ALL
How David Linehan’s Past Will Reshape Our Future
RNA READY We Led the Research. Now RNA’s Moment Has Arrived
PLUS: Largest-Ever Gifts Will Transform Research and Care
Meet the Dean’s Circle Award Winners
On the cover
A year into his new position, Dr. Linehan shares what drew him to medicine, the things that shaped him, and how he sees the future.
The Robert L. & Lillian H. Brent White Coat Ceremony shined the light on SMD’s Class of 2028. See page 29 for more photos.
Alumni: Share Your Words of Wisdom with a Student
To share words of wisdom with students, visit uofr.us/whitecoatwisdom or scan the QR code. Your message will be placed in the pocket of a student's white coat at the next ceremony.
David Linehan, MD
CEO, University of Rochester Medical Center
Dean, School of Medicine and Dentistry
Senior Vice President for Health Sciences
ORochester
RochesterMedicineMagazine@urmc.rochester.edu
In this issue, you’ll see how we’re doing that in multiple ways. There’s no better example than RNA research, long considered an afterthought. A handful of Rochester researchers felt otherwise, spending decades making fundamental discoveries. Their work is underpinning much of what’s going on now in the field—and what’s going on is exciting.
Nationally, more than 400 RNA-based drugs are in development. Work done here at the School of Medicine and Dentistry played a key role in the development of mRNA COVID vaccines, and there’s great potential to apply RNA research to cancer treatments and more.
The result? After decades in the shadows, RNA research is now directly in the spotlight. Our story shows why, and it explains the remarkable potential for new cures.
You’ll also learn about our largest-ever gift, a $50 million commitment from Tom Golisano to build the Golisano Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Institute. This will greatly accelerate what we can do for this severely underserved population, bringing new opportunities for collaboration and care.
Another major gift, from University Trustee Emeritus Phil Saunders, will support Orthopaedics research as well as SMD faculty and nursing students.
Finally, having completed a year as URMC CEO and SMD dean, I’m happy to offer a look into my life, career, and vision for the future. I’m relentlessly optimistic about the promise we bring as a medical school, health system, and research powerhouse.
What makes me most hopeful about tomorrow is knowing we’re putting good people in place today—the educators training the next generation, the clinicians caring for our community, the researchers paving the way for future treatments, and the staff that enable all this great work to happen.
ne of the best things about working at an academic medical center is being part of shaping the future. Read more Rochester Medicine RochesterMedicine.urmc.edu
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Cardiac Care
Scientists at URMC’s Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center are conducting the first ever, large-scale, head-to-head comparison of two medications prescribed to most heart-failure patients.
The $27 million study, led by Mehmet Aktas, MD, will run concurrently with another $27 million initiative to conduct a head-to-head comparison of patient outcomes using medications alone or with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs).
“Our current analysis suggests that at least 50 percent of the patients who receive an ICD today do not derive a survival benefit from it,” said Ilan Goldenberg, MD, who is leading the North American defibrillator study. “I believe the whole paradigm of heart-failure treatment will change.”
Funding for both studies comes from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The executive director of PCORI, Nakela L. Cook, MD, MPH, said the ICD study “has the potential to fill an important evidence gap relevant to a range of healthcare decision-makers and help them better assess their care options.”
The medication study aims to provide optimal heart-failure management for the six million people living with the disease.
“A cornerstone of treatment for heart failure is the use of beta blockers,” said Aktas, a cardiac electrophysiologist. “Carvedilol and metoprolol succinate are the main types of beta blockers that are prescribed for 90 percent of people with this condition to improve survival. However, no one has ever studied the differences in outcomes for these two drugs in patients with heart failure who receive implantable cardioverter defibrillators.”
“Securing these prestigious research funding awards positions URMC not only as a leader in advancing cardiac care for the communities we serve but also serves as a catalyst for
institutional growth,” said Spencer Z. Rosero, MD, chief of Cardiology.
“These two large awards build on the foundation of innovative research that has changed heart care countless times,” said David C. Linehan, MD, CEO of URMC and SMD dean. “Our scientists answer some of the most difficult questions, providing new pathways to therapies.”
by Leslie Orr
Richard Dunne, MD, MS
Researchers have discovered a drug that safely and effectively helps cancer patients when they suffer from cachexia, the debilitating loss of muscle and weight.
The results of the randomized phase-2 clinical trial—which included 187 people who experienced cachexia with lung, pancreatic, or colorectal cancer—were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on Sept. 14, 2024.
Scientists discovered that the drug ponsegromab blocks a hormone known as GDF-15, which regulates appetite and body weight. The patients in the trial had elevated levels of GDF-15, a primary driver of cachexia. Ponsegromab improved many aspects of cachexia and its symptoms. Side effects were minimal, said Richard Dunne, MD, MS, a Wilmot Cancer Institute oncologist and cachexia expert who was part of the large group of investigators who ran the nationwide study.
In fact, ponsegromab appeared to be safer than common appetite stimulants used by cachexia patients.
“This is super exciting,” said Dunne, an associate professor of Medicine at URMC. “This study is an important step in providing treatment for the hundreds of thousands of patients who suffer from poor quality of life due to cachexia.”
by Leslie Orr
A treatment that rallies the immune system to destroy cancer raised the survival rate for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma patients to a remarkable 92 percent, suggesting a new standard therapy for the disease. The New England Journal of Medicine published the innovative clinical trial results, along with an editorial that supports the new treatment for all stages of this disease.
Young people are most at risk of getting Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood and immune system cancer. With this new immunotherapy approach, scientists believe they have found a way to reduce long-term side effects of treatment—including second cancers and heart and lung conditions later in life— because immunotherapy appears to be less toxic. The later-life side effects are most often associated with radiation treatment.
“We will see many fewer breast cancers 20 to 30 years later in this group of patients,
less infertility, less heart disease,” said URMC Wilmot Cancer Institute Director Jonathan Friedberg, MD, MMSc, who led the study and is the corresponding author.
Standard care for Hodgkin lymphoma, which typically involves chemotherapy and, often, radiation therapy in the youngest patients, already has a cure rate of higher than 80 percent.
“But the 20 percent who are not cured have a long road ahead,” Friedberg said. “The goal of this study was to improve the cure rate while also minimizing side effects and long-term toxicities—and that’s what makes this an unprecedented clinical trial.”
The preliminary trial data was so strong that the National Cancer Institute ordered an early stop to the study in order to facilitate a faster review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Vaccine Research
by Mark Michaud
Vaccine researchers at URMC are investigating whether nasal vaccines, already available for the flu, can be effective against COVID.
“Most of the time, the strains we select for vaccines aren’t a perfect match because the virus evolves faster than we can keep up,” said David Topham, PhD, founding director of the University of Rochester’s Translational Immunology and Infectious Disease Institute and principal investigator of the new study. “We need vaccines that elicit cross-reactive immunity—immunity that doesn’t rely on which strain is circulating but still offers protection and prevents severe illness or hospitalization,” added Topham, who is also the Marie Curran Wilson and Joseph Chamberlain Wilson Professor.
This study aims to set benchmarks to guide the development of COVID nasal vaccines, which have the potential to strengthen the immune response in the respiratory system—where the virus initially attacks. A COVID nasal vaccine is being tested in an early-stage clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The new study will use data previously collected by a consortium that included Angela Branche, MD, co-director of the URMC Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit. This prior study, called COVAIL, compared single- and multi-strain COVID vaccines. Results published in Nature Medicine in 2023 showed that boosters don’t need to match a specific strain to provide protection.
Transplant
by Susanne Pallo
A new study led by researchers at the Wilmot Cancer Institute at URMC showed that a select group of patients with colorectal cancer that had spread to the liver fared better if they received a liver transplant versus other common therapies.
In the study, published in JAMA Surgery, patients who had liver transplants tended to live longer without cancer progression than patients who opted for other treatments. This is the first study to compare transplants to other treatment options.
by Emily Boynton
“In any cancer treatment, it’s very easy to describe the outcomes of the patients who received the intervention, but similar patients that did not undergo the intervention can serve as a good comparison,” said Matthew Byrne, MD, a surgery resident at URMC and author of the study. “Without randomized, controlled trial data, this study offers the best evidence that is available.”
URMC’s liver transplant program has performed more living-donor transplants in patients with colorectal liver metastases than any other center in North America.
“Right now, URMC is the largest center in the country—and the secondlargest center in the world—doing liver transplant for colorectal liver metastases,” said Roberto HernandezAlejandro, MD, chief of Abdominal Transplant and Liver Surgery at URMC.
The study, led by HernandezAlejandro, showed that the liver transplant group had significantly higher progression-free survival rates across three years of follow-up than those undergoing other treatments. Larger clinical trials will be needed to fully understand the added benefit of liver transplant.
SMD’s medical education program has earned full accreditation for the next eight years from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME).
Sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Medical Association (AMA), the LCME determines whether medical education programs meet established quality standards and continually strive to improve in areas such as educational resources and infrastructure, curriculum management, evaluation and enhancement, and student support.
“In order to receive full accreditation, a program has to demonstrate that they’re providing a solid foundation that prepares graduates not only for the next stage of their training, but for lifelong careers in medicine,” said David C. Linehan, MD, URMC CEO and SMD dean.
Established programs typically undergo a self-study process and a full survey visit every eight years.
by Leslie Orr
Research has confirmed that a molecule can reprogram immune cells that normally protect against infection and cancer, turning them into “bad guys” that promote cancer growth.
Studying the behavior of these “pro-tumor” immune cells is important because they could be targets for therapies that block their harmful activity, said Minsoo Kim, PhD, corresponding author of the study and a research leader at the Wilmot Cancer Institute.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the discovery.
Kim led a team of scientists that found that platelet-activating factor (PAF) is the key molecule that controls the destiny of the immune cells. PAF not only recruits cancer-promoting cells, but it also suppresses the immune system’s ability to fight back. In addition, researchers found that multiple cancers rely on the same PAF signals.
“This is what could be most significant,” said Kim, a Dean’s professor of Microbiology and Immunology at URMC. “Because if we find a treatment that could interfere with PAF, it could potentially apply to many types of cancer.”
Diane Hartmann (MD ’87, Res ’91), former senior associate dean for graduate medical education, and Lawrence A. Tabak, DDS, PhD, the principal deputy director of the National Institutes of Health and the first dentist-scientist to serve as UR’s senior associate dean for research, received George Eastman Medals in 2024.
The Eastman Medal recognizes individuals whose achievements and service embody the University of Rochester’s highest ideals. The medal is named for George Eastman, the University’s major benefactor and one of the nation’s great champions of higher education.
Tabak was appointed as the NIH principal deputy director and the deputy ethics counselor in 2010 following his tenure as director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research from 2000–2010. At SMD,
Tabak served as a professor of Dentistry and of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
Tabak bolstered the prominence of oral biology research programs and provided the foundation for today’s Eastman Institute for Oral Health.
Hartmann’s national profile and credibility were never more evident than when she led the effort that resulted in URMC being one of only a handful of institutions nationwide chosen to participate in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Pursuing Excellence initiative.
Under Hartmann, the number of accredited training positions for residents and fellows rose from 598 to 930. The number of ACGME-accredited residencies and fellowships rose from 49 to 93. Collaboration deepened between her office and UR Medicine hospitals, as did an emphasis on wellness, quality, and safety.
by Mark Michaud
New research describes for the first time how a spreading wave of disruption and the flow of fluid in the brain triggers headaches, detailing the connection between the neurological symptoms associated with aura and the migraine that follows. The study also identifies new proteins that could be responsible for headaches and may serve as the foundation for new migraine drugs.
