Hu Among First to Be Funded through New NIH Initiative on Genes and Environment
Frank Hu, HSPH associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology, has been selected as one of the first researchers to be funded as part of the Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI), a collaboration between geneticists and environmental scientists.
Hu will receive more than $620,000 to pursue research into the roles of genes and the environment in Type 2 diabetes.
The GEI initiative was announced in 2006 as a proposal in President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2007. The funding is through the National Institutes of Health.
Sarah Fortune Receives Grant for Young Physician-Scientists
Sarah Fortune, HSPH assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, has been named a recipient of an Early Career Award for Physician-Scientists from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is one of 20 awardees selected who will receive $375,000 over a five-year period.
Fortune studies the protein secretion system ESX-1, which is required for Mycobacterium tuberculosis to infect its host. She will test the hypothesis that TB-causing bacteria release molecules into a host cell, which allows the bacteria to co-opt the infected host. Her research will focus on characterizing the genes that contribute to tuberculosis infection through this secretion system.
Berwick Named Recipient of 'Purpose Prize'
Donald Berwick, professor in the HSPH Department of Health Policy and Management, was named one of five recipients of $100,000 given through The Purpose Prize, a program that invests in social innovators over age 60. Now in its second year, The Purpose Prize is the nation's only large-scale award for those in the second half of life working on critical social issues.
The prize was announced by a think tank called Civic Ventures and funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation.
A pediatrician, Berwick heads the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He has worked to help hospitals reduce unnecessary deaths by encouraging them to implement six approaches to improve care.
Faculty Appointments and Promotions
Melissa Perry has been promoted to associate professor of occupational epidemiology in the Department of Environmental Health.
Declan Doogan has been appointed visiting professor of the practice of biostatistics in the Department of Biostatistics.
Winston Hide has been appointed visiting professor of bioinformatics in the Department of Biostatistics.
Turnbull Appointed to State Health Insurance Agency
Nancy Turnbull, Associate Dean for Educational Programs at HSPH, has been named to a three-year term on the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority, the state agency that is responsible for implementing much of the Massachusetts' health coverage reform law. In the past, Turnbull served as president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, one of the largest health philanthropies in the state.
Doctoral Student Chosen as Fellow in Inaugural Julius B. Richmond Fellowship
Allison Appleton, an HSPH doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, was named one of three recipients of the inaugural Julius B. Richmond Fellowship announced by the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.
The Richmond Fellowship is named for Julius B. Richmond, John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy Emeritus. A pioneer in pediatrics, public health, and early childhood development, Richmond was the first national director of Head Start and was surgeon general in the administration of President Jimmy Carter.
Appleton intends to use the grant for an independent study of how early childhood social and emotional factors may influence later adult health.
The fellowships were made possible through the support of the Foundation for Child Development and the Office of the Provost.
Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College
