Medicine on the Midway - Spring 2023

Climate change and human health

University of Chicago scientists are studying the links and seeking bold solutions

Mark E. Anderson, MD, PhD

Paul and Allene Russell Professor Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs The University of Chicago

Dear Colleagues,

Earlier this year, we announced that the Pritzker School of Medicine will not participate in future U.S. News & World Report annual “Best Medical Schools” rankings due to concerns about the publication’s methodology and the impact the ratings system has on an equitable medical education.

It has been no secret among medical educators that these rankings misuse metrics like MCAT scores in ways that do not reflect the full value of a medical education. Furthermore, our school is structurally disadvantaged because 30% of U.S. News’ ranking methodology is based on the absolute size of an institution’s National Institutes of Health portfolio. While we are a relatively small school compared to peers, we rank highly in average NIH funding per faculty member, the percentage of students who graduate with peer-reviewed publications, and the portion of graduates who go on to work in academic roles and lead research grants. We believe these are more important and instructive measures of educational outcomes for a research-intensive school like ours.

Our admissions process is also among the most selective in the nation and results in the most diverse class among the top 20 ranked schools. Yet, these successes are put at risk by a ranking system that incentivizes schools to divert scholarships to students with the highest test scores at a level of resolution not supported by data and at the expense of a more holistic approach to a candidate’s success.

Our nation continues to suffer from extreme health disparities and would greatly benefit from a more diverse physician workforce. However, the prevailing rankings regime implies that students can either be excellent or come from a diverse background, but not both. I believe this is a false dichotomy. We can continue to attract exceptional medical students who also reflect the diversity of our nation and the patient communities we serve by making the education we offer more accessible.

The increasing cost of medical education results in our nation’s medical students graduating with crushing debt loads, which are more likely to be concentrated among students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine or economically disadvantaged. Pritzker provides generous financial support, with 92% of students receiving some tuition assistance. To make medical school accessible to more highly qualified candidates and expand the diversity of our students, we would like to move that percentage higher, making Pritzker tuition- or debt-free by our centennial anniversary in 2027.

As the new Dean and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, I am proud of our leadership in service of our shared education, patient care and research missions. I look forward to building upon these achievements, many of which you’ll see in the following pages. We are committed to transparency and sharing relevant metrics with our applicants, and have requested a dialogue with the editors of U.S. News and other medical school leaders about this issue. I hope these efforts will drive a national conversation around creating a more diverse physician workforce and supporting basic discoveries and translational research to truly address the needs of future physicians and the health needs of our nation.

To make medical school accessible to more highly qualified candidates and expand the diversity of our students, we would like to make Pritzker tuition- or debt-free by our centennial anniversary in 2027.

Spring 2023 Volume 76, No. 1

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.

Email us at momeditor@bsd.uchicago.edu

Write us at Medicine on the Midway

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The University of Chicago

Pritzker School of Medicine and Biological Sciences Division

Executive Leadership

Mark E. Anderson, MD, PhD, Paul and Allene Russell Professor, Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine, and Executive

Vice President for Medical Affairs for the University of Chicago

T. Conrad Gilliam, PhD, Marjorie I. and Bernard A. Mitchell Distinguished Service

Professor, Dean for Basic Science, Biological Sciences Division

Thomas E. Jackiewicz, President of the University of Chicago Medical Center

Vineet Arora, MD, AM’03, Dean for Medical Education, Pritzker School of Medicine

Editorial Committee

Chair Jeanne Farnan, AB’98, MD’02, MHPE

Jennifer “Piper” Below, PhD’11

Dana Lindsay, MD’92

Rob Mitchum, PhD’07

Loren Schechter, MD’94

Coleman Seskind, AB’55, SB’56, MD’59, SM’59 (Lifetime Member)

Carol Westbrook, AB’72, PhD’77, MD’78

Student Representatives

Peishu Li, SM’22 (BSD)

Tony Liu (Pritzker)

University of Chicago Medicine

Marketing and Communications

Anna Madrzyk, Editor

Editorial Contributors

Jamie Bartosch

Alison Caldwell, PhD

Kat Carlton

Diane Dungey

Ashley Heher

Ellen McGrew

Photo Contributors

Daniel Cojanu

Michael Connor

Rob Hart

Sophia Horigan

Tom Kleindinst

Light of Shade

Photography

Zhe-Xi Luo, PhD

Joel Maisonet

Matt Marton

Design

Wilkinson Design

Climate change: A constellation of challenges 6

It can be difficult to get scientists to draw a line from climate change and its effects to their work, but the links are obviously there: from pollution to extreme weather events to increased concerns over pathogen spread, food scarcity and housing insecurity. University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences Division researchers are taking note of the intersection of their work and our changing climate and starting to address it, one step at a time.

Angela Wells O’Connor

Sarah Richards

Jack Wang

Matt Wood

April Neander

Jordan PorterWoodruff

Pritzker School of Medicine

Joe Sterbenc

Ashley Summers

Nancy Wong

Matt Wood

FEATURES

Alumni profile 3

Sapana Vora, PhD’14, provides strategic guidance on countering biothreats for the U.S. Department of Defense.

‘A beautiful molecule’ 16

For three decades, Dean Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, has studied CaMKII and its underappreciated role in heart function.

Love stories 18

From first date to wedding bells, the stories of eight alumni couples who met while students at Pritzker or in BSD graduate programs.

18

DEPARTMENTS

Midway News

UChicago Medicine updates plans for city’s first freestanding cancer facility. 4

BSD News

UChicago to partner on new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative biomedical research hub. 27

Researchers are using high-tech imaging to see “inside” fossilized rock. 28

Melina Hale, PhD’98, and team make a startling discovery about the octopus nervous system. 30

Pritzker News

Choosing emergency medicine: Pritzker students explain what inspires them. 32

Match Day 2023 results 35 Your Letters

Cierra Howard, MS4, left, and Conrad Fletcher, MS4, both matched in psychiatry at UCLA.

Melina Hale, PhD’98

Experimental plants, including genetically modified rice and potatoes, grow in the greenhouse atop the Donnelley Biological Sciences Learning Center.

Sapana Vora, PhD’14

Follow the step-by-step process from fossil specimen to 3D printout.

Renée Rodriguez Paro, MD’10, and John Paro, MD’10

Innovative trauma center program brings legal support to the bedside

BY KAT CARLTON

While other medical-legal trauma partnerships exist, Recovery Legal Care is among the first in the United States to operate within a hospital-based violence recovery space.

“If we are to address violence on the South Side of Chicago, we must first investigate the justice gap that disproportionately affects our underprivileged communities of color,” said program co-director Selwyn Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery and Founding Director of UChicago Medicine’s Level 1 trauma center.

public benefits and economic stability. After that, the team hopes to expand the pilot project to add assistance for housing, education and employment. The pilot project is expected to serve about 150 patients during its inaugural year.

“Working with thousands of patients recovering from intentional violence, we’ve seen the physical and emotional damage of firearm injuries. But what doesn’t always get as much attention but can be equally as damaging — is the stress of things like insecure housing, economic instability and access to public benefits.”

Franklin Cosey-Gay, PhD, MPH Executive Director Violence Recovery Program

Since the comprehensive trauma center began caring for adult patients in 2018, physician-scientists at UChicago Medicine have worked alongside public health researchers to determine the unique needs of trauma patients particularly those injured through intentional gun violence. The team found that the South Side health system’s adult trauma patients ranked legal and financial needs as their primary concerns during violence recovery, higher than even medical or psychological support.

“People shouldn’t have to worry about getting their utilities shut off during a hospital stay or getting fired from their job,” said Elizabeth Tung, MD, MS, Recovery Legal Care Co-Director and a health disparities researcher.

Recovery Legal Care is spending its first year focusing on helping patients obtain

Attorneys will be embedded in the Hyde Park hospital two days per week to assess the case-by-case legal needs of patients admitted to the inpatient trauma service for violent injury. The lawyers will then directly represent patients who are eligible for services and advocate on their behalf for public benefits or economic compensation.

“Working bedside with violence recovery specialists will allow us to give patients easy access to civil legal services in a manner that is thoughtful and sympathetic to the traumatic event they have just experience,” said lawyer Carly Loughran, an Equal Justice Works fellow spending her two-year fellowship as a staff attorney at Legal Aid Chicago.

Recovery Legal Care is being funded by a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and a $1 million grant from the Department of Justice. If the work is considered a success during its pilot phase, it is eligible for another $3.4 million in federal grants, bringing the total grant funding to $6 million. The project is also being supported by Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit that helps young lawyers establish public service careers.

A novel program with Legal Aid Chicago embeds two full-time lawyers in the University of Chicago Medicine Level 1 trauma center to provide bedside legal help for patients and families recovering from violent injuries. The initiative, called Recovery Legal Care, aims to help patients focus on recovery instead of worrying about health-harming legal needs and economic instability.

Shaping the response to global biosecurity challenges

Sapana Vora, PhD’14, provides strategic guidance on countering biothreats as a senior policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Defense

Sapana Vora, PhD’14, calls herself an evangelist, even though her sermons aren’t on religion. Instead, they’re about the satisfaction and fulfillment science graduates can experience when they choose to work in science policy, a field blending both science and government.

“We think of PhDs and scientists as having a particular skill set that’s only applicable for certain things,” said Vora, who earned her doctorate in cancer biology and has worked as a senior policy advisor for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) since 2021. “What I’ve found is the training you get as a scientist sets you up to do a number of different things.”

For Vora, that’s analyzing potential biological weapons threats around the world for the DoD Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Policy directorate. This work shapes how she provides strategic guidance to the Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP), a 25-year-old undertaking by the DoD CTR Program to work with partner nations to prevent the proliferation of biological weapons.

Her expertise has taken on unique importance since Russia’s invasion of

Ukraine in February 2022. Shortly after the war began, online conspiracy theories spread that biological weapons were being developed in Ukrainian labs supported by the BTRP and other international entities.

In reality, the labs, which receive that international support to enhance their biosafety and biosecurity, are wholly owned and operated by Ukraine and conduct peaceful research on dangerous pathogens to improve the country’s monitoring and control of infectious diseases.

“The program being maligned by the Russian government is actually the program I help to oversee,” said Vora.

To counter this narrative, Vora has been providing expert advice to her colleagues in the DoD and the U.S. Department of State, along with reviewing White House press materials and talking points for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

“It’s a powerful experience to not just defend the work I love, but also reassure people it’s worthwhile,” said Vora.

Vora, who is a triplet, was raised with her brother and sister in North Carolina and Texas. She was named to her first big

BY SARAH RICHARDS

post in Washington deputy team chief of the U.S. Department of State’s Biosecurity Engagement Program in 2017.

Although Washington is now home, Vora has kept up with her ties to the University of Chicago as a member of the Alumni Council and chair of the Chicago Partners Program. In Winter Quarter 2023, she taught a science policy mini-course for biosciences PhD students participating in myCHOICE, the same program that helped her explore a range of careers beyond the traditional university research track.

“MyCHOICE took me on my first science policy trek to Washington and helped me get a fellowship with the National Academy of Sciences,” said Vora. “It changed my life.”

It was during that time working on a healthcare services committee that she became interested in national and international security issues. She intends to stay at the Department of Defense, so long as she feels she’s making positive contributions and gaining new skill sets.

“I’m learning how this massive department that has such a huge role in the U.S. and the world works,” said Vora. “It’s been really cool.”

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CONNOR/CONNOR STUDIOS

UChicago Medicine updates plans for the city’s first freestanding cancer facility

BY ASHLEY HEHER

The University of Chicago Medicine has updated its original proposal to build the city’s first freestanding cancer facility with an enhanced design that incorporates feedback from patients and South Side residents. The new cost and size of the project is $815 million for a 575,000-square-foot facility, with the ability for future expansion.

and afforded the time to get input from members of the community, cancer patients and survivors.

The patient-focused enhancements include a redesign of the ground-floor space as a community hub for cancer prevention, screening and diagnosis, as well as private infusion bays, a dedicated breast center and shell space for future growth and technologies that have yet to be developed. The facility represents one of UChicago Medicine’s largest investments in the South Side community.

The new cancer center would consolidate care that is currently spread across at least five buildings on UChicago Medicine’s Hyde Park campus, which is the hub of the academic health system. The plan also includes:

■ 80 inpatient beds, including 64 medical-surgical beds and a 16-bed intensive care unit

■ 90 consultation and outpatient exam rooms

■ A dedicated rapid assessment/ urgent care clinic to protect immunocompromised oncology patients from emergency-room visits

■ Infusion therapy with private rooms grouped by cancer type

■ A cancer imaging suite with two MRIs, two CT scanners, two ultrasounds, two procedure rooms with mobile C-arm and fluoroscopy, and an X-ray

■ A multidisciplinary breast center

The project’s scope reflects communitydriven, patient-focused changes made following the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board’s approval of a master design permit in March 2022. The permit allowed UChicago Medicine to spend money on design and site planning

■ Dedicated clinical trial spaces, for streamlined access to the latest research

■ A center dedicated to prevention, detection, treatment and survival, offering complementary therapies and stress reduction, community education and well-being support

The proposed cancer facility, to be built on East 57th Street between South Maryland and Drexel Avenues, is being designed by global architecture firm CannonDesign.

