Month: February 2018

The 2018 Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award: Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD

Posted on by John Hawley

Dr. Heitman

Joseph Heitman, MD, PhD, is the recipient of the 2018 American Society for Clinical Investigation’s (ASCI) Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award for his key contributions to our understanding of how eukaryotic microbial pathogens evolve, cause disease, and develop drug resistance; and his discovery of TOR and FKBP12 as targets of the immunosuppressive chemotherapeutic drug rapamycin.

Dr. Heitman received BS and MS degrees from the University of Chicago in 1984, his PhD from Rockefeller University in 1989, and his MD from Cornell University in 1992. From 1989 to 1991, he was a European Molecular Biology Organization postdoctoral fellow at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum, in the laboratory of Michael N. Hall.

Rapamycin was first isolated from the bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus in the early 1970s from Easter Island soil samples collected in the 1960s, in a hunt for microbes that might provide the basis for new drugs. Although rapamycin was first developed as an antifungal agent, it was found to be a powerful suppressor of the immune system and was effectively abandoned for a time. However, researchers subsequently took up the immunosuppressive qualities of rapamycin and other drugs to transform the field of organ transplantation by making recipients less susceptible to rejecting their transplants. In addition, rapamycin was found to hinder cell growth, opening its use in the treatment of cancer and in the prevention of restenosis of coronary artery stents.

As a fellow in Dr. Hall’s laboratory, Dr. Heitman focused on the mechanism of action of rapamycin and two other immunosuppressive drugs, cyclosporin A and FK506 (tacrolimus), using Baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to study the drugs’ activity. In collaboration with Rao Movva, a scientist at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in Basel, the researchers found that rapamycin arrested yeast cell growth in a manner similar to how it arrested growth in human T- cells, supporting the idea that the drug target was the same in both yeast and human. Their isolation and analysis of drug-resistant yeast mutants led to the discovery of FKBP12 and TOR as the targets of rapamycin. Further studies revealed the TOR pathway functions to sense nutrients and govern appropriate cellular physiological responses.

Subsequently, Dr. Heitman’s research in infectious disease has defined molecular virulence determinants and revealed novel modes of sexual reproduction and drug resistance for eukaryotic pathogenic microbes. The phosphatase calcineurin (the target of cyclosporin A and FK506) was identified as a key virulence determinant conserved across human fungal pathogens, and ongoing studies are exploring new therapeutic leads. He discovered that pathogenic microbes undergo unisexual reproduction, and has studied its impact on the evolution of eukaryotic microbial pathogens and how sexual reproduction may have originally evolved. Recent studies have unveiled novel mechanisms of antimicrobial drug resistance involving epimutations that silence drug-target genes via RNAi. Beyond his own laboratory, Dr. Heitman has provided resources and insights to advance the field of fungal genetics and genomics.

Dr. Heitman has mentored numerous undergraduates, medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral and medical fellows, many of whom have developed independent careers in medicine and basic biomedical research. Among many others, John Perfect, Andrew Alspaugh, and William Steinbach have been key collaborators in studies on fungal pathogenesis and therapeutic exploration.

Dr. Heitman’s work has been recognized by the Gustavo Cudkowicz Memorial Prize in Immunobiology, 1991; the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s AMGEN Award, for significant achievements in the understanding of human disease involving studies in model yeasts defining targets and modes of action for immunosuppressive drugs, 2002; the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Squibb Award, in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of infectious diseases, in 2003; and a National Institutes of Health / National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases MERIT award for studies on unisexual reproduction of eukaryotic microbial pathogens, 2011-2021.

Dr. Heitman is an elected fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (2003), the ASCI (2003), the American Academy of Microbiology (2004), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004), and the Association of American Physicians (2006).

Dr. Heitman joined the faculty at Duke University School of Medicine in 1992, was named a James B. Duke Professor in 2004, and appointed Chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology in 2009. He was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1992 to 2005 and a Burroughs-Wellcome Scholar in Molecular Pathogenic Mycology from 1998 to 2005. He has given prominent lectures, including the American Society for Microbiology Division F Lecture (2009), the Foundation Lecture for the British Society for Medical Mycology (2010), the Karling Lecture for the Mycological Society of America (2011), and the Max Delbrück Lecture for the German Genetics Society (2017); is an editor of PLOS Genetics, mBio, PLOS Pathogens, and Fungal Genetics and Biology; and has edited seven textbooks on fungal pathogens, evolution of eukaryotic microbial pathogens, genetics, and microbiology.

Message from the President

Posted on by John Hawley

The Council recently asked the Active membership to vote on its recommendations for 2018 new members and proposed changes to the ASCI bylaws. I am pleased to write that the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of both.

The ASCI will welcome 78 new members at the upcoming AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting, April 20-22 at the Fairmont Chicago. We’ll be profiling some of our new members in the run-up to the meeting, and you can see the full list of those joining the ASCI here.

