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75 Years of Vision
The Lasting Gift of Southwestern Medical Foundation
Part I II: 2000 to 2015 ‘‘To use every spark of human knowledge – the delicately attuned hands and eyes of the best trained minds, the newest and finest of mechanical instruments, all the arts and sciences known to man – that this, the Southwest, may be a healthier, happier place in which to live.’’ Dr. Edward Henry Cary
A Lasting Gift Southwestern Medical Foundation’s partnership with UT Southwestern is a remarkable story. It began the school in 1943. Seventy-one years later, with the completion of the state-of-the-art William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, hundreds of the country’s leading clinicians were working hand in hand with the best scientists anywhere in the world – a transformative milestone and, in many ways, the culmination of Dr. Cary’s vision. In this issue, we are brought to the present, to an academic medical center excelling in meeting the challenges of caring for a thriving community. To biomedical researchers leading the world in groundbreaking discovery. And to educators Kathleen M. Gibson
who have rethought, from the ground up, how to best prepare the next generation
President
of leaders in patient care, biomedical science and disease prevention. As we have watched this unprecedented achievement unfold, we have often asked ourselves: What is it about our community that drives our determination to make such a difference? It is a mystery we cherish. Certainly, vision and generosity run deep in the hearts of Texans. But far more revealing than any answer is the result: The creation of UT Southwestern has been, and will continue to be, the shining example of Dallas’ exceptionalism. Ours is a storied history of men and women who have lent their ideas and their energies and their treasures to create something greater than themselves – to build a city and impact the lives of millions of people they would never know. Imagine a day in the life of this community without UT Southwestern doctors practicing at the University Hospitals and Clinics, at Parkland, at Children’s, at Scottish Rite and at the VA.
As we complete our 75 Years of Vision with this issue of Perspectives, perhaps a reminder is in order that it is not meant as a comprehensive history. We know there are more wonderful stories that deserve to be told, and to that end, I want to encourage you to contribute your own story that might add to our rich history. On page 103 you can find out how to share your recollections with us. Thank you beyond measure for your friendship and support.
The way forward continues. It churns with a resolute spirit that offers more than hope – the promise of better health. Considering all that we have become in the face of the countless obstacles that we have overcome, the wisdom of Dr. Cary seems once again appropriate: “Surely, this is worthwhile.”
Southwestern Medical Foundation Officers, Trustees and Honorary Trustees OFFICERS Robert B. Rowling, Chairman Kathleen M. Gibson, President and Chief Executive Officer Kay Schlankey, Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Donald W. Seldin, MD, Vice President – Emeritus Katy Sinor, Secretary
BOARD OF TRUSTEES John L. Adams Rafael M. Anchia Charles Anderson Charlotte Jones Anderson Ralph W. Babb Jr. Alice Worsham Bass Jill C. Bee Gil J. Besing Robert W. Best Lucy Billingsley Jan Hart Black* David O. Brown J. Robert Brown Leland R. Burk Stephen Butt W. Plack Carr Jr. Nita P. Clark Mary McDermott Cook* David R. Corrigan* Harlan R. Crow Robert H. Dedman Jr.* Joseph M. DePinto Jennifer Eagle Timothy Eller Matrice Ellis-Kirk Sandra Street Estess
Robert A. Estrada Gloria Eulich Linda P. Evans Hill A. Feinberg Andersen C. Fisher Richard W. Fisher Stuart Fitts Kay Carter Fortson Holland P. Gary Judy Gibbs Kathleen M. Gibson Joseph M. “Jody” Grant Satish Gupta Rolf R. Haberecht, PhD Ronald W. Haddock Nancy S. Halbreich David C. Haley* Kathryn W. Hall LaQuita C. Hall Paul W. Harris Julie K. Hersh J. Hale Hoak Richard E. Hoffman, MD David B. Holl T. Curtis Holmes Jr. James R. Huffines*
Hunter L. Hunt Rex V. Jobe* Eric Johnson Robert L. Kaminski Gary C. Kelly Harlan Korenvaes Peter A. Kraus Joyce Lacerte Mark Langdale Laurence H. Lebowitz Samuel D. Loughlin Tom Luce Bobby B. Lyle S. Todd Maclin Nancy Cain Marcus, PhD Charles W. Matthews William S. McIntyre IV Pauline Medrano Howard M. Meyers David B. Miller Kit Tennison Moncrief Carter Montgomery Kay Y. Moran Charles E. Nearburg Ray Nixon Jr. Alfreda B. Norman
Lydia H. Novakov James C. Oberwetter Connie O’Neill Lee Ann Pearse, MD Rena M. Pederson Carlos G. Peña Guillermo Perales Jeanne L. Phillips T. Boone Pickens Daniel K. Podolsky, MD* Richard R. Pollock Michael S. Rawlings Kelly E. Roach Katie H. Robbins Linda Robuck Catherine M. Rose* Matthew K. Rose William E. “Billy” Rosenthal Daniel G. Routman Robert B. Rowling* Stephen Sands Steven S. Schiff Robert J. Schlegel Debbie Scripps David T. Seaton George E. Seay
Robert J. DiNicola Thomas M. Dunning Thomas J. Engibous Robert T. Enloe III Roy Gene Evans Jerry Farrington Robert I. Fernandez Lee Fikes David L. Florence Edwin S. Flores, PhD Terry J. Flowers, EdD Gerald J. Ford Alan D. Friedman Gerald W. Fronterhouse Printice L. Gary William R. Goff Joe M. Haggar III Howard Hallam Charles M. Hansen Jr. Linda W. Hart Joe V. Hawn Jr. Frederick B. Hegi Jeffrey M. Heller
Thomas O. Hicks Lyda Hill Laurence E. Hirsch James M. Hoak Sally S. Hoglund Keith W. Hughes Walter J. Humann Ray L. Hunt Kay Bailey Hutchison Judith K. Johnson Philip R. Jonsson Darrell E. Jordan Dale V. Kesler Gary Kusin David M. Laney Wright L. Lassiter Jr., EdD Thomas C. Leppert Irvin L. Levy John I. Levy Wendy A. Lopez Sarah Losinger Wales H. Madden Jr. Ann E. Margolin
Margaret McDermott John D. McStay Harvey R. Mitchell W. A. “Tex” Moncrief Jr. Susan Byrne Montgomery Jennifer T. Mosle J. Fulton Murray Jr. Mike A. Myers Joseph B. Neuhoff Teresa Haggerty Parravano Jack Pew Jr. J. Blake Pogue Caren H. Prothro Mary Stewart Ramsey Carolyn Perot Rathjen Leonard M. Riggs Jr., MD Jean W. Roach John L. Roach Lizzie Horchow Routman Pete Schenkel John Field Scovell Paul R. Seegers Carl Sewell Jr.
George A. Shafer Florence Shapiro Karen L. Shuford Ted C. Skokos Nicole G. Small Bonnie B. Smith William S. Spears, PhD Marvin J. Stone, MD Catherine B. Taylor Richard K. Templeton Michelle R. Thomas Jere W. Thompson Jr.* McHenry T. Tichenor Kip Tindell John C. Tolleson Lisa Troutt Margaret B. Vonder Hoya W. Kelvin Walker Kelcy L. Warren Carol R. West George W. Wharton, MD Kern Wildenthal, MD, PhD Martha S. Williams Kneeland C. Youngblood, MD Mark Zale * Executive Committee
HONORARY TRUSTEES Sara Melnick Albert Ruth Collins Sharp Altshuler Barry Andrews Gilbert Aranza Marilyn H. Augur Doris L. Bass Peter Beck David W. Biegler Gene H. Bishop Albert C. Black Jr. Cecilia G. Boone Daniel H. Branch Diane M. Brierley Jean Ann Brock Robert W. Brown, MD Stuart M. Bumpas Edward H. Cary III Jeffrey A. Chapman Rita C. Clements Dan W. Cook III Berry R. Cox Joe D. Denton
Lisa K. Simmons Emmitt J. Smith William T. Solomon Roger T. Staubach Paul T. Stoffel Joanne H. Stroud, PhD Ellen C. Terry Gifford O. Touchstone Jim L. Turner Jack C. Vaughn Jr. John J. Veatch Jr. Kent Waldrep J. Thomas Walter Jr. Jimmy Westcott Laura L. Wheat Jon B. White Evelyn Whitman-Dunn Terry M. Wilson Donald Zale
contents
Cover Story
75 Years of Vision
Part III : 2000 to 2015 4
Reaching for the Future 2000 to 2009 One of humanity’s most ambitious undertakings – the sequencing of the human genome – is completed. The medical school continues its ascent to the pinnacle of medical institutions worldwide as the robust North Campus development expands, facilitated by donor support. The Foundation steps in with leadership and philanthropic support to help spearhead the largest fundraising campaign in Dallas history. Zale Lipshy and St. Paul hospitals come under ownership of the Medical Center. And an act of unprecedented generosity enables the dream of a new hospital – one that would be unsurpassed among the country’s academic medical centers – to ultimately be realized.
Leading With Quality 2010 to 2015 At the core of the founders’ vision was the idea of setting and enforcing rigorous standards for medical excellence. That vision of quality becomes a dramatic clinical transformation, led by Dr. Podolsky, sweeping across the Medical Center, punctuated by the opening of the stateof-the-art William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. UT Southwestern claims its fifth and sixth Nobel Laureates, celebrates its first Breakthrough Award winner, and Dr. Cary’s dream of building a great medical center in the Southwestern U.S. is fulfilled.
EDITOR Kim Brayton the BraytonGroup E D I TO R I A L / R E S E A R C H DIRECTOR Stephanie Vidikan R E S E A R C H A S S O C I AT E S Ronnie Rittenberry Alison Wingfield CREATIVE / DESIGN D I R E C T OR Kim Brayton WRITERS Kim Brayton Stephanie Vidikan Various authors and sources* PHOTOGRAPHERS David Gresham Steve Foxall Guest contributors and archival resources* * see page 103 Editorial comments and contributions are welcome. Send correspondence to: Southwestern Medical Foundation Parkland Hall at Old Parkland 3889 Maple Avenue, Suite 100 Dallas, Texas 75219 info @ swmedical.org p 214-351- 6143 f 214-352-9874
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Features
86 The Future
90 A Legacy of Giving
A glimpse into some of the amazing medical breakthroughs on the horizon.
A review of generous hearts, beginning with Planned Giving donations from 2000 - 2015.
92 The Heritage Society 93 Lifetime Benefactors
94 What’s Next?
96 Moving Forward
104 Lifetime Recognition
The fourth, fifth and sixth programs in the Foundation’s “Leading the Conversation on Health” series.
A review of our 2016 Annual Meeting, Trustees, Ho Din Award winners and The Cary Council.
The Foundation honors Donald W. Seldin, MD, for exceptional contributions to medicine and service to the Foundation.
A commitment to end human suffering in a profound way.
Every Issue
1 President’s Letter 100 In The News The Foundation hosts “To Build a Great City,” remembers Dr. Alfred G. Gilman, looks back at Ida M. Green and WISMAC, and honors the generous donors that helped make our 75th anniversary celebration at the Winspear Opera House possible.
There are as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe.� N E I L D EG R A S S E T Y S O N
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
REACHING FOR
THE FUTURE 2000
B
TO
2009
y 2000, there was no question that Dallas philanthropists had helped ensure
UT Southwestern a position of national preeminence in biomedical research. Significant donations by Harold C. and Annette Simmons, Nancy Hamon, and Charles and Sarah Seay had helped facilitate the expansion of the North Campus. As each of the three research towers was completed, the appeal of state-of-the-art laboratory space and the prospect of working with world-renowned researchers turned the Medical Center into a magnet for attracting the best medical minds in the country. The rate of acquisition of outstanding basic science and clinical investigators was unprecedented.
As groundbreaking on a fourth research tower began, a revolution in biomedical research was about to change the world of medicine.
In 2000, the UT System Regents appropriated their largest single Permanent University Fund allocation ever – $80 million – toward construction of a fourth research tower. Scheduled for completion in 2005, the building would increase the North Campus’ size to nearly 2 million square feet. The unnamed building was projected to cost $240 million, a sum that would be financed by the $80 million allocation, $100 million in federal funds and $60 million from the Dallas philanthropic community. The massive North Campus complex was more than The massive expansion of the medical school’s North Campus coincided with rapidly advancing biomedical research.
remarkable – it was one of the nation’s largest construction projects of its kind between 1990 and 2010. The expansion was perfectly timed because a revolution
in biomedical research was about to begin – one that would have profound implications for the future of medicine and human health. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
D
uring the late 1990s, the sequencing of the human genome had turned into a fiercely
competitive race between the publicly funded Human Genome Project (HGP) and an emerging private company, Celera Genomics, led by Chief Scientist Craig Venter, PhD. Celera’s arrival put pressure on the HGP to place as much of the genome in the public domain as quickly as possible to avoid new genes being discovered and patented by Celera. The two competing groups came together on June 26, 2000, when Dr. Venter and Francis Collins, MD, PhD, head of the U.S. Human Genome Project, announced the completion of a “working draft” of the human genome nearly three years ahead of schedule. British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined President Bill Clinton and a host of researchers via satellite in the East Room of the White House for the occasion. The HGP sequence data was released to the world through the internet, with February 2001 cover of Nature.
working drafts from Celera and HGP published in Science and Nature, respectively, in February 2001. Over the next two years, work continued to fill in the gaps with the goal of increasing sequence accuracy to 99.99 percent.
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
MILESTONE
“Nearly two centuries ago, ... Thomas Jefferson and a trusted aide spread out a magnificent map – a map Jefferson had long prayed he would get to see in his lifetime. The aide was Meriwether Lewis and the map was the product of his courageous expedition across the American frontier, all the way to the Pacific. It was a map that defined the contours and forever expanded the frontiers of our continent and our imagination.
President Clinton announcing in the East Room of the White House the completion of the initial sequencing of the human genome.
“Today, the world is joining us here in the East Room to behold a map of even greater significance. We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome. Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind.” Excerpt from President Clinton’s speech, June 26, 2000
W
e knew that the Human Genome Project was going to be solved and open up vast
opportunities,” said Kern Wildenthal, MD, PhD, then UT Southwestern President. “One of the first steps we took was to talk to [Peter] O’Donnell and [Harold] Simmons to gauge their interest in supporting a new fundraising effort, to see if they felt it was time to take another leap forward,” Dr. Wildenthal said. Once interest was confirmed, medical school and faculty leaders came together to identify funding priorities. Specific goals were set, and the “quiet phase” of the $450 million Innovations in Medicine campaign was launched – the largest fundraising effort in the medical school’s history. William T. Solomon, a Foundation board member since 1981, was asked by Dr. Wildenthal to chair a Leadership Board of prominent civic, business and philanthropic leaders. They were joined by Foundation Chairman Paul Bass, and for the next six years the two boards, led by Bass and Solomon, worked with Dr. Wildenthal to identify and engage donors. 6
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
LEADERSHIP
INNOVATIONS IN MEDICINE BOARD
C H A I R M A N
William T. Solomon BILL SOLOMON joined Dr. Wildenthal in recruiting 150 civic and philanthropic leaders to form a Leadership Board for the campaign, each of whom brought his and her time and talents to serve as Honorary Chairs and to work on the Steering Committee and Leadership Council.
H O N O R A RY
Amy and Lee Fikes Nancy B. Hamon Mrs. Eugene McDermott Deborah and Tex Moncrief Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. S T E E R I N G
Margot and Ross Perot Margaret and Bob Rogers Sarah and Charles E. Seay Annette and Harold Simmons Cecil H. Green C O M M I T T E E
Elaine Agather Paul M. Bass David Biegler Mary McDermott Cook Harlan Crow Robert H. Dedman Jr. L E A D E R S H I P
Ebby Halliday Acers Pedro Aguirre Susan Albritton Mrs. Ruth Collins Sharp Altshuler Barry G. Andrews Kim J. Askew George S. Bayoud Jr. Louis A. Beecherl Jr. Sally B. Berry Gene H. Bishop Albert Black Hal Brierley Norman Brinker Denny Carreker Al Casey H. Berry Cash Sarinder Chhabra J.H. Cullum Clark Mrs. William P. Clements Jr. Ray Clymer Michael J. Collins J. Jan Collmer Ed Copley Michael R. Corboy Edwin L. Cox Frank Cuellar Jr. Robert W. Decherd Robert J. DiNicola Grant Dove
Walter Elcock R. Ted Enloe III Robert A. Estrada John F. Eulich Alan D. Feld Gerald J. Ford Larry Gekiere Joseph M. Grant Charles L. Gummer Rolf R. Haberecht Ron W. Haddock Wallace L. Hall John P. Harbin Paul W. Harris S.T. Harris Linda W. Hart Joe V. Hawn Jr. Jess Hay Frederick B. Hegi Jr. Ralph Heins Jeff Heller Thomas O. Hicks Laurence E. Hirsch James M. Hoak Robert K. Hoffman Sally Hoglund Carolyn P. Horchow Robert Hsueh J. L. Huffines Jr. Keith W. Hughes
C H A I R S
Matrice Ellis-Kirk Tom Engibous Ray L. Hunt Tom Luce J. Frank Miller III Donald Zale C O U N C I L
Dee J. Kelly J. Luther King Jr. Rollin W. King J. Peter Kline Lester A. Levy Ronald M. Mankoff Jeffrey A. Marcus Charlene C. Marsh Liz Minyard Phil Montgomery III Nancy Perot Mulford Mike A. Myers Raymond D. Nasher Charles E. Nearburg Lamar Norsworthy Erle Nye Teresa Haggerty Parravano Patricia M. Patterson Ross Perot Jr. T. Boone Pickens Jr. Jan Pickens Mack Pogue Shirley Pollock Jack E. Pratt Sr. Caren H. Prothro David W. Quinn Bernard Rapoport Lee R. Raymond John L. Roach Hugh G. Robinson
William E. Rose Robert B. Rowling Wayne Sanders Stephen H. Sands Edgar H. Schollmaier Carl Sewell George A. Shafer George A. Shutt Dr. Bob Smith Cece Smith William S. Spears Roger T. Staubach Ronald G. Steinhart Paul Stoffel Don Stone Charles P. Storey Diana Strauss Theodore H. Strauss John Stuart Liener Temerlin Jere W. Thompson John C. Tolleson Gifford Touchstone Tim Wallace Tom Walter John L. Ware Martin J. Weiland Jimmy Westcott J. McDonald Williams Warren G. Woodward
S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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2000
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MILLENNIUM, Southwestern Medical Foundation is led by Paul M. Bass Jr., Chairman; W. Plack Carr Jr., President; Charles C. Sprague, MD, Chairman Emeritus; Mrs. Ruth Collins Sharp Altshuler, Vice Chairman; and Donald W. Seldin, MD, Vice President for Medical Center Relations.
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
BIOETHICS
The HGP continues to raise issues that extend well beyond science and medicine. Legal and bioethics scholars write extensively about the dangers of genetic discrimination by insurers and employers. Hundreds of philosophical questions are raised – questions that challenge humanity to find responsible answers. Among them: ■ Who should have access to an individual’s genetic information? ■ Should laws be written ensuring genetic privacy? ■ If genes indicating susceptibility for criminal behavior are discovered, how should society respond? ■ How should genetic information be used in planning a family? HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
BIOTECH
Eliance, one of Dallas’ first biotech startups, is launched, based on technology created by Stephen Johnston, PhD, Director of the Center for Biomedical Inventions, and his colleagues, who developed a new method of identifying antigens – critical in new vaccine production. HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
GENETIC DISCRIMINATION
In February, President Clinton signs an Executive Order preventing genetic discrimination in any federal workplace. HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
MILESTONE
The full genome sequence of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster ( fruitfly) is completed. “A PHENOMENAL milestone because of the fruitfly’s pivotal role in research, ranging from aging and cancer to learning and memory,” Dr. Francis Collins said.
8
AN ANTIGEN is any substance that causes an immune system to produce antibodies against it.
A GENE is a sequence of DNA occupying a specific location on one of 23 pairs of chromosomes. It carries the instructions for making a specific protein or set of proteins used for activities of the cell. Just as the meaning of a sentence can be altered through changes in word order or punctuation, proteins generated from mutated genes can change or lose function, often with serious consequences. A heartbreaking example is Tay-Sachs disease, where, at an infinitesimal point along the DNA ladder, a single letter goes wrong – in fact, the error comes down to just four atoms composing that letter. As a result, the genetic coding for a protein that dissolves fat in the brain no longer works. The disease is fatal.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
B
y the turn of the century, throughout America, more people were making the decision
to stop smoking, moderate their alcohol intake and avoid fatty foods. Talk of portion size, fiber and good and bad fats had become commonplace. Personal fitness had become one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. economy. Americans were buying treadmills and weight-training machines and signing up for gym memberships. But the siren call of calorie counts and Jazzercise went unanswered by many Americans, and obesity continued at an increasing and alarming rate. As they had for decades, world-renowned UT Southwestern researchers continued to push the leading edge of medical understanding on cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Through the internet, the volume of available health and medical information exploded, giving anyone with online access the means to do his or her own research. A plethora of health and nutrition news, fad
From 1980 to 2000, fitness club membership in the U.S. doubled – along with the nation’s obesity rate.
diets, support groups and open-forum discussions appeared.
B
y now, the clinical faculty and administrative leaders of the Medical Center, spearheaded by
LEADERSHIP
PUBLIC HEALTH
IN 2000, Southwestern Medical Foundation hosted its annual Public Forum ( as it had since the program’s inception in 1995 ), which examined the impact of personal behavior on long-term health. Featured speakers included medical school experts Drs. Norman Kaplan, Margo Denke, Jere Mitchell and Ron Victor. “Individuals have come to view health largely as a function of physician-mediated activity. It is very important for people to know how their own behavior influences, in a major way, their health,” said Donald Seldin, MD.
Willis Maddrey, MD, Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs, together with the board of University Medical Inc. (UMC), led by its Chairman, Donald Zale, had taken the fledgling referral hospital from caring for a dozen patients at a time to full occupancy. “Dr. Maddrey did a brilliant job of attracting great clinical faculty,” Zale recalled. “And Dr. Wildenthal and Dr. (Bill) Neaves deserve a lot of credit, as do the directors who we had attracted to our board – a simply marvelous group of people.”
In 1998, the chairmanship of UMC passed to Paul Bass, who was also Chairman
LEADERSHIP
RING
of Southwestern Medical Foundation. “Paul Bass was just a sensational chairman,” Zale said. “That was about the time that managed care had become prevalent and the entire financial reimbursement process began to change dramatically, so there was a whole new set of problems that came about.” Despite the changes in the health care landscape, the financial operation of Zale Lipshy remained exemplary. In 2000, the clinical staff and administration of St. Paul Medical Center approached Dr. Wildenthal and proposed that UT Southwestern acquire St. Paul, which had been losing much of its market share over the previous decade. Ownership of St. Paul had passed from the Daughters of Charity, who had built the facility, to Harris Methodist of Fort Worth and then to Texas Health Resources (THR)
BEGINNING IN 1988, St. Paul became home to the UT Southwestern/St. Paul Heart and Lung Program, led by Director Steves Ring, MD, Chair of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Ring had established a national track record of excellence for critically ill heart and lung patients.
with the merger of Presbyterian and Harris Methodist, which had owned and operated the hospital since 1997. "We were landlocked at Zale Lipshy,” said David Quinn, member of the UMC board (and later Chairman, following Bass). "We knew if we were to develop new facilities we had to look to the St. Paul campus.” S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
“The university had no authority from the Board of Regents to own or operate a hospital,” Dr. Wildenthal said. “But it would’ve been a shame for that facility and all it’s meant for 100 years to close down.” The land and equipment had significant value, but because the building itself was in need of significant upgrades, an independent appraisal valued the hospital at “zero dollars.” In December, UT Southwestern purchased the hospital’s physical assets, including its 26 acres of land, from THR for $29.8 million. No state or federal tax
The St. Paul hospital campus.
dollars were used. Funds came from the UT Southwestern faculty’s clinical practice,
unrestricted interest income and the UT System’s Permanent University Fund. The hospital was renamed St. Paul University Hospital and leased to UMC. “While the UT System Board witnessed Zale Lipshy become a huge success, St. Paul had been losing money for years and the Board did not want to assume the risk of ownership,” Dr. Wildenthal said.
T
he high quality of basic research being done at UT Southwestern was validated by an
independent study conducted by the journal ScienceWatch, which analyzed the impact of the nation’s biomedical research published from 1997 through 2001. The journal ranked UT Southwestern in the top 10 institutions in America in four of its six assessed fields. The medical school was especially dominant in molecular biology and genetics and in biology and biochemistry, ranking second in the country in both areas. Research from the clinical side also excelled. Clinical trials had become a critically important LEADERSHIP
research tool, and by 2001, UT Southwestern ranked fourth among more
NESTLER
IN SEPTEMBER, Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, became Chair of the Psychiatry Department. Internationally known for his groundbreaking research on drug addiction and psychiatric disorders, Dr. Nestler had worked at Yale Medical School for 27 years. Twenty colleagues followed him to the Medical Center, catapulting UT Southwestern’s psychiatry department into a new era in the study of mental illness. “Our desire is to identify the genes at risk for mental illness, to understand how they fit into human disease and to figure out better treatments. ... I think we are at just the beginning of the molecular revolution in medicine,” Dr. Nestler said.
than 7,000 worldwide institutions in the number of investigators conducting clinical trials on new drugs. Among medical schools, it ranked third. Of the thousands of UT Southwestern papers being published were investigations into heart disease, diet, diabetes and stroke, as well as new therapies to relieve rheumatoid arthritis and ease depression.
I
n 1998, the Medical Center established the Office of Technology
Development and named Dennis Stone, MD, as Vice President. At the time, the Medical Center’s annual royalty revenue stream of approximately $10 million was more than 30 percent greater than any other Texas institution. Notable among the licensing agreements was one with Mission
Pharmacal in San Antonio, makers of Citracal™, an over-the-counter calcium supplement developed by Charles Pak, MD, Director of the Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research. Dr. Pak’s discoveries were generating the majority of the revenue because Citracal had become widely recommended to slow the effects of osteoporosis. But his patents were soon due to expire. Opportunities to develop UT Southwestern’s intellectual property beyond licensing, however, held far greater potential, as evidenced by the biotech explosion taking place in cities like San Francisco and Boston. “Kern (Wildenthal) and Bill Neaves, PhD (Dean of the medical school), were hugely supportive of taking technologies we thought had promise and using some of the profits from our licensing activities to get them to a point where they could be commercialized,” Dr. Stone said. But significant obstacles still remained. 10
2000
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
PHILANTHROPY
CLEMENTS
Governor and Mrs. William P. Clements receive the Foundation’s Charles Cameron Sprague Community Service Award in recognition of their significant support. Reflecting on the award, Gov. Clements says, “I was born and raised in Dallas. The people I respected and the people that the community recognized were people who involved themselves in the community and gave not only of themselves but their money, their talents and their resources. As a youngster, I was impressed with this. Why do these people do these things? It’s because we want a better community. And it’s very much a part of what makes Dallas, Dallas.” LEADERSHIP
HUTCHISON
A U.S. Congressional appropriations bill sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison establishes a comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Training Program at UT Southwestern in collaboration with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
PHILANTHROPY
PROTHRO
C. Vincent “Vin” Prothro, former Chairman and CEO of Dallas Semiconductor, dies on November 16. Prothro served the Foundation as a trustee, member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Finance Committee. Prothro played a pivotal role in helping the Medical Center obtain the land for its North Campus. LEADERSHIP
WILDENTHAL
Kern Wildenthal, MD, PhD, UT Southwestern President, joins the Southwestern Medical Foundation board.
A PLAZA CONNECTING three biomedical buildings on the North Campus, named the C. Vincent Prothro Plaza and Gardens, is dedicated in his honor the following year.
S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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2001 HEROES
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
TRANSPLANT SERVICES CENTER
The Pentagon following the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, New York and Washington, D.C., are attacked. It is an unspeakable horror the entire country feels, and the days that follow are filled with confusion and depression, anger and grief. Within hours after the attack on the Pentagon, the Transplant Services Center at UT Southwestern receives an urgent request from The Burn Center at Washington Hospital Center to send skin grafts. Ellen Heck, MBA, Director of the Transplant Services Center, determines that UT Southwestern has 70 square feet of skin available in its tissue bank – the first in the country – which she had helped establish years before with Charles R. Baxter, MD, world renowned for his leadership in the treatment of burn victims. “There was such a small window for the doctors to carry out surgeries on so many victims before infection set in. We had to get the grafts to them within 24 hours,” Heck recalls. But all air traffic had been grounded. Without hesitation, UT Southwestern transplant technicians Matthew Harris and Eddie Perryman volunteer to drive 1,300 miles nonstop to deliver the skin grafts, preserved in dry ice. On that fateful September morning, Brian Birdwell, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, had stepped out of a men’s room on the second floor of the Pentagon and heard a deafening sound. “There was just that nanosecond between hearing the sound and then the concussion, the blast, the fire,” Birdwell says. “I was tossed around like a rag doll. The next thing I know is I’m trying to get up ... and I’m on fire.” Birdwell was rushed to Georgetown University Hospital and then to Washington Hospital Center’s regional burn unit, where he spent the next three months. He underwent 30 surgeries including skin grafts to repair the third-degree burns that covered 60 percent of his body – skin grafts made possible by UT Southwestern. IN 2010, Brian Birdwell was elected to the Texas Senate, where ( in 2017) he continues to serve.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT LEADERSHIP
BIOTERRORISM
SHORTLY AFTER 9/11, letters laced with anthrax began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in what was cited as the worst biological attack in U.S. history. Fears mounted as a new breed of terrorist was imagined, one that could easily
O
produce anthrax, botulism, ricin and smallpox, and unleash it on an unsuspecting public. “Of the many things that changed after September 11, we now realize that America is in a new biological arms race,” said Robert Haley, MD, Chief of Epidemiology. UT Southwestern, along with institutions across the country, assembled research teams to begin to prepare for any eventuality. In Dallas, the Metropolitan Medical Response Team was created to develop a disaster plan and run mock scenarios to train police, fire and emergency and medical personnel in ways to minimize the impact of a terrorist attack. Doctors across the city were told to maintain a
high degree of suspicion if numerous patients presented similar, unexplained symptoms. On October 23, just more than a month after 9/11, Southwestern Medical Foundation focused its annual Public Forum on bioterrorism, featuring UT Southwestern experts in the field. A gift from the O’Donnell Foundation ensured that every middle- and high-school teacher in Dallas and surrounding counties received an event video to aid in classroom discussion and instruction.
THE FIRST-EVER RICIN VACCINE, developed by Ellen Vitetta, PhD, UTSW Professor of Immunology, began clinical trials with the pharmaceutical firm Soligenix.
n April 9, 2002, UT Southwestern formally announced the Innovations in Medicine capital
campaign after the campaign’s quiet phase had raised $170 million in pledges and donations. Major gifts included $25 million from a trust established by Bulah M. Luse, $20 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, $11.7 million from the Harry S. Moss Trust for the Prevention and Cure of Heart Disease and $7.5 million from Deborah and W.A. “Tex” Moncrief Jr. William T. Solomon
William T. Solomon agreed to serve as Chairman of the Leadership Council for the campaign. “I believe so strongly in the quality and direction of UT Southwestern and
in the importance of this campaign in taking UT Southwestern to the next level,” Solomon said.
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ithin the $450 million goal was a $50 million “Clinical Services
Initiative” designed to improve how UT Southwestern provided attention and care to its patients. It came at a time when changes in health care
PHILANTHROPY
MEDICAL RESEARCH
THE INNOVATIONS IN MEDICINE campaign’s $450 million goal identified the following areas to receive support:
■ ■ ■ ■
Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders
■
Infectious diseases, immunology and bioterrorism defense
we became convinced that there was a unique opportunity to achieve
■
Basic genetic and molecular research, computational biology and biotechnology
real breakthroughs in the quality of clinical service,” Solomon said.
