Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 7, 2004|Volume 32, Number 29|Two-Week Issue

Story C. Landis

Event showcasing medical students' original research to feature talk by head of NINDS

Story C. Landis, director of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), will be the featured speaker at the School of Medicine's annual Student Research Day on Tuesday, May 11.

Yale's medical school is the only one in the country with a long tradition requiring that students seeking an M.D. degree do a dissertation based on original research, notes Dr. John N. Forrest Jr., professor of medicine and director of the Office of Student Research.

Seventy final-year students will share the results of their research in poster sessions and oral presentations at Student Research Day, to be held in the Jane Ellen Hope Building (JEH), 315 Cedar St.

One of the highlights of the yearly event is the Farr Lecture, which honors the late Dr. Lee E. Farr, a 1932 graduate of the School of Medicine. Landis will present the 17th annual Farr Lecture at 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 110 of JEH. The talk and other Student Research Day events are free and open to the public.

Landis was named director of NINDS in 2003. The institute supports research by investigators in public and private institutions across the country, as well as by scientists working in its intramural laboratories and branches in Bethesda, Maryland. Since 1950, NINDS has been at the forefront of U.S. efforts in brain research. As its director, Landis oversees an annual budget of $1.5 billion and a staff of more than 900 scientists, physician-scientists and administrators.

She originally joined NINDS in 1995 as scientific director, coordinating and re-engineering its intramural research programs. She later worked with the director of NINDS and the National Institute of Mental Health to bring some sense of unity and common purpose to 200 laboratories from 11 different branches of the National Institutes of Health, all of which conduct leading-edge clinical and basic neuroscience research.

Prior to joining NINDS, Landis served on the faculty of Harvard and Case Western universities, helping to establish the latter's Department of Neurosciences and lead it to worldwide acclaim.

In her own research, Landis has made many fundamental contributions to the understanding of developmental interactions required for synapse formation. She has won numerous honors and awards for her work, including election to the Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Student presentations

Student Research Day will begin noon-2 p.m. with a scientific poster session showcasing medical students' research projects in the corridors of JEH.

Five prize-winning graduating students will give oral presentations about their research 2-4 p.m. in Rm. 110 of JEH. The students, their degree programs and their research topics are:

* Sarah Kohnstamm (M.D.), "Cardiac ion channel mutations cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome";

* Timothy Henrich (M.D.), "Geographic dynamics of viral encephalitis in Thailand";

* Michael Bloch (M.D.), "Reduced caudate volume and other predictors of future tic and OCD severity in children with Tourette's Syndrome";

* Rina Garcia (M.D.), "Impaired mitochondrial activity in insulin resistant offspring of type 2 diabetics"; and

* Keith Choate (M.D./Ph.D.), "Function at the tight junction: Molecular determinants of paracellular permeability."

Refreshments will be served following the students' presentations and prior to the Farr Lecture at 4 p.m.

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