CMMG News

Greetings From the Director

The Wayne State University Board of Governors approved the university-wide Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics (CMMG) effective Oct. 1, 1994. Its mission is to enhance research strength in molecular medicine and genetics at WSU and to develop interdisciplinary research and training programs in targeted human health areas that bridge basic and clinical science. By promoting interactions and collaborations throughout the university and its affiliated hospitals, CMMG programs should provide new opportunities for external funding and foster translational research and technology transfer.

The CMMG currently has 19 primary, 9 joint, and 6 associate/adjunct faculty members. The majority of the CMMG faculty also have appointments and close associations with clinical departments. In addition to their individual research programs, the CMMG faculty are developing interdisciplinary programs with clinical scientists in areas such as human genetics and gene therapy, cancer, AIDS, neurological diseases and human reproductive biology. These interactions and collaborations include faculty in the WSU departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, Pathology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Surgery, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, Urology, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. Joint publications and research grant applications have resulted from some of these collaborative efforts.

The CMMG is broadening its academic programs to make them more interdisciplinary and to provide new opportunities for medical, graduate and postdoctoral student research in more clinically oriented areas. The number of faculty participating in the existing molecular biology and genetics graduate program has more than doubled in the last two years. More graduate students are carrying out their doctoral research in clinical departments. A proposal for a new M.S. degree program in genetic counseling has been submitted for approval and a program director has been hired. Other new graduate programs are being developed. Focused training programs and research opportunities for medical students, residents, fellows and clinical faculty will be offered, including courses and workshops on techniques, methodologies and research approaches in molecular medicine and genetics.

An important CMMG goal is to promote communication and interaction with medical biotechnology companies to facilitate the application of discovery research to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and to promote economic development in the state of Michigan.

The CMMG is providing research training opportunities for residents, fellows and faculty from several clinical departments and intends to expand these opportunities as the center continues to grow and develop. It has a Macromolecular Core Facility for nucleic acid synthesis and sequencing, and a shared Biocomputing Facility that have been used extensively by faculty and students in more than a dozen departments, centers, and institutes. CMMG faculty and staff are also available for advice and strategy in the design and interpretation of experiments involving molecular and cellular approaches.

"Faculty interested in a CMMG appointment should send an application letter and curriculum vitae to the director at 3216 Scott Hall ..."

Many of the CMMG goals and programs are prospective in nature since the center is in the early stages of its development. The implementation and achievement of these future objectives will be greatly facilitated by the involvement and participation of faculty and students throughout the university and its affiliated hospitals, who are strongly encouraged to become involved with center programs and activities. Faculty interested in a CMMG appointment should send an application letter and curriculum vitae to the director at 3216 Scott Hall (telephone 313-577-5323).

John Tomkiel, Ph.D., joined the CMMG in November of 1994 as an assistant professor from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he completed a postdoctoral fellowship. His tenure-retreat department is biological sciences. He received his Ph.D. in genetics in 1990 from the University of Washington. Dr. Tomkiel's research focus is the function of the centromere in cell division and its aberration in cancer and birth defects.

Anne Greb, M.S., became an assistant professor in the CMMG in January of 1995 on the clinical-educator track. She is the director of the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program that is currently being reviewed for approval as a new master's program. Professor Greb trained at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has been a staff genetic counselor since 1986, with six of those years at Hutzel Hospital, where she participated in the medical teaching program of the Reproductive Genetics Unit.

Robert A. Thomas, Ph.D., was promoted in May 1995 to assistant professor (research) after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the CMMG. He received his Ph.D. from the department of biological sciences at WSU in 1992. Dr. Thomas's research using HIV-1 to study the infection and transcriptional activation of retroviruses in human fetal development in collaboration with Drs. A. Scott Goustin (CMMG), Theodore Jones (Obstetrics-Gynecology) and James Jarvis (Pediatrics) will be extended to include HIV-2.