“These findings provide us with a host of new targets to suppress sensory-nerve activation to prevent and treat migraines and strengthen existing therapies,” said Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, co-director of the University of Rochester Center for Translational Neuromedicine and lead author of the study.
The cause of auras preceding a headache is a phenomenon called cortical spreading depression, a temporary depolarization of neurons and other cells caused by the diffusion of glutamate and potassium that radiates like a wave across the brain, reducing oxygen levels and impairing blood flow.
Migraine auras arise in the brain and send signals to the peripheral nervous system. The process of communication between the brain and peripheral sensory nerves in migraines has largely remained a mystery.
The most widely accepted theory is that nerve endings resting on the outer surface of the membranes that enclose the brain are responsible for the headaches that follow an aura. The new study describes a different route and identifies proteins, many of which are potential new drug targets, that may be responsible for activating the nerves and causing pain.
As the depolarization wave spreads, neurons release a host of inflammatory and other proteins into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); the team was the first to discover that this is a way the brain washes away toxic proteins. The researchers showed how CSF transports these proteins to the
trigeminal ganglion, a bundle of nerves at the base of the skull that supplies sensory information to the head and face.
It was assumed that the trigeminal ganglion rested outside the blood-brain barrier. But the researchers identified a previously unknown gap in the barrier that allowed CSF to flow directly into the trigeminal ganglion, exposing sensory nerves to the cocktail of proteins released by the brain.
The researchers identified 12 proteins called ligands that bind with receptors on sensory nerves that are found in the trigeminal ganglion, potentially causing these cells to activate.
MARCH 27-29
University of Rochester Women’s Summit
MAY 1 Day of Giving
MAY 31
Golisano Children’s Hospital Stroll for Strong Kids Walk + 5K
SEPTEMBER 18-21
Meliora Weekend
SEPTEMBER 27-28
Wilmot Warrior Weekend
Visit us online to view a complete virtual and in-person event listing— including those that may be happening where you live—or to watch recordings of past events.
uofr.us/events @uofralumni
CHECK uofr.us/events FOR DATES + SPEAKERS
Experience Rochester
Our signature online and regional event series exemplifies the University of Rochester’s commitment to lifelong learning and features topics and speakers unique to the University.
REAL Conversations
This virtual lecture series offers authentic discussions featuring brave and candid dialogues around equity, measurable action, and meaningful change.
By Sandra Parker
To understand David Linehan, MD, and how he operates, just look to his childhood.
The new dean of SMD and CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center grew up in Dorchester, a working-class, Irish-Catholic neighborhood in inner-city Boston. He learned about healthcare from his mother’s role as founder and executive director of a residential recovery facility for men addicted to alcohol and drugs. He and his sisters spent occasional afternoons there (he loved the pool table) because his mother was working full-time and raising three kids alone.
Linehan was only three when his father, a member of the Massachusetts State Legislature, died suddenly. His sisters were four and one. They lived the challenges faced by single-parent families without much money. The Catholic schools Linehan attended assisted the family. His grandparents lived a mile away, so he walked there and back for meals while his mother was at work.
“I could do my own laundry when I was seven years old: wash, dry, and fold,” he says. At age nine, he had a paper route.
Linehan’s experiences prepared him well for life and career. Childhood taught him about independence and the challenges faced by working-class families. Competitive swimming at his Jesuit high school showed him that winning is a team effort. Balancing swim practices, home chores, and working part-time jobs while still earning top grades in school required him to learn time management. From exposure to his mother’s career and the Jesuit philosophy, Linehan grew to understand the importance of a life of service. He had once considered becoming a detective or an FBI agent. But medicine called.
His favorite TV series while he was growing up was M*A*S*H, about a mobile army surgical hospital during the Korean War. Like many viewers, he admired Alan Alda’s character Hawkeye Pierce, the wisecracking and gifted surgeon.
A gifted surgeon, accomplished cancer researcher, compassionate clinician, and skilled administrator.
“The show captured a lot of what it means to be in an operating room and captain of that ship,” he says.
In high school he shadowed a surgeon and was allowed to scrub in for surgery. He saw the patient anesthetized and operated on, then witnessed the patient waking up in pain but cured. He was fascinated by the patient’s transformation, the surgical teamwork, and the “immediate gratification of seeing a problem and fixing it.”
In February 2024, Linehan, 61, was appointed CEO of URMC, dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and senior vice president for Health Sciences.
Linehan is known as a “quadruple threat”—a gifted surgeon, accomplished cancer researcher, compassionate clinician, and skilled administrator. He is internationally renowned for his research in immunotherapy treatments for pancreatic cancer. But among his patients, he’s just as renowned for his caring demeanor.
For 10 years, he served as chair of the URMC Department of Surgery and the Seymour I. Schwartz Professor in Surgery. He was recruited from Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, where he was chief of Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic and Gastrointestinal Surgery.
Linehan has said that he loved serving as chair of Surgery but sees his new role as a chance to contribute even more to the Medical Center. He comes across as friendly and relaxed, though he acknowledges that his new position comes with stress. He oversees a budget of almost $6 billion and 27,000 employees while shepherding the institution through the uncertain world of healthcare in the 21st century.
But he’s quick to point out that his stress pales next to what providers face.
“Taking care of patients in the operating room— that’s stressful, when you’ve got hard-to-control bleeding, and the patient’s life is on the line,” he says. “In many ways, the docs who come in to work here every day have a much harder job than I do, and I will always respect that.”
And he knows what unites all of the Medical Center’s missions. “We have to start with the core value—the ‘why we come to work every day’—which is the patient,” he says, quoting Elizabeth McAnarney, MD (Flw ’70), professor emerita of Pediatrics: “ ‘If you’re lost, focus on the patient, and you’ll see the path.’ If we start there when we’re thinking of a vision of the future, then we’ll be in the right place.”
During the first six months in his new role, Linehan embarked on an extensive listening tour, meeting
with faculty, learners, and staff. He wanted to listen before making major changes.
His vision for URMC plays off the culture of collaboration that distinguishes Rochester.
He wants to increase team-based science, transdisciplinary care teams, and the transformation of research into cures. The idea is to become even better known as a beacon of innovation. That includes embracing digital tools and applying data and AI to improve delivery of care and access to care. The end game is improved outcomes, raising Rochester’s reputation ever higher.
True to his roots, Linehan knows that reaching a vision like this begins and ends with empowering people.
“You treat people right, you value what they do, and you respect everybody on the team because everybody has a role,” he says. “The person coming in to empty the trash in my office—that was my grandfather two generations ago. So I’m not going to treat them any differently than I treat the chair of the board.”
Jennifer Weber, Linehan’s executive assistant, discovered this humility on her first day when Linehan offered to make her a cup of coffee.
A few years ago, a friend who is an Irish surgeon brought him to a spot on the west coast of Ireland where, in the mid-1800s, poverty-stricken families boarded ships for America. The Atlantic Ocean is wild here, roaring as it crashes into Ireland’s rocky coast.
“My friend wanted me to appreciate my heritage,” says Linehan, who is Irish on his father’s side and still has family in Ireland. “He said, ‘I want you to think about your ancestor who looked out there and then got on the boat into the vast ocean. I want you to think about what drove them to take that risk.’”
For Linehan, the experience remains a vivid reminder that people will take incredible risks to care for their families. And circumstances can change for anyone, so medical care should be accessible to all regardless of income.
Unsurprisingly, Linehan credits others with assisting him in building his career.
“I hit the jackpot when it comes to mentors,” he says. “And they were actually more than mentors. They were sponsors who took an intense interest in the advancement of my career and used their influence to get me national exposure.”
Linehan makes it a point to carry on that tradition of teaching and mentoring. For example, he stays in contact with residents by occasionally taking call
and joining rounds instead of just running into them in the hallway.
“David was revered by students [at Washington University] as a great teacher,” says Steven Strasberg, MD, emeritus professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. “He is also a talented surgeon, humanitarian, and leader.”
Murray Brennan, MD, recalls that Linehan showed leadership potential even as a fellow. “He has a high emotional IQ,” says Brennan, an oncology surgeon and former chair of surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “He would listen carefully … Rochester is fortunate to have him there and in a leadership role.”
“To me, it’s always rewarding when the student becomes the master,” says Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, director of the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center and the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor at Washington University School of Medicine. “In Dave’s case, that’s what happened.”
Eberlein, who recruited Linehan to Washington University, describes him as thoughtful, calm, prepared, and possessing tremendous people skills. “He has a knack for making you feel not only part of the team but an important part of the team. He knows how to get people to be part of the process and across the finish line. It’s really unique to do that in different environments with different goals.”
Another of Linehan’s mentors was the late Seymour I. Schwartz, MD (Res ’57), Rochester’s former chair of surgery and 70-year veteran of URMC who wrote
Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery, the iconic textbook on surgery.
“I have an original copy right here,” Linehan says, pulling a thick yellow textbook from his shelf.
Yet at the 50th anniversary celebration of the textbook, almost everything in the original edition was no longer true, Linehan points out. Ulcers, for example, were once treated by removing a portion of the stomach but are now treated with antibiotics.
That, he notes, shows the great promise of medical research.
“Dr Schwartz, this iconic and venerated academic scholar, challenged the next generation to seek new knowledge, to question professors and not accept the status quo. The irony is that he’s the most important professor, and he’s saying it’s OK to doubt. In fact, he says ‘you’re obligated to doubt me. You’re obligated to find a better way.’ ”
Linehan knows the pandemic made workforce challenges even greater. The nursing shortage, for example, is expected to surge to 35,000 in New York state and to 500,000 across the nation by 2030, further complicated by the expected rise in patients as Baby Boomers age.
“Nurses were the heroes of COVID,” he says. “They were on the front lines.” They also bore the brunt of patient and societal frustration and sometimes hostility.
Linehan wants to persuade more nurses from the travel ranks to join URMC and to encourage young people to consider nursing and other healthcare careers. Every summer, youth from the Teen Anti-Violence Alliance spend two months in the
Department of Surgery, shadowing surgeons and practicing skills such as suturing.
“That exposure can be a spark that ignites something in a kid,” he says.
Much is at stake. Workforce shortages and reduction in government payments create pressure on doctors to achieve better outcomes but with fewer resources. And that’s a path to burnout, Linehan says, especially considering that sometimes 60 percent of a doctor’s time is spent on documentation.
Linehan envisions strategic use of AI to help both patients and providers. The Medical Center is
piloting an “ambient documentation” program using AI to record, transcribe, and organize conversations between doctor and patient during visits. The results have been game-changing, freeing up doctors to spend less time on administrative tasks.
“We are going to see an explosion of healthcare improvements of AI over the next decade. It’s going to be an important part of the plan and the vision,” he says. “How are we going to be smart about applying AI to healthcare? How can we take that data, extract the important stuff, and help the practitioner make the right decision about diagnosis or treatment in the clinic or at the bedside? That to me is really exciting.”
Amazon already correlates data, which is why ads for a microwave magically appear after we look at kitchen appliances online. In healthcare, he explains, AI could improve public health by correlating data already in the electronic health record to identify people at high risk for disease.
Yet Linehan says that “AI will never replace the human touch in medicine.” In fact, it will enable more personal contact between doctor and patient.
This is where URMC’s unique focus on the biopsychosocial model still comes into play.
“That model of medicine seems so obvious to us, but it wasn’t 50 years ago,” Linehan says. “That’s why AI
will never supplant the doctor-patient relationship. That human touch is what makes all the difference.”
It comes back to people skills and emotional IQ.