RENDERING COURTESY OF CANNONDESIGN

“We will be building a model for groundbreaking cancer care and prevention established on the principles of access, equity, dignity and innovation right here on the South Side of Chicago,” said Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Chicago.

“With our long history of achievements in cancer and the great benefit of being interconnected with the University of Chicago, our new cancer facility will provide fertile ground for high-impact research so that we can tackle cancer’s toughest challenges, dramatically shorten the drugdevelopment timeline, deliver the care that the community needs and save more lives.”

Engaging with the community

19%

expected increase in incidence of cancer on the South Side in the next five years, compared to 9.1% in the city’s five collar counties

Leapfrog recognizes University of Chicago Medical Center as a “Top Teaching Hospital”

The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) was named a “Top Teaching Hospital” by The Leapfrog Group for the fifth time, recognizing the academic medical center’s long record of providing patients with safe, world-class healthcare while educating future clinicians.

Cancer is the secondleading cause of death among South Side residents, who die from cancer at a rate that’s nearly twice the national average.

If approved by the state review board, the cancer center will add to the growing healthcare ecosystem aimed at reducing health inequality in the Chicago area. It includes a collaborative of 13 South Side care providers, including UChicago Medicine, that launched the South Side Healthy Community Organization last summer. That effort, which is being scoped to serve about 400,000 residents with more seamless and more accessible healthcare, has been working to add 90 primary care providers and obstetric hires, access to nearly 50 priority specialists, 250 community healthcare workers/ coordinators, and a connected care technology platform.

Pending state approval, construction for the new cancer facility will begin in 2023, with a planned opening in 2027.

10 MONTHS soliciting feedback starting with UChicago Medicine’s Community Advisory Council, composed of volunteers who represent a cross section of the service area

200,000 surveys pushed out in person and via social media and e-newsletters

2town halls

At least 41% of contract dollars to be awarded to minority-owned and women-owned firms

500 construction jobs

The industry watchdog organization designated 58 academic medical centers across the country as “Top Teaching Hospitals” on its 2022 Top Hospitals list, published in December 2022. The patient safety organization also recognized top children’s hospitals, top general hospitals and top rural hospitals. Altogether, 115 hospitals around the country were recognized in various categories.

“It is a great honor to be recognized for our continued commitment to training the next generation of clinicians while maintaining our patient safety track record and providing exceptional healthcare to the South Side of Chicago,” said Vineet Arora, MD, AM’03, Dean for Medical Education. “This recognition would not be possible without the tireless efforts of our faculty, staff, residents, fellows and students.”

The University of Chicago Medical Center was previously on Leapfrog’s Top Hospitals list in 2021, 2018, 2017 and 2016.

To qualify for the Top Hospitals distinction, hospitals must submit dozens of quality and safety metrics to Leapfrog. Nearly 2,200 hospitals are surveyed and only those that earn an “A” in patient safety from Leapfrog on its twice-a-year hospital scorecard can be considered for “Top Hospital” status.

From that group, Top Hospitals are selected based on their quality and safety performance. All have systems in place to limit infections and prevent medication errors, and have documented practices for safer surgery and maternity outcomes.

In November, UCMC was awarded its 22nd consecutive “A” grade for hospital safety by Leapfrog, making it one of only 22 hospitals in the United States to maintain the top score over the past decade.

To see the full list of institutions honored as 2022 Top Hospitals, visit leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals

Increasing ground-level ozone and particulate air matter as a result of climate change can lead to reduced lung function, increased hospitalizations due to asthma and increased rates of premature death. Without a change in emissions, it is estimated that this air pollution will lead to between 1,000 and 4,300 deaths in the U.S. per year by 2050. As of 2008, it was estimated that the healthrelated costs of ozone air pollution approached $6.5 billion nationwide.

Food production, quality, distribution and pricing are affected by rainfall changes, severe weather events and changing weed and pest growth patterns. This is likely to lead to increased rates of food insecurity nationwide. Increased use of herbicides and pesticides to combat increased weed and pest competition exposes farm workers and consumers to higher levels of these potentially toxic chemicals.

How do environmental changes impact our health?

STORIES BY ALISON CALDWELL, PHD

Climate change is thought to potentially lead to higher pollen concentrations and longer pollen seasons, which can lead to allergic reactions. Pollen exposure has been linked to asthma attacks and increased rates of hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses. The cost of treating health issues related to pollen exposure in the U.S. exceeds $3 billion every year.

Studies have linked increased rates of preterm birth and low birth weight to intensely stressful exposures, including heat waves and wildfires. Pregnant people and their fetuses are more susceptible to food-, water- and insect-borne illnesses, many of which are associated with such risks as miscarriage, stillbirth and severe birth defects, as well as increased risk of maternal complications, including death. In the U.S., the economic burden of the healthcare costs of preterm infants alone exceeds $26 billion annually.

Increased rates of mental illness have been connected with the stress of grappling with the downstream effects of climate change. Research has found high levels of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among Hurricaine Katrina survivors, and similar outcomes have been seen in populations affected by floods, heat waves and wildfires. Suicide rates rise with high temperatures, and dementia is a risk factor for hospitalization and death during heat waves. The national economic cost of mental illness rises into the hundreds of billions due to treatment costs and lost wages.

The links between climate change and human health are becoming increasingly obvious: Pollution. Extreme weather events. Food scarcity. Pathogen spread.

Meet the University of Chicago

Medicine researchers who are tackling this monumental issue, one challenge at a time.

Chuan He, PhD, is the first director of the Pritzker Plant Biology Center at the University of Chicago, housed in the greenhouse atop the Donnelley Biological Sciences Learning Center.

New plants for a new world: Targeting food insecurity with plant biology

Achieving tenure as a professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago gave Chuan He, PhD, the freedom to start something new. “I decided to not just be a chemist,” said He, John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor. “And I started to think about what I could work on and landed on RNA modifications. When we started in this field there was very little research in this arena at the time, but recently the field has exploded, because it turns out to be vital to all kinds of biological processes.”

In 2021, He and collaborators published a groundbreaking study showing that by inserting the FTO gene, which affects RNA modification, into rice, the

plants grew three times more rice in the lab and 50% more rice in the field. The rice plants also grew longer roots, were better able to withstand stress from drought and photosynthesized more efficiently. Additional experiments in potato plants yielded similar results.

Now He is the director of the Pritzker Plant Biology Center, a new space to expand his RNA modification work and the research of other scientists searching for innovative ways to promote plant growth and resilience and increase crop yield.

“We’re considering many layers of pathways for modulating plant growth,” he said. “RNA modification is one aspect, but we’re also looking at temperature

ISSUE | Agriculture is threatened by climate change

A shifting climate means all kinds of challenges to our existing agricultural system. Changes in seasonal weather patterns and precipitation, prolonged drought, and extreme weather

sensing, because agriculture may have to move north as the climate warms. But northern regions will still be hit by extreme cold fronts, so we’ll need to develop plants that can resist the cold and grow fast. We also need crop plants that can better withstand warm weather. We could even modulate photosynthesis to increase biomass and yield.

“In the last several decades, we’ve seen a huge amount of resources being put into human biology and health, and rightfully so,” He said. “But until now we have not paid enough attention to plant biology, and with climate change, this type of research is just as important.”

events all mean that we are likely to see reduced productivity from our existing agricultural systems. Some crops may even face extinction. Many communities and regions already

struggle to access diverse, nutritious foods; without interventions to create drought-resistant, high-yield crops, these challenges will only grow.

‘An existential issue’: Wealth, race and health inequities exacerbated by climate change

Elizabeth Tung, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, focuses her research primarily on how race and wealth contribute to health inequities. The line to climate change may not be immediately obvious, but the relationship is there. She points to a recent lettuce shortage: “Lettuce got more expensive because of issues related to climate change,” she said. “As the climate changes, who will be able to afford nutritious food, and what does that mean for the health of our communities? There’s a real connection there.”

She studies health disparities caused by social inequity and wonders how they can be exacerbated by the pressures of climate change. “We know that people with lower income, who are experiencing racism or violence, have much higher allostatic load than those who are not facing the same stressors,” she said. “That chronic activation of stress responses can increase stress hormones like cortisol, and over time that can directly impact health. Chronic stress contributes to a host of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, which

is the largest contributor to the racial mortality gap.”

Climate change is yet another source of inequity; those with the fewest resources and who are the most vulnerable are disproportionately affected by it, in everything from the rising cost of food to lack of secure shelter from extreme weather events to increased risk of exposure to pollution and infectious disease.

An area of particular focus for Tung is the intersection between violence and health inequity. “Violence is an outcome of

inequity,” she said. “More than medical and mental healthcare, patients who are affected by violent injury will often say they need access to economic and legal resources. For example, eviction can be equally or more toxic to a person than not being able to fully rehab an injured leg. The chronicity of stress related to housing instability has

major downstream effects on people’s lives and well-being.” Add to that the effects of climate change on housing, which have already exacerbated the affordable housing crisis and increased housing damage due to flooding and other natural disasters. These climate challenges will not only increase existing health inequities, but will

Inequities exacerbated by climate change

Research has indicated that poorer countries closer to the equator have suffered economic loss due to climate change, while wealthier, northern countries have in some

increase the strain on an already struggling healthcare system, making it ever more difficult for those most burdened by the effects of climate change to access the resources they need to survive it. The question isn’t so much whether these issues will get worse in the future, but rather how to address them.

“There’s a big movement in the health sciences to place a greater emphasis on the social determinants of health, but this is an existential issue,” said Tung. “Most of the solutions currently available to us rely on addressing the specific needs of an individual person or patient, but they don’t provide opportunities for systemic change. If wealth inequality continues to worsen, it will become even more difficult to sustain the services that we are able to offer. It’s a never-ending cycle.”

ways benefited. Poorer populations are less likely to have access to insurance and healthcare resources to bounce back from extreme weather events and infectious diseases, or to

have the finances to keep up with the rising cost of food or to relocate from areas that are hit the hardest by changing weather patterns.

How our environment affects us: Environmental exposures are changing our genes

When she arrived in Beijing as a new university student, Yu-Ying He, PhD, was struck by the contrast to the rural area where she grew up and especially the amount of pollution in the air, a major issue during that time.

“It constantly made me think about how different environments can lead to differences in our health, even when we’re working with a very similar genome,” she said. “It made me wonder how the biology works when we’re exposed to certain

chemicals or radiation or even biological factors, like a virus. These things can put an imprint on our bodies, but we don’t always know what the long-term effects will be.”

Her current research focus is on understanding how exposure to UVB radiation

Elizabeth Tung, MD, MS, works in the urgent care clinic at the University of Chicago Medicine’s Hyde Park campus, providing care for members of the South Side community.

and arsenic affect the role of RNA methylation in cancer development. She studies epitranscriptomics the modifications made to RNA that affect how and which proteins are produced within our cells.

She sees a connection between her work and climate change because it all comes back to one thing: human decisions. “Climate change and pollution are deeply connected,” said He, Professor of Medicine. “The chemicals we make and release into the atmosphere are a huge contributor to climate change. Humans are very innovative. However, we humans also create these unexpected and unintended consequences, but because it takes years for the toxic response to appear, we don’t realize it right away.”

Perhaps the most obvious connection between her work and climate change is one that has been mostly successfully addressed by policy change. Those who grew up in the 1990s likely remember learning about the “hole in the ozone layer,” caused by human use of chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons. Ozone layer depletion allows more UVB rays to reach the planet’s surface, affecting everything from agriculture to marine ecosystems to cancer rates in humans. Thanks to international

agreements reducing the use of chlorofluorocarbons in the 1980s, the ozone hole is slowly shrinking; but in the meantime, its effects still remain.

One of the challenges He faces is determining which RNA changes are significant. “We’ve seen RNA modifications in response to UV stress a few times, but we don’t really know what the implication

of that is,” she said. “There are classical responses, such as DNA damage, but epitranscriptomics is still in its infancy. We are probably one of the few groups looking at the unique connection between epitranscriptomics and the environment, which is helping us understand how dysfunction in the machinery caused by environmental exposures contributes to diseases.”

While the ozone layer is slowly repairing itself, reducing the risk of UVB exposure, other environmental changes are having notable effects on our health. Rising global temperatures mean that communities are experiencing longer and more intense heat waves, which are

associated with preterm birth and increased risk of dehydration, blood clots, heart attacks and seizures. These are most likely to affect the vulnerable and immunocompromised, including older adults and young children. Changing weather patterns increase the presence of

pollutants in the air, including wildfire smoke and allergens such as molds and pollens. These can directly impact the health of those with such conditions as asthma and, over the long term, contribute to increased rates of health problems across communities.

Yu-Ying

He, PhD,

studies how environmental exposures change our RNA and how those changes may increase the risk of cancer.

ISSUE | Environmental exposure risks are changing with the climate

Navigating complexity to address how climate change affects population health

Jennifer McPartland, PhD’08, no longer works in advocacy, but spent a decade working for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as the Senior Scientist for Healthy Communities. There, she spent years working to reduce the population’s exposure to harmful chemicals by pushing for effective federal policies and voluntary market-based leadership. Her policy efforts primarily focused on the “universe of chemicals” regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Over time, she said, “ancillary issues like climate change became an explicit part of that conversation, as we worked out how to manage and reduce exposure to harmful chemicals.”