■ ■ ■
Facilities and equipment
■ ■
Clinical trials of new therapies
and insurance coverage were becoming increasingly complex. The need for such an initiative grew out of interactions between Solomon, O’Donnell, Dr. Wildenthal and prospective donors during the campaign’s quiet phase. “The more we talked with donors, the more
So convinced of its importance, Solomon and his wife, Gay, added $9 million to their earlier $1 million gift to propel the initiative forward.
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Cancer Heart disease and stroke Pediatric illnesses, birth defects and inherited disorders
Endowed chairs and scholars Endowed centers, clinical programs and research funds Enhanced clinical services
he Donald W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center
was established in 1998, with a $24 million grant to establish a comprehensive cardiovascular research program. The program’s centerpiece was the Dallas Heart Study, officially announced to the citizens of Dallas in an April 2000 news conference by Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and other city leaders. “We designed the Dallas Heart Study to be performed solely in the community in which we work and provide health care,” said Helen Hobbs, MD, the Center’s Director. “Most heart disease studies ... include populations from different regions of the country.” S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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By 2002, the initial data collection, which included detailed socioeconomic, biomarker and imaging data from some 3,500 ethnically diverse Dallas County participants, had been LEADERSHIP
completed. “Already, the study has helped save many lives in Dallas County,”
PUBLIC HEALTH
THE FOUNDATION’S 2001 Public Forum focused on the interrelationship between obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The presentation by UT Southwestern faculty – some of the top researchers in the world on the subject – included Drs. Roger Unger, Denis McGarry, Michael Brown and Scott Grundy. “There is a tremendous amount of innovative research being done at UT Southwestern,” said Donald Seldin, MD, event organizer and Vice President for Medical Center Relations for the Foundation. “Many people do not realize that diabetes affects more than blood sugar levels.”
said Ron Victor, MD, co-author of the study. “We have identified more than 500 people with high blood pressure who did not know they had it until they participated in the Dallas Heart Study.”
T
he Dallas Plan was an independent, nonprofit group working with
area business and community leaders to plot the city’s future in several strategic areas. Dr. Dennis Stone had ensured UT Southwestern played an active role in the Dallas Plan’s Biotechnology Initiative, which brought together the City of Dallas, UT Southwestern and STARTech Early Ventures, a business accelerator, to help grow Dallas’ fledgling biotech industry.
STARTech was key in helping to identify management and raise seed capital. In November 2002, the Dallas City Council agreed to sell 13 acres near UT Southwestern to the state for $4.1 million. The land would be used by UT Southwestern to help biotech startups emerging from promising medical school research market themselves to biotech-heavy areas of the country. PHILANTHROPY
BULLOCK
IN 2002, JAN BULLOCK, widow of former Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, who died in 1999, provided funds to UT Southwestern to establish the Jan and Bob Bullock Distinguished Chair for
T
Science Education. Funds for the $1 million endowment were derived from Bullock’s campaign account at the time of his death, along with matching funds from an anonymous donor. The Chair would be held by the Director of the Science Teacher Access to Resources at Southwestern (STARS) program and would provide funding to allow the program to grow. STARS began in 1991 when a group of UT Southwestern faculty members decided to improve the quality of science education in the state of Texas. The program started as a volunteer effort, but Bullock and other legislators helped it acquire state funding in 1993.
By 2001, STARS was a highly sought-after program encompassing more than 450 middle and high schools in the state, targeting both students and science teachers. “Bob regarded UT Southwestern as one of the world’s leading medical centers, and he always felt STARS was a great program,” Mrs. Bullock said. “I know he would be happy that there will now be additional funding to enhance it still more.”
THE STARS program has grown to serve more than 10,000 teachers and 50,000 students in 3,000 schools in DFW and surrounding areas.
he formal announcement of the completion of the human genome was timed to
coincide with the 50th anniversary of James D. Watson and Francis Crick’s discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA. Their seminal scientific paper, published in the April 25, 1953, issue of Nature, included the following observation about the molecule:
“It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.” Fifty years later, those words were recognized as the understatement of the modern scientific age as the following was announced as part of the Joint Proclamation, issued April 14, 2003:
“ We, the Heads of Government of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, and China, are proud to announce that scientists from our six countries have completed the essential sequence of three billion base pairs of DNA 14
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
MILESTONE
SÜDHOF
Thomas Südhof, MD, PhD, makes a groundbreaking discovery about the role of a protein involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. LEADERSHIP
PUBLIC HEALTH
UT SOUTHWESTERN RESEARCHERS, led by William Lee, MD, discover that unintentional acetaminophen overdose is the nation’s leading cause of acute liver failure, a frequently fatal disease affecting some 2,000 Americans annually. Their study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, finds that 39 percent of patients with acute liver failure had overdosed.
PHILANTHROPY
“ACETAMINOPHEN is a dosespecific toxin,” explained Dr. Lee. “Taken in limited doses, it’s very safe. But acetaminophen has a narrow margin of safety compared to other pain relievers. It doesn’t take much beyond the recommended maximum daily amount to create a problem.”
SEAY
Charles and Sarah Seay donate $13 million to the Foundation to fund a stateof-the-art research and clinical center for pediatric emergency and intensive care at UT Southwestern, offer advanced treatment of post-traumatic injuries at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital and expand emergency and trauma intensive care facilities at Children’s Medical Center. RECOGNITION
WANG
XIAODONG WANG, PHD, Professor of Biochemistry at UT Southwestern, is appointed the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science for his research into the biomedical pathways of cell death. Dr. Wang had been tracking proteins that direct the life and death of animal cells. He and Lily Li, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program, find that the endonuclease G protein, an enzyme dubbed EndoG, plays a crucial role in the death of a cell by destroying DNA. At age 37, Dr. Wang is one of the youngest faculty members ever awarded a Distinguished Chair. “In the last four or five years, he has probably done the most spectacular research of any young scientist in the country,” Steven McKnight, PhD, says.
LEADERSHIP
SPRAGUE
Under the leadership of Charles C. Sprague, MD, Foundation Chairman, the Southwestern Medical Foundation/UT Southwestern Estate Planning Council is created to assist the Foundation’s planned giving efforts.
HOBLITZELLE FOUNDATION and anonymous donors funded the Distinguished Chair. MacGregor served as Chairman of both Southwestern Medical Foundation and Hoblitzelle Foundation.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
MILESTONE
On April 9, UT Southwestern announces Innovations in Medicine, a five-year campaign to raise $450 million for medical research.
99.9 PERCENT of your DNA is identical to that of everyone else in the world. HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
INNOVATIONS IN MEDICINE
MILESTONE
The mouse is the first nonhuman mammal to have its full genome sequence completed. The project is carried out by the International Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium. The mouse genome is 14 percent smaller than the human genome, but more than 90 percent of it is similar to ours. As a result, its genome allows scientists to learn more about the function of human genes, leading to a better understanding of human disease, improved treatments and cures. PHILANTHROPY
PROTHRO
The Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation gives $5 million to endow the C. Vincent Prothro Center for Research in Basic Neuroscience at UT Southwestern.
PUBLIC HEALTH
CAREN PROTHRO continues to serve as a civic and philanthropic leader at the Foundation, where she is a longtime Trustee.
WEST NILE
West Nile virus was first detected in North America in 1999. The disease is spread to humans through the bite of a female mosquito that has fed on the blood of infected birds. In 2002, Dallas County reports the first presence of the virus – 27 human cases resulting in two deaths. Nationally, 284 fatalities are recorded. LEADERSHIP
MCCONNELL
JOHN MCCONNELL, MD, Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs, takes on added responsibility by becoming CEO of University Medical Center, the holding company for Zale Lipshy and St. Paul University Hospitals.
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DR. MCCONNELL’S leadership would ultimately help convince the UT System Board that the Medical Center was capable of owning and operating its own referral hospital.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
of the human genome, the molecular instruction book of human life.... This information is now freely available to the world without constraints via public databases on the World Wide Web. This genetic sequence provides us with the fundamental platform for understanding ourselves, from which revolutionary progress will be made in biomedical sciences and in the health and welfare of humankind. Thus, we take today an important step toward establishing a healthier future for all the peoples of the globe.”
T
he sequencing of the human genome is seen as the single most
transformative event in the history of biological science. Importantly, its success required collaboration between interdisciplinary teams of biologists, physicists, chemists, computer scientists, mathematicians and engineers. But scientific discovery often brings unexpected realizations – and many had come to light, which sent biomedical scientists in countless new directions. For one, it had been previously estimated that human DNA contained 80,000 to 120,000 genes, but it was now apparent the human genome had only between 20,000 and 25,000 ( years later revised to 20,500) – a humbling, even perplexing discovery given that the lowly roundworm has roughly the same number. DNA had earlier been thought of as mostly genes, each Portion of our DNA that codes for protein
Human DNA
The HGP opened a door that inspired, challenged and perplexed researchers around the world.
responsible for holding the code of a single protein. But the idea of “one gene, one protein” was incorrect. Many genes were involved in coding for multiple proteins. The discovery was one of the first indications that the number of genetic pathways to disease might be far more complicated than previously imagined. Scientists were surprised to learn that the vast majority
Scientists determined that less than 2 percent of our DNA codes for protein. For the vast majority of our genome, no clear function has yet been determined.
of the genome (98 percent ) did not code for proteins at all. Some areas produced short strands of RNA, a molecular cousin of DNA, which played a role in controlling cellular activity but was little understood.
Another major realization concerned basic inheritance. Genetics was more complex than passing on a particular DNA sequence. Genes could change the way they behaved depending on their environmental circumstances – a phenomenon called epigenetics. In addition, it appeared that new traits could be inherited through a means other than mutations in the DNA, which led to the study of the “epigenome.” There was no question that the Human Genome Project was a resounding success. While the initial optimism of the immediate impact of such knowledge proved naïve, the project meant that, for the first time, scientists had a “parts list” and their first real opportunity to understand the root causes of disease and human health, to get the
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
ROI
A REPORT by the Battelle Memorial Institute released in May 2011 concluded that the total HGP investment of $3.8 billion drove $796 billion in economic impact, created 310,000 jobs and launched the genomic revolution – proving that research of this magnitude had been an exceptionally productive investment.
science right, and from there gain the knowledge that would lead to cures. Using the “rough draft” of the human genome released in 2000, researchers from around the world had already located genes that predispose men to prostate cancer; genetic abnormalities that can cause some forms of Parkinson’s disease, an inherited form of deafness, S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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Alzheimer’s disease, Usher syndrome, and Lou Gehrig’s disease; a genetic signature for malignant melanoma; and genes related to increased risks of breast, ovarian and other cancers.
T
he operational and financial management of Zale Lipshy’s 152-bed hospital had been
impeccable. But the addition of the 300-bed St. Paul University Hospital added unique and complex operational challenges. As it had when operated by the Daughters of Charity, Harris Methodist and THR, St. Paul was on track to lose millions of dollars annually. “UMC board leadership deserves a tremendous amount of credit for recognizing that they needed help,” Dr. Wildenthal said. In December 2002, UMC reached an agreement with UT Southwestern to have John McConnell, MD, Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs, also serve as CEO of UMC. Dr. McConnell sought recommendations from two independent parties: the external advisory committee for the Medical Center’s Clinical Services Initiative, chaired by Eugene Braunwald, MD, Hersey Distinguished Professor of
John McConnell, MD
Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Hunter Group hospital consultants.
Both agreed: Merge the two hospitals and make them part of a larger system including UT Southwestern’s outpatient services. “ [The] recommendations helped crystallize our thinking,” Dr. McConnell said. He began a series of operational changes that saved millions, including the consolidation of information technology systems as well as other shared services, which improved the hospital’s financial performance dramatically. “In 18 months, St. Paul was breaking even,” Dr. Wildenthal said. Importantly, the success of the turnaround did not go unnoticed by the UT System.
A
merican medical care was in the midst of a technology explosion that came as managed-care
systems were attempting to control health care costs. At the same time, the number of clinical programs at UT Southwestern had grown dramatically. The Medical Center now handled more than 400,000 referral outpatient visits annually while caring for thousands more patients in university-affiliated hospitals. Clinical growth and increases in patient volume made the patient experience increasingly complex. While Zale Lipshy remained in the 95th percentile in patient satisfaction, St. Paul lagged far behind.
E
arly donations to the Innovations in Medicine campaign were used in
part to facilitate the construction of a new biomedical research building. The recently opened Moncrief Radiation Oncology Center was also funded by The Moncrief Radiation Oncology Center was funded from campaign gifts.
campaign gifts. Funds likewise enabled the recruitment of new chairs in Neurology, Psychiatry, Cardiology, Anesthesiology, Radiation Therapy, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine.
The Clinical Services Initiative was formally announced in February 2003, in conjunction with the announcement of a $10 million gift from Gay and Bill Solomon to endow enhanced patient services in the Division of General Internal Medicine. 18
2003
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
MILESTONE
IN MARCH, the National Human Genome Research Institute announces a new initiative – the ENCODE Project – with the long-term goal of creating a comprehensive encyclopedia of functional elements encoded in the human DNA.
HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
TRANSPLANT EXCELLENCE
In June, the UT Southwestern/St. Paul Heart and Lung Transplant Program reaches a milestone with the completion of 300 heart and 100 lung transplants. Even while taking a high percentage of complex cases, the program continues to be ranked among the top 10 programs in the country in patient survival.
GENETIC PRIVACY
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop standards for protecting the privacy of individually identifiable health information from inappropriate use and disclosure. As a result, a new privacy rule adds “genetic information” to the list of protected health information ( PHI ), which comes into effect on April 14, 2003. WORLD HEALTH
SARS
A disease named severe acute respiratory syndrome ( SARS ) spreads around the world, raising awareness of the vulnerability of the human population.
LEADERSHIP
FROM NOVEMBER 2002 to July 2003, 8,098 probable SARS cases were reported to the World Health Organization ( WHO ) from 29 countries, including 29 cases from the United States. In all, 774 SARSrelated deaths were reported, but none occurred in the U.S.
BIOTERRORISM
In October, researchers at UT Southwestern are awarded $15.1 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study anthrax, ricin, plague, tularemia and Lassa fever – pathogens that can be used as biological weapons. The largest of these is an $8.7 million grant to pursue studies of Francisella tularensis, the bacterium that causes tularemia. Tularemia is classified as a Class A bacterial biothreat – the “most dangerous” category – because it is more easily weaponized than anthrax.
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2003
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
LEADERSHIP
FITZ
J. GREGORY FITZ, MD, a world-renowned hepatologist, becomes Chair of Internal Medicine. Prior to coming to UT Southwestern, Dr. Fitz served as head of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Professor of Medicine and Director of the gastroenterology fellowship program at Duke University Medical Center.
STATE CUTBACKS contribute to a $76 million shortfall at Parkland Hospital, which leads to layoffs.
PHILANTHROPY
MONCRIEF
Funds for a new building to house the Moncrief Cancer Institute in Fort Worth are donated to UT Southwestern by W.A. “Tex� Moncrief. After its initial affiliation with UT Southwestern in 1999, the program expands its focus to serve multiple counties surrounding Tarrant County. PHILANTHROPY
TEX MONCRIEF served on the University of Texas Board of Regents from 1987 to 1993, was named to the Texas Philanthropy Hall of Fame in 2001 and, in 2008, was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Texas Exes.
HAMON
The Bryan Williams, M.D. Student Center, a 43,000-squarefoot facility, is opened with a celebration honoring Bryan Williams, MD, Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean Emeritus for Student Affairs. The Student Center is the realization of a dream of Dr. Williams, a champion of improving the quality of life for UT Southwestern students. RECOGNITION
BROWN AND GOLDSTEIN
DRS. MICHAEL BROWN AND JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN receive the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for their discovery of the SREBP family of transcription factors and demonstration of how these membrane-bound molecules control the synthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids through a newly described process they named regulated intramembrane proteolysis.
THE ALBANY MEDICAL Center Prize, established in 2000, is one of the largest prizes in medicine in the world.
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IN 1999, Nancy Hamon gave a $4 million challenge grant to launch a campaign to build the Student Center.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
In November, the Innovations in Medicine campaign received a $50 million gift from the Peter and Edith O’Donnell Foundation – the largest in the Medical Center’s history and the biggest single philanthropic donation ever made to a Dallas organization at the time. Close to half of the amount was given to the Clinical Services Initiative. The gift lifted the campaign over the $300 million mark and convinced Solomon, Dr. Wildenthal and others to raise the overall goal of the campaign from $450 million to $500 million, raising the total goal for the Clinical Services Initiative’s portion to $100 million. As a step toward further improving Clinical Services, groups of UT Southwestern officials visited leading academic medical centers and reviewed studies from Duke, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General, University of California, Stanford and Mayo Clinic.
I
n September 2003, research pioneered at UT Southwestern led to
MILESTONE
BIOTECH
the formation of Reata Discovery Inc., a Dallas biopharmaceutical company with $5.2 million in startup financing and statewide and international business partnerships. Reata had taken a bundling approach, unique in the biotech industry because startups were typically centered on developing a single potential compound or platform. While investigating natural products for their biological activity, Jef De Brabander, PhD, came across a metabolite from a sea sponge that appeared to have anti-cancer properties. “Dennis (Stone, MD) came to my office one day and told me of his plans to pool several different ideas into one venture,” Dr. De Brabander said. About the same time, Philip Thomas, PhD, had discovered that protein folding is disrupted in cystic fibrosis and other diseases, and he developed a novel way to monitor the process inside cells. “We knew that our technology had utility, but we lacked any
REATA’S FOUNDING SCIENTISTS included Jef De Brabander, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry; Jonathan M. Graff, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Center for Developmental Biology and of Molecular Biology; Thomas Südhof, MD, PhD, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Director of the Center for Basic Neuroscience; Philip J. Thomas, PhD, Associate Professor of Physiology; and Jerry W. Shay, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology – all at UT Southwestern – and Waldemar Priebe, PhD, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at UT MD Anderson. Discoveries from UT Southwestern and partnerships with UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dartmouth Medical School, and several Asian companies formed the heart of Reata’s technologies.
kind of practical expertise in the business area,” Dr. Thomas said. “Reata was the real step forward in biotech in Dallas. It took over two years of work to set up an office and a diverse portfolio of technologies,” Dr. Stone recalled. “The STARTech team, the founding scientists, Warren Huff, James Bass, Peter Brooks ... worked shoulder to shoulder to create a company with advanced technologies, proven management and sophisticated investors.” PHILANTHROPY PHILANTHROPY
GREEN GREEN
IN FEBRUARY 2004, a grant from the Cecil and Ida Green Foundation, representing the final distribution of the foundation’s assets by its trustees, was combined with the Greens’ bequest to provide $12.8 million to
UT Southwestern, the last of an extraordinary legacy of support for the medical school, which had spanned decades. The gift established a comprehensive center to utilize information technology to enable scientists to link basic research on molecules and cells with analysis of the function of entire biological systems. Alfred G. Gilman, MD, PhD, Nobel Laureate and Chairman of Pharmacology, was named overseer of the Cecil H. and Ida Green Comprehensive Center for Molecular, Computational and Systems Biology. “Individual labs are doing a tremendous job of discovering how a cell receives specific signals and sends information
from point A to point B to regulate function,” Dr. Gilman said. “But the cell has to listen to perhaps 50 or 60 signals simultaneously to do its job, and we don’t yet know the design principles for assembly of such a complex and dynamic network. “There is an enormous increase in interest in quantitative analysis of complex systems, and much of this is a natural extension of the Human Genome Project. For the first time we have all the pieces of the puzzle,” he added. “The challenge is to put all the pieces together, and to do that will require sophisticated information technology as well as basic molecular biology and biochemistry.”
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T
he groundwork for The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas
(TAMEST) was laid in the mid-’90s when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison became a member of the Senate Appropriations committee. “Before TAMEST’s founding, there had been world-class research being conducted in Texas research centers, but it had been performed virtually in isolation,” Sen. Hutchison said. “I looked at where the research money was going and saw that it was going mostly to California,” she recalled. “So I began a five-year program to bring the major medical research institutions in Texas together with the heads of different federal agencies and members of their selection committees. We brought in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute, the Department of Defense ... and let people hear what the priorities were.”
The presentations generated discussion among the leadership of major Texas research institutions about ways they could collaborate to make better proposals for joint and multifaceted projects seeking peer-reviewed grants and earmarks. The first of those meetings was held in Peter O’Donnell’s office and included Malcolm Gillis, PhD, and Neal Lane, PhD, respectively President and Provost of Rice University; Larry Faulkner, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was an ardent and determined supporter of the medical school, medical discovery and higher education in general for decades.
President of UT Austin; and Dr. Kern Wildenthal, President of UT Southwestern. Sen. Hutchison recalled O’Donnell liking the idea from the start. “Peter’s genius is that when he decides that something is worthy he says, ‘Okay, we’re going to put together a plan, define its mission and determine exactly how we’re going to get there,’” Sen. Hutchison said. “Peter was invaluable in many more ways than funding.” In 2004, Sen. Hutchison asked Texas Nobel Laureates Drs. Michael Brown of UT Southwestern and Richard Smalley of Rice University to think through the details of what would become TAMEST. “We wanted to establish a vehicle for our state’s best researchers
Drs. Michael Brown and Richard Smalley
to collaborate across institutions – to share their discoveries, utilize each other’s resources and get peer-level feedback,” Sen. Hutchison said. “Our world-class research institutions and university-based innovation centers bring new technology and research together with savvy entrepreneurs, creating new businesses and, most importantly, creating jobs.” O’Donnell and his wife, Edith, provided an endowment that would grow to generate $100,000 annually. The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards are given each year to recognize four rising Texas researchers responsible for cutting-edge research in the areas of medicine, engineering, science and technology innovation.
R
obert Haley, MD, and his colleagues had been closely monitoring a group of Gulf
War veterans since 1995. They presented evidence attributing the veterans’ illness to low-level exposure to sarin gas that drifted over thousands of soldiers when U.S. Robert Haley, MD
forces bombed Iraqi chemical stores during the 1991 Gulf War. A subsequent report from the Government Accountability Office confirmed that exposure to low-level sarin during the war was more frequent and widespread than previously acknowledged. Subsequent research from Dr. Haley’s team showed that veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome also were born with lower levels of a protective blood enzyme called paraoxonase, which usually fights off the toxins found in sarin.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
SUPER SIZE ME premieres at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, in which documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days straight. The extreme experiment seeks to document the adverse health effects of overeating fast food. Spurlock gains weight and gives his doctors a scare when his liver shows signs of failing. He becomes depressed and loses sexual function, among other adverse symptoms. Spurlock hopes to draw attention to the increasing spread of obesity in the U.S., which the U.S. Surgeon General had declared as “epidemic.” Critics of the film, including McDonald’s, argue that Spurlock consumed an average of 5,000 calories per day and did not exercise, and that the results would have been the same regardless of the source of overeating.
MILESTONE
PHILANTHROPY
CLEMENTS
The Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building opens, completing the sixth new building on the North Campus.
GARNER
In March, NimbleGen Systems Inc. acquires Light Biology, a startup biotech company based on technology developed by Harold “Skip” Garner, PhD, UT Southwestern Professor of Biochemistry and Internal Medicine. Dr. Garner’s invention had created a way of making DNA microarrays, used to analyze the structure and function of genes at the molecular level. LEADERSHIP
GILMAN
MILESTONE
BONTE
On May 5, Nobel Laureate Alfred G. Gilman, MD, PhD, Chair of Pharmacology, is named Interim Dean of the medical school. PHILANTHROPY
REYNOLDS FOUNDATION
In August, an additional $12 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation allows UT Southwestern researchers, led by Helen Hobbs, MD, to continue the Dallas Heart Study. BY 2016, the Dallas Heart Study had resulted in more than 200 published papers, the discovery of two genes associated with fatty liver disease and one breakthrough drug. Dr. James de Lemos, Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Director for the Dallas Heart Study, called it “one of the most significant medical events of this century in North Texas and perhaps the most far-reaching.”
Frederick Bonte, MD, Director of the Nuclear Medicine Center, announces that testing blood flow in a specific region of the brain may boost the degree of diagnostic certainty from 90 percent to almost 100 percent in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE affects more than 5 million Americans and accounts for 70 percent of dementiacausing diseases.
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C O N T.
MILESTONE
OLSON
UT Southwestern researchers led by Eric Olson, PhD, Chair of Molecular Biology, discover a protein, HDAC4, found to be essential for early and proper bone development. LEADERSHIP
SIMMONS
Dr. James K.V. Willson is named Director of Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and launches a five-year plan to develop a “matrix” cancer center, building bridges among disciplines to ensure translation of cancer discoveries to patient care. MILESTONE
THE SIMMONS FOUNDATION donates $15.4 million to provide continuing support for the Center.
SÜDHOF
Thomas Südhof, MD, PhD, and his colleagues offer the first evidence that a lack of the protein RIM1 alpha causes profound deficits in the learning process. The discovery is seen as a major step in understanding the molecular events that underlie learning and memory.
RECOGNITION
MCKNIGHT
STEVEN MCKNIGHT, PHD, Chair of Biochemistry, receives one of the initial National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Awards, which supports creative investigators as they explore areas of research that carry a relatively high potential for failure yet also possess a chance for groundbreaking discovery. Dr. McKnight, the only winner from Texas, is one of nine researchers nationally to receive the award. His research involves the regulation of transcription factors – proteins that switch genes on and off.
IN JULY 2009, research funded by this award results in a new study that could transform embryonic stem (ES) cell research, as scientists discover why mouse ES cells can be easily grown in a laboratory while other mammalian ES cells are difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. “If the findings in mice can be applied to other animals, scientists could have an entirely new palette of research tools to work with,” Dr. McKnight says.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
I
n July 2004, Ross Perot went on Larry King Live and helped to focus the nation’s attention
on UT Southwestern’s research on Gulf War syndrome. Perot credited “the medical evidence that Haley had put together” with convincing Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi that the Gulf War illnesses were due to something beyond stress. Principi appointed a committee, which concluded that the VA should consolidate its Gulf War research monies at a single institution out of the sphere of governmental influence. In 2004, Ross Perot was determined to help Gulf War veterans find the answers they deserved.
UT Southwestern was selected as the recipient – the result of legislation sponsored by Sen. Hutchison – making the medical
school the epicenter of the nation’s Gulf War illness efforts. In September, Dr. Haley and his team announced new findings, later published in The American Journal of Medicine, that showed damage to the parasympathetic nervous system of Gulf War veterans. Dr. Haley believed the damage might account for most of the symptoms – gallbladder disease, unrefreshing sleep, depression, joint pain, chronic diarrhea and sexual dysfunction. “The high rate of gallbladder disease in these men ... is particularly disturbing because typically women over 40 get this. It’s singularly rare in young men,” Dr. Haley said. But many continued to remain far from convinced. “Doctors with the Department of Defense consistently said that this was an anomaly, that it was not a disease but psychosomatic – that all of these tens of thousands of soldiers suffering from these debilitating injuries was the result of post-traumatic stress,” Sen. Hutchison recalled. Opposition to the research funding became increasingly pointed. “A Washington Post reporter said I was just pork barrel spending. Articles routinely dismissed Haley, saying his research wasn’t enough to show a causal connection and calling Perot crazy.”
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LEADERSHIP
PEROT
THE LARRY KING LIVE excerpt that aired July 3, 2004, with Ross Perot and Veteran Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi. KING: What is [ Gulf War syndrome ]? PEROT: It’s exposure to chemical weapons and biological weapons, a combination of these things. And for years, we were in total denial. We knew Saddam Hussein had them because we gave them to him to use them against Iran. No question. KING: Irony. ( TRANSCRIPT BREAK ) PRINCIPI: …[O]ne of the first calls I received after being appointed by President Bush was a call from Ross to come to Texas and to meet with him and Dr. Haley to look at some of the new research that was ongoing. Which I found very, very, very intriguing, and we created an advisory committee to really come to grips with this. KING: Are we helping him, Ross? PEROT: …[W]e’re working the problem now. Yes. For example, I had to fund Dr. Haley’s research. The government wouldn’t touch it. Then…I heard about all these people that were dying of ALS at an early age and I said we need to study that. And they said we don’t want to get into that. And I said well, then give me your records of everybody that has it and I will work on it. And they said oh no. That will violate confidentiality…. Then one of the first people in Congress to step in was Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. She studied this. She believed these men were wounded. And she worked all alone against overwhelming odds to get funding for research. But it was just obstacle after obstacle after obstacle.
n August, the UT System Board of Regents approved the acquisition and consolidation
of Zale Lipshy and St. Paul University Hospitals. In December, it was announced the acquisition would take effect on January 1, 2005. The move was hailed as crucial to the further development and delivery of world-class patient care. University Medical Center (UMC) transferred ownership and donated its assets to UT Southwestern. “I think this is as important in the history of the Medical Center as when we opened Zale Lipshy in 1989,” said Bass,
Paul Bass, Chairman of Southwestern Medical Foundation.
Foundation Chairman and former Chair of the UMC Board. “Before then, we were the only medical school in the country without our own private referral hospital.” S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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n January 1, UMC trustees deeded Zale Lipshy and St. Paul University Hospitals
to UT Southwestern, and all hospital operations came under the management structure of the Medical Center. Medical Center administrators and civic leaders hailed the transition as a major step forward in the pursuit of delivering world-class patient care to North Texas. “It was a strong and positive development – and the right thing to do,” Donald Zale said. “We intend to achieve national prominence in clinical medicine. We want it to be recognized. We want to be as renowned for our patient care as we are for our research and education,” said John McConnell, MD, EVP for Health System Affairs and CEO of UMC. RECOGNITION
BUCK
ON OCTOBER 4, 2004, Linda Buck, PhD, a graduate of UT Southwestern, is awarded
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the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.” She shared the prize with Richard Axel, MD, of Columbia University. Buck worked under UTSW’s Ellen Vitetta, PhD, graduating with her doctorate and an emphasis in immunology in 1980. In 1995, she received the Distinguished Alumnus award from UT Southwestern’s graduate school. Drs. Axel and Buck’s discovery of the family of olfactory receptor proteins and how they relay
signals to the brain led to the understanding of how mammals discriminate between a nearly infinite number of odors and how odors are perceived and remembered by the brain. “... [ I ]t was in Texas that I truly learned to be a scientist,” Dr. Buck recalled. “I had a wonderful thesis advisor, Ellen Vitetta, who demanded excellence and precision in research.... As a woman in science, I sincerely hope that my receiving a Nobel Prize will send a message to young women everywhere that the doors are open to them and that they should follow their dreams.”
n 2005, Harold C. Simmons and his wife, Annette, gave an additional $50 million to the
Innovations in Medicine campaign, equaling the largest one-time gift in UT Southwestern’s history. The donation enabled the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center to add supporting programs and recruit 30 top cancer specialists, empowering it to attain National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation – the gold standard of excellence – on an accelerated timetable. “My family and I are very encouraged about the major progress being made [at the center], and we want to do what we can to ensure that the people of Texas have access to the finest cancer care in the country,” Simmons said. Annette and Harold Simmons
James K.V. Willson, MD, Director of the Simmons Cancer Center, had led the effort to earn NCI designation since his arrival at the medical school in 2004. Dr. Willson’s recruitment was made possible by an
PHILANTHROPY
NELSON
IN MARCH, SINGER WILLIE NELSON and his wife, Annie, put on a benefit concert to raise funds for a stem cell program at UT Southwestern. The concert raised $250,000, which was used to create the Annie and Willie Nelson Professorship in Stem Cell Research. The first Nelson Professor was ( and is ) Eric Olson, PhD, Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology. “As a developmental biologist, I have a natural interest in stem cell biology, and my lab has initiated some interesting projects on the control of stem cell fates,” Dr. Olson said. “Because I love Texas and country music and Willie Nelson is an icon of both, being named the Annie and Willie Nelson Professor is about as cool as it gets.”
earlier $15.4 million gift from Simmons and his family. Dr. Willson recruited more than 70 top cancer specialists to enhance the existing research and clinical expertise – exemplified by Joan Schiller, MD, Chief of Hematology/ Oncology, an internationally renowned lung cancer expert; and Michael White, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology, both of whom were key partners in the center’s progress. 26
Dr. Olson (far right) playing guitar with his rock/ blues/funk band called The Transactivators.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
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n 2005, the largest biomedical research tower in the country opened on the North Campus,
referred to, simply enough, as the “new Biomedical Research Tower.” Collaboration – a fundamental element to the Medical Center’s success – continued to be emphasized.
