MINDS AT WORK Special Research Issue - GAINING ON CANCER - Emory University
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
WINTER 2018 MAGAZINE VO L . 9 3 N O. 3
MINDS
AT WORK
Special Research Issue
G A I N I NG ON C A NC E R H A LT I NG H A BI TAT DE ST RUCT ION T R AV E L I NG
I N T I M E E XT E N DI NG BRA I N H E A LT H SUSTA I N I NG GR E AT SCHOLA R SH I P
Put the Law to Work
for Your Career
Legal Training for Non-Lawyers
New Online Juris Master degree in Health Law and Business Law
“As an Emory alumna and
a JM student, the Emory
experience affords me the
opportunity to shape my legal
education in my own vision. Gain the legal knowledge
By concentrating on issues and skills to navigate complex
such as international human regulatory environments,
rights, I am gaining invaluable
make informed decisions,
legal knowledge, resources,
and connections needed to assess risk, and advance your
continue my work in aiding career.
displaced individuals through the nonprofit sector.”
Now Online: Complete the
Fowzio Jama, 17C
JM Candidate online program in 18 months
with three short residencies
in one of two concentrations:
“For a technology leader, Health Care Law, Policy, and
particularly in the financial
services industry, balancing
Regulation or Business Law
business risks associated with and Regulation
the fast pace of innovation and
ever-increasing regulatory and On Campus: Complete the
data privacy concerns requires on-campus program with a
a higher level of thinking. As a wide range of concentrations
practical matter, I can already
full time in 9 months or part-
look back at a specific work
experience knowing that my time in up to 4 years
contracts class helped surface questions I would not have
asked before, saving our company more than the cost of Scholarship: 15%
the JM.” scholarship available for
Eric Martin
Emory alumni
Managing Director, Deutsche Bank PHOTOGRAPHY ML AB, WINSHIP: STEPHEN NOWL AND;
2016 JM Graduate PA P E R S : K AY H I N TO N ; G I L L E S P I E : K AY H I N TO N
Learn more at law.emory.edu/jm | Email us at JMadmission@emory.edu
C O N T E N TS
Emory Magazine
Vol. 93 No. 3
RESEARCH
ISSUE
22
All In the Mind
An unexpected discovery leads
Emory scientists to new understanding
of the pathology behind Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s diseases.
22 By Gary Goettling
44
28
Fabulous Five 44
Meet a few of the Emory faculty
members who just can’t stop
asking questions—and won’t stop
until they find the answers.
38 38
Hanging by a Thread
As the world’s primate populations
dwindle, so do the chances for a
healthy planet where humans
can thrive.
By Tony Rehagen
32 32 28
Outpacing Cancer Our Own Indiana Jones
PHOTOGRAPHY ML AB, WINSHIP: STEPHEN NOWL AND;
PA P E R S : K AY H I N TO N ; G I L L E S P I E : K AY H I N TO N
Winship Cancer Institute How an undergraduate student
scientists and physicians are turned a seminar class into a
in a tight race with the second- research project that traces the
highest cause of death in the US— post-WWI path of an Emory
and they mean to win. professor-turned-adventurer.
By Sylvia Wrobel By Scott Henry
C O N T E N TS
10
49
POINTS OF INTEREST 11 Editor Director
Paige P. Parvin 96G of Creative Services
6 TWENTIETH Alex Bundrick
RHODES SCHOLAR Associate Editor
Maria M. Lameiras Design
Gordon Boice
8 SHORT LIST Executive Director Stanis Kodman
of Communication
Susan Carini 04G Photography
9 BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Ann Borden
LEADERSHIP Contributors Kay Hinton
Carol Clark Stephen Nowland
Elizabeth Cobb Durel
10 SHAPE-SHIFTING
Quinn Eastman Production Manager
PARTICLES EMORY EVERYWHERE Gary Goettling Stuart Turner
Scott Henry
April Hunt Interim Senior
12 TWITTER, MEET BIG DATA 49 ALUMNI HONORED
Tony Rehagen Vice President,
EMORY MEDALISTS 2018 Kimber Williams Communications
14 AN ETHNOBOTANIST Sylvia Wrobel and Public Affairs
Vincent Dollard
PLUMBS PLANT POWER 52 CLASS NOTES
Copy Editor
Jane Howell University President
16 GUIDING GLOBAL 56 ALUMNI IN RESEARCH Claire E. Sterk
HEALTH ETHICS
59 CODA
18 NEW PROJECT TO STUDY EPIDEMIC DILEMMA
P H O T O G R A P H Y B U R TO N : E M O R Y P H OTO/ V I D E O ; S T U D E N T: K AY H I N TO N : N U R S E S : J A C K K E A R S E
VEHICLE SAFETY EMORY MAGAZINE (ISSN 00136727) is published quarterly by
Emory’s Division of Communications and Public Affairs. Non-
profit postage paid at 3900 Crown Rd. SE, Atlanta, Georgia,
20 HELPING ADDICTS 30304; and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send
address changes to OFFICE OF ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT
KICK THE HABIT RECORDS, 1762 Clifton Road, Suite 1400, Atlanta, Georgia 30322.
Emory Magazine is distributed free to alumni and friends of
the university. Address changes may be emailed to eurec@
emory.edu or sent to the Office of Alumni and Development
Records, 1762 Clifton Road, Suite 1400, Atlanta, Georgia
MORE ONLINE AT EMORY.EDU/MAGAZINE 30322. If you are an individual with a disability and wish to
acquire this publication in an alternative format, please
contact Paige Parvin (address above) or call 404.727.7873.
V I D EO : L I F E L E SS PA RT I C L E S B EC O M E “L I F E- L I K E” No. 18-EU-EMAG-0040 ©2018, a publication of the Division
Watch how particles collectively switch back and forth between of Communications and Public Affairs.
states—even when the environment remains stable. The comments and opinions expressed in this magazine do
not necessarily represent those of Emory University or the
V I D EO : W H AT N C I C O M P R E H E N S I V E D E S I G N AT I O N M E A N S
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN NOWL AND
staff of Emory Magazine.
Winship is changing the way cancer is treated.
V I D EO : A L Z H E I M E R’S STO RY
A unique program reaches at-risk populations.
ON THE COVER Illustration by
Carlos Coelho at Infomen.
