Speakers

From the Human Genome Project to Precision Medicine: A Journey to Advance Human Health

Eric D. Green is the Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a position he has held since late 2009. He has been at NHGRI for over 24 years. While directing an independent research program for almost two decades, Dr. Green was at the forefront of efforts to map, sequence, and understand eukaryotic genomes. His work included significant, start-to-finish involvement in the Human Genome Project. As Director of NHGRI, Dr. Green is responsible for providing overall leadership of the Institute’s research portfolio and other initiatives. In recent years, this has included designing and launching a number of major programs to accelerate the application of genomics to medical care. Beyond NHGRI-specific programs, Dr. Green has also played an instrumental leadership role in the development of several high-profile efforts relevant to genomics, including the Smithsonian-NHGRI exhibition Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code, the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) program, the NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy, the U.S. Precision Medicine Initiative, and the NIH Data Commons.

Lessons from the road less traveled: Looking back over 14 years
Erin Kobetz is a Tenured Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Miami (UM) Miller School of Medicine. Additionally, she is Associate Director of Population Science and Cancer Disparities at UM’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC). Dr. Kobetz also serves as Program Director for the Community Engagement and Multidisciplinary Team Science Components of UM’s Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSA) and is the Director of SCCC’s Cancer Control Program. She earned a Master's in Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University (1999), and joined the University of Miami in September of 2004, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Public Health. Soon after, Dr. Kobetz established Patnè en Aksyon (Partners in Action), the first campus- community partnership between the University of Miami and community-based organizations in Little Haiti, the largest enclave of Haitian settlement. She currently works as the Principal Investigator of multiple grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparity (NIHMD,) to support collaborative science with numerous South Florida communities. Collectively, they have garnered over 30 million dollars in extramural funding and serve as the University’s model for stakeholder engagement. Dr. Erin Kobetz has also partnered with South Florida Firefighters - similarly characterized by excess cancer risk - and leads the Firefighter Cancer Initiative (FCI), a University- wide interdisciplinary strategy to address disparity from “bench” to “bedside” to “community.” Such efforts have been locally and nationally recognized and serve as an important approach to develop new community-based models for cancer prevention and achieve sustainable health and social change in underserved communities.

How to Cure a Disease, or Never Give In, Never Give In. Never, never, never…
David A. Hafler, M.D., FANA is the William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor and Chairman Department of Neurology and Professor or Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, and is the Neurologist-in-Chief of the Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is among the most highly cited living Neurologist. He graduated magna cum laude in 1974 from Emory University with combined B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in biochemistry, and the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1978. He then completed his internship in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins followed by a neurology residency at Cornell Medical Center-New York Hospital in New York. Dr. Hafler was trained in immunology at the Rockefeller University and then at Harvard where he joined the faculty in 1984 and later became the Breakstone Professorship of Neurology at Harvard and was a founding Associated Member of the Broad Institute at MIT. In 2009 he moved to Yale as the Chair of the Department of Neurology. Dr. Hafler is a clinical scientist with a research interest in the mechanism of multiple sclerosis with over 370 publications in the field of MS, autoimmunity and immunology. He is a co-founder of the International MS Genetic Consortium a group that identified the genes causing MS. Dr. Hafler has been elected to membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Alpha Omega Society, and was a Weaver Scholar of the NMSS. He has served as a member of the editorial boards for Journal of Clinical Investigation and the Journal of Experimental Medicine, and is co-founder of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies and leads the NIH Autoimmunity Prevention Center Grant at Yale. Dr. Hafler was a Jacob Javits Merit Award Recipient from the NIH and has won many awards including 2010 Dystel Prize for MS research from the American Academy of Neurology, the Raymond Adams Prize in 2015 from the American Neurologic Association and the 2016 Frontier Lecturer at the AAN. Dr. Hafler received the University of Miami Annual Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010, but perhaps of greatest note, he was part of the founding group of the Eastern Student Research Forum and was the organizer of the 1978 Forum.

New Insights into the Pathophysiology and Treatment of Brain and Spinal Cord Injury
W. Dalton Dietrich Ph.D is Scientific Director at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Anatomy from the Medical College of Virginia in 1979 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology at Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 1981. Dr. Dietrich accepted the position of Scientific Director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis in 1997 and is currently Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Biomedical Engineering and Cell Biology. Research in Dr. Dietrich’s laboratory is focused on clarifying the pathophysiology of brain and spinal cord injury with the ultimate goal of developing new therapies to protect and enhance recovery of function. Dr. Dietrich serves on study sections for NIH, Department of Defense, Veteran’s Administration, and several editorial boards. He is currently Editor-In-Chief of the Journal Therapeutic Hypothermia & Temperature Management and Deputy Editor of the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Co-Emergence: A Physician and Her Pathogens

Dr. Anna Likos is currently the State Epidemiologist as well as the Interim Deputy Secretary for Health and the Incident Commander for Florida’s response to Zika Virus. She also recently retired her commissions as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard where she served as a physician ensuring that Air Force personnel were medically fit and ready for immediate deployment if required.

