NIH Awards $19 Million to Develop Measures Against Chemical Terrorism: Dr. Laskin to Direct Collaborative Center

Jeffrey Laskin, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational medicine and chief, division of toxicology, will direct the new Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/Rutgers University CounterACT Center of Excellence.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year, $19.2 million grant to UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, to support the creation of a new Center of Excellence. The center, which is funded under CounterACT, a special NIH program, will focus on the development of medical countermeasures against chemical threats. It will be named the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School / Rutgers University CounterACT Research Center of Excellence.

Jeffrey Laskin, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational medicine and chief, division of toxicology, will direct the center. Its research team will include faculty from the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University, and Lehigh University.

“This is a massive effort designed to coordinate many different research groups,” says Dr. Laskin. “We will develop drugs that can be used against actual chemicals that could be used in a terror attack.”

The researchers will work to identify targets of sulfur mustard in the human body that can be exploited for therapeutic drug development. The team will also evaluate drugs that are currently available in pharmacies for use to treat various types of poisoning caused by an attack. “We have excellent leads, and we are quite hopeful that drugs will be available in the foreseeable future,” adds Dr. Laskin.

Deborah Cory-Slechta, PhD, professor and chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, and director, EOHSI, says, “This award adds strength to the ongoing commitment of both Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers to research in the area of security, which is so important to our nation and particularly to the citizens of our state.”

In addition to Rutgers’ Donald Gerecke, PhD, who is co-director of the center, other Rutgers faculty working on the project are Marion Gordon, PhD; Joshua Gray, PhD; Diane Heck, PhD; Debra Laskin, PhD; and Patrick Sinko, PhD.

Dean Amenta Hosts Reception
at Annual Meeting of AAMC

The dean’s reception at the 2006 annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in Seattle was a highlight for members and friends of the RWJMS community. Hosting the event for the first time was Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean.

Dr. Amenta warmly welcomed the crowd and commented how pleased he was to have as his guests fellow deans and other leaders from the world of academic medicine. Among those singled out for a special introduction were Darrell G. Kirch, MD, president, AAMC; Harold L. Paz, MD, dean, College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University; and Harvey Holzberg, former president and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

Among the guests was alumna Johanna Vidal-Phelan, MD ’01, a pediatrician practicing in Seattle. Dr. Vidal-Phelan greeted Dr. Amenta and shared memories with him of her student years in Piscataway. 

Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean (right), greets Darrell G. Kirch, MD, president, AAMC.	Left to right: Kathleen W. Scotto, MD, senior associate dean for research; David E. Swee, MD, associate dean for education; and Cheryl A. Dickson, MD, MPH, assistant dean for student affairs.
	Dr. Amenta welcomes Johanna Vidal-Phelan, MD ’01.

RWJMS Establishes
Department of Dermatology

Babar K. Rao, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine, was appointed acting chair of the newly established Department of Dermatology.

Dr. Rao joined the Department of Medicine in 2000 and established the Dermatology Residency Program in 2002. The program not only trains dermatology residents, but also hosts RWJMS residents in internal medicine and pediatrics and teaches medical students on clinical rotations.

Dr. Rao’s practice focuses on skin cancer protection and prevention. He is a specialist
in melanoma and also a noted teacher of dermatoscopy, which distinguishes between benign and malignant patterns in pigmented lesions. In addition, he is working on the development of computer-assisted technology that may reduce the need for invasive biopsies.

Medical dermatologist Amy S. Pappert, MD ’89, assistant professor of medicine, serves as program director in the new department; David A. Wrone, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine, is director of dermatologic surgeries. The department is supplemented by the services of a pediatric dermatologist and by a dematopathologist at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.         

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