Medicine on the Midway - Fall 2018

MEDICINE MIDWAY UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

on the

Biological Sciences Division

FAL L 201 8

Market launch Taking biomedical discoveries from bench to startup to bedside

Dean’s Letter

Dear Colleagues,

T

echnology commercialization brings scientific discoveries into the marketplace, where they can benefit more people more quickly.

However, most scientists are not experts in entrepreneurship, and

biomedical startups, in particular, face many challenges.

Biomedical entrepreneurs on our campus are developing a drug to prevent kidney stones,

Our cover story looks at University of Chicago initiatives supporting our biomedical entrepreneurs and accelerating the innovation pipeline.

Commercialization specialists from the University’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation are a key partner in these initiatives, working closely with researchers to advance faculty discoveries to the market.

In just the past year, this teamwork has resulted in four new microbiome-

a vaccine against MRSA

focused companies. Faculty members and Polsky specialists also work closely

and products to make

together to partner some discoveries, such as a new microbiome-based cancer

screening for cancer risk more accessible.

therapeutic, with existing companies.

Innovation also drives the Pritzker School of Medicine’s culture of continuous improvement, and no one has played a bigger role in advancing medical education across the continuum than Holly Humphrey, MD’83. After nearly four decades on our campus — 15 years as dean for medical education at Pritzker — Holly has left Hyde Park to become president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in New York. Holly launched and supported vital programs during her tenure as dean, including initiatives for curriculum reform, medical professionalism and increased diversity in our medical student body. The Macy Foundation will benefit greatly from Holly’s experience, ideas and progressive thinking. Halina Brukner, MD, who worked closely with Holly on curriculum development and academic life for many years, has stepped in as interim dean.

During a farewell reception for Holly in July, I listened as students, faculty and staff spoke with deep admiration and gratitude for her lasting impact on their lives and our medical school. Read more about Holly’s legacy starting on page 2.

It is interesting how many biomedical scientists are also musicians. This is certainly the case in the Biological Sciences Division, where a number of our faculty members — oncologists, surgeons and neuroscientists — perform regularly in bands. Writer Stephan Benzkofer takes us inside the green room

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

at a Chicago blues club as Thomas Gajewski, AB’84, PhD’89, MD’91, and Jason Luke, MD, prepare to go onstage with The Checkpoints, joining their fellow bandmates, all experts in cancer immunotherapy. Benzkofer talked with researchers about their backgrounds in music and the relationship between musical and scientific creativity.

Also in this issue, you’ll read about our paleontology program, which consistently has been ranked No. 1 in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

And you will hear from a longtime medical faculty member, recently retired, who, with her husband, established an endowed scholarship that will cover the tuition and fees of one Pritzker student each year. We thank Anne Hong, MD, and Paul Poy for their generosity in supporting the next generation of physicians.

As the holiday season approaches, we wish you and your family good health and joy.

IN THIS ISSUE

C OV E R S T O R Y

From bench to bedside, via a startup

Fall 2018 Volume 71, No. 2 A publication of the University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences Division.

Medicine on the Midway is published for friends, alumni and faculty of the University of Chicago Medicine, Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine.

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The entrepreneurial spirit is taking hold among biomedical researchers at the University of Chicago. Supported by experts on technology commercialization, researchers are working to attract investors and launch startup companies to bring their scientific discoveries to market.

Email us at momedit@uchospitals.edu Write us at Editor, Medicine on the Midway The University of Chicago Medicine 950 E. 61st St., WSSC 325 Chicago, IL 60637 The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Biological Sciences Executive Leadership Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, the Richard T. Crane Distinguished Service Professor, Dean of the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine, and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs for the University of Chicago

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T. Conrad Gilliam, PhD, the Marjorie I. and Bernard A. Mitchell Distinguished Service Professor, Dean for Basic Science, Biological Sciences Division Sharon O’Keefe, President of the University of Chicago Medical Center Halina Brukner, MD, Interim Dean for Medical Education, Pritzker School of Medicine Editorial Committee Chair Jeanne Farnan, AB’98, MD’02, MHPE Chris Albanis, AB ’96, MD ’00 Lampis Anagnostopoulos, SB ’57, MD ’61 Arnold Calica, SM ’61, MD ’75 J. Palmer Greene, MS4 Rob Mitchum, PhD’07 Matt Present, MS4 David J. Press Jerrold Seckler, MD ’68 Coleman Seskind, AB ’55, SB ’56, SM/MD ’59 Alexandra Smith Jack Stockert, AB ’05, MBA ’10, MD ’10 University of Chicago Medicine Marketing and Communications William “Skip” Hidlay, Vice President, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Anna Madrzyk, Editor Gretchen Rubin, Associate Editor Editorial Contributors Stephan Benzkofer Kate Dohner John Easton Ashley Heher Bethany Hubbard Steve Koppes Photo Contributors Jamie Bernstein Megan E. Doherty Kathleen Ferraro/ Institute for Translational Medicine Nelson Floresca Kat Gilbert Robert Kozloff Jean Lachat Design Wilkinson Design

Ellen McGrew Colleen Radzevich Kristin Baird Rattini Matt Wood UChicago News Office Eddie Quinones Anne Ryan Joe Sterbenc Joel Wintermantle Nancy Wong John Zich GradImages Pritzker School of Medicine

8 CheckPoints (and oncologists) Jason Luke, MD, left, and Thomas Gajewski, AB’84, PhD’89, MD’91

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F E AT U R E S D E PA R T M E N T S

Farewell, Dean Humphrey 2

Doctor by day 8

Midway News

Pritzker News

UChicago Medicine’s new website 6

Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, embarks on a new chapter after 15 years as the Pritzker School of Medicine’s dean for medical education.

After hours, these UChicago physicians and scientists turn their creative energies to rock and jazz, playing at area venues to appreciative fans.

Winner of the Medicine on the Midway caption contest 15

Smoothing the way for the next generation of physicians 32

Alumni profile 5 In a new novel based on his own undergraduate experiences, Ian Smith, MD’97, takes readers inside a secret Ivy League society.

Paleontology powerhouse 24 UChicago’s program consistently ranks No. 1 in the country. A look at the reasons why.

BSD News BSD graduate programs no longer require the GRE 28 ‘Zombie’ gene helps explain why elephants rarely get cancer 30

Scenes from Reunion Weekend 2018 34 Investment banker, podcaster, figure skater — meet the Class of 2022 38 Your News 39 In Memoriam 40

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THE NEXT CHAPTER

“I am profoundly

PHOTOS BY JOE STERBENC

Midway News

In her new role, Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, is poised to expand her impact on medical education at the national level grateful for the decades I have spent on this campus and the rich experiences I have had as a student, a resident, a faculty member and a dean.”

Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83

Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, at a farewell reception attended by students, faculty and staff. Right, medical student Zaina Zayyad presented Humphrey with a painting of the campus.

BY ANNA MADRZYK

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H

olly J. Humphrey, MD’83, was 22 when she started classes at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Her father, back home in rural Wisconsin, “called me at 6 a.m. every morning to make sure I was still alive in the big city.”

She stayed for 38 years — for residency, a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care, 14 years as director of the internal medicine residency program and nearly 15 years as dean for medical education.

Now, she is putting the ideas and innovations she helped develop here to work nationally in her new role as president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.

The New York-based foundation’s mission is to “improve the health of the public by advancing the education and training of health professionals.”

On an August afternoon, Humphrey took a break from clearing out her office in the Donnelley Biological Sciences Learning Center to sit down with Medicine on the Midway and talk about her career spent at “the intersection of the vulnerability

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

of the doctor in training and the vulnerability of the patient in front of us.” This is an edited transcript.

Looking back, what are some of the significant accomplishments during your tenure?

One of the most important things that we did and will continue to do here is build a pipeline for underrepresented minority students, which has brought a rich applicant pool of students to the Pritzker School of Medicine. As a result, we have significantly increased the diversity of the medical student body.

The issue of groups historically underrepresented in medicine becoming doctors and nurses is a great challenge that doesn’t get as much national conversation as it should. The population of the country has changed dramatically, but the medical profession — specifically the physician part of the medical profession — has not changed at the same rate. And, in fact, the total number of black men

Meet the interim dean In her new role as interim dean for medical education, Halina Brukner, MD, plans to carry on Holly Humphrey’s legacy of innovation at the Pritzker School of Medicine and across the continuum of medical education.

“ Such a progressive mind, a wonderful teacher, someone who really gets it.

An advocate, an

“Holly Humphrey created a culture of excellence, inclusiveness, support for each other and support by faculty and administration,” Brukner said.

ally, every step of the way.”

Robert Sanchez, MD’15

For 14 years, Brukner worked closely with Humphrey on curriculum development and academic life at Pritzker.

As associate dean for medical school education, Brukner took the lead on planning and implementing two impactful programs: the Pritzker Initiative and the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. A curriculum redesign, the Pritzker Initiative rolled out in 2009 after a three-year planning process.

r, MD Halina Brukne

“ Your students trust you, and your colleagues admire you. Our school will forever feel the who are applying to medical school and who are enrolling in medical school has actually decreased over the last 40 years.

Secondly, one of the things that we have built here in the last 15 years is a focus on medical education as an important scholarly discipline. We’ve done that by establishing the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators and the MERITS fellowship program in research in medical education. The common theme across the fellowship program is to introduce our residents and faculty to the scholarly field of medical education. uchicagomedicine.org/midway

lasting impressions, the way you’ve made us better and the way you shaped our mission the last 15 years.”

Zaina Zayyad, ISTP

“Curriculum needs to be nimble to address changes in medicine,” Brukner said. “We consider it a living, breathing organism that we need to feed and nurture.”

The Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators, launched in 2006, supports and promotes research, innovation and scholarship in medical education on campus. In addition to hosting Medical Education Day, the academy sponsors faculty and chief resident development workshops, a teaching consultation service and medical education innovation through small grants. Brukner believes the academy has helped elevate the importance of medical education at UChicago by creating a community of educators and honoring outstanding teaching and innovation.

“I am excited and honored to take on this leadership role and to continue to support our wonderful students, residents and faculty in their education and in their careers,” she said.

— Gretchen Rubin

MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY

FALL 2018

3

THROUGH PRITZKER

Midway News

DURING HOLLY HUMPHREY’S YEARS AS DEAN FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION.

Holly Humphrey’s legacy Programs and initiatives launched during her tenure as dean for medical education: ■■ Pritzker Initiative curriculum ■■ Class size reduced to 88 ■■ Academy of Distinguished

Medical Educators

■■ MERITS fellowship in medical

education for residents, nurses and faculty

■■ Pritzker advising and

mentoring societies

■■ Pritzker chiefs ■■ Bowman Society (co-founder) ■■ Initiatives to reduce medical

student debt

■■ Pipeline programs for

underrepresented minority high school and college students interested in medicine

■■ Identity and Inclusion

Initiative (i2i)

“ What has always been so consistent about Holly is, at the end of the day, her decisions are always driven by what is in the best interests of the students, the residents, the residency process and the quality of the education.”

Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine

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Why is physician diversity so important for patients?

There is a lot of good data demonstrating that if patients see someone like themselves they are much more likely to see a physician than to stay away from the medical system. I think it’s also very well-known that groups who have been marginalized and have been historically underrepresented in medicine have not trusted the profession, and I don’t think that has gotten better over time. We have reason to believe it has actually gotten worse.

We now have more information about the disparities in health care, partly related to access but also to the quality and type of medical care that patients have during the evolution of an illness. The differences in life span due to zip code are shocking to see in 2018.

I hope to take my University of Chicago experience on this major issue and make an impact more broadly across the country. This is very much in alignment with the mission of the Macy Foundation.

How did your Pritzker experience shape your role as dean for medical education?

As a medical student, I was treated as a junior colleague by my faculty teachers. Not only did they treat me with considerable respect, but they shared my dream for the career they were helping me develop. That’s how I grew up here, that’s how I was trained. I knew no other. And so when it came time for me to occupy this position and do my own teaching and interacting with students, I really was just carrying on the great tradition of the University of Chicago. I was continuing to teach and help educate the next generation in the same impactful way in which I was guided as a student.

What has inspired you throughout your career?

At some point, I realized that I had this passion, and energy, for my work because it lived at that intersection of the patients — who are always in the vulnerable position, whether they are healthy or unhealthy — and the students and residents, the most junior members of our health care team, who are learning medicine and acting on behalf of patients and their families for the very first time. Trainees’ clinical instincts and clinical reflexes are in the process of being formed, and in that process there is a fair amount of anxiety and vulnerability. Being able to steward and guide the students and residents who are becoming experts in their chosen fields and to simultaneously ensure excellence in patient care is where my ideas were born and my energy lived.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Continuing medical education

1,600 STUDENTS CAME

32nd Annual Challenges for Clinicians November 30December 2, 2018 The Drake Hotel, Chicago Focus on optimizing perioperative care to function in today’s perioperative environment.

For more information or to register, visit anesthesia.uchicago.edu.

Center for Pelvic Health Symposium: Improving the Quality of Life for Patients with Pelvic Floor Disorders January 4, 2019 University of Chicago Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, Chicago

Bringing Best Practices to Your ICU: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Caring for the Critically Ill March 7-9, 2019 University of Chicago Medicine Center for Care and Discovery, Chicago

24th Annual Conference: 2019 Radiology Review April 1-5, 2019 Hyatt Centric Chicago Magnificent Mile Comprehensive review and update of the practical aspects of all major subspecialties of diagnostic radiology.

For more information or to register, visit cme.uchicago.edu.

