Penn Faculty, Staff, and Students

Upcoming NIH Grant Deadlines through December 31, 2012

Types of Applications	Cycle I	Cycle II	Cycle III	Application Form
Application Receipt Dates
Program Project Grants and Center Grants P-Series; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	Jan 25	May 25	Sep 25	PHS 398
Research Demonstration Education Projects R18/U18, R25; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	Jan 25	May 25	Sep 25	SF 424
Institutional National Research Service Awards Other Training Grants T-Series and D-Series; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision. NOTE: Applicants should check with the relevant Institute or Center (IC), since some do not accept T series applications for all three receipt/review/award cycles. Applicants should refer to the IC Table of Contacts for information for each IC’s scientific/research contact for the NRSA T32 program.	Jan 25	May 25	Sep 25	SF 424
Contruction Grants C06/UC6; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	Jan 25	May 25	Sept 25	SF 424
Other Activity Codes G07, G08, G11, G13, G20, S11, S21, S22, SC1, SC2, SC3; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	Jan 25	May 25	Sep 25	SF 424
Other Activity Codes D71/UR2, G12, M01, R10/U10, R24/U24, S06, U19, U45, U54, U56; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	Jan 25	May 25	Sep 25	PHS 398
Research Grants R01; New	Feb 5	June 5	Oct 5	SF 424
Research Grants - Cooperative Agreements U01; New	Feb 5	June 5	Oct 5	SF 424
Research Grants - Multi-Component Cooperative Agreements UM1; New	Feb 5	June 5	Oct 5	PHS 398
Research Career Development K-Series; New	Feb 12	June 12	Oct 12	SF 424
Other Research Grants R03, R21, R33, R21/R33, R34, R36; New	Feb 16	June 16	Oct 16	SF 424
Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) R15; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	Feb 25	June 25	Oct 25	SF 424
Research Grants R01; Renewal, resubmission, revision	Mar 5	July 5	Nov 5	SF 424
Research Grants - Cooperative Agreements U01; Renewal, resubmission, revision	Mar 5	July 5	Nov 5	SF 424
Research Grants - Multi-Component Cooperative Agreements UM1; Renewal, resubmission, revision	Mar 5	July 5	Nov 5	PHS 398
Research Career Development K-Series; Renewal, resubmission, revision	Mar 12	July 12	Nov 12	SF 424
Other Research Grants R03, R21, R33, R21/R33, R34, R36	March 16	July 16	Nov 16	SF 424
Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) / Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) R41, R42, R43, R44, U43, U44; All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	April 5	Aug 5	Dec 5	SF 424
Individual National Research Service Awards (Standard) F-Series Fellowships; All new, renewal, resubmission. See the NRSA Training Page	April 8	Aug 8	Dec 8	SF 424
Conference Grants and Conference Cooperative Agreements R13, U13, All new, renewal, resubmission, revision	April 12	Aug 12	Dec 12	SF 424
Individal Predoctoral Fellowships (F31) to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research F31; new, renewal, resubmission. See the NRSA Training Page	April 13	Aug 13	Dec 13	SF 424
AIDS and AIDS Related Applications All Mechanisms Cited Above; new, renewal, resubmission, revision	May 7	Sept 7	Jan 7	Based on Activity Code
Review and Award Schedule
Scientific Merit Review	June - July	October - November	February - March
Advisory Council Review	August or October *	January	May
Earliest Project Start Date*	September or December*	April	July
NOTES: The actual date of the Advisory Council may occur in the month before or after the month listd. For example, some ICs may actually hold the January Advisory Council meeting in February or the October Advisory Council meeting in September. Awarding components may not always be able to honor the requested start date of an application. Therefore, applicants should make no commitments or obligations until confirmation of the start date by the awarding component. * Advisory Council Round for Cycle 1 applications may be in August or October, and their earliest project start date may be September or December, respectively.

NIH Funding Opps

Latest Announcements

March 27, 2013

T-Cell Therapy Eradicates an Aggressive Leukemia in Two Children

CHOP/Penn Medicine Oncology Team Reports Complete Remission in Pediatric ALL Patients

PHILDELPHIA — Two children with an aggressive form of childhood leukemia had a complete remission of their disease—showing no evidence of cancer cells in their bodies—after treatment with a novel cell therapy that reprogrammed their immune cells to rapidly multiply and destroy leukemia cells. A research team from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania published the case report of two pediatric patients Online First today in The New England Journal of Medicine. It will appear in the April 18 print issue.

One of the patients, 7-year-old Emily Whitehead, was featured in news stories in December 2012 after the experimental therapy led to her dramatic recovery after she relapsed following conventional treatment. Emily remains healthy and cancer-free, 11 months after receiving bioengineered T cells that zeroed in on a target found in this type of leukemia, called acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The other patient, a 10-year-old girl, who also had a complete response to the same treatment, suffered a relapse two months later when other leukemia cells appeared that did not harbor the specific cell receptor targeted by the therapy.

“This study describes how these cells have a potent anticancer effect in children,” said co-first author Stephan A. Grupp, M.D., Ph.D., of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where both patients were treated in this clinical trial. “However, we also learned that in some patients with ALL, we will need to further modify the treatment to target other molecules on the surface of leukemia cells.”

Grupp is the director of Translational Research for the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and a professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael Kalos, Ph.D., an adjunct associate professor in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of the Translational and Correlative Studies Laboratory in the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn, is co-first author on the study.