EPIGENETICS
“This new facility does a number of things,” said James Stull, PhD, Chairman of Physiology. “It provides new laboratory space custom designed for modern research … yet the layout also provides for close contact with collaborators in The new Biomedical Research Tower.
other departments.” With the opening, clinical departments on the South Campus had room
to expand. “The campus is growing,” Dr. Gilman noted. “Basic science and clinical departments have the opportunity to expand their operations and recruit bright young people to do both laboratory and clinically oriented research.”
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AS A RESULT of the Human Genome Project, the field of epigenetics as well as several “omic” fields of medical science came to the forefront.
eanwhile, the tectonic shift in the way
patients consumed health and medical information continued. More and more patients looked
Epigenetics, coined in the 1940s, refers to the additional information layered on top of the sequence of base pairs that make up DNA. It emerged from questions such as why would one identical twin develop cancer and not the other? The field of epigenetics sheds light on how environment, nutrition and social conditions affect the way genes are expressed, as it seems a host of factors trigger the epigenetic switches that flip genes on and off. EPIGENOMIC MARKERS
Epigenomic markers also began to receive more attention for their apparent role in heredity as it became apparent such markers can pass on traits just like genes, and also, as with genes, damaged epigenomic markers could increase the risk of developing cancer and other disorders. COMPARATIVE GENOMICS
Comparative genomics is the study of comparisons between genomes that are distantly related, which provide insight into the universality of biologic mechanisms; those between closely related genomes provide insights into gene structure and function. PROTEOMICS
Proteomics is the study of the structure and function of proteins and how they control cellular behavior. Proteomics plays an important role in drug discovery and may help scientists in the creation of personalized medicines. PHARMACOGENOMICS
Pharmacogenomics is the study of genetic variations that influence an individual’s response to drugs. Knowing whether a patient carries certain combinations of genes can help doctors decrease adverse reactions and increase effectiveness.
for information online before talking with their physicians. Increases in patient medical awareness combined with changes in FDA advertising requirements prompted pharmaceutical companies to increase their direct-to-consumer advertising budgets from $2.5 billion in 2000 to $4.6 billion in 2005. BIOETHICS
STEM CELLS
AN ADULT STEM CELL is a reserve cell with the capacity to grow and multiply to replace dead or damaged adult cells. Some, but not all, organs and tissues in the body have a supply of stem cells – skin is an example. Skin wounds are repaired by skin stem cells; similarly, liver damage is repaired by liver stem cells. Reserve stem cells do not exist in
significant numbers for many vital tissues, including the heart, spinal cord, brain and pancreas. Although stem cell therapies were not new – doctors had performed bone marrow stem cell transplants for decades – it was when scientists learned how to remove stem cells from human embryos in 1998 that discussion on the moral implications of destroying human embryos began. In 2001, President George W. Bush restricted federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, limiting researchers to a set of established stem cell lines and forbidding the use of federal monies to push the research envelope further. “At its core, this issue forces us to confront fundamental questions about the beginnings of life and the ends of science,” Bush said. While shying away from embryonic stem cells as part of its research, like thousands of biomedical researchers around the world, UT Southwestern researchers saw the potential
for stem-cell based therapies to create new heart cells for people who had suffered a heart attack and neurons for patients with spinal cord injury and other neurological deficits. The President vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, and again in June 2007 he used his veto power against federally funded embryonic stem cell research. At the same time, he issued an executive order challenging scientists to develop new methods to obtain stem cells without harming human embryos. Later that year, two scientific teams, one in Japan and one in America, were able to isolate human cells that behave just like embryonic stem cells. UT Southwestern researchers discovered how human skin cells could be used to create embryonic stem cells. These and other breakthroughs helped to change the dialogue and focus on the extraordinary potential of stem cell research and regeneration.
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RECOGNITION
NASA
CELERA GENOMICS,
IN FEBRUARY, UT Southwestern wins a
The Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field shields us against solar radiation.
LEADERSHIP
highly competitive, $9.8 million NASA research grant to study the effects of space radiation exposure to help minimize potential health risks in future space travel. The five-year grant establishes the NASA Specialized Center of Research for the Estimation of Solid Tumor Cancer Risks from Space Radiation. The Medical Center is also awarded a four-year, $1.2 million grant to further explore the damage to human DNA caused by radiation penetrating the hulls of spacecraft and space stations.
PARKLAND
160 140 120 100 80 80
1990
1995
2000
JOBS: INDEX, JANUARY 1990 = 100 High-tech and telecom jobs in Texas experience rapid growth followed by a sharp decline.
LEADERSHIP
which had raced against the Human Genome Project to decipher the human DNA sequence, abandons selling its genetic information and puts its database into the public domain.
2005
THE IMPACT of a nationwide recession begins to take its toll on residents of Dallas County as well as elsewhere in the state. As more people lose their jobs and their health insurance coverage, they turn to Parkland, the county’s only public hospital. Dallas County commissioners appoint a “Blue Ribbon Panel” to explore construction options for building a new, state-of-the-art hospital with increased capacity, and Parkland begins to set aside surplus funds for construction.
PEPE
TAKING CENTER STAGE in February, the emergency medical system directors for the nation’s 25 largest cities, as well as medical directors from
the FBI, Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and the White House, meet in Dallas to discuss the latest innovations and thinking in emergency medical services. Bringing these leaders together is Paul Pepe, MD, MPH, Chair of Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern. In the Dallas area, the BioTEL EMS System, a medical command center directed by UT Southwestern’s emergency medicine education program, oversees centralized emergency medical response for some 3,000 EMS providers.
Dr. Pepe, who also served as Medical Director of the Dallas Police and Fire Departments, had been recently named the city’s first Director of Medical Emergency Services for Public Safety, Public Health and Homeland Security. “We’ve made tremendous progress in educating health professionals and the public,” Dr. Pepe says. “These days, people can tell me the difference between smallpox and chicken pox. That wouldn’t have happened before 2001 – even among many in the medical community.”
THE EMS CONFERENCE – also referred to as “A Gathering of Eagles” – has become one of the most progressive and important EMS conferences in the world.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
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ack in May 2004, the first National Health Information Technology Coordinator was
appointed by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson. The national coordinator’s duties were to execute the actions ordered by President Bush, who had called for widespread
PUBLIC HEALTH
KATRINA
deployment of health information technology within 10 years to realize substantial improvements in safety and efficiency. That mandate crystallized a national commitment to make patients’ medical records universally transportable through electronic means. As a result, a new level of more open communication and knowledge sharing between hospital and patient began. In September 2005, UT Southwestern introduced MyChart – a personalized online health resource that allowed patients to securely access portions of their electronic medical records and enabled them to pose questions to their physicians, schedule appointments and refill prescriptions over an encrypted, secure connection. The MyChart portal was a component of the Clinical Services Initiative that included converting paper medical records and other systems to digital formats.
IN SEPTEMBER, PHYSICIANS, employees and medical students from UT Southwestern began treating thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who were pouring into Dallas. A medical command center was set up at the Dallas Convention Center and included a field hospital where more than 4,000 evacuees were treated in the first week after the storm. Raymond Fowler, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at UT Southwestern and Deputy Medical Director for Operations and Quality Assurance, oversaw command center operations. UT Southwestern’s Department of Psychiatry, with the assistance of the City of Dallas Crisis Team, established a mental health clinic at the convention center – psychiatrists, psychologists, psychology graduate students and psychiatry residents volunteered around the clock, treating nearly 500 patients. The effort included medical staff from Parkland, Children’s Medical Center and UT Southwestern’s hospitals and clinics working up to 20-hour days, caring for the sick, injured and dispossessed.
“Providing internet access to the digital medical record will empower our patients and their families by delivering clinical information whenever and wherever it is needed,” said Kirk Kirksey, Vice President for Information Resources. IN MEMORIUM
SPRAGUE
CHARLES CAMERON SPRAGUE, MD, the medical school’s visionary leader who early on initiated UT Southwestern’s rapid growth, died on September 17, 2005, in Dallas at the age of 88. Dr. Sprague, whom friends described as an outstanding physician and teacher, with a booming baritone voice and engaging smile,
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guided Southwestern Medical College and UT Southwestern for nearly 19 years. Upon retirement in 1986, he was named President Emeritus of the Medical Center and joined Southwestern Medical Foundation, becoming Chairman and CEO in 1988. In 1995, he was named Chairman Emeritus of the Foundation. Dr. Sprague first joined UT Southwestern as Dean of Southwestern Medical School in 1967. Five years later, as the school was reorganized into a comprehensive academic medical center with three distinct schools ( medical, graduate of biomedical sciences and allied health sciences ), Dr. Sprague became the institution’s first president.
Under his leadership, UT Southwestern grew from a regional facility into a nationally renowned medical complex and received international recognition for its strong research and awarding-winning faculty members. “UT Southwestern and Dallas were extraordinarily fortunate that Charlie Sprague agreed to become the medical school’s leader in 1967,” said Dr. Wildenthal, who served as Dean under Dr. Sprague before becoming his successor as President. “He had an instinctive vision of what was required to move the institution to greatness and an ability to persuade everyone he dealt with of the importance and value of his goals.”
t the medical school, the battle to understand Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases
was being fought on several fronts. Since 1988, UT Southwestern had been an NIH National Institute on Aging Alzheimer’s Disease Center site – one of just 32 centers in the country. “The best chance for slowing the disease is to identify it at the earliest stages,” said Roger Rosenberg, MD, Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center. “We are beginning to identify the genes for aging and their alterations that cause Alzheimer’s disease.” S O U T SH OWUETSHT W E RENS T M E RE ND I CMAELD IPCEARLS PP EE CR TSIPVEECS T .I VFEASL L. 2 0 1 75
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
Dr. Rosenberg’s research centered on a gene vaccine that would stimulate the immune system to fight off the plaque-causing amyloid protein. In the Center for Basic Neuroscience, researchers were studying mice to understand the mechanisms behind the disease at both the cellular and molecular levels. “There’s much overlap with another neurodegenerative disease – Parkinson’s,” observed Dr. Südhof, one of the leading neuroscientists in the world. During his tenure at the medical school he received substantial
Roger Rosenberg, MD
support from the Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation, the Pauline Allen Gill Foundation, Southwestern Medical Foundation, and some 20 other private foundations, corporations and individuals.
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esearchers at UT Southwestern, as they had for decades, continued
to advance the understanding of cholesterol. Recent studies identified OCCUPYING THE MASSIVE space in the new Biomedical Research Tower were researchers from the Departments of Neurology, Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Physiology; hematologists, oncologists and cardiologists from the Department of Internal Medicine; and members of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Center for Developmental Biology, the Cecil H. and Ida Green Comprehensive Center for Molecular, Computational and Systems Biology and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute ( HHMI ), which contributed $20 million to support HHMI Investigators at UT Southwestern in the state-of-the -art tower.
a novel role for cholesterol inside the cell: anchoring a signaling pathway linked to cell division and cancer. “Cell signals have to be tightly controlled,” said Richard G.W. Anderson, MD, Chair of Cell Biology, whose research decades earlier had helped advance the 1985 Nobel Prize-winning work of Drs. Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein. “If the signaling machines do not work, which can happen when the cell doesn’t have enough cholesterol, the cell gets the wrong information, and disease results.” Another team led by Jay Horton, MD, then-Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, discovered that mice that lack the PCSK9 protein involved in cholesterol regulation have levels of low-density
lipoprotein ( LDL, or “bad” cholesterol ) more than 50 percent lower than normal mice, suggesting that inhibiting the same protein in humans could lead to new cholesterol-lowering drugs. Dr. Horton’s research foreshadowed a stunning key research finding in humans. Using data from the Dallas Heart Study, Drs. Helen Hobbs and Jonathan Cohen found a woman with two mutations in the PCSK9 gene – one mutation from each parent. The woman, an aerobics instructor, had unusually low levels of LDL cholesterol. Importantly, she showed no ill effects from her low LDL levels, suggesting that therapies aimed at blocking or reducing PCSK9 would not only be effective but safe.
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n 2006, Bill Clements donated $10 million to complete the Bill and
Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building. “I have great admiration for the medical school and the fabulous Bill and Rita Clements cut the ribbon at the opening of the Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building.
progress it has made during the past several years,” Clements said. His involvement with the medical school began when he served on the search committee that convinced Charles C. Sprague, M D, to leave
Tulane University’s medical school and become Dean of the medical school in Dallas in 1967. Dr. Sprague and Clements had been chemistry classmates at Southern Methodist University. 30
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
UT SOUTHWESTERN LEADERSHIP
GILMAN
On June 1, Nobel Laureate Dr. Alfred Gilman, Chairman of Pharmacology for 24 years, is officially named Dean of UT Southwestern Medical School. RECOGNITION
completes the purchase of the final parcel of land opposite the North Campus, with the goal of providing a “green field” for potential new facilities.
SOLOMON
William T. Solomon and Gay Ferguson Solomon are honored with the Foundation’s Charles Cameron Sprague Community Service Award. “I was raised to believe that we should all give back to others.... [W]e are all in one boat, and we will ultimately sink or sail together. We benefit our own families and friends, as well as others, by contributing to building a stronger community,” Bill Solomon says. RECOGNITION
OLSON
Eric Olson, PhD, Chair of Molecular Biology, is awarded the Pollin Prize in Pediatric Research, a lifetime achievement award recognizing outstanding contributions in biomedical or public health research relating to children’s health. Dr. Olson is chosen for his discovery of the genes that control the formation of the heart, providing insight into congenital heart disease. IN MEMORIAM
IN OCTOBER, the International HapMap Consortium publishes a comprehensive catalog of human genetic variation, a landmark achievement that accelerates the search for genes involved in common diseases, such as asthma, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
IN NOVEMBER, the National Human Genome Research Institute ( NHGRI ) convenes a roundtable to help ensure the expanding knowledge of human genomics is translated into improved health care. One of the central issues discussed is the ever-increasing “thicket of patents” that threatens to limit the advance of personalized medicine.
MONTGOMERY
PHILIP O’BRYAN MONTGOMERY Jr., MD, who played a central role in the development of the Department of Pathology, dies on December 17, 2005, in Dallas at the age of 84. “In his half‑century of dedicated service and leadership at UT Southwestern, he played an absolutely pivotal role in building essential bridges between the Medical Center and the broader Dallas community and, literally, in building the Medical Center as we know it today,” Dr. Wildenthal says.
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MILESTONE
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
CLINICAL SCIENCES
ON JANUARY 1, the Department of Clinical Sciences becomes a UT Southwestern academic department. Previously, it was the Center for Biomedical Statistics and Clinical Science. Milton Packer, MD, Director of the Center, is named Chairman. The change in department status is prompted by a $9.7 million training grant award from National Institutes of Health.
MILESTONE
THE ALZHEIMER’S Disease Center (ADC) is one of 32 centers funded by the National Institute on Aging to evaluate patients and conduct scientific research into the cause(s) of Alzheimer’s disease.
ALZHEIMER’S
IN MARCH, UT Southwestern researchers find that pressureinjecting the gene responsible for producing the protein amyloid-beta 42 (shown in the artist’s rendering at left) causes test mice to make antibodies that greatly reduce the protein’s buildup in the brain. The accumulation of amyloid-beta 42 in humans is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. “The whole point of the study is to determine whether the antibody is therapeutically effective as a means to inhibit the formation of amyloid-beta storage in the brain – and it is,” says Roger Rosenberg, MD, Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
LEADERSHIP
HUTCHISON
On April 21, special federal funding officially establishes a Gulf War syndrome research center at UT Southwestern. The landmark five-year, $75 million appropriation is a result of legislation sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
MILESTONE
ROBOTIC SURGERY
UT Southwestern surgeons become the first in North Texas to perform robotically assisted laparoscopic gastric bypass and colon-resection surgeries.
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RECOGNITION
NATIONAL RANKING
UT SOUTHWESTERN continues to rank among the top 10 American institutions in three of the six biomedical fields assessed in an independent analysis of scientific research impact by the journal ScienceWatch. Only four institutions – Harvard, Stanford, UC San Diego, and UC San Francisco – appear in more biomedical categories than UT Southwestern. The medical school ranks first in the country in biology and biochemistry; seventh in neurosciences and behavior research; and eighth in molecular biology and genetics.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT RECOGNITION
GRUNDY
IN 2006, THE CENTER for Human Nutrition, led by Scott Grundy, MD, PhD, celebrated its 25th anniversary. “Dr. Grundy is a marvelous mentor to his associates,” said Peter O’Donnell, founder of the Friends of the Center for Human Nutrition. “He has developed whole new generations of human nutrition researchers.”
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The Friends group had evolved with the Center early on as a way to organize, fund and advocate nutrition research and discoveries. “By funding the salaries of many of our research fellows, the Friends deserve enormous credit for their contribution to the development of the academic careers of today’s and tomorrow’s nutrition scientists,” Dr. Grundy said. Investigators at the Center conducted some of the first tests on the effectiveness of statin medications to lower cholesterol levels and helped popularize lifestyle choices such as the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes fresh fruits and vegetables and cooking with olive oil. Center investigators have long been at the forefront of public policy and have
influenced the development of numerous national guidelines, notably the determination of safe and unsafe dietary fats and the importance of weight loss and exercise for reducing cardiovascular risk. The Center was also influential in requiring food manufacturers to identify components of packaged food, particularly transunsaturated fats. More recently, the Center had done extensive research on the metabolic syndrome as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. These successes were possible thanks, in large part, to the O’Donnell Foundation contributions totaling more than $14.5 million. The National Institutes of Health, through the Obesity Research Task Force, also made significant contributions to the Center.
n April 21, 2006, officials from UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Department of
Veterans Affairs signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a dedicated collaborative Gulf War illness research enterprise at the Medical Center. “UT Southwestern’s findings helped Dallas become the site designated for this critical research,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said at a press conference held at Zale Lipshy. UT Southwestern had received $2.1 million in 2004 and another $1 million in funding in 2005, but in 2006 it received a commitment for $15 million a year for five years. “We’re thrilled to have everyone working together on this important project,” Dr. Haley said. “By doing so, we envision that we can find scientific answers to questions surrounding Gulf War illness. These answers will be applicable to the illnesses in the general population as well, including patients exposed to chemicals and neurotoxins such as pesticides.”
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n May 2007, an announcement was made of
PHILANTHROPY
PICKENS
a $50 million gift from the T. Boone Pickens Foundation to ensure the continued advancement and prominence of UT Southwestern. The gift, made to Southwestern Medical Foundation, included a requirement that it be managed as a special fund and required it to grow to $500 million within 25 years from earnings on the original principal and/or private donations. Pickens made an identical gift to UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In recognition of Pickens’ generosity, the 800,000-square-foot, “new Biomedical Research Tower ” was officially named the T. Boone Pickens Biomedical Building. “It is my desire to build a major legacy that will help ensure the excellence of UT Southwestern
BOONE PICKENS GREW UP in a small Oklahoma town, delivering papers and mowing lawns for spending money. He moved to Texas, and over the course of his career, the iconic energy entrepreneur created thousands of jobs and made billions of dollars. In 2006, he established the T. Boone Pickens Foundation, created a $1 million endowment fund at the Medical Center to support heart research, and donated $2 million to establish the Boone Pickens Fund for Cancer Research and Treatment, honoring Eugene Frenkel, MD. By the end of 2007, his total philanthropy had exceeded $1 billion – given to health and medical research, treatment and services; entrepreneurship; kids at risk; education and athletics ( with a focus on his alma mater, Oklahoma State University ); corporate health and fitness; and conservation and wildlife management. “I firmly believe one of the reasons I was put on this earth was to make money and be generous with it,” Pickens said. “And that’s what I’ve continually tried to do.”
in the decades to come,” Pickens said. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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grassroots initiative to place Texas at the forefront of cancer research and prevention
gained momentum in early 2007 when Gov. Rick Perry declared in his State of the State address, “I don’t know when the day will come that we find a cure for cancer, but I do know that it is my dream to accelerate its arrival with a multibillion-dollar cancer research initiative that can save lives and provide millions renewed hope.” State Rep. Jim Keffer and State Sen. Jane Nelson filed legislation to create a new state agency to oversee Texas’ cancer-related activities, which was approved by the Texas Legislature. However, it could be implemented only Texas voters approved a $3 billion, 10-year initiative that established the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, an agency whose mission is to secure the state’s position as a leader in innovative research, development of new treatments, and cancer prevention.
through an amendment to the Texas Constitution, which required approval in a statewide election. On November 6, 2007, Texas voters overwhelmingly approved the amendment, establishing the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and authorizing the state to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs in Texas – the second-largest
cancer research funding pool in the nation, behind only the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
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n June 2007, a Blue Ribbon Panel made up of civic leaders and health care experts –
appointed in January 2006 by the Dallas County Commissioner’s Court – recommended a strategic and master facility plan (MFP) to replace the current hospital. County commissioners indicated unified support for building a new charity hospital. In July, the Parkland Board of Managers approved the Blue Ribbon Panel’s recommendation followed by the Dallas County MILESTONE
CANCER IMAGING
Commissioner’s Court approval in August. It was determined that $747 million
THE ADVANCED IMAGING Research Center ( AIRC ) opened in September 2005 on three floors of the new, six-story Biomedical Research and Advanced Imaging Building. The AIRC was and continues as a collaboration between UT Southwestern Medical Center and other North Texas institutions to translate imaging discoveries into clinical practice. The new building, the latest addition to the North Campus, also houses the Mary Nell and Ralph B. Rogers Magnetic Resonance Center established in 1991, which contains shell space for a future cyclotron facility. William P. Clements donated $10 million to complete the facility, which was named the Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building in their honor.
IN 2015, UT Southwestern’s Radiology Department launched a new cyclotron facility that will help create isotopes used in imaging, cancer research and tracking cancers in the body. The cyclotron produces short-lived radioisotopes, emitting positrons – the key to PET scans, which are used in diagnosis and planning treatment for many types of cancer.
in bonds and a property tax-rate hike
IN JULY 2006, Parkland engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop a strategic plan, an operating model and a master facility plan ( MFP). During the first half of 2007 Parkland Health & Hospital System ( PHHS ) worked through the details of the master facility planning exercise, once the strategic plan was complete.
would be necessary. But Parkland administrators believed they could reduce the burden on taxpayers by raising $150 million in private donations and using $350 million it then had in reserves. In May 2008, facility planning began. When Parkland’s board voted in favor of the new Parkland Hospital plan in the summer of 2008, it drew applause and widespread favorable response. Two months later, safety inspectors showed up at the Dallas County hospital unannounced. The inspectors, working on behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), questioned the adequacy of Parkland’s informed consent forms and whether they met federal reimbursement requirements.
T
he Medical Center’s scientific exploration in metabolism and
its research into obesity and diabetes continued with support from philanthropy and both state and federal funding.
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2006
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
ON MAY 25, the Foundation’s Public Forum provides information about avian influenza, or bird flu. Four infectious disease and epidemiology experts cover the history of pandemics and the role of vaccination programs in the management of such diseases. Robert Haley, MD, moderates the discussion. RECOGNITION
ROSEN
MICHAEL ROSEN, PHD, Professor of RECOGNITION
TRANSPLANT EXCELLENCE
UT Southwestern is ranked No.1 nationally for heart and lung transplant patients’ survival one year after surgery. PHILANTHROPY
Biophysics, is recognized as a rising research star by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST ). Dr. Rosen receives the award for Science, one of the three inaugural Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards, which honor up-and-coming researchers in science, medicine and engineering.
SWEETHEART BALL
THE SWEETHEART BALL raises $1.16 million for cardiovascular research at UT Southwestern, bringing supporters’ total contributions to more than $10 million. “The tremendous success of the Sweetheart Ball and its supporters’ continued generosity allows us to move forward in our mission to find more advanced ways of detecting, treating and preventing heart disease,” says Joseph Hill, MD, Chief of Cardiology ( at left). Dr. Hill was recruited four years earlier from the University of Iowa College of Medicine with the help of Sweetheart Ball proceeds.
RECOGNITION
VITETTA
Ellen Vitetta, PhD, Director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center, is selected as one of four Class of 2006 members of the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame, which includes first ladies, teachers, scientists, astronauts and athletes. LEADERSHIP
CAETANO
In August, Raul Caetano, MD, MPH, PhD, becomes Dean of the School of Allied Health Professions.
L. RUTH GUY, MD, former UT Southwestern Professor Emeritus of Pathology and noted innovator in medical technology and blood banking, is also a member.
IN NOVEMBER, UT Southwestern researchers announce the discovery that bits of RNA – a cousin of DNA – play a large role in causing enlargement of the heart, a major risk factor for heart failure and sudden death. Their findings are part of a fast-growing field of research revealing the importance of micro-ribonucleic acids, or microRNAs, in areas including cancer, cell death and cell growth. “These particular microRNAs aren’t just markers of heart failure. They’re actually able to cause the disease, at least in mice. This is the first evidence for the involvement of microRNAs in adult heart disease,” says Eric Olson, PhD, Chair of Molecular Biology.
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RECOGNITION
TAMEST
TWO UT SOUTHWESTERN researchers, Drs. Zhijian “James” Chen ( left) and David Mangelsdorf, receive recognition as two of the state’s top rising stars in research by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas ( TAMEST ). Dr. Chen receives the award for science and Dr. Mangelsdorf for medicine.
RECOGNITION
PICKENS
The Foundation’s Charles Cameron Sprague Community Service Award is given to T. Boone Pickens. “The award is very important ... particularly because I knew Dr. Sprague from way back and we had worked on several things together. He was a wonderful man, and I wish he was here for me to shake his hand and tell him how much we appreciate receiving it,” Pickens says. PRIORITY
AUTISM
UT SOUTHWESTERN IDENTIFIES autism as one of its top priorities, and Southwestern Medical Foundation joins the Medical Center in seeking funding to recruit world-class autism researchers and physicians. Several major commitments from Dallas philanthropists, including two families affected by autism, along with matching funds from Harold and Annette Simmons, lay the framework for significant progress. Combined with a $1.4 million gift the following year from the 2008 Crystal Charity Ball, the Medical Center begins a collaboration with Children’s Medical Center and UT Dallas to develop a community-wide program for studying and treating autistic children.
RECOGNITION
DIVERSITY
In September, Hispanic Business magazine ranks UT Southwestern as the nation’s top medical school for Hispanics. MILESTONE
WILDENTHAL
In October, Dr. Kern Wildenthal, President of UT Southwestern, announces Sept. 1, 2008, as the date of his retirement.
36
TOWARD THE END of 2007, philanthropic gifts are at their highest level in the Medical Center’s history. State funding continues to increase, surpassing $150 million a year. Medical Center space totals more than 7 million square feet; the annual operating budget is $1.3 billion; research grants exceed $360 million per year; clinical revenues are greater than $600 million; and total endowment funds are valued at more than $1.4 billion.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
Jay Horton, MD, became the coordinating investigator for a $22 million NIH grant devoted to obesity research. The grant strengthened UT Southwestern’s Taskforce for Obesity Research, a multidisciplinary team of 29 scientists and clinicians from genetics, endocrinology, nutrition, neurology, lipid metabolism, psychiatry and epidemiology. The same year, the Texas Legislature, along with the governor and state comptroller, approved a $9 million per year “special item” to fund the Medical Center’s new Center for Obesity, Diabetes and Metabolism Research, helping to ensure that UT Southwestern would continue its leadership in obesity and diabetes research.
A
lso in 2007, UT Southwestern joined a national clinical
Researchers spearheading a $22 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study obesity are (left to right): Drs. Craig Malloy, Joel Elmquist, Joyce Repa, Elizabeth Parks, David Mangelsdorf, David Russell, Jonathan Cohen and Jay Horton.
trial network to identify the long-term health effects of West Nile virus infection and to learn more about the disease’s progression, symptoms and mortality. Initiated by the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, the trial covered 13 sites where researchers observed the natural course of the virus over a year in people who had either a fever or neurological diseases due to West Nile infection. WEST NILE
DALLAS COUNTY
ABOUT 7 PERCENT of all U.S. cases of West Nile appear in Texas each year. In 2006, 23 percent – or 81 cases – of Texas’ 354 verified human infections were in Dallas County.
“Little is known about the long-term effects of infection, so information gathered in this trial could help bridge the gaps in current knowledge of West Nile and aid in the design of better treatments,” said Roger Bedimo, MD, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System.
Monitoring the spread of diseases is crucial in alerting health experts to new pathogens and protecting public health. “There is a constant need for surveillance so we can quickly understand and develop countermeasures to disease,” Dr. Haley said. “We’re at a point now where the world community does not tolerate roadblocks to world health reporting. The faster we can disseminate knowledge about new diseases, containment becomes so much easier.”
O
n January 15, 2008, philanthropists Harold and Annette Simmons made
an additional $50 million donation to Innovations in Medicine, raising their total campaign contributions to just over $125 million, the largest sum in Texas
MILESTONE
GENE RESEARCH
UT SOUTHWESTERN researchers have identified 27 disease-causing genes, including the gene responsible for familial hypercholesterolemia, the genetic disorder Drs. Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein uncovered in their research on the underlying mechanisms of cholesterol metabolism.
history ever contributed by living donors to a single philanthropic campaign. The gift led to the naming of the Harold and Annette Simmons Comprehensive Center for Research and Treatment of Brain and Neurological Disorders. “In addition to our interest in cancer, arthritis and kidney disease, diseases of the brain and nervous system are areas of tremendous importance, and we’re pleased that the latest portion of our campaign contribution will help UT Southwestern be a world leader in this field,” Simmons said. “ [The Simmons’] continued support of UT Southwestern through their gifts to Southwestern Medical Foundation is unsurpassed,” said Paul Bass, Foundation Chairman. “Their ultimate S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
vision is exhibited by the fact that they are funding projects that will benefit the health and well-being of generations to come – individuals who they will never personally know.”
O
n May 2, the Foundation held a dinner to honor the benefactors of its successful capital
campaign and announced that more than 700 donors had pledged more than $772 million – an unprecedented outpouring of generosity. The campaign, announced in 2002, received a total of 312 contributions of $1 million or more and 24 gifts of $5 million or greater – with four donors giving more than $50 million. In addition to the Simmons’ gifts, Edith and Peter O’Donnell, in conjunction with the O’Donnell Foundation, gave $57.6 million; the T. Boone Pickens Foundation donated more than $53 million; and Margot and Ross Perot, along with the Perot Foundation, gave $50.6 million. LEADERSHIP
During the evening, Bill Solomon, who chaired the campaign, was
BASS
“I AM GRATEFUL and honored to have served with the most generous and farsighted group of trustees, donors and friends in the private sector who collectively have supported the Foundation and ensured UT Southwestern’s preeminence as a world-class medical center,” Bass said. While Bass was Chairman, the Foundation’s assets increased by more than $500 million. Bill Solomon said of Bass, “His extraordinary vision led him to begin cultivating the next generation of philanthropic leaders.” “No community and no institution have known a greater friend than Paul Bass. His selfless devotion to this community, always conveyed with wisdom and humor, should be an inspiration to all of us,” added Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern Medical Center.
introduced as the Foundation’s new Chairman, succeeding Paul Bass, who became Chairman Emeritus. Kern Wildenthal, MD, PhD, who in the previous year had set September 1 as the date of his retirement, would become Foundation President and CEO, succeeding W. Plack Carr Jr., who became Executive Vice President. The dinner included a surprise announcement of $10 million in funds given in Dr. Wildenthal’s honor to Southwestern Medical Foundation. Medical Center faculty and staff and members of the Dallas community had come together to conduct a secret campaign. Al Gilman, MD, PhD, brought more than 200 faculty and staff members together to raise $1 million. Tom Engibous, retired Chairman of Texas Instruments, led the community effort and made a founding pledge of $1 million. “Dr. Wildenthal joins a short list
of people who have truly changed Dallas in a great way,” Engibous said. “The Wildenthal Fund really is a measure of our thanks for those personal qualities that go beyond mere administrative skills and that have fostered a sense of pride and happiness at what has been built at the Medical Center,” Dr. Gilman said. Additional donations continued and ultimately exceeded $20 million.