When it came to her work, the most obvious intersection was between toxic substances and extreme weather events. “Increased severity of weather events can lead to increased emissions of toxic substances,” she said. “For example, instances where flooding causes previously contained compounds in the environment to disperse, or pollutant emission spikes that occur as part of refinery and petrochemical facility shutdown procedures when hurricanes strike.”

As a science-based organization, EDF is engaged in academic research collaborations to better understand and predict how different weather events may increase harmful emissions from various types of facilities.

“The aim of these efforts is to help strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to meaningfully and effectively protect local communities surrounding such facilities who bear the brunt of these emissions,” McPartland said.

Now, serving on a National Academies committee on environmental health, McPartland spends a lot of time

thinking not just about environmental exposures and general population health, but specifically about more vulnerable segments of the population.

“Climate change only exacerbates existing issues,” said McPartland, who has a doctorate in microbiology and molecular biology. “When we’re contending with the complexities of addressing how pollution disproportionately affects vulnerable communities, climate change tends only to make situations worse. For example, air pollution that is related to or induced by climate change will disproportionately impact communities with higher rates of asthma or cardiovascular disease. Communities with poor infrastructure are more susceptible to flooding and the consequences of flooding.

“These burdens, these harms, the future they don’t affect all people equally,” she said. “It’s an ethical imperative that we don’t treat the globe or the United States like a monolith.”

McPartland points to the challenges of navigating complexity as a central difficulty when enacting policies to meaningfully address the ways climate change is affecting population health. “With climate change, as with many things, policy practices often lag behind current scientific understanding. As an example, up to this point, regulators typically assess potential chemical risk in isolation one chemical at a time. Evaluation of potential risks from co-exposures to multiple substances i.e., the real world is rare. Fortunately, practices are starting to improve, but this needs to accelerate.”

She says that while there is growing awareness that climate change is affecting our health, it’s not always clear to the average citizen. “People fairly easily understand climate change, extreme weather events and destruction,” she said. “But that climate change can directly affect our health and well-being may be less intuitive for some. And even when the recognition is there, trying to get your arms around it and identify solutions is really, really tough.”

Jennifer McPartland, PhD’08, spent a decade working for the Environmental Defense Fund advocating for federal policies that reduce population exposure to chemical pollutants.

“It’s an ethical imperative that we don’t treat the globe or the United States like

a monolith.”

Jennifer McPartland, PhD’08

Infectious disease and climate change

A growing body of research indicates that a warming planet will exacerbate transmission of pathogenic diseases. Temperature and precipitation changes are associated with expanded ranges for

disease vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks; warmer winters may allow pathogens to more readily survive and promote disease outbreaks. The disruption of animal habitats by drought, wildfires and other

extreme weather events brings an increased risk of pathogen spillover as animals and humans share space, while flooding can cause wastewater overflow and contamination of water and food sources.

Zoonotic diseases, human/animal dynamics and climate change

Interviewing Cara Brook, PhD, can be a bit of a challenge. An assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, she spends much of her time halfway around the world in Madagascar, where she studies viral dynamics in Old World fruit bats. In a post-COVID world, the public is more aware than ever that bats can host zoonotic diseases that can make the jump to humans. Brook says this is due to the uniqueness of the bat immune system.

“Bats are the only flying mammals, and flight is extremely metabolically costly. To evolve the ability to fly and mitigate this metabolic damage, bats had to evolve numerous unique anti-inflammatory properties that appear to also allow them to better tolerate viral infections without experiencing extreme disease,” she said. “As a result, we think that bat viruses have evolved traits, such as high replication rates, that are not harmful to the bats but cause massive pathology when they spill over to humans and other animals.”

Brook doesn’t necessarily consider herself a climate change researcher, but she does see the relationship between climate change and her work on understanding how viruses persist in bat populations and the dynamics of bat-to-bat transmission, particularly because of how climate change places stress on the animals. “We see spikes in virus transmission during the winter season, which is when bats are experiencing a nutritional deficit,” she said. “These spikes might lead to increased risk

Cara Brook, PhD, holding an Eidolon dupreanum fruit bat at an Angavokely cave, central Madagascar.

PHOTO BY SOPHIA HORIGAN

of exposure for humans and, as a result, increased risk of a spillover. Climate can drive nutritional stress through a number of different factors, such as changing the flowering or fruiting times for food resources and extreme weather events that can destroy trees and eliminate fruit crops.”

The increased risk of bat-to-bat transmission occurs when more bats congregate at fewer food resources, putting more animals in the same location at the same time. Additionally, when bats are stressed, a cascade of responses, including down-regulated immunity and heightened viral shedding, means that the bats are more infectious than at other times of the year. External factors that increase the stress placed on bats drive transmission rates even higher. Deforestation due to

human activity and extreme weather events increase the risk of zoonotic spillover as humans and bats come into closer contact.

Part of the challenge in understanding how climate change can affect the spillover of zoonotic diseases is that the relationship can be very heterogeneous. Things like humidity, precipitation and temperature can all affect disease transmission, while extreme weather events can create such unexpected environmental factors as standing water.

“Disease responses are nonlinear,” said Brook. “Different pathogens might respond to something like an elevated temperature in different ways. For example, the white-nose fungus that has decimated North American bat populations tends to

How the BSD is building climate awareness into its training and research programs

In recent years, the language has shifted from “global warming” and “climate change” to instead discuss the “climate crisis.” The urgent need to better understand how the rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the accompanying global temperature increase will affect the planet is now being addressed by universities, which are increasingly building climate change into their curricula and research programs.

In 2022, Pritzker School of Medicine students heard from Susan Buchanan, MD, MPH, Director of the Great Lakes Center for Children’s and Reproductive Environmental Health and a Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Ilinois Chicago School of Public Health. During her lecture, she spoke about how a patient’s physical environment can impact their health. Understanding the role of environment in a patient’s history can add further dimension and context to the healthcare needs of an individual, and will become even more critical as these spaces continue to change over time.

replicate better at lower temperatures, so those infections might improve for bats as things get warmer, whereas viruses tend to respond positively to increasing temperatures up to a point.”

Work like Brook’s can help clarify how and why zoonotic diseases persist in animal populations and identify ways to mitigate the risk of interspecies transmission. Perhaps the most obvious solution is simple in theory, but challenging in execution: conservation. “We have found links between physiological stress in the bats, accelerated viral shedding and anthropogenically impacted habitats,” she said. “From a conservation and a public health standpoint, there are win-win opportunities. Healthy bats pose less of a zoonotic threat.”

“Much of our medical training as first- and second-year medical students focuses on biological processes of disease, so being able to learn about the role of place and environment on health from Dr. Buchanan was incredibly valuable,” said Tony Liu, MS2. “It’s important to recognize that all physicians work with patient populations tied to specific locales and histories.”

Concurrently, thanks to a growing awareness of the relationship between climate change and health, the Biological Sciences Division’s Department of Public Health Sciences has been conducting a search for a new faculty member whose research is focused in this area. “There is a complex set of issues that research about climate change and health needs to address, requiring interdisciplinary expertise that spans the physical sciences, social sciences, public health and medicine,” said Diane Lauderdale, PhD, AM’78, AM’81, Chair of the department and Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor of Public Health Sciences. “We have much more to learn about the ways different manifestations of climate change and extreme weather impact mental and physical well-being, and how we can mitigate those effects.”

A history of environmental advocacy provides a template for the future

Kenneth Bridbord, MD’69, never expected to end up as one of the public faces of an environmental movement. It was just by chance that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asked their junior physician to participate in the February 1972 press conference announcing the proposal to regulate lead in gasoline. “My boss should’ve been there,” he said with a laugh. “But he was out of town, and I guess I knew enough that I must have impressed him.”

His accidental participation led to years of advocacy and controversy while working for the EPA, during a time when many were reluctant to accept that human activity could have a profound impact on the environment and, as a result, on human health. Bridbord’s view that leaded gasoline was significantly contributing to high rates of lead exposure in the population was actually in the minority. “The prevailing opinion was that the problem was lead in paint,” he explained. “Children who lived in deteriorating housing often had high blood lead levels, but the epidemiology showed that it wasn’t limited to people in deteriorating housing; it was more generalized.”

Others argued that business, not government regulation, should drive a change, as catalytic converters became more common on automobiles. “The problem was that we didn’t know if that technology would be the future for all cars,” said Bridbord. “And in the end, the health regulations did significantly accelerate the removal of lead in gasoline. As a result, the correlation between decreased lead emissions and a drop in blood lead levels was much clearer it was almost a perfect correlation.”

Bridbord said the tipping point was the accumulation of scientific evidence. His first study was attacked by the lead industry and decried for its supposed political agenda. It was only after additional studies were released that public opinion began to shift on the issue.

In many ways, Bridbord can see echoes of his experience in the current struggle to accept and address the impacts of climate change. In particular, when it came to leaded gasoline, “without federal regulation, it never would have happened,” he said. “Regulations are

not the whole story, and of course you need people to cooperate, but they are important. You can throw doubt on anything you want misinformation is so much worse today than ever before, but it’s always been an issue, and industries affected by regulation have always tried to cast doubt on the quality of the data and information. And we can’t rely on individual responsibility, because you will similarly always see pushback. Look at what has happened with COVID-19.”

He said that it is the responsibility of scientists to continue to publish and communicate their research though it can be difficult to be heard in a sea of misinformation about climate change and public health and not to let themselves be intimidated even when there is pushback.

“It can be really complicated to explain the relationship between climate change and health,” Bridbord said. “The relationships are multifaceted and multifactored, and I’m not an expert in this particular arena. But even if you can convince people to change their individual opinions or how they live their lives what kinds of cars they drive, whether they take public transit, all sorts of things you do still need regulation. And the federal government has recently been passing some important legislation. Some people have said that it’s not fast enough, but I think it’s moving in a good direction.”

Kenneth Bridbord, MD’69, speaks at the 10th annual conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in 2019.

Kenneth Bridbord, MD’69, in the 1980s, during the early days of his career with the EPA.

‘A really interesting and beautiful molecule’

After three decades of research, Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, remains focused on CaMKII and its underappreciated role in heart function

BY ALISON CALDWELL, PHD

Growing up, Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, always thought that he’d be a lawyer.

“Mostly because I didn’t want to feel like I was predestined to become a doctor,” he said, referencing the fact that his grandmother, grandfather and father were all physicians. “But I always liked biology, and in the end, I really loved science, so I ended up going to medical school.”

It was thanks to an ex-girlfriend that he also pursued a doctoral degree; not wanting to leave her behind in his pursuit of medicine, he opted to defer medical school and instead start with a PhD program. “The relationship didn’t last, but the fascination with ion channels did,” Anderson, now the Dean of the Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs for the University of Chicago, said with a laugh.

reuptake, supporting an optimal environment for heart activity.

Misregulation of CaMKII has been linked to arrhythmia in the heart, which drew Anderson’s clinical interest. “The protein seemed to be driving important electrophysiological phenotypes in the heart, which is what I was studying at the time,” he said. “My PhD thesis was focused on how the heart muscle contracts, and then when I went to medical school, the early electrophysiology labs looked a lot like my research labs. It felt so familiar, but it was also an emerging field, with new options for modifying the electrical activity of the heart nonsurgically.”

During his decades-long research career, including time as the director of the Department of Medicine, the William Osler Professor of Medicine and physician-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and as chair and department executive officer of internal medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, he has continued to focus on understanding the roles of CaMKII in heart health, and how targeting the protein might provide new therapeutic opportunities for such conditions as arrhythmia and myocardial ischemiareperfusion injuries.

In the heart, activation of CaMKII mediates the phosphorylation of ion channels and other proteins that contribute to rapid changes in heart activity, including in heart rate and contractile performance of the heart muscles. This activation can be critical for rapid state changes, such as initiating a fight-or-flight response in the body, but overactivation can lead to impaired heart function and cell death, which can in turn lead to poor heart health outcomes.

It was during his fellowship years at Stanford University that he first encountered the lifelong subject of his study: Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II. Better known as CaMKII, the protein kinase is part of a variety of signaling cascades, and is perhaps best known for its role in the brain, where it is believed to play key roles in learning and memory. CaMKII is also critical to cardiomyocytes, the muscle cells of the heart, because it maintains calcium homeostasis and

Evolutionary trade-offs

One of Anderson’s seminal discoveries came in a 2008 study, in which his team outlined a new mechanism for the activation of CaMKII oxidation of the amino acid methionine within the protein can sustain its activity even without the presence of calcium or calmodulin. As a result, CaMKII can be activated by angiotensin II

Mark Anderson, MD, PhD, with Yuejin Wu, PhD, MS, presenting research at the 44th annual meeting of the Biophysical Society in February 2000.

(AngII)-induced oxidation, which in turn leads to apoptosis (cell death) in cardiomyocytes.

Additional research from his lab since then has shown that oxidized CaMKII can trigger atrial fibrillation, drawing a line between known risk factors and the condition, and demonstrating directly that patients with atrial fibrillation showed increased levels of oxidized CaMKII in their atria.