2 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018
a
P R E LU D E
As I drive onto the Emory campus each The faculty and students featured in breaking work in Madagascar has built
morning, I can’t help but marvel a little. this magazine are here because they are new awareness around the urgent need
This is an impressive place. Its build- relentlessly curious, instinctive think- for conservation, since it seems humans
ings are beautiful, its resources plen- ers, compelled to question and driven and animals swap germs a lot more easily
tiful, its setting lovely and well kept, its to pursue answers. And they don’t hesitate and often than we previously thought.
facilities state of the art. And it’s forever to cross the lines of academic disci- There’s David Katz, a cell biologist
busy; its streets and sidewalks are literally plines to put their heads together with who accidentally discovered a gene func-
never still, and at night, its windows are fellow scholars. tion that could help ward off diseases
a constantly changing constellation of There’s Andrew Hoover 20C, an like Alzheimer’s before they start.
lights. Within a thousand walls, it buzzes undergraduate premed major who was There’s Joseph Crespino, a history
and clicks, whirs and sputters and hums, so intrigued by the 1920s-era diaries of professor who mined thousands of pages
a million circuits aglow with signals. Emory professor and traveler William of newspapers and letters in his deep re-
Of course, somebody has to keep all Shelton that he took a detour from his search for a fictional biography of Atticus
those lights on, and Emory is fortunate neuroscience and behavioral biology Finch; and Erin Tarver, an assistant pro-
to attract its share of funding—including classes to explore, creating an interactive fessor at Oxford who brings the weight
many generous gifts and grants that sup- website that traces Shelton’s steps. of classical philosophy to her analysis of
port both the university’s infrastructure There’s Rafi Ahmed, a renowned im- professional sports.
and the work being done within it. munologist who was parsing out how As far as I know, there is no formula
This issue of Emory Magazine is filled T cells respond to chronic infection for calculating the worth of individual,
with examples. when it became clear that his research original thought. But the mysterious pro-
Every element of this framework is had major implications for cancer cesses and connections that spark and
valuable and important to the univer- treatments, too. He’s now collaborating catch fire every day, quietly and invisibly,
sity’s mission. But in this special issue with Winship researchers and making inside the heads of Emory’s faculty and
devoted to research, the spotlight shines progress toward a clinical trial. students are the truest natural resource
brightest on another, less tangible, more There’s Thomas Gillespie, an environ- that universities have. That’s what really
vital resource: minds at work. mental scientist whose gritty, ground- keeps the lights on.—Paige Parvin 96G
P H O T O G R A P H Y B U R TO N : E M O R Y P H OTO/ V I D E O ; S T U D E N T: K AY H I N TO N : N U R S E S : J A C K K E A R S E
1
RO O M TO T H I N K
The Stuart A. Rose Manuscript,
Archives, and Rare Book Library
In this special research issue, we visit a
series of spaces where learning, discovery,
and inspiration take place every day.
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN NOWL AND
The Rose Library’s wide-ranging collections
are open to anyone pursing scholarly
or personal research.
WINTER 2018 EMORY MAGAZINE 3
L E T T E RS
AU T U M N 2 0 17 MAGAZINE VO L . 9 3 N O. 2
Written
e?
In Bone
An Emory anthropologist made
history when she unearthed the
oldest-known DNA from Africa
NOW WE’RE COOKING
Atlanta Chef
Linton Hopkins 92C
...makes his own butter
INNOVATIONS IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
THE ARTICLE “THIS ACTION IS
Inevitable” (summer 2017) about women at
Emory reminded me of the story of Marjorie
Gates, my mother. She had completed two
years at Agnes Scott and applied to transfer
to Emory in 1939. When she was interviewed
by the university president, he asked her
if she wanted to come to Emory to get her
“MRS” degree (that is, find a husband). She
said Emory had a better chemistry depart-
ment than Agnes Scott, it had a payment
plan, and she could ride to school with her
brother, an Emory student. From Emory,
she received a bachelor’s degree in 1940,
a master’s degree in 1943, and (finally) an
“MRS” in 1943, by marrying Dr. R. A. Day Jr.,
an Emory professor. Together, they raised
four children, all of whom received degrees
from Emory. Footnote: She did her graduate
research under the direction of Dr. Evange-
line Papageorge, mentioned in the article.
Michael A. Day 69C
Pine Lake
What do you think? The editors of Emory
Magazine welcome letters from our readers.
Write to us at paige.parvin@emory.edu, or
1762 Clifton Rd., Suite 1000, Atlanta, Georgia,
30322. We reserve the right to edit letters for
length and to correct style as needed. The
views expressed by the writers do not nec-
essarily reflect the views of the editors or the
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN NOWL AND
administration of Emory University.
4 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018
2
RO O M TO T H I N K
Parsons Conservation Laboratory
Located in the basement of the
Michael C. Carlos Museum, this is where
conservators examine, document, and
repair objects such as this Egyptian
funerary mask and Hittite house model in
preparation for exhibition or loan.
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN NOWL AND
WINTER 2018 EMORY MAGAZINE 5 
P O I N TS O F I N T E R E ST
Turning Ideas to Ideals
EMORY’S TWENTIETH RHODES SCHOLAR
INTENDS TO IMPROVE THE CRIMINAL
JUSTICE SYSTEM
Chelsea Jackson 18C is one of
thirty-two American college
students selected as a 2018
Rhodes Scholar.
Jackson, a political
science and African Ameri-
can studies double major in
Emory College of Arts and
Sciences, is the universi-
ty’s twentieth student to be
selected for the prestigious
scholarship, which supports
two to three years of study
at the University of Oxford
in England. She also is the
fourth woman and the first
African American student
from Emory to receive the
scholarship.
“I am immediately
blessed to be selected,”
says Jackson, who is from
Lithonia, Georgia. “Just the
resources available and the
opportunity to live outside
ACTIVIST HEART Rhodes Scholar Chelsea Jackson will study criminology at Oxford University, which has a research
the US and interact and center focused on the sociology of criminal justice. She wants to examine ways to reform the criminal justice system by,
learn from scholars through- for instance, reducing the use of solitary confinement and expanding maternal rights for incarcerated women.
out the world is immense.”
Jackson has focused her
undergraduate research and her community leadership Jackson has been heavily involved with the Emory chapter
on efforts to create a more equitable campus and Atlanta of the NAACP and cofounded the Atlanta Black Students Unit-
community. ed (ATLBSU), a group with black student representatives from
“Chelsea is a passionate and committed student who uses every school in metro Atlanta. The ATLBSU serves as a vital
her intellectual talents and commitment to social justice to support system for students and a resource for allies.
PHOTOGRAPHY ANN BORDEN
P H O T O G R A P H Y K AY H I N TO N
better our world,” says President Claire E. Sterk. “She will be a Last year, she shifted from working as the group’s media
wonderful ambassador for the United States and Emory as she representative to putting additional energy into her academic
continues her work at Oxford University.” commitments.