ALUMNI PROFILE

A modern-day Renaissance man Ian Smith, MD’97, pursues his passion for creative writing “ Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure

BY BETHANY HUBBARD

uchicagomedicine.org/midway

more integrated, both from a racial standpoint and a gender standpoint.”

But it took 25 years before Smith felt comfortable pulling back the curtain.

“Finally, I realized that not sharing this story would be an even bigger betrayal to the thousands

happen, but failure is a great opportunity to learn.”

Ian Smith, MD’97 PHOTO BY NANCY WONG

I

an Smith, MD’97, wears many hats. He is a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, fitness guru, daytime talk show host and in-demand public speaker.

“Typically, my classmates and colleagues believed it was medicine, all or nothing — and I just didn’t have that viewpoint,” said Smith. “There were other things I wanted to do with my life.”

As a fourth-year medical student, Smith interned at NBC 5 Chicago. He continued to pursue his television career after moving to New York City for his residency in orthopaedic surgery. Soon he was appearing as a medical correspondent for the NBC News network and writing for several publications, including Time magazine and the New York Daily News. Smith gained even greater fame through his best-selling diet and wellness books (The Clean 20, Shred), earning him an appointment to President Obama’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

“Writing had always been a passion of mine,” he said. “I didn’t think that being a writer and being a physician would be mutually exclusive, so I pursued them at times on parallel paths.”

Despite his success in the self-help arena, creative writing has always been Smith’s true passion. His new thriller, The Ancient Nine (St. Martin’s Press, 2018), is a fact-based fiction novel based on his own experience as a member of an elite, all-male, secret society at Harvard University, where he earned his undergraduate degree.

“It was a very privileged, exclusive and powerful world,” said Smith, who comes from what he describes as a blue-collar background. “I found it to be very interesting and seductive.”

Smith started writing The Ancient Nine while at Harvard, hoping to accurately capture a world most people will never be privy to.

“Harvard has all extremes,” Smith said. “You get socioeconomic, religious and even political diversity.

But these clubs were on a whole different level; they were clandestine, power-broking hubs for people who were accustomed to privilege. I always believed, at some point, the clubs would have to become

is going to

before me — who looked like me and grew up like me and were excluded — and the thousands after me who now have a chance to glimpse a unique world of power and privilege,” he said, quoting a letter he wrote to his readers.

Smith has already started on his next project — a crime fiction series set in Chicago, where he now lives.

Smith said he truly enjoyed his time at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

His medical education, he said, helped instill in him a desire to pursue his passions and embrace failure.

“I encourage med students to open their minds, to not be afraid, to challenge themselves and to try different things,” he said.

Learn more about Smith at doctoriansmith.com.

Find him on Twitter at @DrIanSmith and on Instagram at @DoctorIanSmith.

Ian Smith’s new novel is based on his experiences as a member of an elite secret society at Harvard.

The Ancient Nine was published in September 2018 by St. Martin’s Press.

MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY

FALL 2018

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ALUMNI

Midway News

New leadership for Medicine on the Midway

J

PHOTO BY NANCY WONG

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

eanne Farnan, AB’98, MD’02, MHPE, has been elected chair of the Medicine on the Midway editorial committee.

Jeanne Farnan, AB’98, MD’02, MHPE

Chris Albanis, AB’96, MD’00

U C H I C AG O M E D I C I N E N E W S

Initiative to prevent gun violence Furthering its commitment to violence prevention and recovery on the South Side, UChicago Medicine joined U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and nine other major area hospitals in the Chicago HEAL Initiative.

Chicago HEAL — Hospital Engagement, Action and Leadership — formalizes a collaborative network of health care providers and community organizations working to reduce violence and improve residents’ health in 18 neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides.

“Tackling the public health crisis of intentional gun violence requires the collective, concerted and sustained efforts of all Chicago institutions,” said Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago and Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine.

With the launch of Level 1 adult trauma care in May 2018, UChicago Medicine also instituted a violence recovery program involving a multidisciplinary clinical team and a network of community partners working to support patients and their families.

UChicago Medicine recently awarded more than $100,000 in grant funding

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Farnan is associate dean of evaluation and continuous quality improvement at the Pritzker School of Medicine. She also serves as medical director of the Clinical Performance Center.

She replaces Chris Albanis, AB’96, MD’00, who served as editorial committee chair since 2008. Albanis, 2018-19 vice president of the Alumni Council, will remain on the editorial committee.

“Serving as the chair of the editorial committee of Medicine on the Midway has

been an incredible experience as we all learn about the details of the outstanding research, discovery and innovation that occurs at the University of Chicago and beyond,” Albanis said. “Through this opportunity we work to bridge the gap between alumni, faculty, students, researchers and staff.

“I thank and congratulate Dr. Farnan,” Albanis added. “She is a fierce advocate for UChicago, our faculty, students and alumni, and I look forward to her leadership.”

to community organizations with programs aimed at addressing gun violence, promoting violence prevention and recovery, and keeping community members safe. Violence prevention is one of the top health concerns for South Side communities, as identified in UChicago Medicine’s Community Health Needs Assessment, conducted every three years through the Urban Health Initiative.

The expanded UChicago Medicine site incorporates previously separate websites for Comer Children’s Hospital and the Family Birth Center. Our popular blog, The Forefront, will continue to post daily news, research and wellness stories at uchicagomedicine.org/forefront.

Visit the new website at uchicagomedicine.org.

New website launches UChicago Medicine’s new website debuted in late October at uchicagomedicine.org. The revamped, mobile-friendly site replaces UChicago Medicine’s original site, uchospitals.edu, which was built in 2003.

With more than 4,000 pages of updated content, the site is better optimized for search, uses consumer-friendly language and is a key component of ongoing reputation-building efforts.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Increasing access to pediatric care UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital started a new clinical collaboration with Advocate Children’s Hospital and NorthShore University HealthSystem in October. The collaboration builds on the announcement Advocate Health Care and NorthShore made last spring of a joint operating agreement for pediatric care.

The organizations will be working together to strengthen clinical capabilities and promote new programs and innovative therapies. The institutions also will enhance coordination of academic research to improve patient outcomes, as well as training the next generation of physicians.

“By partnering on these important pediatric services, we are building a stronger and more diverse network of care,” said John M. Cunningham, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief of Comer Children’s.

“We are tapping physicians with strong national reputations in their fields to help lead our collective efforts.”

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Science is their life’s work. Music is a lifelong passion. After hours, these University of Chicago researchers turn their creative energies to the stage.

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

A band of scientists

BY STEPHAN BENZKOFER

T

he doctor is at work. He is relaxed yet focused as the team around him comes together like a well-oiled machine.

Thomas Gajewski begins confidently, his hands measured and his

fingers sure. In short order, three others step up, including colleague Jason Luke, none of them missing a beat.

See The Checkpoints perform: uchicagomedicine.org/checkpoints

Before too long, the whole team is engaged, by turns coming to the fore or falling back, waiting for cues to play their part or handing off to others as needed.

They operate as one, this large ensemble of physicians and researchers, as they offer up to an appreciative crowd “Angel of Harlem,” U2’s ode to Billie Holiday and New York City.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

On a beautiful evening in June, Gajewski and Luke relaxed in the green room at Buddy Guy’s Legends, discussing their love of music and how The CheckPoints came to be.

Gajewski, AB’84, PhD’89, MD’91, the AbbVie Foundation Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy in the Departments of Pathology and Medicine, is a nationally recognized expert on cancer immunotherapy. Last year he was named one of 12 “Giants of Cancer Care” by OncLive and an Outstanding Investigator by the National Institutes of Health, which recognizes remarkable productivity in cancer research.

uchicagomedicine.org/midway

Jason Luke, MD, assistant professor of medicine, is an expert on rare forms of melanoma who is pursuing clinical trials of immunotherapy and targeted molecular therapies to combat the deadly cancer.

But they aren’t talking about that in the club’s green room before they take the stage at a Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) fundraiser to support early-career scientists. After offering their visitor a beer — they stick to water themselves — they describe with apparent delight how the band got together.

As is often the case in scientific research circles, this story starts at a conference.

“It was one of the Keystone meetings, and this one was in Canada. I think it was in Banff,” Gajewski said. “It’s interesting how many scientists, especially biomedical scientists, are musicians.”

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

Gajewski lays down the song’s telltale opening guitar chords before the horns — led by Luke on trumpet — take over, stepping lightly and then letting loose with that clear C that crescendos and soars across the bar and beckons the few audience members still holding back to the dance floor.

These are The CheckPoints, and the theater they operate in this night is none other than Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago’s South Loop.

In their field of cancer immunotherapy, they are rock stars.

The University of Chicago Medicine is renowned for the health care it delivers and for the groundbreaking research conducted on its campus. Less well-known is that some of these leading scientists are also rock and jazz musicians who play at area venues to appreciative fans. For these researchers, hanging out in a green room is as familiar as working in the laboratory or surgical suite. You can find their work in the most prestigious scientific and medical journals — and also downloadable on iTunes.

For a group of people uniformly excelling at the highest levels at one of the premier research universities and academic medical centers in the world, their backstories share an odd commonality: several acknowledge being lackluster, uninspired or even poor students through high school and even into college.

At the same time, music thrilled them. In some ways, the music sustained and fed their creativity until they found their true calling as scientists.

Facing page: The CheckPoints perform at Buddy Guy’s Legends with Thomas Gajewski, AB’84, PhD’89, MD’91, on lead guitar. The band is named for James Allison’s breakthrough discovery in immunotherapy. Allison, fifth from left, the band’s harmonica player, shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

He said the conference organizer suggested that anybody who plays an instrument should bring it along because at the end of the event, he was going to have a party in his room, and they could all jam.

Gajewski thought that sounded like fun, so he brought his guitar.

“I thought we were going to play some music and drink some beer or whatever,” he said. “And so what happened was the last night of the actual conference — and the party was going to be the next day — [the organizer] made an announcement in front of everybody that he had a special surprise: We’re going to have live music for the whole group tomorrow in the big room.”

University of Chicago Medicine oncologist Jason Luke, MD, comes from a family of musicians. By day, he conducts clinical trials on immunotherapy and treats patients with melanoma and advanced solid tumors.

MEDICINE ON THE MIDWAY

FALL 2018

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The Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology conference in spring 2007 was titled “The Potent New Anti-Tumor Immunotherapies” and featured some big names in a burgeoning field.

James Allison, PhD, then the chair of immunology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, had about a decade earlier made the breakthrough discovery about checkpoint inhibitors that inspired a whole field of immunotherapy research. Now at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, he has since won nearly every significant science award, including the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

The CheckPoints are described as the “house band” of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Thomas Gajewski, MD, PhD, right, is one of the first members of the band, which got its start at a 2007 immunotherapy conference.

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Also presenting were Patrick Hwu, MD, a tumor immunologist at MD Anderson, and Gajewski. The five-day agenda was packed with workshops, panel discussions, keynote addresses and, of course, a poster session.

And sure enough, on the final day of the conference, which fell on April 1, right after “Social Hour with Lite Bites,” the agenda noted simply “Entertainment, 8–11 p.m.”

“So we were looking at each other — Jim Allison and Patrick Hwu and I — and we’re realizing that we’re the live entertainment,” Gajewski recalled.

“So we suddenly had to learn some songs together, which we did that evening. We learned half a dozen and then it was just improvisation.”

And the next night?

“And what happened was it became a little crazy,” Gajewski said. “People were getting up and singing karaoke. There are some very reserved people in our field, conservative guys who it’s hard to find without

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

a jacket and a tie, and they were unbuttoning their collars and taking off jackets and singing on stage.”

Gajewski grinned broadly at the memory and laughed. “Anyway, it was so much fun, we started playing regularly.”

Over the next few years, the band picked up more talent, all within the immunotherapy field, and named themselves The CheckPoints, after Allison’s discovery.

Hwu plays keyboards; Allison sings and plays harmonica. Rachel Humphrey, MD, the chief medical officer at biopharmaceutical company CytomX Therapeutics, is lead vocalist. Dirk Spitzer, PhD, assistant professor and researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, lays down the beat on the drums. UCLA immunologist John Timmerman, MD, plays guitar. Brad Reinfeld, a medical student at Vanderbilt University, plays bass.

Then comes the horn section: Luke on trumpet; Ferran Prat, PhD, JD, senior vice present for research administration at MD Anderson, brings his sax; and Russell Pachynski, MD, assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, plays trombone.

The CheckPoints, described as SITC’s house band, perform at annual meetings of both the immunotherapy society and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). It was the ASCO meeting that brought them to Buddy Guy’s in June. Last year, they were on stage at Chicago House of Blues.

These are impressive gigs for a bunch of amateur musicians, which may help explain why these busy medical professionals make time for it.

“Playing at Buddy Guy’s this year, and at the House of Blues the past few years, has been really cool,” Luke said. “Being able to play live music is tremendously meaningful and being in front of the audience is exhilarating.”

An added benefit for Luke is bragging rights.

Coming from a family of professional musicians — he called himself the “black sheep of the family” for switching to a medical career after starting college as a music major — he earned some street cred.

“Even my sister, who has some big-time credits playing at the Grammys and on ‘The Late Show,’ said ‘wow’ when she heard about it,” Luke said.

Luke’s deep, familial affinity for music is a common refrain among these physicians and researchers, and while it may speak more to how music and science are taught, it also highlights commonalities between the two.

HYPOTHE S I S : WORDS M AT T E R

Julian Solway, MD, Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, can boast a number of accomplished artists in his family. His uncle, Samuel Magad, enjoyed a nearly 50-year career at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 34 of them as concertmaster, the prestigious role of first chair of the violin section.