More recently, Anderson’s team has found evidence that this mechanism is a result of evolutionary trade-offs between traits that increase youthful fitness but ultimately impact health negatively during aging. The activation of CaMKII by reactive oxygen species provides an advantage to vertebrates by leading to increased intracellular calcium, which in turn activates transcriptional programs important during exercise and in supporting the immune system, though overactivation of the system can have negative impacts on long-term heart health. This means that the system operates in a balance, supporting a foundational evolutionary theory known as antagonistic pleiotropy the idea that age-related diseases are a result of genetic traits that evolved because they were beneficial during the earlier reproductive years.

All of this research, he said, points to the potential for targeting CaMKII to treat abnormal heart rhythms, including atrial fibrillation, and heart failure something that has yet to be studied in a clinical trial. One of the challenges is the fact that CaMKII is such an important molecule in the brain. “Pharmaceutical companies haven’t developed CaMKII inhibitors because there’s a concern that they might impact learning and memory,” he explained. “But our team has been conducting high-throughput screens of medications that are already in use in patients for other reasons and we’ve identified several that appear to inhibit CaMKII, which provides some evidence that we might be able to block or reduce its activity without major adverse effects.”

Medication ‘sweet spot’

He hopes that inhibiting overactive CaMKII could have a “two-for-one” effect of preventing both arrhythmias and heart failure, based on the results his team and others have seen in mouse models. “Many of the drugs we currently have can make people feel a little better for a while, but ultimately result in them dying more quickly,” he said. “CaMKII really seems to be the sweet spot.”

The future will see the use of new techniques to even more selectively target CaMKII oxidation in the heart. He points to a recent study in Science out of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where researchers used CRISPR to target and modify the methionine site on the form of CaMKII most prevalent in cardiac tissue. By changing the methionine to a valine, the amino acid found in invertebrate CaMKII, they were able to prevent oxidation and therefore hyperactivation of the protein. This, in turn, protected against heart failure without causing global inhibition of CaMKII, thus eliminating any effect on the brain.

As he settles into his new role at the University of Chicago, Anderson is unsure about the next steps for his research, but he continues to work on raising the profile of CaMKII as a target in heart health.

“It is possible that selective elimination of oxidative activation of CaMKII through technologies such as CRISPR could broadly benefit therapies for patients suffering myocardial infarction (heart attack), as well as arrhythmias and non-cardiac diseases such as asthma and some cancers,” he said. “It is exciting to consider how future therapies could target specific harmful enzyme activities without inhibiting core enzymatic signaling, which may be required to sustain normal physiological processes.”

Mark Anderson, MD, PhD

The structure of the kinase domain of CaMKII rendered by PyMOL from PDB 2v70.

ILLUSTRATION BY CURTIS NEVEU, CC BY-SA 3.0 CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

PHOTO BY JOEL MAISONET

Alum-mates

STORIES BY JAMIE BARTOSCH

They came to the University of Chicago because they loved science and medicine, but while here, they discovered another love: one of their classmates.

Over the years, dozens, if not hundreds, of couples have fallen in love while students in the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Biological Sciences Division. Many found their life partners or got married. Here are a few love stories.

What role did these play in romance?

Read the love stories to find out.

Navigating the challenges of the Couples Match See page 35

John and Renée Paro at Bond Chapel on their wedding day in 2011, left, and on their 10-year anniversary in 2021.

2021

PHOTO BY DEAN THORSEN, DO, PHD

Long-distance love

Chelsea Dorsey, MD’10, and Martin “Andy” Anderson, MD’10

MARRIED SINCE | 2014, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Pre-Pritzker encounter: Dorsey and Anderson first met while interviewing at Pritzker in winter 2005, but didn’t become a couple until fourth year. “We started dating at the worst possible time finished with interviews and about to match for residency,” Anderson said.

Six years of long distance: They started dating during residency interviews. Even though they felt strongly about each other, couples matching would have been difficult given their competitive specialties. Instead, they vowed to maintain a long-distance relationship during their surgical residencies hers at Stanford University and his at Saint Louis University. The long-distance relationship continued even after their wedding. After residency, Dorsey started her practice at Alexian Brothers in suburban Chicago, while Anderson went to Pittsburgh for a one-year pediatric otolaryngology fellowship. They finally moved in together in 2016, six years after they started dating and 1 ½ years after they wed.

The daily call: The secret to maintaining their long-distance relationship was communication. They made it a priority to talk on the phone every day, even if it was just to say “I love you” or “Good night.” In six years, they only missed one day, and that’s because Dorsey was in the operating room until 2 a.m. “This actually helped us in the long term.

Now that we’re married, those

communication skills established during residency help us out on a dayto-day basis,” Dorsey said.

A week of bad gifts: During their fourth year of residency, they rented a cabin in the woods in Mendocino, California, the week after Christmas. Dorsey thought an engagement could be possible. Every day, Anderson gave her an intentionally bad or boring present an ugly scarf, a chocolate bar. He’d make up some sappy story about how it reminded him of her or a special time they spent together. She politely thanked him but was disappointed. “After those gifts, I had transitioned into a mode of depression, thinking, ‘An engagement’s not happening on this trip, I guess,’” she said. Then on New Year’s Eve, the gift was her engagement ring.

Hey, there’s a ring in my cereal: In St. Louis, Anderson’s house had previously been burglarized. So, when he brought home the engagement ring he custom-designed with a local jeweler making sure its profile would allow her to easily put on and remove gloves at work he hid it in a cereal box in his kitchen for months in case there was another burglary.

Where they work now: A vascular surgeon, Dorsey is Director of UChicago Medicine’s Vein Clinic, Associate Dean for Medical Student Academic Advising and Advancement for the Pritzker School of Medicine, and Associate Professor of Surgery. Anderson is a pediatric otolaryngologist at Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists of Illinois.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ASHLEY SUMMERS PHOTOGRAPHY

Chelsea Dorsey and Martin “Andy” Anderson with their twin 4-year-olds, Lily and Eva.

L’amour was in the air

Courtney Burrows, PhD’15, MBA’17, and Michael “Mike” P. Burrows, PhD’15

LIVE IN | Chicago

MARRIED SINCE | 2015

Recruitment Weekend for the win: While deciding on a graduate school, Courtney and Mike were impressed with UChicago’s top-notch PhD programs (human genetics for her, immunology for him), but both said that Recruitment Weekend sealed the deal. “It was phenomenally fun,” Mike recalled. “We met so many fun people and we all hung out and got to know each other.” Even though not all cohorts overlap, Courtney’s molecular biosciences and Mike’s biomedicine did, allowing them to have friends in the same circles.

Sparks at the zoo: They spoke for the first time at Lincoln Park Zoo during an Orientation Week event. Mike was using crutches because of a torn ACL. When Courtney asked him about his injury, she shared that she’d also torn her ACL just a few years prior. “We bonded over knee damage,” Mike joked. They also discovered another coincidence: Mike had just moved to Chicago after working five miles from Courtney’s childhood home in Florida.

Matchmaker, matchmaker: Unbeknownst to them, their mutual friend

Colles Price, SM’13, PhD’15, in the cancer biology program, was always inviting them to his gettogethers in hopes that they’d become

a couple. He saw that they had a lot in common, including a love of travel. “Colles takes a lot of credit for us getting together,” Mike said.

L’amour: Their first date was dinner at La Petite Folie in Hyde Park. From that point on, “French” became a theme in their lives. They got engaged and married in Paris, drove across France for their honeymoon and incorporate a French theme into their anniversary each year. Neither is French, although Mike is from the United Kingdom. The proposal: Mike planned to dine at a certain restaurant in Paris and then propose during a walk afterward. But when the couple arrived in France, they both had terrible jet lag, Courtney was sick and the weather was stormy.

“I thought, ‘Aw, my plans are ruined.’ So, because I was nervous, I decided to propose jet-lagged, tired and sick in our hotel room. Then the rest of the trip would be a celebration and I wouldn’t

have to worry about it,” he said. They were so excited to tell their parents, they forgot about the time change and woke them up in the middle of the night to share the news.

Still connected to UChicago: The Burrowses are both involved with the University of Chicago’s myCHOICE program, designed to broaden science trainees’ exposure to and preparation for a diverse range of careers. Through this program, they participate in career panels and one-on-one mentoring. Additionally, Courtney is a member of the UChicago MBSAA Alumni Council, and Mike ran an externship offered through myCHOICE to give trainees exposure to finance industry jobs.

Where they work now: Courtney is a marketer for Skyrizi, a biologic therapy for patients with psoriasis. Mike is Vice President of Life Sciences at Aspire Capital.

PHOTO BY JORDAN PORTER-WOODRUFF

Mike and Courtney Burrows with their sons, Jack, 3, and Ian, 1, during a recent visit to the University of Chicago campus.

Michael J. Robertson, MD’84, and Christopher A. Slapak, MD’84

MARRIED SINCE | 2014, when same-sex marriage was becoming legal across the U.S.

‘It transformed our lives’

How they met: As first-year medical students, they lived across the hall from each other in Burton-Judson Courts. They had all their classes together and became good friends. During their third year of medical school, they became a couple, and both did their internal medicine internships and residencies at the University of Chicago Medicine. When friendship became something more: On a cold night in mid-January 1983, they went to Facets Multimedia in Lincoln Park to see “Taxi zum Klo,” an iconic German film (with English subtitles) about a gay schoolteacher’s boring days and wild nights. The movie was shown on a hanging sheet, and they sat on two of the dozen or so folding chairs. Later that night, they confessed their feelings for each other.

Married student housing pioneers: Same-sex couples didn’t “officially” live in married student housing in the 1980s, but they applied separately and somehow got a two-bedroom apartment together at the Fairfax, at 51st Street and Dorchester Avenue. Robertson remembers the woman who oversaw married housing raised an eyebrow at their rooming situation, but let it slide. “It was lovely housing, actually. Sometimes when we go back to Hyde Park, we drive by,” he said. Their post-anatomy dissection tradition: Reeking of formaldehyde after their anatomy dissection lab, Robertson and Slapak instituted a martini hour at their dorm after their three-timesa-week class. “Even though you wore gloves, it was hard to get the smell off your hands. The martinis helped us put out of mind what we’d just done for the last four hours,” Slapak said.

Finding love when you least expect it: Both say the University of Chicago changed their lives in the best possible ways. “It transformed our lives. I was a chemistry major from Ohio State and I wanted to be a doctor,” Slapak said.

“Seven years later, between medical school and residency, I not only walked out with my lifetime partner, but I was completely transformed as a person.”

Where they work now: Following a long career at Eli Lilly and Company, where he helped develop and launch two cancer drugs, Slapak now works as a consultant and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Indiana University School of Medicine. Robertson is a Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and Director of the Lymphoma Program.

Christopher A. Slapak and Michael J. Robertson at their wedding at the Michelangelo Hotel in New York City in 2014. They’ve been partners for 40 years.

The couple in 1985 at a classmate’s wedding at Bond Chapel.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MICHAEL J. ROBERTSON, MD, AND CHRISTOPHER A. SLAPAK, MD

A fateful anatomy class game sparks love

Melany López Schiller, MD’19, and Patrick Schiller, MD’19

MARRIED SINCE | March 23, 2019, one week after Match Day

Where they met: In their first-year anatomy class in 2015, the professor divided students into foursomes by randomly taping the name of a famous person or character to their backs. The students then had to try to figure out whose name was on their back and to which group they belonged. Patrick and Melany both had names of “Pokémon” characters, an animated game neither of them knew anything about. “I somehow figured out I was Pikachu. Then I saw the sign on the back of Patrick’s shirt saying he’s Bulbasaur. I said, ‘I found you! You’re the last one in our group!’ He looked at me confused. And that was our first interaction,” Melany recalled, laughing. “We became friends right away. We have very different personalities, so I’m convinced we wouldn’t have crossed paths if not for that anatomy class.”

First kiss: Outside The Promontory, Melany’s favorite hangout.

The proposal: After Thanksgiving with Patrick’s family in Rockford, Melany was yearning for some traditional dishes that weren’t served, such as sweet potatoes with marshmallows

on top. So, Patrick cooked all day and recreated Thanksgiving dinner with her favorite foods and proposed after the meal.

Last-minute officiant: Two weeks before the wedding, they fired their reverend over clashes of opinions. While brainstorming who could fill in to officiate on short notice, they thought of Sonia Oyola, MD, Director of the family medicine clerkship at Pritzker and one of Melany’s mentors. “We had a hunch she was ordained,

and she was!” Melany said. Oyola was ordained online in 2019 in order to officiate at the wedding of some University of Illinois medical school students.

Married in Bond Chapel: Oyola, a native of Colombia, led the service in both English and Spanish a big plus for Melany’s family, who are from Puerto Rico. “And she still kept it to a trim 30 minutes,” Melany joked. Oyola herself is married to a medical school classmate. Oyola said it was an honor and joy to marry the Schillers, and remembers Melany’s gorgeous wedding dress and the stunning Bond Chapel setting. “The love in the room was extraordinary,” Oyola recalled. “I love them both. They are so special. And they were so happy that day, they were just giddy.”

Where they work now: Melany completed her family medicine residency at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and is now a family medicine physician at NorthShore University HealthSystem. Patrick completed his internal medicine residency at UChicago Medicine and is now a nephrology fellow at Northwestern Medicine.

The couple pose for engagement photos in front of the Pritzker School of Medicine sign.

