May 7, 1999

Patricia Donahoe, MD

Patricia Donahoe, MD, chief of MGH Pediatric Surgical Services and director of the Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratories, recently was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a distinction that is considered one of the highest honors that can be presented to a US scientist.

The NAS is a private, nonprofit organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology. According to the charter granted to the NAS by Congress in 1863, the academy has a mandate to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Members and foreign associates of the academy are elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Donahoe was recognized for her 25 years of research in developmental biology and reproduction. She and her colleagues purified and cloned Mullerian Inhibiting Substance (MIS), which directs the development of male reproductive organs in the fetus by causing regression of female-associated structures. MIS now is being developed as a treatment for gynecologic cancers. The research team recently has cloned the MIS receptors and are studying how they function in the cell.

Donahoe joins six other MGHers in membership to the academy: Jerome Gross, MD; Edward Harlow, PhD; Kurt Isselbacher, MD; Alexander Leaf, MD; Jack Szostak, PhD; and Paul Zamecnik, MD.

MGHers who are members of NAS's sister organization, the Institute of Medicine are:

• Dennis Ausiello, MD
• W. Gerald Austen, MD
• Octo Barnett, MD
• David Blumenthal, MD
• Roman DeSanctis, MD
• Patricia Donahoe, MD
• Thomas Fitzpatrick, MD, PhD
• Jerome Gross, MD
• Walter Guralnick, DMD
• Kurt Isselbacher, MD
• Richard Kitz, MD
• Alexander Leaf, MD
• James J. Mongan, MD
• John Potts, MD
• David Sachs, MD
• Anne Young, MD, PhD
• Nicholas Zervas, MD