“Compassion doesn’t cost you anything. It’s the easiest thing to say to patients who are scared, ‘I’m really glad you’re here, and it’s going to be rough but we’re going to fight this with you. We are experts and know how to handle this. Give me the stress; I know what to do with it.’ That’s so comforting to a patient, and you see the weight of the world lifting off their shoulders.”
Linehan says he was happy to return to the East Coast. His wife, Janice, is a former physician assistant in thoracic surgery and lung transplantation who now serves as a hospice volunteer. She also volunteers for local organizations, including the Memorial Art Gallery and the Humane Society.
Their elder son, Ben, 25, lives in Maine after completing his service in the U.S. Navy. Their younger son, Eric, 23, graduated in 2024 from Savannah College of Art and Design.
As a skier, Linehan looks forward to the Rochester winter. On warmer days, he takes the family’s two spaniels, Hazel and Hugo, to Ellison Park to watch the sunrise. He also enjoys fly fishing in Oatka Creek in the Town of Wheatland.
“I find fishing with a rod and reel boring, but with fly fishing you’re in the water so it’s also hiking. It’s a cerebral sport because you have to know which fly to use. It’s an art. You never get good at it,” he jokes.
“At the end of the day, Rochester is an understated city. If you want big city excitement, go to New York for the weekend. But 99 percent of your everyday life is your life, and here you can watch your kid pitch two innings and still get back to work quickly,” says Linehan, whose elder son played high-school baseball in the suburb of Pittsford.
When he arrived here, Linehan was told it was impossible to recruit people other than those who already had a connection to upstate New York.
“That’s a myth,” Linehan says, noting that he has hired 50 surgeons from all over the world.
“I’m looking for inquisitive people who are uneasy because things could be better,” Linehan says. “They’re the ones who are going to be the next leaders in healthcare. They’re the ones who are
going to make a difference because they won’t settle for the status quo.”
As a visiting professor at Emory University in 2018, he saw this sentiment reflected in a quotation from Coca-Cola Company CEO Robert Woodruff: “The future belongs to the discontented.”
“I was thinking that if he was discontented about soda pop, then we have to be discontented about poor outcomes, lack of access to healthcare, and health inequities,” Linehan says.
Linehan returns to Schwartz. “He challenged the next generation to prove him wrong, to be ever better. That’s Meliora.”
Linehan’s own research into immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer is a good example. When he started in the field, the survival rate was five percent. Now it’s 12 percent—much room for improvement, but also much improved.
He has researched new cancer treatments that combine immunotherapy with radiation therapy and chemotherapy. He has received funding from the National Cancer Institute for the past 20 years.
Despite success in the lab, Linehan says he considers it a breakthrough only when the research translates into treatment that helps the patient.
At the UR medical school commencement in 2024, Linehan offered advice on how to deal with the uncertainties of practicing medicine:
“I’ve had really bad days when a favorite patient died or an operation didn’t go well,” Linehan says. “I told the graduates about my drawer that holds 25 years’ worth of letters from grateful patients. The letters say things like, ‘You operated on me five years ago and took out half my liver and here I am at my daughter’s wedding or here I am mountain climbing in the Alps.’ When I have a really bad day, I open the drawer and am reminded of why I go to work every day.”
Recently he received a letter that started out: “I’m sure you don’t remember me.”
“I looked at the name and knew immediately who she was,” Linehan recalls. More than a decade ago in St. Louis, he performed a risky operation to remove a large tumor from a young man’s liver. At a follow-up appointment, the man’s eight-year-old daughter, Maisy, thanked Linehan for saving her father’s life and announced that she was planning to become a nurse. Linehan told her that was a wonderful career choice.
Inside the letter, Maisy included a picture of her graduation from nursing school.
“That,” Linehan says, “goes right in the drawer.” RM
David Linehan always planned to go to medical school but decided to major in religion at Dartmouth. “I wanted a broad liberal arts education and liked religion because it included history, language, art history, and anthropology. It was a way to broaden my knowledge beyond medicine.”
Dartmouth had academic prowess, but it had something else Linehan wanted: a ski slope. In high school, he had participated in a youth enrichment program that introduced urban kids to skiing. On Saturdays in the winter, he would board a bus at 4 a.m., ski all weekend with donated equipment, then wash dishes in the evening to stay in the hostel for free. When it came to choosing a college, Linehan narrowed his choices to ones that owned ski slopes.
He graduated in 1986 from Dartmouth and in 1990 from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his internship and residency and served as chief resident of surgery at the Deaconess-Harvard Surgical Service in Boston. He considered pediatrics and psychiatry but ultimately chose surgery.
“I liked the teamwork. Every day was different, and I liked the technical aspect of working with my hands and solving a problem,” he says.
In addition to completing a research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Linehan was a fellow in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Then he spent 15 years at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis before being named chair of the URMC Department of Surgery in 2014.
He went on to double the surgical faculty, establish five new endowed professorships, increase research funding, establish a research center making breakthroughs in immunotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer, and increase the gender and ethnic diversity of the department.
Now he’s in a position to advance the entire Medical Center. He’ll draw on his experience and compassion—and a dose of healthy discontent as he looks ahead at making things ever better.
(From left) Eric Wagner, PhD, Lynne Maquat,PhD, and David Mathews, PhD: part of the team of groundbreaking RNA researchers at URMC.
It’s all the talk in medicine. Now, after decades at the forefront of RNA discovery, Rochester researchers are helping to write the next chapter.
by Emily Boynton
RNA, long overlooked in the research world, is having its moment.
The pandemic provided the rocket fuel, because mRNA vaccines essentially saved our way of life. Talk of RNA-based treatments and trials is suddenly commonplace.
Both the 2023 and 2024 Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine were awarded for research in RNA (ribonucleic acid). The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a new $2 billion federal entity funding transformative ideas for health breakthroughs, focused its first multi-million-dollar grant on the development of mRNA technologies that strengthen the immune system to better fight cancer and other diseases. In 2022, more than $1 billion in private equity funds was invested in biotechnology start-ups to explore frontiers in RNA research. There are now more than 400 RNA-based drugs in development.
Less known is what happened before we were lining up to get shots in our arms to regain a semblance of normal life. The story of RNA research and its blossoming future began many decades earlier. The main characters were diligent, unsung scientists who believed in the importance of the work long before others did.
And key chapters are still being written by Rochester researchers who—decades prior—discovered properties of RNA that ended up being vital to the development of COVID-19 vaccines and that even launched an entire field of study on how mRNA activity contributes to disease.
“I’ve studied RNA since 1972,” said Lynne Maquat, PhD, founding director of the Center for RNA Biology at the University of Rochester. “We’ve gone from being in the last session at meetings under the context of ‘other things’ to being at the forefront in virtually every specialty.”
Thomas Cech, a biochemist at the University of Colorado (Boulder) and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989, wrote in a recent opinion essay in The New York Times, “Though it is a linchpin of every living thing on Earth, RNA was misunderstood and underappreciated for decades—often dismissed as nothing more than a biochemical backup singer, slaving away in obscurity in the shadows of the diva, DNA. I know that firsthand: I was slaving away in obscurity on its behalf.”
Rochester researchers have been in those shadows for decades, quietly unraveling RNA’s role in the vast and complex process of gene expression. Even they could not have known their work would have such important implications for therapies. But it’s clear now—and new clinical trials are showing the life-changing promise of their once-obscure research.
Last winter, Eric Wagner, PhD, was watching hockey on TV when his wife asked, “Don’t you study BRAT mutations?”
A family had visited the school where she teaches to share their child’s experience with a BRAT1-associated brain disorder, which
can cause cognitive impairment, seizures, and other debilitating conditions.
Wagner, URMC professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, wanted to learn more. And bring hope. He and his wife met the family, told them about his lab’s research at URMC, and even shared pictures of the molecular structure of BRAT1.
“This serendipitous interaction brought my lab’s work home. What we are studying exists in our community, one mile from my house.”
It’s significant that Wagner is not a neurologist or occupational therapist who can treat patients. He’s an RNA biologist whose lab is immersed in determining how BRAT1 interacts with other proteins to influence RNA production and gene expression—knowledge that’s laying the foundation for new therapies.
Wagner knows how far the research has come. “We’re at the point where we have enough knowledge to come up with ways to treat BRAT-related disorders and other devastating diseases like neuroblastoma. Ten years ago, we couldn’t go near people because we didn’t know enough. Now, we’re talking about clinical trials in patients.”
Wagner is a leader of the University of Rochester Center for RNA Biology, home to a powerhouse group of scientists whose work has revealed the fundamental role RNA plays in human health and disease.
Patients with myotonic dystrophy—an inherited disorder marked by progressive muscle weakness that affects a person’s ability to walk, swallow, and breathe—are already seeing the promise of Rochester’s RNA science come to life. URMC neurologists
Charles Thornton, MD (Flw ’90, ’92), and Johanna Hamel, MD (Flw ’17, ’19), are involved in multiple trials testing treatments that target
the buildup of toxic RNA that leads to muscle problems in these patients.
Decades in the making, the trials are the closest the scientific community has ever come to extending the health and lifespan of people with myotonic dystrophy. Equally as exciting: Experts believe this is just the tip of the iceberg for RNA-based therapies.
“We thought RNA was cool before the world did,” jokes John Lueck (PhD ’07), associate professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at SMD. “While we’ve always deemed it important, and our research has always been strong, people have finally caught up to what scientists like Lynne Maquat, David Mathews, and Charles Thornton believed all along: We need to know more about RNA and its role in biology and disease.”
In 1992, back when Bill Clinton was elected president and the first web browser was still a year away from launching, David Mathews (MD ’03) was a sophomore at the University of Rochester pursuing an undergraduate degree in physics. He was also working in the laboratory of Douglas Turner, PhD, MPH, a now-retired professor of Chemistry and professor of Pediatrics in SMD. In his graduate work at Columbia, Turner had focused on stabilizing the structure of DNA, which led to an interest in RNA. At the time, his lab was part of a very small community of scientists working in that area.
Mathews, now associate director of the Center for RNA Biology, wanted to go to medical school to earn a dual MD/PhD degree after he graduated from UR. Turner and Mathews were intrigued by the nascent field of RNA—despite its lack of popularity and perceived import—and dived in. They devised the Turner Rules, a set of parameters that predict the folding stability and structure of RNA.
Neurologists Charles Thornton, MD, and Johanna Hamel, MD.
Little did they know that decades later their work would play a major role in curbing a worldwide pandemic.
In December 2020, the FDA granted emergency-use authorization for the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, which directs our bodies to make the COVID spike protein. The structure of the mRNA—its actual shape and arrangement—is crucial for the effectiveness of the vaccine. Unlike DNA, which is extremely stable, mRNAs are inherently unstable and prone to degradation; they are constantly being “eaten” by enzymes in cells. If mRNA has a rigid structure as opposed to a floppy one, it degrades more slowly—structure provides protection from those hungry enzymes.
The longer mRNA avoids degradation and remains in our cells, the more COVID spike protein it produces. The more COVID spike protein we have, the more antibodies we create, and the better we can fend off infection. Thanks to the Turner Rules, companies could predict and evaluate the structure of mRNAs, helping them identify stable versions to use in vaccines. Prior to and during the pandemic, Mathews collaborated with vaccine maker Moderna on the application of his research to mRNA design.
Mathews’s lab, which grew out of his work with Turner, develops software packages that scientists and companies use to predict and analyze RNA structure. The Turner rules are also the backbone of recent work Mathews published, in the journal Nature, which
details an algorithm to identify stable mRNA sequences that lead to dramatically increased immune responses from COVID vaccines.