Dr. Likos began her medical career later in life than usual and was actually 41 years old when she entered the University of Oklahoma, School of Medicine in Oklahoma City to pursue her medical degree. Since that time, she has completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Yale, practiced as a hospitalist in Springfield Missouri, and completed her MPH as well as a second residency in Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins. Prior to coming to Florida, she worked for the CDC as an EIS Officer in the Poxvirus branch, a Medical Epidemiologist in the Influenza Branch, as the CDC Country Director in Haiti and Ivory Coast, a resident advisor for the Field Epidemiology Training Program in Morocco and as the Deputy for the African Team in the Polio Eradication Response out of CDC’s Emergency Operations Center. Two and a half years ago, she hung up her frequent flyer number and took on a new role as the State Epidemiologist and Director of the Division of Disease Control and Health Protection for the Department of Health in Tallahassee, Florida. In these short two and a half years, she has faced many challenges including recently stepping into the Deputy Secretary of Health role as well as medico-scientific challenges such as the first case of Chikungunya fever transmitted by an infected mosquito in the continental United States and our current response to the threat of Zika virus in Florida.

Leveraging the Work Environment to Improve Population-level Health and Safety

Dr.Alberto Caban-Martinez is a public health board-certified osteopathic physician, occupational epidemiologist and Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences’ Gulf Research Program and a standing member of the CDC’s Study Section on Occupational Health and Safety. Dr. Caban-Martinez earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with minors in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Miami in 2001. In 2004, he received his Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree with Honors from Nova Southeastern University. In May 2011 he simultaneously completed both the Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) program at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine as well as the doctoral epidemiology (Ph.D.) program in the at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. Following graduation from medical and graduate school, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical orthopedics and musculoskeletal disorders at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Woman’s Hospital. His NIH- and CDC-funded research primarily examines the morbidity and mortality of workers, with specialty in musculoskeletal disorders. He has articles published in the American Journal of Public Health, Preventive Medicine, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Neuropharmacology. He has published over 86 peer reviewed publications, authored the chapter on musculoskeletal disorders in the Oxford Textbook of Public Health, and presented over 152 scientific presentations on a wide range of occupational health and safety topics. He serves as co-principal investigator (along with Dr. David Lee and Dr. Erin Kobetz) of the new Sylvester Firefigher Cancer Initiative and Principal Investigator of the American Cancer Society funded “Determining Occupational Uncertainty in Sources and Exposures” (DOUSE) Firefighter Gear Pilot Study.

Ancient Retroviruses and Motor Neuron Disease

Dr. Avindra Nath joined NIH as the Clinical Director of NINDS in February 2011. Prior to this, he was the Director of the Division of Neuroimmunology and Neurological Infections at Johns Hopkins University for 9 years. His current responsibilities are to oversee and build the clinical research program at NINDS. Dr. Nath is also the Director of the Translational Neuroscience Center. The office has a clinical trials unit that provides assistance in all stages of protocol development and monitoring. It oversees a unique training program for clinical fellows and residents in Neurology and Neurosurgery. The office also oversees a variety of specialized clinics and provides services for investigation and consultation for patients with neurological disorders. Dr. Nath graduated from Christian Medical College in Ludhiana, India, in 1981, completed a residency in Neurology in 1986 and a fellowship in Neuroimmunology from University of Texas in Houston in 1988. He was a clinical fellow in Neurovirology at NINDS from 1988-90 and held faculty positions at University of Manitoba (1990-97), University of Kentucky (1997-2002) and at Johns Hopkins University (2002-11). His research has focused on the neuropathogenesis, neurological manifestations and treatment of HIV infection, Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy and Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Nath has published over 300 articles and reviews. He has served on the editorial board of several journals and is currently the Associate Editor of the Journal of Neurovirology and has edited a book on Clinical Neurovirology. Dr. Nath is the past Chair of the Section of Neuroinfectious Diseases of the American Academy of Neurology and the current President of the International Society of Neurovirology.

Towards a Cure for Type I Diabetes

Dr. Norma Sue Kenyon, Martin Kleiman Professor of Surgery, Microbiology and Immunology and Biomedical Engineering, became the University of Miami’s Vice Provost for Innovation and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine’s Chief Innovation Officer in June 2012. Under the umbrella of U Innovation, she leads a team that includes the Office of Technology Transfer and the Miller School’s Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research. In these roles, Dr. Kenyon serves as the primary liaison for University faculty and program staff to investigate opportunities for disclosure, patent protection, funding and commercialization of their scientific work and has responsibility for catalyzing interdisciplinary innovation across departments, institutes and schools in areas where the University has intellectual property opportunities with the potential for broad and far-reaching benefits. Dr. Kenyon and her diabetes research team have focused on ways to transplant insulin producing islet cells without the need for life-long anti-rejection drugs, including the incorporation of stem cells into transplant protocols to enhance islet engraftment and survival. She received research funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation and several industry collaborators. Dr. Kenyon has served as Chair for Immunology in the NIH funded Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and the Clinical Islet Transplant consortiums and is a member of the NIAID Council and the NIH Council of Councils. In addition to her academic pursuits, Dr. Kenyon has served as a scientific advisor to the Food and Drug Administration and as Senior Associate Dean for Translational Science at the Miller School of Medicine. She earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University, followed by post-doctoral positions at UCLA and the University of Miami. Dr. Kenyon left academics to work for Coulter Corporation early in her career but ultimately returned to pursue type 1 diabetes research.

