it has gone from being
housed in a single building to now being housed
in buildings that sometimes are one, or two, three
miles apart. The advantages are that the number of
colleagues working in certain areas has expanded
tremendously. So now we are in buildings that
house many people with common interests. It takes
more effort to try to interact with colleagues at
different sites, which is something I think is going to
remain a challenge. However, I think the advantages
outweigh the challenges because of the large
number of new collaborators who have been hired
due to the expansion of the facilities.
One of the hallmark developments over
the 14 years I have been here is the huge amount of
clinical growth at UPMC, which is closely associated
with the University. Clearly, there is both value
and challenge in such rapid growth. The good is
the availability of large amounts of resources, the
availability of huge numbers of patients, and
the opportunity to do clinical and translational
London:
research on a scale that is quite unusual in an
academic medical center. We are an academic
medical center where we actually provide the
majority of the clinical care in this region, which
is really not common among academic medical
centers. … Certainly among the MD faculty, there are
tensions between the clinical jobs and the scientific
and academic jobs. As we move forward in health
care reform, one of the challenges is to not decouple
those two, because I think it would be a complete
disaster if we change the part of the system where
academic physicians have both been taking care
of patients and trying to identify and treat diseases.
It clearly won’t happen here, but I think that one
of the risks, as we try to save money, is that there
might be an attempt to say that clinical care is
clinical and research is research and the two
shouldn’t talk to each other.
43
this just in …
Steven D. Shapiro, MD, Jack D. Myers Professor and chair, Department of
Medicine, and colleagues reported in Nature that macrophage elastase, also
called matrix metalloproteinase-12, an enzyme known to play a key role in the
development of emphysema, also defends against bacterial infection. The finding
could lead to the development of new antimicrobial agents. Reporting in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ivet Bahar, PhD, John K.
Vries Professor and chair, Department of Computational and Systems Biology,
showed that proteins have an intrinsic ability to change shape, a characteristic
that allows small molecules that may be attracted to a given protein to select the
pattern most conducive to binding. The knowledge could drive drug discovery to
explore compounds that most influence protein function, potentially targeting a
multitude of diseases. J. Timothy Greenamyre, MD, PhD, UPMC Professor of
Movement Disorders in the Department of Neurology, has received a $6.5-million
grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to study
mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. The fiveyear award adds to a $1 million challenge grant from the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act for work on gene-environment interactions in transgenic
rat models of the disorder, estimated to affect some 500,000 people in the
United States, with another 50,000 diagnosed each year. Fadi G. Lakkis, MD,
Frank and Athena Sarris Professor of Transplantation Biology, has received a
Basic Science Established Investigator Award from the American Society of
Transplantation (AST) for his work in transplant immunobiology and tolerance,
which, according to AST, “has helped to establish new paradigms.” Recipients of
the 2009 awards were selected for the originality, innovation, and commitment
44
Ted Ross, PhD, associate professor
they bring to the field of transplantation. of microbiology and molecular genetics, Center for Vaccine Research, and
colleagues have developed techniques using virus-like particles that could
produce vaccines for deadly infections like H1N1 influenza in as little as four
months. Ross reported the findings, based on early trials of the new-style
vaccines made against lethal strains like the 1918 and H1N1 flu, at a conference
of the American Society for Microbiology. Olivera Finn, PhD, Distinguished
Professor and chair, Department of Immunology, and colleagues have developed
a vaccine directed against an abnormal variant of the cell protein MUC1, which
is present and produced in excess in both inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
and colon cancer. The vaccine, which was effective in delaying the onset of IBD
and inhibiting the development of colitis-associated colon cancer in transgenic
mice, is currently being tested as a prevention measure in patients at high risk for
developing colon cancer. Michael Tsang, PhD, assistant professor of micro-
biology and molecular genetics, and colleagues have described an enzyme
inhibitor that allows zebrafish to increase the number of cardiac progenitor
cells and, therefore, influence the size of the developing heart. Reporting in
Nature Chemical Biology, Tsang said the research could lead to a better understanding of heart development during embryogenesis and possibly treatments
to restore normal function to damaged cardiac tissues. Susan G. Amara, PhD,
Detre Professor and chair of neurobiology, has been named president-elect of
the prestigious Society for Neuroscience, whose more than 40,000 members
are dedicated to advancing our understanding of the brain and nervous
system. Her term will begin in fall 2010. Using a unique method for revealing
45
… and this too
chains of synaptically connected neurons, Peter Strick, PhD, professor of
neurobiology and co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition,
uncovered new evidence that the brain’s basal ganglia and cerebellum are
linked together to form an integrated functional network. The findings provide
a “neural basis” for a cerebellar contribution to some of the disabling symptoms
of basal ganglia disorders like Parkinson’s disease and dystonia and could
point to new treatment approaches, Strick reported in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences In 2009, Ateev Mehrotra MD, MPH, a
Pitt assistant professor of medicine and member of the RAND–University of
Pittsburgh Health Policy Institute, published the first assessment of the quality
of care in retail clinics, which are typically staffed by nurse practitioners and
offer care at lower costs. For patients with middle ear infections, sore throats,
and urinary tract infections, Mehrotra found no difference in quality of care
between retail clinics and more traditional settings, he reported in the
Annals of Internal Medicine. A new imaging technique being developed by
Seong-Gi Kim, PhD, professor of radiology, and colleagues delves into the
middle cortical layer of the brain, using variations in blood volume as a marker
for neural activity. As described in the journal NeuroImage, the system expands
upon functional MRI, which measures changes to blood volume on the cortical
surface where vessels are larger. Imaging deeper cortical layers offers a more
localized response and could lead to new applications in imaging for stroke,
dementia, and neurodegenerative disorders. Nature Neuroscience has
published findings by Karl Kandler, PhD, associate professor of otolaryngology
and of neurobiology, that illuminate a critical role for the co-release of the
46
neurotransmitter glutamate from inhibitory synapses in the development of
sound localization circuits. The release of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters from individual synapses results in what Kandler describes as “sort of like
pushing the brake and the gas pedal at the same time.” Kandler and colleagues
studied genetic VGLUT3 knockout mice, observing a number of consequences
to disruption in glutamate transmission, including spontaneous seizure activity
that could have bearing on conditions like auditory neuropathy in children. Fighting the flu can be tricky, but Elodie Ghedin, PhD, assistant professor of
computational and systems biology, is armed with new perspective, thanks to
viral sequencing. Ghedin and colleagues have found that some patients have
infections caused by a mix of viral strains, making treatment especially difficult.
If one strain is sensitive to antiviral medication and another resistant, antiviral
treatment ultimately won’t work. Choosing a viral strain to build yearly vaccine
stock also is more problematic with a mixed infection. Such viral mixes had
been considered rare, but Ghedin’s work reveals that the threat is becoming
far more common. Thank Judy L. Cameron, PhD, professor of psychiatry,
for perhaps the best reason yet to exercise. A typical training regimen recommended for average, middle-aged people — running at a moderate pace for
one hour a day over three months — appears to have a significant protective
effect on dopamine-transmitting neurons in the striatum of nonhuman primates, the area of the brain most damaged in Parkinson’s disease, Cameron
and colleagues have found. Dopamine transmission as measured by positron
emission tomography and observation of movement-related symptoms in a
comparison group of sedentary primates confirms the protective effect.
47
In 1985, Pittsburgh’s fledgling cancer institute consisted of a three-office suite
tucked away somewhere on the University’s main campus. Today, it occupies a
new stand-alone building complete with a clinical wing and a basic research
wing. Achievement and expansion have become the norm at the University of
Pittsburgh, which now boasts nearly 1.2 million square feet of research intensive
space dedicated to the health sciences. The map on this page shows some — but
not all — of the School of Medicine’s research hotspots.
Twenty years ago, the University erected its first Biomedical Science Tower — a dramatic, 10-story announcement that Pittsburgh had entered the top tier
of academic research institutions and had plans to stick around. In 2005 came
BST3, which houses new Departments of Structural Biology and Computational
and Systems Biology, as well as the federally funded regional biocontainment
laboratory for studying infectious pathogens.
One molecular biologist on faculty says, “The University has gone from
being a very strong research environment to being one of the top research
environments in the world because of its basic science, because of its translational science, and now because of its state-of-the-art facilities.”
The Expanding University
1
3
5
McGowan Institute for
Regenerative Medicine
South Side
Center for Biotechnology
and Bioengineering
Riverfront
Bridgeside Point II
Riverfront
Cutting-edge technologies
are part of everyday research
at the McGowan Institute.
In these labs, scientists work
to perfect the replacement
of tissue function with artificial
or biohybrid organs. Others
seek to awaken the body’s
dormant abilities to make
any new tissue from scratch.
Their work offers hope for
the thousands of patients who
each year suffer bone, nerve,
and soft tissue injury due
to trauma, tumors, infection,
or surgery.
A prime example of interdisciplinary cooperation among
the University’s schools, the
Center for Biotechnology and
Bioengineering is administered
through the Swanson School
of Engineering but maintains
strong ties to the schools of
the health sciences through its
research focus on bioengineering, musculoskeletal research,
and chemical and tissue
engineering.
4
Bridgeside Point I
Riverfront
2
Rivertech
South Side
Along the Monongahela
River, the School of Medicine’s
Department of Orthopaedic
Surgery controls over
2,000 square feet of
research-intensive laboratory
space adjacent to the UPMC
Sports Performance Complex,
which includes indoor training
facilities for the Pittsburgh
Steelers and Pitt Panthers.
48
In addition to housing the
Department of Environmental
and Occupational Health in
the Graduate School of Public
Health and the Division of
Clinical Pharmacology in the
School of Medicine, Bridgeside
Point I serves as a launching
pad for biotech startups in the
region. It’s the headquarters
of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences
Greenhouse. Here, biomedical
researchers with great ideas
(and oftentimes patents
licensed from the University)
come together with entrepreneurs, experienced business
executives, and venture
capitalists to bring marketable
discoveries to fruition.
The University of Pittsburgh
is quickly occupying space in
Bridgeside Point II, even in the
midst of ongoing construction
and expansion to this most
recent Riverfront addition.
Current and future tenants
include the McGowan Institute
for Regenerative Medicine, the
Department of Orthopaedic
Surgery’s Stem Cell Research
Center, the Center for
Cellular and Molecular
Engineering, the Department of Microbiology and
Molecular Genetics, and the
Department of Psychiatry’s
Translational and Basic
Downtown
Neuroscience Research
Program.
Allegheny River
Monongahela River
6
7
9
12
Magee-Womens
Research Institute (MWRI)
Oakland
Gold Building
Oakland
Parkvale Building
Oakland
Just down the hill from the
hospitals, laboratories, and
offices of the med school
administration, the Gold
Building has over 11,000
square feet of research space,
mainly dedicated to genomics
and proteomics.
More than a dozen faculty
members from Pitt’s
Department of Biomedical
Informatics have active
research space in the Parkvale
building, which is easily
accessible from all points on
Pitt’s main medical campus.
Western Psychiatric
Institute & Clinic
Oakland
8
10
Hill Building
Oakland
Biomedical Science
Tower 3 (BST3)
Oakland
MWRI is the first and largest
research facility dedicated
to the health of women and
infants. It is recognized as
a Center of Excellence in
Women’s Health by the
U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services and
a Women’s Health Career
Development Center by the
National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development. Supporting more than
90 researchers, the institute’s
laboratory space doubled
in 2007 with the addition
of a new facility across the
street from Magee-Womens
Hospital of UPMC.
In the heart of Pitt’s main
campus, the Hill Building
houses research laboratories
and active collaborations
among researchers in the
Departments of Critical Care
Medicine, Neurological
Surgery, and Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation.
14
Lawrenceville
A towering 10-story steel
and glass research facility
in the heart of Oakland, the
Biomedical Science Tower 3
is a model for building a
collaborative research space.
The University’s Center for
Vaccine Research, Drug
Discovery Institute, Pittsburgh
Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Genomics
and Proteomics Core
Laboratories all make their
homes in BST3, fostering
numerous daily interactions
among their investigators.
BST3 also houses one of the
largest zebrafish colonies in
the world, with more than
10,000 separate tanks to
maintain this incredibly
versatile and increasingly
important model organism
for biomedical research.
Shadyside
11
13
There’s no place like home,
and Scaife Hall is truly the
beating heart of the School
of Medicine. Including the
dean’s office, student lounges,
the Falk Library of the Health
Sciences, the Department
of Medicine, a multitude of
laboratories, and corridors
that link directly to UPMC
Presbyterian, Scaife is where
generations of physicians and
scientists have embarked upon
and pursued a life in medicine.
12
11
10
8
9
7
Oakland
6
5
4
3
Scaife Hall
Oakland
Riverfront
Pitt’s Department of
Psychiatry hosts a hotbed of
clinical, basic, and translational
research activity in this 17-story
building, where UPMC also
concentrates its clinical
psychiatric services. The
building houses five federally
funded centers of excellence
in psychiatric research, as well
as a sleep research lab.
13
Cancer Institute
Shadyside
One of only 40 centers
in the U.S. designated by the
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
as a comprehensive cancer
center, the University of
Pittsburgh Cancer Institute in
2007 received nearly $200
million in research grants and
ranked 10th nationally in NCI
funding. More than 30,000
patients receive premier
cancer care here each year
from more than 2,100 health
care professionals specializing
in surgical, medical, radiation,
neuro-, and gynecologic
oncology, as well as palliative
care and behavioral medicine.
14
John G. Rangos Sr. Research
Center at Children’s Hospital
of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Lawrenceville
Opened in 2008, this
10-story building boasts
enough space to accommodate the laboratory needs
of 70 principal investigators
and more than 350 physician
scientists. Seven floors
dedicated to medical research
activities, a fully equipped
conference center, and shared
lab spaces based on a flexible
and open design all work
to make this state-of-the-art
facility a hub of interdisciplinary and collaborative research.
The newly established
Department of Developmental
Biology, chaired by Cecilia Lo,
PhD, is headquartered here.
An enclosed walkway connects
the LEED-certified center to
the new Children’s Hospital
of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
1
South Side
1.375 MILES
2
49
Research Pair Has Gone Viral
Y
uan Chang and Patrick Moore are
virus hunters. And if these were the
Moore is a professor of microbiology and molecular
opening lines of a novel, we might
genetics, both in Pitt’s School of Medicine. The
next describe them emerging from
husband-and-wife team made a big splash in
a helicopter at the epicenter of an
1994 when they discovered a virus that everyone
Chang is a professor of pathology, while
outbreak somewhere in the tropics. They would
suspected was there, but nobody could find.
draw blood from feverish patients, grow samples
The mystery began when large numbers of AIDS
of virus in culture, and finally peer through a
patients began developing what had previously
microscope at their wildly replicating quarry.
been a very rare cancer — Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS).
Everything about this cancer suggested that it was
But hunting for pathogens isn’t what it used
to be. Instead of growing them in a petri dish,
caused by an infectious agent — one that was
scientists use powerful genetic and computational
making its presence known only because of the
tools to ferret out suspect genes and link them
depressed immune systems of AIDS patients. But
together to reconstruct the virus that spawned
nobody could find it.
them. This is an approach that Chang and
Moore — both MDs — helped to pioneer.
day in 1993. It was entitled “Cloning the Difference
Moore faxed a scientific article to Chang one
Between Two Complex Genomes,” and it described
using RDA, or representational difference analysis,
to amplify the variant DNA in two nearly identical
samples. In a novel use of RDA, Moore and
Chang took a sample of healthy tissue and
another of diseased tissue from the same
KS patient and ran it through the RDA
process. The difference between the two
samples was a set of DNA sequences that
looked like a new herpes virus, which
was eventually dubbed Kaposi’s sarcoma
herpes virus (KSHV).
Moore and Chang’s laboratory
at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer
Institute is dedicated to the study of these
oncoviruses, as viruses that cause cancer
are called. Most of them appear to be like
KSHV in that they are difficult to find and
difficult to culture. Because oncoviruses don’t
seem to replicate wildly in the way that influenza
after environmental or ultraviolet radiation
or common cold viruses do, they cannot be found
exposure, often occurring in tandem with
with traditional virology techniques that rely on
other skin cancers.
detection of virus particles. But Chang and Moore
believe there are many more to be discovered,
discovered and others Chang and Moore hope to
estimating more than 20 percent of all cancer
bring to light in the near future, the researchers
cases have an infectious cause.
are expanding the boundaries of molecular virology
and tumor biology. The viruses themselves have
Recently, the pair developed an in silico
With these two of seven known oncoviruses
technique to establish a database of transcriptomes
genes that mirror human genes related to cell cycle
for comparison with the human genome database.
control, cell proliferation, prevention of apoptosis
Because of the large number of comparisons that
(programmed cell death), and immune modulation.
can occur simultaneously using computers, the
In other words, the virus has pilfered the genetic
technique quickly yields candidate genes that may
keys to tumor growth and tumor suppression — turn out to be viral. Using this approach, they
keys that scientists might use to unlock doors that
discovered in 2007 that a virus was behind an
lead to cancer cures and cancer prevention.
uncommon skin cancer called Merkel cell
carcinoma (MCC).
biology and said, ‘Here, study this,’ ” says Moore.
“You know, it’s so obvious: These are the things
Like KS, MCC often occurs in people with
suppressed immune systems. In fact, most people
with these viruses never develop cancer. As many
as 80 percent of all individuals in the United
States may be harmlessly infected with
MCC virus by the time they reach age
50. But the cancer remains rare, with
around 1,200 new cases diagnosed
annually in this country. Moore
and Chang have deduced that
the virus usually coexists with
the host, causing no disease and
remaining undetected. However,
in the face of immunosuppres
sion or the immune system’s
inability to recognize the virus,
viral integration into the genome
and the development of a mutation
appear to be sufficient to set the tumor
mechanisms into motion. MCC also
shows an increased incidence
“Here’s a virus that just laid out all this cell
that are important for causing a tumor.”
The Pittsburgh-Palermo Promise: Reaching Out With Ri.MED
T
hey come from many disciplines, but Pitt’s Ri.MED fellows
share a passion for their Italian homeland and a “pinch me,
I must be dreaming” appreciation for what they recognize
as a killer opportunity to do ground-breaking science.
“In all of Europe, there is nothing comparable to what
Ri.MED offers,” says Salvatore Pasta, PhD, who trained as
a mechanical engineer in Palermo and is now investigating
thoracic aortic aneurysms. Working with David Vorp, PhD,
professor of surgery and of bioengineering in the School
of Medicine and the Swanson School of Engineering, respectively, Pasta is probing
familiar concepts such as stress to materials. But now he studies the piece of work
that is man, rather than man-made.
“I am seeing and doing things that I could not have imagined,” Pasta enthuses of
his work testing surgically-removed human aortic tissue, along with tissue-engineering
research to build artificial blood vessels of a biodegradable polymer that look like
the real thing.
53
Counting Pasta, the work of 13 postdoctoral fellows in Pittsburgh is being funded
by the Ri.MED Foundation, a partnership of UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh School
of Medicine, the Italian government, the Region of Sicily, and Italy’s National Research
Council that was established in 2006. By early 2010, four more postdocs should be pulling
stools up to benches in labs across the Pitt campus. Also in 2010, construction is projected
to begin on the $398 million Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center (BRBC) of
Sicily, a state-of-the-art, 269,100-square-foot building with research laboratories, centralized
core facilities, and first-class equipment. The center will be built in Carini, not far from
Palermo’s Falcone-Borsellino Airport, and will be managed by the School of Medicine
and UPMC. BRBC is expected to open by 2014.
Upon their return, Ri.MED fellows will be among founding staff of BRBC, eventually
projected to house some 500 scientists and support personnel pursuing basic research
directed toward new drugs and vaccines, biomedical devices, tissue engineering and
regenerative medicine, treatments for psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, and
non-invasive imaging techniques.
“We have signed agreements and continue to move forward,” says Arthur S.
Levine, MD, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean, School of Medicine,
referring to a protocol signed in October 2009 between the Prefecture of Palermo and the
Ri.MED Foundation. As scientific director of Ri.MED, Levine has been deeply involved in
the project’s conception, formation, and direction, as well as in the selection of Ri.MED
fellows from a pool of nearly 200 applicants.
54
“ In all of Europe, there
is nothing comparable
to what Ri.MED offers.
I am seeing and doing
things that I could
not have imagined”
— Salvatore Pasta, PhD
Projected to open in 2014, the $398 million Biomedical Research and
Biotechnology Center of Sicily follows a successful 10-year-plus partnership
in Palermo’s specialty transplant hospital, the Istituto Mediterraneo per i
Trapianti e Terapie ad Alta Specializzazione, pictured above.
Also in October, six fellows took part in a daylong scientific symposium
hosted by Levine and foundation officials in Palermo. They “performed brilliantly,”
according to Levine.
The group is making its mark in Pittsburgh, too, says Joan Lakoski, PhD, Pitt’s
associate vice chancellor for academic career development and director of the Ri.MED
fellows program. “Mentors have come to me and asked, ‘Can you get me another fellow?’
because these young scientists are real go-getters.”
Fellows initially rotate through a handful of labs to help identify the best fit for
their interests and abilities before formally settling on a long-term mentor. They meet
once a month to work on scientific skill building, grant writing, making professional
presentations, leadership, and management skills, says Lakoski. In addition, they take
part in an annual course on research ethics.