“The success of the COVID vaccines confirmed that mRNA-based technologies can be absolutely transformative,” said Dmitri Ermolenko, PhD, professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, who works with Mathews in the Center for RNA Biology. “The structure of RNA has a huge influence on protein production and many other mechanisms throughout our cells. Dave’s and Doug’s work is indispensable for scientists and companies using mRNA sequences for vaccines and other treatments.”
“In the ’90s, we had no idea the Turner Rules would be so important for vaccine design,” said Turner, who has come full circle and now works as a scientist in Mathews’s lab at URMC. “Dave has been key to this research all along the way.”
An even earlier effort at Rochester led to an entirely new field of study in RNA research.
In 1980, Lynne Maquat traveled to Israel to obtain and work up bone marrow samples from four children suffering from the inherited blood disorder beta0 thalassemia (“beta0” means no production of beta-globlin protein in peripheral blood). Maquat wanted to understand why the children’s blood contained no beta-globin protein, which helps the body produce hemoglobin and transport oxygen. A series of carefully executed experiments she conducted on the samples led to the discovery that the disorder was caused by abnormal RNA and not DNA metabolism. Published in the journal Cell in 1981, the finding was the first demonstration of a human disease caused by unstable mRNA.
As with the work of Mathews and Turner, the broad significance of Maquat’s research wasn’t apparent at the time—not to her or the scientific community. The field was—and still is—notoriously difficult, awash with complexities that require persistence, patience, and an unparalleled grasp of detail. While many scientists abandoned ship, Maquat and Mathews pushed forward. Both believed in their work and, even in those early days, saw glimmers of the potential power of RNA.
Much like the Turner Rules were foundational for mRNA vaccine development, Maquat’s research eventually launched an entire field of study on how mRNAs are monitored and regulated and how such activity contributes to disease.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) takes genetic instructions from DNA to another part of the cell, where the instructions are translated into proteins that carry out functions in the body. A common flaw in the process of gene expression relates to the introduction of an early “stop” signal. Beginning with her 1981 discovery, Maquat’s research revealed how a cellular quality-control mechanism called nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) recognizes and destroys mRNA molecules that contain early stop signals. Maquat’s work clarified that NMD evolved to shield humans from innate mistakes in gene expression by eliminating mRNAs containing early stop signals, but it can also cause harm.
“Nonsense mutations” can prevent the genetic instructions in mRNA from being read completely from start to finish, resulting in the production of incomplete and potentially toxic proteins that can lead to disease. One third of all genetic disorders are caused
(From left) postdoc Elizabeth Abshire, Assembly Member Harry Bronson, and Lynne Maquat, PhD.
by mutations that generate an early stop signal. Many people with beta0 thalassemia have a nonsense mutation in the gene that encodes the beta-globin protein. The nonsense mutation springs the NMD machinery into action, and the mRNA transcript for beta-globin protein is destroyed. No beta-globin protein is produced, and patients can’t make hemoglobin.
A similar dynamic can come into play with cystic fibrosis. But if NMD could be overridden or stopped in cystic fibrosis and other genetic disorders resulting from nonsense mutations—for example, by suppressing the nonsense mutation—normal, healthy proteins would be made, and individuals wouldn’t become sick.
“Before Lynne, nobody could come up with a logical explanation for how NMD worked,” says Joan Steitz, PhD, an RNA biologist at Yale who, with Maquat, won Harvard’s prestigious Warren Alpert prize in 2021. “When everyone else gave up, she stuck with it and slowly made significant advances. It was hard, and at times the answers weren’t coming, but she really wanted a scientific explanation, so she kept at it. I admire her determination and her uncanny ability to keep thinking of the next experiment that would lead to answers.”
Maquat, who has been recognized with other top awards in the field such as the Wolf Prize in Medicine and the Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, also found that NMD is overactive and contributes to the intellectual disability and severe learning problems in individuals with Fragile X syndrome. Her lab is working closely with UR stem cell biologist Christoph Pröschel to better understand the interplay between FMR1 (the gene that leads to the disorder) and NMD throughout the various stages of development.
Thanks to 45 years of research by Maquat and others, scientists are beginning to put the mechanistic findings related to NMD to use to design new therapies.
In 2006, Maquat and Mathews proposed the creation of a new center—one that would require attracting the best and the brightest to join the team.
Maquat, who had joined the University of Rochester in 2000 as a professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at SMD, and Mathews wanted to build on the University’s existing strengths in RNA biology. They cited the emphasis on “the rapidly emerging scientific discipline of RNA biology” in the NIH Roadmap—the NIH’s strategic plan at the time—believing they could fill gaps in fundamental knowledge of RNA. Their ultimate goal was to provide a foundation for developing therapeutics to target RNA and keep the University at the cutting edge of this evolving field.
They brought their idea for the Center for RNA Biology to the CEO of URMC at the time, Bradford C. Berk, MD, and SMD Dean David S. Guzick, MD, PhD. The Center was approved and formed in 2007. Today, it’s 23 members strong, with more than $25 million in annual funding from the NIH, New York State, professional associations, and patient foundations.
UR Vice President for Research Stephen Dewhurst, PhD, applauds Maquat’s and Mathews’s ongoing efforts to recruit scientists who are not only exceptional in their respective fields, but who fit with the team.
“In the main, we recruit collaborative people who we expect our colleagues will want to partner with. Not every institution does that,” noted Dewhurst. “Many places try to recruit the ‘best athlete.’ These people can be brilliant scientists, but they are not always the type to welcome colleagues and faculty knocking on their doors.”
Lueck, who earned his PhD at SMD in 2008 and went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Iowa, returned to join the Center in 2018 for that very reason—open doors.
“This is an incredible place to walk down the hall and have a conversation with a colleague,” said Lueck. “As silly as it sounds, the ease of interacting with people—talking about science in general or sharing a big idea to see if there are any fatal flaws in your logic—is a huge benefit. It keeps our research moving at a fast pace.”
That tempo is evident in Lueck’s longstanding collaboration with Thornton. In 2000, Thornton was part of a team that discovered that the genetic abnormality that causes myotonic dystrophy leads to the accumulation of toxic RNA in cell nuclei, interfering with the normal function of numerous genes. As a graduate student, Lueck worked with Thornton to show that a class of drugs called antisense oligonucleotides could target the toxic RNA and restore healthy muscle function in animal models.
When Lueck returned from his postdoc in Iowa, the partnership continued. Thornton’s clinical knowledge and work with myotonic dystrophy patients, coupled with Lueck’s expertise in molecular and cellular biology, paved the way for clinical trials currently underway worldwide and at URMC testing antisense therapies for myotonic dystrophy.
“John is one of the most effective researchers in the myotonic dystrophy field, and he’s leading a tremendous group of scientists who we’ve been extremely fortunate to work with,” said Thornton. “The cooperative environment that exists here is unlike anywhere else, and it’s been absolutely essential to the development of treatments for myotonic dystrophy patients. I can’t imagine getting to where we are today if we were at another institution in the US.”
In addition to emphasizing the unparalleled level of teamwork, Thornton also attributes the team’s success to the physical attributes of the Medical Center.
“I can see a patient in clinic, meet with a trial participant at our Clinical Research Center, and attend a meeting in the lab in the space of two hours,” noted Thornton. “At bigger institutions, the hospitals, clinics, and research facilities are spread out all across town. Having everything under one roof facilitates more face-to-face conversations and gives teams time to build trust, which is essential.”
Wagner, who joined the Center for RNA Biology in 2021 after running a lab in Texas for 14 years, has been pleasantly surprised at how integrated efforts are at Rochester.
“A common limitation at many schools is that science tends to be siloed. People and centers do great work, but they don’t cross-pollinate very well,” said Wagner, who is also a member of the UR Medicine Wilmot Cancer Institute. “RNA biology is everywhere at the University, and it’s very clear that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Several momentum-building developments have put Rochester researchers in place to lead as the world ushers in a new era of RNA focus in health and medicine.
In May 2024, New York State announced that the University of Rochester and University at Albany will join forces to form the new
Center of Excellence in RNA Research and Therapeutics. The Center will partner with large New York biotech companies such as Regeneron and Pfizer to develop new RNA-based therapies. Rochester trainees will also have the opportunity to engage in short-term “sabbaticals” at these companies, learning about the various roles scientists play in the private sector. Co-directors Maquat and Wagner say this new Center will lead in training the next generation of New York’s biotechnology workforce and will help Rochester recruit strong candidates to conduct research.
June was punctuated by the largest single gift in University history: a $50 million commitment from B. Thomas “Tom” Golisano to establish the Golisano Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Institute at URMC (for details, see page 36). The infusion of new funding for therapeutic innovation will speed the translation of current research into new models of care.
Planning for a new building to house RNA biology and cancer research is also underway. Several RNA processes contribute to cancer progression, so putting Wilmot Cancer Institute scientists and RNA Center biologists together in a single, state-of-the-art facility will advance research. The goal is new applications, such as anti-tumor vaccines, that have the potential to change the landscape of cancer treatment. Part of the University’s 2030 Strategic Plan, investment in new facilities will make research easier to conduct and more effective.
Maquat, Mathews, Wagner, Thornton, and other senior faculty are setting the stage, but talented junior and mid-career faculty members are making their marks as future leaders in the field.
Douglas Anderson, PhD, assistant professor in the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute and Center for RNA Biology, has developed several breakthrough RNA technologies. One, called StitchR, is based on the group’s discovery of “RNA stitching,” which harnesses natural cellular-repair pathways to fuse two RNAs together. This creates functional mRNAs that produce large proteins that are missing or inactive in disease. Another technology, called CirculR, turns single RNA strands into a circular form, making them more stable and durable for use in vaccines and gene therapies. Anderson holds 15 patents based on RNA science and co-founded two biotech startups—Scriptr Global and Emprime Therapeutics—to translate these platforms into therapies for treating muscular dystrophies, hemophilias, and eye disorders.
Before coming to Rochester in 2017, Associate Professor Mitchell O’Connell, PhD, did his postdoc in the lab of famed scientist Jennifer Doudna, PhD, known for her discovery of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, which earned her and a colleague a Nobel Prize. O’Connell is creating a niche by zeroing in on another system, CRISPR-Cas13, to better understand immunity and RNA-mediated gene regulation in bacteria. His work also aims to inform the development of RNA detection tools that could improve clinical diagnostics.
With the support of the graduate students and postdocs who are the backbone of research at the University, faculty are optimistic about what lies ahead—for Rochester and the world. When asked what’s next in this RNA revolution in medicine, Thornton replies, “People. We are beginning to see people in clinical trials and in clinical practice who are responding to RNA treatment.”
It’s the true, simple promise of decades of complex research: hope. RM
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Learn from SMD alumni as they share their stories from the job hunt, lessons learned during graduate training, and top career tips for trainees.
The Next Step podcast, produced by the SMD Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs office, highlights diverse perspectives of alumni from different industries, backgrounds, and career stages.
In addition to reliving their Rochester experience, alumni share practical advice on how to improve communication skills, prepare for job interviews, build a professional network, and find your own unique career path.
It’s available on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify: Search for “SMD Next Step.”
The hundreds who gathered at the University of Rochester and School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD) for Meliora Weekend enjoyed an eclectic mix of events. Highlights included the Class of 1974’s 50th reunion, intriguing MED Talks, the annual State of the School address by David Linehan, MD (his first as dean), engaging tours and poster sessions, the annual George M. Engel Memorial Lecture, and a thought-provoking panel discussion on the future of medicine and mentorship in diverse communities. Mark your calendar for the next Meliora Weekend, Sept. 18-21, 2025!