S. Helena Kuivaniemi, M.D./Ph.D., joined the CMMG in September of 1995 as a tenure-track associate professor with tenure-retreat in the department of surgery. She came from Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia where she worked on the molecular basis of a number of connective tissue disorders and, more recently, of aortic aneurysms. Her studies in that area focused on the candidate gene approach and led to the identification of mutations in the gene for type III procollagen that were associated with aortic aneurysms in some families. At WSU, Dr. Kuivaniemi, in collaboration with Professor Anne Greb, and Drs. Ramon Berguer, Andris Kazmers and Ronald Kline (surgery), will continue to collect familial cases of abdominal aortic aneurysms in order to use DNA linkage analysis to identify the gene(s) involved in the development of aneurysms. Her work will also include differential display PCR to identify unique genes expressed in the aorta.

Gerardus Tromp, Ph.D., joined the CMMG as an assistant professor (research) in September, 1995. He came from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where he was a research assistant professor. Dr. Tromp received his Ph.D. in 1989 from Rutgers University and completed his postdoctoral training at Jefferson Medical College. His research involved defining the molecular basis of several connective tissue disorders such as osteogenesis imperfecta and variants of the Ehlers Danlos syndrome. Recently, he has worked on intracranial aneurysms, attempting to define the gene(s) predisposing individuals to the disease, initially by using the candidate gene approach and subsequently by genetic epidemiology and linkage. At WSU, in collaboration with Dr. Antti Ronkainen (currently at WSU), members of the neurosurgery department, and the University of Kuopio, Finland, he will continue to collect information on families with intracranial aneurysms to define the gene or genes that predispose the disease by using linkage analyses. Furthermore, he hopes to establish other collaborative projects with WSU faculty involving genetic epidemiology and linkage.

Russell L. Finley, Jr., Ph.D., came from the Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics in September 1995 as an assistant professor in the CMMG with tenure-retreat in the department of internal medicine, hematology/oncology division. He had trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital following his Ph.D. training (1990) at State University of New York, Syracuse. Dr. Finley will continue his research on understanding the regulatory networks that control cell proliferation during development, employing a powerful genetic interaction trap methodology that he helped develop, along with conventional molecular and genetic techniques.

James Garbern, M.D./Ph.D., became a joint assistant professor in the CMMG and neurology department in September 1995. He came from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he had been an assistant professor studying the molecular genetics of neurological disease. Dr. Garbern carried out his medical, doctoral and postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. At WSU, his research focus is the cloning and analysis of human genes involved in the regulation of myelination. Dr. Garbern is currently organizing a Neurogenetics Center at WSU with Professor Greb and Dr. Kamholz.

In addition to the new primary faculty, we welcome the following new associate faculty members: James Jarvis, M.D. (pediatrics), Donald Kuhn, Ph.D. (psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences), Kenneth Maiese, M.D. (neurology), Adnan Munkarah, M.D. (obstetrics and gynecology), and Michael Shy, M.D. (neurology).

We offer further congratulations for recent MBG Ph.D. recipient Chris Krebs, who won the Duncan McCarthy Award for the best comprehensive abstract submitted by a student or postdoc to the annual (1995) meeting of the Michigan Chapter of Neurosciences.

"The CMMG is broadening its academic programs to make them more interdisciplinary and to provide new opportunities ..."

The CMMG has also formulated a Genetic Counseling Graduate Program (with Prof. Anne Greb as director) that is currently under review by the Graduate School. The objective of the program is to provide students with the skills to function as productive and responsible genetic counselors in a variety of work settings. Students will have the opportunity to interact with numerous clinical genetic professionals including genetic counselors, pediatric and obstetrical medical geneticists, cytogeneticists, and biochemical and molecular geneticists. The program is designed to meet the criteria for accreditation by the American Board of Genetic Counseling, and will therefore integrate scientific knowledge and counseling skills with different clinical experiences. The course work consists of: principles of human and medical genetics, molecular biology, and counseling and interviewing skills. Students will obtain supervised clinical experience in a variety of genetics and subspecialty clinics, as well as in genetic service laboratories throughout The Detroit Medical Center and surrounding hospitals. Pending its approval as a new graduate program, it will admit the first class of four students for the fall of 1996.

