We live in a time of free-flowing exchange of ideas across disciplines, geographic borders, and cultures. The Dean’s Lecture Series at Columbia was established as a leisurely way to learn about work being performed in other medical, scientific, and academic disciplines.

The lectures, sponsored by the College of Physicians & Surgeons, are intended to focus on the collaborative nature of our scientific endeavors and to celebrate scholarly exchange among all Columbia University Medical Center faculties, other faculties of Columbia University, and the greater scientific and academic medicine community.

Lecture topics are diverse, from fundamental bench research, to patient care, to medical education, to humanism, and to death and dying. The lectures honor scientists of world acclaim; for example, nearly half of the recipients of our annual Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. The recipient of the Horwitz Prize, which is one of Columbia ’s most prestigious awards, gives well-attended lectures at both the medical center and Morningside campuses. Other lectures honor Columbia benefactors and legends. One example is the Heidelberger-Kabat Lecture, which memorializes Columbia ’s pioneers in immunology, Michael Heidelberger and Elvin Kabat.

Leading scholars, clinicians, scientists, and thinkers have lectured at Columbia, and we have been fortunate to honor them for their contributions to their fields. Visiting lecturers have included Bert Vogelstein, Stanley Pruisner, Barbara McClintock, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Fred Friendly, Simon Schama, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Judah Folkman, George Soros, and Arthur Caplan.

The lectures are not intended to be isolated events. They are intended to build lasting scientific curiosity and collaboration well after faculty and students leave the lecture hall. By working together, we increase our opportunities to improve health and prevent disease far beyond our clinics, classrooms, and labs. I invite you to attend any or all of these lectures throughout the academic year.

Lee Goldman, M.D.
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences
and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine

Thomas H. Murray is President of The Hastings Center.  Dr. Murray was formerly the Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was also the Susan E. Watson Professor of Bioethics.  He is a founding editor of the journal Medical Humanities Review, and is on the editorial boards of The Hastings Center Report; Human Gene Therapy; Politics and the Life Sciences; Cloning, Science, and Policy; Medscape General Medicine; Teaching Ethics; Journal of Bioethical Inquiry and the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.  He served as President of the Society for Health and Human Values and of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.  Dr. Murray has testified before many Congressional committees, and is the author of more than 200 publications.  His most recent books are The Worth of a Child, published by the University of California Press, Healthcare Ethics and Human Values: An Introductory Text with Readings and Case Studies, Blackwell Publishers, edited with Bill Fulford and Donna Dickenson, The Cultures of Caregiving: Conflict and Common Ground among Families, Health Professionals and Policy Makers, edited with Carol Levine, and Genetic Ties and the Family: The Impact of Paternity Testing on Parents and Children, edited with Mark A. Rothstein, Gregory E. Kaebnick and Mary Anderlik Majumder. He is also editor, with Maxwell J. Mehlman, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology, (John Wiley & Sons, 2000).  In January 2004 he received an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from Uppsala University.

Current service includes:

• Chair, Ethical Issues Review Panel, World Anti-Doping Agency
• Member, International Panel of Experts of the Singapore Bioethics Advisory Committee
• US representative to the International Stem Cell Forum’s Ethics Working Party
• Association of American Medical Colleges Task Force on Industry Sponsorship of Medical Education
• Advisory Committee for the Genomics Institute at the Wadsworth Center
• Ethics Committee of HUGO, the Human Genome Organization
• Board of Directors, Charity Navigator
• Board of Directors, Physicians and Lawyers for National Drug Policy
• Consulting Editor in Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University Press

Marian Carlson, Ph.D., is Professor of Genetics and Development and Professor of Microbiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She also is currently serving as Vice Dean for Research at P&S.  She received her B.A. from Harvard College in 1973 and the Ph.D. from the Department of Biochemistry of Stanford University in 1978.