Registration for the meeting is open, and I encourage you to attend this year to experience great science, to support and mentor young physician-scientists across the career spectrum, and to connect with your colleagues.

The changes to the bylaws were focused on the Society’s publishing efforts. With these changes, the ASCI bylaws now specifically enumerate Publications and Editor Selection Committees, and they describe JCI Insight, now in its third year of publication.

Dr. Howard Rockman will remain as JCI Insight Editor through August 2019. In the coming months, the Publications Committee will be defining the application process for the next JCI Insight Editor, who will serve a five-year term beginning September 2019.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank those who contributed to the ASCI’s 2017 annual appeal, the first time the ASCI has undertaken such an effort, and to those who contributed to specific programs throughout 2017.

Beyond being grateful for this support, I am thankful for the passion and energy each of you contribute to the ASCI and the physician-scientist community in so many other ways.

I look forward to seeing you in Chicago in April.

Sincerely,


Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD
2017-2018 President
The American Society for Clinical Investigation

New members, 2018

Posted on by John Hawley

The ASCI is pleased to recognize the following 78 physician-scientists who were officially inducted into the Society at the ASCI Dinner & New Member Induction Ceremony, April 20, 2018, as part of the AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting in Chicago.

Name Institution
Omar I. Abdel-Wahab, MD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Prasad S. Adusumilli, MD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Michael S.D. Agus, MD Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital
Susanne E. Ahmari, MD, PhD University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Gregory T. Armstrong, MD, MSCE St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Jodie L. Babitt, MD Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Rebecca Marlene Baron, MD Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Ethan Martin Basch, MD, MPhil, MSc University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Murat Bastepe, MD, PhD Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Sudha B. Biddinger, MD, PhD Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital
Alessandra Biffi, MD Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital
Paul Laszlo Bollyky, MD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine
David T. Breault, MD, PhD Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital
Kathleen H. Burns, MD, PhD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Yu Chen, MD, PhD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Sharlene M. Day, MD University of Michigan Medical School
Arjun Deb, MD University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine
Ian Harm de Boer, MD, MS University of Washington School of Medicine
Joshua C. Denny, MD, MS Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Luis A. Diaz, Jr., MD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Jeremy S. Dittman, MD, PhD Weill Cornell Medical College
Abhinav Diwan, MBBS Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Robert C. Doebele, MD, PhD University of Colorado School of Medicine
Alexandre Y. Dombrovski, MD University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
XinQi Dong, MD, MPH Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey
Oliver Eickelberg, MD University of Colorado School of Medicine
Marni Joy Falk, MD University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Matthew Scott Freiberg, MD, MSc Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Jennifer F. Friedman, MD, PhD, MPH Brown University Medical School
Daniel M. Greif, MD Yale School of Medicine
Jan Grimm, MD, PhD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Cary P. Gross, MD Yale School of Medicine
Saptarsi M. Haldar, MD University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Megan R. Haymart, MD University of Michigan Medical School
Maureen Renee Horton, MD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Leora I. Horwitz, MD, MHS New York University School of Medicine
Yujin Hoshida, MD, PhD Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Susan S. Huang, MD, MPH University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
Arti Hurria, MD City of Hope Medical Center
Theodore (Jack) Iwashyna, MD, PhD University of Michigan Medical School
Antonio Jimeno, MD, PhD University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Daniel H. Kaplan, MD, PhD University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Keith S. Kaye, MD, MPH University of Michigan Medical School
Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Young J. Kim, MD, PhD Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Rahul M. Kohli, MD, PhD University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Suneil K. Koliwad, MD, PhD University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Margot Beth Kushel, MD University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Bonnie Ky, MD, MSCE University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Maciej S. Lesniak, MD, MHCM Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Jonathan H. Lin, MD, PhD University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine
Nehal N. Mehta, MD, MSCE NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Lloyd S. Miller, MD, PhD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Ann Mullally, MD Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Peter A. Nigrovic, MD Harvard Medical School
John Erik Pandolfino, MD, MSCI Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Eirini P. Papapetrou, MD, PhD Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Chirag R. Parikh, MD, PhD Yale School of Medicine
Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Sachin Patel, MD, PhD Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Ganesh V. Raj, MD, PhD University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Rajat Rohatgi, MD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine
Matthew R. Rosengart, MD, MPH University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Joseph Solomon Ross, MD, MHS Yale School of Medicine
Vijay Sankaran, MD, PhD Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital
Simone Sanna-Cherchi, MD Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Donald C. Sheppard, MD McGill University Faculty of Medicine
Brad Spellberg, MD University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
Charlotte J. Sumner, MD Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
David T. Teachey, MD Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Amal N Trivedi, MD, MPH Brown University Medical School
Minang Mintu Turakhia, MD, MAS Stanford University School of Medicine
Cameron J. Turtle, MBBS, PhD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
John S. Welch, MD, PhD Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Robert B. West, MD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine
Paul B. Yu, MD, PhD Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Kareem A. Zaghloul, MD, PhD NIH, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke