DukeMed Alumni News
Fall 2007

In Brief:

Nobel laureate Peter Agre, MD, and leading scientists from Duke’s medical faculty will present on topics ranging from personalized medicine to emerging biological threats at the continuing medical education forum Friday, October 12, 4:00-5:30 p.m. during Medical Alumni Weekend.

Titled “Duke Medicine as a National Leader: Where Are Our Best Opportunities?”
the program features the following speakers and topics:

• Preparing Duke Medical Students for the Globalized, Personal Medicine of the Future, R. Sanders “Sandy” Williams, MD’74, HS’77-’80. Williams is the senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and the Richard and Pat Johnson Distinguished University
Professor of Cardiovascular Genomics.

• Fingerprinting Lung Cancer to Improve Outcomes, a Genomic Strategy, Anil Potti, MD, HS’03-’06. Potti and a team from Duke have developed a panel of genomic tests to perform molecular analysis of cancerous lung tumors and determine the best “personalized” chemotherapy approach.

• The Life of a Physician Scientist, Peter Agre, MD. Agre, formerly of Johns Hopkins University, shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his laboratory’s 1991 discovery of the long-sought “channels” that regulate and facilitate water molecule transport through cell membranes.

• Duke Researchers Respond to Emerging Infections and Biological Threats, Richard Frothingham, MD’82, HS’90-’93. Frothingham directs the Global Health Research Building, which opened in November 2006 as the nation’s first NIH-funded regional biocontainment laboratory.

In addition to the forum, weekend events include Entrée, an event for young alumni on Thursday, the Medical Alumni Association Awards Luncheon and the Davison Club Celebration on Friday, and the Duke Traditions
Alumni Panel Discussion, Homecoming Football, and class dinners on Saturday.

For more information and to register, please visit Medical Alumni Weekend webpage.