His cousin, Jared Rabin, is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter. And his stepbrother, Jeffrey Siegel, is an internationally famous concert pianist.

Solway is director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and dean for translational medicine at the University of Chicago. In the spring, he announced $35 million in National Institutes of Health funding for the ITM, for which he is one of three principal investigators. In the summer, the 12-piece horn (think wedding) band he plays keyboards for, The Business, drew a healthy crowd when it performed outside of the John Hancock Center on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

Solway started playing piano at 8 years old and loved everything about it. Well, nearly everything.

“Practicing and enjoying playing the piano are not exactly the same thing,” he said.

For David Freedman, PhD, professor in the Department of Neurobiology and chair of the graduate program in computational neuroscience, his first instrument was a little Casio keyboard that doubled as a calculator. He started plunking out

S

cience requires creativity at every stage in the process, especially, Thomas Gajewski argues, from square one.

The very wording of the question can make all the difference. He offers up this thought experiment: What ideas immediately pop into your head after reading the following questions: 1. How are we going to get through that wall?

2. How are we going to get around that wall?

3. What are the different ways we could get to the other side of the wall?

With No. 1, you might have thought about a heavy machine ramming the wall or explosives dynamiting the wall.

With No. 2, you might have considered scaling the wall, simply driving around it, or digging under it.

With No. 3, you might design a new pogo stick to get over it, rent a helicopter or even build a time machine and fast forward to the point where the wall has crumbled.

“That’s creativity, right?”

Gajewski said. “Time travel, who would have thought of time travel to get past a wall?”

Creativity is about making connections and collaborating, and sometimes it’s about finding a new perspective that lets you imagine the impossible. For Gajewski and the rest of these scientists, that is the heart of scientific inquiry.

Julian Solway, MD, plays keyboards for The Business during a summer show on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Solway, director of the Institute for Translational Medicine, has been playing piano since he was 8.

Several of his family members are accomplished musicians.

PHOTO BY KATHLEEN FERRARO/THE INSTITUTE FOR TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

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GR AMMY OR LASKER?

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hen they played at Buddy Guy’s Legends, Tom Gajewski and his CheckPoints bandmates posed for photos with one of the bluesman’s Grammy awards.

“We got to imagine what it would be like,” Gajewski said.

Which begs the question: Would you rather win a Grammy or a major science

award, such as the Lasker Award or a Nobel?

Pretty much across the board, these scientists chose the science award. After all, they’re scientists and physicians first. Music may be a passion and an important aspect of their lives, but science is their life’s work.

Jason Luke’s response put it in perspective (and made the original question sound pretty silly): “For me, I’d rather win a Lasker as it would likely mean that I had advanced science and medicine in a way that improved the lives of patients with cancer.”

Undeterred, we asked a follow-up question: Imagine you’ve won a Grammy and a Lasker or Nobel. But in

your house, unfortunately, you have room to display only one award in your living room. The other has to go to the basement. Which one gets prime real estate?

This question elicited much more entertaining responses.

Jeffrey Matthews: “The Grammy for song, there’s no question.”

Sliman Bensmaia: “I wouldn’t be worthy of a Grammy. I’m a much better scientist than a musician. But, hey, if I get a Grammy, I’m going to be honest with you, I’ll be pretty pumped, so I’ll go with Grammy because it would be more surprising.”

Luke: “I would definitely have the Grammy displayed most prominently as that

Neuroscientist Sliman Bensmaia, PhD, is keyboardist for the jazz and funk band FuzZz. As a scientist, he specializes in how the brain processes sensory information, and his work has led to the creation of a robotic hand that sends electrical signals to the brain.

PHOTO BY JAMIE BERNSTEIN

notes at 4 or 5 years old. At 11, he tried saxophone.

His musical epiphany came when he picked up an electric guitar.

“I begged my parents to let me play the guitar, but this was my third instrument that I would have 12

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

would be the one that my family would love best!”

John Alverdy, who recently did win a major honor, the American Surgical Association’s Flance–Karl Award: “I have not put in the time or energy and I don’t have the talent to win a Grammy. If I won a Grammy, it would be because I came up with a one-hit wonder. But the Flance–Karl represents 25 years of work, and it’s recognition by my peers that I am among the most distinguished surgeon-scientists in the country. I would put the Flance–Karl up there.”

Jack Gilbert: “I think it would have to be the Grammy.

The Nobel Prize I could just donate the little medal to the

University. But a Grammy, man, that would be kickass.

A professor-microbiologist who wins a Grammy for musical composition? That’s much better. I would be super psyched about that.”

Gajewski: “That’s funny. That would be very cool. Yeah, the Grammy. Probably. Maybe.

Just for the novelty, right?”

— Stephan Benzkofer

to take lessons on, and it wasn’t like I’d become any kind of special prodigy on the first two, so they may have been a little reluctant,” he recalled.

They probably weren’t any happier once they did buy the instrument.

“I finally got that guitar on my 13th birthday, and I just really didn’t put it down for four years,” he said. His grades suffered, his parents and his teachers worried, but midway through high school and continuing into college he found a balance when he started taking more science courses and school became more interesting.

Freedman, who co-founded jazz and funk band FuzZz with fellow UChicago neuroscientist Sliman Bensmaia in 2010, sees a lot of overlap between music and science, both being very creative endeavors. Still, the exasperation was clearly present in his voice when asked about science and creativity.

“People might have the view that science isn’t such a creative process because when they learn science as a child in school, most of what they’re doing is learning about scientific knowledge that is already acquired,” he said.

The problem is that many young people get turned off by all that memorization and never experience the fun part: exploration and research.

When scientists gather a lot of data, the answer is rarely obvious.

“When you put it all together, though, you might be able to complete the puzzle,” he said. “That takes creativity. One way to think about it might be that creativity is seeing the connections between different bits of information.”

While young people must also learn some foundational skills in music, they also get the chance to just mess around on the instruments. Relatively quickly, they can even create their own music or even improvise.

That improvisation happens in the sciences too, but typically not until college, as researchers, postdocs and grad students throw ideas and issues back and forth.

Bensmaia, PhD, associate professor of organismal biology and anatomy, specializes in how the brain processes sensory information.

He said the creative process starts at square one.

“Neuroscience is very much an open field,” he said. “We’re not even sure what the questions are. I mean, we know we’re trying to figure out how the brain works, but the brain has 100 billion neurons and they’re all connected with a hundred trillion synapses, and figuring out how exactly to frame the question to attack the problem is still not clear.”

So just as he and Freedman might “trade fours” as they explore a musical theme — he on keyboards, Freedman on guitar — with the other members of FuzZz, so will Bensmaia and his lab mates discuss and argue and make connections and ask questions to explore a scientific idea.

And while it is clear that you don’t have to be a musician to be a researcher or vice versa, the skills overlap.

Bensmaia says he sees the importance of musical training every day as he gives his children, ages 6 and 8, piano lessons.

“What a great gift music is for the brain,” he said.

“There are so many things that go into this daily practice. First of all, it is a huge thing to be able to attend to a difficult thing where you really have to exert a lot of mental effort for an extended period of time. That is a muscle you have to continually work.”

The other clear benefits: memorizing complex sequences, the confidence gained in realizing

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a difficult task can be mastered, and improved dexterity and fine motor skills.

Bensmaia didn’t dream of being a neuroscientist his whole life. Indeed, he didn’t stumble onto the field in which he would excel until he was working on his doctorate in psychology, and he realized that to get the answers he wanted about how the human brain worked, he would need “to stick electrodes in the nervous system and record from it directly.”

John Alverdy, MD, the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor of Surgery, specializing in preventing infections after surgery, was also something of a late bloomer in science.

PHOTO BY JAMIE BERNSTEIN

As an undergraduate, he studied Spanish and went to medical school despite having little interest.

“I think the seminal moment that changed everything for me was when I worked in a laboratory in the middle of my surgery residency doing research,” said Alverdy, and he realized he could get very excited by the idea of “creating knowledge.”

“You could go into a laboratory, somebody would pay you to just sit around, think and do experiments with no expectation that it would actually work, but that you might actually create something in the process.

“The same thing happens with music. Four or five people sit in a room and play together, and the next thing you know, they’re writing a song.”

For Alverdy, those like-minded musicians include colleagues Jeffrey Matthews, MD, the Dallas B. Phemister Professor of Surgery and chair of the Department of Surgery; Michael Gluth, MD,

David Freedman, PhD, right, co-founder of FuzZz, took up the guitar at 13 and “didn’t put it down for four years.” He is chair of UChicago’s graduate program in computational neuroscience.

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PHOTO BY KAT GILBERT

Jack Gilbert, PhD, right, sings during a performance of Turnover Time. The band includes members of the Department of Surgery and a rotating roster of residents, medical students and nurses.

Below, Jeffrey Matthews, MD, left, and Jack Gilbert, PhD, during a Turnover Time gig. Matthews, chair of surgery, is a songwriterguitarist whose songs are available on iTunes. Gilbert is faculty director of the Microbiome Center.

associate professor of surgery and director of UChicago Medicine’s Comprehensive Ear and Hearing Center; and Jack Gilbert, PhD, professor of surgery and faculty director of the Microbiome Center.

Teamed up with a number of Pritzker School of Medicine students, UChicago Medicine surgical residents and nurses, and Matthews’ wife, Joan, a retired anesthesiologist who plays bass, they form Turnover Time, which debuted in 2011 to help raise money for annual trips to the Dominican Republic to reconstruct ears and cleft palates of children.

The band hit it off big, helping raise nearly $25,000, and has kept playing at campus events periodically ever since.

Matthews’ interest in music goes beyond Turnover Time, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the period between surgeries needed to prep the operating room. In 2015 and again last year, the songwriterguitarist recruited some professional musicians, including Earl Slick, who worked with David Bowie and John Lennon, and noted music producer Mark

PHOTO BY NELSON FLORESCA

Hudson to lay down some tracks in a sound studio.

The resulting songs can be purchased on iTunes.

And there’s Jack Gilbert. He was another late bloomer academically — he called himself a dunce in elementary and high school. “I worked hard, but I just wasn’t particularly clever,” he said. “I liked history but could never remember the details. I was crap at math.” Yet he always had an affinity for music.

“I could read music before I could read words,” he said. “My grandfather was a very talented amateur

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musician, and I was just fascinated by what he could do.”

Gilbert’s other talent, the talent that launched him into the ranks of the most innovative scientists working today, is connecting the dots.

“It was only when I got to university and I could just study my biology and ecology that I really found what I was good at,” he said. “I love connecting things. I love looking for patterns. And I found I could see the patterns very easily, and it just clicked.”

Gilbert is something of a nexus himself. He’s officially in the Department of Surgery with most of his Turnover Time bandmates, but runs the Microbiome Center, a joint venture of the University, Argonne National Laboratory and the Marine Biological Laboratory. He has done research with both Turnover Time’s Alverdy (preventing infections after surgery) and the CheckPoints’ Gajewski (cancer immunotherapy). He sings and plays guitar.

He started out as an entomologist and microbial ecologist, but now finds himself researching bacteria progression in hospitals and what a cadaver’s gut microbiome can tell about time of death.

Connecting all those dots is an insatiable curiosity and a passionate creativity. The latest fMRI studies are finding that the key indicator of creativity in the brain might not be so much about sparking activity in a specific location but rather along the highways and byways that connect the two halves and the different areas.

“Everyone thinks of science as being very rigid rule-following,” Gilbert said. “But that’s not the case at all. What it all comes down to is our imagination.”

CAPT ION CONTEST

What did Shirly say?

P

aul R. Kuhn, AB’52, SB’54, MD’56, wrote the winning entry in Medicine on the Midway’s first-ever caption contest.

Readers were asked to submit a caption for a comic by Shirlene Obuobi, MD’18, who created her comic counterpart, ShirlyWhirl, MD, while a student at the Pritzker School of Medicine. Obuobi is now a first-year resident in internal medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine.

“My caption is a reminder that in spite of the fantastic advances that have occurred in diagnostic procedures since my training years, there is still a place for simple observation,” Kuhn explained.

Kuhn did his internship and residency at the University of Chicago and spent 40 years in the private practice of internal medicine in Newport Beach, California, affiliated with Hoag Hospital. “I am now happily retired and still frequently visit Chicago for medical reunions and an occasional Cubs game,” he writes.

The winning caption was chosen by Obuobi and the Medicine on the Midway editors. Thank you to all who entered.

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We have completed the CT scan, MRI and the lab work. Our diagnosis is, there is nothing wrong with your forehead.

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From bench to startup to bedside

How University of Chicago researchers are bringing their scientific discoveries to market — and broadening their impact on health and well-being

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A vaccine to prevent MRSA

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A microbiome-based strategy to reduce the risk of surgical infection

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A cancer risk ‘clinic in a box’

BY STEVE KOPPES

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ew people get a bigger whiff of the entrepreneurial spirit taking hold among biosciences faculty members than Thelma Tennant, PhD’03. “I walk down the halls of the lab buildings regularly,” Tennant said, “and I don’t think I’ve made it to a meeting without having someone come out a door and say, ‘Hey, I’ve been meaning to call you.’”

Tennant, whose doctorate is in cancer biology, is the oncology lead for technology commercialization in the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. For the past year, she’s also been one of several Polsky staffers embedded in the Duchossois Family Institute: Harnessing the Microbiome and Immunity for Human Health.