Sandra Cascio, PhD, ultimately chose to make the lab of immunology chair
Olivera Finn, PhD, her Pittsburgh “research home.” At the 2009 Palermo symposium,
Cascio presented work on isoforms of human MUC1 oncogene, a tumor antigen and
biomarker of chronic inflammation. MUC1 isoforms — different forms of the same
protein arising from related genes, or from the same gene because of alternative splicing — are a particular focus of her work on molecular mechanisms common to cancer and
inflammation. Alternative splicing has a known correlation to cancer and other diseases.
55
“ Very few, if any,
institutions are
thinking along
these lines.”
— Arthur S. Levine, MD
PLACEHOLDER PHOTO
“Chronic inflammation can accelerate tumor progression,” explains Cascio, who
earned a doctorate in clinical, applied, experimental oncology and tumor morphology
in 2006 from the University of Palermo. She reported on the status of her team’s
investigation into a protein complex called NF-κB. NF-κB proteins affect immune and
inflammatory responses, are involved in cell growth and apoptosis, and are known to
induce cytokines common to cancer and inflammation. Using human melanoma and
lymphoma cell lines, Cascio found that MUC1 isoforms differently bind to and activate
NF-κB and regulate expression of NF-κB target genes within a cell nucleus — particularly
inflammatory cytokines.
Because NF-κB is chronically activated in many inflammatory diseases, compounds
to inhibit the proteins, including anti-oxidants, have become a focus for drug development.
Understanding the interactions among MUC1 proteins — known to be tumorigenic — and NFκB could advance the development of therapeutic agents.
Next, the team aims to pursue this work in vivo using MUC-positive and interleukin-10
knockout mice to better understand the influence of MUC1 on the cancer-inflammation
cytokine network, Cascio says.
Another fellow, Chiara Cipollina, PhD, is studying endogenous anti-inflammatory
molecules, seeking ways to harness the body’s own regenerative response to chronic
inflammation, a process that underlies much human illness, including neurodegenerative
disorders, asthma, and cardiovascular disease.
56
Working in the lab of immunologist Olivera Finn, PhD, Sandra Cascio (above)
studies the MUC1 oncogene and other molecular mechanisms common to
cancer and inflammation. In mouse models (left), Finn and colleagues have
shown that administering a MUC1 vaccine decreases intestinal inflammation
that may lead to cancer.
Mentor Bruce Freeman, PhD, UPMC Irwin Fridovich Professor and chair of
pharmacology and chemical biology, credits Cipollina’s contributions as significant,
saying she is part of a team that discovered “a brand new class” of profoundly antiinflammatory signal mediation molecules. Findings have been published in the
prestigious scientific journal Nature Chemical Biology, and a patent filing is under review.
Since the first Ri.MED fellows arrived in Pittsburgh in 2008, they have formed
tight bonds, says Lakoski, not only with each other but with the University community.
Such ties are paying — and will continue to pay — great benefits not only for Italy and
Pittsburgh but, more importantly, for science and for scientists, says Levine. He likens
Ri.MED to the Italian school of masters whose prodigious output helped to illuminate
the Italian Golden Age of visual arts. “Very few, if any, institutions are thinking along
these lines,” Levine says.
Ri.MED, then, can be seen as a visionary response to current-age challenges,
such as the economic pressure of health care reform in the United States and its potential
impact on research support. Yet golden opportunities remain within reach.
“This way, we maximize the opportunity for alternative hands to feed us,” says Levine.
Ri.MED is an international scientific partnership that will surely enliven medicine
for years to come.
57
3
4
5
6
7
8
2
9
10
11
Targeted Therapy for Schizophrenia
S
chizophrenia, a devastating mental illness affecting about one in every 100
individuals worldwide, causes significant impairments in cognitive, psychosocial,
and occupational functioning. Most schizophrenia medications are decades old, treat
only the most severe symptoms, and were discovered largely through serendipity.
David A. Lewis, MD, UPMC Professor of Translational Neuroscience and chair of
psychiatry, is taking a different approach to drug design, one that targets the underlying
brain circuitry defects in schizophrenia. Previous research showed that schizophrenia
patients have decreased signaling by the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid
(GABA) in an area of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC),
which controls working memory. An experimental compound originally used to treat
anxiety, MK-0777, increases the flow of ions through DLPFC GABA receptors, effectively
“turning up the volume” on GABA signaling, Lewis said. Putting two and two together,
he designed a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of MK-0777 on working memory
problems in schizophrenia patients. As Lewis explained, “We identified a faulty brain
circuit in schizophrenia, found an agent with characteristics that affect a specific
molecular target in that circuit, and then tested it to see if it improved the function
of the circuit in individuals with schizophrenia.” Early results showed that patients
who received MK-0777 exhibited improved performance on cognitive tasks and in
electroencephalogram tracings. Further testing is under way on what may prove to
be the first new drug to emerge from schizophrenia research in recent years.
58
Luna Selected to
Advise NIH Director
B
eatriz Luna, PhD,
attributes her scientific
achievements to being a “really,
really curious” person. However,
with accolades like receiving the
Presidential Early Career Award
for Scientists and Engineers and,
more recently, being selected to
serve on the Advisory Committee
to the Director of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), one
may suspect that intellectual
rigor and hard work also
come into play.
Luna, associate professor
of psychiatry and of psychology,
is the first Pitt faculty member
to serve on the advisory commit
tee, which counsels the NIH
director on major plans and
policies, particularly matters
concerning the allocation of
funding and resources. She has
garnered widespread attention
for her research that focuses
on imaging the adolescent brain
to understand its structure
and function.
Neurobiologist
Receives Presidential
Early Career Award
A
s one of only 100 recipients
of the latest Presidential
Early Career Award for Scientists
and Engineers (PECASE),
Gonzalo E. Torres, PhD,
assistant professor of neuro
biology, is in select company.
The five-year grant accompany
ing the award will further
his research on dopamine
regulation in the brain and
prospective new therapies for
schizophrenia, Parkinson’s
disease, and drug addiction.
Since the PECASE program to
recognize innovative researchers
in the early stages of their
careers was established in
1996 by President Bill Clinton,
Torres is the fourth winner from
the School of Medicine; the
others are J. Peter Rubin, MD,
in 2006; Beatriz Luna, PhD,
in 2005; and Karl Kandler, PhD,
in 2000. The awardees are
honored at a White House
ceremony.
Lung Disease
No “Mission Impossible”
for Pitt’s Kaminski
“I
mpossible” is not a part
of Dr. Naftali Kaminski’s
vocabulary. Neither are
“incurable,” “insurmountable,”
or “unsolvable.” Perhaps that
is why Kaminski, an MD
associate professor of medicine,
of pathology, and of computa
tional and systems biology, and
director of the Dorothy P.
and Richard P. Simmons Center
for Interstitial Lung Disease at
UPMC, has taken on one of
medicine’s most difficult
diseases as his research focus.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,
or IPF, is a chronic, progressive
lung disease affecting more than
100,000 patients in the United
States. Other than lung
transplantation, there is currently
no known cure or definitive
treatment for IPF; and, as its
name implies, little is known
about the molecular causes
and pathways that lead to
its development.
“Approximately 10 percent of
patients develop an acute phase
that, in most cases, is lethal,”
Kaminski explained. “There has
been very little understanding
of the molecular basis of this
syndrome; but, because of the
dedication of our patients and
their families, we are getting
closer to some answers.”
To better understand the
cellular mechanisms underlying
IPF exacerbation and identify
those patients at risk for more
severe disease, Kaminski and
colleagues compared global
gene expression patterns in the
lungs of patients with acute
IPF exacerbations, those with
stable IPF, and healthy controls.
Their results, published in the
American Journal of Respiratory
and Critical Care Medicine,
show that activity for nearly
600 genes differed significantly
across all three groups. The
upregulation of alpha-defensin
genes, in particular, led to
increased plasma defensin
protein levels that were detectable
in the peripheral blood of
patients experiencing acute IPF
exacerbation — a finding that
could lead to the first biomarker
blood test to identify IPF patients
at risk for sudden deterioration
of lung function.
Kaminski’s pioneering work
in the application of microarray
technology to IPF is promising
for generating new hypotheses
regarding fundamental molecular
events that underlie pulmonary
fibrosis, identifying potential
biomarkers for disease exacerba
tions, and developing new
therapeutic targets to protect
and repair damaged lung
tissue — in other words, to make
what the medical establishment
has heretofore considered
impossible for IPF patients,
finally possible.
59
Beta Cell Signaling
Offers Clues to Diabetes
A
ndrew Stewart, MD,
professor of medicine
and head of the Division of
Endocrinology and Metabolism
in the Department of Medicine,
doubles as traffic cop extraordi
naire in the world of pancreatic
beta cell signaling. His
research focuses on identifying
molecules that drive and halt
beta cell replication and
function, work that could
greatly improve diabetes
study models and spark new
investigative avenues for
diabetes treatment and
research.
In type 1 diabetes,
insulin-producing pancreatic
beta cells are destroyed by the
body’s immune system. In type
2 diabetes, beta cells are also
reduced by approximately 60
percent. In humans, these cells
do not easily regenerate, and
wide-scale pancreas or islet cell
transplantation is limited by
cost, markedly limited pancreas
availability, and technical
difficulties. In two back-to-back
articles published in January
and June of 2009 in Diabetes,
the leading journal of the
American Diabetes Association,
Stewart and co-authors
Nathalie Fiaschi-Taesch, PhD,
and Todd A. Bigatel, MD,
60
reported the discovery of
four beta cell cycle proteins
that play key roles in either
stimulating or inhibiting beta
cell replication. First, the
scientists found that human
beta cells transfected with the
genes that encode the cdk-6
and cyclin D1 proteins revved
up their replication machinery.
When those cells were then
transplanted into diabetic mice,
the animals’ insulin levels rose
and their blood sugar levels
normalized. Similarly, genetically
engineered knockout mice
lacking a “braking” cell cycle
protein, pRB, demonstrated a
marked increase in beta cell
production. “This work provides
proof-of-principle that the
formation of new human beta
cells can be stimulated and that
the newly generated cells
function effectively both in the
lab and in a living animal,”
Stewart said.
Stewart cautions that beta
cell regeneration does not correct
the underlying autoimmune
process destroying these cells
in diabetes. “It’s now clear that
both type 1 and type 2 diabetes
are beta-cell deficiency
diseases. And while we work
on making more beta cells, our
colleagues are trying to tackle
the autoimmunity problems
that cause a reduction in their
number. Ultimately, both issues
have to be addressed to develop
a cure for diabetes.” He notes
that these beta cell cycle
replication molecules might
one day be used to enhance
therapeutic insulin-producing
cell transplants, boost a patient’s
remaining beta cell production
capacity, or serve as targets for
drugs that increase beta cell
replication and insulin secretion.
Thwarting Parasites
L
ook out, leishmaniasis:
your days may be numbered.
A parasitic infection thought
to be among the world’s most
overlooked diseases, leishmaniasis
causes some 2 million infections
a year and can lead to skin ulcers,
fever, weight loss, and enlarge
ment of the spleen and liver.
Collaborating with scientists
from the Walter Reed Army
Institute of Research, a Pitt team
led by John S. Lazo, PhD,
Allegheny Foundation Professor
of Pharmacology and Chemical
Biology and director of the
University’s Drug Discovery
Institute, has identified
compounds that could disrupt
the parasite’s growth cycle.
There is no vaccine or drug to
prevent leishmaniasis, which is
transmitted through sandfly bites.
Interest in developing new treatments has grown because of the
military presence in Afghanistan
and Iraq, where the infection is
common. Current treatments,
used against the disease for the
past 50 years, can have serious
side effects. The organism is also
rapidly becoming drug resistant.
Lazo and Elizabeth R.
Sharlow, PhD, research assistant
professor of pharmacology and
chemical biology, screened
nearly 200,000 candidate drugs,
using powerful computational
techniques to test whole classes
of high-concentration chemicals.
Among the most promising they
found is disulfiram, or Antabuse,
a drug that causes acute alcohol
sensitivity. Inexpensive and
widely used for patients with
alcoholism as a way to discour
age drinking, the drug will be
further developed to improve
potency and efficacy.
SRP- 6
Cellular Superhero
I
t’s the typical action plot — a villain set on destruction, a damsel in distress, and a hero
who swoops in to save the day. That’s great for stories, but what about the real world?
How about a protein with the ability to save cells that are in distress and kill harmful
cells? Gary A. Silverman, MD, PhD, and Cliff J. Luke, PhD, of the Department of Pediatrics
have found such a cellular superhero. SRP-6, a serine protease inhibitor, or serpin,
protects cells by blocking protease damage to the walls of the lysosome, an organelle
that holds powerful digestive enzymes. Without SRP-6, the lysosome bursts, and the
cell dies. Silverman and Luke have made these breakthroughs in Caenorhabditis elegans,
a 959-cell, transparent, microscopic worm whose genetic code is well known to scientists
and is easily manipulated. While the simplicity of C. elegans may seem a long way from
the complexity of humans, these studies make it clear that current approaches to cell
preservation after an insult like stroke — using drugs or surgery to prevent further
damage — may not target the right mechanism. Instead, a therapeutic intervention to
enhance serpin function may be more effective at preventing cell death. Conversely,
finding a way to block serpins like SRP-6 in cancer cells may provide a means to initiate
tumor cell death while preserving healthy tissue. It’s all the elements of a heroic
intervention — minus the red cape, of course.
61
Scientists have tended to
ignore these usRNAs, believing
them to be cellular waste too
iny strands of RNA — some
as small as 15 nucleotides — small to meaningfully track to
previously dismissed as “cellular their genomic home. John’s
work, like the best science,
junk” are actually highly stable
molecules that can regulate gene uncovers potential power in
expression, according to research the unexpected.
reported by Bino John, PhD,
Genetic Markers Linked
assistant professor of computa
to Ulcerative Colitis
tional and systems biology. So
what? Until now, researchers
lcerative colitis, a form
have basically ignored most
of inflammatory bowel
of the genome to concentrate
disease (IBD), produces chronic
on the 3 percent of genes that
abdominal distress, leaving
encode proteins. Not John and
those individuals who suffer
his colleagues, who believe
from it unable to work, travel,
these minuscule RNA products,
and perform basic life tasks.
called unusually small RNAs
It also increases their risk for
(usRNAs), could lead to
other diseases like colon cancer.
new types of biomarkers for
Because IBD tends to run in
diagnosis, prognosis, and
families, researchers were
perhaps even identification
anxious to determine whether
of new drug targets.
genetic factors affect the
In recent years, scientists
tendency to develop IBD and
have recognized the importance variations in disease severity
of small RNAs that generally
from person to person. Genetic
contain more than 20 molecular analysis has revealed more
units called nucleotides. But
than 30 genetic risk factors for
the John team’s experiments
Crohn’s disease, another form
revealed for the first time that
of IBD, but none had been
RNAs as small as 15 nucleotides
found for ulcerative colitis until
are repeatedly and accurately
recently. Richard Duerr, MD,
produced across different
associate professor of medicine
tissue types. “We’ve identified
and of human genetics, has
thousands of them, present in
identified a series of genetic
a diversity that far exceeds
markers associated with
all other longer RNAs found
ulcerative colitis. In doing so,
in our study,” says John.
he has laid the foundation for
Detailed studies of microRNA studies examining IBD-associated
in the Kaposi sarcoma-associated genetic variations and their
herpes virus using computa
functional significance.
tional and experimental tools
Ultimately, these studies may
revealed a surprisingly vast
open the door to development
world of usRNAs, molecules so
of targeted biological interven
small that John calls them ideal
tions to improve the lives of the
for cell-to-cell transmission.
many thousands of individuals
Junk RNA?
The Power of Words
No way!
W
U
worldwide who suffer from
ulcerative colitis.
62
how?
T
hat would a com
mencement be without
a bit of sage advice? In addressing the 2009 graduates of his
alma mater, Rosalind Franklin
University of Medicine and
Science, Arthur S. Levine, MD,
senior vice chancellor for the
health sciences and dean of
the School of Medicine, related
the power of words to the
everyday practice of medicine
and biomedical research:
“Choose innovative and
imaginative words as you
wrestle with the latest
setback in your research or a
particularly difficult diagnosis,”
he said. “Choose fearless
words, especially in the face
of seemingly insurmountable
hurdles and risks. And choose
words like ‘how’ or ‘why’
that can lead to probing or
challenging questions because
the difference between good
medical science and great
medical science is often in the
quality of the questions asked.”
In exchange for his insights,
Levine received an honorary
doctor of humane letters
degree in recognition of his
“outstanding achievements
and contributions to medicine.”
w
Reynolds to Lead
Institute on Aging
C
harles F. Reynolds III, MD,
UPMC Professor of Geriatric
Psychiatry and senior associate
dean of the School of Medicine,
has been chosen as the new
chief of the University of
Pittsburgh Institute on Aging.
Internationally renowned in
the field of geriatric psychiatry,
Reynolds brings a wealth of
expertise to the area’s elderly
residents — one of the largest
such populations in the nation — and to an institute that
serves them.
Reynolds’ research deals
with mood and sleep disorders
in later life, with a particular
focus on treatment, including
mental health services in
primary care, the mechanisms
of treatment response, and
suicide prevention. Reynolds
serves as director and principal
investigator of the National
Institute of Mental Healthsponsored Advanced Center
for Interventions and Services
Research in Late Life Mood
Disorders and the John A.
Hartford Center of Excellence
in Geriatric Psychiatry, where
he and his colleagues conduct
treatment research to help
elderly patients living with
depression and other mood
disorders. Of depression in the
elderly population, Reynolds
says, “The older generation of
Americans has a very different
personal model of what
depression is…[but] it doesn’t
mean that you’re crazy. Depres
sion treatment is often a very
straightforward medical
undertaking.”
The Institute on Aging’s
mission is to improve and
develop aging-related research
programs that enhance the
health and overall quality of life
of older adults. It functions as a
gateway to the many age-related
research projects under way at
the University of Pittsburgh.
Molecular “Two-Step”
Leads to Protein Clumps
of Huntington’s Disease
H
untington’s disease, also
known as Huntington’s
chorea after the Greek word for
“dance,” is a neurodegenerative
condition resulting in involun
tary writhing and twitching as
well as cognitive and emotional
disturbances. As in other
neurodegenerative conditions
like Alzheimer’s disease and
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(Lou Gehrig’s disease), protein
aggregates, or clumps, form
in the brain. The process by
which these clumps form in
individuals with Huntington’s
disease has been identified by
Ronald Wetzel, PhD, professor
of structural biology, as an
“aggregation two-step.”
Huntingtin protein found in
the aggregate clumps is where
the mutation causing Hunting
ton’s disease occurs. However,
this protein is also present in
normal cells, which prompts
the question of what triggers
disease onset. Wetzel has
determined that the length of
the huntingtin protein’s polyglutamine segment is critical for
disease initiation; a segment
twice as long as normal indicates
a very strong chance of developing
Huntington’s disease. The
polyglutamine segment first
disrupts the huntingtin protein
at the N-terminus, initiating
interactions that produce
misfolding. Then, it consolidates
the misfolded regions into
stabilized protein clumps.
This well-rehearsed protein
choreography overwhelms the
cell’s normal mechanisms to
deal with misfolding, creating
a toxic environment and a
neurodegenerative danse
macabre. Wetzel hopes that
finding a mechanism to interrupt
or redirect the polyglutaminebased protein misfolding may
provide a therapeutic interven
tion for Huntington’s disease as
well as other aggregate-based
neurodegenerative conditions.
hy?
“Choose fearless words, especially in the face of seemingly
insurmountable hurdles and risks.”
63
Shielding Healthy Cells
From Cancer-killing
Radiation
C
Stem cell injections may turn
cloudy corneas clear.
Stem Cells Regenerate
Corneal Tissue
U
sing stem cells harvested
from donor human eye
tissue and injected into the
eyes of mice genetically bred to
have defective corneas similar
to scarred human ones,
James L. Funderburgh, PhD,
has reported the successful
regeneration of corneal tissue.
Within three months, in fact,
the stem cells had remodeled
the opaque scar tissue into a
transparent, normal-appearing
cornea. This breakthrough
development was published in
the April 2009 issue of Stem
Cells. “Our experiments indicate
that after stem cell treatment,
mouse eyes that initially had
corneal defects looked no
different than mouse eyes that
had never been damaged,” said
Funderburgh, associate professor
of ophthalmology. “We were
surprised and delighted.” The
normal-appearing corneas were
still preserved a year later. Still
ahead are plans to develop a
protocol for a human clinical trial.
64
ollaborating with
researchers from the
National Cancer Institute (NCI),
Jeff S. Isenberg, MD, MPH,
associate professor in the
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy,
and Critical Care Medicine,
Department of Medicine,
may be nearing a Holy Grail of
cancer therapy: a way not only
to protect healthy tissue from
the toxic effects of radiation
treatment but also to increase
tumor death.
More than half of all
cancer patients receive at least
some radiation therapy. Yet the
same radiation that kills cancer
cells often kills healthy tissue,
leading to unwanted side effects
like nausea, vomiting, skin
sores, rashes, weakness, and
fatigue, as well as scarring
related to long-term exposure.
Isenberg and NCI colleagues
have identified a biochemical
signaling pathway that can
profoundly influence what
happens to cells exposed to
radiation. In mouse experiments,
the team found that blocking
the thrombospondin-1 molecule
from binding to its cell-surface
receptor, CD47, could give
normal tissues nearly complete
protection from standard and
very high doses of radiation.
“We almost couldn’t believe
what we were seeing,”
Isenberg said, adding that
the protective effect occurred
in skin, muscle, and bone
marrow cells. At the same
time, CD47 suppression delayed
the regrowth of tumors in
radiation-treated mice.
