School Notes: School of Medicine
January/February 2009

Genetics researcher recognized for trailblazing work

Arthur L. Horwich, Sterling Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, received two prestigious honors in a single week this past fall. First he was elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) by the National Academy of Sciences. The IOM is a resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on human health issues. Later in the week he was awarded the 2008 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize by Columbia University for outstanding contributions in biology and biochemistry.

Horwich is an expert on the molecular mechanisms of protein folding, a process crucial to the maintenance of life. When proteins misfold, it can lead to disease. More than 20 diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's, have been linked to misfolded proteins.

Autism researchers focus on how toddlers look at faces

Using eye-tracking technology to quantify the visual fixations of two-year-olds, medical school researchers found that toddlers with autism looked more at the mouths of others, and less at their eyes, than normal children do. This abnormality could help predict the child's level of social disability, according to study results published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. After the first few weeks of life, infants look into the eyes of others, setting processes of socialization in motion. The Yale scientists found that the amount of time toddlers with autism spent focused on the eyes of others predicted their level of social disability. These results may offer a useful biomarker for quantifying the presence and severity of autism early in life, as well as a potential autism screen for infants. Ami J. Klin, director of the autism program at the Yale Child Study Center, says researchers are now using the technology in a study of the younger siblings of children with autism, who are at greater risk of developing the condition.

Nuclear medicine programs at Yale earn peer approval

Two nuclear medicine programs at Yale-New Haven Hospital received accreditations from the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories, a peer-review mechanism for recognizing quality nuclear medicine diagnostic evaluations. The cardiac PET imaging program was one of the first high-energy, nuclear medicine imaging programs in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico to be accredited for cardiac PET imaging. PET (positron emission tomography) is a technique that produces a three-dimensional image of processes in the body. Meanwhile, the nuclear cardiology laboratory, one of the first of its kind in the U.S., was reaccredited. Using data collected during a stress test, the lab detects blockages helpful in diagnosing cardiovascular disease.