Genomic and Precision Medicine: The Future is Now

Dr. Geoffrey S. Ginsburg founded the Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine at Duke in 2014 resulting from his positions as director for Genomic Medicine the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy from 2004-2014 and as director of the Center for Personalized and Precision Medicine established in the Duke University Health System from 2010-2014.

While at Duke, Dr. Ginsburg has pioneered translational genomics, initiating programs in genome enabled biomarker discovery, longitudinal registries with linked molecular and clinical data, biomarker-informed clinical trials, and the development of novel practice models and implementation research for the integration of genomic tools in heath care systems. With a strong commitment to interdisciplinary science he has led projects to develop predictive models for common complex diseases using high dimensional genomic data as well as collaborations with engineering groups to develop novel point of care sensors. His work spans oncology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, and his research is addressing the challenges for translating genomic information into medical practice using new and innovative paradigms, and the integration of personalized medicine into health care. He is an internationally recognized expert in genomics and personalized medicine with over 200 published papers, and funding from NIH, DOD, Air Force, DARPA, the Gates Foundation, and industry.

In 1990, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where he was director of Preventive Cardiology at Beth Israel Hospital and led a laboratory in applied genetics of cardiovascular diseases at Children’s Hospital. In 1997 he joined Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc, as senior program director for cardiovascular diseases and was eventually appointed vice president of Molecular and Personalized Medicine, where he was responsible for developing pharmacogenomic strategies for therapeutics, as well as biomarkers for disease and their implementation in the drug development process.

He has received a number of awards for his research accomplishments, including the Innovator in Medicine Award from Millennium in 2004, the Basic Research Achievement Award in Cardiovascular Medicine from Duke in 2005, and the ILCHUN Molecular Medicine Award from Korea in 2014. He is a founding member and former board member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, a section editor for The Journal of the American College of Cardiology and an editorial advisor for Science Translational Medicine. In addition he is the editor of Genomic and Personalized Medicine (Elsevier) published in 2012. He is a member of the Faculty of 1000.

He has been a member of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Advisory Council on Genomic Medicine, a member of the NIGMS External Scientific Panel for the Pharmacogenomics Research Network, and the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research at NIH. He is currently an international expert panel member for Genome Canada, a member of the Board of External Experts for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on The Future of the Health Sector. He has recently been appointed to the Advisory Council for the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at NIH and is the Vice Chair for the Cures Acceleration Network Board. He is co-chair of the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Translating Genome-Based Research for Health.

He received his MD and PhD in biophysics from Boston University and completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA. Subsequently, he pursued postdoctoral training in clinical cardiovascular medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and in molecular biology at Children’s Hospital as a Bugher Foundation Fellow of the American Heart Association.

The Rage to Know, the Rage to Teach, the Rage to Heal or Why We Are All Not On Wall Street

Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff is the Leonard M. Miller Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida. He received his MD and Ph.D (Neurobiology) degrees from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. After psychiatry residency training at UNC and Duke University, he held faculty positions at Duke and at Emory University before relocating to the University of Miami in 2009. He has served as President of the American College of Psychiatrists (ACP) and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and sits on the Scientific Advisory Board and Board of Directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. He has received a number of research and education awards including the Kempf Award in Psychobiology, the Samuel Hibbs Award, Research Mentoring Award, Judson Marmor Award and the Vestermark Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the Mood Disorders Award, Bowis Award and Dean Award from the ACP. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. His research has focused on the pathophysiology of mood and anxiety disorders with a focus on the role of child abuse and neglect as a major risk factor. He has also focused on the role of mood disorders as a risk factor for major medical disorders including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

He has served on the Mental Health Advisory Council of NIMH and the Biomedical Research Council for NASA. He is the co-editor in chief of the Textbook of Psychopharmacology, published by the APA. His research is currently supported by grants from the NIH.

Research on Motivating Behavior Change – The Patient is in Charge

Dr. Josephine P. Briggs is the Director, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and Acting Director, Division of Clinical Innovation, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH. An accomplished researcher and physician, Dr. Briggs received her A.B. in biology from Harvard-Radcliffe College and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency training in internal medicine and nephrology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, followed by a fellowship at Yale, then work as a research scientist at the Physiology Institute at the University of Munich

In 1985, Dr. Briggs moved to the University of Michigan where she held several academic positions, including associate chair for research in the Department of Internal Medicine and professorships in the Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, and the Department of Physiology.

