In today's Globe it was reported that Dr. Meir Stampfer, renowned Channing scientist and professor at the Harvard School of Public Health is the most frequently cited researcher in the country, according to ISI Essential Science Indicators, a research tracking company. Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at HSPH and another well-known Channing researcher was the No. 2 most quoted Channing researcher. Dr. Graham Colditz, head of the prestigious Nurses' Health Study headquartered here at the Channing and professor of epidemiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital was listed as No. 7.

These scientists reflect the high level of dedication the research community has come to expect from Channing Laboratory and we extend our heartiest congratulations to each of them on a superb record of accomplishments.

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Respected Channing researcher Dr. Richard Platt and colleagues receive important grant from CDC
The Harvard Focus, October 14, 2005

     Dr. Richard Platt, co-principal investigator Dr. Kenneth Mandl, and other Boston-based consortium groups, have received a $4.5 million grant from the CDC to build a CDC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics. Dr. Platt will focus on dealing with clinician-public health interactions and will create medical-record software to allow secure communication between doctors and public health officials. Click HERE to read more about this ground-breaking effort.

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Women's Health Grants Announced
The Harvard Focus, September 30, 2005

     The HMS Center of Excellence in Women's Health has awarded the following new research grants to several Channing scientists:

Experience of Violence in Childhood Adolescence in Lesbian, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Women in the Nurses' Health Study II

     S. Bryn Austin, HSPH assistant professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health and HMS assistant professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston (Principal Investigator), and Rosalind J. Wright, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and HSPH assistant professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health (Co-principal Investigator).

Pilot Studies of Plasma Proteomic Profiling as a Tool for Studies of Ovarian Cancer Risk

Shelley Tworoger, HMS instructor in Medicine at BWH (Principal Investigator), and Dimitrios Spentzos, HMS instructor in medicine at BID (Co-principal Investigator)

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Honors and Advances
The Harvard Focus, September 30, 2005

     Mei-Ling Ting Lee, HMS associate professor of medicine (biostatistics) at Brigham and Women's Hospital and HSPH associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics, was inducted as a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics on August 8 at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Minneapolis. Lee received the award for her significant theoretical contributions to distribution theory and biostatistics, her development of innovative statistical models and methodology for survival data analysis, and her overall professional service to mathematical statistics.

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Channing scientist named chair of HSPH's Department of Environmental Health

The Harvard Focus,Bulletin, September 30, 2005

     Dr. Douglas Dockery, esteemed Channing scientist, has HSPH professor of environmental epidemiology and HMS associate professor of medicine (epidemiology), was named chair of HSPH's Department of Environmental Health, effective Sept. 1. Dr. Dockery is internationally known for his innovative work in environmental epidemiology, most recently in pursuing the biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between air pollution and acute cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. He was one of the principal investigators of the renowned Six Cities Study of Air Pollution and Health, which had a major impact on air quality standards for particulate air pollution.

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Well known Channing scientist, Dr. Walter Willett, wins Bristol-Myers/Mead Johnson award.
The Harvard Gazette, September 15, 2005

     
Frederick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition Walter C. Willett received the 25th annual Bristol-Myers Squibb/Mead Johnson Freedom to Discover Award for Distinguished Achievement in Nutrition Research this past August. An independent panel selected Willett, who is also the chairman of the Department of Nutrition in the Faculty of Public Heatlth, and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Willett was recognized for his pioneering work in the field of nutritional epidemiology, including the development of large-scale cohort studies and methods to assess dietary intake in large populations.

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Kasper Applies Expertise to Standardize Biosecurity
Who's News
The BWH Bulletin, August 12, 2005

     Dennis Kasper, MD, director of the Channing Laboratory in the Department of Medicine, will chair a 24-member committee charged by the federal Department of Health and Human Services to recommend strategies for oversight of federally conducted or supported biological research that has the potential for dual use--that is, research yielding knowledge of public health benefit that could possibly be exploited by persons seeking to do harm. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which first met last month in Bethesda, MD, will consider both national security concerns and the needs of the research community. "It's an honor to be selected to chair this board, which includes so many distinguished members representing a broad spectrum of expertise from academia, the biotechnical industry and government," Kasper said. "It is a significant challenge we have ahead of us, but I think my colleagues on the board are up to this critical task of strategic development in this area of science."