CMMG Activities

CMMG is a Clinical Genetics Resource

1. Availability of genetic testing for specific diseases;
2. Disease-specific patient support groups;
3. Statewide clinical genetic services and specialty clinics.

Anton Scott Goustin, "HIV infection of developing placenta," Theodore B. Jones, M.D., obstetrics and gynocology, Fayth Yoshimura, Ph.D., and Steven R. King, Ph.D., immunology; "Natural insulin receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor," Myron A. Leon, Ph.D., immunology, George Grunberger, M.D., and Pothur R. Srinivas, M.D., internal medicine; "Gene therapy to expand hematopoietic stem cells," Alan W. Flake, M.D., surgery, Fayth Yoshimura, Ph.D., and Steven C. Lerman, Ph.D., immunology.

Lawrence I. Grossman, "Molecular events in neuronal ischemic-reperfusion injury," Blaine C. White, M.D., and Gary Krause, M.D., emergency medicine.

George Grunberger, "Structure-function relationships of a human insulin receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor," Myron Leon, Ph.D., immunology; "The use of insulin harmonic waveform analysis in the evaluation of pulsatile insulin secretion in patients with Type II diabetes mellitus," Michael Diamond, M.D., and Ralph Kramer, M.D., obstetrics and gynecology.

Minoru S. H. Ko, "Genetics of skin diseases," Ken Hashimoto, M.D., dermatology.

"CMMG faculty are developing interdisciplinary programs with clinical scientists in areas such as human genetics and gene therapy ..."

S. Helena Kuivaniemi, "Familial abdominal aneurysms," Ramon Berguer, M.D., Andris Kazmers, M.D., and Ronald A. Kline, M.D., surgery.

Markku Kurkinen, "Role of proteases in breast cancer progression," Rafael Fridman Ph.D., pathology; "Matrix metalloproteinases in arthritis and other degenerative diseases," Felix Fernandez-Madrid, M.D./Ph.D., rheumatology.

Wayne Lancaster, "Human papillomavirus in head and neck cancers," John Ensley, M.D., internal medicine, hematology-oncology; "Identification of tumor suppressor genes in ovarian cancer; expression of T-Cell receptor usage in cervical cancer; Role of virus in ovarian cancer," Adnan Munkarah, M.D., obstetrics-gynecology; "Association between clinical course of aids and Class II HLA," Jack Sobel, M.D. and Paula Shuman, M.D., internal medicine, infectious diseases.

Jeffrey Moshier, "Gastric mucosal injury and aging; Aging and induction of colorectal neoplasia," Adhip Majumdar, Ph.D./D.Sc., internal medicine and biochemistry; "Early weaning and gut development - Role of ornithine decarboxylase and tyrosine kinases," Chuan- Hao Lin,, M.D., pediatric gastroenterology; "The efficacy of thymosin Alpha-1 in the treatment of chronic Hepatitis B disease, Thymosin Alpha-1 bioassays utilizing Hepatitis B transfected hepatoma cells," Milton Mutchnick, M.D. and Paul Naylor, Ph.D., internal medicine.

Mary T. Murray, "Apoptosis during kidney reperfusion injury," Scott Dulchavsky, M.D., surgery, and Ken Palmer, Ph.D., pathology.

Robert H. Rownd, "Gene therapy," Lawrence Lum, M.D., formerly of internal medicine, hematology-oncology, and currently scientific director of The Adoptive Immunotherapy/Gene Therapy Program at St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wis.

J. Christopher States, "Cellular and molecular toxicity of lead," Joel G. Pounds, Ph.D., institute of chemical toxicology; "Gene therapy approaches for Parkinson's disease," Donald M. Kuhn, Ph.D., psychiatry.

Robert A. Thomas, "HIV transcriptional activation," Theodore Jones, M.D., obstetrics and gynecology; "Involvement of HIV immune complexes in vertical transmission," James Jarvis, M.D., pediatrics.

CMMG Co-Sponsors AIDS Symposium