Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 2, 2008|Volume 36, Number 28|Two-Week Issue

Dr. David G. Nathan

Student Research Day to feature
prize-winning presentations, Farr Lecture

A renowned hematologist will discuss his pioneering investigations into blood disorders and five Yale School of Medicine students will discuss their prize-winning studies during Student Research Day on Tuesday, May 6, in the Jane Ellen Hope Building, 315 Cedar St.

Yale has a longstanding requirement that every M.D. degree candidate write a dissertation based on original research — making it unique among medical schools in the country, notes Dr. John N. Forrest Jr., professor of internal medicine and director of the Office of Student Research. Each year, those projects are showcased at the Student Research Day program.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at noon in the corridors of the Hope Building with poster presentations of thesis research work by 70 graduating students.

At 2 p.m., five graduating students who won prizes for their research will give oral presentations in Rm. 110 in a Plenary Scientific Program chaired by the Dean of the Medical School, Dr. Robert Alpern. The names, the department in which they did their research and their project titles are: LuAnne Dinglasan (M.D.), neurosurgery, “The role of matrix metalloproteinases in axon guidance and neurite outgrowth”; Ryan Kaple (M.D.), internal medicine, “The axial distribution of lesion-site atherosclerotic plaque components: An in vivo volumetric intravascular ultrasound radiofrequency analysis”; Jason Roh (M.D.), surgery, “The chemokine MCP-1 is an essential mediator in tissue engineered blood vessel development”; Andrew Simpson (M.D.), orthopaedics and rehabilitation, “The utility of plain radiography in the evaluation of degenerative spine disease”; and Nandakumar Narayanan (M.D./Ph.D.), “While they wait: Rodent frontal cortex and delayed-response performance.”

Farr Lecture

Dr. David G. Nathan, president emeritus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, will deliver the annual Farr Lecture at 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 110. His talk is titled “A Voyage in Clinical Research.”

Nathan is currently the Robert A. Stranahan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He served for nearly 35 years on the staff of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: as chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the institute and its Children’s Hospital 1966-1985; as physician-in-chief of the Children’s Hospital 1985-1995; and as president of the institute 1995-2000.

His research has focused on the inherited disorders of red blood cells and granulocytes — particularly, thalassemia. He is author of “Hematology of Infancy and Childhood,” a leading textbook in the field, and of two popular books “Genes, Blood and Courage” and “The Cancer Treatment Revolution.” He has trained over 100 hematologists, many of whom hold leading positions in pediatrics and internal medicine.

His numerous awards include the National Medal of Science, the Stratton Medal of the American Society of Hematology (of which he was president), the Walker Prize of the Boston Museum of Science, the John Howland Medal of the American Pediatric Society and the George M. Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians. He is one of only three physicians to receive both the Howland and Kober medals. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

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