DR. BRENT ELECTED TO EDITORIAL BOARD OF PEDIATRICS

Robert L. Brent, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Radiology, and Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, and The Louis and Bess Stein Professor of Pedicatrics, Jefferson Medical College, has been named to the editorial board of PEDIATRICS, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, published monthly with a circulation of 58,000 in the United States and more than 12 foreign countries. Members of the editorial board assist the editors in the selection and review of articles to be published, write short commentaries on articles they have reviewed, and make decisions on the editorial policies, standards and operation of pediatrics. The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 53,000 primary care physicians, pediatric medical subspecialists, and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

Dr. Brent was also the keynote speaker at the Ahrnberg Symposium, in Goteborg, Sweden, where he presented: "Scientific Scholarship, Integrity and Ethics in the Field of Teratology". In addition, as invited speaker at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, he presented "Thirty seven years after the Thalidomide Tragedy: What have we learned about the causes of human birth defects
with emphasis on limb reduction defects?"

*Charles Brenner, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Kimmel Cancer Institute, is the recipient of the Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award grant from the March of Dimes. Dr. Brenner will use the two-year, $100,000 grant to continue his research on HNT2, the yeast homologue of the FHIT gene, which is damaged in a large fraction of common human cancers. The FHIT gene is located at a fragile site on the human genome and could be a factor in human birth defects as well.

*Carlo M. Croce, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Jefferson Medical College and Director, Kimmel Cancer Institute and Kimmel Cancer Center, was one of two physicians to receive the 1997 Award for Scientific Excellence in Medicine from the American-Italian Cancer Foundation, in recognition of "outstanding contributions to the field of international cancer genetics research."

*Edward Emmett, MD, Professor and Director of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, Policy and Practice in the Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Occupational Physicians Scholarship Fund. The recent campaign of the fund will allow it to support 10 scholarships annuallly through the year 2008 for physicians taking residency training in occupational medicine, a field in which there is a national shortage of physicians.

*Barry B. Goldberg, MD, Director, Division of Diagnostic Ultrasound, Department of Radiology, received a $750,000 educational grant on behalf of The Jefferson Ultrasound Institute from the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundations), an organization that has supported the international educational efforts of Dr. Goldberg and the Jefferson Ultrasound Institute for the past five years. Because of this support, the Institute has been able to provide training for teachers in ultrasound from many countries throughout central and eastern Europe and the former Russian Republics and establish 15 educational centers affiliated with The Jefferson Ultrasound Institute throughout Europe. These centers provide intensive training for three months to selected physicians from countries in these regions, who then return to their native countries to establish ultrasound education programs. The new award allows for a significant increase in the teaching program and in establishing additional affiliated centers as well as in developing a core curriculum so that subjects are taught in a uniform manner throughout the centers.

*Sergio A. Jimenez, MD, The Dorrance H. Hamilton Professor of Medicine, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, and Director, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, has been chosen by the Osteoarthritis Research Society (OARS) to be President Elect for a two year term.