Research Day
Named Award Biographies

Alan Charney Award for Research by a Student

Peter Elsbach Award for Research by a Resident

Rochelle Hirschhorn Award for Research by a Fellow

Gerald Weissmann Award for Research by Junior Faculty

Alan Charney, MD

Alan N. Charney, M.D. graduated from Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After completing nephrology training at Yale and the Thorndike Laboratory at Harvard in 1973, he served at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. From 1976 to 2005, Dr. Charney was Chief of the Nephrology Section at the VA Medical Center at NYU, and became Professor of Medicine at NYU in 1986. From 2003 to 2005, he developed and directed the NYU Department of Medicine Resident Research Program. The resident research manual, web site, curriculum, and databases serve as a model for residency programs nationwide.

Dr. Charney's research focused on intestinal electrolyte transport and the modulatory roles of Na-K-ATPase, adenylate and guanylate cyclase and carbonic anhydrase. He trained more than 25 post-doctoral fellows, and a generation of medical students and residents took electives in his lab. Dr. Charney is a member of the ASCI, and the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. Dr. Charney currently is a Medical Director at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, but retains his NYU appointment and returns regularly to teach and make rounds.

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Peter Elsbach, MD

Peter Elsbach, M.D., Ph.D., a native of the Netherlands, is Professor Emeritus at New York University School of Medicine. He received his M.D. from the University of Amsterdam, and a Ph.D. from the University of Leiden. Dr. Elsbach was an Assistant Resident and Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Bellevue Hospital under Dr. William S. Tillett, and then worked as an Assistant Physician at Rockefeller Institute/University before returning to NYU.

Throughout his career, Dr. Elsbach and his research group have studied host-microbe interactions, focusing on the role of the white blood cell in mammalian antibacterial host-defense. Most prominent in this effort was the discovery of the Bactericidal/Permeability Increasing protein (BPI). BPI has been cloned, and some of its derivatives are in clinical trials conducted by the Xoma Corporation, licensed by NYU. These trials reflect the search for 'endogenous' antibiotics with clinical efficacy that may fill the growing gap between available commercial antibiotics and the appearance of an increasing number of resistant pathogenic microorganisms. Dr. Elsbach has been elected to the ASCI, AAP, and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of an NIH Merit Award, as well as a Faculty Scholar Award from the Josiah Macy Foundation. In 1993, he received an honorary Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Lund in Sweden.

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Rochelle Hirschhorn, MD

Dr. Rochelle Hirschhorn received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1953, and earned her M.D. from New York University School of Medicine in 1957. She served as a house officer in Internal Medicine at Bellevue Hospital, and completed her Fellowship training in Rheumatology at New York University and, for Human Genetics at London's University College and at Harvard Medical School, where she studied under Dr. Stuart Orkin. As a young medical student, Dr. Hirschhorn immersed herself in the world of research, a common thread that has run through her long career.

Her work has included cellular immunology, leukocyte biology, inherited immunodeficiency, and lysosomal storage diseases. Her discoveries have led to new therapies for adenosine deaminase deficiency (a form of severe combined immunodeficiency) and for alpha-glucosidase deficiency (the defect in glycogen storage disease type II). Dr. Hirschhorn served as the longstanding NYU School of Medicine counselor for the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society, and she was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She has received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Barnard College, as well as the Solomon A. Berson Medical Alumni Achievement Award from NYU.

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Gerald Weissmann, MD

Dr. Weissmann is a Research Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Director of the Biotechnology Study Center at NYU School of Medicine. He was named Professor Emeritus in 2004. After earning an A.B. at Columbia University and an M.D. at NYU School of Medicine, Dr. Weissmann completed his residency at Mt. Sinai Hospital and became Lewis Thomas' first Chief Resident at Bellevue Hospital. He pursued post-doctoral research in biochemistry at NYU under Severo Ochoa, and in cell biology at Cambridge University under Dame Honor Fell.

He is best known for presenting evidence that identifies rheumatoid arthritis as an immune complex disease involving antigens (IgG), antibodies (IgG/IgM), and complement. In studies of leukocyte activation, he has pioneered work on the role of salicylates and corticosteroids in cell signaling and adhesion. He is responsible for the co-discovery and naming of liposomes (1965), and the drugs Abelcet® and Myocet® were based on his liposomal work. Dr. Weissmann has received the Lila Gruber Award for Cancer Research; a Guggenheim Fellowship; two residencies at the Rockefeller Foundation Study Center at Bellagio; the Allesandro Robecchi and Paul Klemperer Awards for inflammation research; and the Distinguished Investigator Award of the American College of Rheumatology. He is a Master and Past-President of the American College of Rheumatology; a Past-President of the Harvey Society; and a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Resources

Clinical Correlations: The NYU Internal Medicine Residency Blog