April 2009

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Gerald W. Friedland

By Julie Ruiz, PhD

Publishing over 85 original, peer-reviewed articles as well as a total of 36 book chapters and 3 books, Gerald W. Friedland, MD, has greatly impacted the field of radiology through his research in uroradiology and embryology. In recognition of his accomplishments, he has earned two Cum Laude Awards from the Radiological Society of North America. He was elected to Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCPE) and was given a tie, upon which is written the years between the founding of the FRCPE and his election as fellow: 1681-1981 (please see his FRCPE tie in the above photo).

However, it was his coauthoring of Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries (1998) that led to his guest appearance on. . .

CNN's "Voice of the Millennium" in 1999. He was featured on CNN because in the last few pages of their book, Drs. Friedland and Friedman state that they believe the future cure of mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder, will be one of the next great discoveries. Due to their interest in research for mental health disorders, former first lady Rosalyn Carter as well as Tipper Gore also appeared on CNN's "Voice of the Millennium," along with Dr. Friedland. In addition, Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries was featured on the History Channel's "Mavericks, Miracles and Medicine" in 2003. This past year, Dr. Friedland was invited by the Friends of the Cape Medical Museum to give a talk on his book at the Cape Medical Museum in South Africa, which features exhibits from the history of medicine in the Western Cape.

As the son of a radiologist, Dr. Friedland's deep interest in medical discoveries began at an early age and he eventually chose radiology as a career, despite the admonitions of his father that he become a dermatologist. After graduating from Pretoria University Medical School in South Africa, Dr. Friedland completed a three-year residency in internal medicine, which consisted of one year in cardiology (1959-60) and gastroenterology (1960-61). After passing his exams in internal medicine and gastroenterology, Dr. Friedland became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (MRCPE) in 1961 and began his residency in radiology at Glasgow University in 1962. He was senior research resident in radiology in 1964, funded by the British Medical Research Council at Cambridge University. After receiving his Diploma in Medical Radio-Diagnosis (DMRD) from the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Royal College of Surgeons of England as well as becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists (FRCR), Dr. Friedland worked for two years at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, where he became experienced in gastrointestinal radiology, uroradiology, and pediatric radiology.

Well aware of Stanford's outstanding reputation, Dr. Friedland began considering a radiologic career in the United States. His wife's severe mold allergies, precipitated by living in the old houses in England, also provided impetus for his career move. When he contacted Stanford to inquire about job possibilities, he was surprised to learn that Stanford Professor of Radiology Leslie Zatz was in London. "In lieu of an interview, Dr. Zatz spent one week following me around and observing me at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children," Dr. Friedland remarked. "At the end of the week, he offered me a position at Stanford, so I came to Palo Alto and began as an assistant professor of radiology in 1967."

Within a few years, he was promoted to associate professor of radiology and completed important work in embryology. While on a six-month sabbatical at the Carnegie Institute of Embryology at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Friedland discovered that the descriptions of embryology in the textbooks were based on the embryos available at the Carnegie Institute in the early 1900s. He examined the most recent embryos at the Carnegie Institute and found that the literature did not contain any descriptions of these more recently acquired embryos, which were at a much earlier stage of embryonic life. As a result of his research, he coauthored "The Staged Sequential Development of the Anus and Rectum in Human Embryos and Fetuses," which was published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery in 1974 (9(5):755-769). Because of his innovative research, Dr. Friedland received the 1974 Cum Laude Award, along with Dr. de Vries, from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in the Basic Science Division for his exhibit entitled "Ano-Rectal, Spinal and Urinary Tract Malformation: Their Embryologic Basis."

Despite his success at Stanford and great admiration for our Department, Dr. Friedland left Palo Alto in 1975 to become professor of radiology and chair of the division of diagnostic radiology at Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While Bowman Gray was a great learning experience, Dr. Friedland missed his colleagues at Stanford as well as the California culture.