“Shaping the Future of Medicine: Mentoring within Diverse Communities” brought together distinguished panelists and leaders from Eastman Institute for Oral Health, School of Nursing, and SMD to highlight diverse perspectives and discuss the crucial role that mentoring plays in healthcare professions. Panelists included (from left) moderator Nathan Smith (MS ’10, PhD ’13), Le Keyah Wilson (MD ’07, Res ’10, Flw ’13), Siddharth Chittaranjan (PhD ’27, MD ’29), nursing student Lexi Land, Luis Rosario-McCabe (BS ’94, MS ’95, PMC ’15, DNP ’17), and dental resident Ruben Costa Araujo, DDS.
Scan this QR code or visit uofr.us/melioraweekend24medevents to access recordings from key events
Each year, the dean of SMD and the Alumni Council recognize graduates and friends for demonstrating extraordinary achievement in their profession, dedication to underserved populations, and commitment to the ideals of the school. Dean David Linehan (back row, left) led the welcome for this year’s award honorees (back row, from left) Erika Fullwood Augustine (MD ’03, MS ’14), Donald R. Tomeny, Leslie C. Tomeny; (middle row) Randy Rosier (MS ’77, MD ’78, PhD ’79); (front row, from left) Ann R. Falsey, MD (Res ’86, Flw ’91) and Frank Richeson (MD ’69 Res ’76, Flw ’79); and (not pictured) Hildegard Messenbaugh (MD ’66). See page 26 for more on each honoree.
Members of the MD Class of 1974 commemorate their milestone 50th Reunion at Meliora Weekend’s annual Medallion
Associate Professor of Medicine Angela Branche, MD, co-principal investigator for the UR Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit, was one of three speakers during MED Talks, an annual series of brief presentations by prominent Medical Center faculty. Branche shared the impact of infectious diseases around the world and how the University of Rochester is expanding its mission of Meliora to respond. Other speakers included David DiLoreto, Jr., (MS ’95, PhD ’95, MD ’97), professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Director of the Flaum Eye Institute, and Jamie E. Flerlage, MD, division chief and academic director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Golisano Children’s Hospital.
Benzi Kluger, MD, MS, the Julius, Helen, and Robert Fine Distinguished Professor of Neurology, presented “On Souls, Service, and Society: Extending the Biopsychosocial Model to Fully Support People Living with Life-Limiting Illness” at the annual George M. Engel Memorial Lecture.
Discovering a cure isn’t always enough. Jamie E. Flerlage, MD, shared her quest to finding “just right” for patients and implementing cancer treatment strategies that are not only effective but also minimize long-term health implications.
The School of Medicine and Dentistry celebrated its alumni at the 53rd annual Dean’s Circle Dinner and Awards Ceremony during Meliora Weekend.
SMD Dean David Linehan, MD, and the Alumni Council recognized alumni and friends who have demonstrated extraordinary achievements in their professional accomplishments, dedication to underserved populations, and a commitment to the ideals of the school.
Here are this year’s accomplished recipients.
Hildegard Messenbaugh (MD ’66)
Robert G. Newman (MD ’63) Humanitarian Award
Hildegard Messenbaugh, MD, is a distinguished adolescent psychiatrist who has dedicated her life to advocating for and healing vulnerable youth. A Holocaust survivor who was born in Serbia, Messenbaugh endured concentration camps during World War II, an experience that profoundly shaped her future career.
After immigrating to the United States, Messenbaugh earned her medical degree from the University of Rochester in 1966 and completed her residency in adolescent psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In the late 1960s, she helped establish a program for youth who were released from institutions— addressing critical needs to prevent homelessness and recidivism.
Messenbaugh’s career has encompassed private practice and institutional leadership. She served as medical director at Mt. Airy and Lutheran West Pines psychiatric centers before becoming full-time medical director at Third Way Center. Her expertise has been recognized with appointments to the Colorado Advisory Council on Mental Health and the Governor’s Special Task Force on Children’s Welfare.
Messenbaugh’s contributions have garnered numerous accolades, including the Exemplary Service Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Colorado Child and Adolescent Mental Health Coalition in 2003, an “E-chievement” award from National Public Radio’s E-Town Radio, and a piece in Colorado View magazine featuring her as one of Denver’s most influential women. She is also the author of Getting Even: A Manual for Healing Childhood Trauma, a pioneering resource for those who provide care to youth and families.
Ann R. Falsey, MD, is a professor of medicine at SMD. Her research focuses on clinical and translational studies of respiratory viral infections in adults. Falsey earned her MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital in 1986, and pursued an infectious disease fellowship at Yale University and at the University of Rochester.
Falsey initially concentrated on RSV epidemiology in adults, then expanded her research to include influenza, coronaviruses, parainfluenza viruses, and human metapneumovirus. She is co-head of the University’s NIH-sponsored Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit, which conducts vaccine studies and treatment in various settings and age groups.
Falsey’s longstanding focus has been on RSV vaccine development for adult populations; she has contributed to both early stages and licensing trials for recently approved RSV vaccines. When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in 2020, she and her colleagues pivoted to testing and bringing COVID-19 vaccines to market. Falsey continues to work on vaccine development and new diagnostic methods for respiratory illnesses in order to improve human health.
Erika Fullwood Augustine (MD ’03, MS ’14)
Alumni Achievement Award
Erika F. Augustine, MD, is a distinguished neurologist and pediatric movement disorders specialist. She serves as the associate chief science officer and director of the Clinical Trials Unit at Kennedy Krieger Institute and associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine. In these roles, she develops clinical and translational research strategies, oversees research operations, and manages clinical trials.
A graduate of Harvard College and SMD, Augustine completed her child-neurology residency at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on advancing therapies for rare pediatric neurological disorders, emphasizing clinical phenotyping and trial design. Augustine’s NIH-funded work examines clinicaloutcome measures for neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs) and Batten diseases. She has published extensively on rare-disease drug development, NCL natural history, and Parkinson’s trials. Her research has also been funded by the FDA and various foundations. In 2023, she received the Sidney Carter Award from the American Academy of Neurology.
Augustine holds leadership positions in several medical organizations, including roles as associate editor for Annals of Neurology and neurology director for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Her commitment to education and mentoring in clinical research includes launching the Minority Research Scholars Program in 2017 to foster diversity among clinician-scientists. A dedicated University of Rochester volunteer, Augustine has served on the SMD Alumni Council, the University’s Alumni Board, and the Black Alumni Network.
Frank Richeson, MD, is a professor emeritus of Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Rochester, where he spent nearly six decades as a student, physician, and educator. After graduating from the College of Wooster in 1965, he began his medical education at Rochester, interrupted by a three-year US Army stint in West Germany.
Richeson’s career has focused on cardiology, teaching, curriculum development, and student advising. His proficiency, expertise, and talents have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Keith Miner Ford Award for Excellence in Teaching, the UR Alumni Gold Medal Award, and the Herbert Mapstone Prize for Second-Year Teaching, which he won nine times.
Richeson has served as associate dean for student affairs and associate dean for advising, and he directed the cardiovascular second-year course for more than two decades. He has also lectured at universities in Taiwan, Ukraine, Poland, and Costa Rica; mentored numerous cardiology fellows; and served on multiple medical school committees. Although he retired from active patient care in 2020, Richeson continues to make weekly teaching rounds in cardiology and serves on the Medical School Admissions Committee.
His deep commitment to improving the human condition was recognized with the establishment in 2019 of the Frank Richeson, MD, Cardiology Patient Care Assistance Program in his honor. Colleagues, alumni, and grateful patients continue to support the fund, which provides assistance to cardiology patients who cannot otherwise afford the cost of care.
Donald “Don” Tomeny earned a business management degree from SUNY Buffalo State University in 1971, and Leslie Tomeny graduated from Buffalo State College the same year with a degree in speech pathology. They married soon after college and have three children—Erin, Brian, and Matt— and eight grandchildren, all living in the Rochester area.
Since 2016, Don has been the area vice president for SRS Distribution, a roofing distribution company. From 1982 to 2015, he served as president of B&L Wholesale Supply Inc., a Rochester-based distributor of building materials with branches across New York and Pennsylvania. He acquired it in 1981, when it had just four employees, and grew it to employ more than 200 people. Leslie also worked at B&L for 20 years in various roles.
Don and Leslie are longtime supporters of the University of Rochester Medical Center, including Golisano Children’s Hospital, Highland Hospital, SMD, and UR Medicine Home Care (formerly Visiting Nurse Service). In 2018, the couple established the Tomeny Family Social Work Program Fund and, most recently, they named a waiting room at URMC’s new Brighter Days Pediatric Mental Health Urgent Care Center. Since 1995, they have hosted an annual golf tournament with B&L, which has raised more than $3 million to date to support the children’s hospital.
Don joined the Golisano Children’s Hospital’s Board of Directors in 2021 and has served on the boards of Ronald McDonald Charities and the Bivona Child Advocacy Center. He also sat on the board of the Rochester Home Builders Association
Randy N. Rosier, MD, is a professor emeritus of Orthopaedics at the University of Rochester and a graduate of SMD. He joined the faculty in 1984 after residency and fellowship training at the University of Iowa.
Rosier established clinical subspecialty services in orthopaedic oncology and metabolic bone disease in addition to research programs in cartilage regulation, osteoarthritis, and tumor metastasis to bone. He served as the Marjorie Strong Wehle Professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedics as well as the director of the orthopaedic residency program from 2000 to 2007. As founding director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Research, he helped establish one of the top-ranked orthopaedic research programs in the country.
Throughout his career, Rosier held many leadership roles at the University, in national orthopaedic organizations and at the NIH and maintained continuous NIH funding for more than 25 years. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 30 book chapters, and 280 abstracts related to national research presentations. Rosier has been a visiting professor at 40 institutions and has received numerous awards, including the Kappa Delta Award for research excellence and the Alfred R. Shands, Jr., MD Award, which recognizes significant contributions to orthopaedics.
Rosier is an ex-officio member of the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Board of Trustees. He retired from the University in 2013, but he has continued to be an active supporter, having established two endowed professorships in support of orthopaedics, a research fund to support new investigators, and an endowed scholarship fund for medical students through his estate plans. Rosier is a member of the University’s Wilson Society. He resides in Palm Springs, California.
The 102 members of SMD’s Class of 2028 celebrated the start of their medical careers at the 19th annual Robert L. & Lillian H. Brent White Coat Ceremony.
They gathered with faculty, family, and friends at the Larry and Cindy Bloch Alumni and Advancement Center to hear from faculty and fellow students about the challenges and rewards of their chosen career—and to bond as colleagues who will learn from and lean on each other over the next four years.
SMD received 5,285 applications for 71 spots; another 31 students entered through special matriculating programs.
The Class of ’28 is diverse in gender, ethnicity, background, and life experiences. Fifty-six members identify as non-Caucasian, and 14 are from groups that are historically underrepresented in medicine.
Students hail from 30 different states, 23 were born outside of the U.S., and one is joining from Japan as the newest Levitan Family Endowed Scholar. The class speaks 24 languages, including American Sign Language.
by Emily Boynton
Within one month last fall, Lynne E. Maquat, PhD, director of the Center for RNA Biology at the University of Rochester, won the 2024 Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research and the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. They are among the most distinguished prizes in medicine in the United States.
Maquat and co-winners Howard Y. Chang, MD, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine and Adrian R. Krainer, PhD, of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, were honored with the Albany Prize for their research on RNA mechanisms that contribute to a wide range of diseases, including spinal muscular atrophy, cancers, and autoimmune disorders.
Their collective body of work has laid the foundation for the development of treatments targeting conditions that can’t be corrected with conventional drugs.
