Fertility, drug discovery and a good-bye

In our cover story for this issue, Contributing Editor Marc Wortman reports on the time he spent with pharmacology Chair Joseph Schlessinger, offering a profile of the pioneer in drug development who was born under siege in the former Yugoslavia during World War II.

Also in this issue, Contributing Editor Jennifer Kaylin examines new methods of preserving fertility in women undergoing cancer treatment. These new techniques are offering hope to women who might otherwise be unable to have children.

Finally in this issue we say farewell to Herbert S. Chase Jr., M.D., deputy dean for education. We first met Herb in 1999, between the announcement of his appointment and the date of his assuming his new job at Yale. Earlier this year he announced his return to Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Over the years we’ve been struck by Herb’s eloquence in advocating improvements in medical education. He’s been a pleasure to work with and he will be missed.

This spring brought us good news in the form of accolades. First we learned that one of our contributors, David M. Oshinsky, Ph.D., the George Littlefield Professor of American History at the University of Texas at Austin, had been awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in History for “a distinguished book upon the history of the United States” on April 17. Polio: An American Story was featured by Time magazine in June as one of five recent books that readers should not miss. Oshinsky wrote “Breaking the Back of Polio” for the Autumn 2005 issue of Yale Medicine about the late Dorothy Millicent Horstmann, M.D., FW ’43. Horstmann, the first female professor of medicine at Yale, conducted research that led to a breakthrough in the development of polio vaccines. Oshinsky repeated his tribute to Horstmann in a talk that he gave to the New York Academy of Medicine in January.

Then we learned that Yale Medicine had received two Circle of Excellence Awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). We won a silver medal in the category of Special Interest Magazines. And Contributing Editor Cathy Shufro won a bronze medal from case in the category of Best Articles of the Year for “The Unseen Wounds of War,” which appeared in the Autumn 2005 issue of Yale Medicine. Shufro wrote about post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans returning from Iraq and the role of Vietnam veterans in providing an informal support network for the younger men.

Congratulations to all.

John Curtis
Managing Editor
john.curtis@yale.edu