She carried out postdoctoral research at MIT and then joined the Columbia faculty in 1981. Her laboratory has used genetic analysis in yeast to elucidate conserved mechanisms of signal transduction and transcriptional regulation. She identified the SNF proteins of the SWI-SNF chromatin remodeling complex and the SNF1 protein kinase pathway. Her recent work has focused on SNF1 and its human ortholog, AMPK, which have key roles in metabolic regulation; AMPK is implicated in type 2 diabetes and obesity. Her lab first identified LKB1 as an upstream kinase for the AMPK pathway.

Dr. Carlson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Microbiology. She is a past President of the Genetics Society of America.

Donald W. Landry, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and Director of the Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Director of the Division of Nephrology, and Interim Chair of the Department of Medicine.  Dr. Landry completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry under Nobel laureate Robert Burns Woodward at Harvard University in 1979 and then obtained the M.D. degree from Columbia University in 1983.  After Residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he returned to Columbia University as an NIH Physician-Scientist, 1985-90. In 1991, he established his laboratory at Columbia University to investigate medical applications of artificial enzymes. He founded the Division of Experimental Therapeutics in 1998 and became chief of Nephrology in 2003. His research focuses on novel therapeutics for intractable problems such as cocaine addiction and nerve gas intoxication. Clinically, he specializes in the care of critically ill patients and in the course of practice he discovered that a  deficiency of the hormone vasopressin contributes to the pathogenesis of vasodilatory septic shock.

David Freedberg is Pierre Matisse Professor of Art History and Director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University.   He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the American Philosophical Society and Italy's Accademia Nazionale di Agricoltura, and has received a series of distinguished Professorships worldwide.  Aside from his many publications on sixteenth and seventeenth century Dutch, Flemish and Italian Art, he is perhaps best known for his work on psychological responses to art.   His researches on iconoclasm and censorship received wide attention particularly following the publication of The Power of Images:  Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Chicago, 1989).    Freedberg then turned his attention to the History of Science, producing the acclaimed The Eye of the Lynx:   Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History in 2003.  He has now finally turned to exploring the potential links between the history of art and images on the one hand, and the cognitive neuroscience of emotion and movement on the other.

Glenn Regehr completed his PhD in cognitive psychology from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1993 under the supervision of Dr. Lee Brooks. In the last year of his PhD, he trained for one year as a research associate in medical education with Dr. Geoff Norman at McMaster University Medical Centre.

In August 1993, he joined the University Health Network as an education researcher and was appointed to the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine as an assistant professor. In addition to his role as a researcher, Dr. Regehr was instrumental in establishing the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine Wilson Centre for Research in Education at the University Health Network. In June 1998, he was appointed as the first Associate Director of the newly established Wilson Centre. From October 2002 to June 2003, he served as Acting Director of the unit.

Currently, as well as being the Associate Director of the Wilson Centre, Dr. Regehr is Professor in the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine with cross appointment to the Faculty of Nursing and Faculty of Education, Scientist in the Toronto General Research Institute at the University Health Network, and the inaugural Richard and Elizabeth Currie Chair in Health Professions Education Research.

Dr. Regehr has chaired several national and international scientific committees including the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges Committee on Research in Medical Education, the Association for Surgical Education Research Committee, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research Working Group on Funding Structures for Health Professions Education, the AAMC:RIME program committee and the AERA Professions Education program committee. He has been a member of the Editorial Research Advisory Committee for Academic Medicine, currently serves on the editorial boards of Academic Medicine and Medical Education, and is a section editor for Advances in Health Sciences Education.

In addition to his research interests in cognitive psychology, Dr. Regehr has researched and published in a variety of content domains including: the teaching and testing of technical skills in surgery; the refinement of tools for assessing clinical skills both in the testing context and in the field; and the refinement of our understanding of professionalism as it relates to medical practice. His recent research is heavily focused on the development of new theories and methodologies for understanding self assessment ability in practice. He has co-authored over 100 publications in peer reviewed journals, over 150 peer reviewed presentations international scientific conferences, over 40 invited presentations around the world, and over 50 peer reviewed grants in the health professional education domain.

