Dr. Jeffrey M. Friedman, who gained worldwide prominence in 1994 for isolating an obesity-related gene in mice and a year later identified the gene product as the previously unknown hormone leptin, will be the featured speaker at the School of Medicine's annual Student Research Day on Tuesday, May 9.
Yale's medical school is the only one in the country with a long tradition of requiring that students seeking an M.D. degree write a dissertation based on original research, notes Dr. John N. Forrest Jr., professor of internal medicine and director of the Office of Student Research.
Five prize-winning graduating students will share the results of their research in oral presentations on Student Research Day, which will begin at noon in the Jane Ellen Hope Building (JEH), 315 Cedar St.
Farr Lecture
Friedman, who is the founding director of The Rockefeller University's Storr Center for Human Genetics and the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor there, will deliver the 19th annual Farr Lecture at 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 110 JEH. The Farr Lecture honors the late Dr. Lee E. Farr, a 1932 graduate of the School of Medicine. Friedman's talk and other Student Research Day events are free and open to the public.
In July 1995, Friedman's research group announced that the ob gene -- which causes obesity in mice -- is responsible for producing leptin. Also found in humans, the hormone plays a key role in controlling appetite, energy expenditure and fat storage.
In 1996, Friedman and his associates demonstrated that leptin's weight-reducing effects depend on the hormone's interactions with receptor molecules on cells in the hypothalamus, a brain region known to regulate food intake and body weight. Ongoing research is elucidating how leptin acts through the various forms of its receptor and its effects in the cells of the brain and other areas of the body. Friedman and his team are also conducting genetics research on human populations that are designed to expand understanding of the causes of obesity and frequently associated conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis. One of the laboratory's major studies is now underway in the remote Pacific Island nation of Kosrae, where a large percentage of the population is affected by this syndrome of health conditions.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Friedman received both the Passano Foundation Award and a Gairdner Foundation International Award in 2005. He has received numerous other honors for his scientific contributions.
Student presentations
Student Research Day will begin at noon in the JEH corridors with a poster session showcasing 65 student research projects.
At 2 p.m., five graduating students selected to give oral presentations will present their prize-winning research in Rm. 110. The students, their degree programs and departments, and their research topics are:
Jennifer Greenwold (M.D., internal medicine), "Telling Time: Doctors' Memoirs from the Early AIDS Epidemic";
Lauren Kernochan (M.D., neurology), "Histone Acetylation and Expression of SMN, the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Gene";
Khoon-Yen Tay (M.D., pediatrics), "Wait-and-See Antibiotic Prescription for the Treatment of Acute Otitis Media";
Connor Telles (M.D., internal medicine), "Search for the Basolateral Potassium Channel in the Shark Rectal Gland: Functional and Molecular Identification of a TASK-1 Channel Coupled to Chloride Secretion"; and
Jaehyuk Choi (M.D./Ph.D., pathology), "Endothelial Cell-Stimulated HIV Replication in Minimally Activated Memory CD4+ T Cells."
Refreshments will be served at 4 p.m. following the students' presentations and prior to the Farr Lecture.
For further information about Student Research Day, call (203) 785-6633.
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