6 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018
She presented a conference paper with an abundance of brain power
last year with her adviser, Andra and the willingness to do the work to
Gillespie, associate professor of polit- develop her skills. Her keen intellect
ical science and director of Emory’s CHELSEA’S KEEN and commitment to public service and
James Weldon Johnson Institute for INTELLECT AND social justice make her the student you
the Study of Race and Difference. The COMMITMENT TO dream of having the honor to teach.”
project explores how different back- PUBLIC SERVICE AND Jackson plans to earn a master’s
stories influence public opinion when SOCIAL JUSTICE MAKE degree in criminology at Oxford, home
it comes to police shootings. She also HER THE STUDENT YOU to a cutting-edge research center that
was named Emory’s first Truman DREAM OF HAVING THE focuses on the sociology of criminal
Scholar since 2011. HONOR TO TEACH. justice. She hopes to examine how the
“Chelsea truly embodies the ideals law can be used to reform the criminal
of liberal arts and sciences education. justice system by—for example—re-
Her pursuit of knowledge and inquiry ducing the use of solitary confinement
informs her activism and her dedica- and expanding the maternal rights of
tion to making our society a more just incarcerated women.
one for all,” says Michael Elliott, dean “I want to learn how race and poli-
of Emory College and Charles Howard tics play out in other countries’ crimi-
Candler Professor of English. “We are extremely proud of her, nal justice systems to see how that shapes their worldview, and
and I am looking forward to watching her career unfold as she to consider new ideas and ways to solve problems that I have
leaves our campus to have an impact on the world beyond it.” not thought of yet,” Jackson says.
This year, Jackson is focused on her master’s thesis as After completing her Oxford degree, she plans to return to
Emory’s sole BA/MA candidate in political science. Her topic: the US to attend law school to become a civil rights attorney,
examining whether the race of the prosecutor can affect racial either with the Department of Justice or a broad-reaching
discrepancies in the criminal justice system when looking at nonprofit focused on social justice.
matters of discretion, such as whether to charge the accused “The more empirical ideas I can learn, the more I can see
with a felony or misdemeanor. how things are done elsewhere, the more I can be a better ac-
“Chelsea is brilliant,” Gillespie says. “She came to Emory tivist and propose better solutions,” Jackson says.—April Hunt
City Life
annexation, we will pursue our shared mission of serving
Emory’s annexation into Atlanta approved the common good in the greater metropolitan area and
well beyond.”
The City of Atlanta and Emory announced in early Decem- Emory and the City of Atlanta have built alliances over
ber that the annexation of Emory had been approved by the many years. In addition to Emory University Hospital Mid-
City Council, effective January 1, 2018. town and Emory’s historical affiliations with Grady Hospital
“Working together, Emory and the City of Atlanta will and the Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia Tech and
continue building a stronger future for neighborhoods Georgia State, Emory’s stewardship of and investments in
across the metropolitan area,” says President Claire E. key business, arts, culture, and scholarship resources drive
Sterk. “We enter this new stage of our relationship with economic activity to the region.
enthusiasm and great optimism for what lies ahead. “Emory and the city are entering an exciting new phase
“Emory is not leaving DeKalb County,” adds Sterk. in their shared history and development,” says Robert God-
“We remain steadfastly committed to our colleagues and dard, chair of the Emory Board of Trustees. “Our collabora-
neighbors in county leadership and beyond. Alongside tive partnership will help Emory strengthen its commitment
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Children’s as a leading liberal arts research university to improving
Healthcare of Atlanta, and the other entities involved in society on a local, national, and international scale.”
PHOTOGRAPHY ANN BORDEN
P H O T O G R A P H Y K AY H I N TO N
SHORT LIST Georgia research universites to share space
All eight universities in the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) will now
$73.5M
share the use of core research facilities at each of their institutions.
The aim of the partnership agreement is to create a greater
availability of research support services for faculty at all
Georgia research universities, minimize duplication of
resources, and maximize collaborative research opportu-
Emory Healthcare helps the nities. GRA institutions include Emory, UGA, Morehouse
patients who need it most School of Medicine, Mercer, Georgia State, Georgia Tech,
Emory Healthcare provided $73.5 million in charity Clark Atlanta University, and Augusta University.
care in fiscal year 2017, reaching patients with no
health insurance, including Medicare or Medicaid,
Emory leaders named as influencers
and no resources of their own. The term also includes
Emory President Claire E. Sterk and Emory Health-
catastrophic care for patients who may have some
care chair, president, and CEO Jonathan Lewin were
coverage but for whom health care bills are
among Georgia Trend magazine’s one hundred “Most
devastating. During this same time, Emory
Influential Georgians,” made up of leaders “who have
medical faculty also provided $24.6
exhibited the character necessary to inspire, chal-
million in unreimbursed care at
lenge, lead, and influence us.” Doug Shipman 95C,
Grady Memorial Hospital.
president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center,
also made the 2018 list.
Emory
Professor wins Justice at Emory Law
Japan Prize Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice of
Emory Professor Max D. the US Supreme Court, visited the
Cooper was named a laureate of School of Law on February 6, partic-
the 2018 Japan Prize for the discov- ipating in a Q&A with Professor Fred
ery of the dual nature of adaptive Smith Jr., who clerked for her during
immunity, which identified the the October 2013 term. Sotomayor
cellular building blocks of the advised the rapt audience to engage
immune system as we understand fully in civic life. “Otherwise, we will be
it today. The annual awards recog- nothing but bystanders,” she warned.
nize pioneers in medicinal science “Every one of us is here to make a contribu-
and resources, energy, and envi- tion, but you have to have the heart to do it.”
ronment and social infrastructure.
Cooper is one of three
scientists recognized this Emory nursing graduates get a pass
year for achievements Recent graduates of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
contributing to the advancement of science Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program
and technology and promoting peace and achieved a 100 percent pass rate on the NCLEX national
prosperity for all mankind. licensure exam, making it one of the top-performing ABSN
programs in the nation. The school was ranked No. 4 nationally
in the US News and World Report Best Graduate Schools guide
and No. 1 in NIH funding among nursing schools.