The current study builds on Grupp’s ongoing collaboration with Penn Medicine scientists who originally developed the modified T cells as a treatment for B-cell leukemias. The Penn team reported on early successful results of a trial using this cell therapy in three adult chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients in August of 2011. Two of those patients remain in remission more than 2½ years following their treatment, and as the Penn researchers reported in December 2012 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, seven out of ten adult patients treated at that point responded to the therapy. The team is led by the current study’s senior author, Carl H. June, M.D., the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Translational Research in Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.

“We’re hopeful that our efforts to treat patients with these personalized cellular therapies will reduce or even replace the need for bone marrow transplants, which carry a high mortality risk and require long hospitalizations,” June said. “In the long run, if the treatment is effective in these late-stage patients, we would like to explore using it up front, and perhaps arrive at a point where leukemia can be treated without chemotherapy.”

The research team colleagues adapted the original CLL treatment to combat another B-cell leukemia: ALL, which is the most common childhood cancer. After decades of research, oncologists can currently cure 85 percent of children with ALL. Both children in the current study had a high-risk type of ALL that stubbornly resists conventional treatments.

The new study used a relatively new approach in cancer treatment: immunotherapy, which manipulates the immune system to increase its cancer-fighting capabilities. Here the researchers engineered T cells to selectively kill another type of immune cell called B cells, which had become cancerous.

T cells are the workhorses of the immune system, recognizing and attacking invading disease cells. However, cancer cells fly under the radar of immune surveillance, evading detection by T cells. The new approach custom-designs T cells to “see” and attack the cancer cells.

The researchers removed some of each patient’s own T cells and modified them in the laboratory to create a type of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) cell called a CTL019 cell. These cells are designed to attack a protein called CD19 that occurs only on the surface of certain B cells.

By creating an antibody that recognizes CD19 and then connecting that antibody to T cells, the researchers created in CTL019 cells a sort of guided missile that locks in on and kills B cells, thereby attacking B-cell leukemia. After being returned to the patient’s body, the CTL019 cells multiply a thousand times over and circulate throughout the body. Importantly, they persist for months afterward, guarding against a recurrence of this specific type of leukemia.

While the CTL019 cells eliminate leukemia, they also can generate an overactive immune response, called a cytokine release syndrome, involving dangerously high fever, low blood pressure, and other side effects. This complication was especially severe in Emily, and her hospital team needed to provide her with treatments that rapidly relieved the treatment-related symptoms by blunting the immune overresponse, while still preserving the modified T cells’ anti-leukemia activity.

“The comprehensive testing plan that we have put in place to study patients’ blood and bone marrow while they’re undergoing this therapy is allowing us to be able to follow how the T cells are behaving in patients in real time, and guides us to be able to design more detailed and specific experiments to answer critical questions that come up from our studies,” Kalos said.

The CTL019 therapy eliminates all B cells that carry the CD19 cell receptor: healthy cells as well as those with leukemia. Patients can live without B cells, although they require regular replacement infusions of immunoglobulin, which can be given at home, to perform the immune function normally provided by B cells.

The research team continues to refine their approach using this new technology and explore reasons why some patients may not respond to the therapy or may experience a recurrence of their disease. Grupp said the appearance of the CD19-negative leukemia cells in the second child may have resulted from her prior treatments. Unlike Emily, the second patient had received an umbilical cord cell transplant from a matched donor, so her engineered T cells were derived from her donor (transplanted) cells, with no additional side effects. Oncologists had previously treated her with blinatumomab, a monoclonal antibody, in hopes of fighting the cancer. The prior treatments may have selectively favored a population of CD19-negative T cells.

“The emergence of tumor cells that no longer contain the target protein suggests that in particular patients with high-risk ALL, we may need to broaden the treatment to include additional T cells that may go after additional targets,” added Grupp. “However, the initial results with this immune-based approach are encouraging, and may later even be developed into treatments for other types of cancer.”

Funding from the National Institutes of Health (grants 1RO1 CA165206, R01 CA102646 and R01 CA116660), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy supported this study.

In August 2012, the University of Pennsylvania and Novartis announced an exclusive global research and licensing agreement to further study and commercialize these novel cellular immunotherapies using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technologies. As part of the transaction, Novartis acquired exclusive rights from Penn to CART-19, the therapy that was the subject of this clinical trial and which is now known as CTL019.

“Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Modified T Cells for Acute Lymphoid Leukemia,” New England Journal of Medicine, Online First, March 25, 2013. To appear in print April 18, 2013.

March 6, 2013

Tweaking Gene Expression to Repair Lungs

Lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are on the rise, according to the American Lung Association and the National Institutes of Health.

Expression of the important transcription factor Sox2 (green staining and outlined with dashed line) in the airway epithelium of control mouse lung airways (A). Loss of Hdac1/2 expression leads to loss of Sox2 expression in Hdac1/2 double knockout animals (B)

These ailments are chronic, affect the small airways of the lung, and are thought to involve an injury-repair cycle that leads to the breakdown of normal airway structure and function. For now, drugs for COPD treat only the symptoms.

“A healthy lung has some capacity to regenerate itself like the liver,” notes Ed Morrisey, Ph.D., professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology and the scientific director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. “In COPD, these reparative mechanisms fail.”

Morrisey is looking at how epigenetics controls lung repair and regeneration. Epigenetics involves chemical modifications to DNA and its supporting proteins that affect gene expression. Previous studies found that smokers with COPD had the most significant decrease in one of the enzymes controlling these modifications, called HDAC2.

“HDAC therapies may be useful for COPD, as well as other airway diseases,” he explains. “The levels of HDAC2 expression and its activity are greatly reduced in COPD patients. We believe that decreased HDAC activity may impair the ability of the lung epithelium to regenerate.”