The Duchossois Family Institute (DFI) was founded with a $100 million gift from The Duchossois Group Inc. Chairman and CEO Craig Duchossois; his wife, Janet Duchossois; and The Duchossois Family Foundation to accelerate research and interventions based on how the immune system, microbiome and genetics interact to maintain health. The entrepreneurial infrastructure includes commercialization specialists with a deep understanding of science and the path to market.

Embedded within the DFI, they work closely with faculty and students to build strong patent applications and the relationships with investors and industry needed to successfully develop and license these technologies.

PHOTO BY JOE STERBENC

The new institute completes a pipeline that starts for some faculty with the Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM), a health research accelerator that offers seed funding and other support for UChicago researchers to explore dynamic ideas that could improve human health. The ITM provides a range of resources that enable scientists to do the research and get the early-stage data they need to attract investors and commercialize their work.

“The launch of the Duchossois Family Institute and Polsky Center’s new programs now gives our researchers with science-supported ideas someplace to go for health care startup expertise,” said Julian Solway, MD, director of the ITM and dean for translational medicine. “We’re thrilled to work with such great allies to speed the innovation pipeline at the University of Chicago.”

One year, four new companies The approach is working. “Over the last year we’ve had tremendous success,” said Matt Martin, PhD, Polsky’s microbiome lead for technology commercialization. “We’ve now put together four companies that wouldn’t have existed without this new model.”

The newly created microbiome-focused companies reflect the institute’s mission to develop a new science of wellness aimed at preserving health, complementing medicine’s traditional focus on treating sickness and disease: ■■

AVnovum Therapeutics, Inc., based on the work of Eugene Chang, MD’76, the Martin Boyer Professor of Medicine, is developing a new class of microbial peptides that maintain healthy fungal microbiomes by preventing virulence and infection.

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BiomeSense is creating the first low-cost, fully automated sensor for air and water microbial composition and detection. The company is based on the work of Jack Gilbert, PhD, professor of surgery and faculty director of the University’s Microbiome Center, and bioengineer Savas Tay, PhD, an associate professor in the Institute for Molecular Engineering.

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Covira, based on the work of John Alverdy, MD, the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor of Surgery, is developing a platform to reduce the risk of infection and other surgical complications.

Unlike antibiotics, the strategy will work cooperatively with, instead of against, the patient’s microbiome.

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Oxalo Therapeutics, based on the work of Hatim Hassan, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, is developing a first-in-class oral therapeutic to prevent kidney stones. The therapeutic targets recurring kidney stones, approximately 75 percent of which consist of calcium-oxalate mixtures.

Commercialization specialists Thelma Tennant, PhD’03, and Matt Martin, PhD, work closely with faculty and students to develop and license new technologies.

This recent success prompted the creation of the Polsky Life Sciences Launchpad, which also encompasses microbiome-based research in oncology and neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medicine.

The Launchpad provides hands-on, end-to-end support for select translational, life sciences research projects. The goal: launch them into investable startup ventures.

Maryellen Giger, PhD’85, the A.N. Pritzker Professor of Radiology, has a long and successful history in creating such ventures. Her experience as an innovator and entrepreneur dates to the late 1980s, when she and four UChicago colleagues developed systems for the computer-aided detection (CAD) of tumors in medical images. R2 Technology licensed their UChicago patents for the technology in 1993; five years later, it was the first company to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use CAD for mammography screening. Quantitative Insights, Inc., the newest company based on Giger’s work, is distributing the first FDA-cleared computer-aided diagnosis platform incorporating machine learning for the evaluation of breast abnormalities.

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CancerIQ Making genetic testing more accessible In 2012, as Funmi Olopade, MD, climbed down Mount Kilimanjaro during a family vacation, she was dreading the prospect of spending four months preparing a grant proposal in a depressed federal funding environment. At her daughter’s suggestion, Olopade decided to launch a startup instead.

Olopade, director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago Medicine, is a co-founder of CancerIQ, which offers a suite of products that contains predictive analytics and screening tools to identify patients at increased risk for cancer. The company’s other co-founders are Feyi Olopade Ayodele, LAB’97, MBA, and Haibo Lu, MBA’14.

Genetic testing is often unavailable to patients at the point of care, and individuals at high risk for cancer don’t want to travel to academic medical centers when they are well. CancerIQ’s “cancer risk clinic in a box” automates the time-consuming tasks associated with genetic services to help community-based physicians offer their patients access to lifesaving health care.

The company recently received a major investment commitment from Michael Polsky, MBA’87, founder, president and CEO of Invenergy, LLC. The support will accelerate CancerIQ’s efforts to hire more engineers and to introduce its products to additional health networks.

As a student, Giger wondered why faculty members didn’t make their intellectual property freely available to everyone for the public benefit.

“Then I learned that one should obtain a patent and license it to only one or two companies,” she said.

“If everyone received the intellectual property for free, no one would invest the time and funding in

“Accelerate” is the key word. Olopade has devoted much of her career to cancer risk assessment and prevention, but progress has been slow.

“I’ve done it for 20 years and it still has not made any dent in the communities that stand to benefit most from early detection and prevention,” Olopade said. “To get out of the ivory tower and put things in people’s hands where we can eliminate institutional barriers, that’s really motivating.”

translating it into a product, because it’s expensive to take a lab device through the FDA and into a commercial clinical product.”

When University intellectual property is protected and licensed to companies (including startups), everyone benefits. The revenue generated by these licenses is shared by the University and

Members of the Cancer IQ team in their Streeterville office, from left: Funmi Olopade, MD; Feyi Olopade Ayodele, MBA, chief executive officer; Chris Bun, SM’13, PhD’16; and Haibo Lu, MBA’14.

PHOTO BY JOHN ZICH

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PHOTO BY ANNE RYAN

the innovators. Innovators receive revenue in recognition of their critical role in the discovery and to incentivize translational activity. The remainder is reinvested across the institution, including the innovators’ labs and departments to support ongoing research, and the Polsky Center to protect new intellectual property.

Olaf Schneewind, MD, PhD, co-founded the biotechnology startup ImmunArtes, which is developing a vaccine for Staphylococcus aureus, including antibioticresistant strains.

Start up — and out Just as important, commercialization enables researchers to get their innovations out into the public more quickly and make a bigger impact on human health.

Staph infections kill an estimated 19,000 people annually and infect tens of thousands more. Olaf Schneewind, MD, PhD, Louis Block Professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, has been working for 15 years on a vaccine that could neutralize the scourge of Staphylococcus aureus, including antibiotic-resistant strains.

“That would be an extraordinary scientific victory,” he said.

ImmunArtes is the startup based on the work of Schneewind and his associates. Over the last two decades, Schneewind said, many large companies have found that maintaining their own research and development is less efficient than shifting that burden to startups, which take extraordinary risks in developing new technologies that could then be purchased at an early stage.

Schneewind has received more than $5 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which also has assisted with product development. If sufficient private sector funding

fails to come through, Schneewind may still be able to develop a vaccine on a shoestring budget with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — but it would take longer. “I see a path forward in this no matter what,” he said. “I’m committed to finishing.”

Kidney stones affect about one in five men and one in 11 women in this country. Oxalo Therapeutics seeks to bring an oral preventative of calcium oxalate kidney stones to market in the next seven or eight years, potentially bringing relief to patients with this painful condition. The company, co-founded

by Hatim Hassan, MD, PhD, and Yang Zheng, a student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, recently was awarded $2.3 million through the NIH’s Small Business Technology Transfer program. Oxalo also advanced to the final round of the 2018 MassChallenge Boston — one of just two

ImmunArtes Developing a vaccine to exterminate MRSA Olaf Schneewind, MD, PhD, and ImmunArtes, the biotechnology startup that he co-founded, are intent upon squashing a superbug. The company is developing vaccines and therapeutics to prevent and treat human infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus and its antibiotic-resistant variant, MRSA. “Staphylococcus aureus is the infectious disease agent that causes the most morbidity and mortality in the 21st century in the United States,”

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said Schneewind, chair of the Department of Microbiology.

Schneewind and his associates have developed a new type of vaccine that targets an antigen called Protein A, which allows MRSA to evade the human immune system. An earlier version of the vaccine had shown its efficacy in mice, but it retained a measure of toxicity.

“We had to genetically detoxify the molecule so that it would no longer bind to human immunoglobulin,” Schneewind said. “I’m now in a stage where I have the prototype, but I have to repeat the manufacturing of the vaccine” — something that will occur within the next 18 months. After verifying the safety of the vaccine in animal models, his team will file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for investigative new drug status, which would permit phase 1 trials in humans.

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PHOTO BY EDDIE QUINONES

To market, to market

Samuel Volchenboum, MD, PhD, draws from his own experience co-founding a startup, Litmus Health, to help colleagues who are interested in commercializing their work.

biotech startups among the 26 finalists. (A total of 128 startups, including ImmunArtes, were chosen to participate in the highly selective accelerator program out of more than 1,600 competitors worldwide.)

“If we are successful in developing this pill and lowering urine and blood oxalate, it will open the door for redefining the standard of care,” said Hassan, who worked closely with the Polsky Center’s Martin in launching his enterprise.

Samuel Volchenboum, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Research Informatics, has organized another resource for his colleagues.

Five years ago, Volchenboum co-founded Litmus Health to produce a data science platform for earlystage clinical trials and large-scale observational studies. Litmus focuses on measuring health-related quality of life using real-world data sets and streams.

The company raised a small angel round of financing and is already profitable. Litmus also was just awarded a significant joint NIH-Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program grant to further its technology platform.

Some UChicago colleagues, Volchenboum said, are surprised when he suggests their ideas might present marketplace opportunities, while others have no idea how to get started.

“I’ve learned a whole lot along this journey that I’m eager to share with others — how to prototype and pilot, how to commercialize out of an academic environment, how to find your first customers, how to manage legal and regulatory constraints, and how to put the right team together — these have been invaluable lessons,” Volchenboum said. “To that end I’ve set up a working group here made up of about 25 people from around the medical center and the University where people can come and present their

Oxalo Therapeutics Harnessing gut microbes for kidney stone prevention Elevated urine oxalate (hyperoxaluria) is a major risk factor for kidney stones, and small increases in urine oxalate significantly enhance the risk.

Unfortunately, there are currently no drugs that effectively lower urine oxalate levels. Nephrologist Hatim Hassan, MD, PhD, a co-founder of Oxalo Therapeutics, is developing a pill to do just that. His company is conducting preclinical and proof-ofconcept studies to optimize the novel peptides identified by his lab.

The gut bacterium Oxalobacter formigenes lives in the human colon and it needs oxalate for energy.

Oxalobacter secretes factors that manipulate colon

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cells to transport oxalate from blood into the colon lumen. The bacterium uses this secreted oxalate for survival; the process also lowers the human host’s blood and urine oxalate levels, reducing the risk of developing a kidney stone. Hassan’s lab showed that these factors reduced urinary oxalate excretion in mice with elevated urine oxalate levels.

Hassan’s lab identified specific proteins and peptides as the Oxalobacter-derived factors.

“These peptides need to be optimized through structural modifications, because if we give them in the current form, they will be rapidly degraded by specific enzymes in the colon,” Hassan said.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

With modifications, however, Hassan can make the peptides more resistant to enzymatic digestion. He proposes to introduce the optimized peptides into the colon to stimulate oxalate transport from blood into the colon lumen. He emphasized that Oxalo’s product mimics a natural process in the human body for regulating colonic oxalate transport and enhances its elimination in the stool.

Litmus Health Unlocking new insights from patient data Samuel Volchenboum, MD, PhD, actively sought to commercialize his work but didn’t find the right collaborators until a UChicago colleague referred him to serial entrepreneur Josh Jones-Dilworth, who has launched several major health care, bioinformatics, analytics and AI companies, including Siri. The two men’s investigations and budding friendship led them to co-found Litmus Health along with a third member, Daphne Kis, who previously created Release 1.0 and PC Forum with Esther Dyson, and ran them for 18 years as CEO. Based in Austin, Texas, the company produces a clinical data science platform that focuses on health-related quality of life. It uses data collected from patients via wearables, such as fitness

trackers, smart devices, and home sensors to help researchers see trends they might otherwise overlook in their observational studies and clinical trials. After collecting the data, Litmus uses machine learning to align time-series data, interpolate and integrate statistically independent data sources.

“The idea of using wearables to collect data for clinical trials is something that I’m interested in at a number of levels, both nationally and locally,” Volchenboum said. “It’s taking the field of pharmaceutical development by storm.”

In a multi-year project funded by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, David Rubin, MD’94, the Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine, is working with

ideas and get candid feedback and advice on next steps.” His Data Use and Innovation Group brings together attorneys and specialists in compliance, privacy and security to discuss their projects.

Volchenboum also serves as faculty director of the relatively new master of science in biomedical informatics program at the University’s Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional

Litmus Health to collect physical activity data from Fitbit fitness trackers for his study of inflammatory bowel disease patients. The company has enrolled 200 patients in the study so far through UChicago Medicine’s Digestive Diseases Center.

“The ultimate goal of the study is to produce a better set of predictors that will help us understand who’s at highest risk for developing a flare-up, so intervention can occur before they start to have symptoms,” Volchenboum said. “It’s exciting, innovative work.”

Studies. One of the program’s first graduates, Melissa Byrn, SM’17, developed FORESEEaBILL, a technology that automates the billing process for the various tests and procedures patients undergo during clinical trials.

Byrn is now director of innovation programs at the Booth School of Business in the Polsky Center. For her capstone project, she surveyed the clinical trial PHOTO BY EDDIE QUINONES

Hatim Hassan, MD, PhD, right, presents at the UChicago Innovation Fund finals in the Polsky Exchange Theater.