The Albany Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research has been awarded annually since 2001 to recognize winners’ extraordinary contributions to improving health while promoting novel biomedical research. Recipients are nominated by their peers, and 10 winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
Maquat also received the Janssen Award for her fundamental discoveries about RNA decay in the context of human diseases. Her co-honoree was Alexander Varshavsky, PhD, of the California Institute of Technology.
Maquat and Varshavsky were chosen by an independent selection committee of the world’s most renowned scientists. Since its inception in 2004, the award has recognized 24 exceptional scientists, eight of whom have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
“The works of Drs. Maquat and Varshavsky stood out from the many other deserving researchers for this award,” said Elaine Fuchs, PhD, selection committee chair for the Dr. Paul Janssen Award. “These researchers discovered how our cells survey the quality of their RNAs and proteins and control their degradation
where needed. The mechanisms they’ve unearthed have broad implications for health and could be useful targets in lowering the rate of people affected by harmful diseases such as cancer.”
Maquat, the J. Lowell Orbison Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, has spent her career deciphering the many roles that RNA plays in sickness and in health and is
well known for her discovery of nonsensemediated mRNA decay, or NMD.
URMC CEO and Dean of SMD David Linehan, MD, said: “Lynne’s scientific career is nothing short of outstanding, and her contributions have brought RNA biology to the leading edge of medicine.”
(For our feature story on breakthrough RNA research, see page 16.)
by Lori Barrette
The University of Rochester Medical Center has recruited Washington University surgeon-scientist Ryan C. Fields, MD, to chair its Department of Surgery, a role previously held by URMC CEO and Dean David C. Linehan, MD. Fields will serve as the Seymour I. Schwartz Professor in Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery at URMC, Surgeon-in-Chief of Strong Memorial Hospital, and Director of Translational Research of the Wilmot Cancer Institute. Walter Pegoli, Jr., MD, professor of Surgery and Pediatrics, will continue serving as interim chair until Fields joins URMC on July 1, 2025.
Fields is a surgical oncologist and translational scientist who currently serves as the Kim and Tim Eberlein Distinguished Professor of Surgery and chief of Surgical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine, leader of the Solid Tumor Therapeutics Program at the Alvin J. Siteman Comprehensive Cancer Center, and director of Resident Research in the Department of Surgery.
“An accomplished surgeon-scientist, Ryan Fields brings an exceptional blend of clinical expertise and leadership in transdisciplinary research that will elevate our Department of Surgery’s missions,” Linehan said. “His remarkable track record of securing NIH funding is evidence of his research prowess, while his commitment to team building and mentorship align perfectly with our collaborative culture.”
Fields, a Detroit native, completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and then graduated from Duke University School of Medicine. This was followed by a general surgery residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine and a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Fields then returned to St. Louis in 2011 to join the faculty, rising from assistant professor to chief of Surgical Oncology.
His clinical focus is on the multidisciplinary treatment of solid tumors, including pancreatic, biliary, liver, and gastric malignancies along with sarcoma, and on cutaneous oncology with a focus on melanoma.
“Given his clinical and scientific interests and impressive achievements, Ryan quickly emerged as a leader among a national pool of candidates,” said Search Committee Chair Judith F. Baumhauer, MD, MPH, vice dean for Academic Affairs for the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. “His vision for the department and collaborative style position him well to continue moving our Department of Surgery forward. We eagerly anticipate his leadership and all he brings to achieving our missions.”
With 10 consecutive years of funding from the National Cancer Institute, Fields’s research is centered on understanding the biology and genetics of how cancer spreads, cancer modeling, and deep profiling of human tumors to better understand treatment response and resistance. The ultimate goal of his collaborative research program is to identify novel pathways that can be leveraged into new cancer therapies. He has led several large-scale NCI projects, including two “Cancer Moonshot” grants with his colleagues and co-investigators. Fields has more than 350 peer-reviewed publications to his credit.
Ryan C. Fields, MD
“We at Wilmot are fortunate to welcome Dr. Fields to our team,” said Wilmot Cancer Institute Director Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD. “He provides amazing research synergy with many of our current members, and he is committed to the multidisciplinary clinical approach represented by our cancer service line.”
A respected mentor and dedicated teacher, Fields has worked with numerous students, residents, and fellows on their paths to careers in academic surgical oncology.
He leads an NCI training grant that identifies, recruits, trains, and retains stellar candidates into mentored research programs during their residency training across various oncology-focused disciplines.
His many professional affiliations and national leadership positions include the American Society of Clinical Investigation, American Surgical Association, Society of Clinical Surgeons, Society of University Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, and the Society of Surgical Oncology.
“My family and I are thrilled and honored to join the University of Rochester and partner with my amazing future colleagues, continuing the incredible momentum that the transformative leaders like Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Linehan have created in the Department of Surgery,” Fields said. “I look forward to working to push the boundaries of what we think possible with the people in the Department of Surgery, Wilmot Cancer Institute, Medical Center, and Rochester community as partners and colleagues. Across the clinical, educational, research, and community-forward missions, we will become ‘ever better’ together. Meliora!”
Fields will be joined in Rochester by his wife, Laura, a certified health and wellness coach with an interest in academic faculty, trainee, and staff well-being, and their teenage children, Gabriel (Gabe) and Sarah.
By Mark Michaud
Michael James Scott, MB, ChB, a leader in quality improvement whose work has helped enhance recovery after surgery, became chair of the URMC Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine in October. Michael Eaton, MD, had served as chair of the department since 2011.
Scott also serves as the Denham S. Ward, MD, PhD, Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine.
Scott’s work in quality improvement has led to worldwide acceptance of a new standard of care for surgical patients, called Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS), which focuses on preoperative counseling and screening, optimization of nutrition, standardized analgesic and anesthetic regimens, and early mobilization post-surgery. He was one of the early inventors and champions of ERAS in the UK and first published work connecting rapid recovery after surgery with improved outcomes, as well as reduced complications and costs. He is immediate past president of ERAS USA.
He has championed the reduction of opioid use in surgery, advised the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and authored the international perioperative consensus guidelines on prevention of opioid harm. Scott currently holds the position of professor and division chief of Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and senior fellow with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Dr. Scott is a recognized leader with extensive background in perioperative surgical outcomes and quality improvement and has worked in four countries, all with different health systems,” said David C. Linehan, MD, CEO of URMC and SMD dean. “His efforts have improved outcomes and quality of life for patients who undergo major surgery, and the strong track record in leadership, operations, and research he brings to URMC will further strengthen a department critical to many of our clinical operations, including our standing as a level 1 trauma center.”
Scott cited “the collegiality of URMC” as something that helped draw him here. “It is a lean, high-quality health system, and the excellent vision of the new leadership, including Dr. Linehan, is key to remaining competitive in the current changing healthcare landscape and one of the reasons I was keen to take up the role.
The combination of being able to deliver such high-quality clinical practice in an outstanding academic and educational environment is hard to match.”
The department is part of the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTTION), a public-private partnership with the FDA that helps set the international agenda for pain research. Areas of research excellence within the department include mitochondrial disease, neurodegenerative disease, ischemia-reperfusion, the treatment and prevention of chronic pain and coagulation, quality
measurement, the impact of report cards on quality of care, and respiratory physiology.
“The Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine already has outstanding research, which I would like to continue to grow, particularly in the areas of basic science and perioperative surgical and cancer outcomes,” said Scott. “There is also huge opportunity in technology adoption and AI to individualize care for patients to reduce complications. The residency and fellowship programs are known across the country for their excellence, and I hope we can expand recruitment further.”
Scott received his medical degrees from the University of Birmingham in the UK and completed his postgraduate training in internal medicine, anesthesiology, and critical care in Australia and the UK. He completed a pediatric fellowship in anesthesia at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. Scott has served as a member of the faculty at the University of Surrey, University College London, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He spent several years as a national clinical advisor in the UK National Health Service.
His research focus is on surgical outcomes, and he has led studies in analgesia, hemodynamic monitoring, fluid therapy, and the stress response for surgery. His current focus is on the long-term effects of acute kidney injury. Scott is the co-author of more than 160 publications and book chapters on basic science, clinical outcomes, and quality improvement. He also notes that at age 16, he was named UK Kodak National Young Photographer of the Year. “It must have been my destiny to come to Rochester,” said Scott.
The URMC Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine is comprised of more than 200 faculty members, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and nurse practitioners.
Joining the George Eastman Circle helps us give to all the programs across the University that matter to us—from nursing and health care to the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine Center, and equity, diversity, and inclusion. My wife, Mabelle, and I enjoy that our membership also provides opportunities to connect with fellow alumni and attend events that continue to spark our curiosity. Scholarship support made everything possible for both of us. Now, we give back so that other students will have the same opportunities.”
ROBERT J. “BOB” PIZZUTIELLO JR. ’77, ’78 (MS) with MABELLE B. PIZZUTIELLO ’63N, P’89 (pictured in backround) Members, George Eastman Circle | Victor, NY
Bob is a medical physicist as well as a musician who performs for the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine Center, playing the Chapman Stick in the lobby of Strong Memorial Hospital. Mabelle, a retired nurse, was the trauma program manager at Strong for over a decade.
by Mark Liu
Lowell Goldsmith, MD, whose boundless curiosity led him to international renown as a dermatology expert who could achieve the near impossible, passed away in North Carolina last summer at the age of 86.
Dr. Goldsmith was founding chair of the Department of Dermatology at URMC in 1987 and became dean of SMD in 1996, bringing a spark of entrepreneurship and commitment to patients. He did it all with an inspiring warmth and sense of humor.
Even a partial list of his distinctions is long: president of the Society for Investigative Dermatology and president of the Association of Professors of Dermatology, editorial work on a dozen academic journals, member of the FDA Dermatologic Drugs advisory committee and the board of directors of the American Dermatology Association, part of multiple NIH review groups.
And his training and faculty appointments took him far and wide—from UCLA Medical Center and Harvard Medical School to Brandeis University, Oxford University, and professorships at Duke University Medical Center and University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.
Yet in many ways, his course was set early on. Growing up in Brooklyn with his two siblings, he was captivated watching his father in his dental office located in the family home. He often told friends that he was diagnosed with “a case of incurable curiosity.”
He joined the SMD faculty in 1981 as the first James H. Sterner Professor of Dermatology. He was acting chair of the Department of Medicine from 1985–1987.
He spent years working on his landmark, two-volume set, Biochemistry and Physiology of the Skin, serving as editor and also contributing four chapters.
When the work published in 1983, a review in The New England Journal of Medicine called it an “astonishing book…The task that the editor set for himself—to produce a comprehensive, up-to-date, multiauthored yet consistent review of all of experimental dermatology—is probably impossible. That he has largely succeeded evidences years of painstaking work.”
That work, along with his abundant research (he co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, books, chapters, and abstracts), had a big effect on Rochester. “Clearly he had an international reputation,” said Peter Robinson, VP and chief operating officer of URMC at the time.
As a resident, Art Papier, MD, now associate professor of Dermatology at URMC, partnered with Dr. Goldsmith on a bold idea: converting tens of thousands of slides to digital images to help healthcare professionals recognize dermatologic clues. This was before the internet as we know it existed. A decade later, the two co-founded VisualDx, which now employs more than 80 people and is used by more than 2,300 hospitals and clinics around the world.
Around the same time, Dr. Goldsmith set out to improve access to dermatology among underserved populations in the city and rural areas. “He was the first person I heard lay out the idea of digital imaging to expand our reach,” said Leo Brideau, CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital at the time.
