|
The Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation Cancer Biology, Genomics, and Post-Genomics About the Symposium For two days in June, 100 scientists who traveled from Harvard Medical School and five leading Italian research institutions convened at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees This historic hotel overlooking Lago Maggiore, one of Italy's most famous and beautiful lakes, was the site of the 5th Annual Symposium of the Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation. President and CEO Dr. Daniel C. Tosteson welcomed participants with his reflections on how the Foundation has evolved and what its future holds. Like the magnificent lake itself, which crosses imperceptibly from Italy to Switzerland, the Foundation is also making a transition. For the first five years of its operation, Armenise research centers at Harvard were paired with corresponding centers in Italy. Within that framework, scientists undertook collaborative projects that were underwritten by the Foundation. "Now, however, the focus of the Foundation's philanthropy in Italy has changed," Dr. Tosteson said at the symposium. There will be more emphasis on rewarding individual talent and somewhat less on institutional ties. To that end, the Foundation has established a new Career Development Program that will support newly independent Italian scientists as they return to a host institute in Italy to establish themselves and their areas of research. Also in keeping with the Foundation's new focus on the individual, the Armenise-Harvard Foundation has begun a Ph.D. Program at Harvard Medical School for talented Italian science graduates. It is the hope of the Foundation that both programs will enable researchers to expand their potential to make significant contributions to their field of research as well as to further collaborative relationships between Italian scientists and those at Harvard Medical School. The types of research projects that the Foundation plans to emphasize in the coming years "are captured admirably in the program for this symposium," Dr. Tosteson said by way of introducing Dr. Peter Howley, who chaired the program committee for this annual meeting. Previous symposia have been organized by topic area. In contrast, all the 2001 presentations were chosen to illustrate one major theme: Cancer biology, genomics, and post-genomics. There were 20 invited lectures, organized into five sessions that filled two days, and 30 posters of "extraordinary quality." All were chosen to represent the new wave of scientific inquiry in the post-genome world, Dr. Howley said. About one-third of participants were affiliated with the six basic science departments located on the Quadrangle at Harvard Medical School. Italian participants represented the European Institute of Oncology in Milano, the University of Padova, the Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment at the University of Torino School of Medicine, the Dipartmento di Ricerca Biologica e Tecnologica (DIBIT) at Scientific Institute San Raffaele in Milano, and Universita' Di Roma "La Sapienza." The organization of this report mirrors the symposium program, which featured 19 formal presentations over the course of two days.
|
