Dr. Nancy Berliner has been named as the first Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Associate Professor of Medicine in hematology, by vote of the Yale Corporation. Her appointment is effective immediately.
The new chair was created in memory of businessman Arthur H. Bunker and his wife, journalist Isabel Leighton Bunker. Mr. Bunker attended Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, graduating in 1916. His brothers were also University alumni: Raymond '04S and Ellsworth '16. During his career, Arthur Bunker headed several companies, including mining, oil and nurseries enterprises. He eventually became a partner with Lehman Brothers, and later in his career was chair of the board of American Metal Climax Corporation. In 1958, he married Isabel Leighton, a magazine and science writer and a correspondent for the North American Newspaper Alliance. He died of leukemia in 1964. The new Yale chair in hematology was established through a bequest from the estate of Isabel Bunker, who passed away earlier this year.
Dr. Berliner has been studying the molecular basis of white blood cell granulocyte differentiation in order to gain insights into the factors leading to the development of acute leukemia. She and her laboratory colleagues are also focusing on the genetic mechanisms governing the production in granulocytes of enzymes that are believed to contribute to tissue remodeling in inflammatory injury and repair, and to tumor metastases.
A 1975 summa cum laude graduate of Yale College, Dr. Berliner earned her M.D. cum laude in 1979 from the School of Medicine, where she also won prizes for "the best thesis" and "best qualifications for a successful practitioner". She received residency and fellowship training at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and she served as chief medical resident and instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School for a year before joining the Yale faculty as assistant professor of internal medicine in 1986. She was appointed associate professor in 1991 and received tenure in 1995. She holds joint appointments in the departments of internal medicine hematology and genetics.
The author of numerous papers in professional journals, Dr. Berliner has been awarded research grants for her work by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia Society of America, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donoghue Foundation. She was vice president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1995.