Penn Medicine is published 3 times a year for the alumni and friends of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center by the Department of Communications.

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Spring 2009

In this Issue...

Regenerative Medicine: Ready to Take the Lead
Although embryonic stem cells were the focus of scrutiny – and controversy – in recent years, many scientists continued to explore other ways to generate or reprogram cells for therapeutic use. Now with one of the pioneers in the field as its director, Penn's Institute for Regenerative Medicine seeks to establish itself as a leader among such programs.

Also in this issue...

• Scholars and Donors– A remarkable scholarship program and the careers, and personal bonds, it has nourished.
• The Challenges of Personalized Medicine
• Caplan and Vagelos Head-to-Head: Can Academic Medicine and Industry Work Together? Should They?
• A New Role for Messenger RNA: Cell Reprogrammer

Plus...

• Editor's Note: The Past is Present – 21st Century Endowed Scholarships, Roy Vagelos, and William Hanson– Then and Now
• Vital Signs: Honors and Awards, Transitions and Appointments
• Peering Over the Edge of Medicine: William Hanson on Technology
• Development Matters: Economic Pressures Increase Importance of Scholarships
• Alumni News, Progress Notes, and Obits
• The Last Word: The Right Thing to Do

Winter 2008/2009

In this Issue...

Hair Brained
George Cotsarelis, M.D. ’87, has drawn
wide – and sometimes fervent – interest for his research on hair loss. So far, his team has succeeded in generating new hair in mice. But the interim step may prove more significant: By generating hair follicles that produce the hair, the researchers accomplished the first successful regeneration of a mammalian organ.

Also in this issue...

• A Day of Red Ribbons – The Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
• A Very Rare Gem – Celebrating the Life of John Pryor
• Two In Tune – Harmony in the music and obesity research of Jack A. Yanovski and Susan Zelitch Yanovski
• The Importance of Listening

Plus...

• Editor's Note: Good News from Botswana
• Vital Signs: Focus on Vision, White Coats, Honors, Appointments, and Letters
• Engineered T-Cells Gain a Weapon Against an Elusive Enemy: HIV
• A Population in Need of Better Sleep
• New "Front Door" for the School of Medicine
• Alumni News, Progress Notes, and Obits
• The Last Word: A Roadmap for Turbulent Times

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Summer 2008 (PDF)

In This Issue...

Gene Therapy Restores Partial Sight
Some 20 years after the idea first came to them, Jean Bennett, M.D., Ph.D., and Albert M. Maguire, M.D., have used gene therapy to restore partial sight to patients with Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA). A severe form of retinal degradation, the condition leads to total blindness. The preliminary results set the stage for further studies of an innovative treatment for LCA and possibly other retinal diseases.

Also in this issue...

• Help for Unhealthy Environments
• Behind the Jannetta Procedure
• Comparing Drugs: When Cost and Science Collide
• Vital Signs, Featuring Fishers' $50 million Gift to Support New Translational Research Center

Plus...

• Editor's Note: "Going Public"
• Changing the Paradigm – Preparing for the Crisis
• PENN Medicine Turns to Simulators for Improved Training
• Alumni News & Progress Notes
• Last Word: Conflict of Interest

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Spring 2008 (PDF)

The New Era of Personalized Medicine?

The F.D.A. has referred to the "New Era of Personalized Medicine" and last year supported it with $277 million. Some private groups see its enormous potential for making money. Many physicians are enthusiastic about its clinical impact. Although some questions about cost and privacy remain, the movement toward personalized medicine is very strong. At PENN Medicine, cancer specialists are among those taking the lead in this new paradigm.

Also in this issue...

• Considering the Capital Campaign
• Dr. Hendrie Goes to Cambodia
• The "Dark Energy" of Proteins
• To China for an Acupuncture Elective

Fall/Winter 2007 (PDF)

Raising a Tower for Research

Four years ago, the School of Medicine established the Office of Corporate Alliances. Its mandate: to bring Penn scientists and clinicians together with industry scientists, marketing people, and managers. Going beyond some surface differences, they often find reasons – and ways – to collaborate.

Also in this issue...

• The Physician-in-Chief
• The Amyloid Factor
• Can Gun Violence be Controlled?
• A Glimpse into the Past: The Medical Class of 1889

Summer 2007 (PDF)

How to Build a Team

For the first time last fall, the School of
Medicine divided its incoming class into
teams of six and seven. The idea is that,
to be effective as doctors, students will
have to learn how to work well in teams
and learn how to lead them. Most
health care today is not provided by
solo practitioners; and in hospitals,
patients are often cared for by multiple
doctors and teams of professionals.

