Felix Fernandez-Madrid, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Internal Medicine, will serve as principal investigator of the research, which is a collaboration of School of Medicine faculty, including Judith Abrams, Ph.D.; Wei Chen, Ph.D.; and Naimei Tang, Ph.D.; as well as members of the Henry Ford Health System Departments of Pathology (Azadeh Stark, Ph.D.; Richard Zarbo, M.D.; and Arun Dhananjay, M.D.), Radiology (Matthew Burke, M.D.); and Surgery (David Nathanson M.D.).

The research will attempt to develop a diagnostic test based on proteins called autoantibodies that could detect accurately the earliest forms -- as well as the invasive forms -- of breast cancer.

The outcome of the project, Dr. Fernandez-Madrid explained, may be a new antibody-based diagnostic instrument that could prove to be an accurate, relatively inexpensive, accessible, rapid and easy-to-administer blood test for the early diagnosis of breast cancer.

“If successful, this test -- used in conjunction with mammography -- has the potential to complement and increase the accuracy of the screening process,” Dr. Fernandez-Madrid said. “By reducing the false negative results of mammography, the increased accuracy of the screening process would lead to earlier recognition of breast cancer and better responses to therapy, while the decrease of false positive mammography results would alleviate women’s anxiety, and would diminish the cost incurred in unnecessary additional diagnostic procedures and surgery.”

The spark for the research occurred, Dr. Fernandez-Madrid explained, when he was treating a rheumatoid patient, who later developed breast cancer. He drew a blood sample after her cancer treatment and found the autoantibodies. He compared the post-treatment sample with a sample drawn before treatment and found the autoantibodies in her blood. That catalyst led to the proposition that the autoantibodies could be a primary indicator for breast cancer.

Dr. Fernandez-Madrid, who is also a member of the School of Medicine’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, and the Karmanos Cancer Institute, said the NIH grant runs for three years.

The research secured a previous three-year NIH grant for $223,500 in 2001.

This annual benefit, which begins at 5:30 p.m., takes place at Henry Ford Community College’s Administrative Services Conference Center, Roseneau Room, located at 5101 Evergreen Road, in Dearborn.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine has a long, proud tradition of community service and volunteerism among its students. Generations of graduates have cut their teeth serving in free medical clinics and providing much needed healthcare, related education and services to the communities of Detroit and Wayne County. These community outreach programs are primarily managed and perpetuated by the student body providing a number of services, including free medical care for the homeless, school-based healthcare education, services for the disabled and underserved and more.

As with most good things, funding support is needed to continue these noble missions and support the deep tradition of social consciousness fostered by the school. The proceeds from this benefit will provide direct support to several student outreach organizations and help them continue their efforts in our community.

Guest tickets cost $100; student tickets cost $40. Business attire is requested. For ticket information, contact Robert Sherwin, M.D., at rsherwin@med.wayne.edu, (734) 231-3857 (cell) or (313) 745-0203 #3623 (DMC page).

The Oct. 8 event, conducted at Scott Hall, honored faculty members and students who distinguished themselves in teaching and academic achievement during 2008.

"The Honors Recognition Program recognizes the intellectual vitality and vigor our faculty and students bring to academics and medicine," said Robert M. Mentzer Jr., M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and senior advisor to the President for Medical Affairs. "The people we honor today helped build the School of Medicine's reputation as one of the finest institutions in this nation, and will continue to do so."

Executive Vice Dean Robert Frank, M.D., who served as master of ceremonies for the program, recalled that when he became dean of students in 1986, he wanted to organize an event to celebrate honors students. That first event consisted of a poster containing the names of honors students and a cake.

“We’ve come a long way since,” Dr. Frank noted. “And next year we’re going to be able to celebrate in our new building (the Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Medical Education Commons).”

Dr. Frank also announced that Dean Mentzer has provided a $500 scholarship from the School of Medicine for each honors student.

The presentation of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards to Gary Krause, M.D.; Robert Swanborg, Ph.D.; Vainutis Vaitkevicius, M.D.; Colin Orton, Ph.D.; and Kamran Moghissi, M.D., highlighted the ceremony.