After three years in the South, Dr. Friedland returned to Stanford and became a professor of radiology in 1978 at the Palo Alto Veteran's Administration Hospital (VA), where Dr. Zatz was chief of radiology. Dr. Friedland conducted some of his greatest research achievements of his career at the VA. In the late 1970s, he settled an age-old debate surrounding four theories about the anatomy of the lower esophagus. Some thought that the esophagus had no sphincter; or, that the sphincter was at the top end of the esophagus; or, that the sphincter was at the bottom end; or, that the sphincter was very long and extended across most of the esophagus. To test these theories, Dr. Friedland dissected the esophagus during autopsy; distended it with formalin until it became fixed; drained the formalin and filled the esophagus with barium; and then X-rayed it. He found that all four theories about the appearance of the esophagus were really just descriptions of four different phases of the esophagus caused by the contraction and relaxation of muscles. He published his ground-breaking research, "Progress in Radiology: Historical Review of the Changing Concepts of the Lower Esophageal Anatomy: 430 B.C.-1977" in the American Journal of Roentgenology in 1978 (131(3):373-388), and he received letters from as far away as Czechoslovakia congratulating him on his discovery.

A few years later, he also completed important work in sonography that greatly improved the lives of spinal cord injury patients at the Palo Alto VA Hospital, who were receiving high doses of radiation because they needed X-ray examinations of their bladder and urethra every six months. Along with Drs. Shapeero and Perkash, Dr. Friedland developed a new sonographic technique to produce images of the bladder and urethra that were equivalent to those produced by X-rays, but were acquired without any exposure to radiation. They published their research entitled "Transrectal Sonographic Voiding Cystourethrography: Studies in Neuromuscular Dysfunction" in the American Journal of Roentgenology in 1983 (141(1):83-90). He and his colleagues were awarded first prize from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine for their exhibit, "The Sonographic Voiding Cystourethrogram," which was based on their work.

Dr. Friedland's research has infused his pedagogy. Along with Drs. Filly, Gross, Kempson, Korobkin, Thurber, and Walter, he was the first to produce a reference text based on his uroradiological research, Uroradiology: An Integrated Approach (1983), which was organized by symptom, rather than by disease or diagnosis. He recently visited the Urology Museum in Lithicum, Maryland, where, to his surprise, this book was displayed. The Museum curator asked Dr. Friedland to sign the book, while informing him that the urologists who organized the Urology Museum considered Uroradiology: An Integrated Approach to be the greatest uroradiological book of the twentieth century. Dr. Friedland's pedagogical talents extended into the classroom, where he received the Excellence in Teaching Award by the diagnostic radiology residents in 1998 and an award for excellence in resident education in 1992. While he was working at the VA Hospital, Dr. Friedland was asked to speak about his research on two separate occasions in Italy, first in Florence and then in Verona. In recognition of his contributions to medicine and science, the Gerald W. Friedland Learning Center was established at the Palo Alto VA Hospital Diagnostic Radiology Section in 2004.

After succeeding Dr. Leslie Zatz in 1989, Dr. Friedland served as chief of the radiology service until his retirement in 1992. Recently, he completed cardiac patient interviews for a book called Heart Attack: Advice for Patients by Patients. Dr. Friedland also continues to teach, and, for four hours each week during the spring quarter, he and Dr. Charles Prober, professor of pediatrics at Stanford, teach a course based on Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries to premedical students. In addition, he and his wife, Dr. Miriam Friedland, enjoy visiting their two daughters. Their younger daughter, who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and three daughters, is a professor of pediatrics at the National Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C. Their older daughter does marketing consulting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

On June 17th, Dr. Friedland will be giving a talk at the Stanford Department of Radiology based on his book Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries, charting the innovations that were integral to the creation of modern medicine.

