from the desk of

SOMSchool Of Medicine

Dear Colleagues:

It’s hard to miss the transformation happening at the center of our campus. Our new education building will be completed soon, and we are extremely proud that it will be named the Mary Duke Biddle Trent semans Center for health Education to honor a very dear

friend of our School and our University. We are grateful to The Duke Endowment for their foundational gift that enabled this project, and to the many, many donors who have already helped us get close to our fundraising goal. We expect to begin to occupy by December, and we will mark the formal opening of the building with a special event early next year. To make the best use of our new space, only offices directly related to education and student services will be in the Trent Semans Center. My office, and most of the on-campus medical school administrative offices, will remain in the Davison Hall.

The building is only part of our transfor-mation. The Trent Semans Center will look out onto a beautifully landscaped

promenade, terraced into the hillside to create a new, open walkway between Research Drive and Duke Medicine Circle. The heart of our campus will be easy to traverse from every direction, and I’m certain that will bring us together in new ways.

There is a lot happening as we settle into our new academic year and sev-eral exciting events planned for the fall. As always, the arrival of new students, residents and fellows reminds me of the tremendous breadth and depth of our school, and the remarkable contributions our academic community makes to science and health care.

With best wishes,

Nancy

Volume No. 5 August 2012

news

1

Dean Nancy Andrews

SAVE THE DATES Please mark your calendars and plan to attend these exciting events planned for October:

More information about these events, which are open to the entire community, will go out closer to the dates.

Fall Clinical Science DayFriday, October 19James R. Gavin III, M.D., Duke alumnus and professor of medicine at Emory and Indiana universities will be the keynote speaker at this CME research symposium taking place in the Searle Center. School of Medicine faculty will also be presenting information about their work. Registration is available at: http://tinyurl.com/9nf2p2t

Medical Alumni WeekendOctober 18-21, 2012 Faculty and staff are invited to attend the variety of activities taking place during Medical Alumni Weekend. Young alumni, graduating classes ending in 2 or 7 and the Half Century Club will reconnect with friends and classmates. The full schedule of events is available at: http://tinyurl.com/crjhrq9

2012 Basic Science DayTuesday, October 16 The third annual Basic Science Day will offer opportunities to forge new contacts with colleagues. Basic science presentations will take place throughout the day in a relaxed, informative forum in the Love Auditorium of the LSRC. Brigid Hogan, Ph.D., Chair of Cell Biology, will be the keynote speaker. A postdoc poster session will be open throughout the day in the Hall of Science lobby. Basic science researchers from the depart-ments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Chemistry, will also present their work. Registration is available at: http://tinyurl.com/8v4ly44

2

Maya White hadn’t decided her career path when she agreed to pilot the Prima-ry Care Leadership Track. Now, two years later, the class of 2014 medical student is leaning toward primary care pediatrics.

“I liked the patient-centered medical home,” says White, about a component of the PCLT program that launched last year. “I also liked following patients longitudinally and seeing how the health system works. I believe that understand-ing a patient’s life beyond their medical care gives doctors more insight into why patients have certain health problems. It also helps us identify the best strategies to help them deal with those problems.”

This year, the PCLT accepted eight stu-dents from an application pool of 190 for its second matriculated class. Students receive $10,000 per year in exchange for committing to a career in primary care. The model program started as a way to attract, nurture and train leaders in pri-mary care. It’s one of the only programs in the country that combines opportunities for community service and community-based research.

Ideally, the PCLT program opens students’ eyes to the healthcare problems and needs that exist outside traditional hos-

pital settings, explains Barbara Sheline, M.D., M.P.H., assistant dean for primary care and the program’s director. “There are still a lot of unmet needs, but now they see the resources available and the greater possibilities.”

During the past year, second-year PCLT students worked in a free clinic in Dur-ham, with a community psychiatrist, on an elementary school obesity project, and with a pediatric medical legal group.

“Our clinical year is flexible compared to a traditional hospital clerkship year,” says Sheline. “The flexibility allows students to stretch their wings as leaders who look

at a problem, look at the resources, and figure out how to mobilize. It’s all part of leadership preparation, and it trans-forms the students into creative problem solvers.”