Using genetic and pharmacological approaches, they showed that development of progenitor cells in the lung is specifically regulated by the combined function of two highly related HDACs, HDAC/1 and /2. Morrisey and colleagues published their findings in this week’s issue of Developmental Cell.

By studying how HDAC activity, as well as other epigenetic regulators, controls lung development and regeneration, they hope to develop new therapies to alleviate the unmet needs of patients with asthma and COPD.

HDAC1/2 deficiency leads to a loss of expression of the key transcription factor, a protein called Sox2, which in turn leads to a block in airway epithelial cell development. This is affected in part by deactivating a repressor of expression (derepressing) of two other proteins, Bmp4 and the tumor suppressor Rb1 - targets of HDAC1/2.

In the adult lung, loss of HDAC1/2 leads primarily to increased expression of inhibitors of cell proliferation including the proteins Rb1, p16, and p21. This results in decreased epithelial proliferation in lung injury and inhibition of regeneration.

Together, these data support a critical role for HDAC-mediated mechanisms in regulating both development and regeneration of lung tissue. Since HDAC inhibitors and activators are currently in clinical trials for other diseases, including cancer, such compounds could be tested in the future for efficacy in COPD, acute lung injury, and other lung diseases that involve defective repair and regeneration, says Morrisey.

This work was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL071589, HL087825, HL100405, HL110942) and the Lung Repair and Regeneration consortium, funded by the NHLBI.

February 12, 2013

Molecular Master Switch for Pancreatic Cancer Identified, Potential Predictor of Treatment Outcome

A recently described master regulator protein may explain the development of aberrant cell growth in the pancreas spurred by inflammation.

A team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania profiled gene expression of mouse pancreatic ductal and duct-like cells from different states - embryonic development, acute pancreatitis and K-ras mutation-driven carcinogenesis - to find the molecular regulation of these processes.

Broadly speaking, two cellular compartments are important in a normal pancreas, endocrine cells, which produce hormones including insulin, and exocrine cells – acinar and ductal -- which make and secrete digestive enzymes.

A cover article from the lab of Anil Rustgi, MD, Chief, Division of Gastroenterology, published early online in Genes and Development, details the molecular changes of exocrine cells during inflammation, so-called acinar-ductal metaplasia (ADM), a prelude to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

They used cell lineage tracing to follow what happens to the regulator protein called Prrx1 as cells change characteristics. Another protein, Sox9, which is downstream of Prrx1 in the cell signal pathway, is also important in understanding how pancreatic cancer forms, as the group has established the first link of Prrx1 to Sox9. The findings suggest that Prrx1 and Sox9 influence the emergence of an intermediate cell type that can give rise to cancer.

Inflammation is Key Culprit

Inflammation of the pancreas, or pancreatitis, is a leading reason for hospital admission, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and chronic pancreatitis is a risk factor for cancer of the pancreas. Each year, about 210,000 people in the United States are admitted to the hospital with acute pancreatitis.

Acute pancreatitis is caused by alcohol abuse, gallstones, and autoimmune disorders. When things go wrong, inflammatory pancreatitis happens, and the change from an acute state to a chronic state can lead to cancer.

When a patient recovers from pancreatitis, the change in cell fate reverts to the original cell type. But, if the pancreatitis is chronic, changed cells stay changed.

“We hope that studies like this one that identify key molecules and pathways that govern the cancerous fate of cells can be used as diagnostic predictors of treatment outcome and severity for cancer,” says Rustgi.

Co-authors include first author Maximilian Reichert, Shigetsugu Takano, Johannes von Burstin, Kaori Ihida-Stansbury, Christopher Hahn, Steffen Heeg, Andrew D. Rhim, and Ben Z. Stanger, all from Penn.

The work was supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK060694, P30-DK050306, DK088945, DK007066, CA117969, DK083355, DK083111), the National Pancreas Foundation , the Honjo International Scholarship Foundation, the Deutsche Krebshilfe, the American Society Grant (RP-10-033-01-CCE).

 

February 6, 2013

Eat to Dream: Penn Study Shows Dietary Nutrients Associated with Certain Sleep Patterns

First Nationally-Representative Analysis Reveals People Who Eat a Varied Diet Have Healthier Sleep Duration

 “You are what you eat,” the saying goes, but is what you eat playing a role in how much you sleep? Sleep, like nutrition and physical activity, is a critical determinant of health and well-being. With the increasing prevalence of obesity and its consequences, sleep researchers have begun to explore the factors that predispose individuals to weight gain and ultimately obesity. Now, a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows for the first time that certain nutrients may play an underlying role in short and long sleep duration and that people who report eating a large variety of foods – an indicator of an overall healthy diet – had the healthiest sleep patterns. The new research is published online, ahead-of-print in the journal Appetite.

“Although many of us inherently recognize that there is a relationship between what we eat and how we sleep, there have been very few scientific studies that have explored this connection, especially in a real-world situation,” said Michael A. Grandner, PhD, Instructor in Psychiatry and member of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at Penn. “ In general, we know that those who report between 7 - 8 hours of sleep each night are most likely to experience better overall health and well being, so we simply asked the question "Are there differences in the diet of those who report shorter sleep, longer sleep, or standard sleep patterns?”