Awards and Honors: April 22, 2009

Dr. Shreyas Vasanawala, assistant professor of radiology, has received the Morgridge Scholar Grant, which is awarded to scientists whose research promises to "create a novel design, solve a specific problem, challenge an existing paradigm or clinical practice, address a critical barrier to progress in the field, or develop new technology." Dr. Vasanawala joined the Department of Radiology faculty in July of 2007, after receiving his degree and a PhD in biophysics from Stanford University, followed by residency training in radiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a pediatric radiology fellowship at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH). During his fellowship, Dr. Vasanawala received specialty training in pediatric musculoskeletal imaging at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and in pediatric cardiovascular imaging at Sick Kids in Toronto. At Stanford, Dr. Vasanawala's research focus includes testing the feasibility of magnetic resonance imaging techniques for evaluating pediatric and abdominal disease. His proposal focuses on reducing sedation or anesthesia for pediatric MRI. For his prior blog postings, please access
http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2009/03/awards_and_hono_78.html;
http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2009/02/awards_and_hono_76.html;
http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/07/awards_and_hono_43.html;
and
http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/07/new_faculty_hir.html.

Awards and Honors I: April 20, 2009

Zhen Cheng, PhD, head of the Cancer Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory (CMICL), has been awarded a Young Investigator Award by the Melanoma Research Alliance, which supports "outstanding young investigators whose work shows great promise in the field of melanoma research." Dr. Cheng received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Sichuan University. He also holds an MS from the National Research Center of Isotope Engineering and Technology & China Institute of Atomic Energy and a PhD from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia. From 2001 to 2003, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. His awards include a California Breast Cancer Research Program-IDEA Award in 2008; a Young Investigator Travel Scholarship to attend the 2005 Academy of Molecular Imaging Annual Conference; and a 1997-1998 graduate fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia. As head of the Cancer Molecular Imaging Chemistry Laboratory (CMICL) of MIPS, he is developing novel molecular imaging probes and non-invasive techniques for the early detection of cancer and its metastasis. He is also researching the molecular, metabolic, and physiological characteristics of cancers and their responses to therapy by identifying novel cancer biomarkers with significant clinical relevance; by devising new chemistry for the preparation of probes; and by validating new strategies for probes by using high-throughput screening. For his prior blog posting, please access
http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/01/new_faculty_hir_3.html.

(Image courtesy of Mark Riesenberger)

Awards and Honors II: April 20, 2009

Kazim Narsinh, research fellow in the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Laboratory (MMIL), was awarded the 2009 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Fellowship. Bestowed upon outstanding medical students, the HHMI Fellowship helps further promising careers in translational research. Mr. Narsinh's research interests include the molecular imaging of human embryonic stem cells, and he has recently coauthored two in press articles: "Application of Reporter Gene Imaging for Studying Human Embryonic Stem Cells in Living Subjects" (Methods in Molecular Biology 2009 vol. 515) and "Comparisons of Gene Transfer Efficiency in Human Embryonic Stem Cells" (Molecular Imaging and Biology 2009). In addition to working as a research fellow in the MMIL, Mr. Narsinh is currently a medical student at the University of San Diego, (UCSD), School of Medicine, where he is the manager of the Cardiology Clinic as well as a member of the UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic and the Global Health Interest Group. Prior to attending medical school, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry. When not working, Mr. Narsinh enjoys playing tennis and tabla, a hand drum.

Announcements: April 17, 2009

CCNE Nano-Bio Seminar Series Presents Donald E. Ingber, MD, PhD, "From Biological Design Principles to Bioinspired Nanotechnologies": Tuesday, April 21st; Seminar & Discussion from 4:30-5:30 PM; Reception from 5:30-6:00 PM; in the Clark Auditorium, S001, Clark Building at Stanford University.