T
hroughout 2008, biomedical research at the Medical Center
was a fountain of discovery. In one of countless examples, the tiny strands of genetic material called RNA were emerging as major players in gene regulation, the process inside cells that drives all biology and that scientists need to first understand in order to better fight disease. Contrary to established theories, researchers found that RNA could interact with non-gene sections in a DNA
David Corey, PhD
sequence. “Our findings about the underlying mechanisms of RNA-activated gene expression reveal a new and unexpected target for potential drug development,” said David Corey, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Biochemistry. 38
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
O
n June 20, the UT System Board of Regents formally appointed Harvard professor
and Boston health care academic leader Daniel K. Podolsky, MD, President of UT Southwestern. Dr. Podolsky had been named the sole finalist for the position in May following a national search. “We look forward to Dr. Podolsky’s leadership and have the utmost confidence that he will continue building on the excellence that has been the hallmark of UT Southwestern,” said Board of Regents Chairman H. Scott Caven Jr. Dr. Podolsky officially stepped into his new role on September 2, 2008, holding both the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery Jr., MD Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science. “UT Southwestern has had great stewardship financially, and it has strong support from the community, which are Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky became the third President of UT Southwestern Medical Center.
A
clearly major reasons why the future here is so promising,” Dr. Podolsky said.
s Dr. Podolsky arrived, a sweeping change that would dramatically
impact patient satisfaction was already in progress.
LEADERSHIP
PODOLSKY
DR. PODOLSKY, as an internationally recognized physician-scientist, had worked for years to advance the understanding of gastrointestinal disorders, specifically inflammatory bowel diseases. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College summa cum laude and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, followed by residency training in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the staff of Massachusetts General Hospital in 1981, where he led a clinical program that grew to one of the topranked digestive disease programs in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. He was appointed Chief of Gastroenterology in 1989 and was named the Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 1998. In addition, Dr. Podolsky served as the Chief Academic Officer of Partners HealthCare System from 2005 to 2008.
Empowered by $100 million from the Innovations in Medicine campaign, the Clinical Services Initiative (CSI) headed by John Rutherford, MD, Vice President for SHARED VISION
PODOLSKY
CENTRAL TO DR. PODOLSKY’S vision was ensuring that support of the Medical Center’s commitment to basic science remained unaffected, and that its stellar reputation continued. ScienceWatch, which quantified citations-per-paper for work published from 2005–2009, ranked UT Southwestern 1st for published research in Clinical Medicine, 1st in Biology & Biochemistry, 2nd in Neurobiology/Behavior and 3rd in Molecular Biology /Genetics. It was a stunning achievement because no other surveyed institution ranked first in more than one category, and only three institutions – Harvard; the University of California, San Francisco; and Johns Hopkins – ranked in the top 10 in four or more fields. Overall, UT Southwestern placed in the top five among biomedical research institutions in the country.
Clinical Operations, had worked with physicians and hospital managers to develop 42 separate initiatives to improve the patient experience, and by the end of 2008 all were completed or underway. “The explosion of technology in health care, together with nationwide structural change brought on by rising costs, has made it increasingly difficult for patients everywhere to navigate today’s sophisticated
John Rutherford, MD
health care system with an experience that is humane and patient-friendly,” said Bill Solomon, Foundation Chairman and one of the CSI’s earliest advocates. In follow-up surveys, all UT Southwestern hospitals and clinics would rank in the top 10 percent in patient satisfaction for the year – up from the 75th percentile just
four years earlier. Zale Lipshy University Hospital continued its exemplary record of scoring in the top 5 percent of all hospitals in the country. A string of national awards would follow. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
A
significant step to spur future innovations in patient care and
aid economic growth in Dallas was launched with the establishment of the BioCenter, a biotech park within the Southwestern Medical District. Occupying a 13-acre site the Medical Center had purchased from the City of Dallas, the BioCenter would begin to develop promising UT Southwestern technologies to the point of commercialization and provide a nurturing environment for both early-stage and mature biotech companies. The first building was scheduled to open in STATE FUNDING
summer 2009.
RESEARCH
THE QUALITY of UT Southwestern’s research did not escape notice in Austin. The Texas Legislature, through steadily growing appropriations, created recurring “special item” funding for: an Institute for Innovations in Medical Technologies ($9 million per year, approved in 2001); an Institute for Nobel/National Academy of Sciences Research ($7 million per year, approved in 2003); an Advanced Imaging Research Center ($7.5 million per year, approved in 2005); the Comprehensive Center for Research in Obesity and Diabetes ( $9 million per year, approved in 2007 ); and the Institute for Genetic and Molecular Disease Research ( $4 million per year, approved in 2009). Additionally, since 1999, the Legislature had authorized $138 million in special funding for the construction of new research and medical imaging buildings. But by late 2008, the reliability of future funding from the state began to look increasingly uncertain.
Dennis Stone, MD, Vice President for Technology Development, admires an architectural rendering of the BioCenter at Southwestern Medical District.
“We’re an untapped resource,” said Dennis Stone, MD, Vice President for Technology Development. “Ninety-five percent of biotechnology companies are founded on university-based inventions, so it makes eminent sense to have the development center in immediate proximity to the scientists who are creating new technologies.”
M
eanwhile, a global economic downturn was underway, later considered
by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It threatened the collapse of large financial institutions to the point that the federal government felt it had no choice but to bail out several big banks and other large companies. Stock markets dropped worldwide, and across the country the housing market suffered, resulting in record foreclosures and high unemployment. Across the Dallas medical community, the downturn affected the city’s
hospitals; hit especially hard was Parkland, Dallas County’s “safety-net” hospital. Increased unemployment meant a rise in the number of uninsured, leaving more people with no option other than to seek medical care at Parkland’s emergency facilities. The downturn stifled local investment in Dallas’ biotech industry as well. Not long after Dr. Podolsky took office, he issued a campus-wide memorandum:
“While the State of Texas continues to enjoy a stronger economy than many other states, it is increasingly clear that we will not be immune from the effects of the global economic downturn. “I want to assure you that UT Southwestern remains on a solid financial footing. However, recent market conditions undoubtedly will adversely impact the performance of our endowments and the Permanent University Fund, so prudence dictates that we act as especially careful stewards of the university’s resources at this time.” Dr. Podolsky and UT Southwestern leadership directed campus-wide efforts that reduced costs of materials and supplies through group purchasing agreements, negotiated more favorable utility rates, reduced energy consumption and consolidated leased space into university-owned facilities. 40
2008
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
IN JANUARY, an international research consortium announces the 1000 Genomes Project, an ambitious effort that will involve sequencing the genomes of at least 1,000 people from around the world to create the most detailed and medically useful picture to date of human genetic variation.
MILESTONE
IN APRIL, research organizations from
The School of Allied Health Professions in Dallas is renamed the UT Southwestern School of Health Professions. The name better addresses the school’s mission and joins a national trend moving away from the term “allied health.”
around the world announce they are launching the International Cancer Genome Consortium ( ICGC ), a collaboration designed to generate high-quality genomic data on up to 50 types of cancer through efforts projected to take up to a decade.
PHILANTHROPY
HEALTH PROFESSIONS
SIMMONS
In January, philanthropists Harold and Annette Simmons commit an additional $50 million to the Innovations in Medicine campaign, raising their total campaign contributions to a record-setting $125 million, pushing the overall campaign total over the $740 million mark ( ultimately reaching $772 million) – making it the most successful philanthropic fundraising effort in Dallas history. RECOGNITION
ANTIBIOTICS
IN MARCH, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awards UT Southwestern researchers a $6.5 million grant to develop a new antimicrobial compound to target bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Vanessa Sperandio, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology, is named as principal investigator. Though many antimicrobial drugs are available in the marketplace, new ones are needed to combat the increasing microbial resistance to antibiotics. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are two recent examples of diseases that are becoming increasingly difficult to treat.
LEADERSHIP
GIBSON
In May, Kathleen M. Gibson joins the Foundation Board of Trustees.
IN MAY, President Bush signs the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which is designed to protect Americans against discrimination based on their genetic information when it comes to health insurance and employment. The bill passes the Senate unanimously and the House by a vote of 414 to 1.
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C O N T.
ONE OF EVERY THREE Dallas - area physicians cited in the 2007-2008 Best Doctors in America listing is a member of the UT Southwestern faculty. Created by Best Doctors Inc., the list is the culmination of extensive polling of more than 40,000 of the most highly respected physicians in the U.S.
MILESTONE
BASS
PARKLAND
On November 4, Dallas County voters approve the construction of a new Parkland Hospital. SHARED VISION
LEADERSHIP
IN OCTOBER, buildings on the 24-acre Exchange Park site are renamed the Paul M. Bass Administrative and Clinical Center.
WILDENTHAL
Dr. Kern Wildenthal, looking back over the course of his 22 years as UT Southwestern President, says, “What’s most impressive, I think, is that the people who came and stayed were not only remarkably talented but amazingly unselfish. They bought into the idea that they were building an institution, and sometimes that meant the priorities needed to be something other than themselves or their departments. We were very fortunate to have such a dedicated, loyal and farsighted group of people.” RECOGNITION
TAMEST
THE ACADEMY of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST) recognizes Beth Levine, MD, UT Southwestern Professor of Internal Medicine and Microbiology, as one of the state’s rising stars in research. Dr. Levine receives the award for medicine.
RECOGNITION
IN SEPTEMBER, Dr. Wildenthal becomes President of Southwestern Medical Foundation, succeeding Plack Carr.
BEST HOSPITALS
UT Southwestern is named in U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals 2008 as one of only three hospitals in North Texas to achieve top rankings in one or more specialties. The America’s Best Hospitals guide identifies 170 out of more than 5,000 medical centers nationwide that excelled in one or more of 16 specialties.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
D
espite the uncertain financial climate, farsighted Dallas County voters approved a $747
million bond proposal to replace Parkland Memorial Hospital with a new, 862-bed hospital. The bond funding would pay more than half of the $1.3 billion facility. Hospital revenues and private donations would need to be raised to cover the remaining costs. “ We’re very excited and appreciate the overwhelming support of the Dallas County community,” said John Dragovits, Parkland COO.
C
linical research was actively translating advances in technology and
techniques to improve patient care. In one of many examples, UT Southwestern surgeons performed the first single-incision Lap-Band weight-loss surgery in Texas. Rather than the
In February 2004, the Board of the American Heart Association had set a goal to reduce coronary heart disease and stroke by 25 percent by 2010. That goal was reached in 2008, and continued reduction of deaths due to coronary heart disease was ongoing.
five small incisions used in a traditional laparoscopic gastric banding procedure, a single incision was made. The surgery was the result of the Southwestern Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery – established in 1998 – that created one of the most comprehensive clinical, research and teaching facilities in the Southwest. The Center’s $2 million training laboratory was one of the first seven facilities in the U.S. and Canada to garner accreditation from the American College of Surgeons. Another example was UT Southwestern’s heart and lung transplant program, acknowledged as one of the leading heart and lung transplant centers in the world. In April, the program marked its 20th anniversary, having performed 700 heart and 375 lung transplants with one of the best
RESEARCH SHOWED that about half of the gains in heart disease came from statins such as Lipitor, Mevacor and Crestor – gains that would not have been made without the work of UT Southwestern Drs. Joe Goldstein and Michael Brown. The other half was due to preventive efforts, including a greater awareness of healthier lifestyles. Revelations that emerged from the Center for Human Nutrition led by UT Southwestern’s Scott Grundy, MD, PhD, played a significant role, including being the first to prove the Mediterranean diet healthy, discovering that antioxidants help prevent atherosclerosis and defining the varieties of fatty foods that are harmful.
post-transplant survival rates in the country. “One thing that has been notable about our program is its consistency and the longevity of our faculty,” said Steves Ring, MD, Chair of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. The same year, the Division of Surgical Transplantation was created. Juan Arenas, MD, was recruited to head the division and named as Surgical Director of the Medical Center’s new liver transplant program. Dr. Arenas, in turn, helped recruit top surgeons from leading transplant programs around the nation. “With the new program, we are able to care for patients with advanced liver Juan Arenas, MD
disease with the knowledge that when the time comes for transplantation, we are fully able to provide the treatment,” said Willis Maddrey, MD, Vice President for
Clinical Affairs and an internationally renowned authority on digestive and liver diseases.
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linical research via clinical trials and patient studies was also expanding rapidly. In October, the Medical Center received a $15 million grant over five years to join the
National Children’s Study. This NIH-led effort was designed to follow 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, tracking information on health issues including asthma, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. “This is a wonderful and exciting opportunity to study in depth the genetic and environmental factors that influence and shape the health of our nation’s infants and children,” said George Lister, MD, Chair of Pediatrics. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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A RECOGNITION
fter three decades of education, clinical research and academic leadership at Harvard
PODOLSKY
IN OCTOBER, UT Southwestern President Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, was elected to the Institute of Medicine ( IOM ), now the National Academy of Medicine ( NAM ). MEMBERS HELP shape policies affecting public health and advise the federal government on issues involving medical care, research and education.
and its affiliated institutions, Dr. Podolsky had amassed a broad range of skills that he brought to UT Southwestern. But perhaps most valuable were his fresh eyes and determined vision to take the medical school to the next level. Dr. Podolsky met with department chairs, center directors and hundreds of employees across the vast spectrum of the Medical Center before outlining a clear set of strategic priorities for the future. Among them was a comprehensive clinical transformation with
the goal of delivering patient care at the highest levels of quality, safety and innovation, which would be enhanced by the medical school’s exemplary clinical and translational research. “We needed to further develop our clinical programs to be at the same level of excellence as our medical research and education,” Dr. Podolsky recalled. “Anyone providing care needed to demonstrate the quality of care. It was an ethical imperative.”
I
n April, it was announced that Al Gilman, MD, PhD, would leave his position as Dean
of the UT Southwestern School of Medicine, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, to join the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas ( CPRIT ) as its Chief Scientific Officer, beginning June 8, 2009. “I am leaving an institution that I love to take on a job that is my new calling and could not be more pleased,” Dr. Gilman said. “I have spent most of my career doing research. I will now bring these insights to further CPRIT’s innovative and groundbreaking mission and to be part of something bigger that will impact fellow Texans, as well as all of the world’s citizens.” In October, J. Gregory Fitz, MD, Chair of Internal Medicine, was named to fill the critical role of Dean vacated by Dr. Gilman.
O
n June 12, former Texas Gov. William P. Clements Jr. made
an unexpected and unprecedented $100 million gift to the Foundation. It marked the largest single donation to benefit UT Southwestern in the institution’s history. “In supporting UT Southwestern, my single goal is to help encourage and advance scientific discovery and innovation, prepare the next generation of physicians for Texas and the nation, and ensure the delivery of world-class medical care, which I believe uniquely happens at this academic medical center,
Bill Clements announcing his $100 million gift to Southwestern Medical Foundation. His lab coat reads: Director of Philanthropy.
already recognized as one of the top institutions in this country,” Clements said. “I got a call from Bill’s personal physician, Dr. Albert D. Roberts, who told me that Bill had mentioned to him he wanted to make a sizable donation – perhaps as much as $100 million. He suggested that I call him … and soon,” Foundation Chair Bill Solomon said with a smile. “I grew up knowing Bill,” Solomon added. “He was a family friend – a man I’d known most of my life and a man for whom I had tremendous respect. We talked on the phone, and he confirmed that he did indeed want to make the $100 million donation. 44
2009
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
LEADERSHIP
BETWEEN 1985 and 2009, more than 9 0 U.S. patents were issued with UT Southwestern investigators named as inventors.
MILESTONE
DIVERSITY
For the second year in a row, UT Southwestern is named the top medical school in the country for Hispanic students.
PARKLAND
In August, Parkland receives AAA bond ratings from both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s and issues $705 million in bonds, including $680 million in Build America Bonds to complete financing for the new $1.3 billion Parkland Memorial Hospital. RECOGNITION
DEDMAN FAMILY
For the first time, the Foundation’s Charles Cameron Sprague Community Service Award is given to a family instead of an individual or couple. The prestigious honor is awarded to the Dedman family for continuing a legacy of giving started by Nancy Dedman and her late husband, Robert H. Dedman Sr.
LEADERSHIP
ROSENBERG
Dr. Bao-Xi Qu and Dr. Roger Rosenberg
Roger Rosenberg, MD, Director of the Alzheimer’s Center, receives a U.S. patent as inventor of “Amyloid Beta Gene Vaccines.” Development of a DNA vaccine to prevent neurodegenerative diseases – Alzheimer’s disease in particular – had been the central focus of Dr. Rosenberg’s laboratory for the past 10 years. DURING 2009, UT Southwestern receives more than $42 million for basic and patientoriented research from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – part of a $787 billion stimulus package signed by President Obama.
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C O N T.
PUBLIC HEALTH
H1N1
Number of cumulative laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 cases reported to WHO as of July 6, 2009. 1-10 11-50 51-500 501 or more
Data source: World Health Organization
ONE OF THE KEY ROLES served by an academic medical center is to alert the public to the potential impact of infectious diseases, while investigating their causes and prevention. In 2009, the H1N1 influenza grabs headlines under the name “swine flu,” as it is one of the three forms of the influenza A virus passed from pigs to people and vice versa. Months after the first cases are reported, rates of confirmed H1N1-related illness accelerate in many areas of the world. It reaches a pinnacle on June 11, 2009, when the World Health Organization declares a Phase 6 status, its highest level of alert, The WHO feels the world is under a full-blown influenza pandemic – the first time in 41 years. In the ensuing panic, many Americans shun pork and countries ban imports of U.S. pork products, believing them to be dangerous. But the concerns prove unfounded, and information is delivered: eating meat does not spread influenza. Of scientific concern was that a slightly different form of H1N1 had been responsible for the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which killed somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. At that time in Dallas, 45 tents had to be added to the hospital grounds at St. Paul Hospital as the epidemic overwhelmed capacity. Physicians around the world were helpless because no effective drugs or vaccines existed to treat the flu strain or prevent its spread. What the two epidemics had in common, which was unusual, was that
PARTNERSHIP
many victims were younger, otherwise healthy adults. In 2009, the earliest known onset of H1N1 appears in California in late March. By April, it has made its way to Texas. Richard Scheuermann, MD, Professor of Pathology, leads a team that compares the genetic makeup of flu strains between 1988 and 2008 with the existing H1N1 strain. Major genetic differences are found. “H1N1 is very different from the normal seasonal flu, especially in parts of the virus normally recognized by our immune system,” Dr. Scheuermann notes. “Normally, older adults are more susceptible to pathogens like influenza; however, for the pandemic H1N1 strain this does not seem to be the case.” “We’re seeing very little disease in people who are 65 years and older with this particular virus,” confirms Jeffrey Kahn, MD, PhD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at UT Southwestern. However, vaccines and other treatments and preventive measures are able to bring the virus under control, and despite the initial grave concerns, the number of deaths in the United States attributed to H1N1 from April 2009 to April 2010 is estimated by the CDC between 9,000 and 18,000 – far below the 40,000 U.S. deaths attributed to seasonal flu in a typical year. The 2009 H1N1 virus is now effectively managed by vaccines and continues to circulate seasonally worldwide.
SETON FAMILY OF HOSPITALS
IN OCTOBER, the UT System Board of Regents and the Board of Trustees of the Seton Family of Hospitals approve the creation of a new partnership that significantly increases the number of residents practicing at Seton facilities and bolsters medical research projects conducted by the Seton Family of Hospitals, which allows for the expansion of collaborative research efforts with UT Southwestern and The University of Texas at Austin.
THE PARTNERSHIP would lead to the UT System Board of Regents approval ( in February 2011) to change the name of the Medical Center to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, dropping “at Dallas” to reflect the school’s expanding geographic footprint.
46
IN 2013, an international study examined 90,000 blood samples in 19 countries for the presence of antibodies produced when the 2009 H1N1 virus had infected the body. Results revealed that the pandemic had, in fact, infected closer to 24 percent of the world’s population and almost half of all schoolchildren. Researchers estimated the death toll was close to 280,000.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
“There were a few estate-planning issues that were handled in subsequent phone calls and meetings, but it was pretty much that simple. It was an amazing act of generosity. But that’s just the kind of man Bill Clements was,” Solomon recalled. The gift was unrestricted, but Clements gave the Foundation a voice in how the money should be used. His only stipulation was that it be used “for transformative purposes.” “To those who may have questioned the prospects for philanthropy in a time of economic uncertainty, Bill Clements has answered in a profound and extraordinarily selfless way,” Dr. Podolsky said.
I
n August, research to explain the suffering
experienced by hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans received an unexpected setback. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs abruptly
MILESTONE
ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS
IN 2004, President Bush set January 1, 2014, as the date “every American must have a personal electronic medical record ( EMR ).” The goal was to improve the quality of patient care while helping to rein in medical costs. The high upfront investment to make the EMR switch, combined with a small return on investment, meant many physicians were slow to act. In 2009, Congress allotted $27 billion to encourage EMR adoption, and the Department of Health and Human Services began allocating the funding in 2011. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 added the stipulation that all public and private health care providers must demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic medical records to maintain their existing Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement levels.
canceled its $75 million, five-year research contract studying Gulf War illness in its third year, despite the efforts of Sen. Hutchison and Rep. Chet Edwards to resolve the issues. The VA’s Office of Inspector General alleged “persistent noncompliance and numerous performance deficiencies.” “We strongly disagree with the VA’s characterization of the facts related to our Gulf War research contract,” said John Walls, Assistant Vice
UT SOUTHWESTERN had been an early adopter of technology designed to enhance the patient’s experience, having begun its EMR transformation as early as 2002, which continued to improve as a result of the Clinical Services Initiative led by John Rutherford, MD. In 2005, the Medical Center launched MyChart, allowing patients to access their health records and their physicians to more efficiently collaborate in their care.
President for Public Affairs, speaking on behalf of the Medical Center. Sen. Hutchison had harsh words. “UT Southwestern has worked to comply with all the VA’s contractual demands, but the VA bureaucracy apparently did not reciprocate in good faith.” “We are reeling,” Dr. Haley confirmed after learning the news through a press release. Officially, Gulf War illness remained listed as a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Being classed as a PTSD rather than a physical disability affects a veteran’s ability to collect benefits for his or her service-connected medical condition. Veterans groups were understandably upset.
p
LEADERSHIP
FITZ
Outside of the Medical Center, several critics wrote articles suggesting there was no scientific consensus on what caused the symptoms – or whether they even had a biological cause. Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Director of the King’s Centre for Military
Operation Desert Storm began January 17, 1991, and ended April 11, 1991. Gulf war illness affected some 200,000 veterans, many of them from Texas.
Health Research at King’s College London, sharply challenged Dr. Haley’s thesis, saying it was time to recognize DR. J. GREGORY FITZ, Chair of Internal Medicine, is named Dean of the UT Southwestern School of Medicine and Provost of the Medical Center. He also will serve as Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. The appointment culminates an extensive national search.
that “we’re not going to find the smoking gun that explains the cause of Gulf War illness.” Despite intense and growing criticism, the Medical Center continued to support Dr. Haley’s research, and the challenge of answering what had happened to these men and women – and why – pushed forward. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
A
fter the purchase of St. Paul University Hospital in 2004, it was generally acknowledged
among Medical Center leadership that the aging hospital would need to be renovated. THE BUSINESS of health care and providing proper care for Americans was in constant flux. Across the country, millions of people could not qualify for Medicaid. Many experts viewed Medicare as unsustainable. A significant and growing number of people did not have or did not choose access to medical coverage from either public or employer sources. Costs for employment-based medical plans continued to rise, leading many to believe that the employer-based system of insurance must be significantly modified.
“There was no official plan, but the idea under consideration was that there might be some phased reconstruction of St. Paul,” Dr. Podolsky recalled. “Once I felt we were sufficiently focused on quality care and had the systems in place to achieve that goal, it was time to understand what the options were.” No sound economic case could be made for a traditional renovation. The 45-year-old building did not have the capacity to support new technology critical to quality clinical care, and overall patient care capacity was constrained. “We looked at a phased approach – perhaps tearing down half, expanding and rebuilding, and then doing the other half – but that was very
costly; there were inherent tradeoffs and, ultimately, everyone there – patients included – would be in a construction zone for five years,” Dr. Podolsky said. A closer examination of the West Campus determined there was a sufficient area of land that could be cleared. “It meant we could build the building we really wanted. It was less expensive, and we wouldn’t be forced into compromises,” Dr. Podolsky said. That such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity existed owed much to the vision and leadership of the past. Had pediatrician Dr. Robert Kramer not engaged Bruce Lipshy over dinner about the need for a new referral hospital; had Lipshy not in turn inspired Don Zale, and the two of them not committed their financial support; had Drs. Wildenthal and Neaves not rallied support for the new Zale Lipshy University Hospital; and had the local community not bought the bonds to complete its construction and formed the remarkably capable UMC board, led by Zale and Paul Bass, to oversee hospital operations – there would have been no such opportunity. Had Dr. Willis Maddrey not encouraged and supported Zale Lipshy’s faculty participation to make the hospital a clinical
LEADERSHIP
MADDREY
success; had Dr. McConnell not had the operational know-how to turn St. Paul into a profitable referral hospital; and had the UT System not changed its policy to permit the Medical Center to own and operate its own hospital, the opportunity would not have been realized.
IN NOVEMBER, Willis C. Maddrey, MD, Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs and an internationally renowned expert in hepatology, delivered the first Patricia and
William L. Watson Jr, MD, lecture titled “The Effective Clinician.” His talk included observations about the principles of medical care, a profession that “must forever be strengthening and re-creating its foundation.... The importance of effective communication between physician and patient cannot be overemphasized,” he added. “We as a profession must hone our communication skills. What the scalpel is to the surgeon, words are to the clinician.”
Had these things not transpired with the Dallas community’s support, even the most vivid dreams of a new hospital could have faded with the morning light. But that remarkable chain of events did happen. And in November, a proposal to authorize planning for a new University Hospital was presented to – and approved by – the UT System Board of Regents. Dr. Podolsky was now in the position to issue a rare and inspiring challenge: to rethink every aspect of what a world-class hospital should – and could – be. 48
2009
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
‘‘The value of health and happiness to an individual who is afflicted cannot be estimated... the value to a community of a higher standard of public health is incalculable.’’ Dr. Edward Henry Cary
UT SOUTHWESTERN FACULTY elected to the National Academy of Sciences from 2000 through 2009
2000
2002
2003
2003
2004
Eric N. Olson, PhD
Thomas C. Südhof, MD, PhD
Joseph S. Takahashi, PhD
Masashi Yanagisawa, MD, PhD
2006
2006
2007
2008
2008
Melanie H. Cobb, PhD
David W. Russell, PhD
Helen Hobbs, MD
Bruce Beutler, MD
David J. Mangelsdorf, PhD
Xiaodong Wang, PhD
2009 vs. 2015 Total Students
Full-Time Faculty
Annual Budget
Total Sq. Ft.
Nobel Laureates
NAS* Members
3,596 **
2,317
$2.2B
7.7 M
6
22
3,771
2,104
$1.5 B
7.6 M
4
18
2009 numbers are shown relative to 2015. * National Academy of Sciences ** While enrollment in the Medical School and School of Health Professions has increased by approximately 7% in this time period, the overall number of students has decreased primarily as a result of planned decreases in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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AN INITIAL COMPUTER rendering from 2010 of the new University Hospital.
SHARED VISION
BRAUNWALD
“With the addition of a University Hospital, I believe that The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas’ Southwestern Medical School will most assuredly become one of the two or three finest, perhaps the finest, medical school in the nation and thereby become an important resource not only for Dallas and the state of Texas, but for the country as a whole.” Eugene Braunwald, MD, Former Chairman, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
DR. BRAUNWALD spoke these words in the late 1970s, convinced of UT Southwestern’s exemplary research and medical education, believing that a world-class hospital would propel the medical school to the highest level.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
LEADING WITH
QUALITY 2010
A
TO
2015
s the Medical Center entered 2010, Dr. Edward Cary’s vision – a determined
focus on quality, of setting and enforcing and maintaining rigorous standards for medical excellence – burned bright. “Dallas probably doesn’t need another hospital,” said Bruce Meyer, MD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs. “What Dallas needs is a better hospital – a hospital that thinks about what kinds of things we’re going to need 20 years from now as opposed to how can we do the things we did 20 years ago better.” It would be the leading patient, teaching and research hospital in the world when it was completed – a determination that ensured an immersive and collaborative design process, co- chaired by John Warner, MD, then-Assistant Daniel K. Podolsky, MD
Vice President for Hospital Planning, and Sharon Riley, Vice President and CEO of UT Southwestern University Hospitals.
Dr. Podolsky commissioned a dozen planning groups comprising physicians, nurses, hospital staff, trainees and community members. Groups were not asked to react to a settled plan but invited to share their best ideas within a specific area: from clinical care to critical care, patient experience to information resources. The invitation generated tremendous participation and enthusiasm and resulted in a design phase – from inception to approval of construction documents – that took only nine months. “It was amazing not just for myself but for the hundreds and hundreds of people who had the chance to really give serious input into how we could make this a better experience for patients, a better place to provide care, a place that supports our other missions of training and education and research,” Dr. Podolsky said. John Castorina, the project’s lead architect, said that he saw more client involvement in the planning, design and layout of a building than he had seen in his 30 years in the profession. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
INNOVATIVE THINKING
COMMUNITY
PATIENT INPUT:
■
HUNDREDS OF Medical Center physicians,
Many patients asked for high-end digital connectivity, typically lacking in most hospitals. This led to secure videoconferencing with family or a hometown physician via an interactive flat screen installed in each patient’s room – a large screen that J. Gregory Fitz, MD, said could be used “ to look at diagnostic images or laboratory tests, or to say goodnight to your son a continent away.”
nurses, staff and community leaders played a role in the planning and development of what would be the new 12-floor, 460-bed hospital. Shared ideas led to dozens of innovations, such as adding space to support clinical education on every patient floor and the installation of high-tech laundry chutes – a tube-based system that whisks away trash and linen out of the hospital at 60 miles per hour, eliminating the need to transport used material through patient hallways. But Medical Center leadership didn’t stop there. “We received remarkable engagement from patients and their families who provided some really important insights that we would have missed,” Dr. Podolsky said.
D
■
Leaving a hospital through the main entrance, at a time when most people don’t feel or look their best, was less than ideal. A separate exit with designated parking and a path to avoid public spaces was designed.
■
Family members wanted more comfortable furniture in patient rooms. A full set of options was placed in existing hospitals, and families voted for their favorites.
espite the hospital’s $800 million cost, no state or other public funds would be used.
Bonds issued under the Build America Bond program would raise $400 million. Physicians at UT Southwestern committed $200 million of their clinical earnings to the construction – a clear reflection of their belief in – and commitment to – the mission of this new facility. For the remaining $200 million, the Building the Future of Medicine campaign was launched, led by Bill Solomon, Foundation Chairman. BILL SOLOMON
LEADERSHIP
BUILDING THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE BOARD
assembled the Building the Future of Medicine Steering Committee.
C H A I R M A N
William T. Solomon S T E E R I N G
Rita C. Clements Mary McDermott Cook Harlan R. Crow Robert H. Dedman Jr. Ron W. Haddock
C O M M I T T E E
S. Roger Horchow Laurence H. Lebowitz Lydia H. Novakov Caren H. Prothro Carolyn P. Rathjen
Robert D. Rogers Deedie Potter Rose Ronald G. Steinhart Donald Zale
“The more exposure you have to UT Southwestern, the more engaged you become in its mission,” Solomon explained. He and his wife, Gay, took their commitment a step further by donating $1 million – one of the campaign’s earliest gifts.