Give stroke patients
more time
Although current guidelines
suggest clot removal only
within six hours of stroke onset,
PHOTOGR APHY ELLMAN N: STEPH EN NOWL AN D; GOD DARD: AN N BORD EN
a study published in the New England
Journal of Medicine shows that clot
removal up to twenty-four hours after
a stroke led to significantly reduced
disability for some patients. Of 206 Emory
stroke patients who randomly received experiment to board
either endovascular clot removal therapy International Space Station
or standard therapy of clot-busting Researchers at Emory School of
medication, almost half of those who Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of
had clot removal showed a considerable Atlanta have been awarded a two-year grant from the Center for the
decrease in disability, compared to Advancement of Science in Space supporting their work enhancing the abil-
13 percent of the medication group. ity of pluripotent stem cells to turn into cardiac muscle cells. Now the cells they’ve
carefully cultured will be tested on the International Space Station. Stem cell–derived
cardiac muscle cells have been used to treat heart failure in animal models and to study
inherited cardiac diseases separately from the heart of the source patient.
8 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018P O I N TS O F I N T E R E ST
‘Twisted New Board
Roots and of Trustees
Branches’ Chair
ELLMANN LECTURES
TRACE FAMILY TIES
Robert Goddard
T
Emory’s Board of Trustees has elected busi-
he 2017 Ellmann Lectures, given by acclaimed Irish author Colm ness executive Robert Goddard III to serve
Tóibín in November, turned on the subject of familial inher- as its new chair. The resolution passed at the
itance—or what Geraldine Higgins, codirector of the lecture full board’s annual meeting in November.
series, calls “all the twisted roots and branches of the family tree.” Goddard, who has served as a trustee
Tóibín’s subject was also personal, for he lost his own father when since 2008 and as vice chair of the board
he was twelve and told a Guardian reporter in 2014, “Every writer has since 2016, succeeds John Morgan 67OX
something in their childhood that nurtures them while seeming to be 69B, who is retiring as chair after serving in
very damaging at the time.” the role since 2013 and as an Emory trustee
During the course of three lectures, Tóibín examined the lives and since 1996. Morgan will remain active as an
relationships of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and W. B. Yeats with their emeritus trustee.
fathers. He began with the scandalous libel suit Oscar Wilde brought “Bob Goddard is a dynamic, thoughtful,
against John Douglas, the Ninth Marquess of Queensberry, after the and creative leader who understands the
latter—enraged over the affair between Wilde and his son, Lord Alfred breadth and depth of Emory’s strengths and
“Boisie” Douglas—left an accusing card in plain view at Wilde’s club. responsibilities as a leading research univer-
After a libel suit against his mother when Wilde was a child, the sity,” says Emory President Claire E. Sterk.
family maintained its social status. Based on this experience, Tóibín “His collaborative approach and his commit-
observed, Wilde “seriously misjudged how the judge, jury, and public ment to our faculty, students, patients, and
would view him.” Despite being the toast of London in 1895, when The alumni make him a compelling leader of, and
Importance of Being Earnest was entertaining audiences, Wilde would advocate for, Emory University.”
lose his trial, be sentenced to two years of hard labor, and fall out of Goddard is chairman and CEO of God-
favor with the public. dard Investment Group, a privately held firm
Tóibín took on the father of poet W. B. Yeats, John Butler Yeats, who investing in commercial real estate, primarily
abandoned his family to pursue life as a painter, only to have his success in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami,
eclipsed by his sons, W. B. as a poet and Jack as a painter. Says Tóibín, and Washington, D.C.
“the father’s exile was enabling and inspiring for the son’s work.” “One of the qualities that sets Emory
In the final lecture, Tóibín characterized James Joyce’s father apart is our commitment to working togeth-
PHOTOGR APHY ELLMAN N: STEPH EN NOWL AN D; GOD DARD: AN N BORD EN
as incapable of managing the family finances and was, according to er to transform society on a local, national,
James’s brother Stanislaus, “a man of absolutely unreliable temper.” and international scale,” says Goddard. “I see
Despite this, the elder Joyce would inspire his son’s work. “Hun- that commitment across the university, from
dreds of pages, and scores of characters in my books, came from him. our colleges and graduate and professional
I got from him his portraits, a waistcoat, a good tenor voice, and an schools, to our research and health care en-
extravagant, licentious disposition, out of which, however, the great- terprises, each of which draws people from
er part of any talent I may have springs,” Joyce wrote to his mentor, all over the world.”
T. S. Eliot. Goddard, who holds a bachelor’s degree
Tóibín concluded, “instead of openly killing his father, James Joyce in economics from Mercer University, grad-
sought not only to memorialize him but . . . use what he needed from uated from Harvard University’s Owners and
his father’s life to nourish his own art.”—Susan Carini 04G Presidents Management program.
WINTER 2018 EMORY MAGAZINE 9P O I N TS O F I N T E R E ST
Many living systems—from fireflies to over time if I set the parameters of the
neurons—switch behaviors collectively, chamber at a low gas pressure, enabling
firing on and then shutting off. But the them to move freely,” Gogia says. “After
current paper involved a nonliving sys- a few minutes I could see with my naked
tem: Plastic particles, tiny as dust specks, eye that they were acting strangely.”
that have no “on” or “off” switches. From anywhere between tens of
“The individual particles cannot seconds to minutes, the particles would
change between crystalline and fluid switch from moving in lockstep, or a
Particles states,” Burton says. “The switching
emerges when there are collections of
rigid structure, to being in a melted
gas-like state. It was surprising because
Gone Wild
these particles—in fact, as few as forty. the particles were not just melting and
Our findings suggest that the ability for a recrystallizing but going back and forth
system to switch behaviors over any time between the two states.
scale is more universal than previously “Imagine if you left a tray of ice out
WATCHING HOW PARTICLES thought.” on your counter at room temperature,”
SWITCH STATES COULD REALLY Burton’s lab studies the tiny, plastic Gogia says. “You wouldn’t be surprised
SHAKE PHYSICS UP particles as a model for more complex if it melted. But if you kept the ice on the
systems. They can mimic the properties counter, you would be shocked if it kept
A system of lifeless particles can become of real phenomena, such as the melt- turning back to ice and melting again.”
