June 29, 2007

In General

President George W. Bush has appointed Imam Talal Eid, Muslim staff chaplain for the MGH Chaplaincy, to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He is the first Muslim cleric to be named to the commission and will serve a two-year term. Created in 1998, the commission is an independent, bipartisan agency that monitors international religious conditions and offers policy recommendations to the president.

Bradley T. Hyman, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the John B. Penney Jr. Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, is one of two recipients of the Centennial Awards given by the American Health Assistance Foundation. The $1 million awards are intended to foster innovative, multidisciplinary research aimed at slowing or reversing the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Hyman is leading a team of scientists from Washington University and Stanford University to study different forms of the apoE gene associated with Alzheimer's disease susceptibility, work that has the potential to identify targets for future medicines.

Christopher Newton-Cheh, MD, MPH, of MGH Cardiology, is one of 20 recipients of the 2007 Career Award for Medical Scientists given by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. The award program supports junior physician-scientists in making the critical and challenging transition to an independent researcher. Newton-Cheh's research focuses on the genetic determinants of sudden cardiac death and electrocardiographic QT interval duration.