O
f the many changes affecting America’s health care, perhaps the most significant
occurred on March 23, 2010, when President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it represented the most profound regulatory overhaul of the U.S. health care system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The ACA introduced mandates, subsidies and insurance exchanges, with the goal of significantly expanding the number of people with health insurance protection. It required insurance companies to cover applicants within new minimum standards and offer the same rates regardless of preexisting conditions or gender. 52
2010
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
UT SOUTHWESTERN
BIOTECH
UT Southwestern-based biotech company Reata Pharmaceuticals enters into a contract with Abbott Laboratories potentially valued at more than $800 million. DISCOVERY
SWMF
ROWLING
In May, Robert B. Rowling joins Southwestern Medical Foundation as a Trustee.
MALARIA
PART OF A MULTICENTER STUDY, UT Southwestern researchers identify a series of chemical compounds that exhibit the potential to help uncover new classes of anti-malarial drugs. “Malaria remains one of the most globally significant infectious diseases that we face,” says Margaret Phillips, MD, Professor of Pharmacology, one of the senior authors of the study.
RECOGNITION
CANCER DISTINCTION
On August 4, 2010, UT Southwestern announces that the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center has attained National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation, an elite distinction held by only the top-tier cancer centers nationwide. UT Southwestern is the first in North Texas and one of only 66 in the nation to earn the designation. RECOGNITION
ST. PAUL
The Joint Commission certifies St. Paul University Hospital as a Primary Stroke Center, a distinction for hospitals fostering specialized stroke care for patients. MILESTONE
PARKLAND HOSPITAL
On October 28, construction on the new Parkland hospital campus begins.
IN MEMORIAM
BASS
ON MARCH 9, Paul M. Bass dies at the age of 74. “Paul’s personal friendships resulted in major gifts to Southwestern Medical Foundation and UT Southwestern,” says Foundation Chairman Bill Solomon. “His extraordinary vision led him to begin cultivating the next generation of philanthropic leaders, who will continue following the path he charted.”
S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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2010
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH
LEVINE
First rescuer, Manuel González, preparing to enter the capsule for the 2,000 ft. descent to the trapped miners at San José Mine in Copiapo, Chile.
On August 5, 2010, a cave-in traps 33 miners nearly half a mile underground in the San José Mine in Chile. During their 69 days of confinement, the miners’ determination to survive captivates and inspires the world. The successful outcome had its roots at UT Southwestern, when in 1990, Benjamin Levine, MD, joined the faculty and two years later became the founding Director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM). For more than a decade, his innovative, NASA-funded research studied the effects of long-duration space flight on the cardiovascular system. As a result of this research and his expertise in understanding the effects of aging and exercise on the heart and blood vessels, he and two NASA flightsurgeon colleagues develop the protocols to safely extract the miners, deploying the discoveries originally designed for use miles above the Earth to instead rescue the men 2,000 feet beneath its surface. “Prolonged confinement in a small space brings similar concerns, whether someone is in space or underground,” Dr. Levine says. “After such confinement, individuals can experience fainting and a potentially devastating loss of blood to the brain.” It is determined that the rescue capsule needs to be wide enough for the miners to cross their legs and squeeze their thighs and buttocks together to push blood back up to their hearts. The men wear compression stockings and are trained to cough if they feel lightheaded in order to force blood to the brain. “If they had fainted, they would have died,” Dr. Levine says. With the entire world watching, all 33 men make it out safely. “I’m so overcome with emotion now, as if I’ve been touched by God,” says Alfonso Ávalos, shortly after his son, Florencio Ávalos, 31, becomes the first miner to emerge from below. “My boy is finally safe. My boy is finally safe.” A profound moment for translational research.
54
TRANSLATIONAL research is the practice of applying findings from basic science to enhance human health and well-being.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT RECOGNITION
LEVINE
BENJAMIN LEVINE, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine, has conducted groundbreaking research on heart disease, circulation and cardiovascular adaption during exercise. His work has been a major factor in defining the beneficial effects of aging on the heart and the mechanisms of the protective effects of exercise.
W
Dr. Levine co-authored a study for the U.S. Olympic Committee that led to the “Live High, Train Low” program, which has reshaped athletic training standards around the world. The study showed that living at a high altitude and training at sea level provides a 1 to 2 percent improvement in the performance of elite athletes, which can be the difference between not making the finals and winning a gold medal. He is also founder and Director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM ) – a joint 1992 program between UT Southwestern and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. The IEEM focuses on a branch of science called integrative physiology, which studies how the complex parts of the human body are interwoven to create a functional whole.
“Medicine is at a crossroads, where helping to improve or maintain the quality of life – the ability to function optimally despite aging or disease – is as important as prolonging life. Science too is at a crossroads, where the advances at the basic level must be applied to living systems to allow the full promise of this exciting technology to flourish,” Dr. Levine wrote. Levine has served as a co-investigator on four Spacelab missions and the MIR space station and as principal investigator of the Integrated Cardiovascular ( ICV ) experiment, which measured an astronaut’s blood pressure and heart rhythm during long stays in space. His work garnered the “Most Compelling Results from the 2013 International Space Station” award by NASA.
ith plans for the new hospital complete, options for the evolution of Zale Lipshy were
discussed. “We brought together a group of our clinical leaders,” Dr. Podolsky recalled, “and quickly coalesced around the power of it becoming a specialty hospital dedicated to clinical neurosciences.” He added, “I think we’re on the cusp of a huge growing need … from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s to traumatic brain injury to … Parkinson’s and psychiatric disease.” Augmenting strength considerably in neuroscience, the Medical Center recruited Mark Goldberg, MD, as Chair of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics. Carol Tamminga, MD, who joined the faculty in 2003, became Chair of Psychiatry, and Neil M. Rofsky, MD, was named Chair of Radiology.
F
or decades, Parkland had been a shining star in public
Mark Goldberg, MD
Carol Tamminga, MD
Neil M. Rofsky, MD
health care – acknowledged for excellence not only across the country but around the world. Also for decades, Parkland championed care for Medicaid patients and the large number of uninsured in Dallas County. But “after a careful review of the July 21, 2011 survey report” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) threatened to exclude the hospital from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, putting $450 million a year in reimbursements at risk. CMS officials, recognizing that a federal funding shutoff would have “a devastating impact” on the residents of Dallas County, allowed that Parkland could avert the cut through a “systems improvement agreement,” a path forward that allowed the hospital to accept CMS-approved consultants to oversee improvements.
I
n September, Dr. Haley announced that MRIs specifically designed to measure blood flow
in the brain detected marked abnormalities in veterans with Gulf War syndrome. “This was really one of the first techniques to show an objective picture of whether there’s really brain damage or not,” Dr. Haley said. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
There was no denying that Gulf War syndrome – characterized by memory loss, lack of concentration, neuropathic pain and depression – was a physiological illness and not merely a psychological one. It was clear that abnormalities found in the brains of veterans with Gulf War illness had continued to persist 20 years after the war and in some cases had worsened. RECOGNITION
WORLD RANKING
THE PRESTIGIOUS Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for 2011 were as follows: CLINICAL MEDICINE AND PHARMACY
1) Harvard 2) UC – San Francisco 3 ) University of Washington 4) Johns Hopkins 5 ) Columbia 6 ) UT Southwestern 7 ) UCLA 8 ) University of Cambridge, England 9 ) Karolinska Institute, Sweden 10 ) University College Hospital, England
A
t the same time, a few of the city’s philanthropists, driven by an internal
vision and passion to push the envelope of medical discovery, also took an independent path. Lyda Hill, a longtime supporter of Southwestern Medical Foundation and UT Southwestern, leveraged her interest in science and medicine to launch Remeditex Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on expediting development of promising biomedical products and therapies. She hired Dennis Stone, MD, then the Medical Center’s Vice President of Technology Development, as Chief Science Officer.
LIFE AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
1) Harvard 2) MIT 3 ) UC – San Francisco 4) University of Cambridge, England 5 ) University of Washington 6 ) Stanford 7 ) UT Southwestern 8 ) Yale 9 ) Cornell 10 ) Columbia
A healthy brain (left) shows response to pain from heat on the forearm. Different regions (right) respond to that heat in veterans with what Dr. Haley had identified as Gulf War syndrome two.
“There’s a big gap in getting work out of the lab and into a format that venture capitalists can invest in, so I created Remeditex as a means of filling that void,” Hill said. “The reason for the gap is that the failure rate is so high, so most philanthropists simply won’t take that level of risk, and traditional grants often run out before the research is commercially viable. “I want Texas to be a hotbed of venture capital investments, and I want people to know that – if they want to invest in life science – this is where they need to be.”
IN MEMORIAM
CLEMENTS
ON MAY 29, Gov. William P. “Bill” Clements Jr., legendary supporter of Southwestern Medical Foundation and UT Southwestern and a champion of Texas education, died at the age of 94. He was an Honorary Trustee of Southwestern Medical Foundation. Clements’ philanthropic support of the Medical Center began in 1998, when he and his wife, Rita, donated $1.25 million to create
56
the Rita C. and William P. Clements Jr. Scholar in Medical Research program. In 2006, Clements donated $10 million to complete a UT Southwestern clinical and medical research facility known as the Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building. In 2009, he made an unprecedented $100 million gift to the medical school, which marked the largest single donation in the institution’s history. Clements had a distinguished career, which included serving as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1977 under Presidents Nixon and Ford. He made history in 1979 by becoming Texas’ first Republican governor since Reconstruction, serving two terms from 1979 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1991. “During his second term as governor, Texas faced a severe economic recession and a funding crisis in education. Bill Clements stood firm in his commitment both to fiscal prudence and to educational excellence. Education in
Texas will forever be in his debt for the tough decisions he made two decades ago,” Dr. Wildenthal said. From his early years and throughout his life Clements demonstrated leadership ability, intelligence, resilience, and energy. Going to work in the South Texas oilfields straight out of high school demonstrated his willingness to help his family through difficult financial times and developed his penchant for hard work. Clements achieved success as an oil drilling contractor before going into politics. He founded Southeastern Drilling Company ( SEDCO ) in 1947, which grew to become the world’s largest oil and gas drilling contracting company, merging with Schlumberger Limited in 1984. “ [ Clements ] was a pioneering entrepreneur, visionary governor and dynamic leader. But we at the Medical Center knew him best as a philanthropist of uncommon generosity and foresight – and UT Southwestern will build on that legacy for many decades to come,” Dr. Podolsky said.
2011
PHILANTHROPY
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
MCDERMOTT
Margaret McDermott makes a $10 million lead gift to the Building the Future of Medicine campaign to help launch construction of the new University Hospital. “Margaret McDermott’s spectacular gift for the new hospital served as an inspiration to others and allowed us to achieve – and even exceed – our philanthropic goals for this transformative initiative,” Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky said.
MILESTONE
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
In March, ground is broken on the Medical Center’s new University Hospital. LEADERSHIP
BILL SOLOMON, who assembled the Building the Future of Medicine Steering Committee, continues to lead fundraising efforts that would extend through December 2014. The campaign goal was $200 million.
MORRISON
IN 2011, SEAN MORRISON, PHD, an internationally recognized stem cell expert and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator on the UT Southwestern faculty, becomes the founding Director of the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute. Dr. Morrison, who holds the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research as well as the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at UT Southwestern, was among the
RECOGNITION
first established investigators to be recruited to Texas with grant funding from CPRIT. “There aren’t very many opportunities in academia to create a new institute from scratch,” Dr. Morrison says. “But here I had an opportunity to create a culture that would be optimized for discovery and innovation.” To aid in his recruitment, Children’s Medical Center made a $150 million commitment ( $10 million per year for 15 years). In 2012, the Hamon Charitable Foundation would donate $10 million to help endow the new Institute. In recognition of the Hamon gift, Dr. Morrison’s laboratory is named the Hamon Laboratory for Stem Cell and Cancer Biology. In 2014, the Hamon Charitable Foundation would add another $15 million to support the Center. “One of the challenges [of research] is to have sustained resources that make it possible for scientists to take risks to solve difficult problems,” Dr. Morrison says. “The philanthropic support of the Dallas community is what makes it possible for us to do that.”
PATIENT SATISFACTION
UT Southwestern becomes the nation’s only academic medical center to win two patient satisfaction awards from Press Ganey, a national consulting firm specializing in health care performance.
OWING MUCH to the remarkable foresight of the Clinical Services Initiative, UT Southwestern is named to the “Most Wired” list by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.
S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
5
NO.
“ my congratulations to Bruce for a magnificent achievement – not winning the Nobel Prize, but making a discovery that will have an enormous impact on our understanding of biology and medicine.”
Michael S. Brown, MD, Nobel Laureate
“ i think there are two things that are a great credit to UT Southwestern. One is the quality of research that has gone on and continues to go on here and, secondly, that Dr. Beutler has come back to UT Southwestern for this next stage of his career.”
William T. Solomon
“ his discoveries will surely lead to improved medicines for all people. It is especially notable that Bruce said about the work for which he was honored, ‘I don’t think I could have done it anywhere else,’ which speaks volumes about UT Southwestern as a whole.”
58
Peter O’Donnell
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
“BLEARY-EYED, I LOOKED at my cellphone to see if there was any email. There was a message – just one: The subject line seemed to be ‘Nobel Prize,’” recalled Bruce Beutler, MD, Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense. He opened the email and read the first lines of a message from Göran Hansson.
Dear Dr Beutler, I have good news for you. The Nobel Assembly has today decided to award you the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2011. You will share the Prize with Drs Jules Hoffmann and Ralph Steinman. Congratulations! The award was divided by the jury, with one half going jointly to Dr. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann, PhD, “for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity” and the other half to Ralph M. Steinman, MD, “for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.” UT Southwestern could now lay claim to its fifth Nobel Laureate. Scientists had long been searching for the gatekeepers of the immune response by which man and other animals defend themselves against attack by bacteria and other microorganisms. Drs. Beutler and Hoffmann discovered receptor proteins that can recognize such microorganisms and activate innate immunity, the
Bruce Beutler, MD, receiving the Nobel Prize in Stockholm.
first step in the body’s immune response. Dr. Beutler’s Nobel Prize-winning research took place primarily between 1984 and 1998 – with all but two years spent at UT Southwestern. His series of discoveries revealed how cells detect infection and how the innate immune system is activated in response to infection. His work triggered an explosion of research in innate immunity, opening up new avenues for the development of prevention and therapy against infections, cancer and inflammatory diseases. In 2000, Dr. Beutler left UT Southwestern to join The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where his father served on the faculty. In September 2011, he announced his return to UT Southwestern. “It’s important that we understand exactly how immunity operates, and there were some profound mysteries about immunity that persisted until just very recently,” Dr. Beutler said. “With the new Center for the Genetics of Host Defense, I’m looking forward to continuing the work that we started so many years ago at UT Southwestern.” THE UT SOUTHWESTERN community held a mid-December celebration of Dr. Beutler’s triumphant return to the medical school. “We welcome Bruce back not for the work he has done in the past, as proud as we are of that, but for the work we know he’s going to do in the future,” Dr. Podolsky said. During the welcome-home event, the medical school’s Laureates received T-shirts adorned with five Nobel-like emblems in which the face of Alfred Nobel was replaced by UT Southwestern’s prizewinners. “Just a week ago when last I saw Bruce, he was resplendent in tuxedo, tails, white tie, patent leather shoes … and he was in the company of the king and queen in a grand hall. He returns here to Texas and we give him a T-shirt,” Dr. J. Gregory Fitz joked.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
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n April 12, 2012, the new University Hospital, now scheduled to open in late 2014, was
named in honor of Gov. William P. Clements Jr. in recognition of his remarkable generosity. “Our family is pleased that my father’s name will be associated with UT Southwestern in a hospital that will foster the spirit of discovery and the pursuit of excellence that he embodied throughout his life,” said Nancy Seay, Clements’ daughter. “We were deeply honored by his confidence and are now pleased and proud to LEADERSHIP
name our new hospital in commemoration of a true Texas giant, certain that
GILMAN
it will have the transformational effect he envisioned,” Dr. Podolsky said. IN APRIL 2012, Al Gilman, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas ( CPRIT), informed Executive Director William Gimson of his plans to resign, effective Oct. 12. Dr. Gilman explained that he felt CPRIT was well established and no longer needed him as a full-time science officer. He also expressed concerns about the agency’s peer-review system. In his resignation letter, Dr. Gilman wrote that keeping the peer-review system intact “...will be critically dependent on the attitudes of CPRIT leadership,” especially CPRIT’s oversight committee. Gimson praised Dr. Gilman’s years of service and his critical role in shaping CPRIT’s structure and policies. “Under Al’s leadership, CPRIT recruited the best review committees in the world while implementing a conflict-free system that is the cornerstone of our cancer research grant award process.”
In addition to Clements’ gift, the Building the Future of Medicine campaign had by now received donations totaling $73 million.
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n the summer of 2012, Dallas County became the epicenter of one of
the most severe West Nile virus outbreaks in history. It resulted in 400 laboratory-documented cases including 20 deaths. At its peak, 60 cases of the mosquito-borne disease were occurring per week. The epidemic mobilized UT Southwestern physicians and local public health officials across the city. John Carlo, MD, Chair of the Dallas County Medical Society’s Community Emergency Response Committee (CERC), first learned of the seriousness of the situation from a team of infectious disease specialists led by UT Southwestern’s James Luby, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine. “Dr. Luby’s group indicated this was a substantial outbreak,” Dr. Carlo said. Earlier in his career, Dr. Luby had studied a related disease, St. Louis
encephalitis, while working at the CDC. When he returned to UT Southwestern, he maintained a strong research interest in the disease and worked with the Dallas County Health Department to maintain surveillance every summer. The virus first arrived in Dallas in 2002, and in 2006 a moderate outbreak was reported. In 2012, Dr. Luby recognized early on that the virus was on an unusually severe trajectory. “As soon as the number of cases began to skyrocket, Luby immediately called the alarm,” Dr. Haley said. Dr. Luby assembled the medical community, which culminated in a formal recommendation to Dallas County officials to use aerial spraying. The decision was controversial but necessary because there were not enough resources available to do conventional ground spraying; the decision was better understood when opponents realized the spraying had to be done only twice in a 50-year period.
A sign at Monticello and Greenville avenues in Dallas announces scheduled ground-level mosquito spraying.
Aerial spraying proved effective and brought the epidemic to a halt, saving lives. Dr. Luby would later receive the 2013 Charles Max Cole, MD, Leadership Award from the Dallas County Medical Society for his life-saving contributions. “Dr. Luby exemplified quiet courage in his leadership through the West Nile outbreak,” said Wendy Chung, MD, Dallas County Health & Human Services Chief Epidemiologist. 60
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
LEADERSHIP
GIBSON
IN MARCH, Kathleen M. Gibson joins Southwestern Medical Foundation and in October is named President and CEO. Prior to being named President, Gibson had served on the Foundation Board, on the Investment Committee and as Executive Vice President.
IN FEBRUARY, philanthropist Margaret McDermott celebrates her 100th birthday. “The word ‘legendary’ is often overused, but, in the case of Margaret McDermott, there is no doubt that her contributions to the Medical Center and our Foundation ... have been truly legendary in their scope and in their lasting impact,” says Dr. Wildenthal, Foundation President.
RECOGNITION
HOSPITALS
TWELVE UT SOUTHWESTERN clinical programs earn national recognition from U.S. News & World Report, becoming one of 148 medical centers nationwide – out of nearly 4,800 hospitals across the country – earning a national ranking in one or more specialties.
IN JUNE, UT Southwestern confers its 10,000 th medical degree.
GULF WAR ILLNESS BREAKTHROUGH
HALEY
A SCIENTIFIC PAPER published in Neuroepidemiology by Robert Haley, MD, and Jim Tuite, a Gulf War illness expert, presents evidence from two weather satellites showing that nerve agents released by the bombing of Iraqi chemical weapons depots just before the ground war began carried downwind and fell on American troops staged in Saudi Arabia.
RECOGNITION
IT DEVELOPMENT
For the second year in a row, UT Southwestern is named to the “Most Wired” list by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.
The authors assembled meteorological data and intelligence reports to show that sarin gas from depots in Muthanna and Fallujah was taken by high-level winds to the Saudi border, where “large numbers of U.S. and Coalition military personnel were exposed … high enough to cause irreversible or other serious, long-lasting adverse health effects.”
ESPECIALLY SIGNIFICANT given that IT and IT departments are taking on a greater strategic role in hospitals and health systems.
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C O N T.
ON JUNE 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds
ENCODE PROJECT researchers link more than 80 percent of the human genome sequence to a specific biological function and map more than 4 million regulatory regions where proteins specifically interact with the DNA – a significant advance in understanding the complex controls over the expression of genetic information within a cell.
INSPIRATION
the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act ( ACA ) individual mandate as an exercise of Congress’s taxing power. The Court also holds that states cannot be forced to participate in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion under penalty of losing their current Medicaid funding.
RECOGNITION
WORLD RANKING
THE CENTER for World University Rankings, which measures the quality of education and training of students in conjunction with the prestige of faculty members and the quality of their research, ranks UT Southwestern No. 29 among the world’s top 100 universities.
GILMAN
In October, Al Gilman, MD, PhD, donates his Nobel Prize medal to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, saying it gave him enormous pleasure to think that it might inspire a new generation of scientists. He joked that the donation answered the question of where to store the medal. “The museum or a closet: That was a really, really easy choice,” he says. OUTREACH
FORT WORTH
In November, the new, $22 million, 60,000-square-foot Moncrief Cancer Institute in Fort Worth is dedicated, offering genetic and nutritional counseling, mammography, telemedicine and support services for cancer prevention and post-cancer treatment, in addition to some clinicial services.
LEADERSHIP
ROSEN
Michael Rosen, PhD, Professor of Biophysics and Biochemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is named the first Chair of the new Department of Biophysics.
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THE INSTITUTE is a nonprofit cancer prevention and support center and has been an affiliate of UT Southwestern Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center since 19 9 9 .
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
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dding to its expertise in neurosurgery, the Medical Center recruited world-renowned
cerebrovascular surgeon Hunt Batjer, MD, as Chair of Neurological Surgery from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Batjer, an internationally recognized authority on cerebrovascular disease and brain injury, had a long history with UT Southwestern, where he graduated from medical school and did his neurosurgical residency. He trained under the Department of Neurosurgery’s first chair, Kemp Clark, MD, and its second chair, Duke Samson, MD. After a fellowship at the University of Western Ontario, he joined the faculty in 1983 and later performed the first neurosurgical operation at the new Zale Lipshy Hospital.
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Hunt Batjer, MD Chair of Neurological Surgery
UT Southwestern study published online in JAMA Neurology offered further proof
that Gulf War illness stemmed from damage to the body’s autonomic nervous system, which controls heart rate, perspiration, digestion, sleep and other involuntary bodily processes. “This really locates the basis for most of the symptoms and the reason the sick veterans have a hard time describing it – because it’s part of the nervous system that you’re not normally aware of,” Dr. Haley said. “The control system for most bodily functions that you are not aware of is malfunctioning.”
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key priority set by Dr. Podolsky shortly after he arrived was to ensure that the Medical
Center had the curricula and teaching methods to best prepare medical students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing health care and technological environment. In 1913, Sir William Osler, one of the founding professors at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said of medical training and education:
“We have outrun an educational system framed in simpler days and for simpler conditions. The pressure comes hard enough upon the teacher but far harder upon the taught, who suffer in a hundred different ways.” Without meaning to slight the suffering of medical students 100 years ago, the sheer weight of medical knowledge – driven by the acceleration of basic research, clinical trials, advances in medical equipment and technique, and instantaneous access to hundreds of medical databases around the world – was expanding at a phenomenal rate. “While we’re working to ensure that students are very well grounded in the facts of medicine and the experience of clinical care, we also want them to think critically.... That means they must ask hard questions, respectfully challenge the status quo, and think critically about a vast array of issues,” said Dr. J. Gregory Fitz, Dean and Provost of the UT Southwestern School of Medicine, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.
“The body of medical knowledge is doubling every 18 to 24 months,” Dr. Podolsky confirmed. “To put it another way, as our students enter their traditional fouryear period of undergraduate medical education, the amount of knowledge out there will have grown fourfold by the time they graduate.”
“We were driven by a sense of obligation to do our best for students, so they’re well prepared for the rapidly changing world of medicine,” Dr. Fitz said. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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eginning in June 2013, under Dr. Fitz’s direction, the work of overhauling the medical
school curriculum began in earnest, led by Drs. James Stull and Dennis Burns. “We went up to 30,000 feet and took a global view of what the curriculum looked like,” said Dr. Stull, Chair of Physiology. “We visited other schools, read the reports and said, ‘Now, with what we know, what would be an ideal curriculum
“We strive to create the best clinicians and physician-scientists in the nation, professionals whose knowledge, compassion, and leadership will serve as examples of excellence both to peers and patients alike.” JAMES STULL, PHD
for UT Southwestern?’ That had never really been done before. This was the first time in 70 years.” Armed with new insight and fresh ideas, a small team began work on creating the optimal format for medical education in the 21st century, later named the Foundation for Excellence Curriculum. “What a medical student has to learn now is, number one, how to be a student for
Drs. James Stull ( left) and Dennis Burns led the Strategic Planning Committee that developed a curriculum for 21stcentury medical students.
life,” Dr. Fitz said. “Number two, they need to embrace the concept of health care teams because the best outcomes usually require an integrated team approach. But the third thing is they still must recognize with some humility that this isn’t fully a science yet. Every day they outstrip what is known
and enter the realm of what is not known. The human element of medicine is just as important now as it ever has been and without that … it’s not care.”
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n July 2013, Dr. Haley performed an epidemiological analysis of 10 years’ worth of West
Nile data, including the 2006 and 2012 epidemics. His analysis found – for the first time – that epidemics begin early after unusually warm winters but, importantly, they can be predicted using an index based on the average number of West Nile virus-infected mosquitoes collected by the Health Department and tested for the virus. The result was Dr. Haley’s Mosquito Vector Index rating system, created in close collaboration with Dallas County Health and Human Services researchers. In 2012, West Nile virus surged in Dallas County, as well as Collin, Denton and Tarrant Counties, resulting in as many as 50 deaths. It was found the epidemics begin early after unusually warm winters and are strongly predicted by the Mosquito Vector Index.
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“When the vector index goes above 0.5 in June or July, large numbers of people are about to be silently infected, and this is the best time to intervene,” Dr. Haley said. ”Now cities across the country will have advance warning so they can intervene to prevent these epidemics.”
he translation of medical breakthroughs into effective patient treatments continued to
receive support. In October 2013, UT Southwestern’s Center for Translational Medicine was awarded $28.6 million over five years from the Clinical and Translational Science Awards, funded by the NIH. The Center for Translational Medicine is part of a national consortium working to translate laboratory discoveries into patient treatments and train the next generation of clinical and translational researchers. 64
2013
RECOGNITION
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
LUBY
James Luby, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine, receives the 2013 Charles Max Cole, MD, Leadership Award from the Dallas County Medical Society for his contributions during North Texas’ recent outbreak of West Nile virus.
LEADERSHIP
PODOLSKY
On February 10, a lengthy article in The Dallas Morning News questions the core missions of UT Southwestern and its affiliation with Parkland Hospital. Having aligned every aspect of the Medical Center toward the pursuit and demonstration of quality since his arrival, Dr. Podolsky issues a sharply worded response the following day. ( EXCERPT )
“First and foremost, UT Southwestern is unequivocally committed to delivering the highest quality of patient care in every setting where our physicians provide care. The relationship with Parkland is as central to UT Southwestern as it is to Parkland, and we remain fully committed to the continuation of our partnership in parallel with the development of our programs in the University Health System. We categorically reject the insinuation that our physicians are not dedicated to a single high standard of patient care.” IN MEMORIAM
ESTABROOK
On August 5, Ronald W. Estabrook, PhD, Professor Emeritus and longtime Chair of Biochemistry, dies at the age of 87.
DR. ESTABROOK left enduring contributions to the field of biochemistry and was instrumental in helping UT Southwestern become internationally recognized.
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C O N T.
REGENERATION
MILESTONE
SADEK
A UT Southwestern research team led by Hesham Sadek, MD, PhD, demonstrates that the gene Meis1 regulates the regenerative capability of newborn hearts.
PARKLAND
IN AUGUST, a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) survey finds Parkland fully compliant with federal regulations and able to retain its Medicare and Medicaid funding, essential to its survival as a public hospital. “I see people with tears out there because you all have worked so hard on this,” says Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to an auditorium filled with Parkland executives, board members and hospital staffers.
CANCER
OUTREACH
NIGERIA
J. GREGORY FITZ, MD, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Dr. E.E. Uduaghan, Governor of the Delta State of Nigeria, sign a Memorandum of Understanding between UT Southwestern and the Delta State University Teaching Hospital of Oghara, Nigeria, that forms a partnership to promote joint initiatives in nephrology, kidney transplantation, and other future potential areas.
LEVINE AND WANG
UT Southwestern cancer researchers Drs. Beth Levine and Richard Wang identify how a top cancer-causing gene in humans attacks a cell’s natural recycling process, encouraging the cancer growth to flourish. “This work provides important insights into one of the ways that abnormal activation of Akt – and potentially other related cancercausing genes – may function to cause cancer,” Dr. Levine says. LEADERSHIP
CARR
W. PLACK CARR retires after 18 years with Southwestern Medical Foundation. He joined the Board of Trustees in 1992. In 1995, he was appointed President, succeeding Dr. Charles Sprague. During his tenure, Foundation assets grew from $117 million to more than $800 million. In 2013, friends and colleagues came together to honor Carr and his wife, Cissy, by establishing a professorship in medical education at UT Southwestern. In 2008, the couple donated more than $250,000 to the Foundation to establish two professorships at the medical school. “Plack and Cissy have personified the heart and soul of Southwestern Medical Foundation for decades, and they championed countless meaningful programs at the Medical Center,” says Kathleen Gibson, Foundation President.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT CREATIVITY AND THE ART OF SCIENCE
GOLDSTEIN
asking questions, and never stops believing in the resolve of the human mind. Dr. Goldstein’s tireless devotion to recognize upcoming researchers and to put their achievements into proper context stands as another milestone of an extraordinary and illustrious career.