Future PCLT students will engage in Durham-based research projects but the potential also exists for students to spend the third year in communities across the country, or across the world. “We make it possible for them to be successful, whether they stay here for their research year or conduct their research abroad,” says Sheline.

PCLT: Building Primary Care Leaders

shELinE

Iain Sanderson, M.D., has joined DHTS and the School of Medicine as Chief Research and Academic Information Of-ficer. Dr. Sanderson will oversee infor-matics as it relates to research, educa-tion and administration, and serve as the primary IT strategist for the School of Medicine.

Dr. Sanderson spent 14 years at Duke as an associate professor in the Depart-ment of Anesthesiology, and four years as Associate Chief Information Officer

for DUHS. He left in 2007 to

become the Chief Medical Information Officer for Health Sciences South Carolina, where he led the effort to bring an integrated clinical and trans-lational research infrastructure to the state’s research universities and health systems. He also rebuilt biomedical informatics into a cohesive and effective program at the Medical University of South Carolina for its successful Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA).

As Chief Research and Academic Information Officer, Dr. Sanderson

will provide leadership in biomedical informatics, research computing, education and technology innovation to support the academic and administra-tive needs of our research community. He will also engage with the clinical research enterprise while supporting the School’s activities and infrastructure. His familiarity with the Duke environment, and his tremendous expertise in clinical research IT, will be particularly valuable as Duke strives to be a national leader in research and academic informatics.

iain sanderson Returns to Duke as Chief Research and Academic information officer

Medical student Maya White, Duke Med Class of 2014, is finishing her second year of the Primary Care Leadership Track.

3

Multi-million Dollar Grants Awarded to study hiV VaccineA large federal grant awarded to Duke will renew funding for a highly focused pro-gram to discover how to induce immune factors needed for

effective vaccines against HIV.

Barton Haynes, M.D., will be director of the seven-year Center for HIV/AIDS Vac-cine Immunology-Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) grant. Haynes previously led the original Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) consortium, the grant for which just ended in June 2012.

For its role, Duke will receive $19.9 million for the first year, according to the National Institute of Allergy and

Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The CHAVI-ID initiative overall may receive as much as $186 million or more over seven years. Duke is expected to receive more than $139 million in total over that period.

“We were privileged to have the CHAVI grant over the past seven years, and the work in this consortium helped us understand what needed to be done to make a successful AIDS vaccine,” said Haynes, who is also director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and the Frederic M. Hanes Professor of Medicine and Immunology. “The CHAVI-Immuno-gen Discovery grant will be used to learn how to do what we need to do.”

In related news, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded a new 3-year, $8.9 million grant to Duke which will allow Haynes to continue his work on developing vaccines that can induce IgA antibodies for preventing HIV-1 infection.

This award, which comes from the Gates’ Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD) program, stems from promising discoveries from the analysis of how a partially effective HIV-1 vaccine might have worked, that was carried out under Haynes’ leadership. He led a multina-tional group that analyzed a wealth of data which tested a combination vaccine for efficacy.

Facility sheds Light on Broad Array of Research

Since it began offering affordable access to state-of-the-art imaging equipment five years ago, the Duke Light Micros-copy Core Facility has been in high demand. Its imaging services have been used more than 30,000 times by more than 250 labs on campus. As a result, the Core Facility has steadily added equip-ment and staff to meet the ever-present demand.

“Imaging has become more prevalent and versatile over the years, and now represents a great range of experimen-tal possibilities,” says Director Sam Johnson, Ph.D. “Imaging and all the techniques it provides are very powerful methods for investigating biology and beyond.”

Now double its original size, the facility’s resources are located in four clusters in adjacent campus buildings. Users can image samples on confocal and fluores-cence microscopes in various configura-tions and modalities to suit their specific experiment.

With the addition of new equipment, the core facility expands its ability to per-form all the imaging experiments people need. The most recent addition is a

spinning disk confocal micro-scope capable of high-speed multidimensional imaging with optical sectioning. Also installed recently is a highly sensitive confocal microscope optimized for intravital imaging capabilities. “It can be used to image live mice and see, for example, the distribution of drug to a tumor,” Johnson says.