To answer this question, the research team analyzed data from the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NHANES includes demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, and health-related questions. The sample for the survey is selected to represent the U.S. population of all ages and demographics. For the current study, researchers used the survey question regarding how much sleep each participant reported getting each night to separate the sample into groups of different sleep patterns. Sleep patterns were broken out as “Very Short’’ (<5 h per night), ‘‘Short’’ (5–6 h per night), ‘‘Standard’ (7–8h per night), and ‘‘Long’’ (9 h or more per night). NHANES participants also sat down with specially trained staff who went over, in great detail, a full day's dietary intake. This included everything from the occasional glass of water to complete, detailed records of every part of each meal. With this data, the Penn research team analyzed whether each group differed from the 7-8 hour “standard” group on any nutrients and total caloric intake. They also looked at these associations after controlling for overall diet, demographics, socioeconomics, physical activity, obesity, and other factors that could have explained this relationship.

The authors found that total caloric intake varied across groups. Short sleepers consumed the most calories, followed by normal sleepers, followed by very short sleepers, followed by long sleepers. Food variety was highest in normal sleepers, and lowest in very short sleepers. Differences across groups were found for many types of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.

In a statistical analysis, the research team found that there were a number of dietary differences, but these were largely driven by a few key nutrients. They found that very short sleep was associated with less intake of tap water, lycopene (found in red- and orange-colored foods), and total carbohydrates, short sleep was associated with less vitamin C, tap water, selenium (found in nuts, meat and shellfish), and more lutein/zeaxanthin (found in green, leafy vegetables), and long sleep was associated with less intake of theobromine (found in chocolate and tea), dodecanoic acid (a saturated fat) choline (found in eggs and fatty meats), total carbohydrates, and more alcohol.

“Overall, people who sleep 7 - 8 hours each night differ in terms of their diet, compared to people who sleep less or more. We also found that short and long sleep are associated with lower food variety,” said Dr. Grandner. “What we still don’t know is if people altered their diets, would they be able to change their overall sleep pattern? This will be an important area to explore going forward as we know that short sleep duration is associated with weight gain and obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Likewise, we know that people who sleep too long also experience negative health consequences. If we can pinpoint the ideal mix of nutrients and calories to promote healthy sleep, the healthcare community has the potential to make a major dent in obesity and other cardiometabolic risk factors.”

Other authors for Penn include Nicholas J. Jackson and Jason R. Gerstner, PhD.

This research was supported grants from National Institutes of Health (T32HL007713, 12SDG9180007 and P30HL101859).

 

December 2012

MRI Can Screen Patients for Alzheimer's Disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Using Penn-designed Model

Non-invasive MRI Screening Method is Cost-Effective, Statistically Powerful

PHILADELPHIA — When trying to determine the root cause of a person's dementia, using an MRI can effectively and non-invasively screen patients for Alzheimer's disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD), according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Using an MRI-based algorithm effectively differentiated cases 75 percent of the time, according to the study, published in the December 26th, 2012, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The non-invasive approach reported in this study can track disease progression over time more easily and cost-effectively than other tests, particularly in clinical trials testing new therapies.

Researchers used the MRIs to predict the ratio of two biomarkers for the diseases - the proteins total tau and beta-amyloid - in the cerebrospinal fluid. Cerebrospinal fluid analyses remain the most accurate method for predicting the disease cause, but requires a more invasive lumbar puncture. "Using this novel method, we obtain a single biologically meaningful value from analyzing MRI data in this manner and then we can derive a probabilistic estimate of the likelihood of Alzheimer's or FTLD," said the study's lead author, Corey McMillan, PhD, of the Perelman School of Medicine and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Using the MRI prediction method was 75 percent accurate at identifying the correct diagnosis in both patients with pre-confirmed disease diagnoses and those with biomarker levels confirmed by lumbar punctures, which shows comparable overlap between accuracy of the MRI and lumbar puncture methods. "For those remaining 25 percent of cases that are borderline, a lumbar puncture testing spinal fluid may provide a more accurate estimate of the pathological diagnosis."

Accurate tests to measure disease progression are very important in neurodegenerative diseases, especially as clinical trials test new therapies to slow or stop the progression or the disease. Biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases have been steadily improving, with new developments including spinal fluid tests detecting tau and amyloid-beta protein levels and other neuroimaging techniques developed at Penn Medicine, as part of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. While a spinal fluid test can be used to accurately pinpoint whether disease-specific proteins are present, the test requires a more invasive lumbar puncture making it more difficult to repeat over time. And for studies using other imaging techniques, such as test measuring whole brain volume, reduced sensitivity of the measurement requires more patients to be enrolled in clinical trials for statistical power to be achieved.

“Since this method yields a single biological value, it is possible to use MRI to screen patients for inclusion in clinical trials in a cost-effective manner and to provide an outcome measure that optimizes power in drug treatment trials,” the authors concluded.

The Penn team includes Dr. McMillan, Brian Avants, PhD, David Irwin, MD, John Toledo, MD, David Wolk, MD, Vivianna Van Deerlin, MD, PhD, Leslie Shaw, PhD, John Trojanowski, MD, PhD, and Murray Grossman, MD, EdD, with Penn’s departments of Neurology, Radiology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine as well as the Penn Memory Center, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, and the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center.

The study was funded by the Wyncote Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (AG17586, NS44166).

