As deputy dean, Leffell moves practice into 21st century

Bottomly named deputy provost for science, technology

NOTES

Notes

David Leffell

Kim Bottomly

As deputy dean, Leffell moves practice into 21st century

With his appointment as deputy dean for clinical affairs in February, David J. Leffell, M.D., HS ’86, continues a task he began almost 10 years ago, when he added a new portfolio to his work in the clinic and laboratory. As associate dean for clinical affairs and director of what was then called the Yale Faculty Practice, Leffell sought to improve the business side of medicine. The faculty practice is now the Yale Medical Group (YMG), where recent surveys show improved patient satisfaction, as well as areas where improvement is needed. Most importantly, the YMG has begun to introduce changes in the practice of medicine, helping it move outside traditional departmental boundaries into interdisciplinary, disease-based teams that include researchers as well as physicians.
“Because our knowledge of disease is so much more refined, we understand that solutions to illness are not limited to a particular organ in which the disease is expressed,” said Leffell, who will oversee the growth and development of the clinical practice. Among his goals are strengthening ties between clinical care and medical research and spreading the word about Yale’s faculty expertise. He also hopes to improve the clinical infrastructure by making it easier for patients to make appointments and by ensuring close communications between referring physicians and specialists.

“To teach medical students to be doctors of the 21st century, to take care of patients with new technology and medications of the 21st century, you have to have a clinical practice of the 21st century,” Leffell said.

Bottomly named deputy provost for science, technology

H. Kim Bottomly, Ph.D., has been named deputy provost for science, technology and faculty development, effective July 1. Bottomly, who has been at Yale since 1980, is professor of immunobiology, dermatology and molecular, cellular and developmental biology. She also served as acting chair of the Section of Immunobiology. Provost Andrew D. Hamilton, Ph.D., announced the appointment in April.

As deputy provost, Bottomly will help shape and implement policies in the natural sciences, anthropology, psychology, statistics and linguistics. She will oversee Yale Engineering, the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies and the Yale-affiliated Haskins Laboratories. Bottomly will also work on initiatives to increase faculty diversity, improve recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented minorities in science, and enhance career development for faculty.

Three Yale scientists have received close to $1 million each from the Ellison Medical Foundation to pursue research into infectious disease. The three are among the 10 Senior Scholars in Global Infectious Disease announced in December.

Jorge E. Galán, Ph.D., D.V.M., the Lucille P. Markey Professor of Microbiology and chair of the Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, will study the bacterium Campylobacter jejuni, one of the most common causes of gastrointestinal infection worldwide.

John R. Carlson, Ph.D., the Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, will explore new approaches to the design of repellents and traps for disease-carrying insects.

Ruslan Medzhitov, Ph.D., professor of immunobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, will examine how immune system responses to one infectious agent affect the body’s defenses against concurrent infections.

Thomas Gill

Thomas M. Gill, M.D., FW ’94, associate professor of medicine (geriatrics), and Michael Cappello, M.D., FW ’95, associate professor of pediatrics and epidemiology, have been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected medical honor societies. The ASCI membership includes physician-scientists elected for their achievements in biomedical research.

Steven Hebert

Stefan Somlo

Walter F. Boron

Two Yale physician-scientists were honored with major awards in the field of kidney research at the World Congress of Nephrology meeting in Singapore in June.

Steven C. Hebert, M.D., the chair and C.N.H. Long Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology and professor of medicine, and Stefan Somlo, M.D., FW ’91, the C.N.H. Long Professor of Medicine and chief of the Section of Nephrology, are being recognized for important discoveries.

Hebert will receive the A.N. Richards Award, which carries a $10,000 cash prize, from the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) for three discoveries in the field of ion transport and ion sensing. Somlo will share the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Advancement in the Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease for his work in discovering genes that cause polycystic kidney and liver diseases. Somlo and co-recipient Gregory G. Germino, M.D., HS ’87, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine will receive $50,000 each from The PKD Foundation and the ISN.

A third Yale nephrologist, Walter F. Boron, M.D., Ph.D., professor of cellular and molecular physiology, has been selected to receive the Homer W. Smith Award, the American Society of Nephrology’s top honor for basic research. The award, which carries a $10,000 cash prize, will be presented at the society’s annual meeting in November in Philadelphia.

Two Yale psychiatrists received the American Psychiatric Association’s APIRE/Kempf Fund Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry at the association’s annual meeting in Atlanta in May.

