BIDMC Staff Fulfill Wishes of Families
Gift-giving for families has become a winter tradition for BIDMC, and once again this year, the Community Caring Gift-Giving program is lending a hand to Bowdoin Street Health Center families.
Last year, 182 families, including hundreds of children, received toys, clothing and other presents, along with grocery store gift certificates, from the BIDMC community. The need is even greater this year. Linda Barros, community health department, Bowdoin Street, says, “Families are being squeezed by the costs of heating and insurance.”
Working from family wish lists, the department of medicine staff strive to fill each request, says Joanne Casella, department administrator. “One year, a staff member drove to New Hampshire to get what a child asked for because she couldn’t find it anywhere else.” The experience is more personal than writing a check, Casella notes.
Jean Beach, pharmacy supervisor, says her office turns into “gift central” each December as presents pour in: “It’s a time to realize how fortunate we are and rediscover the joy of giving.”
In neonatal medicine, physicians and administrative and research staff enjoy visiting the conference room where gifts are stored to see the results of their giving. “It’s humbling to see some of the requests,” says administrator Gayle Matheson. “Our staff is very happy to be a part of it.”
Virtually everyone from three shifts at the microbiology lab participates, according to Lorinda Longhi, the lead technologist who organizes the effort. “The requests from kids really tug at our heart strings,” she says.
The Community Caring Gift-Giving program has begun. Please call Jacquaetta Hester-Walker at (66)7-0598, e-mail her, or visit community benefits on Gryzmish 6, east campus, to obtain family gift lists.
— Cindy Whitcome
Staff of the microbiology lab on Rabb 3 are gearing up for another giving season.
Published monthly for the people of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to build community, communicate direction, foster pride and recognize accomplishments.
Produced by Beth Israel Deaconess communications, (66)7-7300
director, internal communications: Cindy Whitcome
managing editor: Valerie Hope Goldstein
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Research Day Sets Blueprint for the Future
Hollenberg (l) and Flier review blueprints of the Center for Life Science Building (rendered in the background).
Featuring scientific presentations by some of the newest members of the research faculty and an update on the development of the new Center for Life Science Building, BIDMC's Research Day 2005 brought a sense of optimism, excitement and momentum.
The seventh annual event, held Oct. 14, provided the BIDMC community with a glimpse of some of the hundreds of scientific investigations taking place throughout the medical center and introduced a few of the more than 200 principal investigators whose laboratories are producing discoveries critical to medicine.
“Our present situation is very optimistic,” said Chief Academic Officer Jeffrey S. Flier, MD, in his opening remarks. “Today our research enterprise has 261 principal investigators and 1,400 research staff. We are developing a new research strategic plan that includes new buildings, chiefly the Center for Life Science (CLS) building, which will ultimately accommodate more than half of BIDMC’s research enterprise.”
Scheduled to open in 2008, the CLS marks an important milestone for Boston’s biomedical research community and BIDMC, according to Anthony Hollenberg, MD, director of strategic research planning and development, who leads the Research Space Executive Committee.
“BIDMC will be the building’s anchor tenant occupying 350,000 square feet, or approximately half of the building,” said Hollenberg in his update on the building’s progress. Located on Blackfan Circle across from the Harvard Institutes of Medicine (HIM) Building, the CLS will house up to 130 BIDMC principal investigators and their labs on six floors, with a seventh floor animal facility. “The designs of the floors in CLS, coupled with our first-class research space in the Research North and Dana Buildings, will allow scientists easier access for collaborative efforts,” adds Flier. “It will also enable our program to keep pace with the tremendous scientific advances of recent years.”
While the actual move is two-and-one-half years down the road, planning is well underway. “Moving people from one biomedical laboratory space to another will pose a big challenge,” Flier notes, a sentiment appreciated by new faculty members and Research Day presenters Mark Zeidel, MD, medicine, and Jeffrey Saffitz, MD, pathology, who are relocating their labs from Pittsburgh and St. Louis, respectively.
Zeidel, who presented an overview of his work, “Mechanisms of Water and Small Molecule Flux Across Biological Membranes,” and Saffitz, who spoke about his research, “Altered Intercellular Electrical Coupling in the Heart and Sudden Cardiac Death,” were joined by other new BIDMC faculty members Seth J. Karp, MD, transplantation (“Transcription Factors in Liver Development and Regeneration”); Robert Stickgold, PhD, psychiatry (“Sleep, Memory and Dreams: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach”); Detlef Schuppan, MD, PhD, gastroenterology (“Can Pharmacological Treatment Reverse Liver Fibrosis and Cirrhosis?”); and Matthew P. Anderson, MD, PhD, neurology and pathology (“A Systems Biologic Approach to Sleep and Epilepsy”) in the morning’s presentations, which concluded with an overview by John Frangioni, MD, PhD, hematology/oncology, of BIDMC’s molecular imaging capabilities.
The event also featured 145 abstracts displayed during two poster sessions in Harvard’s New Research Building.
— Bonnie Prescott