It is not yet clear why
disrupting the CD47 signaling
pathway leads to these effects.
It’s possible that radiation
impairs the immune response
to tumors even while killing
tumor cells, yet CD47 suppres
sion somehow keeps immune
cells safe. The strategy also may
make tumor cells more sensitive
to attack by the patient’s immune
system after treatment.
Accessory Proteins
Lead to New HIV
Drug Candidates
W
hile probing an HIV
protein essential to
AIDS progression called Nef,
Thomas E. Smithgall, PhD,
William S. McEllroy Professor
and chair of microbiology and
molecular genetics, and his
colleagues unlocked chemical
secrets that could lead to novel
treatments for the deadly
infection.
An important factor in
HIV virulence, Nef remains
a slippery character in drug
discovery efforts because it
lacks biochemical activity
that can be directly measured.
Undaunted, Smithgall’s team
developed an assay to measure
Nef function by co-opting one
of its partners in crime, a protein
called Hck that Nef activates in
HIV-infected cells. Using Hck
as a reporter for Nef activity,
investigators screened 10,000
chemical compounds with
automated high-throughput
testing, searching for influence
on the coupled proteins.
Smithgall’s team found
three likely suspects that
inhibited Nef-Hck activity and
interfered with HIV replication.
One of these compounds was
so effective that it suppressed
viral growth in cell culture to
undetectable levels.
The discovery may be
significant because there is
evidence that people infected
with HIV variants that have
mutations in the Nef gene take
substantially longer to develop
disease symptoms or AIDS,
Smithgall says. In animal models,
disrupting Nef production or
its interaction with Hck also
appears to delay or prevent
disease symptoms.
Anti-HIV therapies currently
target viral enzymes like reverse
transcriptase or other viral-cell
interaction factors. Aiming at
Nef, though, could be useful in
drug-resistant HIV strains and
may slow its progression to AIDS.
High-throughput screening of
additional “accessory proteins”
like Nef and Hck could help
researchers to catch other drug
targets red-handed too.
Painting-by-Proteins:
Demystifying the Architecture of HIV
F
or more than 25 years, scientists have been searching for
ways to defeat HIV. In the November 2009 issue of the journal
Cell, School of Medicine structural biologists Angela Gronenborn,
PhD, Peijun Zhang, PhD, and their colleagues report a weakness
that could be exploited by new drugs. Using nuclear magnetic
resonance imaging and cryoelectron microscopy, Gronenborn,
UPMC Rosalind Franklin Professor and chair, and Zhang, assistant
professor, Department of Structural Biology, mapped critical capsid
protein connections, or seams, in the complex of proteins that
make up the viral genome’s coat. In addition, they detailed the
atomic essentials and overall shape of HIV-1’s capsid protein
assembly. About 1,500 copies of this assembly make up the capsid.
“Our lab experiments show that if we replace a few of the pivotal
stitches in the seam by mutation, the resulting viruses are less
infectious or even non-infectious,” says Gronenborn. “The capsid,
and therefore the virus, can no longer function properly.”
Illustration of a molecular model
of three protein sub-units and the
seams where they meet to make
up a structural interface in the HIV
viral genome coat described by
Gronenborn, Zhang, and colleagues.
65
Chet Mathis (above) and Bill Klunk (right) have landed
big fish together, from the streams to the lab.
The Flies that Bind
F
ly fishing is about preparation and patience. Your rig has to be right
for the conditions, and your fly has to mimic the prey that are in season.
You’ve got to read the water, know where the fish hide, and see the runs
where they feed. It helps to be lucky, too, but as a famous scientist once
quipped, chance favors the prepared mind. Success happens because you’ve
gone looking for it in the right place. You’ve played out the scenarios hundreds of times in
your mind’s eye — the dark shape rising, the swell of the water, the silver flash of the
scales, the strike, and the snap of the rod to set the hook.
Chet Mathis, PhD, and Bill Klunk, MD, PhD, are both fishing buddies and scientific
co-investigators. Together, they’ve hauled in a few big catches, from steelhead trout in the
Pennsylvania streams that feed Lake Erie to scientific discoveries that have changed the
way we think about Alzheimer’s disease.
For years, the only way to definitively diagnose Alzheimer’s disease was to examine
the brain at autopsy. Pathologists and neurologists could stain samples of brain tissue
to reveal the characteristic tangles of abnormal protein called amyloid-beta. But a living
patient couldn’t get a definitive diagnosis, limiting therapy options and scientific research.
Klunk and Mathis changed the field with the development of Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB),
a radiolabeled dye that can safely be administered to a living patient and reveal the
characteristic signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
66
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the first symptomatic stage for what might
eventually turn into Alzheimer’s disease, but there’s also the possibility that MCI could
be related to medications, just a bad test day, or unrelated depression. Because drugs are
available to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, knowing whether an individual
with MCI is actually showing early signs of Alzheimer’s could make a great difference in
the quality of life for patients and their families.
While Klunk and Mathis continue to develop this diagnostic tool, and perhaps
some therapeutic tools as well, their work has earned major honors, including the MetLife
Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer’s Disease; the Ronald and Nancy
Reagan Research Institute Award for outstanding contributions to research, care, and
advocacy for Alzheimer’s disease; and the Potamkin Prize, which has become known as
the “Nobel Prize of neurology.”
The biggest barrier to PiB imaging finding its way into the clinical setting is the
imaging process itself, positron emission tomography (PET), which uses a radiolabeled
compound to visualize the target of interest. At the moment, PiB is labeled with an isotope
of carbon that is ideal for multiple studies because it has a half-life of about 20 minutes and
clears the body in about two hours. The problem with this labeled version of PiB for clinical
diagnosis is that the short half-life also necessitates that the compound be manufactured
on-site immediately before use. Most clinical settings do not have the facilities to create
radiolabeled compounds, so finding something a bit more stable that can be shipped from
a central facility is a key element in taking this technique from bench to bedside.
While it has been demonstrated that genetics can serve as a driver to advance
Alzheimer’s disease, studies have also shown that healthy lifestyle choices that preserve
attributes like vascular health help to prevent the disease. The question of how to prevent
or slow the progression of the disease remains, for now, unanswered and keeps many
researchers, including Klunk and Mathis, casting again and again for that elusive nibble,
that glimpse of clarity.
When asked if there is any connection between their fishing styles and their approach to
the lab, the two smile and say that their work has become an entity unto itself. They used
to escape it entirely while fishing. (The rule was that you could talk about fishing at work,
but you couldn’t talk about work when fishing.) But it has become impossible to turn off the
discussions about PiB. Klunk adds, with a chuckle, that even with their great success in the
laboratory, probably the most special part of the pairing is the fishing. “You can always find
a good collaborator,” he observes, “but how often will you find a fisherman who is crazy
enough to hit the water before it’s light, stay until after it’s dark, and then go back
again for more? Something like that is priceless.”
67
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
68
Part III:
t h e v isi o n ari e s
Choosing a Medical
School, Choosing
This Medical School
Over the years, the University of Pittsburgh has
attracted a number of transformational figures.
They have found their way here from places as far
away as Hungary and as close as the neighborhoods
of this very city. Here are four who not only saw the
future but dedicated themselves to making it reality.
In the process, they eradicated a crippling disease
from this country, transformed the treatment of
women with breast cancer, created an academic
powerhouse for biomedical research, and made
liver transplantation a reality. Read on to learn
how each found the School of Medicine to be the
place from which he could change the world.
69
JULIUS YOUNGNER, SCD
“This is one place we’ll never live,” Julius
Youngner quipped to his wife one morning in
1946. They had spent a sweltering night in a
Pittsburgh hotel with the window open. There
was soot on the sheets. He could even taste it.
Youngner was passing through town on
his way to the National Cancer Institute (NCI)
in Bethesda, Maryland. As he would later learn,
change was already in the air in Pittsburgh.
By 1949, Youngner had reached an
impasse in his research at NCI. He was looking
to grow virus in cell culture, but the cancer
institute didn’t want viruses in its limited lab
space. The scientific director gave him permission to spend two years in Pittsburgh, where
Jonas Salk needed cell culture expertise.
“They were growing [polio] virus in
monkeys,” says Youngner, describing the
work as brutal and laborious. After a few failed
attempts, he found that cells harvested from
monkey kidneys could be seeded with virus,
which then replicated readily. In an ingenious
step that eventually made it possible to
produce large amounts of vaccine, Youngner
employed a process familiar to pathologists
but new to virology. He added a powerful
proteolytic enzyme called trypsin, which
separates individual cells from fragments of
tissue, creating ideal conditions for replication
of the virus in culture.
When Youngner’s two years were up,
NCI wanted him back. It was 1951. Youngner
had established a robust cell culture technique,
and the team was about to make a polio
vaccine. There was no way he was leaving.
“It was thrilling,” Youngner says, more than
50 years later. “I have never worked as hard,
before or since. … I wrecked my eyes. At the
time, I had a serious change in my correction
because I was doing all this microscopy work.”
70
The team took nearly pure polio virus
and added a precise amount of formaldehyde
to kill it without destroying its ability to
immunize against future infection. Youngner
devised a simple color test to quickly reveal
the presence of anti-polio antibodies in the
blood of a vaccinated person.
In 1954, this scientific team launched
what Youngner calls “the greatest field trial
in the history of medicine, and there will never
be another like it.” They enrolled 1.8 million
children in 12 states in a double-blind,
placebo-controlled study of their vaccine.
In the summer of 1955, an independent panel
charged with evaluating the results declared
the vaccine “a glorious success.” It was a
seminal event in American history.
Pittsburgh has remained home for
Youngner throughout a remarkable career.
Trypsinization remains an essential element
of modern cell culture. He did important
work on interferon, demonstrating that it was
triggered by bacterial infection, not only by
viral infection as had been supposed. With
another Pitt colleague, he discovered a second
type of interferon, now called gamma interferon, and revealed some of its distinctive
properties. His interferon work led him to
make great strides in understanding persistent
viral infections. In recent years, he helped to
develop the first live-virus vaccine for equine
influenza, which is on the market now. Today,
he remains a Pitt Emeritus Distinguished
Service Professor of Microbiology and
Molecular Genetics.
While the polio vaccine helped to put
Pittsburgh on the scientific map, Youngner
believes it had a broader effect on science.
“I think that it had the same effect that
the Manhattan Project had in encouraging
the federal government to invest money in
science,” he says. “The success of the polio
vaccine made Congress realize that the
National Institutes of Health could be a center
of excellence in science and that they could
also give money to universities.”
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
Part III: t he vision ari es
“It was thrilling,” Youngner says,
more than 50 years later. “I have never
worked as hard, before or since.”
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Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
Part III: t h e visi o n ari e s
“Understanding the biology of cancer
so that its treatment is based on science
is what I try to do.”
72
BERNARD FISHER, MD
Bernard Fisher, Distinguished Service Professor
of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and
noted cancer researcher, is celebrated for his
seminal studies that led to a new paradigm for
the treatment of breast cancer in the late 1970s.
A Pittsburgh native and 1943 graduate of the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
Fisher was a surgical resident when he realized
that, although surgeons were performing
technically remarkable operations, he and his
colleagues had limited understanding of the
biology of the diseases they were treating.
Following a fellowship in surgical research
at the University of Pennsylvania, Fisher returned
to Pittsburgh in 1952 and established the
university’s first laboratory of surgical research,
where he began to ask basic questions about
how cancer metastasized. In the lab, he tracked
tumor cells traversing the blood, traced their
course through the lymph and lymph nodes,
and discovered that the two systems were so
interconnected that the idea that tumor cells
spread exclusively by way of the blood or lymph,
as was believed at the time, was not tenable.
Fisher had compelling evidence suggesting
that cancer was a systemic disease that could
metastasize unpredictably via both the blood
and the lymph. As a consequence of his
investigations, he found little scientific rationale
for the radical operations that were the standard
of care, such as radical mastectomy, in which
surgeons removed the breast, the chest muscles,
and the lymph nodes. He formulated a new
hypothesis that was contrary to the one that
supported radical mastectomy.
Fisher is renowned for the randomized
clinical trials that he conducted to test his
hypothesis. In one such trial from 1971, he
demonstrated for the first time that, in terms
of survival, radical mastectomy was no more
effective than removing only the breast and
that neither was more effective than lumpectomy, which preserved the breast. In additional
trials, he proved that survival rates were higher
following treatment with systemic chemo
therapy and/or hormonal therapy than after
treatment with surgery alone. In 1992, Fisher
demonstrated that tamoxifen could prevent
breast cancer in high-risk women.
As a founding member and chair (1967 to
1994) of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast
and Bowel Project, the research consortium
through which his breast cancer trials were
conducted, Fisher established its headquarters
in Pittsburgh. By “traveling all over, sleeping in
bad beds, eating bad food, and lecturing,” he
enlisted more than 350 clinical centers and
thousands of physicians to participate. He
designed, implemented, and reported results
from 31 randomized clinical trials involving
almost 60,000 patients.
Fisher says that the most important part
of his career is often overlooked: “It was the
laboratory research I conducted here at Pitt that
led me to hypothesize that breast cancer was
more often than not systemic by the time a
patient came to the doctor and that there were
complex biological interrelationships between
the tumor and the host. The trials were a logical
extension of my laboratory research, conducted
to determine the credibility of my hypothesis.
They were part of the scientific method that
I used for clinical problem solving.”
Fisher has been recognized with many
honors, including the Albert Lasker Award for
Clinical Medical Research, the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement
in Cancer Research, and the American Cancer
Society Medal of Honor. But he says that the
greatest honor came on the occasion of the
2009 Bernard Fisher Lecture, which also
commemorated his 90th birthday, when Pitt
Chancellor Mark Nordenberg surprised him
with an honorary doctor of science degree.
Fisher’s concern today, as he continues
his research, is that treatment for cancers such
as those of the breast is once again being
determined by untested theories. “I was trying
through my work to establish therapeutic
decision-making based on scientific evidence
rather than empiricism,” he says. “A return to
the use of ‘anti-science’ for such decisions
must not be allowed to happen.”
73
THOMAS DETRE, MD
It has been more than 40 years since
Thomas Detre arrived in Pittsburgh to take
the reins of the Department of Psychiatry
at the University of Pittsburgh School of
Medicine, but he continues to occupy a small,
sparsely furnished office in Pitt’s Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. And, though
it’s been more than 60 years since he left his
native Hungary (after surviving the German
occupation), Detre maintains the air of an
erudite European gentleman. In a mellifluous,
Hungarian baritone, he explains what
compelled him to leave the faculty of Yale
University after 15 years: “I was a tenured
professor of psychiatry, and I decided that
I had one or two more shots in my life to do
something interesting.”
Psychiatry was a field long-dominated
by psychoanalysis. Detre envisioned a future
in which psychiatry would be thought of as a
biological science affiliated with pharmacology,
epidemiology, and genetics. Pittsburgh offered
the opportunity to create a new academic
culture.
Detre wanted to create a psychiatry
department that was dedicated to clinical
research first and foremost. And while he saw a
malleable culture in Pittsburgh, he also saw one
enormous, unexploited asset: Western Psychiatric
Institute and Clinic (WPIC) — a facility with
around 80 beds, plus medical offices and
laboratories. He set about filling that space.
Between 1974 and 1982, the department’s
full-time faculty grew from 36 to nearly 150.
“I told them they could do whatever they liked — as long as they are successful,” says Detre.
One of the key elements to this success
was an arrangement with the University under
which the department retained control of
clinical revenues so that Detre could reinvest in
faculty recruitment, patient care, and research.
The resultant strength of the academic
enterprise led to improved stature for the
University and the clinic, which in turn led
to increased clinical revenues.
74
In 1982, Detre told the University’s
chancellor that he was a candidate for a
chair at another prestigious university. The
chancellor asked Detre what he could possibly
do for an encore there, having already built a
psychiatry department up to national prominence. Why not stay in Pittsburgh and take on
all the schools of the health sciences? Detre
saw this as an opportunity to apply his model,
which had changed WPIC from a lackluster
regional facility to a leader in academic
psychiatry, to an entire academic medical center.
“I decided that was a good idea. I could
do something really exciting,” says Detre,
noting that the University was ranked number
36 among academic institutions receiving
research funds from the National Institutes
of Health (NIH). “The National Academy of
Sciences published, I think in the 1980s, that
the greatest impediment to progress in
biomedical science is the lack of interdisciplinary collaboration.” Detre’s vision for the health
sciences involved knocking down the artificial
barriers that separated schools, departments,
and even universities.
“I like people who are collaborative,”
Detre says. “I also thought that multidisciplinary
centers of excellence would be the future for
improved NIH funding, which indeed was the
case. If you look at the records of the AAMC
[Association of American Medical Colleges],
between 1975 and ’95, the health sciences at
Pitt comprised the fastest growing research
enterprise in the United States.”
Indeed, Pitt’s NIH ranking has climbed
steadily over recent decades, finally cracking
the top 10 in 1997 and continuing to ascend
ever since.
Detre shows off a nine-page list of multi
disciplinary centers started during his tenure. It
lists 63 centers, from AIDS to genetics to tissue
engineering. These centers, he says, were the
key to the University’s rapid climb, adding,
“There is a wonderful symbiotic relationship
between UPMC and the health sciences schools.
If you look at other academic medical centers
in the United States, this is rarer than you
might think.”
Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
Part III: t he vision ari es
“There is a wonderful symbiotic relationship
between UPMC and the health sciences schools.
If you look at other academic medical centers
in the United States, this is rarer than you
might think.”
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Pitt &
Pittsburgh
&why?
Part III: t h e visi o n ari e s
Starzl brought liver transplantation into
the realm of the possible. It’s impossible to
overstate the difficulty of accomplishing this.
76
thomas starzl, MD, PHD
It’s been said that Thomas Starzl is happiest
outside of the mainstream with his dogs. His
office on the Pitt campus has long been a quiet
(when the dogs aren’t barking), cramped set of
rooms above an old pizza shop. When Starzl
came to Pittsburgh in 1980, the medical school
was gaining strength in many areas, but it
still wasn’t considered a prime destination
in academic medicine. Starzl changed that
more than anyone.
Starzl brought liver transplantation into
the realm of the possible. It’s impossible to
overstate the difficulty of accomplishing this.
Half the blood in the body can flow through
the liver in a single minute, and these procedures went on for many hours and innumerable
pints of blood.
Starzl possessed three things that
nobody else had in combination. Although a
handful of medical centers had access to the
experimental drug cyclosporine, none had
achieved Starzl’s special alchemy of combining
it with steroids to better control suppression
of the immune system. Second, Starzl had rare
surgical skills. (“The best I’ve ever seen,” said
one colleague. “Where others took two or
three moves to get from A to B, Starzl would
make a simple acrobatic maneuver that only
he could perform.”) Finally, he had the drive,
which was necessary because success in liver
transplantation required more failure than most
people could stomach.
At the dawn of 2010, Starzl’s office
remains above the old pizza shop. One dog
sleepily waits at the bottom of the stairs, lifting
its head to sniff any visitors and accept a pat on
the head. Upstairs, another sighs contentedly
from the couch as Starzl, dressed in a tan suit,
prepares his vast collection of files — scientific
papers, correspondence, research data — to be
shipped to Pitt’s archives. At the University of
Pittsburgh, Starzl remains an icon of achievement, a paragon of determination, and the
sage of immunology. It’s this final role that has
him most motivated today and keeps him
lecturing and publishing.
Now a Distinguished Service Professor
of Surgery, Starzl describes the establishment
of organ transplantation as a “practical success
and an epistemologic collapse,” meaning there
was a failure to understand the immunology of
what was being accomplished. Since the first
kidney transplants in the 1950s, it was believed
that the immune system of an organ recipient
would forever reject a donor organ. Therefore,
the only hope for these patients was to
dampen the immune response and maintain
that state permanently with immunosuppressive drugs. Patients on daily doses of these
powerful drugs often suffered terrible side
effects, which eventually contributed to or
caused their deaths.
In 1992, Starzl and others reported
that 30 transplant recipients were found to
have white blood cells from organ donors
scattered throughout their bodies many
years after transplant. Far from being eternal
enemies, cells from the donor and recipient
seemed to have achieved a cease fire. This
revelation suggested that there was a biological mechanism through which doctors could
achieve tolerance in transplant recipients.
The quest for tolerance continues today,
with the University of Pittsburgh leading the
way. When Pitt professor of plastic surgery
W.P. Andrew Lee performed the first double
hand transplant in the United States in 2009,
he put his patient on the “Pittsburgh Protocol.”
It begins with an infusion of donor bone marrow
prior to transplantation, priming the patient
to accept donor tissue. After transplantation,
the patient receives reduced medication and
gradual weaning of the dosage. The ultimate
goal is a transplant recipient with no measurable
side effects from medication. Whether used
in transplantation of hands, hearts, or insulinproducing cells, this protocol comes directly
from Starzl’s work on tolerance at what is now
called the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation
Institute at the University of Pittsburgh School
of Medicine.
77
E
veryone likes to invest in a winner. The University of Pittsburgh is indeed
fortunate that as our reputation and national rankings have continued
to rise in recent years, so has the number of individuals, corporations, and
foundations that recognize us as a wise investment.
Thanks to this generosity, the schools of the health sciences, led
by the School of Medicine, helped the University reach the $1 billion goal of its capital
campaign, begun in 1997, nearly a year ahead of schedule.
Our success has given us the confidence to move forward, expanding the campaign
goal to $2 billion, with the expectation that, when complete, the campaign will have
raised at least $1 billion for our six health sciences schools, of which $600 million will
have been earmarked specifically for the School of Medicine.