Sonia Oyola, MD, center, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, officiated at the 2019 wedding of Patrick Schiller and Melany López in Bond Chapel.

Together almost 50 years

MARRIED SINCE | 1975, in Bond Chapel

Finding each other in the group: They first spoke at a wine and cheese reception following a Medicine on the Midway photo shoot for a story on the new entering class of 1974. Their class often socialized in groups, so they gradually got to know each other at post-anatomy class dinners at the Medici or Saturday morning anatomy movies, required for class. They brought along soft drinks and popcorn to make the movies more fun. “I remember thinking he was very funny,” Linda recalled. Bill’s take: “She was a cute blonde.”

The eye-opening camping trip: They can’t recall their official first date, but between Christmas and New Year’s Day in 1974 they joined a group of classmates on a camping trip to Florida. “We started dating after that,” Bill said. They got married just months later, after their first year of medical school, as did a few of their classmates.

Favorite Hyde Park hangouts: Woodlawn Tap (aka “Jimmy’s”), Medici on 57th, Edwardo’s Natural Pizza, Mellow Yellow and Tai Sam Yon, a Chinese restaurant on 63rd Street.

Low-key proposal: They agreed it was a good idea to marry well before the start of clinical training during their third year. Bill says his proposal “wasn’t any big dramatic thing” and he couldn’t afford a ring at the time. Linda remembers him saying, “I think we ought to get married. Let’s do it sooner rather than later.” They lived in inexpensive married student housing at 58th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, where the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM) now stands. “It was great. From our house to the door of the old Chicago Lying-in Hospital was a 60-second walk,” Bill said.

Science- and marriage-minded: Their class had 104 students, including 22 women at the time, the largest percentage of females in a Pritzker class. The Phillipses were one of seven couples from their class to marry. Of those couples, five are still married.

Dean Ceithaml intervenes: Linda used her married name through most of medical school but wanted her maiden name used for graduation. It was 1978, a big year for women to make a statement about their independence. “I didn’t care, but the dean’s office thought it was a pre-divorce move. They were freaking out,” Bill recalled, laughing. Two other married female students made the same change.

Dean of Students Joseph Ceithaml, SB’37, PhD’41, called Linda to ask her if everything was OK between her and Bill. “He thought all three of our marriages were falling apart,” she said.

Staying close: In the 1970s, Pritzker students did their rotations at Chicago Lying-in, Wyler Children’s Hospital, the old Billings Hospital or Michael Reese Hospital. The medical student lounge was nearby, and the library

was on the second floor of Billings. “Everything was right there,” Bill said. That closeness helped create a special camaraderie among the class. “We always supported and cared about each other,” Linda said.

Where they work now: Linda and Bill are both full-time surgeons. Bill is Chief of Orthopedics at Shriners Children’s Texas. Linda is the Truman G. Blocker, Jr., MD, Distinguished Chair and Chief of Plastic Surgery in the Department of Surgery at UTMB Galveston. She made history as the first woman to chair the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Linda G. Phillips, AB’74, MD’78, and William “Bill” A. Phillips, MD’78

Bill and Linda Phillips appeared on the front and back covers of the Fall 1974 issue of Medicine on the Midway, which introduced the new Pritzker class.

The couple in 2019, during a vacation in Greece.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA PHILLIPS, MD, AND WILLIAM PHILLIPS, MD

Parallel pursuits

Allison August, MD’93, and Barry S. Ticho, EX’LAB, PhD’87, MD’88

MARRIED SINCE

Started dating: While undergraduates at brother-sister schools outside Philadelphia (August at Bryn Mawr College, Ticho at Haverford College).

Pushing for Pritzker: Ticho started medical school first and lobbied for August to choose Pritzker after completing her premed requirements. His reasons were pragmatic as well as romantic. “I’m so grateful Barry convinced me to come to Pritzker, because it was a wonderful place for me,” August said. “I had a fantastic experience with amazing mentors.”

I loved that the school was about: ‘What were you going to do with this knowledge to make a difference in this world?’ We bonded over that. Our core values were so aligned with the University of Chicago. Their pursuits were always parallel with ours. It very much felt like a family,” said August.

Favorite Hyde Park date night spot: Salonica, “The Med” (Medici on 57th) or Valois. “In those days, it was not like it is now, all cleaned up and fancy,” Ticho said.

A Pritzker wedding: They married during Ticho’s one-week break in between his obstetrics and pediatric rotations. August was content to have a small wedding, but Ticho’s mother had other ideas. “She said, ‘People are coming from all over! We’re not giving them chips in the backyard!’ We ended up having 250 people at our wedding, and it was really fun,” August said. The guests included many Pritzker students and professors, including Godfrey Getz, Leon Resnekov, Lucia Rothman-Denes and James Schreiber.

Ticho’s deep Maroon roots: Ticho’s parents lost their families during World War II. When they immigrated to the U.S., they both became physicians and strongly emphasized education, driving Ticho 30 minutes each way daily to attend UChicago’s Laboratory Schools. A cousin, Harold Ticho, SB’42, SM’44, PhD’49, received three degrees from the University of Chicago (and worked with legendary physicist Enrico Fermi). Ticho has served as a myCHOICE program advisor and on the UChicago MBSAA Alumni Council, collaborates with the Booth School of Business, and is on the Polsky Center’s George Shultz Innovation Fund advisory committee, which provides funding to new companies and for the development of new medicines.

Bad married housing: They lived in married student housing at 5621 S. Maryland Ave. Happily, the building has since been torn down. “It was mouse-infested. It was disgusting!” August said, laughing. “But we were so grateful to get in because it was cheap and close to campus,” Ticho added.

Developing the COVID-19 vaccine: During the pandemic, August was Moderna’s Vice President of Clinical Development, Infectious Diseases, and helped lead the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and the first mRNA-encoded monoclonal antibody. She served as the physician lead for the vaccine’s phase 3 efficacy trial. Ticho previously worked at Moderna, where he worked on the lipid nanoparticle that transports the mRNA for the COVID-19 vaccine. “One-on-one patient contact is valuable. But making medicine that could help millions of people, like the COVID vaccine did? We had a much greater impact,” Ticho said.

Where they work now: August was named Chief Medical Officer at Comanche Biopharma in November 2022. Ticho has been the Chief Medical Officer at Stoke Therapeutics for more than five years.

Allison August and Barry S. Ticho in 1993 after August received her MD, left. The couple returned to the University of Chicago campus for a visit in the summer of 2022.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALLISON AUGUST, MD, AND BARRY S. TICHO, PHD, MD

Laughs, music, love and ... vegetables

Renée Rodriguez Paro, MD’10, and John Paro, MD’10

MARRIED SINCE | 2011, in Bond Chapel

A “catty” opening line: Renée moved away from her close-knit family in Arizona to attend Pritzker and, for comfort, brought along her two pet kittens. Their photo was her laptop’s screensaver. On the first day of class, Renée opened her laptop to take notes. John, sitting behind her, tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Can we have a party when your cats die?” Renée turned around and stared at him in disbelief.

“It was so absurd, I said, ‘Who is this guy?’” she recalled. Realizing he was joking (and that he is allergic to cats), they laughed and a friendship began.

Speed-dating sparks: John and Renée were co-social chairs of REMEDY, a group that collects unused medical supplies and delivers them on medical mission trips. As a REMEDY fundraiser their first year, they organized a speed-dating event for all UChicago graduate students. It was a huge success; about 200 people attended. As they worked that night, John, who had broken up with his girlfriend two months earlier, started seeing his good friend Renée in a new light. “All of a sudden, things felt like a different level than friendship,” John said.

Helping hobbyists: Renée and John love how Pritzker emphasizes that students take time for pursuits outside medicine, so they created (and fund) a Happiness & Hobbies microgrant.

Every year, Pritzker students submit applications with a short explanation of how the grant can help them pursue their hobbies, and the Paros award three or four $500 grants each year. Recipients have included musicians, gardeners, artists and someone who liked to repair bikes.

Looking back fondly: Pritzker classes were rigorous, but John and Renée both say they have so many happy, fun memories of their years there and remain close to many classmates.

“Pritzker does such a good job of bringing together people who are different and interesting and smart. Not just the people with the highest scores on every test. People who do interesting things and are good and kind people. You know they’re going to be good doctors because they’re well-rounded people,” Renée said. “We look back at it as this magical time when we fell in love and found our best friends.”

Where they work now: Both work for the private, multispecialty group practice Palo Alto Medical Foundation. (Renée is a pediatric cardiologist; John is a plastic surgeon.) They have several side projects, including Dr. Vegetable (doctorvegetable.org), an engaging program for children about healthy

eating; the “Reconciling Medicine” podcast by “The Doctors Paro,” about navigating life working in the medical field; and John Paro’s original music and comedy parodies on Spotify, including several songs from his “Med School Rock” and “Residency Rock” albums, like “Cranial Nerves Are Sexxxy” and “Page Rage.”

Renée and John Paro in front of Bond Chapel in 2021, 10 years after getting married there.

A vision for ‘the life we could build together’

Andrew Hack, AB’95, PhD’00, MD’02, and Anjali Fedson Hack, LAB’85, AB’88, AM’90, MD’99, PhD’99

LIVE IN | Boston

MARRIED SINCE | 2001

Looking at slides ... and each other: In their second-year Clinical Pathophysiology (CPP) class, Anjali always sat in the front row for lectures and Andrew in the back with his Medical Science Training Program (MSTP) cohort. Yet they ended up sitting next to each other in histology lab. Anjali was captivated by Andrew’s curiosity, sense of humor and awareness of the world, while Andrew was impressed by her diligence, commitment and insight. They started dating that summer, when she started clinical rotations and he went into the lab. “If we hadn’t been in CPP together, we might not have crossed paths,” Anjali said.

Long engagement: After Andrew proposed on Dec. 31, 1999, he finished his PhD and returned to clinical rotations in medical school, while Anjali moved to Boston to start her residency in anesthesiology at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. To make time to get married in 2001, Anjali back-ended her two vacations between her first and second years of residency. Having a long-distance engagement wasn’t easy. “We made it work with a lot of commitment, flexibility, mutual respect and a vision for the life we could build together,” Andrew said.

A unique graduation day: During her graduation ceremony in 1999, Anjali sat first with her medical school class in the Biological Sciences Division and received her MD. Then as she left the stage, an usher escorted her to a saved seat in the Social Sciences Division.

“I remember walking up and getting my PhD, my second doctoral degree, and the entire med school class started shouting and cheering. It was a level of welcome and recognition that I’ve

never experienced in my life,” she said. “There was such a generosity of spirit at the University of Chicago.”

Pushing her to the PhD finish line: Anjali credits Andrew with encouraging her to finish her dissertation in anthropology. “It would have been easy to say, ‘I’m going off to clinical medicine. I don’t need to finish my PhD. I’ve done all the learning and absorbed the lessons into who I am as a person and how I treat other people in the world.’ But this was something where Andrew’s encouragement made an enormous difference,” she said.

Hyde Park roots: Anjali attended UChicago’s Laboratory Schools from preschool through high school. Her father practiced internal medicine at UChicago Medicine, and her mother, a Fulbright scholar from India, earned a PhD in linguistics. Hyde Park still holds a special place in Anjali’s heart. “It’s a unique community of people who are there because they want to learn or teach and are affiliated with the University.”

Pritzker’s distinguishing feature: What sets Pritzker apart from other medical schools, Anjali said, is that it’s situated within the Biological Sciences Division. “Our basic science classes were taught by people who did that work. Anatomy was taught by anatomists, not physicians who were going to teach you anatomy. Our lectures on G proteins in biochemistry were taught by people who actually did research on G proteins. It was a very exciting place to learn,” she said. Where they work now: Anjali retired from her obstetric anesthesiology practice several years ago. While raising

their two children, she went to school part time and earned a master’s degree in bioethics at Harvard Medical School. Andrew is a partner at Bain Capital Life Sciences. He’s also a member of the UChicago Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association (MBSAA) Alumni Council and represents the BSD on the University Alumni Board.

Andrew and Anjali Hack in May 2019 when Anjali received her master’s degree in bioethics from Harvard Medical School.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANJALI HACK, MD, PHD, AND ANDREW HACK, MD, PHD

The couple in June 2000, when Andrew received his PhD in molecular genetics and cell biology from the University of Chicago.

New biomedical research hub to tackle ‘grand challenges’

Anew biomedical research hub in Chicago will bring together the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with the goal of solving grand challenges in science on a 10- to 15-year time horizon.

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago will build upon the successes of the first Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco, and it is the first to expand the CZ Biohub Network out of California.

“We are excited to scale this successful model of collaborative science into a larger network by welcoming the new Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in Chicago,” said Priscilla Chan, MD, co-founder and co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Intiative (CZI). “This institute will embark on science to embed miniaturized sensors into tissues that will allow us to understand how healthy and diseased tissues function in unprecedented detail.

“This might feel like science fiction today, but we think it’s realistic to achieve huge progress in the next 10 years,” she said. “I look forward to the advances in science and technology that this new Biohub will spur in studying how tissues function to understand what goes wrong in disease and how to fix it.”

CZ Biohub Chicago will focus on engineering technologies to make precise, molecular-level measurements of biological processes within human tissues, with an ultimate goal of understanding and treating the inflammatory states that underlie many diseases.

