Medicine@Yale publication

May/June 2007   Volume 3 Issue 3

YSM Home Page | Medicine@Yale

Inside this issue

Cover stories

“What else would you do with money?”

New endowment honors a spirited St. Louis “symbol of Yale”

Gene defect plays a role in early heart disease

Partnerships

Forty years of research, teaching and healing

Student-run auction for New Haven charities has a banner year

The rewards of life on the front lines

Grants & contracts

People

Lifelines: Elizabeth Bradley

Expert on tumor viruses will direct research at Cancer Center

Two Yale RNA experts receive Ellison awards

Honoring fifty years of far-reaching scientific influence

Scientist wins Wiley Prize for research on protein-folding

Out & about

Health

Advances: For better health, can the soft drinks | When cancer is a family affair

Science

Building new bridges from lab to patient

Advances: Growing out of depression | A closer look at bacterial insurgents

Download this issue in PDF format

Out & about

September 29: The 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA OF THE CONNECTICUT MENTAL HEALTH CENTER (CMHC), a treatment, research and teaching partnership of the medical school and the State of Connecticut (see related story), featured dinner and dancing at the New Haven Lawn Club. 1. The keynote speaker for the event was television personality Jane Pauley, author of Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue, a memoir of her struggle with bipolar disorder. 2. From left: CMHC Chief Operating Officer and gala emcee Robert Cole, M.H.S.A.; Susan Woodall, executive director of the CMHC Foundation; and Tomàs Reyes Jr., the CMHC’s manager of communications and public information. 3. Clockwise from left: Sheila Allen Bell, director of the Housing Authority of New Haven; John DeStefano Jr., mayor of the city of New Haven; Audrey Tyson; and Barbara Lamb, director of cultural affairs for the city of New Haven. 4. From left: Candace Buchanan and Katura Bryant.

March 6: A CEREMONY IN HONOR OF CONNECTICUT STATE SENATOR TONI HARP was held in the Historical Library of the School of Medicine’s Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library. In Washington, D.C., in February, the American Medical Association (AMA) presented Harp with its Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service. The award, named for the founder of the AMA, is the highest honor the association confers on public officials. Harp was recognized for her advocacy of community health centers, pediatric dental care, expanded access to health care and regulating medical insurance premiums and co-payments for the economically disadvantaged. From left: Michael M. Deren, M.D., chair of the board of trustees of the Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS); Gary J. Price, M.D., immediate past president and councilor-at-large of the CSMS; Toni N. Harp (D-New Haven); and Dean and Ensign Professor of Medicine Robert J. Alpern, M.D.

March 17: ALUMNI OF THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE’S PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATE PROGRAM and their guests joined Mary Warner, M.M.Sc., PA-C, assistant dean and director of the program, for a relaxed evening get-together in Hanover, N.H. Hanover-area alumni regaled Warner with stories of their days in New Haven and beyond. Warner hopes to expand the program’s alumni outreach program by meeting with as many graduates as possible within the next year. Clockwise from lower left: Gayle Spelman, PA-C ’93; Kathy De Rham, PA-C ’77; John Bond, PA-C ’76 (behind Kathy De Rham); Cary Stratford, PA-C ’80; Jack Cassidy, PA-C ’73; Alice (Hofmann) Mello, PA-C ’99; Tim Mello, PA-C ’99; Warner; and Abbott De Rham.

April 9: THE FAMILY OF SYDNEY HOFF AND FRIENDS visited the medical school’s Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research to present checks totaling $50,000 to Stephen G. Waxman, M.D., Ph.D., chair and Bridget Marie Flaherty Professor of Neurology, to support his research on the molecular basis of erythromelalgia (EM), a rare, incurable neurological disorder that causes burning pain in the hands, feet and other extremities. Eleven-year-old Sydney Hoff of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., was recently diagnosed with the disorder; her mother, Sharon Hoff, and friends raised the funds with appeals to their families and the wider community. Front, from left: Sharon Hoff, Alex Martucci, Sydney Hoff, Marty Hoff, Drew Shaulson. Back, from left: Waxman and Karen Shaulson.