His company, Oxalo Therapeutics, is developing a first-in-class oral therapeutic to prevent kidney stones.

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software landscape, identified a gap and then proposed her solution. She honed her idea through the Polsky Center’s Innovation Corps program, which empowers UChicago researchers and students to test the market potential of their STEM-related projects with National Science Foundation support.

She also met some students at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who were aware of private-sector interest in health care technology. They formed a team that advanced to the finals of the Polsky Center’s Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge last spring. The New Venture Challenge is recognized as one of the top accelerator programs in the nation for launching startup ventures.

Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, MD, Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics, also leveraged the expertise of Chicago Booth students in launching CancerIQ, a company based on her cancer risk assessment tools.

The company’s digital products make it easier for community-based physicians to deliver cancer risk assessment, prevention and genetically informed treatment to their patients. The push to launch the company, however, came from her daughter, Feyi Olopade Ayodele, LAB’97, MBA, CancerIQ’s co-founder and chief executive officer.

Ayodele, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, worked with her mother to pitch the idea to a group of students in the D4 Lab, an experiential learning collaboration between the Polsky Center, the ITM and ITM affiliate member the IIT Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. D4 stands for Discovery, Design, Develop and Do, and it applies human-centered design to solve problems in clinical medicine.

Several Chicago Booth students joined the CancerIQ team, making sequential stops at San Francisco’s Rock Health, which funds and supports health technology entrepreneurs; 1871, Chicago’s digital tech co-working space and incubator; and the MATTER health technology incubator in Chicago. A turning point was when Ayodele, who took a leave of absence from her job at McKinsey & Company to investigate CancerIQ’s market potential, insisted that her mother take a sabbatical to incubate their startup at Rock Health.

“I learned very early that these young people are just amazing,” Olopade said. “They know what they’re doing, but they needed clinical insight.” They needed the experienced oncologist to walk them through her workflow process every day in order to build prototype software.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

“My lesson is that we need to take more risk and support young people with ideas,” Olopade said.

From more to more Other faculty members are successfully licensing their intellectual property without launching their own companies. Thomas Gajewski, AB’84, PhD’89, MD’91, the AbbVie Foundation Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy, has made groundbreaking discoveries in his laboratory about how different populations of microbiota can affect the body’s response to checkpoint blockade inhibitors, a drug type that elicits a strong immune reaction against cancer. His work was exactly the sort of asset that Evelo Biosciences, Inc., was looking for to develop microbiome-based oncology therapeutics. The company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has multiple monoclonal microbial product candidates for clinical studies in oncology and inflammatory disease at a time when such treatments are emerging as therapies designed to act on the gutbody network.

Evelo first approached the Polsky Center about its needs in 2015. At about that time, the University was filing patent applications on Gajewski’s technology.

Evelo signed a six-month option agreement on the technology with the University and returned three months later to negotiate a license. “That’s a great example of how quickly you can move in today’s climate with the appropriate team and the appropriate funding,” Tennant said.

Evelo is just one of many biotechnology companies that have sought out Gajewski for his vision and guidance in immunotherapy. “In some way or another we manage a significant number of different interactions with companies for him,” Tennant said.

The University also has inked a five-year relationship with AbbVie pharmaceuticals that commits funding to early-stage research projects in oncology, including increased support for clinical trials. During the first two years of the program starting in 2015, seven translational faculty projects from UChicago Medicine were funded through a competitive submission process that followed two requests for proposals. A joint steering committee composed of senior leaders from both the University and AbbVie reviews and determines which projects will get funded.

What’s the next big thing on the University’s health care innovation horizon? Whatever it may be, Tennant sees it emerging from the spirit of UChicago’s official motto: Crescat scientia; vita excolatur. Let knowledge grow from more to more; and so be human life enriched.

PHOTO BY NANCY WONG

Computer-aided detection (CAD) innovator Maryellen Giger, PhD’85, left, works with Department of Radiology colleagues Karen Drukker, PhD, and Hui Li, SM’95, PhD’00.

Quantitative Insights Diagnosing cancer with machine learning and big data Quantitative Insights, Inc. (QI) was co-founded

by Maryellen Giger, PhD’85, Brian Luerssen, MBA’11, Robert Tomek, SM’10, and colleagues to translate and realize the clinical potential of a computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) system that helps radiologists more accurately diagnose breast cancer from magnetic resonance images (MRIs).

The company, whose core product QuantX is based on patented technology created in the Giger laboratory, placed as a finalist among more than 100 competitors in the Polsky Center’s 2009-10 New Venture Challenge.

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Last year, QuantX became the first FDA-cleared machine-learning-driven CADx system to aid in diagnosing breast abnormalities. QI received this regulatory clearance via the de novo classification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

QuantX makes it possible for radiologists to quickly access advanced analytics that automatically show how a suspected abnormality compares to similar breast abnormalities of known pathology using an online reference atlas. The QI team aims to build tools to enable faster and more accurate diagnosis, more individualized treatments and better outcomes for patients.

Giger specializes in gleaning information from medical images using novel computer vision algorithms, thus allowing artificial intelligence (AI) to augment radiologists’ interpretations. Given further investment, Giger noted that QI could develop similar products for diagnosing prostate, lung and other types of cancers.

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Donald N. Pritzker Professor, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the College

ZERESENAY “ZERAY” ALEMSEGED, PHD PHOTOS COURTESY OF ZERESENAY ALEMSEGED, PHD

Alemseged is interested in human evolution, the events surrounding the origin and diversification of early human ancestors and how these processes were shaped by environmental and ecological factors. In 2000, he discovered the 3.3 million-year-old skeleton of a young female Australopithecus afarensis, the most complete skeleton of a human ancestor discovered to date.

Paleontology

The University of Chicago’s paleontology program stays on top by linking the past to the present

BY MATT WOOD

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POWERHOUSE The nation’s top-ranked doctoral program in

paleontology doesn’t have its own department, nor do its faculty members work together in a dedicated building. Instead, the heart of the University of Chicago’s storied paleontology program is scattered in a series of labs throughout Culver Hall and the Anatomy Building, with just a few display cases holding fossil replicas, photos and magazine covers to give it away. But this unconventional organization of paleontology research at UChicago is what gives the program its strength.

Housed within the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, UChicago’s vertebrate paleontology faculty, their postdocs and students work alongside researchers studying neurobiology, biomechanics, evolution and development. This connection between millions-of-years-old fossils and the living, breathing creatures descended from them has helped the UChicago paleontology program achieve the No. 1 ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s survey of the country’s best biological sciences doctoral programs.

“The University of Chicago is a center of paleontology and evolutionary biology,” said Robert Ho, PhD, chair of the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy (OBA). “People see it as a strength — whether we define it that way or not — because we have this extraordinary

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

combination of leading figures in paleobiology working here.”

U.S. News & World Report ranks paleontology programs every four years. UChicago has been ranked first in three of the last four lists: 2019, 2015, and 2007. In 2011, it was ranked second.

The key to this continuing success is a faculty comprising six of the world’s leading experts, each studying key branches on the evolutionary tree of life. Zeray Alemseged researches human origins and the environmental context of human evolution. Michael Coates investigates the origins of early vertebrates and fish. David Jablonski studies origins and extinction patterns in living and fossil marine bivalves. Zhe-Xi Luo focuses on the earliest mammals. Neil Shubin researches the first tetrapods and their transition to land, and Paul Sereno covers dinosaurs and the emergence of flight.

This broad range of experience and specialties, both within the group and the broader OBA faculty, broadens the scope of what paleontology means at UChicago. Coates says the work of a modern paleontologist doesn’t end with digging up a fossil and identifying it. Today’s researchers want to understand how the animal lived, where it came from and how it evolved, so it’s only natural for them to work side by side with experts on the form and function of living creatures.

PHOTOS BY MEGAN E. DOHERTY

Jablonski’s research focuses on macroevolution, which encompasses the study of large-scale patterns of evolution above the species level, mass extinctions and their long-term consequences, diversification in time and space, and the origin of evolutionary breakthroughs.

MICHAEL COATES, PHD Professor, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and the College; Chair, Committee on Evolutionary Biology

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David Jablonski, PhD, with fellow Committee on Evolutionary Biology paleontologist Susan Kidwell, PhD, William Rainey Professor, Department of Geophysical Sciences. Kidwell received the National Academy of Sciences Thompson Medal for her groundbreaking work on fossil preservation.

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

“You have a huge amount of data about the organism within a fossil skeleton,” Coates said. “It gives you information about how it developed, how it moved, the musculature and the nervous system that controlled it, and we can learn more about that from our colleagues. So, this department is a natural home for vertebrate paleontologists.”

That creates an attractive environment for students as well. Many traditional graduate paleontology programs are housed within natural history museums, which offer less exposure to experimental biological research than found at UChicago, which has two graduate programs that foster interdisciplinary studies.

The Committee on Evolutionary Biology (CEB), chaired by Coates, is a University-wide graduate training program with almost 60 faculty members representing all four graduate divisions (Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities), as well as institutions outside the University (Argonne National Laboratory, Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Botanic Garden, Field Museum, Lincoln Park Zoo, and Morton Arboretum).

The OBA graduate program in integrative biology also trains students to pursue interdisciplinary research across fields in biology and among levels of biological organization. Diverse faculty in both programs conduct research on most major groups of organisms and in most ecosystems, using an extremely

Coates’ research covers vertebrate evolution, especially the origins of ray-finned fishes, the ancient relatives of the vast majority of fishes swimming the seas today, and the deep evolutionary origins of sharks. He also works with molecular biologists to integrate molecular and fossil data, which yield different branching dates in the evolutionary tree of life, and with developmental biologists to understand how fossils inform questions about the evolution of organismal development.

William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Geophysical Sciences, Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the College

DAVID JABLONSKI, PHD

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broad range of methods and theoretical approaches.

“Our students want to be experts in these different disciplines and not just dabble,” Ho said. “I think that’s another plus for them to come through this program and collaborate with faculty with different backgrounds.”

“It’s a different way of thinking,” Coates added.

“You have to understand the different demands of conducting lab work and doing field research in different environments, and be conversant in all of them. That’s something we can offer here, and there aren’t many other places where you can do that.”

There is no shortage of students who want to come to UChicago and study in this setting, but the challenge is the same thing that plagues basic science research programs around the country: finding the necessary funding to support them. While traditional paleontology field work and lab preparation may seem relatively low-tech, advances in imaging, CT scanning and genetic analysis that yield reams of crucial data on

the evolution and function of specimens are quickly adding to the price tag. And the kind of interdisciplinary, genre-bending work fostered by OBA and CEB can be a tough pitch to funding agencies accustomed to supporting conventional types of research.

The key to moving forward, both Coates and Ho said, is connecting the work of paleontology, and the eons of perspective it brings, to such modern-day problems as climate change.

“We’re used to thinking about change on many different scales of space and time, and we research the causes and consequences of former extinctions and how climate change affected the history of life on earth,” Coates said.

“We have all of this rich context to train the essential new generation of scientists, not necessarily to go into academia, but to work in policy and other advisory bodies and make some pretty challenging decisions — because change is happening whether we like it or not.”

PAUL SERENO, PHD Professor, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the College

PHOTO BY ROBERT KOZLOFF

PHOTOS BY MATT WOOD

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Sereno works with students, technicians and artists in his Fossil Lab to bring to life fossils unearthed from sites around the world. His field work began in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, where he discovered the first dinosaurs to roam the earth some 230 million years ago. Other expeditions have explored Africa’s Sahara, Asia’s Gobi Desert, India’s Thar Desert and remote valleys in Tibet. He helped discover Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, among the largest known carnivorous dinosaurs. His most recent discovery, a human burial site in the Sahara predating the Egyptian pyramids, provides a snapshot of life in a once “green” Sahara.

ZHE-XI LUO, PHD Professor, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the College

ILLUSTRATION BY JORGE A. GONZALEZ

PHOTO BY ROBERT KOZLOFF

Shubin has conducted landmark research on the evolutionary origin of anatomical features of animals. One of his most significant discoveries, a 375 million-year-old fossil called Tiktaalik roseae, is an important transitional form between fish and land animals. Shubin has written two popular science books: the best-selling Your Inner Fish (2008), which was made into an Emmy Award-winning PBS series; and The Universe Within: The Deep History of the Human Body (2013).

Luo studies the evolutionary biology of vertebrates, especially mammal fossils of the Mesozoic Era — the age of dinosaurs. His work seeks to decipher the origins of mammalian biological adaptations, the evolutionary relationship of major lineages, their ecological diversification and their developmental patterns. His studies of early mammals have included the world’s earliest-known placentals and marsupials, and other ancient mammals that shed light on the earliest mammalian evolution and diversity.

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NEIL SHUBIN, PHD Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy; Committee on Evolutionary Biology; Committee on Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology; and the College

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BSD News

G R A D U AT E E D U C AT I O N

#GREexit By dropping the GRE requirement, the BSD aims to level the playing field for applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds

BY KRISTIN BAIRD RATTINI

T

he Biological Sciences Division will no longer require applicants to its graduate programs to submit Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores.

The policy change, announced in July, reflects a national trend: The University of Chicago is among more than 60 institutions and graduate programs that have dropped the GRE requirement.

But the change also reflects the long, determined and highly personal effort by members of the BSD’s grassroots Graduate Recruitment Initiative Team (GRIT), who lobbied for a more holistic approach to recruitment in order to increase the enrollment of underrepresented minorities and women.