“The Chicago Biohub will create technologies that will transform our understanding of tissue-scale biology, revealing important information about the processes that take place in living tissues that could lead to new therapies,” said CZI co-founder and co-CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

CZ Biohub Chicago will differ from the traditional academic research funding model; instead of solely splitting funding across faculty labs at different universities, it will create a new shared laboratory space in Chicago that will bring together staff scientists with expertise from the partner universities. Academic labs will also receive funding for individual faculty-led projects.

The center will initially focus on inflammation and the function of the immune system.

Inflammation and overactive immune cells play a key role in many diseases, including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and are also implicated in organ failure, diseases of the skin, type 2 diabetes and severe infectious diseases like COVID-19. But inducing inflammation in a controlled way can also be used to combat disease: in cancer immunotherapy, the immune system is unleashed and directed toward tumors.

The engineered platforms that will be developed at CZ Biohub Chicago will combine several state-ofthe-art technologies to make the first holistic and direct measurements of inflammation in human tissue.

“A thorough understanding of tissue inflammation is a holy grail of human biology it would lead the way to design treatments for a myriad of diseases and disorders,” said Jeffrey Hubbell, PhD,

Eugene Bell Professor in Tissue Engineering in the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and member of the executive committee for CZ Biohub Chicago.

The inaugural Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco was founded in 2016 in partnership with Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of California, San Francisco. Its cell atlas project led the development of the first whole organism cell atlases in humans, mice, flies and lemurs, and its infectious disease project helped accelerate California’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jeffrey Hubbell, PhD, Eugene Bell Professor in Tissue Engineering in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, is a member of the executive committee for CZ Biohub Chicago.

PHOTO BY MATT MARTON

“ Securing this opportunity reflects the fact that Chicago is a world-class force in biomedical research.”

Paul Alivisatos, PhD President The University of Chicago

What’s inside this rock?

Paleontologists in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago are increasingly using high-tech imaging techniques to study ancient fossils. In 2014, a CT scanner was installed in the basement of Culver Hall on the Hyde Park campus, and now researchers use it to see inside fossilized rock to create 3D images of delicate specimens that would otherwise be inaccessible or incomplete.

BY MATT WOOD

Neander uses powerful imaging software to assemble the scanned images and create detailed 3D models of intricate bone structures, like this Docofossor jaw. Then, researchers can enlarge, rotate and reassemble individual bones to understand body mechanics and function.

This slab of rock holds Docofossor, a 160-million-year-old early mammaliaform from the Jurassic period discovered in China. First described by Zhe-Xi Luo, PhD, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, this tiny mole-like creature was just a few inches long. Removing it from the rock would destroy the specimen.

Researchers use the CT scanner to see inside the rock without harming the fossils. April Neander (above, middle photo), a research specialist and scientific illustrator in Luo’s lab, prepares the specimen, and the machine rotates it while taking hundreds of images from every angle.

PHOTO BY ZHE-XI LUO, PHD

PHOTOS BY APRIL NEANDER

THE WHITE CIRCLE OUTLINE PARTIALLY VISIBLE ON THE RIGHT IS THE SIZE OF A PENNY.

INTACT PARTS OF LEFT AND RIGHT MANDIBLES (SHOWN BY THE TWO COLORS) ARE COMBINED TO CREATE A “MORE COMPLETE” MANDIBLE.

A complete sketch of the skeleton is made using the scanned images by combining intact (shaded) elements with those broken or impression-created (outlined). Missing, hence conjectural, elements are shown by dashed outline. Neander uses this detailed size and proportion to create illustrations of what Docofossor looked like in real life.

The Docofossor jawbone, reproduced at a much larger scale than the original specimen, allows researchers to examine detailed structures and understand how individual bones connect and interact with each other.

A 3D printer in Luo’s lab uses the assembled images from the CT scanner as blueprints to create physical models of the fossil specimens.

PHOTOS BY MATT WOOD

entirely new way of designing a nervous system’

BY ALISON CALDWELL,

Octopuses are not much like humans they are invertebrates with eight arms, and more closely related to clams and snails. Still, they have evolved complex nervous systems with as many neurons as are in the brains of dogs and are capable of a wide array of complicated behaviors.

In the eyes of Melina Hale, PhD’98, and other researchers in the field, this means they provide a great opportunity to explore how alternative nervous system structures can serve the same basic functions of limb sensation and movement.

Now, in a study published in November in Current Biology, Hale, William Rainey Harper Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Vice Provost at the University of Chicago, and her colleagues have described something new and totally unexpected about the octopus nervous system: a structure by which the intramuscular nerve cords (INCs), which help the animal sense its arm movement, connect arms on the opposite sides of the animal.

The startling discovery provides new insights into how invertebrate species have independently evolved complex nervous systems. It can also provide inspiration for robotic engineering, such as new autonomous underwater devices.

“In my lab, we study mechanosensation and proprioception how the movement and

positioning of limbs is sensed,” said Hale. “These INCs have long been thought to be proprioceptive, so they were an interesting target for helping to answer the kinds of questions our lab is asking. Up until now, there hasn’t been a lot of work done on them, but past experiments had indicated that they’re important for arm control.”

Thanks to the support for cephalopod research offered by the Marine Biological Laboratory, Hale and her team were able to use young octopuses for the study, which were small enough to allow the researchers to image the base of all eight arms at once. This let the team trace the INCs through the tissue to determine their path.

“These octopuses were about the size of a nickel or maybe a quarter, so it was a process to affix the specimens in the right orientation and to get the angle right during the sectioning (for imaging),” said Adam Kuuspalu, a senior research analyst at the University of Chicago and lead author on the study.

“We think this is a new design for a limb-based nervous system.”

Melina Hale, PhD’98

Initially the team was studying the larger axial nerve cords in the arms, but they began to notice that the INCs didn’t stop at the base of the arm, but rather continued out of the arm and into the body of the animal. Realizing that little work had been done to explore the anatomy of the INCs, they began to trace the nerves, expecting them to form a ring in the body of the octopus, similar to the axial nerve cords.

Through imaging, the team determined that in addition to running the length of each arm, at least two of the four INCs extend into the body of the octopus, where they bypass the two adjacent arms and merge with the INC of the third arm over. This pattern means that all the arms are connected symmetrically.

‘An

A study on the intramuscular nerve cords of octopuses reveals that they are connected in a unique and unexpected geometric structure

PHD

Melina Hale, PhD’98, photographed for the Through the Lens of Time exhibit at the Marine Biological Laboratory.

PHOTO BY DANIEL COJANU/ UNDERCURRENT PRODUCTIONS

Turning to the toy box

It was challenging, however, to determine how the pattern would hold in all eight arms. “As we were imaging, we realized, they’re not all coming together as we expected, they all seem to be going in different directions, and we were trying to figure out, if the pattern held for all of the arms, how would that work?” said Hale. “I even got out one of those children’s toys a Spirograph to play around with what it would look like, how it would all connect in the end. It took a lot of imaging and playing with drawings while we racked our brains about what could be going on before it became clear how it all fits together.”

The results were not at all what the researchers expected to find.

“We think this is a new design for a limb-based nervous system,” said Hale. “We haven’t seen anything like this in other animals.”

The researchers don’t yet know what function this anatomical design might serve, but they have some ideas. “Some older papers have shared interesting insights,” said Hale. “One study from the 1950s showed that when you manipulate an arm on one side of an octopus with lesioned brain areas, you’ll see the arms responding on the other side. So, it could be that these nerves allow for decentralized control of a reflexive response or behavior. That said, we also see that fibers go out from the nerve cords

into the muscles all along their tracts, so they might also allow for a continuity of proprioceptive feedback and motor control along their lengths.”

The team is currently conducting experiments to see if they can gain insights into this question by parsing out the physiology of the INCs and their unique layout. They are also studying the nervous systems of other cephalopods, including squid and cuttlefish, to see if they share similar anatomy.

Ultimately, Hale believes that in addition to illuminating the unexpected ways an invertebrate species might design a nervous system, understanding these systems can aid in the development of new engineered technologies, such as robots.

“Octopuses can be a biological inspiration for the design of autonomous undersea devices,” said Hale. “Think about their arms they can bend anywhere, not just at joints. They can twist, extend their arms and operate their suckers, all independently. The function of an octopus arm is a lot more sophisticated than ours, so understanding how octopuses integrate sensory motor information and movement control can support the development of new technologies.”

The study, “Multiple nerve cords connect the arms of octopus providing alternative paths for inter-arm signaling,” was supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (N00014-22-1-2208). Samantha Cody of the University of Chicago was also an author on the paper.

PHOTO BY TOM KLEINDINST

Passion drives students to choose emergency medicine

BY DIANE DUNGEY

The man came to the University of Chicago Medicine Emergency Department because his wife insisted he seek care for his chronic sore throat. But he didn’t want to discuss his symptoms and balked at having any diagnostic procedures. He seemed on the verge of walking out.

Steering the conversation to the root of the patient’s reservations revealed a disdain for the healthcare system born in part out of unpleasant personal experiences, said Timothy Shen, MS4, who was doing a clerkship in emergency medicine.

“ The students who are choosing emergency medicine love the type of medicine that we practice. I believe that the students here at the University of Chicago are drawn to the opportunities to enact change and have an impact on the community that they serve.”

Keme Carter, MD Emergency Medicine Clerkship Director

“We were able to work past that and he became more amenable to getting a workup. It ended up that he did have a small tear in his esophagus that could have become a lot worse very quickly,” Shen said.

Rather than being frustrated by the patient, Shen appreciated the insight into the man’s point of view and the opportunity to help build trust. The experience ended up affirming his decision to specialize in emergency medicine.

Shen is one of seven University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine students who matched into emergency medicine this year a path chosen despite the challenges exposed by the pandemic and well-publicized reports of a discouraging job outlook for new emergency medicine physicians.

Shen is drawn to the chance to be part of a team that’s the “face” of healthcare for patients who might arrive in the ED with many medical and social needs and experiences. And he and other

fourth-year students say they were attracted to the field by Pritzker’s emphasis on healthcare equity and support for the community.

“Emergency medicine is the most unfiltered way to care for the underserved, in my opinion, so it has a very obvious draw for me,” said Ngozi Nwabueze, MS4. “When I found out what emergency medicine was about in my third year, it was like a lightbulb went on. I thought, ‘Why doesn’t everybody do this?’”

‘The sky is not falling’

The COVID-19 pandemic bookended the medical school careers of 2023 Pritzker graduates. The initial wave of infections struck during their first year, and hospitalizations in Illinois repeatedly peaked through the next two winters before leveling off. ED staff were in the trenches.

At the same time, signs began to emerge of a strained job outlook for emergency physicians nationally. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in 2021 projected there could be a surplus of 7,845 emergency physicians in 2030. A September 2022 update cited practicing emergency physicians’ eroding confidence in job and income stability.

So, it wouldn’t be surprising if these circumstances discouraged some medical students from going into emergency medicine and that might be what’s happening on the national stage.

While the number of emergency medicine residency positions continues to grow, the number of annual applicants dropped by 25% between 2021 and 2023, reports the Electronic Residency Application Service, or ERAS. The specialty had 555 initially unfilled positions in the 2023 Match, more than double the previous year.

Pritzker’s experience has been more encouraging. Emergency medicine remains one of the top choices for 2023 graduates tied for fourth-most popular specialty this year and the number seeking residencies has remained fairly stable over at least the past eight years.

Keme Carter, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Emergency Medicine Clerkship Director, said many considerations go into students’ selection of emergency medicine, but Pritzker has offered them something different.

“Our students have been exposed to a training environment that is really unique, that does serve as a safety net of a community where the faculty and the residents are doing really interesting and impactful work. They see a vision for themselves within our specialty,” said Carter, who also is Associate Dean for Admissions and Associate Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Education in the Department of Medicine.

“They know that there is still opportunity within emergency medicine, that the sky is not falling,” she said.

Coming from Pritzker would put students in good stead in any job market, attending physicians told Jessica Guillaume, MS4, during her ED rotations at UChicago Medicine and elsewhere.

“I feel really fortunate being at the University of Chicago. A lot of people told me the fact that you’re here for medical school is probably a sign that you’ll train somewhere that’s well-respected, and you’ll probably be well-positioned to be competitive when it comes to applying for jobs,” Guillaume said.

Nwabueze said neither the workforce projection nor the pandemic were major factors as she weighed devoting her career to emergency medicine.

“I’ve never really thought of that as something that would draw me out of wanting to do the specialty,” Nwabueze said of the jobs report. “I’m aware of it. But the pros, for me, so much outweigh the negatives.”

As for COVID-19, “I had to kind of defend emergency medicine as my choice to my mom, for example, who definitely didn’t want me to do anything close to this pandemic or another one that could happen. But I trust the ability for the healthcare field to arm itself against incoming threats and incoming viruses,” she said. “I hope that whenever the next threat comes we will be a little bit more prepared after having gone through this.”

A model of emergency care

Guillaume envisions a career in rural emergency medicine, but she’ll build off the model of wraparound care learned in UChicago Medicine’s busy urban ED and Level 1 adult trauma center.