Also in this issue...

• A Neuro-Orthopaedist in Action
• Crossing Boundaries with Mitchell Blutt
• The Standard in Biomedical Studies
• Revisiting the New Curriculum

Winter 2007 (PDF)

A Critical Period : Three of Penn's schools were prominently involved in an initiative to gather the latest information about adolescent mental health. In all, nearly 150 experts in a variety of fields and from around the country helped evaluate what we know — and don't know — about this important topic. The results include a massive book for specialists, a series of books for parents, and a series for teens with mental illnesses.

Also in this issue...

• Dr. Franklin's Medicine
• A Banner Year for Beck
• The Vaccine Man
• It's Sports in the Family

Fall 2006 (PDF)

Positive Imaging: With R. Nick Bryan, M.D., Ph.D., at the helm, Penn's Department of Radiology has weathered some difficult times and undergone substantial growth and development. Armed with an array of cutting-edge imaging equipment, Penn radiologists are seeing more patients and advancing knowledge in the field. Residencies and fellowships are highly sought after. Among the nation's radiology departments, Penn's remains near the top in receiving research funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Also in this issue...

• Dr. Gabow's Treatment Plan
• The Skeleton Key
• Death of a Marine

Summer I 2006 (PDF)

Professing Humanism: Professionals adhere to established standards, keep up with advances in medicine, and accept their obligation to give back to society. Humanists put their patients first, making empathy as important as technical skill. With a new position of associate dean of professionalism and humanism and an innovative program that pairs medical students with patients from the very start of their education, Penn's School of Medicine has been a leader in fostering these concepts in its curriculum.

Also in this issue...

• Pondering Professionalism
• Taking On TMD
• Seeing Straight
• Psychiatrist as Writer, Writer as Psychiatrist
• Jonathan Epstein Assumes Departmental Chair
• Penn Neurosurgery Goes Three-Dimensional
• The Finest Hospital Care — With a Difference
• A Matter of FACTT

February 2006 (PDF)

The Immersion Method: The School of Medicine's revitalized programs in global health provide intense experiences for the students who take part. The credo: The only way to understand another country "is to got there and immerse yourself."

Also in this issue...

• Giving Testimony
• Unquiet Slumbers
• How Do Otters Remain Sleek and Warm?
• The Knife That Isn't a Knife
• Treating the Deadliest Brain Tumors
• An Eye for Nature

Fall 2005 (PDF)

Prescription: Better Information Technology for Better Health: Across the nation, hospitals are implementing specialized computer information systems to reduce costs, reduce medical errors, and improve the quality of care. The Federal guru of health information technology, David J. Brailer, M.D., did his training at Penn.

Also in this issue...

• A New Center Treats Congential Heart Defects
• A Pair of Aces
• Gene Sleuths on the Trail of Schizophrenia
• Can We Ward Off Aging?
• A Spotlight on the Class of 1955

Summer 2005 (PDF)

A Matter of Potential: An AAMC study pointed out that only 12 percent of full professors at academic medical centers were women. At Penn, FOCUS on Health & Leadership for Women has broadened its mandate to include initiatives in leadership mentoring and professional development for women faculty. It is also helping women to balance the many varied responsibilities they bear.

Also in this issue...

• Reducing Surgical Trauma the Robotic Way
• When More Is Better
• A New Lease on Life

April 2005 (PDF)

America the Super-Sized: Over the last four decades, Americans have become dramatically heavier, creating talk of “an epidemic of obesity.” And it’s not a matter of aesthetics - it’s a matter of health. The professionals in Penn’s Weight and Eating Disorders Program are studying the causes of this trend, evaluating the available treatments, and helping their patients lose weight in healthy fashion.

Also in this issue...

• Penn Launches On-Line Critical Care
• Institutional Advancements
• A Good Kind of Ambition

Fall/Winter 2004 (PDF)

Room for Thought: A Penn team discovered a mutation in the protein myosin that appears responsible for the development of smaller jaw muscles in humans as compared to non-human primates. Did this mutation lift an evolutionary constraint on brain growth in early humans?

Also in this issue...