Since the formation of the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Medical and
Health Sciences Foundation in 2003, we’ve started to think differently about the way
we engage our supporters. We know that philanthropy creates a partnership, which
means responsibility on both sides to keep the lines of communication open so that
we understand the things that each of us can do to have a positive effect on the way
medicine is taught, the way research is funded, and the way health care is provided.
The generosity of our alumni and friends is the key to our having the resources
needed to remain an institution of choice for the best and brightest. For example,
our School of Medicine is consistently ranked among the nation’s finest and competes
directly with Harvard, Yale, and other leading institutions for prospective students,
78
but we don’t have the multi-billion-dollar endowments that many of those schools
have. What will make the difference in our ability to attract and keep top students —
and to ensure that they graduate without crippling debt — is our ability to offer the
same type of financial assistance and scholarships that those schools are offering.
At the same time, we need to keep recruiting and retaining top researchers and
faculty members and to make the ongoing capital investments needed to ensure that
we have the most up-to-date facilities in which they can do their work. Because of the
growing need for investment in research, the School of Medicine is committed to further
expansion of facilities, and that expansion is possible only through partnership with
philanthropy. Likewise, as essential research funding from the National Institutes of
Health continues to be unreliable, institutions like ours are finding that the gap can
be made up only through private giving.
It’s encouraging to see that more and more people are coming to understand
that if they care about changing the face of academic medicine, then the University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine offers a wise investment. I can’t think of a better
way to back a winner.
Clyde B. Jones III
President
University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Medical
and Health Sciences Foundation
79
Left to right: Kristy, Faye, and Katie Sampson
A Foundation in Family
M
yles Sampson was told the pain he
was feeling was an ulcer. But, after
some encouragement from a friend,
he sought a second opinion from
James D. Luketich, MD, professor of
surgery and chief, Division of Thoracic and Foregut
Surgery, at the University of Pittsburgh School of
Medicine. Dr. Luketich’s assessment was grim —
stage IV esophageal tumor — and the survival rate
low, but Mr. Sampson fought through surgery
and chemotherapy to beat the cancer. He was so
grateful that, in 2004, he created the Sampson
Family Chair in Thoracic Surgical Oncology, which
supports cancer research.
A family man, avid outdoorsman, and
successful real estate developer, Mr. Sampson
was also a philanthropist whose commitment to
giving only strengthened after his bouts with cancer
(he also fought skin cancer). His wife, Faye Stahl
Sampson, was already his partner in philanthropy
at the Sampson Foundation; and he also involved
his daughters, Katie and Kristy, in his charitable
commitments. “After he was diagnosed with
esophageal cancer, my father changed,” says Katie
Sampson. “He focused even more on how he
could make a positive impact in his community.
He wanted to instill in us the idea of giving back,
so he got Kristy and me involved.”
A lifelong resident of western Pennsylvania,
Mr. Sampson was deeply attached to his community
and worked with area chapters of the Boy Scouts
of America, YMCA, and Rotary International. After
struggling with cancer, he became more involved with
World Vision, a charity focused on the welfare
of children, and fund-raised for and went on volunteer
trips to South America with the organization.
Myles Sampson was diagnosed with colon cancer
in 2006, to which he unfortunately succumbed in 2007.
His wife and daughters knew they had to continue
giving in his name and were thankful to be able to do
so through the Sampson Foundation, which Kristy
Sampson Rodriguez now runs. While they had already
given generously to the School of Medicine; the Heart,
Lung, and Esophageal Surgery Institute; the University
of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI); and created
the endowed chair (initially held by Dr. Luketich and
soon to be held by Blair A. Jobe, MD, associate
professor of surgery and director, esophageal research
and esophageal diagnostics and therapeutic endoscopy),
Kristy remembers wanting especially to donate to
the UPMC Cancer Center’s Patient Assistance Fund.
After Mr. Sampson’s death, Kristy and her family
organized a fundraiser with her father’s friends and
colleagues, generating $35,000 for the fund, which
the Sampsons then matched.
“Seeing what we went through with my dad — all the surgeries, chemotherapy, doctor visits — it was
so hard,” Kristy says. “Emotionally, physically, and
monetarily, it’s a huge burden. So, to be able to alleviate
some of the financial burden for people who really
can’t afford it is great.”
In the future, the Sampson Foundation has interest
in a different kind of gift to UPCI — one that sustains
people’s quality of life during serious illness. Kristy, a
yoga teacher, says, “My dad wasn’t into such things.
If he couldn’t see it, touch it, smell it, it didn’t exist.
But, in his last bout with cancer, I offered to lead him
through some meditations, which he accepted. He was
willing to do anything just to feel a little better, even
if it didn’t promise miraculous healing. We want to look
at how to make people’s quality of life better while
they’re sick.”
Kristy, Katie, and Faye are inspired by Myles,
even if his passing is still difficult. “He was a really funny
person. I miss his sense of humor and silly comments.
He loved history, so even something like driving around
town with him was always a lesson,” Kristy says.
“He was extremely knowledgeable. You did not
want to play Trivial Pursuit against him,” laughs Katie.
“He was a great father.”
Along with fond memories, these women are
thankful to have the tradition of philanthropy that
Mr. Sampson began. “It’s devastating that my dad’s not
here anymore,” says Kristy. “But, if that’s the case,
I’m so grateful that he left a foundation to us to carry
on in his memory. It’s great to be able to help people
in honor of my dad.”
With grateful appreciation for their generosity, we acknowledge
the following individual, corporate, and foundation donors whose
contributions of $500 or more to the University of Pittsburgh School
of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic between January 2007 and June 2009
have supported us in our academic, research, and clinical missions.
Elinor M. Abplanalp
Kimberly M. and Peter M. Augustine
Russell A. Acevedo, MD
Susan and Thomas Aul
Evangeline Evelyn and
Nicholas A. Beldecos
Angela and R. Kevin Adamek
Joseph Ayala
Elaine Bellin
William J. Adams
George Clifford Baacke II, MD
Gerard Mark Benecki, MD
Kathleen B. and Danny C. Aderholt
Amber L. Bennett
Adrianne Renee Aiken
Thelma Ilyas Badwey and
Robert E. Badwey, MD
Adrianne and Curtis Aiken
Bettye J. and Ralph E. Bailey
Beverly and Jeffrey Berger
Judith L. Albert
Clara Baird
Mary Murtland Berger
Kathryn Albo and Vincent
Charles Albo, MD
Dr. Evan E. Baker
Sondra R. Berk and Robert
Norton Berk, MD
Revva K. and Earl M. Benovitz
Therezia Alchoufete
Ruth Anne and Kenneth
Raymond Balkey
Margaret N. and Howard M. Alex
Eugene Bang
Patti and Sandy Berman
Nicholas James Alfano
Robert Baraff, MD
Albert Michael Bernath Jr., MD
Judith Allen and Thomas E.
Allen, MD
Walter D. Barker
Marilyn U. and Guy P. Berner
Ellie and Stewart Barmen
James D. Berry III
Jewel Damita Alleyne-Morris, MD
Caroline and Robert Barmen
Emily R. and Ronald Bianchini
Jane K. France and Christian Allison
Roger L. Barna
Gretchen Bicehouse
Dr. and Mrs. Ronald C. Allison
Jennifer A. and David Barnard
Khalid A. Al-Mojil
J. David Barnes, Trustee
Marjorie Romkes, PhD, and
William Lyman Bigbee, PhD
Michelle and Andrew Aloe
Denise and Raymond L. Barry Jr.
Mafalda Alvey
Donna and Esteban Amaro
Susan J. Bartlett and
David L. Bartlett, MD
Nitin R. Ambani, MD
Eileen Maria Bartolomucci, PhD
Marcel Binstock, MD
Cheryl and Bruce A. Americus
Edward J. Barvick, MD
Patter and Thomas E. Birsic
Joan G. Ehler Ammer, MD, and
John L. Ammer, MD
Judy L. Oliver, PhD, and
David W. Bash, PhD
Huberta F. and C. Scott Bishop
Jodi M. Amos and Bryan Blair
Amos, DMD
Alecia Moyer-Basso and
Ronald Basso
L. Frank Bittner Jr.
Herbert H. Anderson, MD
Monette Green Basson, MD, and
Geoffrey Hugh Basson, MD
Astrid and John Frederick Bitzer III
Nicholas E. Andrews
‡Richard W. Antemann, MD
Bonnie Bantley Anton and
Richard P. Anton, Esq.
Linda Fishman Appel
Dipak K. Basu, PhD
Barbara A. Dappert, MD, and
Michael J. Becich, MD, PhD
Isabel Lubousky Beck, PhD
Yoshio Arai, MD
G. Nicholas Beckwith III, Trustee,
and Dorothy B. Beckwith
Nancy Levine Arnold, MD, and
Robert M. Arnold, MD
Dennis J. Beer, MD
Edward J. Berman, MD
Anne H. Bilos and Zenowy
John Bilos, MD
Renard L. Biltgen
John G. Bistolas
Charles W. Bitzer
Susan Black
George M. Blair
Mary A. Sorrells and Harry
Colbert Blair, MD
Ruth E. Blake and
‡ Henry E. Blake
Cathleen E. Blanton
Estelle Edwards Blanton
James Aronson, MD
Steven C. Beering, MD, Trustee,
and Jane Pickering Beering
Robert F. Arthur
Renée A. Beitman
Patricia Ann Block, MD
Charles P. Ashe, MD
Elizabeth Ann Marcus, MD,
and Ira Belcove
Maryrose Benkoski Block and
Robert Carl Block, MD
Dennis L. Astorino
‡ before an individual’s name indicates the person is deceased
Thomas P. Bleck, MD
81
Christine Ann Bloom, MD
James I. Bucher, MD
Mary and George M. Cheever
Leland S. Blough Sr., MD
Nancy Haar and Anthony Buffa
Patricia Unger Bluestone and
Charles D. Bluestone, MD
Barbara R. Burger
Geneva McKelvey and Steven
Andrew Chernus
Eva Tansky Blum, Esq., Trustee
Mary S. Burt
Gertrude Blumenschein, MD
Jane and Rae R. Burton
Frank Joseph Bobick, MD
Nadine E. Bognar
Tracy R. Seewald, MD and
Steven A. Burton, MD
Ramona and Fred W. Bohlander
Cynthia S. and Lawrence S. Busch
Suzanne and Robert Chute
Christopher Adrien Bonnet, MD
Sylvia and Sidney Busis, MD
Rita and William Ciaramitaro
Debby and Daniel Irvin Booker
Sara Davis Buss and John W. Buss Jr.
Lisa M. Cibik, MD
Bernice A. Born
Wesley James Buterbaugh
Joseph J. Ciocca, MD
Courtney B. and Carl W. Borntraeger
Carolyn Mentzer Byham and
William C. Byham
Susan and Alan Citron
Sylvia and Gregory Bosner
Sarah and Rod Bourgeois
Alexia Burland
‡Thomas E. Cadman, MD
Shirley A. Chervenick and
Paul A. Chervenick, MD
John Chirigos
Jean Hill Chisolm
Roberta Marie Churilla
Carl D. Citron
Andrea G. and Rodger D. Citron
May Boutros and Nihad M.
Boutros, MD
Frank V. Cahouet, Trustee, and
Ann W. Cahouet
Carol S. Citron and Stanley
Robert Citron, Esq.
Barbara I. and Gary K. Bowser
Joseph E. Calderone Jr., MD
Susan and Michael Boyle
Kathryn A. and David J. Caliguiri
Tanyia Harrison Clagette and
Vaughn Stewart Clagette, MD
Stephanie and Michael C. Bozic
Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence A. Caliguiri
Jean E. and David T. Clark
Robert Whipple Bragdon, MD
Joseph L. Calihan
Connie W. and Bruce T. Cleevely
Kathleen H. and James W. Braham
J. Glenn Campbell
George I. Clendaniel, PE
Paula Brand
Patricia H. Canfield, MD, and
Thomas N. Canfield
Mary and Jay W. Cleveland Jr.
Paul J. Cardillo
Michele McKenney and
Charles C. Cohen
Michael T. Carenzo
H. Adam Cohen
Jane M. Carey and John
Timothy Carey, MD
Jesse J. Cohen
Samuel Wayne Braver
Laurence Harvey Brenner, MD
Barbara F. Caroff
Leslie Ann Rodnan, MD, and
John B. Cohen, MD
Nancy Beranbaum Brent, MD, and
David Alan Brent, MD
Linda Carpenter
Sandra S. and Richard A. Cohen
David P. Carrier
William George Combs, MD
Mr. and Mrs. Damion Carufe
Mark Conboy
Margaret Anne Carver, MD
Tonja and Alex Condron
Louise Long Cashion and
Robert T. Cashion
William S. Conover
Earl James Brink, MD
Jen and J. Brooks Broadhurst
Marie S. Chan and William J. Casp, MD
Kelly Conrads and Thomas
Patrick Conrads, PhD
Sheryl and Jeffrey Sherwood
Broadhurst
Alvah R. Cass, MD
Kelli L. and Robert W. Cook
Thomas G. Cooney Sr.
Lisa Brooke and
‡ John L.B. Brooke
Margaretha L. Casselbrant, MD
Richard George Cassoff, MD
Charles E. Copeland, MD
David E. Brougher, MD
Frank Vincent Castello, MD
The Estate of Dr. Leon and
Mrs. Shelley Corbin
Charles Kuang Ming Brown, MD, PhD
Michelle Dorsten Catanzarite, MD
Nancy Tressel Brown
George W. Causey Trust
Vera Jane Cornes and
Cleon L. Cornes, MD
Walter E. Brown Jr.
Helen Denny Causey, MD, and
Gilbert B. Causey, MD
James J. Corrigan Jr., MD
Virginia M. Brasuk, MD
Paul William Braunegg Jr., MD
Barry David Brause, MD
Harmar Denny Brereton, MD
Ann and Paul Richard Bridges
Deborah Brill
William O. Brown
Jill A. Brufsky, PharmD, and
Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD
James F. Cawley
William F. Cercone Jr.
Marietta and Sam A. Cosentino
Frank Joseph Costa, MD
Joseph J. Cottrell Jr.
Seth J. Brufsky
Carol Marie Ceriani, MD
Tamar Brufsky
Robert C. Challener, MD
Mary Sheehan Counihan and
Peter J. Counihan, MD
Stephen C. Bruno, MD
Yvonne Ruoh Lei Chan, MD
Walter Coury
Janet Bryant
Manisha Chaudhary and Preet M.
Chaudhary, MD, PhD
Caryn and Sam Covelli
Brenda J. and Michael T. Buchart
82
Barry Maurice Chauser, MD
Sharon Norrine Cowden, MD,
and Jere L. Cowden
James J. Coyne, MD
Mary Jayne Becker Cramer and
William Glenn Cramer
Alida C. DeRubertis and
Frederick R. DeRubertis Jr., MD
Susan Criep De Santa-Cruz
Lowrie C. Ebbert
Kimberley Johnson Eberlein and
Timothy Joseph Eberlein, MD
Laura Lynne Cregan and Kevin M.
Cregan, MD
Thomas P. Detre, MD
Frank H. Dettore
Marion Bright Eck and
Walter E. Eck, MD
Albert A. Crimaldi, MD, PhD
Patricia B. and Paul I. Detwiler Jr.
Mary Ruth Sampson Eckman
Kathleen Nagy Crock and
Frederic W. Crock, MD
Susan Lea Deutsch, MD, and
Melvin Deutsch, MD
Barbara B. Eckstein
Barbara and Robert A. Crown
Kimberly A. and John J. DeWaal
Robert Henry Ehrhart, MD
David W. Croyder
Patricia Ann Dewar and
James C. Dewar
Susan and Eric Eichler
Stephanie Buck Dewar, MD, and
James C. Dewar Jr., MD
Pamela Abbott Eisner
Shirley Frost Diamond and
Martin Diamond, MD
Michael Emrick
John V. Cuff, MD
William Martin Curtin, MD
Zelda Curtiss
Diana L. and Ronald Samuel Cusano
Margaret Shadick Cyert
Elisa D. Harris and Ivo H. Daalder
Ornella Mary Dachille
Mildred Danch
William E. Danko, MD
Eileen D’Appolonia
Frances C. Dauber and
James H. Dauber, MD
‡Glorianne DiCola
Ruth D. Egler
Timothy Hammer Eisaman, MD
Sylvia M. and Norman L. Elias
Nina Encin
Marianne B. and John C. DiDonato
Perry H. Engstrom Jr., MD
William Stephen Dietrich II, Trustee
Donna and Brian Ennis
Gary Dille
Lana K. Ennis and Michael
Francis Ennis, MD
Gerald L. Dimmitt
Elaine A. Dively
Lee C. Dobler, MD
Barbara A. and Arnold M. Epstein
Marlene and Eugene Epstein
Eric R. Erlbaum, MD
Jamini Vincent Davies
Rita L. Doll
Malindi Davies
Janet O. and William Jacob Donahue
Kim G. Davis
Thomas R. Donahue
Sally A. Lysinger Evans and
Terry Lynn Evans, MD
Marian Ungar Davis
Jean W. Donaldson
Greg Ewing
Ada and Stanford P. Davis
Dr. Thomas Joseph Donohoe
James Richard Eynon, MD
Nancy Noel Davison and Thomas
Michael Davison, MD
Kathryn J. Olivier and Charles T. Dooly
Gloria L. and Michael Fader
Mr. and Mrs. Werner A. Dorig
Ralph A. Falbo Jr.
John Anthony Dawso
Susan S. and Roy G. Dorrance III
Jacob Chin-Gong Fan, MD
Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, Trustee,
and James C. Harris
Robert Henry Dorwart, MD
Lisa and Steven A. Fanelli
Harlan Neal Douglas, MD
Janet C. and Pasquale V. DeBlasio
Margaret W. and James R. Douglass
Mary Snider Farley and
Emerson D. Farley Jr., MD
Harakh Dedhia, MD
Sarah Downey
Jerrold Delaney
The Honorable and
Mrs. Michael F. Doyle
Rose Hammond Delaney, DrPH, and
John F. Delaney Jr., DrPH, MD
Beth A. Quill DelConte, MD, and
Anthony DelConte III, MD
Albert B. Deleo, PhD
Benjamin P. Dell
Geraldine W. Dellenback and
Dr. Robert J. Dellenback
Nancy B. and Peter V. Del Presto
Rita S. Deluzio and Vincent C.
Deluzio, Esq.
Debra Kline Demchak and
William S. Demchak
‡Dolores DeNardo and
Joseph W. DeNardo
Karen M. Esposito
Margot L. Watt and Sebastian W.
Fasanello
Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller
Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, and
Steven F. Feinstein
Karen L. and Joseph L. Druzak
Dennis Donald Ferguson, MD
Barbara J. Dull
Louise E. Ferguson and Albert B.
Ferguson Jr., MD
David Duncan
Anna and Edward Dunlap
Mary Jo and Terry Dunlap
Mary Lou and Richard E. Durr
‡Sally Hoffman Durrant, Esq., and
Robert Edwin Durrant, Esq.
Michael M. Dvorsky
Michael T. Dwyer III
Pam Dzialowski and Kenneth
Joseph Dzialowski, MD
Robert Howard Ferguson, MD
Lawrence Ferlan, MD
Emilio A. Fernandez
Arlene Butera Ferrante
Mary Ellen Ferri and William A.
Ferri Jr., MD
Jeffrey D. Ferris
Robert Louis Ferris, MD
Alan I. Fields, MD
Ellen H. and David L. DeNinno
Patricia K. Eagon, PhD
Julie Filipovich
Robert Dennis
Lisa Sawyer Earle and Martin F.
Earle, MD
Richard J. Finder, MD
Katherine B. and Armand DeRose
Caryn Fine, MD
83
Sheila R. and Milton Fine
Lisa and Stephen D. Gallagher
Lara L. Gorton
Janis W. Fink and Mitchell P.
Fink, MD
Dr. C. B. Gambrell
Kurt W. Gottschalk
Diane Therese Gowski, MD
Virginia M. and Richard L. Fischer
Mary Ganguli, MD, MPH, and
Rohan Ganguli, MD
Ann Yeager Fisher and Henry Fisher
Sandra J. and Alvaro Garcia-Tunon
Estate of Sarah F. Graf
Audrey Hillman Fisher and
Timothy O. Fisher
J. Henry Gardner
Irene W. and Thomas C. Graham
Michael Gaviser
E. Jacqueline and Guy W. Fiske
Joseph Mathew Gaydos Jr.
Jennifer Grandis, MD, and
Donald J. Grandis, MD
David R. Fitzsimmons
Mary Flahive
Marne B. Geller and
Dr. Peter B. Geller
Lauren S. Flannery
William Dean Genge
Bonnie E. Gray and
‡ Jonathan E. Gray
Jane C. and Michael J. Fleischauer
Anthony Fernardo Gentile, MD
Thomas B. Grealish
Christy Fleming
Jean Malinic Gentile, DMD, and
Gary George Gentile
Peter J. Greco
Carolyn H. Geraci and Anthony R.
Geraci, MD
Rita Martin Green
Kimberly and Curtis D. Fleming
Ellen Brockman and Robert S. Flug
Carol Ann Foley and Edward L.
Foley, MD
Donna L. and David A. Gerson
‡Elizabeth Graf, PhD
Eleanor Ruth Grant Trust
Bonnie Green
Jack O. Greenberg, MD
Patricia Greenhow
Susan Follansbee and William P.
