Inside this issueCover storiesGiving back$23 million grant enables fresh look at stress and addictionThe many sides of stress and addictionLightening the load for the physicians of the futurePartnershipsTransatlantic team probes kidney’s role in hypertensionGrants & contractsPeopleLifelines: James DuncanLyme disease expert is new section chief and Hughes investigatorDean for education is appointed Jockers ProfessorStudent-run clinic wins Ivy Award for community serviceOut & aboutAwards & honorsScienceA joint effort to tackle obesity and diabetesGrowing spare parts for sick children’s heartsAdvances: Breaking away from child abuse? | For cardiac surgery, your brain on ice | Mom was right: eat your vegetables! | “Touch-me-not” tubes kill bacteria  
|
|
Lyme disease expert is new section chief and Hughes investigator
In June, Erol Fikrig, M.D., an expert in vector-borne diseases and a pioneer in the development of a Lyme disease vaccine, was named chief of the Section of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine. Fikrig’s new post is the first such appointment by Jack A. Elias, M.D., chair and Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine, since he became leader of the department in October, 2006. On October 12, Fikrig was named one of 15 new “patient-oriented” investigators in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; investigators are chosen through rigorous national competitions. Elias says that Fikrig is “one of the world’s experts” on Lyme disease and West Nile virus. A professor of medicine and epidemiology and public health, as chief Fikrig is expected to place a new emphasis on emerging infectious diseases, an effort that will add at least four new basic science, translational and clinical investigators to the 15-member section. As a Hughes investigator, he will conduct research in which information gathered at the bedside will be used to develop laboratory models to test new therapies, including vaccines against diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks.
 |
|||