“lifelike” by collectively switching back ing of a solid, and reveal how a system Gogia conducted experiments to con-
and forth between crystalline and fluid changes when it is driven by forces. firm and quantify the phenomenon. The
states—even when the environment The particles are suspended in a vacu- findings could serve as a simple model
remains stable. um chamber filled with a plasma-ionized for the study of emerging properties in
Particles may be small, but in the argon gas. By altering the gas pressure nonequilibrium systems.
field of physics, this is huge. inside the chamber, the lab members can “Switching is a ubiquitous part of our
Physical Review Letters recently pub- study how the particles behave as they physical world,” Burton says. “Nothing
lished the findings by Emory physicists, move between an excited, free-flowing stays in a steady state for long—from
the first experimental realization of such state into a jammed, stable position. the earth’s climate to the neurons in a
dynamics. “We’ve discovered perhaps The current discovery occurred after human brain. Understanding how sys-
the simplest physical system that can Emory graduate student Guram “Guga” tems switch is a fundamental question
consistently keep changing behavior Gogia 22PhD tapped a shaker and slowly in physics. Our model strips away the
over time in a fixed environment,” says “salted” the particles into the vacuum complexity of this behavior, providing
Justin Burton, assistant professor of chamber filled with the plasma, creat- the minimum ingredients necessary.
physics. “In fact, the system is so simple ing a single layer of particles levitating That provides a base, a starting point, to
we never expected to see such a complex above a charged electrode. “I was just help understand more complex systems.”
property emerge from it.” curious how the particles would behave —Carol Clark
Nothing stays in a steady
state for long—from the
earth’s climate to the
neurons in a human brain.
P H O T O G R A P H Y E M O R Y P H OTO/ V I D E O
P H O T O G R A P H Y K AY H I N TO N
Justin Burton
10 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018A MAT TER OF DEGREE
The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program puts doctorates within reach for minority students
A
n Emory program that expands opportunities for under- pipeline has a profound impact on knowledge production, the
represented minorities to earn doctorates and faculty retention of a diverse student body, and the intellectual strength
positions has received renewed funding from the Andrew that diversity brings to academic communities, Anderson says.
W. Mellon Foundation. “This is why we do this work. Because of the initial leadership of
Emory’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) pro- the late professor Rudolph Byrd and then professor Dianne Stewart,
gram will receive $131,000 for the current year. Emory selects its the MMUF program at Emory is, without question, first rate,” Ander-
own fellows, rising juniors in Emory College with demonstrated son says. “Our fellows are completing their doctorates at Harvard,
academic excellence and serious intent to pursue a doctoral Northwestern, Michigan, Brown, Rutgers, and more. They are the
degree in selected humanities and social sciences. recipients of major fellowships, including the Fulbright.”
“As we prepare our diverse student body to contribute as
scholars and thought leaders in the academy and beyond, we
are committed to sustaining an environment at Emory that
promotes full participation and inclusivity. The MMUF program
provides an ideal platform to advance this objective and to
support our students as they pursue their education and devel-
opment as thought leaders with diverse intellectual interests and
perspectives,” says Dwight McBride, provost and executive vice
president for academic affairs.
The latest grant will pay stipends and research support to ten
junior and senior fellows during the academic year. The Mellon
Foundation
also provides
funding to culti-
vate the kind of
social capital—
SERIOUS STUFF The Mellon Mays program pre-
mentoring, pares the next generation of college professors, helped
grant writing, by leaders like Cynthia Neal Spence (left), UNCF/Mellon
programs director at Spelman College.
conference
presentations,
how-to-publish
workshops— Since the 1990s, Emory also has served as
that often makes the formal launching point annually for 106
the critical differ- fellows by hosting the UNCF/Mellon Summer
ence in gradu- Institute, which introduces the newly selected
ate school and students to life as an academic. In addition to
faculty success. Emory, they come from colleges across the
“MMUF is essential,” says Carol Anderson, Charles Howard country as well as two universities in South Africa.
Candler Professor and chair of the Department of African Amer- Fellows in the four-week immersion institute attend lectures
ican Studies, who leads the Emory program. “The glaring lack of on topics such as research, work-life balance, and the art and
diversity in the professoriate is evident across the United States, philosophy of teaching, as well as engage in weekly writing
where, for example, Hispanic males comprise only 2 percent of exercises to hone their critical thinking and analysis abilities.
all tenure-track faculty. The numbers are nearly as low or lower They also create a prospectus that forms the foundation for a
for African American and Native American men and women, as two-year research project with faculty mentors.
well as Hispanic women.” The summer program prepares fellows for the MMUF, which,
Since it was established in 1988, MMUF has supported 762 in addition to stipends, provides each cohort with ongoing
P H O T O G R A P H Y E M O R Y P H OTO/ V I D E O
PhD graduates. Emory, which joined the program in 2000, has mentoring, research support, and professional guidance from
launched seven so far, many of whom are now in tenure-track faculty, coordinators, and graduate students.
P H O T O G R A P H Y K AY H I N TO N
positions, along with several former students currently in gradu- Fellows enrolled in PhD programs up to thirty-nine months
ate programs pursuing doctorates. after earning a bachelor’s degree are also eligible for up to
Bringing more underrepresented students into the doctoral $10,000 in loan forgiveness.—April Hunt
WINTER 2018 EMORY MAGAZINE 11P O I N TS O F I N T E R E ST
# I See the
Future
Using Twitter and big data tools
to read minds—many, many minds
People who think farther into the future are more
likely to invest money and to avoid risks, accord-
ing to new findings by Emory psychologists.
While that conclusion may not seem reve-
latory, previous findings on the subject have
been inconsistent—possibly due to factors such as observer son is that prior studies explicitly asked individuals how far
bias in a lab setting and small sample sizes. What’s notable they thought into the future, while the PNAS paper used the
about this research, published by the Proceedings of the implicit measure of previous tweets.
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is that it tapped big The researchers used a suite of methods to automatical-
data tools to conduct text analyses of nearly forty thousand ly analyze Twitter text trails previously left by individual
Twitter users and to run online experiments of behavior of subjects. Experimental data was gathered using the Ama-
people who provided their Twitter handles. zon crowdsourcing tool Mechanical Turk, a website where
“Twitter is like a microscope for psychologists,” says individuals can complete psychology experiments and other
coauthor Phillip Wolff, associate professor of psychology. internet-based tasks.
“Naturalistic data mined from tweets ap- In one experiment, Mechanical Turk par-
pears to give insights not just into tweet- ticipants answered a classic delay discount-
ers’ thoughts at a particular time, but into ing question, such as: Would you prefer $60
a relatively stable cognitive process. Using today or $100 in six months?
social media and big-data analytical tools Twitter is like a The participants’ tweets were also
opens up a new paradigm in the way we
study human behavior.”
microscope for analyzed. Future orientation was measured
by the tendency of participants to tweet
Coauthor Robert Thorstad 16G 22PhD, psychologists.” about the future compared to the past.
a grad student in the Wolff lab, came up Future-sightedness was measured based on
with the idea for the research, worked on how often tweets referred to the future, and
the design and analyses, and conducted the how far into the future.
experiments. The results showed that future orientation was not asso-
“I’m fascinated by how peoples’ everyday behavior can ciated with investment behavior, but that individuals with
give away a lot of information about their psychology,” far-future-sightedness were more likely to choose to wait
Thorstad says. “Much of our work was automated, so we for future rewards than those with near-future-sightedness.
were able to analyze millions of tweets from thousands of That indicates that investment behavior depends on how far
individuals’ day-to-day lives.” individuals think into the future, rather than their tendency
The future-sightedness found in individuals’ tweets was to think about the future in general.
