VITAL LINES

UB MED VITAL LINES

SETHI RECEIVES STOCKTON KIMBALL AWARD

Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine, chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and assistant vice president for health sciences, is the recipient of the 2019 Stockton Kimball Award. The award, presented annually, is the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ highest honor, bestowed on a faculty member who has achieved worldwide recognition for his or her research and who has demonstrated signifi cant academic accomplishment and service to the University at Buff alo. Sethi’s clinical and research interests focus on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and respiratory infections, especially in the causation, treatment and prevention of COPD exacerbations. He is listed as one of the top fi ve COPD specialists in the country. “Dr. Sethi has exemplifi ed excellence in its broadest sense, and we at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are fortunate to have the benefi t of his extensive contributions to his

fi eld, the university and school,” says Suzanne G. Laychock, PhD, senior associate dean for faculty aff airs and facilities. Sethi is currently funded as co-principal investigator on a Department of Defense grant and site investigator for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) trial. He also was a co-investigator on the Clinical and Translational Science Award given to the Jacobs School in 2015 and has served as principal investigator on single and multisite research grants funded by the NIH, industry and Veterans Aff airs Merit Awards. Sethi will deliver the Stockton Kimball Lecture in 2020. Sethi

ESTEEMED SCHOLAR JOINS BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

B. Rita Alevriadou, PhD, a renowned researcher in the fi eld of cardiovascular bioengineering, has joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering as a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor. Alevriadou, who has joined UB from The Ohio State University (OSU), focuses her research on understanding the molecular basis of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, ischemia/reperfusion injury and diabetes. Her studies are supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Heart Association (AHA). She regularly reviews for federal and local funding agencies including the NIH, AHA and National Science Foundation, as well as for bioengineering journals. Additionally, she has been an editorial board member of the American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology since 2002. Alevriadou

At OSU, Alevriadou was director of the Vascular Mechanotransduction and Oxidative Stress Laboratory and a member of the Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, as well as an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine. Prior to joining OSU, she was an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Alevriadou received her doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Rice University in 1992, followed by postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute. The Empire Innovation Program (SUNY EIP) is a state-funded competitive grant program dedicated to recruiting and retaining world-class faculty at the State University of New York. EIP scholars drive innovation, enhance partnerships with business and industry, increase tech transfer, create opportunities for student research and increase the competitiveness of SUNY’s education programs. The UB Department of Biomedical Engineering is a collaboration between the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

POPESCU CHAIRS AAMC’S COUNCIL OF FACULTY

Gabriela K. Popescu, PhD ’99, professor of biochemistry in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has been elected chair of the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS) of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). A UB faculty member since 2006, Popescu began her two-year term as CFAS chair in November 2019. As chair, she will serve as a member of the AAMC’s board of directors until November 2021. CFAS—the largest of the AAMC Councils—was formed in 2013 with the goal of more directly engaging and representing faculty views and issues and voicing them to the AAMC to help shape the development and implementation of its programs and policies. The AAMC is currently developing a new strategic plan for the organization, and Popescu is leading a concurrent eff ort across CFAS to better align faculty priorities with the AAMC’s mission. Popescu believes that her experiences as a bench scientist, a woman in academic medicine and an immigrant serve her well in this leadership position. Popescu currently directs research funded by three NIH awards totaling more than $3.5 million. She has invested much of her career studying a family of brain receptors—called NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors—that are critical to learning and memory. Her research on these receptors may lead to more eff ective strategies to treat neurological and neurodegenerative conditions. To learn more about Popescu’s priorities as chair of the CFAS, go to buff alo.edu/news.html and search “Popescu.”

Popescu

CORRECTION: GENE THERAPIES FOR MACULAR DEGENERATION

In the fall 2019 issue of UB Medicine, we featured ophthalmic researcher Jack Sullivan, MD, PhD, in an article titled Gene Therapies for Macular Degeneration. The research we described in the article is supported, in part, by a VA Merit Review award from the United States Department of Veterans Aff airs (Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service) and, in part, by a National Eye Institute award. In addition to being a professor of ophthalmology at UB, Sullivan is a staff physician scientist at the VA Western New York Healthcare System in Buff alo. We also described a $1 million bequest commitment made by George and Roberta Stevens in support of the UB Department of Ophthalmology and research into age-related macular degeneration. In the article, we incorrectly stated that George is a UB alumnus. Roberta, his wife, is the alumna of UB, having earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and English at the university in 1970 and a master’s degree in library and information studies in 1974. She also holds a master’s degree in English from SUNY at Binghamton. In addition to their commitment to the medical school, the Stevens have made a $1 million bequest pledge to the UB College of Arts

Roberta and George Stevens

and Sciences (CAS). Roberta serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for CAS, and she and George both serve on the Boldly Buff alo campaign committee.

