APSA Newsletter - Phi Psi, 2010 Spring, Volume 4, No. 3

Letter from the Editors

Hung Doan, Shane Stecklein, Daniel Matson, University of Texas Medical Branch, University of Kansas School of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine

• Login or become a member to post comments
• Read more

This Spring edition of Phi Psi coincides with our APSA Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the ASCI/AAP Annual Meeting. As such we have included the results of the F30 survey conducted by the APSA Policy Committee.

President David Braun provides the current state of the organization and what a dynamic year it has been. President-Elect Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge encourages involvement at all levels of APSA. Additionally, Ivayla Geneva has written a piece detailing leadership opportunities within APSA of which selection of committee chairs will take place at the annual meeting. Also this edition’s Physician-Scientist Spotlight focuses on one of the speakers at the ASCI/AAP Meeting, Joseph Goldstein, MD, the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.

From the President

David Braun, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

• Login or become a member to post comments
• Read more

As we are nearing the end of the academic year, I would like to briefly recap but also to look forward to our upcoming activities. We have made considerable progress during the year by strengthening our network, enhancing our communications, and increasing input from APSA members. This is all helping us grow and to move forward to the next major event, our Annual Meeting.

From the President-Elect

Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge, Ohio State University College of Medicine

• Login or become a member to post comments
• Read more

Greetings fellow APSA members!  As our 6th Annual Meeting arrives, our organization finds itself with a vibrant membership that spans an increasingly diverse set of training programs, institutions, and geographic areas.  Looking over the accomplishments of our members, I am excited to see how we are making significant strives in multiple arenas.  As scientists, our scientific accomplishments are being recognized at this year’s Joint Meeting with numerous travel awards, an increasing number of poster presentations, and the opportunity for several student trainees to provide oral presentations.

Physician-Scientist Spotlight: Joseph L. Goldstein, MD

Shane Stecklein, University of Kansas School of Medicine

• Login or become a member to post comments
• Read more

APSA is delighted to highlight the distinguished career of Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, MD, a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist and biochemist who pioneered the study of cholesterol metabolism.Dr. Goldstein received his Bachelors of Science in chemistry from Washington and Lee University in 1962 and then completed his Doctor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1966.  Along with his close colleague, Michael S. Brown, M.D., Dr. Goldstein uncovered and characterized the fundamental role of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) receptors in extracting cholesterol from the bloodstream.  This research identified the genetic lesion that causes familial hypercholesterolemia and characterized a new mechanism by which cells take up material from the extracellular environment—a process they coined “receptor-mediated endocytosis.”  For this work, Goldstein received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and the Albert D. Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research in 1985 and the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1988.  Furthermore, Brown and Goldstein’s research lead to the development of statins, which are used by more than 30 million adults worldwide to treat hyperlipidemia and are currently the most widely prescribed pharmaceutical class in the United States.

Translational Research: What are the advantages and where do we fit in?

Hung Doan, The University of Texas Medical Branch

• Login or become a member to post comments
• Read more

I’m sure many have heard that MD-PhD students may someday be “doctor-doctors,” but besides having two degrees, what does it mean to be an MD, PhD, a physician-scientist? Ultimately, the goals of many if not all MD-PhD Training Programs is to train competent physician-scientists and physician-scholars. In turn we first entered these programs inspired by the goals of alleviating human suffering not only through directed patient care, but also through our talents and interest in biomedical science and research.

APSA – The Leadership Experience

Ivayla Geneva, State University of New York Upstate Medical University

• Login or become a member to post comments
• Read more

The American Physician Scientists Association is a national organization with strong collaborative ties to the Canadian, French, and Swiss physician-scientist organizations as well as to many of the US-based medical research associations. But does the average APSA member realize how different APSA is from all other big national scientific organizations? Isn’t it amazing that APSA is run by students at all of its administrative levels? From the institutional representatives to the standing committee members to the executive council officers, yes even at our Board of Directors level we have plenty of student involvement!

So how is this made possible? How does APSA help a student like yourself, learn, grow, and become a great leader at the national level?

Well, the truth is that it takes significant effort from both the student volunteer who has just begun their APSA experience and from the current APSA leadership that will serve as their mentors.

Book Review: The Vanishing Physician-Scientist?, Andrew I. Schafer (ed).

Daniel Matson, University of Virginia School of Medicine

• Login or become a member to post comments
• Read more

The Vanishing Physician-Scientist?, edited by Dr. Andrew Schafer, is a must-read for any student currently working their way through a joint MD/PhD degree program and for those educators currently involved in mentoring a student interested in this challenging career.  The book is a collection of essays organized into chapters and written by knowledgeable experts who capably detail a great range of pertinent topics.  Dr. Schafer starts the piece off with an introduction and a well-written chronicle detailing the rise of clinician researchers throughout history.  This section frames the current physician-scientist with a rarely-appreciated historical perspective and gives the reader a good foundation with which to approach the rest of the book.