IN 1985, Drs. Michael Brown and Joe Goldstein won the Albert D. Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for their discovery of the cell surface receptor that binds circulating LDL and removes cholesterol from the bloodstream. In subsequent research, they delineated – at the molecular level – the way in which cholesterol is taken up by cells in a process they named receptor-mediated endocytosis. Their work illuminated how large molecules such as insulin and epidermal growth factor are taken into cells. Months later, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Goldstein became a Lasker Juror the next year and a decade later was named Chairman of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards jury, on which he continues to serve. “Joe Goldstein has imbued the process of selecting Lasker winners with scientific rigor, creative thought and southern charm,“ said Claire Pomeroy, President of the Lasker Foundation. Since 2001, Dr. Goldstein has also authored a series of essays connecting creativity in science with creativity in the arts that appears in the annual Nature Medicine supplement that accompanies the Lasker Awards. His first 10 essays are collected in a book titled The Art of Science. “His treatises are dramatic highlights of our awards ceremonies,” Pomeroy said. The integration of art and creativity with medical research provides a peek into a brilliant mind that never stops thinking, that never stops
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“It has been a remarkable journey to work with a partner who brings forth the many varied gifts and insights of Joe Goldstein. Joe has brought these abilities to our team at UT Southwestern, to the jury for the Lasker Awards, and to the public that has received great benefit. His rare ability to see multiple connections in science and art, in leadership and innovation, and in talent and possibilities has helped inform the progress of medicine beyond one lab or one institution. Joe’s impact has been felt across the world in the extraordinary and well-known contributions of his research but, just as importantly, in the vision he has provided in helping to identify the finest talents in medicine. There is an art to that.” – Michael S. Brown, MD
A near-magical quality that great art possesses is its ability to inspire diverse interpretation. Over the course of his writings, Dr. Goldstein has drawn inspiration from Picasso to David Hockney to the Winged Victor of Samothrace, as well as from dozens of other imaginative thinkers and fearless experimentalists. Dr. Goldstein’s first essay, published in 2001, points out that, unlike mathematics and physics, “biology and medicine are mainly empirical sciences” without grand unifying theories and are therefore “critically dependent on technological innovations.” He found inspiration in a sculpture by renowned German artist Katharina Fristch in her work titled Mann und Maus, which features a gigantic mouse standing atop a sleeping man. Dr. Goldstein wrote: ”Curling its long tail like
Mann und Maus by Katharina Fristch
a question mark over the end of the duvet, the mouse wonders how long it will take for these new basic advances to be translated into clinical practice.” Considering the hundreds of millions of mice called upon to advance medical research, it is both a fair and amusing query. Dr. Goldstein’s connections are reliably fascinating. Wrestling with how best to evaluate award-worthy achievement, Dr. Goldstein found the answer in an installation by British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, who created a 14-foot tower of 17 balanced stones – one stacked atop the other to form a tapered pyramid. The most common view of the sculpture, from bottom to top, is akin to an initial huge discovery but one whose impact diminishes over time. The other view, from top to bottom, begins with the rare identification of a seemingly small idea whose impact grows larger and more profound. In 2013, the Lasker Foundation handed out two Basic Medical Research Awards – one to Richard H. Scheller, MD, of Genentech, and the other to Thomas C. Südhof, MD, PhD, at Stanford University School of Medicine, for their discoveries concerning rapid neurotransmitter release, a process that underlies all of the brain’s activities. Dr. Südhof left Germany as a young man to work in the Brown and Goldstein lab in 1983 and spent 25 years at UT Southwestern. Months after winning the Lasker Award, Dr. Südhof was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
ith the baby-boom generation growing older, the demand for state-of-the-art
geriatric care had expanded faster than the number of young doctors choosing to specialize in the field. The implications of caring for the evolving health care concerns of the greater Dallas community loomed large. Years earlier, however, UT Southwestern stepped up its medical education in geriatrics across all disciplines and researched more effective methods for delivering geriatric care.
Craig Rubin, MD
The effort was led by Craig Rubin, MD, Chief of Geriatrics, and supported by the Mildred Wyatt and Ivor P. Wold Center for Geriatric Care and grants from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. By 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked UT Southwestern nationally in geriatrics.
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ears prior, in 1983, as Drs. Goldstein and Brown first began making international news
with their cholesterol research, they attracted a gifted young researcher from Germany, who was about be the recipient of outstanding news. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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NO.
Sudhof
“ while a postdoctoral fellow in our laboratory, he solved an important problem concerning cholesterol. We were overjoyed that he remained on our faculty for more than two decades, where he performed all of the experiments that led to today’s Nobel Prize. His discoveries explain how a batter can hit a 95-mph fastball that takes only four-tenths of a second to reach home plate. All Texans should share in our pride.”
Michael S. Brown, MD, Nobel Laureate
“ Many neuroscientists throughout the world are using the basic information discovered by Dr. Südhof to learn how the brain works in normal and disease states.”
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Joseph L. Goldstein, MD, Nobel Laureate
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
THOMAS SÜDHOF, MD, PHD, Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience and former Chair of the department at UT Southwestern, was one of three scientists awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The award was the sixth Nobel Prize won by a faculty member of UT Southwestern. Dr. Südhof, now at Stanford University School of Medicine, shared the Prize with American biochemists and cell biologists James E. Rothman, PhD, and Randy W. Schekman, PhD, for their “discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.” Dr. Südhof’s work, which built upon independent discoveries by Drs. Rothman and Schekman, solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. He was recognized for pioneering work performed at UT Southwestern on synaptic transmission, the process by which brain cells communicate with each other via chemical signals passed through the spaces – or synapses – between them. His findings led to better understanding of brain function under normal and pathologic conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Südhof was born in Germany in 1955 and earned his MD and PhD at the University of Göttingen in 1982. “Others made me aware of Mike Brown and Joe Goldstein’s
What my work has done is shed light on how synapses work. And by doing that, it has allowed progress in probing why the synapses don’t work as well in Alzheimer’s disease and thus has enabled a better understanding of the disease. ’’ THOMAS SÜDHOF, MD, PHD
excellent work, and at that point they were perhaps not as famous as they are now,” he recalled. “They were in Dallas, Texas … so it wasn’t necessarily an obvious choice…. But I went to Dallas to visit and interview, and I think everybody in the world would have been incredibly impressed…. I was extremely happy that I was invited to join their lab.” Dr. Südhof arrived in Dallas in October 1983 and worked on cholesterol metabolism investigations in the Goldstein-Brown lab before joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and turning his attention to neurotransmission. “When I started my laboratory at UT Southwestern in 1986, neurotransmitter release fascinated me because of its importance, its inexplicable speed, and its precision,” Dr. Südhof recalled. Neural transmission occurs within 1 to 5 milliseconds (thousandths of a second) and, at the time, its molecular basis was completely unknown. As a result of Dr. Südhof’s research, synaptic transmission is today one of the bestunderstood phenomena in neuroscience.
IN 1986, DR. SÜDHOF had planned to return to his native Germany as a physician-scientist after completing his postdoctoral work at UT Southwestern with Nobel Laureates Drs. Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein. But the ongoing support of Dallas philanthropists and private foundations provided the resources to keep him at the Medical Center. “They funded his research at a time when nobody else in the world knew how great he was except for a few people in Dallas,” Dr. Brown said. “I am very grateful for all of the philanthropic contributions and for those who visualized the long-range importance of neuroscience research,” Dr. Südhof said.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
IN MEMORIAM
SIMMONS
LEGENDARY DALLAS PHILANTHROPIST Harold Simmons died on December 28, 2013, at the age of 82. “Harold Simmons touched the city of Dallas and North Texas with a passion and generosity that will positively impact countless lives for generations to come,” said Bill Solomon, Southwestern Medical Foundation Chairman. The lifetime contributions to UT Southwestern and Southwestern Medical Foundation by Mr. and Mrs. Simmons, the Harold Simmons Foundation and related entities totaled nearly $200 million. Simmons was a native Texan who graduated from UT Austin in 1951 and earned his master’s degree in economics a year later. He built a statewide drugstore chain worth more than $50 million, which he sold to Eckerd Corporation in 1973. He went on to build a storied career as a
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brilliant entrepreneur and investor. In 1995, Harold and Annette Simmons were honored with the Foundation’s Charles Cameron Sprague Community Service Award. Simmons’ unwavering support of medical research and clinical care also included funds for the study and treatment of arthritis, kidney disease and diseases of the brain and nervous system. Much of his generosity never made headlines. Simmons wrote million-dollar checks for many causes, including UT Southwestern’s work with an HIV/AIDS clinic in Africa. “Harold Simmons was one of my best friends, and it’s never easy to say goodbye to close friends,” businessman T. Boone Pickens said in a statement. “Harold accomplished so much in his life. We should all leave such a rich legacy behind.”
n anticipation of the 2014 opening of the William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital on
the West Campus, the West Campus Master Plan was completed. Phase 1 included the demolition of St. Paul University Hospital to make room for five new buildings over the next 20 years, adding 1.1 million square feet of new space. First to be built was an 11-story building, half for academic and educational use and half for expansion of UT Southwestern Health System ambulatory clinics. “The first building will include an innovative, high-tech simulation center that can help train physicians at every level – from faculty down to student – so they can practice individual skills and team-based skills,” Dr. Fitz said.
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he quality of medical education and clinical care at UT Southwestern continued to rise. In 2014, after a two-year comprehensive review, a new curriculum was proposed and adopted. The new curriculum (which would be completed for the 2015 year) emphasized active learning – simulations and clinical scenarios – over lectures and provided small-group opportunities in which students can more directly engage professors. “This simulation-based experience is something that will further improve training, safety and outcomes,” Dr. Fitz added.
The new curriculum incorporates technology that students will be using during medical school and beyond.
“If there’s one overarching theme of the new curriculum, it is integration: integration of classes such as cell biology and biochemistry; integration of the study of normal and abnormal body processes; and integration of clinical perspectives with basic sciences,” Dr. Stull said. “We have had thoughtful and creative input from every party on designing the new curriculum – students, clinicians, investigators and teachers,” Dr. Fitz said.
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ince 2010, Drs. Fitz and Meyer and dozens of faculty members, who served as
chairs and members of search committees, had successfully recruited a remarkable 17 new department chairs and center directors to the medical school. 70
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
The school had also established the Department of Bioinformatics and the Department of Emergency Medicine, as well as the Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair and the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine, made possible by a $10 million endowment from the Hamon Foundation. The Hamon Center was and is still headed by Eric Olson, PhD, Chair of Molecular Biology. “We all know what degeneration is; that’s what happens with age,” Dr. Olson said. “Regeneration is the opposite. It focuses on how to rejuvenate aged and diseased tissues. The goal of this Center is to understand the basic mechanisms for tissue and organ formation, and then to use that knowledge to regenerate, repair, and replace tissues damaged by aging and injury.”
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n May 2014, Donald W. Seldin, MD, was honored in a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating
renovation of the South Campus plaza, which would be renamed the Dr. Donald Seldin Plaza. Jean Wilson, MD, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Internal Medicine and renowned leader in endocrinology research, who had set his career path based on work performed in Dr. Seldin’s lab, was among those who paid tribute. “Today we honor Dr. Seldin because he had a vision and a plan for the development of this institution, Donald Seldin, MD, stands beside a statue of himself unveiled in his honor at the dedication of the Dr. Donald Seldin Plaza.
and – equally important, I think – because he stuck to that plan for a lifetime…. I personally believe
his staying here and sticking it out for more than 60 years stabilized the department, and ultimately the school, and made possible the realization of his dream.’’
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Dr. Helen Hobbs congratulates Dr. Seldin, who steered her career to basic research.
n May 23, 2014, William T. Solomon stepped down as Foundation Chairman after having
served more than 30 years on the Board and six years as Chair. Solomon, along with his wife, Gay, LEADERSHIP
ROWLING
ROBERT B. ROWLING is a native of Corpus Christi, Texas. He has an undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Southern Methodist University. He is owner and chairman of TRT Holdings, a holding company that includes Omni Hotels and Gold’s Gym. In 2003, Rowling was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame and, two years later, into the UT Austin McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame and the All-American Wildcatters. In November 2013, he became a member of UT’s Distinguished Alumni. He previously served as Vice Chairman of the UT System Board of Regents and as Chairman of University of Texas Investment Management Company.
made an extraordinary impact on Southwestern Medical Foundation and UT Southwestern, serving with distinction in many roles and capacities throughout their three decades of involvement. The announcement was made at the annual meeting marking the Foundation’s 75th anniversary, during which Robert B. Rowling was elected Solomon’s successor.
Robert B. Rowling
“As we celebrate our remarkable history in this milestone year, we are extremely fortunate to have Bob Rowling providing new leadership on the Board and helping expand the Foundation’s position in the business, philanthropic, and medical communities,” Solomon said. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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LEADERSHIP
UTSW RESEARCHERS
BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMIS TRY
DANIEL ROSENBAUM, PHD, Assistant Professor of Biophysics and Biochemistry, whose research involves G protein-coupled receptors, membrane protein structural biology, and molecular recognition.
PHILIPP SCHERER, PHD,
IN JULY, Thomson Reuters reported that 10 of the most highly cited researchers in the world worked at UT Southwestern and were on its prestigious list of the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.” These researchers were determined by analyzing citation data over the last 11 years and “are undoubtedly among the most influential scientific minds of our time.”
Professor of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology, whose research involves fat cells, blood vessel formation, insulin-secreting cells, breast cancer and intracellular protein trafficking.
JOSEPH TAKAHASHI, PHD, Chair of Neuroscience and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, whose research involves circadian biology and the discovery of genes that influence behavior. CLINIC AL MEDICINE
ADI GAZDAR, MD, Professor of the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research and Pathology, whose research involves inactivation of tumor suppressor genes,
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molecular pathogenesis of human cancers, and the role of DNA viruses in human cancers.
Immunology, whose research involves identifying the molecular machinery that mammals use to fight infections.
SCOTT GRUNDY, MD, PHD, Professor of Internal Medicine, whose research involves cholesterol metabolism, dietary fats, drugs affecting lipoprotein metabolism, human genetics and metabolic syndrome.
DAVID JOHNSON, MD, Chair of Internal Medicine, whose research involves the development of new therapies to treat lung cancer.
ERIC OLSON, PHD, Chair of Molecular Biology and Director of the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine, whose research involves microRNAs, muscle development, stem cells and transcriptional regulation. IMM U NOLOGY
BRUCE BEUTLER, MD, Nobel Laureate, Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and Professor of
MOLECUL AR BIOLOGY & GENETIC S
BETH LEVINE, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Microbiology, Director of the Center for Autophagy Research and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, whose research involves defining the role of autophagy in health and disease and its regulation at the molecular level. P S YC H I AT RY / PSYCHOLOGY
MADHUKAR TRIVEDI, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, whose research involves evidencebased psychopharmacology and treatment algorithms in mood disorders, functional brain imaging in major depressive and obsessive-compulsive disorders, and neurobiology and psychopharmacology of depression and bipolar disorder.
he fragile nature of the human population was again exposed. By mid-September,
the world’s first Ebola epidemic had spread rapidly through multiple countries in West Africa. The threat of a global epidemic generated panic, fear and misinformation around the world. According to the CDC, nearly 3,000 deaths had been confirmed and the number of Ebola cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries hardest hit, was predicted to rise to between 550,000 and 1.4 million by January 2015. Dr. Haley, along with members of the Dallas County Medical Society and others, Colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Ebola virus.
LEADERSHIP
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gave media interviews to help allay fears as to how the virus was spread. “The epidemic of fear was really rampant,” Dr. Haley recalled. PUBLIC HEALTH
ON SEPTEMBER 28, Thomas Eric
WITH CASES OF EBOLA now in Texas,
Duncan, a Liberian citizen, was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas with symptoms of fever, vomiting and diarrhea. He tested positive for the virus days later, becoming the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States. On October 4, he began receiving treatments with the experimental drug brincidofovir, but he died on October 8. Two nurses who contracted Ebola from Duncan recovered, suggesting that early detection was critical in battling the disease.
Gov. Rick Perry announced the creation of a North Texas Ebola treatment and infectious disease biocontainment facility. UT Southwestern would provide overall leadership, physicians and nurses; Parkland would provide nurses and support staff; and Methodist Hospital System would provide the physical care facility in Richardson. “UT Southwestern is proud that its expert faculty physicians and nurses are ready to lead in providing the very best care possible while safeguarding the safety of staff and the public,” Dr. Podolsky said.
Dr. Podolsky speaks at a press conference to announce the Medical Center’s joining in a unified response for the care of future confirmed Ebola patients in Texas.
2014 RECOGNITION
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TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH
IN FEBRUARY, two UT Southwestern investigators are named to a Top 20 Translational Researchers list created by Bioentrepreneur, an online portal dedicated to scientists interested in commercializing their research. Eric Olson, PhD, Chair of Molecular Biology, places sixth, and Philip Thomas, PhD, Professor of Physiology, places sixteenth.
LEADERSHIP
TEXAS INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN INJURY AND REPAIR
ON FEBRUARY 28, UT Southwestern launches the new Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair, a state-funded initiative to promote innovative research and education, with the goals of accelerating translation into better diagnosis and revolutionizing care for millions of people who suffer brain injuries each year. At left, President Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky is joined by Dr. Hunt Batjer, Chair of Neurological Surgery and Co-Chair of the NFL’s Head, Neck, and Spine Committee, and Daryl Johnston, former Dallas Cowboys fullback. “This Institute reflects an effort unprecedented in its commitment to address the devastating effects of brain injury,” Dr. Podolsky says.
PHILANTHROPY
leaders from state government and UT Southwestern, and representatives from the National Football League (NFL), to celebrate this new program. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is a featured speaker.
MCDERMOTT
“WHEN YOU’RE IN THE HOSPITAL, it can be so sad. I want to do something for the sadness.” From that single heartfelt expression of caring, Dallas philanthropist Margaret McDermott, together with the Eugene McDermott Foundation, donates $4.5 million to ensure the William P. Clements Jr. Hospital has the “very best” landscaping. The gift is given through Southwestern Medical Foundation. “Her vision and standards of excellence challenged us to think more deeply and creatively about our landscape design plans … and her extraordinary generosity then made it possible for us to engage Peter Walker and his team,” Dr. Podolsky says. Peter Walker and team at PWP Landscape Architecture are world-renowned for creating exterior environments of the highest caliber. “It’s hard to say something about Margaret that people haven’t said. She’s such an extraordinary person in so many ways,” Walker says.
OUTREACH
THE EVENT BRINGS
“We wouldn’t be at the Medical Center if it weren’t for Margaret. She said, ‘Pete, this is a really important building, and this is a really important institution.’” “Most people wouldn’t have thought of the need to make the hospital grounds beautiful,” notes Kathleen Gibson, Foundation President. “But Margaret McDermott is the kind of remarkable person who did. She cares deeply about people and encourages everyone to consider the aesthetics that lead to optimal healing.” The gift is in addition to Mrs. McDermott’s $10 million lead contribution along with $1 million from the McDermott Foundation to the Building the Future of Medicine campaign. “As the Foundation celebrates its 75th anniversary … we are again grateful to Mrs. McDermott, whose family was among the earliest and most important visionaries in nurturing the Foundation and in forming and growing the Medical Center,” Bill Solomon says.
CLINICAL CENTERS
IN MARCH, UT Southwestern opens its third community Clinical Center at Hillcrest and Northwest Highway in Dallas (the first was opened in Oct. 2013 in Richardson). UT Southwestern Clinical Centers focus on the management of chronic illnesses and coordinated care to help people stay healthier and avoid hospital stays.
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C O N T.
TECHNOLOGY
CANCER CARE
UT SOUTHWESTERN’S Department of Radiation Oncology leads a consortium to plan for the first national heavy ion radiation therapy center, a major technological advance in cancer care.
PHILANTHROPY
The O’Donnell Foundation has supported some of the most important research undertaken at UT Southwestern.
O’DONNELL
‘
“PETER O’DONNELL is an outstanding example of a donor who has been very sensitive to the importance of developing basic scientific initiatives within the medical school,” observed Don Seldin, MD, Chair of Internal Medicine from 1952 to 1988. Throughout 2014, O’Donnell makes a series of transformational gifts after careful evaluation of where he feels his contributions will have the biggest impact.
LEADERSHIP
FOR NEARLY SIX DECADES
■ $36 million to recruit new neuroscience faculty and support brain injury/repair research, which will, in May 2015, formally establish the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute ■ $45 million in support of research programs in obesity and the Center for Human Nutrition ■ $10 million to establish the Eugene P. Frenkel, MD Program for Endowed Scholars in Clinical Medicine ■ $9.2 million in support of genetics research under the direction of Dr. Bruce Beutler ■ Additional donations to promote nursing excellence and establish the Alfred G. Gilman Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology In conjunction with O’Donnell’s $36 million gift, Marc Diamond, MD, is recruited from Washington University in St. Louis – along with his entire research team – to become founding Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.
HUTCHISON
ON OCTOBER 22, the main drive through the Medical Center campus is renamed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Drive in honor of the former senator. “It is clear that Sen. Hutchison – with much foresight – has long appreciated the need to support medical research and discovery, to drive advances in care that have benefited so many, in so many ways,” Dr. Podolsky says at the dedication ceremony.
DEDICATION
SENATOR Hutchison’s Congressionally directed support provided $100 million to fund groundbreaking initiatives at the Medical Center.
SEAY
SPEAKING AT the dedication of the new William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, Nancy Seay, the daughter of Gov. William P. Clements Jr., represents the family and speaks of the facility’s ability to “foster the spirit of discovery and the pursuit of excellence that [ Clements ] embodied throughout his life. We are very grateful for this honor.”
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I
n 1997, UT Southwestern researchers Steven McKnight, PhD, Chairman of Biochemistry,
and molecular geneticist David Russell, PhD, Vice Provost and Dean of Basic Research, led research that discovered and described the protein known as HIF-2α, which tells cancer cells to multiply and produce new blood vessels to fuel cancer growth. Subsequent studies by UT Southwestern researchers Drs. Richard Bruick and Kevin Gardner solved the protein’s structure by collaborating with the Department of Biochemistry’s High-Throughput Screening, and the scientists went on to test more than 200,000 compounds to see which ones could interfere with HIF-2α. BIOTECH
The most promising compounds were then
PELOTON
IN 2015, Peloton Therapeutics released initial Phase 1 data that indicated that the compound PT2385 suppresses gene expression essential for tumor growth, providing hope for a new drug therapy to treat certain forms of kidney cancer.
Drs. Steven McKnight and David Russell
licensed to Peloton, a biotech start-up founded by Dr. McKnight, and housed in UT Southwestern’s BioCenter. In 2014, the first HIF-2 inhibitor, an oral drug known as PT2385, entered clinical trials in patients with advanced or metastatic renal clear cell carcinoma.
“This is a completely new treatment for kidney cancer,” said James Brugarolas, MD, PhD, Director of the Kidney Cancer Program at Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, who published a proof-of-principle study in Nature validating the drug for kidney cancer and also leads an NCI-designated SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence), one of only two in the country.
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n December 6, the William P. Clements Jr.
University Hospital opened, featuring 12 floors, 460 single-patient rooms, 72 adult ICU rooms and 40 emergency rooms. When medical historians document the transformation of health care in America, one thing that will stand out is the transition from
Hundreds of invited guests, including UT System and government leaders, applaud as John Warner, MD, cuts the ribbon at the October 30 dedication of the new William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital.
hospitals built around physicians to a health care system built around the patient. The finest example of that transition might well be the William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. What’s best for the patient? “That simple question guided decisions for virtually every aspect of the hospital,” said John Warner, MD, CEO of UT Southwestern’s University Hospitals. “We built a team-based care model centered on the patient.” He added: “For the community, [Clements University Hospital] will provide a level of
The William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital opened December 6, 2014.
medical sophistication and care that is unsurpassed in the area and among the most advanced in the country. And for patients – the people we serve – the hospital will be a place for healing. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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This extraordinary facility is designed, in every aspect, to combine the intellect, skill and science of UT Southwestern to provide compassionate, state-of-the-art care.” A team led by Dr. Warner worked tirelessly to ensure the transition to the new hospital was seamless. Nearly 200 patients were moved from St. Paul University Hospital to the new hospital. At 8:38 a.m. on the day of the move, the first baby was born at Clements Hospital and welcomed into the world by his proud new parents. By afternoon, urgent surgical procedures had been performed, and the patients were recovering in their hospital rooms equipped with the latest technologies. By evening, St. Paul University Hospital was officially closed, and a new era in patient-
The first baby born at Clements Hospital.
centered care at UT Southwestern had begun. “The smooth transition today was the result of countless hours of planning by our hospital team,” said Becky McCulley, COO for UT Southwestern University Hospitals and an instrumental member of the team responsible for planning daily operations for the new facility.
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ale Lipshy became not only the region’s first freestanding neuroscience
facility but one of few in the country. Since 2010, six new clinical chairs had been recruited to lead key areas of research and patient care. Newest among them was Kathleen Bell, MD, a renowned leader in rehabilitation medicine with a research specialty in traumatic brain injury, enlisted to Chair the Department of
Kathleen Bell, MD
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. “I am extraordinarily pleased with Zale Lipshy’s new role,” Donald Zale said. “To think that it will be able to help people with brain injuries and Alzheimer’s or those suffering from psychosis is a tremendously exciting transformation. It has been our family’s great privilege to have been associated with the medical school, and we look forward to more great things to come.”
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n January 16, 2015, Southwestern Medical
Foundation held a gala 75th anniversary celebration on stage at the Winspear Opera House to honor and thank the many visionaries whose generous contributions over the years have led to extraordinary advancements in improving the health of our community. During the evening, Southwestern Medical Foundation presented Dr. Podolsky with a $7.5 million gift to accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen the medical school’s standing as a leader in neuroscience and inspire additional giving. “This wonderful gift that Southwestern Medical Foundation is making on the occasion of its 75th anniversary symbolizes the continued advancement of leadership TOP: The Foundation’s 75th anniversary celebration was held on the stage of the Winspear Opera House. BELOW: Dr. Podolsky expresses his thanks for the Foundation’s $7.5 million gift in support of neuroscience.
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in science, education, and treatment that the Foundation has always represented,” Dr. Podolsky said.
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
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n March 20, 2015, the 12-floor, $216 million structure on the North Campus was
named the C. Kern Wildenthal Research Building in recognition of Dr. Wildenthal’s significant contributions to UT Southwestern and his original vision for the North Campus. The building, which houses state-of-the-art laboratory space including the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute, embodied “Dr. Wildenthal’s legacy of significant contributions and enduring impact,” Dr. Podolsky said. Michael Brown, MD, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Nobel Laureate, suggested the building was “an inadequate tribute.” Instead, he suggested the entire North Campus should bear Dr. Wildenthal’s name. “I am very gratified by this recognition and deeply honored to be associated with the world-class research that is undertaken every day in these
The C. Kern Wildenthal Research Building
laboratories,” Dr. Wildenthal said.
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n July 9, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded its highest designation –
“Comprehensive” status – to the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, making it one of only 45 cancer centers nationally to receive this distinction over the past 44 years and certifying it as one of the finest cancer research and treatment facilities in America. NCI recognition was a testament to the efforts of James Willson, MD, Director of the Simmons Cancer Center, as well as the talents and dedication of more than 200 faculty from some 30 departments and centers that included approximately 500 clinical and research staff.
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he rate of change in the health care industry had never been greater. “It is being reshaped virtually continuously by new medical knowledge and changing expectations ... as well as marketplace, political and regulatory forces,” Dr. Podolsky observed. In a joint effort to expand access to quality patient care and control health care costs, on October 2, UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources (THR) announced the formation of Southwestern Health Resources, a health network linking affiliated physicians to offer health care to patients
Southwestern Health Resources appointed four senior executives to lead the network. TOP: John Warner, MD, oversees the network’s three Dallas hospitals; Bruce Meyer, MD, MBA, heads Southwestern Health’s Population Health Services Company; BELOW: Dan Varga, MD, leads Southwestern Health’s physician network; Mack Mitchell, MD, serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the physician network.
A major alliance with Texas Health Resources was reflected in this newswire announcement in New York City’s Times Square featuring Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky and Barclay Berdan.
and partner on further research initiatives. “Southwestern Health Resources will include an integrated, coordinated network of nearly 3,000 physicians that can provide the communities of our region the full continuum of care, from prevention and health management to highly specialized care in state-of-the-art facilities,” Dr. Podolsky said. “We expect the new network will help improve quality and
enhance affordability during a time when patients, insurers, and other payers are increasingly sensitive to health care costs,” said Barclay Berdan, CEO of THR. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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s biomedical research continued to identify genetic mutations that lead to disease, a
revolutionary genome editing tool called CRISPR was discovered. Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier of Umeå University, Sweden, won a 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for “harnessing an ancient mechanism of bacterial immunity into a powerful and general technology for editing genomes.” In the 1980s, scientists had observed an odd pattern in bacterial genomes where a DNA sequence would repeat over and over again with unique sequences appearing between the repeats. The configuration was called “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” or CRISPR. Decades later, researchers realized the sequences matched the DNA of viruses that
CRISPR was used to splice DNA from an extinct woolly mammoth into that of an elephant. Scientists were then able to use the “revived” DNA to sequence the mammoth’s approximate genome.
prey on bacteria. CRISPR was, in fact, a naturally occurring tool of the bacteria’s immune system that stores sections of dangerous viruses so it can recognize and defend against them the next time they attack. A second tool was identified: a set of enzymes called Cas (CRISPR-associated
proteins), which snips the invading DNA; the best known was called Cas9. Working together, Cas9 snips sections of DNA, and CRISPR tells Cas9 precisely where to snip. GENE EDITING
OLSON
THE LARGEST human gene, DMD, provides the instructions for making a protein called dystrophin. A mutation in the DMD gene can cause Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder characterized by muscle degeneration and weakness. Genes occur in sections called exons. The DMD gene has 79 such exons but can retain its function even if a few in the middle are removed. A strain of laboratory mice was developed in which dystrophin production failed because of a mutation in the 23rd DMD exon.
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In 2015, UT Southwestern researchers led by Eric Olson, PhD, used CRISPR/Cas9 to stop the progression of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in young mice. Researchers loaded the gene-editing system and the identifying guides into a harmless virus that swept through the bodies of the mice, cutting the two ends of the 23rd exon and removing the damaged exon. As a result, the gene was able to produce functioning dystrophin proteins. Their incredible discovery could lead to the first successful genome editing-based treatment of DMD in humans. With the opportunity of such genetic editing comes enormous responsibility, opening up a vast new world of risks and rewards, as well as moral and ethical questions. In December, an international group of scientists met in Washington and agreed that experimenting with human embryos destined to develop into children would, for the foreseeable future, be “irresponsible.” But
the scientists endorsed exploring gene editing as a medical treatment – altering the genes of immune cells to make them capable of killing cancer, for example. “To launch a clinical trial, we need to scale up, improve efficiency and assess safety,” Dr. Olson said. “I think within a few years those issues can be addressed.” On December 23, the National Institutes of Health awarded UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers a $7.8 million grant to establish a Senator Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center – one of six nationally – to further research for new treatments using the gene editing technique. Dr. Olson co-directs the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center with Dr. Pradeep Mammen, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Director of UT Southwestern’s Neuromuscular Cardiomyopathy Clinic.
ifts to the Foundation and Medical Center have, over the decades, established hundreds
of centers, chairs, professorships and scholarships in support of medical research and clinical care. One of countless examples occurred in May, when the Hersh Foundation gave a $5 million lead gift to the Foundation to help establish the Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care and to endow the Julie K. Hersh Chair in Depression Research and Clinical Care. Julie K. Hersh
“Julie has been one of the most informed and active members of the Board of Southwestern Medical Foundation,” said Kathleen Gibson, Foundation President. “This important gift and Julie’s passionate work in helping to advance the science and treatment of mood disorders are the epitome of active community leadership.”
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2015
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MINNA
CANCER BIOLOGIST John Minna, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, is named a “Giant of Cancer Care” in recognition of lung cancer cell lines he developed that are used to test new therapies by lung cancer researchers around the world.
PHILANTHROPY
2009 Rama Ranganathan, MD, PhD ( Science ) 2011 Kim Orth, PhD ( Science ) 2012 Philipp Scherer, PhD ( Medicine ) 2013 Lora Hooper, PhD ( Medicine )
2013 Youxing Jiang, PhD ( Science ) 2014 Richard Bruick, PhD ( Medicine ) 2015 Yuh Min Chook, PhD ( Science )
HILL
LYDA HILL IS AN ENTREPRENEUR, philanthropist, and Chair of LH Holdings and the Lyda Hill Foundation. As part of her
IN 2015, LYDA HILL gave $25 million to create the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics, chaired by Gaudenz Danuser, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology and a CPRIT Scholar. “Never had I had the benefit of such an engaged and intelligent giving community. And I’ve encountered it many, many times and in many, many ways,” said J. Gregory Fitz, MD, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean and Provost of the medical school. “Who would support bioinformatics as a
SWMF
THE TAMEST Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award winners from UT Southwestern are:
commitment to leaving a lasting mark on society, Hill became a member of The Giving Pledge – created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet in 2010. Hill has pledged to donate the entirety of her wealth to charity. A graduate of the Hockaday School in Dallas, Hill attended Stanford University before transferring to Hollins University, where she graduated with a degree in mathematics. She began her career in 1967 founding Hill World Travel, which became the largest travel agency in Dallas and one of the largest in
the country when it was sold in 1982. In addition to profiting from her financial generosity, countless nonprofit organizations have progressed with the tremendous insights Ms. Hill brings as a leader. These have included the Visiting Nurses Association, the Dallas Chapter of the World Presidents’ Organization, the Crystal Charity Ball, the Junior League of Dallas, the Dallas and Texas Chapters of the American Heart Association, Southwestern Medical Foundation, and UT Southwestern, among many others.
distinct entity and training program when they might use their resources to support something more goal oriented? It takes faith, creativity and a forward look into where medicine is going – Lyda Hill’s act of generosity is remarkable.” Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, which is seen as a critical component in developing personalized therapies to treat cancer and
gain insights into many other diseases. By integrating observed patient data with that from medical centers around the world, advanced software will be able to take patient data, identify correlations and propose optimized treatment plans with a projected likelihood of success. Beyond its value as a powerful clinical decision-making tool, bioinformatics may have the added benefit of reducing the cost of treatment as well.
