Messages from the Executive Vice President

June 30, 2011

Additions to CICATS Leadership Team

I am pleased to announce that four highly accomplished leaders in academic medicine have joined the leadership team for the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CICATS): Dr. Laurine Bow; Dr. Ernesto Canalis; Dr. Paul Dworkin and Dr. Marja Hurley. As such, all four will also serve on the CICATS Scientific Advisory Board.

CICATS has become a leading force for translational research in the region and will play a vital role in the development of the Bioscience Connecticut initiative. All four additions to the leadership team will bring strengths and unique perspectives to help promote translational research.

Dr. Bow is the vice president for research at Hartford Hospital, and in this capacity is responsible for administrative oversight of the Hartford Healthcare Research Institute. She is also director of the Transplant Immunology Laboratory at Hartford Hospital, as well as assistant professor of Surgery at UConn School of Medicine. She has authored or co-authored over 40 publications in the field of transplant immunology and vascular biology.

Dr. Canalis has been closely linked with CICATS since its inception. He is chair of the Scientific Advisory Board and associate director (Science) of CICATS. Dr. Canalis is an endocrinologist who has dedicated his career to studies pertinent to skeletal cell biology. His laboratory, located at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, discovered the existence of skeletal growth factors. He has been a faculty member at UConn since 1976, and has held the rank of professor in the Department of Medicine since 1985 and in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery since 1990. He is a highly innovative and widely published researcher who has been funded continuously by NIH since 1981. Dr. Canalis served as president of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. In 2004, Dr. Canalis received one of the highest awards from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research for contributions to basic research.

Dr. Dworkin is professor and chair of Pediatrics for the UConn School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Training at the Children’s Hospital in Boston fostered his career interests in enhancing developmental and behavioral services in primary care. He is a member of the Board of Directors of numerous organizations, and is a former chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Scientific Meetings and past editor of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Dr. Dworkin has authored and edited more than 100 articles, chapters, and books. His honors include teaching awards, visiting professorships, and named lectureships. In 2003, he received the prestigious C. Anderson Aldrich Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in recognition of achievement in the field of child development. His vision has led to the creation of Help Me Grow, a statewide initiative to promote the early detection of children with developmental and behavioral problems.

Dr. Hurley is a professor of Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery, the associate dean and director of the Health Center’s Office of Health Career Opportunity Programs, the interim senior associate dean for education and the chair of the School of Medicine’s Group on Women in Medicine and Science.

While she is widely known for her award-winning work with the Office of Health Career Opportunity Programs, Dr. Hurley is also a widely published endocrinology researcher whose work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1989. She is known nationally and internationally for her research in the field of molecular biology of growth factors and their role in normal and pathological disorders of bone and has published extensively in this area in peer-reviewed journals. She has been an invited speaker at many national and international research meetings, including Gordon Conferences, the European Calcified Tissue Society, International Bone and Mineral Society, and the Endocrine Society.

I am extremely grateful to Drs. Bow, Canalis, Dworkin and Hurley for their commitment to translational research. Please join me in wishing them well in their new leadership roles.

Sincerely,

Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.
Vice President for Health Affairs
Dean, UConn School of Medicine