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INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE ELECTS 65 NEW MEMBERS, FIVE FOREIGN ASSOCIATES

WASHINGTON -- The Institute of Medicine today announced the names of 65 new members, raising its total active membership to 1,501.  In addition, the Institute honored five individuals by election to foreign associate membership, bringing the total members in that category to 82.  With another 68 members holding emeritus status, the total IOM membership is now 1,651.

"It is a great pleasure to welcome these distinguished and influential individuals to the Institute of Medicine," said IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg.  "Members are elected through a highly selective process that recognizes people who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.  Election is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health."

Current active members elect new members from among candidates nominated for their professional achievement and commitment to service.  An unusual diversity of talent is assured by the Institute's charter, which stipulates that at least one-quarter of the membership be selected from outside the health professions, from such fields as the natural, social, and behavioral sciences, as well as law, administration, engineering, and the humanities.

The Institute of Medicine is unique for its structure as both an honorific membership organization and an advisory organization.  Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute has become recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on issues related to human health.  With their election, members make a commitment to devote a significant amount of volunteer time as members of IOM study committees.

Finland’s Fascinating Genes - Article of Leena on Discover

Leena Peltonen is one of the world’s leading medical geneticists. In 1998 she was recruited from Helsinki University to become the founding chairwoman of the Department of Human Genetics at UCLA’s medical school. Trained as both a physician and a molecular biologist, she has discovered the genetic sources for many rare diseases, such as Marfan syndrome, a connective-tissue disorder. She has also found hereditary links to more prevalent conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, osteoarthritis, and migraine.

The raw material for her investigations is DNA collected from people in Finland. Research by Peltonen and by her compatriots Juha Kere, Jukka Salonen, Albert de la Chapelle, and Jaakko Tuomilehto have made Finland into a sort of DNA laboratory for mankind. Now its scientists are detecting the heritable imprints of heart disease, diabetes, and asthma. The country’s contributions to medicine and genetics are far out of proportion to its size and population of 5 million.

Read full story from here.

Fernström Prize for Genetic Research

Professor Leena Peltonen from Helsinki is the recipient of the 2006 prize from the Eric K. Fernström foundation. The prize, which is for SEK 1 million, is one of the biggest Scandinavian research prizes in the field medicine.

Leena Peltonen, an internationally renowned molecular geneticist, is the first woman to be the sole recipient of the Fernström foundation's Nordic prize. The explanation for the prize mentions ”her clarification of molecular, genetic and functional reasons for serious hereditary diseases”.

Dr. Peltonen is active at the University of Helsinki and the Finnish National Institute of Public Health. Her current research focuses on finding the genetic variants that contribute to common diseases such as multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disease and elevated lipids. Some of these diseases are particularly common in certain parts of Finland.

In the past, Dr. Peltonen's studies have included special hereditary diseases found in Finland, which because of its many centuries of relative isolation has an unusually homogeneous population. As recently as the 12th century it was believed that only about 50,000 people lived in the country, and the sparse population led to many cases of intermarriage. Consequently, as many as 35 hereditary diseases occur more frequently in Finland than anywhere else, and there is even a separate website for Finnish genetic diseases (Finnish Disease Heritage). In more than half the cases, Dr. Peltonen and her colleagues have successfully identified the genetic variant underlying these diseases and developed a method of establishing a DNA diagnosis for them. Research about the molecular background of these unusual diseases has also provided new knowledge of the body's complicated metabolic network.

Dr. Peltonen has received a host of international awards. She is also the president of the international Human Genome Organization (HUGO), a member of the board of the European Research Council, and a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and the European Academy of Sciences. She heads the Nordic Centre of Excellence in Disease Genetics, which is supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers, as well as a large EU programme called GenomEUtwin. The purpose of the EU programme is to combine studies of twins with research in epidemiology and molecular genetics to obtain increased knowledge about the effects of the combination of heredity and the environment on various important diseases.

The Eric K. Fernström foundation annually awards its Nordic prize to a medical researcher from one of the Nordic countries, as well as local prizes to young scientists at each medical faculty in Sweden. The prizes are awarded in conjunction with the popular science event, Research Day in Lund, which this year has the theme of Cancer and is scheduled for 1 November.