Seven University of Pennsylvania faculty members, with expertise ranging from veterinary medicine to reproductive health, are among the new members of the National Academy of Medicine announced last week.
They include Kiran Musunuru, a cardiologist who co-led the team behind a first-of-its-kind personalized gene-editing treatment for a Philadelphia-area infant.
The National Academy of Medicine, an independent nonprofit, advises the nation on critical health issues.
It elects 100 new members each year — considered one of the highest honors in the field — based on professional achievement and commitment to service.
“Their extraordinary talent and commitment to advancing evidence-based guidance and solutions for our country’s greatest healthcare challenges will strengthen our efforts to improve health for all,” NAM President Monica M. Bertagnolli said in an announcement last week.
The seven new electees raise the number of Penn-affiliated experts in the academy to 124. Here are the newest members who have committed to volunteering their service to the organization:
Marisa Bartolomei
Bartolomei is known for identifying one of the first imprinted genes — a rare type of gene whose activity depends on the parent it was inherited from. She helped explain how this process, known as imprinting regulation, is controlled and how disruptions in it can lead to disease. A professor of cell and developmental biology and director of the Center of Women’s Health and Reproductive Medicine, she was briefly mentioned in a 2016 Inquirer article on the everyday chemicals that could be harming you for her work involving an endocrine disruptor, bisphenol A.
Carsten Gerhart Bönnemann
Bönnemann’s wide-ranging work made “numerous groundbreaking contributions” to precision medicine, NAM’s announcement stated. That included discovering genes, developing new animal and cell models for research, and creating targeted genetic treatments for children with neurogenetic disorders. An adjunct professor of neurology at Penn, he led a first-of-its-kind clinical trial testing a gene therapy delivered directly into the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
Max Kelz
We now know that going under general anesthesia and waking up from it involve different processes in the brain. Kelz, the vice chair for research in the department of anesthesiology and critical care at Penn, discovered that. He also identified why people of different sexes can respond differently to anesthesia. This work “led to innovative approaches to enhance recovery for surgical patients,” according to the announcement.
Meghan Lane-Fall
Lane-Fall wrote two Inquirer articles more than a decade ago on “the complexities of race and racism in healthcare” and “why patients deserve full disclosure about treatment.” The adjunct professor of anesthesiology and critical care at Penn was honored for her research in maternal health, which has advanced more equitable care and improved outcomes for mothers in acute and community settings across the country.
Nicola Mason
Mason explained the science behind an experimental treatment for dogs with osteosarcoma tumors in a 2012 Inquirer article, “Penn researchers enlist dogs in battle against human cancers.” A professor at Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Mason was recognized for her clinical and translational work testing vaccines, cellular and gene therapies, and monoclonal antibodies in canine patients. This innovative cross-species research led to treatment advances in both veterinary and human medicine.
Kiran Musunuru
Musunuru has made international headlines for his work in gene therapy, including last year’s first-of-its-kind bespoke gene-editing therapy for a Philadelphia-area child, KJ Muldoon. A professor for translational research and co-director of the Penn Medicine/CHOP Orphan Disease Center, Musunuru was named for his discovery of multiple novel genes and mechanisms behind cardiovascular diseases, in addition to his pioneering work developing gene-editing therapies. He spoke with The Inquirer earlier this year about a gene therapy he helped develop for high cholesterol, which showed promise in early clinical trial results.
Courtney Schreiber
A professor in human behavior and reproduction, obstetrics, and gynecology at Penn, Schreiber’s research has helped to improve care for miscarriages during pregnancy through mifepristone pretreatment, eliminating unnecessary testing, and redesigning early-pregnancy services. Describing the issues at play in a 2016 Inquirer article, she noted that women who experience miscarriages too often end up at emergency rooms and subsequently “seen by any of five different kinds of medical professionals.” She also helped establish a national subspecialist workforce in complex family planning, “advancing evidence-based care and health equity,” the academy announcement said.