COMING HOME
ON JUNE 20, Southwestern Medical Foundation relocates into Parkland Hall on the campus of Old Parkland – to the exact front door of Southwestern Medical College, which the Foundation began in 1943.
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THE BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE
Hobbs
“i am grateful for the opportunity the Breakthrough Prize offers to influence a new generation of scientists. I also want to thank my colleagues and mentors for UT Southwestern’s collaborative, intellectually stimulating environment. Special thanks go to Chairman Emeritus of Internal Medicine Dr. Donald Seldin, who single-handedly changed the course of my career by suggesting I try basic research, and Nobel Laureates Dr. Michael Brown THE BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE trophy was created by Olafur Eliasson.
and Dr. Joseph Goldstein, for the tough, rigorous yet supportive environment in which I trained as a scientist.”
Helen H. Hobbs, MD
“[dr. hobbs] deserves tremendous credit for taking the Reynolds grant and making it meaningful with the Dallas Heart Study. The work she has done represents a significant breakthrough because these inhibitors work even when statins have had their maximal effect.”
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Donald W. Seldin, MD
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
ON NOVEMBER 9, 2015, UT Southwestern geneticist Helen H. Hobbs, MD, Director of the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, was awarded a 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Dr. Hobbs received the award in recognition of transformative genetics research techniques she developed and used to identify key genes involved in lipid metabolism and fatty liver disease. Dr. Hobbs and her colleague Jonathan Cohen, PhD, were intrigued when they read a short paper describing a French family with extraordinarily high levels of LDL cholesterol (the bad kind). The family members turned out to have a mutation in a gene, PCSK9, whose function at the time was unknown. Drs. Hobbs and Cohen began to wonder: If too much PCSK9 caused heart disease, would people who made too little be protected? They scrutinized genetic data from the Dallas Heart Study and discovered the people with mutations that produced only small amounts of PCSK9 seemed virtually immune to heart disease, even if they had other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking or diabetes. In 2006, Drs. Hobbs and Cohen found a healthy young woman, an aerobics instructor, without PCSK9, whose LDL level measured an incredible 14 (the average is 100). The discovery ultimately led to the development of an effective class of drugs that can lower LDL to the 30s, the 20s – even the teens. Two drugs have received the green light from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. “This is a wonderful honor,” Dr. Hobbs said. “This prize recognizes the work I have done with Dr. Cohen and the many terrific students and fellows in my laboratory.”
YURI AND JULIA MILNER, Sergey
DR. HOBBS and geneticist Jonathan Cohen, PhD, were recently awarded one of the nation’s highest honors in biomedical science – the 2016 Passano Award – for developing and applying transformative genetics techniques to the understanding of lipid metabolism related to heart disease. “The pioneering research by Dr. Cohen and Dr. Hobbs has provided important novel insights into the genetic basis of cholesterol metabolism,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern.
Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Jack Ma, Cathy Zhang, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan founded the Breakthrough Prize, dubbed the “Oscar of Science,” in 2012. “I think science has to have the science Oscars,” said Mr. Milner, the driving force behind the prizes. Monetary awards of $3 million are given for groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of mathematics, physics and life sciences. The National Geographic Channel broadcast the award ceremony, hosted by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, live from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, on November 8.
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CHAIR AND DIRECTOR APPOINTMENTS
LEADERSHIP
TO ENSURE THAT UT Southwestern remains among the top academic Medical Centers in the nation, and to continue its reputation for excellence, the Medical Center is committed to recruiting and retaining the most brilliant and compassionate professionals in the industry. From 2010 through June 10, 2016, J. Gregory Fitz, MD, FAASLD, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean and Provost of
IN MANY INSTANCES, philanthropy made the difference in recruitment.
MARC I. DIAMOND, MD Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases Oct. 1, 2014 Recruited from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
KATHLEEN BELL, MD Chair of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Sept. 25, 2014 Recruited from University of Washington, Seattle
MARK P. GOLDBERG, MD Chair of Neurology & Neurotherapeutics June 1, 2010 Recruited from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
DEBORAH DIERCKS, MD Chair of Emergency Medicine Sept. 1, 2014 Recruited from University of California, Davis, Health System
H. HUNT BATJER, MD Chair of Neurological Surgery Sept. 1, 2012 Recruited from Northwestern University Medical School JAMES S. MALTER, MD Chair of Pathology Aug. 22, 2011 Recruited from University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
DANE K. WUKICH, MD Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery June 10, 2016 Recruited from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
SEAN J. MORRISON, PHD Director of Children’s Medical Center Research Institute Aug. 22, 2011 Recruited from Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan
NEIL ROFSKY, MD Chair of Radiology July 14, 2010 Recruited from Harvard Medical School
SANDRA L. SCHMID, PHD Chair of Cell Biology Jan. 16, 2012 Recruited from The Scripps Research Institute
DUOJIA PAN, PHD Chair of Physiology June 1, 2016 Recruited from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
BRUCE A. BEUTLER, MD Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense Sept. 1, 2011 Recruited from The Scripps Research Institute
DAVID H. JOHNSON, MD Chair of Internal Medicine July 1, 2010 Recruited from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
GAUDENZ DANUSER, PHD Chair of Bioinformatics July 1, 2015 Recruited internally MICHAEL JESSEN, MD Chair of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Oct. 15, 2010 Recruited internally
JULIO PEREZ-FONTAN, MD Chair of Pediatrics Jan. 1, 2013 Recruited internally
JEFFREY M. KENKEL, MD Chair of Plastic Surgery Sept. 1, 2015 Recruited internally
RAMA RANGANATHAN, MD, PHD Director of the Cecil H. and Ida Green Comprehensive Center for Molecular, Computational, and Systems Biology May 1, 2012 Recruited internally
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UT Southwestern Medical School, led the effort, which resulted in a remarkable group of talented researchers, educators and leading clinicians in their respective fields, both from across the country as well as promoted from within. Below is a map that shows where 23 new Chair appointments for Clinical Science, Basic Science and Center Directors were found.
JAY HORTON, MD Director of the Center for Human Nutrition Sept. 1, 2015 Recruited internally
BRADLEY MARPLE, MD Chair of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery Nov. 1, 2014 Recruited internally
MICHAEL ROSEN, PHD Chair of Biophysics Apr. 12, 2012 Recruited internally
ERIC OLSON, PHD Director of the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine Apr. 1, 2014 Recruited internally
CAROL A. TAMMINGA, MD Chair of Psychiatry Aug.10, 2010 Recruited internally
2015
75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
INNOVATION
BIOTECH
$15.0 $12.0 $9.0
RECOGNITION
$6.0
CANCER CARE
UT SOUTHWESTERN EARNS
$3.0
recognition as one of the nation’s top cancer hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, earning high marks in areas including patient volume and survival, advanced technologies, nursing intensity, and accreditation for bone marrow and tissue transplantation.
2000
2005
2010
2015
REVENUE (IN MILLIONS) generated by licensing UT Southwestern biotech innovations – significant revenue changes reflect patent expirations or major milestone payments earned.
UT SOUTHWESTERN FACULTY elected to the National Academy of Sciences from 2010 through 2015
2011
2013
Luis F. Parada, PhD
PHILANTHROPY
Beth Levine, MD
2015
2015
Zhijian “James” Chen, PhD
Lora Hooper, PhD
Steven Kliewer, PhD
O’DONNELL
THE ESTABLISHMENT of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern is approved by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. A $36 million gift from the
MILESTONE
2014
O’Donnell Foundation enabled UT Southwestern to create the new Institute. Focused on neuroscience, the new Institute is designed to work as a comprehensive center, and it is expected to improve knowledge about the basic molecular function of the brain, while translating these findings into new methods to prevent and treat brain injuries or conditions. UT Southwestern is focused on recruiting world leaders in the field to join the Institute. A team led by recently hired Marc Diamond, MD, Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, is working to
PARKLAND
advance basic understanding of debilitating brain conditions. “The Institute will serve as the umbrella to bring together the Medical Center’s historic advances in basic research and therapeutic care,” Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky says. “UT Southwestern’s outstanding talent in neuroscience and neurotechnology provides an important opportunity to invest in this critical field,” adds Peter O’Donnell Jr. “The medical school consistently tackles some of the most difficult scientific challenges with enormous success, benefiting patients today and patients for generations to come.”
LEADERSHIP
On August 20, Parkland Memorial Hospital opens its new 862-bed,17-story facility, which is widely acknowledged to be one of the most advanced hospitals in the country.
THE CARY COUNCIL
UT SOUTHWESTERN and Southwestern Medical Foundation establish The Cary Council – named after Dr. Edward H. Cary, the Foundation’s visionary co-founder – to promote awareness of the mission of the Foundation and the medical school among young professionals and emerging community leaders.
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75 YEARS OF VISION: THE LASTING GIFT
C O N T.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT the Medical Center has on the Dallas community is significant. Every state research dollar invested into UT Southwestern returns a staggering nine dollars to the local economy.
LEADERSHIP RECOGNITION
JAY D. HORTON, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and of Molecular Genetics, is selected as the second Director of the Center for Human Nutrition, one of the institution’s longest-tenured Centers of study and research. Dr. Horton succeeds Scott Grundy, MD, PhD, who directed the Center for 32 years before stepping down in 2013 while remaining on the faculty as Professor of Internal Medicine.
UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS
ZALE LIPSHY RECEIVES two patient satisfaction awards from Press Ganey, including the Pinnacle of Excellence Award (formerly the Beacon of Excellence Award) for the third consecutive year. And, in its first year of operation, the William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital wins the Rising Star Quality Leadership Award from the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), the largest alliance of academic medical centers in America.
RECOGNITION
HORTON
ST. PAUL
ON NOVEMBER 22, St. Paul University Hospital is demolished. St. Paul’s roots went back to June 15, 1898, when a then-state-of-theart, three-story, 110 - bed hospital opened at Hall and Bryan Streets, built and operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The hospital survived a five-alarm fire in 19 51 – all 250 patients and staff were safely evacuated. In 1954, it became the first Dallas hospital to grant admitting privileges to black physicians and, two years later, the first to grant African-Americans full-staff status. In 19 6 3, a new, updated facility was opened on Harry Hines Blvd., where North Texas patients would go for the next 50 years. “We will always have a special place in our hearts for St. Paul,” says Becky McCulley, COO of UT Southwestern University Hospitals.
GEORGE MACGREGOR, then-Foundation Chairman, at the hospital’s dedication on April 3, 1964: “I am happy to say that from the beginning, the Trustees of Southwestern Medical Foundation expressed not only the hope that the new St. Paul Hospital would be located in this Medical Center, but
IN MEMORIAM
GILMAN
ON DECEMBER 23, 2015, Nobel Laureate Alfred G. Gilman, MD, PhD, former Dean of the UT Southwestern Medical School, former Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at UT Southwestern Medical Center, dies after a long illness. He was 74 years old.
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confirmed the Foundation’s interest with the contribution of 11 acres of land to complete this 19-acre site on which the hospital is built. Thus, Southwestern Medical Foundation and all the people who support the work of the Foundation feel very much a part of what has been achieved here.”
In 1994, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Martin Rodbell, PhD, Scientific Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, for their discovery of G proteins, which are central to the process of receiving signals from outside the cell and activating a range of cellular responses. Their discovery provided insights into many diseases, from cancer to cholera to whooping cough. Today, the proteins are known to be in nearly all cells and to play a vital role in such bodily processes as vision, smell, hormone secretion and even thought. “As a scientist, teacher and leader, Dr. Gilman’s contributions are legion. He mentored many scientists who have gone on to become leaders in their fields, and his dedication to serving UT Southwestern was unwavering,” says Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, UT Southwestern President.
Decades ago, Dr. Edward H. Cary posed the question, “ Why not a great medical center in the Southwestern U.S.?” From that challenge, a foundation was formed, a community rallied, a city was nurtured and, within a remarkably short period of time, Dr. Cary’s vision became an inspired reality. The promise of a healthier future.
the future ( it’s coming fast )
It is human nature to contemplate, to imagine what will be. According to the sci-fi of the 1950s, we are long overdue flying cars and zero-gravity boots. But in the world of biomedical discovery, it would seem that constraints on one’s imagination are now few. We have arrived at a moment in human history when inspiration is unlocking never-beforeimagined opportunities.
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T
he past can (still) help inform the future. In 1928, a powerful metaphor from which to understand the nature of disease arrived with the discovery of the first antibiotic, penicillin: Identify the disease, then find something to kill the “bad stuff” causing it. It was a way of thinking that led to previously fatal diseases, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and syphilis, becoming curable or treatable illnesses. And to a large degree, it helped generate the enthusiasm necessary to fund the Human Genome Project, as it was widely accepted at the time that, once armed with a genomic map, scientists could identify the disease that each defective gene was responsible for, and by eliminating its adverse effects, the disease would be cured. Find the mutant gene, fix its bad effects and cure the disease. Today we know that genetics is rarely a simple matter of finding a single gene for each disease. Genes switch on and off, they interact with each other in complex ways and environmental factors affect their expression over time. While the metaphor of modern medicine as a magic bullet remains, it is now supplemented with new technologies and, importantly, more creative ways of thinking that will continue to fulfill the promise of a healthier future. Penicillin was discovered in London in September 1928 by Dr. Alexander Fleming, the bacteriologist on duty at St. Mary’s Hospital, when he returned from a summer vacation. Upon examining some colonies of Staphylococcus aureus, he noted that a mold (Penicillium notatum) had prevented the normal growth of the staphylococci. Fleming went on to discover the mold was effective against the bacteria that caused anthrax, meningitis and diphtheria.
BIOTECH
CRISPR There’s been a lot of talk about genetic engineering over the past two decades – and, lately, even more about a new molecular tool called CRISPR, which acts like a cut-and-paste tool for our DNA. After years of talking, mankind is on the verge of a major change. Just as few people in the ‘80s believed computers would take over everything, many today believe that genetic editing won’t change everything. And while there is work still to be done – it will be done. CRISPR is a naturally occurring technology that can edit DNA with remarkable precision. With the ability to easily tweak DNA, scientists can theoretically remove the mutations responsible for incurable diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, HIV and even certain cancers, and replace them with normally functioning genes. UT Southwestern researcher Eric Olson, PhD, and his team are currently working on a treatment to halt the development of, and perhaps find a cure for, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Elsewhere, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Recombinant DNA Research Advisory Committee recently approved the first-ever use of CRISPR in human cancer therapy.
BIG DATA AI DIAGNOSIS Recent reports assert that IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) system, Watson, just saved the life of a Japanese woman by correctly identifying her disease. This is notable because, for some time,
her illness went undetected using conventional methods, and doctors were stumped. The key to this success is the AI’s ability to take a massive amount of data and analyze it quickly. The system looked at the woman’s genetic information and compared it to 20 million clinical oncology studies. After doing so, it determined that the patient had an exceedingly rare form of leukemia. Incredibly, Watson was able to diagnose the condition in just 10 minutes.
PERSONALIZED MEDICINE The cost of sequencing a single human genome has fallen from $1 billion to roughly $1,000. Some researchers believe that, soon, the cost will fall to $100. As a direct result, hundreds of thousands of genomes are being sequenced for complex and comparative analysis. This will allow a new era of personalized medicine to emerge. Genomics – the study of the function and structure of sets of individual genomes – will identify health risks, susceptibility to diseases and patient responses to certain medications based on their individual genome, giving doctors the means to offer customized treatments with more predictable outcomes and far fewer negative side effects.
IMAGING PRECISION IMAGING Much of modern medicine relies on the 3-D visualization made possible by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and computed tomography (CT) scanners, which make 3-D images out of 2-D slices. Newer imaging techniques are revealing the diffusion of water through the body, helpful because water tends to follow otherwise hard-to-image structures such as nerve bundles and muscle fibers. Images of these structures are opening important new areas of
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the future study in neuroscience and biomechanics. There are also imaging techniques that work on the level of molecules and genes that can potentially reveal pathological processes at work long before they become apparent – tumors, for example. Collecting the data is just one aspect of imaging; rendering it in a way that allows for more effective analysis is another. One of the more revealing advances will be showing the surfaces of objects, making it possible to more clearly see organs and to better plan surgical interventions. The future of imaging is one where surgeons can survey every detail of a patient’s body – which will enable the rapid advancement of a diagnosis and treatment.
BRAIN BRAIN DISEASE Whether traumatic, degenerative, psychiatric or developmental, brain disease presents one of the greatest medical challenges of
the future. But neuroscientists are entering a new era of innovation. A wealth of recent breakthroughs in the fields of chemistry, biophysics, genetics, genomics, and informatics has given medical science an unprecedented opportunity to find answers. Researchers armed with powerful investigative tools and groundbreaking technologies, such as advanced imaging, brain stimulation, bioengineering, and artificial intelligence, will soon unleash a torrent of discoveries that will reveal the cellular and biochemical mechanisms of diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, and multiple sclerosis, as well as provide a deeper understanding of mental illness, from autism to depression. In truth, there are few places in the world as primed for such discoveries as UT Southwestern is right now. The recently established Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute has made recruiting the best clinician scientists in the country a top priority. The Institute serves as an umbrella that brings together UT Southwestern’s historic advances in basic research with multidisciplinary
The human brain is packed with more than 80 billion neurons firing in brilliant and quizzical patterns in an ongoing and highly sophisticated thunderstorm of activity. The Human Connectome Project (HCP ) is an NIH-funded effort to map the neural pathways that underlie human brain function.
teams – in areas such as sleep and circadian rhythms, brain injury, neurodegenerative diseases, neurorepair, neuromuscular disorders, and psychiatric disorders – in order to translate research discoveries into promising new therapies for patients.
GOOD MUTATION GENOTYPE VS. PHENOTYPE Most random genetic changes are neutral, some are harmful, but a few turn out to be positive. The search for mutations that can be found or measured in a person’s physical attributes (one’s phenotype) can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs. It was this thinking that allowed UT Southwestern investigators Drs. Helen Hobbs and Jonathan Cohen to leverage the Dallas Heart Study to identify PCSK9 – a genetic mutation that keeps LDL cholesterol at astonishingly low levels in a few, rare, healthy individuals. Drugs that mimic the gene are now saving lives. One of the genes that governs human bone density is called LRP5. Mutations that impair the function of LRP5 are known to cause osteoporosis. But a different kind of mutation can amplify its function, causing one of the most unusual human mutations known. The mutation was first discovered when a young person from a Midwest family was in a serious car crash yet walked away with no broken bones. X-rays found that the youth, as well as other members of the same family, had bones significantly stronger and denser than normal.
CANCER The wiring diagram of a healthy human brain is revealed by the movement of water molecules measured by diffuse tensor magnetic resonance imaging.
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NEW TREATMENTS There are three basic ways to fight cancer: cut it out, zap it with radiation or overwhelm it with drugs. But innovative new technologies
Researchers from the UK reveal how two molecules join forces to help cancer cells survive as they metastasize. Metastasis is the process by which cancer cells break away from the primary tumor and spread to other parts of the body through the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
are under development. One involves using a live genetically modified virus to infect cancer cells, bursting their cell membranes, which releases the virus to hunt down more cancerous cells. Another idea supercharges the body’s own T cells to fight tumors. This technique creates a “universal” supply of killer T cells, capable of finding and killing cancer cells. Through careful gene editing, the T cells are modified so they don’t attack good cells, and they can be tweaked to apply to particular patients, cancers and other diseases. Several companies are currently developing better ways to program T cells to move through the body to find and kill cancer cells with high accuracy. Trials are already underway.
REGENER– ATION GROWING ORGANS Regenerative medicine involves healing the body by replacing or regenerating cells, tissues or organs. It includes things such as stem cell and bone marrow transplants, as well as artificial organs and medical devices. But currently, there are limits to this field. Artificial hearts are used only when a patient is near the end of his/her life because
they simply don’t last long enough. If you need a new organ that can be transplanted, such as a kidney, dialysis is expensive, and available organs do not meet demand. Even with a new organ, there can be issues such as rejection. Recent advances have enabled 3-D printing of biocompatible materials, cells and supporting components into complex 3-D functional living tissues. 3-D bioprinting is being applied to regenerative medicine to address the need for tissues and organs suitable for transplantation. The hope is that any tissue – including full organs – can be grown with 3-D printers once the right combination of biomaterials is developed. 3-D bioprinting has already been used for the generation and transplantation of several tissues, including multilayered skin, bone, vascular grafts, tracheal splints, heart tissue and cartilaginous structures. In addition, using genomic data, 3-D printing may one day create personalized drugs on demand.
DIABETES MOVING TOWARD A CURE Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease that results from a failure in glucose regulation. It is a devastating disease that accounts for 5
percent of all deaths around the world each year. Current treatment methods do not address the underlying causes of the disease. Insulin-secreting pancreatic ß-cells (beta cells) are essential regulators of our metabolism. It is the absence of functional ß-cells that leads to hyperglycemia and diabetes. Recent insights into ß-cell development, combined with the discovery of pluripotent stem cells – those with the potential to become virtually any kind of cell – have led to an unprecedented opportunity to generate new ß-cells for transplantation therapy and drug screening. Current research for the treatment of diabetes is focused on the transplantation of either the pancreas or islet cells to reconstitute the insulin-secreting functional ß-cells. However, this technique is hampered by a shortage of donor organs. The new opportunity is to “push” stem cells down the path scientists want them to go – and emerge as cells that sense glucose and secrete insulin.
STEM CELLS PROMISING THERAPIES Understanding and harnessing stem cells may unlock breakthroughs in treating chronic diseases and offer regenerative opportunities. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can transform into specialized cells – such as heart,
The Human Microbiome includes the community of trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi living in and on each of our bodies. Microbiome research is currently an emerging science, but the field is progressing rapidly. Scientists have learned that the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut can keep us healthy or can contribute to disease. Recently, researchers announced the existence of at least three distinct human “enterotypes,” or intestinal bacterial communities. Understanding and treating our microbiomes like ecosystems could change medical science in dramatic ways. For example, it may soon be possible to reprogram gut bacteria to act as a kind of “living therapeutic” to correct the metabolic dysfunctions that underlie certain ailments.
neurons, liver, skin and muscle – and can also divide to produce more stem cells. In a child or young adult, stem cells are in large supply and act as part of the body’s built-in repair system. As we age, the supply of stem cells diminishes. They also undergo genetic mutation, which further reduces their effectiveness. Tissue engineering using the body’s own stem cells to repair, replace or augment diseased tissue is one rapidly evolving area of stem cell research. Mesenchymal stem cells, the major stem cells used for cell therapy, have been shown to be beneficial in bone repair and treatment of metabolic bone diseases. Other promising therapeutic areas include the treatment of autoimmune disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
At the new Senator Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center at UT Southwestern, a team led by Dr. Eric Olson is exploring the creation of stem cells to help reverse the effects of muscular dystrophy. “Using blood collected from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients, we generate induced pluripotent stem cells, which represent the patient’s disease. We use CRISPR gene editing to correct the genetic mutation in the stem cells and convert them into muscle cells to restore dystrophin protein, which is missing in the DMD patient,” said Dr. Rhonda Bassel-Duby, UT Southwestern Professor of Molecular Biology. This ability to produce stem cells for research has helped to quicken the advance of potential cures and treatments never before possible.
W Last year, the FDA approved a 3-D-printed pill for the first time. Recently, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have created a cheap, simple way to prompt a 3-D printer to create multiple medications with different time-release formulas – all in a single pill.
hat excites us most, truly, is that our community has the human resources – the dreamers, the doers and the donors – to accelerate the promise of a healthier future. We are reminded of an observation by Dr. Edward H. Cary: “Humanity is so constructed that the human mind has to be fascinated and captivated. Let us lend ourselves and our energies to stimulate a great citizenship to greater deeds ... to quicken the soul of the city.” Each of us at Southwestern Medical Foundation considers it a tremendous privilege to honor these inspired words – striving to remain fascinated and captivated, and never yielding in the pursuit of greatness. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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TO THOSE with the vision to continue the promise of a healthier future.
A Legacy of Giving “If you could make one gift and only one gift to the Southwest, you would choose, without question, the gift of better health.’’
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D R. E DWA R D H. CA RY
A LEGACY OF GIVING
Planned Giving Endowing the future of medicine, 2000 to 2015 SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL FOUNDATION’S impact has been significantly magnified by generous lifetime and estate gifts from the people who have treasured our cause – but never more dramatically than from 2000 to 2015.
$120 million the total contribution represented by these 78 Bequests, Trusts, Charitable Gift Annuities, Charitable Gift Trusts and Charitable Remainder Trusts – a remarkable outpouring of generosity that continues to improve the lives of countless people
Brooke S. Aldridge Bequest Shirley G. Alweis Bequest Paul M. Bass Jr. Bequest Anella S. Bauer Bequest Josephine L. Biddle Bequest Harvey A. Birsner, MD Bequest Patricia A. Box Bequest Zetta T. Carter Bequest Emogene B. Clardy Charitable Gift Annuity Martha C. Click Bequest Frances B. Conroy Bequest Jean H. Craver Bequest Dorothy R. Cullum Bequest Jerry P. Cunningham Charitable Gift Annuity J. B. Daiches Bequest Doris R. Dealey Charitable Remainder Trust Mack M. Elliott Bequest
David D. Emmett Bequest Richard M. Ferguson Charitable Gift Annuity Lawrence H. and Gladys S. Gahagan Bequest and Trust Felix B. & Josephine I. Goldman Bequest Martha D. Guthrie Bequest L. Ruth Guy, PhD Charitable Gift Annuity M. Lee Halford Bequest Nancy B. Hamon Bequest Sarah Kay Henry Charitable Gift Annuities A. G. Hilley Bequest M. Josephine Holley Bequest Susan E. Hotz, MD Bequest J. L. Huffines Bequest Joyce C. Huggins Charitable Remainder Trust Thomas M. Hunt Bequest Gayle W. Hysinger Bequest Marie L. Jaffe Bequest Maurice L. Jameson Bequest Bernice C. Johnson Bequest Mary Frances King Bequest Rollin W. King Bequest Catherine F. & Nathaniel K. Kolb Jr. Bequest
Jimmie C. LaFollette Bequest Bulah M. Luse Trust Solomon B. Margolin Bequest James M. & Rosalee G. McConnell Charitable Remainder Trust Barbara L. Meyer Bequest Dorothy H. Middleton Bequest D. J. Moody Bequest Robert H. Munger Bequest Gerald Noteboom, MD Bequest Ida K. Papert Bequest Benjamin & Selma L. Parrill Bequest Kathleen Anne and Mary Kathleen Phillips Bequest Annabel L. & David J. Pillow, MD Charitable Gift Annuity Mary Nell Plumhoff Bequest Shirley P. Pollock Bequest Rufus C. Porter Bequest Thomas B. Rhodes Bequest Frank K. Ribelin Bequest Christiaan “J.D.” Rote Bequest Harold “Barefoot” Sanders Bequest Julie J. Sanderson Bequest Lorraine S. Schein Bequest & Charitable Remainder Trust
Lois S. & John W. Schermerhorn, MD Charitable Gift Annuity Bette C. Schuttler Bequest Sarah M. & Charles E. Seay Charitable Gift Annuities Doyle L. Sharp, MD Bequest John S. Smale, MD Charitable Remainder Trust Charles C. Sprague, MD Charitable Gift Annuity Eleanor P. Stevens Bequest Andrew D. Suttle, PhD Bequest & Charitable Gift Annuities Nancy T. Swenson Bequest James Cleo Thompson Jr. Bequest W.L. Todd Jr. Bequest Rose Van Wert Bequest E.G. and Irene H. Wadel Bequest Pauline E. Weinberger Bequest Esther Lee Wiggington Bequest Mildred R. Wyatt Bequest Nancy N. Wu Bequest
More than $200 million
the total contribution given to both Southwestern Medical Foundation and UT Southwestern
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A LEGACY OF GIVING
Heritage Society THE HERITAGE SOCIETY honors those who have named Southwestern Medical Foundation or UT Southwestern as a beneficiary in their estate plans. Charles C. Sprague, MD, while Chairman of the Foundation, first envisioned the Heritage Society, writing: “It is our hope and intention that our mutually beneficial partnership of the past will grow and prosper in the future; all of society will be the beneficiary.” Anonymous (21) Joyce T. Alban Mr.# and Mrs. James R. Alexander George A. Atnip# Marilyn Augur* Paul M. Bass*# Dr. and Mrs. James Harold Bearden W. Robert Beavers, MD Drs. Paul R. and Rebecca B. Bergstresser Michael H. Bertino, MD* Josephine L. Biddle# Harvey Birsner, MD# Jules Bohnn, MD* Jean# and Bill# Booziotis Beth Ann Borden Nancy L. Branch Mr. & Mrs. Robert R. Brockman/ Brockman-Scruggs Family Charitable Fund Carol A. Brown, MD* Cherie Brown H. Ray and Paula P.# Calvert Sandra T. Campbell Antonio J. Campdera*# W. Plack Carr Jr.* Bernard H. Chaiken, MD Dr. and Mrs. Anthony C. Chang Emogene B. Clardy# Mr. and Mrs.# Robert R. Click Phyllis M. Coit Frank Crawford, MD Dorothy R. Cullum*# Kevin and Shari Curran, MD Edwin R. Daniels*# Clarice Davis Doris Russell Dealey*# Johann Deisenhofer, PhD Kathleen M. and George N. DeMartino Anne and Brian Dethrow Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Dickson Paula Barshop Donovitz Grant A. Dove# Joyce Allison Eberts and John P. Eberts, MD Mack M. Elliott# Gene# and Charlotte Emery Pamela and Roy Gene Evans* Richard Ferguson*# Dave and Lori Folz Mrs. Lee Ford
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Robert G. Freeman, MD# Gretchen# and Gerald Fronterhouse Dr. and Mrs. Norman F. Gant Mr. and Mrs. John Robert Gavlick Sr. Celia and Adi Gazdar David Ginn, MD* Dr. and Mrs. T. Franklin Glass Mr.# and Mrs.# F.B. Pete Goldman* Mr. and Mrs. Joe M. Graham G. Thomas Graves III Dick and Jacqueline Grote L. Ruth Guy, PhD# Rolf and Ute Haberecht Nancy and Jeremy Halbreich Sydney# and Wallace# Hall* Nancy B. Hamon*# John P. Harbin# Dr.# and Mrs. Thomas W. Harris* Joyce A. Hendrickson Helen B.# and Arthur E. Hewett Mr.# and Mrs. Donald R. Hibbert* Lyda Hill J. Roger# and Dorothy A. Hirl James M. Hoak Edmund M. Hoffman*# Mr. and Mrs.# S. Roger Horchow Drs. Susan Hotz# and Michael Shiekh Dr. J. B. Howell# William C. Huber# Keith and Cherie Hughes Lory Huitt-Masters Robert and Myra Hull Mrs. Morris I. Jaffe*# Berneice C. Johnson# Judith K. Johnson* Mrs. Robert S. Junger Ken and Lynn Keefe Majorie Kennedy Judge James W. Kerr Jr. Rollin W.# and Mary Ella# King Christine Kumpuris*# Carol Kyler Wright L. Lassiter Jr.* Mr. and Mrs. John Ridings Lee Will and Liza Lee Willis C. Maddrey, MD and Ann Matt Maddrey, PhD Geana Madison Nelson L. Mauldin Mr. and Mrs. C. Thomas May Jr.
