Dean’s Letter
Dear Colleagues,
T This issue features an in-depth look at the researchers whose efforts are transforming the Midway into a biomedical big-data hub, laying the foundation for discoveries that will advance patient care.
Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD The Richard T. Crane Distinguished Service Professor Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs The University of Chicago
he combination of a world-class faculty and massive computing power places the University of Chicago in an ideal position to play a leadership role in this age of big data-driven biomedicine. University of Chicago geneticists, mathematicians, computational scientists and clinicians are making great progress in defining disease at genetic and molecular levels, laying the foundation for discoveries that will advance patient care and improve patient outcomes. Our cover story, which begins on page 14, is an in-depth look at this new age and the enormous potential it holds. What may be most remarkable is the breadth of this effort, which spans many fields and facilities, from the medical center to Argonne National Laboratory to the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud, the only cloud-based computing system approved by the National Institutes of Health to handle data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Making much of this possible are generous philanthropic grants like those from Karen and Jim Frank, whose backing has helped establish a new Institute for Computational Biology and Medicine, and Carole and Gordon Segal, who are putting their support behind the Pancreatic Cancer Genomic Medicine Initiative to improve assessment, decision-making and treatment for pancreatic cancer patients. Combined, these efforts have the potential to advance patient care, and to coalesce into a biomedical big-data hub that could one day be a hallmark of the University of Chicago and an economic engine for the Chicago region. I’d like to welcome John Maunsell, PhD, as the inaugural director of the Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior. An internationally known neuroscientist, Dr. Maunsell has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the neuroscience behind vision, perception and attention. As director, he will oversee the development of a highly collaborative, world-class neuroscience institute built upon the University’s diverse strengths in evolutionary and quantitative biology and economic and social behaviors. Big data isn’t the only fertile ground for the University of Chicago’s crossdisciplinary approach. On page 22 of this edition, we go deep into the heart of the Gordon Center for Integrative Science, where researchers in biology, physics, chemistry and computational modeling are working together to unlock the governing principles of cell division and movement, and study the abnormalities in these processes that occur in cancer. And on page 28, we pay a visit to the Pritzker School of Medicine’s Clinical Performance Center, where “standardized patients” not only put medical students through their clinical paces but double as educators. Amid the excitement of welcoming a new class to Pritzker, we also note with sadness the passing of much loved former dean of students Joseph J. Ceithaml, SB ’37, PhD ’41. Dean Ceithaml was instrumental in building Pritzker’s national reputation for rigorous medical education and its staunch support of a diverse student body. As Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, our current dean for medical education, notes on page 37: “He was a kind and generous man who placed student well-being at the top of his priority list.” With an equally heavy heart, we note the passing of Peter Richard Huttenlocher, MD, a former section chief of pediatric neurology known internationally for his groundbreaking studies on neural plasticity in children, and of Joel Schwab, MD, a “pediatrician’s pediatrician” and mentor to students and residents, whose example inspired more than a few physicians to dedicate their careers to the care of children.