     (For more information, visit www.biosecurity.com).

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The Boston Globe, July 3, 2005, by Gareth Cook, Globe Staff      

     Dr. Scott Weiss, pioneering Channing Laboratory asthma researcher, is participating in a new $20 million dollar project to build a database capable of finding links between the DNA of a patient and many illnesses. Dr. Weiss, heading the first study carried out under the project guidelines, is seeking to identify a genetic signature shared by severe asthma patients who don't respond well to the usual treatments. If this theory holds true, with the help of the new database, this type of patient could be identified well in advance, saving much trial and error for both the patient and his physician. Obviously, genetic studies of this type could also be applied to identifying and treating patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes, Huntington's disease, or a host of other possible gene-related illnesses. Look for many more important studies in the future as medical research uses technology more and more in their quest for the answers to so many perplexing questions

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Channing Laboratory Director Dr. Dennis Kasper and colleague Dr. Sarkis Mazmanian make an important new contribution to our knowledge of immune system development.

by Courtney Humphries, The Harvard Focus, July 15, 2005

     

In an article published in the July 15 Cell, Drs. Kasper, Mazmanian, and their team at the Channing report that B fragilis, a common intestinal bacterium, contributes to the development of the immune system, as well as help digestion, protect against infection, and contribute to the development of the intestine after birth. In a recent statement Dr. Kasper states "No one has previously described in mammalian systems a single molecule that causes symbiosis." He goes on to say, "If you look at my career and most of my colleagues' in the Microbiology Department, we've all spent our years studying pathogens. And here's an amazingly important biologic function--and it has nothing to do with a pathogen, but it does have to do with bacteria." Click HERE to read about this exciting newest contribution by the Channing Laboratory's team.

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In The News

The BWH Bulletin, July 15, 2005

     Channing scientists, Catherine Berkey, Sc. D. and co-authors Walter Willett, M.D., Dr.PH, Graham Colditz, M.D., Dr.PH, and Harvard co-author Helaine Rockett, MS, RD, publish an important new study on adolescent weight gain and milk consumption. Results of the study won media attention from WCVB (Ch.5), WHDH (Ch. 7), and WLVI (Ch. 56) in Boston, and ABC News, as well as The Washington Post, Lost Angeles Times, Boston Herald, WebMD, and Reuters. The study concluded that children who drank more than three servings per day were 25 percent more likely to become overweight during a one-year period than those who drank two or three servings per day. According to the study, the extra weight gain is a likely outcome of the extra calories consumed, though most of the 12,000 children from all 50 states who participated in the study drank non-fat or low-fat milk. The study appeared in the June Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

     In The News also references the important results of the recently published study [See the previous Channing News article of May 26] from Dr. Michelle Holmes and the Nurses' Health Study headquartered at the Channing in which Dr. Holmes discovered that women who walked at a moderate pace three to five hours a week are 50 percent less likely to die from breast cancer after being diagnosed with the disease. Coverage of this study was featured on Boston television, ABC's Good Morning America, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The LA Times, and USA Today.

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The staff and employees here at Channing Laboratory wish to take this opportunity to welcome Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, newly appointed chairman of the Department of Medicine. We look forward to continued growth and accomplishments in the research community both for the Channing and Brigham and Women's Hospital under his direction and guidance. Welcome, Dr. Loscalzo!!

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BWH 2005 SERVICE AWARDS
The BWH Bulletin, June 2005

     The Channing Laboratory offers sincere congratulations to the following Channing employees for their years of service to BWH, recognized at the annual Service Award Program ceremony held June 9, 2005 at the Cabot Atrium, Brigham & Women's Hospital: