Medical Scientist Training Program
Annual MD/PhD Student Conference
July 18-20, 2008

2008 Featured Speakers

James Allison
Nancy Andrews
Brigid Hogan
William Wagner
Tadataka Yamada

 

James Allison, Ph.D.  (back to top)

 

Director of Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Biography:  Allison has a longstanding interest in mechanisms of T cell development and activation, and the development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy.  Allison was the first person to isolate the T cell antigen receptor protein, a feat which has been called one of the three most important findings in immunology in the last 20 years.  He also carried out pioneering studies showing the existence of a previously unrecognized class of T cells that expressed an alternative form of antigen receptor that were located in epithelial tissues.  He has made many contributions to our understanding of the process of T cell activation.  His work over the last several years has demonstrated that the process is considerably more complex than originally thought, and involves integration of the at least three signals:  activating signals generated by recognition of specific antigens by the antigen receptor; costimulatory signals generated by engagement of CD28 on the T cell surface, and competing inhibitory signals mediated by the CD28 homologue CTLA-4.  Allison was the first to show that one of the reasons that tumor cells avoid immune responses is that they lack the molecules that provide the CD28 mediated costimulatory signals. More recently, he has shown that blockade of the inhibitory signals of CTLA-4 can greatly enhance immune responses, including those directed against tumors.  CTLA-4 blockade is currently in clinical trials and shows considerable promise in immunotherapy of human cancer. His group has recently identified a family of co-inhibitory molecules expressed on tumor cells that seem to contribute to disease progression, perhaps by limiting anti-tumor immune responses.

Allison is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association fort the Advancement of Science. He has served as President of the American Association of Immunologists. He has received numerous awards, including the Centeon Award for Innovative Breakthroughs in Immunology and the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. Allison has served as President of the American Association of Immunologists.

 

Nancy Andrews, M.D., Ph.D.  (back to top)

 

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine

Biography: On October 1, 2007 Dr. Andrews became Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine.  She is also a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology & Cancer Biology.

Dr. Andrews received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, her Ph.D. in Biology from MIT and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston, and her Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

After she completed her training Dr. Andrews stayed on at Harvard and Children’s Hospital, rising through the academic ranks to become the George Richards Minot Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard, Senior Associate in Medicine at the Children’s Hospital Boston, and a Distinguished Physician of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She served as an attending physician in hematology and oncology at Children’s Hospital until 2003. She was director of the Harvard-M.I.T. M.D.-Ph.D. Program from 1999 to 2003 and dean for Basic Sciences and Graduate Studies at Harvard Medical School from 2003 to 2007.

Dr. Andrews has maintained an active NIH-funded research laboratory studying mouse models of human diseases.  She was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1993 to 2006. She has authored well over 100 peer-reviewed articles and 18 book chapters, and has received many awards and honors for her research, including membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is currently President of the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

 

Brigid Hogan, Ph.D.  (back to top)

 

George Barth Geller Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center

Biography:  Brigid Hogan is the George Barth Geller Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center.  She is also Director of the Duke Stem Cell Program. Prior to joining Duke, Dr Hogan was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Hortense B. Ingram Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  Dr. Hogan earned her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. After completing her PhD, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at MIT. Before moving to the United States in 1988 Dr Hogan was head of the Molecular Embryology Laboratory at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. Her research currently focuses on the genetic control of embryonic development and morphogenesis, using the mouse as a model system. She currently has a particular interest in stem cells of adult endodermal organs, including the lung and esophagus, and their role in organ turnover and repair. She was President of the American Society for Developmental Biology and is President-elect of the American Society of Cell Biology. Her service to the scientific community has included being a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Co-Chair for Science of the 1994 NIH Human Embryo Research Panel and a member of the 2001/2002 National Academies Panel on Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Cloning. Dr. Hogan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 

 

William Wagner, Ph.D.  (back to top)

 

Professor of Surgery, Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh

Deputy Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Biography: Dr. William R. Wagner is a Professor of Surgery, Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh and Deputy Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. His research group works in the area of cardiovascular engineering with projects that address medical device biocompatibility and design, biomaterials and tissue engineering, and targeted imaging. Dr. Wagner is the founding editor of the biomaterials journal Acta Biomaterialia, published by Elsevier, and currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, and the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. In 2006 he was selected, together with colleague Dr. Michael Sacks, to the “Scientific American 50”, the magazine’s annual list recognizing leaders in science and technology from the research, business and policy fields. He was elected as a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2000 and has also been elected a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (2007) and the American Heart Association (2001). He has served as Chairman for the Gordon Research Conference on Biomaterials: Biocompatibility & Tissue Engineering as well as for the First World Congress of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). He has served on numerous NIH and NSF study sections and has been a member of external review committees for national and international organizations focused on bioengineering and regenerative medicine. He also currently serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees for the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO).   Dr. Wagner holds a B.S. (Johns Hopkins) and Ph.D. (University of Texas) in Chemical Engineering and has been on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh since 1991.

 

 

Tadataka Yamada, M.D.  (back to top)

 

President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program

Biography: Dr. Tadataka (Tachi) Yamada is President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program.  In this capacity he oversees grants totaling over $7 billion in programs directed at applying technologies to address major health challenges of the developing world including TB, HIV, malaria and other infectious diseases, malnutrition and maternal and child health.  He was formerly Chairman, Research and Development and a Member of the board of Development and Member of the Board of Directors of GlaxoSmithKline.

 

 

Dr. Yamada was born in Japan, and completed his education in the United States.  He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in history and obtained his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine.  After completing his internal medicine training at the Medical College of Virginia he became an investigator in the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, trained in gastroenterology at the UCLA School of Medicine and assumed his first faculty position there.  He later moved to the University of Michigan where he ultimately became Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of the University of Michigan Medical Center before joining GlaxoSmithKline. 

 

 

A scientist and scholar in gastroenterology, Dr. Yamada is the author of more than 150 original manuscripts on the subject and is the editor of The Textbook of Gastroenterology.  The studies undertaken by Dr. Yamada and his collaborators led to basic discoveries in the post-translational processing and biological activation of peptide hormones, the structure and function of receptors for hormones regulating gastric acid secretion, and the regulation of genes involved in the acid secretory process. 

 

 

In recognition of his contributions to medicine he has been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (US), the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) and the National Academy of Medicine (Mexico).  He has received an honorary appointment as Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) and been conferred the degree of D.Sci. honoris causa, from the University of East Anglia.  He has also been the recipient of numerous awards including the Distinguished Achievement Award in Gastrointestinal Physiology from the American Physiological Society, the Friedenwald Medal from the American Gastroenterological Association, the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan and the Distinguished Medical Scientist Award from the Medical College of Virginia.  Dr. Yamada is a Fellow of the Imperial College of Medicine, a Master of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Past-President of the Association of American Physicians and a Past-President of the American Gastroenterological Association.  He has also been a Member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners (US).  

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