In his role as an educator, Dr. Regehr has supervised over 50 masters students, doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, and research fellows, has served as the formal faculty mentor for many junior faculty and has mentored many others in a more informal mode. He has developed and taught masters and doctoral level courses for the OISE Health Professions Education Research program on topics such as Cognitive and Educational Psychology, Research Methods in Health Professions Education, and Statistics for the Social Sciences. And he has developed and led faculty development workshops on topics such as Developing a Research Career in Medical Education, Writing Compelling Grant Proposals, and Promoting Students’ Self-Directed Learning.

Some sample publications include:

Regehr, G. & Norman, G.R. (Sep. 1996). Issues in cognitive psychology: Implications for professional education. Academic Medicine, 71, 988-1001.

Reznick RK, Regehr G, MacRae H, Martin J, & McCulloch W. (Mar. 1997). Testing technical skills outside the operating room: An innovative bench model examination.  American Journal of Surgery, 173, 226-230.

Regehr G, MacRae HM, Reznick RK, Szalay D. (Sep. 1998). Comparing the psychometric properties of checklists and global rating scales for assessing performance in an OSCE-format examination. Academic Medicine, 73, 993-997.

Ginsburg S, Regehr G, Hatala R, McNaughton N, Frohna A, Hodges B, Lingard L, Stern D. (Oct 2000). Context, conflict and resolution: A new conceptual framework for evaluating professionalism. Academic Medicine, 75,S6-S11.

Guest C, Regehr G, Tiberius R. (Jan 2001). The life long challenge of expertise. Medical Education, 35, 78-81.

Hodges B, Regehr G, Martin D. (Oct 2001). Difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence: Doctors who are unskilled and unaware of it. Academic Medicine. 76, S87-S89.

Regehr G. (2002). The experimental tradition. In GR Norman, C vanderVleuten, D Newble (Eds.) Handbook for research in medical education for the 21st century. Klewer: Maastricht, Nlds, Chapter 1.

Regehr G. (Oct 2004). Trends in medical education research. Academic Medicine, 79(10), 939-947

Bogo M, Regehr C, Power R, Hughes J, Woodford M, Regehr G. (Fall 2004). Towards new approaches for evaluating student field performance: Tapping the implicit criteria used by experienced field instructors. Journal of Social Work Education, 40(3), 417-425.

Eva KW, Regehr G. (Oct 2005). Self assessment in the health professions: A reformulation and research agenda. Academic Medicine, 80 (10 Suppl), S46-S54.

Regehr G, Eva KW. (Aug 2006). Self-assessment, self-direction and the self-regulating professional. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 449, 34-38.

Joseph G. Gall, Ph.D., received the B.S. degree in Zoology from Yale University in early 1949 then directly entered the graduate program there in the Zoology Department.  He completed his Ph.D. in 1952, working with the Drosophila geneticist and developmental biologist Donald F. Poulson.  He took a teaching position in the Zoology Department at the University of Minnesota, where he remained until 1963. In the fall of 1963 he returned to Yale as a visiting professor to what was then the Biology Department, after fusion of Zoology and Botany, and later became Professor of Biology with a joint appointment in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.  He remained at Yale for 20 years, from 1963-1983; during the last few years he held the Ross G. Harrison Chair in Biology.  In 1983 he joined the Embryology Department of the Carnegie Institution in Baltimore as a Staff Member. In 1984 he was appointed American Cancer Society Professor of Developmental Genetics, a lifetime appointment.

He has been an active member of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) since its inception in 1960, serving as president in 1967-68 and a member of its council and several committees at various times.

His long-term research interests have been in the structure and function of the cell, particularly the nucleus. His earliest studies involved the giant “lampbrush” chromosomes found in oocytes of frogs and salamanders. These are the largest known chromosomes and permit various observations and manipulations that are difficult or impossible with smaller chromosomes. Among his more important findings, made at a time when the site of  cellular RNA synthesis was still unclear (late 1950s, early 1960s), was that cellular RNA synthesis occurs on loops of DNA that extend out from the axis of the chromosome. Studies on the kinetics of DNase digestion demonstrated that the chromosome consists of a single extremely long DNA molecule. Electron microscopic studies he carried out at about the same time on the nuclear envelope established the existence of the nuclear pore complex and its eight-fold symmetry. Other studies on centrioles clarified aspects of their replication during the cell cycle.