She joined the Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1997 as director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. In 2006, Dr. Briggs accepted a position as senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In January 2008, she returned to NIH as the Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Dr. Briggs has published more than 175 research articles, book chapter, and scholarly publications and has served on the editorial boards of several journals, and was deputy editor for the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Briggs is an elected member of the American Association of Physicians and the American Society of Clinical Investigation and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a recipient of many awards and prizes, including the Volhard Prize of the German Nephrological Society, the Alexander von Humboldt Scientific Exchange Award, and NIH Director’s Awards for her role in the development of the Trans-NIH Type I Diabetes Strategic Plan and her leadership of the Trans-NIH Zebrafish committee. Dr. Briggs is also a member of the NIH Steering Committee, the senior most governing board at the NIH.

Cyclodextrin: an old drug for a new indication

Dr. Alessia Fornoni is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is Director of the Diabetic Nephropathy Clinic, Director and Chair of the Peggy and Harold Katz Drug Discovery Institute, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology and Candidate Global Head of Discovery in Cardiovascular and Metabolism at Hoffman-La Roche in Basel.

Dr. Fornoni received her medical degree from School of Medicine, University of Pavia, Italy. She completed sub-internship at University Hospital I.R.C.C.S, Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, in Obstetrics, Surgery, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine and her internship on Nephrology and Dialysis Unit at University Hospital Policlinico San Matteo. Dr. Fornoni obtained a Ph.D. Degree in Medical Pharmacology at the University of Pavia, Italy.

Dr. Fornoni is a physician-scientist who has maintained a resolutely focused research program that has provided novel and seminal contributions to our understanding of the pathogenesis of kidney disease. Her work was the first to uncover how chronic inflammation in diabetes may negatively affect pro-survival insulin signaling pathways in podocytes (Kidney International, 2008; NEJM, 2010). She was the first to describe that insulin resistance occurs in podocytes prior to the onset of microalbuminuria in diabetic nephropathy (Kidney International, 2008). In an attempt to elucidate the mechanisms of insulin resistance in podocytes and pancreatic beta cells, she reported a key role of the stress-activated-protein-kinase JNK (Kidney International, 2009, Diabetologia, 2008). More recently, she uncovered that impaired reverse cholesterol transport strongly contributes to podocyte insulin resistance and apoptosis in diabetes (Diabetes 2013). Dr. Fornoni also uncovered how nephrin regulates pancreatic beta cell function (Diabetes, 2010, JBC, 2012).

While maintaining a primary focus on diabetes, she has expanded her research interests to another glomerular disorder that shares several aspects with diabetic nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Her seminal work in this area was the first report that rituximab protected from recurrent FSGS after transplantation. Her studies demonstrated that rituximab has beneficial off target effects in cells other than B-lymphocytes, such as podocytes, through modulation of sphingomyelin related enzymes (Science TM, 2011). She was the first to recognize the de novo appearance of B7-1 in transplanted kidneys of patients with FSGS and to contribute to a new study describing the utilization and mechanism of action of abatactept in B7-1 positive proteinuric kidney diseases (NEJM, 2013). She has developed and patented new assays to predict proteinuria in patients with glomerular diseases (Science TM, 2011; Diabetes, 2013). Finally, she has also substantially contributed to several collaborative studies that have resulted in high-impact publications (Nature Medicine and Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2011) attesting to her abilities as an integral member of “team science”.

Dr. Fornoni’s research has been supported by grants from National Institutes of Health and private foundations. She has received prestigious awards, invited to write reviews for prestigious journals (e.g. NEJM), was nominated to the editorial board of Diabetes, presented at national and international meetings, served as grant reviewer for NIH, ADA and AHA and is the PI on two NIH-sponsored clinical trials. She has 69 peer review publications, 15 as first author, 14 as senior author, and 19 as corresponding author. Her contributions have been published in high impact journals: Journal of Clinical Investigation, NEJM, Science Translational Medicine, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Diabetes, Kidney International and the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. She has also contributed to two textbook chapters related to diabetic nephropathy. She has been able to combine a successful career with an active family life (with 2 children) and serves as an outstanding role model for many trainees. This further supports her accomplishments, dedication and perseverance, and more importantly her unstinted commitment as a physician-scientist.

Addressing race and ethnic disparities in stroke prevention

Dr. Ralph L. Sacco is the Chairman of Neurology, Olemberg Family Chair in Neurological Disorders, Miller Professor of Neurology, Epidemiology and Public Health, Human Genetics, and Neurosurgery, Executive Director of the Evelyn McKnight Brain Institute at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, and Chief of the Neurology Service at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was the former Professor of Neurology, Director of the Stroke and Critical Care Division, at the Neurological Institute of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Sacco graduated from Cornell University with distinction, received his medical degree cum laude from Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts where he was elected to AOA, and completed a master's degree in epidemiology from Columbia University, School of Public Health. Dr. Sacco completed a residency in neurology at Presbyterian Hospital of the City of New York. He completed his postdoctoral training in stroke and Epidemiology at Columbia under a NINDS-funded neuroepidemiology training grant.