When Dr. Goldsmith recruited Alice Pentland in 1996 to chair the Department of Dermatology, she spoke to him about her vision to bring medicine into the burgeoning electronic world. Pentland said, “Most people, when I explained my ideas, would say, ‘That’s impossible. That will never happen.’ Lowell said, ‘That’s a great idea.’”
The result was the Center for Future Health, which brought national media coverage and corporate partnerships. All the while,
Dr. Goldsmith was breaking ground in researching the genetics and biochemistry of skin disease and developing new drugs for treatment.
After becoming dean emeritus in 2000, his lifelong learning continued: He completed his Master’s in Public Health at the University of Rochester in 2002.
In 2019, Dr. Goldsmith and his wife, Carol, established the Carol A. & Lowell A. Goldsmith Professorship in Dermatology at URMC. Current Goldsmith professor Lisa A. Beck, MD, said, “His breadth and depth of knowledge set him apart. But it was also his engaging and warm personality that made him a beloved figure.”
Brideau said, “The incredible thing about Lowell was, even though he had a CV a mile long, he knew the details of not only the faculty, students, residents—he knew details of the lives of lab techs, secretaries, janitors. He would pay attention to you as a person. Because he cared.”
by Barbara Ficarra
Paul Griner (MD ’59), professor of Medicine emeritus at SMD and former CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital, died in June 2024 in Weston, Massachusetts. He was 91.
Griner was a renowned expert on healthcare policy who consulted with the Clinton administration on national health insurance legislation.
During his long career, he was president of three national medical organizations and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He published more than 130 articles, books, and book chapters.
URMC colleagues remember Griner for his principled leadership, his visionary approach to healthcare modernization during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s, and, most of all, for his compassion.
Griner graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and received his medical degree with honors at SMD in 1959. After three years in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Griner served in the Air Force at Andrews Air Force Hospital in Washington, DC, receiving the Air Force Commendation Medal.
Griner returned to Rochester in 1964 as chief resident in medicine and a fellow in hematology. In 1973, he was appointed the Samuel E. Durand Professor of Medicine.
He became CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital in 1984 and was a University of Rochester Trustee from 2011 to 2015 and Trustee Emeritus from 2015 until his death.
“Paul was a superb physician and teacher who cared deeply for every patient he served,” said Leo Brideau, chief operating officer throughout Griner’s tenure as CEO. “He imbued his senior leadership team with the same profound respect for all the patients we served. Whenever we were faced with a difficult management decision, his first question to us was always: ‘What’s best for our patients?’”
Griner’s contributions as CEO took place decades before Medical Center CEO and SMD Dean David Linehan, MD, began his tenure, but Linehan noted their continuing and profound impact.
“Paul Griner was the consummate academic medical center physician and researcher and a role model to the many trainees and faculty colleagues he met during his decades in Rochester,” Linehan said. “He was a visionary leader who implemented changes that benefit our faculty, staff, and— especially—patients to this day.”
Griner was a consultant to the federal government in the 1990s as President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton advocated for universal health insurance, and he testified before Congressional committees on the topic.
From 1993 to 1994, Griner was president of the American College of Physicians and was active in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and other prominent groups.
In 1963, he introduced closed-chest massage to the medical staff of
Massachusetts General Hospital and, in 1974, was the first to cure aplastic anemia in an adult with immunotherapy alone.
He remained proud of SMD and its approach.
“Rochester graduates young physicians who are really good at the bedside—more so than almost any medical school in the country,” Griner wrote in his memoir. “Teachers take seriously the importance of learning from the patient. If you take a good history and do a good physical exam, over 90 percent of diagnoses can be made before you even leave the bedside or office examining table. Rochester has been a model for the rest of the country for that philosophy.”
The largest single gift in the University of Rochester’s history—and the largest single gift that entrepreneur, philanthropist, and civic leader B. Thomas “Tom” Golisano has ever made—will build the new Golisano Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Institute.
This transdisciplinary center will provide solutions to the health and quality-of-life issues that affect people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), an underserved population with approximately 19,000 people affected locally, 120,000 regionally, and 200 million worldwide.
Announced last year, the gift will significantly expand the University’s distinctive strengths in IDD patient care, community outreach, caregiver support programs, and research.
“Creating a better world for people with IDD has been a passion of mine for over 40 years,” said Golisano. “I know that this is a shared goal with Golisano Children’s Hospital and the URMC as they have proven through their ongoing commitment and growth in this field of care. URMC’s vision for the new Golisano IDD Institute takes that
dedication to a new and unprecedented level, putting patients at the center of every focus and providing one-stop integrated care and coordinated customized services. The impact will be an enhanced quality of life and access to care that, before now, has only been a dream for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.”
The gift’s reach will span the University’s schools, institutes, departments, centers, and programs, including areas such as its Complex Care Center, Department of Neurology, Department of Pediatrics and Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, the Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, and the Eastman Institute for Oral Health (EIOH).
Also included are the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities program, Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities (the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities), and the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC). The University is one of only eight institutions with all three core requirements related to IDD centers.
Golisano’s gift will make it possible to bring together these resources within one institute; to become the gold standard for IDD health, services, and outreach; and to expand and form new regional, national, and global partnerships with leading academic and healthcare institutions and community agencies.
The gift also names the Golisano Specialty Clinic at Eastman Dental Center, which serves nearly 2,000 people with IDD each year.
“I am tremendously grateful to Tom for his visionary commitment to IDD, to this University, and to his hometown of Rochester,” said Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, University of Rochester president and G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor. “His transformative generosity will propel our strengths, deepen our commitment to IDD, and truly change lives around the world. There is no question that those with IDD will have a better, brighter future because of Tom Golisano.”
John Foxe, director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience and the Killian J. and Caroline F. Schmitt Chair in Neuroscience,
Tom Golisano’s total philanthropy to the University of Rochester Medical Center now nears $100 million. His $50 million commitment is the largest single gift he has ever made. In 2002, he donated $14 million to build the Golisano Children’s Hospital (GCH) to recruit outstanding faculty and expand programs. In 2011, he contributed $20 million to GCH to build a new hospital, and in 2020 he made a $5 million gift to establish the Golisano Pediatric Behavioral Health and Wellness Center.
Golisano has given more than $300 million to organizations globally that are dedicated to advancing the health and social inclusion of people with autism and IDD, including Special Olympics and Golisano Children’s Hospitals in Rochester, Syracuse, and southwest Florida. His philanthropy extends throughout western New York and southwest Florida; in late 2024, Golisano made a historic series of gifts totaling $445 million. To date, his giving to institutions and organizations around the world totals more than $860 million.
will direct the new institute. Resources will allow the University to accomplish now what it estimates would have otherwise taken 20 years. Golisano’s gift will place the University among the most recognizable IDD centers in the nation.
Foxe noted that over the past nine years, the University has invested nearly $80 million in IDD programs. “Although our clinical, therapeutic, and educational programs make Rochester an important regional and national resource, we must do more to address the growing needs of those with IDD,” he said. “Tom’s gift will help us close gaps, address challenges, meet demands, and expand educational opportunities, curricula, and community partnerships. We can now purchase the highly sophisticated tools required to allow breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, hire and train more professionals, and better meet the growing demand for services.”
URMC CEO and SMD Dean David Linehan, MD, added: “Tom’s generosity is truly transformational. Because of him, URMC can increase our clinical services and access to care—an enormous need in our region—and become the global leader in IDD medical evaluations and diagnoses; the training of IDD professionals; and advocacy, assistance, and consultation programs for the lasting benefit of those with IDD.”
“Tom Golisano is a true innovator and changemaker,” said Thomas Farrell (’88, ’90 MS), senior vice president for University Advancement. “He sees opportunities others don’t, understands the importance of talent and leadership, and brings people together to create solutions. We can all learn from his drive to make our community and the world a better place.”
The Saunders Foundation, led by University Trustee Emeritus E. Philip (Phil) Saunders, has made a $30 million commitment to URMC to support novel research and clinical programs in orthopaedics, faculty in the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and nursing students.
The gift includes $25 million to support the groundbreaking work of the UR Medicine Orthopaedics & Physical Performance Center, the most comprehensive orthopaedic facility in the northeastern United States. An additional $5 million will establish a named professorship in orthopaedics at SMD and create new scholarships in the School of Nursing.
In recognition of the long-standing philanthropic support from Saunders, the University has named its orthopaedic facility the Saunders Center for Orthopaedics & Physical Performance.
The Saunders Foundation is establishing an endowed research fund and endowed professorship in the Department of Orthopaedics. Dean’s Professor Michael Maloney, MD (Res ’97), a renowned orthopaedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine, is the inaugural E. Philip Saunders Distinguished Professor in Orthopaedics. Maloney is the founder and director of the Center for Human Athleticism and Musculoskeletal Performance and Prevention (CHAMPP), which offers a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to athletic performance, injury prevention, and wellness.
The Saunders’s gift will also create an endowed scholarship fund at the UR School of Nursing to support the nursing career goals of staff members at UR Medicine Noyes Health in nearby Dansville, Livingston County. Noyes Health offers communityfocused healthcare backed by Rochester’s world-class medical research initiatives.
“It’s no secret that the University of Rochester is one of the premier medical facilities in the country,” said Saunders. “People come from all over to seek medical treatment from the gifted physicians on staff. Adding the Saunders Center for Orthopaedics & Physical Performance elevates the University and allows patients to receive the very best from this state-ofthe-art facility. I am thrilled to give to this
Phil Saunders makes his announcement.
Center the endowed professorship for Dr. Michael Maloney—a gifted physician and personal friend—and to be giving the School of Nursing a new scholarship.”
David Linehan, MD, URMC CEO and SMD dean, said, “Phil has invested generously in the research, education, and patient-care missions of our Medical Center for many years. I am very grateful for the gift … which will advance URMC’s position as a leader in the science and practice of orthopaedic medicine, with ripple effects that benefit the patients and families we serve for decades to come.”
Paul Rubery, MD (Flw ’94), chair of Orthopaedics and the Marjorie Strong Wehle Professor in Orthopaedics, said the innovative care and specialized treatment provided in the Orthopaedics & Physical Performance Center will continue to grow thanks to the Foundation’s investment. “Phil’s generosity allows us to expand our ability to help patients live better, healthier lives.”
Maloney said having an endowed professorship established in his name is an honor he could never have expected. “I am humbled to know that a future faculty member in the School of Medicine and Dentistry will carry a title with my name. Endowed professorships allow us to recruit top talent to Rochester and help raise the reputation of the school among our peers.” continued on page 38
Rochester business leaders Peter J. Landers, who earned a master’s degree in 1983 from the University of Rochester’s Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, and Kathleen “Kathy” E. Landers, a 1982 graduate from the University’s School of Arts & Sciences, have committed $1 million to support the Strong Memorial Hospital’s Expansion Project, the largest capital project in the University’s history. The couple’s gift will name the Landers Adult Waiting Room in the soon-to-be-expanded emergency department that will serve generations of future families.
“We are immensely grateful to Peter and Kathy for this forwardthinking gift,” says Kathy Parrinello (RN ʼ75, MS ʼ83N, PhD ʼ90W), president and CEO of Strong Memorial and Highland hospitals.
“Their generosity will help us create an exceptional, nurturing space where families can find solace during life’s unexpected challenges.”
Planned for completion in 2028, the Strong Expansion Project will increase the size of its emergency department more than three times and include space for psychiatric emergency care. The project will add a cardiovascular pavilion with floors for diagnostic and treatment services, cardiac care, and the Medical Center’s inpatient hospital. Individual rooms will allow for personal care. The project will ultimately address chronic bed shortages and overcrowding issues that the community has faced for years.