Patients arrive needing medical aid and sometimes much more. The ED team embraces a holistic approach from the first question “How can I help?” to services as varied as the Feed1st food pantry, the Violence Recovery Program and connections to community resources.

“How can we also connect you with more stable housing or connect you with resources for food? That’s the part of emergency medicine that really appealed to me,” Guillaume said.

Pritzker School of Medicine MS4s Ngozi Nwabueze, left, Timothy Shen and Jessica Guillaume matched in emergency medicine. Nwabueze will train at UTHealth Houston, Shen at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and Guillaume at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

“We do our patients a disservice if we’re only looking at their medical needs, because their ability to pick up their medications or go to appointments or keep their wounds clean are all directly tied to their ability to access transportation and medical supplies that they need at home and clean running water and electricity,” she said.

Guillaume met with Carter in her third year after reflecting on what she liked most in each of her clinical rotations.

“I did a trauma surgery rotation and really liked the fast-paced Emergency Department portions of that. I loved the breadth of internal medicine. In pediatrics, I enjoyed navigating family discussions. And in OB-GYN, I really liked the procedural aspects.”

“ I try to encourage the students that if you think this is right for you, then we will help you find your voice. You tell us what a perfect career looks like, and if emergency medicine is the type of medicine you want to practice to get there, then we can show you a path.”

Abdullah Pratt, MD’16 Assistant Professor of Medicine

“I told Dr. Carter I think that points me to emergency medicine,” said Guillaume, who did an emergency medicine rotation on the border of Navajo lands in New Mexico and hopes to work in the Indian Health Service.

Students considering emergency medicine weigh their tolerance for the unpredictable, for being a generalist with a wide breadth of knowledge and experience, for very unfiltered and sometimes heart-wrenching interactions with patients and their families, and for working rotating shifts, Carter said.

They consider the allure of a specialty that leaves room for academics, research, medical leadership or community activism, with Pritzker offering role models of how those interests can be met, Carter said.

She points to Abdullah Pratt, MD’16, as an example. A native of the South Side, the emergency physician’s community activism includes organizing to push for creation of the UChicago Medicine Level 1

adult trauma center, starting a violence prevention initiative and founding a program that has taught thousands of teens how to respond to medical emergencies. The teens become a resource for the community and gain exposure to medical careers.

“There are so many varied, diverse and interesting ways that you can be a practicing emergency physician and still invest in work outside of the ED to have a substantive impact on patient well-being and the education of trainees,” Carter said.

Pratt credits Carter, Christine Babcock, MD, Director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at UChicago Medicine, and others for building a program that emphasizes diversity and commitment to addressing social and medical inequities. But they don’t sugarcoat, he said.

“Emergency medicine attracts those people who say, ‘I’m going to fight for something,’ and we’re telling the honest truth that when you fight for something, it’s actually a fight,” Pratt said.

As a result, students going into emergency medicine are confident of their choice, he said. “They know exactly what they’re signing up for and are more committed to doing it,” Pratt said.

The students say the sense of shared mission makes the Emergency Department a special place to work.

Shen, who initially saw himself as an orthopedic surgeon, loved the ED’s camaraderie, energy and teamwork.

“I feel like emergency medicine physicians are some of the coolest people. People are just fun and very unique individuals,” he said.

Shen had enjoyed his third-year orthopedics rotation, but a piece of advice stayed with him.

“The advice that I got was, don’t do ortho if it’s something that you just enjoyed while you were there; do it if you couldn’t see yourself being happy if you never went back in the operating room. That didn’t really resonate with me.

“But when I went into the Emergency Department and had my first patients that I was able to talk to and help work up, I felt like I would not be fulfilled if I didn’t have the chance to work in that capacity again.”

The 2023 Match

Top 5 specialties

Internal Medicine

(15 students)

Anesthesiology (12)

Psychiatry (11)

Emergency Medicine (7)

Pediatrics (7)

Top 5 institutions

1. University of Chicago Medical Center

2. Stanford University programs

3. University of California system

4. Northwestern University programs

5. (Tie) Duke University Medical Center Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education

Matchmaker, make me a Couples Match

BY JOE STERBENC

Nearly 20% of the Pritzker School of Medicine

Class of 2023 an unusually high number applied for the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Couples Match this year. This includes couples who met at Pritzker and students who want to match with a significant other at another medical school.

They had to navigate a more challenging process, thanks to the new “Program Signaling” feature the NRMP added to the residency application process last year. Medical students indicate their interest by “signaling” on the application which residency programs are their top priorities. It helps the programs know which applicants are genuinely interested and who might just be taking up an interview slot to cover their bases. The aim is to help distribute residency interviews more evenly across medical schools, giving priority to applicants who signal high interest in a program rather than just making space for applicants who are less interested but come from top-tier medical schools.

Last year, program signaling involved three specialties. For the Class of 2023, there are 18, including such competitive specialties as neurosurgery, ENT, OB-GYN and orthopedic surgery. The number is expected to increase in the coming years, said James Woodruff, MD, Pritzker’s Dean of Students.

“The couples at Pritzker are under a bit more pressure now,” Woodruff said. “You have the nexus of the Couples Match, competitive specialties and fewer interviews, meaning fewer chances for couples to overlap. Couples already have a difficult puzzle to solve. Adding another layer to it is problematic.”

MS4s Amrita Mohanty and Eric Arellano, who have been together for three years, matched together in anesthesiology at Stanford University. While being in the same specialty made it easier, Mohanty said applying to the Couples Match still posed a lot of challenges: coordinating interviews at the same programs, deciding which part of the country they want to live in, and being equally impressed with the same program after the interviews.

“Going through those conversations during the cycle is tough, but it made it easier to bounce ideas off of each other and find out what was important,” Arellano said.

“(We were) committed to going to the same program or at least being in the same city,” Mohanty added.

Jamie Bartosch

PHOTOS

“I know you will do amazing things in the future, because you are all destined for greatness and leadership.”

Vineet Arora, MD, AM’03 Dean for Medical Education

Victoria Oladipo, MS4, will be the first Black female orthopedic surgery resident at Mayo Clinic.

Kaitlin McLean, MS4, jumps for joy on Match Day 2023.

Gold Humanism Honor Society

Fourteen fourth-year students of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2023 were inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in February. Nominated by their peers, these students exemplify compassionate patient care and serve as role models, mentors and leaders.

Ehizokha Ihionkhan, MS4, was the student recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. Julie Chor, MD’04, MPH, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was the faculty recipient.

Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society

Twenty-two members of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

Class of 2023 were inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA) Honor Medical Society. The AΩA constitution calls for students to be recognized not only for academic achievement, but also achievement in research and scholarship, leadership, ethical behavior, professionalism, and service to the school and community at large.

Each AΩA class elects alumni, faculty and housestaff to the Illinois Beta Chapter (the University of Chicago) in recognition

of their leadership and accomplishments. Alumni are eligible 10 years after graduation. Faculty are elected based on demonstrated commitment to scholarly excellence and medical education. Housestaff are elected for their continued achievement, promise and mentorship qualities.

The 2023 honorees are:

Alumni: Chelsea A. Dorsey, MD’10, Department of Surgery; and Joan Zajtchuk, SB’60, MD’66, COL (ret.), U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Faculty: Mohan S. Gundeti, MD, Department of Surgery; and Carrie

Smith, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Housestaff: Amy Espinal, MD, Department of Neurology; Jhonatan Marte, SB’16, MD’21, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience; and Alejandro Plana, SM’19, MD’20, Department of Medicine.

Katherine Kopkash, MD, Clinical Associate Professor at NorthShore University HealthSystem, received the Volunteer Clinical Faculty Award, which recognizes a community physician who contributes with distinction to the education and training of clinical students.

Gold Humanism Honor Society inductees, from left: Reem Hamoda, MPH, Olivier Joseph, Michael Okoreeh, PhD’20, Dana Anderson, Eric Arellano, Michael Sun, Maria Ruiz, Manizha Kholmatov, Santiago Avila, Leslie McCauley, Shawn He, Sarah Vaughen, Zaina Zayyad, PhD’21, and Ehizokha Ihionkhan.

Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society inductees with faculty, from left, front row: AΩA Chapter Councilor Daniel Golden, MD, MHPE, Visiting Professor Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, Amrita Mohanty, Hannah Priddy, Zaina Zayyad, PhD’21, Akosua Oppong, MPH, Swetha Tatineni, Dru Brenner, and Dean for Medical Education Vineet Arora, MD, AM’03. Middle row: Henry Seidel, Reem Hamoda, MPH, Devika Jaishankar, Manizha Kholmatov, Karina Grullon Perez, Reem Elorbany, SB’15, PhD’20, Pranav Haravu, Tiffany Toni, and Victoria Oladipo. Back row: Dana Anderson, Teresa Xiao, Camron Shirkhodaie, Ian Waters, PhD, Nicholas McKenzie, Steven Server, PhD’22, and Eric Arellano.

Remembering ‘The Oracle on the Fourth’

Eleanor Humphreys, Rush MD’31, was the surgical pathologist at the University of Chicago when I was a medical student. She was often referred to as The Oracle on the Fourth or was it Fifth? Floor.

Medical students during the surgical rotation described, dissected and diagnosed surgical specimens removed from their assigned patients.

One fall afternoon, I was examining a segment of formalin-fixed lung removed for treatment of tuberculosis. Dr. Humphreys and I were the only two people in the laboratory and we chatted as I worked.

One of the stories that she told me about her experience as a pilot of a light aircraft was that she always got lost over Pittsburgh. This immediately brought up the image of Dr. Humphreys with hair streaming from a leather pilot’s helmet, in the cockpit of a light aircraft as she flew over the skies of Pittsburgh, lighted by open-hearth furnaces.

We continued to discuss a number of subjects, and suddenly she said, “Gottlieb, you have the disease.” I panicked and said, “Do you think I have tuberculosis?” She said, “No, you are going to be a pathologist.”

I explained that was highly unlikely, because patient contact was very important to me. She said, as she walked out of the laboratory, “You’ll see.”

After a rotating internship, and two years of general medical practice in the U.S. Air Force, with a considerable amount of patient contact, I began my residency in pathology.

The words of The Oracle have stayed with me during my enjoyable practice of surgical pathology.

I never saw Dr. Humphreys again after my graduation and never had the opportunity to thank her.

Lawrence Gottlieb, MD’56

Pressures on today’s physicians

The article about burned-out doctors that appeared in Medicine on the Midway brought to my attention that after working for 25 years as the only rural surgeon, I never felt burned out. However, now that I am retired, I feel that I had so much pressure, but I thought I was just fine.

I believe that big corporations have forced physicians to practice under a lot of pressure and to see patients in a very short time. Physicians also must produce numbers to comply with the financial obligations of their offices. In my opinion, the personal contact that we had with patients has disappeared and the satisfactions that we had do not exist anymore.

The personal connection between a doctor and a patient was extremely rewarding and provided encouragement and made us happy. I was seen recently by a retina specialist who identified me by my date of birth, never asked my symptoms or even my name. He looked at the computer, was brief and told me that I was fine. My wife was seen by a surgeon, who was also brief and examined her abdomen while she was fully clothed and sitting on a chair. That exam was, in my opinion, useless.

I think both doctors were under pressure and their behavior is conducive to burnout even if they did not realize it when they examined us.

Fernando Ugarte, MD’65

LETTERS

Is there a story in this issue that inspires you to comment? Do you have a memory or reflection to share? Medicine on the Midway is open for feedback. Letters must be signed and may be edited for AP style, space, clarity and civility. To provide a range of views and voices, we encourage letter writers to limit themselves to 300 words or fewer.

Please send letters via email: momeditor@bsd.uchicago.edu

Share news about your life and accomplishments: mbsaa.uchicago.edu/ update-contact-info

Eleanor Humphreys, Rush MD’31

YOUR NEWS

1960s

Marvin Stone, SM’62, MD’63, received the lifetime achievement award from the American Osler Society. He is a member of the American College of Physicians and a fellow at the Royal College of Physicians (London). Previously, Stone served as the president of the American Osler Society.

1970s

Nathan Szajnberg, AB’74, MD’74, published Psychic Mimesis from Bible and Homer to Now: Inner Lives Over Time and The Secret Symmetry of Maimonides and Freud Psychic Mimesis explores the historical development of the inner self from the Bible and Homer to contemporary Western literature. Maimonides and Freud discusses the genre of concealing and revealing from the perspectives of medieval physicians and rabbis as well as Freud.

William B. Lawson, MD’78, was named president of the senior society in the American Psychiatric Association. Lawson will give the distinguished lecture at the annual meeting in May.

1980s

David J. Palmer, MD’80, received the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Secretary for Federal Affairs Secretariat Award. Palmer was recognized for his work on an Illinois drug waste law, PA 102-0155. He is a member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery’s Ophthalmic Instrument Cleaning and Sterilization OR Waste Task Force and co-chairs the subcommittee on surgical pharmaceutical waste.

Clement Ren, MD’87, was appointed to the Richard B. Johnston, Jr. Endowed Chair in Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Additionally, Ren is the director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Michele David, MD’88, was named chief of clinical quality and patient safety at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Medical. Previously, David held teaching positions at Boston University School of Medicine.

