Medicine@Yale Magazine

August/September 2005   Volume 1 Issue 2

Medicine@Yale | Partnerships

Inside this issue

Cover stories

YALE PROJECTS FOR GLOBAL HEALTH RECEIVE MAJOR FUNDING

Mouse breakthrough will speed vaccines

Finding new perfumes to foil a femme fatale

A new front in the war on antibiotic-resistant bacteria

New look at how resistant bugs dodge drugs

From the pages of Cell to The Tonight Show’s stage

Using laser light, team guides flies by remote control

Applera Corp. boosts education

Fund will honor mentor, aid students

Partnerships

A quest to detect earliest signs of autism

Yale visit brings hope to paralyzed veterans

Grants and contracts

People

Lifelines: Arthur Horwich, seeking what’s never been seen.

New president of alumni body sees a bright future ahead

Out & about

Awards & honors

Science

Connecticut’s $100 million stem cell program good news for Yale

Advances: Taking a toll on parasitic infections |  New kidney discovery may help heart | A chink in malignant melanoma’s armor?

Health

Ovarian cancer test exposes quiet killer

From humble start at Yale, REMEDY thrives

Advances: Patient to surgeon: I hear a symphony

Education

Student explorations in the world of research

Notable teachers receive high honors at Commencement

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Yale visit brings hope to paralyzed veterans

In the highly specialized world of modern biomedical research, it is all too easy for scientists to lose themselves in the microscopic complexities of the intracellular world—the genes, molecules and signaling pathways that are the keys to understanding disease and finding new treatments.

(From left) Stephen Waxman describes a new microscopy facility at the Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research, located on the West Haven campus of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, to Delatorro McNeal and John Bollinger of Paralyzed Veterans of America.

But at least once a year, the scientists at Yale’s Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research receive a bracing reminder of what’s really at stake in their work on spinal-cord repair when members of Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) roll through the center’s front door in their wheelchairs. This year, PVA, which has supported the center since 1988, brought its largest contingent ever, along with a check for $225,000.

“PVA has been a wonderful partner in the battle against spinal-cord injury, but they give us more than money,” says Stephen G. Waxman, M.D., Ph.D., the center’s director and the Bridget Marie Flaherty Professor of Molecular Neurology. “They have given us a sense of vision and mission which are felt throughout this building.”

John Bollinger, PVA’s deputy executive director, says there was new excitement in the air during this year’s visit because the latest scientific strategies, including stem cell research, provide the clearest route he’s seen to successful therapies for spinal-cord injury.

“Every one of us probably heard a doctor say within hours after our injury, ‘You’re never going to walk again,’” says Bollinger, who was paralyzed while serving in the Navy. “Now people can actually talk about the cure. We feel very optimistic that they’re going to make significant advances at this center.”

Waxman agrees. “As someone who chooses words carefully, I didn’t feel I could use the word ’cure’ 10 years ago. Now I’m saying it’s on the table. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s an achievable goal.”