Mann Named Chief of NIAID Respiratory Diseases Branch

Dr. Marianne Culkin Mann has been named chief of the NIAID Respiratory Diseases Branch in the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. She will oversee research in respiratory infectious diseases including influenza, SARS, tuberculosis, respiratory syncytial virus, as well as a variety of bacterials and other respiratory pathogens. She and her colleagues monitor research necessary to push clinical science in respiratory conditions forward. Mann is also a volunteer staff pulmonologist at the National Naval Medical Center. Before coming to NIAID last year, she worked in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at FDA as deputy director of the division of pulmonary and allergy drug products. Mann received her M.D. from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and is board-certified in internal medicine and critical care medicine.

CSR Appoints Several SRAs

Dr. Richard Bartlett, formerly of the NIAMS Review Branch, recently joined the Center for Scientific Review as scientific review administrator for the skeletal muscle and exercise physiology study section. He is also responsible for orthopedics-related small business innovative research grant applications. He had postdoctoral training in pediatric endocrinology at the University of North Carolina. After further training at Duke University, he joined the faculty of its medical school. From there, he moved to the University of Miami, where he focused on preclinical canine models for development of therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophies (DMD) and diabetes. His most recent research detailed the successful use of in vivo gene repair technology in muscle of the canine DMD model.

Dr. William Elwood is the new scientific review administrator of the community level health promotion study section at the Center for Scientific Review. He comes from Monroe County, Fla., where he was director of research and development for the Guidance Clinic of the Florida Keys. He procured funding from government and private sources and also developed program evaluation and service improvement plans for the county's mental health and substance abuse agency. Previously, he conducted community-based research on drug epidemiology, welfare reform issues and STD/HIV-intervention efficacy studies throughout the United States and Mexico. His publications have concentrated on the attitudes and beliefs of hard-to-reach populations and the result of those values on mental health, health-related behaviors and participation in civic life.

Dr. Dan Gerendasy recently joined the Center for Scientific Review as a scientific review administrator for the international and cooperative projects study section 2. He received an M.S. in biochemistry from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Arizona, where he studied bacteriophage replication. He then pursued postdoctoral training in molecular neurobiology at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and was subsequently appointed to the faculty in its department of molecular biology. There, he used biophysical and genetic methods to study neuroplasticity in the mouse. His work was funded by NINDS and involved collaborations with groups in Spain and The Netherlands.

Dr. M. Chris Langub recently joined CSR as scientific review administrator for the urologic and kidney development and genitourinary diseases study section, which reviews grant applications related to systemic or local diseases affecting the kidney, urinary tract and genital systems. His postdoctoral work targeted the central natriuretic peptide systems. He has worked in the University of Kentucky's division of nephrology, bone and mineral metabolism. He was also director of the core lab in the university's General Clinical Research Center. He and colleagues there developed the methodology for bone molecular histomorphometry and were involved in the establishment of the core lab's web site.

Dr. Neelakanta Ravindranath recently joined the Center for Scientific Review as scientific review administrator for the development-2 study section. He came from NICHD, where he was an intramural researcher in the Laboratory of Clinical Genomics. Ravindranath holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, as well as a doctoral degree in veterinary medicine and an M.S. in virology. He obtained his postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh and the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal. He served as assistant/associate professor of cell biology at Georgetown University. His research interests have centered on the cell and molecular biology of male germ cell differentiation. He also taught embryology, histology and gross anatomy to medical students. He served as a regular member of reproductive endocrinology study section. He was also a member of review committees at Andrew Mellon/CONRAD and the Phillip Morris Research Foundations. His publications include 55 journal articles, 16 book chapters and meeting proceedings, and 7 review articles.

NIAID Council Gains Five

Five people were recently named to the National Advisory Allergy and Infectious Diseases Council, the principal advisory body of NIAID.

They are: Dr. Stanley W. Chapman, professor of medicine and microbiology and associate vice chancellor for research integrity at the University of Mississippi Medical Center; Dr. Ruth M. Ruprecht, professor of medicine in the department of cancer immunology and AIDS at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston; Dr. Nathan M. Thielman, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center; and Dr. Gail Williams Wertz, professor of microbiology at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Dr. J. Brooks Jackson, professor and chairman of pathology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, was reappointed to another 4-year term.

NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci (second from l) welcomes advisory council members (from l) Dr. Gail Williams Wertz, Dr. Ruth M. Ruprecht, Dr. Stanley W. Chapman, and Dr. Nathan M. Thielman. Not pictured is Dr. J. Brooks Jackson.

Jackson is also director of the clinical HIV laboratory at Johns Hopkins Hospital. His research includes involvement in clinical HIV therapeutic and prevention trials in the United States, Uganda and China.

Ruprecht's primary research interest is HIV/AIDS, including a program focused on both understanding the basic molecular mechanisms involved in HIV replication and developing novel therapeutic concepts.

Thielman is also senior research fellow in the Health Inequalities Program at Duke. His research interests include infectious diarrhea and HIV/AIDS clinical trials.

Wertz's research focuses on RNA viruses, including human respiratory syncytial virus, a major cause of illness in infants and children.