February 10, 2006

New location for Scientific Advisory Committee meeting

The new Simches Research Center will be the site of next week's activities for the annual meeting of the MGH Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). The 30th research symposium and poster session will be held Feb. 15 followed by the 59th annual SAC meeting Feb. 16. Wednesday's poster session on the Simches second floor will feature 156 research posters, 11 of which have been named "posters of distinction." Eight students from the Timilty Middle School also will present posters developed from science fair projects that were mentored by MGHers.

The research symposium — in Simches Room 3110 and open to the entire MGH community — will begin at 2:15 pm Feb. 15 with a welcome from Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of the MGH. David Pauls, PhD, of MGH Psychiatry, will discuss "Genetics and Psychiatry: Understanding the 'Nature' of Psychopathology;" and Kenneth Chien, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Cardiovascular Research Program, will present "Heart Like Blood: The Islet-1 Cardiovascular Progenitor Story." At 4 pm, keynote speaker Joseph Goldstein, MD, professor and chair of Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and an SAC member, will address "The SREBP Pathway: An Ensemble of Membrane Proteins that Sense and Control Cholesterol."

The SAC annual meeting, from 8 am to 3:50 pm Thursday also in Simches Room 3110, will focus on "Translational Research at the MGH: Looking Ahead." Presentations will include staff sharing experiences from the MGH Cancer Center, the Department of Radiology and the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT). The directors of the thematic research centers will discuss their current activities, and the afternoon will include an examination of the future of the General Clinical Research Center.