- Email: [email protected]
Milestones
In Context
Milestones A US$1·5 million endowed chair for neuro-oncology research at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center has been established by William and Joan Shapiro. This will enable the institute to fund researchers and physicians to support and strengthen the neuro-oncology programme. The NIH has awarded four members of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine a US$10 million 5-year grant to study autophagy. Ana Maria Cuervo and co-workers will investigate the role of autophagy in impairments in cognition and immune function, and the changes in metabolism, that are associated with ageing. The University of Texas Medical School at Houston is set to launch a first-in-human phase I study to investigate the use of autologous stem cells for the treatment of acute stroke. The study is funded by the NIH; enrolment was due to begin in mid-February. Costantino Iadecola, at Weill Medical College, Cornell University, was awarded the Thomas Willis Award at the International Stroke Conference in San Diego, USA. The award is the most prestigious honour given by the American Stroke Association and recognises major contributions to the understanding of stroke over a sustained period. The award recognises Iadecola’s translational work in the physiology and pathophysiology of blood flow control in the brain. The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has named William Mobley as the new chair of the department of neurosciences. Mobley, a clinician and researcher who is acclaimed for his work on neurodegenerative diseases and the neurobiology of Down’s syndrome, is due to start his new position on April 1. Huda Zoghbi is to receive the 2009 Vilcek prize in biomedical science. The Vilcek Foundation’s aim is to raise awareness of the achievements and contributions of immigrants who are now working in the USA. CANTAM (Central African Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria for the conduct of clinical trials), the first regional Network of Excellence funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, has been established and will be supported for 3 years by a grant of €3 million. CANTAM includes research institutions and political partners from Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Tanzania, and Germany with the aim to build research and conduct trials under best practices. Eventually, networks in eastern, southern, and western Africa will join CANTAM to form an interlinked complementary network for multicentre clinical trials. Send announcements to: [email protected]
www.thelancet.com/neurology Vol 8 April 2009
Lifeline Mark Wilson attended St Bartholomew’s Medical College and studied neuroscience at University College London and medicine at Cambridge University, UK. He received surgical training at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, UK and dabbled in several careers (anaesthetics and general practice) in various parts of the world before becoming a neurosurgical specialist registrar at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and a prehospital care registrar at the Royal London Hospital. He wrote The Medics Guide to Work and Electives Around the World and recently coordinated the neuroscience research on the Caudwell Xtreme Everest project for University College London. Which event has had the most effect on your work, and why? A Cambridge professor in 1992 asked me “how would you weigh your head?”, a question that has led me to investigate intracranial pressure in astronauts, halfway up Mount Everest, and to my ultimate career. If you had not entered your current profession, what would you have liked to do? Become a pilot or astronaut—but I can’t see very well (apparently that’s OK in neurosurgery!). What would be your advice to a newly qualified doctor? Don’t get trapped and don’t let the National Health Service knock out your other interests. What is the best piece of advice you have received, and from whom? “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”, from my mate Sundeep Dhillon, although originally an Anthony Robbins quote I think. What is your greatest regret? No regrets yet as I don’t quite know where the decisions I have made so far are taking me! What is your greatest fear? That the restrictions on medical training in the UK might stop people really enjoying medicine. In which other country would you like to live and why? Australia—my happiest memories are being a general practitioner in the outback. How would you improve the public’s understanding of research? Experiment on them. What was your first memory? Stealing a green plastic spanner from nursery (aged 3 years—I’m still racked with guilt—I’m sorry). What is the naughtiest thing you have ever done? If you were caught what, if anything, did you learn? Stole green spanner. I’ve never been caught… I’ve learnt that a life of crime means you are always on the run.
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Milestones A US$1·5 million endowed chair for neuro-oncology research at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center has been established by William and Joan Shapiro. This will enable the institute to fund researchers and physicians to support and strengthen the neuro-oncology programme. The NIH has awarded four members of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine a US$10 million 5-year grant to study autophagy. Ana Maria Cuervo and co-workers will investigate the role of autophagy in impairments in cognition and immune function, and the changes in metabolism, that are associated with ageing. The University of Texas Medical School at Houston is set to launch a first-in-human phase I study to investigate the use of autologous stem cells for the treatment of acute stroke. The study is funded by the NIH; enrolment was due to begin in mid-February. Costantino Iadecola, at Weill Medical College, Cornell University, was awarded the Thomas Willis Award at the International Stroke Conference in San Diego, USA. The award is the most prestigious honour given by the American Stroke Association and recognises major contributions to the understanding of stroke over a sustained period. The award recognises Iadecola’s translational work in the physiology and pathophysiology of blood flow control in the brain. The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has named William Mobley as the new chair of the department of neurosciences. Mobley, a clinician and researcher who is acclaimed for his work on neurodegenerative diseases and the neurobiology of Down’s syndrome, is due to start his new position on April 1. Huda Zoghbi is to receive the 2009 Vilcek prize in biomedical science. The Vilcek Foundation’s aim is to raise awareness of the achievements and contributions of immigrants who are now working in the USA. CANTAM (Central African Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria for the conduct of clinical trials), the first regional Network of Excellence funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, has been established and will be supported for 3 years by a grant of €3 million. CANTAM includes research institutions and political partners from Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Tanzania, and Germany with the aim to build research and conduct trials under best practices. Eventually, networks in eastern, southern, and western Africa will join CANTAM to form an interlinked complementary network for multicentre clinical trials. Send announcements to: [email protected]
www.thelancet.com/neurology Vol 8 April 2009
Lifeline Mark Wilson attended St Bartholomew’s Medical College and studied neuroscience at University College London and medicine at Cambridge University, UK. He received surgical training at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, UK and dabbled in several careers (anaesthetics and general practice) in various parts of the world before becoming a neurosurgical specialist registrar at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and a prehospital care registrar at the Royal London Hospital. He wrote The Medics Guide to Work and Electives Around the World and recently coordinated the neuroscience research on the Caudwell Xtreme Everest project for University College London. Which event has had the most effect on your work, and why? A Cambridge professor in 1992 asked me “how would you weigh your head?”, a question that has led me to investigate intracranial pressure in astronauts, halfway up Mount Everest, and to my ultimate career. If you had not entered your current profession, what would you have liked to do? Become a pilot or astronaut—but I can’t see very well (apparently that’s OK in neurosurgery!). What would be your advice to a newly qualified doctor? Don’t get trapped and don’t let the National Health Service knock out your other interests. What is the best piece of advice you have received, and from whom? “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”, from my mate Sundeep Dhillon, although originally an Anthony Robbins quote I think. What is your greatest regret? No regrets yet as I don’t quite know where the decisions I have made so far are taking me! What is your greatest fear? That the restrictions on medical training in the UK might stop people really enjoying medicine. In which other country would you like to live and why? Australia—my happiest memories are being a general practitioner in the outback. How would you improve the public’s understanding of research? Experiment on them. What was your first memory? Stealing a green plastic spanner from nursery (aged 3 years—I’m still racked with guilt—I’m sorry). What is the naughtiest thing you have ever done? If you were caught what, if anything, did you learn? Stole green spanner. I’ve never been caught… I’ve learnt that a life of crime means you are always on the run.
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