Dr. Sacco's research activities began in 1980 when he participated in the Framingham Heart Study. Since 1990, he has been the founding Principal Investigator of the Northern Manhattan Study. He has published extensively in the areas of stroke prevention, treatment, risk factors, stroke recurrence, and genetics, with more than 330 original articles and 100 invited publications to his credit. He has been a leading author on numerous evidence-based guidelines from the AHA and other organizations. In addition, he is the senior consulting editor of Stroke, and serves on the editorial boards of Cerebrovascular Disease, Neuroepidemiology, and Nature Clinical Practice Neurology. He has helped train numerous fellows in stroke and epidemiology and was co-director of a T32 at Columbia entitled Neuroepidemiology Training Program.

He has received a number of awards including the Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke and the Chairman's Award from the American Heart Association, and the NINDS Javits Award in Neuroscience. He has lectured extensively including giving some key named lectures: Donald Baxter Lecture, HJM Barnett Lecture, Chaim Mayman Memorial Lecture, Daniel Gainey Lecture, Henry Russek Lecture, and the David Sherman Lecture. He is a member of the American Association of Physicians, fellow of the Stroke and Epidemiology Councils of the American Heart Association, a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, and a member of the American Neurological Association. Dr. Sacco is the first neurologist to have served as President (2010-11) of the American Heart Association.

Achieving happiness as a physician scientist

Dr. Stephen Nimer, a hematologist, molecular biologist, and bone marrow transplant physician, is currently the Director of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, Florida. Dr. Nimer was at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York for nearly 20 years, where he held the Alfred P. Sloan Chair and served as Head of the Division of Hematologic Oncology, Vice Chairman for Faculty Development, and Chief of the Hematology Service. He also served as a member of Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, an Attending Physician at Memorial Hospital, and a Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Over the years, Dr. Nimer has conducted extensive clinical and basic science research into the treatment and genetic basis of adult leukemia and bone marrow failure states, defining the regulatory mechanisms that control the production of blood cells and exploring ways to improve the treatment of blood based cancers. He has authored over 200 scientific publications and has received numerous awards for his research, including the prestigious Irma T. Hirschl Career Scientist Award. Dr. Nimer graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975, and received his M.D. degree with honors from the University of Chicago of Medicine in 1979. He completed training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the UCLA School of Medicine, and joined the faculty there in 1986, before moving to Memorial Sloan-Kettering in 1993.

Dr. Nimer was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigators at age 42, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He serves on the editorial board of several medical journals, and on the medical boards of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome Foundation, the Bone Marrow Foundation, and other foundations. Dr. Nimer is also the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research.

Charting a Course to Success as a Physician Scientist

Dr. Maria T. Abreu obtained her medical degree through the Honors Program in Medical Education at the University of Miami School of Medicine. While in medical school, she served as Student Council President and was inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society—the highest honor at the University of Miami. After completing her medical degree, she did her internship and residency in medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts followed by a clinical and research fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Following her fellowship, she obtained further postdoctoral training in molecular and cancer biology at UCLA. Her first independent research laboratory was at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where she served as Director of Basic and Translational Research. Dr. Abreu was then recruited to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York where she served as Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center. While at Mount Sinai, Dr. Abreu started the largest effort there to date to create an Inflammatory Bowel Disease database and tissue repository that collected over 2000 samples in a two-year period.

In 2008, Dr. Abreu began her current position as Chief of Gastroenterology and Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is the Martin Kalser Chair in Gastroenterology. A Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners, The American Board of Internal Medicine, and the American Board of Gastroenterology, Dr. Abreu holds key positions with several professional societies. She is the Chair of the Underrepresented Minorities Committee of the AGA; Vice-Chair of the Immunology, Microbiology & Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IMIBD) Section of the AGA Institute Council; and is a member of the AGA Public Affairs and Advisory Committee. Dr. Abreu is on the Women's Committee of the ACG. She is an active member of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) and is on the Board of the Florida Chapter of the CCFA. In 2009, Dr. Abreu was recognized by the CCFA Florida Chapter for her education, support, and advocacy and in 2010 was the recipient of the chapter's Hope Award for her dedication to the treatment of patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. She was recently selected Co-Director of the 2011 Spring Post Graduate course for the AGA, and was also named President-Elect of the Florida Gastroenterology Society. Dr. Abreu was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2010, an honor society for physician-scientists. She is listed in Castle and Connelly as one of America's Top Doctors, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Gastroenterological Association.

Dr. Abreu has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters, and reviews. She serves on the editorial board of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Gastroenterology & Hepatology News, an AGA-sponsored publication. Dr. Abreu is an editor for the Journal of Immunology and is a reviewer for Gastroenterology and Nature Medicine, in addition to many other journals. She is a standing member of the NIH Gastrointestinal Mucosal Pathobiology Study Section (GMPB) and is a member of the CCFA Research Initiatives Committee. Her research interest is host-bacterial interactions and, in particular, the role of toll-like receptor signaling in intestinal inflammation and colon cancer. Her translational work has focused on genotype-phenotype relationships in inflammatory bowel disease and prediction of response to medical therapies. Dr. Abreu is a frequent speaker at national and international symposia on basic science and clinical topics.

An Eyeball's View of the Clinician Scientist

Dr. Richard K. Lee is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology with appointments in the Department of Cell Biology and the Neuroscience Graduate Program. He attended Pomona College with a BA in Chemistry-Biology and graduated from the Physician Scientist Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) with an MD and PhD. He did a post-doctoral fellowship in viral oncology at the Sylvester Cancer Center at UMMSM and then an ophthalmology residency at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (BPEI) at UMMSM, which has been ranked the #1 Ophthalmology Department by US News and World Report for almost a decade. He then did a combined research and clinical fellowship in glaucoma before joining the faculty at BPEI. Dr. Lee is the Glaucoma Fellowship Director and the Director of Community Ophthalmology. He is also the faculty advisor for the medical student Ophthalmology Interest Club and serves on the Ophthalmology Residency Selection Committee for BPEI.

Dr. Lee's research involves both human and animal studies. Dr. Lee's studies include clinical outcomes of surgical and medical interventions for the treatment of glaucoma (a family of optic nerve diseases), imaging technologies for determining retinal and optic nerve associated diseases, clinical trials for new treatments, and understanding the molecular pathophysiology of human glaucoma. His lab has used and generated new animal models of glaucoma for studying optic nerve and axon death and survival for translating animal model discoveries to human eye diseases.

One of Dr. Lee's interests is in international ophthalmology. He has been part of the Haiti relief work since the earthquake and working in Japan since the tsunami struck last year. For his work, he has received the Secretariat Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Benjamin F. Boyd Humanitarian Award from the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology and the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Florida Hospital Association.

Profiling Professional Killers in the Immune System

Dr. Eckhard Podack is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Podack has over 200 peer reviewed publications, more than 50 invited reviews, and has been consistently funded by NIH and other funding agencies. He is currently involved in several clinical trials funded by industry and other organizations. Several of Dr. Podack's patents have been licensed and commercially explored by various companies.

Dr. Podack earned his medical degree from University of Frankfurt, Germany, and completed his medical license at Federal State of Hesse, Germany in Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Biochemistry. As a fellow in the department of Biochemistry at University of Gottingen, Germany, he completed his PhD in Biochemistry followed by a postdoctoral fellowship. In 1974, he joined the Department of Immunology at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, CA. as a research associate and became an assistant member in 1980.

Dr. Podack then became a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at New York Medical College in 1984, followed by a Professor of Medicine in 1985. Dr. Podack joined the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in 1987, where he became Chairman in 1994. He also held appointments as a professor of Oncology and director of Molecular Immunology. From 1994-2007, Dr. Podack was the Associate Director of Basic Sciences at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and in 2007 a Sylvester Distinguished Professor. He was a visiting and guest professor at several institutions including University of California, National Cancer Center in Tokyo, Japan, University of Rijeka in Croatia, Shanghai Medical University in People's Republic of China, and Shandong Gallo Institute of Virology in China.

Dr. Podack was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship for Research at Scripps by the German Research Council. From 1979-1984 he was an established investigator for the American Heart Association. He later became a member and chair of the Experimental Immunology Study Section of National Institutes of Health - National Cancer Institute. In 2002, he became the chair for American Cancer Society Study Section, Florida Division as well as the chair of the Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel. Recently, Dr. Podack was awarded the 2010 Outstanding Cancer Research Award, Zubrod Memorial Lecture at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Dr. Podack's primary research interest in immunology is the mechanism of cytotoxicity. He discovered pore formation by complement mediated by polymerization of C9, and subsequently discovered and named Perforin as the cytotoxic principle of CTL and NK cells. His research group at the University of Miami recently discovered a novel signaling pathway that is at the origin of a chain of events resulting in lung inflammation and asthma. Blocking these early signaling events offers the potential to significantly interfere with disease or cure the patients from chronic lung inflammation.

Can One Person Make A Difference?

Dr. Barth A. Green is Professor and Chairman of the Department of the Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is a world-renowned specialist in the surgical management of complex spinal cord injuries and disorders and a co-founder of "The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis", the largest and most comprehensive spinal cord injury and paralysis research center in the world. He is board certified in Neurological Surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Green retired as a Lt. Colonel in the US Army Medical Reserve Corps, after 37 years of service. Dr. Green is also a co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Shake-A-Leg Miami, an adaptative watersport center which combines education with recreation. This innovative program annually serves over 12,000 children and adults with physical, developmental, and economic challenges.