1990s

Allison August, MD’93, was appointed chief medical officer at Comanche Biopharma, a preclinical biopharmaceutical company developing a novel siRNA therapy for the treatment of preeclampsia. She previously worked at Moderna, where she was vice president of clinical development, infectious diseases, and spent over five years in various roles with increasing responsibility for the development of mRNA-based vaccines and the first mRNA-encoded monoclonal antibody.

Gail M. Farfel, PhD’93, was appointed chief executive officer at ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of antibody therapeutics targeting misfolded proteins such as toxic oligomers, implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Prior to joining ProMIS, Farfel served as executive vice president and chief development officer of Zogenix, Inc.

Mark Frattini, PhD’94, MD’97, was appointed chief medical officer at Cellectis, a clinical stage biotechnology company using its gene-editing platform to develop lifesaving cell and gene therapies. He has over 20 years of experience in the field of hematological malignancies. In 2020, Frattini joined Cellectis as senior vice president of clinical sciences. In his new role, he will oversee clinical research and development for Cellectis’ UCART clinical trial programs.

Sarwat I. Chaudhry, MD’95, was appointed professor of internal medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.

2000s

Pat Basu, MBA’05, MD’05, joined the leadership team at Varsity Healthcare Partners (VHP), a lower-middle-market healthcare services private equity investment firm. He will lead the entirety of VHP’s Operating Partner program in the role of managing partner, Varsity Operations, as well as support VHP’s healthcare services investment activities as a partner and member of the firm’s investment committee. Basu previously served as president and chief executive officer at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a national network of oncology hospitals and outpatient care centers. Pilar Ortega, MD’06, has been named vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Previously, she was a clinical associate professor of emergency medicine and medical education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Ortega is a recognized expert in researching and establishing best practices in medical Spanish education, language proficiency assessment and patient-centered communication for physicians and medical students.

Nirav D. Shah, JD’07, MD’08, was named principal deputy director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He previously worked as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health and director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and served as president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

2010s

Joshua Williams, MD’13, received the K23 Career Development Award from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Williams gained recognition for his work using digital stories to improve influenza vaccination equity. He is currently an associate research scientist at Denver Health’s Center for Health Systems Research, an academic general pediatrician at Denver Health and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver.

Pritzker School of Medicine

2022–2023 ALUMNI COUNCIL

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Doriane Miller, MD’83 President

Chris Albanis, AB’96, MD’00

Immediate Past President

Karyl Kopaskie, AB’07, PhD’14

Vice President

Mark Aschliman, MD’80

Alumni Awards Committee Chair

Sapana Vora, PhD’14

Chicago Partners Program Chair

Jeanne Farnan, AB’98, MD’02, MHPE Editorial Committee Chair

Michael Prystowsky, MD’81, PhD Regional Programs Chair

ALUMNI COUNCIL

Lampis Anagnostopoulos, SB’57, MD’61 ✱

Jennifer “Piper” Below, PhD’11

Kenneth Bridbord, MD’69, MPH

Ava Ferguson Bryan, AM’10, MD’18 ✤

Courtney Burrows, PhD’15, MBA’17

Arnold Calica, SM’61, MD’75 ✱

Richard Cote, MD’80

Leonard Covello, AB’86, MD’90

Ithaar Derweesh, MD’95

Arash Emami, MD’94

Gail Farfel, PhD’93

Jonathan Fox, AB’79, PhD’85, MD’87

Katherine Given, AB’08, PhD’13, MBA’16, MD’16

Jeffrey Goodenbour, PhD’09

Andrew Hack, AB’95, PhD’00, MD’02

Rajiv Jauhar, MD’91

Lucy Lester, MD’72

Daniel Leventhal, SM’13, PhD’16

Rosy Liao ✤

Peter McCauley, MD’86

Jennifer McPartland, PhD’08

Vincent Nelson, MD’98, MBA, MHP

Carol Olson, PhD’82, MD’86

Loren Schechter, MD’94

Steven Server, PhD’22 ✤

Coleman Seskind, AB’55, SB’56, MD’59, SM’59 ✱

Adhir Shroff, MD’96

Puneet Singh, MD’11

Abby Stayart, AB’97, PhD’12

Margaret Steiner ✤

Anne Taylor, MD’76

Cynthia Thaik, MD’90

Vishruth “Vish” Venkataraman ✤

Sydney Yoon, MD’86

Russ Zajtchuk, SB’60, MD’63 ✱

✱ LIFE MEMBER

✤ STUDENT OR RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE

REUNION | May 19-20, 2023

All medical alumni are invited back to campus to enjoy the Pritzker Reunion. Members of the following classes will celebrate milestone Reunions this year: 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2018. Learn more about Reunion Weekend at mbsaa.uchicago.edu/reunion or follow @UChicagoMBSAA on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Classmates John E. Ellis, MD’82, left, and John Fung, PhD’80, MD’82, with Beth Fung, center, during the 2022 Pritzker Reunion.

Faculty Tracy Koogler, MD

Tracy Koogler, MD, a tireless advocate for patients and research subjects, died December 28, 2022, of cancer. She was 56. An associate professor of pediatrics and anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago, Koogler’s clinical career was dedicated to caring for children in the burn unit and the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). She was also actively involved with medical ethics, conducting consults and serving as the assistant director of the UChicago MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

Koogler received her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and she trained in pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and in pediatric critical care medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She joined the University of Chicago in 1998, where her work in enhancing pediatric burns care was regarded by many as pioneering. In the PICU, she worked in sedation and had special empathy for children with cancer. Koogler began a clinical medical ethics fellowship that same year at the MacLean Center, which led to a career in medical ethics, bioethics and ethics consultations. As a member of the Institutional Review Board

Former faculty

Richard Cook, MD

Richard Cook, MD, a faculty member in the University of Chicago Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care from 1994 to 2012, died on August 31, 2022. He was 69. An internationally recognized expert in medical accidents and how to enhance safety in complex systems, he was a colleague, friend and mentor to many members of the department and throughout the Biological Sciences Division and UChicago Medicine.

A clear-thinking scholar and superb communicator who had the courage to dissent from the prevailing opinion, Cook influenced the trajectory of healthcare delivery, patient safety and medical device design through his multifaceted career as a physician, anesthesiologist and software engineer. His research on systems failure informed work to develop new designs for technology and digital tools to support cognitive work by practitioners, instead of burdening it with additional

(IRB), she reviewed protocols to ensure that patients who participated in research were informed and protected. She became vice-chair of the board in 2011.

Throughout her nearly 25-year career, she mentored many students, residents and fellows. In 2020, she received the Biological Sciences Division Distinguished Clinician Award, which recognizes highly talented members of the faculty for their clinical excellence.

Koogler served on the advisory board of Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, a nonprofit that coordinates organ and tissue donation in Illinois and Northwest Indiana. She was an active member of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, ultimately becoming a deacon and then an elder.

She is survived by her mother, retired nurse Linda Rosen Koogler, RN; brother, William Todd (Royanne); nieces, Lindsay Ryan and Madison Bailey; stepnieces, Josephine Emilia Rose Dell and Frances Victoria Brooks Dell; uncles, Melvin E. Rosen, Jr. (Peggie) and Fred P. Rosen, PhD; aunt, Betty Lou Harlow Koogler; several cousins; and a special friend, Mark Schimmelpfennig.

constraints and disruptions at critical moments. He thought actively and creatively about safety and how complex systems fail for the past two decades, and helped change how people think about these issues in aviation, space exploration, healthcare and software systems. He founded Adaptive Capacity Labs to help software companies build resilience in their organizations. For a lengthy synopsis of his life and wide-ranging influence, visit adaptivecapacitylabs. com/blog/2022/09/12/richard-cook-a-life-in-many-acts. Cook is survived by his wife, Karen; three children, Cliff, Kristin and Kara Schwandner, and their spouses; his father, Richard G. Cook; his siblings, Sue and Paul Cook; and six grandchildren. He is remembered as an extraordinary person, both funny and generous with his time, an incomparable doctor, and a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, and valued member of the University community in every sense.

From “The Career, Accomplishments and Impact of Richard I. Cook: A Life in Many Acts,” Adaptive Capacity Labs

“Tracy was a special and unique member of our department. Her commitment to the critically ill child, her leadership in the pediatric burns care program, her contributions to the University of Chicago IRB, and her clinical ethics scholarship and mentorship will be missed deeply.”

John M. Cunningham, MD George M. Eisenberg Professor Chair, Department of Pediatrics

“Richard’s driving curiosity and accomplishments span many disciplines and domains, and his work will continue to influence every one of them for decades to come.”

Former faculty Nicholas Vogelzang, MD

Nicholas Vogelzang, MD, an internationally recognized oncologist and former University of Chicago faculty member renowned for his kindness to patients, died on September 20, 2022, in Las Vegas. He was 72. Throughout his more than 20 years at the University, Vogelzang treated genitourinary cancers and mesothelioma, served in key leadership positions, and became recognized nationally in the field.

Vogelzang received his MD from the University of Illinois Chicago, and completed his residency at Rush University Medical Center and medical oncology training at the University of Minnesota. In 1982, he was recruited to join the University of Chicago faculty in the Section of Hematology/ Oncology in the Department of Medicine, where he built a genitourinary oncology program from scratch, treating prostate, kidney, bladder and other urologic cancers. His enthusiasm for improving cancer care and for treating patients with empathy was apparent from the start.

In the 1980s and 1990s, few treatments existed for genitourinary cancers. Yet Vogelzang “always had a thousand and one ideas of what we could do differently for patients, how we could improve care and what research we should pursue,” said Walter Stadler, MD, Fred C. Buffett Professor of Medicine and Dean for Clinical Research. That led Vogelzang to become known as a leading clinical investigator in genitourinary oncology. In addition to treating prostate and renal cancers, he discovered the first life-extending treatment for mesothelioma: a chemotherapy drug combination of pemetrexed and cisplatin.

Amid Vogelzang’s energy for transforming cancer research, he always put patients first. “He was always at ease with patients, warm and direct a true role model,” said Sonali Smith, MD, Elwood V. Jensen Professor of Medicine and Chief of Hematology/Oncology. His empathy may have been due

IN MEMORIAM

Neal Nathanson, MD, died on August 11, 2022. Nathanson completed his residency in neurology at the University of Chicago. He was an eminent virologist and public health advocate. He served as professor and chair of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn)

in part to his own experience with cancer. In the 1980s, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, requiring radiation to his chest. “He became a cancer patient himself, but we got him through that, and he continued to practice medicine,” said Harvey Golomb, MD, Lowell T. Coggeshall Professor of Medicine.

At UChicago, Vogelzang was honored with the inaugural Fred C. Buffett Professorship and served as director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center (now the UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center) from 1999 to 2003. He was nationally recognized within the oncology community, serving as president of the Illinois Division of the American Cancer Society and on the board of directors for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He was the principal investigator of the University of Chicago Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) grant from 1988 to 1999, and chair of the CALGB Prostate Committee from 1993 to 1999. He was a founding board member of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, helped found the Kidney Cancer Association, and was a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Urological Association, the Society of Urologic Oncology, and the European Society for Medical Oncology.

Vogelzang left UChicago in 2004 to serve as director and executive vice president for academic affairs at the Nevada Cancer Institute. He joined the Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, a US Oncology practice, in 2009. Ultimately, he published more than 600 scientific articles and was named a Giant of Cancer Care by OncLive in 2018.

Vogelzang is survived by his wife, Diane; children, Nicholas Jr., Adam, Timothy, Stephanie Jennings and Brendan Meyer; grandchildren, Chase, Anne, Isaac, Clara, Josiah, Pearl, Molly, Samuel, Rylan and Reagan Vogelzang; and siblings, Robert, Mark, Kathleen Groen, Philip, Michael and Mary.

Department of Medicine and Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology

Chair,

Medical School. He was also the founder and director of Penn’s public health training program in Tanzania.

Nathanson was chair of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health. He is survived by his brother, Larry.

Cathie-Ann Lippman, MD’73, died on October 25, 2022. Lippman interned in pediatrics at the University of Southern California County General Hospital and completed a residency in psychiatry at the Brentwood VA Medical Center under the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1978,

she became board-certified in child and adult psychiatry and neurology. She was a pioneer in the practice of holistic medicine. She is survived by her husband, Jules; her sons, Stuart and Jeffrey; and grandchildren, Jacob, Joshua, Bella, and Aviva.

“He was really proud and happy to be engaged in solid tumor oncology, even back when there were more limitations on the kinds of treatments we could offer. He always drove ideas that he was able to translate into clinical trials in order to advance options for our patients.”

Everett Vokes, MD

John E. Ultmann Distinguished Service Professor

Department of Medicine

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Predawn Purkinje

Neurobiology graduate student Silas

Busch’s entry in the University of Chicago’s 2023 Science as Art contest is an image of mouse cerebellar Purkinje cells expressing a cell-type-specific fluorescent tag visualized with a laser-scanning confocal microscope at 40x magnification. Busch’s image is a maximum projection of multiple images capturing different planes in the third dimension, revealing the depth of the tissue and the cells at and below the surface. “In this orientation, the cell bodies and dendrites look like hurrying pedestrians before dawn,” Busch, a member of the Hansel Lab, wrote in his artist statement. “The confocal microscope collects colorless light intensity pixel values which I pseudocolored with a ‘Green Fire Blue’ filter.”