“We are excited to see the talent that will come to UChicago now that this barrier has been removed,” said Cody Hernandez, a doctoral candidate in the cell and molecular biology program, and one of GRIT’s co-founders. “It’s an amazing feeling to know we have potentially changed the trajectory for a student out there, the way that many people changed ours. We feel this is our moment when we paid it forward.”

Victoria Prince, PhD, dean and director of the Office of Graduate Affairs, recommended the change. She had been following the national conversation and growing body of literature regarding the utility of GREs in predicting the outcomes and success of graduate students. Indeed, over the past decade, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and other institutions have stopped accepting GRE scores on institutional and individual funding applications.

GRIT members were well aware of that same literature, too. They’d discussed it with faculty, in particular through the Diversity Council — a partnership of GRIT students and faculty that formed in fall 2017 — and cited it in a June letter to faculty appealing for removal of the GRE requirement. But equally important, they shared with faculty their own struggles with access to the GREs. “The GRIT members provided a more personal framework in which to consider the issue,” Prince said. “Those two sides — the national and the personal — fueled our drive to move this whole conversation forward.”

When the University of Chicago announced in June that it was dropping the requirement for all undergraduate applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores, Prince knew the time was right for the change.

“It sends the message that this is our university’s position,” she said. “As one of the few elite institutions dropping standardized score requirements at both undergraduate and graduate levels, we are demonstrating that we are taking the lead.”

The case against requiring the GRE Studies have shown the exam: ■■ Is biased against minorities,

women and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

■■ Fails to predict graduate student

success, such as time to PhD and number of publications, and weakly predicts first-year grades.

The University of Chicago is one of the first elite research institutions to drop the requirement for standardized test scores at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

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DIVERSITY

Graduate students, advisors awarded HHMI fellowships Three University of Chicago graduate students and their thesis

advisors have been awarded 2018 Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The fellowships support development of their scientific leadership and commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion in the sciences.

The recipients are: Cavanaugh, PhD candidate in development, regeneration and stem cell biology. Advisor: Margaret Gardel, PhD, professor in the Department of Physics.

■■ Kate

■■ Cody

Hernandez, PhD candidate in cell and molecular

biology, co-founder and director of the Graduate Recruitment Initiative Team. Advisor: Jonathan Staley, PhD, professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology.

Washington, PhD candidate in human genetics.

Advisor: Carole Ober, PhD, Blum-Riese Professor in the Department of Human Genetics.

■■ Charles

The three are among 45 doctoral student-advisor pairs from across the country to receive the fellowships. The Gilliam program supports promising graduate students from groups that are underrepresented in science and helps their thesis advisors build inclusive training environments.

Each pair will receive an annual award totaling $50,000 for up to three years, including a stipend, training allowance and institutional allowance. Advisors will participate in a year of mentorship development activities and training. For the first time, a portion of the annual award will support activities designed to foster diversity and inclusion in the mentors’ labs and departments.

E D U C AT I O N

Mason, Freedman receive 2018 teaching awards Peggy Mason, PhD, received

David Freedman, PhD,

a Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award, believed to be the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching. Mason teaches the introductory Fundamental Neuroscience course.

received a Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring, which recognizes tenure-track and tenured faculty. Freedman teaches a course for undergraduates and advises graduate students in his neurobiology lab.

Read interviews with Peggy Mason and David Freedman at uchicago.edu.

PHOTOS BY JEAN LACHAT

Two professors in the Department of Neurobiology were honored with University of Chicago awards for excellence.

PHOTO BY GRADIMAGES

D I V I S I O N A L AC A D E M I C C E R E M O N Y

PhD graduates receive hoods The Biological Sciences Division celebrated all newly awarded PhDs at the 2018 Divisional Academic Ceremony held in the Logan Center for the Arts. Of the 70 PhD graduates this year, 37 received their hoods during the ceremony. The blue PhD hood is a gift from the Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association.

“ The world needs scientists in all places, and you are leading the way.”

Keynote speaker Diane Lipscombe, PhD Director, Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University uchicagomedicine.org/midway

Matt Hope, SM’17, PhD’17, left, and Matthew Tien, SM’18, PhD’18, who received their doctorates in biochemistry and molecular biophysics.

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HUMAN GENETICS

BSD News

Why elephants rarely die from cancer ‘Zombie’ gene helps destroy cells with damaged DNA

BY JOHN EASTON, AM’77

A

n estimated 17 percent of humans worldwide die from cancer, but less than 5 percent of captive elephants — who also live for about 70 years and have about 100 times as many potentially cancerous cells as humans — die from the disease.

Three years ago, research teams from the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, working separately, began to unravel why. They knew that humans, like all other animals, have one copy of the master tumor suppressor gene p53. This gene enables humans and elephants to recognize unrepaired DNA damage, a precursor of cancer. Then it causes those damaged cells to die.

Unexpectedly, the researchers found that elephants have 20 copies of p53.

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This makes their cells significantly more sensitive to damaged DNA and quicker to engage in cellular suicide.

In a study published in the journal Cell Reports, the University of Chicago team describes a second element of this process: an anti-cancer gene that returned from the dead.

“Genes duplicate all the time,” said Vincent Lynch, PhD, assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago and the study’s senior author.

“Sometimes they make mistakes, producing non-functional versions known as pseudogenes. We often refer to these dismissively as dead genes.”

While studying p53 in elephants, however, Lynch and colleagues found a former pseudogene called leukemia inhibitory factor 6 (LIF6) that had somehow evolved a new on-switch.

LIF6, back from the dead, had become a

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

valuable working gene. Its function, when activated by p53, is to respond to damaged DNA by killing the cell. The LIF6 gene makes a protein that goes, quite rapidly, to the mitochondria, the cell’s main energy source. That protein pokes holes in the mitochondria, causing the cell to die.

“Hence, zombie,” said Lynch. “This dead gene came back to life. When it gets turned on by damaged DNA, it kills that cell, quickly. This is beneficial, because it acts in response to genetic mistakes, errors made when the DNA is being repaired. Getting rid of that cell can prevent a subsequent cancer.”

Elephants have eight LIF genes, but only LIF6 is known to be functional.

Although it was only recently described, it appears to have been helping elephants and their relatives for a long time.

“We can use the tricks of evolution to try to figure out when this defunct gene became functional again,” Lynch said.

It seems to have emerged around the time when the fossil record indicates that the small groundhog-sized precursors of today’s elephants began to grow bigger. This started about 25 to 30 million years ago.

This supplementary method of suppressing cancer may have been a key element enabling enormous growth, which eventually led to modern elephants.

“Large, long-lived animals must have evolved robust mechanisms to either suppress or eliminate cancerous cells in order to live as long as they do, and reach their adult sizes,” said study co-author Juan Manuel Vazquez, a doctoral candidate in the Lynch laboratory.

Exactly how LIF6 induces apoptosis, however, will be “the focus of continued studies,” the authors wrote.

N AT I O N A L H O N O R S

BSD faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences Two Biological Sciences Division faculty members are among the 2018 inductees of the National Academy of Sciences, recognized by their peers for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

Joy Bergelson, PhD, at the Department of Ecology and Evolution’s Warren Woods Ecological Field Station in Michigan.

PHOTO BY ANNE RYAN

Olaf Schneewind, MD, PhD, studies the molecular biology of bacteria that cause human disease.

Joy Bergelson, PhD, James D. Watson Professor and Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolution

Olaf Schneewind, MD, PhD, Louis Block Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology

S

chneewind is best known for his work discovering sortases — enzymes that assemble proteins in the envelope of Grampositive bacteria. Without sortases and their surface protein substrates, bacteria (such as Staphylococcus aureus or its drugresistant forms, known as MRSA) cannot cause disease or interact with their environment.

Investigation of sortase motif sequences has enabled Schneewind and his team to identify the surface proteins of any bacterial pathogen based on genome sequences and to study these molecules for their contributions to disease establishment and for vaccine development. These insights have allowed his team to find and study how S. aureus evades detection by the immune system and to create vaccines for safety and efficacy testing in humans.

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B

ergelson’s research dispelled the long-held belief that armsrace dynamics typify the evolution of plant resistance to microbial pathogens in nature. An early researcher on the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, particularly from an evolutionary and ecological perspective, Bergelson with her group completed the first experiments using genetically manipulated plants to disentangle the mechanisms driving observed evolutionary dynamics. They have also pioneered research at the interface of ecology and evolution, namely eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Through her international collaborations, Bergelson has been instrumental in developing genome-wide association mapping in Arabidopsis, providing resources to the community and ultimately leading to the 1001 Genomes Project.

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PHOTO BY JOHN ZICH

Pritzker News

PHILANTHROPY

Smoothing the way for the next generation of physicians

BY KATE DOHNER

S

eeking to help generations of medical students fulfill their potential, Anne Hong, MD, and her husband, Paul Poy, recently established an endowed scholarship and annual lectureship at the University of Chicago.

The Anne E. Hong, MD, and Paul C. Poy Scholarship Fund in the Pritzker School of Medicine will completely cover the tuition and fees of one Pritzker student each year, while the lectureship will bring the foremost physicians specializing in general internal medicine to campus to share their research findings and inspire students to pursue careers in the field.

Hong practiced general internal medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine for 38 years until her retirement in December 2016. Known for providing compassionate care and outstanding mentorship, she touched the lives of countless patients, students, physicians and staff. Hong shared her thoughts on retirement and giving back.

What inspired you to make this gift?

Education has always been very important to us. The value of education was instilled in me from an early age by my mother, though she did not have the opportunity to go to school herself. Growing up, I remember her taking my siblings and me to the library to explore the books and open our eyes to new worlds.

Through this gift, Paul and I seek to smooth the way for incoming Pritzker

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Anne Hong, MD, and Paul Poy

students by allowing them to concentrate their energy and enthusiasm on their medical training and not be distracted by educational debt. By removing financial pressures, our hope is that the scholars will be free to choose the specialty that they feel most passionate about.

What stands out to you about your teaching experience here?

Although my parents had to work very hard for their money, they were always willing to share and send money back to people in their village in China. That set the example of giving for me early on.

It’s a joy to watch the students grow— from seeing them try to find their way in the beginning, to witnessing their confidence develop over time, to watching them move into the world as private practitioners, medical educators or researchers. Eventually, I’ve seen some of my former students become heads of sections and departments in their hospitals.

You always remember them as they were when they first started. We sometimes say, “These could be our kids.”

You rejoice with them in their success.

What changes have you witnessed on the medical campus over the years?

How are you spending your retirement?

Were there examples in your life that set the stage for giving philanthropically?

When I first started, the main hospital was Billings Hospital, and Bernard Mitchell Hospital was just opening. Now, we have this marvelous new hospital and state-of-the-art emergency room. If you look at old photos and compare them to today, it’s sometimes hard to believe it’s the same place.

But other things haven’t changed.

We’ve always served patients in the community and have remained a strong tertiary and quaternary care center.

Mentorship has always been important; it was important for me when I started here and remains essential to training today.

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This past year-and-a-half has been a time for me to be reflective. Paul and I had the opportunity to travel to Israel and Jordan, which was an eye-opening experience.

We’ve also traveled to Hong Kong and Singapore, and I’ve been able to switch from reading medical journals to fiction.

Paul and I enjoy giving back to the community by volunteering. I volunteer at a nursery school in Chinatown, and Paul serves with the New Life Centers, which provides mentorship, education and sports activities to at-risk youth in the Little Village and Humboldt Park neighborhoods.

S T U D E N T AWA R D S

Pritzker students honored for service, research and leadership Recent honors awarded to Pritzker School of Medicine students include: Christianah Ogunleye, MS2, was

selected for the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, a yearlong service learning program that empowers fellows to design and implement projects that help address the health needs of underserved Chicago communities. For her project, Ogunleye will implement a physical and mental wellness curriculum for female African American adolescents at the Washington Park Youth Program.

Ava Ferguson Bryan, AM’10, MD’18,

received the Karnezis Research Scholarship, established by orthopaedic surgeon Tom Karnezis, MD’88, to recognize and reward achievement in research for a graduating student and to reduce the recipient’s

medical school debt. While at Pritzker, Bryan took a year off to conduct research in obstetrics and gynecology. She is a resident in general surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Catherine Castro, AB’14, MS3, is

one of six students across the nation to receive a Herbert W. Nickens Medical Student Scholarship from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The scholarship recognizes medical students for work within and outside of the classroom to eliminate health care disparities. In leadership positions in the Latino Medical Student Association and the Community Health Clinic, she has focused on the health needs of immigrants and undocumented persons. She was instrumental in planning the inaugural

Black and Latina Women in Medicine Forum at Pritzker.

A team of Pritzker students has won a 2018 Medical Student Service Leadership Project Grant from the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society: Stephanie Bi, AB’16, MS2, Annie Zhang, MS2, and Phillip Hsu, PhD’18, MS2, became the first Pritzker student

group in more than five years to win this grant, with their project “Building a Leadership Consortium Across Chicagoland Free Clinics.” The inter-school free clinic consortium would create a platform for students from all six Chicagoarea medical schools to collaborate with the goal of providing more efficient patient care and providing students with leadership training opportunities.

WISHING YOU HAPPINESS, HEALTH AND SUCCESS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON AND IN THE NEW YEAR .

Please remember the University of Chicago when making your charitable gifts this holiday season: giving.uchicago.edu/holidays

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Pritzker News

PRITZKER REUNION WEEKEND JUNE 2018

Reunited in the Windy City

Alumni hit the dance floor on the Spirit of Chicago during the Boat Cruise and Fireworks event.