Donald E. Ingber, MD, PhD
Director, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology, Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital
Professor of Bioengineering, Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Sciences

Abstract:
The burgeoning field of Nanotechnology offers exciting new approaches to attack fundamental questions in biology, create smart medical devices, and positively impact human health. Creation of biologically-inspired nanotechnologies also could revolutionize how materials are designed and manufactured for industrial, aerospace, and military applications. But the fields are constrained by a lack of understanding of how living cells and tissues are constructed so that they exhibit their incredible organic properties, including their ability to change shape, move, grow, and self-heal. These are properties we strive to mimic, but we cannot yet build manmade materials that exhibit these features, or develop devices to selectively control these behaviors. To accomplish this, we must . . .

uncover the underlying design principles that govern how cells and tissues form and function as hierarchical assemblies of nanometer scale components. In this lecture, I will review work from my laboratory and others, which has begun to reveal these design principles that permit self-assembly of 3D structures with great robustness, mechanical strength, and biochemical efficiency, even though they are composed of many thousands of flexible molecular scale components. We also are beginning to understand that biological materials are simultaneously "structure and catalyst": the molecular lattices that form the frameworks of our cells and tissues combine mechanical functions and solid-phase biochemical processing activities. In the course of the lecture, I also will describe how recently developed nanotechnologies have been used to create model systems for biological studies, and how they have led to new approaches to interface living cells with microchips, control mammalian cell and tissue development, and probe the process of mechanotransduction--how cells sense mechanical forces and convert them into biochemical responses. Finally, the more fundamental question of how nanoscale structural networks impact information processing (signal transduction) networks to control cellular "decision-making" also will be explored. Understanding of these design principles that govern biological organization is critical for any nanotechnologist who wants to harness the power of biology.

Sponsored by: Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response(CCNE-TR) Program--NIH/NCI U54

Hosted by: Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, and the Departments of Radiology and Bioengineering

Awards and Honors: April 17, 2009

Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (cardiology) and radiology, has received the 2009 Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award. According to the American College of Cardiology (ACCR), the award is given "[t]o recognize a young scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of cardiovascular medicine and who has amassed an impressive body of scientific research in either the clinical or basic domain." For Dr. Wu's prior awards, please see http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/11/awards_and_hono_63.html; http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/10/_joseph_wu_md_p.html ; http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/06/awards_and_hono_42.html ; and http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/04/awards_and_hono_1.html.

Announcements: April 14, 2009

10th Annual Student-Organized "An Art Affair," Stanford's Largest Arts Festival: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (April 16th-18th) in White Plaza (free and open to the public). The art festival offers three days of artwork, performances, and interactive art with over 90 Stanford student visual artists and photographers displaying their work; an artist reception; DJ and dessert party; and film screening. Twelve ASSU Arts Grant recipients will also be displaying their work from their winter quarter projects, and there will be over 50 performances from Stanford arts groups, including music, dance, and theater. Contact Bria at bria@stanford.edu for more information or access http://soca.stanford.edu for a complete schedule.

Awards and Honors: April 1, 2009

Juergen K. Willmann, MD, assistant professor of radiology (abdominal imaging) and member of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), has been named as a 2009-10 pilot awardee by the Stanford Digestive Disease Center, an NIH-funded (P30) research center program led by Dr. Harry Greenberg. After a very competitive selection process, Dr. Willmann was selected as one of five pilot awardees, based on his project, "Non-Invasive Molecular Ultrasound Imaging for Diagnosing and Monitoring Inflammatory Bowel Disease Using Molecularly Targeted Microbubbles."

Prior to becoming an assistant professor at Stanford, Dr. Willmann was a research fellow in the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) while concurrently an assistant professor of diagnostic radiology at the Institute of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. He received his MD from the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany, and was the chief resident of diagnostic radiology at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. Under his leadership, the Translational Molecular Imaging Lab focuses on multimodality molecular imaging of angiogenesis and stem cell therapy as well as the development of multi-modality imaging approaches for the early detection of cancer. When he is not working, Dr. Willmann enjoys his life as a new Dad and plays the piano. To read Dr. Willmann's prior award postings, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2009/01/awards_and_hono_73.html; http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/11/awards_and_hono_61.html; http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/05/awards_and_hono_38.html; http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/12/awards_and_hono_21.html; and
http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/02/awards_and_hono_18.html.