Follansbee, MD
Sylvia M. and Benjamin H. Getty
Renée C. and Clarence Ford
Lawrence M. Gilford, MD
Robert W. Ford
Olive Lee Gilliand
Nancy J. and Clifford E. Forlines
Martha S. and James A. Gingrich
Wendy B. and Stephen A. Fornoff
Richard Mark Ginsburg, MD
Mary Josephine McKee Groppe and
Carl William Groppe Jr., MD
Tracy L. and J. Clifford Forrest
Joan Boby Gitlin, MD
Christine and Gerhard H. Gross
Susan and Mark P. Gitomer
Barry Grubbs
Lee Byron Foster II, Trustee, and
Isabel Foster
Lisa and Paul Giusti
Allen J. Grubman
Lewis Glasser, MD
James R. Grundtisch
Elliott Foucar, MD
Frances R. and James E. Glick
Lawrence N. Gumberg
Jodi L. and Stephen T. Fowler
Daniel Glosser
I. Ronald Fox, MD
Robert Joel Gluckman, MD
Marcia Morgan Gumberg and
‡ Stanley R. Gumberg
Robert I. Fragasso
J. Roger Glunt, Trustee, and
Lee Glunt
Nilakshi Gupta, MD
Michael S. Francis
Paul Francis, MD
John Joseph Godleski, MD
Sara and Alan R. Guttman
Barbara E. Frates
Carlotta M. Goetz
Ralph J. Guzzo Sr.
Thomas and Patricia Frauenheim
Emily J. and Richard J. Goldberg
Joel Edward Haas, MD
Christina C. Friday and Gilbert A.
Friday, MD
Sally Weigler Golden and
Thomas B. Golden Jr.
Gregory S. Haberland
Cynthia Aberman Friedman
Mark Richard Friedman, MD
Susan Pachtman Goldman and
J. P. Goldman
Lucynda R. and Henry L. Friel Jr.
Stanley H. Goldmann
Lynn Hudson Hale and Wayne
Andrew Hale, MD
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas P. Frizzell
Lillian and Kenneth Goldsmith
Thomas E. Hales
John J. Fromen Jr., Esq.
Jane and Neil Golub
Vicki B. Hall
Allison Fromm
Paul Gongaware
Anthony Halli
Hilda Pang Fu and
Freddie H.K. Fu, MD
Ellen R. Goodman
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard J. Hamilton
Sandra Green Goodman and
Lee S. Goodman
L. Malcolm Hamilton
Margaret Baldwin Conroy and
Adam Joseph Gordon, MD
Carol D. Hamilton and S. Sutton
Hamilton, MD
Shadely and Robert A. Gordon
Dr. John Hampton
Katie and Tucker Gordon
Jennifer L. and John M. Hanley
Ruth A. Modzelewski, PhD, and
Michael C. Gorry
Mary Forbes Hanna and
‡ Dwight C. Hanna III, MD
‡John Fortney
Frank B. Fuhrer Jr.
Kathryn Ann Fuhrer
Robert Scott Furman, MD
Jill Fusaro
Barbara A. Gaines
Richard C. Galiardo
84
Lesley Irene Gilbertson, MD
Alan Greg Greenwald, MD
Mary Jane and Carl G. Grefenstette
Sara Margaret Bradley, MD, and
Jeffrey R. Grieb
Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Gustafson
Margaret C. Hagberg, MD, and
William C. Hagberg, MD
Nancy Hamilton
Gretchen Seitz Hansen
Meredith and Kenneth S. Hilton
Bernadette Frances Jabour, DO
Loretta L. and Thomas M. Hanwell
Charles B. Hintz
Lori Z. and Thomas M. Hardiman
Stanley A. Hirsch, MD
Irene S. Jackson and James Fraser
Jackson, MD
Wilma Harkins and Hugh H.
Harkins, MD
Jean Hitchcock and John
Hitchcock, MD
Timothy D. Jacob, MD
Duilla Puckett Harkins and
Paul Duane Harkins, MD
William A. Hite
Jean and Samuel Jacobs, MD
Jeremy T. Harper
JoAnn Virginia Narduzzi, MD, and
James D. Hockenberry
Sandra L. Jaeger and Edward A.
Jaeger, MD
John L. Harrington, MD
John Andrew Hodak, MD
Dana and Franco Harris
Ulton G. Hodgin Jr., MD
Joyce Swartz Janeway and
Timothy Janeway, MD
C. Scott Harrison, MD
Robert M. Hoffman
Gineen A. Jarnevich
Timothy Paul Hart, MD
Cecilia McCartney Hofmann and
Douglas Joseph Hofmann, MD
Cecelia S. and Frank G. Jaworowski
David Jacobs, MD
Mary A. and George H. Hogarty
Rosemarie Conte Jew and
Edward Walter Jew Jr.
Caryn Hasselbring, MD
Susan S. Hogarty
Eugene C. Johnson
Lathe Haynes, PhD
Kathleen N. and Lawrence P. Holleran
Deborah B. and Milford L. Hazlet
Laybn Hollis
LaVonne Corley Johnson and
Glen Johnson
Londa and Grayson G. Heard
Brenda F. and Gary S. Holter
Brockton J. Hefflin, MD
Sy M. Holzer, Trustee, and
Cathy E. Holzer
Peggy B. Hasley, MD, and
Stephen Kinneman Hasley, MD
Ruth Champlin Hefflin
Geraldine M. Heibel and
Richard Herman Heibel, MD
Elmer J. Holzinger, MD
Audrey Heidenreich and
Fred P. Heidenreich, MD
Anthony Horbal
Edward William Heinle Jr., MD
Robert F. Horsch, MD
Sherry Marks Hellman and
Martin Gary Hellman, MD
Harriette Mathilda Horst, MD
‡Theodore R. Helmbold, MD
Stephen Randall Holzman, MD
Thomas O. Hornstein
Jean L. Hort
Julie K. Johnson
Barbara C. and Lee Johnson
Sarah H. and Lewis K. Johnson
Gail Olitzky Johnson and
Robert Riley Johnson, MD
Susan J. Johnson
Derlie and Fred B. Johnston II
Gerald Samuel Johnston, MD
Susan S. Johnston and Michael V.
Johnston, MD
Marilyn S. Johnstone and
Graham Findlay Johnstone, MD
Heidi and Robert E. Heltzel
Janice L. Horwitz and Raymond L.
Horwitz, MD
Jane and James R. Helvey III
Thomas B. Hotopp
Barbara K. Hench and
‡ P. Kahler Hench, MD
Margaret Ferry Houston, Esq., and
John D. Houston II
Jeffrey Lloyd Hendel, MD
Susan W. and W. D. Howell
Roberta E. Bauer Henkel, MD
Lori Sobel Jubelirer and Brad Allen
Jubelirer, MD
John W. Hoyt, MD
Sarah J. and C. Talbot Heppenstall Jr.
Kevin David Judy, MD
Joan R. Huber
Harriet L. Herberman and
Ronald B. Herberman, MD
Diane and John B. Juve
Howard L. Hudson, MD
Sharona and Richard Juve
Samuel Lawrence Huey
Walter H. Juve
Lynn M. and Steven J. Hughes
Warren T. Kable Jr., MD
Rebecca Prevost Hughey, PhD, and
Charles Douglass Hughey, PhD
A. Richard Kacin
Howard Herberman, MD
Sheila Herberman
Peter John Karlovich Jr. and
Steven R. Herforth
Susan S. Hershenson and
Lee M. Hershenson, MD
Ellen and Warren Hulnick, DDS
Richard A. Hundley
Clyde B. Jones III
‡David William Jones, MD
Davis Benton Jones III, MD
Sharon and James S. Kaczynski
Gwen A. and George Kaftan
Isabelle Hertig, MD
Myrna S. Hundstad
Gayle Tissue and Yiannis
Kaloyeropoulos
Susan B. and David H. Hicks
Stephen Warren Hunt III, PhD
Suneet Kamath
Dawne S. Hickton, Esq., Trustee,
and David J. Hickton, Esq.
Hollis T. Hurd
Elaine Scheiner Kamil, MD, and
Ivan J. Kamil, MD
Tracy G. and J. Craig Hill
Elizabeth A.Q. Huwar and Bryan
Dylan Huwar, Esq.
Carole and Daniel G. Kamin
Maya Singh Hyland and
William S. Hyland
Elizabeth C. and Robert W.
Kampmeinert
Calvin IIda, MD, PhD
Timothy L. Kane
Mary Lee and Joe R. Irwin
Robin Kanselbaum
Margaret M. Hill and Jack B. Hill, MD
Shirley Y. Hill, PhD
Mary L. and Thomas M. Hill
Shirley Hillegass
William Talbott Hillman
Eugene Hunter Hurst III
Robert J. Kaminski, MD
Dana Ellen and Larry S. Ivanco
85
Diane M. Faust and Barry C.
Lembersky, MD
Marianne Kanzius and
‡ John Kanzius
Richard P. Krieger
John Steven Karduck, MD
Patricia Dowley Kroboth, PhD, and
Frank J. Kroboth, MD
Randolph D. Lerner, Esq.
Francine Stein and Samuel S.
Kasoff, MD
Pamela and Scott Kroh
Alan David Levenson
Nancy Joan and Edward M. Krokosky
Linda and Frank Kass
Debra Caplan Levenson and
David Jeffrey Levenson, MD
Michele I. Kass
Muriel E. Kropelin and James J.
Kropelin, MD
Greta Kassam and Amin Kassam, MD
Carol A. and Leland H. Krotzer
Robert C. Levin
Patricia J. and William Kassling
Beth E. and Michael R. Kuhn
Sally M. Levin
Neil Matthew Kassman, MD
Cynthia Roth and James Vachon
Kunkel, MD
Ruth E. Levine and
Rita Karp
David Leland Katz, MD
John Daryl Kristofic, MD
Barbara K. LeStage
Sandra and Mark Levin
Nancy R. and John H. Kunkle Jr.
Barry Levine
Sally E. Kay
George Kurtanich
Claire and Lawrence Levine
Amy M. and Dennis J. Kelleher
Stephen C. Kusen
Lois Galtz Levy
Charles Francis Kelley Jr., MD
Olabisi Olajuyin Kuye, MD
Samuel Levy
Kimberly Kelley and Edward Sean
Kelley, MD
Linda B. Kuzon and William M.
Kuzon, MD, PhD
Stanley Hurwick Levy, MD
James E. Kelly, Esq.
Thomas A. Labert
Seena Goldman Lewine and
Robert A. Lewine, MD
Nancy and Donald R. Kennedy
Susan Pace and Jeffrey Labovitz
Anne Lewis
Margaret Ann Kennedy and
Francis B. Kennedy, MD
Sheri S. Labovitz, Esq., and
Steven Jay Labovitz, Esq.
David A. Lewis, MD
Nancy E. Davidson, MD, and
Thomas Kensler, PhD
Rebecca Lahniche
Julia S. and Scott A. Lewis
Margaret S. Lally, MD
Sebastian Lewis
Susan Lynne Kerr, MD
Paul David Laman, MD
Barbara Ann Kerwin, MD
Susan and Scott M. Lammie
Barbara Barnes, MD, MS, and
Richard Ley
Patricia A. Kettering and Donald L.
Kettering, MD
Frances S. Lancaster and
Stewart L. Lancaster, MD
Gauri J. Kiefer, MD, and Jan F. Keifer
Michael Jay Landay, MD
L. Robert Kimball
Rhonda K. B. Landis, PhD, and
Timothy Donald Landis, MD
Kerry J. and David Liles
Margaret Ann and Maxwell E. King
Mary Rita King
Alyson and Kenneth Lane
Linda Sue and Eric Limbach
Kathryn U. and Cary H. Klein
Ann Marie Langerholc
Carol and Mark Limbach
Anne Marie Czyz-Klemens, DMD
and Lee James Klemens, MD
Mary C. and William B. Larkin
Agnes Alice Lina, MD
Valerie K. Larson and Arthur King
Larson, MD
Judith and Ronald Linaburg
‡Virginia Kaufman
Barbara Kleyman and Thomas Ralph
Kleyman, MD
Robert J. Lewis
Nancy and Henry M. Liao
Cynthia P. Liefeld, PhD, and
Paul Albert Liefeld, MD
Brian Limbach
Mary Laska
Elizabeth R. Linhart and
‡ William O. Linhart Jr., MD
Anthony Eloy Kline, PhD
Timothy S. Laux
Marion N. and Anthony M. Liotta
Howard Allan Klions, MD
Mark R. Leadbetter, MD
Rebecca Lipman
Esther Klionsky and Bernard
Klionsky, MD
Christi L. Lebak
Kevin Leckenby
Shelley Lipton, PhD, and
Jeffrey Marc Lipton
Donna Winovich Knisley and
Eric Franz Knisley
Patricia and Thomas LeClere
Gordon Lisker
Alberta M. Lee
Frank Liu
Byeong Chel Lee, PhD
Shelby and Russell Livingston
Sharon Lee and Kenneth K.W. Lee, MD
Mary M. Lee
Penny Loeb, MD, and
John M. Loeb, MD
Michael H. Lee
Howard Loevner
Kathleen M. Lee and Robert E. Lee, MD
Catherine and Mark H. Loevner
Freya Elizabeth Hory Lee, PhD, and
William Lee, MD
Virginia C. and James R. Loftis Sr.
Paul E. Lego, Trustee, and
Ann Sepety Lego
Anna Lokshin, PhD
Rex W. Knisley
Koch Family
Valerie R. Koch
Denise Marie Kochanek and
Patrick M. Kochanek, MD
Beth Ann Hellerstedt, MD, and
Darren Kocs, MD
Karen Lyn and Tyler Kohn
John Francis Kraus, MD
Janet and Karl F. Krieger
86
Terri and Timothy Logan
Richard Raizman, MD, (top right) and colleague
Tsetan Sadutshang, MD, MPH, (left) talk with a patient
at a clinic in Bir, Northern India.
The Raizmans’ Path
D
orothy Raizman always knew that life
with her husband, Richard Raizman, MD,
would be interesting. Early in their
marriage, after Dr. Raizman’s third year
at the University of Pittsburgh School
of Medicine, she accompanied him to Jamaica, where
he worked as the sole physician in a small town
called Junction. He was there under the auspices of
Frances “Penna” Drew, MD, of Pitt’s then Department
of Community Medicine and sponsored by a public
health fellowship. “We lived in a 10-by-10 room in
a farmhouse with a pig outside our window,” says
Mrs. Raizman. “Patients paid 20 cents to see Richie.
People walked for miles to the clinic, carrying
Coke bottles containing their urine samples.”
Equipped with only a stethoscope, Dr. Raizman
honed his physical diagnosis skills. On Wednesday
evenings, he held a men-only clinic where he played
Elvis Presley tunes on his guitar in an effort to entice
the young men and convince them to bring friends
to undergo testing and treatment for gonorrhea — all to the sounds of rock ‘n roll. He never left until the
last patient was seen. “The whole experience gave
him a sense of being a physician, and it was a thrilling
to watch him,” Mrs. Raizman says.
The Raizmans’ experience in Jamaica speaks
to the kind of doctor Richard was. His desire to serve
patients led to his developing, with his colleague,
Frank Costa, MD, one of the first outpatient surgical
centers in Western Pennsylvania (Dr. Raizman, a
gastroenterologist, believed that procedures like
endoscopies and colonoscopies were easier on
patients if they happened somewhere other than
in a hospital but in a place that could still offer
anesthesia and patient monitoring).
Dr. Raizman’s love of helping people in
developing nations led him to work with Tibetan
refugees in Dharamsala, India. He volunteered his
medical services and met and taught the art of
endoscopy to the Dalai Lama’s physician, Tsetan
Sadutshang, MD, MPH, with whom he formed
a deep and lasting friendship.
“The first time he traveled to Dharamsala, he
arrived at the airport in Delhi at 2 a.m. and was led
to an airplane that looked like a museum exhibit,”
Mrs. Raizman recalls. “He boarded reluctantly but
was more confident when a party of monks, led by
Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, boarded. All went
well from there.”
In subsequent trips, he visited monasteries
in the south of India and near the border with
Pakistan, each time identifying and treating patients’
ailments and taking biopsies, which were evaluated
for him at UPMC and used as the basis for subsequent
treatment. He passed on his love and knowledge of
working in other countries to medical students at
Pitt — where he sat on the Board of Visitors and was
a clinical professor of medicine — by supporting an
Area of Concentration in Global Health in the
School of Medicine.
The Raizmans created a scholarship for medical
students and made a gift to the medical library. Then,
Arthur S. Levine, MD, Pitt’s senior vice chancellor for
the health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine,
proposed a gift that addressed Dr. Raizman’s desire
to both give to Pitt and address issues specific to
developing nations — a vaccine research and discovery
lab in Pitt’s Biomedical Science Tower 3.
In addition to giving to Pitt, Dr. Raizman took
up polo and began Polo for the Cure, which raised
more than $1 million for the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society. True to his liberal arts background (a rarity in
his med school class), Dr. Raizman was both a reader
and a writer (he read history voraciously and wrote
short stories and poetry), as well as a builder
of model ships and a home carpenter.
Dr. Raizman was diagnosed with neuroendocrine
cancer and cared for by Kenneth K.W. Lee, MD, and
J. Wallis Marsh, MD, both in Pitt’s Department of
Surgery, who relieved him from cancer for years at
a time so he could continue the medical work he
loved so much and live an active, full life. Mrs. Raizman,
in fulfillment of her husband’s wishes as well as her
own, has arranged for a planned gift to the School
of Medicine to establish an endowed chair in the
Department of Surgery honoring Dr. Marsh.
Dr. Raizman died of neuroendocrine cancer
in late 2009 and left his family, medical community,
and friends around the world with cherished memories — none more so than Dorothy, his wife of 42 years.
“My husband could not be still,” she says. “He directed
his energies to that which he cherished — his profession
and humanism in all its forms.”
87
Linda M. Cadaret, MD, and
Barry London, MD, PhD
Alvin Markovitz, MD
Debra S. Marks
Anne Bahr McConnel and
William O. McConnel
Deborah C. and Dewey L. Long
Stanley M. Marks, MD
Tracy and Ted H. McCourtney
Mary and Ronald E. Long
Grace F. and Kevin J. Markum
Leah M. McCullough
Joan Harvey, MD, and Michael T.
Lotze, MD
Frank Irwin Marlowe, MD
Andrea K. and Jerry M. McCutcheon
John Charles Marous Jr., Trustee,
and Lucine O’Brien Marous
Michelle M. McDermott
Jane V. and Howard M. Love
Diana Love and J. Robert
Love, MD, MSci
Helen B. and Curtis R. Marquard
Dr. Joseph V. McDonald
Mignon J. and Waldemar J. Love
Marian K. Marquis, MD, and
William Edward Marquis
Robert H. McDonald Jr., MD
Donald J. Lovre
Barbara F. and Bernard Mars
Mary C. and William M. Lowry
Audrey A. and Gerald E. McGinnis
Peter Mars
Jane Love McGraw and James H.
McGraw IV
‡Miriam Erlich Lubow and
‡ Harry Lubow, MD
Amy Krueger Marsh and
F. Joseph Marsh
John W. McDonald Jr.
Barbara S. and William M. McGee
Annette M. and Gary R. Luchini
Joan Marshall
Carol Zord McGrevin and
Gene R. McGrevin
Lynn and Robert V.D. Luft
Sheldon Marstine
Harriet G. McGuire
Bradley Rene Martin, MD
Christine Louise McHenry, MD, MATS
Jacqueline A. and David Martin
Consuelo H. McHugh
Douglas J. Martin, MD
Timothy A. McHugh, MD
Virginia M. Martin and William
Thomas Martin, MD
Linda and David McKamish
‡Clara Luitz
Christine Luketich and James D.
Luketich, MD
Niels Lund, MD
Julianne M. Lunsford and
L. Dade Lunsford, MD
F. L. Lunson
Mrs. Josephine B. Martinez
Julie S. McLaughlin and Mark R.
McLaughlin, MD
Sherwood S. Lutz
Gail Reede Jones, MD, and
Mr. Jesse Mason
Martha H. McLaurin
Samuel S. Lyness, MD
Myrna and Mark Mason
Anne and John Maaghul
Lynn Marie McMahon
Darlene and Jack Mascaro
Kathryn L. Macielak and
James Rudolph Macielak, MD
Alina Sanson Massaro and
Joseph A. Massaro III
Kathleen K. McMillen and
Robert E. McMillen, MD
Marjorie L. Maclachlan and
William W.G. Maclachlan, MD
Carolyn and Joseph Massaro
Doreen Ann and John L. MacMillan
Jerry Brian Magone, MD
Lisa S. and John F. Magoun
‡Ruth Snyder Masters, MD
Barbara A. Mateer, Penny Mateer,
and John Mateer
‡Norman G. Mathieson, MD
Deborah D. McMahon, MD
‡Jane Dee McNamara
Kathleen Welsh McSorley and
David McSorley
Jeri and Michael Medress
Anne R. Medsger and Thomas A.
Medsger Jr., MD
Reena Mahal and Baljeet S. Mahal, MD
Peter F. Mathieson
Withrow W. Meeker
John Francis Mahoney, MD
Susan M. and Geraldo John Matos
David W. Mehlman
Silva Arslanian-Makaroun, MD, and
Michel S. Makaroun, MD
David Michael Matter
Hagai Meirovitch, PhD
John Thomas Matthews III, MD
Linda S. Serody and Alan Meisel
Jean-Pierre Maurandy
Ray Mekis
Raymond J. Mauro
John W. Mellors, MD
Jane B. Maxwell
Stephanie Wolk Mendel
Rebekah Mazariegos and
George V. Mazariegos, MD
Emily Solomon Mendelson
Frederick S. McAlpine, MD
Patricia R. and Raymond Merena
Clyde Edward McAuley, MD
Mr. and Mrs. Michael M. Metz
Jackson Howard McCarter, MD
Beth and Robert W. Meyer
David E. Malehorn, PhD
Albert Malhmood
Sharon Malley
Stephanie F. Mallinger and
Bernard Mallinger, OD
Nancy and David J. Malone
Richard Weaver Maloney, MD
Carole J. Mankin and Henry J.