Aside from these important initiatives here in the United States, Dr. Green co-founded Project Medishare for Haiti 16 years ago to help improve the health status of Haiti's citizens through an integrated, bottoms-up, community approach to development. Before the disastrous earthquake on January 12, Project Medishare was serving over 85,000 Haitians in the poorest and most isolated areas of Haiti. Dr. Green's service efforts extend beyond Haiti, as a co-founder of the University of Miami's Global Institute for Community Health and Development, a university-wide program focused on improving healthcare and advancing community development, focusing its efforts in the Western Hemisphere.

Immediately after the earthquake on January 12th, Dr. Green gathered a small group of doctors and traveled to Haiti in a private airplane, taking with them what they could in a short time in order to provide emergency medical care to victims of the earthquake. Initially working out of the United Nations facility at the airport in Port-au-Prince, Dr. Green and his team treated hundreds of critically injured and ill Haitians every day. While Dr. Green was in Haiti, his colleagues at UM Global Institute / Project Medishare established a massive relief program and airlift bringing thousands of volunteers and tons of medical supplies and equipment to Haiti. The airport field hospital that started in the tents of the United Nations evolved to become the only trauma/critical care center in Haiti. On June 7th, the hospital relocated to a renovated Hospital Bernard Mevs / Project Medishare in downtown Port-au-Prince and is presently staffed by over 100 Haitian healthcare providers and an international team of volunteer mentors.

The University of Miami / Project Medishare field hospital treated over 30,000 patients and performed over 1,500 emergency surgeries since the earthquake and served as the only referral center for all severe trauma in Haiti. Its skilled team of volunteers served as the coordination center for patient transfers between hospitals in Haiti and the USNS Comfort, as well as the evacuation of the most critical patients to the US and other assisting countries.

Haiti now has an unprecedented number of disabled citizens as a result of the earthquake, and the Haitian health system is not equipped nor are its professionals properly trained to address these special health issues, as exemplified by the thousands of post-earthquake amputees. Dr. Green and his team are working with the Haitian Ministry of Health and numerous NGO partners to enable those injured by the earthquake to have productive lives and access to the same opportunities and facilities that their able-bodied fellow citizens will enjoy.

A year before the earthquake, Dr. Green joined hands with a coalition of leaders of the Haitian healthcare and business sectors and with career representatives from the government, to create a public/private partnership. This group developed a strategic plan for a national system for Critical Care / Trauma / Rehabilitation - focused on the five preventable causes of death in Haiti (Major Trauma, Heart Attack, Brain Attack / Stroke, Severe Burns, and Maternal Emergencies) – as well as a national disaster response plan. When funded and functional, this national system and plan will complement Haiti's new national healthcare strategy and plan, without burdening the government financially. A plan for fiscal sustainability is based on the creation of a catastrophic health insurance program wherein private funds will support this partnership's public mission.

Dr. Green's passion and energy are contagious and his personal commitment and dedication are totally focused in helping to convert this incomprehensible tragedy into something good for Haiti; now and in the future; the creation of a well-functioning healthcare system t hat can serve Haiti's citizens in a manner that was never considered possible in the past.

The Role of Research and Evidence-based Medicine in our Changing Healthcare System

Donna E. Shalala became Professor of Political Science and President of the University of Miami on June 1, 2001. President Shalala has more than 25 years of experience as an accomplished scholar, teacher, and administrator Born in Cleveland, Ohio, President Shalala received her A.B. degree in history from Western College for Women. One of the country's first Peace Corp Volunteers, she served in Iran from 1962 to 1964 She earned her Ph.D. degree from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. A leading scholar on the political economy of state and local governments, she also has held tenured professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She served as President of Hunter College of the City University of New York from 1980 to 1987 and as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993.

During her tenure, UM has solidified its position among top U.S. research universities and continues to rise in national rankings, including an unprecedented 15-point climb in U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges", moving from 66th in 2001 up to 51st in 2008. Momentum: The Campaign for the University of Miami, the first billion-dollar capital campaign completed in the state of Florida, raised $1.4 billion in private support for the university's endowment, academic and research programs and facilities. UM's Coral Gables campus hosted the first 2004 Presidential Debate and in 2007, in partnership with Univision Network, presented the first-ever Democratic and Republican presidential candidate forums in Spanish.

In 1993 President Clinton appointed her U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she served for eight years, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in U.S. history. At the beginning of her tenure, HHS had a budget of nearly $600 billion, which included a wide variety of programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Child Care and Head Start, Welfare, the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As HHS Secretary, she directed the welfare reform process, made health insurance available to an estimated 3.3 million children through the approval of all State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), raised child immunization rates to the highest levels in history, led major reforms of the FDA's drug approval process and food safety system, revitalized the National Institutes of Health, and directed a major management and policy reform of Medicare. At the end of her tenure as HHS Secretary, The Washington Post described her as "one of the most successful government managers of modern times". As Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she led what was then the nation's largest public research university. She successfully strengthened undergraduate education, the university's research facilities, and spearheaded the largest fundraising drive in Wisconsin's history. In 1992, Business Week named her one of the top five managers in higher education.