James M.# and Rosalee# McConnell John and Melinda McConnell Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH* Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. McCullough Christopher F. McGratty Carmen Crews McCracken McMillan Anne H. McNamara Ferd C. and Carole W. Meyer Drs. Bert Moore# and Lynne Kirk Kathryn B. Montgomery William R. and Anne E. Montgomery Kay Y. Moran Jeff and Karen Morris Barbara and Robert Munford Robert H. Munger# Louis Nardizzi, MD, PhD* Gerard Noteboom, MD# Rhea T. O’Connor*# Thomas F. O’Toole Mrs. Sam Papert Jr.# Thomas J. Parr, MD and Joannie Parr Selma L.# and I. Benjamin# Parrill Patricia M. Patterson* Billy Joe Pendley# Dr. and Mrs. David J. Pillow Kurt L. Plaut Shirley Pollock*# Doris E. Porter, PT Mrs. Ashley (Kathryn) Priddy# John Proffitt, MD Muriel Rabiner W. Paul Radman, DDS Nancy Carol Reddick*# Daniel Remahl Tom B. Rhodes*# Frank Ribelin# Dr. and Mrs. Leonard Riggs Jr. Jack D. Russell# Mr. and Mrs. John Carl Rutledge Eleanor R. Salomon Stephen Raymond Salomon Hortense# and Morton# Sanger Lorraine Sulkin Schein# Dr.# and Mrs.# John W. Schermerhorn Mr. and Mrs. William L. Schilling Hans J. Schnitzler F. Michael Schultz, MD*
Bette Claire Schuttler# Sarah M.# and Charles E.# Seay* William D. Seybold, MD*# George and Shirley Shafer Doyle L. Sharp, MD*# Lynne and Roy Sheldon Tom and Dorothy Shockley Mr.# and Mrs. George A. (Tom) Shutt* John S. Smale, MD# Dr. and Mrs. Neal C. Small Elizabeth Solender and Gary L. Scott Ellen K.# and Robert L.# Solender* William T. Solomon* Alayne W. Sprague Charles C. Sprague, MD*# Ronald G. Steinhart* Eleanor P. Stevens# S. C. Stewart, MD*# Sally Seay Stout*# Thomas A. Sullivan Barbara C. and Robert P. Sypult John G. Taylor Douglas H. Unger, MD* Robert W. Vaughan, MD and Marjorie Sue Vaughan, PhD, RN Claire Elaine Vial and Robert G. Vial Margaret Bright Vonder Hoya Irene Wadel# Carolyn W.# and Thomas C. Walker Tim Wallace Jean and Tom Walter Mr.# and Mrs. Richard L. Walton Dr. Elgin W.# and Karen G. Ware Dr. and Mrs. Clark Watts* Garry Weber Arthur G. Weinberg, MD Pauline Weinberger*# Vicki Whitman Wheeler* Mr. and Mrs. Dennis White Linda Poe White Mr. Lawrence E. Whitman*# Evelyn Whitman-Dunn* Florence L. and Frederic F.# Wiedemann Dr. and Mrs. Kern Wildenthal James and Colleen Williams Karol Lynn Wilson# Terry M. Wilson* Mr.# and Mrs.# Ivor P. Wold * Charter Member # Deceased
A LEGACY OF GIVING
Lifetime Benefactors OVER THE COURSE of our history, thousands of people have played a role in founding, nurturing and dramatically shaping the evolution of medicine in the Southwestern U.S. It is the generous heart that elevates the human spirit. We express our profound thankfulness to those whose total contributions have reached or exceeded $5 million to help end human suffering. American Cancer Society American Diabetes Association Research Foundation Inc. American Heart Association Anonymous (4) Arthritis Foundation Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Walter M. Bader Biological Humanics Foundation/ Mary McDermott Cook Burroughs Wellcome Fund Cain Foundation W. W. Caruth Jr. Foundation at Communities Foundation of Texas Children’s Cancer Fund of Dallas Inc. Children’s Medical Foundation/Children’s Medical Center of Dallas A. L. Chilton Foundation Trust The Hon. and Mrs. William P. Clements Jr./ Clements Foundation Communities Foundation of Texas Inc. The Harlan R. Crow Family, the Trammel S. Crow Family, and the Stuart M. Crow Family David M. Crowley Foundation Crystal Charity Ball Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics Inc. The Dallas Foundation The Dedman Foundation/ Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Dedman Sr./ Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Dedman Jr./ Mrs. Patty Dedman Nail Lawrence Ellison Foundation Mr. John F. and Mrs. Virginia W. Eulich Excellence in Education Foundation Gertrude M. Gillespie Mr. and Mrs. Cecil H. Green/Green Foundation/Cecil H. Green Trust Mr. and Mrs. Dick Grote Ute Schwarz Haberecht and Rolf R. Haberecht, PhD/ Caroline Haberecht Moore/ Michael Haberecht, MD, PhD Nancy B. Hamon/ Hamon Charitable Foundation
Linda W. Hart and Milledge A. Hart III Hersh Foundation/Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Hersh Lyda Hill Foundation Hoblitzelle Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Edmund M. Hoffman/ Hoffman Family Foundation Howard Hughes Medical Institute Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Erik Jonsson/Jonsson Foundation Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International Susan G. Komen for the Cure Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Eli Lilly and Company Virginia Murchison Linthicum Lupus Research Alliance Inc. Bulah M. Luse Charitable Remainder Trust John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation Margolin/Cox Estates and Trusts Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust Mr. and Mrs. Eugene McDermott/ Eugene McDermott Foundation Meadows Foundation Merck Company Foundation/ Merck & Company Inc. Mobility Foundation Moncrief Cancer Foundation Mr. and Mrs. W. A. “Tex” Moncrief Jr./ William A. and Elizabeth B. Moncrief Foundation Harry S. Moss Heart Trust Lupe Murchison Foundation Muscular Dystrophy Association Inc. National Multiple Sclerosis Society Novo Nordisk Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Peter O’Donnell Jr./ O’Donnell Foundation Once Upon A Time... Mr. and Mrs. Ross Perot/ Perot Foundation Pfizer Inc.
T. Boone Pickens Foundation/ T. Boone Pickens Pogue Foundation/ Mr. and Mrs. A. Mack Pogue Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation/Mrs. C. Vincent Prothro Mr. and Mrs. Trevor D. Rees-Jones/ Rees-Jones Foundation Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Frank K. Ribelin Roche Laboratories Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Rogers Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Rose III Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Rowling/Rowling Foundation St. Paul Medical Foundation Inc./ St. Paul Fund for Advanced Heart & Lung Disease Sammons Dallas Foundation Mary R. Saner Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Seay/Sarah and Charles Seay Charitable Trust Dr. Doyle L. Sharp Mr. and Mrs. Harold C. Simmons/Harold Simmons Foundation Inc./Simmons Family Foundation Dr. Bob & Jean Smith Foundation/ Dr. and Mrs. Bob Smith Mr. and Mrs. William T. Solomon Southwestern Ball/Kent Waldrep National Paralysis Foundation Southwestern Medical Foundation Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation Sweetheart Ball Richard and Mary Templeton Foundation/ Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Templeton Tenneco Gas Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Jere W. Thompson Mr. and Mrs. Carl J. Thomsen Mr. Ernest and Mrs. Irene Wadel Mr. and Mrs. Tom Walter Robert A. Welch Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Willie Jr./ Mrs. Laverne Willie
Given or pledged to Southwestern Medical Foundation and/or The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center cumulatively as of August 28, 2017. For a complete list of our donors, please visit swmedical.org/ways-to-give/lifetime-benefactors.
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ORIGINAL LECTURE SERIES
What’s Next? The Foundation’s “Leading the Conversation on
Health” was created to bring together a diverse community of thought leaders focused on the future of health and provide a means to better understand
THE FOURTH, FIFTH AND SIXTH EVENTS IN THE FOUNDATION’S REMARKABLE SERIES
the extraordinary strides being made in academic medicine, especially at UT Southwestern. We highlight the fourth, fifth and sixth in the series that included Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; world-renowned UT Southwestern researcher Marc Diamond, MD; and UT Southwestern and Southwestern Medical Foundation leadership. Gov. Abbott was the latest in a prestigious line of Texas governors who have visited the Foundation and UT Southwestern, including Allan Shivers, who visited in 1951, and John Connally, who visited in 1967.
PHOTOS BY STEVE FOXALL
“WHAT’S NEXT ? THE NEWEST IN NEUROSCIENCE: CONFRONTING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE ”
HELD: September 24, 2015
The Pecan Room at Old Parkland
KEY SPEAKERS: Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky
and Marc Diamond, MD, one of the world’s leading researchers in Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative diseases.
QUOTE: “Alzheimer’s disease is the single largest health threat to our aging population, and research is the critical key to finding the cure,” Dr. Diamond said.
LEFT: Robert Rowling, Marc Diamond, MD BELOW : Ute and Rolf Haberecht; Robert Rowling, Marc Diamond, MD, Kathleen Gibson, Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky; Leslie and Bryan Diers; Sandy and Rex Jobe
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“WHAT’S NEXT ? BUILDING THE HIGHEST QUALITY HEALTH CARE, STUDENT BY STUDENT ” HELD: May 11, 2015
The Pecan Room at Old Parkland
KEY SPEAKERS: J. Gregory Fitz, MD, Executive Vice President
for Academic Affairs, Dean and Provost at UT Southwestern, and outstanding medical student Mary Villani. Introduction by Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky.
QUOTE: “Today the volume of medical knowledge is doubling every two years. Our challenge is how to maintain the rigor of the educational excellence at UT Southwestern with the realities of the changing landscape and expectations of physicians to deliver care in a context that makes sense for our community and society,” Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky said.
TOP: J. Gregory Fitz, MD, Mary Villani BOTTOM: William T. Solomon, Mack Mitchell, MD, Robert W. Decherd
“WHAT’S NEXT ? RESEARCH TALENT AND ITS IMPACT IN DRIVING THE FUTURE OF TEXAS” HELD: May 9, 2016
The Debate Chamber at Old Parkland
KEY SPEAKERS : Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Foundation
Chairman Robert Rowling. Introduction by Harlan Crow.
QUOTE: “Our state’s commitment to world-class research and higher education will pay dividends for our economy and for current and future generations of students and faculty across Texas. I’d like to thank Southwestern Medical Foundation and its donors for supporting the extraordinary progress that’s being made today in medicine in the Lone Star State,” Gov. Abbott said.
TOP ROW: Gov. Greg Abbott; Robert Rowling; Patty and James Huffines, Harlan Crow; SECON D ROW: Daniel Branch, Cole Rothwell, Andersen C. Fisher, Dan H. Branch; THIRD ROW: The Debate Chamber at Old Parkland; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Lyda Hill
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FOUNDATION NEWS & EVENTS
Moving Forward
2016 ANNUAL MEETING : NEW TRUSTEES HO DIN AWARDS THE CARY COUNCIL
ANNUAL MEETING
Bob Rowling (top); Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky; Karen Shuford; Anders Fisher
Samuel Parnell, MD (second from left), was awarded the Foundation’s prestigious 2016 Ho Din Award as was Don Seldin, MD (left), earlier in the year. Foundation President Kathleen Gibson (second from right) presented Dr. Seldin with his award, and James Huffines (far right) presented Dr. Parnell his award.
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On May 26, the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Medical Foundation Board of Trustees was called to order by Chairman Bob Rowling. Along with Foundation Trustees, attendees included Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, UT Southwestern President; Dr. J. Gregory Fitz, EVP for Academic Affairs, Provost and Dean of Southwestern Medical School; Dr. John Warner, CEO, UT Southwestern Hospitals; Brent Christopher, President, Children’s Medical Center Foundation; and Michael Darrouzet, President, Dallas County Medical Society. The group reviewed 2015 financials and listened to reports from Rowling, Jeffrey Heller, Jere W. Thompson Jr., Karen Shuford, Foundation President Kathleen Gibson, Anders Fisher and Dr. Podolsky. In his Chairman’s Report, Rowling announced that a major funding campaign to build upon the significant infrastructure in neuroscience already in place at UT Southwestern was in the quiet phase. He compared the opportunity for Dallas to become to neuroscience what MD Anderson is to cancer and revealed he had been asked to co-chair the campaign. He also recognized Dr. Don Seldin transitioning to VP-Emeritus after almost 30 years of serving the Foundation as VP for Medical Center Relations. Jeffrey Heller and Jere Thompson Jr. reported on the activities of the Investment Commitee and Audit Commitee, respectively. Karen Shuford presided over the nomination and confirmation of new Trustees. Kathleen Gibson highlighted fundraising milestones from the 2015 Annual Review and announced the winner of the 2016 Ho Din Award. Anders Fisher provided an update on the recently formed young leaders initiative of the Foundation and UT Southwestern, called The Cary Council. And Dr. Podolsky provided an update on recent activities of UT Southwestern. The Board approved Dr. Podolsky’s grant request, which continues to serve a vital role in supporting and advancing UT Southwestern’s mission in ways not easily replaced by other funding sources.
“We are grateful to our Trustees for their outstanding service in helping the Foundation continue a legacy that enriches the entire community, improves lives and advances medicine.”
Kathleen M. Gibson
TRUSTEES
Each year, the Foundation benefits from the work of new Trustees who join its Board. Their contributions are essential in allowing the work of Southwestern Medical Foundation to continue. Last year ( 2015-2016), Foundation Chairman Bob Rowling welcomed 14 outstanding business and civic leaders as Trustees to the Board. For 2016-2017, Board members elected 13 Trustees who will add their talents in support of the Foundation’s mission.
In welcoming new Trustees to the Annual Meeting, Gibson offered her congratulations and presented a challenge: “The more you engage, the more fascinated you will become with the incredible science and innovation going on in academic medicine in our community. “You will likely marvel at the engagement our community has had over a long period of time – which continues to enable some of the greatest progress in medical education, science, and care ever realized.”
2015-2016 SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL FOUNDATION TRUSTEES
2016-2017 SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL FOUNDATION TRUSTEES
FIRST ROW: Charles Anderson; Leland R. Burk; Richard W. Fisher; Marshal D. Goldberg, DDS; SECOND ROW: J. Hale Hoak; Richard E. Hoffman; Gary C. Kelly; Samuel D. Loughlin; THIRD ROW: Bobby B. Lyle; S. Todd Maclin; Lee Ann Pearse, MD; Steven S. Schiff; FOURTH ROW: Lisa Troutt; Kelcy L. Warren.
FIRST ROW: Lucy Billingsley; Linda P. Evans; Holland P. Gary; Nancy Cain Marcus, PhD; SECOND ROW: Charles W. Matthews; Alfreda B. Norman; Lydia H. Novakov; Rena M. Pederson; THIRD ROW: The Hon. Jeanne L. Phillips; Daniel G. Routman; Bonnie B. Smith; Marvin J. Stone, MD; FOURTH ROW: Kip Tindell.
Learn more about our 2015-2016 Trustees by going to swmedical.org/Trustees.
Learn more about our 2016-2017 Trustees by going to swmedical.org/Trustees.
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FOUNDATION NEWS & EVENTS
Moving Forward
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Trustee, presents Laurie Seidel, MD, with the 2015 Ho Din Award, the Foundation’s highest honor, at UT Southwestern graduation ceremonies.
HO DIN AWARD WINNERS
The Ho Din Award was conceived at a meeting of Trustees when the Foundation was forming Southwestern Medical College. The Trustees considered it of utmost importance to establish an award that would symbolize the fundamental concept on which the medical college was based. The award signifies human understanding and medical wissom. Since 1943, it has traditionally been given to a graduating senior who best exemplifies these qualities. On rare occasions, it has Kathleen Gibson presents Don Seldin, been awarded to faculty who MD, with a special 2016 Ho Din “by their service to humanity have Award for his contributions to medicine and almost 30 years of service to exemplified the spirit of Ho Din.” Southwestern Medical Foundation. In 2015, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison presented the award to outstanding senior Laurie Seidel, MD, who distinguished herself at Emory University before attending UT Southwestern, where she was a
leader on campus while maintaining a 4.0 academic record. “I’m incredibly honored and grateful to the Foundation for this distinguished award,” Dr. Seidel said. Trustee James Huffines presented Samuel Parnell, MD, the 2016 Ho Din Award. While at UT Southwestern, Dr. Parnell, too, maintained a 4.0 academic record. “I am inspired by all the Ho Din winners who have come before me and by the wonderful teachers and mentors from whom I have had the pleasure to learn at UT Southwestern.” In a special celebration and tribute, Southwestern Medical Foundation also presented Donald W. Seldin, MD, with a 2016 Ho Din Award for his innumerable contributions to medicine and service to the Foundation.
In 2016, the Ho Din Award underwent a design metamorphosis to become a beautifully engraved medallion. LEFT: Trustee James Huffines presents Samuel Parnell, MD, with the 2016 Ho Din Award.
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Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, Ed Cary III, Kathleen Gibson and Bob Rowling.
THE CARY COUNCIL
On September 17, 2015, the Foundation announced the formation of The Cary Council – a joint initiative of Southwestern Medical Foundation and UT Southwestern – created to tap a new generation of young men and women who will help to carry Dr. Cary’s founding mission forward. In his report to the Trustees, Cary Council member and liaison to the Board Anders Fisher announced that The Council includes more than 50 members. “The Cary Council is made up of some of our region’s smartest, most talented and dedicated young civic leaders,” said Bob Rowling, Foundation Chairman. “The Cary Council can help us reach our full potential for the benefit of patients everywhere,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, UT Southwestern President.
“... [W]e hope that The Cary Council can serve as a platform to provide not only future members of the Foundation Board, but leaders of the other community philanthropic boards that are so crucial to our city’s medical, educational and social services infrastructure,” added Fisher.
TOP: The Cary Council members learn more about the role the Foundation played in building the city of Dallas.
Inaugural Cary Council members in attendance were: Alex and Michael Kahn, Nancy Allred, Celia Moncrief Browning, Anne and Matt Bush, Annika Cail, Matt Carroll, Lindsey Collins, Lana Constantine, Grace Cook, Pete Dale, Jonathan Dietz, Jessica Epperson, Anders Fisher, Amanda George, Michael Gregory, Chris Hammes, Erika Huddleston, Jacob Jones, Andrew Lauck, Andrew Mack and Alex LoCasto, Lucy and Will Murchison, Lili and Matt Luth, Kate Morris, Anne Pennebaker, Cole Rothwell, Willing Ryan, Josie Sewell, and Amanda Dillard Shufeldt.
BOTTOM: Harlan Crow, Chairman and CEO of Crow Holdings, met The Cary Council members and shared his thoughts on philanthropy, leadership and community impact.
Michael Kahn, founder of The Cary Council, and Annika Cail. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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“The business and civic leadership of Dallas was a critical piece in building world-class medical care in our city.”
FOUNDATION TAPS LEE CULLUM AND JIM LEHRER TO HONOR
DALLAS BUSINESS AND CIVIC LEADERSHIP WITH “TO BUILD A GREAT CITY” EVENT.
O
n Thursday, February 25, 2016, the
Kathleen M. Gibson
along with leaders in the Dallas community.
grand vision, a vision to raise the quality
Together, we applauded the extraordinary
of medical education in Dallas to compete
commitment of Dallas’ business
with the very best schools in the country.
and civic leadership in supporting our
With Dallas’ growth and central geog-
medical foundation and building the
raphy, the question was asked, why not a
quality medical school we know today as
great medical center in the Southwestern
UT Southwestern.
U.S.? In 1943, despite financial and other
In 1939, Dr. Edward H. Cary
urgent realities created by World War
Foundation hosted an event, To Build a
secured the charter for Southwestern
II, the Foundation formed Southwestern
Great City, in the Debate Chamber on the
Medical Foundation with the support of
Medical College. Speaking at a joint
Old Parkland Campus. It was a special
philanthropist Karl Hoblitzelle and other
meeting of the Dallas Chamber of
evening with Jim Lehrer and Lee Cullum
community leaders. Both men shared a
Commerce and Dallas Citizens Council in 1943, Dr. Cary said, “The medical progress in any community is largely associated with the development of medical education within the community.” The evening’s event shared many stories of the Dallas community’s ongoing support for UT Southwestern. “The business and civic leadership of Dallas was a critical piece in building world-class TOP: Jim Lehrer, Lee Cullum, Bob Rowling, Kathleen Gibson LEFT: Lee Cullum, Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky
100
TOP: Bob Rowling, Bonnie B. Smith, Peter Smith, Mark Langdale; Micki and Mayor Mike Rawlings; SECOND ROW: Lizzie Horchow Routman, Daniel G. Routman, Carolyn Perot Rathjen; Jere W. Thompson Jr.; Harlan Crow, Gay and Bill Solomon; THIRD ROW: Ken and Ruth Altshuler; Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, Dr. Carol Podolsky, Jody Grant.
THANK YOU!
O
n Wednesday, January 14, 2015,
Southwestern Medical Foundation celebrated its 75th anniversary with a very special dinner and program on the stage of the Winspear Opera House. There were brief films recapping our history and pointing to the future, remarks by distinguished speakers, and musical interludes befitting a stunning venue. On behalf of the 75th Anniversary Steering Committee, the Foundation sincerely thanks those sponsors that made this memorable night possible. FOUNDING SPONSOR
Hoblitzelle Foundation VISIONARY SPONSORS
Anonymous David B. Miller Family Foundation BARNRAISER SPONSORS
medical care in our city. With the extraordinary financial commitment
to be a place of extraordinary impact.
Anonymous
“It’s a remarkable story to realize we
Jennifer and John Eagle
of the Dallas Chamber and the Dallas
had an institution that was actually a gleam
Judy and James A. Gibbs
Citizen’s Council in 1943 to help
in the civic eye less than 75 years ago, and
Hegi Family Foundation
the Foundation establish Southwestern
now I think there is no doubt in anybody’s
Hunton & Williams
Medical College, they recognized the
assessment that we stand among the tier
Luther King Capital Management
medical school was essential to building a
of the most impeccable medical centers
Eugene McDermott Foundation
great city,” said Kathleen Gibson,
anywhere – not just in the country, but in
PlainsCapital Bank
Foundation President and CEO.
the world,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky,
Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation
UT Southwestern President.
Rosemarie and Howard Meyers
“This medical school was built by the community, by the philanthropists, the
“In 1943, Dallas’ community leaders
businesses that pitched in early on, and
understood the importance of a quality
Linda and Joel H. Robuck
so the source of this school came from
medical center in building a great city, and
Rowling Foundation
the citizenry of Dallas, which makes UT
that support continues today. For that, we
Phyllis A. and Paul R. Seegers
Southwestern unique from any other
are grateful,” Mayor Rawlings said.
Gay F. and William T. Solomon
school in the State of Texas,” said Bob Rowling, Foundation Chairman. The event also showcased how the
Peggy and Leonard Riggs, MD
We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported the Foundation and UT Southwestern, as builders of our great
continued support of the Dallas
city and the quality medical care so
community has enabled UT Southwestern
essential for our community’s progress. S O U T H W E S T E R N M E D I C A L P E R S P E C T I V E S . 2 017
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commitment to high-quality science. This commitment to both science and to quality had an effect not only on basic science but on the entire medical school. He was a wonderful figure and a marvelous faculty member, and we will miss him.” Donald Seldin, MD, who recruited Dr. Gilman to UT Southwestern in 1981
“I was privileged to know him as a great scientist, a great mentor, and above all, as a great human being. I am truly honored to be a part of his legacy at
ALFRED G. GILMAN, MD, PHD,
UT Southwestern.” David Mangelsdorf, PhD, holder of the Alfred G. Gilman Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology
REMEMBERED
GREEN AND HER SUPPORT OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE
C
ecil Green met his wife, Ida, while
working on his master’s degree in an MIT program at General Electric in New York. They married on Feb. 6, 1926, and the couple would crisscross the country five times, living in autocamps and tents in search of employment while satisfying Mr. Green’s desire to explore. In 1930, Mr. Green took a job as chief of a seismographic crew at Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) – one of the first independent prospecting companies to
“Dr. Gilman was a giant in medical research. His discovery of G proteins and
LOOKING BACK ON IDA M.
Dr. Gilman was the son of renowned
perform seismic exploration for petroleum.
their critical functions is a cornerstone of
pharmacologist Dr. Alfred Gilman,
research across virtually every important
who along with Dr. Louis S. Goodman
slept on pulldown beds as he worked on
domain of medicine.”
authored the most universal and respected
exploration projects across Texas, Lousi-
medical text in pharmacology, The
ana and Oklahoma, earning $15 a month.
Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky UT Southwestern President
“Of all the scientists I have known, Al had the most unrelenting commitment to scientific integrity. He could not abide sloppy or phony science, and he said so openly, even when it would have been much safer to stay silent. We may never see the likes of him again.” Michael Brown, MD Nobel Laureate
Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. Dr. Gilman went on to win the 1994
Instruments ( GSI was renamed in 1951) provided the financial security needed
but earlier in his career he continued his
to fulfill their dream of philanthropy.
father’s important work, serving as primary
She and her husband dedicated their lives
editor of the textbook in 1980, 1985
and fortune in support of education and
and 1990.
medicine.
Many of us at the Foundation were privileged to know him. We were
Mrs. Green, who died in 1986, endured hardships, not knowing what might lie
entertained by his wit and humbled by his dogged determination and relentless curiosity that resulted in extraordinary
closely with Al Gilman came to know
contributions to medical knowledge. During research for the last issue of
an advocate for the importance of
Perspectives magazine, several inscriptions
pharmacology and physiology, and a leader
were found in various editions of his copies
of extraordinary skill.”
of the medical textbook. Among them:
Joseph Goldstein, MD Nobel Laureate
Years later, the success of Texas
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,
“Those of us privileged to have worked him as a researcher of high distinction,
The Greens often lived in cabins and
To Al May your future achievements keep
“Al was a wonderful influence. He
pace with your past. Work hard – but
came and transformed the Department
don’t neglect fishing.
of Pharmacology, but above and beyond that, he represented an unmistakable 102
- Dad
Ida and Cecil Green in Turner Falls, Oklahoma, circa 1930.
SPECIAL THANKS
There have been many authors and stewards of history who’ve come come before us. Their work was essential in telling our story. We extend to each of them our sincerest gratitude. REFERENCES
ahead. Her perseverance created the means to help other equally determined women. A bequest to Southwestern Medical Foundation became in 1994 The Ida M. Green Distinguished Visiting Professorship Honoring Women in Science and Medicine. Each year the Women in Science and
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. (www.cdc.gov) Goldstein, Joseph L. The Art of Science: Essays by Joseph L. Goldstein from Nature Medicine. (2001-2010). Le Fanu, James. (2012) The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine: Revised Edition. New York, NY: Basic Books. National Human Genome Research Institute website. (www.genome.gov) Nature. (Volume 409 Number 6822. February 15, 2001) Southwestern Medical Foundation News. (Spring 1964) Southwestern Medical Perspectives: A Publication of Southwestern Medical Foundation. (Spring 1999-Fall 2015). UT Southwestern, CenterTimes. (2000-2015).
Medicine Advisory Committee (WISMAC)
SPECIAL THANKS
selects and hosts an outstanding
Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation: Dr. Claire Pomeroy and Maya Brainard Frank Grassler and UT Southwestern Department of Technology Development William T. Solomon Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Dr. Robert W. Haley Dr. David Russell Dr. Donald W. Seldin Dr. Dennis Stone Dr. Kern Wildenthal Donald Zale Research Coordinators: Gabrielle Faulkner and Megan Jenkins UT Southwestern Office of the Dean: Dr. J. Gregory Fitz, Diana DiLolle, Rebecca Rooney, Shannon Williams UT Southwestern Office of Business Affairs: Arnim Dontes UT Southwestern Office of Communications: Lori Hillebrand-Cory UT Southwestern Office of Development: Amanda Billings, Shashea Adams UT Southwestern Office of the President: Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, Dr. Willis Maddrey, Dr. Robin Jacoby, Priscilla Alderman UT Southwestern Medical School Library and Archives: Cameron Kainerstorfer and Catherine Miller
female scientist/physician to visit UT Southwestern for a two-day professorship. This endowment is but one of more than 100 diverse philanthropic gifts given by the Greens, which included academic, medical and civic buildings; endowed chairs; and scholarship funds. For 23 years, WISMAC has served to pave the way for women in science and medicine at UT Southwestern. The activities of WISMAC, which take place throughout the year, are all supported and funded by Ida Green’s significant bequest to Southwestern Medical Foundation.
S hare INSPIRE
remember
CAPTURE A MEMORY
MAKE A DIFFERENCE ADD pay tribute HONOR
YOUR
VOICE
reminisce
Tell Us Your Story If you have a story, photo or anecdote that adds to the rich history of Southwestern Medical Foundation, we would love to hear it. Just send a brief synopsis and any photos to stories@swmedical.org or simply call Stephanie Vidikan at 214-351-6143. We look forward to hearing from you.
PHOTOS
Photo (Gov. Clements) page 11: Bob Daemmrich Photography Photo page 12: Courtesy of the U.S. Army Photo (Dr. Haley) page 22 and page 60: © 2016 The Dallas Morning News, Inc. Photo (Dr. Smalley) page 22: Courtesy of Rice University Photo (Super Size Me poster) page 23: Courtesy of Roadside Attractions Photo (Linda Buck) page 26: Courtesy of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Photo (Hospital) page 50: Courtesy of CallisonRTKL Inc. Photo page 54: Courtesy of Gobierno de Chile, Mina San José-Manuel González, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mina_San_Jos%C3%A9_-_Manuel_ Gonz%C3%A1lez_-_Gobierno_de_Chile.jpg Brain image page 56 and Satellite image page 61: Courtesy of Dr. Robert Haley Photo (Margaret McDermott) page 57: Courtesy of MySweetCharity Photo (Dr. Morrison) page 57: Justin Clemons Photography Photo (Plack and Cissy Carr) page 66: Daniel Driensky Photo (Margaret McDermott) page 73: Courtesy of The Hockaday School Illustration page 78: Julia Yellow Illustration Photo (mouse) page 78: Photo by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr Photos on pages 80-81: Courtesy of the Breakthrough Prize Photo (St. Paul Hospital) page 84: Courtesy of Dallas/Fort Worth Construction News Photo (Greens) page 102: Courtesy of UT Dallas Eugene McDermott Library
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Lifetime Recognition A SPECIAL RECEPTION HONORING DR. DONALD W. SELDIN
TOP: Dr. Seldin at the medical school in 1951.
TOP LEFT: Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, Dr. Joe Goldstein, Kathleen Gibson, Dr. Mike Brown; BOTTOM LEFT: Drs. David W. Russell, Helen Hobbs and Dennis Stone; CENTER: Drs. Donald Seldin and Ellen Taylor-Seldin; TOP RIGHT: Drs. Donald Seldin and Jean Wilson; BOTTOM RIGHT: Drs. Ellen TaylorSeldin, Mike Brown, Joe Goldstein and Donald Seldin
O
n March 2, 2016, Southwestern Medical Foundation hosted a reception to honor Dr. Donald W. Seldin for his exceptional contributions to medicine and his almost 30 years of service to the Foundation. During the event, Dr. Seldin became only the second faculty member to receive the prestigious Ho Din Award. The occasion was also an opportunity to dedicate the Seldin conference room, which sits on the site of the original medical school front door where Dr. Seldin arrived from Yale in 1951. At age 31, Dr. Seldin became Chair of Internal Medicine, where he remained for 36 years. During that time, he established a national reputation for himself and for UT Southwestern through his astute faculty recruitments, his personal involvement in education and training, and his own extraordinary prowess as a scientist and physician. 104
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The human brain named itself. Now it’s ready to save itself. It is ironic that the brain, which makes us who we are, remains one of the biggest mysteries to humanity. With a new Campaign for the Brain underway, chaired by Foundation Chairman Bob Rowling, UT Southwestern takes the next important step in maintaining global leadership in brain research and the treatment of brain illness. We invite you to learn more about all this exciting initiative entails at the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute – odonnell.utsouthwestern.edu.