A Conversation with Dr. Jean Wilson, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

Dr. Jean Wilson from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, speaks here with Ushma Neil of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI). Dr. Wilson was the editor-in-chief of the JCI between 1972 and 1977. Before retiring, Dr. Wilson's research centered on both cholesterol metabolism and steroid hormone action and laid the groundwork for understanding male/female genital development. His studies of testosterone biology led to the first medical therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Ushma S. Neill obtained her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University studying pulmonary mechanics and used her Marshall Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellowship at Imperial College, London, to study vascular permeability. After 2 years as an editor at Nature Medicine, she joined the JCI in March 2003 as Executive Editor. In May 2012, Ushma became Director of the Office of the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

The Journal of Clinical Investigation is a top-tier venue for critical advances in biomedical research. The JCI has a 2011 Impact Factor of 13.069 and a 5-year Impact Factor of 15.430, placing it second in the category of Medicine, Research and Experimental. This along with free access to all of its research articles makes the JCI a prestigious, high-impact venue for authors seeking the broadest audience for their most important work.

The journal is headed by Editor in Chief Dr. Howard Rockman and an Editorial Board of peer scientists at Duke University Medical Center, the University of North Carolina, Duke-NUS, and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute whose depth and experience ensure fair and competent peer review.

Interview with Chairman of UCSF Department of Medicine Dr. Lloyd Hollingsworth Smith, Jr.

Dr. Llloyd Hollingsworth Smith Jr., a Harvard University alumnus and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, visited Film Annex’s studio for an interview with executive director of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Dr. Ushma Neill. The visit was part of the video series, Conversations with Giants in Medicine, which interviews Nobel Prize winners and renowned scientists and is produced in collaboration with JCI and hosted on its Web TV.

In the video, Smith discusses being chairman of the University of California’s medical school since the early 1960s. The university has the highest standards in patient care, teaching and research. Smith recalls medical school in Boston when he was 19 years old, as well as his experiences with the Navy as a young man.

“The remarkable thing was that the Pearl Harbor happened while I was a freshman [at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.], and this remarkably altered the career and aspirations of all of us at that age,” Smith said. “I was 17 at the time and we were, quickly, later that year taken into uniform and told if we could be admitted into medical school, the Army—or Navy, in my case—would send you to whichever institution you were admitted to.”

He also spoke about getting the first artificial kidney to work in military medicine during the Korean War.

View the full interview below. 

Interview with Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Harold Varmus

Dr. Harold Varmus, the current Director of the National Cancer Institute, visited our studio for an interview with JCI's Executive Editor Dr. Ushma Neill, as part of the Conversations with Giants in Medicine video series. Those videos, produced in collaboration with the Journal of Clinical Investigation and hosted on their Web TV, show interviews with Nobel Prize winners and renown scientists.

After talking about what led him to the scientific field, Dr. Varmus reviews his productive career and accomplishments in science and medicine. He also describes his research in cells and cancer treatment that resulted in a Nobel Prize win.

Prior to his work as the Director of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Varmus worked as the Director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999 and the President of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 2000 to 2010. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine with Michael Bishop in 1989. This prize meant recognition of their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes, which allows us to understand and treat cancer and know how cells live and grow today.

Photo credit: National Cancer Institute.

Interview with Expert in Receptor Biology Dr. Robert Lefkowitz and Nobel Prize Winners Dr. Joseph Goldstein and Dr. Michael Brow

Expert in Receptor Biology Dr. Robert Lefkowitz joined JCI's Executive Editor Dr. Ushma Neill  in our studio for a conversation with Geneticists Dr. Joseph Goldstein and Dr. Michael Brown, as part of the Conversations with Giants in Medicine video series. Those videos, produced in collaboration with the Journal of Clinical Investigation and hosted on their Web TV, show interviews with Nobel Prize winners and renown scientists.

Robert Lefkowitz is known for his seminal discoveries in understanding G protein-coupled receptor function. He's a Professor of Medicine at Duke University and received the National Medal of Science in 2007.

Joseph Goldstein and Michael Brown won the Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine in 1985 for describing the regulation of cholesterol metabolism. Their findings led to a better understanding of the mechanism of action of statin drugs, the cholesterol-lowering compounds used by 16 million Americans. It is the most prescribed medications in the United States.

Goldstein is a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and The Rockefeller University, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Brown serves on the Prix Galien USA Committee, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in his field.

In this interview, they talk about their careers and how they found their scientific inspiration. The discussion also focuses on the topic of mentoring and being a celebrity and the scientific world.

Clinical relationships: The Film Annex and The Journal of Clinical Investigation

The Journal of Clinical Investigation is a top-tier venue for critical advances in biomedical research. The JCI combines a 2011 Impact Factor of 13.069 with immediate free access to its research articles to produce an ideal venue for authors seeking the widest possible audience for their most important work. The journal is headed by Editor in Chief Dr. Howard Rockman and an Editorial Board of peer scientists at Duke University Medical Center, the University of North Carolina, Duke-NUS, and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute whose depth and experience ensure fair and competent peer review.

In addition to the high-impact research that the JCI has always published, the journal accepts submissions in two other categories: Brief Reports and Technical Advances (see list). Brief Reports are discrete, highly significant findings reported in a shorter format. Technical Advances report new and important research tools and techniques with broad impact; these submissions should include application of the technique to a specific question relevant to understanding or treating a disease.

In this film, Ushma Neil talks about its growing relationship with Film Annex and JCI's "Conversations with Giants in Medicine."