Mankin, MD
Barbara S. Mendlowitz
Julia Rose Fielding, MD, and
Keith Pinkney Mankin, MD
Janet M. and Dennis C. McCarthy
Richard M. Mann, MD
Bruce A. McClane, PhD
Don F. Manns
A. Gregory McClure, MD
Philip J. Migliore, MD
Barry Edward Marchetto, MD
Kathryn Kraus, MD, and Jonathan
Knight McClure, MD
Enrico Mihich, MD
Marsha Davis Marcus, PhD, and
Bernard David Marcus
88
Edward J. McClain Jr., MD
Leslie Merrill McCombs
Kate Meyers and James Meyers, MD
‡Jean Kaiser Migliorato, MD,
and Dominic Migliorato
Catherine P. Miklos and
‡ Bernard George Miklos, MD
Dr. Bonnie L. Milas and
Leo Joseph Milas
Patricia A. Petrick, MD, and
William W. Mullins Jr., MD
Patricia L. and Philip W. Osborne
Douglas Millar
Dr. Marie R. Baldisseri and
Srinivas Murali, MD
Jonathan Ostroff
Victoria Dunaevsky, MD, and
Andrew D. Miller, MD
Cedric B. Miller, MD
Mr. and Mrs. Albert C. Muse
Thaddeus A. Osial Jr., MD
Saundra K. and Eugene J. O’Sullivan
John Edward Ott, MD
Linda Perlstein and John Miller
Norma Jane Duncan Musgrave and
Ross H. Musgrave, MD
Kevin Miller
Michelle and Darell Myers
Kit and Arnold Palmer
Thomas Kevin Miller, MD
Lou René Myers and
‡ Gilbert Bradford Myers, MD
Cathie M. and Raymond L. Palmer
Tim Alan Miller, MD
Laura Anne Pallan, MD
Susanne M. Gollin, PhD, MS, and
Lazar M. Palnick
Marie F. and Arthur D. Miltenberger
Marlee S. Myers, Esq., Trustee, and
James R. Myers
Frances Fraher Minno, Esq., and
‡ Alexander M. Minno, MD
Barbara Deutsch Nadel and
Alan Marc Nadel, MD
Mary Panitch and Howard Barry
Panitch, MD
Mary J. Nagel and John Robert
Nagel, MD
Louis A. Paonessa
Janet Lynn Misko
Joan W. and Thomas E. Mistler
Shana Robbins Neel
Paul M. Paris, MD
Nancy M. and Paul H. Mitchell
Janet Rae Nelson
David Parizer
Thomas Anthony Modesto, MD
Mr. and Mrs. Danny Kevin Park
Lester R. Mohler, MD
Dana Schaer Nestel and
Daniel A. Nestel
Rich R. Molcany
James Allan Newcomb, MD
Rudy Molnar
Barbara Deriso, MD, and
Donald H. Newman
‡Joseph Vincent Mirenda, MD
Susan and Steven L. Monteverde
Ruth M. and Edison Montgomery
Kim and Jeffrey L. Moody
Tracy Marie Moore, MD, and
Jason E. Moore
Margaret Palumbo
Vicki Parada
Michelle R. and Adam S. Parker
Lisa and Mark Pasquerilla
Maya S. Patel and Subodh G. Patel, MD
Patrick Newton
David Brice Patrick, MD
Jean Swope Nickeson
Susan and Alan Patricof
Sandra and Clark Nicklas
Kathleen and Demetrios T. Patrinos
Laura J. Niedernhofer, MD, PhD
Jeannette South-Paul, MD, and
Michael D. Paul, MD
Billee Gambill Moore and
John H. Moore, MD
Theresa L. Whiteside, PhD, and
‡ Thomas H. Nimick Jr.
Yuan Chang, MD, and Patrick S.
Moore, MD, MPH
Eliot and Wilson Nolen
Frank H. Pearl
Marjorie J. Nord and
Roland E. Nord, MD
Barbara B. Pearson
Beatrice and Samuel Moore
Delynne J. Myers, MD, and John
Jefferson Moossy, MD
Michael Francis Moran
Flo Mae Moravitz and
‡ Stanley Moravitz
Jerald A. Moreton
Beth Edwards Morgan and
‡ W. H. Morgan
Devra Lee Davis, PhD, and
Richard D. Morgenstern, PhD
Janet and Donald I. Moritz
Diane L. Moritz and Michael
Joseph Moritz, MD
Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, JD,
Trustee, and Nikki Pirillo
Nordenberg, PhD
Suzanne O. Paul and Richard Paul, MD
Margaret Mary Mateer and
John R. Pearson
Laure Croisille Peault, MD, PhD
Carrie Elderkin Pecci and Gene Pecci
Sharon Wilson Nystrom and
Joel Erik Nystrom, MD
Donna Lucas, MD, and Ronald V.
Pellegrini, MD
Jeff Oberg
Mr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Pepples Jr.
David Lee Obley, MD
Alfred A. Perfett, MD
Thomas J. O’Brien and
George A. Griffith
Perlow Family
Elaine Pauley Oddis and Chester
Vincent Oddis, MD
Margaret Hall Offenbach and
Jack Offenbach
Dolores Nejak Perri and
John A. Perri, MD
Anita and Tony Perricelli
Dino S. Persio
Margaret Okonak
D.N. and Solon A. Person III
Joanne R. Oleck, MD
Gertrude and John Petersen
Lois A. Pounds Oliver, MD
Anne Marie and William B. Petersen
James A. Olsen
William A. Petit Jr., MD
Eric C. Olson
Carolyn N. Pfefferle
Nancy T. and Carl R. Moulton
Phyllis J. Olson
William C. Pfischner Jr., MD
Dennis Mrdjenovich
Sally Ann Johnson O’Malley and
Bert William O’Malley, MD
Linda P. and Kenneth R. Piercy
Brian J. O’Mara
Anne M. Pilewski and Joseph M.
Pilewski, MD
Constance T. and Bruce W. Morrison
Perry and Bee Jee Morrison
Faye and Dennis D. Mosco
Marlene R. Moster, MD, and
Mark Moster, MD
Ernest J. Mrozek
Donald M. Mrvos, MD
Mark B. Orringer, MD
Paul W. Pifer, MD
89
Wendy L. and Darryl E. Pingor
Lillian Spang Rath
Preeti and Ivan Pinto
Marilyn Rattner
Sharon Semenza and
William Robinson
Beth Holly Piraino, MD, and
Paul Martin Piraino
Raymond S. Raveglia
Janet C. Rocco
Lucile T. Rawson and Ian Grant
Rawson, PhD
Judith T. and Paul Andrew Rockar Jr.
Sally and John Pirris
John Pitarresi
Maria and Fred P. Raymond
Jane Roesch
William H. Pitts, MD
James Irving Raymond, MD
Ann A. Rogers
Mikhail Pivtoraiko
Brian John Rayne
Paul L. Rogers, MD
Diane Marie and Michael P. Pochron
Leslie and Mark E. Re
Cynthia L. Poknis
Sandra B. Rogers and
‡ Robert M. Rogers, MD
Rosalie Barsotti and Tony Poli
Paula M. Ferkull and Walter M.
Rebovich
Bruce Edward Pollock, MD
Alexa and Mark Recchi
Brian Ponty
Susan H. Redfield and John Alden
Redfield, PhD
Barbara G. Poolos and
C. James Poolos, MD
Kristy Sampson Rodriguez
Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey A. Romoff
Patricia Regan Rooney and
Daniel M. Rooney
Daniel L. Root
Geoffrey Porges
Mary Jane Reed, MD
Barbara M. Rosenbach and
Loren M. Rosenbach, MD
Margaret V. Ragni, MD, MPH, and
Frederick L. Porkolab, MD
Candy and John C. Regan
Joyce Rosenbaum
Donna Marie and Anthony C. Rego
Linda and James P. Rosenbloom
Dr. and Mrs. Everett Francis Porter
Thomas Merrill Reich
David Leonard Rosenfeld, MD
Helen and Henry Posner
Frances Finn Reichl, PhD, and
Eric H. Reichl
Louisa S. Rosenthal
Marsha M. Reichle
Ellen Ascherman Roth, PhD, and
Loren H. Roth, MD, MPH
Janet M. Potter and Robert H.
Potter, MD
Cavan M. Redmond
Lou Ann and Gregory D. Ross
Stephen R. Powers
Louise Reigh and Ernest E. Reigh, MD
Veronica McClay Pratt, MD
Scott Curtis Reinhart, MD
Richard F. Prince
Oscar M. Reinmuth, MD
Jo Ann Scubelek-Prushinski
Leo A. Ressa
Janet P. Pry
James Caldwell Rex Jr., MD
Edward Vincent Puccio, MD
Kristen and Richard J. Reynolds
Farrell Rubenstein, Trustee, and
Nancy Rubenstein
Sally and Bryan S. Putt
Barry Richard Reznick, MD
Dorothy Duncan Ruhe
Joann Hawkins Queenan and
C. J. Queenan Jr.
Judith and Russell Riben
Kathleen M. Ruiz
Margaret Rice
Donald H. Quint, MD
Margaret S. and Robert G. Runnette
James H. Rice
Mindy Goldstein Rabinowitz and
Jay Steven Rabinowitz, MD
Judy Ruskin and Stanley C. Ruskin
Betty Sue and Larry Rich
Alan J. Russell, PhD
Ronald Rabinowitz, MD
‡Miriam Renton Richards
Diane Dick Rowe and
Clifford Ray Rowe Jr.
Nancy Rozendal
Jeffrey Rubenstein
Cindy and Andrew Russell
Anthony Ricottone, MD
Jane Curle Rust and James O. Rust
Sharon A. Riddler, MD
Abby and Reid Ruttenberg
Jonathan S. Raclin
Carol J. and Patrick R. Riley
Carita H. Ryburn
Joseph Radic
Carl L. Rinaldi
Gary E. Ryker
Beth Rahko and Peter S. Rahko, MD
Beth Ann Day and Benjamin Rinzler
David Lee Sanford Ryon, MD
Dorothy Lowenthal Raizman, Esq.,
and ‡ Richard Eric Raizman, MD
Mona and Robert W. Riordan
Richard J. Saab, MD
Ellen and Arnie Rissman
Antonio Sacconaghi
Rosemarie M. Rajasenan and
Kiran K. Rajasenan, MD
Peter D. Ritter
Ester M. Saghafi
Shankar Ramchandran, PhD
Jennifer G. Gotto, MD, and
Mark Roberts, MD
Drs. Lois J. and Jurg X. Saladin
Sidney Graydon Ranck Jr., MD
Marc B. Robertshaw
Robert Peter Randall, Trustee, and
Rita M. Randall
Tara A. and Bryan J. Robertson
Paula Milner Rachelefsky and
Marvin Alan Rachelefsky, MD
Barbara Burnham Rankin and
Fred Martin Rankin III
E. Annette Robertson, MD, and
John Joseph Robertson, MD
Joseph Salkowitz, DMD
Adrian A. Salmon
Martin Salomon
Marc Alan Saltzman, MD
Mavis Jean and Norman Robertson
Anne F. Sampson
David Rath
Stephen G. Robinson
Kim and Ben Sampson
Diana Mrvos Rath and
Frank Eugene Rath Jr.
Sylvia and Donald M. Robinson
J. Faye Sampson
90
Pablo Jose Sanchez, MD
Michael L. Santella, PhD
Robert W. Santillo
Athena Sarris and
‡ Frank Sarris
Salvatore J. Savarino
Janice Marie Savinis
Teresa M. Savolskis
Frances Bartosiewicz Saxon and
George E. Saxon Sr.
Dr. John Joseph Schaefer III
Marion Weinman Schafer and
Irwin A. Schafer, MD
Joanne A. Schaub and
David Harry Schaub, MD
Mikell and A. William Schenck III
Jodi Segal Sherber, MD, and
Aaron Sherber
Kenneth James Spangler
Gene Victor Sherman, MD
Elaine Specter, Esq., and
Howard Alan Specter, Esq.
Patricia M. Sherry and Michael
McClain Sherry, MD
Cynthia Maher Shestak and
Kenneth C. Shestak, MD
Balu B. Shetty
Suzanne W. Shilling and Jack
Walther Shilling, PhD
Elizabeth A. and Eric A. Shiring
Josephine Ollu Shively and
John G. Shively, MD
Ivan A. Shulman, MD
‡Sherman H. Siegel
Angela More Scherder and
Edward Anthony Scherder, DMD
Patricia L. and Alan L. Siger
Nancy Bernstein and Robert E.
Schoen, MD, MPH
Ben Silverman
Melvin Jay Schorin, MD
Virginia and Richard Simmons
Bonita D. Schultz and Edward D.
Schultz, MD
Karen Shakoske and Henry Simonds
Daniel G. Schultz, MD
‡Maxine W. Schultz
Nancy McGuire Schwab
Robert Louis Sciulli, MD
Allan G. Scott, MD
Evelyn Steranka Scott, MD, and
Craig H. Scott, MD
Marilyn Scott and
‡ John Harvey Scott, MD
Meg and Gregg Searle
Bonnie Seaton
Laura Jean Sill and David C. Sill, MD
Joseph S. Silverman, MD
Juliet Hillman Simonds
Gayle and William H. Simpson
Gurmukh Singh, MD, PhD, MBA
Elizabeth C.B. and Paul G. Sittenfeld
Diane Mary Sixsmith, MD
Jeffrey Wayne Spear, Esq.
A. Lawrence Spencer
C. N. Spencer
Mary Jo and Frank M. Spinola
Pamela L. Sprague
Marie and Kevin J. St. Pierre
Diane Dalton Stajduhar and
Karl Conrad Stajduhar, MD
Patricia D. and John A. Staley IV
Christine Stanko
Marisa Schmitt Steele, MD
Paulette Paulakos Stefanik and
David Francis Stefanik, MD
Frank C. Steffan
Lorene and Ronald C. Steffes
Herbert Stein, MD
Barbara J. and Louis A. Steiner
Sharon and Adam Steinfurth
Teresa Marie Steinkirchner, MD
Deborah Shapira and Barry Stern, PhD
Michael A. Stevens, MD
Andrew Fyfe Stewart, MD
Richard V. Skibbens, MD
Marcia Stewart and Mervin S.
Stewart, MD
Mary Gluth Skubak and
Richard Skubak
Mary N. Stewart
Sharon L. and Robert F. Slagle
Jewel M. Slepchuk
‡Charles R. Sloan, MD
Denise M. Stilley
Lavina J. and Glenn E. Stinson
Deborah M. and Gregory A. Storch
H. Donald Stork
Mary Kay Sedlacek
Carol Ann Slomski, MD
Darcy L. Sefer
Robert Nathan Slotnick, MD, PhD
Elizabeth Segel and David P. Segel, MD
Nancy L. and James Smail
Tracy and Evan J. Segal
William E. Smeal, MD
Susan L. Seigel and Charles J.
Seigel, MD
Bradford Davison Smith Jr., MD
Stewart Sell, MD
Jeanette Niemeyer Smith and
Jan D. Smith, MD
Nancy Nan-Szu Sun, MD
Robert A. Sendall
Katherine A. Servich
Daria N. and R. Mark Smith
Robert John Swansiger, MD
Pat Shaffer and Theodore N. Shaffer
Stephen Helmle Smith, PhD
Cindy L. and David P. Swanson
Joan D. Shanahan
Sally M. and Lee F. Snyder
Jennifer Swanson
Christine and Thomas Shapero
Rebecca C. Snyder
Michael D. Swanson, MD
William Guy Sharra, MD
William I. Snyder
Marcia H. and Perry R. Swanson
Diana Kay Lemley, MD, and
Paul Larew Shay, MD
Irvin Quick Sobel, MD
Nancy M. Swensen, MD, and
Harold E. Swensen, MD
Barbara and Herbert Shear
Martin D. Sokoll, MD
Finbar Sheehy
Lenette M. Solano and Francis X.
Solano Jr., MD
Gracia Sheptak and Peter E.
Sheptak, MD
James W. Smith Jr., MD
Judith Soberman, MD
Nancy Story Somers, MD
Jean C. and Charles J. Stout
Carol A. Strausbaugh
Kimberly Williams Streiff and
John Joseph Streiff Jr., MD
Victoria D. and Daniel Joseph
Sullivan III
Mark Surles
Richard W. Sweringen
‡Charles M. Swindler Jr., MD
Evelyn Oshinsky Talbott, DrPH, and
John B. Talbott, MD
Raymond V. Sozzi
91
Carol and Gene McGrevin
The McGrevins: Doing What They Love
A
s far as life has taken them, Carol
and Gene McGrevin have traveled
together. They met at a high school in
Pittsburgh; married in their senior
year at the University of Pittsburgh;
and, though they have now lived far from
Pittsburgh for many years, they remain rooted to
the University — not only as alumni but as a couple
who are deeply committed to bettering the lives
of others.
The McGrevins have made contributions to the
University that reflect significant parts of their lives.
Some of their gifts include a scholarship for School
of Education students named after Dr. McGrevin’s
parents, Lois Lyden Zord and the Honorable Joseph
Zord Jr. (Carol has a PhD in education.) Dr. McGrevin’s
mother, also a Pitt alumna, was an educator and
inspired her daughter to become a teacher, principal,
and assistant superintendent before working in
higher education. Mr. McGrevin has worked extensively in the business area of the health care industry,
which sparked their interest in creating the McGrevin
Postdoctoral Award for a student in the Department
of Critical Care Medicine. They also established a
trust that enhances the existing Zord Endowed
Scholarship in Education and supports the School of
Medicine in cancer research and scholarships for
students specializing in cancer research or radiology.
92
The McGrevins’ gifts to the School of Medicine
reflect another personal tie to the University.
Dr. McGrevin’s mother was diagnosed with breast
cancer in the 1970s when Dr. Bernard Fisher, a giant
in the field of breast cancer research, was conducting
a study that included the use of tamoxifen. (See story
on page 72.) Mrs. Zord enrolled in his study and,
within a year, was free of cancer and remained so
for the rest of her life. “In fact,” Mr. McGrevin says,
“she was on tamoxifen for 25 years. It saved her life.”
Scholarships are important to the McGrevins
because they know how essential higher education is.
“It was critical for us to receive scholarships for college.
We never would have achieved our goals without the
education we had,” says Mr. McGrevin. “We feel it’s
important to help students improve themselves and
others through education.”
In what they term “quasi-retirement,” the
McGrevins continue to work in their respective fields
of education and health care, traveling wherever
their work, interests, and life take them (Dr. McGrevin
was the School of Education graduation recognition
speaker in 2010). But, they do most of it together.
“Even if we’re just carrying each other’s luggage,”
says Mr. McGrevin.
Cynthia L. Talmadge
Michael T. Vargo
Burt Tansky, Trustee, and
Rita J. Tansky
George Edward Vates, MD, PhD
Ellen May Mandel, MD, and
Lawrence W. N. Weber, MD
Molly Vates and Thomas S.
Vates III, MD
Janet F. Wei and Lawrence
Ming Wei, MD
Barbara A. Veazey
Dorothy and John C. Weidman Jr.
Andrea Cornell Veenis and
Blake Conrad Veenis, MD
Lori A. and Greg J. Weimer
Ethel and Ronald Taub
Kathleen and Stewart Taylor
Stephanie M. and J. Mark Veenis
Walter Joseph Telesz, MD
Bernadette F. and Ken Vehec
Joan Isenstein Weinstein and
Sheldon Alan Weinstein, MD
Ivan Velan
Susan E. Weintraub
Judith Tapper and Alan James
Tapper, MD
Barry Steven Tatar, MD
‡Esther F. Teplitz, MD
Susan and Bruce Weiner
Susan and Robert Weis
Sue M. Challinor, MD, and
Matthew J. Teplitz
Peter J. Veldkamp, MD, MS
Harold D. Thomas Jr., MD
Margaret and Sam S. Vidnovic
Judith Weisman, MD
Ann E. Thompson, MD
Millie and Rade Vignovic
Donna Shupe Thompson and
James S. Thompson, MD
James B. Vincent
Evelyn L. Weissman, MD, and
Ira M. Weissman, MD
Jay Vetere
‡Benjamin J. Weisband, MD
Chelsea Virgile
Lois Lofgren Werner and
Gary Lee Werner, MD
Sean Virgile
Michael J. Werner
Saralyn Vogel, MD, and Victor G.
Vogel, MD
Karen Werrin and S. Rand
Werrin, DDS
Janet Gillespie Titus, MD
Virginia Marian Balderston, MD,
and Theodore Vuchinich III, MD
Patience D. and Paul G. Wessel
Donna Marie Tomley and
John E. Tomley, MD
Alexander Simon Vujan Jr., MD
Mark Ewing Thompson, MD
Sara B. Thompson
Susan Mitchell Dunmire, MD, and
Samuel Aaron Tisherman, MD
Mark Tomsho, MD
Leslie R. Toney
Justin J. Vujevich, MD
Arleen C. and Donald J. Wagner
Antoinette Marie Weston
Francis Xavier Whalen Jr., MD
Debi and Harold W. Wheeler III
Joan Wheeler
Barbara Trachtenberg
Amy Kathleen and Eugene P.