 

July 2012

Research Symposium Slides Available

Slides from the research symposium held on June 22, 2012, entitled ‘Funding the Transition: Making the Move from Individual Research to the Team Science Approach’ are now available online.

http://www.med.upenn.edu/rpd/ResearchSymposium.html

Presentations were made by the following faculty and staff:

Caryn Lerman, Ph.D.
Mary W. Calkins Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Deputy Director, Abramson Cancer Center

"A Team Science Approach to Nicotine Addiction Treatment"

Kevin Volpp, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management
Director, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Leonard Davis Institute

“Approaches to Submitting and Administering Program Project and Center Grants”

Stephen Kimmel, M.D., MSCE
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Senior Scholar, Epidemiology

“Coordination and Management of Federal Contracts”

Morris J. Birnbaum, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean for Biomedical Cores, Co-Director of the Diabetes Research Center and Associate Director of IDOM

“PSOM Research Core Facilities”

Kate Musselman, M.F.A..
Grant Writing and Scientific Editor
Office of Research Program Development

“How We Can Help”

 

April 2012

Research Symposium

Funding the Transition: Making the Move from Individual Research to thet Team Science Approach

Friday, June 22, 2012
9:00 to 12:00
BRB II/III Auditorium

Breakfast and lunch will be provided

Cross-disciplinary collaboration has become a necessity for those who wish to take their research program in new directions. Funding agencies solicit grants and contracts for team research projects with increasing frequency, but developing, preparing and overseeing these complex projects presents new challenges. This symposium is targeted to those faculty who are ready to make the transition from individual awards to these more high profile, multidisciplinary projects.

Faculty members who have successfully made this transition will address the opportunities and challenges of obtaining funding for large-scale collaborative research projects, both grants and contracts. Panel members include:

Caryn Lerman, Ph.D.
Mary W. Calkins Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Deputy Director, Abramson Cancer Center

"A Team Science Approach to Nicotine Addiction Treatment"

Kevin Volpp, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management
Director, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, Leonard Davis Institute

“Approaches to Submitting and Administering Program Project and Center Grants”

Stephen Kimmel, M.D., MSCE
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Senior Scholar, Epidemiology

“Coordination and Management of Federal Contracts”

Morris J. Birnbaum, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean for Biomedical Cores, Co-Director of the Diabetes Research Center and Associate Director of IDOM

“PSOM Research Core Facilities”

The discussion will end with lunch and the opportunity for informal networking.

Click here to register

This program is sponsored by the Office of Research Program Development and the Office of the Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer.

 

March 2012

March 27, 2012

Perelman School of Medicine Researchers Receive $2 Million Grant to Help Prevent Chronic Diseases Among HIV Positive African American Men

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, have received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study novel approaches to preventing chronic diseases in HIV positive African American men.

"African American men who are infected with HIV are living longer than ever before and are now being impacted by the same chronic diseases that affect the general population of African American men over 40," said principal investigator John B. Jemmott, PhD, professor of Communication in Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine and Kenneth B. Clark Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication. "We know that in addition to standard age-related factors, many of these chronic illnesses have behavioral components—risk is influenced by what people do and don't do, their diet, and the amount of physical activity they get. Based on this complex intersection, we need to identify novel strategies to help these men navigate their lives in the healthiest way possible."

Dr. Jemmott says that although the high risk for multiple behavior-linked chronic diseases among HIV-positive individuals has long been recognized, there is a lack of evidence-based interventions specifically tailored to their needs. The risk is heightened by HIV infection, but also its treatment with certain agents used in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) combinations.

The research team’s broad objective is to verify evidenced-based treatment strategies and reduce the risk of chronic diseases among HIV positive African American men. Specifically, they will test the efficacy of a theory-based, contextually appropriate health promotion intervention to induce positive changes in behaviors linked to risk of chronic diseases among HIV positive African American. The study will utilize a randomized controlled trial of 384 African American HIV positive men age 40 or older who are receiving HAART. The intervention will include a five-a-day fruit and vegetable regimen, weight and cardiovascular monitoring, and prostate and colon cancer screenings.

At the end of the study, the researchers will evaluate each patient's health-related fitness (via a six-minute walk test, one-minute push-up test, one-minute sit-up test, sit-and-reach test), physiological variables (blood pressure, body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-hip ratio), and participation in prostate and colon cancer screenings.

"We hope this research will help in the urgent need for interventions to reduce the risk of non-HIV related chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes in HIV positive African American men age 40 and older," said Dr. Jemmott.

Additional Penn faculty involved in the trial are: Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; Ian Frank, MD, Division of Infectious Diseases, Perelman School of Medicine; and Scarlett Bellamy, ScD, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Perelman School of Medicine.

March 14, 2012

John Kucharczuk M.D. Appointed Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. John Kucharczuk as Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery. A multidepartmental search committee led by Dr. Michael Acker, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery, provided valuable assistance in reviewing candidates for this position. After evaluating a number of outstanding individuals from around the nation, it was clear that the best candidate to lead the Division of Thoracic Surgery was Dr. Kucharczuk and I am delighted that he has agreed to serve as Division Chief.

A lifelong Pennsylvanian, John Kucharczuk did his undergraduate work at Villanova and received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He subsequently trained in General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, before joining our faculty in 2002. In 2009 he was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery, and for the past year has served as the interim Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Kucharczuk is the busiest thoracic surgeon in the region, and is an exceptional technician, performing complex pulmonary, esophageal and mediastinal procedures. He is also an active clinical investigator, has served on NIH study sections, and is involved in national efforts focusing on surgical quality improvement. In addition to his outstanding work in the Department of Surgery, Dr. Kucharczuk has received recognition for his successful organization and leadership of the multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology program in the Abramson Cancer Center.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Kucharczuk and welcoming him to his new role.

Jeffrey Drebin, M.D., Ph.D.