After moving to Yale, Dr. Gall began studies on ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and the genes that code for it (rDNA). In 1967-68 by a combination of biochemical and cytological observations he demonstrated that these genes are able to leave the chromosome and replicate independently during the early stages of oocyte formation in amphibians and other animals. This phenomenon of gene amplification was independently discovered by Igor Dawid and Donald Brown of the Carnegie Institution. At about the same time, a former postdoctoral student of Dr. Gall’s, Oscar Miller, demonstrated the activity of the amplified genes in a set of electron microscopic observations.

The studies on gene amplification were followed almost immediately by development of the technique of in situ hybridization, in collaboration with Dr. Gall’s graduate students, Mary Lou Pardue and Susan Gerbi. This technique allowed the identification of specific DNA or RNA sequences at the cellular or subcellular level. Their original technique used radioactive probes. The procedure was later modified by others to use fluorescent probes, which permit even finer localization and simultaneous use of multiple probes. In situ hybridization is now one of the most widely used cytological techniques. It permits localization of genes to specific chromosome regions and of RNA sequences to specific cells or groups of cells.

Among several important observations Dr. Gall’s team made with the in situ hybridization technique was the demonstration that the heterochromatic regions of chromosomes consists of simple sequences called “satellite” DNA. They also showed how in situ hybridization could be used with the giant chromosomes of Diptera for precise gene localization. A few years later, gene cloning made numerous sequences available for mapping studies.

Dr. Gall’s interest in rDNA amplification during oocyte formation led him to investigate the similar phenomenon he discovered in the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena. Work on this organism led to the demonstration that the rDNA genes exist as free molecules in the macronucleus. A postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, found that the ends of these molecules had a unique structure consisting of a hexanucleotide repeat GGGGTT. Although they did not realize it at that time, later studies by Blackburn and others established that this repeat, or very similar ones, are found at the ends or telomeres of chromosomes from nearly every type of animal and plant investigated. The in situ hybridization technique was valuable in making this determination.

In recent years the focus of Dr. Gall’s research has been the organization of transcription in the nucleus. He has studied the small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs), which are known to play important roles in the processing of all types of messenger RNA (mRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). His lab is concentrating on several nuclear organelles that contain snRNAs, including the nucleolus, Cajal bodies, and the nuclear speckles. Their most recent studies suggest that Cajal bodies may be sites for preassembly and/or modification of macromoleuclar complexes that carry out nuclear transcription and RNA processing.

The research findings from Dr. Gall’s laboratory have been reported in 150 articles in various scientific journals. His research has been combined with his long-standing interest in the history of biology, particularly cell biology and microscopy. He has collected early books in these areas and in1996 published a book, “Views of the Cell: A Pictorial History,” published by the American Society for Cell Biology. The book brings together 60 historical images and their descriptions Dr. Gall prepared originally as covers for Molecular Biology of the Cell, the official journal of the American Society for Cell Biology. In 2001, Dr. Gall co-edited with J. Richard McIntosh a book of readings in cell biology titled “Landmark Papers in Cell Biology,” published jointly by the American Society for Cell Biology and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., is a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research. She has broad experience in the different aspects of telomere function and biology. She discovered the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase. Hers is a leading laboratory in manipulating telomerase activity in cells, and she has amassed considerable knowledge and experience in the effects this has on cells.

Dr. Blackburn and her research team at the University of California, San Francisco are working with various cells including human cancer cells, with the goal of understanding telomerase and telomere biology. Her work on telomeres and telomerase has been published extensively in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Blackburn earned her B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) degrees from the University of Melbourne in Australia, and her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge in England. She did her postdoctoral work in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Yale from 1975 to 1977.

In 1978, Dr. Blackburn joined the faculty of the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1990, she joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UC San Francisco, where she served as Department Chair from 1993 to 1999. Dr. Blackburn is currently a faculty member in Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. She is also a Non-Resident Fellow of the Salk Institute.

Throughout her career, Dr. Blackburn has been honored by her peers as the recipient of many prestigious awards. These include the Eli Lilly Research Award for Microbiology and Immunology (1988), the National Academy of Science Award in Molecular Biology (1990), and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Yale University (1991). She was a Harvey Society Lecturer at the Harvey Society in New York (1990), and the recipient of the UCSF Women's Faculty Association Award (1995). Most recently, she was awarded the Australia Prize (1998), the Harvey Prize (1999), the Keio Prize (1999), American Association for Cancer Research-G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award (2000), American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2000), AACR-Pezcoller Foundation International Award for Cancer Research (2001), General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Award (2001), E.B. Wilson Award of the American Society for Cell Biology (2001), 26th Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research (2003), the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2004), the Kirk A. Landon-AACR prize for Basic Cancer Research (2005) and the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Basic Medical Research (2006).

She was named California Scientist of the Year in 1999, elected president of the American Society for Cell Biology for the year 1998, and served as a board member of the Genetics Society of America (2000-2002). Dr. Blackburn is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), the American Academy of Microbiology (1993), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000). She was elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and was elected as a Member of the Institute of Medicine in 2000.

Carol W. Greider, Ph.D., received a BA from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984, working together with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, she discovered telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomeres, or chromosome ends. Dr. Greider first isolated and characterized telomerase from the ciliate Tetrahymena. In 1988 Dr. Greider went to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where, as an independent Cold Spring Harbor Fellow, she cloned and characterized the RNA component of telomerase.  In 1990, Dr. Greider was appointed as an Assistant Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She expanded the focus of her telomere research to include the role of telomere length in cell senescence, cell death, and cancer.  Together with Dr. Calvin Harley, she showed that human telomeres shorten progressively in primary human cells. This work, along with work of other researchers, led to the idea that telomere maintenance and telomerase may play important roles in cellular senescence and cancer. Dr. Greider was appointed Associate Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1992 and Investigator in 1994. Her lab continued to work on both the biochemistry of telomerase and the role of telomere maintenance in cancer in human and mouse cells.

In 1997, Dr. Greider moved her laboratory to the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1999, she was appointed Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and in 2001 she was appointed as a Professor of Oncology. At Johns Hopkins University Dr. Greider’s group continued to study the biochemistry of telomerase and determined the secondary structure of the human telomerase RNA. She also expanded her work on a mouse model of telomere dysfunction and showed that the shortest telomere in a cell triggers a DNA damage response. In 2004 she was appointed as the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. Dr. Greider has won a number of awards for the work on telomerase: the Gardiner Award (1998), the   Rosenstiel Award (1999), the   Passano Foundation Award (1999), and the Richard Lounsbery Award (2003). In 2003, Dr. Greider was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2006 she received the Wiley prize and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. Dr. Greider currently directs a group of ten researchers who are focused on understanding telomeres and telomerase and their role in chromosome stability, stem cell failure and cancer.

Dr. Südhof received his M.D. degree from the University of Gottingen in Germany and performed his doctoral thesis work in the laboratory of Victor Whittaker at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry,Gottingen. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and has been a Professor of Molecular Genetics since 1991. Dr. Südhof also serves as an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Dr. Südhof's laboratory is interested in understanding how presynaptic neurons recognize a postsynaptic cell to form a synapse, how synapses are organized via cell-adhesion molecules, and how neurotransmitters are released at a synapse.  The long-term goal of these studies is to achieve a molecular description of presynaptic function as a prerequisite of understanding how synapses compute information in the brain.

Bert Sakmann is currently an emeritus at the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. His laboratory is now at MPI for Neurobiology heading the research group "Cortical column in silico". He received his M.D. from the medical Faculty at the Ludwigs-Maximilian-University in Munich. His research interests have focussed on structure and function of ion channels in nerve and muscle and on the mechanisms underlying developmental changes in structure and function of the neuromuscular synapse. More recently his interest is on cellular and molecular mechanisms that modify, on the short and long term, synapses in the mammalian CNS. He was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning single ion channels in cells, together with Erwin Neher.