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN NOWL AND
short—usually just a few days—which differs from prior re- “Twitter can provide a much broader participant pool
search suggesting future-sightedness may stretch years. than many psychology experiments that primarily use under-
“One possible interpretation is that the difference is due graduates as subjects,” Thorstad says. “Big data methods may
to a feature of social media,” Wolff says. Another possible rea- ultimately improve generalizability for psychology results.”
12 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018CHEMISTS UNITE
EMORY’S CCHF CONNECTS UNIVERSITIES AND INDUSTRIES TO ADVANCE INNOVATION IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
T
he National Science Foundation making it faster and more efficient.
has awarded another $20 million The CCHF is not only transforming
to Emory’s Center for Selective WE’VE GOT THIS INCREDIBLE organic synthesis—it’s also creating new
C-H Functionalization (CCHF) to fund the models for the way organic chemistry is
COLLABORATIVE ENVIRON-
next phase of a global effort to revolution- taught and how labs conduct research.
ize the field of organic synthesis. MENT WHERE ORGANIC Where previously individual labs tended
“Our center is at the forefront of a ma- CHEMISTS AREN’T to work in isolation to tackle problems,
jor shift in the way that we do chemistry,” JUST SHARING RESULTS, the CCHF has broken down walls across
says Huw Davies, professor of chemistry specialties, institutions, and even countries
THEY’RE SHARING IDEAS.
and the director of the CCHF. “This shift to collectively take on the remaining chal-
holds great promise for creating new THAT’S RARE. lenges of selective C-H functionalization.
pathways for drug discovery and the “We’ve got this incredible collaborative
production of new materials to benefit ev- tionalization flips this model on its head. environment where organic chemists aren’t
erything from agriculture to electronics.” “We’ve devised ways to make C-H just sharing results—they’re sharing ideas,”
The CCHF began in 2009 as an NSF bonds react so that they become func- Davies says. “That’s rare. And we’ve expand-
Center for Chemical Innovation, with a tional,” Davies says. “And we’ve reached ed beyond our network of universities to
seed grant of $1.5 million and four col- the stage where it is no longer the molecule also engage the pharmaceutical industry.”
laborating universities. In 2012, the NSF
awarded the CCHF its first $20 million, Huw Davies
enabling it to grow to encompass sixteen
US institutions and seven industrial affili-
ates, including six major pharmaceutical
companies and one of the largest US
chemical suppliers. The center also built
global connections with major players
in C-H functionalization in Japan, South
Korea, and the UK.
The CCHF has led the way for explosive
growth in the field of C-H functionalization,
publishing more than two hundred papers
on the topic through its collaborators. It
has developed dozens of new catalysts for
C-H functionalization, including four major
classes from the Huw Davies group.
“During the past five years, we’ve
developed the fundamentals for C-H
functionalization and documented that
the concept is viable,” Davies says. “Now itself that determines the process of the In 2015, the CCHF launched online sym-
we’re ideally positioned to maximize the reaction—we’ve developed advanced posia on recent advances in C-H function-
further development of this chemistry and catalysts that allow us to control which alization. Graduate students and chemistry
move forward to apply it.” carbon-hydrogen bond within a molecule faculty from up to forty-five countries join
Traditionally, organic chemistry has will react and when.” the symposia, held about four times a year.
focused on the division between reactive, C-H functionalization opens unex- “We have leading voices in the field
or functional, molecular bonds and the plored chemical space by taking petro- give these free talks that are easy to join
inert, or nonfunctional bonds carbon-car- leum byproducts, which have a lot of live and participate in,” Davies says. “The
PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN NOWL AND
bon (C-C) and carbon-hydrogen (C-H). carbon-hydrogen bonds, and transform- aim is to further expand the field of C-H
The inert bonds provide a strong, stable ing them from waste into useful materials. functionalization by introducing it to grad-
scaffold for performing chemical synthe- It also strips out steps from the linear uate students and other chemists around
sis with the reactive groups. C-H func- process of traditional organic synthesis, the world.”—Carol Clark
WINTER 2018 EMORY MAGAZINE 13P O I N TS O F I N T E R E ST
IF YOU LOOK AT
THE SCIENCE,
YOU CAN SEE
THERE IS A LOT
OF POTENTIAL
IN PLANTS.
The Power
of Plants GROWING NEW CURES Cassandra Quave
leads antibiotic drug discovery research focused
on identification and analysis of botanical remedies
used in the traditional treatment of infectious
disease.
C
assandra Quave, an ethnobotanist With a patent on a compound she pH of the vinegar can balance the alkaline
with Emory College’s Center for the teased from the roots of an elmleaf black- pH that comes from such infections, effec-
Study of Human Health, elicits a berry that helps battle antibiotic-resistant tively slowing the growth of the fungus.
handful of nods when she asks whether her staph, Quave is a sought-after instructor. “Homeopathy has given botanicals a
students have seen or grabbed a bottle of She starts with the ancient history and bad rap, I think. But if you look at the sci-
aloe juice at a high-end grocery checkout. cultural interactions of botanical medicine ence, you can see there is a lot of potential
So-called green juices are restorative, before zipping through the plants that in plants. It’s good science,” says Pintas,
according to ads propped up by the bottles. form the basis of drugs for everything who is further exploring her research in
Good for the skin, one student murmurs. from infectious diseases to cancer and Quave’s lab as part of her honor’s thesis.
But today Quave is talking to her med- the safety and ethical issues in ongoing Such knowledge is important not just
ical botany class about plants used for research. for would-be physicians but also for any-
gastrointestinal needs. She explains that “Once they understand the Latin one who wants to think more deeply about
an Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal names of the plants and see how related their own health care.
knowledge, dating to 1550 BC, first iden- species share chemistry, they can con- First-year student Kat Bagger 21C de-
tified aloe vera as a treatment that still nect the dots to see how it all works,” veloped an understanding of the fine line
works today: the stimulant from the family Quave says. “That’s when it is really great, between toxicity and treatment that comes
of flowering plants solves constipation by because so many of them say they think with plant-based medicines.
quickly speeding up the colon muscles. about the world and their health in a Digitalis, for instance, comes from the
“It always makes me laugh, because whole new way.” poisonous foxglove plant, but controlled
it’s basically a jug of laxative that people A course that details the plant com- use of the plant’s
shouldn’t be chugging, but will, right as pounds and the underlying mechanisms cardiac glyco-
they stand in line,” Quave says of the neon of action of botanical drugs is also a prime sides helps with
green aloe juices. “It makes me wonder if example of the human health program, a congestive heart
they make it home without stopping.” pioneering effort that highlights Emo- failure.