 

March 8, 2012

13 Novel Genetic Components of Coronary Artery Disease Identified

An international analysis of 14 genome-wide association studies involving over 100,000 patients has identified 13 new genetic risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Muredach P. Reilly, MBBCH, MSCE, associate professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and colleagues played a central organizing role in the international consortium, CARDIoGRAM (Coronary Artery Disease Genome-wide Replication and Meta-analysis), that combined and analyzed data from all currently published genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on heart attack and CAD, as well as some unpublished data. The data include more than 22,000 patients, 60,000 healthy individuals, and 45,000 additional subjects, meaning CARDIoGRAM is ten times bigger than the largest previous study. By pooling all of the published and unpublished data, they sought to make discoveries that might have been overlooked. The study is published online this week in Nature Genetics.

“This very large international collaboration has doubled the number of new CAD and heart attack genes and provides major opportunities for better understanding of causes, advancing personalized risk assessment, and developing new treatments to prevent and treat heart disease,” said Reilly.

CAD is a common condition where the arteries supplying blood to the heart develop cholesterol rich plaques which can rupture suddenly causing a heart attack. CAD is a complex condition that has both genetic and lifestyle components.

In addition to identifying the 13 novel loci associated with CAD, the researchers also discovered that only a minority of the established and novel CAD genes act through traditional risk factors while the majority reside in gene regions that were not previously connected to heart disease. 

August 2011

August 18, 2011

Timothy R. Dillingham, MD, MS, named Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

From:                    J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Ralph W. Muller and Peter D. Quinn, DMD, MD

We are pleased to announce that Timothy R. Dillingham, MD, MS, has been named Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), effective October 1, 2011. At present, Dr. Dillingham is chairman and professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Dillingham’s appointment comes as the result of a rigorous national search led by Dr. Mike Mennuti. Dr. Dillingham succeeds David A. Lenrow, MD, JD, who has served very capably as interim chair of the department.

Penn’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is the oldest in the United States. Over the years, its faculty members have pioneered some of the most essential treatments in the field, including prosthetics and orthotics, as well as computer-based vocational training. The department’s influence has long been significant: at one point, an estimated 10 percent of the physiatrists in the United States were graduates of the residency program.

Dr. Dillingham earned his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1986. He went on to take his internship and residency there while also earning his M.S. degree in rehabilitation medicine. From 1990 to 1994, Dr. Dillingham was a clinical instructor and then assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He then joined the Johns Hopkins University as an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation. In 1997, he was promoted to associate professor. During his last four years at Johns Hopkins, he also had an appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Dillingham joined the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2003.

In addition, Dr. Dillingham was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1982. He was promoted to Captain in 1986 and to Major in 1992. In 1994, he received the Meritorious Service Medal for exemplary performance of duties at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he had served as staff physiatrist and director of research for PM&R; he was honorably discharged that same year.

Dr. Dillingham’s research interests include the rehabilitation and long-term outcomes for amputees, especially when the amputations are caused by poor vascular status of a limb. He is also widely recognized as an expert in the electrodiagnosis of patients with limb symptoms and musculoskeletal disorders and is active clinically, seeing patients at Froedtert Hospital and at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, both in Milwaukee.

Among Dr. Dillingham’s many honors is the Distinguished Researcher Award from the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine. For the last four years, he has been included in “America’s Top Doctors” by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. In 2000, Dr. Dillingham won the Research Writing Award of the Association of Academic Physiatrists for an article published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Since 1991, he has been a fellow of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He has also been recognized for his teaching. In 2004, he received the Robert Boyle, M.D., Teacher of the Year Award, given by the residents in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin; in addition, he twice was honored with the “Golden Spoon” Faculty Teaching Award by residents at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Dr. Dillingham has been extensively published in his field and has served as associate editor of the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as well as a referee for several other journals. He was an editor of two volumes of Rehabilitation of the Injured Combatant, part of the Textbooks of Military Medicine Series published by the Office of the Surgeon General, and an invited guest editor for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America.

While his research has being consistently funded over the years, Dr. Dillingham has not limited himself to the more traditional areas of research. Last year, for example, he received funding for a pilot grant from the VA Health Services Research & Development Service for “Guitars for Vets: Evaluating Psychological Outcomes of a Novel Music Therapy.” In 2008, he was the principal investigator on “Low-cost Prosthesis for Developing Countries,” for which the goal was to design, create, and test a low-cost and high-strength prosthetic system for persons with below the knee amputations.

Currently president of the board of directors of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine, Dr. Dillingham has also served as the chairman of the association’s Research Committee. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, he has held several important administrative positions, including chairman of the physicians’ practice Finance Committee, representative on the Curriculum and Evaluation Committee, and member of the Medical Executive Committee and of the Strategic Planning Committee – experiences that will serve him well at Penn Medicine. In addition to his role as Chair of PM&R, Dr. Dillingham will serve on the board of Good Shepherd Penn Partners.

With such a proud heritage as a base in Penn’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, we are confident that Dr. Dillingham will lead the department with vision and enthusiasm.

August 5, 2011

Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel Named Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor

President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price are pleased to announce that Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a globally renowned bioethicist, will join the faculty as the thirteenth Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, beginning September 1, 2011.

Dr. Emanuel will be the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor and the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives. His appointment will be shared between the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine, which he will Chair, and the Department of Health Care Management in the Wharton School, pending formal ratification by the School faculties, the Provost’s Staff Conference, and the University trustees.

 “The University of Pennsylvania is tremendously fortunate to have attracted to our faculty one of the most insightful and well-respected bioethicists of our time,” said President Gutmann. “Zeke Emanuel is an eminent scholar, a passionate teacher, a collaborative leader, and a tireless public servant. He has time and again demonstrated the vital importance of putting the broadest and deepest understandings to work in service of others. I am delighted that he will join the ranks of our esteemed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professors.”

