“This is a very exciting time in biomedical science; a time in which we are gaining insights into fundamental biological processes at an increasing pace thanks to powerful new tools at our disposal; a time in which it is right to dream that we will answer the big questions and cure terrible diseases,” says internationally renowned geneticist Francesco Ramirez, PhD. As the new RWJMS Laura Gallagher Endowed Professor and director of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey (CHINJ), Ramirez is poised to ask as well as answer the “big questions” about genetic links to childhood diseases and how disorders in basic development lead to illness later.

His scientific career is highlighted with a series of seminal achievements in the study of heritable disorders of the connective tissue. They include the first descriptions of the genetic lesion causing bone fragility, disproportionate dwarfism and rupture of the aorta. Ramirez received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) MERIT award in 1996 for scientific excellence, a prestigious recognition that provides long-term research support to outstanding investigators. “As the first director of CHINJ, Dr. Ramirez is a superb example of a basic scientist with a strong interest in clinically relevant problems and the perfect choice to lead our efforts in discovering novel treatments and cures for diseases in children,” says Harold L. Paz, MD, dean of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS).

Our University has embarked on an expansion plan to increase research space on all campuses, and in New Brunswick, CHINJ is one of several magnets designed to attract the best and brightest minds in science for collaborative work that will tackle childhood problems such as autism, cancer, heart defects, juvenile diabetes, and more. The building, which opened in October, houses 40 research labs, a transgenic and gene-targeting facility, a pediatric clinical research center as well as outpatient, academic and clinical space for the RWJMS Department of Pediatrics.

“In science, like any other activity, we become specialists; in other words, we become good at what we do, and we begin repeating ourselves,” explains Ramirez. “But science is an unending process of self-education in which one must constantly retrain, acquire new knowledge and gain experimental skills in order to best address the next set of questions.” Putting together clinicians and researchers who are passionate about their work and equipped with the latest technology to solve scientific mysteries is the recipe for CHINJ’s future success. And Ramirez couldn’t agree more.

	Sheldon S. Lin, MD. Pictured in background from left to right are Ankur Gandhi, PhD, and J. Patrick O’Connor, PhD, assistant professor, orthopaedics, NJMS.

Meanwhile, on the Newark campus, NJMS orthopedic surgeon Sheldon Lin, MD, could not understand why it took nine months for his mother-in-law’s broken tibia to heal. With frustration growing because he was unable to help her, his mission to discover why patients with diabetes have impaired bone healing grew to the level of the search for the Holy Grail. “There are 17 million people in the U.S. with diabetes,” explains Lin, an associate professor. “In 10 years that number is expected to grow to 40 million. For clinicians, this increase makes it difficult to treat bone healing effectively. We need to solve this problem now.”

Lin’s quest to solve the fracture healing mystery led to the discovery that growth factors, absent in patients with diabetes, contribute to healing. His lab established a diabetic femur fracture model using animal models to analyze the role of this important restorative component. Armed with this current knowledge, Lin is now focusing on ways to administer the body’s own growth factors, or an artificial form, at the onset of a fracture to decrease healing time. His work was recently published in the Journal of Surgical Advances.

Lin’s vision and Ramirez’ passion for research reflect the bigger UMDNJ picture of thousands of scientists and clinicians devoted to other kinds of quests. Our University is engaged in nearly 900 active clinical trials. Approximately 40 percent of them are funded by corporations and they span a wide range of therapeutic areas, including ophthalmology, oncology, psychiatry and infectious disease. We were ranked 74th among the top academic research institutions in the nation, having secured more than $105 million in federal funding, according to the National Science Foundation. UMDNJ has experienced one of the most significant growth rates in the country and the NIH has put our University at number 55 out of 500 institutions in total amount of awards received in 2004.

In recent years, research has been transformed by new technologies and the discovery of novel therapies, and this knowledge can be translated to the bedside, and directly to patients like Lin’s mother-in-law, whose broken leg eventually healed. Lin, who considers himself a clinician as well as a scientist, treats 400 patients a year. Both roles offer him immeasurable gratification. He still gets “warm and fuzzy” feelings when one of his patients is able to walk after suffering a serious fracture, but also when he receives a grant that he has labored long and hard to achieve. Passionate about his work, he never forgets to share credit with fellow NJMS scientists J. Patrick O’Connor, PhD, J. Russell Parsons, PhD, and graduate students Ankur Gandhi and Heather Beam.