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Symposium Highlights Research in Molecular Medicine
Irma Gigli, M.D., visits with keynote speaker Harvey Colten, M.D., over lunch at the symposium. Colten delivered the Seventh Hans J. Müller-Eberhard Memorial Lecture. Behind them are portraits of IMM founding director Hans J. Müller Eberhard, M.D., Ph.D., and his widow and first IMM faculty member Gigli. Photos by Lauren Hughes
Why? How? What if? These are the questions that drove the establishment of The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM).
These are the questions that continue to drive research, such as the research discussed at “Molecular Strategies to Prevent Human Diseases,” a symposium held Nov. 2 in conjunction with the dedication of the new Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building.
Why the Same Fate?
“Why does a person whose father or mother suffered a heart attack or stroke before the age of 50 often face the same fate, often at the same age, even the same month?” asked James T. Willerson, M.D., president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
“I don’t care what you do. You can run all day long; your cholesterol can be rock bottom; never smoke; control your blood pressure; be thin as a pencil. If you’ve got the wrong genetic makeup, you’re going to experience what your father or mother had,” said Willerson.
“I had become very impressed with the genetic risk for heart and vascular disease,” he said at the symposium, so impressed that in 1989 he wanted to establish an institute of molecular medicine dedicated to genomic and proteomic discovery for the prevention of human diseases.
With the help of others in Houston and Texas, that
institute became a
reality. And now
the institute has a
home in the
Sarofim Research
Building.
“Buildings and celebrations are terrific, but that’s not really what we’re about,” Willerson said. “We’re about discovery of genes and proteins that cause the diseases of our time. We are going to continue to recruit the best scientists in the world here.”
Hans J. Müller-Eberhard Memorial Lecture
One of his first recruits, Hans J. Müller-Eberhard, M.D., Ph.D., became the IMM’s founding director in 1995. Müller-Eberhard, who died in 1999, was commemorated by the symposium’s first keynote speaker, who gave the Seventh Hans J. Müller- Eberhard Memorial Lecture.
Keynote speaker Alan R. Shaw, Ph.D.
Harvey R. Colten, M.D., professor of pediatrics, vice president and senior associate dean for academic affairs at Columbia University Medical Center, discussed Müller-Eberhard’s “profound influence” on investigation of the complement system. “I think his work is still about to bear fruit in an understanding of innate immunity,” Colten said. Innate immunity is genetic, ready to go at birth, in contrast to adaptive immunity, which each individual must acquire.
The second keynote speaker was Alan R. Shaw, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of VaxInnate Corporation, who spoke on “The Development of a Vaccine Against Cervical Cancer.”
Scientific Sessions
Scientific sessions were chaired by Irma Gigli, M.D., IMM deputy director and director of the Center for Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases, and Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., IMM director and chief executive officer and director of the Center for Cell Signaling. Both also hold appointments in the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston (GSBS).
Other speakers were:
- Michael C. Braun, M.D., assistant professor, Center for Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases, and GSBS;
- C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., chief operating officer and director-elect;
- Peter A. Doris, Ph.D., associate professor, Center for Human Genetics, and GSBS;
- Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., professor and director, Center for Nanomedicine, and GSBS;
- Myriam Fornage, Ph.D., assistant professor, Center for Human Genetics, and GSBS;
- Emil Martin, Ph.D., assistant professor, Center for Cell Signaling;
- Peter P. Ruvolo, Ph.D., assistant professor, Center for Cell Signaling, and GSBS;
- Paul J. Simmons, Ph.D., professor and director, Center for Stem Cell Biology;
- Rick A. Wetsel, Ph.D., professor of molecular medicine, and GSBS.
By Ina Fried, Institutional Advancement