Dr. Emanuel, one of the world’s leading scholars of bioethics and health care, will be the inaugural Chair of the Perelman School’s new Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy. The founding Chair of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health since 1997, he served from February 2009 to January 2011 as Special Advisor for Health Policy to the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

He is an author or editor of nine books, including the landmark study The Ends of Human Life (Harvard University Press, 1991), and hundreds of articles and essays, across such topics as health care reform, the ethics of clinical research, end-of-life care, managed care, and the physician-patient relationship. He has published in such leading medical journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and JAMA, as well as in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and many other publications.

He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences; served on President Clinton’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and the bioethics panel of the Pan American Health Organization; received such awards as the AMA-Burroughs Wellcome Leadership Award, the Public Service Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the John Mendelsohn Award from the MD Anderson Cancer Center; and been a visiting professor at Stanford, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and the University of Pittsburgh.

“I am delighted to welcome Zeke Emanuel as Vice Provost for Global Initiatives,” said Provost Price. “The extraordinary range of experience and expertise that he brings to this new role will play a critical part in shaping our global activities in the years ahead. And his leadership in interdisciplinary knowledge, ethical inquiry, and global engagement – three of our most important values – willprove a great asset to the entire Penn community.”

Dr. Emanuel earned an MD (1988) and a PhD in Political Philosophy (1989) from Harvard University, an M.Sci. in Biochemistry from Oxford University (1981), and a BA in Chemistry from Amherst College (1979). Before joining the NIH in 1997, he was Associate Professor of Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, where he taught since 1992.

The Penn Integrates Knowledge program was launched by President Gutmann in 2005 as a University-wide initiative to recruit exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines and who are jointly appointed between two Schools at Penn.

The Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professorship is the generous gift of Penn Trustee Robert M. Levy, WG’74, and his wife Diane v.S. Levy. Mr. Levy is partner, chairman and chief investment officer of Harris Associates LP, an investment management firm. Mr. Levy is chair of Penn’s Investment Committee, co-chair of Making History: The Campaign for Penn, chair of Innovation and Leadership: The Campaign for Wharton, and vice chairman of the Wharton Board of Overseers. Mrs. Levy is a member of the Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Special announcement from Richard P. Shannon, Chair, Department of Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the creation of a new Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics within the Department of Medicine, effective July 1, 2011. This new Division, which supersedes the current Divisions of Medical Genetics and Experimental Therapeutics, will be led by Daniel Rader, MD. The decision to create this Division was a result of the Department’s recognition of the close relationship between Translational Medicine and Human Genetics and my desire to facilitate both existing departmental research activities and new recruitment in these important areas.

Dan is a graduate of the Medical College of Pennsylvania. After he completed a residency in Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, he spent five and a half years at the intramural program at NHLBI. He was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Genetics, later moving to the Division of Experimental Therapeutics. He is currently the Cooper-McClure Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and is an Associate Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT). Dan also has close ties to both the Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) and the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism (IDOM).

Dan is an internationally recognized investigator in the molecular physiology and human genetics of lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis and their implications for translational medicine and therapeutics. His research program has received extensive federal, foundation, and industry funding and he has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles. Dan is a member of ASCI and AAP, is on the Board of External Experts of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, and is currently serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation based at Penn.

At Penn, Dan has led the Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine and Lipid Clinic for many years. In addition to his role in ITMAT, he has served as Director of the Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC), a role from which he will be stepping down as part of this transition. Dan has participated in a number of search committees, review committees, and strategic planning committees for the Department and the School of Medicine. He is currently leading an initiative to develop a comprehensive PennMedicine BioBank.

As Chief of the Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics, Dan will play a leadership role in facilitating the growth and development of research programs in these areas. I am immensely grateful to Reed Pyeritz, the Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics, and to Garret FitzGerald, the Chief of the Experimental Therapeutics Division, for their leadership and their endorsement of this transition.

Please join me in congratulating Dan and welcoming him to this new role.

Rick Shannon

July 2011

Greetings from Dr. J. Larry Jameson

Dear Colleagues:

I am delighted to be joining you at the newly named Perelman School of Medicine. Nearly 250 years ago, our school was founded as the first medical school in the United States. John Morgan and his colleagues introduced two fundamental principles that still resonate today: 1) the medical school should be built within an institution of higher learning; and 2) lectures should be supplemented with bedside teaching. Penn’s success through the years is due in no small part to our ongoing commitment to these principles. The Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) – Penn Medicine – has achieved the rare distinction of being recognized in each mission area - outstanding education, research, and clinical care. As an integrated academic medical center (AMC), Penn Medicine pioneered the concept that our missions are inextricably linked and interdependent. Our obligation is to fully leverage this model to improve health through discovery, training, and effective health care delivery. Looking forward, this will require a combination of ambition, engagement, transparency, innovation, and accountability as we balance many competing opportunities in a rapidly changing environment.

As I begin, I wish to first express my sincere gratitude to President Amy Gutmann and the trustees of University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine for the opportunity to serve this exceptional institution. President Gutmann is deeply knowledgeable and passionate about Penn Medicine and it is a privilege to work with one of the extraordinary leaders in higher education. She and I share a strong desire to both strengthen and extend meaningful connections with other schools within the University. Our interest goes well beyond the traditional goal of fostering interdisciplinary research – we are committed to developing new areas of research and learning at the interfaces of different disciplines. I look forward to working with my fellow Deans, who have been uniformly welcoming and energizing, to help achieve this vision.

