Conversations with Giants in Medicine - Dr. Eugene Braunwald

In a new video installment of Conversations with Giants in Medicine, interviewer Ushma Neil with the Journal of Clinical Investigation speaks with Dr. Eugene Braunwald from Harvard Medical School about his life and career. Dr. Braunwald, who has often been called the "Father of Modern Cardiology," spent an "idylic childhood" in Austria until the arrival of the Nazis and the outbreak of World War II forced his family to flee first to London, and then to America with "only the shirts on their backs." Despite this experience, he notes that he doesn't consider himself to be a child of the Holocaust. "I came close to a cliff," he says. "But never went over the cliff."

In New York, Dr. Braunwald attended Brooklyn Tech, where he initially leaned towards engineering but at the last minute decided to pursue medicine. He explains the shift:

"I think there was a push and a pull. I think the push was that there were a lot of courses in shop, and drafting which I was not really very good at. I did well in mathematics and physics but not in the manual courses which of course weren't really necessary for engineering but that's the way the school was designed. So I became uncomfortable about that. And then I thought that [engineering] was quite impersonal. And so those are the two things that [drove me to medicine]."

"But when I went to medical school," he continues, "I had an early interest in cardiology because cardiologists were either electricians or plumbers - either electrical engineers or mechanical engineers. So cardiology is the closest thing in medicine to engineering."

Dr. Braunwald goes on to discuss how he came to land as the Chairman of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

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.

Journal of Clinical Investigation: A Conversation with Paul Marks by Ushma Neil

Paul Marks is recognized as a leader in the cancer field and as a world-class scientist, clinician, and administrator. He served as president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) between 1980 and 1999 after serving as the dean (1970–1973) and vice president for Medical Sciences (1973–1980) of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S).

Marks led the discovery, testing, and recent approval of SAHA (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid), the treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. SAHA and other histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are now undergoing trials for a broad array of cancers.

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.

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.

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.

Nobel Prize Winning Scientists Brown and Goldstein Interviewed by Robert Lefkowitz at Film Annex

For the second episode of Conversations with Giants in Medicine, hosted by the Journal of Clinical Investigation's Ushma S. Neill and Howard Rockman, Film Annex Studios welcomed three of medicine’s most charismatic giants, Robert Lefkowitz, Joseph Goldstein and Michael Brown.

In this episode, Lefkowitz, Goldstein, and Brown interview each other about their backgrounds, how they got started in medicine, where they got their scientific inspiration from, how to be a good mentor, and how to deal with scientific celebrity. Goldstein and Brown together won the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their discovery of the LDL cholestoral receptor and its role in the regulation of cholestrol metabolism. 

One of the interesting discussions revolved around the difference between being a physician versus being a scientist. The three talked about their first discoveries, their Eureka moments, their time at NIH, and the sense of wonder they felt, which led to a never-ending passion for science. 

Another remarkable topic that is discussed in the interview is the legendary, 40-year old scientific partnership between Goldstein and Brown. The duo talk extensively about how they met at the emergency room at Mass General when they were interns, their common interest in metabolism, and how they kept building on their relationship till this day. Lefkowtiz describes the partnership between Goldstein and Brown as a "remarkable mind-meld," and Brown says that he has the most priviledged existence, because every morning, Goldstein gives him a complete digestive of scientific literature from the night before.

The interview is fascinating and inspirational not only for those with scientific interests, but for anyone with a passion. In this 48-minute conversation, there's so much to learn about science, partnership, hard work, dedication, and curiousity.

-- Eren Gulfidan

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."