Wagner II
David Paul Trachtenberg, MD
Gertrude and Lawrence M. Wagner
Dr. Michael Tranovich
Suzanne P. and Richard L. Wagner
Dina Raynolds and Vincent Trantolo
Thomas J. Tredici, MD
Jennifer A. Wahlig and
Dr. John B. Wahlig
The Honorable Leo J. Trich Jr.
Matthew B. Waldman
Barbara B. Troianos and
Christopher A. Troianos, MD
Diane Wallace
Daniel Bernard Walsh, MD
Juliann Summerville Truver
Dr. Marina V. N. Whitman and
Dr. Robert F. Whitman
Marigal M. and Mason Walsh Jr.
Susie Tsai and Mark Chung-Hsun
Tsai, MD
Dr. Alan L. Whitney
Lisa J. and Peter J. Walsh
Richard Ian Whyte, MD
Elizabeth and Preston G. Walsh
Phillips Wiegand Sr.
Naomi and Peter Waltman
Sarah Hayes Wiggin
Wayne Charles Waltzer, MD
Josephine H. and Donald Wiley
Qingde Wang, MD, PhD
Jeffrey W. Wangler
Gloria Kohl Wilkins and
Robert H. Wilkins, MD
W. Alan Ward, MD
Michelle E. Wilkinson, MD
Janice and James I. Warren
Charles Canaan Williams Jr., MD
Anne Logan Washburn, MD, and
W. Kenneth Washburn Jr., MD
Janet M. Williams
Aimee M. and James M. Usher
Mary Chester Morgan Wasko, MD,
and Jonathan Wasko
Samuel C. Williamson
Sandra L. Mort Usher and
Thomas James Usher
Casey Wasserman
Priscilla Tsao, MD
Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Tschannen
Asher Arthur Tulsky, MD
Sue and Charles H. Turner
Marie Limetti Uchic
Shirl Unatin and
‡ Mark L. Unatin
James I. Urbach, MD
Jeff Usem
Thomas Charles Valenza, MD
Nancy C. Watson
Nancy E. Wheeler
Farley Walton Whetzel and
Joshua C. Whetzel Jr.
Christine A. Whitcomb and
David C. Whitcomb, MD, PhD
R. James White III, MD, PhD
Priscilla and Joseph Whiteside
John S. Williamson
Amanda Smith Wilson and
David Oscar Wilson, MD
‡George C. Wilson III
Barbara and Roy H. Waugaman
James Arthur Wilson, MD
Paul Eugene Wawrzynski II, MD
Linda T. and Robert R. Winter
Marsha Lauterbach VanKirk
Evan Lewis Waxman
F. Thomas Witomski, MD
Bonnie W. and Thomas L. VanKirk
Carolyn Harding Weber, MD, and
Jason Stuart Weber, MD
Sara E. Wolbert
Abigail Paik Van Brugge and
Robert P. Van Brugge
93
Coprporate and
Foundation Donors
American College of
Rheumatology Research
Michael David Wolk, MD
1st Summit Bank
American College of Surgeons
Charles L. Wood Jr.
A.S.P.E.N. Rhoads Research
Foundation
American Diabetes Association
Lisa Wolf
Patrick Wayne Wolfe, MD
Deanna M. Armstrong, MD, and
Thaddeus D. Woods, MD
Abbott Laboratories
American Diabetes Association
Research Foundation Inc.
American Federation for
Aging Research
William A. Woods, MD
Abraxis Oncology
Emma Jane Griffith Woolley, MD
Active Media Services Inc.
Maureen D. and Thomas R. Wright
Adenopaint LLC
William R. Wright
Agilent Technologies
Phyllis Wroblewski
AIReS
American Foundation for Surgery
of the Hand
Albert Yaksic
Ajinomoto Co. Inc.
American Geriatrics Society
Linda Darby Yankes and Joseph
Robert Yankes Jr., MD
Albany Chapter of the Autism
Society of America
American Head and Neck Society
Mike Yannazio
Alco Parking Corporation
Melissa Jane Yanover, MD
Alcoa Foundation
American Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary
Association
Caren Yao and
Timothy Cheng-Sin Yao, MD
Alcon Laboratories Inc.
American Hospital Association
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
American Institute for Cancer Research
Jo Ellen Yeasted and
George Alan Yeasted, MD
All American Events and Tours
American Joint Committee on Cancer
All-Clad Metalcrafters LLC
American Liver Foundation
Allergan Medical
American Lung Association
AllianceBernstein, LP
Employees of AllianceBernstein
American Lung Association of
Pennsylvania
Alliance Capital Management
Corporation
American Medical Association
Foundation
Alliance for Lupus Research
American Orthopaedic Society for
Sports Medicine
Joyce Wong Yee and
Archie L. Yee, MD
David Young
Jeffrey Allan Yunkun, MD
Victor R. Zack Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Zappala Jr.
Nancy and Richard A. Zappala
Ornella Pagliano, MS, and
Hassane Mohamed Zarour, MD
Kathryn Haffner Zavadak and
Daniel G. Zavadak, MD
Claudia C. Zavodnick
Zella R. Zeigler, MD
William B. Zeiler, MD
Robin C. Zentner and Gary J. Zentner
Michael R. Zernich, MD
Donghong Zhang, MD
Laila D. Ziady
Ronald M. Zimmerman
Margaret R. Vogt and Paul Joseph
Zinsky, MD
Joanne Pobiner-Ziperstein and
Alan Ziperstein
Walter R. Zoladz III
Nancy Zucco and Donato Bernard
Zucco, PhD
Walter Nelson Zuck, MD
Alpha Epsilon Phi Sorority
Alpha Omega Alpha Honor
Medical Society
Alsius Corporation
Friends of Dr. Howard Altman
Alzheimer’s Assistance and
Referral Network
Alzheimer’s Association
American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
American Academy of Family
Physicians Foundation
American Academy of
Orthopaedic Surgeons
American Academy of
Otolaryngology-Head and
Neck Surgery
Cancer Research
Hand Surgery
The American Association for
the Surgery of Trauma
American Brain Tumor Association
American Cancer Society Inc.
American Coaster Ad-Mat North
American College of Cardiology
94
American Foundation for
Suicide Prevention
American Heart Association
American Otological Society Inc.
American Parkinson Disease
Association Inc.
American Physiological Society
American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.
American Psychological Association
American Respiratory Alliance of
Western Pennsylvania
American Skin Association
American Society for Bariatric Surgery
American Society for Pharmaceutical
and Experimental Therapeutics
American Society of Echocardiography
American Society of Hematology
American Society of Maxillofacial
Surgeons
American Society of Nephrology
American Society of Nuclear
Cardiology Foundation
American Society of
Transplant Surgeons
American Society of Transplantation
American Textile Company
American Thoracic Society
American Tinnitus Association
Americhem Inc.
BlackRock Financial Management
Incorporated
Cleveland Browns Football
Company LLC
Blue Sky Agency
The Cleveland Foundation
Clinton Museum Store
Annual Reviews
Boehringer Ingelheim
Pharmaceuticals
Anonymous
Bombardier Transportation, USA Inc.
Cohera Medical Inc.
Anonymous
Bond Schoeneck and King PLLC
Antigenics Inc.
Boston Scientific Cardiac Rhythm
Management
College of American Pathologists
Foundation
Amgen Inc.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Association
Anaheim Sports Management LLC
The Antigua Group Inc.
AO Spine North America
Applied Medical
Aramark Corporation
ARCS Foundation, Pittsburgh Chapter
Ares Management II LP
Argenio and Wolters Family
and Friends
Lance Armstrong Foundation
Arthritis Foundation
Associates at Respironics
Association for Academic Surgery
Astorino Development Co.
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP
ATandT Foundation
ATS Equipment Inc.
Autism Research Institute
Autism Speaks Inc.
Axcan Scandipharm Inc.
Cohen and Grigsby P.C.
Concern Foundation
Bozzone Family Foundation
Congress of Neurological Surgeons
Brain Tumor Society Inc.
Breg Inc.
Nancy T. and William S.
Conover II Fund
Brighton First Inc.
Cook Incorporated
Bristol-Myers Squibb
The Al Copeland Foundation
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Inc.
Coram Inc.
Philip V. and Anna S. Brown
Foundation
Cosmetic Surgery Specialists
Buffalo Bills Alumni Foundation Inc.
Buffalo Neurosurgery Group
The Gerald and Daphna Cramer
Family Foundation Inc.
Buffalo Sabres Foundation
Crate Ltd.
The Buhl Foundation
Creative Displays and Packaging Inc.
The Buncher Company
Buncher Family Foundation
Employees of Creditors Interchange
Receivable Management LLC
Burgettstown Area School District
S. M. Cristall Company Inc.
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation
Burt Hill
Crohns and Colitis Foundation
of America
Cadpro Inc.
Cozza Enterprises LLC
CSL Behring LLC
Axxora LLC
Cancer Research and Prevention
Foundation
Ayers Foundation
Cancer Research Institute
Curbell
BAA USA Inc.
Capitol Container Inc.
Curbell Plastics Inc.
Babb Incorporated
Julius H. Caplan Charity Foundation
Cylex Incorporated
Babst, Calland, Clements and
Zomnir PC
Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Tech
Center Alumni
Cynthia’s School of Dance and Music
Bachem
Carnegie Mellon University
The Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia
and Parkinson Foundation Inc.
Carr Textile Corporation
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Therapeutics Incorporated
Wendy Will Case Cancer Fund Inc.
Cytograft Tissue Engineering Inc.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Dana Foundation
C-Change
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Barudan America Inc.
CDM
Delaware North Companies Inc.
The Breast Cancer Research
Foundation
Celgene Corporation
Dermatology Foundation
CeMines Inc.
Beaver Area Jaycees
Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc.
The Deutsche Bank Americas
Foundation
Beckman Coulter Incorporated
Cephalon Inc.
Berry Petroleum Company
Cervical Spine Research Society
Diabetes Action Research and
Education Foundation
BHNT Architects P.C.
CF Brand LLC
Dialysis Clinic Inc.
Margaret J. Biddle Charitable Trust
Grant Channell Memorial Fund
P.J. Dick / Trumbull
Big Burrito Restaurant Group
Chelton House Products Inc.
Louise and Perry Dick Foundation
Binational Science Foundation
Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation
Dickie, McCamey and Chilcote P.C.
Bison Baseball Inc.
ChiRhoClin Incorporated
Ditto
BJALCF Foundation
The Citron Family Endowment,
Robert C. Douthitt Irrevocable Trust
Michael Baker Corporation
The Bank of New York Mellon
Corporation
CTC Foundation
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
DHJ Canada Incorporated
95
John F. Fortney Charitable
Pancreatic Cancer Research Group
Global One Headwear
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
DSF Charitable Foundation
The Foster Family Foundation
Gott Family Foundation
Duane Morris LLP
Foundation for Accelerated
Vascular Research
Goya Foods Great Lakes
Doyle for Congress Committee
Dystonia Medical Research
Foundation
Eagle Buckram Co. Inc.
Eastern Cooperative Oncology
Group Research and Education
Foundation Inc.
Eat’n Park Hospitality Group Inc.
Eaton Office Supply Co. Inc.
EEI Communications
Elliott Company
The Ellison Medical Foundation
Empire Financial Partners
The Foundation for AIDS Research
Foundation for Air Medical
Research and Education
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation
GPS Construction Services LLC
W. W. Grainger Inc.
Grant Oliver Corporation
Foundation for Anesthesia
Education and Research
Greenwall Foundation
Foundation for Gene and
Cell Therapy
Hadley Exhibits Inc.
Foundation for Physical Therapy
Hannan Executive Services Inc.
Foundation for the Lupus Center
Hard Manufacturing Co. Inc.
Fountainhead Foundation
Morris H. and Gertrude M. Harris
Foundation
Fox Chapel Crew Inc.
Grunenthal GmbH
John Hancock Financial Services Inc.
Engineered Products Inc.
Michael J. Fox Foundation for
Parkinson’s Research
The John A. Hartford Foundation
EntreMed Inc.
Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh LLC
Enzon Pharmaceuticals
The Hartwell Foundation
Francis Family Foundation
EQT Foundation
The Hassel Foundation
Francis Foundation
Evans City Elementary School
The Hat Club LLC
Friends for an Earlier Breast
Cancer Test
Hattan Concepts Inc.
ExxonMobil Foundation
Fraternity and Sorority Life Office
at the University of Pittsburgh
HealthNow New York Inc.
Eye and Ear Foundation
FTI Consulting Inc.
The Hearst Foundation Inc.
Eye Bank Association of America
Fujinon Inc.
Heart Failure Society of America Inc.
F.O.E. PA State Auxilliary
G and G International LLC
Heartland Homes Inc.
F.O.E. New Kensington Auxiliary 533
Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for
Cancer Research
Heartland IV Care
Evans City PTO
Evans National Bank
Facility Merchandising Incorporated
Fairmount Partners LP
Falk Foundation
Family Hospice and Palliative Care
Fannie Mae Foundation
FedEx Trade Networks
FHC Incorporated
Fifth Third Bank
Fight for Sight
The Fine Foundation
Firstgiving Inc.
FISA Foundation
Fiserv SourceOne
The Lilah Hilliard Fisher
Foundation Inc.
Matthew Hillman Fisher
Foundation Inc.
The Nina Baldwin Fisher
Foundation Inc.
J. E. Hartman Services
The Hawksglen Foundation
Shawn Gaertner Foundation
The Teresa and H. John Heinz III
Foundation
Gardner Carton and Douglas LLP
The Heinz Endowments
Blanche G. Garwood Trust
Heinz North America
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Heiser Program For Research in
Leprosy and Tuberculosis
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association
GE Foundation
Heller Ehrman LLP
Genesco
Gertrude E. Hellerman Charitable
Trust Fund
Genzyme Corporation
HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals Inc.
The Robert Georgevich Foundation
Georgiades Surgical Associates
Hemophilia Center of Western
Pennsylvania
The Giant Eagle Foundation
Hepalife Technologies Inc.
Giant Eagle Incorporated
Highmark
Gibraltar Industries
Highmark Foundation
Roger and Brenda Gibson Family
Foundation
Highmark Incorporated
Friends and Family of Nancy
Porada Giesmann
Henry L. Hillman Foundation
Gilead Foundation
Hillman Company
Hillman Foundation Inc.
Hinchman Foundation
Flight Attendant Medical
Research Institute
Gist Cancer Research Fund
Florida Marlins L.P.
GlaxoSmithKline
The Orris C. Hirtzel and
Beatrice Dewey Hirtzel
Memorial Foundation
Stephen Fornoff Lung
Transplant Fund
GlaxoSmithKline Foundation
Holiday Hair
The GEMI Fund
Holiday Lanes Inc.
96
Glass Charitable Foundation
Holy Cross Academy
Judson Family Foundation Inc.
Home Depot
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
March of Dimes Birth Defects
Foundation
Houston Harbaugh P. C.
Max Kade Foundation
Anthony Marchionne Foundation
HSBC Bank USA Incorporated
W. M. Keck Foundation
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Kennametal Foundation
The Nancy Lurie Marks Family
Foundation
Human Frontier Science Program
Organization
Kensington Financial Services Inc.
Marsh and McLennan Companies Inc.
The Marsh Family Foundation
Roy A. Hunt Foundation
The Kidney Foundation of
Central Pennsylvania
Huntington’s Disease Society
of America
The Lenore and Howard Klein
Foundation Inc.
IBM Corporation
IBM Employee Services Center
The Klingenstein Third Generation
Foundation
IBM International Foundation
KLS – Martin L.P.
ImClone Systems Incorporated
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer
Foundation
MedImmune Inc.
The Curtis I. Kossman Foundation
Medtronic Inc.
Ladies Hospital Aid Society of
Western Pennsylvania
Friends of Mellie’s Mission
In-House Dental Services
Ladies Philoptochos Society of
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church
Menlo Worldwide Logistics
Input 1 LLC
Asmund S. Laerdal Foundation Inc.
Integra Life Sciences
Lambda Foundation
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
Landon Butler and Company LP
International Association for
the Study of Pain
Langan Engineering and
Environmental Services Inc.
International RadioSurgery
Association
LANXESS Corporation
Metropolitan Life Foundation
Lawley Agency Insurance
International Transplant Nurses
Society
Lawson Wilkins Pediatric
Endocrine Society
The Robert Bensen Meyer Jr.
Foundation Inc.
The InterPublic Group of
Companies Inc.
H. Lazar and Son Inc.
Implus Footcare LLC
Independent Equipment Corp.
Infectious Diseases Society of America
Inflammation Research Foundation
Irvington Institute for
Immunological Research
IRX Therapeutics Inc.
Leedsworld Inc. dba Leed’s
The Judith A. Lese Breast Cancer
Foundation Inc
The Martin Group LLC
Shirley Hobbs Martin Memorial Fund
Family and Friends of Eleanor M.
McAuliffe
William G. McGowan
Charitable Fund Inc.
Medrad Incorporated
Menasha Corporation
Merck and Co. Inc.
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch and Co. Foundation Inc.
Message Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Metanexus Institute
MGI Pharma Inc.
Mellon Financial Corporation
Foundation
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Microsoft Corporation
Noel Lesley Event Services
Incorporated
Microtherapeutics Inc.
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Katherina A. Miller Trust
LIA Agency Inc.
Milliken and Company
Friends of Carol Jakiela
Life Raft Group
Mind and Life Institute
James Services
Eli Lilly and Company
Janssen Pharmaceutical
Harry J. Lloyd Charitable Trust
Mine Safety Appliances Company
Charitable Foundation
Jendoco Construction Corporation
Walt and Sonya Love Cancer and
Lupus Foundation
MJ Mechanical Services Inc.
Lowe Syndrome Association
Mosby Company
Jewish Healthcare Foundation of
Pittsburgh
The Luminescence Foundation Inc.
Mt. Lebanon Auto Service Inc.
The Lundbeck Foundation
Jo-Ann Stores-Executive Committee
Lupus Foundation of America Inc.
Multiple Myeloma Research
Foundation
Joan’s Legacy (Uniting Against
Lung Cancer)
Lupus Research Golf Outing
Murrysville-Export Rotary Club
Lupus Research Institute Incorporated
Murtha for Congress Committee
Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical
Research and Development LLC
M and T Bank
Musculoskeletal Transplant
Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation
M and T Insurance Agency Inc.
The Institute for Transfusion
Medicine
Jackson ImmunoResearch
Laboratories Inc.
The Mary Hillman Jennings
Foundation
Friends of David C. Koch Golf
Tournament
The M and T Charitable Foundation
Major League Baseball
Malignant Hyperthermia
Association of the United States
Milken Family Foundation
Morgan Lewis and Bockius LLP
Musella Foundation
The Myositis Foundation
NARSAD Research Institute Inc.
97
National Assocation of EMS Physicians
Penns Valley Area High School
Reed Smith LLP
National Basketball Association
National Blood Foundation
Pennsylvania Lions Hearing
Research Foundation
John Nesbit and Sarah Henne Rees
Charitable Foundation
National Endowment for
Plastic Surgery
Pennsylvania Lions Sight Conservation
and Eye Research Foundation
Christopher and Dana Reeve
Foundation
National Football League
Pentax Precision Instrument
Corporation
Emelie Renziehausen Trust
Pfizer Inc.
Research to Prevent Blindness
Phi Rho Sigma Medical Society
Endowment Fund
ResMed Foundation
National Foundation for
Infectious Disease
National Hockey League Foundation
National Kidney Foundation
National Kidney Foundation of
the Alleghenies
The Philadelphia Phillies
Philips Respironics Inc.
Research and Development RA S.A.
Respironics Sleep and Respiratory
Research Foundation
National Pancreas Foundation
Phillips Lytle LLP
Reverse Raffle to Benefit Scleroderma
Research Foundation
National Post Doctoral Association
PhRMA Foundation
Alene G. Reynolds Trust
National Sleep Foundation
Physiatric Association of Spine, Sports,
and Occupational Rehabilitation
Ri.MED Foundation
The Picower Foundation
Roche Laboratories Inc.
Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick
and Raspanti LLP
Roche Organ Transplantation
Research Foundation
Pinnacle Industries Ltd.
Roche Palo Alto LLC
Pittsburgh Academy of Dermatology
Henry Clay Frick Rodgers Trust
Pittsburgh Associates
RP Sales Inc.
The Pittsburgh Foundation
RSM McGladrey Incorporated
The New York Mets Foundation Inc.
Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse
New York Yankees
Pittsburgh Penguins
RSNA Research and Education
Foundation
Normandy Industries
Pittsburgh Wine Festival LLC
Rural Ridge Jeff Allen Oldies Dance
Northwest Regional Cardiology
Plastic Surgery Educational
Foundation
The Rust Foundation
PNC Bank
S&T Bank
NOVA Chemicals Inc.
The PNC Financial Services Group
S&T Wealth Management Group
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
PNC Foundation
SAI Consulting Engineers Inc.
Nuveen Investments
PNC Wealth Management
San Diego Padres L.P.
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak
and Stewart P.C.
Friends of Plum Running Mustangs
Alumni Association
Sangamo BioSciences Inc.
R.C. Olson Enterprises Inc.
Polakoff Sports Sales Inc.
Olympus
Larry Potter Memorial Fund
Order of the Eastern Star Grand
Chapter of West Virginia
PPG Industries Foundation
The Sass Foundation for Medical
Research Inc.