From aspirin to the chemotherapy drug ry’s diverse efforts in health education, “I was one of
Taxol, some of the world’s most common research, and the liberal arts. those people who
and important medicines come from plants. Stephanie Pintas 18C, a human health thought natu-
P H O T O G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F M I R KO PA I A R D I N I
Quave’s Botanical Medicine and Health major, says the course has reinforced her ral meant safe,
course combines botany, chemistry, plans to focus on integrative medicine— but it’s so much
anthropology, and pharmacology to give with its approach to preventive, holistic more complex
students the practical ability to suss out care—after medical school. than that,” says
P H O T O G R A P H Y K AY H I N TO N
what is marketing and what is science Pintas had her own success in Bagger. “It’s so
when it comes to plant-based “cures” researching apple cider vinegar as a treat- eye-opening.”—
such as the aloe juice. ment for skin fungal infections. The acidic April Hunt
14 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018SEEKING THE CELLS WHERE HIV HIDES
Yerkes experts have identified new targets in HIV-infected patients already on antiviral treaments
Scientists at Yerkes National Primate and bone marrow, and contain replica- HIV-positive individuals who had been
Research Center have identified an addi- tion-competent and infectious virus.” on antiviral drugs for an average of three
tional part of the HIV reservoir, immune Guido Silvestri, division chief of years.
cells that survive and harbor the virus de- microbiology and immunology at Yerkes Based on the team’s findings, Paiar-
spite long-term treatment with antiviral and a Georgia Research Eminent Schol- dini says, CTLA4 should be considered
drugs. The findings are published online ar, is a coauthor of the study. The Yerkes as an additional target when designing
in the journal Immunity. team worked with researchers at NCI/ immunotherapies aimed at purging the
The cells display a molecule called Leidos Frederick, led by Jacob Estes, viral reservoir.
CTLA4, the target of an FDA-approved using a technique called “DNAscope,” to
cancer immunotherapy drug, ipilimum- visualize latently infected cells in lymph
ab. This information should help those nodes. Previous research had shown
trying to eradicate HIV from the body. HIV-infected cells persist in regions of
Researchers led by Mirko Paiardini, the lymph nodes called B cell follicles.
associate professor of pathology and The newly identified group of infected
laboratory medicine at the School of cells is found outside the B cell follicles.
Medicine and Yerkes and part of the Em- Working in collaboration with Rafick
ory Vaccine Center, infected macaques Sekaly at Case Western Reserve Univer-
with HIV’s relative SIV and treated sity, the research team also showed the
them with standard antiviral drugs sim- CTLA4-positive PD1-negative cells have
ilar to what humans receive for HIV. At the characteristics of regulatory T cells,
the time of analysis, eight out of nine of whose job is to put a brake on the im-
the animals showed undetectable SIV in mune system and prevent it from getting
their blood. The team probed for CD4+ too excited.
memory T cells, which are known to “It provides a strong rationale for
shelter persistent virus. targeting these cells,” Paiardini says. “De-
“We found that a certain group pleting latently infected T-regs can not
of memory CD4+ T cells displaying only reduce the reservoir, but also induce
CTLA4, but not another co-inhibitor a stronger antiviral immune response.”
receptor called PD1, harbor viral DNA The researchers also worked with
at higher frequencies than other groups Vincent Marconi, a physician treating
of memory CD4+ T cells,” Paiardini says. HIV in Atlanta, to confirm similar cells
LET’S BE SPECIFIC Mirko Paiardini has
“These cells can be found in multiple were present in human lymph nodes. identified particular cells that harbor latent HIV.
tissues, such as lymph node, spleen, gut, The human samples came from six
The Biggest Gift Yet For decades, the Woodruff Foundation has served as the
university’s advocate and partner, supporting education and mak-
The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation has pledged $400 million to ing greater quality of life possible for Emory’s patients. In 1979,
find new cures for disease, develop innovative patient care models, Robert W. Woodruff, the late leader of The Coca-Cola Company,
and improve lives while enhancing the health of individuals in need. and his brother, George Woodruff, gave Emory the then-record
P H O T O G R A P H Y C O U R T E S Y O F M I R KO PA I A R D I N I
The transformational gift, the largest ever received by Emory sum of $105 million, the first nine-figure gift to an institution of
University, will change the lives of patients and their families. higher education.
Through a new Winship Cancer Institute Tower in Midtown and The recent gift “will allow us to accelerate the scientific dis-
a new Health Sciences Research Building on Emory’s Druid Hills coveries needed for breakthroughs in patient care and to extend
P H O T O G R A P H Y K AY H I N TO N
campus, the gift will help advance new solutions for some of our reach in reducing the burden of disease for patients and their
medicine’s most challenging diagnoses and improve the out- families,” says Jonathan Lewin, Emory executive vice president for
comes for future generations. health affairs.
WINTER 2018 EMORY MAGAZINE 15P O I N TS O F I N T E R E ST
In Global Health,
Context Is Critical
JAMES LAVERY IS THE FIRST CONRAD N. HILTON
PROFESSOR IN GLOBAL HEALTH ETHICS
G
lobal biomedical and public health research—whether
introducing genetically modified mosquitoes to fight
dengue fever or testing new medicines to prevent HIV
transmission from mother to child—is aimed at finding
and implementing solutions to some of the world’s most
pressing health problems. That’s obviously a fundamen-
tally ethical pursuit. Isn’t it?
Yes, says James Lavery, recently named the first
Conrad N. Hilton Professor in Global Health Ethics. But
failure to understand the social and political context in
which the work is being done, or to know and address
how stakeholders perceive a project’s implications, has
the potential to sink even the most well-intentioned,
well-funded, otherwise well-designed research study.
Lavery, who also is a faculty member in the
Emory Center for Ethics, likens what he does to be-
ing an architect. He works with people who may be
designing lovely and functional structures to make
sure they don’t build upon unstable foundations or
in unsuitable locations.