In addition to a providing access to advanced instru-mentation, the facility offers training and advice in various formats. Users are given per-sonalized training to operate the systems they require for image acquisition. The facility also offers classes in the prin-ciples and possibilities of micros-copy, including a four-hour class in image processing and analysis.

Users from every discipline and skill level are welcome. A dedicated staff of three Ph.D.-level scientists is available to instruct users and providefull technical support. Trained users can access the equipment 24 hours per day.

The Duke Light Microscopy Core Facility is funded by the Duke Cancer Institute, the Duke University School of Medicine and the Duke University Office of the Provost. For more information on its services, please visit: http://microscopy.duke.edu/

“Zebrafish gut at 5 days post fertilization expressing Rab11 (green) and stained for actin (red)” Ashley Alvers, Bagnat Lab

hAynEs

4

inMemoriam

If you would like to submit information for consideration in the newsletter, please contact:

SOM News Editor Debbe Geiger Debbe.Geiger@duke.edu 919-660-9461

Fiona Lawrence, Duke PA Class of 2012

SAVE THE DATES

Fiona Lawrence, a second-year Physician Assis-tant student, died suddenly June 11, 2012 during her surgery rotation, just weeks before her graduation

from the PA program. She was 31 years old.

Born in Queens, NY, Lawrence grew up in rural Murfreesboro, NC and dedicated herself to providing compre-hensive medical care to underserved populations, After earning two public health degrees – a bachelor of science from UNC Greensboro, and a master’s from Emory University – she entered the Duke PA program as a National Health Service Corps Scholar.

Those who knew Lawrence remember her sense of humor, her generous spirit, and her strong passion for her work.

Brittani Bonner, a fellow PA student,

met Fiona on their first day of PA school two years ago. “We sat to-gether the first year and developed a friendship outside of the classroom,” Bonner said. “She was a fun, happy person who was always smiling and telling jokes. We called her Miss Congeniality.”

Lawrence also impressed her teachers with her strong work ethic, and her unfailing commitment to her studies.

Patricia M. Dieter, MPA, PA-C, Duke PA Program director, called Lawrence the “epitome of community service.” Lawrence was elected her class repre-sentative to the North Carolina Acade-my of PAs, worked with the St. Baldrick’s Philanthropy Committee, Race for the Cure, and her class’ Blood Drive.

“Fiona was a remarkable woman who was working hard to ensure the neediest patients in underserved communities received the highest level of medical care,” said Dieter. “We have lost a bright and shining star.”

Edward Coleman, M.D, a professor of radiology, Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine, and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs,

passed away on June 24.

Dr. Coleman was a highly respected, long-time member of the Department of Radiology. During his 33 years at Duke, he was an unfailing source of inspiration and compassion. His col-leagues at Duke and across the country

frequently turned to him for counsel and advice.

Dr. Coleman was a pioneer of PET imaging, and was recognized with the Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine in 2007. He was also recognized with multiple Best Doctor awards.

Dr. Coleman received his medical degree in 1968 from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., where he completed an internship in internal medicine. He fin-ished his residency in internal medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Mon-treal, and he completed a fellowship in nuclear medicine at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis. He

was a Fellow of the American College of Radiology and the American College of Chest Physicians.

A prolific author, Dr. Coleman held editorial positions at top medical journals, and was a past chair of the American Board of Nuclear Medicine.

Edward Coleman, M.D., Professor of Radiology

LAwREnCE

CoLEMAn

Marcus Lee Johnson, Duke PA Class of 2013, died unexpectedly on July 19, 2012. Marcus was a native of Dalzell, SC, and a 2005 graduate of Morris Col-

lege where he majored in biology and was the recipient of multiple scholarships and awards.

To gain patient care experience prior to acceptance to the PA program, he had worked as a rehabilitation and medical technician. Immediately prior to his entry to the PA Program, he was a middle school science teacher at Hillcrest Middle School in Dalzell.

Marcus’ goal was to work as a primary care PA in a rural underserved area in South Carolina. His kind and gentle presence will be greatly missed by all at Duke who knew him.

Johnson

Marcus Lee Johnson, Duke PA Class of 2013