More than 270 Pritzker School of Medicine alumni and their guests returned to campus for Pritzker Reunion Weekend 2018. Events included individual class celebrations at downtown Chicago restaurants, an ice cream social on the new science quad and a tour of the renovated gross anatomy lab. The festivities ended with a bang — a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan with a full view of the fireworks at Navy Pier.

Catching up with the Class of 2013 at the Recent Alumni Reception at Tesori restaurant.

View the full Reunion 2018 album at medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni/2018Reunion.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

PHOTOS BY JOE STERBENC AND JOEL WINTERMANTLE

Members of the Class of 1993 gather on the rooftop at Tavern at the Park. The Class of 1993 raised more than $200,000 to fund an endowed scholarship in honor of their 25th Reunion. Visit medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni/Class-of-1993 for the full story.

Members of the Class of 2008, below, at the Recent Alumni Reception at Tesori restaurant.

Members of the Class of 1978, above, gather in Reunion Headquarters at the Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery between programs.

Alumni tour Pritzker’s anatomy lab, right, which underwent a $500,000 renovation in 2016.

uchicagomedicine.org/midway

Class of 1993 classmates, left: Nader Salti, AB’89, MD’93, and Reunion Co-chair Michael Boettcher, AB’89, MD’93, at their Class Celebration at Tavern at the Park.

Women in Medicine panelists, above: Linda Goluch Phillips, AB’74, MD’78, left, Catherine Berger-Dujmovic, MD’98, Anne Searls De Groot, LAB’73, MD’83, and moderator Chris Albanis, AB’96, MD’00.

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PRITZKER REUNION WEEKEND JUNE 2018

PHOTO BY JOE STERBENC

PHOTO BY JOE STERBENC

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

Pritzker News

Class of 1968 celebrates 50 years

Members of the Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 1968 gather for their Class Celebration at the University Club of Chicago and induction into the Alumni Emeriti Society.

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Alumni Council President Paul H. Rockey, MPH, MD’70, presents Clara Bloomfield, MD’68, with one of the golden stethoscopes presented to all the 50th Reunion celebrants.

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

PHOTO BY JEAN LACHAT

David Busch, MD’68, left, and Peter McCreight, MD’68, find their class composite photograph during a walking tour of the medical campus.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Donald Blanford, MD’68, and his wife, Rita, visit the photo booth during the Study Break and Ice Cream Social on the North Sciences Quad.

Classmates catch up at their 50th Reunion: Jerrold Seckler, MD’68, left, David Kaufman, MD’68, Richard Sohn, MD’68, and David Busch, MD’68.

Alumni honored for distinguished contributions The Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association honored five alumni this year for outstanding contributions,

leadership and service.

2018 Distinguished Service Awards

2018 Distinguished Service Award for Early Achievement

Anne Searls De Groot, LAB’73, MD’83

Steven D. Shapiro, AB’78, MD’83

Chief Executive Officer/Chief Scientific Officer, EpiVax, Inc.

Executive Vice President, UPMC

Lauren Sallan, SM’09, PhD’12

Director and Professor, Institute for Immunology and Informatics, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island

Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, President, Health Services Division, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Martin Meyerson Assistant Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies, Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania

Internationally known for her research on mapping the immune system using computer algorithms, Anne Searls De Groot, MD’83, has advocated for a “genomes-to-vaccines” approach to solving some of the world’s biggest infectious disease problems, while dedicating her medical skills to expanding access to health care.

Steven D. Shapiro, AB’78, MD’83, is executive vice president, UPMC, and president of the Health Services Division, which includes 32 hospitals and 4,600 employed physicians. His research focuses on novel molecular pathways of inflammation, tissue destruction and host defense in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Lauren Sallan, SM’09, PhD’12, is a “next generation” paleobiologist, using cutting-edge developments in Big Data analytics and tech to reveal how evolution happens at the largest scales (macroevolution). Sallan uses the vast fossil record of fishes as a deep time database, mining it to find out why some species persist and diversify while others die off.

PHOTO BY JOE STERBENC

Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83 Ralph W. Gerard Professor in Medicine (on leave), The University of Chicago President, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation As dean for medical education at the University of Chicago for 15 years, Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83, oversaw undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. She has launched numerous programs, including initiatives in professionalism and curriculum reform, and is a nationally recognized leader in medical education.

Daniel Marshall Knowles, MD’73 David D. Thompson Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College Chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine Pathologist-in-Chief, New York-PresbyterianWeill Cornell Medical Center Daniel Marshall Knowles, MD’73, is internationally recognized for his diagnostic expertise and for his many scholarly accomplishments in hematopathology. He is the author of more than 275 peer-reviewed scientific papers and editor of the leading hematopathology textbook, Neoplastic Hematopathology.

Accepting nominations for 2019 awards

At the Distinguished Service Awards Luncheon, from left: Paul H. Rockey, MPH, MD’70, president of the Alumni Council; Holly J. Humphrey, MD’83; Steven D. Shapiro, AB’78, MD’83; Anne Searls De Groot, LAB’73, MD’83; Doriane C. Miller, MD’83, Alumni Awards committee member; Lauren Sallan, SM’09, PhD’12; Victoria Prince, PhD, dean for graduate education; Daniel Marshall Knowles, MD’73; and Ernest E. Mhoon, Jr., MD’73, chair, Alumni Awards committee.

The Distinguished Service Award and the Distinguished Service Award for Early Achievement recognize alumni who have shown leadership in their professional lives or through public service. These individuals have brought honor and distinction to the Division of the Biological Sciences and the University of Chicago through their accomplishments in the biological sciences and medicine.

To nominate a fellow alumnus for this honor, please complete the online form by November 30, 2018: tinyurl.com/MBSAA-DSANomination To learn more, visit medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni/DSA.

uchicagomedicine.org/midway

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W H I T E C OAT C E R E M O N Y

Jesse Hall, MD’77, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Anesthesia and Critical Care, addresses students, families and friends.

PHOTOS BY GRADIMAGES

Pritzker News

BEFORE PRITZKER WHAT MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF 2022 DID BEFORE MEDICAL SCHOOL:

Algebra teacher ✣ Investment banker ✣ Law clerk ✣ Doula ✣ Copy editor ✣ Fulbright Scholar ✣ Pharmacy technician ✣ Archivist ✣ Professional figure skater ✣ Podcaster

MEET THE CLASS OF 2022

90 students

(40 men and 50 women)

28 states 43 colleges and universities

20 languages

Members of the Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2022 at the White Coat Ceremony in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.

spoken (in addition to English) D I V I S I O N A L AC A D E M I C C E R E M O N Y

Congratulations, Class of 2018!

D

Donald R. Hopkins, MD’66, MPH, led an international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease.

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onald R. Hopkins, MD’66, MPH, special advisor for Guinea worm eradication for the Carter Center and a MacArthur Fellow, gave the keynote speech at the 2018 Divisional Academic Ceremony for the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Hopkins spoke of his experiences working with volunteers, health employees and scientific colleagues, noting that medicine is truly a team-based career. “Work hard, learn from your mistakes and get over your disappointments to do what you want to do,”

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

he told those gathered at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.

The 97 members of the Class of 2018 are practicing 17 specialties of medicine in 25 states.

YO U R N E W S

Edward L.S. Jim, MD’55, retired in April 2017 after a career in private practice. Jim practiced general and head and neck surgery and taught at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine. He currently resides in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Fernando Ugarte, MD’65, retired in July 2017 after 52 years of practicing medicine.

He and his wife, Nina, moved from Kansas to Florida. His life is fulfilled serving as a volunteer for the Catholic Church in his community.

His passion for photography allows him to capture the beauty around his home and around the world. He is in contact with his classmates Jack Pinnas, SM’65, MD’65; Betty Wolf, SB’60, MD’65; and Wayne Janda, SB’61, MD’65. He is always grateful to his University of Chicago mentors and teachers: the late Joseph Ceithaml, SB’37, PhD’41; the late Charles Huggins, MD, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1966; the late George E. Block, MD; the late Louis Cohen, SB’48, MD’53; and his chief resident, Rostik Zajtchuk, SB’60, MD’63.

Hugh C. Graham, MD’59, retired in June 2018 after 54 years of practice in pediatrics. Graham also spent two years as a pediatrician in the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Kenner Army Hospital in Fort Lee, Virginia.

2018-2019 ALUMNI COUNCIL Executive Committee Paul H. Rockey, MPH, MD’70 President Michael H. Silverman, MD’73 Immediate Past President Chris Albanis, AB’96, MD’00 Vice President Doriane C. Miller, MD’83 Alumni Awards and National Reunion Chair Karyl Kopaskie, AB’07, PhD’14 Chicago Partners Program Chair Jeanne Farnan, AB’98, MD’02 Editorial Committee Chair Baruch Solomon Ticho, PhD’87, MD’88 Regional Programs Chair Andrew Aronson, MD’69 Mark R. Aschliman, MD’80 Juliana Basko-Plluska, AB’04, MD Kenneth Begelman, MD’71 Courtney Kagan Burrows, PhD’15, MBA’17 Oliver G. Cameron, PhD’72, MD’74 Amy Derick, MD’02 Gail Farfel, PhD’93 Jonathan Fox, AB’79, PhD’85, MD’87 Keith A. Horvath, AB’83, MD’87 Lucy Lester, MD’72 Daniel Leventhal, SM’13, PhD’16 Howard Liang, PhD’92, MBA’01 Julie Mhlaba, MD’16 Abby Stayart, AB’97, PhD’12 Jack Stockert, AB’05, MBA’10, MD’10 William Weese, MD’69 Sydney Yoon, MD’86 Lifetime Members L.D. Anagnostopoulos, SB’57, MD’61 Arnold B. Calica, SM’61, MD’75 Coleman Seskind, AB’55, MD’59, SM’59 Rostik Zajtchuk, SB’60, MD’63 Student Representatives Olufemi E. Adams, MS4 Pritzker School of Medicine Ittai Eres, SM’17 Alyssa J. Harker Biological Sciences Division Resident Representatives Noura Choudhury, MD’16 Ava Ferguson Bryan, AM’10, MD’18

uchicagomedicine.org/midway

1970s Kenneth Begelman, MD’71, published A Short History of Surgery, a textbook for medical students, house officers and practitioners. Begelman is a retired cardiovascular surgeon and medical historian.

William J. Montgomery, MD’74, now works half time teaching musculoskeletal radiology to first-year residents at the University of Florida (UF) after retiring from the VA in June 2018.

Montgomery completed a surgery internship at the University of Colorado, an orthopaedic surgery residency at University of Iowa and subsequently a radiology residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serving as chief resident. During his career, he has worked as a musculoskeletal radiologist in the U.S. Air Force, at the University of Iowa and at UF, serving as residency program director at each of those programs. He served as chief of musculoskeletal radiology at UF, assistant chief of radiology at the Gainesville VAMC, network radiologist for the VA in Florida and Puerto Rico, and residency liaison for the VA and UF. Montgomery is thankful for loyal alumni, the late Dean Joseph Ceithaml, SB’37, PhD’41 (“Dean Joe”), the faculty of the University of Chicago and their collective instruction, encouragement and influence on his academic medical career.

Graham Pyke, PhD’74, received the 2018 University of Sydney Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

Pyke is an adjunct professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney.

H. Randall Woodward, MD, a University of Chicago Medicine resident from 1973 to 1978, retired in December 2017. Woodward practiced for 38 years in Omaha, Nebraska,

as an orthopaedic spine surgeon. He was a founder and president of Nebraska Spine + Pain Center, and a founder and chairman of the board of the Nebraska Spine Hospital. Woodward is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, North American Spine Society and Scoliosis Research Society.

ultrasound guidelines from the American Thyroid Association can reliably identify pediatric patients who should be biopsied for thyroid cancer. Lim-Dunham is a professor in the Department of Radiology at Loyola Medicine. She completed a residency in radiology at the University of Chicago Medicine and a fellowship in pediatric radiology at Children’s Memorial Hospital (now Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago).

1980s

1990s

Philip M. Diller, PhD’87, MD’88, was appointed senior associate dean for educational affairs at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine. Diller completed his residency in family medicine at UC before becoming part of their faculty.

Throughout his time at UC, he has served as vice chair of community engagement, the Robert and Myfanwy Smith Professor in Family Medicine and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine.

Jeffrey Teuteberg, MD’96, was selected president of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Teuteberg is an associate professor of medicine and section chief of heart failure, cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine, serving as chief medical resident for a year. He continued his time at UChicago Medicine in a general cardiovascular fellowship before receiving his heart failure and cardiac transplantation training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Jennifer Lim-Dunham, LAB’81, MD’89, and her colleagues were honored by the Society for Pediatric Radiology with the Walter E. Berdon Award for best clinical research paper. The study determined that

Where are they now?

Catch up with your medical school classmates PHOTO BY JOEL WINTERMANTLE

1960s

Your News

1950s

This photo of Charles Huggins, MD, is signed: Para Fernando mi querido alumno y amigo (For Fernando my dear student and friend), Charles Huggins Jan. 28, 1981.

It was given to Fernando Ugarte, MD’65, by Huggins around the time the Bernard Mitchell Hospital was opening. They sat together at the ceremony.

Mark your calendar for Reunion June 7- 8, 2019

Attention medical alumni who graduated in the following years: 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 Reunion website Visit medbsd.uchicago.edu/alumni/reunion for a schedule of events.

facebook.com/UChicago.MBSAA

twitter.com/UChicagoMBSAA

We want to hear from you Share news about your life and accomplishments: tinyurl.com/mbsaa-alumni-updates

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Your News

Evan R. Goldfischer, MD, who completed his internship and residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals from 1992 to 1997 and served as chief resident in urology in 1996-97, published a new book, Even Urologists Get Kidney Stones: An Essential Guide to Kidney Stone Treatment and Prevention.