Consider the mosquito net
program that died because the white
color of the net represented death
in the country where it was being
tested. Or the HIV pre-exposure
study that was abruptly shut down
after the sex workers involved in the
study, who felt their concerns had not
been taken seriously, staged a protest at an
international AIDS meeting. Both projects
likely looked great on the blueprint but fell apart in
the construction phase.
I L L U S T R AT I O N S T E P H E N N O W L A N D
Global research is especially tricky, says Lavery,
since the majority of programs are conducted in
low- and middle-income countries by research-
James Lavery ers and funding from high-income countries.
16 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 20185
NURSING
SCHOOL
I’M NOT TRYING IN TOP FIVE
TO INTRODUCE
ADDITIONAL
FOR NIH
OBSTACLES FOR
SCIENTISTS.
FUNDING
The Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of
Nursing is again among the top five nursing
schools in the US for funding from the Na-
tional Institutes of Health (NIH).
In 2017, the school received $7.8 million
in NIH funding as part of a total portfolio
of $14.9 million. This includes twenty NIH
Researchers face different cultures, different languages, an imbalance research awards, among which six were
of power and knowledge, and, sometimes, lingering distrust and fear training and/or career development awards.
of exploitation. The School of Nursing’s leading research
Lavery works to ensure that the core commitments and ethical inten- is reflected in several current projects. This
tions of global health research are translated into action and preserved trend marks a notable uptick in NIH funding
through relationships with stakeholders, beginning with the scientists in less than a decade; the school was No. 38
and people who fund them, and extending throughout the communities in funding in 2009.
touched by studies.
He’s most interested in what he calls the human infrastructure of
3
global health ethics, and community engagement is how this infrastruc-
ture comes about—how researchers identify and manage non-obvious
stakeholder interests, demonstrate respect and trustworthiness, and
build legitimacy by creating opportunities for dialogue and deliberation.
“I’m not trying to introduce additional obstacles for scientists,”
says Lavery. Instead, he consults with them—and the people who fund THREE
them—to help plan, design, manage, and evaluate strategies for engaging
with stakeholders in order to make their research more successful and
IN GOOD
ethically robust.
Creating a community engagement strategy is like imagining and
COMPANY
creating a building, Lavery says. He sits with the scientists, discussing
their vision, what they hope their “building” will accomplish and for Three Emory professors are among only
whom. Who are the stakeholders? What are constraints of space, budget, seventeen researchers around the country
regulations? Will it fit? Be appropriate? Accepted? to receive Distinguished Investigator grants
“Our work has been to figure out analogous elements, such as terms from the Brain and Behavior Research
of research partnerships, ethical commitments, and guiding principles— Foundation. The $100,000, one-year grant
methods for integrating community engagement activities with program is the foundation’s largest award, designed
management,” Lavery says. “We then help researchers and funders to support innovative projects that seek
integrate these elements to develop blueprints and project management new potential targets for understanding
strategies.” and treating a wide range of mental health
Based on years of investigating such “buildings,” including many that disorders. No other university had more than
never got off the ground, Lavery and his team are constructing a “Learn- two researchers earn the award.
ing Platform” to facilitate the process for funders and researchers. Each Emory College psychology professor Pa-
I L L U S T R AT I O N S T E P H E N N O W L A N D
new building, or project, is completely different and customized. tricia Brennan, and J. Douglas Bremner and
James Curran, dean of the Rollins School of Public Health, believes Andrew H. Miller, both physicians and pro-
Lavery will “provide leadership in public health ethics across the university fessors in the School of Medicine, received
and serve as a resource to Emory’s global ethics partners.”—Sylvia Wrobel the 2017 awards, announced in December.
WINTER 2018 EMORY MAGAZINE 17P O I N TS O F I N T E R E ST
SALVAGING “Data from CIREN centers help drive
rulemaking to make vehicles safer for pas-
CIREN centers are awarded funding
for research for either a medical center
WRECK AGE sengers,” says Jonathan Rupp, associate
professor of emergency medicine and
arm or an engineering center arm. The
Emory/Grady collaboration is one of two
W
principal investigator of the newly formed programs in the country that have been
ith more than three hundred CIREN center at Emory and Grady. “CIREN awarded both a medical center and an
thousand motor vehicle deaths relies on high-volume trauma centers like engineering center designation.
in the US each year, and more Grady’s Marcus Trauma Center to conduct “This is an incredible honor that re-
than one thousand in Georgia alone, most research on injuries following car crashes. flects the national prominence of Grady’s
of us either have been directly affected by This CIREN award would not have been Marcus Trauma Center and the expertise
a car accident or worry that we will be. of the engineering and medical teams
A new research project could steer brought together for this project,” says
those statistics in a better direction. David Wright, professor of emergency
Emory’s Injury Prevention Research Cen- medicine at Emory and coprincipal inves-
ter, along with Grady Memorial Hospital Data from CIREN tigator of the CIREN award. “Collaborators
and collaborators at the University of will spend the next five years collecting
Michigan, have been awarded almost $4 centers help drive and analyzing data to better understand
million for a five-year project to study
motor vehicle crashes in the metro-
rulemaking to make the mechanisms of injuries from modern
automobiles.”
Atlanta area that result in injuries treated vehicles safer for Researchers expect to investigate six-
at Grady. The project is funded by the ty to sixty-five metro-Atlanta automobile
National Highway Traffic Safety Admin- passengers. crashes per year that result in injury. At
istration (NHTSA) and will create a Crash the completion of the study, the investiga-
Injury Research and Engineering Network tors hope to have data on more than three
(CIREN) center for research. hundred patients injured in crashes.
With a goal to improve vehicle safety “Motor vehicle accidents are the No. 1
and support injury prevention, CIREN possible without the strong, collaborative trauma we see at Grady, resulting in thou-
centers collect data on the performance relationship between Emory and Grady.” sands of crash victims each year,” says
of vehicles in crashes and the resulting Participants will be enrolled in the Peter Rhee, chief of acute care surgery at
injuries. CIREN is one of the NHTSA’s study when brought by ambulance or Grady Health System. “We are excited to
major data collection systems for motor helicopter to Grady, Georgia’s busiest continue contributing to the work in the
vehicle crashes. Following an extensive Level 1 trauma center, following a crash. new CIREN center, in hopes of better un-
quality-control process, CIREN case data The Emory/Grady center is one of seven derstanding how to continually improve
are then made available to the public. designated CIREN centers in the US. the safety of our drivers and passengers.”
P H O T O G R A P H Y B R A I N I L L U S T R AT I O N : B O N A K I M
18 EMORY MAGAZINE WINTER 2018You can also read