Patricia Dhar, M.D., received the Lamp Award based on her selection by staff and senior class students.

“It was such an honor to receive this award, especially coming from the students,” said Dr. Dhar, a rheumatologist and principal investigator for the Wayne State University Lupus Database in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology Division of Rheumatology. “Teaching medical students has always been so rewarding and the most wonderful part of my job here. I will always treasure it and no award will ever mean more."

Diane Levine, M.D., was selected by sophomore students to receive the Staff Award.

“It’s a privilege and an honor to be selected by the students,” Dr. Levine said. She serves as vice chair for Education and clerkship director, as well as associate professor, in the Department of Internal Medicine. “We’re here for the students, and that’s what it’s all about. I always try to put the students first. When I’m teaching and mentoring, I always try to do it with the perspective of the students in mind.”

As a special tribute this year, Charles Whitten, M.D., Pediatrics; and Helene Lycaki, Ph.D., Psychiatry, received posthumus awards. Both Whitten and Lycaki died this year.

“We all remember them and hold them near and dear to our hearts,” Dr. Frank said. “We will miss them both greatly.”

The honorees include:

2008 Graduate Alumni Laureate Award
Michael R. Emmert-Buck, M.D., Ph.D., Head, Pathogenetics Unit and senior investigator Laboratory of Pathology and Urologic Oncology Branch Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute.

2008 Graduate Students Academic and Research Awards
Nicholas Brown, Immunology/Microbiology; David Craig, Cancer Biology; Michael Frezza, Cancer Biology; Hsueh-Liang Fu, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Wei Huang, Pathology; Samar Nasser Physiology; Anna Valina-Toth, Physiology – M.D./Ph.D.; Paula Whittington, Immunology/Microbiology – M.D./Ph.D.; Danielle Worthy, Medical Physics; Jonathon Wojkowiak, Pharmacology; Yi Zhang, Anatomy & Cell Biology; and Qing Zhong, Pharmacology.

2008 Research Excellence Awards
Donal S. O’Leary, Ph.D., Physiology; Shijie Sheng, Ph.D., Pathology; Maik Huttemann, Ph.D., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Terrance Lynn Albrecht, Ph.D., Cancer Institute; Jeffrey Taub, M.D., Pediatrics; and Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D., Psychiatry.

Academic Achievement Awards
Class of 2009: Angela Liang and Mary Tanski
Class of 2010: Emily McLaren
Class of 2011: Edward Shields

Honors in Year 1 Class of 2011
Bernard Acho, Rounak Bafana, Julian Barbat, Pravir Baxi, Katherine Caretti, Jordan Castle, Myungwon Chang, Erica Chimienti, Cierra Colbert, David Crawford, Patrick Dantzer, Daniel Demos, Scott Denstaedt, Ross Eppelheimer, Ciprian Gradinaru, Chad Green, Adrienne Hoban, Michael Jurewicz, Sarah Kenning, Steffany Kerkstra, Bonita Kozma, Ashlee Krisko, Nicholas Mischel, Jesse Morrison, Laura Most, Andrew Petraszko, Kyle Pfeifer, Christine Poisson, Tim Reynolds, Zain Rizvi, Jamie Segel, Scott Selle, Gurpriya Sethi, Neil Shah, Edward Shields, Wendy Simanton, Gilbert Tang, Jesse Veenstra, Benjamin Workman, Joseph Yang, Daniel Zeldes and Danielle Zwier

Honors in Year 2 Class of 2010
Sayf Al-katib, Grant Bailey, Jane Beimer, Jaida Bourke, Britton Carter, Stephanie Dean, Samantha Dewundara, Iuliana Dit, Justin Dueweki, Joy Dunn, Elizabeth Frayer, Ryan George, Pooja Gupta, Aaron Heindle, Levi Hilton, Levi Hinkelman, Joanna Hooten, Marian Ibrahim, Cerine Jeanty, Kia Jones, Aaron Kang, Christopher Lam, Thomas LaRoche, Allison Long, Emily McLaren, Kristin Moore, Dominic Pelle, Lindsay Petersen, David Prior, Deepti Reddy, Jason Rose, Johanna Scheer, Eirwen Scott, Adam Skrzynski, Matthew Stemer, Shezad Tejani, Erica VanderKooy, Timothy VanderKooy, Amber Warnat, Leah Weitz, Danielle Welch, Andrea Wudyka and Nathan Zwagerman.