She served in the Carter administration from 1977-80 as Assistant Secretary for Public Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1980, she assumed the presidency of Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is a Director of Gannett Co., Inc., and the Lennar Corporation. She also serves as a Trustee of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. In 2007, President George W. Bush handpicked Shalala to co-chair with Senator Bob Dole the Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors, to evaluate how wounded service members transition from active duty to civilian society.

President Shalala has more than three dozen honorary degrees and a host of other honors, including the 1992 National Public Service Award, the 1994 Glamour magazine Woman of the Year Award; in 2005 she was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government; in May 2008 she was selected as an Independent Director of the US Soccer Federation, and in June 2008 she was awarded the Radcliffe Medal by The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. In 2008, she was honored as one of "25 Great Public Servants" by The Council for Excellence in Government which recognized outstanding public servants who have made significant contributions to achieving excellence in government over the past 25 years.

In June 2008, President Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, at a ceremony in the White House. The medal recognizes exceptional meritorious service to individuals who have contributed to national security, world peace, or cultural endeavors. She has been elected to the Council on Foreign Relations; National Academy of Education; the National Academy of Public Administration; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the National Academy of Social Insurance; the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Context, Behavior, Development and Health

Dr. José Szapocznik is Professor and Chair, Dept of Epidemiology and Public Health, Associate Dean for Translational Research and Community Development, and Director of the Center for Family Studies at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is also Professor of Psychology, Educational and Psychological Studies and Architecture, all at the University of Miami. He also serves as principal investigator of the Florida Node of the National Clinical Trials Network on Drug Abuse and as Founding Chairman of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse, an organization whose primary mission is to mentor the next generation of Hispanic scientists.

Dr. Jose Szapocznik has served on the faculty of the UM Miller School of Medicine for more than 30 years and has long distinguished himself as a pioneer in the field of substance abuse. The Center for Family Studies, where Dr Szapocznik has mentored several generations of mostly minority researchers, is the premiere training and research facility in the nation for family-based treatment and prevention with Hispanic families. Dr. Szapocznik pioneered the national effort to prevent and treat drug abuse and other behavior problems in minority populations using family-oriented, scientifically based approaches. He has 200+ scholarly publications, including Breakthroughs in Family Therapy with Drug Abusing and Problem Youth (1989, Springer) and the updated version of this work, Brief Strategic Family Therapy™ for Adolescent Drug Abuse (2002, NIH; NIH pub 03-4751), which is the only adolescent treatment manual published to-date as part of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Manuals for Drug Addiction series.

Szapocznik has a distinguished record of service to the National Institutes of Health and has served on the national advisory councils for the National Institute on Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and, most recently, the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. He was also the first ever behavioral scientist appointed to the NIH-wide AIDS Program Advisory Committee. Dr. Szapocznik has also served as Principal or co-Principal Investigator on over $100 million in NIH-funded grants and contracts.

Social Networking: A Critical Factor for Success in Medical Practice and Biomedical Research

Dr. Barbara M. Alving is the Director of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the National Institutes of Health. NCRR provides laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the environments and tools they need to understand, detect, treat, and prevent a wide range of common and rare diseases.

Dr. Alving earned her medical degree cum laude from Georgetown University School of Medicine, where she also completed an internship in internal medicine. She received her residency training in internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, followed by a fellowship in hematology. Dr. Alving then became a research investigator in the Division of Blood and Blood Products at the Food and Drug Administration. In 1980, she joined the Department of Hematology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and became Chief of the Department in 1992. She left the Army at the rank of Colonel in 1996 to become the Director of the Medical Oncology/Hematology section at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. In 1999, she joined the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), serving as the Director of the extramural Division of Blood Diseases and Resources until becoming the Deputy Director of the Institute in September 2001. From September 2003 until February 1, 2005, she served as the Acting Director of NHLBI. In March 2005 she became the Acting Director of NCRR and was named Director in April 2007.

Dr. Alving is a Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, a Master in the American College of Physicians, a former member of the subcommittee on Hematology of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and a previous member of the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee. She is a co-inventor on two patents, has edited three books, and has published more than 100 papers in the areas of thrombosis and hemostasis.

Great Risks, Great Rewards

Dr. Margaret Pericak-Vance is Director of the Miami Institute of Human Genomics and the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Professor of Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and a board-certified Ph.D. medical geneticist. A global leader in the field of human genetics, Dr. Pericak-Vance has significantly contributed to today's understanding of the role genomics plays in a wide range of common human diseases.

Dr. Pericak-Vance received her PhD from Indiana University in Medical Genetics. After completing her post-doctoral work at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in Biostatistics, Dr. Pericak-Vance became a research investigator at the Duke University Medical Center. She remained at Duke University until 2007, where she held the title of James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and was Director of the Center for Human Genetics. In that year, she assu