The very first phone call I received after being appointed as the next Executive Vice President of the University for the Health System and Dean was from Arthur Rubenstein, offering congratulations, encouragement, and support during the transition. I have known Arthur for 25 years and like other leaders in academic medicine, I have benefited from his mentoring at critical junctures. Arthur has had a transformative effect on Penn Medicine. However, his reach and impact have been much broader, serving as a national thought leader and champion for translational research, medical and graduate education, and clinical excellence. Among his many attributes, Arthur demands the highest standards and has an unparalleled ability to identify and recruit promising faculty. Over the last 9 months, he and I have worked seamlessly to maintain Penn’s momentum during the transition, including a number of key recruitments and retentions. I look forward to having Arthur as a colleague and advisor as we look to the next phase of Penn Medicine’s evolution. I also want to acknowledge the warm welcome provided by many of you during my visits to learn more about Penn. Vince Price and Craig Carnaroli, in particular, unselfishly dedicated themselves to orienting me to the full spectrum of Penn’s resources, activities, and processes. In Ralph Muller, Penn Medicine has one of the most knowledgeable, experienced, and effective CEO’s in academic medicine. Beyond his skill in hospital leadership and health policy, Ralph shares an abiding commitment to all of our missions. His leadership team, along with the Vice-Deans, have provided me with a wealth of background information. The Chairs and Center directors are not only recognized leaders in their respective fields but they provide extraordinary leadership and service to Penn. Camaraderie is evident in this group and, in addition to stewarding their own areas, they have an unwavering devotion to Penn Medicine as a whole. I look forward to interacting with this exceptional leadership team as we chart a course for the future.

I was attracted to Penn for many reasons, but among these, two stand out. First is the exceptional the caliber of the faculty, students, and staff; second is the integrated model and culture of Penn Medicine. I suspect that many of you chose Penn for similar reasons. It is rare for an institution to truly excel in clinical care, research, and teaching. Penn has accomplished this objective with extraordinary balance. Indeed, this balance is arguably the key element in Penn’s success with clinical care inspiring research, with research providing new clinical paradigms and hope for patients, and with education providing an environment teeming with curiosity and a demand for evidence. Penn Medicine is ideally poised to catalyze ongoing synergy among these missions but this will require careful planning and communication among faculty who increasingly develop highly specialized careers.

I have had a chance to meet many of you over the last few months. With each encounter, I learn more about Penn and its remarkable breadth and depth of talent. I look forward to introducing myself to you formally and informally. While I am innately curious about all fields of medicine and biology, I do not confuse curiosity and expertise. It is invigorating for me to learn about the full expanse of activities at Penn.

As we look to the future, I offer a few observations:

Penn is building from a position of strength. The faculty are outstanding, well-funded and generate extraordinary scholarship. The research portfolio is broad and deep. There is particular expertise in translational research and collaborative science – topics of clear focus for funding agencies. The research facilities are among the best in the world and have been enhanced further with the opening of TRC. It is incumbent upon us to maximize this opportunity through effective mentoring, collaboration, and investments in innovative programs and technologies. Penn is also widely recognized for clinical excellence, reflecting the presence of master clinicians, outstanding training programs, and effective collaborations with nursing, pharmacy, and other disciplines. The institutional focus on quality and efficiency is critical preparation for the current and future health care environment. The Penn educational programs for medical students, graduate students, residents and fellows are arguably the best in the country. One cannot underestimate the impact of these training programs as they enrich each mission area and provide a pipeline of talent for Penn and other academic medical centers. Despite these strengths in research, clinical care and education, great institutions such as ours cannot be complacent and can always achieve more. Together, we aspire for excellence, if for no other reason because it is exhilarating to achieve ever greater impact.

Innovation occurs at the edges of disciplines. Few of us would have predicted the stunning progress in regenerative medicine, epigenetics, or microRNAs. We have also learned, largely from other fields, that applying process improvement and rigorous measurement can close gaps in health quality and safety. Medical and graduate students now learn in new ways and must do so to prepare themselves for a future that will require the management of unprecedented amounts of information and the implementation of new models for health care delivery and team-based research. Penn Medicine is fortunate to have natural connections to other disciplines, such as engineering, business, communications, social sciences, and others. There is great opportunity for those of us in medicine to lead the next wave of innovation by fostering even stronger relationships with these other schools.

Culture is the underpinning of institutional success. Culture is a combination of values and revealed actions. Penn has a deep commitment to excellence, adapting to change, influencing the external environment, serving the needs of the local community, and providing support to peers through mentoring and collaboration. This culture needs to be celebrated, reinforced, and cultivated. We should seek diversity, in all of its dimensions, as a means to adapt to the needs of society. A diverse faculty, student body, and workforce, combined with a culture that is open to new ideas, can also foster innovation and enhance our prospects for success.

Planning, prioritization, execution, and accountability are necessary to advance our missions. As we face the daunting challenges of the external environment, transparency and communication will be critical for maximizing our effectiveness. Long-range planning can be elusive as we move from one day to the next, particularly given the ever-increasing burden of documentation and administrative oversight. I am convinced that institutions evolve effectively by deep engagement with faculty to develop strategic priorities and then insure that these goals come to fruition. Every dynamic organization has at least a 10 to1 ratio of great ideas to available resources. A primary goal is for the stakeholders – all of us - to feel invested in the strategic process and choices once they are made.

Each time I step onto our beautiful campus and see hundreds of students, scientists, and clinicians flow in and out of buildings, I stand in awe of the enormous potential of Penn Medicine to generate new knowledge and improve health. I look forward to working with all of you as we envision and shape the future of academic medicine.

Sincerely,

J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D.