2000s Chris V. Albanis, AB’96, MD’00, was recently invited to join the board of directors for the American Board of Ophthalmology starting in January 2019. Albanis is a comprehensive ophthalmologist and managing partner at Arbor Centers for EyeCare, a clinical associate of ophthalmology and visual science at the University of Chicago Medicine and chair of ophthalmology at Advocate Christ Medical Center. Albanis serves as the vice president of the Alumni Council of the Medical & Biological Sciences

Alumni Association. She is the immediate past chair of the editorial committee for the Alumni Council and has served in many leadership positions in the Illinois Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons and the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Edward M. Schaeffer, AB’94, PhD’00, MD’01, is the Edmund Andrews Professor of Urology and chair of the Department of Urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, urologist-in-chief at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and program director of the Genitourinary Oncology Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. Schaeffer’s clinical and research focus is the diagnosis and treatment of men with prostate cancer. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed publications emphasizing at-risk populations, diagnosis, treatment outcomes and the molecular biology of lethal prostate

cancer. His discoveries have increased the understanding of the impact of race on the biology of prostate cancer, resulting in modifications to the national prostate cancer management guidelines. In 2009, he was awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Award for his work on establishing the paradigm of “lineage addiction” of the prostate epithelial cell to androgen signaling. He remains the only urologist to ever receive this grant.

Justin Newman, MD’09, was included in the Denver Business Journal ’s 40 Under 40 list for 2018. Newman is an orthopaedic surgeon and owner of Advanced Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Specialists.

2010s Paul La Porte, AB’05, PhD’11, MD’12, joined the Oncology Institute of Hope and Innovation as a physician. La Porte completed a residency in internal

medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He completed his fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a postdoctoral fellowship in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. La Porte was a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search and Siemens-Westinghouse Science Competition in 2001.

Rajiv Agarwal, MD’13, received the Anna Braglia Endowed Young Investigator Award in Cancer Supportive Care from Helsinn and the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Agarwal is the second recipient of the award.

Alisha Ranadive, MD’15, was named chief resident in June 2018 after completing a pediatrics residency at the University of California, Los Angeles.

IN MEMORIAM 1940s

children; 13 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Vernon K.S. Jim, SB’42, MD’44, died on September 2, 2017. Jim served as a flight surgeon during World War II. He practiced eye and plastic reconstructive surgery and worked at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine. He served as emeritus director for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and president of Kwang Tung Community Honolulu Lin Yee Hui. He was a Master Mason and held the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite.

He was honored in 2002 as Model Chinese Father and in 2005 as the United Chinese Society’s Chinese Citizen of the Year. Jim was preceded in death by his wife, Yun Soong Chock Jim, and his daughter Sandra J. Chee. He is survived by his daughters Arlene (William), Gwendolyn and Velma; his son-in-law, Lambert; his brother Edward L.S. Jim, MD’55; eight grandchildren; and 14 great grandchildren. Another brother, Robert T.S. Jim, SB’45, MD’48, died four months later, in December 2017.

Robert T. S. Jim, SB’45, MD’48, died on December 29, 2017. He was 93 years old. Jim practiced internal medicine and hematology until 2014.

He was a professor of medicine at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine, chief of medicine at St. Francis Hospital Honolulu and a consultant in hematology for Queen’s, Kuakini, Leahi and Tripler Hospitals, and Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children. During his

Stewart F. Taylor, SB’43, MD’45, died on December 26, 2017. He was 96 years old. Taylor enlisted in the U.S. Army following Pearl Harbor and was assigned to medical school at the University of Chicago to be trained for service. He completed postgraduate training at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago and received the rank of captain. Taylor served at sea and helped rebuild Germany and Japan during the postwar years. Taylor practiced in Portage, Wisconsin. He was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara; his brothers Donald and Clayton; and his daughter-in-law, Kathleen. He is survived by his brother William; his six

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time in research, he discovered three abnormal hemoglobins. Jim was preceded in death by his brother Vernon K.S. Jim, SB’42, MD’44. He is survived by his wife, Annette; his four children; his brother Edward L.S. Jim, MD’55; and four grandchildren.

1950s Carl M. Ebersole, MD’52, died on June 22, 2018. He was 91 years old. Before completing his undergraduate and medical degrees, Ebersole worked as

a fire spotter in the Sawtooth National Forest of Idaho and served as a corpsman in the U.S. Navy and at a naval hospital in Seattle, Washington.

After medical school, he was a ship’s surgeon for the Grace Lines in South America. He returned to the U.S. to become a general practitioner.

He completed a residency in anesthesiology at Cornell University School of Medicine in New York. He moved west to work in anesthesiology before completing another residency in ophthalmology at the University of

Faculty

Paula Kienberger Jaudes, MD

P

aula Kienberger Jaudes, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, died June 16, 2018, of metastatic ovarian cancer. She was 71. She was an internationally recognized advocate for optimal care of children with chronic illnesses and known for her devotion to the health of underserved children.

Jaudes graduated from Rush Medical College and completed her internship, residency and fellowship at the University of Chicago. A member of the Department of Pediatrics since 1975, she served as president and CEO of La Rabida Children’s Hospital from 1996 to 2011. She was the first physician in the U.S. to be named medical director of a state welfare agency, serving the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in that role from 1993 to 2017. While at DCFS, Jaudes developed

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION

a protocol for wellness exams for children in the foster care system and introduced an electronic medical “passport” that followed children as they grew up, ensuring their health care would not be compromised by changes in residence. Committed to enhancing the care of disadvantaged children globally, she served as associate director of outreach for the University’s Center for Global Health. She collaborated closely with colleagues in Africa to develop an educational protocol and handbook for parents of children with sickle cell disease and their physician caregivers.

Jaudes’ many honors include the Dr. Albert Pisani Pediatrician of the Year from the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1996 and the John Cook Award from the Chicago Pediatric Society in 2000. She is survived by a sister and extended family.

Faculty

P

hysician-scientist Kirk Thomas Spencer, MD’89, professor of medicine and an authority on echocardiography, died September 4, 2018. He was 56 years old. Spencer received his bachelor’s degree in physics (with highest distinction) from the University of Michigan in 1984. He graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, followed by a residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins. In 1992, he began a fellowship in cardiology at the University of Iowa and was selected chief fellow in 1994. Spencer returned to the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of medicine in 1995 and served on the faculty for 23 years. He was promoted to associate professor in 2002 and professor in 2011.

He held many important roles at the University, including associate director of the cardiac imaging laboratories from 1995 to 2018 and director of the echocardiography

California, Irvine. In 1984, he opened Ebersole Eye Center, the first outpatient eye surgery center in Redding, California. He retired in 1992. Ebersole was preceded in death by his sister, Margaret. He is survived by his wife, Didine, four children and three grandchildren.

Wynn A. Sayman, PhB’49, MD’53, died on October 12, 2015. He was 89 years old. Sayman served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was chief resident and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Chicago. Sayman helped to establish and operate a hospital surgical unit with a group from Care Medico after the Algerian War of Independence.

Later, he was the chief of surgery at Berkshire Medical Center and practiced general surgery until he retired from medicine in 1980. From 1980 to 2001 he operated Wynn A. Sayman Antiques with his wife, Elizabeth. Sayman had professional affiliations with the American College of Surgery, Chicago Surgery Society, American Society of Surgeons and the Berkshire Medical Society. He is survived by his wife; his daughter, Lisa (John); and three granddaughters.

Albert Levy, MD’54, died on February 2, 2018. Levy was a pediatrician in California from 1961 to 1994.

Throughout his career, he worked as a physician with the Indian Health Service on the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and at the Denver Jewish Tuberculosis Hospital. He worked on the initial campaign to send Don Edwards to Congress in 1963 and was active in the peace and civil rights movements.

Levy was preceded in death by his eldest son, Daniel. He is survived by his wife, Lulu Lee; and their children Benjamin, Rebecca and Matthew. uchicagomedicine.org/midway

laboratories on the main Hyde Park campus and at Orland Park since 2016, as well as physician administrator of the inpatient cardiology service since 2013.

Spencer taught clinical pathophysiology to medical students, general cardiology to residents and echocardiography to fellows.

He served on 24 academic committees and earned 20 honors and awards for teaching and research. He also published more than 120 articles in academic and clinical journals and 14 book chapters. Spencer was also committed to public service.

He participated in multiple humanitarian projects, traveling with colleagues worldwide, primarily to African countries as well as the Dominican Republic.

Spencer is survived by his wife, Jacque; his children, Amy Evans and Scott, Mark, Samuel, Kyle, Jacob, and Haley Spencer; and two grandchildren, Tristan and Tyler Evans.

Harold T. Conrad, AB’54, SB’55, MD’58, died on April 15, 2018. He was 84 years old. A psychiatrist, Conrad began working for the U.S. Public Health Service in 1958. He became the medical director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute in 1979. In 1985, he entered into private practice in Louisiana and was the medical director of the Bayou Oaks psychiatric program. He retired in 2005. Conrad was preceded in death by his wife, Elaine. He is survived by his four children and 20 grandchildren.

David J. Ginsberg, AB’53, SB’55, MD’58, died on December 4, 2017.

After graduating from medical school, Ginsberg moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he lived and practiced for 30 years. He is survived by his wife, Marcia; his daughter, Sarah; and his grandsons.

J.D. Heywood, MD’59, died on November 23, 2017. Heywood completed his residency at the University of Michigan. He worked at the University of Washington and practiced hematology/oncology in Bellevue, Washington. Heywood served as president of the King County Medical Society and the Washington Society of Internal Medicine. He was also on the board of the Puget Sound Blood Bank. Heywood is survived by his wife, Carol; their children, Steve (Carolyn), Alan (Marianne) and MaryAnne (Lee); and eight grandchildren.

1960s Paul Orsay, AB’55, MD’60, died on May 25, 2018. After medical school, Orsay completed an internship at the University of Iowa Hospitals, served two years as a medical officer in the

U.S. Air Force and completed his residency at Washington University in St. Louis. He practiced radiology for nearly 40 years in St. Louis. Orsay is survived by his wife, Virginia; six children; 17 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

James E. Ellis, MD’62, died on March 1, 2018. He was 81 years old. During his time in medical school, Ellis received the Sheard-Sanford Award of the Research Commission of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.

After medical school, he completed an internship and residency at the University of Chicago, where he was mentored by Nobel Prize recipient Charles B. Huggins, MD. During his career, Ellis was chief of urology at the Boston Naval Hospital, commander in the medical corps of the U.S. Naval Reserve and clinical associate at the Boston University School of Medicine.

He worked at Emerson Hospital and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center. Ellis served as president and chairman of the board for Emerg, Inc. He was also a diplomate of the American Board of Urology, fellow of the American College of Surgeons and fellow of the Royal Society, London.

He was a member of the American Association of Clinical Urologists, American Urological Association, American Fertility Society and the American Medical Association. He wrote numerous articles on kidney stone disease and urinary diversion.

Ellis is survived by his wife, Leda; their children, John (Tanya), Tania and Lara; his siblings; and four grandchildren.

F. Agnes Stroud-Lee, PhD’66, died on March 6, 2018. She was 95 years old.

Before receiving her PhD in zoology, Stroud-Lee was a hematology technician at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. In her career,

“We lost a great cardiologist, cardiac imager, educator, researcher and friend. Kirk

In Memoriam

Kirk Spencer, MD’89

Spencer positively touched numerous patient and physician lives through the course of his incredible career.”

Amit Patel, MD Associate Professor of Medicine and Radiology

she worked at Argonne National Laboratory and served as the director of the Department of Tissue Culture at the Pasadena Foundation for Medical Research. She was a senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a radiobiologist at the lab’s Mammalian Biology Group in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She is credited with pioneering a method of computer analysis of chromosomes. Stroud-Lee was one of the founders of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and a member of the International Society for Cell Biology and the Tissue Culture Association. She is survived by her daughter, Patricia; son-in-law, Robert; her grandchildren, Sam and Peggy; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Thomas L. Conley, MD’69, died on April 18, 2018. He was 74 years old. Conley was a board-certified pediatrician. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he worked at the Public Health Department in Ketchikan, Alaska, and was affiliated with the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC). He served on the State of Alaska Medical Licensing Board and several school boards. Conley was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Joseph. He is survived by his wife, Marylyn; their children, Alexander (Alysia) and Anya; his siblings Judith and James; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Correction In the Spring 2018 issue of Medicine on the Midway, the obituary for Jeffrey P. Davis listed an incorrect year for his graduation from the Pritzker School of Medicine. Davis was a member of the Class of 1971, not the Class of 1973.

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The University of Chicago does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information, please see uchicago.edu/about/non_discrimination_statement.

L A S T LO O K

PHOTO COURTESY OF UCAN

UCAN rising

The University of Chicago Aeromedical Network (UCAN), the city’s only hospital-based medical flight program, is now lifting off in a more advanced helicopter.

The twin-engine Airbus EC145, considered top-of-class for rescue missions, loads from the rear, making it easier to get the patient in and out quickly. A custom medical interior has more room for lifesaving equipment, including ECMO, and accommodates up to four flight nurses and physicians positioned around the patient. The new chopper replaces a helicopter that transported more than 13,000 patients over three decades of service.

Learn more about UCAN’s new helicopter: uchicagomedicine.org/helicopter