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Source: Wallace Ravven
415-476-2557
19 October 2000
Four UCSF faculty scientists elected to Institute of Medicine
Four scientific leaders at the University of California, San Francisco -- a pioneer in molecular studies related to cancer and aging, an international leader in HIV prevention research and policy issues, an expert on oral manifestations of AIDS, and a distinguished advocate for improving pharmacy education and practice -- have been elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine.
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, PhD, professor of biochemistry and biophysics, Thomas C. Coates, PhD, professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, Deborah Greenspan, DSc, professor of clinical and oral medicine in the School of Dentistry's stomatology department, and Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the School of Pharmacy and professor of clinical pharmacy, received the high honor among sixty new members elected this year.
Election to the Institute of Medicine recognizes major contributions to health, medicine or related fields such as social and behavioral sciences, law and economics. The election brings to 42 the number of UCSF members in the Institute.
Blackburn is a world leader in studies of telomeres, segments of DNA that bind both ends of chromosomes and affect the life span of cells and the development of some cancers. In 1985 she and her then PhD student at UC Berkeley, Carol Greider, discovered a novel enzyme, telomerase, which creates telomeres. Since telomeres help determine the number of times a cell divides, Blackburn's discovery has spawned a whole field of inquiry into the possibility that the telomerase enzyme could be manipulated to regulate telomeres for therapeutic purposes.
A native of Tasmania, Australia, Blackburn was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, one of the highest honors that can awarded to a scientist in the United States. She is past president of the American Society of Cell Biology.
Coates is an expert in disease-related behavior, with an emphasis on interventions to modify behaviors. He is an authority on the effects of antibody testing on high-risk behavior and on AIDS-related immune dysfunction. His current research involves studies to reduce high-risk behaviors in several populations, including African-Americans, Asians, young gay men, teens and heterosexual adults.
As head of UCSF's AIDS Research Institute (ARI), he directs an enterprise that encompasses all UCSF AIDS programs under a single umbrella, including close to 1,000 investigators. The UCSF ARI is dedicated to developing significant advances in HIV clinical care, prevention and health services, policy, immune reconstitution, and vaccine development.
Coates is a special advisor in Family Health International's AIDS Prevention Projects, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development on AIDS (USAID), and has chaired WHO's Global Programme on AIDS Steering Committee, Social and Behavioral Studies Unit.
Greenspan's research spans laboratory, clinical and epidemiological studies relating to the oral manifestations of AIDS, the oral effects of cancer therapies, and the development of new therapeutic approaches for major oral diseases. She directs a group of investigators identifying oral HIV lesions and providing treatment to people with these lesions -- part of a major epidemiological study of oral lesions of HIV infection.
Her other on-going research includes studies of the prevalence, incidence and predictors of oral lesions in women with HIV infections and the changing patterns of oral disease in the era of highly active anti-retroviral therapy in different HIV-positive populations.
Dean of UCSF's School of Pharmacy since 1998, Koda-Kimble has served on the faculty since 1970 where she has been honored repeatedly for her teaching skills, and has been a leading force in developing an innovative clinical pharmacy curriculum. She is past president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and is a member of the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education, a body that accredits schools of pharmacy and continuing education programs for pharmacists.
An expert both on pharmacy education and practice, Koda-Kimble has served on the California State Board of Pharmacy, the American Pharmaceutical Association Task Force on Education and is currently a member of the FDA's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee which advises the FDA on whether prescription medicines should be made available for sale over the counter. She is the author of many publications, the best known of which is Applied Therapeutics, a text used in schools of pharmacy worldwide.
With their election to the Institute of Medicine, members make a commitment to devote a significant amount of time as volunteers on committees engaged in a broad range of studies on health policy issues. Current IOM projects include the development of new technologies for the early detection of breast cancer, studies on the creation of a medical system to support long-duration space travel beyond Earth orbit and the safety and efficacy of the anthrax vaccine used by the U.S. military.
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