Precision Therapeutics Inc.
Satsuma Investments LLC
Orthopaedic Research and
William H. Prentice Incorporated
Scaife Family Foundation
Presbyterian Senior Care
Osteotech Inc.
Schering Corporation
The Procter and Gamble Fund
P and P Flooring LLC
Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals
Schnader Harrison Segal and
Lewis LLP
Pace Analytical Services Incorporated
Project 2050 Inc.
Scleroderma Foundation
Michael J. Parada Walkathon
Prostate Cancer Foundation
Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA)
Pulmonary Fellows Class of 2008
The Evan and Tracy Segal Family
Foundation
Elsa U. Pardee Foundation
Quaker Capital Management
Select Equity Group Inc.
Parkinson’s Disease Foundation
Radelet McCarthy Architects
Shadyside Hospital Foundation
Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.
Rauch Foundation
Shandle Foundation
Partners In Change Inc.
William Raveis Real Estate and
Home Services
Sheeran Howard King Family Fund
Joseph A. Patrick Foundation Inc.
W. I. Patterson Charitable Fund
Norman C. Ray Trust
Shirlie and Owen Siegel Foundation
Paynet
Raytest USA Inc.
Siemens Corporate Research Inc.
PBS&J
RedPath Integrated Pathology Inc.
Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc.
Nestle USA Inc.
Neurosurgery Research and
New England Biolabs Inc.
New Era Cap Company Inc. USA
Employees of New Era Cap Inc. USA
New Jersey Primary Care
Association Inc.
Northwestern Mutual Financial
Network
98
Riggs Industries Inc.
Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Aventis Pharmaceuticals Products Inc.
Saperston Asset Management Inc.
Shire Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Sigma-Aldrich Corp
The R. P. Simmons Family
Charitable Trust
Henry John Simonds Foundation Inc.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
North America Inc.
UNO Restaurants LLC
Pamela and Markos Tambakeras
Family Foundation
UPMC Cancer Center
Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds
Foundation
Tamco Inc.
Singlesource Property Solutions LLC
The TDC Foundation
D. G. Sisterson and Company
Teine Keijinkai Hospital
Skin Cancer Foundation
THANC Foundation
Sky Insurance
ThermaSolutions Inc.
SLM Investments
JT Thomas Homes Inc.
SML Group
Thompson Public School District
No. 61
Snee-Reinhardt Charitable
Foundation
Tap Pharmaceuticals Products
UPMC Presbyterian
UPMC Health Plan
UPMC Home Medical Equipment
UPMC Presbyterian Medical Staff
UPMC Shadyside Auxiliary
US Surgical / Valleylab
Valeant Pharmaceuticals N. A.
Van Dyk Business Systems
The Frank Varischetti Foundation
Ventana Medical Systems Inc.
The Thoracic Surgery Foundation
for Research and Education
Ventracor Ltd.
Society for Academic
Emergency Medicine
Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals
Verizon Foundation
Tiffany and Company
VF Services Inc.
Society for Progressive
Supranuclear Palsy
The Tippins Foundation
Ethel Vincent Charitable Trust
The TJX Companies Inc.
VZV Research Foundation
Society for Vascular Surgery
Tobacco Free Allegheny
WABCO
Society of Cardiovascular
Anesthesiologists
The Transplantation Society
James F. Walsh Foundation
Society of Family Planning
Transportation Marketing Services
International Inc.
The Washington Hospital
Society of University Surgeons
Travelers Service Company
South Hills Jewelers
Waz Engineering
The Edith L. Trees Charitable Trust
Southern Wine and Spirits of
America Inc.
WEA Corporation
Tricorp Industrial Group Inc.
Weiner Family Foundation
Triological Society
Truist
Employees of West Chester
Area School District
Tucker-Davis Technologies
West Herr Automotive Group Inc.
Turkey Trot for Prostate Cancer
Speed Global Services
UB Foundation Activities Inc.
Westmoreland Advanced
Materials LLC
Speed Motor Express of W.N.Y. Inc.
UCB Inc.
Whole Foods Market
Springer Science and Business
Media LLC
Uniontown Hospital
Phillip H. and Betty L. Wimmer
Family Foundation
St. Andrews Products Co.
United Parcel Service
Windswept Enterprises Inc.
Fastframe 494
The Stanley Medical Research
Institute
United States Cancer Pain Relief
Committee Inc
Winslow Foundation
Staunton Farm Foundation
United States Steel Corporation
Sterling Mets LP
United States Tennis Association
The Women and Girls Foundation
of Southwest Pennsylvania
Karl Storz Endoscopy-America Inc.
United Steel Workers of America
Local 6346-11
Workflow One
G. Whitney Snyder Charitable Fund
Southminster Presbyterian Church
Charles F. Spang Foundation
Employees and Management at
Specialty Medical Systems Inc.
Strategic Family Wealth
Counselors LLC
United Business Systems Inc.
United Way of Allegheny County
Verizon
Wasserman Foundation
Winters Foundation
WPH Airport Associates
Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals
John P. and Elizabeth L. Surma
Family Fund
United Way of Southeastern
Pennsylvania
Susquehanna International Group LLP
The United Way of Washington County
William and Sylvia Zale Foundation
Sutter Instrument Company
United Ways of New England
Carl Zeiss MicroImaging Inc.
Swartz Campbell LLC
University of Pittsburgh Physicians,
Department of Obstetrics,
Gynecology, and Reproductive
Sciences
Zimmer Spine
Swissvale Borough Firefighters
SWS Charitable Foundation,
Incorporated
Synthes Spine Co. LP
Synthes USA
Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.
University of Pittsburgh Medical
Alumni Association
Medical Center
Tim Yochim Memorial Tournament
Every effort has been made to ensure
the accuracy of these records. Any errors
or omissions may be brought to the
attention of the University of Pittsburgh
and UPMC Medical and Health Sciences
Foundation: 412-647-8462 or
[email protected].
99
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Departments
School of Medicine
Department of Critical Care Medicine
Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences
and Dean, School of Medicine:
Vice Dean: Steven L. Kanter, MD
Senior Associate Dean: Charles F. Reynolds III, MD
Associate Deans:
Admissions and Financial Aid — Beth M. Piraino, MD
Continuing Medical Education — Barbara E. Barnes, MD, MS
Faculty Affairs — Ann E. Thompson, MD
Graduate Medical Education — Rita M. Patel, MD
Graduate Studies — John P. Horn, MD
Medical Education — John F. Mahoney, MD
Medical Scientist Training Program — Clayton A. Wiley, MD, PhD
Medical Student Research — Michael L. Boninger, MD
Postdoctoral Education — Joan M. Lakoski, PhD
Student Affairs — Joan Harvey, MD
Chair:
Academic Affairs — Michael R. Pinsky, MD
Clinical Operations — Arthur J. Boujoukos, MD
Education — Paul L. Rogers, MD
Professional Development — Ann E. Thompson, MD
Research — John Kellum, MD
Division Chiefs:
Adult Critical Care Medicine — Arthur J. Boujoukos, MD
Hospitalist Services — Adam Akers, MD
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine — Robert C. Clark, MD
Department of Dermatology
Chair:
Medical Education — Kathleen D. Ryan, PhD
Medical Education Technology — J.B. McGee, MD
Medical Student Research — Janet Amico, MD;
Allen L. Humphrey, PhD; Cynthia Lance-Jones, PhD;
Philip Troen, MD
Student Affairs and Diversity Programs — Chenits Pettigrew Jr., PhD
Louis D. Falo, MD, PhD
Department of Developmental Biology
Assistant Deans:
Graduate Medical Education — Frank J. Kroboth, MD
Derek C. Angus, MBChB, MPH
Vice Chairs:
Chair:
Cecilia Lo, PhD
Department of Emergency Medicine
Chair:
Donald M. Yealy, MD
Vice Chair:
Clifton W. Callaway, MD, PhD
Division Chiefs:
EMS — Ronald N. Roth, MD
Veterans Affairs — Rajiv Jain, MD
Toxicology — Kenneth D. Katz, MD
Department of Anesthesiology
Department of Family Medicine
Chair:
John P. Williams, MD
Vice Chairs:
Basic Science — Yan Xu, PhD
Education — Rita M. Patel, MD
Clinical Operations — Mark E. Hudson, MD
Clinical Research — Jacques E. Chelly, MD, PhD, MBA
Pain Medicine — Doris K. Cope, MD
Chair:
Jeannette E. South-Paul, MD
Department of Immunology
Chair:
Olivera J. Finn, PhD
Deparment of Medicine
Chair:
Steven D. Shapiro, MD
Vice Chairs:
Department of Biomedical Informatics
Chair:
Michael J. Becich, MD, PhD
Vice Chair:
Gregory F. Cooper, MD, PhD
Department of Cell Biology and Physiology
Chair:
Alexander Sorkin, PhD
Vice Chair:
Simon C. Watkins, PhD
Department of Computational and Systems Biology
Chair:
Ivet Bahar, PhD
Clinical Affairs — John J. Reilly Jr., MD
Education — Wishwa N. Kapoor, MD, MPH
Faculty Development — Ora A. Weisz, PhD
Quality Improvement and Patient Safety —
Robert M. Palmer, MD, MPH
Research — G. David Roodman, MD, PhD
Division Chiefs:
Cardiovascular Institute — Barry London, MD, PhD
Clinical Pharmacology — Robert A. Branch, MD
Endocrinology and Metabolism — Andrew F. Stewart, MD
Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition — David C. Whitcomb, MD, PhD
General Internal Medicine — Wishwa N. Kapoor, MD, MPH
Geriatric Medicine — Neil M. Resnick, MD
100
Hematology/Oncology — Nancy E. Davidson, MD
Division Chiefs:
Infectious Diseases — John W. Mellors, MD
Developmental and Regenerative Medicine —
Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine — Mark T. Gladwin, MD
Renal-Electrolyte — Thomas R. Kleyman, MD
Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology —
Larry W. Moreland, MD
Gerald P. Schatten, PhD
Diagnostic Ultrasound — Lyndon M. Hill, MD
General Obstetrics and Gynecology — Edward Sandy, MD, MBA
Gynecologic Oncology — Joseph L. Kelley, MD
Gynecologic Specialties — Mitch Creinin, MD
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Chair:
Thomas E. Smithgall, PhD
Department of Neurobiology
Chair:
Susan G. Amara, PhD
Department of Neurological Surgery
Chair:
Robert M. Friedlander, MD
Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility — Joseph S. Sanfilippo, MD, MBA
Reproductive Genetics — Aleksander Rajkovic, MD, PhD
Reproductive Infectious Diseases and Immunology — Harold Wiesenfeld, MD
Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery — Halina Zyczynski, MD
Maternal Fetal Medicine — Hy Simhan, MD, MSc
Obstetrical Specialties — Robert Kaminski, MD
Vice Chairs:
Academic Affairs — Ian F. Pollack, MD
Department of Ophthalmology
Education — Douglas S. Kondziolka, MD, MS
Chair:
Research — C. Edward Dixon, PhD
Vice Chairs:
Joel S. Schuman, MD
Pediatric Neurosurgery — Ian F. Pollack, MD
Information Technology, International Service, and
Operations — Robert J. Noecker, MD
Neurological Spine — Richard M. Spiro, MD
Medical and Resident Education — Evan L. Waxman, MD, PhD
Division Chiefs:
Research — Robert L. Hendricks, PhD
Department of Neurology
Chair:
Lawrence R. Wechsler, MD
Vice Chairs:
Academic Affairs — J. Timothy Greenamyre, MD, PhD
Clinical Affairs — Lawrence R. Wechsler, MD
Division Chief:
Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Research Center — Robert L. Hendricks, PhD
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Freddie H. Fu, MD, DSci (Hon)
Research — Steven H. Graham, MD, PhD
Chair:
Veterans Affairs — Paula R. Clemens, MD
Senior Vice Chair:
Division Chiefs:
Executive Vice Chairs:
Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology — Oscar L. Lopez, MD
Clinical Services — James D. Kang, MD
Epilepsy — Anto Bagic, MD, MSc
Orthopaedic Research — Rocky S. Tuan, PhD
General Neurology — John J. Doyle, MD
Musculoskeletal Cellular Therapeutics — Johnny Huard, PhD
Headache — Robert G. Kaniecki, MD
Translational Research — Constance R. Chu, MD
Movement Disorders — J. Timothy Greenamyre, MD, PhD
Education — Vincent F. Deeney, MD
Neuroimmunology/ Multiple Sclerosis — Rock Heyman, MD
Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery — W. Timothy Ward, MD
Morey S. Moreland, MD
Neuromuscular — David Lacomis, MD
Vascular Neurology/ UPMC Stroke Institute — Tudor Jovin, MD
Department of Otolaryngology
Chair:
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and
Reproductive Sciences
Chair:
W. Allen Hogge, MD
Vice Chairs:
Gerald P. Schatten, PhD
Jonas T. Johnson, MD
Vice Chairs:
Clinical Operations — Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD
Education — David Eibling, MD
Research — Jennifer R. Grandis, MD
Education — Daniel I. Edelstone, MD
Executive — Robert P. Edwards, MD
Faculty Affairs — Sharon L. Hillier, PhD
Research — Yoel Sadovsky, MD
101
Departments
Department of Pathology
Chair:
George K. Michalopoulos, MD, PhD
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Chair:
Michael L. Boninger, MD
Vice Chairs:
Vice Chairs:
Alan Wells, MD, DMS
Clinical Program Development — Michael Munin, MD
Pathology Services — Samuel A. Yousem, MD
Clinical Services — Louis E. Penrod, MD
Division Chiefs:
Medical Education — Wendy Helkowski, MD
Anatomic Pathology — Samuel A. Yousem, MD
Anatomic / Surgical Pathology — Samuel A. Yousem, MD
Head and Neck Pathology — Leon Barnes Jr., MD
Neuropathology — Clayton Wiley, MD, PhD
Transplantation Pathology — Anthony J. Demetris, MD
Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Psychology — Joseph H. Ricker, PhD
Research — Amy K. Wagner, MD
Department of Psychiatry
David A. Lewis, MD
Molecular Anatomic Pathology — Yuri Nikiforov, MD, PhD
Chair:
Laboratory Medicine — Alan Wells, MD, DMS
Vice Chair:
Hematopathology — Steven H. Swerdlow, MD
Clinical Affairs — Kenneth C. Nash, MD
Immunopathology — Bruce S. Rabin, MD, PhD
Department of Radiation Oncology
Molecular Diagnostics — Jeffrey A. Kant, MD, PhD
Chair:
Clinical Chemistry — Harry Blair, MD
Vice Chair:
Joel S. Greenberger, MD
Clinical Microbiology — A. William Pasculle, ScD
Transfusion Medicine — Darrell J. Triulzi, MD
Department of Pediatrics
Chair:
David H. Perlmutter, MD
Division Chiefs:
Adolescent Medicine — Pamela J. Murray, MD, MPH
Infectious Diseases — Antoinette L. Darville, MD
Cardiology — Steven A. Webber, MBChB
Child Advocacy and Injury Prevention — Janet E. Squires, MD
Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics — Robert B. Noll, PhD
Paul C. Gaffney Diagnostic Referral Service — Basil J. Zitelli, MD
Clinical Affairs — Dwight E. Heron, MD
Department of Radiology
Chair:
Kyongtae Bae, MD, PhD
Executive Vice Chair of Research:
David Gur, ScD
Department of Structural Biology
Chair:
Angela Gronenborn, PhD
Department of Surgery
Chair:
Timothy R. Billiar, MD
Vice Chair:
Clinical Services — Andrew B. Peitzman, MD
Division Chiefs:
Pediatric Emergency Medicine — Richard A. Saladino, MD
Cardiac Surgery — (vacant)
Endocrinology — Dorothy J. Becker, MBBCh
General Surgery — Andrew B. Peitzman, MD
General Academic Pediatrics — Alejandro Hoberman, MD
Pediatric Surgery — George K. Gittes, MD
Hematology/Oncology — A. Kim Ritchey, MD
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery — W.P. Andrew Lee, MD
Immunogenetics — Massimo M. Trucco, MD
Surgical Oncology — David L. Bartlett, MD
Medical Genetics — Gerard Vockley, MD, PhD
Thoracic and Foregut Surgery — James D. Luketich, MD
Newborn Medicine — Gary A. Silverman, MD, PhD
Transplantation Surgery — Abhinav Humar, MD
Child Neurology — Ira Bergman, MD
Vascular Surgery — Michel S. Makaroun, MD
Nephrology — Carlton Bates, MD
Pediatric Gastroenterology — Mark E. Lowe, MD, PhD
Department of Urology
Pulmonary Medicine, Allergy, and Immunology — Chair:
Juan Carlos Celedón, MD, DrPH
Joel B. Nelson, MD
Steven G. Docimo, MD
Rheumatology — Raphael Hirsch, MD
Vice Chair:
Weight Management and Wellness — Silva A. Arslanian, MD
Division Chief:
Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology
Chair:
Bruce A. Freeman, PhD
Vice Chairs:
Academics — Peter Friedman, PhD
Education — Donald DeFranco, PhD
Research — Edwin Levitan, PhD
102
Pediatric Urology — Steven G. Docimo, MD
Board of Visitors (as of April 14, 2010)
Edward J. Benz Jr., MD
James L. Madara, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Robert J. Alpern, MD
Former Chief Executive Officer of the University of Chicago
Medical Center and University Vice President for Medical Affairs
Former Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker
School of Medicine
Dean and Ensign Professor of Medicine
University of Chicago
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Yale School of Medicine
Karen H. Antman, MD
Provost, Boston University Medical Campus
Dean, Boston University School of Medicine
G. Nicholas Beckwith III
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Arch Street Management LLC
Jordan J. Cohen, MD
Henry J. Mankin, MD
Edith M. Ashley Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery Emeritus
Harvard Medical School
Ross H. Musgrave, MD
Distinguished Clinical Professor of Surgery
Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh
Association of American Medical Colleges
Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania
for the Health System
Dean, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, MPH
Larry J. Shapiro, MD
Editor-in-Chief
Executive Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs and Dean
President Emeritus
Journal of the American Medical Association
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Ronald G. Girotto
Allen M. Spiegel, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean
The Methodist Hospital System
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
Jonathan D. Gitlin, MD
Steven A. Wartman, MD, PhD
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Maternal and Child Health Affairs
Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs
James C. Overall Professor and Chair
President
Association of Academic Health Centers
Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University
Savio L.C. Woo, PhD
Physician-in-Chief, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital
Professor and Chair
Department of Gene and Cell Medicine
at Vanderbilt
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Antonio M. Gotto Jr., MD, DPhil
Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean
Professor of Medicine
Provost for Medical Affairs
Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of
Cornell University
Michael M.E. Johns, MD
Chancellor
Emory University
William K. Lieberman
President
Lieberman Companies
103
Credits
Photographers and Illustrators
Cathie Bleck, page 3
Terry Clark, pages 10, 12 –18, 36, 38 – 40,
42– 43, 68, 71–72, 76, 80
This report was produced by the Office of
Academic Affairs, Health Sciences.
Margaret C. McDonald, PhD, MFA
Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Joshua Franzos, pages 1, 4, 7, 8, 28, 49,
52–53 (top of page), 54, 57
Stephen J. Byers
Chuck Staresinic
Directors
David Johnson, pages 50–51
Staff
Bill Klunk, MD, PhD, and Chet Mathis, PhD, page 66
Jared Leeds, page 8 (bottom right)
Annie O’Neill, pages 30 –31
Joshua Roberts, pages 22 –23
Kevin Sprouls, page 25
Jacob Thomas, courtesy of Decozone, page 35
Billy Weeks, page 92
Other Photo and Image Credits
Pages 20–21: Mystery of the Missing Migrants
© Estate of Charley Harper 2010
Page 27: Courtesy of Prometheus Books
Page 32 (bottom right): University of Pittsburgh,
Center for Instructional Development and
Distance Education
Michele Baum
Jacqueline Janos
Lisa Lorence
Brandon Millward
Maureen Passmore
Jennifer Petrie-Signore, PhD
Tricia Pil, MD
Cathy Steinitz
Carol Tatrai
Special production assistance provided by
Theresa Ratti, Office of Faculty Affairs, and
Paul D. Silver, University of Pittsburgh and
UPMC Medical and Health Sciences Foundation.
Designed by Landesberg Design, Pittsburgh, PA
Printed by Broudy Printing Inc., Pittsburgh, PA
Page 33: Courtesy of Vincent Lee, MD
Page 34: Copyright, Wenner Media LLC, 2009,
all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Page 48 – 49 (map inset photos): Courtesy of
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
and Visit Pittsburgh
Page 52 (passport image, right): Courtesy of
Sandra Cascio, PhD
Page 54: Science images courtesy of
Salvatore Pasta, PhD
Page 55: Courtesy of UPMC
Page 56: Reprinted with permission, from Cancer
Prevention Research 2010 April, vol. 3(4), 438-46, fig. 1
Page 58: Courtesy of Paul Frank Industries
Page 60: Courtesy of Andrew Stewart, MD
Page 64: Courtesy of James L. Funderburgh, PhD
Page 65: Courtesy of Peijun Zhang, PhD
Pages 68 and 75: Courtesy of the Detre Archive
Collection, Falk Library of the Health Sciences,
Page 78: Courtesy of Clyde B. Jones III
Page 87: Courtesy of the Raizman family
104
School of Medicine
401 Scaife Hall
3550 Terrace Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
412-648-8975
www.health.pitt.edu
The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action,
equal opportunity institution.
School of Medicine

The Evolution of Excellence 2010 - Graduate Studies

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