Honors in Year 3 Class of 2009
Ukamaka Atueyi, Andrea Barbieri, Amanda Born, William Braaksma, Autumn Broady, Qing-Min Chen, Johanna Coughlin, Jason Domina, Jessica Dornbush, Adrian Gasperut, Nathan Gonik, Bianca Gruber, Katherine Gurchak, Anna Hehl, Zachariah Hicks, Mark Kelly, Ryan Kelly, Michael Kopec, Alla Kwitny, Rachel Laarman, Joshua Leese, Laurel Leithauser, Angela Liang, Victor Mangona, Brian Mott, Patricia Myers-Gurevitch, John Otremba, Mihailo Popovic, Meredith Price, Crystal Ritsema, Richard Schildhouse, Nicole Seleno, Saloni Shah, Kelly Smith, Sakiko Suzuki and Mary Tanski.

2008 College Teaching Awards
Harry Goshgarian, Ph.D., Anatomy & Cell Biology; Alexander Gow, Ph.D., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Angela Trepanier, M.S., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Cynthia Aaron, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Melissa Barton, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Thomas Holland, Ph.D., Immunology/Microbiology; Roy Sundick, Ph.D., Immunology/Microbiology; Syed Muneer Abidi, M.D., Internal Medicine; Elizabeth Arnold, M.D., Internal Medicine; Lois Ayash, M.D., Internal Medicine; Lavoisier Cardozo, M.D., Internal Medicine; Diane Levine, M.D., Internal Medicine; Donald Levine, M.D., Internal Medicine; Milton Mutchnick, M.D., Internal Medicine; Renato Roxas, M.D., Internal Medicine; Charles Schiffer, M.D., Internal Medicine; Suneja Anupam, M.D., Internal Medicine; Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, M.D., Internal Medicine; Richard VanderHeide, M.D., Ph.D., Pathology; Eishi Asano, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatrics; Jorge Lua, M.D., Pediatrics; Kathleen Moltz, M.D., Pediatrics; Ann Mortenson, M.D., Pediatrics; Athina Pappas, M.D., Pediatrics; Debbie Toder, M.D., Pediatrics; Mark Zilberman, M.D., Pediatrics; Michael Bannon, Ph.D., Pharmacology; Stanley Terlecky, Ph.D., Pharmacology; Donald DeGracia, Ph.D., Physiology; and Eti Gursel, M.D., Surgery.

2008 Academic Teaching Awards
Patricia Dhar, M.D., the Lamp Award
Diane Levine, M.D., the Staff Award.

2008 WSU Faculty Awards
William Crossland, Ph.D., Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, the WSU President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching; Rodney D. Braun, Ph.D., Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, the Career Development Award; Jeffrey Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, the Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award; Jack D. Sobel, M.D., Departments of Internal Medicine, Immunology & Microbiology, and Obstetrics & Gynecology, the Charles J. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship; and Judith Whittum Hudson, Ph.D., Departments of Immunology & Microbiology, Internal Medicine, and Ophthalmology.

2008 Lifetime Achievement Awards
Gary Krause, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Robert Swanborg, Ph.D., Immunology/Microbiology; Vainutis Vaitkevicius, M.D., Internal Medicine; Colin Orton, Ph.D., Radiation Oncology; and Kamran Moghissi, M.D., Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The Wayne State University School of Medicine Development and Alumni Affairs Department has secured a $3 million grant from The Kresge Foundation to be used in the construction of the Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Medical Education Commons.

The Kresge Foundation committed the grant with the condition that the School of Medicine first raise $30 million for the building, destined to become the new face of the school. The School of Medicine’s development team met that goal with a recent gift from an anonymous donor, triggering the Kresge challenge grant.