John H. Krystal, M.D. ’84, the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and deputy chair for research in the Department of Psychiatry, and Daniel H. Mathalon, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, were recognized for providing new insights into the neurobiology and treatment of cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia.

Notes

In March Sidney J. Blatt, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychology and chief of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, in collaboration with colleagues in Belgium, published a book, The Theory and Treatment of Depression: Towards a Dynamic Interactionism Model, that grew out of a collaboration begun in 2003. Blatt spent a month that year at the Catholic University of Leuven as a visiting professor. A colleague at Yale, Paul L. Errera, M.D., HS ’57, professor emeritus of psychiatry and a native of Belgium, sent greetings via videotape.

Hal Blumenfeld

Hal Blumenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., FW ’98, assistant professor of neurology, neurobiology and neurosurgery, has received the Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award from the American Academy of Neurology. The award recognizes physicians in the early stages of their careers who have contributed to epilepsy research.

Ronald Breaker

Ronald R. Breaker, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Breaker’s lab explores the “RNA world,” the idea that the Earth’s first life forms were composed of RNA rather than DNA. His studies have led him to discover dozens of regulatory structures, known as riboswitches, which might be used to control the activity of genes inserted into cells during the course of gene therapy.

David C. Cone, M.D., associate professor of surgery (emergency medicine) and public health, was installed as president-elect of the National Association of EMS Physicians at the group’s annual meeting in January.

Linda Degutis

Linda C. Degutis, M.S.N. ’82, Dr.Ph. ’94, associate professor of surgery (emergency medicine) and epidemiology and public health, was elected chair of the executive board of the American Public Health Association, the primary association for public health professionals.

Vincent DeVita Jr.

Vincent T. DeVita Jr., M.D., HS ’66, the Amy and Joseph Perella Professor of Medicine, has been named editor in chief of a new journal for oncologists, Nature Clinical Practice Oncology. DeVita previously served as head of the Yale Cancer Center and director of the National Cancer Institute.

Marie L. Landry, M.D., HS ’77, FW ’81, professor of laboratory medicine and director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Yale-New Haven Hospital, received the 2005 Diagnostic Virology Award from the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology in May for outstanding contributions to the field.

Robert J. Levine, M.D., HS ’63, professor of medicine and co-chair of the Yale Bioethics Project, has received the Health Improvement Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Human Research Protection. Levine has contributed to the literature of the field of protection of human research subjects by publishing over 200 articles and one major monograph and by founding and editing IRB: A Review of Human Subjects Research.

John MacMicking

John D. MacMicking, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, has been selected as a 2005 Searle Scholar as part of a program that supports the independent research of young faculty in the biomedical sciences and chemistry. In 2004 MacMicking also received the Mallinckrodt Foundation Program Scholar Award, given annually to young scientists starting their careers. He studies host innate immunity, with an emphasis on the role played by interferon pathways against intracellular infections like tuberculosis.

Bruce McClennan

Bruce L. McClennan, M.D., professor and chair of diagnostic radiology, was elected president of the American Roentgen Ray Society, effective May 15. The oldest radiology society in the United States, it has advanced radiology through annual scientific and educational meetings and the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Stephanie S. O’Malley, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the department’s Division of Substance Abuse Research, has received the 2004 Dan Anderson Research Award. The award, sponsored by the Butler Center for Research at the Hazelden Foundation, honors researchers who have advanced the study of addiction recovery.

Anna Marie Pyle

Anna Marie Pyle, Ph.D., has been appointed the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. Her research explores how RNA folds and organizes itself to catalyze reactions. Since 2002, Pyle has also been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.


The Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp. has given the 2004 Bayer Award to Raymond R. Russell, M.D., Ph.D., FW ’00, assistant professor of medicine (cardiology). Russell studies cardiac function and metabolism and the changes associated with disease states.

Robert Udelsman

Robert Udelsman, M.D., M.B.A., the Lampman Professor of Surgery and Oncology and chair of surgery, was elected president of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons. Membership includes surgeons who devote significant portions of their practice or research to endocrine surgery and who are certified by the American Board of Surgery.

Stephen Waxman

Stephen G. Waxman, Ph.D., M.D., professor and chair of neurology and professor of pharmacology and neurobiology, has been named the Bridget Marie Flaherty Professor of Molecular Neurology. Waxman, a renowned neurologist and molecular neuroscientist, studies the roles of sodium channels in multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and neuropathic pain.