“There is a great need for providing better access and facilities for emergency care in our community,” said Peter Landers. “We have witnessed first-hand the capacity constraints and backlog of patients in hallways. Making this gift now in support of the new emergency tower will help alleviate this ongoing crisis and better serve the health care needs of the community.”
Added Kathy Landers, “Our family members have experienced the remarkable, compassionate care provided by the nurses, staff, and emergency care doctors. The new expansion will provide a state-of-the art environment and resources for hospital teams to deliver that kind of exemplary care to more people, to help them
recover, heal, and have better outcomes. We are pleased to be part of this expansion project and know it will transform the way emergency care is delivered.”
The couple are long-time champions of the Rochester community. More than 30 years ago, they founded Landers Communities, a local real estate company that develops, owns, and manages quality apartment communities, senior housing, and commercial space in the greater Rochester area.
Peter and Kathy have supported the University’s James P. Wilmot Cancer Institute, Golisano Children’s Hospital, the Eastman School of Music, the Memorial Art Gallery, and University of Rochester athletics. Peter is a board member at URMC and the Memorial Art Gallery, while Kathy serves on the board of the Wilmot Cancer Institute and on the gallery’s council. They are also members of the University’s Rochester Philanthropy Council. In 2020, the University honored honored them with the John N. Wilder Award in recognition of their exemplary service.
“Phil sees the big picture,” added Lisa Kitko, dean of the UR School of Nursing and vice president of URMC. “He knows how important nursing is to healthcare and how an investment in nursing education benefits his community and our health system as a whole.”
Saunders has long supported the University and Medical Center. Between 2012 and 2016, he established the Saunders Family Distinguished Professorship in Neuromuscular Research, the E. Philip and Carole Saunders Professorship in Neuromuscular Research, and the Saunders Endowed Fellowship in Neuromuscular Research.
In addition to serving on the UR Board of Trustees from 2015 to 2020, Saunders is a member of the URMC Board and honorary chair of the Rochester Philanthropy Council at the University. In 2011, the University named its newly constructed home of the
continued from page 37
Clinical and Translational Science Institute the Saunders Research Building. In 2015, the University awarded Saunders its Eastman Medal, recognizing those whose achievements and service embody the institution’s highest ideals.
An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Saunders is known for his significant influence on the travel-center industry and his diverse business interests. He founded several companies, including Genesee Regional Bank, Truck Stops of America, and Travel Centers of America. His portfolio spans auto rental, recreation, tourism, packaged foods, property management, and banking. He is chair of Genesee Regional Bank Holding Company and has a rich history of board service, including at the University of Rochester, Cobblestone Capital, Lewis Tree, Royal Oak Realty Trust, New York State Trooper Foundation, Western New York Energy, and Rochester Institute of Technology (where the business school is named in his honor).
Last year, alumni and friends gathered in Rochester to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Department of Orthopaedics and commemorate the grand opening of the Orthopaedics and Physical Performance Center, now named the Saunders Center for Orthopaedics and Physical Performance.
The many events included a welcome reception, reunion dinner, and continuingmedical-education sessions.
URMC CEO and SMD Dean David Linehan, MD, led the grand-opening program. Paul T. Rubery, MD, chair of the Department of Orthopaedics, thanked contributers to the project, including Mary Ellen Burris (EdM ’68 Warner), whose leadership gift is making the construction of the community education space and auditorium possible.
Rubery also took attendees for tours of the new, state-of-the-art facility—the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the northeast region.
Mia Cannon, CFRE, has joined the URMC Academic Programs team as the senior director of alumni relations and volunteer engagement. Cannon will work closely with alumni and students from the School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, and Eastman Institute for Oral Health to create opportunities for learning, connection, and networking.
Over her 20-year career, Cannon has worked with various nonprofit organizations across Rochester to engage and inspire the community, helping to raise millions in support of seniors, youth, scholarships, and healthcare.
Cannon is passionate about education, healthcare, and philanthropy. She is an active board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Genesee Valley Chapter (AFPGV), where she serves as vice president for professional advancement. She also serves as the co-chair of Rochester Advancement Professionals of Color—a group dedicated to coaching, mentoring, and uplifting underrepresented development experts of color who work in various roles.
Cannon earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the State University of New York at Oswego before earning a master’s degree in 2011 from Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Alumni Council is the administrative body representing all alumni of the School of Medicine and Dentistry. It is an important advisory group to the dean in support of the faculty, administration, students, and alumni.
The Council, which is made up of more than 20 graduates, welcomed three new members earlier this year:
David N. Bernstein, MD, PhD, MBA, MEI, is an orthopaedic surgery resident physician in the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program (HCORP) at Massachusetts General Hospital and a senior researcher at Harvard Business School, where he works on healthcare transformation initiatives. He also holds an appointment as a visiting professor at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary.
Bernstein is a prolific health-services scientist and sought-after opinion leader, advising several think tanks and governments. He has published more than 130 manuscripts in top scientific journals and has co-authored opinion and commentary articles in mainstream media outlets. In addition to his medical degree from Rochester, he earned a BA in Economics from Bowdoin College, a PhD in value-based healthcare from the University of Leiden in The Netherlands, and an MBA from Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, where he was elected to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. As a Fulbright Scholar, Bernstein also earned a master’s with distinction in entrepreneurship and innovation from the University of Luxembourg.
Patrick Milord, MD, MBA, serves as the vice-chief of Anesthesiology at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull and is a clinical assistant professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. From 2022–2023, Milord was a NYC Health + Hospitals clinical leadership fellow in the Office of Managed Care and Patient Growth.
Milord completed his anesthesiology residency and fellowship at NYU Langone Health and subsequently worked in private practice as an anesthesiologist and interventional pain-management physician for the Brooklyn and Queens communities. He received his MD with distinction from Rochester in research and community service while concurrently earning an MBA in healthcare sciences management and competitive and organizational strategy from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.
Patricia Sheridan, PhD, is a research and development professional in the biotech industry. In her most recent position at Metabolon, she led a team of multidisciplinary researchers using metabolomics and multiomic integration to improve human health. Prior to joining Metabolon, she was a faculty member in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, researching the effect of nutritional status on immune response to infectious disease.
Sheridan remains actively involved in mentoring students in public health and engages in scientific communication with the public to help foster understanding of important topics in health research. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
To learn more about the Alumni Council and other ways to become involved as a graduate, visit us online at urmc.rochester.edu/smd/alumni.aspx.
Judith Hood McKelvey (MD ’61) received the Career Intelligence Medal at a ceremony in April in her honor. The medal recognizes her 38 years of service to the United States government. Judy retired in 2022.
Gary L. Woods (MD ’72) lives in Concord, NH, and is running for New Hampshire state representative in a new district (Merrimack 30) after serving two terms representing Merrimack 23.
Edward Joseph Fox (MD ’95) was appointed in April to the Edwards P. Schwentker, MD, Professorship in Orthopaedics at the Penn State College of Medicine by Dean Karen E. Kim, MD, MS. Kim recognized Fox as a respected leader both within the college and nationally as he begins his five-year tenure.
The School of Medicine and Dentistry expresses its sympathy to the loved ones of alumni and friends who have passed. (Through Nov. 3, 2024)
M. Jacob Adams (Res ’99, MPH ’03, Res ’11) April 27, 2024.
Emmanuel S. Akowuah (Res ’78, ’82 Flw) Oct. 7, 2024.
Richard O. Anderson (Res ’65) Aug. 27, 2024.
Arthur S. Banner (MD ’68) Feb. 25, 2024.
Kenneth Robert Bergman (MD ’67) Sept. 24, 2024.
Roger Peterick Bernard (Res ’70) Sept. 28, 2024.
Robert F. Betts (MD ’64, Res’69) Oct. 6, 2024.
Joseph D. Bloom (MS ’60) July 6, 2024.
David Leonard Bogdonoff (MD ’81) Oct. 21, 2024.
Benjamin C. Bonarigo (Res ’67) Oct. 30, 2024.
Wallace D. Brown (MD ’67) Aug. 1, 2024.
Robert E. Burke (MD ’61) Oct. 8, 2024.
John O. Burris (MD ’56) Feb. 2, 2024.
Donald J. Capuano (Res ’71, Res ’73) on May 14, 2024.
Robert H. Carman (MD ’56, Res ’60) Aug. 10, 2024.
James M. Cholakis (’76 PhD) Sept. 10, 2024.
Thomas Richard Corner (PhD ’68) Nov. 3, 2024.
John C. Council (Res ’62) July 18, 2024.
David Bockhoff Crane (MD ’68) Aug. 6, 2024.
Joseph David Croft (Res’67) Sept. 27, 2024.
Fancis Gigliotti (Flw ’83) Aug. 18, 2024.
Nathan Glover (PhD ’48) April 23, 2024.
Lowell A. Goldsmith (MPH ’02) July 9, 2024.
Howard Richard Gordon (MD ’61) April 12, 2024.
Paul F. Griner (MD ’59), (Res ’65) June 24, 2024.
David Emens Haines (MD ’80) Feb. 20, 2024.
John B. Hanks (MD ’73) Oct. 9, 2024.
Frederick Hecht (MD ’60) June 20, 2024.
William E. Hermance (MD ’60) June 10, 2024.
Jed J. Jacobson (Res ’64) May 23, 2024.
Iwao George Kawakami (MD ’51) April 12, 2024.
Alan Jon Levine (MD ’68) Jan. 28, 2024.
William T. Lewek (Res ’81) Aug. 27, 2024.
Kevin John Malloy (MS ’81, PhD ’81) Oct. 3, 2024.
Lloyd A. McCarthy (MD ’54) July 8, 2024.
Donley G. McReynolds (MD ’62) Res ’68) May 30, 2024.
Suhayl J. Nasr (Res ’77) Aug. 24, 2024.
Jerome T. Nolan (MD ’52) Nov. 3, 2024.
Norman James Pointer (Res ’73) Aug. 8, 2024.
Robert M. Poole (Res ’88) Nov. 26, 2024.
Edward Otto Reiter (MD ’68) Nov. 6, 2024.
John Smith Ruef (Res ’63) Aug. 1, 2024.
Michael Leon Sachenik (MD ’89) April 6, 2024.
Stephen Michael Salerno (MD ’93) July 16, 2024.
Robert A. Scala (MS ’56, PhD ’58) Oct. 3, 2024.
Theodore E. Schlessel (MD ’55) Sept. 8, 2024.
Ira Shoulson (MD ’71), (Res ’73, Res ’77) May 12, 2024.
Joseph Mark Shroyer ( Res ’61) July 9, 2024.
Terry Jay Sims (PhD ’75) Nov. 6, 2024.
Paul C. Smilow (MD ’59) Feb. 8, 2024.
Solomon S. Solomon (MD ’62) Feb. 3, 2024.
Robert S. J. Sparkes (MD ’56) Jan. 13, 2024.
Gerald Leland Strope (MD ’74) Aug 7, 2024.
John P. Taggett (MD ’61) May 2, 2024.
Robert H. Tichell (MD ’64) May 27, 2024.
Nancy Anne Weyl (MPH ’90), PhD ’91) July 13, 2024.
Tae Byung Whang (MD ’64) March 13, 2024.
Virgil E. Yoder (MD ’57) Nov. 27, 2024.
James Griffith Zimmer (Res ’60) July 13, 2024.
Your classmates want to hear about you! Did you move to a new city, begin a new project, or make a career shift? Tell us about your recent travels, job developments, family updates, or anything else you want to share by submitting a class note.
Submit notes to your class agent online at uofr.us/smdclassnotes, or scan the QR code.
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 643 Rochester, NY 14642