“With the awarding of this grant, we are saluting your efforts to improve conditions and advance opportunities in your community," said Rip Rapson, president of The Kresge Foundation. "We must partner with nonprofit organizations such as the School of Medicine if we are to pursue our grant-making vision. You enable our work as much as we try to enable yours.”

The Kresge Foundation is a private foundation that supports communities by building the capacity of nonprofit organizations in health, the environment, arts and culture, education, human services and community development.

“This gift from The Kresge Foundation means so much to the School of Medicine, to our students, and to the patients and community they serve,” said Robert M. Mentzer Jr., M.D., dean and senior advisor to the President on Medical Affairs. “This type of commitment from the foundation is recognition of the vital role the School of Medicine has in southeast Michigan. The foresight of the foundation, as well as the commitments made by our alumni and friends and family of alumni, will help us push medical education not only into a new building, but into a new millennium.”

Dean Mentzer also praised the School of Medicine’s Development and Alumni Affairs Department, which worked diligently to raise the $30 million in contributions required to secure the Kresge Foundation’s challenge grant.

Doug Czajkowski, chief development officer for the School of Medicine, noted that many financial gifts backing the construction of the new building are from former students who maintain strong ties with the school and who want to remain part of the family continuing its legacy.

“Those who graduated from the School of Medicine are strongly committed to carrying forward the mission of the school,” Mr. Czajkowski said. “And yet while many of our contributors are students who have gone on to become successful doctors, quite a few who contributed to the construction of the new Mazurek Education Commons are not in the medical field, but know the school’s reputation for providing health care for the uninsured and underinsured, and in providing world class physicians to care for the people of Michigan and the world.”

Mr. Czajkowski also thanked the School of Medicine’s Board of Visitors and Executive Fundraising Committee. “Their dedication to the school really helped this to come to fruition,” he said.

David Ripple, vice president of Development and Alumni Affairs for Wayne State University, noted that through the development process, the university discovered generous donors who believe in investing in medical education.

"The Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Medical Education Commons will be an invaluable resource for the medical research and practical training that prepare our medical students to provide services for those in need across the state,” Mr. Ripple said. “By offering the $3 million grant on a challenge basis, The Kresge Foundation has helped the School of Medicine raise the standard of fundraising at Wayne State. The challenge also assisted the school in discovering some incredibly generous donors, most notably Nick Labedz, who are making major investments in the future of medical education at Wayne State. I am grateful to every donor who is helping make this project a reality and am tremendously proud of the School of Medicine development staff for its perseverance in raising funds for this important educational facility."

Expected to open in spring 2009, the Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Education Commons will optimize the on-campus educational experience for students and clinicians at every career stage, and provide new spaces and services that will enhance campus life and convenience for students, faculty, health professionals and guests. New classrooms and laboratories and new educational opportunities such as the latest patient simulation technology will play a key role in enriching medical education for our students.

A $10 million gift in honor of a School of Medicine alumnus set the tone for the launch of construction, which began in September 2007. The gift, which was made by Mr. Labedz in memory of his partner, Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., is the largest in Wayne State University history. Dr. Mazurek, who died of cardiac arrest in 2002, graduated from the School of Medicine in 1961. He interned at the University of California-Los Angeles and Wadsworth Veterans Hospital. He entered private practice in Playa Del Ray, Calif., in 1964, and was considered an excellent diagnostician. He served as a clinical instructor on UCLA College of Medicine's faculty and was among the first physicians to become board certified in family medicine, although his primary certification was in surgery as an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Dr. Mazurek was active in real estate, most notably apartment buildings and commercial properties. In 1988, he retired from medicine after 25 years in private practice.

Dr. Hashimoto and his wife divide their time between their home in Ann Arbor and their birthplace in Niigata City, spending the winter in Japan. Dr. Hashimoto enjoys gardening and farming, and owns four tractors.

“When I retired from the Department of Dermatology, the faculty gave me a John Deere tractor as a retirement gift,” Dr. Hashimoto recalled.

The Hashimotos have four grown children, a son and three daughters, all with advanced college degrees. Their daughters are employed in various health care fields, and their son works in finance.