UB MED VITAL LINES

he UB Biorepository, a critical new facility in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, opened in October, providing a powerful resource regionally and throughout the state for driving biomedical innovation in academia and industry. From molecular profi ling of samples to integration with clinical data about patients, the facility has the capacity to collect, process, store and distribute millions of biological specimens that will allow UB and its research and industry partners to harness the discoveries that ultimately benefi t patients. The UB Biorepository strengthens the ability of researchers in academia and industry to advance precision medicine by developing new drugs and diagnostic tools targeted to specifi c disorders and even individual patients. Funded by UB and New York State, the UB Biorepository is a critical part of the Buff alo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics (BIG), which connects life sciences companies to technical expertise and high-tech facilities at UB. BIG is supported by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s economic development eff orts in Buff alo, and is one of the key initiatives helping to build the region’s innovation economy by leveraging its life sciences assets to drive economic growth. According to Andrew Brooks, chief operating offi cer and director of technology development at RUCDR Infi nite Biologics at Rutgers University and a consultant to the UB Biorepository, a centralized biorepository is an essential ingredient today in advancing biomedical research and collaborations. While in the past the emphasis was on the safe storage and preservation of biospecimens, the exponential growth of big data in biomedicine has created major new opportunities for innovation based on the far more detailed information now available about each biospecimen. The UB Biorepository provides comprehensive annotation of biospecimens, through which the functions and locations of genes and coding regions in a genome are identifi ed, as well as big data integration. UB BIOREPOSITORY OPENS

John E. Tomaszewski, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson Chair of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences in the Jacobs School, adds: “With each individual sample potentially providing as many as hundreds of thousands of annotations, or datapoints, whether you’re studying the genome, the proteome or the microbiome, the biospecimens in the biorepository are an incredibly rich resource.” Having a biorepository in Western New York allows local researchers in both academia and industry to target diseases that have a high incidence in Western New York, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), explains Norma J. Nowak, PhD, executive director of UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, and faculty leader with Tomaszewski of the biorepository. Nowak adds that the biorepository will become an especially valuable resource since it will eventually refl ect the ethnic and international diversity of Buff alo and Western New York. “The biorepository will capture that diversity,” she says. For more information about the UB Biorepository, visit buff alo.edu/news.html and search “biorepository.” By Ellen Goldbaum Brings the power of precision medicine to Western New York T

A MEDICAL EDUCATION PIONEER GIVES BACK Hilliard Jason, MD ’58, EdD ’61, is grateful for his unique opportunities at UB

illiard (“Hill”) Jason, MD ’58, EdD ’61, an early pioneer in medical education, made a substantial gift (together with his wife, Jane Westberg, PhD) to the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in support of the school’s newly established Medical Education and Educational Research Institute (see article on page 6).

In 1956-58, Jason was part of a group at UB that started this country’s fi rst-ever program in medical education research and faculty development. At the time, he was a medical student disenchanted with a medical education process that he felt did not adequately “focus on the learning process, human communication or the real needs of future clinicians.” When he shared his concerns with his UB professors, he was surprised to fi nd that some agreed with him. Serendipitously, the school was in the process of initiating what it called the “Project in Medical Education,” and Jason was asked to join the group as a student representative. “The Buff alo program became the fi rst in the United States (and, probably the world) to begin a systematic program in faculty development for medical teachers,” Jason wrote in a retrospective article on medical education in the 40th anniversary issue of the journal Medical Teacher in 2018. “I had the unearned good fortune to be at UB’s medical school at just the right time. My complaining, amazingly and delightfully, led to an invitation that proved lifechanging,” he recalls in that article. “George E. Miller, the founder and leader of ‘The Project,’ invited me to become the student voice, a role that had not been anticipated in the original plan.” H Jason

By S. A. Unger

Jason subsequently sought and received permission to attend medical school half time for two years so that he could fully participate in The Project. He also applied to the UB Graduate School of Education, where he was accepted and completed a doctorate in education in 1961, and to which he and Jane have also made a philanthropic gift . Medical education became the focus of Jason’s 60-plus year career, which has taken him to universities around the country, most notably, the University of Colorado, where he has been clinical professor of family medicine since 1990, and Michigan State University, where he was founding director of the Offi ce of Medical Education Research and Development. He also served the Association of American Medical Colleges as founding director of its Division of Faculty Development. Today Jason is cofounder and director of academic aff airs at iMedtrust.org, a higher education charity based in England and Wales, where he is leading the design of the educational programs. “Our gift s to UB were prompted by my gratitude for how well I was treated when I was a student in both the medical and education programs,” Jason says. “In particular, I appreciate the fl exibility shown by both programs, which allowed me to become the fi rst person globally, as far as I know, to be able to pursue doctorates in medicine and education simultaneously. These experiences became the foundation of my rather lengthy and still-active career.” “I had the unearned good fortune to be at UB’s medical school at just the right time. My complaining, amazingly and delightfully, led to an invitation that proved life-changing.” — HILLIARD JASON, MD