May-June 2010
Faculty Accomplishments
We publish faculty and student accomplishments in every edition of URMC Pulse, highlighting both the prestigious honors our faculty/students receive, as well as the prominent leadership/advisory posts they are appointed to.
To submit an accomplishment, please e-mail pulse@urmctoday.com a short paragraph that includes (1) the faculty member’s/student’s credentials, (2) a brief explanation of the honor, and (3) a brief summary of the history and/or mission of the organization bestowing the honor. For students, please also include a hometown and the year they anticipate completing their program.
Porter W. Anderson, Ph.D., URMC professor emeritus of Pediatrics, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. He (together with Richard Eisenberg, Ph.D., the Tracy H. Harris Professor of Chemistry at the University of Rochester), is among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 14 countries recently elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The National Academy of Sciences, established in 1863, is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. Anderson, currently a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, was on the Medical Center faculty from 1977 to 1994. He is one of three URMC scientists who developed the Haemophilus influenza b (Hib) vaccine, which has virtually eradicated a leading cause of meningitis in preschoolers.
Georgianne Arnold, M.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and pediatric geneticist at Golisano Children's Hospital, was awarded the Emmanuel Shapira prize for the best paper in the journal Molecular Genetics and Metabolism by a member of the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders. Arnold received the award for her paper, titled “A Delphi Clinical Practice Protocol for the Management of Very Long Chain AcylCoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency,” at the society’s 2010 meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., on March 29.
Steven H. Bernstein, M.D., professor of Medicine and co-director of the Lymphoma Program at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium. The Lymphoma Research Foundation is the nation's largest voluntary health organization devoted exclusively to funding lymphoma research and providing patients and health care professionals with critical information on the disease. Bernstein’s laboratory and clinical research interests center on immunological approaches to the treatment of lymphoma as well as in the development of novel redox active anti-lymphoma therapeutics.
Professor of Pathology Thomas A. Bonfiglio, M.D., received the 2010 James W. Reagan Lecture in Clinical Cytology Award. Presented by the International Academy of Cytology (IAC), the award recognizes the lifelong dedication to cytology (the study of cellular anatomy, function and chemistry). Bonfiglio was honored this May at the IAC’s conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Robert S. Davis, M.D., professor of Urology, was selected as the winner of the 2010 Residents Committee Teaching Award, sponsored by the American Urological Association. Davis, who has worked at URMC since completing his own residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in 1974, was chosen for his demonstrated commitment to education through active participation as faculty member in an accredited urology residency program. He received his award at the American Urological Association Residents Forum in San Francisco, Calif., in May.
Carlo Ercoli, D.D.S., associate professor, chair and program director for the Eastman Institute for Oral Health’s Prosthodontic Division, has been named the 77th president of the American Prosthodontic Society. Founded in 1928, the Society works to advance prosthetic dentistry and improve patient treatment by integrating the skills and expertise of the generalist, specialist and dental lab technologist through education and research. As president, Ercoli will preside over the organization’s 2011 Annual Meeting this coming February in Chicago, IL.
Kevin Fiscella, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of Family Medicine and of Community & Preventive Medicine, served on the Institute of Medicine’s “Future Directions Committee.” The group was charged with helping re-design annual reports that track the nation’s progress in improving health care quality and equity. In addition to informing this most recent re-design project, Fiscella served on the initial expert panel when Congress mandated the first round of reports in 2002. The reports are likely to take on added significance in the light of national health care reform.
Deborah I. Friedman, M.D., M.P.H., professor of Ophthalmology and Neurology, served as keynote speaker and delivered the Dan Jacobson Lecture at the annual meeting of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society in March 2010. NANOS is the premier neuro-ophthalmology society in the world.
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology Barbara Iglewski, Ph.D., has been named director of International Programs at URMC. Her appointment is designed to strengthen current efforts with students and institutions abroad, including developing research partnerships and educational opportunities, increasing exchanges of students and faculty, conducting clinical trials, and exploring and creating new opportunities for the Medical Center. Much of the effort is focused on China, India, and other areas of Asia, and will supplement efforts already underway through the dean’s office of the School of Medicine and Dentistry. The school currently boasts more than 400 international scholars, including graduate students, post-doctoral associates, and others.
The RNA Society will present the 2010 Lifetime Achievement in Service Award to Lynne Maquat, Ph.D., at its annual meeting in Seattle this June. Maquat, the J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, who also directs the University’s Center for RNA Biology, will be granted lifetime membership in the Society. The Society was formed in 1993 to facilitate sharing and dissemination of experimental results and emerging concepts in ribonucleic acid research.
Neuro-oncologist Nimish Mohile, M.D., received American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Foundation Career Development Award, which provides funding to clinical investigators who have received their initial faculty appointment to establish an independent clinical cancer research program. Mohile, an assistant professor of Neurology and in the Cancer Center, will lead a project investigating efficacy of memantine in the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma.
Peter J. Papadakos, M.D., F.C.C.M., director of Critical Care Medicine and professor of Anesthesiology, Surgery and Neurosurgery, has been named a section editor for Current Opinions in Anesthesiology. Launched in 1988, the journal is one of a series of successful review journals whose unique format is designed systematically and critically assess current literature in the field.
In February, Nicole Stassen, M.D., F.C.C.M., associate professor of Surgery and of Pediatrics, was elected a fellow of the College of Critical Care Medicine (of the Society of Critical Care Medicine). Such an honor is bestowed to only a small percentage of critical care physicians, as less than two dozen new fellows are inducted annually. Stassen, in addition to serving as director for the medical school’s third year medical student clerkship, directs the Kessler Family Burn Trauma Intensive Care Unit.
Steve Schultz, M.D., associate professor of Family Medicine, has been awarded the 2010 Family Practice Educator of the Year by the New York State Academy of Family Physicians. The award recognizes persons who have made outstanding contributions to education for family practice at the undergraduate, graduate and continuing education levels. Schultz will receive the award at the NYSAFP’s annual meeting in June.
Medical/Nursing Student, Graduate Student, and Resident Accomplishments
The American Society for Gene Therapy selected Toxicology Ph.D. student Melissa Badding (‘12) for an Excellence in Research Award. Badding’s abstract, titled “Transcription Factor Binding by Plasmid DNA is Needed for Interaction with Microtubules and Plasmid DNA,” was honored as one of the top six submitted to the Society’s annual meeting, which draws almost 2,500 attendees.
Medical student Ilana Jacobs (‘12) of Potomac, Md., was selected for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ (NIEHS) 2009-2010 Fellowship in Environmental Medicine. Jacobs, one of just two recipients for this prestigious honor, is completing the fellowship at the NIEH headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C. She is investigating embryo development before uterine implantation.
MediTel Health Solutions, a proposed company that would connect Parkinson’s patients and physicians via Web-based video conferencing, won the University of Rochester’s Mark Ain Business Model Competition. Twenty-one business teams entered the competition, which was open to undergraduate and graduate students at the University. Jason Reminick (‘13), a student at the UR School of Medicine and the Simon Graduate School of Business, and Benjamin George (‘13), a student at the School of Medicine, will be awarded a $10,000 cash prize for creating the MediTel business plan.
The Department of Defense selected M.D./Ph.D. student Mercedes Szpunar (‘13) of South Barrington, Ill., for its 2010 Breast Cancer Research Program Predoctoral Fellowship. The fellowship, which offers up to three years of graduate stipend and travel expenses, funds her thesis project focused on the effects of chronic stressor exposure on breast cancer growth. Her research seeks to delineate how stress hormones alter tumor cell signaling, thereby promoting tumor growth and metastasis.