• Stimulating Work
• Making the News
• Dress Rehearsal
• A Nexus for Neurological Sciences
• It's '54 to the Fore

Spring 2004 (PDF)

What Makes Lee Sweeney Run?: In scientific circles, H. Lee Sweeney, PhD, chair of Penn's Department of Physiology, has built a reputation investigating Duchenne muscular dystrophy and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. But he is best known in the wider world for his work with "mighty mice," treated to gain muscle mass and stave off many of the effects of aging. That work has drawn much attention – from The New York Times Magazine to competitive weight-lifters.

Also in this issue...

• Bariatric Surgery: When Other Ways Have Failed
• Bittersweet
• From Foresight to Oversight: Ted Friedmann and the Rise of Gene Therapy

Fall/Winter 2003 (PDF)

A Champion for Survivors: Advances in cancer treatment over the last decades have led to a rapidly growing population of cured patients. Anna T. Meadows, MD, professor of pediatrics at Penn, was one of the first oncologists to examine the aftermath of radiation, cancer drugs, surgery, and transfusions on this special population, who may experience second cancers, organ dysfunction, decreased fertility, and emotional problems.

Also in this issue...

• Steve Larson: Serving the Underserved
• Counting the Hours
• 50 Years After: A Glimpse of the Class of 1953

Summer 2003 (PDF)

Fighting the Bullet: C. William Schwab, MD, and Therese S. Richmond, PhD, CRNP, had seen more than enough in the trauma centers – several hundred victims of gunshot wounds, year after year. Schwab and Richmond wanted to halt the violence, but they knew they needed impeccable scientific data to support intervention efforts and policy changes. So they created FICAP, the Firearm Injury Center at Penn.

Also in this issue...

• Mammoth Scale
• David Moolten's "Secret Exercise"

Winter 2003 (PDF)

Changing Their Minds: You don't have to be a practicing Buddhist to reap the benefits of mindfulness meditation, says Michael Baime, MD '81, who teaches the technique to both patients and other health-care professionals. According to Baime, mindfulness meditation can help people reduce stress and cultivate a greater sense of well-being. In the past few years, he's gained a lot of believers.

Also in this issue...

• Helene Gayle, Agent of Prevention
• Robotic Surgery Arrives at HUP
• Visiting China for a Good Cause
• Catching Up with the Class of 1952

Fall 2002 (PDF)

Changing the Future of Research: After the tragic death of a volunteer in one of its genetherapy trials, the University of Pennsylvania made a commitment to improve the way clinical trials involving humans are conducted and regulated. One tangible result is the Office of Human Research, which assists researchers in developing protocols and monitoring the trials. Top administrators describe the changes as a "revolution"; standards are now much more rigorous.

Also in this issue...

• A Wartime Student Remembers
• Out of Canada
• Scrubs

Spring 2002 (PDF)

Brain Injury: The Silent Epidemic: Tracy K. McIntosh has been the first person on the scene of an automobile accident a half dozen times in his life, and he knows how often the human brain suffers traumatic injury in such events. As director of Penn's interdisciplinary Head Injury Center, he also knows how research can help in the prevention, understanding, and treatment of brain injury.

Also in this issue...

• "We Are All Patients"
• Knowledge Is Power
• Etching from Experience
• Another Alan

Summer 2001 (PDF)

The Science of Addiction: In his 30 years as director of Penn's Treatment Research Center, Charles P. O'Brien, MD, GME '69 PhD, has witnessed changes in the way scientists understand addiction, thanks to advances in neurochemistry, neurophysiology, and genetics. Despite resistance among many who deliver treatment, the trend in research today is to focus on using medication to treat addiction.

Also in this issue...

• In the Style of Houdon
• A Photograph of God?
• Celebrating the Class of '51

Spring 2001 (PDF)

A Man of Many Parts: Early in his career in Ireland, Dr. Garret FitzGerald may have struggled to establish his own reputation – he shared a name with one of that nation’s most famous politicians. Now, FitzGerald, a busy department chair at Penn Med, has made a name for himself through his medical and pharmacological research. But he believes in the necessity of collaboration, arguing "Art is I; science is we."

Also in this issue...

• Clinical Care
• The First Turns 250

Fall/Winter 2000 (PDF)

High Hopes for Hemophiliacs: As gene therapy has been increasingly scrutinized and criticized, Dr. Katherine A. High's promising work in the field has drawn national attention. Using gene therapy, High, professor of pediatrics at Penn, has successfully treated hemophilia in dogs. So far, clinical trials with humans have also been encouraging.

Also in this issue...

• A Pragmatist of Public Health
• A Grand Reunion
• "The Just Wrath of God": The Coming of the Pox
• Priority: Financial Aid